Primal And Unholy

Two new releases, single tracks and both out this week. On Tuesday Prana Crafter, a Washington state based solo artist who has tended to the ambient and beatific previously, released a furious and transcendental guitar instrumental called Unholy Wars accompanied by the statement 'ALL wars are unholy wars'. Prana Crafter's guitar starts out ringing, some feedback, the amp and fuzz front and centre. The tone gets darker a minute in, unmistakably angry and frustrated at the state of the world. Stop- start riffs. Single notes rippling on top. Hendrix at Woodstock. Neil Young and Ohio. War pigs. It speeds up, faster- punk's inchoate fury. A smoked out coda, the amp being pushed to its limits. Space rock for peace cadets. 

Unholy is at Bandcamp, free/ pay what you want. 

Yesterday Stourbridge's acid house/ dark Balearica/ cosmic chug king Dirt Bogarde released Primal, a six minute thumper, bursts of distorted synths over gnarly bass. The kick drum continues relentlessly, and the hoover synth sounds increase, ratcheting the tension higher. The serious business of dark dance music, the flipside to sunshine and love. Midnight tension. Strobe lit and losing track of time. 

Primal is at Bandcamp, price one pound. 

Friday Triplet

A bumper post for Friday, several new and recent releases all worthy of your attention, all in the electronic music area- they say dance music is ephemeral by nature but much of it sticks around long after other things have faded away.

First, the first new music from Dirt Bogarde in a year, since the release of his debut album in October 2024. Pihkal is a single track inspired by Alexander T. Shulgin's 1995 book Pihkal- a chemical love story'. Shulgin and his wife Ann conducted in depth research into the use of psychedelic drugs and their effects on the human mind. He's also credited with introducing MDMA to psychologists in the 1970s as a therapeutic tool. Dirt takes the book as a starting point and builds an autumnal classic from it, a siren driven, thumping and electrifying piece of modern acid house- there are echoes of A Guy Called Gerald, Detroit techno, Orbital, 808 State and early 90s rave inside its five minutes but it also sounds utterly contemporary. 

One word review- banger! 

Buy/ listen/ enjoy at Bandcamp.

Over at Tici Taci Duncan Gray has been rebooting the machines and clearing the shelves. Two weeks ago he released Niemand, a seven minute foray into mirror ball chug, with rattling percussion, steel pan drums, a burst of descending bass and a range of synths and guitars that pull Niemand into some sweet spot where chug, psychedelia and dub meet, hug and frug. 

One word review- expansive!

Buy/ listen/ enjoy at Bandcamp. 

Down on the Kent coast things are happening with Michael Son Of Michael who has released the third of three EPs, the final installment in the Margate trilogy- Drifting Inland. The EP is inspired by those who have moved to the resort looking for the seaside dream and then... drifted inland. Four tracks: Cowbell Concerto is lively, rippling synths, four four beats, and some lovely synapse busting toplines; Sonido del Sureste is darker, inching away from the brighter lights, a little acidic and very insistent; Del Boy is a drive by track, gliding down coastal roads, drums and bass pushing on- there's a chopped up and FX vocal that chatters away on top; and New Signs Of Life judders in and then evolves into a gorgeous slice of Scandi- disco/ cosmische. 

One word review- Kentish kosmsiche! (I know, that's two words. I couldn't get Kentrock or Kentmische to work). 

Buy/ listen/ enjoy at Bandcamp. 

Nocturnal Homecoming

Stourbridge producer Dirt Bogarde has made some of my favourite electronic/ acid house tracks of the last couple of years- his tracks Heavy Blotter and Backroom Sunrise have both lit up my life and listening sounds along with several others. Earlier this year Dirt released an album called Love, Sweat And Beers, an eight track debut packed with tunes and moments and an album that is in part a love letter to his hometown and a pub, The Mitre, that played a key role in the Stourbridge music scene n the mid- to- late 80s. Get the album here, priced at £0 or pay what you want. 

Today sees the release of Come Home, another slice of tip top dark disco/ acid house, nine minutes of enthralling and pulsating synths and drum machines (and not a cover of the James song by the way). The long intro raises the tension, drums eventually kicking in at one minute forty, a mid- paced, throbbing dancefloor monster, synapse twisting toplines and after four minutes a mashed, filtered, backwards vocal that has the bass and FX wrapping themselves around it coming to a close with a lovely drawn out ending. All in all, a hypnotising and transportative way to spend ten minutes. Dirt Bogarde's Bandcamp page is here and Come Home will be there from today. 

Also out today is a new EP from Spatial Awareness, which complements Come Home nicely. I posted the previous Spatial Awareness release in the summer, Dream Food which came with a lovely dubbed out remix. The new one, Nocturne, is yet more dark electronic fun, seven minutes of the stuff, with hissing hi hats and a bouncing bassline. At a minute in, the tom toms roll in. There's a breakdown, a wait, the tension rising, and then everything thumping back in. You should be able to find it here.

As with Dream Food, there's a dub version, the Nocturne Spatial Awareness Dub which adds some space and a slightly slower tempo but keeps the intensity and dark delight in place, shifting up a gear half way in a way that might wear out patches of the carpet at house parties. 

Love, Sweat And Beers

I'm a big fan of the music of Dirt Bogarde. His run of singles, rounded up at the start of this year in an eight track compilation called Blowback Vol. 1, contains some of my favourite electronic/ cosmic/ chuff dark disco from the last few years- check out Heavy Blotter as a starting point and then go onto Cloud Walkin', Backroom Sunrise and Triumphe Der Liebe.

Today marks the release day of Dirt's first album, eight tracks under the title Love, Sweat And Beers. It is in part a love letter to the Stourbridge scene of Dirt's youth, the pub The Mitre which played a key role in the bands who came from Stourbridge in the 80s-  PWEI, Diamond Head, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, and The Wonderstuff all came through the pub. Upstairs the pub had rare groove nights and the proximity of a local art college with its tribes of acid house kids, indie kids, shoegazers, grebos, rockers and goths made the place lively and inspiring. Not that Love, Sweat And Beers sounds like much of those types of music (acid house excepted) but roots are deep and it's clear Dirt (Adrian) sees The Mitre and everything that went with it as foundational for him. 

The album is a class act, electronic music to fill the back rooms of pubs and basements. Opener Gramercy Riffs is heavy duty slo mo chug, grinding bassline and synths firing off. Den Of Thieves is pulses and chugs, snatches of vocals bouncing around. From The Full Moon is wide eyed Balearica, rippling organ riff, ticking percussion and multi- tracked voice, the waves lapping gently on the beach as the moon replaces the sun. The Escape Of Roger Dean is deeper, darker, a swirling psychedelic murk with crisp snares and an acid line that rides in and pushes to the fore. The second half keeps the darker sound rolling with Speedball, ominous synths and a big breakbeat. After that comes Real Slow, a distorted voice chanting the title, the synths taking an age to kick in, a descending bassline eventually arriving to give the track a push and then lighter keyboard chords,  like clouds parting to let the sunshine in. Rothko 61 is the longest track on the album, nearly nine minutes of burbling synths, crunchy drums and fat bass. Mark Rothko's painting Untitled 1961 is one of those giant canvasses he painted, one that you can lose your self in, a pair of orange/ red blocks against a darker background- the sound of the track works similarly, a huge block of repetitive sounds to lose yourself in. Love, Sweat And Beers finished with Je Le Savais, more moody synths, touch drums and atmosphere, plenty of atmosphere. Dirt Bogarde likes to live in the shadows and there are shadows all over this album, eight tracks that have that balance of light and shade, of darkness and bright colours, machine music made with synths, keyboards, computers and filters but with a very human element running through it from start to finish. You can listen and buy it at Bandcamp from today, a pay what you like deal. After that, at the end of August, it'll go onto all the streaming services. 

There will be nothing here now for a week. We're on holiday, seeking some sunshine on Fuerteventura, a sandy Spanish island in the Atlantic, off the coast of Morocco. See you next week. 

Dirt Bogarde And Bedford Falls

Some mid- December dancefloor action for Friday, mid- advent chug and throb of Balearica and acid house. I'm desperately resisting the urge to type the word 'madvent'- and have failed. 

Back in April I clicked play on Heavy Blotter by Dirt Bogarde and was hit hard by it, nine minutes of  speaker rattling acid house thump, tingles down my spine and overloaded senses. In June I played it at the Golden Lion, the Lion's sound system magnifying it to the power of ten. Since then Dirt has released monthly transmissions via Bandcamp, the latest coming out today. Out Into The Gap is another slide sideways, Dirt not content to repeat himself- low slung and squelchy, a dark drive through the city at night as seen through the windows of the back seat of a car. There's some Detroit in this one, Carl Craig circa Landcruising maybe, synth flutters and chords on top and a second half that punches back in, drums and synths going off all the place. Out In To The Gap is at Dirt's Bandcamp today. 

Straight outta Windsor, Matt Gunn's label Electric Wardrobe Records is set to release a three track EP from Bedford Falls Players today, two BFP tracks and a Bedford Falls remix of Matt. Bedford Falls Players is Mark Cooper, DJ and producer, a man who really knows his stuff. The first track, Marmite Marimba, is a beauty, full of buzzing, fizzing sounds plus the titular instrument weaving a melody line on top. At two and a half minutes it suddenly bursts into ecstatic noise and then drops out into bass and then more marimba. Spellbinding stuff, musical sculpture really as much as music. 

Matt Gunn's Learning Through Loops came out in April this year, a Mark Cooper, the man behind Bedford Falls Players, remixed the title track and sent me a version of it months ago, another track I played at The Golden Lion in June. I fell for it the first time I played it and it's lost none of its impact, a gorgeous Balearic tune with squelchy bass, chuggy drums and a guitar part that sounds like something John Squire put down on tape at Battery Studios back in early 1989 when recording the Stone Roses debut lp and then never used. Over the top of this Mark has laid a vocal sample taken from TV, a voice talking about sound waves, binary problems in quantum systems, core computers, voodoo, 'shit like this', hidden variables, time travel, determinism, party tricks and the voice of Jesus. It's been played constantly round here, one of my favourite tracks of 2023, and you should all get on it. 

The third track on the EP is Matt's remix of BFP's Chug Hug, heavy duty chugging rhythm, gnarly guitars, bursts of synth and a surge in the second half as it all comes together for the climb to the peak. There are some clips of all three tracks at Soundcloud and I'll link to Bandcamp and Youtube later on today as and when things go live. Electric Wardrobe Records and the Three EP can be found here. Bedford Falls Players have a link to this time of year, something you'll no doubt be aware of if you've seen It's A Wonderful Life. 

The Rub

This is the new track from Dirt Bogarde, The Rub, following hot on the heels of previous releases this year- last month's epic acid house chugger Peyote Plains, the post- punk dread of Tenth Floor Down, Cloud Walking, the magnificent, room filling, spine tingling Heavy Blotter and wobbly, speaker testing Backroom Sunrise. The Rub has some of Dirt's familiar sounds- the big synth sound, ghosts in the machine backing vocals, ripples of melodic toplines and thumping drums coupled a sense of wide eyed euphoria and some wonderful dynamics. When the breakdown hits, a distorted sax drifts in to take the lead and it pushes everything on for the last two minutes, stuttering synths, sax, hisses of steam sounds and that melody line dancing around again. Wonderfully evocative stuff from Stourbridge. Get The Rub here for just one pound. 

Peyote Plains

I still try to get out and walk daily if possible. It's a habit I got in the first lockdown and have tried to keep going ever since. It gets more squeezed when work starts again and autumn kicks in, night falling earlier and chores piling up, but it always feels worth making the effort even it's just a fifteen minute amble round the block. We're lucky in that where we live in south Manchester the river Mersey is only a few minutes away, the banks easily walkable and several different length walks available.  I was out a couple of evenings ago, on my own with my headphones in. One of those crushing waves of grief that come periodically (daily/ every few days) broke over me, leaving me feeling pretty broken. They happen when I'm on my own, in the car or on my bike or walking. I've learnt to let go and accept them but they're not very pleasant sometimes, a feeling of quiet desperation. As I walked on the tunes I'd cued up on my phone turned from ambient to acidic and thumpy. The one below- Peyote Plains by Dirt Bogarde- came on. I grinned involuntarily and almost stopped walking and started dancing, a lone man on the banks of the Mersey throwing shapes and waving his arms in the air. It was only the presence of a dogwalker and a jogger that stopped me. The power of music to transport is second to none. 

After last month's release, the post punk menace and tension of Tenth Floor Down, Dirt's come back with Peyote Plains, a welcome return to the acid chug and an atmospheric slo- mo thumper dedicated to the ceremonies of the tribes of The Great Plains- wobbly bass, cries and chants, sirens and a repeating melody line that will embed itself for hours after hearing it. Buy it at Bandcamp. 

Tenth Floor Down And Cabaret Sauvage

Two more new tracks from Bagging Area favourites, both released earlier this month. First up is courtesy of Dirt Bogarde, Stourbridge's finest, who has shifted slightly from acid house thumpers to some post punk dread. Tenth Floor Down has a Killing Joke/ Joy Division descending bassline and ominous synth swirls, things sounding a little tense and with gritted teeth. The acid works its way in and a female backing vocal softens things a little, but its a gripping, intense ride. Buy it at Bandcamp.  

In a similar sonic area is the latest track from Pye Corner Audio, Cabaret Sauvage, four minutes of dark, dystopic, radiophonic murk, a punk- funk guitar riff beamed in from early 80s Talking Heads, synths that could come from sci fi TV from the same period and a bassline that throbs. Buy it at Bandcamp.

Cloud Walkin

A few weeks ago I wrote a post/ raved about Dirt Bogarde's Heavy Blotter, huge sounding, emotive Balearic acid beauty. Dirt's back with more new music, this time with a track called Cloud Walkin, seven minutes thirty seconds of chuggy, cosmic, sunset sounds, at first sounding quite chilled but becoming insistent and intense in the second half. Buy it at Bandcamp. 

Just over a year ago Dirt released another walking track, this time Windwalker, a dark, thumping groove with rattling snares, echoic bass squiggles and a massive, speaker- testing bassline. 

Monday's Long Song

Dirt Bogarde is from Stourbridge and makes the sort of music that really needs to be heard through a large and expensive speaker system at high volume- chuggy, acid house/ dark disco/ trippy Balearica with a huge emotional pull. Last month Dirt released Heavy Blotter, an nine minute tour de force with wobbly synths, thumping kick drum, rattling snare, a pulsating topline and bags of last track of the night feelings. When the female vocal and bassline kick in after two minutes and then a little later when the synths go mad, it's all almost too much. Seriously heady stuff. 

It's available only at Bandcamp and costs just one pound. Dirt's back catalogue is worth working your way through too. Backroom Sunrise, from March this year, is a joy and from the end of last year Kuiper Estasi pulls at similar places, a six minute slice of dark, after hours dance music. Buy it here.

Backroom Sunrise

We spent a few days over the weekend up in the western Lake District, on the Cumbrian coast. This is a world away (if only twenty miles) from the tourist honeypots of Ambleside and Windermere. On the Saturday evening we went down to the beach at St. Bees just before sunset and saw the sun dipping behind the headland. The Isle of Mann was clearly visible on the horizon. 

The following day we headed to Ravenglass, a small village on the coast with a Roman bathhouse a little inland and an archaeological dig taking place. Two thousand years ago there was a Roman army camp and town inhabited by several thousand Roman and Roman- British people. We stopped at a spot overlooking the estuary and had our lunch on a bench in the sunshine.

All was well, with some very welcome spring warmth, our picnic, a new place to be and a great view. An old woman was hovering nearby, looking out at the two boats moored in the river. She said hello and pointed to the boat (in the pic above). She said her son and husband built it from scratch, had recently brought it back from Portugal and were giving it a spring clean up. We nodded and chatted while eating our sandwiches. 

'Have you been out in it much?' we asked. 'Oh yes, all weathers, very rough sometimes, over to Ireland. My son's been to the Caribbean in it', she replied. 'Once, we were off the coast of Ireland and my son shouted up, ''Don't come up on deck Mum''. There was a body in the sea. He called the coastguard. They said 'can you get it on your boat?'. We didn't want to do that obviously so we just stayed with it where it was until they arrived. They found a Romanian passport in his coat pocket. His head had been caved in so it became a murder inquiry. Sorry, I've interrupted your lunch haven't I?'

Yes. Yes, you have a little, yes. 

This came out at the end of March, nothing to do with boats or bodies or murder- but it is to do with sunrises, loveliness and chugging, throbbing cosmic acid Balearica. Backroom Sunrise is by Dirt Bogarde and is magnificent life enhancing, life affirming stuff, in the way that music and sunrises can be. You can buy it at Bandcamp. Dirt has more coming out later this month. 

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

Triumphe Der Liebe

Brand new and a Bandcamp exclusive, this is Triumphe der Liebe, seven minutes of dark Balaerica, a proper cosmic chugger, transporting the listener from the track's origins in Stourbridge to somewhere much further away. Triumphe der Liebe is the work of the mysterious Dirt Bogarde. Twinkles, hissing sounds, sci fi bleeps, wobbly synths, backing vocals covered in echo drifting in and out, all very cool. Buy it for one pound here. Highly recommended. 

You can find Triumphe der Liebe as the opening track on the latest Higher Love mix from Balearic Ultras, out a few days ago on Mixcloud along with music from the likes of Max Essa, Pilots of Peace, Breakbeat Convention, Vanity Project and Voice Of Art. Listen here. 

Out on Higher Love Recordings are Polish outfit Jazxing whose Pearls Of The Baltic Sea is one of the albums of the autumn round here. I posted their track Fala a few weeks ago, a gorgeous sax led, chilled groove. The rest of the album is equally good. Harbor Dub is very relaxed and, surprise surprise, dubby with a synth bassline deep enough to sink into. 

Shoegaze Dub chugs along beautifully, slo mo beats, keyboard chords, crashing drums and a warm guitar lick and no need to be anywhere in a hurry.