Anatolian Edits

Anatolian Weapons is a prolific producer/ DJ from Athens, Greece whose music is wide and varied with self explanatory such as EPs called Immersive Greek Folk and Yellow Ambient Tracks sitting on his Bandcamp page. In 2022 he released Selected Acid Tracks which was one of my favourite releases of that year, long acid techno tracks to lose oneself in. 

Anatolian Weapons latest release is a four track EP titled Heart Of Asia, four edits that are inventive, engaging and funky as a mosquito's tweeter. The first one is an AW edit of Shamansky Beat's Heart Of Asia, chunky rhythms and Eastern/ Arabic sounds, very much in that early 90s Transglobal Underground vein of global dance/ acid house style and all the better for it. 

It's followed by an edit of Han'nya Shingyo by Japanese artist Soichi Terada, a rumbling, tumbling widescreen acid- global groove with synth stabs and chanted vocals. The AW edit of Rolling With Rai by Axis, a 1989 Ashley Beedle production, Algerian Rai crossed with hip hop beats and late 80s tribal house re- done for 2026.Lovely stuff. 

The fourth track is an edit of Tranquility Bass's ambient house/ downtempo/ trip hop classic They Came In Peace, eight and a half minutes of found sounds (birdsong and cicadas), ambient synths, breathing, blissed out chords, chopped up vocal samples, 'they came in peace for all mankind', and eventually, just prodding away deep in the background, the double bass riff. Perfect. 

Get Heart Of Asia at Bandcamp, free or pay what you want. 

Monday's Long Song

'Gimme an F'

'F!'

'Gimme a 'U'

'U!'

'Gimme a C'

'C'

'Gimme a K'

'K'

'What's that spell?'

'Fuck!'

'What's that spell?'

'Fuck!'

What's that spell?'

'Fuck!'

Deep voice 'War'

This artist- audience exchange is sampled from the 1969 film of the Woodstock festival, Country Joe and The Fish protesting about Vietnam in front of quarter of a million kids*. It kicks off the DSS remix of We Wanna Live by Sandals, a 1993 single on the band's own Open Toe label. The drums rumble in and vocalist/ poet Derek Delves begins his address. 

'Think you know what's right? Think you know what's wrong? How long? Well, it's anybody's guess, we all wake up, get out of this mess...'

We Wanna Live (DSS Remix)

The drums and percussion, courtesy of the four Sandals and on this remix Ashley Beedle, David Holmes, Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns, thump and rattle, everything part of a deep and murky, progressive house sonic stew, acid house that's been through the wringer and is now on the other side of the mother of all comedowns. 

Well, it's late 1993 yeah, over five years since the summer of love, two decades since the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, two years since the first Gulf War, three since the Soviets left Afghanistan, two since Thatcher went, five since Reagan left, four since the Berlin Wall came down and the Cold War suddenly ended and the Soviet Union fractured. Yugoslavia is becoming an ex- state, a civil war and sectarian murder, genocide, already underway. 

In Oslo the PLO and Israel, led by the US President Bill Clinton,  announce a peace process aimed at establishing self- government for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. A joint declaration about a peace process in Northern Ireland is issued, paving the way for the Good Friday Agreement five years later. 

'If we don't wake up/ We don't get out of this mess'

'We wanna live!'

There's a sitar, raga scales running down, synths and at seven minutes a breakdown, crowd noise and then a lone voice shouting, 'Party!' and the crowd chanting it back, 'Party!'.

Derek returns. 'How long?' 

Flute, more whispered poetry and more questions. 

The questions remain the same. And now, March 2026, there are psychopaths in the White House. No restraint. No control. Reveling in their power to kill. 

'What's that spell?'

* In a weird coincidence, an hour after writing this post I saw that Country Joe McDonald's death had been announced. He died aged 84 due to complications from living with Parkinson's disease. RIP Country Joe. 

Monday's Long Song

Today's long song, all nine minutes and seventeen seconds of it, comes from 2017, a remix of Mama's Unmask Me by Ashley Beedle. Unmask Me comes from an intersection between Deep House and modern soul, floating by very nicely with wispy synth chords, the vocal beamed in from another dimension as the drums shuffle away. Ideal for summer and outdoor parties so maybe I've posted it a few weeks too late. 

Unmask Me (Ashley Beedle Vocal Mix)

Mama is Simone Ogunbunmi, from London but now resident in Berlin. And here's a reminder that Ashley Beedle is very unwell. There is a Go Fund Me page to raise money to provide him the support and equipment he will need in the future. You can find it here. 

Ashley Beedle

Ashley Beedle is one of those people whose music is written through our record collections like the word Blackpool through a stick of rock, for those of us of a certain age. He recorded with David Holmes and Lindsay Edwards as The Disco Evangelists, as Black Science Orchestra and with Rocky and Diesel as X- Press 2 and The Ballistic Brothers, as a DJ in his own right and has been responsible for more great remixes than you could fit into one post. 

In 1995 The Ballistic Brothers released this tribute to a London record shop, a magnificent slice of uptempo dance dub. 

Peckings

Sadly Ashley has been very unwell. After recovering from prostate cancer Ashley suffered an enormous brain bleed and seizure in November 2023. During a sixteen hour operation to remove a brain mass he had a major stroke. He's been in hospital ever since, losing the movement in his arm and leg on his right hand side and his speech too. Ashley is recovering some speech but is still very unwell and requires a wheelchair and other assistance due to the loss of mobility on his right side. There is a fundraising page here with more details and if you wish to and are able, you can help. 

Back in 2009 Ashley recorded an hour long mix for New York's Beats In Space, an inspired mix that finds dub in all sorts of places. 

Electronic Rudie! Dub Can't Fail

Generations Walking - Midnight Bustling (Francois Kevorkian Dub)
Basement 5 - Immigrant Dub
The Pop Group - 3:38
Dub Pistols feat . Rodney P - You'll Never Find (Dub)
Stiff Little Fingers - Bloody Dub
Generation X - Wild Dub
Flesh For Lulu - I'm Not Like Everybody Else (Dub Version)
The Pogues - Young Ned Of The Hill (Dub Version)
The Clash - One More Dub
Bauhaus - Here's The Dub (She's In Parties)
Leftfield - Dub Gussett
Air - How Does It Make You Feel? (Adrian Sherwood Mix)
Massive Attack vs Mad Professor - Radiation Ruling The Nation (Protection)
Reverend And The Makers - Sundown On The Empire (Adrian Sherwood On U Sound Disneydubland)
The Clash - Robber Dub
The Specials/Rico Rodriguez - Ghost Town (Extended Mix)

Weatherall Remix Friday Eleven

Inevitably September arrives and brings summer to an end, dusk falling earlier and back to school. I'm feeling it particularly keenly right now, the changing seasons and forward march of the year.  And the return to work which happens today. 

This week's Weatherall Remix Friday visits Two Lone Swordsmen in 1997 remixing old friends The Aloof (a group containing two former Sabres Of Paradise in Gary Burns and Jagz Kooner plus Rich Thair of Red Snapper, Dean Thatcher and Ricky Barrow). Sinking was the title track on The Aloof's second album, following 1994's superb dub- techno/ rave opus Cover The Crime. Sinking was a darker album, less clubby, more after hours, with some trip hop and blues as a part of the sound and more of a live band feel, something of a comedown record after the previous one's partying. 

There's plenty here to enjoy. TLS load up a skippy house beat, a deep house bassline, splashing cymbals and a lovely wiggly synth topline that weaves its way through the remix for seven minutes. Late 90s downtempo/ deep house that keeps your attention engaged and head nodding throughout. This vinyl rip has a lovely burst of crackle at the start for the vinyl lovers out there. 

Sinking (Two Lone Swordsmen House Mix)

Also from the 12" remix package is a pair of Ashley Beedle remixes, this one being the pick of the pair. Clattering drums, whispers, whistles and minor chords.

Sinking (Nautical Cosmic Break Mix)

Number In My Phone

The new Unloved album, The Pink Album, is a twenty song, ninety minute opus full of girl group drama and atmospherics, Wrecking Crew instrumental sounds, a 21st century take on the 60s sound. Number In My Phone started as a moment, David Holmes scrolling through his mobile and realising he had the phone number of someone who had died (Andrew Weatherall as it happens but then also that he had his sister's and parents' numbers too), still had voice recordings but that they were gone- 'Even though you passed on/ I've still got your number in my phone'. Unloved singer Jade Vincent took the line and worked it into a full lyric and the Unloved trio then took the Tales Of The Unexpected theme tune as a musical inspiration. 

Back in the early 90s David was part of The Disco Evangelists with Ashley Beedle, releasing De Niro, a progressive acid house thumper. Now, thirty years later Ashley has remixed Unloved in his Black Science Orchestra guise. Number In My Phone (Black Science Orchestra Remix) a lovely, slinky, bouncy take on the original, an acid bassline and some piano giving it a dancefloor groove. 

Island Earth Is Happening Place

In the early 90s Sandals, a four piece from South London, signed to Acid Jazz and put out a series of 12" singles and an album called Rite To Silence. They came up in conversation in a social media post a few days ago and I thought it was time to put some of their music back up here (the last time they featured was back in 2012).

Sandals came together from the club scene and various record stalls and clothes shops, eventually rehearsing in the storage room of a book/record/clothing shop they ran in London's Trocadero. They mashed together a heady stew of beatnik spoken word poetry, soul, funk and jazz, lots of percussion and bongos, some heavy grooves and early 90s clubland sounds.

Debut single Nothing, from 1992, was produced by Leftfield and predates the trip hop sound by a year or two. Samples of voices, boom- boom- bap drums and whispered/stoned street poetry.

Nothing (Extended Version)

In the same year they put out a second 12" single, produced this time by Gary Burns and Jagz Kooner of Sabres Of Paradise, with a more progressive house sound. It was remixed by DSS (David Holmes and Ashley Beedle). It opens with Country Joe's Woodstock crowd participation exercise, 'Give me an F! Give me a U! Give me a C! Give me a K! What's that spell? What;s that spell?' The techno drums come in and Derek Delves begins singing/chanting about the mess we're in, war, the environment, general madness and bad times. It couldn't be more relevant today, the best part of three decades later, if it tried. This being a 1992 progressive house remix it goes on for twelve minutes, never really letting up. Exhilarating stuff.

We Wanna Live (DSS Remix)

Also from 1992 was this one, A Profound Gas, which I played loads at the time and still sounds great today. Flutes, guitars, pan pipes, chunky drums, production from Leftfield and more beatnik poetry with some memorable lines and imagery.

A Profound Gas (Vocal Mix)

The group disbanded in 1996 having had a second album rejected by London Records. It was eventually released in 2009 in Japan. A copy came my way recently and when I've fully had a chance to listen to it, more Sandals will be coming this way.

Out Of Our Brains On The 5.15

Passing one of Sale's many charity shops on Saturday I wandered in to peruse the box of vinyl. I left a few minutes later having rescued Secret Knowledge's Sugar Daddy 12" for the princely sum of £1.99. Yes, I've already got the original release but this one was in a different sleeve and had a different version (the Sugar Caned Mix) and another remix on it too (by Paul van Dyke, trancey). Secret Knowledge were Kris Needs (journalist, friend of The Clash and Primal Scream, legendary caner and crow's nest hairdo owner) and Wonder (vocals, big voice). Sugar Daddy came out in 1993 on Sabres Of Paradise and is a long, thumping house track, a big club tune of the time. Also on this charity shop classic is an equally good remix by The Disco Evangelists (David Holmes and Ashley Beedle), with a nod of the head to Quadrophenia. It is a banger.

Sugar Daddy (Out Of Our Brains On The 5.15 Mix)

Sarah

Our dear friend Sarah Howson was diagnosed with cancer a little over a year ago. She died on Friday August 2nd, aged only 42. We had just arrived at our campsite in the French Alps when we got a message saying that she had gone. Today is her funeral- I am reading the eulogy (which I hope to make it through without crying and can't guarantee). She was a wonderful, warm, funny person who has provided no end of friendship to us. She leaves behind a husband and three girls, a huge number of friends and a lot of memories.

Sleep On The Left Side (Ashley Beedle's Right Hand Extended Remix)

This is a link to a Justgiving page, if you feel like donating. Fucking cancer.

Boy's Own Stuff

Compilation albums are ace- I don't mean a single band's Greatest Hits or Best Of (although they can be ace too) but compilations of a theme, time period, genre or record label- and cd suits this type of compilation perfectly. You get one disc of 80 minutes worth of music pulling together a range of releases that together make some kind of thematic sense and that soundtrack a time, place, mood, whatever.  Recently I've been listening to the pair of Junior Boy's Own Collection comps- the first one mainly, the one with the mock cigarette cards cover, the second one less so (the one done to look like The Eagle comic). I've had the first one on vinyl for years but found both on cd in a charity shop last week for a pound each and couldn't help myself. The first one has eleven early 90s dance tracks all of which have merit. Some are bona fide classics- Lemon Interrupt's harmonica-house epic Bigmouth, X Press 2 (appearing twice), Underworld's definitive pairing of Dirty Guitar and Rez (their best song? I think so), The Dust Brothers' Song To The Siren. The others have aged well, much better than I'd expected- Farley and Heller's Fire Island project (two songs including Paradise Factory anthem There But For The Grace Of God), Roach Motel's Movin' On, 3rd Eye and Outrage. This JBO compilation is a document of a time and place, or several places, and of ephemeral music, made quickly to be played in clubs to make people dance, but has actually stood the test of time. So, picking one at random, let's have X-Press 2 (Rocky, Diesel and Ashley Beedle) with some four to the floor action.

London X-Press

Electronic Rudie

I don't usually post mixes but I'll make an exception for this one- Ashley Beedle's Electronic Rudie, a dub mix done for the ever excellent internet radio station Beats In Space back in 2009. This is very, very good and finds dub in some pretty unusual places. Give an hour or so over to this and you'll feel a whole lot better afterwards.

Tracklist
Generations Walking - Midnight Bustling (Francois Kevorkian Dub)
Basement 5 - Immigrant Dub
The Pop Group - 3:38
Dub Pistols feat . Rodney P - You'll Never Find (Dub)
Stiff Little Fingers - Bloody Dub
Generation X - Wild Dub
Flesh For Lulu - I'm Not Like Everybody Else (Dub Version)
The Pogues - Young Ned Of The Hill (Dub Version)
The Clash - One More Dub
Bauhaus - Here's The Dub (She's In Parties)
Leftfield - Dub Gussett
Air - How Does It Make You Feel? (Adrian Sherwood Mix)
Massive Attack vs Mad Professor - Radiation Ruling The Nation (Protection)
Reverend And The Makers - Sundown On The Empire (Adrian Sherwood On U Sound Disneydubland)
The Clash - Robber Dub
The Specials/Rico Rodriguez - Ghost Town (Extended Mix)

Electronic Rudie!

One Night Stand

Can't believe I've not posted anything by The Aloof before. This remix is a stunner- Ashley Beedle's thirteen minute take on their One Night Stand from 1996. The instrumentation (dramatic and sweeping strings, tabla, the kitchen sink) is good enough on it's own but taken with singer Ricky Barrow's extraordinary voice (and self loathing of the one night stand) it's almost too much for one record to contain. The Aloof contained two Sabres Of Paradise and one Red Snapper (which sounds a bit like an alternative, clubby version of the twelve days of Christmas).

One Night Stand (The Long Night and The Samba)

Going Ballistic

The Ballistic Brothers made a handful of laid back, jazzy, electronic, street albums in the 1990s. I sometimes wish they'd toughen up at bit, dig deeper into Ashley Beedle's reggae and Rocky and Diesel's house backgrounds, but there's some good stuff in the back catalogue. London Hooligan Soul from 1995 has the very ace ska tribute song Peckings, which appeared here well over a year ago. The album also has highly entertaining sleeve notes romantically detailing 'London hooligan soul' life- bunking school, casual clothing (Fila, Lacoste, Lois, Tachini), Blair Peach, soul weekenders, Studio One, the Tory government, The Jam, Phuture, East Grinsted, Bognor, poll tax riots- 'a thousand stories of promised lands and meccas'. This song closed the album.

Uschi's Lament

Railway Crossing

We've been camping near Carnforth, Lancashire this weekend for a friend's 40th (cold nights, no rain, sunny days, drunken evenings, very good all told). We were waiting at a level crossing with this Underworld song pumping away on the car stereo, complete with ringing bells and the sound of trains whooshing past.

That's it. I am very tired.

King Of Snake_ Ashley Beedle_s Save Our Discos Re-Edit.mp3