Manhattan To Manchester- The Wonders Of The Internet

Isn’t the internet wonderful?
A few days ago I got in from work to open an email from a reader- Henry from Manhattan, New York. That on its own is enough to bugger up my mind a little; someone on the other side of the world has been reading my blog. Henry wrote loads of nice things in his email, how he’s been exploring loads of English/British bands and acid house from twenty years ago and how Bagging Area ‘helps music become a social experience’ and how the internet has limitless and instant communication. Which is what blogging is all about really. Henry also sings and plays in a band, Zula, who play psych-indie pop partly inspired by the acid house/post acid house bands and partly by krautrock. Listen to this over at Bandcamp (and download it for free) and I think you’ll agree that Henry and Zula have got it nailed down very well and from what he told me their hearts are slapbang in the right place.

To Bears

2 Bears have been all over the place recently. I’ve largely ignored them up until now. Two men in comedy bear outfits making big room house music with one member being twenty percent of Hot Chip (who seem to make music at an ironic distance) hasn’t exactly set my pulse racing. But maybe I’ve been too soon to dismiss them- their music is a decent stab at making proper house music for dancing to and there’s a line up of people whose taste I trust playing them- Andrew Weatherall, Annie Mac, Erol Alkan. On the other hand they’re also recommended by Chris Moyles, Pete Tong, Paul McCartney and Elton John. So, um, I dunno. This is a free download of a remix of Work off their album (out today; the email said send people to buy it at iTunes or Amazon but I’d rather you went to a record shop), done by the ever wonderful St Etienne (who usually get the internet police to pull stuff I post of theirs).

Electronic Rudie

I don’t usually post mixes but I’ll make an exception for this one- Ashley Beedle’s Electronic Rudie, a dub mix done for the ever excellent internet radio station Beats In Space back in 2009. This is very, very good and finds dub in some pretty unusual places. Give an hour or so over to this and you’ll feel a whole lot better afterwards.

Tracklist
Generations Walking – Midnight Bustling (Francois Kevorkian Dub)
Basement 5 – Immigrant Dub
The Pop Group – 3:38 –
Dub Pistols feat . Rodney P – You’ll Never Find (Dub)
Stiff Little Fingers – Bloody Dub
Generation X – Wild Dub
Flesh For Lulu – I’m Not Like Everybody Else (Dub Version)
The Pogues – Young Ned Of The Hill (Dub Version)
The Clash – One More Dub
Bauhaus – Here’s The Dub (She’s In Parties)
Leftfield – Dub Gussett
Air – How Does It Make You Feel? (Adrian Sherwood Mix)
Massive Attack vs Mad Professor – Radiation Ruling The Nation (Protection)
Reverend And The Makers – Sundown On The Empire (Adrian Sherwood On U Sound Disneydubland)
The Clash – Robber Dub
The Specials/Rico Rodriguez – Ghost Town (Extended Mix)

Electronic Rudie!

Afro-Cuban Bebop

Some nice Afro-Cuban Bebop from Joe Strummer, a short track (only a minute and a half long) recorded with The Pogues (moonlighting as The Astro-Physicians), B-side to the wilderness years highlight Burning Lights. Just to check Box.net’s working for me as much as anything.

Afro Cuban Bebop

Something For The Weekend Madam?

Picking up where Lux left off last night, Memphis Minnie advising her partner to ‘keep on eatin’, ’til you get enough’.

Keep On Eatin’

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 44

‘Calling all cows down on the farm’ sings Lux Interior at the opening of this Cramps rockabilly cracker, borrowing from another older rockabilly song by The Blues Rockers. Lux then fits in more innuendo and filth than an X Rated Carry On film- ‘unzip that zipper, snap that snap’ ‘whip that cream ’til the butter comes’, ‘shake that thing I’ll buy you a diamond ring’, ‘let’s get up and go get ploughed’, and so on. Meanwhile the band shake their rockabilly things and Ivy provides a vicious feedback led breakdown. This version of the song from 1986’s A Date With Elvis was recorded for the band’s only Peel Session. Hot stuff.

Cornfed Dames

Weatherall Mix Roundup 6

Fail he may. Sail he did.
He’s in Australia. Some of you might like this, mix for a radio show Noise In My Head, to download in two parts here.

Funnel Of Slow

A good while ago DJ Diddy Wah who runs the excellent vintage sounds of the Diddy Wah blog had a short run of posts where he slowed down 45rpm singles to 33 rpm. This one came up on the way home today and it has to be heard to be believed- Wanda Jackson’s classic Funnel Of Love at 33rpm, slowed down to crawl and sung by a blues wracked man. You’ll love it.

Funnel Of Love 33

Thanks to DJ Diddy Wah- hope he doesn’t mind me re-presenting it here.

Beat Club And Bernard

In a similar vein to yesterday’s post but actually a much better record is this, Security by Beat Club. When New Order called it a day in 1991 (for the first time) manager Rob Gretton set up a label, Rob’s Records, partly to put out ACR records and partly to release tracks by local bands. Beat Club were neither local nor ACR but actually from Miami, the studio project of Ony Rodriguez and his girlfriend Mireya Valls. This song is remixed by Bernard Sumner and is a fairly accurate summary of what dance music could sound like in 1991, certainly in the northwest of England. Stuff like this still has the power to get the Swiss household skipping round the frontroom and standing on the furniture.

Security (Bernard Sumner remix)

Rob’s Records folded in 1999 following the death of Rob Gretton. In the 90s they had a big hit with Sub Sub’s Ain’t No Love (Ain’t No Use), put out several decent ACR songs (personal favourite 27 Forever among them) and tracks by several other bands including Mr Scruff and Strange Brew, one half of which lived down our road when we were kids (Jake Purdy, if you’re reading this, sorry about the tooth)

Electronic Shack Up

In the mid 90s A Certain Ratio got various people to remix and retool their back catalogue for an album called Looking For A Certain Ratio, which ended up coming out on Creation Records. The remixers included 808 State’s Graham Massey, Jon Dasilva and John McCready, Sub Sub, Way Out West, The Other Two and Electronic. Johnny Jay turned in a remix of Mickey Way called the Manchester City Mix, which definitely won’t be posted here. Nearly twenty years on there’s an element of ‘why bother’ about some of these remixes, as they stripped away the period punk-funk and added mid 90s dance software. Electronic tackled Shack Up. You can probably guess what it sounds like- worth a listen though, Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner (I’m guessing it was mainly Sumner but don’t know for sure) providing a version of Shack Up that sounds very much like music sounded in Manchester’s bars at the time.

Shack Up Radio edit (Electronic Mix)