Cosmic

Chris Massey's Sprechen kicks off 2026 with a new EP from The Thief Of Time, Chris' cosmic disco/ new wave band now joined permanently by Lady Lady (Sally Summers). The new single, Cosmic, is a decades old demo updated by Sally and Chris, all 80s synths, soaring vocals and sci fi dreams. 

Cosmic comes with two remixes- one by WH Lung's Tom Sharkett and the other by Frederik Hendrik, a new Sprechen signing. Tom loads up big breakbeat, isolates the synthlines and heads for the rave at the end of the universe, six minutes of fun with a breakdown at four minutes filled with garbed voices and then a finale with laser beams and synths firing off all over. Frederik's remix is cosmic disco/ Italo house, builds slowly, achieves lift off, breaks down, re- enters, and then continues to fly. Find Cosmic at Bandcamp. 

In 2024 Tom Sharkett's band WH Lung released their third album, Every Inch Of Earth Pulsates, a really well put together nine song set of cosmische indie, both atmospheric and with fully realised songs. The songs pulse with synths and guitars, motorik drums and soaring melodies, that sound like lots of other bands best bits and also like themselves. This song ended the album in fine style, a big emphatic, widescreen kiss off.

I Will Set Fire To The House

In 2020 an album of remixes of songs from Incidental Music was released including remixes by Kid Machine and Fijiya and Miyagi. In 2019 Piccadilly Records made Incidental Music their album of the year and the CD of remixes was a bonus disc for punters who bought the album at Oldham Street's finest record shop. The Fujiya and Miyagi remix fits in very well alongside the WH Lung one above and The Thief Of Time EP, all very cosmic. 

Second Death Of My Face (Fujiya and Miyagi Remix)

WH Lung are named after a Chinese and Asian supermarket on Upper Brook Street, Manchester, open seven days a week.

Manchester Stockport Tokyo Ancoats

Ban Ban Ton Ton is Dr. Rob's Tokyo based music blog covers everything Balearic/ acid house and beyond. I've been writing guest reviews for some time. Two weeks ago I wrote about Ace Of Swords, the second album by Thought Leadership, a guitarist from Edgeley, Stockport. Stockport, people round here keep saying, is the new Berlin (a student of mine told me this week that Eccles is going to be the new Didsbury- I await this development patiently). 

Thought Leadership's music is entirely instrumental, just guitar FX pedals, some bass and synths and a drum machine- ambient, with detours on the latest album into Balearic Jazz. The spirit of Vini Reilly hovers close by. I loved the first album- Ill Of Pentacles- and love the second too, an album about to get a limited vinyl released on Be With Records. My review is at Ban Ban Ton Ton here. This is XVII, six and a half minutes of ambient soundscapes and echo and chorus laden guitar playing. 

Thought Leadership is shortly to find a home on a 12" by Jason Boardman's Before I Die label, a Manchester based independent with a growing back catalogue. Arrival features the guitar playing of Kevin McCormick (another ambient guitarist and another artist I've written about at Ban Ban Ton Ton). The 12" is going to include a Thought Leadership remix among its four tracks. More news to follow.  

A month before that post I wrote about Ein Null: Ten Years Of Sprechen, a celebration of a decade of music coming from Chris Massey's Manchester based label, an album that is packed with exclusives and one offs. A Certain Ratio appear with a track that you won't find anywhere else, the Martin Hannett referencing Faster But Slower, percussive Manc- funk noir. 

Ein Null includes tracks from The Utopia Strong, Psychederek, The Thief Of Time, Low Pulse, Lena C and Gina Breeze and Massey and Supernature's Walk... Now Walk. Lots to enjoy. My review is here. 

Yesterday Rob posted a piece to celebrate the soon coming 30th anniversary of Bugged Out, a 90s Manchester nightclub institution that spread its wings beyond its birthplace, a scuzzy former mill in Ancoats called Sankeys Soap. Bugged Out's 30th birthday includes the publication of a very nice looking book. As someone who attended Bugged Out nights at Sankeys on many occasions in the 94- 97 period including memorable nights that Andrew Weatherall and Carl Craig headlined, Rob asked me to pen some of my memories of the times which you can read here. The music on the post is heavy on mid- 90s techno, as Bugged Out at Sankeys was, with tracks from Daft Punk, The Chemical Brothers, Green Velvet, LFO, Dave Clark, Ron Trent, Carl Craig and Der Dritte Raum. This twenty minute documentary came out ten years ago for the 20th anniversary...

Soundtrack Saturday

We have a recently launched boutique cinema open in the shopping precinct near us, The Northern Light, in what used to be WH Smith. It shows all sorts of films and also puts on some interesting one offs. Chris Massey runs Sprechen, his Manchester based label that has put out records by Psychederek, Causeway and Steve Cobby this year and is celebrating ten years of action with a compilation called Ein Null. That's Chris in the photo above DJing in the cinema in Sale last week. 

In partnership with Richie V, Chris has being doing a series of events where they re- score silent movies from the 1920s with a pair of turntables, a mixer and a laptop, DJing a new soundtrack to German Expressionist films. In the summer they did Metropolis and Nosferatu. I missed both due to other commitments but last week they screened and re- scored The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari and I was able to go. 

The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari is a 1920 film directed by Robert Wiene and tells the story of a hypnotist, a somnambulist and a murder in a small German town. The film's writers- Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer- were scarred by their experiences with the military in the First World War and deeply distrustful of the authorities. Dr Caligari is not only one of the earliest cinema films, it's also thought to be the first with a twist ending. The film's sets are jagged and surreal, doors and windows at strange angles, and all very claustrophobic. The sleepwalker, Cesare, is played by Conrad Veidt...

Chris and Richie soundtrack the film's eighty minute running time with a variety of instrumental music, cutting, mixing and cross fading as the scenes and action changes. They squeeze a lot in, some of which I recognise (but I wish I'd made some notes immediately afterwards as I can't remember it all now). Michael Rother's unmistakable guitar sound glides in at one point, a neat cultural link between Weimar Germany and '70s krautrock. There is ambient and trip hop and towards the end a huge proggy guitar solo track blasts in. 

This is Fortana di Luna from Michael Rother's 1978 album Sterntaler which I'm sure wasn't what Chris and Richie played but it could easily have fitted in with their new score to The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari

Fortana di Luna

It made me more annoyed that I missed both Metropolis and Nosferatu. Chris and Richie are tackling The Passion Of Joan Of Arc next, a 1928 French silent film. 

Back in 2017 Factory Floor re- scored Metropolis and released their version of the soundtrack as a double CD/ four album box set. The project was commissioned by the London Science Museum to mark the 90th anniversary of the film's release and they performed their score live at the musuem's IMAX. Factory Floor are the perfect group to do Fritz Lang's film, their synth futurism the ideal match to the futuristic sci fi/ 20th century machine industrialism of Metropolis. Heart Of Data

Heart Of Data

Back in 1998 I saw Andrew Weatherall DJ live to a screening of Nosferatu at Manchester's Cornerhouse (it seems apt that DJing new scores to films was something that the pioneering Mr Weatherall was doing nearly three decades ago). It wasn't particularly busy. Andrew was set up at the front with two turntables and a box of records. On screen Nosferatu: A Symphony Of Horror played, black and white vampirism directed by F.W. Murnau with Max Schreck as Count Orlok bringing a plague to a small German town. Andrew's score was all weird ambient and massively pitched down trip hop and illbient and downtempo tracks. At some point many years alter some of us managed to identify that one of the tracks was from Leila's 1998 album Like Weather but I can't now recall which track. Let's have this one...

Space, Love

The screening and Weatherall re- scoring of Nosferatu was memorable for another reason. Lou was fairly heavily pregnant with Isaac and at one crucial point in the film, as the images and music reached a crescendo, it clearly affected the unborn Isaac and one of his limbs, a hand or foot visibly bulged and moved in a wave like a shark's fin across Lou's stomach. 

Sprechen Fest

Chris Massey's Sprechen label started ten years ago, run out of a spare room at his home in Bolton. Since then it's had a decade of releases and parties, a record label that's become a home for life enhancing, psychedelic/ electronic music that is always interesting, always changing, never standing still. To celebrate this Sprechen are releasing an album called Ein Null: 10 Years Of Sprechen. The album has a really strong line up of artists- A Certain Ratio (with a track, Faster But Slower,  not available anywhere else), Bagging Area favourite Psychederek, The Utopia Strong (featuring former snooker champion Steve Davis), Lena C, PBR Streetgang, Gina Breeze, and Low Pulse. 

As well as this Norwegian producer Lindstrom has joined up with Chris' band The Thief Of Time on a song called Escape Into Neon- a title that sums up much of Sprechen's vibe- with an instrumental and vocal version of the song. The instrumental is available to listen to here, Lindstrom's Scandi-disco synths and The Thief Of Time's 80s indie- pop combining in a flare of light and arpeggios. Ein Null is out on vinyl and digitally and can be ordered here. 

The other track on Ein Null is Walk... Now Walk, a slow mo acid disco chug romp with vocals from RuPaul and Supernature that builds and builds without ever quite exploding, the tension kept in check. 

Also on Sprechen but back in June, was an EP from Ed Mahon called Recreations, a trio of edits and covers. The first is the Poolside Rerub of Voice Of Africa's classic Hoomba Hoomba, the original's beatific piano set over a 98 bpm chug and the chanted vocal fading in. 

Following that there's What You Deserve, a hard edged, uptempo early 80s number from the EBM/ Nitzer Ebb/ DAF sound- sweaty industrial proto- house with a vocal from Snem K. The EP is completed with a version of Corina's Temptation, originally out in 1991, and done by Ed with a vocal from Louise Spiteri, stripped back and full of end of the night/ under the stars love. Get Recreations here. 

Rendezvous In A Manchester Basement

A week ago, the Thursday before Christmas, Chris Massey's Sprechen label celebrated a successful year with an evening of DJs and bands at Yes. Yes is a great venue, situated on Charles Street, a stone's throw from the old Factory offices in one direction and the old BBC Oxford Road studios in the other- but, crucially, relying on none of the nostalgia that some parts of Manchester drape themselves in. Yes has a ground floor bar and several gig spaces. In the past few years ACR and Sonic Boom have both played upstairs. Chris held Sprechen's gig in the basement, a room that probably holds a hundred people. Psychederek was on the decks with his bag of comische tunes, followed by Mike Grubert's band Love Letters From Space, a psychedelic space rock four piece. 

Chris' group The Thief Of Time have grown through 2023 and '24. The album, Where Do I Belong?, was one of last year's highlights, a summation of all of Chris' loves and life- clubs, music, comics, cult films, cosmiche synths and mid- 80s electronic indie pop- with some beautiful songs. The Thief Of Time's live outings have included gigs at Yard in Cheetham Hill and in November at The Golden Lion, Todmorden. With each gig, they've taken bigger steps and filled out, the line up expanding to include the leopard skin clad guitarist Mike and now keys/ co- vocals Lady Lady, plus at Yes, vocals from Bay Bryan on one of the songs. 

Chris is centre stage, singing, playing synth drums and keys/ synths. They play the whole of Where Do I Belong?, Imposter Syndrome sounding especially good, the vocal sample kicking things off, 'It was as though I had no place in the world', before the mid 80s New Order gone to Cologne keyboard parts achieve lift off and Bryan's vocals surf on top

The influence of early 80s forward thinking pop, stuff that came out of the post- punk underground and then went pop such as The Human League, is strong, as is the ever present thud of club music and Manchester's past although this is absolutely not a Manchester revival thing in any way. Rendezvous For A Lost World throbs in Moroder- esque fashion with blissed out vocals, the clean lines of 80s sci fi brought to life in a basement in December. After that, there are a trio of new songs which promise that next year for Sprechen will bring more and bigger still (see also the album from Causeway that is scheduled for release early '25). 

Where Do I Belong? can be found to listen to and buy at Bandcamp.  

Dancing With Shadows

Causeway are Marshall Watson and Allison Rae, an Idaho based duo who have got an EP out next month on Chris Massey's Sprechen label (a Manchester label which operates straight outta Stretford, just up the road from here). Allison sang on Chris' The Thief Of Time album last year, and after a few releases on Italians Do It Better Causeway have made their way to Sprechen for this EP and a forthcoming album. The EP features the song Dancing  With Shadows, a huge piece of 80s synth- pop/ goth- dance action, that pulses and throbs like some fusion of New Order, The Cure and Depeche Mode, the soundtrack to a nightclub scene in a 1986 film that went straight to VHS but now looks like a lost classic. 'Tonight I'm dancing with shadows', Alison sings, 'To the beat of my heart'.  

As well as the single the EP comes with four remixes- Marshall's Club Mix is available to listen to now at Bandcamp, an amped up, ramped up, wall of synths remix. Bagging Area favourites Hardway Bros are there too as is Kiaki, and Chris Massey has done his own remix, the 303 deployed to maximum effect, a mid- tempo synth acid/ techno chugger with rubber band bass, Detroit to Stretford via Idaho. 

Sprechen Presents...

On Saturday night gig goers in Manchester had multiple options. The new Co- Op Arena in east Manchester hosted Liam Gallagher who was playing Definitely Maybe in full and then whatever else it is Liam plays after he's done all the good songs. Old Trafford cricket ground had Foo Fighters. Manchester city centre on Saturday afternoon was packed with people coming and going, Liam and Foo fans, hen parties and earlier on glammed up Taylor Swift fans heading for trains to Liverpool. The other option was a walk up Cheetham Hill Road to The Yard and a Sprechen Records Presents night with live performances by Chris Massey's The Thief Of Time and Psychederek. I took the non- Liam, no- Foo option and headed to The Yard. 

The Thief Of Time's debut album Where Do I Belong? came out towards the end of last year and became one of my favourite albums of 2023 very quickly. Chris Massey usually makes dance music and ultimately that has one aim- to make people dance. The Thief Of Time is song based and more autobiographical, Chris bringing together a lifetime spent soaking up pop culture- music, films, comics, songs, bands, clubs- and forming into one seven song record. There are nods of the head to 80s pop, to mid- 80s New Order, electronic music and guitars. A Certain Ratio helped out as did Psychederek, Bay Bryan and Alison Rae who all provided vocals. At 9.45 pm on Saturday night Chris stepped on stage at The Yard for the debut live appearance as The Thief of Time, switching between guitar, synth drums, keys/ synths and vocals with a guitarist to his left. The songs definitely work live, pulsing and building, electronic pop with psychedelic and lots of film references. The projections behind added a visual dimension, sci fi loops, Manchester tower blocks, the footbridge over the M60 at Stretford and pulsating computer animations. Many of the songs have snatches of dialogue sampled from film and TV and Chris had synced up the vocal samples to the moments of the films he took them from, the actors from various black and white films appearing on the screen as their voices came through the PA. It was hugely impressive and hopefully the first of many future performances. Towards the finale, with twin guitars chiming away, as the motorik/ cosmische rhythms thumped on and the synths soared, the effect was magical and hypnotic. This one, Rendezvous On A Lost World, with the ghostly refrain sung by Psychederek, 'You're not alone', echoing through the Victorian school building, sounded especially good.

The Thief Of Time were followed by Psychederek. His single Test Card Girl was one of my favourite releases of 2023 and his recent EP Alt! is already shaping up to be one of my favourites of '24. Behind a bank of synths, drum machines and a laptop, a microphone and a guitar, Psychederek began with the dreamy, phased, blissed out synth chords of Test Card Girl, stretching the sounds and filtering them before the drum beat kicked in...

From there he went from one song straight into the next, a blend of gig and DJ set, the songs joined seemlessly. Hapi from Alt! had his singing, his voice floating from the PA, followed by the crunching cosmische rhythms and Neu! guitar/ synthlines of Nowhere To Nowhere. I had to leave before the end of Psychederek's set but what I caught was superb and I'll be back for more next time he plays. 

Psychederek's Alt! is available at Sprechen, four songs for summer '24 including his sun baked cover of 808 State's Pacific. Digital and vinyl here. 

The Thief Of Time's Where Do I Belong? is here, digital, CD and vinyl options plus posters and tote bags. 

The Love Letter From Space

Chris Massey is a resident of Stretford, just up the road from me, a recording artist and record label owner- Sprechen has put out music by a wide variety of people including Psychederek who has featured here before, not least with this year's gorgeous Test Card Girl single.  Chris has recently released an album under the name The Thief Of Time, a seven track record titled Where Do I Belong? When I first listened to it, one cold, dark evening this week, it hit me so hard that it sounded like it had been recorded with me specifically in mind. 

Where Do I Belong? finds inspiration in both the celestial and the more earthly, an album that is equally informed by the sounds of cosmic electronic music and South Manchester. There are sounds here that those raised in the 80s will recognise as formative influences- sequenced basslines, electronic pop, synths from rave and the technicoloured space of Andrew Weatherall's remixes. When I clicked play at Bandcamp the album began playing on track five, the aptly named Love Letter From Space, which begins with a ringing guitar part that could be late 80s Manchester or just as easily from yesterday's Coyote edit of Monsoon. The percussion and drums pad in softly, gently building, a widescreen feel of things opening up. Eventually a sampled voice drops in and the cosmic synths flit about, the two guitar notes carrying everything onwards. 

There are guest appearances from Martin Moscrop and Donald Johnson of A Certain Ratio, Marshall Watson and Allison Rae on We'll Find Each Other and Bay Bryan on Imposter Syndrome, a song which opens with a voice saying, 'It was as if I had no place in the world', and then a kick drum thumps away, synths glide in and an ecstatic lift off is achieved, the sounds of dance music, pop and Balearica stirred together in a day glo sunshine. 

Psychederek turns up on the album's final song, Rendezvous On A Lost World, one of those pulsing, propulsive, space age, half ecstatic/ half melancholic songs that mid 80s New Order excelled it, but sprinkled with 2023's dust, Psychederek singing, 'I'm not alone... the present sees me through', as the bass, drums, synths and guitars push away into the horizon. 

Where Do I Belong? is a superb sounding album, arriving just in time for the end of the year, songs and sounds filled with emotion and depth, the result of several decades of living in and soaking up culture, the music, TV, film, sounds, comics, clubs, dancefloors, books, clothes and magazines, absorbed and stored away inside. Where Do I Belong? is out now on Sprechen, on vinyl, limited hand created CD, digital and with a tote bag if you're looking for something extra. Find them all here. 

Fifty Minutes Of ACR

In 1987 a friend made me a compilation tape which included two songs by Mancunian band A Certain Ratio- Shack Up and Do The Du. I've been listening to ACR ever since. They released their latest album, 1982, last Friday and it's fair to say the group have been re- energised in recent years, the result partly of a deal with Mute to re- issue all their albums. I'd been thinking of an ACR Sunday mix for some time and just as I ended up doing a pair of One Dove mixes a while back, I think I may need to come back to ACR for a second go. The mix here contains none of the punk- funk sound of their releases on Factory, the nervous, minimal, scratchy, demob suits and army shorts songs that made their reputation. Instead I've gone for a mix of dancefloor oriented songs spanning three decades.  The core trio of Jez Kerr, Martin Moscrop and Donald Johnson have regrouped several times since 1979, not least following the deaths of Rob Gretton in 1999 and singer Denise Johnson in 2020, but they're still creating and producing new music and are getting stronger and stronger. If they're playing near you, go and see them. ACR are a good night out guaranteed. 

Fifty Minutes Of ACR

• Dirty Boy
• Music Control
• Mello
• Be What You Wanna Be
• Night People
• Wedge (ACR Rework)
• Emperor Machine
• Taxi Guy
• Won't Stop Loving You (Bernard Sumner Remix)

Dirty Boy came out in 2018 ahead of the group's acr:set compilation, with vocals from Barry Adamson and the sampled voice of one- time mentor, manager and label boss Tony Wilson.

Music Control was a collaboration between ACR's alter ego Sir Horatio and Chris Massey, DJ, producer and promoter from Stretford, a squelchy collision of punk- funk, acid house and mutant disco.

Mello came out in 1992 on Rob Gretton's new label Rob's Records, a slice of loved up Mancunian house.  

Be What You Wanna Be is from 1990's acr: mcr, a renewal of the group's sound and fortunes. They left Factory for A&M but 1989's Good Together failed to shift many copies  (a shame as it's an album with much going for it). acr: mcr is wall to wall brilliance, from Spirit Dance to Good Together to Tribecca, rhythms and pianos inspired by the records playing in the Hacienda. Personnel changes at A&M saw them leave not long after for Rob's Records. I saw them at Manchester Academy in autumn 1991, a gig packed to the rafters and with a crowd up for it from the moment ACR appeared on stage. A few songs in my then girlfriend decided this was the ideal opportunity to have an argument and walk out of the venue.  

Night People was on one of three EPs ACR released in 2021, thirteen tracks, with no filler, following the comeback album Loco, on Mute, from the year before. Night People was on the third of the three, ACR: EPR, and has a swampy Bowie/ Iggy in Berlin groove. 

Wedge is by Number, Ali Friend and Rich Thair's spin off from Red Snapper, a 2020 punk funk trip. The two bands swapped remixes, this being ACR's remix of Number. Number's Binary album came out in April 2020 and probably got a little overlooked with everything else that was going on in spring 2020.

Emperor Machine was a collaboration between ACR and Emperor Machine (Andy Meacham, who found fame first time around in Bizarre Inc). The self- titled track was on EPC in 2021 and is supercharged mutant disco/ punk funk. 

Taxi Guy is the closing song on 2020's Loco album, an album that showed they were right back on it and fired up. Jazzy, samba grooves and a mass drumming finale. Their vie gigs over the last decade have sometimes finished with the group ending up leaving the stage and walking into the audience, drumming and blowing whistles, as happened at Gorilla in early 2020.

Won't Stop Loving You is a remix of a song from acr: mcr by Bernard Sumner from 1990. Sumner stripped the song back to Jez and Denise's vocals, whipcrack 808 drums and house piano. Something of a desert island disc for me. 

Monday's Long Song

A Stretford (Manchester)- Stravanger (Norway) remix crossover to start the week with Chris Massey reworking Lindstrom's Blinded By The LEDs. Massey gets straight to business with a kick drum and hi- hats, wobbly synth topline and then some increasingly intense buzzing and fizzing sounds. Seven minutes of rising and falling synths, drop outs and re- entries and enough energy to send you flying into Monday. At the very least you might turn up at work pretending you want to be there. 

Blinded By The LEDs (Chris Massey's Club Mix)

If you go to Bandcamp there's a second shorter remix (the Balearic Trance Rework) available too, both free. Blinded BY The LEDs was released in 2019, Massey's reworks were a product of lockdown- the pair DJed together only a few weeks before the world shut down in March 2020- and came out last year. 

Yo Yo Gi

I don't know how many times I've mentioned A Certain Ratio here recently but they seem to be popping up with a welcome regularity- the Sir Horatio v Chris Massey Music Control single from earlier this year, the recent ACR remix of Number both stand out (not to mention the still unbelievably sad death of Denise Johnson). The band are gearing up for the release of a new album in September, an ten track record called Loco, and last week put this out ahead of it...



It comes out of the speakers like an updated 2020 version of one of the highlights of 1990's ACR: MCR, Spirit Dance specifically, bassline, acid squiggles, a ton of cowbell and some serious rhythms.

If you didn't get the Sir Horatio single here's a reminder, funky as you like and a video collage to push the buttons of your memory.

Music Control

Manchester DJ and producer Chris Massey remixed A Certain Ratio's Dirty Boy single last year, a delirious blend of biting acid house, northern funk and the voices of Tony Wilson and Barry Adamson. Now comes this, Chris Massey with a one off single with Sir Horatio (I'm sure you can figure out who that is) plus some remixes from Sink Ya Teeth and See Thru Hands, three hundred vinyl copies available through Piccadilly Records (out today assuming mail order is still a going concern- it was yesterday).

The song, Music Control, is an intoxicating dance floor monster, acid bassline and growly vox, ACR:MCR updated for 2020. The video is spliced together footage of dancers, TV show titles, drugs, Manchester, robots and marchers, technology and rave graphics, models and nightclubs, a social history of the last three decades in four minutes forty. I'm hitting replay quite frequently.

Twenty Nineteen: An End Of Year List

I read an article recently that claimed that making end of year lists was merely an attempt to forestall death, that ranking and ordering things is for people who have an unnatural fear of death and who must be constantly trying to leave things in order before they go. A bit dark perhaps. A similar argument says that making lists is an attempt to place order on a chaotic and uncontrollable world- and one glimpse at the news will confirm that the world is both those things and getting more so- and people (men mainly) feel that if they can rank their albums/books/films then they have at least controlled a part of that world. So, with all those things being as they are, here's my end of year list. It doesn't seem to have much in common with the end of year lists I've read in the 'proper' music press or websites- so I must be out of step with what's really the best of the 2019. All I can offer you is what I've loved the most this year and some examples to sample.

Singles/songs/remixes/e.p.
There's a lot of chuggy, cosmic, Balearic, ALFOS style releases in this list, a top 30 for 2019, a golden year for music that evokes outer space, Mediterranean beaches and/or basement clubs thick with dry ice.

1. Silver Apples Edge Of Wonder (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

Released for Record Shop Day in April this remix is nine minutes of total joy, a dream turned into sound- the pitter patter drum machine giving gentle propulsion, the bouncy keyboard riff and metallic sounds echoing round and round and the softly sung vocal- 'waves, waves, Neptune's metronomes... relentless heartbeat of the sea'.



2. A close second was this three track release from Pines In The Sun, Albanian Balearica via Brighton. I know next to nothing about them but the wordless, sunshine shimmer of Sun and the gorgeous sprawl of Zig Zag Sea (plus Duncan Gray's remix of the latter) soundtracked much of my summer.



3. Apiento's single Things We Do For Love came out back at the start of the year, a slow motion dance floor shaped ode with synth bass and whispered vocals. My main regret is not being quick enough to get a copy of the limited run of 7"s.



4 and 5. A Certain Ratio have spent the year celebrating their fortieth anniversary and released this pair of superb songs, one a previously unreleased cover version from 1980 that was intended to be voiced by Grace Jones, the dark funk of House In Motion and the other a very Mancunian remix of their Dirty Boy single (featuring Barry Adamson and the voice of Tony Wilson), remixed by Chris Massey. The Dirty Boy remix in particular has floated my boat.





From this point onward there are a slew of singles, remixes and e.p.s that I've enjoyed this year, loads of brilliant music showing that 2019 has been a really good year. The next dozen or so especially  have all been on heavy rotation.

6. Moon Duo Lost Heads
7. Meatraffle Meatraffle On The Moon (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
8. Four Tet Teenage Birdsong
9. A Mountain Of Rimowa A.M.O.R. e.p.
10. Plaid Maru (Orbital Remix)
11. Hardway Bros Chateau Comtal
12. Scott Fraser and Louise Quinn Together More
13. Four Tet Anna Painting
14. GLOK Dissident
15. Roisin Murphy Incapable (plus the pair of incredible Crooked Man remixes/dubs)
16. Craig Bratley Message To The Outpost e.p.
17. Field Of Dreams No 303
18. Fjordfunk Exile (including the Hardway Bros remix)
19. The Comet Is Coming Summon The Fire
20. Ride Future Love
21. A Man Called Adam Paul Valery St The Disco (Prins Thomas Remix)
22. KH Only Human
23. Shape Of Space Manifesto
24. Warriors Of The Dystotheque Things In The Shadows (Tronik Youth Remix)
25. ⣎⡇ꉺლ༽இ•̛)ྀ◞ ༎ຶ ༽ৣৢ؞ৢ؞ؖ ꉺლ e.p.
26. Shunt Voltage Link Up/ See It In Your Eyes
27. Boy Division Hot Pants
28. Dan Wainwright Keep Me Hangin' On (with Hardway Bros dub remix)
29. Duncan Gray Much Much Worse/ Where Clock Goes
30. Terr Tales Of Devotion (including the Prins Thomas Diskomiks)

Four Tet/Kieran Hebden has had a particularly good 2019, always innovative and entrancing and producing some of the best moments in a variety of guises and across a series of releases, including a live album recorded at Ally Pally in the summer that I've only just started listening to.

Edit: just realised I forgot San Pedro whose e.p. in June was a blast and should be in the list above somewhere.

Albums
I've bought and listened to what seems like an enormous amount of albums this year. The internet and streaming has made individual songs the focus again, a return to the halcyon days of the 7" and 12" single and their B-sides, and occasionally people write about the death of the album and the forty/seventy minute format (depending on whether its a vinyl album or CD). Looking through my pile of records and CDs and lists of downloads the album looks in really good health to me. There's more breadth to my album list, a wider variety of sounds and styles. I've fallen into an ambient/drone wormhole many times this year, a wonderful place to stay for extended periods. Psychedelia and cosmic psych rock has been at the front of the pile a lot. These are in no particular order, the first eight I genuinely couldn't pick between in terms of a favourite or a ranking, they're all the albums of the year.

Glok Dissident
Andy Bell (the guitarist from Ride) released the surprise of the year, a rich, gorgeous flotation through cosmic psychedelia, motorik drums and West German sounds, awash with floaty, dreamy synths and guitars. From the Tron-esque sleeve to the luminous green vinyl to the grooves contained within everything about this album was spot on.



Richard Norris Abstractions Vol. 1
Richard Norris has been exploring ambient music throughout 2019 (and before). This year he has released a pair of albums, Abstractions Vol. 1 and 2, filled with extended repetitive sounds, loops of melody, chimes and washes, drones, ambient noise, waves of reassuring sounds- deep listening. This year has been a car crash in many ways. The whole Brexit debacle, the constant noise and feelings of loss of control over our politics and culture, the sense of loss and the feeling that we're being driven over the edge by fanatics. This album has helped me switch off from it. I can put this on and it works in a calming way that nothing else does. If there's an N.H.S. left in five years time, this pair of albums should be available on prescription.



Meatraffle Bastard Music
Bastard Music is a strange record, surreal, bold and in places very funny. A vision of dystopia set to a ramshackle beat and some memorable melodies. Lyrically it deals with everything- nationalism, the exploitation of workers, Brexit, living in London versus living in the country, immigration, the price of renting, sexism, science fiction, activism, everything... but it's never overbearing or humourless and the lyrics and vocals force you to listen to it rather than just have it on. Musically it's lo fi synthy disco, horns and Pulp Fiction guitars, home made rhythms, reggae and post punk. In some ways Bastard Music makes no sense and in others it makes more sense than any other album released in 2019. It's an amazing record in lots of ways not least in the the song Meatraffle On The Moon, one of the very best things I've heard this year- a song that really should be up at the top of the singles list with Silver Apples and Pines In The Sun- a dub pop exploration of  human workers enslaved and working on the moon, their comradeship and valiant attempts to survive with only the meatraffle to look forward to. Semi- stoned drums, a snaking horn, dub bass and the ace vocals.



Moon Duo Stars Are The Light
My favourite guitar/synth/drums psych- rock explorers put out their latest album in September, Stars Are The Light, and have found a new love of disco and dance music and ecstatic grooves. It's still clearly the work of the band who made the darker, heavier Occult Architecture albums but now with their faces turned to the sun. The synths and drums dance around, the rhythms are aimed at the feet and lighter than before and the twin vocals are airy and optimistic. Their live show in October was an immersive psychedelic experience. I don't think there's an album I've bought this year that I've listened to more than this one.



Steve Cobby Sweet Jesus
One man cottage industry from Hull, Steve Cobby dropped Sweet Jesus onto the internet live back in the summer, twelve songs recorded in his shed, taking in cool Balearic vibes, lush instrumentals, downtempo funk and synths and lots of acoustic guitars. The opening song, As Good As Gold, inspired by Led Zep's third album acoustic guitar picking folkiness in mid- Wales with added mellotron, has been one of my favourite tunes of 2019 and one that I keep going back to. There's something about it that really hits the spot in a way I can't quite put my finger on.



Rich Ruth Calming Signals
This album from Nashville resident Rich Ruth is often described as ambient but it's not ambient in the rain- falling- while- lying- in- bed- with- the- volume- slightly- too- low Brian Eno sense. It's an instrumental album, nine songs that take in minimalism, repetition and drones, a beautiful soaring, squawking saxophone, built around synths and guitars. On first listen you're never quite sure where it's going to go next and in places it is utterly gorgeous.



Richard Fearless Deep Rave Memory
This only came out recently so I'm still getting to know it but it is a perfectly paced and sequenced, intricately constructed techno journey. Completely absorbing and in places edge- of- your- seat tense, taut techno but with some beautiful melodic passages and some pulsing, calming tracks too.



Underworld Drift Series 1 Sampler
I've mentioned this project and album twice recently so don't intend to say much else. The best Underworld album for ages. Try this one...



These eighteen too, roughly in the order that they're listed in below. A bumper year for the long player round here.

L'epee Diabolique
Steve Mason About The Light
A Man Called Adam Farmarama
Bob Mould Sunshine Rock
Private Mountain Blue Mountain
Mark Peters Ambient Innerland
Stiletti Ana Ab Ovo
WH Lung Incidental Music
Rude Audio Street Light Interference
Kungens Män Chef
Acid Arab Jdid
Solange When I Get Home
Plaid Polymers
Rose City Band Rose City Band
Jane Weaver Loops In The Secret Society
Joe Morris Exotic Language
Lana del Rey Norman Fucking Rockwell
Mythologen Antisocial Background Music 2017- 2019

Dirty Boy

A Certain Ratio have been having a new lease of life since singing to Mute with new singles, old songs excavated from the vaults, re-issues, box sets and gigs. Last year's single Dirty Boy, featuring guest voices from the living (Barry Adamson) and the dead (Tony Wilson) has been remixed by Chris Massey, a Manchester based DJ, producer and promoter. The remix is if anything better than the original version, Jez Kerr's bass in the foreground and a thudding house beat putting ACR back at the heart of the dancefloor. The video is a time shifting delight, intercutting footage of Manchester and it's people from the last forty years, the Hacienda of the late 80s, dancers at a 70s discotheque, ravers at an outdoor festival, Jez and the band live on stage in '89 and recently, the Mancunian Way then and now, our orange buses and a 60s motorcyclist speeding through the city centre- the old and the new.