Forty Five Minutes Of Jon Hopkins

Last Sunday's spoken word/ ambient mix featured two tracks with Jon Hopkins on board, one his own recording with the voice of Ram Dass and the other a track with David Holmes and Stephen Rea reading Seamus Heaney. Both could have been on today's Sunday mix, forty five minutes of Jon Hopkins, an artist who has the ability to switch between spaced out ambient, neo- classical piano and full on electronic rave. 

Forty Five Minutes Of Jon Hopkins

• Bats In The Attic
• Deep In The Glowing Heart
• Emerald Rush
• Luminous Spaces
• Everything Connected 
• Glitter (Jon Hopkins Remix)
• Love Flows Over Us In Prismatic Waves

Bats In The Attic is from Diamond Mine, an album Jon recorded with King Creosote in 2011. Kenny's fragile voice and guitar are matched by Jon's use of found sounds and musique concrete techniques. 

Deep In The Glowing Heart and Love Flows Over Us In Prismatic Waves are both from 2021's Music For Psychedelic Therapy, an album I've gone back to many times over the last eighteen months. 

Emerald Rush is a stuttering, distorted building piece of music from Singularity, his 2018 album that sounds as deep as the lush deep blue/ violet vinyl it was pressed on. Everything Connected is from the same album, an epic piece of entrancing, ebbing and flowing, intense 21st century dance music.

Luminous Spaces is a version of Luminous Beings, a track from Singularity but with Kelly Lee Owens on vocals, a track that achieves take off in spectacular fashion, music for stellar places. 

Glitter is by Daniel Avery, a remix of a song from Song For Alpha, the 2018 album that started his remarkable run of recent albums. Jon's remix takes Daniel's thumpy original and increases everything- the kick drum bangs and rattles and the drop and crashing re- entry two thirds of the way through are heart- stoppingly exciting, capable of making me feel vaguely anxious and laughing out loud at the same time. Goosebumps stuff. 

2020: Two Lists

2020, it goes without saying, has been a year unlike any other. When the first lockdown kicked in back in March, schools were closed and everyone bar essential workers was told to stay at home, I briefly wondered if writing a music blog was suddenly a redundant activity, a bit futile and inadequate in the face of what was happening. The fear back in March was real, the scenes of people dying in hospital corridors in Italy coupled with rising case numbers and deaths and the sheer ineptitude of our government made everything else- even Brexit- seem inconsequential. In fact, as the weeks of lockdown turned into months and now almost a year of lockdowns and Tiers, music has been one of the things that has helped and despite our individual isolation has been one of the things that has brought us together. Anyone that has logged onto one of Sean Johnston's Emergency Broadcast Sessions and seen a community coming together in the chat function, enjoying hours of Sean DJing and chatting away will have seen how important music is as a release, as a connection and as simple escapist enjoyment. And despite everything there has been loads of great music made, written, recorded, produced and released this year. In some ways, I've enjoyed more new music this year than in many recent ones. 

Albums Of The Year

The best albums this year seem to have reflected the year (some of been made as a result of lockdown and time artists have had to create). There are masses of albums that have been floating around and that caught my ear. Before I get into the list proper, these ones have all been part of 2020- Wedge by Number, an exuberant post- punk, dance album with an ACR remix to boot, Julian Cope's Self Civil War (my last gig before lockdown, in February, was Julian at Gorilla), Steve Roach's Tomorrow, Rickard Javerling's 4, The Orb's Abolition Of The Royal Familia (or at least parts of it), Youth and Jah Wobble's Acid Punk Dub Apocalypse (an album with multiple guest stars, including Hollie Cook, Alex Paterson, Blue Pearl and beats from Andrew Weatherall and Nina Walsh and which sounds good when it's playing but which I can't remember much about when it's not), Rose City Band's Summerlong (the latest Ripley Johnson project, cosmic country/ boogie, some of which is superbly out there, a blissed out version of Laurel Canyon), the nine remixes that made up Unloved's Why Not release (including a superb Richard Sen remix and dub plus outstanding remixes from Phil Kieran, Hardway Bros and The Vendetta Suite), a similar release by Joe Morris, nine remixes of his Balearic album from the year before compiled as Exotic Remixes, and a follow up to his The Malcontent Volume 1 by Duncan Grey (who drip fed us some great standalone songs throughout 2020 before giving us The Malcontent Volume 2). An honourable mention too to three albums that were made decades ago but only saw the light of day this year- Neil Young's legendary Homegrown, Rig's Perfect and Bushpilot's 23, three very different but better late than never albums.  I also loved A Man Called Adam's career spanning oddities and extras round up Love Forgotten, a digital only release that packs a huge amount into it's twenty songs. 

I know that I should have heard Working Men's Club by now and just haven't got round to it despite them appearing to be right up my alley. They're on my list, as are Sault who everyone else I know raves about and I just haven't dived in there yet. 

These are the twelve albums that have been the pick of 2020 at Bagging Area, in roughly this order even if finding a meaningful way to rank them is really tricky. The albums at the top of the list could be placed either way round depending on which I'm listening to at the time. 

12. Future Beat Alliance 'Beginner's Mind'

An immersive nine track trip taking in ambient, drones, acid and the melodic futurism of 2th century Detroit techno.

11. Kelly Lee Owens 'Inner Song'

A strong set of electronic songs and grooves from Kelly and a step on from her debut (which I loved). Corner Of My Sky, intense, weather beaten 2020 techno with John Cale's vocals stood out but everything else on it, from the banging grooves of Melt! to the bleary eyed soundscapes, sounded as good.  

10. GLOK 'Dissident remixes'

GLOK's 2019 record was as good as anything else out last year. The remix album was trailed by one of the final Andrew Weatherall remixes, a beautiful but low key, urban ambient remix of Cloud Cover. Across the rest of the record were some equally innovative versions from Richard Sen, C.A.R., Leaf, Minotaur Shock and others and from GLOK (Andy Bell himself). 

9. Brian and Roger Eno 'Mixing Colours'

A beautifully meditative set of treated piano pieces that drift out of the speakers and around the room. Made perfect sense back in May when I was raging about VE Day and contemplating turning fifty.

8. Richard Norris 'Elements'

Five long tracks made with modular synths, lovely pulses and washes of sound, hypnotic analogue sequences and gentle drones that built on his Abstractions records from 2019 and his excellent Music For Healing series from the spring and summer- deep listening for difficult days. Richard has made some of the defining sounds of 2020 for me. 

9. The Long Champs 'Straight To Audio'

A one man band from Wales (Lloyd Jones) making chuggy, trippy instrumentals that found favour with Andrew Weatherall's Convenanza and the Weatherall/ Johnston travelling disco A Love From Outer Space. Multiple, shimmering guitar tracks, washes of FX, slow motion dance beats and a style of upbeat shoegaze that transported me when things seemed irredeemably gloomy. 

8. Four Tet 'Sixteen Oceans'

Released as lockdown struck Kieran Hebden's latest record, three sides of vinyl plus a fourth of locked grooves, is a distillation of everything that he's good at. Teenage Birdsong came out in 2019, those skippy beats and lighter- than- air melodies pointing the way, and the rest of the album lived up to it. When I was hearing this in March it seemed like it made a stake to be the year's defining record and it hasn't diminished that much in the time between. A cut above most of the rest.

7. Rheinzand 'Rheinzand'

Rheinzand are a trio from Belgian who have made the darkest disco and the headiest sounds of 2020, a stunning twelve song record with a hot, sticky cover of Talking Heads' Slippery People and in Fourteen Again a song to keep picking up the needle and putting it back to the start. One of those albums that made you/ me forget everything and just focus on being in the music, in the moment. 

6. Daniel Avery and Alessandro Cortini 'Illusion Of Life'

This record sound tracked March for me and will forever be the music of lockdown 1- drones, industrial ambience, some intense and dense atmospheres and mesmerising waves of noise. It is beautiful and ominous and sometimes a really difficult record to pin down. These are the sounds that increasingly have been where I've headed as the year has gone on and if Daniel hadn't recorded another album in lockdown that just pips this one, this could easily be my album of the year. 

5. Sonic Boom 'All Things Being Equal'

Pete Kember's first new album in decades, an analogue synth based set of songs that are exactly what he's been doing for three decades but which sound like a new idea. The lead single, Just Imagine, is one of my favourite songs of this year and it sits among the hypnotic, beguiling, psychedelic trip of the rest of the record. When it's on the turntable it engulfs you and fills the room, Pete seeing through his own hallucinations to deliver a political message of kinds- the way you live your life matters.

4. Roisin Murphy 'Roisin Machine'

The glitterball, dancefloor dynamics of Roisin and DJ Parrot turned into album form, songs segueing into each other, tension and release, and Roisin's singular vision front and centre. Dazzling in places and dizzying in others, 2019's single Incapable and 2020's Something More showcasing the just- this- side- of- demented disco pop that she's made her own. If New Year's Eve parties were a thing, this record would be best slipped on at about 10.45pm and then played through to midnight. This performance was filmed in lockdown in Ibiza. 

3: A Certain Ratio 'Loco'

Loco, the first ACR album for twelve years, came out in September, a ten song record that seems to try to fit onto one disc everything that makes them who they are: post- punk veterans, 80s funk experimenters, late 80s/ early 90s acid house dance movers, a motorik Berlin- inspired pop group and writers of Mancunian love songs. It's a completely self- contained record- it sounds like them and could only have been made by them, and Jez, Donald and Martin sound revitalised. Sadly, it came only weeks after the tragic death of Denise Johnson, who had sung with the band since the early 90s and who sings on four of the songs on Loco. Along with her solo album which came out at the same time, it's a fitting tribute. 

2: Daniel Avery 'Love + Light' 

In lockdown Daniel shut himself away in his studio, a shipping container overlooking the Thames and made music. Ghostly ambient moods, intense sounds that ripple and shudder out of the speakers, late night/ post- club washes of calming noise, bleepy melodies that pull at the emotions and some blistering techno capable with a few heart- stopping moments. A gorgeous, immersive record that sounds like the respite we've all needed this year. 

1. Andy Bell 'The View From Halfway Down'

Andy stopped off from the Ride re- union and his cosmic adventures as GLOK to make a solo album and it hasn't been far from my turntable since it's release in the autumn. Opened by the late 80s guitar attack bliss of Love Comes In Waves and then followed by the rolling reverse groove and backwards vocals of Indica, the album is the perfect marriage of texture, sound and feel with songs- Skywalker is beautiful, sun kissed psychedelia, Cherry Cola is upwards looking, dreamy psyche- pop and album closer Heat Haze On Wayland Road is seven minutes of shoegaze updated for 2020, a Hooky- esque bassline and some achingly lovely synth sounds. 

Neither Album Nor Single But Something Else Entirely Releases Of The Year

 

Richard Norris 'Music For Healing 1- 12'

In between my albums and singles of 2020 there is a series of releases by Richard Norris, twelve twenty minute ambient/ deep listening tracks, recorded and released with the intention of giving people music to help them switch off and to cope with the stresses of the first lockdown. The twelves pieces are all beautiful, meditative, immersive pieces of work that are as much part of 2020 for me as anything else I've written about here- they are neither albums nor singles but something else entirely (although the twelve have been edited down to much shorter pieces and compiled as a CD which is highly recommended).  

Singles/Songs / Remixes/ EPs Of The Year

I'm not sure what even constitutes a single anymore and it probably doesn't matter. Anyway, a top forty five, the number most associated with the single format (apologies to anything I've missed and there will be something).

45. Fireflies 'The Machine Stops'

44. Joe Morris 'The New Dawn Will Come' EP

43. Stray Harmonix 'Mountain Of One'

42. Apiento and Tepper '17- 44- 58' EP

41. A.M.O.R. 'The Decline And Fall Of A Mountain Of Rimowa'

40. Fontaines DC 'A Hero's Death'

39. Rich Lane 'Barry Island'

38. Michael Son of Michael 'Babylonian Beaches' Rude Audio Remix

37. Pye Corner Audio 'Where Things Are Hollow 2' EP

36. Golden Fang AsTRiD

35. Doves 'Carousels'

34. Sink Ya Teeth 'Somewhere Else'

33. The Orielles 'Bobbi's Secret World' Confidence Man Remix

32. Thurston Moore 'Hashish'

31. Sinead O'Connor 'Trouble Of The World'

30. Roisin Murphy 'Something More' Crooked Man Remixes

29. Massey v Sir Horatio 'Music Control'

28. Leo Mas and Fabrice ft. Sally Rodgers 'This Unspoken Love' and dub mix

27. Rich Lane 'Prusik' (Live From The Woods) from the Knots EP.

26. Dreems 'Shark Attack' EP

25. Night Noise 'Dancing In Space' EP

24. Fjordfunk 'It's All Black' Hardway Bros Remix

23. Woodleigh Research Facility 'Woodleigh's Lament' 

22. Number 'Wedge' A Certain Ratio v Number (ACR Rework)

21. Dan Wainwright 'Raindance' EP especially the pagan house of A Blessing

20. Duncan Grey 'Steve Killage'

19. The Avalanches ft. Jamie Xx, Neneh Cherry and CLYPSO 'Wherever You Go'

18. Richard Norris 'Golden Waves' EP

17. Woodleigh Research Facility 'Medieval Dub'

16. The Venetians 'Son Sur Son' Andrew Weatherall Remixes

15. Django Django 'Marble Skies' Andrew Weatherall Remix (from 2018 but unreleased until this year).

14. Cantoma 'Closer' Apiento remix 

13. The Orb 'The Weekend It Rained Forever (The Ravens Have Left The Tower)'

An album track but I'm sneaking it in here because it shows what Dr. Alex Paterson can still do when he gets everything exactly right- a long, meandering, slightly spooky ambient future classic, Blade Runner and pouring rain, and another track that chimed in tune with lockdown in March. 

12. Moon Duo 'Planet Caravan'

A ten minute long cover of a 1970 Black Sabbath song that is the pinnacle of chilled out, take your time guitar playing and whispered vocals. From a Sacred Bones compilation. 

11. Andy Bell 'Chery Cola' Pye Corner Audio Remix

The album song made even better, layers of cosmic synths and the ending, where it breaks down into folky acoustic guitar, is sublime. 

10. Andy Bell 'Love Comes In Waves'

Shimmering guitar lines beamed in direct from 1989 and a vocal that surfs over the top. Euphoric guitar pop. Summer 2020.

9. Woodleigh Research Facility 'Monthly EP Series'

These should probably be presented above with Richard Norris's Music For Healing series. In January Andrew Weatherall and Nina Walsh began a series of digital only, three track EPs to be released monthly throughout 2020. Events overtook them but the releases kept coming and there are some magnificent pieces of music contained within the folders- a few highlights include Birthday Three from January, Fume Homage a month later, Somnium from March, the tracks from the autumn with Joe Duggan's poetry over the top (Downhill and Play Bingo With Me), the Karra Mesh EP in May and July's Substation Glow and from the latest release The Fallen. 

8. Bicep 'Atlas'

I slept on this a bit at first, thinking it was just another Bicep track, but its peaks, the ebb and flow, the rippling toplines, rattling drums, snatches of vocal and happy/ sad house music have been coming around again and again since it came out in March.

7. Formerlover 'Correction Dub'

A bonkers but enthralling collision of dub and Nigerian rhythms by Justin Robertson with his wife Sofia on vocals, speaking/ singing about domination and suchlike. 

6. Aimes 'A Star... In The Sky' plus Hardway Bros remix'

Massive sounding sci fi chuggy dance music with a bouncing bassline and portentous vocal sample. Ridiculously good and with Saturn and Jupiter about to be in close conjunction in the sky next week well timed for pulling out again.  

5. Sonic Boom 'Just Imagine'

I mentioned this in the album review above but it's such a wonderful, tripped out, wiggy song, Pete asking us to imagine being a tree/ simplicity/ being truly free as the analogies rhythms and synths whirr by.

4. Andrew Weatherall 'Unknown Plunderer/ End Times Sound

This pair of deep cuts, experimental end of the world dub with spaced out sound effects and some guitar from beyond the solar system by Andy Bell (him again), were released on February 21st, four days after Andrew died, a piece of timing no- one expected or wanted. The two tracks demonstrate why he was such a gifted producer and why he is so missed.

 

3. Green Gartside 'Tangled Man/ Wishing Well'

This came out of nowhere on 7" in the summer, a gorgeous pair of covers of songs by British folk singer Anne Briggs, the golden voice of Green Gartside reborn with some sumptuous dubby folk- pop music. I love it when a single blindsides me and this did exactly that. 

2. Andrew Weatherall 'The Moton 5' EP

Four slices of Lord Sabre's customary, easy brilliance, not least in the title track of this EP which glides in with a propulsive bassline, a mechanical rhythm and some very moody synths. The strings that come in at two minutes add some drama to the chug and then it all then glides on, seemingly endlessly but actually only for another five minutes. The Moton 5.2 strips it down and delivers an alternate take. The 12" EP came out in April, two months after he passed and sounds like what he always promised on his Music's Not For Everyone radio show for NTS- tomorrow's music today. 

1. Daniel Avery 'Lone Swordsman'

On the morning of February 17th Daniel Avery was in his metal box studio when he heard of the death of his friend and mentor Andrew Weatherall. He captured his feelings in this piece of music, four minutes of emotional, instrumental dance music that captures the spirit of the man and how many people felt with him suddenly gone- a breakbeat, some synths, an unfolding chord sequence and what appear to be the root notes of Smokebelch occasionally peaking through. In a year where emotions have often been very close to the surface, Daniel made a piece of music that is simple and minimal but layered and nuanced and extremely moving. Proof as well that music helps, and that when times are hard music is often the answer. 

Corner Of My Sky

Kelly Lee Owens new album is imminent (Inner Song, out on Friday). This song, a deep, drifting and droning piece of electronic music with a vocal from John Cale came out recently ahead of it. The buzzing bassline and synth strings coupled with Cale's rich voice, particularly when he sings 'the rain, the rain, thank God the rain', make for an intense and emotional ride. Both Kelly and John have spoken of the need to reconnect with their Welsh roots and in the lyrics Cale tells the story of the land, through song, poetry and the spoken word.



Kelly's debut album came out in 2017, one of my favourites of that year. Last year she collaborated with Jon Hopkins on Luminous Spaces, a seven minute piece of brilliance. Covid delayed the release of Inner Song but its timing now at the end of summer seems perfect.

Isolation Mix Seven

An hour and a minute of stitched together songs for Saturday. This one caused me a bit of a headache at times. It was an attempt I think at first to try to join some dots together in terms of feel or sounds, with a nod to Kraftwerk following Florian Schneider's death last week. There was an earlier version that went quite techno/dance for the last twenty minutes but I then went back and did the end section again. I'm still not sure I got it quite right, and think I may have tried to cover too many bases stylistically, but my self imposed deadline was approaching so 'publish and be damned', as the Duke of Wellington said. Although he wasn't dealing with the business of trying to get spaghetti westerns, indie dance, shoegaze and leftfield electronic music to sit together in one mix was he?

Ennio Morricone: Watch Chimes (From ‘For A Few Dollars More’)

David Sylvian and Robert Fripp: Endgame

Talk Talk: Life’s What You Make It

Saint Etienne: Kiss And Make Up (Midsummer Madness Mix)

Spacemen 3: Big City (Everyone I Know Can Be Found Here)

Beyond The Wizards Sleeve: Diagram Girl (Beyond The Wizards Sleeve Re- Animation)

My Bloody Valentine: Don’t Ask Why

Jon Hopkins and Kelly Lee Owens: Luminous Spaces

Kraftwerk: Numbers

Death In Vegas: Consequences Of Love (Chris and Cosey Remix)

Chris Carter: Moonlight

Simple Minds: Theme For Great Cities

Durutti Column: It’s Wonderful

I have a significant birthday fast approaching. A few months ago we had planned that today would be a day of celebrating with anyone who wanted to join us, starting with lunch and few beers in town and then a tram pub crawl southbound out of the city centre towards Sale, stopping off in Old Trafford (maybe) and Stretford (definitely) before some drinks locally in the evening. That obviously isn't happening. I'll have to re-schedule for my 51st. 

Night

Kelly Lee Owens was about to release her second album Inner Song, the follow up to her 2017 debut, but has pushed it back in light of the current situation. She put this up last week though saying...

'From me to you, here is a song from my album. It's called 'Night'. This wasn't really supposed to be a single but with everything that is happening right now I wanted to reach out x'

Night is a wonderfully emotive piece of electronic pop, a song with a softer edge than the techno of previous single Melt! and with a pulse that anchors it. It builds too, becoming quite explosive. Very nice indeed.

Monday's Long Song

Kelly Lee Owens remixed by Prins Thomas in 2018, a seventeen minute Diskomiks that stretches her song Bird out into new places and new shapes. Six minutes in the kick drum takes over as everything else falls away. There's a wobbly bass note and then some ace bongo/congas work and then it all starts to build again. The last minute or so has some moody, reflective strings to round the journey off. Long and worth investing in. If you're short of time or attention span there's an eight minute edit version, which is still pretty long.



Kelly has a new album out in May, Inner Life, and trailed it last week with the whip-crack smart techno of Melt! Her debut album in 2017 was one of my favourites of that year. I played it recently to see if it still was (and it is). Modern, moving, intense electronic music. Promises to be a good 'un.

Luminous Spaces

A thing of beauty from Jon Hopkins and Kelly Lee Owens, which began life as a remix of one of the songs from his Singularity album, gained a vocal from Kelly and then took on a life of its own, developing into this seven minute, weightless journey through time and space.

Bagging Area End Of Year Review

Nope, I'm not entirely sure what is going on in the pictured Bagging Area either.

Albums
2017 seems to have been a good year for music. Making a list of 15 favourite albums was easy, an average of more than one a month- and in the end I got to 18. I'm sure there are loads of good albums I haven't heard too. These are the ones that pushed my buttons the most.

18 Monolife 'Sandalphon'
17 Peter Perrett 'How The West Was Won'
16 The Charlatans 'Different Days'
15 Hannah Peel 'Mary Casio: Journey To Cassiopeia'
14 Steve Cobby 'Hemidemisemiquaver'
13 Timothy J. Fairplay 'Where Is The Champion'
12 The Replacements 'For Sale: Live At Maxwell's' (30 years old but first official release)
11 Ride 'Weather Diaries' (especially Cali, which soundtracked the end of August perfectly)
10 Slowdive 'Slowdive'
9 Michael Head and The Red Elastic Band 'Adios senor Pussycat'
8 Mogwai 'Every Country's Sun' (especially Party In The Dark, a number one in another universe)
7 Bicep 'Bicep'
6 The Jesus And Mary Chain 'Damage And Joy'

The top 5 are interchangeable in terms of positions, each one could be my number one in its own way.

Moon Duo 'Occult Architecture Vol 1' and 'Occult Architecture Vol 2'.
Released a couple of months apart as separate but linked records, the flip sides of each other, the light and the shade. Vol 2 is as light and up as anything they've done and is a treat but the dark side of the Vol 1 is often its equal. Motorik drumming, mellifluous guitar parts, analogue synths- psyche rock with electronics, blissed out and dreamy.



Andrew Weatherall 'Qualia'
Over the last couple of years Weatherall has hit another purple patch, with releases all over the place- singles, remixes, albums, dubs... Qualia is an 8 track joy, synths and guitars over live drums and loops, buzzing and propulsive, determinedly European in sound and full of vim. And just when you think he might be  playing within himself, he throws in something like Soft Estates, a harking back to TLS's minimal electro, or Vorfreude 2, with lounge backing vocals cooing over massive sounding drums and wiggly keyboard lines.



Jane Weaver 'Modern Kosmology'
A hit of summer, psyche, folk, glam, kraut and pop all bound up in one ten song record.



Kelly Lee Owens 'Kelly Lee Owens'
I bought this almost on a whim in Piccadilly Records at the start of the year (and it's their album of the year). Kelly's debut is a beautiful blend of woozy electronics, ambient textures with both pop and techno at its heart. The slow motion build of some of the songs contrasted perfectly with the rhythmic pulse of the others. Closing track 8, extended over nine and half minutes, is a trip into a dream world.



Singles/e.p.s/remixes 
Yes, there are quite a lot of Andrew Weatherall records in this list. There are individual songs off all of the albums listed above that could make this list but for the sake of brevity I've kept it to stand alone releases. It starts with a summer holiday earworm courtesy of the daughter and the then latest NOW! compilation and ends with Aura by Bicep which, especially in its 12" form, sums up everything that is great about electronic dance music.

35 Miley Cyrus 'Malibu'
34 Gorillaz 'Andromeda'
33 Paul Weller 'Mother Ethiopia'
32 Lorde 'Green Light'
31 Fort Beulah N.U. 3 one sided 12" singles that I'm taking together- '1', '2' and '3'
30 Phil Kieran 'No Life' Roman Flugel remix
29 Trentemoller and Jenny Lee 'Hands Up'
28 Confidence Man 'Bubblegum' Andrew Weatherall Remix
27 AMOR 'Paradise'
26 Kid Wave 'Everything Changes'
25 Doc Daneeka and Robert Owens 'LUV UNLTD'
24 Calexico 'Voices In The Field'
23 Konzel 'Haptic Didactic'
22 Finiflex 'Ta Ta Oo Ha'
21 Andrew Weatherall 'Kaif'
20 Duncan Gray ft Sarah Rebecca 'Erotica Nervosa'
19 Heart People 'Voices' Andrew Weatherall Remix
18 Nancy Noise 'Kaia/Azizi's Dance' Remix e.p.
17 Phil Kieran 'Find Love' Andrew Weatherall Remix
16 Jagwar Ma 'Give Me A Reason' Remixes
15 Charlotte Gainsbourg 'Deadly Valentine'
14 Andrew Weatherall 'Kiyadub' ep
13 Gulp 'Morning Velvet Sky' single/Richard Norris Remix
12 Justin Robertson 'Numerical Discord Swap'
11 The Charlatans 'Different Days' Chris and Cosey Remix
10 Halina Rice 'Drive' single/Richard Norris Remix
9 Mark Lanegan Band 'Beehive' Andrew Weatheral Remix
8 The Early Years 'Hall Of Mirrors' Andrew Weatherall Mixes 1 and 2
7 Ride 'Pulsar'
6 Bicep 'Glue'
5 Alien Stadium 'Livin' In Elizabethan Times' ep
4 Yello 'Frautonium' The Andrew Weatherall Remixes (4 of them but especially Warehouse)
3 Richard Fearless 'Sweet Venus'
2 BP Fallon and David Holmes 'Henry McCullough' Andrew Weatherall Remix
1 Bicep 'Aura' 12" Mix

Good video too.

More Than A Woman

Kelly Lee Owens has released one of this year's best albums- her self-titled debut is the Piccadilly Records album of the year and they don't usually get it wrong. The album has been near my stereo since it came out, a woozy, spectral head-trip with little melodies emerging from the analogue synths and drum machine, sing-song vocals and extended waves of ambient noise. To finish the year off she has put out a single, a cover of Aaliyah's More Than A Woman, heavy bass and sampled strings, out digitally now and on vinyl soon. The B-side is her own remix  of the A-side, a tougher house version with squiggles.

You Look Certain (I'm Not So Sure)

Back at the start of the year Kelly Lee Owens released an album of woozy, slightly off kilter dance music songs. It was stuck to my turntable for a while and will be dug out again before the end of the year. Kelly has reworked a new song by Mount Kimbie, a dance music duo who started in dubstep and moved elsewhere- ambient electronica, future garage. The result is right up my street, a repetitive echoey sound to open and a single kick drum, and then several minutes of build, layers of sound on top of each. When the bass hits at two minutes everything gets spaced out a bit. The echoey, keening sound comes back with some pow-pows. By the time the vocal comes in at four minutes you're well away, transported elsewhere. Blissful stuff.

Oleic

My posts seem to be getting briefer- maybe I'm running out of ways to talk about music and I don't seem to have any stories to tell either.

Kelly Lee Owens has released some really interesting music in recent years and is gearing up for an album. I first heard her as the voice on some of Daniel Avery's Drone Logic lp and the techno influences are evident in the songs here. There's also some wonky electronic pop going on and a whole load of disorientating echo and wobble.

This one came out two years ago, a tribute to Arthur Russell.



This ep, Oleic, is on Bandcamp, four slices of snare, synth, odd frequencies and voice.