Tramps Like Us

More mid- 80s Liverpool following yesterday’s Pink Industry song- today Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s over the top, everything turned up to the max cover of Bruce Springsteen’s Born To Run. When Trevor Horn and Frankie recorded 1984’s double album Welcome To The Pleasure Dome the massive hit singles Relax and Two Tribes had already dominated the airwaves. The Power Of Love and 1985 title track single were further smashes. This left the rest of the album being a bit of a ragtag bunch of skits and covers with a few originals. 

Springsteen’s anthem with its dreams of flight and escape from dull lives and dead end jobs- ‘this town’s a death trap, a suicide rap’- was possibly felt very keenly in mid- 80s Liverpool, a city abandoned by the government into ‘managed decline’ with high unemployment, derelict buildings and a falling population. For Springsteen the highway offers freedom, even if it’s ‘jammed with broken heroes… everybody on the run tonight/ But there’s no place left to hide’. Holly Johnson gives it his all vocally, a screaming, high octane performance as the drums, bass and guitars pound and squeal, ‘tramps like us/ baby we were born to run’. 

On the album and sadly missing from the mp3 below there’s a brief bit of dialogue to plant Frankie’s cover firmly in Liverpool rather than New Jersey, a man signing on at the dole office and getting short shrift from a DHSS employee who threatens to put him on daily sign on. The humour of that brief exchange places the song and Springsteen’s outsider road anthem in a slightly different light. You can get in the car, hit the M62 but they’ll stop your giro and you’ll be skint very quickly. 

Born To Run

The population flight from Liverpool was something Pete Wylie noted in Wah!’s epic single, also released in 1984, Come Back, a home made epic on a Springsteen scale and a plea to his fellow scousers not to go elsewhere but to stay, stand your ground and fight. ‘Come back/ I’m making my stand/ Come back’.

Come Back (The Return Of The Randy Scouse Git)

Don’t Let Go

A song from forty years ago. Pink Industry were formed by Liverpool legend Jayne Casey after the break up of her previous band Pink Military in 1981, Jayne with Ambrose Reynolds (previously in Big In Japan and an early member of Frankie Goes To Hollywood). Pink Industry were more electronic than Pink Military had been, the Yamaha

In 1983 they released an album called Low Technology on Zulu Records, based on Liverpool’s Bold Street.

Spindly guitars, a crashing Yamaha drumbeat and a very FXed bassline with Jayne’s melancholic vox on top, darkwave/ goth electronic rock, several years before Depeche Mode (among others) took this sound to the stadiums of Europe and the US. One of those songs that has slipped through the net but a sound that seems very contemporary. 

Don’t Let Go

Monday’s Long Song

Andy Bell’s album with Essex duo Masal is a thing of wonder, a four track album that floats in the spaces between ambient, shoegaze and astral jazz. The four instrumental pieces all have long titles- Murmuration Of  Warm Dappled Light On Her Back After Swimming, The Slight Unease Of Seeing A Crescent Moon In A Blue Midday Sky, Tidal Love Conversation In That Familiar Golden Orchard and A Pyramid Hidden By Centuries Of Neon Green Undergrowth- inspired by Felt’s long stream of consciousness song titles. The music on the opening track, Murmuration Of Warm Dappled Light On Her Back After Swimming, glides by slowly, drones, waves of sound, sporadic bursts of wandering psychedelic guitar, and on top a harp. Like lying back in a warm bath with the sun on your face, and gently drifting in and out of being awake/ half asleep. 

Murmuration… is the longest track here too at nearly fifteen minutes long with the rest are all coming in between seven and ten minutes long. The album, Tidal Love Numbers, can be bought at Bandcamp although the CD and cassette versions are long since all sold out.

Forty Minutes Of Hypnotone

Last week Khayem at Dubhed posted a recreated 1997 mixtape which included a Hypnotone remix of The Lilac Time’s Dreaming, a remix that did not go down well with Stephen Duffy at the time but as Khayem points out is ‘pretty close’ to ‘Hypnotone’s high water mark remix of Sheer Taft’s Cascades (that remix of Cascades is a desert island disc for me). The post sent me into the Hypnotone’s back catalogue and today’s mix is the result, forty minutes of Hypnotone remixes and their own material to light up Sunday. 

Hypnotone were Tony Martin, a Manchester producer with Martin Mittler (bassist from Intastella and Laugh) and later Cordelia Ruddock (who Tony discovered at a fashion show). Hypnotone signed to Creation which led to work with Primal Scream and The Lilac Time, both Creation acts at the time. Their self- titled mini album from 1990 is a lost gem, an early 90s time capsule. 

Forty Minutes Of Hypnotone

• Dream Beam (Ben Chapman Remix)
• Hypnotonic
• Atlantis (Hypnotone Edit)
• Dreaming (Hypnowah Remix)
• Dreaming (Wave Station Remix)
• Cascades (Hypnotone Mix)
• Come Together (HypnotoneBrainMachineMix)
• Electraphonic

Dream Beam was the debut release, a 1990 12″ on Creation from that point where Alan McGee wanted Creation to be a dance label and briefly did it very well indeed. The much missed Denise Johnson is on vocals, ‘feel so high’, sung over chilled dance bleepy house. I saw Hypnotone play live at Sefton Park in Liverpool in the summer of 1990, this track floating over the lake in the summer darkness, everyone very chilled as Denise’s voice rang out. It was remixed twice, once by Danny Rampling and once by Ben Chapman, the latter being the pick of the pair for me, perfect 1991 dance music. The robotic voice repeating ‘hypnotise us… hypnotise us…’ is very hypnotic and as the track comes to a close the collapse into the final vocal message, ‘I don’t know if I’ll ever see you again…’ is a blast.

Hypnotonic, all piano house, rattling 808s and a very early 90s rap courtesy of Carlos (2 Supreme), was a 1991 single was recorded at Out Of The Blue in Manchester, a studio in the then semi- derelict Ancoats area, now part of the ever growing regeneration of central Manchester.  

Atlantis was a 1991 12″ single by Sheer Taft, remixed by Tony. The Hypnotone remix of Cascades, also from 1991, is a genuine classic of the era, a record that was big everywhere from Ibiza to Manchester and in between. It appeared on the Creation dance compilation Keeping The Faith which is a definitive document of a time. 

Dreaming was a 1991 single by The Lilac Time, a pair of remixes that sound great today, dubby Balearic house- why Stephen Tin Tin Duffy didn’t like it is a mystery. 

Come Together, Primal Scream’s second Screamadelica- era single, is better known in its Weatherall and Farley remix forms but the Hypnotone remix is a belter too, harder and faster, distorted voices, thumping 808 kick drums, horns, bubbling bass, everything piling up in an ecstatic rush. It was on Keeping The Faith and released as a white label 12″ along with the fourth and largely missed BBG remix of Come Together. Tony co- produced the cover of Slip Inside This House that appears on Scremadelica too. 

Electraphonic was on the second Hypnotone album, Ai, released in November 1991. 

Saturday Live

Can live on Rockpalast in 1970, the full on krautrock experience, in a tent being recorded by a very staid looking camera crew and production unit. Jaki Liebezeit’s rhythms and Holger Czukay’s bass provide the foreground/ backdrop for Irwin Schmidt and Michael Karoli’s trebly, rattly organ and guitar while Damo Suzuki does his thing. The youthful audience look suitably bemused, shuffling about a bit and nod heads, as can get into Can’s unique groove. The four musicians play with a real sense of equality and parity, no one in the lead, all playing with each other and for each other. Over an hour and a half they work their way through Sense All To Mine, Oh Yeah (with Karoli’s guitar sounding at least a decade ahead), the thirteen minute freakery of I Feel Alright, Don’t Turn The Light On (Leave Me Alone), Mother Sky, Deadlock, a monstrous, majestic version of Paperhouse and Bring Me Coffee Or Tea. 

The context of Can is inextricably part of them- born in the aftermath of World War II, growing up on the frontline of the Cold War and wanting a music and culture that was entirely theirs, not traditionally German, and not Americanised either, against the backdrop of generational tensions in the FRG (general 60s ones about Vietnam, the police, authority and youth but specifically West German ones too with the rising tide of Baader- Meinhof and young West Germans poking at the scab of their parents generation who had adopted a collective amnesia in order to move on from the war and build a new country- ‘what did you do in the war?). Holger Czukay (I think) said that in the late 60s their go- to- phrase was ‘don’t trust anyone over thirty’. Out of all of this comes Can’s music. 

WRF One

I’ve rediscovered a few Andrew Weatherall remixes recently so I thought I’d start a series of Weatherall Remix Fridays, a weekly post that pokes around in the Andrew Weatherall remix cupboard, shining a torch onto some of those remixes that are a little overlooked, forgotten or less appreciated. The eagle eyed among you may have noted that WRF are also the initials of one of Andrew’s musical outlets, the Woodleigh Research Facility, which is a nice coincidence. Some of you may say that I don’t need to do this as a series, Andrew Weatherall remixes are posted here all the time anyway- which is true but a series is good for blogging, adding structure to what can be a bit scattershot at times. 

In the late 80s Andrew stated out as a DJ but really made his name as a remixer- his early remixes of Primal Scream, Happy Mondays, James and My Bloody Valentine are well known. There are many more obscure and lesser known ones from those early years, ’89- ’92, where the flipping over of a 12″ single sleeve in the racks and seeing the words Andy Weatherall Remix in brackets were enough to buy a record unheard. His remixes then morphed into Sabres Of Paradise remixes (with Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns) and then from 1996 onwards Two Lone Swordsmen remixes (with Keith Tenniswood). In 2007 he began to remix under his own name again and in 2008 really showed he was back his remix best with his versions of Primal Scream’s Uptown and Fuck Buttons’ Sweet Love For Planet Earth. From there he entered a purple patch that went on through the next decade. In 2011 Andrew remixed Runaway Love by Alice Gold. 

Runaway Love (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

Some of what would become standard 2010s Weatherall remix sounds are present from the start of this- the hissing, steam powered drum machine, the dub FX and wonky siren sounds and the pushed to the fore section of bassline. This one is relatively restrained by Andrew’s standards, a trim six minutes thirty seconds, with a snatch of the vocal looped and smothered in echo. The rhythms, bass and FX pile up, break down and re- enter, crunching forwards. It’s that head nodding, slower- tempo, early evening sound, one that he’d revisit a year later with his remix of Heathen Child for Grinderman (a remix for another Friday perhaps). Timothy J. Fairplay was Andrew’s in house engineer at this point, a partnership which would become The Asphodells.

Alice Gold was a London based singer/ songwriter who released five singles and an album on Polydor between 2010 and 2012, toured with Eels, The Twilight Singers and Athlete and played Glastonbury in 2011. Discogs describes her sound as power pop and psychedelic rock- despite having owned this remix for thirteen years (digital only, there was no physical release for the remix) this is the first time I’ve heard the original version of Runaway Love. There’s nothing after 2012 in terms of releases so I’m guessing Alice gave up music and headed elsewhere. 

Godless Ceremony

Islandman, a trio from Istanbul led by DJ and producer Tolga Boyuk, make music from an intersection of electronic/ dance  and Turkish folk, a melange of drums, percussion, chanting, flutes, strings, jazz, North Africa and whatever else they feel ready to throw into the pot. The latest release from them is a three track remix EP, the new versions coming courtesy of the hardest working man in cosmic chug, Sean Johnston. 

Following his remixes of Holy Youth Movement that hit an early 90s indie/ dance sweet spot, the three Hardway Bros remixes here  mine that seam even further, a blast of pure indie/ dance gold. The Hardway Bros remix kicks in with shimmering guitars, a wobbling synth part and a rhythm that sets the controls for the heart of the chug, with multi- tracked, blissed out vocals riding on top of seven minutes of sun dappled fun.

The Live at The SSL Dub opens with the same chiming guitar part but the bass and drums shift it somewhere else a little deeper and darker, the undertow of bass and FX churning away with the vocals ever more distant, with more and more echo. 

The Spangle Maker

I’m not a superstitious person. I don’t have any routines or beliefs about black cats or knocking on wood. We were taught to salute a magpie when we were kids but I’m not sure why and I stopped doing it decades ago. I’m not religious either. I tend to require scientific or empirical evidence for the existence of things and religion doesn’t fit into that for me. I understand why religion works for other people and I can see why it brings comfort especially when dealing with death and questions about the afterlife. 

I was out cycling on Sunday morning. I try to get out on my bike every weekend and do a couple of hours on the roads. One of my routes can bring me back past the cemetery where Isaac is buried. From one of the roads, especially in winter when the hedges are bare, I can see him from the road more or less, the line of graves at the top of rise clearly visible. At first I couldn’t cycle past without stopping and going in to see him but now I can ride past, look to my right, nod or wave, and keep going. We usually go down to see him once a week anyway so I don’t feel compelled to call in on him every time I’m riding past.

There’s a bus route that runs down the road too. It drops people at the end of the road near the cemetery and then carries on towards Lymm. Isaac loved public transport- buses, Manchester’s trams, trains all ticked his boxes- and it’s amazing how many times we’ve stood at his graveside and seen the bus run past in the distance, all the more amazing because there are only two an hour. It always makes me smile to see it, and in a way it’s become Isaac’s bus (I know that the appearance of the bus is entirely coincidental, that it’s not appearing because we are there or because of Isaac. Confirmation bias is real).

When Isaac died a friend gave us some wind chimes. She said we should hang them in the garden and when the breeze makes them move and chime, we’d think of him. Which they do and in a good way. ‘Oh, hello Isaac’, Lou sometimes says when she’s out in the garden and it happens.  Again, I don’t think that the chimes are actually Isaac trying to make contact from beyond the grave but it does happen as our friend said and it’s a nice reminder of him, one that brings a smile.

My scientific head tells me that neither are very likely (and that if Isaac was trying to contact us he wouldn’t necessarily appear as a white feather or a robin) but the combination of the two at the same time startled me a little. A mile or two further on I pulled into the lanes that run near the cemetery and Isaac’s bus appeared from round the bend in front of me. At that point I took the signs for what they seemed to be- ‘alright, Isaac, alright’ I thought to myself, almost saying it out loud, ‘I’m coming’. I cycled to the cemetery, said hello, had a little tidy up of his grave and then headed for home.

My scientific head tells me that neither are very likely (and that if Isaac was trying to contact us he wouldn’t necessarily appear as a white feather or a robin) but the combination of the two at the same time startled me a little. A mile or two further on I pulled into the lanes that run near the cemetery and Isaac’s bus appeared from round the bend in front of me. At that point I took the signs for what they seemed to be- ‘alright, Isaac, alright’ I thought to myself, almost saying it out loud, ‘I’m coming’. I cycled to the cemetery, said hello, had a little tidy up of his grave and then headed for home.

The Spangle Maker

The Spangle Maker was on a Cocteau Twins EP from April 1984, a slow burning sea of noise that breaks into a crashing, swooning torrent of reverb, guitars and Liz Fraser’s otherworldly voice, a song that almost feels like someone making contact from another realm. 

The Score

Grian Chatten, singer and lyricist in Dublin punk- poets Fontaines D.C. has a solo album out and a first single from it came out last month. Grian’s song The Score follows from their contribution to a forthcoming album of covers of Nick Drake songs, and their stunning version of ‘Cello Song, an off kilter, thrilling, modern/ post- punk take on one of Nick’s most affecting songs. 

On The Score Grian seems to have been soaking some of the Nick Drake acoustic feel. Along with the finger picked acoustic guitar part and some softly padding electronic drums, there is his voice. Grian’s voice and delivery are a big part of what makes Fontaines D.C., his Dublin brogue and street poetry a very distinct part of their twin guitar attack. On The Score he’s softer, more melancholic but warmer too. It’s quite something, the blend and layers of those three components. 

Two weeks ago this one came out too, Fairlies, with a fiddle and loudly strummed acoustic guitar to the fore, all sots of melodies and harmonies, all summoning up some kind of dreamlike state. Pretty stunning and quite unexpected. The album, Chaos for The Fly, is out at the end of June.

Monday’s Long Song

The sunshine has finally arrived in north west England this weekend bringing with it blue skies, heat and life lived outdoors. I appreciate some people don’t like the heat and go bright red at the first contact with the sun but it doesn’t half help to lift the spirits and make everything seem a little bit better. Manchester city centre was heaving yesterday- no one would say Manchester has a beautiful or even scenic city centre but its scruffy charm looks miles better with blue skies and the sun beaming down. A month ago all the trees were still bare- now they’re all green. 

This ten minute track by Mi Ami, first released in 2012 and then again as part of a compilation put together by Gatto Fritto in 2018 (The Sound Of Love International Vol. 1), is all summer sounds, percussion and drums and shimmering synth sounds, some dub FX giving everything a hazy wobble. Ideal for this kind of weather. 

Free Of Life