European Tour

I'm off on a school trip today, away for the next six days with six colleagues and fifty five teenagers, on a three country tour of Europe. We're getting the ferry from Hull later today, a night crossing to Rotterdam and then we're in Amsterdam until Monday. Our itinerary includes the Anne Frank house, the Herzongenbusch concentration camp near Vught, a canal cruise and some time in Amsterdam. From there we head to Ypres and the First World War battlefields and cemeteries, the Menin Gate, the Flanders Field Museum, Passchendaele and some chocolate shops. We're also crossing into France to go the Somme. It's a trip I've done before and well worth it, an unforgettable experience for our young people and a good way to finish the school year. Weather forecast is good- too good maybe. I really hope the coach air con is working.

Here's some music from our first destination, the Netherlands. Speedy J is a Dutch producer from Rotterdam whose Ginger and G- Spot albums, both on Warp in the mid-- 90s, were superb spacey, trancey Dutch techno. Pepper was on Ginger.

Pepper

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a review of the new Jezebell album, Jezebalearic Beats Volume 2, a twenty track journey through Darren and Jesse's worlds starting with the slow mo, wigged out Serge Gainsbourg languor of Movimento Lento and then taking in various Jezebell remixes- Andys y Xavi, Pandit Pam Pam, Perry Granville, Pete Bones, Warriors Of The Dystotheque with Joe Duggan and Ian Vale.

As well as those tracks there are some previously released Jezebell hits- The Knack, Concurrence, Trading Places 6am, (Dancing) Not Fighting- and several brand new ones that build to the finale, an epic slice of dancefloor optimism with Yoko Ono in the mix. This is a reminder that you're going to want this album and that you'll end up playing it a lot. Get it here. 

It Says Yes

Jezebell's album Jezebellearic Beats Vol. 1 was one of 2023's highlights, an irreverent, illicit, dancefloor oriented twenty track adventure, Darren and Jesse freewheeling through their record collections and making new music from old, a collection of edits, remixes and their own productions that took in Alfredo, Talking Heads, Max Berlins, Julian Cope and D:Ream among others but was also very much its own thing- Jezebell. Apart from anything else, it was all huge fun.  

Now they're back with Jezebellearic Beats Vol. 2, released on 11th July. There's a new track at Bandcamp, Geo Metric a taster of what's to come. Geo Metric is a low slung, sleazy delight, throbbing with nightlife and basement parties- when the drums kick in at one minute thirty it spins. Like of much of the rest of Jezebellearic Beats Vol. 2, Geo Metric is long, over seven minutes, the track given space and time to unwind, the rhythms twisting round and round, bumping and grinding. 

Just as on Vol. 1, Vol. 2 has twenty tracks. Some of them have been released before- if you've followed Jezebell you'll already know their remix of Warriors Of The Dystotheque's Fitzroy Avenue, Joe Duggan's Northern Irish accent spun out over Jezebell's electronics. You'll have heard their beautifully cosmic remixes of Pandit Pam Pam and Andrys y Xavi, appearing on Vol 2. back to back and sounding like they were made for each other. There's new version of Dancing (Not Fighting), a riotous slice of electronic music sampling Mick Jones screaming at bouncers live on stage with The Clash from Rude Boy and my favourite track from the Trading Places EP is present too, Siouxsie showing up at 6PM with the jeepers creepers. Some of the tracks are their own work- Hung and Donkey from their double entendre Cream Tease EP, Autostrada from the sleek krauty beats of the Weekend Machines EP along with their 2023 single The Knack plus their remixes of Perry Granville and Pete Bones. 

There are new tracks too. As well as Geo Metric there is Japaneasy, a track with found sounds from Japan sitting inside its bullet train groove, percussion rattling and synths jabbing, all forward momentum. Red Black And Green is a slower take on the Jezebell sound and lit up by a stuttering synth sound, a synth doing an impression of a guitar, whoops in the background, electro and acid house bunking up. Perfect Din is built around some vocal samples, the hiss of the hi hat and a gnarly acid squiggle, the voices layered and looped- eventually jazz/ funk drums burst in and we're into new territory, Jezebellearic Afrobeat. 

Jezebell have taken their sound out to crowds since Vol. 1 came out- they've played at The Social in London, at  Pikes in Ibiza and at The Golden Lion in Todmorden. Jesse and Darren are musical sponges, soaking it all up and using it make new music and their own sound. Vol. 2 is twenty tracks long and most of the tracks are pretty long. It's a big piece of work. It can be taken track by track but works really well as a whole- one of the things about listening to Vol. 2 in on sitting is how well it does all work together, how their remixes, edits and own music has built into one coherent body of sound- insistent rhythms, nagging synth sounds, plenty of percussion, a sampledelic delight. 

Where Vol. 2 really excels though is at the beginning and the end,  a pair of tracks that bookend the album and sound like future Jezebell classics. The first, the album's opener, is Movimento Lento, a slow motion way into the Jezebell world, a sleazy drum track that feels like it's come from Serge Gainsbourg's apartment, the faint lick of wah wah guitar, a sleepy vocal sample, 'this is the greatest gift you're giving to yourself', and then some Beastie Boys, the stoned backing vocal refrain from 1992's Something's Got To Give... and heading back to that song via it's video, stealth bombers taking off and B- 52's dropping bombs on Vietnam, it does seem like we're stuck in a never ending loop. Movimento Lento is, as the kids say, a vibe.

Nineteen tracks later and Jezebellearic Beats Vol. 2 finishes with Turn It Yes. Electronic drums blip in and a echo laden voice emerges, 'language has the power to alter our perceptions...' The synths ripple, the sequencers sync and, 'the word is yes'. Uptempo and unashamedly optimistic, the topline wriggles around messing with the synapses, the drums kick on and then Yoko Ono appears, talking about her conceptual artwork from The Indica Gallery in 1966, a ceiling painting, a ladder, a magnifying glass and a single word... Yes. It was famously an exhibition attended by John Lennon. he climbed the ladder and found the word and the pair were introduced as a result of that. Turn It Yes is all of that and more, the synths building like chiming indie- dance guitars, the drums kicking on and on and the two voices coming together, everything gliding on for the final few minutes before coming to an end, and again, that word... Yes. 

Pre- order Jezebellearic Beats Vol. 2 here. You'd be daft not to- it's going to be a big part of the soundtrack to summer 2025. 

Forty Minutes Of Jezebell

A Jezebell mix for this Sunday to go with their weekend takeover at The Golden Lion in Todmorden with the emphasis on dancing. Jesse and Darren's music, edits and remixes have been one of post- 2021's joys starting with Thrill Me in November 2021, taking in various EPs and singles, an album and most recently Cream Tease (wordplay and sexual innuendo are a Jezebell speciality. Personally, I'm not a fan of innuendo- if I see one in my writing I whip it out, straight away*). 

Forty Minutes Of Jezebell

• Bibbles (Pots And Pans Mix)
• Re- birth
• Perfect Din
• Citric
• We All Need (Jezebell's Ghost Train Mix)
• The Jezebell Spirit
• Darren's Theme

Bibbles is by Brighton Balearica duo Andres Y Xavi, a single on Higher Ground in February 2024. Jezebell did three remixes, the Pots And Pans Mix being my favourite, all manner of whirrs and clicks and abstract rhythm sounds.

Re- birth first saw the light of day on the Diavol edit label and then on Jezebellearic Beats Vol. 1, a shimmering, shuffling, woozy piece of edit work. 

Perfect Din is from Shelter Me, a compilation released in April 2024 to raise funds for Crisis, a homelessness charity. 

Citirc was one of four tracks released as the Weekend Machines EP, machine funk for cyborgs to strut their stuff to. Hand claps, hi hats, guitar riffs, synths, all synced up for endless, beautiful repetition.

We All Need is one of the songs on A Certain Ratio's It All Comes Down To This album, one of 2024's best records. Jezebell's Ghost Train Mix came about when ACR's Martin Moscrop was record shopping in Berlin and found and bought a copy of Jezebellearic Beats Vol. 1. 

The Jezebell Spirit takes one of the key tracks from David Byrne and Brian Eno's groundbreaking 1981 album My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts and Jezebells it, the 808 cracking away under the sampled American TV preacher. My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts is a seminal album, a record streets ahead of almost everyone else in the early 80s. 

Darren's Theme is from Cream Tease, a track and EP with its tongue firmly in its cheek and possibly its trousers undone as well. A snatch of vocal from Karen Finley's Tales Of Taboo, a 1986 song with a lyric that could be described as sexually explicit. 

* Thanks are due to Kenneth Williams for this joke obviously

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. 

Cream Tease

What does Wednesday bring? It brings four slices of X rated, road tested, dance floor bangers from Jezebell, Jesse and Darren blurring the boundaries of edit/ remix/ new music and in single entendre mode. Cream Tease opens with Hung and ends with Donkey with The Big Time and Darren's Theme sandwiched in between. Hung is slo mo and crunchy, a grinder. There are voices chanting half way through, flickers of call and response. The Big Time kicks on, faster and harder, streamlined and in full flow, Visage taken for a whirl around the floor, pulses raised with an arena level breakdown and power chords, spinning so fast now we're barely in control. 

Darren's Theme is more basic, a reducer- late 80s jack rhythms, a siren, and a snatch of vocal from Karen Finley's Tales Of Taboo, snarling 'oh let me suck your...'. Later on the reply comes. Karen Finley's Tales Of Taboo is so X rated that even listening to it in the car on your own, you feel like you should be apologising to somebody for what they can hear. Just a two second sample from it carries the same illicit surge. 

Tales Of Taboo (Radio Mix)

Don't let the part in brackets fool you. That isn't a daytime radio friendly version. 

Cream Tease finishes itself off with Donkey, an edit/ mashed up version of Don Quichotte, high camp/ Europop 1984 single by French outfit Magazine 60, the vocals flipping between French and English, Jesse and Darren demonstrating there are no stones they will leave unturned in their endless search for the goods. Get your Cream Tease at Bandcamp. 

Pass A Wish And Take Me To The House

Out today on Brighton's always reliable Higher Love label is one of my favourite EPs of the summer, Pandit Pam Pam's Pass A Wish with a pair of Jezebell remixes. Pandit Pam Pam is an electronic musician from Sao Paulo whose album Camburi came out in July (and featured some guest spots from Henry Olsen, formerly the bass player for Primal Scream in their late 80s/ early 90s pomp and before that part of Nico's touring band in the 80s). I wrote about Camburi here. Eduardo, one of the two men behind Pandit Pam Pam also puts music out on his Boston Medical Group label and has sent me music from time to time, including releases by Feriasdasferias. On Pass A Wish Eduardo in Sao Paulo gets remixed by my favourite remix/ edit pair Jezebell, Jesse (in Stockholm) and Darren (in London). 

Pass A Wish is a dreamy, floaty four minutes of music, built around a fluttering rhythm and with horns hinting at its Brazilian origins and surroundings. The synths bubble away and a female voice drifts on top, somewhere between singing and talking. It nods in the direction of A Man Called Adam's 1990/ 1991 sound- yep, that good. 

The pair of Jezebell remixes both transport Pass A Wish elsewhere. Jezebell's 50 Ways Remix presumably tips its hat at Paul Simon's 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover (whose drum break has been sampled widely, not least by one Andrew Weatherall on his head spinning remix of Love Corporation's Give Me Some Love). The drums give it a funky, constant motion while the synths and voice swirl around the rhythm and the chopped up horn drops in and out. Very cool indeed. 

Jezebell's Leave Your Lover Mix is sleek and chuggy, a different rhythm and feel, more night time with handclaps and percussion leading the charge, the horn chopped up and FXed even more, everything pushed a little further into the cosmos. The Pass A Wish EP is available at Bandcamp from today. You know what to do. 

Also out today is the latest release from teenage wonderkid OBOST. Take Me To The House was one of the standouts on OBOST's debut album (released at the start of this year), a shimmering, multi- coloured slice of electronic euphoria, rising and falling synths and four four drums. On the new EP the original is reworked into Take Me To The Basement, a slowed down version with a juddering rhythm and fizzing synths. 

There's a remix too by Tronik Youth, a much beatier, more percussive version, with a no nonsense kick drum, pulsing synthlines and heading straight to the heart of the dancefloor. The EP is out today and again, available at Bandcamp. 

More Weekend Machines

At the end of May Jezebell released a track on The Ransom Note, the single minded dancefloor action of Weekend Machines. For much of the last eighteen months Jesse and Darren have created a Balearic soundtrack- their album Jezeballearic Beats Volume 1 borrowed the original Balearic Beats album's cover art, they sampled at length a monologue by legendary Ibiza DJ Alfredo, they pulled together samples and edits and rebuilt songs by Talking Heads, Siouxsie Sioux and Kajagoogoo, they purloined the 1988 Balearic classic Jibaro and Belgian underground classic from 1987 Max Berlin's' Elle Et Moi and on Jezeblue and Trading Places reimagined the Mediterranean sounds for 2023 into 2024. All this and more. A Balearic masterclass. 

They're now edging away from this, away from the poolside and beach and towards the darkness of the strobe lit basement, music with the sole purpose of finding a groove and making people dance. The EP's lead and title track, Weekend Machines, has one of those acid 303 basslines that you could happily allow to play forever, providing some bottom end to everything you do. On top, the synths and arpeggios dance around. Beneath, the drum machine power on. The vocal samples, distorted robotic voices, tell of the coming of the machines. Enough already, as they say- just get on the floor.

The remaining three tracks on the EP don't let up. Autostrada is a motorik hymn to the Italian motorway system, a futuristic 80s journey from Rome to Milan, drum machine rhythms clocking up the miles on the tarmac, a sample by Italo house pioneers Mr Flagio providing the spark for Jezebell's krauty machine music. Citric is bumpier, a bouncing rhythm and bassline switching the flow from four four to shuffle, with gnarly guitars and synths. The EP finishes with a remix of the title track by Shubostar, cosmic DJ/ producer from South Korea  but currently in Berlin. Her remix slows the pace slightly, drops the pitch and pulls the bass to the fore, and then achieves lift off with sci fi synth chords and bleeps, an 80s space TV soundtrack crossed with underground outer space chug. 

All of which, without wanting to get too '80s TV nostalgia' on you, led to me thinking about Erin Gray as Col. Wilma Deering in Buck Rogers In The 25th Century...

What's up Buck?

You can get the EP at Bandcamp. 

Weekend Machines

Jezebell have been pushing their way into the Balearic/ acid house world over the last two years, especially so in the last 12 months. Their album Jezebelearic Beats Vol 1. caused a fuss when it came out digitally last summer and again with the vinyl release this spring. The vinyl release has slightly fewer tracks than the digital and runs in a different order, the sequencing of four sides of vinyl an artform in itself. Since my copy of the album arrived it's been semi- resident on my turntable, an opportunity to enjoy the album all over again. From the languid, Ibizan beats of Jezebellaeric (with a voice over from the legendary DJ Alfredo) to the ten minute blissed out feel of Jezeblue, the album is filled with a laid back, coastal feel. It also has plenty of moments where the tempos rise, the beats get thumpier and the feel is more intense, more dance floor oriented- Swamp Shuffle finds Jezebell leading Byrne, Frantz, Harrison and Weymouth for a dizzying spin under the mirror ball. 

Man 2.0's Red Shift, remixed by Darren and Jesse as the Jezebell Inner Child Mix, is an electronic maelstrom. Jezebell's Trading Places (3 PM) is a mid- paced, mid- afternoon warm up, the sound of a few liveners sunk and the head spinning a little. If you're quick there are a handful of copies of the album left at Bandcamp. 

Jezebell have been at it in real life too- Jesse and Darren played a Jezebell DJ set at The Evil Acid Baron's Weekender in Devon last weekend and in June Darren and guests host a Jezebell takeover at The Golden Lion in Todmorden. 

Jezebell have a new track out today, a seven minute banger with the self explanatory title Weekend Machines. Described in their own words as a 'late- night, strobe- lit, smoke- machine, low- ceiling, eyes- closed, spring- loaded, acid house avalanche' Weekend Machines is a hairpin turn away from the beach and poolside sounds in favour of something darker, thumpier, and more direct, an injection of electricity and intensity- four four drums, definitely machine made, wobbling synth sounds, chugging bass that pushes, acid house mayhem, and a distorted voice that wriggles into the ears and the brain, a voice that ends up repeating one word- 'machines'. It's the next step. You can listen to or buy this room- shaker here. 

Jezebellearic Beats

Jezebell's end of summer album hits the digital shelves today, a twenty track monster titled Jezebellearic Beats Volume 1- the artwork for the album borrows/ pays homage to the original Dave Little sleeve art for the classic 1988 Balearic Beats album. The music Darren and Jesse make as Jezebell shifts between boundaries and blurs lines, between club and poolside, between dancefloor banger and early evening livener, between sunset and sunrise, and between sampling and editing. All these can be found on Jezebellearic Beats Volume 1. About half of the tracks have been released previously and some have featured here in the course of the last two years- the eight minute summer 2022 epic Jezebellearic, the twelve minute soft- rock/ soul dreamscape of Jezeblue from earlier this summer, the beatier Concurrence, the low slung, just setting out fun of Trading Places (11AM) and its more upbeat, more up for it cousin Trading Places (3PM), the spaced out dubby Balearic chanson of Jezebell et Moi, Can't Cope's echo- laden swirls and early 90s trippiness. 

Within this album there are traces of other people, samples of vocals and instruments; Laurie Anderson, Beastie Boys and Money Mark, DJ Alfredo, Max Berlins, Herb Alpert, Julian Cope, Talking Heads, and David Byrne and Brian Eno are among those who show up, making themselves known within Jesse and Darren's chuggy/ cosmic/ Balearic/ indie- dance grooves. There are Rich Lane re- masters and a pair of remixes too, their blissed out remix of D:Ream's Pedestal and the Jezebell version of Red Shift by Man 2.0. There are many new tracks as well, not least the closer Swamp Shuffle, which is perfectly named. 

Jezebellearic Beats is infused with the spirit of acid house, the irreverence of an anything goes attitude coupled with a love of the music and a respect for those who came before. When I posted Jezeblue back in July I suggested that the slowed down and blissed out summer groove of the song was as much about memory as about music, about the way that memories make us who we are. Jesse said that all music is (for him) about memories that are just out of reach- 'not personal memories but... a collective memory just out of everyone's reach'. That feeling can be found all the way through this album- there are plenty of feel good, uptempo moments too, music for dancing and for parties but they're alongside something that feels much more fluid and less tangible, music that skips between boundaries and limits and leaves you in a different, better place from the one it found you in. 

Jezebellearic Beats Volume 1 is available at Bandcamp from today, pay what you want/ for free. 

Blue

No Saturday live today, in place the brand new release from Jezebell, out yesterday and available at Bandcamp. Last summer's Jezebell soundtrack was the ten minute Ibizan odyssey of Jezebellaeric. This summer Jesse and Darren have gone a step further, twelve minutes of blissed out Balearica that keeps on giving the more you play it. Jezeblue surfs the waves as they gently break on the shore. Building slowly, it floats in with padding drums, synths, ripples of sound and then a voice in the distance singing, 'oh baby, come take me'. Gradually the groove finds its way to the front of the mix and then piano takes the lead, two chords playing off as the sun goes down. 

As much as it is about melody, groove and feel, Jezeblue seems to be in some way about memory, fragments of former lives, glimpses of the past, past events that reverberate in our minds in the small hours, and how they pull at us- not nostalgia necessarily but those memories that make us who we are now. Somehow it seems to contain all of that in the voice, the piano and the rhythms. Well into the second half there are synth stabs that push those buttons too, remnants of classic house reused for summer 2023. 

As well as the full twelve minute version there are two other versions of the song. Jezeblue (Slight Return) is a six and a half minute version with the synth stabs leading from the start, the pianos and drums layered, everything a bit more together.  The Blue Bell Edit is even more blissed out, bass, synths and piano and the vocal all rippling gently towards the sunset.

Trading Places

Out today from Jezebell, two new three track EPs with a single starting point but multiple routes- Trading Places (Daytime and Nightime Versions). Jezebell are Jesse Fahnestock and Darren Bell. They have an Ibiza takeover imminent, and these six tracks tell the story of a night out, the ebb and flow of day to night and back again in musical form. The six tracks, Trading Places 11AM, 3PM and 6PM on the daytime EP and Trading Places 10PM, 2AM and 5AM on the Nighttime, all began with the same initial sample and span out from there, ideas shuttling between them, music as infinite possibilities. Songs begin with a single spark- an idea, a riff, a sample, a line, a beat- and the decisions taken then fix that track/ song for the creator (and for the listener at the end). The six tracks here show what can happen when you take not just one route, but several, when ideas are followed not just this way, but that way too. Endless possibilities, nothing is fixed.

Trading Places (11AM) launches the day in easy style, a low-slung start with mid- paced drums and a padding bassline. Handclaps, a repeating synth part, bubbling sounds and eventually a horn part. Take a swig, get a little perked up, it’s still before lunch, no need to go mad.

3PM is a good time to be out, the whole day and night ahead, all sorts of possibilities in front and choices to be made. The track kicks a bit harder than 11AM with a clipped, choppy  guitar riff and looped ‘ah oh oh’ backing vocal. The funk bass synth bumps away. Upbeat, feel good, nothing to worry about.

6PM. You’re in the mood now, you’ve been out for a while, everything’s nicely groovy, the sun is out and the beer is cold. The track slides in lazily, catching your attention as it builds, synths parts and some hand drums. At thirty seconds the rhythm kicks in and pulls you forwards, the kick drum becoming more insistent. The vibrating synth toplines hit and there’s the stutter of a vocal sample. A female voice weaves her way in, suddenly and unexpectedly revealing itself as Siouxsie Sioux, imperiously saying peek- a boo. The bass pushes forward wrapping itself around the track and then Siouxsie’s back, ‘strobe lights pump and flicker… that’s right now hit the floor’. Not a request, more a command.

10PM. But then without you really noticing when, it’s gone dark and you’re somewhere else, somewhere familiar but with that thrill of the unknown. Lights and sound beckon, the thump of bass and the slight breathless feeling as the bass hits, feeling in the chest. ‘You know it’s us… start the music’ the voice says, ‘no trading places…’. Hypnotic and enveloping sound, music bursting out of the speakers and into the room, building. You couldn’t stop yourself now even if you wanted to. It’s out of your hands, the music’s in control. Breakdown and whooshing sounds at five minutes in give a pause for breath but only for a moment because when that kick drum comes back you’re moving again, caught in the moment.

2AM. Oh heck. Sirens. Throbbing bass. Speakers vibrating. Senses distorted. Smoke and dry ice. Everywhere. Your friends have vanished. No matter. The people you’re dancing with are our new friends. Everyone locked in to the same moment, the same feeling. ‘You you you… get up get up’ a voice says, somewhere in the mix, behind you maybe, or above you. Another vocal, chopped up and re- arranged. Limbs moving, hair now sticky with sweat. Drinks ordered and poured. Nods of recognition on the floor as the bass comes back. Smiles. Cheers. Whistles.

5AM. It’s late now. Or early, difficult to tell which. The voice is back, the one saying, ‘you know it’s us’. Things are slowing down slightly, the groove less insistent, the tempo a little slower. The voice there again, ‘Leave no traces/ Know your rights/ No trading places’. But things aren’t really easing up, the groove is still strong, the snare still cracking, the bass wanting to push you for one last spin round the floor, no let up even now, lost in it all. At dawn.

Both EPs are available from Bandcamp from today, Daytime Versions are here and Nighttime Versions are here. I recommend both as you can probably tell. 

Tell Them A Story

A three for one offer at Bagging Area today to celebrate the weekend, the yin and yang of music. First this song came out in mid- October, Orbital with Sleaford Mods and a coruscating, furious and perfectly timed piece of music called Dirty Rat. 

'Shut up, you don't know what ya on about/ You voted for 'em, look at ya!/ You dirty rat'

'Blaming everyone at the hospitals/ Blaming everyone at the bottom of the English Channel/ Blaming everyone who doesn't look like a fried animal'.

Written for and about the people who voted for the shallowest talent pool the Tory party have ever fished in for government, the three Prime Ministers, one elected and two unelected, and the incompetent, mean spirited and downright dangerous cabinets we've suffered since 2019, the worst group of people to ever end up in power- this one's for you. 

If that seems a bit much, a bit too angry for your Saturday morning and you fancy something more uplifting, more chilled and in places a tad more spiritual, this is David Holmes at NTS eleven days ago, back with his two hour God's Waiting Room show. This one is a tribute to DJ Alfredo, the man who who DJed at Amnesia in Ibiza from the mid 80s onwards and who David and his friend Iain McCready encountered there in 1990, a DJ set that took in reggae, Grace Jones, The Clash, Italo house, Eurodance, Talking Heads, Kraftwerk, Brazilian flamenco and much more, pulled together effortlessly. Alfredo has recently suffered some poor health and is recovering from a stroke. David's show, two hours of Alfredo's Amnesia inspired Balearica, is here, an absolute joy to listen to. 

Bonus- if you needed it, here's Jezebell's summer stunner, Jezebellearic, eight minutes of blissed out beats and percussion, a lovely warm bassline, a sprinkling of hints of pop songs you might be able to discern and the voice of Alfredo talking about the people who came to dance to his music, the songs he played and how to make them dance 'you have to tell them a story'. Still available here for free. 

The Knack

There is a lot of new music around right now and keeping up with it sometimes feels like a job in itself. Bandcamp Friday, the first Friday of every month, brings umpteen emails to my inbox, many of which are essential. The difficulty is in keeping up and not missing something good. One of yesterday's Bandcamp Friday treats was a new release from 10:40, a track called The Knack. Built around crunchy drums, a deep piano two note riff and a snatch of a female vocal, The Knack is a steamy, insistent thumper, the sound of pressure building and bodies moving. There's some Belgian EBD inside it's grooves/ bytes and the feel of darker, sweatier house music. The more you listen, the more it gives.

The Knack comes with two remixes, one by Ed Mahon and another by Jezebell. Ed pulls the deepest of synth basslines to the fore and crashing handclaps with a rhythm that is both fast and slow (as Martin Hannett might have demanded). The Jezebell Feeling Moody Remix strips it back to the core, streamlining it in a house rocking and the body rocking. The rhythm that comes in at one minute thirty takes no prisoners, puts its head down and thumps.  All three can be bought here. 

Also out this week is a new release from Jezebell, an EPs worth of edits out on Buenos Aires label Diavol, four tasty 2022 takes on Laurie Anderson, Herb Alpert, The Notorious B.I.G. and Kajagoogoo. All four are worth the price of entrance but in particular the digital stutter and bump of Re-birth (originally Laurie Anderson's Born Never Asked) and Vibrations Hitatchi Dub, a sleek electro stepper edit of Tijuana brassman Herb Alpert with muted wah wah trumpet, synths and timbales bouncing around. Buy here. Then press play and replay all weekend. 

Edit: all the edits are now available at Jezebell's Bandcamp site here, name your own price/ free.  

Concurrence

For some reason I missed posting this when it came out back in the middle of June (and previously when it was first released in September last year) but better late than never. Walking out in the late evening sunshine last week with my headphones in, Concurrence by Jezebell came onto my playlist. 

A slow motion, dark slice of dubby house that picks up with a thunderous breakbeat a little way in and proceeds to mess things up with a chopped up vocal snippet that twists its way in and around the track. Ominous synths add to the moodiness as the vocal burrows its way in. Leaves one feeling slightly frazzled- in a good way. 

It was originally available here as part of When Disco Goes Wrong with several mixes, remakes and dubs, including one very acidic one from Sweden's Mindbender. Then last month it was re- released here with more remixes courtesy of Akio Nagase, 33rd December, Super FU and Pete Bones. Jezebell are Jesse Fahnestock and Darren Bell and despite featuring their music here several times in the last year I have only just now twigged that the name Jezebell comes from the start of Jesse's name and the end of Darren's.