An Hour Of Björk

A month ago Khayem did a fairly definitive recreation of a Björk mixtape centred around her 1993 solo debut Debut. I'd been planning on doing a Björk Sunday mix here for some time and almost shelved the idea but a few days ago decided to go ahead. Debut and its surrounding singles and remixes are massively important songs and records for me, so resonant of a time in my life where it seems looking back like it was perpetual weekend. In Big Time Sensuality she sings, 'I don't know my future after this weekend/ And I don't want to', a line summing up how life felt. Almost everywhere we went Björk's songs were being played, stitched into the fabric of mid- 90s nightlife. When my then flatmate brought Debut home we played it constantly, the album seeping into our every day life. If I had to draw up a list of the albums which mean the most to me, Debut would be on it. It's hugely innovative too, Björk and producer Nellee Hooper inspired by the previous few years changes and freedoms, the sounds and rhythms, creating something self contained, optimistic, joyous and life affirming, a record in love with itself and with endless possibility. 

I've expanded the mix below beyond Debut but there's nothing post- 1997, it's all 20th century Björk. Her output from the 21st century can be obtuse and bewildering at times (and incredible at others), and it needs a mix of its own. My Sunday mixes have tended to be between thirty and forty five minutes long, the ideal length for a trip out (or one side of a tape, subconsciously maybe). Once I started this one it just kept getting longer and having reached the forty minute mark I couldn't leave off Underworld's marathon remix of Human Behaviour so what we have here is an hour of Björk Guðmundsdóttir, her unique vision and singing accompanied by a cast of like minded collaborators- the production of Nellee Hooper is an essential part of Debut and Graham Massey of 808 State played a pivotal role in her solo adventures beyond the Sugarcubes as the 80s became the 90s. Listening back to this last night I was struck by how good everything here still sounds, from the giddy skipping pop- acid house of Big Time Sensuality to the dislocating oddness of The Black Dog's version of The Anchor Song. She's brilliant and we're lucky to have her.  

An Hour Of  Björk

• One Day (Sabres of Paradise Endorphin Mix)
• Ooops
• Big Time Sensuality (Fluke Minimix)
• Violently Happy (Fluke Well Tempered Mix)
• There's More To Life Than This (Recorded Live In The Milk Bar Toilets)
• Hyperballad
• Venus As A Boy (7" Dream Mix)
• Army Of Me
• The Anchor Song (The Black Dog Mix)
• QMart
• Human Behaviour (Underworld Remix 110BPM)
• You've Been Flirting Again (Icelandic Version)

One Day was remixed not once but three times by Andrew Weatherall's Sabres Of Paradise. All three are superb, increasing in length, intensity and tempo. There was a 10" single with two of the remixes, the Endorphin Mix and the Springs Eternal Mix titled Björk Cut By Sabres, and then a six track compilation in 1994 called The Best Mixes From The Debut Album For People Who Don't Buy White Labels which rounded up all three Sabres remixes, the twelve minute Underworld monster and the two Black Dog remixes. I included The Black Dog's remix of The Anchor Song here too although it could easily have been the one of Come To Me. Such is the embarrassment of riches of Björk all six remixes could have/ should have been included here.

In 1991 808 State released ex:el, one of the period's  best dance albums although it tends to get a bit overlooked now. Björk's co- wrote and sang on two songs, the magnificent, slow burning sex- techno of Ooops and QMart. This sparked a long running song- writing partnership with 808's Graham Massey. Björk had loved 808 State's 1989 album 90 and phoned them up out of the blue looking for some help with drum programming. She flew to Manchester the next day. The 808 State boys showed Björk round the sights and clubs of Manchester and wrote and recorded at various studios in the area. 

Big Time Sensuality is off Debut, a song about being in love with going out and dancing, the sheer giddiness and delight evident in her vocal. The video, filmed in black and white on the back of a flatbed truck with Björk in a long silver dress is so of the time too. This song as much as any reminds me of 1993/4- it was played constantly in the flat I lived in, the remixes played in every club around town and me and Lou pretty much met on the dancefloor while it was being spun at Paradise Factory in Manchester. The Fluke Minimix is the version for me but there are some other remixes that hit the spot too, not least Justin Robertson's (not included here). Fluke also remixed Violently Happy (two versions) another single from Debut. 

Two more songs from Debut are on the mix- There's More To Life Than This is an astonishing song from an album full of them, full of manic Björk energy, and the jaw dropping moment she records the sound of the Milk Bar, running from the dance floor to the toilets, closing the door and then coming out again. I also love the way she sings 'ghetto blaster'. Venus As A Boy, the second single from Debut, is absurdly good, marrying post- club ambient sounds with tabla. The version here is the 7" Dream Mix, a mix by Mick Hucknall and Gota Yashiki. This marks the only appearance of the Simply Red singer at this blog. 

Hyperballad is from her second solo album Post, released in 1995, an exhilarating fusion of folk, acid house and synth pop. Hyperballad swoops in and out, as if the song is dropping from a height and shooting then back up again, head spinning production and vision. Post has several such moments- Possibly Maybe should possibly, maybe, also have been included on this mix.

Army Of Me came out in 1995, the lead single from Post. It's her most streamed song on Spotify which suggests its her most popular song. Björk and Graham Massey wrote Army Of Me in a terraced house in Gatley that belonged to a mate of Massey's and had a home studio set up. Gatley's not that far from here, I pass through often on my bike. The idea of Björk popping out from one of the houses to nip to the shop in the mid- 90s in a break from writing is bizarre and amusing. From such humble, suburban beginnings does great music appear- Army Of Me is a force of nature, the bassline alone more a landslide than a musical element and the pulverising industrial drums contain a sample from Led Zeppelin's John Bonham. The final song on this mix, You've Been Flirting Again (Icelandic Version) was on the Army Of Me CD single, the orchestral strings bringing things to a dramatic conclusion. 

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)

Saturday Theme Two

Last Saturday I posted Theme For Great Cities, a moment of genius from Simple Minds in 1981. It occurred to me that I might have a few songs with the word Theme in the title and that it might make a good series for a few weeks. A quick search of my downloads folder revealed multiple Themes and not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth (whatever that means) we'l have some Saturday Themes for the next few weeks at least. 

Today's Saturday Theme is from a year ago from the pioneers of northern bleep techno and ambient The Black Dog. In January 202 they began a series of releases called Dubs, four track EPs inspired by their history in Sheffield. The first referenced Parkhill Flats, Sheffield's tram network, the suburb of Crookes and a northern culinary delicacy. 

Theme For Chip Butty

Theme For Chip Butty was on Dubs: Volume 1 and is a lovely piece of ambient music, four minutes of synth drones with some chanting crowds in the middle. It was released on a very limited vinyl edition of 100 with a hand numbered sleeve and twenty eight page booklet of photographs of Sheffield plus a badge and a postcard. Long since sold out of course. Buy the digital here. 

Xeper

The Trance Europe Express compilation I wrote about yesterday has given me a track I have kept going back to over the last few days and may be developing a mild obsession with. Warp recording artists The Black Dog wrote and released under a variety of names, putting things out under the umbrella name Black Dog Productions. The track on Trance Europe Express is by Xeper (a pseudonym for one of The Black Dog trio, Ken Downie). It starts sounding like it could be the beginning of an episode of Star Trek (original 1960s version) and then brings in a rattling drum sample. Washes of synth and some Sheffield bleeps fill it out before some piano chords work their way in, that almost but never quite turn into a full-on piano house riff. That description really doesn't do it justice- there's much more going on here than I can hope to explain adequately. It unfolds beautifully over the ensuing eight minutes. Just listen to it.

Carceres Ex Novum (Remix)

In case you're wondering Xeper (or Kheper) is a word from Ancient Egypt meaning 'to come into being, to change, to occur, to happen, to exist, to bring about, to create', associated with the Ancient Egyptian God Khepri. And if you Google it there's a whole load of increasingly deep and dark stuff connected to it which I shall steer well clear of.