Monday's Long Song

Back to work after two weeks off and back to 1992 for today's regular weekly long song with an epic version and fine example of the art of the remix- Thrash and Greg Hunter taking Killing Joke's gothic/ post- punk 1980 single Requiem and turning it into something entirely new, an eleven minute trip down the river, a dub techno version of Apocalypse Now! and the mission to find Colonel Kurtz.

A Floating Leaf Always Reaches The Sea crosses borders and ignores boundaries, a constantly evolving, living entity with squelchy synths, bubbling bass, crunchy drums, dub echo and space and Geordie Walker's guitar beamed in like a transmission from a dying star. 

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

Asha Bhosle

Legendary Indian singer Asha Bhosle died a few days ago aged 92. Her singing career,alongside acting and television presenting work, spanned eight decades and apparently she is the most recorded artist in history. She may be best known to British indie audiences from the title and lyrics of their 1997 single Brimful Of Asha.

Brimful Of Asha

What a great song- The Velvet Underground via Indian TV and film, the beauty of the 7" single as an art form, Asha's sister Lata Mangeshkar (also a singer of renown), Ferguson Mono, Jacques Dutronc, the Bolan boogie, Trojan Records... a lyrical stream of consciousness that makes perfect sense even if you don't get all the references. The single stalled on release but a Norman Cook remix smashed its way to the top of the charts and it sold millions. Asha herself said that the song was significant, the moment that two worlds, British indie rock and Bollywood, collided.

Asha Bhosle sang on this song, O Je Suis Seul,too by West India Company. West India Company were Neil Arthur and Stephen Luscombe (from Blancmange), Asha and tabla player Pandit Dinesh (when West India Company started in 1984 Vince Clarke was involved too but Erasure became a much bigger day job). 

In 1989 West India Company rubbed shoulders with Dr Alex Paterson of The Orb and his Battersea neighbour Andrew Weatherall (then at the start of his remix career) and the pair did two remixes of O Je Suis Seul, another Asha Bhosle cultural collision, this time, acid house/ ambient house and Bollywood spliced. Weatherall drops in the 'Yep, I know that feeling' sample, Nastassja Kinski in Paris, Texas, one he'd use again on Screamadelica a year later. Thrash, then of The Orb, engineered both remixes, the Bhagwan Boogie is Andrew and the Orient Express Mix is Andrew and Alex. 

O Je Suis Seul (Bhagwan Boogie)

O Je Suis Seul (Orient Express Mix)

Both are totally of their time, have a wonderful 1989 innocence about them and are completely fantastic, the Bhagwan Boogie especially. 

Asha also sang on Bow Down Mister, Boy George's late 80s/ early 90s acid house/ Hare Krishna outfit Jesus Loves You. George wrote the song on a trip to India- Asha said several times it was the song she was most pleased to have contributed to. Her vocal in the second half elevates the song. 

Bow Down Mister (A Small Portion 2 B Polite Mix)

Asha Bhosle also appears on this 2021 track by Bicep, a duo from Belfast. Asha's vocal is a strong presence in the track, set back from the tumbling and thumping drums and the skipping synths, the track on the verge of falling apart. The album Isles was released in early 2021, a point where any communal activities- dancing, clubbing, going to gigs, even meeting indoors- were out of the question. Asha's vocal seems to fully capture that in a way, partway between euphoria and melancholia. 

Sundial

Lastly, and I was completely unaware of this song until this week, is this- in 2002 Asha sang a duet with Michael Stipe, a song that appeared on an album by 1 Giant Leap (Faithless' Jamie Cato). The Way You Dream is pretty stunning- eight minutes long, building gradually with tabla and samples, Asha's divine voice, strings, Michael joining in just after two minutes, singing along with and around the vocal the 1 Giaat Leap pair had already recorded with Asha. 

Asha's funeral took place two days ago, huge crowds coming out to pay tribute to her as she made her way to be cremated where she was sent off with a gun salute. 

RIP Asha Bhosle. 

Geordie Walker

The news of Geordie Walker's death in Prague following a stroke was announced at the weekend, drawing the curtain on one of the most innovative and distinctive guitarists of the post- punk period (and beyond). Alongside Jaz Coleman Kevin/ Geordie was the only constant member of the group, forming Killing joke with the singer in 1979 after replying to an advert, his guitar playing was enormous, his Gibson hollow bodied guitar tuned down a whole tone lower than standard tuning. His set up and style, melody lines as opposed to solos, crunching metallic rhythm parts, ringing feedback, a seemingly effortless approach that created the sound of several guitars playing at once. 

Some music from the Killing Joke back catalogue in tribute to Geordie Walker.

Turn To Red was from Killing Joke's debut release, a 7" EP from October 1979. They were always into the idea of remixing their music, and the multitude of dub versions and remixes are all worth investigating. This dub of Turn To Red is fast, heavy dub, rimshots, echo, noise and thump.

Turn To Red Dub

Eighties came out in the middle of the 80s, a single and also on the album Night Time. Kurt Cobain famously purloined the guitar riff for Nirvana's Come As You Are. The Serious Dance Mix is as hard as anything from 1984, a stomp with Geordie's guitars up front. In fact, it's a song with everything up front. 

Eighties (Serious Dance Mix)

In 1992 Thrash of The Orb took Requiem and gave it the full 1992 Orb remix treatment, with sound effects, space and echo, bass, coiled guitar parts, stuttering synth parts, rain and wind and whatever else he fancied, the song stretched out for eleven minutes, trance dub, a long strange trip down the river. 

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

In 1993 Andrew Weatherall played his first Essential Mix. Those tuning in back in November 1993 or listening later on tape, copies passed around and re- copied time after time, would have heard Killing Joke's Millenium opening the show, not the first time Weatherall confounded expectations and played something unexpected and made it work, Killing Joke sounding perfectly at home among the early 90s techno of Sabres Of Paradise, Plastikman, LFO and Black Dog. 

RIP Geordie Walker. 

Weatherall Remix Friday Five

1990's Andrew Weatherall output is pretty definitively Weatherall- Loaded, Come Together, Soon, Come Home, Only Love Can Break Your Heart, Hallelujah, Bomba- technicolour, widescreen, everything thrown in, acid house/ indie- dance madness, era- defining stuff. There are a few outliers from 1990 though, remixes that don't quite fit into the ecstatic nature of the list above, like this remix of Meat Beat Manifesto, with The Orb's Thrash assisting on studio technical duties...

Psyche Out (Sex Skank Strip Down)

Bass heavy skanking with dub- techno rhythms, a scratchy vibe with a fragment of female vocal, a moan. It's got an underground, afterhours, everything gone south feel that prefigures the Sabres sound by a few years and some of his DJ sets of the mid 90s that had a hip hop groove. There's some of the Two Lone Swordsmen Virus With Shoes minimalism in there too. 

Meat Beat Manifesto's industrial hip hop was trip hop before it was a thing, before it had a name, massively influential. Main Meat Beat man Jack Danger's released Radio Babylon in the same year, a destroyer of a record, with a huge rapid fire breakbeat, the chant of 'Babylon' and fuzzed up bassline capable of causing mayhem. Combining samples of Cheryl Lynn, Boney M, The Troggs and Mikey Dread on one record is genius enough in itself. 

Radio Babylon

Desir

System 7, formed in the early 90s by Steve Hillage and his partner Miquette Giraudy, were one of the obvious links between the late 60s/ early 70s hippy movement and acid house. Hillage and Giraudy were both members of Gong, purveyors of space rock/ jazz psychedelia, and in the late 70s Hillage had more or less invented The Orb's sound with his album Rainbow Dome Musick. In fact, it was hearing that album played by Alex Paterson at Heaven with a house kick drum underpinning it that led to Hillage meeting Paterson and Hillage forming System 7. The intention was for Paterson and Hillage to record ambient house with Hillage's guitar high in the mix. Paterson and fellow Orb man Kris 'Thrash' Weston both feature on System 7's self titled debut and the follow up 777 album, as well as Tony Thorpe of the Moody Boys and KLF, Youth and Derrick May. On 777 Paterson's credit is noted as 'ambience, navigation'. 

Steve Hillage was one of the people who was derided during punk, the Year Zero approach of 1976/77 designed to slam the door shut in his face and the generation gap swallow them whole. Finding favour a decade later with two ex- punks, Youth and Paterson, very much involved must have been very satisfying.  

Desir (Butterfly Remix)

Steve Hillage was instrumental in establishing the Dance Tent at Glastonbury (another hippy- acid house link) and went on to produce The Charlatans 1994 album Up To Our Hips, a dense, swirling, post- Madchester, pre- Britpop record that is much undervalued, some of which echoes the late 60s space rock of Gong and Hawkwind. Feel Flows wouldn't be out of place in Ladbroke Grove in 1968. Jesus Hairdo is more focussed but just as much a hippy 90s as anything.

Feel Flows

Jesus Hairdo

Gush Forth My Tears

In 1991 Barry Adamson heard three women singing/ busking on Portobello Road. The songs they were singing were Elizabethan madrigals, not the most obvious type of music to busk in the early 1990s. He was struck by their voices and they ended up working on a soundtrack he was making, signing to Mute Records, going in the studio with Danny Rampling to record their debut single Gush Forth My Tears and album Madra and going on tour supporting Blur (where on stage they received a barrage of sexist abuse from some of Blur's fanbase). The music press were all over Miranda Sex Garden briefly, partly because of their novelty value- three attractive young women with a memorable and provocative name singing Elizabethan madrigals a capella while supporting Blur at their drunkest was a story in the same way the NME and Melody Maker latched onto Dread Zeppelin (American rock band with a singer dressed as Vegas- era Elvis play Led Zep covers in reggae style). Miranda Sex Garden's career saw them expand and release several albums up until 1995 when they split and then Kathryn Blake formed a new group, Medieval Baebes. 

Their 1991 debut single, Gush Forth My Tears, was remixed by Orb man Thrash and Paul Kendall (who'd produced Depeche Mode and Nitzer Ebb). The remixes as reported at the time felt a bit desperate at first glance, as if Mute calculated that either by Rampling sticking a clubby drumbeat underneath the madrigal or by Thrash remixing it for the ambient crowd they'd end up with a crossover clubland hit one way or another. But that's to do Thrash and PK a disservice and the original record too because Gush Forth My Tears (Ambient Mix) is a bit of treat. 

Fluttering synth sounds, a warm kick drum, some trademark Orb ambience, the hiss of a hi hat, some distant violins and the trio of clear voices harmonising. There are several different mixes but this one is the pick and while you might not think you need a twenty nine year old Elizabethan madrigal revival/ ambient crossover record at this point in 2020, a sharp a rise in Coronavirus infections sweeping in and a new lockdown imminent, you actually do.  And, if you're going to have one, it should be this. 

Gush Forth My Tears (Ambient Mix)

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)

Only Your Love

Today's song is Youth and Thrash in 1990 taking Bananarama onto the dancefloor and under the spell of Sympathy For The Devil (everyone was into Sympathy For The Devil and those woo-woo backing vocals in 1990). The bassline's a killer too. Yes, you could probably mix it straight into Loaded. There's only one thing for it- it's Friday, get down.

Only Your Love (Youth And Thrash On The Mix) 

Thanks to Mark for the tip with this one.

A Floating Leaf Always Reaches The Sea

This came my way the other day, a massive, ominous, thundering piece of heavy duty ambient dub from 1992, Thrash and Greg Hunter reworking Killing Joke's Requiem. The single (12" and cd) came with some Spiral Tribe remixes of Killing Joke's Change, which are very much in the 1992 repetitive beats techno vein (and nothing wrong with that you may very well say). But this is the keeper- Requiem (A Floating Leaf Always Reaches The Sea Dub). The bassline alone is worth the entrance fee.



I always feel like I should know Killing Joke better than I do. I should find the time to do something about that.

Cascades

I posted this song way back, one of my favourite records of the period 1990-91- Cascades (Hypnotone Mix) by Sheer Taft. It came out on Creation and was on the killer Creation dance comp Keeping The Faith. Cascades is an acid house influenced, hypnotic and trippy adventure from the imagination of Glasgow's Sheer Taft. I make no apologies for posting it again- you'll love it, if you don't know it already.

The picture above shows Sheer Taft with Bobby Gillespie at Glasgow Barrowlands in 1991, presumably at Primal Scream's gig there on the Screamadelica tour. The day before yesterday there was a comment left at the Wordpress version of this blog (which is just a back up version really, in case blogger ever pulled the plug on this one which has happened to other bloggers in the past). The comment was left by the man himself, Sheer Taft, in response to another anonymous comment asking if there was an earlier version of this song and how much input Hypnotone had. So Taft has helpfully cleared it up for us.

'The original version was recorded by myself (Sheer Taft) and Andrew Innes from Primal Scream in a flat in the east end of London.
We then recorded further versions of the same track at a studio in Fulham.
Hypnotone ie Tony Martin was involved along with me in remixing the track with a great deal of input by Thrash from the Orb answer a few suggestions from Brian Enough who was working in the same studio in Berwick Street at that time.'

Thanks Sheer Taft. It freaks me out a  little when the people who make the music comment on the blog but it's good too.

Cascades (Hypnotone Mix)

We are going away for the weekend, it being a Bank Holiday. We are camping. In a tent. With a load of other people. In tents. A few weeks ago when the sun was shining and the temperature was nudging 18 to 19 degrees, this looked like a brilliant idea. Now the wind is blowing, the night time temperature is close to zero, rain keeps sweeping in, and there was hail falling from the skies yesterday. It doesn't seem such a brilliant idea anymore. it seems a bit stupid. I'll let you know how we got on when we get back- supposedly on Monday. Have a good weekend.