Iridescent

Indonesian five piece band Strange Fruit have an album out next month- Drips- which crosses the streams between cosmische, dreamy blissed out indie dance and shoegaze. The songs available so far, Iridescent and Monopolar, are floaty and chuggy, a splash landing in the sea where guitars meet electronics. Repetition as an end in itself, sun kissed vocal melodies, guitars and synths bathed in psychedelic light. Both of these should slow your circulation right down. 

Ahead of the rest of the album Strange Fruit have put out some remixes. Tom Furse of The Horrors takes Monopolar and slows it down, reverb soaked drums and FX with a heavy undertow. The vocals sound even more sleepy. 

Hardway Bros Sean Johnston has given Strange Fruit three new versions of Monopolar to play with- wisely they're releasing all three. The Hardway Bros Remix is a slo mo affair, an electronic squiggle riding on the top, a hypnotic and streamlined remix that glides off into the sunset. Jakarta via ALFOS. Sean's Live At The SSL Dub comes out shortly and is worth waiting for, a slowed down and laid back Hardway Bros version. 

Drips is out at Bandcamp. Find it here.  

Not Sleeping

The Twilight Sad's No One Can Ever Know came out in 2012 and is about to be re- issued. It came with the line that it had been 'anti- produced' by Andrew Weatherall. I was never absolutely sure what this meant but according to the internet he gave the group some advice about analogue synths and some words of wisdom. He had apparently been lined up to produce the album but for whatever reason this didn't happen. Several years later, in 2018, a remix by Andrew of their song Videograms appeared, a seven minute piston- powered drum machine excursion with a huge synth riff and early 980s New Order/ Depeche Mode vibe. Lovely stuff.



Back to 2012. No One Can Ever Know was paired with a vinyl only remix album release, nine reworkings of the songs from the album by sympathetic remixers such as Liars, Com Truise, The Horrors and Optimo. The remixes are club based, pushing the darker, more industrial sound the band were experimenting with further. Tom Furse of The Horrors took them to a sleek, cosmische place, somewhere in the spiritual vicinity of West Germany in the 1970s.

Not Sleeping (The Horrors Dub Mix)

JD Twitch fired up the kick drum and sent them out onto the floor in the early hours.

Alphabet (JD Twitch/Optimo Remix)

One Million

At some point while away in London this blog passed one million page views. One million! I've no idea how this compares to other blogs, how many page views other bloggers have had/get but it seems like a bit of a milestone.

Tom Furse of The Horrors has remixed the new Cavern Of Anti-Matter album into one seventeen minute megamix, a psych/cosmiche feast.

I'm Going To See The Stars

This is good in an exotica/lounge/library records sort of way. Tom Furse, out of The Horrors, and some first rate retro-futurism.

Free Action

That Moon Duo remix album that came out for Record Shop Day is very good- eight remixes and only one that doesn't really do much for me. I haven't got the actual vinyl unfortunately- I found this somewhere on the internets. This song, remixed by Tom Furse of The Horrors, is a beaut.

Free Action (Tom Furse Remix)

Montevideo Horror Show

Montevideo is the capital of Uruguay. Apart from being a lovely word to say, Montevideo was the home of the first football World Cup back in 1930. In the picture the French national team relax on deck on their way to the finals which were eventually won by Italy. Host nation Uruguay would go on to win the following tournament four years later.

Montevideo are also a Belgian indie pop outfit who produce music for fans of 'funereal beauty'. They've made this song Castles (remixed by spindly legged, black clad Horror Tom Furse) available for free download from Soundcloud. Starts out all murky then lurches into sunny psychedelia. Just the thing for Saturday morning at the start of half term.