Amber

Number are Ali Friend and Rich Thair exploring and creating something different from what they do in their main band Red Snapper. Number do post- punk, dirty disco basslines, wiry guitars, drum machines paired with live drums, vintage synths and keys, with Ali's vocals and songs. It's a sidestep from Red Snapper's jazz/ trip hop/ sci fi blues. Last week Number released a remix of their song Amber by long term friends A Certain Ratio. Martin Moscrop, Jez Kerr and Donald Johnson brought their Mancunian dub/ funk to the song and it became this...

Amber is an infectious and funked up blend of Tomorrow's World sounds, 80s punk funk and soul, and chunky 21st century rhythms. The finale, a pile up of drums and percussion as Ali sings, 'heaven', and the synths rise with him, is rather wonderful and not a little uplifting. An early 2026 musical treat, one I've been clicking play on repeatedly. Highly recommended. 

ACR previously remixed Number in 2020 on Number's debut Binary, a track called Wedge, and then Number remixed A Certain Ratio on Estate Kings, a track from ACR's It All Comes Down To This that was on Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 2 last year.

Amber is the opening song on Number's second album, Pollinate, out last week, their early 80s, Talking Heads, NY disco, punk- funk sounds spread out over ten tracks. It's followed by Let's Stamp On It, a funky dark disco/ electro wiggle. Other highlights include Discoid- a slinky, gliding, synth funk protest against capitalism and consumerism- and Rebel Corners- a lone guitar line in a world of echo and percussion. On Smoke In The Skies Number go 80s alt pop, the New Order- esque playing and production a brightly coloured counterpoint to lyrics about Gaza, Syria and Sudan. 

There's loads more on Pollinate, something to enjoy round every corner, an album that's fresh, inventive and packed with tunes. You can listen and buy at Bandcamp. 

An Hour Of 2025 Part Three

This is my third and final Sunday mix pulling together some of my favorite tracks from 2025 (the first one, ambient and instrumental, is here and the second, dub and dance, is here). This one starts out folky, strays from dub to cosmische and Balearic, and picks from the past too with two covers, some Stone Roses inspiration and Mazzy Star, songs borrowing from the years 1971, 1989, 1993 and 1999. Going back to go forwards. 

An Hour Of 2025 Part Three

• Joao Leao: One Of These Things First
• Sydney Minsky Sargeant: Summer Song
• Coyote: Battle Weary
• Stereolab: Flashes From Everywhere
• Psychederek: Thinkin' Bout U Pt. 4 (Jupiter/ Reprise)
• Saint Etienne: Alone Together (Hove Lawns Sunset Mix)
• Pale Blue Eyes: How Long Is Now (Richard Norris Remix)
• Red Snapper: Ban- Di- To
• Five Green Moons and Brix Smith: Boudica
• Raz and Afla: Windowlicker
• 10:40 Present Retro Fit: Lavender Mist
• Four Tet: Into Dust (Still Falling)

Joao Leao is a Brazillian- Canadian artist. This cover of a Nick Drake song came out on 7" in February on Toronto label Local Dish, a lovely, slightly tropical and ever so sweetly melancholic version of the original. 

Sydney Minsky Sargeant's solo album Lunga was a 2025 highlight, an album with some songs that date back to his teenage years growing up in Todmorden and the flipside to Syd's main job as leader of Working Men's Club. Lunga is downtempo, personal, acoustic guitar based with echoes of Syd Barrett in the singing and Nick Drake in the playing. Summer Song is reflective, a little lost, the sound of the end of summer. 

Notts Balearic veterans Coyote continue to drip feed new songs and tracks. 2025 saw a six track mini- album, Wailing To The Yellow Dawn, a collaboration with Peaking Lights and two singles including the one here, the dubbed out sounds of Battle Weary with the vocal sample iterating, 'Sufferin' is a poor man's crime'.  

Stereolab returned after a long gap with a new album, Instant Holograms On Metal Film, an album stuffed full of vintage synths, motorik rhythms, wit, invention and (crucially) good songs. Flashes From Everywhere starts out like an easy listening track and then goes krauty and flirts with being poppy. 

Stretford's Psychederek released the four track EP Thinkin' Bout U in August, four different versions of the song, covering everything from Pacific State style dance to broken down, beach bar Balearica (Pt. 4, the one I've included here), kind of proving there's no such thing as a definitive or final version. You can always find another way to do something. 

Saint Etienne released four versions/ remixes of Along Together (a track from 2024's The Night). The Hove Lawns Sunset mix re- imagines West Sussex as a Mediterranean island, slo mo beats and sunset by the pool vibes. Bob, Pete and Sarah then announced an album that would be their last and a tour this year that will be ditto. I think we'll miss them when they're gone.

Pale Blue Eyes are from Sheffield, an indie/ krauty trio. Richard remixed the song as a cosmische autobahn trip, soaring away from South Yorkshire and into 70s West Germany.

Red Snapper were all over my 2025. A tour in March to celerbate the 30th anniversary of Reeled And Skinned, a new album Barb And Feather, and an appearance on Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 2 with the percussion mayhem of Qraqeb. Ban- Di- To is amped up jump blues done 2025 style. 

Five Green Moons second album, Moon 2, was a second strong dub/ folk set from Justin Robertson, who is really in a purple patch at the moment. Brix Smith appears on Boudica. Surviving The Fall/ leading an uprising against the Romans- similarly troublesome I'd imagine. 

Raz and Afla released their cover of Aphex Town's Windowlicker, an Afro- futurist dancefloor bomb that repositions Aphex Twin somewhere new. 

Jesse Fahnestock's 10:40 released An Alternative History back in April, a track Jesse made inspired by a post here at Bagging Area where I imagined an alternate history of The Stone Roses, one where they didn't mess it up after June 1990 but kept going and recorded singles, EPs and albums all the way through the 90s culminating in a gig at Raglan Road scout hut in Sale, up the road from me, where Ian and John first rehearsed way back. You can read that post here. Jesse fired up his studio, sampled Ian and built a new/ imaginary Roses track. The third version, Lavender Mist, went all backwards and is named after Jackson Pollock's painting of the same name. For a while Jesse had the idea that I might provide the vocal but I bottled it. Probably for the best. My singing voice hasn't been the same since I gave up smoking. I always planned to include Lavender Mist on an end of year mix but Mani's death in November added an extra poignancy to everything Roses related. You may have seen the photos from the funeral of his former bandmates carrying his coffin out of Manchester cathedral. A very sad loss. 

Four Tet's Mazzy Star sampling Into Dust (Still Falling) was my favourite single of 2025, a lush and slinky tune that (as I said elsewhere) sounded like summer in the summer and sounds like winter in the here and now. Kieran Hebden can do little wrong for me- his album with William Tyler was as good an album as any other released in 2025 and as Four Tet has been on a roll of superb albums in the last decade with New Energy in 2017, Sixteen Oceans in 2020 and Three in 2024.  

Forty Five Minutes Of Cover Versions Part Three

A third Sunday covers mix for October this time with an 80s indie edge and some repeat offenders from the last two weeks present and correct. Starts out all small hours and hushed, goes noisier, comes down again and finishes where it started with The Velvets, one of the most covered bands. 

Forty Five Minutes Of Cover Versions Part Three

• Cowboy Junkies: Sweet Jane
• Sonic Youth: Superstar
• Primal Scream: Carry Me Home
• The House Of Love: Who By Fire
• Ciccone Youth: Into The Groovey
• World Of Twist: This Too Shall Pass Away
• Red Snapper: Sound And Vision
• R.E.M.: Indian Summer
• Minutemen: Have You Ever Seen The Rain?
• Calexico: Corona
• Paul Quinn & Edwyn Collins: Pale Blue Eyes (Western)

Cowboy Junkies covered Sweet Jane on their magical 1988 album The Trinity Session. The album was famously recorded in Toronto's Church of The Holy Trinity. Their cover was based on the version the Velvets played on their 1969 Live album rather than the one on Loaded. Lou Reed said the Cowboy Junkies take on the song was his favourite, the way the song was meant to be done. 

Sonic Youth featured twice last week and do this week too- their version of Superstar came out on a 1994 tribute to The Carpenters. Richard Carpenter didn't like it at all. Sonic Youth take a blow torch to the song, a huge amount of reverb, one massive piano note, some wobbly guitar sounds and surely nail something true about the song. The Carpenters released it in 1971 with LA session musicians The Wrecking Crew and a toned down, less suggestive lyric ('I can't wait to sleep with you again' was changed to 'be with you again'). The song was written by Bonnie Bramlett and Leon Russell and recorded first by Delaney and Bonnie in 1969, a song about the relationships between rock stars and groupies in the 60s.

Carry Me Home was on Primal Scream's Dixie- Narco EP, a bleak Dennis Wilson song made bleaker still by Primal Scream and Andrew Weatherall while recording at Ardent in Memphis in 1991. Weatherall's production and arrangement is superb, an extension of the Screamadelica sound into darker places. Dennis' song is sung from the point of view of a dying soldier in Vietnam.

Who By Fire is a Leonard Cohen song covered by The House Of Love on a 1991 tribute album, I'm Your Fan- there are loads of 80s/ 90s alt/ indie stars on the album including R.E.M., Pixies, The Lilac Time, Ian McCulloch, Lloyd Cole, Robert Forster, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, James and John Cale. I'm not sure any of them really improve on the original songs. 

Ciccone Youth were a Madonna inspired Sonic Youth side project with Minuteman Mike Watt on bass. Watt was in a bad way after D. Boon's death and what became The White Album was a way to get him playing again. Into The Groovey is a cover of Madonna (obvs) and samples her too. SY loved Madonna in the 80s, they loved Into The Groove. They also covered Robert Palmer's Addicted To Love. 

World Of Twist did a few covers- Kick Out The Jams, She's A Rainbow, Life And Death- and this one, This Too Shall Pass Away, which sits in the middle of side one on their sole album, 1991's Quality Street. Quality Street is a heady stew of psychedelic pop, Northern Soul and late 80s Mancunian indie. The original version of This Too... is a 1964 single by the Honeycombs.

Red Snapper's cover of Bowie's Sound And Vision is on Ban- Di- To, out earlier this year and thoroughly recommended. Red Snapper are a formidable live band and Sound And Vision is a live favourite- I saw them do it at The Golden Lion in 2023.

Indian Summer is a semi- legendary song by Beat Happening, lo fi indie pioneers from Olympia, Washington. The song is a slow burning tale of youth and lust, originally released in 1988. R.E.M.'s cover is from a 2008 single, Hollow Man. I have versions by Spectrum (Sonic Boom), Luna and The Jazz Butcher as well as this one. In fact Spectrum's may be the best version and should probably have been included here- R.E.M. find some late period magic and intensity here though.

Minutemen covered Have You Ever Seen The Rain? on their fourth and final album, 1985's Three Way Tie For Last, a cover of Watt and Boon's teenage heroes Creedence Clearwater Revival. AT two minute thirty seconds long it's an epic by Minutemen standards. D Boon died shortly after the album's release.

Calexico's cover of Minutemen's Corona was on their 2003 masterpiece Feast Of Wire. The original is from 1984's Double Nickels On the Dime, one of D Boon's best songs, a heartfelt protest song for the downtrodden people of mid- 80s Mexico. Calexico played it live and then covered it, adding mariachi horns. Let's forget the fact it became the theme tune to Jackass. 

Back to The Velvets. Paul Quinn and Edwyn Collins covered Lou Reed's Pale Blue Eyes for a one off single in 1984, done for the soundtrack of Alan Horne's Punk Rock Hotel. It's a much loved cover, Edwyn and Paul both sounding as good as they ever did. 

Twenty Five Minutes Of Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 2

Our second album, Sounds From The Flightpath Estate, went on sale for pre- orders last week (as announced here on Monday and on various Flightpath Estate social media platforms). We are pressing 1500 copies. We did 1000 of Volume 1 and sold them all, something that still amazes me although it shouldn't- the music was so good it should have been no surprise we'd sell out. Flightpath and Rude Audio main man Mark Ratcliff has done a taster mix of all ten tracks for Volume 2, deftly sequenced and mixed, with the unreleased Sabres Of Paradise track making its presence known more than once. 

The unreleased version of Lick Wid Nit Wit stands alongside anything else Sabres recorded and released. It got it sole airing when Andrew Weatherall played it as part of his legendary 1993 Essential Mix at the BBC and even then that version is not the same as the one we have. 

As well as that track Mark has mixed in the nine other brand new tracks, music by Richard Fearless, Red Snapper, A Certain Ratio re-worked by Number, David Harrow, Bedford Falls Players, Dicky Continental, Richard Norris, Unit 14 and a cover of Two Lone Swordsmen's Sick When We Kiss by Sleaford Mods. Mark's mix, featuring excerpts from all ten tracks, can be found here. Mark has adeptly brought together mid- 90s dub/ techno skank, 21st century machine techno, Manc noir, North African percussion, chuggy cosmische, thumpy acid house, clattering Notts post- punk and much more into one sequence- you can play guess which track is which.

Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 2, double vinyl clad in a beautiful sleeve courtesy of Personality Crisis, can be pre- ordered from Golden Lion Sounds and/ or the GLS Bandcamp. There are still some copies left but don't hang around- as with Volume 1 there will be no repress. When they're gone, they're gone. 

Hot Flushes

Red Snapper's tour reached Yes in Manchester last Saturday night, a celebration of the 30th anniversary of their debut album Reeled And Skinned and their forthcoming album Barb And Feather. The Pink Room at Yes is close to full with ACR's Martin Moscrop on DJ support duties. Red Snapper are on at 8.30, an early start due to the room converting to a club night not long after 10pm and they waste no time getting the room moving. 

The core duo/ rhythm section of Rich Thair (drums) and Ali Friend (stand up bass) are very talented musicians. If you had a functioning time machine you could drop them into 1920s Harlem, 1940s New York or 1960s Soho and within a few bars of music they'd have everyone rocking, Ali's deft basslines and Rich's on it drumming the bedrock to a set that takes in jazz, dub, surf, trip hop, rocking blues, all points in between and a fusion of all of those. Their set spans the years 1995 to now, everything sounding like the work of a band very much in the present but with one eye on the music of their past that has led to here, now, tonight. Along side Rich and Ali Red Snapper is Tom Challenger playing sax, clarinet and melodica, plus keys and laptop, and youthful guitarist Tara Cunningham who flicks between jazz, angular post- punk/ punk- funk and surf. On opener Lobster, Ali plays his bass with a bow and everyone joins in softly, a low key start to a set that ups the tempo straight after with newer cuts like B- Planet (from 2022) standing alongside the sounds of their mid 90s trip hop. Hold My Hand Up, a collaboration from last year with David Harrow, is a mid- set highlight, the ambient soundscape of the original turned into a dubbed out anthem. 

The room is bouncing, the area near the stage full of dancers and the rest of the room bobbing up and down and left and right. New track Ban- Di- To kicks up a storm, pile driving horn riffs and sharp funk, raucous, infectious fun. They close with Hot Flush, a live version of the Sabres Of Paradise 1995 remix, Ali playing the circling jazzy bassline and the distinctive horn riff ringing out, future jazz crossed with dance music, time travelling music. 

Ali Friend is a presence centre stage, head tipped back while his fingers dance around the strings, occasionally spinning his bass round, leaning into the mic to utter some encouragement to the dancers, a man lost in the sounds, as Rich Thair drives everything from stage right. They come back sharpish for a two song encore, the amped up Wesley Don't Surf sending the punters young and middle aged out into the Manchester drizzle happy. 

Barbed, Feathered, Reeled, Skinned, Snappered

Red Snapper have an exciting and busy 2025 ahead of them. The band Ali Friend and Rich Thair started with David Ayres in 1993 celebrate the 30th anniversary of their 1995 album Reeled And Skinned, an album that was one of '95's highlights from Beth Orton's voice on Snapper and the extended ten minute guitar freak out In Deep to the endless groove of Sabres Of Paradise remix of Hot Flush. The re- issue on vinyl and digital is on Warp and expands the album out to ten songs, with the extra track Area 51. The re- issue is out this Friday- find it at Warp's Bandcamp. 

Reeled And Skinned's fusion of electronics with live double bass, drums and percussion, guitar and keys/ synth saw them cross between smoked out trip hop, rocking jazz, funk, Afro, surf, dub, sci fi blues and all points in between. They head out on tour this week, starting in Swansea on Thursday and finishing in Glasgow on the 29th March. I saw them at The Golden Lion two summers ago, a venue they're playing again this time around, and they rocked the house, the full band sound bouncing round the pub, Ali's double bass and Rich's drums always leading the way. 

They also have a new album coming out in April, Barb And Feather. Last year they released an EP called Tight Chest, four tracks led by a collaboration with David Harrow, the superb dubbed out sounds of  Hold My Hand Up...

Those four tracks are going to be on the new album along with four other new ones, recorded by the rocking and raucous Red Snapper live outfit. The breadth and power of the four new songs shows a band not just trading on former glories but in the flow of a creative period, new songs to stand alongside the old ones. Opening track Ban- Di- To is a riot, the sound of 1940s jump blues welded to fuzz guitar, horns and Zoot suits a- go- go, punchy and funky, infectious, pounding rhythms. Tolminka slows things down, basement blues, a cinematic noir sound with echo, sax and spindly guitar. It's followed by Sirocco, the groove coming together slowly, clipped guitar and jazzy percussion and then a wonderful snaking, descending sax line. The EP closes with a cover they played live on the last tour, Bowie's Sound And Vision, the stand up double bass bubbling away, a stew of instruments providing the song's famous melody lines and Ali's vocals playing off against the horns. Lovely stuff. Hear Ban- Di- To and find Barb And Feather at Bandcamp. 

As a bonus here's The Thin White Duke, David Bowie himself, in Tokyo in 1990 playing Sound And Vision, teeth gleaming white and hair in a perfect quiff and Adrian Belew on guitar, for the enjoyment of a stadium of Japanese Bowie fans. 

NYE 2024 Mix

Staying in has been proclaimed as the new going out many times now. New Year's Eve is often the most overrated night out of the year but in the past we had fun going on NYE and I'm sure they'll be loads of people who do tonight. We have no plans to do anything major and hence will be in by the time 2025 comes around at midnight. In place of a crowded dance floor here's a Bagging Area NYE 2024 mix, starts out dubby, then goes Tricky, and then thumpy before calming down slightly and finishing with the return of a long gone 60s icon. 

Everything on it was released this year and it's quite David Holmes and Hardway Bros heavy (which probably explains a lot of what I've listened to this year). I wanted to find room for several other tracks but also wanted to keep it down to under 80 minutes for those of you who still burn things to CD to play in the car (that may just be me). I tried to fit Acid Klaus in but couldn't make it work, Hardway Bros' Murky didn't find a place (and should have) and there's one segue where it's a bit off- Audacity isn't really for mixing more sequencing, and sometimes my patience gets replaced by my 'it'll do' attitude. But if you want a shuffle to some chuggy, leftfield, acidic, dubby, thumpy and ultimately life affirming electronic music at some point tonight, it might do the trick. 

NYE24 Mix

• Red Snapper and David Harrow: Hold My Hand Up
• Theis Thaws: Fly To Ceiling (David Holmes Mix)
• Silvertooth: Shut Um Down (A Dub From Outer Space)
• Ammonite: You Don't Know Me (David Holmes Remix)
• C.A.R.: Anzu (Hardway Bros Remix)
• Peak High: Dance Hall Days (Hardway Bros Remix)
• Causeway: Dancing With Shadows (Marshall's Club Mix)
• Ben Hunt: Shimmering Lights (Rude Audio Remix)
• Lisa Moorish: Sylvia (David Holmes Remix)
• Raxon: Your Fault
• Puerto Montt City Orchestra: Hey You (10:40 Remix)
• 100 Poems: Dubmobalearicswithmybreaksman

David Harrow celebrated turning 60 in 2024 by releasing music every month. One of those releases was a four track EP called Tight Chest with jazz/ techno/ dub/ surf legends Red Snapper. This was the lead track, a wonderful piece of 2024 dubbiness that should have got more attention than it did. 

Theis Thaws was an album that saw the return of Tricky (Adrian Thaws) with French producer Mike Theis and singer Rosa Rocca- Serra. David Holmes' remix, as everyone said when it came out, was approximately three minutes too short but even at only three minutes eighteen seconds it packs a powerful if slightly paranoid punch. 

Silvertooth, from South London, released Shut Um Down in November, a cover of  Gil Scott Heron song, partly inspired by Sean Johnston's continuing ALFOS parties. It came in a variety of versions with two ALFOS aimed dubs- rolling pianos, chuggy dubby beats, and a lovely low slung groove.

Ammonite makes very ethereal music, layers of voice and gossamer drones. She remixed Holmes' Emotionally Clear into an ambient track. Holmes returned the favour by pumping Ammonite's You Don't Know Me up into an electronic banger. 

C.A.R.'s Anzu lit up late 2023. The remixes came out in 2024, courtesy of GLOK and Hardway Bros. Sean's Hardway Bros remixes have been in full flow for the last few years and the standard is uniformly high. This one and the Hardway Bros Dub were on heavy rotation at Bagging Area back at the start of the year.

Peak High's cover of Wang Chung's Dance Hall Days was a delight, coming after the equally superb Was That All It Was in 2023. The Hardway Bros remix dubs things down, turning the 80s pop down a bit, and finds that BPM sweet spot that Sean knows very well.

Causeway are on Chris Massey's Manchester label Sprechen but the duo (Marshall Watson and Alison Rae) are based in California,a world away from South Manchester. Dancing With Shadows is the 80s teen film anthem you missed, the sounds playing in the disco where Molly Ringwald has a revelation while dancing with the wrong boy. It came with a slew of remixes- the one here is Marshall's own. 

Ben Hunt's Shimmering Lights came out last month on Paisley Dark with a range of remixes, all of which hit the spot. Rude Audio remixes are often in the 98 BPM dub area. This one whacks it up and heads for end of the night Underworld vibes, the vocal sample, 'I see patterns in everything', twisting around like Karl Hyde in the mid- 90s. 

Lisa Moorish's comeback single in April was a beautiful electro- pop tribute to Sylvia Plath. David Holmes' remix did exactly what you'd want from a Holmes remix. 

Raxon's Your Fault was an autumn '24 highlight although I didn't catch on until later. It is fabulously wonky dance floor euphoria from Cologne, sounds shifting in and out, everything shifting and moving as if the floor is giving way. 

Puerto Montt City Orchestra's Hey You came out on Brighton's Higher Love label, the home of many, many good releases. It's a cover of 80s indie band 14 Iced Bears Hay Fever with original singer Rob Sekula returning to do the vocals. On the 10:40 remix Jesse sent this woozy 2024 c86 song through a Spiritualized filter, everyone involved laid back in the sun. 

100 Poems have released three albums this year, each one stuffed full of beautiful, brilliant tunes and a open minded anything goes attitude to making music and to life. Mike Wilson named the band after a collection of Seamus Heaney poems and the inscription on Heaney's headstone- 'walk on air against your better judgement'- is what the music is all about. On the third of the three albums, Balearic As A System Of Belief, Mike used the voice of Jim Morrison, a late 60s interview where he was talking about the future of music and how it would be electronic. And there may be a better way to see 2025 in than by listening to the utterances of the Lizard King repurposed for 2024/ 5 but I can't think of one at the moment. 

Happy New Year everyone- in or out, have a good one. 

Hold My Hand Up

This EP comes out next week, a collaboration between Red Snapper and David Harrow. Red Snapper are riding the crest of a wave after last year's Live At The Moth Club and a tour. They're touring again next year. David Harrow is celebrating his sixtieth year by releasing music every month from his Los Angeles home- modular synth ambiance, dub, techno and whatever else he fancies. The EP, Tight Chest, was made in a sweet spot somewhere between London, Wales and LA and is led by this wonderful piece of dub flavoured music, Hold My Hand Up...

David's modular synths form the base layer. On top Red Snapper add Ali Friend's double bass, some sweetly drifting melodica, percussion and a sleepy eyed vocal, everything smothered in some lovely dub bass and delay. 

The other three tracks follow with similarly expansive feel. Modsnap has North African grooves, Rich Thair's bubbling percussion and an addictive rhythm. Lucky Strike is led by finger picked acoustic guitar, a loop of bass and Rich's signature drums, David's synths adding textures. Final song and title track Tight Chest glides in on synth twinkles and FX with the Red Snapper rhythm section bringing the jazz- dub vibes and at the mid- point more whispered vocals. The Tight Chest EP can be pre- ordered at Bandcamp with Hold My Hand Up ready to download straight away. 

Mad Friday

Today is the first day of my two week Christmas holiday. It feels like it has been a long time coming and that suddenly Christmas is on top of us. Today is also Mad Friday, the day the pubs will take huge amounts over the bar as workplaces empty for the holiday and everyone is out drinking. Tomorrow morning will see many sore heads and discarded Christmas jumpers. To celebrate all of that here's a bumper post, rounding up several recent releases, two of which are coming out today- who puts out music on 22nd December? Matt Gunn and Duncan Grey for two. 

Matt Gunn's new release is the Sidestep EP, two tracks for those who want to celebrate the festive season with some chuggy, fizz bomb, 303 madness. Sidestep 303 is the sound of a swarm of bees inside a bass bin, the Roland's FX causing all manner of dancefloor mayhem likely to turn patches of carpet worn out and sticky. The second track, Blib Grunt, opens with chanting, which is then joined by a massive breakbeat. There's more synth knob twiddling loopiness, FX and filters, vocal samples and crunchy electronic excitement. Both are available here. 

Red Snapper's 2023 ends with a Moist remix of Suckerpunch, a track recorded and released on their excellent Live At The Moth Club album and now remixed by Moist. This is low slung and murky, a trip hop groove that churns, what could be slowed down horns, and as above, Mr Roland's 303 kicking up an intense storm. Natty Wylah provides the vocals. At Bandcamp there's a vocal version and an instrumental. 

Also out today and pushed into the Christmas rush is Tici Taci Decade Volume 4, the final compilation release celebrating ten years of Duncan Gray's Tici Taci label. Volumes 1 to 3 were uniformly superb, wall to wall sci/ disco/ house/ cosmic/ electronic chug. All four including Volume 4 can be found here. Volume 4 is at Bandcamp here. If you're looking for an intro to Tici Taci Decade Volume 4 or a soundtrack for your Mad Friday night, Duncan has helpfully done an hour long mix of all the tracks featured, all artists that have put out material on the label in recent years- Sons Of Slough, Fjordfunk, The Long Champs, Richard Sen, Rude Audio and Dan Wainwright, Martin Eve, Jack Butters, Craig Bratley, Mr BC, Boy Division and Duncan himself. It is the best hour long machine funk, indie dance, dub infused, nu disco mix you're likely to click play on today and I commend it to the house. Listen here. 

Snappered

I was back at Todmorden's Golden Lion on Saturday night for a gig by Red Snapper, the four piece halfway through a tour that continues next week with shows Tunbridge Wells, Hertford, Ramsgate and London. Rich Thair and Ali Friend have been playing together as Red Snapper since 1993, starting out riding on the early 90s acid jazz wave but then branching out into spaces way beyond that. They signed to Warp in 1996 and released the compilation Reeled And Skinned in 1995 and then Prince Blimey a year later. Since then they've released a further seven albums, and most recently a live album recorded at The Moth Club last year. The Golden Lion is sold out for the gig, an audience of Red Snapper devotees getting the opportunity to see them very close up, and Red Snapper do not disappoint, firing on all cylinders and Ali Friend's bass and Rich Thair's drums showing the benefit of playing together for so long, a telepathic understanding clearly evident between the two. 

Ali's stand up bass (perilously close to the light fitting in the ceiling at times) is at the centre of the sound, almost lead double bass. They kick in from the off, with sudden bursts of energy and the dynamics of a rock band. Rich Thair switches between rhythms and tempos and at the back of the stage Tom Challenger plays keys/ synths and wigged out saxophone. On the left is a relatively recent recruit, the ridiculously young and effortlessly cool guitarist Tara. Opener Wanga Doll lures us in slowly, bass line and hi hats, and then building into a dubby jazz/ psychedelia. After that they move between space jazz, trip hop and downtempo, each track drawing the crowd further and further in. Ali Friend, centre stage, occasionally steps forward to provide vocals but its largely instrumentals, at times the band so locked in and heavy they threaten to become a jazz Zeppelin, the front row losing their cool and dancing. Highlights include the self titled Snapper, the dubby skronk of Space Sickness (from Prince Blimey), the dark funk sci fi of B Planet and Tarzan (both from last year's Everybody Is Somebody album) and a wonderfully chilled cover of Bowie's Sound And Vision. At one point, the bass and drums locked into a lovely slow and low groove, the ghost of Beth Orton's Galaxy Of Emptiness drifts past (a track Ali Friend played on back in 96). As the gig nears its conclusion, a night after the Sabresonic 30th anniversary (and with Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns both still in the Lion with Jagz ready to DJ after the gig), Ali pays tribute to Andrew Weatherall, who supported the band early on and remixed Hot Flush, a key Sabres Of Paradise remix. Hot Flush, with its jazzy double bass line, acres of space and wandering 60s spy film melody line, fills the stone floored, red lit pub. This version of Hot Flush is on last month's Live At The Moth Club album...

After Hot Flush we get the one- two of Wesley Don't Surf and Suckerpunch, the former dating from the early Warp days and a wild ride through areas groups such as A Certain Ratio inhabit and the latter, the finale, low slung punk funk with clipped guitar, sax and insistent rhythm. The band depart and then reappear at the stall, selling and signing merch. Jagz Kooner begins his second DJ set in two nights, spinning electro and hip hop- unfortunately get to I don't hear it all, I have a train to catch to get home. Waiting at the platform Todmorden's old style British Railways platform sign stands out in the darkness, a roaring lion standing over a wheel.

Saturday Live

Red Snapper have brewed up a smokey, funky, murky stew combining downtempo, acid jazz, trip hop, dub and Afro jazz, instrumentals and soundtrack sounds, a blend of live instruments and electronics, since 1993. This hour long film shows them playing at the Woodbridge Festival of Arts and Music in Suffolk a few years ago, long and deep grooves with instruments and sounds flying off all over the place. 

The group are about to release a live album and are touring the UK to support it. Live At The Moth Club comes out next Friday with the single The Sleepless out now ahead of it, recorded live back in May 2022 in Hackney. Joined by MC Det on vocals, The Sleepless is all loose drums, warped double bass, sax and liquid guitar lines.

The Sleepless originally came out in 1995 on their EP for Warp, the classic Reeled And Skinned. A month before this new live version of The Sleepless, Red Snapper released Suckerpunch, a set closer with clipped guitar and massive sounding Rich Thair drums, Ali Friend's bass causing all sorts of rhythmic madness as David Ayer's guitar solo spirals higher and higher, MC Det's voice echoing into the room. Live At The Moth Club can be ordered here. 

Everybody Is Somebody

Red Snapper's new album, Everybody Is Somebody, came out at the start of the month and the band have been touring to support it for the last two weeks. The album is a real return to former glories. Back in the 90s a run of EPs (Swank, Snapper, Hot Flush) and subsequent signing to Warp led to their Prince Blimey album, a glorious blend of jazz, funk, surf, Afro, dub, breakbeat, trip hop and whatever else tickled their fancy, and the superb Reeled And Skinned, live instruments and electronics brought together. The trio of Ali Friend, Rich Thair and David Ayers brought in other players and vocalists as and when required. They split up for a while in the 00s but reformed in 2007 and have been playing and recording ever since (with a detour into post- punk by Friend and Thair as NUMBER in 2019). 

The new album sounds like a musical stew where everything they've previously done has been brought to the boil, all the influences and experiences fed into fourteen tracks (ten if you buy the vinyl). Album opener and single last year The Warp And The Weft features a very laid back rap by Natty Wylah, a downtempo start to an album that picks up the pace afterwards- there's a run of songs, largely instrumental, that run through the gamut of the group's styles and influences but it all hangs together, focussed and engaging. It also sounds like they had a lot of fun making it. 

Some highlights- Tarzan is amped up funk, parping horns, rattling drums and clipped guitar. Tremble starts out with picked acoustic guitar and jazz bass, then violin and cello, and sweeping strings swooping in before the twin vocals take over. Equals is out there sci fi funk, a piano line over pumping rhythms and electronics, the future funk of the 90s back in orbit. Out Of Focus has a twangy, Bond style guitar line and fantastic live drums with dub horns, not a million miles from A Certain Ratio and their recent noir funk revival. 

Black Sea is a psychedelic soundscape, skittering drums over a distorted synth or organ line, rimshots and echoes bouncing round as the wiggy melodies evoke sunsets on Jupiter or jazz clubs in some outpost of a distant galaxy. 

The laid back trip hop/ rap returns with the slightly surreal Albert's Day Off.  On Detach they head back to the soundtrack, sci fi, jazz, a song that wouldn't sound out of place on Sabres Of Paradise's Haunted Dancehall. 

The album, fourteen tracks digitally or the slimmed down ten on vinyl, can be bought at Bandcamp. Highly enjoyable, experimental and accessible, and highly recommended. 

Bring Me Sunshine

Sons Of Slough (Ian Weatherall and Duncan Gray) first made music back in the 1990s and most of their recordings date back to the early 21st century. Now reunited they have put out a new album called Bring Me Sunshine, a six track dub techno/ electro/ acid house punch (plus three remixes). This one, Sonblind, is a low slung pleasure with piano melody lines and huge bass, the sort of thing that hits all the right spots if you ever spent part of your youth in dark, sweaty clubs with strobe lights going off around you and music frying your synapses. 

There's loads more like it on Bring me Sunshine and it's perfect music for travelling to as well, the kick drums ticking off the miles and the synths swallowing up road or rail. Much More Spark is chugging dub techno, Basic Channel via Berkshire. 

As well as a very tasty Rude Audio remix of the above there's a Sons Of Slough remix of I Slip Away by Rich Thair. Rich is the drummer in Red Snapper, a group who have explored jazz, techno, and all points in between since the mid 90s. Their latest single The Warp And The Weft is a slowed right down head nodder, led by some really nice double bass, keys, trombone and a rap from Natty Wylah. 

B Planet

Red Snapper have a new single out, a lithe piece of space- jazz- danceable rhythms and dubby echoes, a retro- futuristic surf across the spacewaves. Having been living with this on and off for the last month it's come into its own as the world has unlocked a little, as the sun's come out and we're seeing the outdoors as somewhere to live. Put B Planet on a playlist or burn it onto a CD compilation and let it groove away between some appropriate surrounding tracks, some cosmic disco and 90s Detroit techno say.

Kito Jempere's remix takes things into more abstract territory, rattling snare and stripped down surrounds, lots of space, some horns and double bass and a voice drifting in. One for the bar in the nightclub at the edge of the solar system where the robotic bartenders clear your table and pop another alcohol tablet under your tongue. You loosen the velcro strap at the top of your silver and grey boilersuit as the android band on the stage plays on. Buy both here. 

Titan Shuff

Rich Thair and Ali Friend have spent the best part of three decades as the co- founders and rhythm section of Red Snapper. In their downtime recently they've formed Number, a group built around themselves as the core with a floating cast of vocalists and pushing a tough funky post- punk energy, the wired dance floor sound of ACR, Talking Heads, New York's No Wave. The album, Binary, is a nightclub riot of percussion, disco bass, scratchy guitars, some electro, a generous helping of dub and some lovely, wonky horns. It is out at the end of the month. In the meantime here's Titan Shuff, a science fiction intro, silky, dubbed out vox and a tremendous mutant groove.

Face Down

Former Red Snapper duo Ali Friend and Rich Thair have a new band called Number, inspired by the punk-funk acts of the late 70s and early 80s of New York and Manchester, the scratchy guitars and dub influenced basslines and chanted vocals of A Certain Ratio, Talking Heads, Magazine and sounds and the styles of No wave and dirty disco. The first fruits of this new group is the song Face Down In Ecstasy and Richard, Ali and friends have delivered- hipwiggling bass, hi hats and a lovely choppy guitar.

Funky Killer

There's an album out now of updated versions and remixes of S'Express songs which looks pretty interesting. As well as the opinion splitting Primal Scream cover version Enjoy This Trip has new versions by Tom Furse of the Horrors, Jagz Kooner, Horsemeat Disco and Chris and Cosey among its fifteen tracks. This very funky Red Snapper remix didn't make the final tracklist but has a very 1990s jazzy, hip hop vibe which works really well if sounding quite unlike S'Express.

Wonky Bikes

I heard a new song from Red Snapper on the radio last week, on 6 music. I didn't even know Red Snapper were still going but I always liked their jazz-tinged techno/techno-tinged jazz. This song, Wonky Bikes, is off an album from last year (Hyena) and is being released around now as a single- hence, no download. Live sounding and direct, not too jazzy, not too techno either.

Village Tap

Two decades into a meandering career of jazzy electronica (with detours into trip-hop and drum & bass) Red Snapper have a new album imminent. I am enjoying this Auntie Flo remix very much. Summery, laid back and funky and with an Afrobeat bent and some nice descending piano.

Hot Flush

Bit of a lazy post today. We're off to Beverley, East Yorkshire for a 40th (and a night in a hotel without kids. Wooh). A classic Sabres remix of Red Snapper for you. And a picture of Amelia Earhart.

Hot Flush (Sabres of Paradise Remix)