just because

The Fall - Lost In Music

Touched By The Hand Of God VI

It has been well over a week since his lordship made an appearance here. Although you will have a hard time finding the post as Blogger have done to me as they have done many times before to others and just pulled the post regarding the XX Teens. No more from them or Mute, here, I fear.

Anyway today's cut from remixer extraordinaire is also the first single of the duo then known as the Dust Brothers laterly the Chemical Brothers. It is from the period when Weatherall could do no wrong, every mix better than the one before. This one still sounds as good to these ears as it did 16 years ago.

The Dust Brothers - Song To The Siren (Full Sabre mix)

BTW - C give M my best.

Faking The Books

No it's not either Ralph Madoff or Fred the Shed's theme tune but a rather good album of electronica by Lali Puna from Weilhiem, Germany.

On first listen the album sound very cold and soulless however after repeated listens it begins to feel less stark and minimal, warmer and somewhat more human than it did at first. The album has been compared to Radiohead but I think that that is just because both Johnny Greenwood and Thom York have mentioned them in interviews. They remind me of a less dancier Ladytron but that may have more to do with Valerie Trebeljahr's vocal delivery more than anything else.

Lali Puna have released 3 albums, a compilation of remixes and early singles and 5 singles in their 11years as a band.

The track posted is the title track to their last album first released in 2004. It has one of those melodies that gets lodged in your brain for days after listening to it.

Lali Puna - Faking The Books

Copyright Infringement . . . again

It looks as though Mute records or the XX Teens don't like tracks being posted trying to highlight the band, as I just received another copyright infringement notice from Box.net. Oh well, hope everybody who wanted the track got it and if you liked what you heard please still buy the album, it is as I said rather good.

Lady Sovereign - Public Warning 2

How Festivals Conquered the World

Excellent article from Sylvia Patterson on the state of festivals from the only Sunday paper in Scotland worth reading

How Festivals Conquered the World

Edwyn Collins - The Campaign For Real Rock

Quiet Please!

It's Sunday and I have a hangover. This used to be a fairly regular occurrence but not recently. I should know better that to drink more than 2 glasses of red wine. I always feel like shit if I drink red wine all night.

I need something mellow and soothing which will not tax my brain too much or make it throb more than it all ready is.

This track by Spiritualized fits the bill nicely.

Jason Pierce and Spiritualized get a fair deal of criticism for the themes of God, redemption and drugs in their music which I've never really understood as with the name Spiritualized and Pierce being well known for his drug consumption he is hardly going to sing about picking up girls in a sports car while cruising about New Jersey or somewhere is he?

Spiritualized - Feel So Sad (Rhapsodies)

As an added bonus the original mix of Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space which was blocked from release by the estate of Elvis Presley, something to do with not wanting Presley image being associated with drug taking, as if.

Spiritualized - Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space (Original Elvis Mix)

Candi Staton

For those of you who think that all there was to Candi Staton was Young Hearts Run Free or as the featured singer on a rather good house track by The Source, I implore you to check out this album. If you like classic tracks performed by an excellent band and sung with real passion then this album is for you.

The album is a collection of Staton's recordings on Rick Hall's Fame label, out of Muscle Shoals Alabama, from 1969 - 1973. This covers the release of her first 2 albums. If there is a better example of Southern Soul then I would like to hear it. The matrial on this album had been unavailable for nearly thirty years until Damon Albarn's Honest Jon's label decided to release this compilation in 2003, something I will be forever more grateful to him for than anything else he has done.

Since the release of this album, Candi Staton has released 2 further albums of new material and the voice is nearly as impressive as it is on tracks originally recorded nearly 40 years previously. She came to Glasgow in February this year and unfortunatley I couldn't go due to baby L being born a month earlier and asking for 2 passes on the same week may have been seen as kicking the arse out of it from some quarters.

Candi Staton - He Called Me Baby

Candi Staton - Stand By Your Man

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Let's have some soothing, cool Northern Soul today. Don't know much about today's record apart from the fact that it will set you back upwards of 500 quid, if you're lucky enough to find a copy.

Frankly, in this heat I can't be bothered even trying to write anything remotely interesting and lately I have been wondering why bother anyway?

Bobby Kline - Say Something Nice To Me

He Got Game

One of the lesser played singles by the best that hip hop crew ever. With a little help from Buffalo Springfield.

Public Enemy - He Got Game

The First Week Of The Summer Holidays.

Yesterday's post by the Vinyl Villain where he mentions the start of the school holidays got me reminiscing about my own summer holidays all those years ago.

When I was growing up I spent the first week of every summer holiday in a caravan with my mother and younger brother in North Berwick. I used to wonder why my father's mood would lighten as the last week of school approached, I now realise he was looking forward to his week of peace. As he didn't really drink, he was obviously looking forward to a week going from work straight to the golf course and not having to referee the battles between my brother and I.

We were not alone in this , there was always at least 4 or 5 other vans with my mother's friends and their kids.

This was where the problems stemmed from, my mother's friends like my mother were teachers and teachers when they get together have to organise things. Even holidays must be structured and have an itinerary. You would have thought that after organising and teaching children all year long they would like to lighten up, chill out have a kit-kat. Not this lot, if it wasn't rounders, it was long walks, crazy golf and if it was raining (and it did frequently) it was cards. Once in order to stop my brother and I from killing each other it was a walk in the pouring rain to Tantallon Castle, a ruin 3 miles from North Berwick, although it felt like twenty.

If I'm painting a rather bleak picture, I don't mean to as I had some of the best times of my life there I just didn't know it at the time.

As I grew older I started to resent going away for this week.

Could I not stay at home? I asked when I was 16, after all I was old enough to be on my own. No! stated my father, a little too quickly for my mother's liking I think. So once again I was on my way to Mrs Craig's caravan park.

Things started to look up from the moment we arrived. G had brought a friend with her. K was possibly the loveliest girl I had seen since the day before when I had last seen my girlfriend. I made any excuse I could to hang around G's caravan and connived of ways in which G and K could be incorporated in anything that was going on with us. As the week progressed we spent a lot of time together but nothing happened and at the end of the week I went home faithful to I but rather pissed off about it.

A couple of month's later, with that week in North Berwick a distant memory, my girlfriend introduced me to a new girl in her class. I was stunned when I saw that it was K, I think that she was a little surprised too. At that moment I was rather glad that that week had been fruitless.

One of the best things about North Berwick was it had a record shop. Not just a record shop but a record shop that stocked records other than the stuff in the charts. I got some great records there, the only problem being that I bought them all on the Saturday we arrived and could not play them until the following Sunday when we returned home.

Come Back by The Mighty Wah is one of the records that I got in that record shop. Here it is in its full ten and a half minute,12" overblown bombastic glory.


Oh, and the hill in the picture, that's Berwick Law, a hill that we had to climb every bloody year, one year carrying a diabetic poodle (for another day)! Still the view from the top was pretty impressive.

The Mighty Wah! - Come Back (The Story Of The Reds/The Devil In Miss Jones)

Copyright Infringement

Don't bother to try to download Redemption Song from the post a couple of Saturday's ago as it has been deleted by Boxnet for copyright infringement. It seems that Chris Blackwood, like David Bowie before him doesn't have enough money either.

I didn't think that their would be that many folk who didn't have that tune. Still, at least Boxnet don't tear down the whole post which is fair enough

Marathon Man

Last Friday, I stated that I didn't get Glastonbury and that I had only wished that I had been there twice. Well after watching Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band's headlining slot for the 2nd time I've just regretted not being there for the 3rd time. I thought that their set was outstanding. However if you were to read Dorien Lynksey's column on the Guardian's website, it was all self parody, broadway show type tunes and by the end of it all hardly anybody there. I think that I was watching a different gig.

I'm not the biggest Springsteen fan in the world and don't pretend to know his music inside out. I have quite a few of his albums but tend to prefer Nebraska and Devils & Dust to the rockier stuff. But the performance from that band was excellent, from what I could see all of them were having a ball and giving 100 %, which I know is as it should be but it wouldn't be the first time that I have seen headliners just going through the motions. They seemed to be able to anticipate Springsteen's frequent off stage wanderings, although I suppose when you've worked together for so long that would become second nature. Also with a set that was 2 1/2 hours long the crowd certainly got their money's worth.

Anyway, here are a couple of my favourite covers of Springsteen songs and my favourite track of his.

Catherine Feeny - I'm On Fire

Allo Darlin' - Atlantic City

Bruce Springsteen - Highway Patrolman

Ps The worst thing about the Glastonbury coverage, as usual Jo, bloody, Whiley.

New Music or Is It?

I received this single through the post the other week. On first listen, if you didn't know better you would think that this was an oldie from the days of the Casino. It is however from the tail end of last year and what's more comes out of Finland! I would have stuck money on this being from the West Coast of the USA circa 1968/70.

Myron & E, who supply the vocals are indeed from the States and are part of the hiphop/soul scene and have worked with the likes of Blackalicious, Missy Elliot, the Roots and others not the kind of music you would readily think of when you here the sweet, laid back vocals on this track.

The Soul Investigators whio provide the backing track all glorious strings, joyous horns and driving percussion are from Finland and have produced a fine album with Nicole Willis which is worth checking out.

This is just the thing for a suny afternoon at the end of June. Enjoy.

Myron And E With The Soul Investigators - Cold Game.

Glastonbury?

I've never understood the appeal of Glastonbury. Why would you want to fork out a fortune to spend a weekend, filthy, under canvas and see some bands, some of whom formed this century, from half a mile away do half a set?

Sure, in the mid eighties I was up for it but that was because it was still a CND festival and that was the main point, seeing Billy Bragg and others was just incidental. A mate and I even planned our route to Shepton Mallet but decided against it when we realized it would take us about 3 weeks to get their avoiding motorways, 2s up on a Vespa PX125.

Only twice have I ever wished that I had been there. Once was when I heard the Orbital track Impact (live from Glastonbury) on a tape given away free with Select magazine and the second time was when, sitting watching the coverage live on the beeb a few years ago the Chemical Brothers performed The Private Psychedelic Reel.

So good luck to anybody who is there and I wish you godspeed home on Monday hung over and stinking. I will be watching "live" on the beeb with my gin in the cupboard and my ice in the fridge.

Orbital - Impact (The World Is Burning)

The Chemical Brothers - The Private Psychedelic Reel

just because

Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood - Sand

Giant Drag

When the NME tipped Giant Drag as one of the big things in 2006 they put the kiss of death on a promising career for the duo of Annie Hardy and Micah Calabrese. By this time they had already released an ep Lemona and an album Hearts and Unicorns but since then nothing. On their myspace page it says that the Swansong ep will be released soon, however since it was recorded last year I wouldn't hold my breath.

The album reminds me a bit of Belly mixed with elements of My Bloody Valentine especially the opening track Kevin Is Gay, which also illustrates my problem with the duo, the song titles. These include My Dick Sux (sic), You Are Full Of Shit and my favourite Yflmd (You Fuck Like My Dad), are they trying to be provocactive? Probably but to me it just comes across as being brattish. If you can get over this then the music is good, not earth shattering but pleasant enough and the album does contain a rather good cover version of Wicked Game by Chris Isaak.

Bit of trivia - Annie Hardy performed Just Like Honey with the Reid Brothers (no, not the Proclaimers, the other, disfunctional ones) on their reunion tour, let's hope it was better than the piss poor attempt by Scarlett Johanson, posted here a couple of months ago.

Giant Drag - This Isn't It

Giant Drag - Wicked Game

Jam On The Mutha

After 19 years I still don't know whether I like this track or not.

I like the idea of it and most of the time will play the instru-mental mix rather than vocal Ibiza 90 mix. I also loved the fact that when I dropped it in the pub where I djed, I would get some long hair or double denim clad type coming up and calling it sacrelidge and how dare I play this rubbish, which just made me play it all the more.

I bought Jam on The Mutha's cover of Hotel California in the remix format first as it was remixed by the Orb and Orb remixes were always worth the money , it was also in the bargain bin, so I couldn't really lose.

I know very little about Jam on The Mutha, apart from the fact that it seems to be one of Youth's many guises and that Hotel California was released on Wau! Mr Modo, the same label as The Orb at the time.

I will make one statement for the defence in the case for the release of this record, it was 1990 and the E's were very good.

Jam On The Mutha - Hotel California ( Ibiza 90 mix)

Jam On The Mutha - Hotel California (Orb In Cali mix)

Prestwich, So Much To Answer For.

I'm off to Manchester with work.

So here are a couple of tracks from the best band from Prestwich, nay the world, ever.

The Fall - Is This New

The Fall - Wrong Place, Right Time/I Can Hear The Grass Grow (Peel Sessions)

And The Racket They Made.

This is just the thing for a lazy Sunday morning, all brooding and introspective.

And the Racket They Made is taken from the 4th official King Creosote album - Bombshell made during his foray into major label territory.

For those of you not familiar with the King (Kenny Anderson) he is the founder and most prolific member of the Fence Collective , a group of like minded artists who reside mainly in the East Neuk of Fife and produce some of the best, most original music around.

If you get the chance you should visit the East Neuk, as it is a beautiful part of the country and when there go to Anstruther, home of the Fence Collective, where there are 2 chippys serving possibly the best fish suppers in the world. You could then wash it down with a pint in the Ship Tavern where Anderson and his brothers would regularly play on a Sunday night.

King Creosote - And The Racket They Made

As a bonus here is the Withered Hand original of the Meursault track posted a couple of weeks ago. This can be found on the ep You're Not Alone on which King Creosote helps out and which can be purchased from Fence here.

Withered Hand - Oldsmobile Car

No To Trident

I'm going to go on my first anti-trident march in years today.

It's quite depressing to think that the first time I marched against Trident was 25 years ago in Barrow in Furness where they were building the submarines which would launch the missiles. Since then there have been numerous visits to Faslane, Coulport and other places.

It has always seemed like lunacy to me that we posses a first strike weapon in the name of a deterrent and so we can keep our seat at the big table. It's about time that our government realised that having these weapons does not enhance our status in the world but actually encourages other nations in their attempts to get their own nuclear weapons.

In the current economic crisis when the reality is that public services will have to be cut then surely the first thing to go should be the replacement of a weapons system that we will never be able to use without the say so of the good old US of A and more to the point morally should not even entertain the notion of using?

Here are a couple of tracks that stick in my mind from that first anti-trident demo a long time ago.

Bob Marley & The Wailers - Redemption Song

Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Two Tribes (Carnage)