Monday’s Long Song

David Sylvian’s name has popped up in a few places recently, largely unconnected I think (although these things usually end up being connected somehow). I read about his solo albums in Rob Young’s Electric Eden book, a long meandering trawl through British folk music and how in the 80s various people- Sylvian, Talk Talk, Cope- reconnected with visionary folk music in one way or another. Then, having moved on and semi- forgot about it he came back via social media and then came up in conversation with a friend who’s a big Bowie fan when talking about Fripp. I dug a little into Youtube but didn’t buy anything and again moved on. Then last week digging around Richard Norris’ Soundcloud page, a proper treasure trove of tracks, remixes and versions, I found his 1993 remix of Sylvian and Fripp. Richard took the original track, Darshan (The Road To Graceland), a seventeen minute epic and remixed it, shaving a minute off in the process. An ambient opening section followed by a long, funky, experimental art- pop journey with a ’93 house beat.

Sylvian and Fripp the turned up a few days ago at Echorich’s place (linked on yesterday’s post) with the dreamy two and half minutes of Endgame, ambient opening and then acoustic guitar and voice, which has sent me scurrying down a rabbithole. The Richard Norris remix of Darshan came out on a CD mini- album, only three songs long but well over forty minutes long in total. Richard Norris’s remix, the original version and this ten minute ambient psychedelic swirl re-construction from the Future Sound Of London. Float on. Ambient special as i-D noted in ’93.

 

Hypnotise Us

Two slices of early 1990s dance music to whisk us away from December and all those pre-Christmas irritations. First up is a song I’ve posted before but only recently saw the video for the first time.

Released by Creation in 1990 Dream Beam is a wonderful slice of house music, bleepy and spaced out with vocals from Denise Johnson. It was this song that got her the gig with Primal Scream and led to her singing on Screamadelica. Tony Martin’s production is perfectly in tune with the times- he put an album out too, also called Hypnotone, which is worth pulling out from the shelf or looking out for if this kind of thing is your bag. Dream Beam is also on Creation’s definitive 1991 Keeping The Faith compilation, along with Fluke, Weatherall’s MBV remix, World Unite, Sheer Taft, Love Corporation, Primal Scream and a couple of others. Keeping The Faith is among the very best things the label ever released.

I saw Hypnotone perform at a mini-festival in Sefton Park, Liverpool (I think it was summer 1990). Larks In The Park was an annual affair starting in the early 80s. Famously in 1985 The Stone Roses and The La’s played the same night. Hypnotone went on way after dark. We were on a grass bank across the boating lake from the stage and the bleeps came  from the bandstand, drifting across the water towards us, followed by Denise’s voice. Everyone was very chilled and happy. It was one of those moments.

Dream Beam (Danny Rampling Remix)

I posted Papua New Guinea by Future Sound Of London fairly recently, back at the end of August. August seems like a long time ago now. This is another video I’d never seen before until recently, FSOL playing Papua New Guinea on Top Of The Pops in 1991. And playing it live. Papua New Guinea is one of those records that takes you away from it all.

Weatherall’s remix takes things up several gears, a thumping kick drum over that throbbing synths and the rushing rewind sounds. Tom toms. Seagulls. Chanting.

Papua New Guinea (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

Delusions Of Grandeur

Hardkiss were a San Franciscan trio who played a key role in the early 90s in establishing rave/dance music in the USA. At first they put on parties, promoting and djing, then moved into producing records and running a label. All three- Scott (God Within), Gavin (Hawke) and Robbie (Little Wing)- started making their own work which then got mixed together on their 1994 album Delusions Of Grandeur. This is a twenty minute segued sampler mixing ten of the tracks which make up Delusions… (which was remastered and  re-released in 2015).

1. God Within – ”Raincry (Spiritual Thirst)”
2. Hawke – ”3 Nudes Having Sax On Acid”
3. Drum Club – ”Drums Are Dangerous (Drugs Are Dangerous)”
4. God Within – ”The Phoenix (Rabbit In The Moon’s Riverandrain Mix)”
5. Little Wing – ”Mercy Mercy”
6. God Within – ”Daylight (Dreamerdreamsalone)”
7. Hawke – ”Pacific Coastal Highway #1”
8. Rabbit In The Moon – ”Out Of Body Experience (Burning Spear)”
9. Unknown – ”Top Secret Song”
10. Little Wing – ”Thing (One)”

This being San Francisco things are pretty cosmic and hippy in places and by all accounts SF rave had a New Age ‘spiritual vibe’ (plus drugs) that marked it out as different. The trio saw Future Sound Of London’s Papua New Guinea as the starting point for what they wanted to do and the album’s tracks go from acid house to trance to breakbeat and techno. In places they veered close to the kind of mood music cds you can find in garden centres with samples of bird calls and monkeys but on the whole this is forward thinking, open minded stuff.

As a bonus here’s their inspiration, FSOL’s Papua New Guinea, a true moment of greatness. Counter intuitively, for something that works best as an extended track, this is a 7″ version. Still epic and massive.

Papua New Guinea (7″ Mix)

Papua New Guinea

Ok, last one in this particular run of posts- the extended, tranced and pounding Weatherall remix of Papua New Guinea. Future Sound Of London’s original was more than enough in some ways but Weatherall redefined epic with this one in 1992. Are those seagulls I can hear?

Papua New Guinea (Andrew Weatherall Mix)

And just to bring us bang up to date this is Weatherall’s remix of David Holmes’s Unloved group and their When A Woman Is Around song, a highlight from the recent album- bass heavy and keeping parts of the spoken word section of the song. Out on 12″ for Record Shop Day next month.

Expander

Future Sound Of London started out with their Expander album in 1991, a dance floor thing rather than their later ambient, off kilter, psychedelic voyage style stuff. The opening track sets the tone. Jumpin’ and pumpin’ techno. I can’t quite work out if this sounds dated or not.

Expander