Aphex Day

Thought I'd squeeze in a quick Aphex post for Avril 14.

Raji Rags has dropped a two-hour mix for Bleep today of  AFX classics and rarities.

Bleep · Bleep Mix #281 - Raji Rags - Aphex Twin Mix

Neis.

Related post: Happy Aphex Twin Day!

Futuromania Delayedia

I had a good post day today with Simon Reynold's new book Futuromania arriving. His first book in 8 years, Futuromania "shapes over two-dozen essays and interviews into a chronological narrative of machine-music from the 1970s to now." Right up my street.

It also came with a little fanzine called 'From Synthedelia to Memoradelia', which is nice. 

I'm reading Bob Mortimer's The Satsuma Complex at the mo, so I won't be diving straight into it, but expect tracks mentioned in it to crop up in future 9-in-1 lists. Though maybe not the next one as I think that's already full.

In the meantime, Reynolds did a guest show on NTS this week, so you can get a taste of what's to come.

NTS Latest · Simon Reynolds: Futuromania 090424

Numberwangs

I finished The Number Ones by Tom Breihan the other day - "Twenty chart-topping hits that reveal the history of pop music" is the blurb.

Another library find, the book is plucked from the Stereogum series and focuses on the Hot 100. I knew most of the tracks and was particularly looking forward to the later ones, big pop tracks from after I dropped out of following the charts.

So, I know I'm out of the loop, too old, too slow, but it still came as a surprise that I'd completely missed a track that's approaching 1 billion views on YouTube. A song that topped the US charts for seven weeks in 2016.

I'm talking about Black Beatles by Rae Sremmurd feat Gucci Mane...

I mean it's shite, but I should still be aware of it, right? How much else have I missed? And what have you missed? Everything is fractured, everything is walled off. Even the charts aren't the charts. As Breihan wraps up his book with a look at BTS and K-Pop, he states:

"... the Hit 100 is no longer a historical record of the music that dominates pop culture at any particular moment. Instead, the pop charts look more and more like a battlefield for competing fan armies."

And y'know I think that's a shame. Again, I'm acutely aware I'm an old bastard, but the charts should chart what's popular. 

And again, I'm saddened that we're losing a consensus, or shared experience, of what-happened-when, some cultural touchpoints which we can all acknowledge. It feels like sports are the only points-in-time events anymore, and even those are disappearing behind paywalls. Plus for the most part, the final score is the final score, an objective truth that can't be twisted or distorted.

Anyway, The Number Ones is a solid pick-up for anyone interested in pop, and particularly strong on tidbits and trivia. I mean, did you know that Chubby Checker was a pun on Fats Domino? Well, it didn't pop into my bubble.

PS: Use your local library before it's too late.

9 in 1 (33)

Am I hitting a dead end with the distorted pictures for these 9 in 1 lists?

M(h)aol - Pursuit

Heard this in the bath after my son decided to pee on me. 

To be clear, my son is four and it was an accident.

Good song this. Scratchy propulsive indie rock.

SYBS - Gwactor

Heard this in the car on the drive to Porthmadog the other weekend. Thankfully no pee was involved in this anecdote, though you could also call this scratchy propulsive indie rock.

Sachasom - Braf Oedd Byw

This and the previous SYBS tracks were the opening two tracks of a recent Mirain Iwerydd show on BBC Radio Cymru. Her show is well worth a listen to get a taste of some of the interesting stuff happening yn Gymraeg ATM.

Stereolab - Tempter

I preordered that Little Pieces Of Stereolab (A Switched On Sampler) album that's coming out soon.

 "Alongside the Switched on Vol 1-5 boxset, Stereolab are also releasing a budget priced, 15 track introduction to the Switched On series, taking 3 tracks from each volume and housed in a simple card wallet with bespoke artwork." 

Are there two finer words that "budget priced"? Anyway, while the CD is getting posted at the end of the month I got the mp3s straightaway and Tempter is one of the standout tracks. 

Hot science fact - I ordered the CD off Bleep rather Bandcamp as the postage was a lot less. You're welcome.

The Human League - The Sound Of The Crowd (Instrumental / 2012 Remaster)

Veronica Vasicka played this on her recent NTS show and stripped of most of the vocals, it really focuses on what a taut banger The Sound of The Crowd is.

Ginger Ale - Happy House (D.Funked Remix by Dexter)

Richard Sen kicked off a recent show on Do!! You!!! with this 00s electro cover of Siouxsie and The Banshees. It veers very close to naff, but there's just enough here to keep it to the right side of the banger line.

N.E.R.D - Run To The Sun

Flo Dill on NTS now, dropping some sweet summery nostalgia.

The Doobie Brothers - What A Fool Believes

I felt the sun's warmth on my face for the first time in a long time the other day. And that means it's Doobie Brothers time.

Alien Ant Farm - Movies

There are a lot of tracks I heard on the radio in this list but this one takes the biscuit. When OG played Movies on Do!! You!!! it was a moment. It may have fixed me. I found February really hard, with the rain and illness and the rain and work and the rain. I even managed to fit in a tiny menty b and walked out of work and all the way to Cowbridge.

But hearing Alien Ant Farm - of all things - flicked a switch. It's curdled nostalgia but it worked and I feel a lot better now. The power of music, lads, the power of music.

9 in 1 (32)

Suppose it was only a matter of time before PhotoMosh started watermarking and charging. TBF I've been using it for years on here, surprised it hasn't happened before like.

A Tribe Called Quest - Dis Generation

Q-Tip and Busta Rhymes still doing it. You love to hear it.

David Axelrod - Holy Thursday

Gotta say I only really know this from Lil Wayne's Dr Carter but it seems it's been sampled extensively and used on all sorts of soundtracks including a GTA game. Incredible jazz funk rock from 1968.

Ouri - Down

Throbbing electronic music from Ghostly in 2018 though it sounds a little older than that. I heard this on Hyperdawn's Sunday Mix for Crack Magazine last month.

Youandewan - Be Good To Me, Poly

When those chords start I always think it's gonna be a bit Radiohead then it starts twisting and twinkling and ends up nearer early Caribou... and looking at the YouTube comments, it samples Weird Fishes by Radiohead, so there you go.

KLF - What Time Is Love?

Right, the next couple of tracks have all been mentioned in Party Lines, Ed Gillett's excellent exploration of dance music and British culture. The first half of the book is particularly strong, debunking the myth that acid house exploded out of nowhere in 1987 when Paul Oakenfold et al brought the music, the pills, and the vibes back from Ibiza. Instead, it traces a lineage of 'illegal' partying through the New Traveller movement of the 1980s, the free festival scene of the 1970s, and blues dances and sheebeens of the 60s. 

Smith and Mighty - Bass Is Maternal

Party Lines also traces how the state suppressed these gatherings and through the co-opting of rave, we've ended up at business techno and santisied festivals. There are other excursions in the book, from a stinging takedown of Boiler Room, plague raving during the panny d, and the rise of pirate radio, but it's the first half that really sticks.  

Will Powers - Adventures in Success

Actually, the stuff on the Nine o'Clock Service, which blended rave music with Christian worship in Sheffield is also mind-boggling. Turns out it was a personality cult riddled with sexual and psychological abuse, with people still coming forward over 30 years later. Proper grim.

DJ Pierre - Box Energy

Also in this section about Christian worship and dance music, it mentions a Channel 4 show fronted by Adam Buxton called God In The House. You will not see anything more cringingly 90s and it's no massive surprise that Dr Buckles doesn't ever bring it up.

Red Hot Entertainment - Junior Spesh (ft. Jaxor, Klayze Flaymz, Terra & Ray)

Anyway, I really dug Party Lines, especially as picked it up by chance from the local library, something I've not done in years.

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Feels like it's only a matter of time before they come for the libraries. Get down there while you can.

And yes that's Kiell Smith-Bynoe.

Ceefax 4 Life

2nd February 2009. That's when I started this blog. 15 years. Fuck me.

A birth, a marriage, a couple of deaths. Numerous house moves only to end up back in Llantwit. Fuck me.

2009 was too late to start a blog. I read they may be back though. Maybe it's because everything is falling apart online, so you might as well do one. Nothing lasts forever on the internet, platforms crumble, content is archived, redirects break. 

Kinda amazed that Blogger is still going TBH, surely Google isn't making anything off of this shite? Figured that it go shortly after they rejigged the CMS in 2020. One last roll, then goodbye, as is the way.

I don't know.

I do know, I'll never get these sweet 2016-2018 numbers again.

But this ain't about numbers. It's all about me. And as I sit here cringing while listening to the podcast I did in that first post back in Feb 2009, maybe Google should just nuke it. Nuke it to fuck. 

Until it does, I'll still be here.

Posting shite to 10-15 people/bots at a time. 

Ceefax 4 Life.

9 in 1 (31)

Done a few too many normal posts to start the year, so here's a phoned in playlist to get us back on track.

Buzzcocks - Why Can't I Touch It?

All about that lopping bassline. Funky punk from 1979, though looking at the YouTube comments it seems its use in Ted Lasso and a Guardians of the Galaxy game has brought it renewed interest recently. Is Ted Lasso any good? TBH it's on Apple TV and I'm never gonna subcribe, so why am I even asking.

Empress of Nature & t-woc - Rapper's Delight

A weirdo-wonky cover of the Sugarhill Gang classic with a kid on the mic. Good clean fun.

Four Tet - Loved

New Four Tet sounding like old Four Tet? I'm down with that. Whoooooo remembers folktronica?

Eddie Kendricks - Girl You Need A Change Of Mind

Didn't know about this tidy number till watching Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution on iPlayer a couple of weeks ago. I've only watched the first episode, gotta say it didn't really grip me all that much, but glad I did give it a spin to discover this song like. The breakdown around 4 mins is so good.

Carly Simon - Why (12" Version)

A slow disco banger from 1982 produced by Nile Rogers and Bernard Edwards (ya Chic fellas).

Maldwyn Pope - Altered State

Slight cheesy italo-disco from 1985 by a Welshman called Maldwyn? Man, I wish I had this for Amser Electroneg. Fun fact, I'm pretty sure it's the same Mal Pope that sung the Fireman Sam theme tune. 

David Bowie - Warszawa

Banged on Low last month. Such a great album. 

Theo Parrish - Lost Angel (Little by Little Unofficial Remix)

I adore this tidy little rumbler. So much in fact, it's the first thing I've added to my best of 2024 list. 

Just clocked it's a free download off Bandcamp too. You love to see it.

Mystic Force - Psychic Harmony

I wanted to post the 127bpm mix that Richard Sen has spun a few times on his, quite frankly, brilliant show on Do!! You!!! Radio (Fridays 12pm-2pm). But I can only find the original mix on YouTube. And Searching Mystic Force seems to bring up loads of Power Ranger videos. Still it's kinda similar, and needs must.

Black Devil Disco Buzz

After clocking that I didn't do one single album review for Buzz Magazine in 2023, I thought I should get back on it.

So here's a rusty 150 words on Black Devil Disco Club's latest album Etincelles, out now on Lo.

Pepsi-cola addiction

I finished The Pepsi-Cola Addict by June Alison Gibbons this week. It was weird. Like there was something odd or skewiff in every line. Doubly so in the dialogue. And it was fascinating.

If you don't know the backstory, June Gibbons is one of The Silent Twins with Jennifer. Identical twins that moved in slow synchronised movements, they didn't speak to anyone apart from themselves in an impenetrable secret language. They were bullied. They retreated to their bedroom. They each created fantastical and elaborate stories, one of which they sent to a vanity press in the early 1980s - and that was The Pepsi-Cola Addict, the only surviving work.

They struggled to be apart and eventually struggled to be together, and through a series of misadventures, they turned to petty crimes, which escalated to burning down a business in their home of Haverford West. Poorly advised at the trial, instead of a short prison sentence they were sent to Broadmoor for an indefinite period. 11 years later, while being transferred to a minimum security prison in Wales, on the drive back Jennifer leaned on June and died. The story goes that there was a pact that if one died the other would start speaking.

Now, you don't get much more of an outsider art backstory than that. do you? If you want to learn more about her story there's a documentary going out at the moment by BBC Radio Wales called 'June: Voice of a Silent Twin' that features lots of interviews with June Gibbons. 

Also, if you see a copy of The Paper / Y Papur about the place, then it features the first-ever review of The Pepsi-Cola Addict, back when there were thought to be less than 10 copies in existence (and none in Wales, much to the chagrin of the reviewer). It has since been republished, with June's blessing, by Strange Attractor Press. It was through this review that I first heard of the Gibbons' story.

Anyway, what's the book about? It's about a fourteen-year-old boy, Preston Wildey-King, his addiction to Pepsi and how it warps his relationships with his girlfriend Peggy, his family and friends, and his schoolwork. It's set in a synthesised hazy version of Malibu, a warped imagining of California gleaned from films and TV rather than real-life experience or research. This naivety and lack of real-life experience is mirrored in the interactions between characters - like, nobody talks the way they do in this book but its weirdness makes it really quite good.

OK, this is a music blog rather than a book blog, so let's shoe-horn in a song somewhere. I think Michael Jackson is mentioned at some point in the story, but I'm not going down that route. Rather, the warped, now nostalgic imagining of the beach life reminded me of chillwave, so let's slap in Feel It All Around by Washed Out.

That'll be it for book-based posts here for a while, I'm an incredibly slow reader, so watch out for the next one in 2025. Bye.

RIP Fact Mix

I read this week that the current Fact Mix will be the last. 16 years and 940 mixes. A good innings. But sad news, especially in this week of bad news for music publications, what with the Pitchfork merger. 

Still, I gotta say it's been a long time since I went out of my way to listen to a new Fact Mix. But, for a good few years, I hammered them. And many featured in posts on this blog. Here are just a couple:

• Optimo's Fact Mix 214
• Deadboy's FACT Mix 112 [one of my all-time favs]
• Four Tet's Fact Mix (182)

Glad I've still got the odd mp3 of some of these mixes. Even though Fact says they aren't going anywhere from MixCloud and/or SoundCloud, you never know. Just wish I still had some of the old square physical mags.

5 A Day Delay

I meant to post about this while it was still up on Bandcamp. But I left it too late, and it's been removed. Then I thought I'd include Fruit 3 in the next 9 in 1 playlist. But then, no one has uploaded it to YouTube, not even Loraine James herself.

Instead, some brave soul has popped the whole 5 A Day EP on YT. So here we are.

I thought it'd make a nice post, a pay-what-you-want/can limited-time release from one of the big names in UK electronic music. Especially as I heard Fruit 3 in the bath on my new Makita radio when Mary Anne Hobbs played it on 6 Music during the Festive taint between Xmas and New Year. But I left it too long. So it goes.

Still, you can give it a spin on YouTube, five glitchy, tweaky tracks, the highlights being the aforementioned Fruit 3 which samples Gucci Mane and the Ice Spice sampling Fruit 5.

TBH the main thrust of this post is to brag I got a Makita radio for Xmas, which will feature heavily in my Instagram Stories this summer as I cosplay being a labourer in the garden.

Actress, Porthcawl, and old rave media

Actress was on the Essential Mix this week, and for someone I always thought of as a v. forward-looking producer, it's quite a throwback mix. That's not to say it ain't good, it's a tidy listen and v. good for a drive to Porthcawl. Just wasn't expecting it to be so ravey.

The mix was broadcast last night so you have a month or so to listen back on BBC Sounds. Talking of Porthcawl, slim picking in the chazzers, like really bad, either everyone is keeping their good CDs or they never had them in the first place.

And going back to rave, I watched a fab scare 'em straight BBC doc from 1993 about the dangers of ecstasy. What makes it worth watching is the section on Shelley's in Stoke, the interviews with ravers, and the tropes used in the doc - they really don't make them like that any more. The video was featured in Off The Fence, the weekly newsletter from The Fence. The link takes you to Substack, just flagging if that's an issue for you? I've seen this week that Garbage Day and Platformer are leaving Substack due to Nazis or something.

Anyway, back to rave again. So, when I was thinking about posting the Actress Mix and the Ecstasy doc, I thought why not pop a link in for Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore? Especially as its maker was on the first episode of the second series of Flo Dill's Digging Podcast. Turns out Jeremy Deller made Everybody In The Place not Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore. That was Mark Leckey.

Maybe I belong in Porthcawl.

Original Image: Rough Sea, Porthcawl (4641323) - Martin Ridley, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons