Resist

Back in February Pye Corner Audio released an expensive box set compiling his Where Things Are Hollow series along with some new tracks and remixes. It's a comprehensive album and a deep dive into PCA world, where analogue synths and drum machines conjure up murky ambient, blurred electronic soundscapes, 70s sci fi/ TV and subterranean drones. The new Where Things Are Hollow included a remix John Talabot did back in 2020 which shifts Pye Corner Audio into slightly different territory, a powering, thumping breakbeat providing eight minutes of direct propulsion.

Resist (Jon Talabot Remix)

Pye Corner Audio regularly releases new music onto his Bandcamp page. At the start of August a two track EP came out, Matrix, which veered into shadowy cosmische house. Get it here. And closer to home Pye Corner Audio is playing live at Yard in Manchester, a venue in Cheetham Hill in the shadow of HMP Strangeways, at the end of September. There are still some tickets available- and I'll be able to enthuse to Martyn Jenkins directly about his music as some of The Flightpath Estate DJ team are playing support to both Pye Corner Audio and Shunt Voltage. 

Forty Minutes Of The Xx

Over the course of three Xx albums, a bunch of remixes and various solo releases The Xx defined some of what the 2010's would sound like, the three members conjuring up a minimalist and distinctive sound, a hint of indie- rock, reflective/ melancholic vocals by the front pair of Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim, and Jamie Xx's beats and laptop bringing in a sound from London's club scene and underground. I missed their debut album, the Mercury prize win and their media exposure putting me off (like the fool I can be sometimes about such things) and only really caught up with their second album and then especially Jamie Xx's solo album In Colour. Now, I find their music hugely affecting. Revisiting Jamie's Gil Scott Heron remix album recently sent hares running in my mind and hence today's mix. In the end, the real problem was choosing what to put in and what to leave out.

Forty Minutes Of The Xx

• Gil Scott Heron and Jamie Xx: I'll Take Care Of You
• Jamie Xx ft. Romy: Loud Places
• Jamie Xx: All Under One Roof Raving
• The Xx: Chained (John Talabot and Pional Blinded Remix)
• The Xx: VCR
• The Xx: VCR (Four Tet Remix)
• Jamie Xx: Let's Do It Again
• Jamie Xx: Gosh

In 2011 Jamie Xx remixed all of Gil Scott Heron's 2010 album, I'm New Here (it turned out to be Gil's final album). The new version, We're New Here, is full of Jamie's signature production techniques and is full of life and the joy of making sound. The album was Jamie's first full solo production, much of it created while on tour with The Xx. He said wanted it to sound like something you'd hear on pirate radio, 'a different genres... convoluted and mixed up'.  Post- dubstep apparently. 

Loud Places is the stand out from Jamie Xx's 2015 album In Colour, a record that was deservedly praised in the end of 2015 lists. This song, with Xx bandmate Romy on vocals, a song about memories,  connections, the solace found in crowds, intimacy, missing someone when they've gone, all those kinds of things. John Talabot's remix of Loud Places, the Higher Dub, is among my favourite records of the last ten years and that I didn't put it on this mix is a mystery to me too.

All Under One Roof Raving was released as a single in 2014, a celebration of nightclubs, music, scenes, youth culture, London and clothing. It samples crowd noises and voices from the 1999 film Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore, the list of brands at the end of the song 

John Talabot and Pionel's remix of Chained came out in 2013, the Spanish producers pushing the source track (from The Xx's 2012 album Coexist) into less minimal territories, the vocals from Romy and Oliver Sim ducking and diving around each other.

VCR was on The Xx's self titled debut album, released in 2010, which suddenly seems like a long time ago. The minimal sound, spacious production, woodblock percussion, single guitar line and melancholic twin vocals demonstrating what made their first album so good. 

The Four Tet remix of VCR is among Kieran Hebden's best work. Yep, that good. 

Let's Do It Again was the first new track from Jamie since 2020's I Don't Know, a 2022 track designed to sound irresistible in fields and festivals. This is the radio edit, a four minute condensed journey through peaks and troughs, samples and synth arpeggios and an anthemic vocal. It was at least partly a response to emerging from lockdown and being able to do things communally again. 

Gosh is the opening track on In Colour, a deep house/ future garage/ pirate radio single that leaps out of the speakers. 'Oh my gosh', the vocal sample exclaims, 'Oh my gosh/ Easy easy/ Hold it down, hold it down' and you know exactly what he means. 

David Holmes At The Golden Lion: Recreated

A trip back in time to two weeks ago for today's Sunday mix and a much longer offering than usual. You might remember- I do- that on Saturday 1st October a group of us supported David Holmes at the Golden Lion in Todmorden and had quite the night. David came on at about nine and played a four hour set that took the proverbial roof off. Using the power of our memories (hazy, intermittent, vague and unreliable admittedly) and those people who had the presence of mind to use Shazam in the building at the time, we've attempted to put together David's setlist from that evening and then I've slung the ones we've been able to identify together in a one hour and forty seven minutes long, fifteen track mix, in roughly the order we recall them being played. It's missing a lot of tracks clearly- Holmes played for four hours- and it's not anywhere near as skillfully mixed but it's here to give a flavour, a short recreation of David at the Golden Lion a fortnight ago. I've listened to it a couple of times since finishing it midweek and it works for me- if I do say so myself. 

David Holmes at The Golden Lion recreated by The Flightpath Estate

• Alex Kassian: Spirit Of Eden (Bill Laswell Remix)
• Roberto Rodriguez: Mustat Varjot
• Carte De Sejour: Ouadou
• Axel Boman: Klinsmann
• Pete Wylie and The Oedipus Wrecks: Sinful (Tribal)
• Dornbirn 78: Dancing In The City
• Suuns: Up Past The Nursery (Ivan Smagghe Edit)
• Ettika: Ettika (Version Maxi Inedite)
• Hans Zimmer: Inception (Junkie XL Remix)
• John Talabot: Depak Ine
• The Blow Monkeys: La Passionara
• David Holmes: It's Over, If We Run Out Of Love (Darren Emerson Huffa remix)
• Unloved: Turn Of The Screw (Erol Alkan Rework)
• David Holmes and Keith Tenniswood: I Am Somebody
• Orbital: Belfast (David Holmes Remix)

Alex Kassian's Spirit Of Eden came out as a 12" last year, my favourite release from last year I've only discovered this year. The original and the Bill Laswell mixes are superb. Roberto Rodriguez's Mustat Varjot is from a 2012 compilation EP called On the Latch. Carte De Sejour is Italian disco/ funk from 1984. The vinyl rip included here is crackly as fuck but I think it actually adds to the fun. Klinsmann by Axel Boman, a tribute to a very well known German footballer perhaps, is from 2013. Sinful (Tribal Mix), one of the night's highlights, is a 1986 single remixed by Zeus B. Held- the definitive version. I'm going to see Pete Wylie a week today and if he plays Sinful I will be very happy. 

Dornbirn 78 released Dancing In The City in 2019, a cover of Marshall Hain's 1978 song. Ivan Smagghe's edit of Suun's Up Past The Nursery is from 2013. Ettika is French disco from 1985. John Talabot's Depak Ine came out on his 2012 album Fin. The Junkie XL remix of Hans Zimmer's theme from the film Inception is from 2010. La Passionara is a  Balearic classic from 1990 by The Blow Monkeys.

The Darren Emerson remix of David Holmes' It's Over, If We Run Out Of Love was part of a remix package from earlier this year, with Raven Violet on vocals. Raven also sings on Unloved's Turn Of The Screw, from The Pink Album, out shortly on vinyl and already available digitally. The Erol Alkan remix came out as part of an EP recently. David's track with former Lone Swordsman Keith Tenniswood is currently unreleased and appears here courtesy of a rip from Holmes' wonderful Desert Island Disco mix for Lauren Laverne back at the start of the year- it has the voice of Andrew Weatherall at the end talking about acid house as gnostic ceremony. The David Holmes remix of Orbital's Belfast was the 'one more tune' track at The Golden Lion and came out a couple of months ago as part of Orbital's 30 Something compilation. 

The Most Beautiful Girl In Hackney

Another Top Boy related post following yesterday's Fuck Buttons double bill. At the end of episode three, series one, Sully says to his young daughter, 'You're the most beautiful girl in Hackney y'know', a line I instantly recognised (Sully is played by rapper and grime artist Kano). It took me a moment to pinpoint where I'd heard it before...

Girl

Girl is the final song on Jamie Xx's solo album In Colour from 2015, a dizzying swirl of synths and beats and a voice, chopped up and distorted singing 'I want your love'. The album, seven years old now, is a peach, a thoroughly modern mish mash of samples, voices and songs, spanning the range from bedsit broken heart laptop ballads (like Loud Places) to massive club tunes (such as Gosh). As well as the line of dialogue from Top Boy Girl samples Brian Wilson and Freeze's I.O.U.

Loud Places, with vocals from his Xx bandmate Romy, was remixed by John Talabot twice. This one is the pick of the pair, a stunning ten minute remix that builds gradually but incessantly, synths and voices climbing euphorically, drums padding softly and then a part of Romy's vocal- 'Didn't I take you to/ Higher places, you can't reach without me?' The second half, after six minutes, takes off elsewhere with the bassline leading and Romy's vocal shifting to breathy mutterings about ecstasy and, in a kiss off moment, not being around when he/ she/ they come down. 

Loud Places (John Talabot's Higher Dub)

Forty Minutes Of Peaking Lights

Peaking Lights, husband/ wife duo from the US (variously San Francisco, Wisconsin, Los Angeles but now resident in Amsterdam according to Wiki), have been releasing albums since 2008, putting out a lo- fi, trippy, sun dappled type of psychedelic pop, heavily laced with dub. I first encountered them on their 2011 album 936 (Piccadilly Records record of the year I think) and then got the follow up Lucifer and its side version Lucifer In Dub. I've not kept up to date with everything they've released but what I have I love- their sound is a swirling, heady kaleidoscopic brew, the dubbier ones particularly hitting the spot. 

Beautiful Dub is from Lucifer In Dub, released in 2012. Tiger Eyes (Laid Back) and All The Sun That Shines were both on 936 which came with a bunch of remixes, including the one here by On U Sound's Adrian Sherwood. In 2015 they remixed four songs by Sinkane, his Sudanese electronic funk- pop splattered with their psychedelic dub. Beautiful Son is from Lucifer- John Talabot's remix is a gorgeous low key thumper from 2013. 

Forty Minutes of Peaking Lights

• Beautiful Dub
• Tiger Eyes (Laid Back) (Adrian Sherwood On U Sound Remix)
• All The Sun That Shines
• Yacha (Peaking Lights Mix)
• Beautiful Son (John Talabot's Acetate Dub)

Monday's Long Song

There's always something mildly disappointing, not to say a little depressing, about the end of August bank holiday. The weather is often well past the height of summer, the new school year hangs over it like a flat grey cloud, autumn is just around the corner, only a day away, and this year more than most it seems like a hollow celebration.

But anyway, cheer up.... this e.p. came out back in June, Where Things Are Hollow 2 by Pye Corner Audio, a follow up to a 2017 e.p. (inspired by and dedicated to the memory of Mr Weatherall) with three new Pye Corner Audio tracks and a remix courtesy of John Talabot, a record full of analogue electronics and pulses and dreamy ambient sounds. The John Talabot remix of Resist is fairly full on, verging into techno territory, hypnotic and beguiling with a bassline that bounces around like a wasp in a jamjar. Buy it at Bandcamp.

So Right

This came out last August but I only found it recently, a John Talabot remix of Marie Davidson. John Talabot is a Catalan DJ and producer who has remixed the Xx as well as releasing his own album way back in 2012. Marie Davidson is a French- Canadian producer and musician who put out an album last year called Working Class Woman on Ninja Tune (which includes a track called Workaholic Paranoid Bitch). House music from Barcelona and techno from Montreal. Talabot's remix of Davidson's So Right is a nine minute dub techno excursion, a deep dive into metronomic drums, moody synths and spectral, echoed voice. I like this a lot.



In 2014 Talabot remixed Bicep. This alternative mix was given away free somewhere- a long, somewhat bleepy version and like a lot of Talabot's remixes is a mid-tempo, mid-set sort of tune.

Satisfy (Talabot Alt Mix)

Didn't I Take You To Higher Places You Can't Reach Without Me?

Drew posted this last week but on the off chance that there's anyone who missed it there or who reads this but not Across The Kitchen Table I'm going to share it here today. I've been playing it daily since I first heard it. John Talabot's remix of Jamie Xx's Loud Places. Drew called it mesmerising- which it definitely is. Add euphoric. And gorgeous. At ten minutes long, if you click replay twice that's half an hour of your day gone in a blissful haze, lost with that line or two of Romy's vocal isolated and repeated, and those wonderful drum patterns and synths. Between them Jamie, Romy and John also nail the happiness/sadness that is part of dance music and club culture- the communal joy of dancing against the loss of the lyrics. She's not waiting around, she's going, going, gone.

You Go To Loud Places

I'm still massively enjoying the Jamie Xx album. This John Talabot remix of one of the standout songs Loud Places strips it down, keeps Romy's vocal and then goes synth crazy at the end. Probably works best in a club but still sounds good at home.

Chained

Something long and slow and laid back for Sunday morning, a remix of The Xx by John Talabot (he's from Barcelona), sampling The Streets and released back in 2012. Listening to this won't get you up and about and doing anything strenuous (getting out on the bike, clearing the shed out, tidying the garden...) but you will feel very relaxed while it's playing.

Chained (John Talabot & Pionel Blinded Remix)

Beautiful

The dub version of the last Peaking Lights album (Lucifer and Lucifer In Dub) have both been near my stereo recently. The one in the video above is called Beautiful Dub and that's exactly what it is. There was a download only e.p. of remixes too (Lucifer Re-Lit) of which Jon Talabot's re-working of the same song (Beautiful Son) was, again, beautiful. Eight minutes of hi-hat, piano and bass, with echoey blissed out, sunny day vocals.



Beautiful Son (John Talabot's Acetate Dub)

He's From Barcelona

John Talabot is young and from Barcelona and has provided some really good remixes in recent times. His own album Fin is an electronic joy from start to finish, full of tense synths, deep basslines and edgy noises, and takes you on a head-nodding trip.

When The Past Was The Present

Jacqueline Goddard photographed by Man Ray, one of Man's favourite models. She was a foot taller than him, feted by Paris society and died in 2003 aged 91.