Another Pleasant Valley Death Cult

Matt Gunn has appeared here before but in leftfield  electronic/ cosmic chug/ psychedelic dub disco mode. In his youth Matt played in guitar bands and it turns out there are occasions when the rock 'n' roll juices flow, the guitars get plugged in, the amps turned up and jams are kicked out. Last Friday Matt unleashed an album as The Matt Gunn Band into the festive hell of mid- December, an eight song slice of, as he puts it, 'songs about stuff using real instruments first, then tech', an album called Another Pleasant Valley Death Cult. The title alone should give you some idea of what to expect. 

Ego To Go Go kicks in with a drummer counting us in and then raw and dirty fuzz bass, psyche rock guitar chords, summer of '69 vibes, ah ah ah backing vocals and then growly lead vox. The kind of guitar rock that 00s bands inspired by the Mary Chain made- Crocodiles and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club both spring to mind. Different League is funked up indie with a killer bassline. What Do You Think Of Me Now? channels The Cramps- in fact, Lux and Poison Ivy are never far away on Another Pleasant Valley Death Cult- but with 70s punk vocals. Testing One Two is looser and more experimental, more post- punk. Crushed comes in with a repeating organ riff, then crunchy drums and an indie dance feel, recalling both That Petrol Emotion and Big Audio Dynamite, if they'd come from Windsor. Infiltrator starts with synths, the sort of sound Matt produces more usually, but then diverts with a driving, propulsive throbbing bass, FXed vocals and a surf guitar solo. Full Of Lies is slowed down, the dub influences seeping in, FX and bleeps, the guitars not turning up until a couple of minutes in. Another Pleasant Valley Death Cult finishes with Shock Value, an eight minute epic, again riding in on synths and then a sneered vocal, 'take this...', as the bass and drums crunch about. Matt sings of AC/ DC and voltage running through him. The psyched out section, backwards guitars over thumping drums, is a joy, the song switching back and forth and then building for the last few minutes, guitars, synths, FX, drums, throbbing bass, a hefty dose of the experimental early 90s indie/ guitar bands fed through dance remixes and producers reconstituted for late 2024. You can listen and buy at Bandcamp.

Not long ago  Matt released some cosmic chug for Tici Taci, a three track EP called The Ringmakers Of Saturn. I wrote about it here- and need no excuse to repost this Simon Sheldon and Monkton remix, a wonderful piece of skanking sci fi dub. 

Ringmakers And Repulsion

More new music to end the week, a pair of releases coming from different ends of the sonic scale but both providing a bit of a hit to the senses. 

First, a new EP from the multi- talented Matt Gunn, The Ringmakers Of Saturn, out today on Tici Taci. The lead track has electronics and guitar side by side, and blast off at one minute ten seconds, thumping bass, synths and FX and crunchy drums, cosmic disco heading out to the sixth planet. There are remixes- the Simon Sheldon and Monkton Version cuts straight to the chase, whooshes and pulsing bassline with that sci fi guitar line cutting through, dropping into a delicious dub halfway in. Tici Taci boss Duncan Gray provides the second remix, Dunc's All Action Edit, wobbly bass, ripples of sound and perpetual motion. 

The second burst of new music today comes from Leicester's Echolocation, a band who have been ploughing their furrow for over twenty years, a guitar/ drums/ bass/ brass/ synths/ spoken word band who possess a distinctive sound and singular view of the modern world that can be found on several albums and EPs. Their latest is called Repulsion, a four track EP. Opening song meta AF lulls you gently with tingles but then guitars clang in and vocalist Pete threatens, ' We're coming for ya/ We're gonna call you out'. The UK Of The A is slower but no less urgent, fuzz guitar and bass and the voice in the distance warning about echo chambers and doubt. The drums kick in and the tempo ramps up. Attention Grab cuts the menace slightly, organ/ keys at the fore while the nine minute title track has Harvey's ringing guitar line take the lead while the drums and bass rattling away and there's more unease and tension in the words, 'try to fit in... are you a team player?'. A wall of buzzing guitar crashes forwards and then drops back again, the band forging on, Pete still free associating, 'tolerance, forgiveness, compassion... repulsion'. 

You can get Repulsion and the rest of Echolocation's back catalogue at Bandcamp.  

Take Your Baby By The Hand

In 2022 Peak High released a single that was one the best of the year, the magnificent Was That All It Was, a cover of a 1979 disco/ soul song by Jean Carne. Peak High (Jim McCall) then sent his version to Sean Johnston who remixed it twice, the first time pulling all the ALFOS/ Patrick Cowley levers, synths and drum machines set for the cosmic disco/ chug heart of the sun, the second going early 90s Sheffield bleep house. Now they've done it again.

The new release is a cover of Wang Chung's 1983 hit Dance Hall Days, a song for summer and late nights, the sequencers and synths throbbing and pulsing. Don Gomez's sweet vocal sends the song closer to perfection. All the labels apply- cosmic disco, Italo, Balearic, chug house. Once again Sean is on remix duties, his Hardway Bros remix toughening up the drums and sending it to a sweatier, darker place, most likely a basement. 

The Peak High and Hardway Bros versions are at Bandcamp. The video for the original song was directed by Derek Jarman, with some of the footage from Jarman's father's home movies. The toddler is Derek. 

Sean is back in his remix partnership with Duncan Gray as Hardway Bros Meets Monkton very shortly, the pair remixing the latest song from the Tici Taci label, a superb EP from Uj Pa Gaz, coming all the way from Tirana in Albania. The Hardway Bros Meets Monkton Uptown remix of Roxy is a six minute dub version, bassline leading the way, very much Uptown. The original version of Roxy is a gorgeous, woozy slice of electronic music, laid back Adriatica. Also on the EP is The Cove, six slo mo minutes, percussion, chugging drums and a keening topline that pulls at the heartstrings. There's a clip of the remix of Roxy at Soundcloud  and one of Roxy here. More excellence from Tici Taci- the EP comes out on 31st July. 

Back in 2018 Uj Pa Gaz remixed Fujiya & Miyagi's brilliant ode to middle age and its attendant physical shortcomings, Extended Dance Mix. 

Extended Dance Mix (Uj Pa Gaz Remix)

While I'm here, can I remind you about Duncan Grey's full length album from earlier this year, Five Fathoms Full. It's twelve tracks of wall to wall supercharged ALFOS- style cosmic disco/ indie dance and hasn't been heard by nearly enough people. Find it here. 

An Hour Of Hardway Meets Monkton Uptown And Downtown

Hardway Bros (Sean Johnston) and Monkton (Duncan Gray) DJ and remix together. In both cases there's something about the partnership that pushes both to do something that's different from what each does on their own. Their remixes as Hardway Bros Meets Monkton reference the seminal Augustus Pablo album King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown and as a result you'd be right to expect lots of dub percolating through the sounds cooked up in the remix studio. Dub, bass, echo, melodica- all are present. So is plenty of glorious chug and the wide spaces of cosmic disco. Cosmic, psychedelic, dub disco. The remixes also tend to be long, usually going up towards ten minutes, so this mix was always going to be a long one. 

An Hour of Hardway Meets Monkton Uptown And Downtown

• Jack Butters: Shake It Off (Hardway Meets Monkton Uptown Version)
• Electric Blue Vision: Other Skies (Hardway Meets Monkton Uptown Version)
• Perry Granville: Sailing Ships (Hardway Meets Monkton Uptown Version)
• Fjordfunk: It's All Black (Hardway Meets Monkton Uptown)
• GLOK: That Time Of Night (Hardway Meets Monkton Uptown Dub)
• Psychederek: Screamadereka (Hardway Meets Monkton Uptown Downtown Remix)
• Phil Kieran and Green Velvet: Enjoy The Day (Hardway Meets Monkton Downtown Remix)

Jack Butters is from Stoke- on- Trent, a city fmaous for consisting of five towns, its historic past as the centre of pottery and ceramics, and for it's football team Stoke City (the old ground, the Victoria Ground, was a fairly fearsome awayday in the past). What Stoke should be famous for now is Jack's music, not least this dubbed out Hardway and Monkton remix. I heard this played by Sean at ALFOS at The Golden Lion last summer and it sounded immense.

Electric Blue Vision is Jesse Fahnestock of 10:40 and Jezebell with singer Emilia Harmony. Other Skies came out last November, a 2023 highlight with three great remixes- this one plus remixes by Tambores En Benirras and Balearic Ultras. Sean and Duncan's remix is more majestic melodica led dub, a complete reconstruction of Jesse and Emilia's song.

Perry Granville's Sailing Ships becomes a metallic- dub- by- way- of- post punk- and- acid house trip in the Hardway Bros and Monkton hands, noises rattling round and ricocheting as the bass pushes on and thunder rumbles. There are stuttering vocal sample and pulverising synths, drop outs and re- entries and always underpinning everything, huge, live sounding bass. 

Fjordfunk released It's All Back in 2020 on the Tici Taci label, an eleven minute cosmic disco tune remixed into an eleven minute cosmische dub disco tune by Hardway and Monkton with a squealing guitar line dropping in and out and an ultra- distorted voice saying things that are impossible to make out. 

GLOK is Ride's Andy Bell. Since 2019 Andy's released several albums and singles as GLOK, experimental cosmische/ synth songs and tracks. That Time Of Night was on 2021's Pattern Recognition and features the voice of Shiarra Bell, Andy's wife, talking about the pleasures of being lost on a dancefloor, 'just one person, one part of the whole mass of people.. the heat and the light and the flashing...'. Hardway and Monkton take the track and turn it into a sleek, propulsive, krauty trip, a keening guitar line running through it with a booming, metronomic kick drum.

Psychederek is from Stretford, just up the road from me, and has recently released one of this year's best EPs, Alt!. In August 2021 he released the Space Arcade 12" on Chris Massey's Sprechen label, with the very ace Screamadereka coming in double Hardway Monkton remix form- the Downtown remix and Disco Dub version. The Downtown Remix is a glorious sunlit thing in two halves, the first half dubby psyche and the second a chuggy, pacier, cosmische glide. 

Phil Kieran and Green Velvet's Enjoy The Day came out in late 2022. Phil is a Belfast based DJ and producer. Green Velvet is from Chicago. Enjoy The Day is full on, four four drums and techno bass, chopped up and FXed vocals, 'you got it', and a piano line that is the definition of happy/ sad. 

Insanely Beautiful

Long time Bagging Area favourites Fluke are back, out of the blue and a long hiatus, with a new single called Insanely Beautiful. It has a big sound and production, Jon Fugler's vocals up front, 'just trying to do the best that we can do', over piano and a wall of synths and sound. It's a very welcome return to form that sits alongside their 90s work- Philly, Slid, Joni, Thumper, Electric Guitar, Slap It, Groovy Feeling, not to mention all those hyper- dancefloor oriented, wigged out remixes of people like Bjork and World Of Twist- without repeating themselves, and feels totally modern. 

If that wasn't enough one of my favourite remix teams, Hardway Bros  and Monkton aka Sean Johnston and Duncan Gray, are on hand to extend an already long track into an even longer one- the Hardway Bros Meets Monkton Uptown Mix is a chuggy, trippy, low slung groove with a bassline that finds the absolute centre of the sweet spot, a remix that goes on and on and on.....

Other Skies

Jesse Fahnestock and Emilia Harmony's new musical outfit Electric Blue Vision release a four track EP today on Brighton's Higher Love label, making a late dash for those lists that people are busy compiling at this point in the year. Jesse sent me a version of the original mix of Other Skies a while back and I was smitten from first play, the swirly organ intro and warm thud of bass joined by Emilia's whispery vocals, everything a lovely hazy shade of blue but tinged with some yellow and amber. 

Jesse has said he was aiming high with Other Skies, looking to Higher Than The Sun and One Dove's Fallen for inspiration. Other Skies has that widescreen, wide eyed ambient/ psychedelic feel, the drums and bass pushing it along but it has a sense of drift and yearning in the vocals too, Emilia singing, 'Can you help me to find my way? Do you know the way back home? I'm ready to go, I said I'm ready to go...'. It's late at night, the venue's closed and moved everyone left at the bar out onto the pavement, the streets are cold and lonely, home is calling. It's a lovely song and I can't recommend it enough. 

If you're not convinced by all of that, there are three remixes to turn your head. Balearic Ultras give it some heavy bass, drums and FX, filtering everything through a heat haze stripped back and minimal. The Tambores En Benirras remix goes for shimmer and shimmy, a slo mo thud of kick drum, twinkles of guitar and echoes all over the voices, a few lines isolated, 'up down spin me round', nodding in New Order's direction, and there's a piano line near the end that sends shivers up and down the central nervous system. Sean Johnston and Duncan Gray join forces again as Hardway Bros Meets Monkton Uptown, a dubbed out, melodica led stomp, percussion rattling round and Emilia looped into infinity. The bass of Wobble and the ghost of Augustus Pablo battling it out in other skies. 

You can (and should) buy the Other Skies EP is here. 

The Lion, The Sloth, The Sons Of Slough And Hardway Meets Monkton

I've spent the last two Friday nights getting the train from Manchester Victoria up to Todmorden, a twenty five minute train journey that drops me off a two minute walk from The Golden Lion, a pub (run by the most brilliant and generous hosts Waka and Gig) in a small town in West Yorkshire variously described as a portal, the vortex and the best pub in the world. 

On Friday 12th August Paul Simonon and Dan Donovan were due to play a DJ set. I bought a ticket back in March, the prospect of being in a pub with the bass player from The Clash too tantalising to miss out on. The Lion was busy from late afternoon, the crowd eagerly anticipating an evening with former members of the Clash and Big Audio Dynamite. News came through from London that Paul was unable to travel due a back injury. Dan Donovan stepped up solo and played a blinder, spinning reggae, dub and dancehall to the packed pub and later on some Clash songs. One of the many highlights of Dan's set was this 1985 Barrington Levy song...

Here I Come

I missed the last hour due to the train times back to Manchester- last train out of Tod is at 12.06am- and the need to connect with the last tram out of the city centre but it was a very good night. Hopefully Paul can make the trek north at some point to play at The Lion. One of the sights of the evening was the appearance of a giant sloth working its way through the pub just before Dan took to the decks. It seemed perfectly natural and exactly as things should be. 

Last Friday, 19th August, was a long planned tenth birthday party for Duncan Gray's Tici Taci label, a night with the mighty Sons Of Slough (Duncan and Andrew Weatherall's brother Ian) playing a live set upstairs with a Hardway Bros/ Monkton DJ set afterwards downstairs (Hardway Bros being Sean Johnston and Monkton being Duncan). Chris Rotter and Rusty provided warm up DJ duties, chilled tunes for those in the back room and beer garden. 

Sons Of Slough played to a packed room, heat dripping off the walls and ceiling by the end. They kicked off proceedings with their cover of New Order's In A Lonely Place, a song they released as a tribute to Andrew back in 2021 as IWDG, Ian dedicating the song to his brother and then taking up melodica. 

In A Lonely Place is a moody song, New Order finding their way out after the death of Ian Curtis. Andrew was a huge fan of Factory and early New Order. Ian and Duncan's cover adds some hefty 21st century bottom end to the song and a slo mo acid house rhythm. The only line from Bernard's original lyrics that made it into the final IWDG version is 'how I wish you were here with me', a poignant one for obvious reasons. 

This footage shows Ian and Duncan playing In A Lonely Place a few weeks ago in Windsor, a live set in front of an invited audience. There are clips of the set on various people's Facebook pages but none on Youtube to link to yet. 

After In A Lonely Place Sons Of Slough played a seamless, non-stop set of acid house, electro, oompty boompty music, songs from their 2021 Bring Me Sunshine album, synths, keyboards, vocoder, melodica, guitar and laptop put through the Lion's top class sound system. 

Downstairs Sean Johnston had made a start playing songs, waiting for Duncan to join him. The whole pub becomes a club once night falls, the mirrorball bouncing beams around the stone walls and floor. The crowd at The Golden Lion are, without fail, friendly and lovely people, everyone up for a good time, a cross generational smiley crew who want to dance. 

Sean played Jah Wobble and Sinead O'Connor's Visions Of You early on and some slow paced stuff before Duncan joined him and they started to ramp it up a bit, playing back to back, thumpy, wiggy acid house/ dub disco tracks spanning the last four decades including Secret Circuit's Jungle Dogs (Tiago Remix), Liaisons Dangerueses, the new Rich Lane one, Mandrake, Rule Six's The Ride (a summer 2023 Tici Taci release) and Peza's edit of Mystic Thug and Rock The Casbah. And loads more that I can't remember or didn't know or was too lost dancing to to want to know.  

Jungle Dogs (Tiago Remix)

Tici Taci Takeover: A Duncan Gray Interview And Guest Post

Duncan Gray has a story to tell in the musical world that orbits around Andrew Weatherall. As a DJ and producer and as a member of Sons Of Slough (with Andrew's brother Ian- they also released a 12" as IWDG, a cover of New Order's In A Lonely Place), as Jnr. Poon (who released the first 7" on Andrew's Hidden Library label) and as part of The Summerisle Trio with Sean Johnston and Sarah Rebecca. As well as all of that Duncan founded the label tici taci, ten years ago this year, a label that consistently releases superb leftfield dance music- chuggy, slinky, dubby, wonky floor filling dance music. Uz Pa Gaz's Tiranan Balearica Omo Can was featured here in April and various tici taci artists, including Duncan himself, Rude Audio and Dan Wainwright, Boy Division, The Long Champs, Jack Butters, Mystic Thug, Mr BC and Fjordfunk have graced these pages in the past.

Tici Taci is celebrating its tenth birthday with a slew of releases including Tici Taci Decade Volume One. Duncan asked me if he could take over Bagging Area for a day and say a few words about his favourite releases on the label. He was happy to answer a few questions too, about his musical life, his work with Andrew and Tici Taci. 

Bagging Area: Where did it all start for you musically?

Duncan: I'll be 60 this year, so my appreciation of music starts back in the 1970s. The first band I ever saw was Tangerine Dream. It sounds cool to say that now but at the time it kind of went over my head. I was in bands from the age of 16, but what really stimulated me creatively was the advent of home recording and the purchase of a cassette based porta-studio. That's where a lifelong obsession with making music really started. Music has led me into all sorts of scrapes over the years. I've made decisions which were (financially) poor in order to pursue music. My life has been much more interesting as a result, although there have been many times when I had to borrow money to pay the rent. I started tici taci with the final scrapings of redundancy money from my last proper job.

Bagging Area: tici taci is 10 years old. What’s the best thing about running a label?

Duncan: The best thing has to be watching it grow in popularity and gaining its own identity, to the point where like-minded producers naturally want to get their music released on the label. Then it becomes a case of other people making me look good. Also there's been the DJing. I really thought my DJ days were over when I started Tici Taci, but I was  offered my first return gig at Slide in Brixton almost right away, and from there the offers started coming in from all over the place. It's a real shame how Brexit has killed the opportunities to DJ in Europe. I used to get more Euro gigs than UK but now it's the other way around.

Bagging Area: There’s an Albanian connection with Tici Taci, artists from Tirana seem to feature heavily and make some wonderful music (your remix of Pines In The Sun and the recent Uj Pa Gaz release both come to mind). How did that connection come about?

Duncan: Lindi (Uj Pa Gaz) was the original connection. I guess he heard the label through Soundcloud and sent in a couple of tracks for consideration. Almost more than any other producer on Tici Taci Lindi really understood the sound of the label from the word go. From there, Genti Aliaj got in touch to see if I would be interested in DJing in Tirana. Genti is Albanian but has lived in the UK for 25 years, and offered to travel with me and chaperone me on my first visit. Albania has this terrible cartoon reputation of being a dangerous place based  on tired Hollywood cliches in general and the Taken movies in particular. In fact Tirana is one of THE friendliest places I've ever been. I've had so many great weekends there, including the opportunity to play bass for Damo Suzuki in a pick-up band which included both Lindi and Genti and the very talented Bledi Boraku. The last time I spent any significant time with The Guv was when he came to Tirana to DJ at Discobox in January 2020. A truly memorable weekend.

Bagging Area: What’s next for tici taci?

Duncan: We have a ton of stuff to release this year. It being the ten year anniversary, I'm hoping to have releases from all of our regular featured artists, plus a couple of new signings. Our next release (after Decade Vol 1) is the debut from Rule Six which is going down a storm, and at the end of June we have something from another producer who is new to the label. Watch this space. There will be an EP from the Long Champs, one from Mr BC, something from Jack Butters, more from myself, a couple of new tracks from Sons of Slough, and maybe even something from Boy Division. That lot should take us through to the end of the year.

Bagging Area: Some questions outside tici taci if I can… 

Your guitar and bass are all over a lot of Andrew Weatherall remixes and releases from a few years ago. What was working with Andrew like? What memories do you have of him? What’s your favourite remix/ production you worked on with Andrew?

Duncan: When Andrew invited me to play on some remixes it came at a very crucial time in my life. I had been made redundant from the work I was doing in TV and film post production, and could not find another job. Andrew really helped me get through that time firstly by encouraging me and then helping me to set up the label, and then by inviting me to play on some remixes. The first one was his rework of Craig Bratley's Obsession where he asked me to add some punk-funk scratchy guitar. It was a lot of fun working with him and Tim Fairplay at the Bunker in Scrutton Street, and my playing seemed to fit well with the Asphodells sound. I ended up playing on maybe half a dozen remixes until the eviction from Scrutton Steet drew a line under that. The cool thing was that Andrew really encouraged me to "play the sound" - it wasn't about being a great guitarist (which is just as well because I am, at best, average), it was about using the guitar and effects as a sound source, and that has influenced my playing ever since. My personal favourites from those remix sessions are Emiliana Torrini's "Speed of Dark" and Rock Section's "Dayglo Maradonna" which, as many of you will know, is Julian Cope. If someone had told my younger self that one day I would end up playing guitar on an Andrew Weatherall remix of Moby I would not have believed it.

[coincidentally, this Andrew remix of Emilia Torrini's Speed Of Dark was spun by Mark from Rude Audio when we were DJing at The Golden Lion last weekend so Duncan picking it to feature here is a nice touch] 

Bagging Area: What else is going on outside tici taci? You seem to have a few projects on the go, the dubtastic Hardway- Monkton remixes and Sons Of Slough are about to return I believe….

Duncan: Since we lost Andrew, Sean Johnston and I have grown a lot closer and after some initial dabblings we really found our collaborative voice with the Hardway meets Monkton remixes. Uptown for Dub, Downtown for Disco. I think we've both learned a lot from each other and I think it's fair to say we've produced some pretty decent remixes and collaborations over the last three years, including last year's "Enjoy the Day" for Phil Kieran and Green Velvet. We keep talking about compiling our best work for release on a limited edition CD but we've not managed to make that a reality yet. Soon come. We've also had the opportunity to DJ together with 4 decks and effects (what we call "the uptown thing") and I'm hoping we get to do a bit more of that. And yes, the Sons of Slough are indeed a working unit once again. After we returned to the studio a couple of years ago (for the mini album "Bring me Sunshine") we did the tribute to Andrew as IWDG ("In A Lonely Place") and then thought we would retire the Sons of Slough brand but continue under a different name, however.... We have been encouraged out of retirement by the offer of some live work. We thought long and hard about it but, I think I the cat is out of the bag on this one, we are going to be playing some live shows together for the first time in 18 years. I can't say too much more at this stage but we've been rehearsing and it is all systems go.

[again, coincidentally, I had a conversation with Ian Weatherall in The Golden Lion on Sunday about Sons Of Slough playing live last weekend- more news when we get it]

That's the interview. Now I'm handing over the rest of this post to Duncan...

Tici Taci Decade Volume One

The ten year anniversary of the label is the first time I'd considered putting out a various artists compilation, so I went back through the archive to choose my personal favourites. It's very Duncan Gray heavy, this release, because initially that's what the label was for - to put out my own tracks. There will be three more compilations coming this year and the artist roster gets way more diverse the further we go. But for now, here are my favourites from the first two and a bit years of Tici Taci's history.

Duncan Gray - Electric Plum (2023 remaster)

Electric Plum was the first release on tici taci - initially it was vinyl only and came with a remix from Kieran Holden. The original vinyl cut wasn't so great so this version has been freshly remastered by Rich Lane in 2023. It's never sounded so good.

Duncan Gray -  Lychee (2023 mixdown and remaster)

The original version of Lychee was the first thing of mine that I heard Andrew play at an ALFOS, back in 2013. Tim Dorney (of Flowered Up and Republica fame) put in an extraordinary effort for his remix which, I think it's fair to say, may have been overlooked by the tici taci faithful. Employing the services of Republica drummer Conor Lawrence, Tim turbocharged the original and has done a fresh mixdown from the original multitrack for this 2023 remaster by Rich Lane.

Future Bones - What U Want

I couldn't believe it when Leo and Stephen of Future Bones agreed to let me put out their first EP on tici taci. All three tracks are absolute gems, and this low-slung groover is probably the most sparkling of all. Signing Future Bones to the label really cemented my belief in what I was doing and if they made any more tracks together I would put them out in a heartbeat.

Will Piecey - Jolt

Will's Jolt was the first outside signing to tici taci, although it was released after the Future Bones EP, I am eternally grateful to Will for putting his faith in my fledgling label. This track was championed by Ewan Pearson which was another much appreciated show of support.

Future Bones - Pain Killer (Duncan Gray remix)

Future Bones' second remix and probably the first of my own remixes that I was truly proud of. Initially it was released as a "tici taci remix" before I realised that was pointlessly modest.

Mr Cogs - Wizard Prang

Mr Cogs was my nom de plume for stuff which was a bit more techno sounding. Again, the whole alias thing didn't last long and I hardly listened to this since release, but when exploring the back catalogue for lost gems I was delighted to find out just how chunky this one sounded.

Future Bones - Dirty Profit (Mr Cogs remix)

Another tough sounding remix under the Mr Cogs moniker. Easy to get a decent remix when the source material is so strong.

Duncan Gray - Chugboat (Rich Lane remix)

The first of the bona fide ALFOS classics. Rich Lane set the standard with this one. It still sounds great, I played it at AW60 in Glasgow and it still rocks the boat.

Duncan Gray - Slidden (Club Bizarre remix)

A remix of a track which never got released, but this magnificent rework from Philippe and Sam became another ALFOS winner upon release. There's some great video of Andrew and Sean playing it in Leeds with some amazing projected visuals.

Tronik Youth - Suicide Doors (Inaigo Vontier remix)

Nein and tici taci were both founded in 2013 and Neil and I exchanged tracks for each other's labels. An easy decision when Neil's original came with this head fizzing remix from Iniago Vontier.

Future Bones - Gone Again (Rich Lane remix)

The killer combination of the Bones and Rich Lane. This is so down and dirty. It just bubbles away with a huge sense of menace until it it finally kicks the doors in.

A Best Man Dead - Follow The Shoe

This acid nugget is as close as we'll ever get to a tici taci version of Winx' Higher State. Play it in a set now. It will not disappoint. A stone tici taci classic.

Kieran Holden - Parakeet

I love Kieran's work. I just wish he'd make more tunes! This is such an oddball mix of bleep and ambience, there's really nothing like it.

Iko & Gibb - Praying Mantis (Peza remix)

The first of three releases by Maxime Iko and Markus Gibb - they're all great cuts, but this one is particularly notable for being the first time I manged to persuade Peza to get on the remix roster for tici taci. Needless to say all the Peza hallmarks are there from all the way back in 2014.

Gemini Brothers - Eridu Eridu (Duncan Gray remix)

These two Romanian brothers were all over everything back in 2014 and 2015 and boy were they keen to get a track out on tici taci. When we finally found something everybody was happy with, it came out with (I think) 5 remixes. And rather immodestly I have selected my own version as a favourite because (a) I was dead pleased with how it came out (it changes direction in an unexpected manner) and (b) because it was another one that the Guv really liked.

Thank you Duncan- it's been a pleasure. There's a sampler mix at Soundcloud you can listen to here, an hour of premium grade machine funk and quality chug, and this is the very latest Hardway- Monkton release, an eight minute disco- dub remix of Hardway Bros Here's To The Wild. 

Shake It Up

The Tici Taci label celebrates ten years of releases this year, an oasis of electronic excellence and chuggy dancefloor wonders. Tici Taci have a run of releases lined up to take us through 2023 with Mystic Thug, The Long Champs, more from Mr BC, more still from Duncan Gray and four retrospective compilations covering sixty- four back catalogue tracks. One of the most recent releases is from Jack Butters, whose Shake It Up throbs and pulses for three minutes before, without warning, turning into a loping skank- and then back again. 

On the remix tip the Hardway Bros Meets Monkton Uptown version is a dubbed out delight, the bassline dredging the bottom end and the spaced out synth sounds lighting up the top, everything cool and tickety boo for eight minutes. 

The second remix, by Mr BC, is a snake- hipped, lithe dancefloor groove with an increasingly hypnotising acid synthline aimed right between the eyes, which builds in intensity through to the sampled voice at the end which concludes, 'you must be out of your tiny mind'. 

Enjoy The Day

This came out last Friday- Enjoy The Day (Hardway Bros Meets Monkton Downtown Remix)- a four way collaboration that sounds like it should be filling floors at discerning discotheques near you as the December party season gets underway. The original track is by Phil Kieran and Green Velvet and here is remixed by the combined force of Hardway Bros and Monkton. The deep, dark groove and hedonistic vocal are one thing but the Italo piano that comes in is something else entirely, a gloriously happy/ sad, bittersweet refrain. The 808 rattles away, there is acres of lovely echo and space and the longer it plays, the better it gets. A pulsing, squiggly acid line pushes its way to the fore and rhythm gets tougher. Buy here and then rinse and repeat, as they say.  

Screamadereka

Psychederek is an artist who is very local to me- he plays records at a bar just a mile up the road in Stretford called Head, the first Friday of every month, a night called Psychederek's Psycho which promises disco, Balearic, bass, indie dance and Afrobeat, which sounds right up by street (literally and metaphorically). The video for his latest release is also features some very local parts of south Manchester, not least one of the streets around Stretford Arndale and the footbridge over the M60 from Kickety Brook and the Mersey to Stretford Meadows (it all sounds very romantic but don't be fooled. Stretford Meadows is built on top of landfill and rubble dug out to construct the motorway. The tip/ dump/ household waste recycling centre is next door). It's been one of my lockdown walk routes so it's lovely to see it immortalised in song- and not just any old song but a song called Screamadereka...

Clearly you don't call yourself Psychederek and release a song called Screamadereka and then expect to be taken entirely seriously but there's no joking with the song- it's a beautifully pitched, slow motion, blissed out stroll with sonic explosions, looped voices and a vocal that sounds like the sun shining. Screamadereka is out on an EP called Space Arcade, released by Sprechen, the label owned by Chris Massey (also a Stretford resident) and you can get it at Bandcamp. Disappointingly I think I have missed out on the vinyl. 

There are two versions/ remixes on the EP by the combined talents of Sean Johnston (as Hardway Bros) and Duncan Gray (as Monkton), the deeply dubbed out cosmic trip of Screamadereka (Hardway Bros Meet Monkton Downtown) taking the original and separating it out even further, finding all the space between the sounds. It's a stunner. 

The Screamadereka (Hardway Bros Meets Monkton Disco Dub) does the reverse, pushing the tempo up and landing on the dance floor somewhere far, far away, powered by a very wigged out bassline. On and on it goes, round and round, looping itself out of the atmosphere and escaping.