Monday's Long Song

The early 90s shoegaze/ ambient techno crossover seems obvious in retrospect, three decades later the commonalities and sympathetic sounds and approaches should have led to a multitude of collaborations and remixes (in both directions). As it is the scene, such as it was, peaked in 1993 with Reload's stunning remix of Slowdive, a ten minute space odyssey where the Berkshire five piece band (Rachel Gosling, Neil Halstead, Christian Savill, Nick Chaplin and Simon Scott, all fringes, love beads, leather jackets and brown suede) were sent into slow motion orbit by Somerset's Reload (Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton who turned up making similar sounds as Global Communication). If this were doubled or tripled in length it could still be too short. 

In Mind (Reload Remix- The 147 Take)

Slowdive's 1993 album Souvlaki was panned by the music press on release, the shoegaze backlash in such a feeding frenzy that Melody Maker's Dave Simpson said he'd rather 'drown choking in a bath full of porridge than ever listen to it again'. Nicky Wire compared them to Hitler. The music press and opinions could be quite toxic back then couldn't they? They were screwed over by their US label too, who pulled funding on a tour while it was only halfway through leaving the group to pay for the rest of it themselves. Today Souvlaki sounds like an early 90s lost gem, full of shimmering waves of FX pedals, warm baths of guitars and hazy vocals. This is the longest song on the album, a six minute marriage of late 60s psychedelia and 90s noise that sounds as good as anything anyone else in that field created, including music press darlings My Bloody Valentine. 

Souvlaki Space Station

Bank Holiday Monday's Long Songs Guest Post

Dr. Rob's blog Ban Ban Ton Ton has been the standard setter for all things electronic and Balearic. The Ban Ban Ton Ton and Bagging Area tie in continues today with a post that follows on from Dr. Rob's bumper Andrew Weatherall funk, soul and jazz post I hosted last week. 

Dr. Rob writes...

Late one night, early one morning, in 1993, Andrew Weatherall played The Chi-Lites` The Coldest Days Of My Life on London’s Kiss FM. A sad, strung-out soul symphony, from 1972, smothered not only in strings, but otherworldly reverb and field recorded tides and seabirds. Due to the hour, and the station being a pirate, I’m assuming that he was a little drunk, and / or a tad stoned. I know I was. Weatherall said that The Chi-Lites` orchestral oddity reminded him of Reload`s Le Soleil Et La Mer, which was what he span next. A piece of brand new IDM - “Intelligent Dance Music” - “ambient techno”, produced by Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton - a duo perhaps better known as Global Communications - and released on Creation Records` short-lived electronic off-shoot, Infonet. A label run by the Abbott brothers, Tim and Chris, who went on to work super closely with Oasis. 

I suspect it was the synths, mimicking wave after wave of crashing surf, and the soaring minor key melody, that brought about Andrew`s comparison. Probably not the broken breakbeats. The track is a classic of its genre, coolly managing to convey the rush, life’s urgency made plain, intensified, of a high head speeding while standing, or laying, perfectly still. 

Le Soleil Et Le Mer

Taken from Tom and Mark’s long-player, A Collection Of Short Stories, the tune later picked up a remix by The Black Dog. The triumvirate of Andy Turner, Ed Handley, and Ken Downie, turn the track into a bustle of busy bleeps and circuitry, clipped electric current. They shoot the strings into outer space, but keep the introspective, melancholic undertow. If anything it`s now even more of a mirror of a mind blown on Ecstasy, so that listening, flat on my back, I`m staring at the stars. It`s a thing of beauty created from seemingly random collisions. Sublime sonic serendipity. 

 Le Soleil Et Le Mer (Black Dog Remix)