God Save The Ing

...that is, if your thing is dancing, jigging, shaking or some other ing that involves moving, because the next hour and an a half is all about the beats. 

2023 has been a great year so far, musically speaking and as I hope this 14-track selection ably demonstrates. Several long-time favourites have returned with a vengeance: Cerrone, DJ Nature, A Man Called Adam and Four Tet; all delivering music as good as anything in their rich and varied catalogue. 

 

Others have done so in collaboration: Justin Robertson meets David Holmes' Unloved in the Temple Of Wonders; Telefís aka Cathal Coughlan (RIP) and Jacknife Lee holiday in Madrid with Howie B; Hifi Sean and David McAlmont take a dub excursion to another Happy Ending.

 

Some relatively recent discoveries continue to delight: Jezebell, Max Essa and Duncan Gray have all somehow managed to raise the bar with each successive release; how high can they go?

 

The rest are all artists that I've heard for the first time this year: Minus Yogis, Bárbara Boeing, Cee ElAssaad, DjClick and Masha Natanson; all very different, all worth further investigation.

Apart from Four Tet, I'm not sure if any of these artists will be troubling a stage at Glastonbury next week (though to be honest, my eyesight starting blurring after the tenth or eleventh scroll through the seemingly endless line-up page on their website). If they did though, I think they'd smash it.

 

1) A Part Of You (Club Mix): Cerrone

2) Follow Your Dreams: DJ Nature

3) Fruity Blues (Balearic Mix By Minus Yogis): Minus Yogis

4) It's Science Baby (Funkified): A Man Called Adam

5) Trading Places (6PM): Jezebell

6) Thrill Me (Justin Robertson's Temple Of Wonders Remix): Unloved

7) Short Haul: Duncan Gray

8) Beautiful (Hifi's Dub Excursion): Hifi Sean & David McAlmont

9) Baile Do Silêncio (Donald Dust Remix): Bárbara Boeing

10) Njalo (Full Length Version): Cee ElAssaad

11) Come Come The Rain (Club Mix): Max Essa ft. DC Mathias

12) Strawboy Supernova (Madrid Metal By Howie B): Telefís

13) Three Drums: Four Tet

14) 24022022 (Fluo Sobre RMX): DjClick & Masha Natanson

God Save The Ing (1:28:44) (Box) (Mega)

In Space We Trust

The final selection of 2022 highlights was becoming a bit of a monster. This nearly ended up as a 22-track, two-and-a-half hour megalomaniamix, such was my difficulty in paring down the many, many songs that I've loved this year but which hadn't made it onto the previous selections this week. 

 

Nobody needs a monster mix on New Year's Eve though, me included, so here's a rather more reasonable 10 track selection at just over an hour. I could quite decide if I was creating a club or a chill out area but hopefully enough to get a party started...in our case, Clan K, the cat, some food and party games and skipping Jools Holland's Hootenanny.

 

More of the usual suspects but a couple of new (to me) artists, BT COP and Residentes Balearicos, that were respectively introduced via the superb Shelter Me and Higher Love Vol. 2 compilations earlier this year.

 

And, just under the wire for consideration in 2022, I got home from work to find that my first package from my Last Night From Glasgow subscription had arrived. Four beautifully packaged coloured vinyl albums from Popup, Billy Reeves and The Soup Dragons and - most eagerly anticipated of all - on double yellow vinyl, Happy Ending by Hifi Sean and David McAlmont. Needless to say, the latter made my night/week/year.

 

Following yesterday's single of the year award, guess what? They've only gone and done it again.

 

2022 has seen some outstanding albums that I've lived with and listened to repeatedly. However, in face of incredibly strong competition, Happy Ending is just perfect from start to finish. I will be coming back to it again (and again) in future posts but in the meantime, no better way to close this compilation and my 365th post in 2022.

 

Happy Ending is my album of the year. 

 

Thanks for your support and comments and for continuing to inspire and motivate me on a daily basis. I never thought that I'd still be going, two years after starting this blog, but the constant delight of new music, unearthing personal favourites and being introduced to artists and music that I'd missed altogether is stronger than ever.

 

I hope, however you're marking this evening and whoever you're spending it with, that you have a wonderful New Year's Eve and a fantastic start to 2023.

 

1) First Rays Of A New Life: Dan Wainwright & Elle Redding (Mother Oak)

2) Proof Of Stake: BT COP (Shelter Me: various artists)

3) Silent Disco Sucks (Duncan Gray Remix): Pete Bones & The Stones Of Convention (Hyena Hopscotch Remixes)

4) Balearic For President: Residentes Balearicos (Higher Love Vol. 2: various artists)

5) Summer Lovin' (Full Length Version): Cerrone & Purple Disco Machine (Summer Lovin' single)

6) Dexter In Dub (Bedford Falls Players Remix): Perry Granville (Dexter In Dub single)

7) Space Is Us (Basement Jaxx Remix): Telefís ft. Sean O'Hagan (Space Is Us EP)

8) Jezebellearic: Jezebell (Jezebellearica Volume 1 EP)

9) Sail On: Al Mackenzie (Sail On single)

10) Beautiful: Hifi Sean & David McAlmont (Happy Ending)

 

In Space We Trust (1:02:00) (Box) (Mega)

New York, Ice Cream, TV, Travel, Good Times

Long overdue on these pages, here's The Human League with a selection of 12" versions, remixes and re-edits spanning 1981's classic album Dare to their most recent (though hopefully not final) album Credo in 2011.

The selection kicks off with The Things That Dreams Are Made Of. I first came across the US-based blog DreamTime in the mid-2000s, where predominantly 1980s songs would be spliced and re-edited to create super extended versions. Sometimes they just didn't work, either due to using incompatible mixes or variable vinyl sources; sometimes, they hit the spot. I'd place The Things That Dreams Are Made Of in the latter category, taking elements from the Dare and Love And Dancing* versions to create nearly ten minutes of synthpop greatness. The blog is long gone, but DreamTime is still going strong on Soundcloud, currently featuring the likes of Simple Minds, Heaven 17, Kate Bush, a-ha, Talk Talk and David Bowie.

 

* Yes, I know that the latter is officially The League Unlimited Orchestra and not The Human League, but I'm not complaining.

 

DreamTime's re-edits pay homage to Razormaid and Hot Tracks (in turn inspired by 1970s innovators such as Tom Moulton, Larry Levan and Walter Gibbons) and I've included a couple of examples here. Steven Tucker (Hot Tracks) stretches out (Keep Feeling) Fascination whilst Art Maharg (Razormaid) remixes 1990 comeback single Heart Like A Wheel.

 

There are a few original 1980s extended versions, too: Love Action (I Believe In Love), co-produced with Martin Rushent, appears as the penultimate song on Dare and was segued with Hard Times on the original 12" single in 1981. The Sign first appeared on follow-up album Hysteria and was remixed by Nigel Walker for the 12" single B-side for Louise in 1984. Love Is All That Matters was released as the final single from Crash, produced and co-written by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, fresh from working with Janet Jackson on the super successful Control. It was a testing time for the band and fans alike.

 

The Human League's most recent album of new material was Credo, preceded by the single Night People in 2010. Again, there appears to have been a mixed response to the album and it didn't reclaim the commercial success of previous albums, but I like it a lot. Here, the legendary French producer Cerrone (who turned 70 in May - belated happy birthday wishes!) amps up the heavy disco sound of the original.

 

Last but not least, the intriguingly named T.O.E.C. - an acronym for Two On Each Camel, apparently - remix big mid-1990s hit One Man In My Heart, a rare outing for Susanne Sulley on lead vocals. T.O.E.C. are/was Swedish production duo Joakim Björklund and Sören Elonsson and when I hear this remix, I can't help but be reminded of fellow Swedes Ace Of Base and All That She Wants, not a huge surprise as T.O.E.C. produced a couple of tracks on the same album, Happy Nation.

 

I've never seen The Human League live in concert mainly because they had an annoying habit of playing in Bristol on or around my birthday, when I was otherwise engaged. They've just announced an open air concert at Dreamland in Margate in July 2023, featuring support from none other than Marc Almond. I've no plans to go, but it sounds fantastic.

 

1) The Things That Dreams Are Made Of (DreamTime Mix) (2007)

2) (Keep Feeling) Fascination (Digital Mix) (1997)

3) The Sign (Extended Re-Mix) (1984)

4) Love Action (I Believe In Love) (12" Edit/Album Version) (1981)

5) Love Is All That Matters (Extended Remix) (1988)

6) Night People (Cerrone Club Mix) (2010)

7) Heart Like A Wheel (Razormaid Mix) (1990)

8) One Man In My Heart (T.O.E.C. Extended) (1995)

1981: Dare: 4

1984: Louise (12" single): 3

1988: Love Is All That Matters (12" single): 5

1990: This Is Only A Test! Volume 9 (Razormaid CD): 7

1995: One Man In My Heart (CD single): 8

1997: Hot Tracks: The Edge Level 03 (Hot Tracks CD): 2

2007: The Things That Dreams Are Made Of (bootleg MP3): 1

2010: Night People (promo CD): 6

 

New York, Ice Cream, TV, Travel, Good Times (54:28)

Holding Out For Something Greater

A final dip this week into my recent Bandcamp Friday shopping bag, with another 10-track selection, split into two sides for your listening pleasure.

 

The selection starts off with two legends, Winston Reedy and Dennis Bovell, performing an acapella version of Lovers Rock classic After Tonight by Bovell's former band Matumbi. Dennis Bovell returns for the finale on Side 2, this time with Roots United and Skarra Mucci.

 

In between, there's a fair bit of globe trotting, taking in artists from or based in France, Germany, England, Norway, Australia, Mexico, Chile, Jamaica and the USA.

 

I've included two artists on the ever-excellent Paisley Dark Records and a couple more extracts from the EarthPercent x Earth Day Compilation Album, featured yesterday. 

 

An eclectic but fun selection, I think.

Side One

1) After Tonight (Cover of Matumbi): Reedy & db (2022)

2) Summer Lovin' (Edit): Cerrone & Purple Disco Machine (2022)

3) Tacrolimus: UFO Club (2021)

4) Deep Time Exploration: From Beyond (2021)

Side Two

1) Somethinggreater (Gaspard Augé & Victor Le Masne Remix): Parcels (2022)

2) Silk Sea: Blancmange (2015)

3) You're Not God: Anna Calvi (2022)

4) Closed World (Single Version): Roswell Brothers ft. Nyx (2022)

5) Distance Mover: Orlando Weeks (2022)

6) Fall Babylon (Version): Dennis Bovell & Roots United ft. Skarra Mucci (2020)

2020: Fall Babylon EP: B6

2021: Repeat Prescription EP: A3

2021: Semi Detached (Extended Version): B2

2021: Simulated Emotions EP: A4

2022: After Tonight EP: A1

2022: Closed World EP: B4

2022: Day/Night Remixed EP: B1 

2022: EarthPercent x Earth Day Compilation Album: B3, B5

2022: Peaky Blinders: Season 5 OST: B3

2022: Summer Lovin' EP: A2

Side One (21:11)

Side Two (20:20)

Discollision!

Inspired by JC's disco diversion over at The Vinyl Villain yesterday, this is a You Tube recreation of a CD-R, compiled for my friend Kate in February 2006. Genuinely contains some of my favourite and most played songs.

1) Pop Muzik: M (1979)

2) Funky Town: Lipps Inc. (1979)

3) Relight My Fire: Dan Hartman ft. Loleatta Holloway (1978)

4) Stayin' Alive: Bee Gees (1977)

5) Love Hangover: Diana Ross (1976)

6) Moskow Diskow: Telex (1979)

7) Supernature: Cerrone (1977)

8) Everybody Dance: Chic (1978)

9) I'm A Man (Cover of The Spencer Davis Group): Macho (1978)

10) More More More: Andrea True Connection (1976)

11) Heart Of Glass: Blondie (1978)

12) Disco Inferno: Trammps (1976)

I should note that Loleatta Holloway was uncredited for her (epic) vocal performance on Relight For Fire. Similarly, Lene Lovich wasn't credited for writing the lyrics for Cerrone's Supernature but did her own version in 1987 for the Animal Liberation compilation.