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 

V.A. Saturday

In 2017 Copenhagen's Music For Dreams label asked Mancunian/ Balearic DJ Richard Moonboots to compile an album for them, to pick out some little known gems and chilled tunes that could soundtrack moments of calm and contemplation-  moments that could come sitting at a beach bar in the Canaries or at somewhere more urban/ suburban, Ancoats or Chorlton say. We're definitely into autumn now. This week the leaves have begun to change their colour from the greens of summer to the reds, rusts, oranges and yellows of October and November. Moonboots' compilation, Moments In Time, sounds like summer and foreign shores in places but also carries the chill breeze of autumn. Bombay Hotel's Between Leaves for instance, or this one by Matt Deighton...

Tannis Root

There's a circling, fingerpicked acoustic guitar part, some wonderfully deep cello, and a woodwind instrument (a clarinet probably) picking out a meandering lead, all beautifully mellow and woody, and yep, all pretty autumnal, and done in under three minutes. There are very much shades of Nick Drake and John Martyn present. 

Matt Deighton fronted Mother Earth in the 90s, who were on Acid Jazz. He played in Paul Weller's band in the late 90s and briefly deputised for Noel Gallagher when he walked out of Oasis for a while in 2000. His solo back catalogue is much wider than that brief summary though and his albums and songs are steeped in a 60s and 70s folk sound but go beyond that too. I'm sure I should own more by Matt than I do. 

Coincidentally, or not, I reviewed a  various artists compilation at Ban Ban Ton Ton this week, a twenty track new release compiled by Luke Una which has a similar feel, songs for astral traveling, songs for long nights of quiet contemplation cherry picked from Luke Una's record collection. It opens with John Martyn's sublime ambient/ folk/ jazz/ field recording song Small Hours, a piece of music from 1978 that really has to be heard to be believed. And felt. You can read my review here. 

Small Hours

V.A. Saturday

In late 2020 Dutch label Music From Memory released Virtual Dreams, a triple vinyl/ download album (with different tracks on the two different releases). Virtual Dreams: Ambient Explorations In The House And Techno Age , 1993- 1997 took up residence on my turntable, six sides of vinyl that featured ambient techno from a slew of electronic artists including Richard H. Kirk, The Primitive Painter, LFO, Bedouin Ascent, Dubtribe Sound System, MLO, Pulusha and LA Synthesis. The compilers did a superb job, selecting and sequencing the lost, the obscure and the beautiful, presenting the futuristic music of the mid- 90s in such a way that it sounded like a cohesive album and utterly fresh and weirdly contemporary. It was a sound, as they said, that came from the chill out rooms, from the spaces next to the rooms where everyone was dancing, where people wanted to slow down and contemplate/ come down. 'Ambient in this new age now though had sharper teeth', the sleeve notes said, 'than in Brian Eno's keynote text Music For Airports, instead the sounds here the mode of transport rather than the backdrop.'

Virtual Dreams is futuristic, machine music made by humans with emotions, with new technology at their disposal and looking upwards to space, outer pace and sci fi and a cyborg inner space too. It's a perfect various artists compilation album. The digital version of Virtual Dreams is here. 

This is Levitation by The Primitive Painter- glassy synths, warm pattering drum pads, and a familiar female vocal sample, all bound together by some unearthly robotics. The Primitive Painter were Roman Flugel and Jorn Elling Wuttke, and yes, they named themselves after the 1985 indie classic by Felt.

Levitation

Music From Memory are about to release a second volume of Virtual Dreams, this one shifting their ambient techno focus to Japan in the same 1993- 1999 time period, where in the clubs of 1990s Japan ambient- techno went by the name of 'listening techno'. Rob wrote a great review at Ban Ban Ton Ton this week with some of the tracks up to listen to- you can read it here. Virtual Dreams II is at Bandcamp. 

V.A. Saturday

We're getting some lovely evenings in the Manchester area at the moment, the fall of dusk and warm September weather combining to give us some pretty spectacular moments just before it goes dark. Out for a walk by the river Mersey on Thursday night I saw this cross in the sky. Maybe it's a sign...

Last week I wrote a review for Dr. Rob at his esteemed Ban Ban Ton Ton blog. Jason Boardman, a Manchester DJ, promoter, crate digger and record label owner of note, is putting out a sixteen track compilation on his Before I Die label, a record called No- One's Listening Anyway: UK DIY Post Punk And Dubs 1980- 1984 (Vol. 1). It's a fantastic collection of obscure singles from the intersection of scratchy guitars and bass culture, dole culture and pop culture with bands including Swamp Children, The Sirons, Club Of Rome, Skeet, The Four Kings, Sprout Head Rising and Methodisca Tune. My review of it is here. 

Rifling through my collection of various artist compilation CDs for something I knew I had from a similar area I found Messthetics Greatest Hits: The Sounds Of D.I.Y. 1977- 1980, twenty two songs from the frontline of the D.I.Y./ indie world, indie before indie even, people fired up by punk, with something to say and in some cases the barest notion of how to go about playing, writing, recording and releasing. Messthetics includes one crossover with Jason's album- Anorexia appear on both- but otherwise its another rollcall of the obscure, the lost and the forgotten. These three jumped out at me, almost at random. 

We Love Malcolm

We Love Malcolm is well under two minutes long and is the work of O Level, a DIY band formed in London in 1978 while all the band members were still at school. Some of them would reappear many times in the 80s and 90s- Ed Ball, Dan Treacy, Joe Foster and John and Gerald Bennett would between them later make records as The TV Personalities, The Times, and Slaughter Joe and Foster would be one of the trio who formed Creation in 1983. We Love Malcolm is an answer to The TV Personalities single Where's Bill Grundy Now?, a tribute to Malcolm McLaren- 'We love Malcolm/ Cos no one else does'.

£100 In 15 Minutes

Cardiff band Puritan Guitars released £100 In 15 Minutes in 1980, the lyrics concerning not the recording costs for making the single but the money Rough Trade put behind the bar at the final gig on a Raincoats tour, a party attended by the assembled indie/ punk/ DIY world who drank the free bar dry in quarter of an hour. Primitive, out of tune guitars, cardboard box drums, flat spoken vocals, no production- all of these are good things obviously. 

Girl On The Bus

Girl On The Bus is by Thin Yoghurts, from Carlisle and released this single in 1980 Lowther Street Runner Records, a song recorded in Shap in Cumbria. The sleeve notes thank 'Robin for the use of his drums, and Boggis for fetching beer and pies'

Forty Minutes Of Music From Reviews At Ban Ban Ton Ton

I've been writing guest reviews for Dr. Rob's Ban Ban Ton Ton website for a few years now, Rob operating out of a remote location in rural Japan (having emigrated there from London) and me in south Manchester. Rob gets sent all sorts of music- Balearic, electronic, cosmische, ambient, jazz, dub, reggae and all points in between- and he passes some of it on to me to listen to and write about. He's keen that Ban Ban Ton Ton has different voices and I'm happy to receive the music and write about it. I currently have a few things lined up to do not least a review of Contours who me and Martin supported at Soup last night along with the headliners Marconi Union. Full reviews to follow both here at Bagging Area and at Ban Ban Ton Ton. One of the wonders of the internet age is the shrinking of distances and the ease of distribution of music. 

In 2024 I've already reviewed seven releases at Ban Ban Ton Ton. I've pulled tracks from each of those seven albums/ EPs into one mix below that works both as a sampler and as a forty minute mix in itself, starting out quite chilled with some dub/ post- punk from the early 80s, heading into ambient territory, then becoming more rhythm heavy with some cosmische and some early 90s Italo cosmic disco. 

Forty Minutes Of Music From Reviews At Ban Ban Ton Ton 

• Khartomb: Swahili Lullaby
• Project Gemini: Colours & Light
• Sedibus: SETI Part 3
• Caolifhionn Rose: Constellation
• Kosmischer Läufer: Spargelspiegel
• Sordid Sound System: It's About Time
• a.s.o.:Go On (Extended Remix)
• Meo And Steve: Global Village (Funk Version)

Khartomb were an early 80s post- punk/ dub/ bossa nova outfit with one 7" single and a Peel Session to their name. The single- Swahili Lullaby- has been picked up by Jason Boardman's Manchester based label Before I Die and re- issued along with two new remixes. My review was at Ban ban Ton Ton last week and you can read it here. Before I Die is fast becoming essential, every release testament to Jason's ability to find new music. Earlier this year he put out the excellent Dubtapes Vol. 1 by KlangKollektor and last year's Konformer was a superb album too. 

Project Gemini is the freak beat/ funk/ soul/ 60s/ cinematic outfit for Paul Osborne. His new album Colours & Light is packed full of guests and is a trip through the night, a kaleidoscopic night out with a  '60s flavour, Turkish and Arabic influences and some French vibes. My review is here. 

I've written about Sedibus here and at Ban Ban Ton Ton. The latest Sedibus album, SETI, is one of this year's records that has stuck around my turntable, The Orb's Alex Paterson and Andy Falconer in fine form. My Ban Ban Ton Ton review is here accompanied by Rob's own thoughts on the album. 

Caolifhionn Rose is a Manchester based artists and her album Constellation is out now on Manchester label Gondwana.  Previously Caolifhionn (pronouced Kallin) has sung with The Durutti Column. Her musical background is in jazz and folk. The album is a wonderous thing- piano, jazz and folk shades, ambient and classical, samples, saxophone and a lighter than air feel, a response to 2020's lockdowns and the power of nature. Read my review here. 

Fred Und Luna's The Future Sounds Of Kraut Vol 2 is a seventeen track compilation of music inspired by the West German bands of the 1970s. I've included two of my favourites here, Kosmischer Läufer and Sordid Sound System. My review at Ban Ban Ton Ton is here. 

a.s.o. are based in Berlin and make downtempo, hip hop influenced dance music. They released a remixes EP this year which I wrote about here. 

Meo and Steve's GLobal Village was one of six slices of Italian cosmic disco/ Afro/ funk/ house from the 1990s, originally out on Riccione's Tribal Italia label and now re- issued on Dualismo Sound. Read more here. 

Bagging Area/ Ban Ban Ton Ton Mix

For some time now Dr Rob, the man who runs the standard setting blog Ban Ban Ton Ton, a one stop shop for all things Balearic and otherwise, has been asking me to write reviews for him. Since the new year I've written some album reviews which I don't think I've linked here, so today's Sunday mix post pulls those reviews from the first half of 2023 together for those who might be interested in them, and provides a sampler in the form of a forty three minute long mix below. 

Ban Ban Ton Ton/ Bagging Area Guest Review Mix

• Jon Hassell: Neon Nights
• Konformer: Konformer
• Tolga Boyuk and Kenneth Bager: Betrayal
• TECWAA: I Terra Dub
• Roe Deers: Can't Remember
• Yargo: Marimba
• Sorcerer: Zero Return
• Eloah: Logan Ede

Jon Hassell was a pioneering New York based trumpeter/ composer. His Fourth World music fused primitivism and futurism in the late 70s and 80s and led him to work with Talking Heads, David Sylvian and Carl Craig among others. Psychogeography is a compilation of late 80s recordings combining avant- jazz, soundtracks, psychogeography, ambient music and Situationism, which sounds off- putting but is great fun. My review is here. 

Konformer are a three piece from Nuremburg, signed to Manchester's Jason Boardman's new label Before I Die. Five lovely synth- led cosmische instrumentals. Reviewed by me here and highly recommended (the album I mean not the review). 

Tolga Boyuk and Kenneth Bager wrote and recorded a soundtrack to a film that hasn't been shot yet, East Is North, in two days. Tangerine Dream, Vangelis and John Carpenter all feature as reference points. Read my review here. 

TECWAA is from York and has released an EP on New York's Throne Of Blood, a label on something of a hot streak. My review said something like 'sci fi, deep house, cinematic psychedelic dub'. Here. 

Roe Deers were one artist on a compilation put out by Parisienne label Lumiere Noir, twelve previously unreleased slices of 'deep and dark electronics'. Read my review here if you've got this far down.  

Yargo were a Manchester blues/ funk/ dub group who missed the boat in the late 80s Manchester boom but are fondly remembered. Their proto- house/ Latin B-side features on the new compilation from DJ Luke Una, E- cultura soul Vol. 2, a multi- artist tribute to late nights, dancing and the widest spread of music you can imagine. Eloah's Logan Ede comes from the same album, Brazilian soul from the late 1970s. My review is here. 

Sorcerer is from Califronia and his second album Bubble Funk is a blast of short, funky instrumentals celebrating skateboarding, cassette culture, home studios, 70s funk and Balearic pop. Reviewed here. 

I also reviewed Reinhard Vanbergen's Meditation On Modern Modes, an hour long ambient tour de force from Belgium's multi- instrumentalist but couldn't work any of the ten minute pieces onto the mix above. Read and listen here. 

Masculine Encounter

I've been writing reviews this year for Dr. Rob's standard setting, all- things- Balearic blog Ban Ban Ton Ton. Most recently I reviewed the new album by Decius, a group made up of members of Fat White Family, Paranoid London and Trashmouth Records. Decius have pulled together a bunch of tracks recorded and released as 12" singles into Decius Vol. 1, a riot of electronic dance music sounds, the thump of house with the sleaze of disco, and with Fat White Family singer Lias Saoudi on vocals, a romp through gay nightlife, bars, clubs and bathhouses, emerging blinking into the city streets at dawn having had the night of one's life. It is both ridiculously tongue in cheek and completely serious- song titles such as Masculine Encounter, Look Like A Man, Quick Reliefs, Bitch Tracker and Roberto's Tumescence might give you an idea what to expect. The review is here. The album can be bought here. 

Masculine Encounter II

Decius was a Roman emperor, ruling from the year 249 to 251, a distinguished senator who was proclaimed emperor by his troops after defeating a rebellion. He had a thing about persecuting Christians and had Pope Fabian put to death. Decius died in June 251 at the Battle of Arbritus, killed by Goths. We can only hope the band Decius avoid such a fate. 

If you're after high quality dance music with an edge you could also do worse than have a look at the three EPs New York label Throne Of Blood have released this year, a celebration of their sixteenth birthday. I reviewed all three EPs for Ban Ban Ton Ton. There are twelve tracks across the three releases, every single one a banger- EP 1 has Chloe, Liona, Justin Cudmore and Joakim and Max Pask. EP 2 features an outstanding Hardway Bros track plus Hapa, Curses and Split Sec. EP 3 has tracks by Pleasure Planet, Danse Alice, Man Power and Teleseen. My review of EPs 1 and 2 is here and the one of EP 3 is here and you can listen to/ buy EP 1 here, EP 2 here and EP 3 here. 

Monday's Long Songs: Guest Post

Another very welcome guest post from Dr. Rob, live and direct from Ban Ban Ton Ton/ Japan. 

Colin Angus, of The Shamen, charted Ron Trent`s Altered States in one of the U.K.`s rock music weeklies, around the time of the landmark 12`s initial release in 1990.* Angus said it was a tune that he`d heard played at the infamous, illegal RIP parties, held on London’s Clink Street.** A darker, definitely non-Balearic, but equally as important contemporary of the more widely celebrated acid house incubator / shrine, Shoom.

 Altered States

I immediately added the tune to my “wants” list, but it wasn’t until Dutch label, Djax-Up-Beats reissued the record in 1992, that I managed to find a copy. It was probably a Kris Needs review, in his Needs Must, Black Echoes, column, that alerted me to its recirculation. The hunt for it took me from Flying Records, in Kensington Market - where it was “Great track, but sorry, no mate” - to Fat Cat in Covent Garden, just off Seven Dials, which fast became my new favourite shop. 

Ron Trent produced Altered States when he was just 14.*** His father was a percussionist (who sat in with jazz legend, Max Roach), a DJ, and co-founder of one of Chicago`s first record pools. Ron had grown up surrounded by rhythm, often playing along with his dad, on congas and traps, to the latest releases at home. Boy, does that upbringing show. 

Created on a friend’s set up of TR-909, D50, and SB01, the track is all about the drums. A huge kick counters a super simple key refrain. Tiny snippets of snares tease. Hand-claps crash and crack like thunder. Start, stop, and then start and stop again. There’s a synth-line that’s surely inspired by Master C&J`s Dub Love, but it`s the genius mixing, and editing****, of these basic, bad ass, percussive elements that bash your body - the breakdowns more like beatdowns - and hypnotize your head. The irregular programmed patterns made to alternately march, and totally wig-out. Everything coming together and colliding with a crazy intensity, especially when showers of jazz cymbals join in. Somehow, subliminally, continually climbing, this dynamic constantly changing for the whole of the track`s 13-minute duration. Driving its timeless status, and laying the stripped-back raw, jacking, foundation for Cajmere`s Relief Records imprint, which revitalized house and techno in the mid-1990s - and the Green Velvet one`s own classic, Conniption Fit.

 Dub Love

Conniption Fit

Green Velvet's 1994 single Preacher Man is the definition of simple but effective and set techno floors on fire in the mid- 90s (and ever since). 

Preacher Man

Notes

*Probably Melody Maker, probably while talking to Push.

**Where The Shamen`s vocalist, Richard “Mr. C(helsea)” West, DJed. 

***The whole Afterlife E.P. is great. 

****Edits by the one an only Armando. 

Where Do We Go On A Saturday Til The Morning Light?

Back in February I started writing some guest posts at Ban Ban Ton Ton, Dr. Rob's one stop shop for all things Balearic, electronic and dance music oriented. I haven't posted any links here since I wrote about Richard Norris' February Music For Healing, a twenty minute long ambient track called Chrome, and Nina Walsh's Music To Fall Asleep To and then in March the new album by Belgium's Rheinzand, Atlantis Atlantis, a record shaping up to be one of 2022's best. Last month I went to the launch party for Disco Pogo, the relaunched Jockey Slut magazine. Mo and Charlotte from Rheinand were one of four people scheduled to DJ in Electrik in Chorlton. At an opportune moment I spoke to Mo and told how much I like the album and that I'd reviewed it for Ban Ban Ton Ton. In response he gave me a big hug. 

Since March I've written a further six reviews, hopping around Europe and the world musically, with more in the pipeline. In chronological order then, with links to Ban Ban Ton Ton where you can listen to many of the tracks from the albums- 

Field Works- Stations

An album in two parts, the first a set of recordings done by Stuart Hyatt (in association with The National Geographic Society and The Anchorage Museum) where Hyatt used microphones and ground recording devices to record the sound of the earth. He then added human voices to create a found sound/ ambient ten track album that is frequently beautiful. The second part sees the ten tracks (Field Stations) remixed. My review at Ban Ban Ton Ton is here. 

Société Étrange- Chance 

French instrumental three piece cooking a storm- there are references and comparisons to A Certain Ration, King Tubby, Tortoise, Adrian Sherwood, Can and Jah Wobble in my review which you can read here. Six echo laden, post- punk/ cosmic instrumentals.

Andreas Kunzmann- Album

Austrian 90s IDM/ techno made for home listening. Lots of fun and very engaging. Read more here. 

The Balek Band- Medicines

Back to France, Nantes to be more exact, and some delirious, open minded dance music, a melding of synths and electronics with live instruments to make some lovely, exuberant, shape shifting Balearic/ cosmische/ nu disco/ house/ whatever else you can think of. Read and listen here. 

BSS (AMS)- Bredius

Mysteriously titled artist and EP from Amsterdam, Dutch ambient techno with splashes of Detroit and Blade Runner and more besides. Four track EP, my review is here. 

Rich Ruth- I Survived, It's Over

Nashville ambient/ instrumentalist Rich Ruth made the excellent Calming Signals back in 2019. His new album builds on the sounds on that album and the trauma of a carjacking outside his home to make one of 2022's most far reaching records, righteous drone/ ambient/ spiritual jazz. Read more here. 

For those of you who'd like a Bagging Area meets Ban Ban Ton Ton uptown primer/ sampler I put this together, a forty minute mix featuring one song from each of the albums reviewed above. 

Bagging Area Meets Ban Ban Ton Ton Uptown 

• Field Works: Station 2
• Field Works: Station 4 (Afrodeutsche Remix)
• BSS (AMS): De Regenboog
• Andreas Kunzmann: Sputnik Rave
• Société Étrange: La Rue Principale Grandrif
• The Balek Band: Cosmic Barry
• Rich Ruth: Doxology
• Rheinzand: Atlantis Atlantis

There will now follow a break in transmission until early August. School finished yesterday and we're getting away today, off on our holidays for ten days in the sun in the Canaries. See you all when I get back. Adios amigos. 

Saturday Theme Eighteen

Back in 1987 the three headed monster of Stock Aitken and Waterman produced a single for model and singer Mandy Smith and somehow created a record which went on to become a Balearic classic. It's an opinion splitter of a record and probably one of those which fits into Andrew Weatherall's description of the impact of E- 'you start off dancing to Throbbing Gristle and end up dancing to Chris Rea. That's how dangerous a drug Ecstasy is'. Mandy's Theme (I Just Can't Wait) was played out on the White Isle by those pioneers who ventured out there in the summers of 1987 and 1988 and ended up on the Balearic Beats Vol. 1 album, a compilation with a tracklist selected by Trevor Fung (who was a DJ at Amnesia in Ibiza from 1982 onwards). The album cemented for many people, not least those who didn't ever get to Ibiza during those halcyon days, the Balearic sound of summer in Ibiza in the late 80s- The Residents, The Woodentops, Code 61, Electra, Fini Tribe, Thrashing Doves, Nitzer Ebb. Interestingly, Trevor recently gave an interview to Dr. Rob at Ban Ban Ton Ton where he said that there were other tracks that were on his shortlist for inclusion but didn't make it. The missing songs would have made the album a much more house based affair- you can read it and find out what they are here. There's a full interview with Trevor here too. 

Mandy's Theme (I Just Can't Wait) (Cool And Breezy Jazz Version)

Mandy's Theme sonically is in a similar place to some of those mentioned above, the drum machine and bassline, the piano, the Spanish guitar. Mandy doesn't arrive until four minutes in, singing about being called a fool and a baby (which may or may not be a reference to her relationship with Bill Wyman, who she first met aged thirteen. He was thirty four years older. They went public, widely reported in the tabloids, on the day of her sixteenth birthday, married two years later and divorced two years after that. He wrote in his autobiography' she took my breath away... she was a woman at thirteen'. Different times eh?). Anyway, moving on from that which all seems even more distasteful now than it did then, Mandy's Theme is a perfect holiday record, the sort of tune that hits the spot in discos in holiday resorts and maybe doesn't sound quite as great back home in Britain in November.  

Bank Holiday Monday's Long Songs Guest Post

Dr. Rob's blog Ban Ban Ton Ton has been the standard setter for all things electronic and Balearic. The Ban Ban Ton Ton and Bagging Area tie in continues today with a post that follows on from Dr. Rob's bumper Andrew Weatherall funk, soul and jazz post I hosted last week. 

Dr. Rob writes...

Late one night, early one morning, in 1993, Andrew Weatherall played The Chi-Lites` The Coldest Days Of My Life on London’s Kiss FM. A sad, strung-out soul symphony, from 1972, smothered not only in strings, but otherworldly reverb and field recorded tides and seabirds. Due to the hour, and the station being a pirate, I’m assuming that he was a little drunk, and / or a tad stoned. I know I was. Weatherall said that The Chi-Lites` orchestral oddity reminded him of Reload`s Le Soleil Et La Mer, which was what he span next. A piece of brand new IDM - “Intelligent Dance Music” - “ambient techno”, produced by Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton - a duo perhaps better known as Global Communications - and released on Creation Records` short-lived electronic off-shoot, Infonet. A label run by the Abbott brothers, Tim and Chris, who went on to work super closely with Oasis. 

I suspect it was the synths, mimicking wave after wave of crashing surf, and the soaring minor key melody, that brought about Andrew`s comparison. Probably not the broken breakbeats. The track is a classic of its genre, coolly managing to convey the rush, life’s urgency made plain, intensified, of a high head speeding while standing, or laying, perfectly still. 

Le Soleil Et Le Mer

Taken from Tom and Mark’s long-player, A Collection Of Short Stories, the tune later picked up a remix by The Black Dog. The triumvirate of Andy Turner, Ed Handley, and Ken Downie, turn the track into a bustle of busy bleeps and circuitry, clipped electric current. They shoot the strings into outer space, but keep the introspective, melancholic undertow. If anything it`s now even more of a mirror of a mind blown on Ecstasy, so that listening, flat on my back, I`m staring at the stars. It`s a thing of beauty created from seemingly random collisions. Sublime sonic serendipity. 

 Le Soleil Et Le Mer (Black Dog Remix)

Dr Rob, Andrew Weatherall And A Bucketful Of Jazz, Funk And Soul

Last week in honour of what would have been Andrew Weatherall's 59th birthday Dr Rob posted a series of mixes at Ban Ban Ton Ton, lovingly researched and put together mixes delving into Andrew Weatherall's record bag, focussing on the soul, funk and jazz records that Andrew played at various times and in various places. If you missed them and need to catch up the links are here-

Weatherall's Funk/Summertime

Weatherall's Funk/ Karnaval

Weatherall's Funk/ Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow

Weatherall's Jazz/ African Waltz

Weatherall's Funk/ Darkest Light

Rob asked me if I wanted to host the sixth part of this series here at Bagging Area. Obviously I said yes. It also gives me a chance to wish Andrew Weatherall a very happy belated birthday, wherever he is currently residing. 

Rob writes...

Last week on Ban Ban Ton Ton we were paying tribute to, and celebrating the birthday of, Andrew Weatherall. In 2021 we collected a ton of reggae and dub tunes that the legendary DJ / producer was known to spin, but this year we attempted to do the same with some soul, jazz, and funk. We posted a total of 5 mixes, but here are a few more songs that I didn’t quite manage to squeeze in….starting off with some strung out soul…

The Chi-lites` The Coldest Days Of My Life comes from the group’s A Lonely Man long-player, released in 1972. It`s not really typical of the band`s output, well it`s not really typical for a soul tune at all. Full of recordings of ocean surf and seabirds, heart-tugging violin strings and smothered in truly spaced-out reverb. The vocals leaving vapour trails,  while otherworldly winds whip the cryptic lyrics, that hint at childhood hardship and poverty. Mr. Weatherall played this tune late one night in 1993, on Kiss FM. Andrew said that it reminded him of Reload`s Le Soleil et La Mer, which he played immediately after. The intro of the Chi-lites song was later sampled and looped for the Quiet Village track, Victoria’s Secret. 

 The Coldest Days Of My Life

The Persuaders` It`s A Thin Line Between Love & Hate also came out in 1972. It is one of the 90-odd songs featured in Andrew`s Black Notebooks - a “pan-genre” collection of Youtube clips, created for his close friends, that shine a spotlight on musical moments of extreme emotion, often concerned with heartbreak and loss. Everything in there is a wonder, and well worth tracking down. This song was famously covered by The Pretenders. Chrissy Hynde apparently used to sing it when she was still knocking about with the Sex Pistols and working in Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood`s Worlds End shop. 

 It's A Thin Line Between Love And Hate

Maceo & All The Kings Men`s I Remember Mr. Banks, I guess is more jazz than soul, while the playing feels deeply connected to the blues. Saxophonist Maceo Parker is best known as a member of James Brown`s band, but all The King`s Men were a short-lived project, formed in 1970, when the musicians in said band, having had enough of Brown, all quit. They toured and recorded two albums, the first of which was Doing Their Own Thing. This is the closer from that LP, and something, again, that Andrew aired on Kiss. 

 I Remember Mr Banks

 Dudley Moore`s Bedazzled, is jazz, for sure. The title track from his score for the 1967 movie of the same name, that he also starred in alongside Peter Cook - as the Devil - and Raquel Welch as “Lilian Lust”. It was Chris “Soft Rocks” Galloway who hipped me to this, when he put it on his own tribute mix, One Horse Shy In A One Horse Town - a sublime selection of songs that Weatherall turned him on to. The terrific Johnny Trunk reissued the soundtrack in 2016.

 Bedazzled

Sibusile Xaba`s Wampona is the sole slice of of African soul / jazz / funk here. This is something that featured in Andrew`s now sorely missed NTS radio shows, Music`s Not For Everyone - essential monthly bulletins of “outsider”, well, everything musically. I was super chuffed when he played this, as I`d just posted a typically “wordy” review of the album on Ban Ban Ton Ton. Sad, I know, but this fanboy felt momentarily qualified. 

 Wampona

Shuggie Otis` Aht Uh Mi Hed is a song synonymous with Weatherall, a big “backroom” favourite, that probably became a constant around the early days of The Heavenly Social, at The Albany on Great Portland Street, and later Turnmills, before they opened the bar off of Oxford Street. A slice of sweet, stoner introspection, a little weary, and wasted, with some pioneering Sly Stone-esque use of a drum machine. I`m not sure, but it was probably the original Maestro Rhythm King. Absolutely essential, and every home should have one. The record, not the drum machine that is. 

 Aht Uh Mi Head

The next three tunes are all lifted from NTS shows, and shaped, cut, from very similar sonic cloth as Shuggie`s seminal offering. 

Mandre`s Isle De Joie is taken from Mandre 4, a “lost” early `80s album from the artist behind synth-y disco Loft classics, such as Light Years and Solar Flight, which was rescued and reissued by Rush Hour in 2010. 

 Isle De Joie

Jean Pierre Decerf`s sleazy Touch As Much dates from 1977, and could originally only be found on a highly sought after Library Music LP that he released under the alias, Magical Ring. It`s since been included in a brilliant retrospective of Jean Pierre’s work - Space Oddities 1975-1979 - put together by Alexis Le Tan, DJ Jess, and Born Bad Records. 

 Touch As Much

Doug Hream Blunt`s Fly Guy is privately-pressed soul, lo-fi garage gangster boogie, which got reactivated in 2011, and was later picked up by David Byrne`s label, Luaka Bop. If you’re into this sort of stuff, try to locate a copy of the Personal Space compilation on Chocolate Industries.

 Fly Guy

A straight up funk track to follow. The Memphis Horns` Soul Bowl is pinched from a promo CD, entitled The Chairman’s Choice, complied to celebrate the opening of Heavenly Recordings` bar / club, The Social on Little Portland Street, back in June 2001.

Soul Bowl

Eugene Record`s Overdose Of Joy and Tyrone Davis` Is It Something You’ve Got? are both shining examples of the old soul sides that were revived by Andrew and Terry Farley when they manned the “alternative” room at Shoom - first at Busby`s, on Charing Cross Road, and then at The Park, on Kensington High Street. The pair revisited these two tunes on a wonderful BBC 6Music show in 2012, which lead to the Eugene Record tune being licensed and repressed on a 45 by London’s Love Vinyl label / shop. Eugene Record was, coincidently the lead vocalist of, and main songwriter for, The Chi-Lites.

Overdose Of Joy

 Is It Something You've Got?

Representing the Weird & Funky World of library music, I’ve cued up James Asher`s bonkers Vertigo, taken from his 1981 Studio G LP, Abstracts. This is piano-led jazz really, but James goes to town on the twisting and phasing, and the track finally hits a mad Orb-like breakdown. 

Vertigo

As a Balearic aside, Oscar Falanga, who once famously staffed the counter at fabled Soho record store, Trax, later remixed James Asher, in the guise of this prog house nom de plume, Aetherius. 

 Lastly, there’s the sitar-driven hippie exotica love-in, freak-out of Tally Man, composed and performed by Jimmy “Little Jim” Page`s main `60s guitar-slinging rival, Big Jim Sullivan. A tune taken from Big Jim’s 1967 album, Sitar Beat, which also features his cover of Donovan`s Sunshine Superman, another firm Andrew Weatherall favourite. 

Tally Man

 

Elefantasi

People used to joke that you couldn't name five famous Belgians* as if that somehow marked the country down. Fame is overrated anyway isn't it? Belgium has a rich musical history from New Beat to the present day and is especially influential in dance and electronic music. I've written quite a few times before about Rheinzand, a three piece from Ghent who make fantastic dance pop spliced with Balearica and disco. Multi- instrumentalist/ producer Reinhard Vanbergen, singer Charlotte Caluwaerts and producer/ DJ Mo Disko cook up a shimmering, unapologetic dance floor oriented storm. The single We'll Be Alright was one of my favourites from last year. Their 2020 self titled debut album was a wall to wall treat, from the cover of Talking Heads Slippery People to the nagging electronic bliss of Fourteen Again. They also roped in all and sundry to remix it, a slew of outstanding remixes from the likes of Red Axes, Scorpio Twins, Chris Coco, Pete Herbert, Skylab, Superpitcher and so on. This one, Obey (Hardway Bros Stereo Odyssey), as remixed by Sean Johnston's Hardway Bros is utterly sublime and seductive leftfield dance music.

Part of the recent cross blog pollination between this blog and Dr Rob's Ban Ban Ton Ton led to me reviewing the forthcoming Rheinzand album. You can read that here. The single Elefantasi has been recorded and released digitally in five different languages- English, French, Dutch, Italian and Spanish- and at Bandcamp you can download a Make Your Own version (that's Belgian for instrumental). Elefantasi is sumptuous, trippy Nu Disco with an imaginary Peter Hook on bass. 

* Obviously it's not even that difficult- Eddy Merckx, Herge, various footballers (Enzo Scifo from the 80s and several current modern ones such as Romelu Lukaku, Eden Hazard and Kevin de Bruyne), Adolphe Sax, Magritte- and that's without resorting to Google. All men I've just noticed however. 

Monday's Long Song Guest Post

Over the last few years I've had quite a bit of contact with Dr. Rob, the man behind the blog Ban Ban Ton Ton, an online archive for all things electronic and Balearic. Rob served his time in London during the acid house years, a period of  great music, great clubs and legendary nights out, where he took full part in everything London could offer. Now, older and wiser, he lives in Japan. Well over a year ago Rob suggested a Ban Ban Ton Ton/ Bagging Area collaboration and we've finally got around to it, after both of us thinking it was a good idea but neither of us quite sure how it would work in practice. Recently I've written a couple of reviews for Ban Ban Ton Ton, the first a review of Richard Norris' Chrome and more recently a review of Nina Walsh's Music To Fall Asleep To: Delta Waves. Even better that those, today sees Dr. Rob write for Bagging Area- fittingly (for both blogs), it's a piece of music first encountered while listening to Andrew Weatherall.

Over to Rob-

Harry Roche`s Constellation / Spiral 2022_02_28

 Wah wah guitar gets this groovy gear going - out of the gates at a cracking clip, as if it were scoring a chase scene in a cool `70s flick, like Shaft. Mod jazz organs and big band brass blasts rise and fall in massed fanfares. There’s soulful moaning care of Clare Torry, whose deep, psychedelic tones also graced Pink Floyd`s Great Gig In The Sky. The word “spiral” is whispered as if it`s a spell. Things are already pretty frantic with only a tambourine`s tapping keeping the beat, and it`s a full four minutes before the drums kick in. When they do though, they signal a crazy keyboard solo. At 6 minutes the track hits its first breakdown, a quick short switch into an easy-listening swing. Then trumpets and trombones sound and the race is on again - a soaring saxophone joining the party, before pausing once more for a bash on some bongos. At 8 minutes, things enter the same syncopated, symphonic Sci-Fi space as Deodato covering Strauss` Also Sprach Zarathustra - aka the theme from 2001 - the sort of fusion favoured by the Creed Taylor`s CTI label. The climax then comes in the form of a final funk freakout. Believe me, Harry Roche`s Constellation`s Spiral is a real library music / muzak rollercoaster. 

 Originally released on Pye in 1973, Spiral was squeezed in as the last track on an LP in the imprint`s “4D” quadrophonic demonstration series. Goodness knows where the budgets came from in those days, but the recording credits list some 15, 16, 17, players. I first heard Spiral on an Andrew Weatherall mix made for Dummy Mag, back in July 2013. Spiral just leapt out. It was so unique…and it just didn’t seem to quit. It immediately became a “must have”. As far as I know, the original LP has never been reissued, and is still quite pricey. However, if you’re after a vinyl copy of the song it can be found on Sequel Records` 1995 comp, Easy Project: 20 Lounge Core Favourites. Try to ignore the cheesy title, `cos there Spiral spins spaced-out, loud and proud, over the whole side of a bonus 12. 

Spiral

 *Spiral also featured on another outstanding Weatherall mix, over at The Rotters Golf Club, where it rubbed musical shoulders with a track from a perhaps more well known quadraphonic masterpiece, Mystic Moods` Awakenings.

The Dummy Mix Rob refers to appeared in 2013.Tthere's a link to it the text above or you can download below. 

Dummy Mix 39// Andrew Weatherall

Tracklist

Oskar Sala: Improvisation No. 2
Arthur Lyman: Exodus
The Harry Roche Constellation: Spiral
Beaver And Krause: Another Part Of Time 
Francois Roubaix: Militerreuse 
Francois Roubaix: La Fete Des Deux Avions 
Mad Professor: Rampage In L.A. 
Count Ossie And Leslie Butler: Soul Drums 
Effie Briest: New Quicksand 
Team Ghost: Echo
White Noise 3: Time Travel
Moebius And Plank: Tollkuhn 
Hannah Peel: Electricity 
Wild Nothing: Bored Games 

Monday's Long Song

I wrote a piece for Ban Ban Ton Ton, the number one blog for all things electronic. Dr Rob, said blog's author, is a veteran of the scene, someone who was there at the heart of things in the late 80s and early 90s. He's been resident in Japan for some time and our blogs have grown closer, musically and spiritually, and a while back Rob suggested a blog to blog tie in or collaboration. A few days ago I wrote a piece for him about the most recent long form Richard Norris release, Chrome, a long form ambient piece where Richard's Music For Healing series has entered its third year. You can find it here. I've been a big advocate of Richard's ambient work and its therapeutic properties over the last few years, even moreso in the last few months. 

One of Rob's recent recommendations was Max Essa's work. This led me to Panorama Suite, a twenty minute long Balearic beauty, a very lengthy track where the entirety is one seamless piece of music but also made up of different musical sections, making a whole- synths and keys followed by pads and toplines, guitar lines taking over, basslines coming in and out, and then percussion and more, through to the end. Panorama Suite was re- released this month by Japanese label Jansen Jardin and you can buy it for a couple of quid here. Press play, let it go and then press play again. 

General Public

Last week Dr. Rob at Ban Ban Ton Ton, the one stop shop for all things Balearic and related, posted a mix he'd done for the Eclectics label, his Balearic Bargain Bin Mix. The post and the mix (free download while stocks last) can be found here, two hours chock full of hidden treasures and delights- Wendy and Lisa remixed by The Orb, a Mediterranean summer cover of Waiting In Vain by one of Adam's Ants, his wife and Trevor Horn, Blow Monkeys, Brian Eno, Djum Djum, Shakespear's Sister, 808 State's Graham Massey, Fred Wesley, an ACR B-side, some Germans before they became Snap!, early Steve Cobby as Ashley and Jackson, some Spaghetti Western synth action, The Beloved and, as they say, much more. As well as all of this there's an instrumental by General Public. 

General Public were formed in 1983 by singers Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger as a new band when The Beat broke up. Various members of other early 80s ska/ punk groups joined- Mickey Bellingham and Stoker from Dexys, Horace Panter from The Specials and briefly Mick Jones after he was sacked from The Clash by Joe and Paul. Mick left partway through the recording of the album but is credited on the sleeve. In 1984 they released a self- titled single- General Public- a six minute dub- punk song, funky bassline, lots of reverb on the snare, monotone, socially conscious Two Tone vocals, surging into the bridge and then the chanted chorus, 'General public/ Uh huh/ General public/ Uh huh'.

General Public (Longer)

The B-side, Dishwasher, is the one on Dr Rob's mix. Dishwasher is a guitar led instrumental, not a million miles as Dr. Rob notes from the sound on Combat Rock, that kind of funky, crunching sound that you can imagine filling the floor at the nightclub in town when they let the punks, rudies, goths and other assorted outsiders in on a Thursday night. The piano line running through it and the tom toms also plant Dishwasher half a decade later, playing in bars and clubs in the Med as the sun goes down/ comes up. 

Dishwasher (Longer)

Back To The Source

This is really good and tailor made for a Sunday morning. Balearic DJ Dr Rob has put together a mix of the source material that inspired some of Andrew Weatherall's productions and remixes (and provided the samples). It opens with the famous Harry Dean Stanton and Nastassja Kinski dialogue from Paris, Texas (the source of the 'yep, I know that feeling' line at the end of I'm Coming Down on Screamdelica) and then winds its way from there through some of Weatherall's record collection- Miles Davis, Bill Laswell, Lee and Nancy, Claire Hammil, American Spring (produced by Brian Wilson), the acid trip and tape loop drone of Tomorrow Never Knows, Billy Stewart, The Emotions, Gang Of Four, Fearless Four, Brilliant, the headspinning and heavy Hey Ho by Dub Syndicate, some even heavier Big Youth and Depth Charge- a mix that works both for trainspotters and general chilled out enjoyment.



Tracklist in full-

Harry Dean Stanton – I Knew These People
Bill Laswell – Lost Roads
Miles Davis – Saeta
American Spring – Sweet Mountain
Lee Hazlewood – Some Velvet Morning
Claire Hammil – Tides
The Beatles – Tomorrow Never Knows
Billy Stewart – Summertime
The Emotions – Don`t Want To Lose Your Love
Gang Of Four – What We All Want
Fearless Four – Rockin' It
Brilliant – Colours
Dub Syndicate – Hey Ho
Big Youth – Yabby Youth
Depth Charge – Depth Charge

Bonus selection- here's the Paris, Texas clip from the start of the mix and the end of the film, a scene and film that is always worth spending ten minutes with.