Christmasville

A Certain Ratio have had quite a year. They put out one of 2024's best albums, It All Comes Down To This, an album as good as any in their back catalogue. They followed it with a standalone 7" single, Clockwork Orange, in July and a limited edition vinyl only live recording of the band playing at Kendall Calling, the band playing at Tim Burgess' Tim Peaks Diner, a career spanning nine song album. In mid- December released a new four track 12"/ digital EP called Christmasville. The EP came with a brand new song, Now And Forever, ACR's song for Christmas, and three new remixes, all of which take the ACR sound into new places. 

Jane Weaver's rework of Where You Coming From is a cosmische/ analogue synth psyche delight. Emperor Machine remixes Out From Under into a nine minute electronic funk workout. Jezebell take the third remix slot- Jezebell and ACR hooked up via Martin Moscrop finding a copy of Jezebell's Jezebalearic Beats Vol. 1 album while record shopping in Berlin and approaching Jesse and Darren. Jezebell's Ghost Train Mix of We All Need is six minutes of smouldering electro/ Balearica, dance floor beats, menacing bass and swirling FX. The bright orange vinyl has all gone but you can get the digital here. 

A Certain Ratio weren't finished for the year with the Christmasville EP though. On Monday they put out their gig at New Century Hall in Manchester on 17th May as a live album, all of It All Comes Down To This played live in front of a home crowd (including me). You can find It All Comes Down To This Live St New Century here. I'm assuming that's the end of 2024's ACR activity but there's still five days to go, so who knows, anything could happen. 

V.A. Saturday

As mentioned yesterday, Andrew Weatherall's Masterpiece is a king in the various artists world. The Masterpiece series comes out via Ministry Of Sound and has also featured compilations put together by Carl Craig, Giles Peterson , Goldie, Jazzie B, David Rodigan, Francoise K, Annie Nightingale and Fabio And Grooverider. Andrew's is an absolute joy, a masterclass in record selection, mixing and the art of pacing a set. There are two editions, one on vinyl and one on CD. 

The vinyl is much sought after now- the current asking price in Discogs starts at £150.00-, a twelve track, unmixed, triple disc version that starts with his remix of Grinderman's Heathen Child, has five further contemporary Weatherall remixes (Timothy J Fairplay, The Horrors, Woooden Shjips, Toddla T and Primal Scream's Uptown- at least two of these are all timers in the Weatherall remix pantheon). Alongside this he selects cuts from Andrew and Tim's Asphodells, Kaspar Bjork, Walls, Ajello, The Subs, Mario Vesta and an 80s indie/ dreampop classic from AR Kane, the song that gave his travelling cosmic disco its name- A Love From Outer Space. 

Masterpiece came out in 2012. ALFOS, the club night, started in 2010 (at The Drop, a basement in Stoke Newington). By 2012 Andrew and Sean had built a following, an ALFOS crew who travelled to Glasgow and Belfast for the nights out and the sound they were after had had time to develop, to brew. Masterpiece is a reflection of that, the 2012 ALFOS sound- a warm, embracing, inclusive, trippy,  cosmic disco, electro and dubby house records often pitched down to hit that 122 bpm sweet spot, 'an oasis of slowness in a world of increasing velocity', as Andrew put it. They played underground dance music alongside lost 80s gems, 70s krautrock, mid 80s Belgian New Beat, whatever tickled their musical fancy. Masterpiece is a six sides of vinyl/ three CD version of that. 

The three CD version goes further and deeper, three discs- Eleven O'Clock Drop, Twelve O'Clock Drop and One O'clock Drop (a nod to the lysergic adventures of his youth in Slough and Windsor and to his early 00s post- punk Nine O'Clock Drop compilation). The CD is perfection. Mixed live in his bunker. Andrew said at the time that if he made a mistake he had go back and start the entire mix over again. Thirty five tracks that in the truest sense of a DJ mix, take the listener on a journey. He was a one off. 

The vinyl was essential. The CD was too. I know some people* who decided against purchasing at the time because they didn't like the sleeve. I know people who bought both formats**. Here for your Saturday listening pleasure is one track from each of the three CDs, an eleven, twelve and one o' clock drop.

First, from disc one comes Walls, a London krautpop duo and a track from 2012 on German label Kompackt. On a perfectly judged and pitched disc, peppered with his own remixes and Apiento's The Orange Place (see yesterday's post) Walls slo- mo sci fi throb and distant vocal still stands out, Andrew's track selection never letting him down. 

Into Our Midst

From disc two this is Emperor Machine's remix of Sons And Daughters' Orion, Glasgow indie/ country punks Sons And Daughters fed through the cosmic blender by Emperor Machine for eleven minutes, a pulsating and intense with slowed down, slurred vocals.  

Orion (Emperor Machine Remix)

Finally, one from disc three and Toddla T's Watch Me Dance, guest vocals from Roots Manuva and remixed by Andrew himself. A truly deranged dance record. Pens with the thump of True Faith style drums, a robotic voice and then a huge, canal dredging bassline. Brain frying synth arpeggios flicker around, there are key changes, drops, echo- laden guitar chords, a female voice wailing 'oh, we have lost contoooool', and the sense of total dance floor mayhem. Released in the summer of 2011, Masterpiece became the only way to own this remix on vinyl after the warehouse the standalone 12s from that summer were stored in awaiting delivery went up in flames. It's not surprising- this record is too hot for a warehouse to contain it. Never let anyone tell you that remixes are not a valid artform.  

Watch Me Dance (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

* Hi Baz!

** Hi me!

La Cassette

I missed The Emperor Machine's album that came out earlier this year, the nine song Island Boogie that is turning into an autumnal treat (it came out in July), vintage synths sounds, dub space, electro- disco, some early 80s punk- funk, generally good vibes all round.  As a result of missing the album I also missed a remix EP that came out in September where frequent Bagging Area visitors Hardway Bros provide two remakes of Wanna Pop With You, one a remix and one a dub. The cherry on the top of this particular pie though is the Tigerbalm remix of  La Cassette, the French language vocals courtesy of Severine Mouletin cut up and re- arranged, the bass throbbing like it's come directly from early 80s Manhattan and whooshing sounds adding a dub sci fi edge. It's brilliant, life affirming stuff. You can get it all here. 

Tigerbalm's International Love Affair was one of 2022's treats, a stew of global, dub and disco sounds aimed at the feet. The album was followed by a hefty remix package in 2023 which included a remix and a dub mix of Riad De Lister by The Emperor Machine where Rose Robinson (Tigerbalm) is sent spinning back to the proto house grooves of the mid 80s. The Special Extended Vocal Mix is a squelchy pleasure. 

WRF Two

WRF, a series for Fridays celebrating remixes by Andrew Weatherall focusing on the lesser known or overlooked remixes, began last week with the 2011 remix of Allice Gold's Runaway Love. Today's remix jumps forwards two years by which point Andrew was so firmly back in the remix game and so on it in terms of quality that a list of remixes released in 2013 is almost an alternative best of album-

• Trentemoller: Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider Go! (Andrew Weatherall Prinz Remix and Sky 81 Mix)
• Toy: Dead And Gone (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
• Baris K: 200 (Asphodells Remix)
• Madness: Death Of A Rude Boy (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
• Emiliana Torrini: Speed Of Dark (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
• Moby and Wayne Coyne: Another Perfect Life (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
• Primal Scream: 2013 (Andrew Weatherall Remix and Dub)
• Jagwar Ma: Come Save Me (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

In the midst of this purple patch came Andrew's remix of The Emperor Machine. The remixes above, done with Timothy J. Fairplay as trusted assistant and engineer (and in The Asphodells, whose album was released in 2013 also, musical partner), there can be found sky scraping cosmic dub, thumping glam rock/ Brix- era Fall, dubbed out ska, twisted Turkish acid, widescreen joyous Balearica and hypnotic krautrock heaven and uptempo indie- dance- I'll let you decide which of these labels applies to which remix. The remix of Like A Machine stands out from all those, darker and deeper, more electronic and more acid, fat bass and synth arpeggios, relentless Belgian New Beat, more the sound of sweaty basements than the open air. For vocals just two voices repeating two words, 'electric desire'. 

Like A Machine (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

The Emperor Machine is Andy Meecham from Staffordshire whose first taste of musical fame and glory came with Bizarre Inc. Their rave singles were massive in the late 80s and early 90s, in the clubs and the charts- singles such as Bizarre Theme, Such A Feeling, Playing With Knives and I'm Gonna Get You. He was in dub disco purveyors Chicken Lips. His back catalogue as the Emperor Machine is wide and extensive. Recently he's remixed and collaborated with A Certain Ratio, including in 2021 to bring things to a neat conclusion on a track dedicated to Andrew.  

Fifty Minutes Of ACR

In 1987 a friend made me a compilation tape which included two songs by Mancunian band A Certain Ratio- Shack Up and Do The Du. I've been listening to ACR ever since. They released their latest album, 1982, last Friday and it's fair to say the group have been re- energised in recent years, the result partly of a deal with Mute to re- issue all their albums. I'd been thinking of an ACR Sunday mix for some time and just as I ended up doing a pair of One Dove mixes a while back, I think I may need to come back to ACR for a second go. The mix here contains none of the punk- funk sound of their releases on Factory, the nervous, minimal, scratchy, demob suits and army shorts songs that made their reputation. Instead I've gone for a mix of dancefloor oriented songs spanning three decades.  The core trio of Jez Kerr, Martin Moscrop and Donald Johnson have regrouped several times since 1979, not least following the deaths of Rob Gretton in 1999 and singer Denise Johnson in 2020, but they're still creating and producing new music and are getting stronger and stronger. If they're playing near you, go and see them. ACR are a good night out guaranteed. 

Fifty Minutes Of ACR

• Dirty Boy
• Music Control
• Mello
• Be What You Wanna Be
• Night People
• Wedge (ACR Rework)
• Emperor Machine
• Taxi Guy
• Won't Stop Loving You (Bernard Sumner Remix)

Dirty Boy came out in 2018 ahead of the group's acr:set compilation, with vocals from Barry Adamson and the sampled voice of one- time mentor, manager and label boss Tony Wilson.

Music Control was a collaboration between ACR's alter ego Sir Horatio and Chris Massey, DJ, producer and promoter from Stretford, a squelchy collision of punk- funk, acid house and mutant disco.

Mello came out in 1992 on Rob Gretton's new label Rob's Records, a slice of loved up Mancunian house.  

Be What You Wanna Be is from 1990's acr: mcr, a renewal of the group's sound and fortunes. They left Factory for A&M but 1989's Good Together failed to shift many copies  (a shame as it's an album with much going for it). acr: mcr is wall to wall brilliance, from Spirit Dance to Good Together to Tribecca, rhythms and pianos inspired by the records playing in the Hacienda. Personnel changes at A&M saw them leave not long after for Rob's Records. I saw them at Manchester Academy in autumn 1991, a gig packed to the rafters and with a crowd up for it from the moment ACR appeared on stage. A few songs in my then girlfriend decided this was the ideal opportunity to have an argument and walk out of the venue.  

Night People was on one of three EPs ACR released in 2021, thirteen tracks, with no filler, following the comeback album Loco, on Mute, from the year before. Night People was on the third of the three, ACR: EPR, and has a swampy Bowie/ Iggy in Berlin groove. 

Wedge is by Number, Ali Friend and Rich Thair's spin off from Red Snapper, a 2020 punk funk trip. The two bands swapped remixes, this being ACR's remix of Number. Number's Binary album came out in April 2020 and probably got a little overlooked with everything else that was going on in spring 2020.

Emperor Machine was a collaboration between ACR and Emperor Machine (Andy Meacham, who found fame first time around in Bizarre Inc). The self- titled track was on EPC in 2021 and is supercharged mutant disco/ punk funk. 

Taxi Guy is the closing song on 2020's Loco album, an album that showed they were right back on it and fired up. Jazzy, samba grooves and a mass drumming finale. Their vie gigs over the last decade have sometimes finished with the group ending up leaving the stage and walking into the audience, drumming and blowing whistles, as happened at Gorilla in early 2020.

Won't Stop Loving You is a remix of a song from acr: mcr by Bernard Sumner from 1990. Sumner stripped the song back to Jez and Denise's vocals, whipcrack 808 drums and house piano. Something of a desert island disc for me. 

Waiting On A Train

A Certain Ratio are back, a new single out this week and an album called 1982 to follow in March next year. The single, Waiting On A Train, features the vocal talents of two ACR newcomers, both from Manchester- singer Ellen Beth Abdi and rapper Chunky. Ellen stepped into the space left by the sad loss of Denise Johnson (and it turns out is the daughter of a colleague of mine). The song shows a band who aren't content to rest on their post- punk laurels and repeat themselves. Waiting On A Train has a slow burning groove, funk bass and gritty guitar licks, wiggy synth squiggles and two very cool vocal parts, Ellen and Chunky taking turns to lead, Ellen's nonchalant, jazz tinged vocal and Chunky's laid back rap coming together around the refrain, 'It's so insane'. 

Th album follows next year. ACR say there are several reasons for calling the album 1982, none of which were steeped in nostalgia. Some the song titles - A Trip To Hulme, Tombo In M3 and Ballad Of ACR- do suggest a Manchester based record, no bad thing for band so connected to this city since the late 70s. Ellen appears on two more songs along with Emperor Machine (Andy Meecham). Last year ACR released three EPs, one of which featured collaborations with both Emperor Machine and Stretford's Chris Massey, dedicated to Andrew Weatherall. The track with Emperor Machine, titled Emperor Machine, was a masterclass in electronic funk, borrowing the stepped, punk funk rhythm from their own 1979 song Do The Du and updating it for now in fine style. 

The Call Of Unknown Genre

Another release I've been playing catch up with- Unknown Genre, a collaboration between Hardway Bros and Emperor Machine for Berlin's Other Goodness record label. There are two tracks, both clocking in at over eight minutes, combining Sean Johnston and Andrew Meecham's love for propulsive, dancefloor facing, robotic, analogue synths. The first is Elevator Ride, a fast paced piece of ommpty bumpty business, hypnotic techno rhythms and sci fi synths. 

It's paired with Cthulhu Macala, which opens with 'a-ha a-ha' chanting and some big drums, a slower, grinding tempo and rhythm with all manner of wigged out sounds and a huge, distorted bassline. The vocals keep flitting back in ominously, summoned from somewhere down below. As anyone who was into role playing games and the surrounding culture for any period of time in the 1980s will know Cthulhu is a cosmic God, an anthropoid octopus being, created by H.P. Lovecraft, the old one of great power,  worshipped by cultists, who slumbers awaiting the time to return. 

Cthulhu first appeared in the 1928 short story The Call of Cthulhu, published in a pulp magazine called Weird Tales. I recall reading some Lovecraft borrowed from the local library circa 1984 and not being able to make head or tail of it. 

The EP is completed with a remix of Elevator Ride by Halifax group The Orielles. Elevator Ride (The Orielles Ambient Mix) is a bit of a revelation. They cut the running time in half and the tempo too, slowing things right down and finding inspiration in early 90s ambient techno. This remix wouldn't sound out of place on Warp's Artifical Intelligence compilation or on the Belgian R&S label, a seriously impressive remix from three youngsters not long out of their teens and better known for their ACR/ ESG style punk- funk grooves. 

A Certain Machine

A Certain Ratio's 21st century renaissance continues. Their ACR: EPA 12" came out recently, four songs recorded at the end of the sessions that led to last year's album and the last songs to feature the vocals of Denise Johnson. They've just announced two further EPs, ACR: EPR which promises a further five new songs (grey vinyl and digital, out in August) and ACR: EPC (blue vinyl, out in July). EPC has a version of Music Control, the collaboration with Stretford's Chris Massey and their Sir Horatio alter ego, a tribute to Andrew Weatherall titled The Guv' nor (ACR were one of Weatherall's foremost and guiding influences), the long version of YOYOGRIP and this face off between ACR and The Emperor Machine.

If that doesn't get you up and out of your chair, I don't know what will. Deliberately pushing the Shack Up button with a bassline from their earliest days, ACR and The Emperor Machine (Andrew Meecham) are in full flow with brightly coloured dance funk, laser beams and mirror balls, and that ever present northern noir. 

Orion

Sons And Daughters were a two boy/two girl band from Glasgow, dressed like Johnny Cash and sounding like a roots group gone punk. Taut guitars, crisp drums, Scottish swagger, growls and shrieks in the vocals. I liked their first two albums a lot. They split up a few years ago.

The Emperor Machine is Andrew Meecham, synth enthusiast and producer and formerly a member of Bizarre Inc. In 2012 he remixed Sons And Daughters' Orion and turned it into a long, funky, expansive, in your face, cosmic trip. Eleven minutes and thirty seven seconds of trip.

Orion (Emperor Machine Mix)

Orion is one of the most prominent constellations in the sky, visible across the world, named after Orion the Hunter from Greek mythology. It makes me think of Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty in Bladerunner...

'I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the Shoulder of Orion. I've watched C-Beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain. Time to die'