In Your Way

Rikki Turner's San Pedro Collective are back with a new EP called Phase Two featuring the laid back, 70s acid jazz/ funk vibes of Time (originally out back in January) and a new song In Your Way (Calito's Way Remix). SPC are building a bigger sound if In Your Way is anything to go by, a clipped guitar part, big chords and some urgency, led by the voice of Jasmine Needham. The loose collection of characters and players Rikki is putting together are pushing the group in different directions, no stone unturned. 

Back in 2019 Rikki worked with Suddi Raval, formerly of Together (of Hardcore Uproar fame) and they found the motherlode with The Things You See, dark acid house dreamt up in the suburbs near Stockport. A bouncy, sinuous 808 bassline and a vocal from Millie McBean, club music from the darker corners of the dancefloor. 

Just in case you need a reminder of the range of Rikki's talent few years ago he led The Hurt who hit the mark with this epic, brooding, seductive tribute to the German capital, a song that gives me shivers whenever I go back to it. 

Time

San Pedro Collective, a Manchester based group built around the mercurial talents of Rikki Turner, were exploring an acid house sound a year ago, the song Where Do I Begin? and before that a collaboration with Siddi Raval on The Things You See. The new song strikes out in a different direction on their new song, the honey- drenched vocals of Jasmine Needham, a clipped, funky guitar riff and loose limbed drumming of Si Wolstencroft (formerly in The Fall). Time is a summer sounding song, laid back, some 70s strings and bags of easy going charm. Video here.

Rikki, once upon a time, was the singer and front man in Paris Angels whose 1990 single All On You (Perfume) was one of that year's guitar/ dance music crossover highlights. Rikki sometimes, I think, feels that the song is a bit of a millstone for him but it's loved by many including Ride/ Glok man Andy Bell who recorded this sweet acoustic cover version last year for XS Manchester. Video here. 

Where Do I Begin?

San Pedro Collective, the new musical vehicle combining the talents of Rikki Turner, Suddi Raval and Simon Wolstencroft among a floating cast of members, have a new single out. Where Do I Begin? features the vocals of Sarah Bouchier and mines the warm, progressive house sound of the early 1990s to striking effect. It feels good and is a floor filler but the vocals hint at darker times, Sarah singing 'it's a crisis' over the swirling hypnotic groove. There's an eye watering breakdown too for that arms in the air moment.

San Pedro

Rikki Turner, former Paris Angel, ex-New Southern Elektrik and The Hurt, is a restless soul who just keeps moving- when one project ends another begins. His latest group is San Pedro Collective, named after the town in California that was home to Rikki's favourite writer Charles Bukowski (and also home to Bagging Area favourites Minutemen). San Pedro are preparing for a release in July, an e.p. called The Demon Sessions, which will include this song (appearing here in a brief snippet and remixed by The Winachi Tribe).



The Things You See is a collaboration between Rikki and Suddi Raval, with a thundering acid house bassline, plenty of late night, dancefloor vibes and a sultry vocal from Millie MacBean. Also involved are Simon Wolstencroft (ex- Fall drummer), Antnee Egerton of The Winachi Tribe and Manc poet Karl Hildebrandt. The e.p. will feature the original mix of The Things You See and two further songs, San Pedro and A View From The Drowning Pool- the latter is a moody, electronic beast, bleeps and sirens over an 808 and Rikki's street poetics, spoken word vocal.

Suddi Raval was one half of Together who made two records I hold dear. The first was 1990 rave anthem Hardcore Uproar, piano house, a Star Wars sample and the crowd sounds from a rave in a warehouse at the Sett End in Blackburn.



The second was an unfinished remix Together did of Durutti Column's Contra-Indications. In 1990 Vini Reilly was experimenting with samplers and drum machines and his Obey The Time album chimed perfectly with the times. Together's remix was unfinished due to the tragic death of Suddi's partner in Together, Jon Donaghy, in a road accident in Ibiza. I've been coming back to The Together Mix for almost thirty years now and always get chills when I play it. Despite being unfinished Tony Wilson declared it magnificent and released it as a single anyway.

The Together Mix


Rikki's former bands have all released songs that I've raved about here. In 2016 The Hurt released Berlin, a moody Scott Walker via Bowie, collar turned up against the falling Manchester rain.



Paris Angels were from Guide Bridge, near Ashton under Lyne, east of Manchester. Their first single is a legendary slice of 1990 Manchester, a marriage of acid house bass, jangly guitar lines and rattling machine drum with Rikki and Jane Gill's dual vocals. I once bumped into Jane at the Boardwalk- literally- and she told me to fuck off. Which was probably fair enough- I wasn't looking where I was going.

Perfume (All On You)

Perfume came out on indie label Sheer Joy and was widely played and praised. They followed it with two 12" singles- Scope and I Understand- before signing to Virgin (who re-released Perfume) and then put out an album called Sundew. Virgin was sold to EMI and a cull saw various bands removed from the label, Paris Angels among them (and PiL too). Which shows what major record labels know.