October

October already- 2025 continues to hurtle by. Some October songs for the first of the month, a blogging October fest. 

First, wonderful electronic pop by Chris And Cosey, originally released in 1983 but here in its 1986 version, two former members of Throbbing Gristle making something light and lilting but profound too. 

'You took my hands on the stairs/ No one was around/ You said we could be lovers/ I just had to say the word...'

October (Love Song) '86 Version

Fast forward to 1991 and Neil and Chris, the Pet Shop Boys, released their October symphony, a song inspired by Neil Tennant reading a book about the Russian revolution and a composer writing a symphony celebrating the October revolution that brought the Bolsheviks to power. Written in the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall and break up of the USSR Neil has his composer wondering if the symphony if the work is still valid. Johnny Marr contributes some lovely little bursts of guitar. 

'So much confusion when autumn comes around/ What to do about October?'

My October Symphony

In October 2000 The Gentle Waves released October's Sky as part of an EP, Falling From Grace. Brass, organ, an off kilter rhythm and sound and Isobel Campbell's softly sung vocals on top, a slightly off centre love song. 

'When will we stop feeling haunted?/ For our ancient love must die/ Never have the stars shone brighter/ Underneath October's sky'

October's Sky

Lastly, from April this year, Maria Somerville's October Moon- drifting in with ambient drones and noise, recorded in Conamara and Dublin in 2021, gradually becoming a song, acoustic guitar and a vocal so soft and blurred its only half there, a song blown apart by the wind... 

The lyrics are difficult to make out, maybe 'I look away/ Somewhere I can...' 

October Moon

Forty Minutes Of Fearless And Vegas

I took this photo the other day by accident with my phone in my pocket. There were several and a couple of short videos too but this was the pick of the bunch- someone said, 'it's like you have a portal to another dimension in your pocket'. If only I'd known it was there all along. It looks very much like a record sleeve too, maybe one by The Cocteau Twins, definitely something on 4AD. Anyway, I like it but despite my best efforts haven't been able to recreate it. For now, the portal remains closed. 

How about some dystopian disco for your Sunday? Earlier this week Jesse questioned whether the new Ron Trent album is actually any good and rather than being the Balearic masterpiece it is being lauded as (not least here), it is actually more akin to the incidental music from 80s US cop shows, Miami Vice when it went soft or Magnum P.I. perhaps. I think with Balearic and ambient music there's always a danger of slipping over the line into bland New Age cocktail bar music but I guess everyone's line is in a different place. I've got a couple of Balearic compilations with songs and tracks where I can feel my younger self shaking his head and wondering what has happened. 

There's no danger of the music in today's mix being labelled soft focus, pastel anti- jazz. In recent years Richard Fearless, both solo and in his Death In Vegas guise, has made some very anxiety inducing, tense and dystopic ambient/ industrial/ minimal techno. Sheets of metal, cavernous reverb, subterranean synths, icily detached vocals from Sasha Grey, thick urban fog, night terrors, dancing in a damp deserted warehouse somewhere in East London with one lightbulb flickering on and off... it's all here. Plus Chris and Cosey, formerly of Throbbing Gristle, on remix duties and Richard's beautifully mournful piano house remix of Django Django. It's all very intense but also perfectly executed and very cathartic. 

Forty Minutes Of Richard Fearless And Death In Vegas

• Richard Fearless: Driving With Roedelius
• Richard Fearless: Earth Tapes
• Death In Vegas: Honey
• Death In Vegas: Consequences of Love (Chris And Cosey Remix)
• Death In Vegas: You Disco I Freak
• Django Django: Giant (Richard Fearless remix)
• Richard Fearless: Gamma Ray

The opening pair of tracks are from the recent Deep Rave Memory and Future Rave Memory albums. Consequences Of Love and You Disco I Freak were on 2016's Transmission album. Honey and Gamma Ray were standalone singles from 2018 and 2014 respectively. The Django Django remix dates from 2016 but was only released properly in 2020. 

Beating Forever

Chris and Cosey have constantly reworked and remixed their back catalogue, fashioning new versions for live performance and then releasing some of them when they see fit. In 2014 a remix package to support their US tour saw an updated version of their 1983 calling card October (Love Song) along with four other songs, remixed in/ by their Carter Tutti guise. After a murky beginning that gorgeous melody starts to appear and then Cosey's semi- spoken, natural vocal and the pulsing electronic track, intact but with a 21st century sheen and heft. 

October (Love Song) Remixed

Isolation Mix Fifteen: Songs Lord Sabre Taught Us Part Two

Two weeks ago I posted my fourteenth Isolation Mix, Songs The Lord Sabre Taught Us, an hour of music from Andrew Weatherall's record box, as featured on his radio shows, playlists, interviews and mixes, mixed together seamlessly (vaguely). Today's mix is a second edition, fifteen songs he played, raved about or sampled, most of them first heard via him (I was listening to Stockholm Monsters before I was a fan of Mr Weatherall, a long lost Factory band who made a bunch of good singles and a fine album called Alma Matter and also the best band to come out of Burnage). It's a tribute to the man and his record collection that there are so many great records from his back pages to sift through and then sequence into some kind of pleasing order. Rockabilly, dub, Factory, post- punk, krautrock legends, Weller spinning out through the Kosmos...



Cowboys International: The ‘No’ Tune
Sparkle Moore: Skull And Crossbones

The Pistoleers: Bank Robber

The Johnny Burnette Trio: Honey Hush

Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze: Dubwise

Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry: Disco Devil

African Head Charge: Dervish Chant

Big Youth: Hotter Fire

Colourbox: Looks Like We’re Shy One Horse

Stockholm Monsters: All At Once

Holger Czukay, Jah Wobble and Jaki Liebezeit: How Much Are They?

White Williams: Route To Palm

Paul Weller: Kosmos (Lynch Mob Bonus Beats)

A R Kane: A Love From Outer Space

Chris And Cosey: October (Love Song) ‘86

Raining Tears Of Blood

I have come to the conclusion that three day weekends would dramatically improve my life. People say productivity would be affected and blah bah blah but I'm not sure I'm that bothered about productivity at the moment. Three day weekends beat productivity hands down.

After reading Cosey Fanni Tutti's autobiography and then some of the comments here from friends the last time I posted some of her work I downloaded a few Chris And Cosey albums from eMusic (Songs Of Love And Lust, Heartbeat and Take Five) plus Chris Carter's Mondo Beat. I've ended up over-facing myself and need to spread them out, let them sink in and get to know them properly but there's some undoubtedly some outstanding music contained within them. This song is pioneering stuff from Chris and Cosey back in 1984, a melancholic four and a half minutes of forward thinking electronic music with a great big squelchy bassline and an icy vocal from Cosey.

Raining Tears Of Blood

Impulse Begin

Some forward thinking electronica from 1982 from the combined talents of Chris And Cosey, then fresh out of Throbbing Gristle and enjoying the freedom of their independence. Chris Carter pioneered the use of all kinds of equipment, not least the Roland 303 bassline synth and Roland 808 drum machine, back before most people had even heard of either.

Impulse

They've never really stopped and in recent years have made some wonderful remixes. This one is a case in point, a sweetly euphoric version of a Tim Burgess and Peter Gordon collaboration from 2016.

Begin (Carter Tutti Remix)

I'm part way through Cosey Fanni Tutti's autobiography, titled art sex music, and without giving too much away she has lived an eye-opening life, a life lived as art, and in the 1970s put up with some very shitty behaviour from Genesis P. Orridge.

Begin

In 2016 Tim Burgess (Charlatan) put out an album he'd recorded with Peter Gordon (Love Of Life Orchestra and Arthur Russell collaborator). It was a funny record, full of hidden treasure- synths, drum machines, saxophone and Tim's sweetly sung vocals. This remix of the opening song by Carter Tutti (formerly Chris and Cosey and of Throbbing Gristle) is lovely, gliding by, leaving you better than it found you.



It was on free download on Soundcloud for a while but isn't any more (but you might find it here).

Hurling Their Own Powers Against Them

One of this year's treats has been a remix by Chris and Cosey of Different Days, the title track of The Charlatans latest album. Rude Audio, a London based collective, have done a completely unofficial re-edit of Chris and Cosey's already rather gorgeous, Balearic remix. Rude Audio have pared the vocals back, dubbed it up and let the lovely, bubbling synths take centre stage.

In the picture the Fantastic Four's own powers have been combined by this set of magic gloves and this will enable them to be totally defeated--now-- and forever!! By hurling their own powers-- magnified many times-- against them!!

A Boy With A Stronger Emotion

The Charlatans have just put this up online, a remix of the title track from their new album by Chris and Cosey. A lovely, summery, 80s sounding,  Balearic version.



Opportunity Three was a different, remixed version of Opportunity (off debut album Some Friendly). It was mixed by Flood, originally released as the B-side to the 1991 Over Rising single and then saw the light of day again on Melting Pot, their first Best Of back in 1998. Opportunity Three is a delicious seven minute plus slice of 1990, equal parts 60s psychedelia and late 80s dance infused rock, led by some very loose drumming. The band (bass, guitar, Hammond) all swirl around, tripping out while Tim sings some sweet nonsense.

Opportunity Three

Consequences Of Love

A skip back to Friday for today's post. After writing about Death In Vegas' You Disco I Freak a friend on social media pointed me towards this which somehow I had missed. Consequences Of Love remixed by ex-Throbbing Gristlers Chris and Cosey. TG seem to be one of the influences on the Transmission album (and on vocalist Sasha Grey) so it's fitting that they remix one of the songs from it and it's a very good job done indeed- throbbing synths and nagging melodies.

October Love Song

Amazing- I've posted songs throughout the month of October every year since  2010 and until now never done this one by Chris and Cosey. October (Love Song) was first released on 7" in 1983, followed by a 1986 version and there was an updated one in 2014 too. For two people who were in Throbbing Gristle, unless I'm missing some subtext or other, this is a beautiful little love song with a sweet electronic topline and spoken vocals over drum machine beats.

October (Love Song) '86 Version

There's also a very lo-fi, homemade video which I had never seen before until this weekend.