Isolation Mix Thirteen

Lockdown ends today- at least, that's how the government and the media have been portraying it with occasional reminders that social distancing and a 2 metre gap might be important. The government have largely dropped the daily infection figures and death toll from their bulletins. You don't want to be depressing people at this stage of proceedings with doom and gloom, not when there are pints to be drunk! The media have been splashing stories about Super Saturday, Independence Day and the End Of Hibernation. It does look like they deliberately chose July 4th so they could call it an Independence Day. Meanwhile, Leicester is in lockdown, the R rate in London is apparently creeping above 1, there are Covid hotspots around the country, the deaths are still well over one hundred every day, and lots of people are talking about a second wave and a second spike without the people in charge actually wanting to do anything about it. We are still shielding, the medical advice we received this week is that due to our son Isaac being in the extremely vulnerable category we should stay in isolation until August 1st. Despite a few minor changes to our lockdown lives, we are still very much in isolation.

This mix is an hour and eight minutes of music with a folky, ambient, pastoral tinge with some Balearica and guitars thrown in, some old stuff and some brand new- some birdsong and synth ambience to start and finish, blissed out tracks from Seahawks, Apiento and Ultramarine, Green Gartside solo and as Scritti Politti, acoustic guitars courtesy of Nancy Noise, Michael Head and Barry Woolnough, some understated brilliance from The Clash and Sandinista!, Julian Cope covering Roky Erickson, Thurston Moore covering New Order and Jane Weaver's cosmic/folky weirdness.

Tracklist-
Stubbleman: 4am Conversation

Seahawks: Islands

Nancy Noise: Kaia

Green Gartside: Tangled Man

Barry Woolnough: Great Spirit Father In The Sky

The Clash: Rebel Waltz

Thurston Moore: Leave Me Alone

Julian Cope: I Have Always Been Here Before

Jane Weaver: Slow Motion (Loops Variation)

Michael Head and the Red Elastic Band: Picasso

Scritti Pollitti: The Boom Boom Bap

Apiento: Things You Do For Love

Ultramarine: Stella (Stella Connects)

Stubbleman: 6am Chorus

Kaia

It might be early November with the darkness consuming us at teatime but we can still, with the power of music, conjure up the heady days of summer, the warmth and the sunsets. In July Nancy Noise's Azizi's Dance was remixed twice by Andrew Weatherall. Tucked away on the 12" single was this masterful piece of Balearica, remixed by downtempo duo Leo Mas and Fabrice. Joyful, slinky and all about the groove. It sounds like the smell of sunkissed skin.

Into The Woods

This is a treat, an hour long mix Nancy Noise has done for an upcoming festival put on by Boy's Own. Nancy will be playing along with Terry Farley, Omar S and a bunch of other Balearic names. This is a summery, up, good vibes mix with some latin, some Frenchness, some afro and plenty of bounce. As a bonus you can download it for free too.



Tracklist...

1.  Jeff Kite - Timelapse
2.  Dele Sosimi - E go Betta (O'Flynn Edit)
3.  Alkalino - Vivo
4.  Riccio - Marcela
5.  Ric Piccolo - Sube
6.  L’Oiseau Dore - Moar
7.  Katunga - Palo Bonito (Nick the Record re-edit) 
8.  Barrabas - Woman 
9.  The Apostles - Banko Woman 
10.  Puzzle People - French Fried Boogie
11.  Loco Moto 
12.  Negrocan  - Cada Vez 
13.  Leonidas & Hobbes - Web of Intrigue 
14.  Nit - Imparfaite 

Three Piece

Andrew Weatherall must have been going without sleep recently given his prolific remixing output. Here's three new ones for your Thursday.

This one is a weird, frantic, dubby thing with scratchy guitar and yelping, not a million miles from The Slits. It's not The Slits though, it's The Orielles, out on Heavenly. This is Part 2, so there must be a Part 1 somewhere too. I'll keep you posted.




This is the Mix 2 of of Balearic Queen Nancy Noise's Azizi's Dance, following Mix 1 which I posted last week- subtle and spacey with some snatches of conversation just out of earshot and rather nice.



Finally, Weatherall has turned in not one, not two, not even three, but four different remixes for Swiss pioneers Yello, all different versions of the track Frautonium from their new album. This one has bleeps and noises and glides about the place.

For The Many

Getting up this morning to find that the exit poll which caused my jaw to drop several inches when it was announced at 10 pm last night was pretty much spot on was a wonderful feeling. I stayed up for a while but went to bed before it was clear what the result was. This morning's news- Theresa May's cynical bid for a personal majority completely scuppered, hanging on as the leader of a minority government was good enough on its own. The massive increases made by Labour, the collapse of UKIP, the high turnout especially among younger voters, the rejection by the voters of an entirely negative Tory campaign- these are the things that put a smile on the face. Having been on the losing side so often politically, Friday 9th June felt like victory.

With perfect timing, to celebrate, here's a new Andrew Weatherall remix, this time of Nancy Noise.



Non-UK readers- the man in the picture is Lord Buckethead.