Forty Five Minutes Of Tim Burgess

Tim Burgess is an instantly recognisable figure as frontman, singer and lyricist of The Charlatans, the young man with the pudding bowl haircut of Indian Rope and The Only One I Know who has weathered the fads, phases and storms of the music industry and life and who still looks barely a day older than he did back in 1990. Outside The Charlatans he's written three books (including the brilliantly titled Tim Book Two), all three showing him to be a considered, thoughtful and witty writer. He has made six solo albums, from 2003's countryfied I Believe to the synths and FXed sax of Same Language, Different Worlds with Peter Gordon, with songs written and recorded with Lambchop's Kurt Wagner in between. He has a record label O Genesis which has put out solo albums by members of Factory Floor, by Martin Duffy and by The Membranes, among others. There is, it is fair to say, more to him than met the eye when he first shook his fringe with The Charlatans in January 1989. 

Today's mix is a selection of Tim Burgess solo/ with others/ outside The Charlatans that starts out with some gloriously frazzled, hazy ambient drift and ends with some block rocking beats and industrial thump. 

Forty Five Minutes Of Tim Burgess

• Stoned Alone Again Or (Seahawks Remix)
• Tobacco Fields
• Another Version Of The Truth
• Hours (Tandy Love Remix)
• Begin (Carter Tutti Remix)
• The Economy II (Prince Fatty Remix)
• Life Is Sweet (Album Version)
• White (Factory Floor- Gabe Gurnsey Remix)

Stoned Alone Again Or was a 2012 one off 12" single, remixed by Seahawks as a ten minute ambient epic, indie rock taken as far away from its roots as it can go. Seahawks are ambient/ Balearic duo Jon Tye and Pete Fowler, who have released umpteen albums and singles since 2010- I recommend Escape Hatch, Starways and Paradise Freaks as good starting points. 

Tobacco Fields is from Tim's 2012 solo album Oh No I Love You. It is a beauty, with barroom piano, a frazzled vocal and an ambient backdrop, co- written with Kurt Wagner. 

Another Version Of The Truth was on As I Was Now, a solo album recorded between Christmas and New Year in 2008 but not released until 2018- music that is experimental, krauty and pop. The group for the album consisted of My Bloody Valentine's bassist Debbie Goodge, Josh Haywood from The Horrors, Martin Duffy and Ladyhawke. 

Hours was on Oh No I Love You. Some editions of the CD came with a disc of remixes- the Tandy Love remix is by Andy Votel. Others on the second disc were by Tom Furse of The Horrors and Gabe Gurnsey of Factory Floor, whose remix finishes this mix. At the time Nik Void of Factory Floor was Tim's partner.

Begin is from Same Language, Different Worlds, an album made with New York avant garde composer Peter Gordon, a member of the legendary Love Of Life Orchestra. Begin was remixed by Carter Tutti, Chris Carter and Cosey Tutti of Throbbing Gristle/ Chris and Cosey fame/ infamy. Oh Men, also on the album, was remixed by Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert, Peaking Lights, Grumbling Fur and Carter Tutti- that's quite the line up. 

The Economy II is also from Oh No I Love You, dubbed out in 2013 by the superb Prince Fatty.

In 1995 The Chemical Brothers released their debut album Exit Planet Dust. Tim had been a regular at The Social, the Sunday afternoon/ evening party thrown weekly by Heavenly Records and Tom and Ed at The Albany on Great Portland Street. Tim sang on Life Is Sweet, a song which became the album's second single. On an album not short of bangers, Life Is Sweet still stands out- a furious synth riff, crunching beats, whooshes, sirens and a dirty bassline, and Tim's vocal, a celebration of mid- 90s hedonism. The Chemical Brothers returned the favour by working with The Charlatans on 1997's Tellin' Stories, most notably on One To Another.

Monday Mix

A mix for Monday, my seventh for Tak Tent Radio who broadcast out of central Scotland with a range of contributors and guests. This one, has music from a lot of artists who have graced the pages of this blog this year- Mark Peters with Dot Allison remixed by Richard Norris, Pete Wylie and Wah! The Mongrel from 1991, Pye Corner Audio remixed by Sonic Boom, Andy Bell remixed by David Holmes, Gabe Gurnsey, Jazxing, Jezebell's recent edit of Laurie Anderson, Carly Simon, Dirt Bogarde and Boxheater Jackson. In short- starts ambient, goes Balaeric and ends up dancey. Listen here or here.

• Mark Peters and Dot Allison: Sundowning (Richard Norris Ambient Remix)
• Pete Wylie and Wah! The Mongrel: Don’t Lose Your Drums
• Pye Corner Audio: Warmth Of The Sun (Sonic Boom Remix)
• Andy Bell: The Sky Without You (David Holmes Radical Mycology remix)
• Gabe Gurnsey: To The Room
• Jazxing: Fala
• Jezebell: Re- birth (Edit)
• Carly Simon: Why (Extended 12” Mix)
• Dirt Bogarde: So Far Away
• Boxheater Jackson: Don’t Complicate

Forty Five Minutes Of Factory Floor And Gabe Gurnsey

Friday's Factory Floor single Two Different Ways sent me back into the group's back catalogue. I've also been playing Factory Floorer Gabe Gurnsey's Diablo a lot recently, an album that is up there with this year's best to these ears. Factory Floor, a trio but then slimmed down to Gurnsey (drums, programming, synths, production, vocals) and Nik Colk (vocals, guitar, samples) started out in the mid- 00s, all post punk dread and industrial noise before hitting a Chris and Cosey inspired, acid house/ techno groove. Dystopic dance music. Synth- noir. No wave electronica. 'Unsettling disco' according to New Order's Stephen Morris who has worked with them (like Morris, Gurnsey is a Macclesfield man). 

The idea to sequence a bunch of FF and GG tracks together seemed like a good one but technically has been quite tricky. I use Audacity where it's a matter of drop and drag, lining them up next to each other, slightly overlapping to give the impression of mixing. But without any actual DJ software, getting tracks to segue and mix properly can be difficult and this one took a lot of playing around with. There were a few that didn't make the cut- Two Different Ways and the Factory Floor remix of Grinderman were both vying for inclusion but didn't make it. 

The tracks here won't ease you into Sunday gently but if you want modular synths, acid squiggles, thumping 808 kick drums, slowly building tension and blank/ sexually charged vocals (courtesy of Colk on Factory Floor and Tilly Morris on Gabe's Diablo) to throw yourself around the kitchen to, then give it a whirl.

Forty Five Minutes Of Factory Floor And Gabe Gurnsey

• Factory Floor: Heart Of Data
• Daniel Avery: Drone Logic (Factory Floor Remix)
• Gabe Gurnsey: Eyes Over
• Gabe Gurnsey: Push
• Gabe Gurnsey: You Remind Me
• Factory Floor: ~(REALLOVE) (An Optimo (Espacio) Remix)
• Factory Floor: Ya

Heart Of Data came out in 2018, a pulsing modular synth score to Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis, commissioned by London's Science Museum). Highly recommended. 

The remix of Daniel Avery's Drone Logic came out in 2013 along with a multitude of other remixes from Avery's first album. 

Eyes Over is from Gabe Gurnsey's first solo album, Physical, released in 2018. Eyes Over was a single and came with a very good extended dub mix on the 12".

Push and You Remind Me are two of the standouts from this year's Diablo, both with vocals from Tilly Morris. 'This is the kind of feeling I could ride forever/ Let's push together', Tilly sing speaks on Push, sounding like you're there for her amusement solely. 'You remind me of a sunrise/ You remind me of a good time', she sings on the latter, again sounding like she's pretty much done with your shit. 

Real Love (or ~(REALLOVE) came out in 2011 on DFA and was remixed by Scottish legends Optimo. A track that really goes for it brackets- wise and produced by Stephen Morris. 

Ya was on Factory Floor's 2016 album 2525, a juddering, minimal, floor filling electronic dance record with one foot in the Hacienda. 

You Remind Me

Gabe Gurnsey's second solo album Diablo came out last week, a ten track audio pleasure as brightly coloured as the pink vinyl it's pressed onto. Gabe has taken house music/ dance music's physicality and pushed it into autumn 2022. It's a full on, immersive record, that pulsates and throbs and draws you in. 808 rhythms, distorted synths, wobbly basslines, intense production where every element is perfectly clear and present, it's quite a ride. On top of these slices of late 80s/ early 90s house, Tilly Morris' voice, sometimes sounding like she's just been woken up and forced to the microphone, sometimes chopped up and stuttering, as the strobe- lit tracks bounce around her. My favourite currently is You Remind Me.

You Remind Me is six and half minutes of dark, basement synths, squelching bass, thumping drums and sounds ricocheting at the edge of the mix and Tilly intoning, half awake, half breathily blissed out, 'You remind me/ Of a sunrise/ You remind me/ You remind me of a good time... I'll take you by surprise'. The breakdown and ghostly noises at around five minutes followed by the 808's riding back in is exhilarating stuff, a reductionist version of New Order in '89 when they were fully seduced by the dance floor. 

The New Order reference isn't that wide of the mark. Tilly Morris is the daughter of Stephen and Gillian, the apple not falling far from the tree in Macclesfield. Gabe Gurnsey is also the drummer in industrial noise/ analogue synth duo Factory Floor. His first solo album, Physical from 2017, was an equally intense and rhythmic ride, slightly less fully realised than much of Diablo maybe, but well worth seeking out. This version of the single Eyes Over, the Extended Dub, is a blast. 

Eyes Over (Extended Dub)

Push

New out last week (in advance of an album, Diablo, in September) comes another floor shaker from Gabe Gurnsey, with Tilly Morris on vocals. Gabe's day job is half of Factory Floor but back in 2018 he released a solo album called Physical which was one of my favourites from that year, a record built around relentless Hacienda rhythms, warm, chunky synths and deadpan, veering on blank, vocals. The twin singles were massive highlights- Eyes Over and Harder Rhythm, the album soundtracking a night out gradually unfolding. 

This time around Gabe has gone back to similar sources and by the sounds of Push, come up with equally insistent and compelling results. Mid- 80s synth squiggles and rushes, a massive synthesised bassline, juddering programmed drums and Tilly's cool vox, icily declaring 'your touch is heaven... let's push together'. For the full fat version, you'll want to get the seven minute extended mix at Bandcamp. You might have twigged also from the surname and the looks of Tilly in the video below that she is daughter of New Order's Other Two, Stephen and Gillian Morris.

New Kind

I've been enjoying the photography of William Eggleston, the American artist who pioneered the use of colour in the late 60s at a time when black and white was very much the thing for serious photography (and a man whose work adorns the sleeves of albums by Primal Scream and Big Star). Eggleston's colours are vivid, saturated and inky but with a home movie feel. He captures the USA in the second half of the 20th century away from the bright lights at the edge of town- cars, parking lots, shops, petrol stations, weeds growing through the cracks in the pavement, often at an angle that makes the picture look grabbed in an instant or stolen when someone's head was turned away. The fade of the colours, the shadows, low angle of the shot and the perspective in the one above are perfect.

Gabe Gurnsey of Factory Floor had a solo album last year called Physical that sounded great, an escape from the more industrial rhythms and sounds of his band into something warmer and more direct- 808s, cowbell, swampy basslines, sirens, drawled vocals lines, a sort of unfussy, modern, slinky and filthy dance record. One of the tracks, New Kind, has been extended and remixed for a 12" release. The Extended Dub is a bass-led groove, ideal for getting down to tonight at the end of the working week, a bank holiday in front of you, and the promise of some fun.

Harder Rhythm

I got back from my trip to Rome and Sorrento on Tuesday and then spent today in Blackpool (which takes in both ends of the coastal scale). Italy is amazing. I'll come back to things in more detail over the next few days but in short Rome was stunning and full on and the Bay of Naples and Sorrento are beautiful with jaw-dropping views and a way of life very different from the UK. Pompeii and Herculaneum, and the Colosseum and Forum in Rome, took my breath away. And it was hot, by Zeus, it was hot. At Herculaneum it was as hot as I've ever been. We packed a huge amount into 5 day and nights, a bit of a mad dash to some places that without an itinerary and 42 teenagers in tow you might do at a more leisurely pace, but it was a great way to see some incredible places. Sorrento is the kind of place I could return to and many people told us that Amalfi, just down the coast, is a must.

This is the latest from Gabe Gurnsey's upcoming solo album, a thumping, vibrant, track called Harder Rhythm that according to Gabe is inspired by 'the twin primal instincts of sexual attractions and our instilled affinity with rhythm'.

I'll Find The Easy Way Around

This new method record labels have adopted of suddenly releasing singles and albums has its benefits but it makes planning monthly record spending very difficult. You think you're sorted and have budgeted for what you want and then without warning Phantasy send you an email saying they've just put out a Gabe Gurnsey 12", following up last month's superb Ultra Clear Sound. The new track, Eyes Over, is another summer monster, sweaty night club vibes, warm synth sounds and what the press release calls 'proto-Hacienda grooves'. The vocal is an insistent little earworm too. This is the radio edit....



And the flipside of the 12" single has an extended dub mix, separating the different elements out with some very mid-to-late 80s Chicago sounds going on, drawn out over seven increasingly intense bass-led minutes, the temperature rising as it unfolds.

Ultra Clear Sound

Gabe Gurnsey, one half of modular synth duo Factory Floor, has been working on solo stuff. This track, Ultra Clear Sound, is the first fruit of it, a sweaty, intense and futurist vision, co-produced and mixed by Erol Alkan (who seems to be signing and working with some of the best electronic talents out there at the moment). Gabe's album Physical is out on Phantasy in August and if this song is anything to go by it could well be a dark summer pleasure. Conclusion- I'm well into this.

Drone Logic

This is a twenty minute preview megamix of Daniel Avery's album Drone Logic, out at the start of this week. If you like dark, bass heavy, weird noise-led, synth-string, underground electronic music, this should be right up your alley.



Drone Logic (Factory Floor/Gabe Gurnsey Remix)

On The Factory Floor

This is that Factory Floor remix of Tim Burgess' White I mentioned a couple of weeks ago- Gabe Gurnsey strips all of the country-soul out of it and re-positions the song firmly on the dancefloor, a dancefloor in the Hacienda circa 1983 at some kind of Latin/post-punk/funk night. Gets away with it too.

White (Factory Floor Gabe Gurnsey Remix)