Go!!!

Back in 2010 Andrew Weatherall remixed Danish producer Trentemoller's track Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider, Go!!! At that point Timothy J. Fairplay was Andrew's studio right hand man, a partnership which would result in their album as The Asphodells (the superb Ruled By Passion, Destroyed By Lust, named after a shlocky gladiator porn movie). One of the key influences at the time, all over the Trentemoller remix, was the glam rock stomp, a wonderfully retro sound derived from twin sources- Big New Prinz by The Fall and Let's Get Together Again by The Glitter Band, 'the men in satin trousers it's ok to like' Andrew quipped after playing the song on one of his radio shows at the time (that's The Glitter Band not The Fall obviously). 

Big New Prinz is a remarkable piece of Brix- era Fall, built around Glitter Band drumming, some really grimy bass and vicious guitar lead lines, a song that developed from a 1982 song (Hip Priest) and was reworked for their 1988 I Am Kurious Oranj album, a record that combined some kind of tribute to William of Orange's ascension to the English throne in 1688 and the soundtrack to a Michael Clark ballet along with a version of Jerusalem. Meanwhile Mark riffs about rock records, drinking the long draft, big priests and the self referential refrain, 'He/ Is/ Not/... Appreciated'. 

Big New Prinz

Let's Get Together Again is 70s social club manna, a football chant and double drumkit stomp, sax and Les Paul. No mp3 I'm afraid but I've found it on Youtube- there's another clip on Youtube where they perform the song on Top Of The Pops and are introduced by a well known sex offender/ DJ but we don't need to see his face here.

Andrew and Tim channelled these sounds into the Trentemoller remix, one of those tracks you wish could loop endlessly whilst you go about you daily business. 

Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider, Go!!! (Andrew Weatherall Prinz Remix)

There is a second Weatherall/ Fairplay remix, the Sky 81 remix, which is less Glitter stomp and more echo- laden, submerged, Wobble era- PiL take on the original. Both remixes, the original and two other mixes can be bought here. And for completion's sake here are the twin heroes of the Trentmoller song, from the golden age of Marvel and the pens of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. 

Flame On

Stan Lee, Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief and creator of hundreds of characters including Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, The X Men, Black Widow, The Fantastic Four, The Avengers, Thor, Iron Man, Black Panther, Thor, Ant Man and Daredevil, has died at the grand age of 95. It's fair to say that a lot of our childhoods would have been very different without Marvel Comics and their cast of brightly coloured superheroes (and their flawed, all too human alter-egos). RIP Stan and Make Mine Marvel.

There's been a little resurgence of The Dream Syndicate in blogs in these parts this year kicked off I think by my post back in April, a film of Andrew Weatherall playing in Italy last year and dropping The Dream Syndicate's John Coltrane Stereo Blues into his set. Watch it here, it's fifty minutes you won't regret. Drew posted some Dream Syndicate, CC has posted some and I think The Swede too. So here's some more from Steve Wynn and co, the second song from their full length debut, an album inspired by 1966 and 1977 in equal parts.

Defnitely Clean

You Dare Invade Our Royal Sanctuary?

The Inhumans look like a band- an L.A. punk band, Black Flag maybe, or a second generation UK punk group like The Rezillos. There's something of Pixies about them too. The Inhumans first appeared in Fantastic Four in 1965, evolutionary advanced superbeings, led by their king Black Bolt. In this frame they have kidnapped Sue Storm (The Invisible Girl) and are facing down her brother Johnny Storm (The Human Torch). Coincidentally I've just seen an advert for a new Inhumans TV series, about to be shown on the Murdoch channel (which I don't subscribe to).

The Rotters Golf Club Archive Hour Vol 10 has recently been posted online, an hour inside Andrew Weatherall's record collection. This one is very much a band based affair and perfect for Sunday morning.

'No! They've brainwashed you! You don't know what you're saying!'



Radiogram – Waiting For The Merry Go Round
The Fall – Bill Is Dead
The Faces – Debris
Cowboys International – Here Comes A Saturday
Del Shannon - That’s The Way Love Is
The Czars – Killjoy
Lali Puna – Move On
Mark Lanegan & Isobel Campbell – The Breaking Hands
P. F. Sloan – Upon A Painted Ocean
The Duke & The King – The Morning I Get To Hell
The Felice Bros. – All When We Were Young
Alex Chilton – Every Day As We Grow Closer
Brett Smiley – Queen Of Hearts
Sir John Betjeman – A Russel Flint
Ian McCulloch – Nothing Lasts Forever (Live)
Scott Walker - Lines

Such Stars As This Are Not For Me

Silver Surfer was Norrin Radd, the young man from the planet Zenn-La who saved his home world from Galactus, the planet devourer, by agreeing to act as his herald. This resulted in Norrin flying through the cosmos announcing to various planets that they were about to be destroyed. He later turned on his master, defending the earth. Exiled to the blue planet he spent much of his time shaking his head, ruminating on existence and despairing at the inhumanity of mankind.

Silver Surfer first appeared in a Fantastic Four comic in 1966. When drawn by Jack Kirby a completely silver humanoid with no genitals on a surfboard sweeping through the cosmos, his speech coming from Stan Lee's scripts with him speaking in a kind of Shakespearean English, makes perfect sense.

Here's some beautiful minimal ambient-techno from Aphex Twin.

Actium

Planetary Folklore

No grandiose caption or speech with this Steve Ditko spread for Dr. Strange, who is on a very odd voyage into another dimension. And while that nearly led me to Intergalatic by the Beastie Boys it also put me in mind of Cavern Of Anti Matter and this piece of experimental retro-futurism from their 2016 album Void Beats/Invocation Hex.

Planetary Folklore

It's nice to have something calming and melodic to bring you safely home from excursions such as the one Dr Strange is taking. From the same record, this fits the bill perfectly...

Melody In High Feedback Tones

The Cataclysmic Impact Of Their Clash

'It is as I have feared' says Dr Strange, 'the cataclysmic impact of their clash threatens to destroy them both!' This frame comes form the Strange Tales comic. Eternity, created by Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, is a sentient force, a cosmic and abstract entity, immortal and unaffected by the passage of time and can warp space and time. Steve Ditko's art goes even further than that.

Michael Rother's 1977 album Flammende Herzen was his solo debut, recorded after his time in Neu! and Cluster. It is only 5 tracks long but every second and note is perfect. Rother plays guitar, synths, keys, bass and percussion. Jaki Liebezeit drums and Conny Plank produces. Harmonic, cosmic, unaffected by the passage of time.

Karussell

The Junction To Everywhere

I've been posting some artwork on Twitter recently, frames from the golden age of Marvel Comics, (Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko era) with a distinctly psychedelic edge to them. The riot of colours, light and shade, the melodramatic language, the composition, especially from Dr. Strange and Fantastic Four, are all from way out in the outer reaches of the imagination. What I thought I would do here for the next few days is post some of the pictures with a song that the picture suggested to me.

The frame is from the Fantastic Four- 'I've done it!! I'm drifting in a world of limitless dimensions!!' says our hero, 'It's the crossroads of infinity-- the junction to everywhere!'.

The tune is from 2000, Marshall Jefferson vs Noosa Heads, remixed by Salt City Orchestra, and the long, trippy, deep house magnificence of Mushrooms.