Monday's Long Song

The latest release on Paisley Dark, Leeds based home of electronic psychedelia, is a five track EP by Ian Vale. It opens with Many Times, six minutes and twenty five seconds of dark acid house, four- four drums, a bouncing bassline and shimmering arpeggios- dark dub disco action.

It's followed by an Al Mckenzie remix, ten minutes of wobbly, slowly building electronic music, a twisting and turning, rising and falling remix that keeps on giving- it really is where the action is. Get both and three other tracks- a Ben Hunt remix of Many Times, another Ian Vale track  Oh Malone and a Julius remix of that- at Bandcamp. 

Al Mckenzie is one half of D:Ream whose 1993 hit single Things Can Only Get Better has recently made the headlines again, pumped out of a speaker at the public end of Downing Street when Rishi Sunak stood in the pouring rain and tried to make it sound like calling a general election was a good idea for the Tory Party. From there, it climbed the charts again and Al and Peter ended up having to make a statement saying to Labour, 'please don't use this song'. They haven't got over it being used by New Labour in 1997- the decision by Tony Blair to invade Iraq alongside the USA did for the relationship between D:Ream and the Labour government (as it did for any people). Singer Peter Cunnah described the song as 'a very odd piece of gravity that you just can't escape'. Al added, 'There's no way- our song and politics, never again'. I understand that decision but in a way it's also a shame- the sight of Sunak, unable to even find an umbrella never mind run an election campaign, piss wet through as the song drowned him out was priceless. Given what Sunak's done since however, it looks like one of the slicker parts of his election campaign. 

Things

These pigs live in the field next to the cemetery Isaac is buried in. When we go to see Isaac it always cheers me to see the pigs scurrying around. One time we went last year, the pigs had escaped and were snuffling all over the place. They now live behind more secure fencing but still bring joy. 

About twenty years ago I had a colleague in the same department who was much older than me (he was probably about the age I am now). One Friday afternoon we were crossing the yard at school coming towards each other, rain driving in sideways and wind whipping around us. We were both trying not to lose what we were carrying while holding our coats to shield us from Lancashire's weather. As he came towards me, in his broad East Lancs accent, he shouted, 'In the words of the prophet, thank fuck that's over'. It has been one of those weeks at work this week too, so to echo my former colleague, thank fuck that's over.

One of the recent highlights of the 1994 Top Of The Pops repeats has been seeing D: Ream performing Things Can Only Get Better, a song not served well by subsequent events. Things Can Only Get Better is a million selling, massive hit single that soundtracked Tony Blair's rise to power, tainted by its association with New Labour- I'm reclaiming it. In autumn and winter 93 and into 94 it was everywhere, played in clubs and bars, shamelessly good time pop- house. Peter Cunnah was a great frontman. Around this time I had some very fetching checked trousers not dissimilar from the ones he's wearing below (although I baulked at the full suit). The band look great, professor Brian Cox plays keys, the female sax player is fantastic, everyone's breathlessly happy. By January they were at number one on Top Of The Pops. 

There- feel better now?

D: Ream still exist. Peter and Al MacKenzie have a considerably lower profile now than they did thirty years ago but they're still making good electronic dance music. Last year's single Pedestal was an end of year highlight and came with a remix package that included Drop Out Orchestra and Jezebell. 

Jezebell's Dizzy Heights Remix is a seven minute warm bath of Balearic bliss, treated acoustic guitars and chiming melody lines, a melodica winding its way through the song and hushed vocals just within earshot. Al MacKenzie released a tribute to Andrew Weatherall last year, the magnificent, languid Sail On, a seven minute odyssey built around a descending synth part, some throbbing sequencers and a lot of emotion. It too has been remixed, a pair of remixes that came out last month courtesy of Matt Gunn and Sven Kossler. Get them here. 

Things Can Only Get...

Election day, 7th May 2015. I've been thinking a lot about how to vote. In almost all of the elections I've voted in since turning eighteen in 1988 I've voted Labour. Like many people the Labour party haven't endeared themselves to me quite as much in recent times. I'm pretty envious of our Scottish friends who have an actual, meaningful alternative to voting Labour in the shape of the SNP, and the same is true in Wales. I would like to vote for a left wing political party- a party who put social justice above narrow personal self interest, who aren't contributing to paranoid, stoked up fears about immigration, who will fund the NHS and who will support those less well off. You could suggest at this point that this option does exist for me and that I should vote Green. Which has crossed my mind. However I think when I go to the polling booth tonight I shall mark my cross against the name of the Labour party candidate. The bottom line, to my mind, has to be to get rid of the Tories, to vote this shower of shits out of office and I think that voting Labour is the most effective way to do that.

That brings up the dangerous question of voting Lib Dem tactically (and we can all see where that got us last time- the Lib Dems propping up a nasty right wing clique of bankers and ex-public school boys). Fortunately not a problem round here, the Lib Dems trail well off in third but some people may have to make that choice.

In 1997 after nearly twenty years of Conservative government the Labour party had the wind behind them and optimism in front of them. They appropriated D Ream's pop-house anthem Things Can Only Get Better. I quite liked it until that point. Right now, I'm not sure if things can only get better but if we get five more years of what we've just had then things will get a lot worse.



David Cameron (part time punk, Eton mod and class warrior) has stated before that The Eton Rifles is one of his favourite songs. Eton Rifles is a bile-fuelled invective against public school boys (from Cameron's old school) spitting and jeering at unemployed miners marching from Jarrow to London set to a piledriving post punk tune. As Paul Weller said 'which part of it didn't he get?'

Live on Something Else in 1979 (the same episode Joy Division were on).