Danielle Moore RIP

There was some very sad and sudden news yesterday- the unexpected and tragic death of Danielle Moore at the age of just 52. Danielle was the singer and ball of energy at the front of Crazy P, the electronic band formed at Nottingham University in the mid- 90s by Jim Barron and Chris Todd, Danielle joining them in 2002. She grew up near Manchester, found herself on the dancefloor of the Hacienda and in recent years lived in Todmorden where she was a huge part of The Golden Lion community and where she will be hugely missed.  

This is Cruel Mistress from 2015, Crazy P at their slinky best, shimmering electronic disco/ house.

Danielle sang on Craig Bratley's Play The Game, a 12" out on Magic Feet in 2016, a record that came with a sizzling Andrew Weatherall remix- people who worked with Andrew often say that when doing a remix the first thing he'd get rid of was the vocal. Not so in this case, Danielle's voice remaining at the centre of this ten minute remix, laid over the top of the slo mo drums, juddering guitar chords, and synth arpeggios. 

You can buy Play The Game digitally here. The vinyl is long since sold out. 

RIP Danielle. 

No In Between

This is shaping up to be one of the singles of spring 2021, a joint venture from Craig Bratley and Amy Douglas. No In Between kicks off with Italo/ Balearic analogue synths and a beat taken at a hot summer's day pace with typically strong vocals from Amy before some bleeps from Sheffield circa 1990 are beamed in sideways. There's a dub remix too, a slowed down, bass led head- nodder. You can find both at Bandcamp. 

Running To Paradise

One of my favourite 12" releases of 2018 was Craig Bratley's 99.9%, which came with an Andrew Weatherall remix and a gorgeous piece of slo- mo cosmic Italo called Take Me To Bedford Or Lose Me Forever. Craig has just put out another four track e.p. (which the postman delivered yesterday, raising his eyebrows no doubt at the number of 12" square packages that have been arriving at our house recently). The new e.p. is called A Message From The Outpost and finishes with this- Running To Paradise- another wonderful slow mo, cosmic/Balearic transmission gliding in from much warmer and sunnier climes. Rimini in 1991 perhaps.



Back in 2013 Craig remixed a track called One Time by Almunia (an Italian psychedelic/cosmic disco outfit) and which shows he's been perfecting this Italo groove for some time. As this one hits the three and a half minute mark the acid bassline and synth throbs become enough to make a grown man cry.

One Time (Craig Bratley Remix)

99.9

Craig Bratley comes through with a four track e.p, just out, which has a contender for song title of the year... Take Me To Bedford Or Lose Me Forever. I like to think this was over heard in the street or a bar, someone hissing it into a phone or across a table. Thankfully the track lives up to its name, a slow motion, vaguely Eastern sounding chug, soundtracking a car ride through the streets of your town before dawn...



Elsewhere the lead track is a throbbing uptempo banger 99.9 which comes with an Andrew Weatherall remix- moody, science fiction, dub-tinged acid.



The other one is the self explanatory Italo Love. If we're having an Italo house revival, and I'm in favour of that, this song should be somewhere near the centre of it.

Feed Your Head

Continuing this week's very loosely themed run of posts combining photos from German fashion magazines in 1995 found when searching for images using the search term 'German techno 1990s' with dance music- and just in case you've already worked your way through all of Steve Cobby's City Of Vultures archive I posted yesterday- here is an hour long mix from Craig Bratley that kicks off with Jaydee (Dutch producer of the 1992 classic Plastic Dreams) and heads deep after that, ending with Bicep's Aura (one of this year's best records round here, without a shadow of a doubt). Driving rhythms and space age sounds fitted as standard. By the 38 minute mark it's all very intense. Vorsprung durch technik.



Jaydee - Back Into Acid
O'Flynn - Pluto's Beating Heart 
Passarani -ICU 
Rahaan - Move Out The Way 
DMX crew - The Wiggly Worm 
Option 4 - To Be Your Baby 
Savage Hymn- Animals v2 
Stephan Barnem - Flash Drama 
Rebolledo - Discotico Plexico (Maceo Plex remix) 
Ara Koufax - Natural States 
Bicep - Aura

Play The Game

Andrew Weatherall's entered another period of activity with this remix of Craig Bratley's Play The Game coming out later this month. This is a cosmic trip, ten minutes long, with laid back beats, crashing guitar chords and a breathy vocal from Danielle Moore. Gimme more.

Fairplay And Bratley

Here's a couple of recent things from the Scrutton Street Axis, both tracks from the house music end of things and both a tad spooky. Craig Bratley's Beat On The Drum has some deep, repetitive techno with a robotic voice and a very freaky,disturbing video.



Timothy J Fairplay has posted the demo of another Junior Fairplay tune on Soundcloud, Faxes From The Future (winner of the most retro-futurist song title award 2014). An early 90s breakbeat, one fingered keys, disembodied voices, oscillating noises. I'm really hoping that there's going to be a Junior Fairplay album.

The Night Before You Came

Last July I posted the video for a dance track by Paresse and remixed by Craig Bratley, a proper belter with sci-fi techy-synths and hissy drums. Then I went on holiday and forgot all about it.



Last night this one turned up, a different version with a huge disco bassline, three fingered synth riff to the fore, massive electronic tom toms and chopped up vocals.

Analogue Dreams

This is really good, Analogue Dreams from Craig Bratley. There's a very repetitive acidic bleepy squiggle bit (which admittedly could annoy some) and then during the second half of its eight minutes some Balearic piano fades in and tips the scales upwards, followed by the kick drum and a synth string parts- and like magic you could be sat on a terrace somewhere warm with the sun on your face.

The Night Before You Came

This is very nice, The Night Before You Came by Paresse, it's got a touch of the Bladerunner groove to it, sci-fi electronica (good luck with finding it on vinyl, seems to be sold out left, right and centre).



This Craig Bratley remix is a bit of a looker too..



And from yesterday there's a free download of a remix by Dave McSherry (Fila Brazillia),a whopping 65mb WAV file...

Just Bob Our Heads To This Groove Right Here

This is a delightfully deep, dark Craig Bratley remix of Four Walls from back in 2011, featuring a man talking about going nightclubbing; not there for the smoke or the VIP section or the champagne, just the music. Craig Bratley has recently contributed a 10" single to Andrew Weatherall's Bird Scarer vinyl only series.