Unite

When you disappear to a place like Anglesey for a couple of days it's easy to believe the issues that have swallowed us up this year are not so very important. There aren't many people around- the surfers at Rhosneigr were taking advantage of the wind and the waves and the fish and chip shop had a one way system, people were wearing face masks as they came out of or went into shops, but if you just ambled about the island, visited the fairly quiet beaches and bays and stopped off to look in on some of Anglesey's Neolithic sites, the stresses of recent months vanished a little. The 2020 fear of being caught without hand sanitiser never entirely goes away though. We were trapped in the rain in a bus stop eating fish and chips because we're still not taking Isaac into indoor cafes or restaurants and when we stopped off in Conwy on the way home it was disturbingly busy (at least to us with someone who we are effectively still shielding, it was). Everything's got so complicated and difficult this year. Sitting in a caravan in a field is a good way to simplify things even if it's only for a short while.

This song from 1991 is never far away from me- World Unite by World Unite. It came out on Creation Records when Alan McGee discovered acid house/ rave was the new rock 'n' roll and put out a load of dance records (later brought together on the era defining Keeping The Faith compilation). World Unite is seven an a half minutes of good vibes, trippy dub house, a bubbling synth part and bassline, a breakbeat, some organ, and a spoken/ sung verse immediately followed by a sampled global/ world music female voice.

World Unite

World Unite produced nothing else as far as I can see, just one 12" single with this version on one side and the Unitemix on the other. The names credited with writing the song are Stacey/ Potter, it was recorded at Vons Studio in Islington and engineered by Simon Daniels. Someone recently suggested to me that World Unite were probably a bedroom producer and a drug dealer mate of McGee's who found themselves together for a few hours with a sampler and some ideas. The press release that came with my white label copy says 'World Unite are Martin Stacey and Graeme Potter, both of whom hail from Essex- although Martin now lives in Wapping and Graeme in Bath. This is their first record together. Martin (male vocal) encourages us to 'Listen to the voice of the world unite/ Believe in love, believe in life/ Live and let live/ Live and let love', over heavy rhythmic drums and ethnic female chanting, from Madagascar. Real hot!'

In a way I don't need to know who Stacey and Potter were/ are. The idea of making one perfect but largely unknown single, releasing it and then disappearing, is very appealing to me, especially one bringing joy to a small number of fans nearly three decades later.

Isolation Mix Five

Five weeks into these isolation mixes already- doesn't time fly when you're socially restricted? There is a higher BPM count on this mix but also some folky darkness and post punk dread from Nick Drake and A Certain Ratio respectively, some dance grooves from Ellis Island Sound and Scott Fraser, the ultra Balearic vibes of Richard Norris' Time And Space Machine remix of A Mountain Of One, some 1990 class from World Unite when Creation Records went all E'd up and dancey, Andrew Weatherall remixing Moby and Wayne Coyne in epic style, half of The Clash with Frank Ocean and Diplo plus the West Los Angeles Childrens' Choir (brought to you in association with Converse) from 2014 and a very long Seahawks remix of Tim Burgess, some headspinning ambient noise set against Harry Dean Stanton's monologue from Paris, Texas. 'Yep, I know that feeling'.

Tracklist:

Nick Drake: ‘Cello Song

A Certain Ratio: Winter Hill

Ellis Island Sound: Intro, Airborne, Travelling (Scott Fraser Remix)

A Mountain Of One: Ride (The Time And Space Machine Remix)

World Unite: World Unite

Moby Ft. Wayne Coyne: Another Perfect Life (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

Frank Ocean, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Diplo: Hero

Tim Burgess: A Gain// Stoned Alone Again Or (Seahawks Remix) v Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski and Ry Cooder: I Knew These Two People, Paris Texas soundtrack

Various Artists

I was having a conversation online recently about the wonders of the Various Artists compilation album, which at certain times has been a real work of art. There are others I could go on about at some length but these are the three that immediately come to mind, all released within a few years of each other (and all tied together as well).

I've written before about Creation Records 1991 dance/house compilation Keeping The Faith but it is a perfect example, a well put together round up of similar minded artists and tracks defining a moment in time. From the opening minutes where Fluke take off on a Pan Am to Philly through to Hypnotone, a pair of Primal Scream remixes, Weatherall's definitive remix of My Bloody Valentine, Love Corporation, J.B.C., Sheer Taft, Danny Rampling's The Sound Of Shoom and World Unite here isn't a duff track and it is full of great moments. The Tears For Fears sample in J.B.C.'s cover of We Love You sums up how far Creation Records have shifted in 1991- 'dj's the man you love the most'. World Unite by World Unite is a majestic ambient house dub excursion- bubbling synths, up vocals with an eye on the dancefloor. The only thing I know about World Unite is that it was written by Potter and Stacey. And I love it still.

World Unite

In the mid-to-late 80s Creation excelled at budget compilations, often a way to keep the wolf from the door and keep the cash coming in. At a knock down price of £1.99 1988's Doing It For The Kids was an essential purchase- The Jasmine Minks, Felt, Primal Scream (early indie version), The Weather Prophets (their song Well Done Sonny is below), The House Of Love, The Jazz Butcher, Biff Bang Pow!, My Bloody Valentine, Momus, The Times, Nikki Sudden, Pacific, Heidi Berry, Emily, Razorcuts. It is almost the complete picture of post-Smiths indie. And completely untouched by what was already brewing that would lead to Keeping The Faith. A snapshot of a time.

Well Done Sonny

The last one is this one, Retro Techno/Detroit Definitive Emotions Electric, a 1991 double album of the futuristic sounds of Detroit, a pulling together of the work of Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May, wall to wall techno classics that still sounds like its ahead of everyone else. From Model 500 at the start of Disc 1 Side 1 through to the massive drums, rhythms and bleeps of  The Groove That Won't Stop, this is better than most 'proper' albums. The closing track is a sublime version one of dance music's set texts, the unreleased mix of Strings Of Life by Rhythim Is Rhythim.

Strings Of Life (Unreleased Mix)

This could become a series I fear. Feel free to chip in with your own suggestions.

World Unite 'World Unite'

A few months back I posted some tracks from the still brilliant sounding Keeping The Faith, a compilation of dance, dance-rock, dance traitors, rock traitors and dub-disco put out by Creation records back in 1991. So far we've had Fluke, JBC, Sheer Taft and Hypnotone. Primal Scream and My Bloody Valentine in remixed forms were the best-known artists on the album. This is World Unite by World Unite. I can find out nothing about World Unite other than that their names were Stacey and Potter, and they released this single, World Unite with a remix on the B-side. But it doesn't matter- this is a gorgeous slice of early 90s dance music, with some very of-the-time positivity lyrics, some world-music backing vox/samples, and the lovely ambient dub stretched out over seven and a half minutes. This is so early 90s it almost comes out of the speakers wearing white jeans, a curtains hair style and saucer-eyed, telling you it loves you. And it does.

08 - World Unite - World Unite.mp3