Forty Five Minutes Of Beyond The Beta Band

I saw the reformed Beta Band at the Apollo last night- review to follow in a day or two. I posted a Beta Band Sunday mix back in March when the re- union was announced and the tickets went up for sale and I've previously posted a Steve Mason solo mix too. To complete a Beta Band hat-trick of Sunday mixes today's mix is an after The Beta Band mix, forty five minutes of songs from after they split, with Steve mason well represented in various guises and also The Aliens, the band Robin Jones and John MacLean formed after the four Betas called it a day in 2004. 

The Beat Band split up in 2004 and embarked on a farewell tour. Between forming in 1996 and splitting in 2004 they had followed their artistic and cultural noses, making music that spanned the groundbreaking Three EPS and then three further albums that all suffered a little in comparison to the initial trio of EPs. 

In 2004 they owed their record label Parlophone £1.2 million. There was enough money in the bank to pay each member a month's wages (£1000 each). On top of this there was a £120, 000 debt to the taxman, to be split four ways. Parlophone wrote the debt off (EMI signed Robbie Williams the same month for £80 million so money wasn't in short supply at major record companies in the early 00s). The Beta Band spent the money on art- records and recording, videos and films, gigs and touring. In an interview in March Steve Mason said 'We never wanted to be rock stars or make lots of money. Our ambitions were solely artistic and we pushed ourselves to the last minute. Then we split up. But how many bands can say the spent £1./2 million on art?'

Steve Mason went solo under a variety of names- first as King Biscuit Time, then as Black Affair and Good Face and has made five albums under his own name. The Aliens have blazed their own trail, in the 00s and the late 2010s with three albums and EPs and singles. Gordon Anderson records as Lone Pigeon. Between them they've made over a dozen albums since splitting The Beta Band, all of them filled with the same pioneering, willful and artistic spirit that was the core of their starting point in 1996- folk, psychedelia, electronics, samples and found sounds, weird pop, electro, post- rock... few stones left unturned. 

Forty Five Minutes Of Beyond The Beta Band

• King Biscuit Time: I Walk The Earth
• The Aliens: Sunlamp Show
• Alien Stadium: The Visitations
• Steve Mason: America Is Your Boyfriend (Tim Goldsworthy Remix)
• Black Affair: Tak! Attack!
• Emiliana Torrini and Steve Mason: I Go Out
• Steve Mason: Boys Outside (Andrew Weatherall Dub 2)
• The Aliens: Bobby's Song

King Biscuit Time was a Steve Mason solo project from before The Beta Band split, so the appearance of I walk The Earth here is a bit of a bending of the rules but whatever. It's got all the familiar Mason sounds and styles- acoustic guitars, hip hop drums and his melancholic and doleful vocals. 

Gordon Lone Pigeon joined his former Beta Bandmates Robin and John in The Aliens after The Beta Band split. The Aliens released Astronomy For Dogs in 2007 and then Luna a year later. Sunlamp Show is from the latter, a song that sounds like The Beach Boys after a week in a cottage in the Scottish highlands on happy drugs. Madcap psychedelia. The ten minute Bobby's Song closes this mix but opened Luna, an epic Lone Pigeon song. Robot Man from Astronomy For Dogs sat on this mix for a while but I took it out. Not sure why. 

Alien Stadium was Steve Mason and the late Martin Duffy, Primal Scream's keyboard wizard with Brendan Lynch on drum programming. They released Livin' In Elizabethan Times in 2017, widescreen and symphonic sci fi inspired songs about aliens destroying the planet. One of those EPs that makes you wish they'd done more. 

Black Affair was a Mason solo project, 80s electro from 2008, three singles and an album Pleasure Pressure Point. 

Tim Goldsworthy's remix of Steve Mason's America Is Your Boyfriend was a song on a four track EP called Coup D'Etat, three new songs and the remix and originally from 2019's About The Light. Tim Goldsworthy was in UNCLE with James Lavelle and then LCD Soundsystem (before a big fall out with James Murphy. He also produced David Holmes' Let's Get Killed.

I Go Out was a one off collaboration between Steve and Emiliana Torrini along with Toy, produced by Dan Carey and released on 7" single on Carey's Speedy Wunderground label in 2013. Six minutes of driving krauty joy, recorded and mixed in a day.

Boys Outside was a Mason solo album ,a soft and acoustic, folk-ish songs that came from a period of serious poor mental health. Andrew Weatherall did two remixes, a pair of dubs that still sound like some of his best remix work. There was talk of an album with Andrew producing or a remixing the entire Boys Outside album but it never happened more's the pity. there were some Dennis Bovell dub remixes too but I couldn't find them. Funny how digital files just vanish sometimes. 

The People Say

I was on strike on Wednesday. No one, especially teachers (or nurses or ambulance crews or any public sector workers), takes the decision to withdraw their labour lightly but sometimes you have to take a stand and say 'no more'. I attended a demo and march in Manchester city centre, a very well attended event and as we marched round town in the rain passersby, people working in offices and even those stuck on trams (who couldn't move because of the march), were waving, clapping and shouting encouragement. 

Steve Mason's new single, The People Say, is a joyous and uplifting song- an indie/ folk/ gospel hybrid with a lovely electronic squiggle underpinning it- in praise of those who push to make the world better, in his own words 'a rallying call'. 'I heard the people say/ Where's the beautiful fight today?' Steve sings, while the video plays drone footage of a union march, so it fits nicely with my week. 

The album The People Say is taken from, titled Brothers And Sisters, is out in March. I always know what Steve Mason albums are going to be like. I've bought all four solo albums and saw him live when he toured to promote the previous one, 2019's About The Light. Somehow I missed the first song from the forthcoming one, which came out two months ago. No More features guest vocals from Javed Bashir and is about imperialism, colonialism and the cultures of the countries the UK invaded and colonised over the course of the last few hundred years. 

Both songs have the sound Steve has made his own since he turned up in The Beta Band in the 90s, the crunchy drums, acoustic guitars, multi- tracked vocals and ascending chord sequences. Not one to shy away from the big themes and the big issues Brothers And Sisters is described by Steve as a big 'fuck you' to Brexit and a 'giant fuck you to anyone who is terrified of immigration'. 

Martin Duffy

Coming quickly after the news of Terry Hall's death came the news that Martin Duffy had died aged fifty five following an accident at his home. Martin was the keyboard player in Primal Scream from 1989 onwards and before that was in Felt. He played Knebworth in 1996 with The Charlatans when they were reeling from the death of their organ/ keyboard player Rob Collins, an act Tim Burgess has said meant the band was actually able to go on. Martin recorded a solo album a few years ago released on Tim's O Genesis label and made a superb EP with Steve Mason as Alien Stadium in 2017. More than that, Martin has been described all over the various obituaries and tributes as a sweet, lovely, quiet and unassuming man who, when on tour, loved to take in museums and neolithic standing stones- he seems like a man after my own heart. 

I've seen Primal Scream in venues large and tiny since 1989, from the cellar club that was Planet X in Liverpool when they toured Ivy Ivy Ivy to Castlefield Bowl in Manchester this summer and almost all points in between and it's impossible to imagine them without Martin's keys and organ. When they emerged from the various issues that derailed them in the mid- 90s and came back with first Vanishing Point and then XTRMNTR, the bedrock of the sound was Martin's keys and organ, his Hammond especially, as much as the twin guitars of Throb and Innes. He was able to play whatever the songs required and on Vanishing Point especially it feels like the band were grouped around him, playing off whatever he played. 

Given that this Sunday is Christmas Day I probably won't do anything for my half hour Sunday mix series so thought I'd put those energies into today's mix, a thirty minute tribute to Martin Duffy. 

Duffy Mix

• Primal Scream: Get Duffy
• Primal Scream: Duffed Up
• Primal Scream: The Revenge Of The Hammond Connection
• Primal Scream: If They Move, Kill 'Em
• Alien Stadium: Titanic Dance (Lynch Mob Mix)
• Felt: Primitive Painters
• Primal Scream: Space Blues #2

Get Duffy is the second song on Vanishing Point, a Hammond organ instrumental sandwiched between the speed freak mod- rock of Burning Wheel and the gonzo Mani powered scuzz of the title track. If They Move, Kill 'Em is the centrepiece of the album, a track inspired by and sampling Sam Peckinpah's Western The Wild Bunch. 

Duffed Up is Adrian Sherwood's dub version of the Get Duffy, from Echo Dek, released in 1997 a little while after the parent album.

The Revenge Of The Hammond Connection was a B-side from Kill All Hippies, a further take on the original Hammond Connection instrumental which was the B- side to Burning Wheel. 60s spy film soundtrack vibes. 

Titanic Dance is from the four track EP Martin made with Steve Mason which is laugh out loud funny in places, two men enjoying themselves. The track here, produced and mixed by Brendan Lynch, breaks down after seven minutes into some Planet Of The Apes tomfoolery. 

Primitive Painters was a 1985 Felt single, maybe their best release, a song pushed along by Martin's wheezing organ playing and adorned with Liz Fraser's backing vocals. This single is one of 80s indie's greatest moments. 

Space Blues #2 closed 2002's Evil Heat, the third of the three albums they made around the millennium that feel like a trilogy of sorts. Evil Heat doesn't quite hit the same heights as the previous two but its pair of Weatherall produced songs (Autobahn 66 and A Scanner Darkly) are superb, Deep Hit Of Morning Sun is a opening statement of intent and Detroit and Rise both rock. Kate Moss sings on Some Velvet Morning and on Space Blues #2 Martin not Bobby takes lead vocal, singing softly-  'On the judgement day/ When your name is called...'- as the Hammond shifts notes behind him.

R.I.P. Martin Duffy

Forty Five Minutes Of Weatherdub

At the time of writing this I've no idea whether yesterday's DJ escapades at the Golden Lion in Todmorden were a triumph or a disaster or somewhere in between. I took a bag full of songs and tracks to play including a lot of Andrew Weatherall flavoured dub- remixes, his own productions, songs and poems that he sampled, songs he played out when DJing or on the radio which I thought might go down well on a Saturday afternoon in early October, a pre- David Holmes pint accompaniment. All the tracks below were in my digital record box.

Forty Five Minutes Of Weatherdub

• Jean Binta Breeze: Dubwise
• Dub Syndicate: Ravi Shankar Part 1
• Lark: Can I Colour In Your Hair (Andrew Weatherall Mix)
• Count Ossie and Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari: Poem
• The Sexual Objects: Sometimes (Weatherall Dub)
• Yabby You: Conquering Dub
• The Scientist: Lovers
• Misty In Roots: Introduction To Live At The Counter Eurovision
• Meatraffle: Meatraffle On the Moon (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
• Steve Mason: Boys Outside (Andrew Weatherall Dub 2)
• Andrew Weatherall: Kiyadub 45

Jean Binta Breeze's Dubwise poem came out on her 1991 album Tracks and was sampled by Weatherall on his legendary remix of Saint Etienne's Only Love Can Break Your Heart (he also sampled Jean from the same album for his earth shaking remixes Galliano's Skunk Funk, worthy of a separate post at some point soon I think).

Dub Syndicate, a mainstay of Adrian Sherwood's On U Sound label, released Tunes From The Missing Channel in 1985. Opening track Ravi Shankar Part 1 was a Weatherall favourite and is often mentioned in connection with the famous Boy's Own party held on a farm in East Grinstead in summer 1989, Andrew coming on to the decks to play at dawn as revellers welcomed the sun and Ravi Shankar's unmistakeable intro bounced around the West Sussex countryside. 

Lark were a London band led and fronted by Karl Bielek. Weatherall's dub remix of Can I Colour In Your Hair was finally released on 7" vinyl in 2018, years after being played on Weatherall's radio shows and in his mixes.

Count Ossie and Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari's album Grounation album came out in 1974, a masterpiece of spiritual dub. The line 'Ever since I was a youth/ I've always been searching for the truth' was sampled by Sabres Of Paradise for their mighty Ysaebud track, which came out on one sided 7" in 1997, after Sabres had split and Weatherall had gone on to Two Lone Swordsmen. The track was discovered by Andrew Curley on cassette while clearing out the drawers at HQ and was felt to be too good to lie unreleased so came out as S.O.P. rather as Sabres (licensing issues or some such detail). I'd like to thank Dr Rob of Ban Ban Ton Ton for enabling me to track down the source of the sample. Another piece of the jigsaw slotted into place.

The Sexual Objects are/ were a band formed by David Henderson (formerly of Scottish indie/ post- punkers Fire Engine and Nectarine No. 9). Weatherall's remix came out on a wonderful  piece of 10" vinyl along with remixes by Boards Of Canada and WAVNE, only 1000 copies pressed. 

Yabby You was another Weatherall favourite, from Kingston Jamaica, a singer and producer from the golden age of roots reggae and dub frequently played by Andrew and mentioned in interviews. The same came be said of The Scientist, a protege of King Tubby, whose dub albums in the 1980s were a big Weatherall touchstone. 

Misty in Roots are British dub reggae pioneers, from Southall, London. Their 1979 album Live St The Counter Eurovision is a key British reggae album. The Introduction to the album was sampled to massive effect by Andrew on his Ultrabass 2 remix of The Orb's Perpetual Dawn, 1991.

Meatraffle's Meatraffle On The Moon album came out in 2019, a still superb sounding dissection of life in Brexit Britain (and much more). The Weatherall remix is bass heavy meandering dub, a remix of the band's song about un- unionised moon workers and the evils of late stage capitalism. 

Steve Mason's Boys Outside album came out in 2010. Weatherall remixed the title track twice, the second is a dub of a dub. 

Kiyadub 45 was a one off two track 12" only dub release on the Byrd Out label (with Kiyadub 47 on the flipside), 500 copies only, recorded with Nina Walsh. Heavy electronic dub business. 

Half An Hour Of Steve Mason

The subject of today's thirty minute mix is Steve Mason, the man whose doleful  vocals defined the songs of The Beta Band when they suddenly appeared back in 1998. Since they broke up he's recorded as King Biscuit Time and Black Affair and made four albums under his own name- Boys Outside, Monkey Minds In The Devil's Time, Meet The Humans and About The Light, every one of them chock full of great songs. In the first lockdown Steve stated on Twitter that he was going to start a chat show and asked followers to suggest what it should be called. I replied quickly that it should be called 'Meet The Human' which Steve declared the winner and replied to me to say I'd be on the guestlist when he next came through Manchester. It's not happened yet but I'm still hopeful. 

The songs that make up the thirty- three minutes below are taken from his solo albums/ singles, taking in anger and politics, existential dread, depression, celebratory anthems, a dubbed out Weatherall remix and a song that is utterly desolate and which always moves me. Alive is the opener to 2016's Meet The Humans. Fight Them Back, from 2013's Monkey Minds In The Devil's Time, with the sampled voices of Tony Blair and David Icke was written out of frustration and disgust at the political situation and in the aftermath of the riots of 2011, a song urging revolution and taking to the streets. I think he later said he regretted the violence in the lyrics but there's no doubting it's a powerful piece of indie/hip hop/ agitprop. I Go Out was a one off single, fantastic driving psyche- pop with Emiliana Torrini and Steve on co- vocals and Brighton psyche rockers Toy kicking up a storm behind them. Boys Outside, was a stripped back, melancholic, at times fragile album tackling Steve's own experiences of depression. Weatherall's pair of dub remixes of the title track are both superb and push the song somewhere else entirely. Walking Away From Love is from 2019's About The Light, infections guitar pop driven by a Bo Diddley riff. America Is Your Boyfriend came from the same album, with the remix released on an EP called Coup D'etat, remixed by Tim Goldsworthy (who was in UNKLE and LCD Soundsystem). 

Come To Me is from Monkey Minds In The Devil's Time, a gorgeous, metronomic, heartbreaking song that offers redemption (or maybe comfort) in some form. I'm not sure whether it's about loss or depression and think it can be read either way. Many years ago this blog and several others had regular comments and contributions from a reader based in Leeds who went by the name of Dick Van Dyke. His contributions were frequently hilarious, often insightful, and many times better than the original post they were attached to. Dick (not his real name) suffered the devastating and sudden loss of his wife. A few of us were in contact with him via email for a while but things drifted as they often do and I haven't heard from him for some time now. I hope he's still out there and that he and his daughter are OK. I once posted Come To Me for him- it seemed to fit with how he was describing the loss and grief he was experiencing and I thought it might help him in some way. The opening lines 'This is about the rest of us/ the ones you left behind' struck me then (and still do now) and the chorus too- 'and when you come to me/ in the dead of night/ and I convince myself it will be alright/ and when you hold me close/ as the night unfolds/ and I convince myself how we'll grow old'. 

Now of course I've experienced my own loss. Isaac died five months ago yesterday. The grief and the sense of loss are still as present today as they were on 30th November 2021 but here we are five months on. Come To Me has the ability to completely undo me. It was able to do this back in 2013 and it really does it to me now but there's catharsis in listening to it. I'm not even sure it is a song about loss and the verses aren't entirely clear to me but it's become a song about loss for me- it was back then and it is now- and posting it today seems fitting for Dick van Dyke (wherever he is) and for Isaac. 

Half An Hour Of Steve Mason

• Alive
• Fight Them Back
• I Go Out
• Boys Outside (Andrew Weatherall Dub 2)
• Walking Away From Love
• America Is Your Boyfriend (Tim Goldsworthy Remix)
• Come To Me

Isolation Mix Nine- Weatherdub

It's difficult to know where we are with isolation any more. Many people seem to be acting like it's all over, parks are full of groups of people and social distancing is a thing of last month. The daily death toll doesn't seem to be diminishing that much and in the north west we currently have the highest regional infection and death rate in the country. As the government brings about the end of lockdown in favour of the economy and to distract from the horrors of their mismanagement of the entire period, some people I'm sure will stay in and stay distanced. In our household we are shielding so our lives will carry on as before for the moment. God only knows where we go from here.

Isolation Mix 9 came partly from a comment I made at The Flightpath Estate, an Andrew Weatherall Facebook group where I promised a Weatherdub mix, and partly from Isolation Mix 6 three weeks ago, an hour of dub that had several of Lord Sabre's fingerprints on it. There's some crossover between that mix and this one but I chose the other Steve Mason remix and dropped the Sabres Of Paradise dub of Regret by New Order just for variety's sake. This mix, an hour and a quarter of dub business from Andrew Weatherall as a solo artist, aided and abetted by Nina Walsh, as a remixer, as a Sabre Of Paradise and as an Asphodell, spans thirty years taking in songs from 1990 and 2020. There's loads more that could have gone in but I thought I'd keep it compact.

Sabres Of Paradise: Ysaebud (From The Vaults)

Sabres Of Paradise: Return of Carter

Steve Mason: Boys Outside (Andrew Weatherall Dub 1)

Andrew Weatherall: Unknown Plunderer

Saint Etienne: Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Andrew Weatherall Mix)

Sabres Of Paradise: Edge 6

Andrew Weatherall: End Times Sound

Meatraffle: Meatraffle On The Moon (Andrew Weatherall Dub)

Richard Sen: Songs Of Pressure (The Asphodells Remix)

Andrew Weatherall: Kiyadub 45

Lark: Can I Colour In Your Hair? (Andrew Weatherall Version)

Planet 4 Folk Quartet: Message To Crommie

Isolation Mix Six

I got this dramatic shot of the sky over the Mersey on Thursday night. One habit I hope I manage to maintain once this is all over, whenever that is, is taking regular walks. You miss so much sitting inside and even the most familiar and mundane places can look different when caught at a particular time. This week's Isolation Mix is a dubwise and post punk excursion from The Clash, some dubbed out Joy Division covers, Bauhaus, The Slits, Killing Joke remixed by Thrash, a bunch of Andrew Weatherall dub versions and some On U Sound from Dub Syndicate.



The Clash: The Crooked Beat

Steve Mason: Boys Outside (Andrew Weatherall Dub 2)

Jah Division: Dub Will Tear Us Apart

Jah Division: Dub Disorder

Bauhaus: Bela Lugosi’s Dead

The Slits: I Heard It Through The Grapevine

Dub Syndicate: Ravi Shankar Part.1

Sabres Of Paradise: Ysaebud

New Order: Regret (Sabres Slow ‘n’ Lo)

Lark: Can I Colour In Your Hair (Andrew Weatherall Version)

Killing Joke: Requiem (A Floating Leaf Always Reaches The Sea Dub Mix)

Like A Ripple

Steve Mason started the year with a new album, About The Light, an album recorded with Stephen Street which brought all the Steve Mason songwriting chops together with gospel backing vox, Magic Bus guitars, soaring choruses, anger about Grenfell- an accessible, big sounding album. He's about to release a 12" single/ep called Coup d'etat, three new songs and a remix of America Is Your Boyfriend by Tim Goldsworthy. The first came out on the internet on Friday, Like A Ripple., built around a low slung bassline, fast, frenetic drums and growly vocals. There's some fat synth bass noise and a touch of New Order at around three minutes plus, backing vox and choppy guitars and everything powering onward. The lyrics of Like A Ripple start 'every time you talk about the same things every day/ I can't talk it', which taken along with the coup d'etat of the title of the ep may or may not be related to our current Prime Minister. We could do with some decent political pop.

About The Light

Steve Mason on Saturday night in a room at the university student's union that holds about 900 people and used to be known as the Main Debating Hall but is now more prosaically called Academy 2. Why he's playing to crowds of less than a thousand is a bit of mystery but it makes for a better gig, a packed room and everyone close enough to be involved. Steve's run of solo albums from Monkey Minds In The Devil's Time in 2013 to Meet The Humans in 2016 to this year's About The Light show a man at the top of his songwriting. His band, including Little Barrie on guitar, are spot on too, sounding much more like a band than a solo artist with hired players.

Steve comes on wearing a plastic cape and boiler suit, a sort of Milletts version of Vegas Elvis, and sets about the songs, all fully realised and vibrant. Planet Sizes from Meet The Humans is an early highlight followed by a run of songs from the new album, all sounding like they've been around for ages. Half way through the set they play Oh My Lord and everything steps up another notch, the keyboards, Steve's vocals, Barrie's guitar, driving and full on.



Political ire isn't far away- America Is Your Boyfriend is accusatory and on fire and he jokes between songs about the anarchist songs of Monkey Minds that didn't make him a millionaire. The more personal ones really connect, especially two towards the end of the set- Alive and Come To Me, both of which seem to be celebrations of survival and still being here, of overcoming the black dog of depression- 'When you hold me close as the night unfolds and I convince myself that we will grow old'. A few years ago this corner of the internet was often graced by a reader from Leeds who went under the name of DVD (Dick van Dyke), a man whose comments were frequently better written than the posts they accompanied. I always associate Come To Me with him and the times he was going through back then. If you're still out there Dickie and reading this, this one's for you.

Come To Me

The encore rocks and has the crowd dancing to the Magic Bus guitars and hand claps of Walking Away From Love and the brilliant Spanish Brigade. Words In My Head, the band all with their hoods up, sends us out into the cold night on a high.

Support act Edgar Jones plays an acoustic set beforehand, mainly new material, but he finishes with this song from his band The Stairs back in 1992- Weed Bus, a song that describes travelling across Liverpool on the 147 and being so stoned he misses his stop. Edgar spends Steve's set watching just behind where we're standing, as does Mani, the rogue Stone Rose. The last time I saw Mani he was on stage at the Etihad playing to 60, 000 fans.

Snow

We've had fair old amount of snow this week. We woke on Wednesday to what for south Manchester is a good covering, a few centimetres, ungritted roads and an iffy journey to work. Work, up in east Lancashire, had its fair share too. Everything that was still on the ground then froze as the temperature barely got above zero all day. Yesterday we got more snow and driving home I stopped on the moors to photograph the Pennine hills that six months ago were on fire.

I've posted this before but it seems appropriate to post it again, a throbbing and wintry ride through the Scandinavian snow, by Stockholm's Paresse.

Hunters In The Snow

I'm going to see Steve Mason tonight, touring to promote his excellent new album About The Light. Back in the 90s his group The Beta Band made one of that decade's best songs, setting a standard that even they found it difficult to live up to. This song- slide acoustic guitars, Steve's doleful vocals, the shuffling rhythms and bass, the crescendo to the trumpets- is a beaut.

Dry The Rain

Walking Away From Love

We've still not finished 2018 but it looks like Steve Mason's got the early part of 2019 sown up. Walking Away From Love is the second song to be released from January's About The Light album and rides on a great choppy guitar riff, the Magic Bus, handclaps and a great chorus. The video is rather beautifully shot too.



At just after 12.00 today I finish for Christmas and New Year, two weeks off. I've been crawling towards this point all week. Hallefuckinglujah.

I Walk The Earth

Before The Beta Band split up Steve Mason was working on solo material. No Style came out in 2000 on Alan McGee's Poptones label and set out his solo stall- shuffly drums, multi-tracked vocals, rising chord sequences and the extended, chanted outro part which stops and then kicks back in does the same thing for another minute or two. Looking back at Steve's albums from 2016's Meet The Humans, 2013's post-riots Monkey Minds In The Devil's Time, his Black Affair releases and King Biscuit Time records and the three Beta Band albums there's a real sense of continuity and progression, of refining his sound and style.

I Walk The Earth

Stars Around My Heart

Steve Mason has a new song out and an album to follow in January. It's recognisably Steve Mason, all the familiar elements are in place (acoustic guitars, multi-tracked vocals, building chord progression, catchy as fuck chorus), but this time with a sense of optimism (and trumpets). The songs for the new album About The Light were recorded with his full live band and produced by Stephen Street, worked out and rehearsed live before being recorded. If Stars Around My Heart is anything to go by at least we'll be guaranteed a good start to the new year.

The Visitation

Pic from the same source as yesterday's German techno image (a German edition of Elle I think, mid 90s Deutsche fashion shoot).

Music from Steve Mason and Martin Duffy who as Alien Stadium have gone and released an end of year beauty, a four track mini-album called Livin' In Elizabethan Times. Mason has had fun with the lyrics- on The Visitation imagining a conversation between the human occupants of planet Earth and some alien invaders. The visitors have had a look at us and decided we aren't much cop.

'Your leaders are arseholes
Your science is crap
And just for the record
Your planet is flat
We hate your religions
Your food is too weak
Your language confusing
You're far from unique
DIE DIE DIE DIE'



The entire e.p. is a blast from start to finish, engaging and inventive- guitars and synths, driving drums and rhythms, Steve's familiar doleful voice, the sound of two men having fun. My only complaint is the cost of the vinyl- fifteen quid, which for 4 songs is pretty expensive.

This One's For The Humans

I like this, yet another new thing for autumn. Steve Mason and Martin Duffy (Primal Scream's keyboard man) have joined together as Alien Stadium and have a four track e.p. out in December called Livin' In Elizabethan Times (including a song remixed by Brendan Lynch, who always hands in interesting work). Steve Mason has one of the most recognisable voices in modern music, married here to a memorable riff and a general sense of expansion and wonder.

I'd Like To Write A Letter To You All

Maybe we're about to enter a new age of the protest song. I've seen people say there aren't any good protest songs from recent years but I think there have been a fair few that rank alongside the protest songs of the past.

I've posted this one before but it's worth repeating. Steve Mason's loose limbed indie plus righteous anger makes Fight Them Back pretty irresistible. I think he's withdrawn a bit in interviews from the threat of the chorus, 'get up and fight them back, a fist, a boot and a baseball bat' but the intent was there when recorded- and we've all seen the 'debate' about punching Nazis I'm sure (conclusion? They're Nazis, punch them). The vocal samples at the end are David Icke and Tony Blair respectively, neither of whom are men I'd particularly want to spend much time with. But no mistake this is a tune to march to.



Fight Them Back

The Universe Makes Me Cry

Steve Mason is back with a new album and this achingly good new song- Planet Sizes. He knows his way round a tune and those signature multi-tracked, melancholic vocals are in full effect. What's it all about? I don't know... love and loss and redemption, the search for meaning in a random world.... It's very good.



Steve has made music under several names since the Beta Band split up. His last solo album (Monkey Minds In The Devil's Time, 2013) had two songs that were absolute brilliance- Fight Them Back and Come To Me- that I still play regularly. A few years before, 2008 I think, he made an album inspired by 80s electro using the name Black Affair. This was the standout track for me.

Sweet

Get Up And Fight Them Back

Well that was utterly depressing and dismal. Five more years of ideological austerity. English voters opting in increasing numbers for antisocial, narrow minded, throwback politics. Seeing Nigel Farage miss out was the only bright spot of the whole thing really, although I can't say I was sorry to see George Galloway lose his seat- he's a shit stirring, self serving, opportunist. Labour need to re-evaluate their policies, message and position entirely. Trying to occupy the same ground as the Tories has led to defeat and the loss of many of their own supporters. We're all going to pay for this for many years to come.

Steve Mason, ex-Beta Band, one of recent times most political song writers.

Fight Them Back

Packing

We had friends round for tea and a couple of glasses of wine each and we're now trying to pack to go on holiday tomorrow. And I'm mucking about on the internet.

I missed this absolute gem of a song and only discovered it by accident earlier today- from last year, Emiliana Torrini and Steve Mason, noisy and way up there. The noise, I've just discovered, is provided by Toy.



And this, a remix of Lana Del Rey's Video Games by Dreadzone's Greg Dread. Lovely.



Right. How many pairs of shorts do I need?

Edit: I've ripped both of these- would you like them?

I Go Out

Lana Dub Rey

This Is About The Rest Of Us, The Ones You Left Behind

'When you come to me in the dead of night and I convince myself it'll be alright'

The closing song off Steve Mason's latest lp is a thing of beauty, the singing and playing are superb, and if it catches you at the wrong moment will put a lump in your throat and make your eyes well up. One very good reason to get yourself down a record shop and buy the album.

'And when you hold me close as the night unfolds and I convince myself that I will grow old '

Come To Me