No Coincidences

The latest album by Coyote came out recently, a six track album titled The Higher The Sky, The Deeper The Ocean. It follows three other six track albums they've released in the last few years (as well as numerous singles, 12"s and edits). Five of the six tracks feature very well chosen and apposite vocal samples, taken from a variety of sources, that are built into the Notts duo's music- Balearica, dub and ambient tunes that are always like a ray of warm sunshine. 

I reviewed The Higher The Sky, The Deeper The Ocean for Ban Ban Ton Ton where I got into the idea that what Coyote are doing with the voices that appear on their albums is making meaning or trying to find answers or make sense of the world/ life. The voices that they drop into their songs become lyrics in the same way I guess that actually writing the words for a song does for songwriters. The review is here and the album is available at Bandcamp, digital and vinyl. 

The album ends with No Coincidences, six minutes of music that have become one of my favourite songs of 2026. The lazy drumbeat, double bass (reminiscent of Danny Thompson's bass playing on Nick Drake, John Martyn and Pentangle records) and wash of sounds are intoxicating and the voice on top elevates it further. 'Life is a colour... there's no such things as coincidence... hurry up please it's time...'. 

In the review I linked the vocal sample, a repeated line  of 'hurry up please it's time, hurry please it's time', to T.S. Eliott's The Waste Land (the line appears in the poem, the barman trying to get drinkers out of his pub at last orders). Which felt a bit pretentious (I asked Rob at Ban Ban Ton Ton to feel free to tell me if it was a bit much) but I think we run the risk of pretentiousness form time to time in blogging and we just have to accept it. 

Anyway, it led me to think about what other songs have been inspired by The Waste Land and these three turned up. Pet Shop Boys' breakthrough single West End Girls is one of them, Neil Tennant finding inspiration in the streets on London as portrayed in the poem, the noise and strife of the city and the class struggle of those East End Boys and West End Girls. 

PJ Harvey's On Battleship Hill is also apparently partly inspired by The Waste Land, both commenting on the aftermath of the First World War and the slaughter of a generation of young men in the name of Western values. Polly pulls no punches. 

I found out too that Lana Del Rey's Do You Know There's A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd is possibly inspired by the poem, the search for meaning and themes of memory, loss and decay. And it's a rather dramatic and affecting song too. When I set out writing this post I didn't plan to end up with pet Shop Boys, PJ Harvey and Lana Del Rey and that just confirms what the voice in the Coyote song is saying. There's no such thing as coincidence. 

More At Ban Ban Ton Ton

I've continued writing some guest posts at Ban Ban Ton Ton, the Japan based Balearic blog run by Dr. Rob. I say Balearic, Ban Ban Ton Ton's remit runs far wider than that. Since the start of February this year I've written about these four albums.

Jason Boardman's second compilation of obscure post punk and dub cuts, music from the outer fringes of the early 1980s. ...And The Native Hipsters open the album with the surreally brilliant There Goes Concorde Again, low fi, DIY post- punk recored onto 4 track in a band member's bedroom. 

No One's Listening Anyone 2 is a trip back to a time of invention and inspiration, the swirling creativity that was thrown into the air by punk, giving everyone and anyone who had an idea the confidence to go out and have a go. It was also a period with an ever present threat of nuclear war, economic recession and warmongering, clinically insane leaders... hmmm... You can read my review of No- One's Listening Anyway 2 here. 

In March I reviewed the latest album by Craven Faults, an ambient outfit who make music inspired by the post- industrial landscape of northern England, a world of engine sheds, derelict mills, paths and cobbled streets walked by people from two hundred years ago. Craven Faults are dark and immersive, an experience. My review of Sidings is here. This is the fifteen minute long track Far Closes that ends the album. 

A month ago I wrote about the latest album by Thought Leadership, a mysterious Stockport based guitarist who has released three album now, each one named after a suit from a deck of Tarot cards. The latest one is called IV Of Cups and indicates that Thought Leadership is showing no signs of running out of inspiration or ideas. IV Of Cups has ten new guitar led ambient/ instrumental pieces, all named Roman numerically from XXI to XXX. It's a joy of an album, inventive and hypnotic, some obvious influences worn on its sleeve but very much its own thing too. My review of IV Of Cups is here and the album can be found at Bandcamp with some vinyl still available here. 

Most recently, two days ago in fact, Rob posted my review of the new Pan* American album, Fly The Ocean In A Silver Plane, an ambient/ electric./ acoustic tribute to travel- physical travel by airplane and the kind of metaphorical travels we can make at home, transported by music to another place. It's also a response to the decline and death of Pan* American's parents so there's a third kind of travel involved and referred to, the passage from life to death. Fly The Ocean In A Silver Plane is by no means a depressing or downbeat album though, it's an album of possibilities and of taking flight. You can read my full review here and listen to the album at Bandcamp. 

Lucky 7s

Over at Ban Ban Ton Ton Dr. Rob gave over most of January's posts to celebrations of music from 2025. Rob is based in Japan where 7 is considered to be a lucky number. He asked Ban Ban Ton Ton contributors, friends and musicians to submit their Lucky 7s of 2025, starting at the tail end of December with Mark Barrott, and then saw in the new year with the Chinese Year of the Horse. 

When I Was On Horseback

Lunar Dunes in 2007, sitar driven space rock for the Year of the Horse.

Throughout January Rob published Lucky 7s from a slew of Bagging Area adjacent people including Richard Norris, Sean Johnston, Deeply Armed, Davie Miller of Fini Tribe and Jason Boardman as well as Rob's own selections themed into Balearic, techno, reggae and dub, and rock (guitars really rather than rock). Rob asked the five of us in The Flightpath Estate if we wanted to contribute our own Lucky 7s. 

My Lucky 7 got their own post, six records from 2025 that saddled my horse and one from 1989 (in tribute to Mani). You can find that post here. 

Martin, Dan and Mark all sent in their favorites from 2025, playing fast and loose with the concept of 7 in some cases- Martin opens the post with 7 compilations from last year, Mark compiles his favourites including Crooked Man, 10:40, Psychemagick, Death In Vegas, Hugo Nicolson and the Johnny Halifax Invocation while Dan brings in his 7 including Maria Somerville, Sydney Minsky Sargeant and Daniel Avery. You can read that here. 

Rob asked me if I'd also like to contribute a Lucky 7 gigs post. I went to sixteen gigs in 2025 and narrowing them down to seven highlights was tough but you can find my Lucky 7 gigs here with reports of memorable evenings of live music in the company of Mercury Rev, Red Snapper, Shack, The Sabres Of Paradise (twice), Iggy Pop, Working Men's Club and The Charlatans, as seen at a variety of venues, large and small. Just thinking about Iggy Pop rocking the Victoria Warehouse, shirtless and wild at the age of 78, Sabres dubbing out The White Hotel and Mercury Rev's dreamy excursion into the Blade Runner soundtrack gives me a slight shiver, the memories still quite vivid and alive- and just listening to this Iggy and The Stooges blast of raw power from 1973 brings it all back. 

Raw Power

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...

The Ban Ban Ton Ton Connection

Over at Ban Ban Ton Ton, Dr Rob invited me to review some new releases. This pair of releases have become part of my September listening, both highly recommended. There's daily posts at Ban ban Ton Ton by Dr. Rob and a cast of contributors, music and words that are always worth checking in on. 

Manchester trio Sonnenspot came together after times spent playing in various Mancunian related line ups and records- Alfie, Badly Drawn Boy's Hour Of The Bewilder Beast album, Jane Weaver's band and Mother Sky all feature as do the current Rainy Heart team who are doing some really good events around the city. Sonnenspot's debut album is out on Jason Boardman's Before I Die and so is automatically of interest and is in part a tribute to the sounds of Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger, Kraftwerk, Manuel Gottsching and other 70s cosmicshe bands as well as some 90s influences. 

My review is here and the album can be listened to at Bandcamp here. This is an edited, shorter version of the song at the album's core, Motorway.

Before that I took on the latest EP by Warmduscher, a song that didn't make their last album (2024's Too Cold To Hold) because it didn't fit and needed a release of its own- Yakuza. Warmduscher formed to play at a house party in 2014 and have close connections with some other top class London post- punk/ electronic punk/ sleaze- techno bands including Fat White Family, Paranoid London and Decius.

Yakuza is a Spaghetti Western theme crossed with Tom Waits and Big Audio Dynamite, a rollercoaster ride, a blur of action on the big screen. There are two remixes on the EP, one by Sworn Virgins and the other by David Holmes. Holmes doesn't hold back with his remix, turning everything up as far as it will go. My review is here. 

 

Over At Ban Ban Ton Ton And At The Golden Lion

I've been reviewing records over at Ban Ban Ton Ton again, Dr Rob's Japan based Balearic and electronic music one stop, most recently on Monday of this week when the newest Coyote mini- album came out. Coyote (Timm and Ampo) have been in a rich vein of form in the last few years, releasing a slew of 12" singles, albums, six track mini- albums, edits and remixes. In May there's the prospect of a collaboration EP with Peaking Lights, a 12" called Love Letters on their own Is This Balearic ? label. In the meantime, hot on the heels of last year's six track mini- album Hurry Up And Live, comes Wailing At The Yellow Dawn- a record which evokes all sorts of things but mainly for me music as a soundtrack to dreaming. My review at Ban Ban Ton Ton is here. 

A week before that I reviewed an album by Thought Leadership, an album called Ill Of Pentacles that is about to get a vinyl release on Be With Records. I knew it was familiar and realised while listening to it that my friend Spencer sent me a link to it last year when it was released as digital and on cassette- getting re- acquainted with it second time around was even better. Thought Leadership is a mysterious musician living in Edgeley, Stockport armed with nothing  more than a guitar, some FX pedals, a drum machine and a home studio. The music, ten tracks of it, is entirely instrumental, FX affected pieces of guitar music with occasional drum machine backing. It's a wonderful album, still available at Bandcamp. The most obvious comparison in sound is Vini Reilly but other post- punk and indie guitarists are in there too- John McGeoch, Robin Guthrie, Johnny Marr and Maurice Deebank of Felt. My full review is here. There's a second album too, Ace Of Swords which was recorded in the middle of last year, at Bandcamp. 

It put me in mind of another Mancunian guitarist whose music I reviewed for Ban Ban Ton Ton, a pair of  re- releases from the early 80s by Kevin McCormick together with a new one called Passing Clouds. I wrote about Passing Clouds last October and I didn't share it but you can find it here. This is It's Been A Long Time...

Meanwhile, over in Todmorden at The Golden Lion Jezebell have a weekend takeover, a line up of DJs, musicians and chancers playing on Saturday and Sunday. The DJs are Darren and Jesse (from Jezebell), Jamie Tolley, Martin Moscrop from ACR, Nessa Johnston, Stuart Alexander, Kim Lana, Adam Roberts and FC Kahuna. The musician playing live is OBOST (Bobby Langfield). The chancer is me. I'm on at 4pm on Sunday afternoon, playing after Jesse's afternoon set. 

Both days should be great fun, the Sunday session maybe a bit more chilled than the Saturday, it's free all weekend and it'll be great to finally meet Jesse and Darren after featuring so much of their music here since 2021 and only ever chatting online. 

Out a couple of weeks on Berlin's Nein Records is an EP by Parvale (Ian Vale and Neil Parnell) with the track Breaker City complete with Jezebell's Nice And Slow Remix, a cut 'n' paste, jerky breakbeat anthem for dancefloor action. The EP is here. 

Lucky 7s From The Flightpath Estate

Dr Rob has been running a series of end of year posts at Ban Ban Ton Ton, with a slew of contributors (and Rob) offering up their best of tracks of 2024 in the form of 7s. Rob is based in Japan and in Japanese superstition 7 is the luckiest number- Rob's hopes that by each contributor keeping their end of  '24 lists tight and limited to just 7, some magic conjured up by 7 x 7 x 7x 7 x 7 recurring will bring us a good 2025- as far as I'm concerned it's as good a theory as any. Contributors of Lucky 7s include Coyote, Klangkollektor, Silvertooth, Secret Soul Society, Eiji Tanaguchi, J- Walk, Jason Boardman, and various selections from Rob himself (compilations, Balearic beats, techno and house)

Rob asked us at The Flightpath Estate if we'd like to contribute our Lucky 7s and there being five of us (me, Baz, Dan, Martin and Mark) we decided to do 7 each, thus swelling our contribution to thirty five tracks. The post with or Lucky 7s went up at Ban Ban Ton Ton on Boxing Day. You can find it here. There is dub. There is Australian psychedelic jazz. There is ambient. There is Four Tet (twice) and Coyote (twice) and Fat White Family (also twice). There is hip hop. There is euphoric acid house. There are remixes. There is indie dance and Balearica. There is wonky techno and deep fried acid house. There is cosmic piano house and wigged out covers of Manuel Gottsching. There is Mancunian post- punk. There are sounds from the Flightpath Estate and there is poetry. 

Martin volunteered to sequence our thirty five selections into one long form mix, a mammoth undertaking but one he's pulled off with aplomb, thirty five tracks from 2024, three hours and twenty one minutes of musical joy and wonder. Listen at Mixcloud. 

Tracklist

• [0:00] Rebelski: Navigation (Electric Piano Version) 
• [4:00] Sedibus: Seti Part 3 
• [10:00] MOY: Sunrise (Live) 
• [18:00] Holy Tongue & Shackleton: The Other Side Of The Bridge 
• [23:00] Antoni Maiovvi: Glyph
• [26:00] Four Tet: Loved 
• [30:00] Coyote: Living in Heaven 
• [37:00] J-Walk: African Custard 
• [41:00] Satellites: World At Your Feet (Johnny Vic Remix) 
• [47:00] Richard Sen: Eleven Eleven 
• [53:00] Four Tet: Three Drums 
• [59:00] GLOK & Timothy Clerkin: Scattered 
• [1:05:00] clipping: Keep Pushing 
• [1:08:00] Mildlife: Chorus 
• [1:16:00] 100 Poems :Joyness Magnificent (We'll Find The Light Together) 
• [1:22:00] Coyote: Know One Cares 
• [1:28:00] Lisa Moorish: Sylvia (David Holmes Dub) 
• [1:35:00] Alex Kassian: A Reference To E2-E4 By Manuel Göttsching (Mad Professor's Qantas Crazy Remix)
• [1:46:00] Marshall Watson & Cole Odin: Voyager 
• [1:51:00] Bedford Falls Players: Chaotic Beautiful (Full Up Mix) 
• [1:58:00] Fat White Family: Bullet Of Dignity (Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve Re-animation) 
• [2:02:00] Raemann: Heaven Is Beyond Your Mind 
• [2:12:00] David Holmes: Yeah x 3 (Sonic Boom Reset Remix)
• [2:19:00] Ex Easter Island Head: Norther
• [2:24:00] Orbital, David Holmes & DJ Helen with Mike Garry: Tonight In Belfast 
• [2:35:00] Fat White Family: Visions of Pain (Tim Goldsworthy Remix) 
• [2:42:00] C.A.R.: Anzu (Hardway Bros Remix) 
• [2:49:00] The Light Brigade: Human : Remains 
• [2:55:00] Quiet Village: Reunion
• [3:02:00] Raxon: Your Fault 
• [3:08:00] Autumns: Inside The Bins 
• [3:10:00] Hot Chip & Sleaford Mods: Nom Nom Nom 
• [3:13:00] Woodshed: Slide or Die 
• [3:16:00] A Certain Ratio: It All Comes Down To This 
• [3:19:00] Autumns: Interpretive Dance Is A Scam