The Telescopes - Taste

A wee blast from the past here, which coincides with me going to see them tonight at the Captain's Rest in Glasgow. A right old noisy bunch, this lot got caught up in the Mary Chain's slipstream when they first appeared back in the late 80s. I remember going to see them in Edinburgh once upon a time, back in the days when that involved someone borrowing a parent's car and driving about 45 miles east, only to find that the gig was cancelled after we eventually found the venue. Ah, halcyon days indeed.

This was their debut album and still sounds good today - a nice bit of noisy guitar to clear out the cobwebs. Aye.

The cunts better show up tonight...



The Telescopes - Taste
And Let Me Drift Away
I Fall, She Screams
Oil Seed Rape
Violence
Threadbare
The Perfect Needle
There Is No Floor
Anticipating Nowhere
Please, Before You Go
Suffercation
Silent Water
Suicide

Buy it here

One Dove - Breakdown (The Secret Knowledge Remixes)

One Dove never really lived up to the hype that came with them - their debut album was talked up to be "the next Screamadelica", but was more of a damp squib sales-wise. Shame, as they were a great band. There were always a few dodgy rumours going round about them as well, quite an aptly named band if the truth be told.

Good to see that Dot Allison's put her mad druggy days behind her - the last time I saw her was onstage with Pete Doherty a few weeks ago. Oh...



A - Breakdown (Secret Knowledge Light Mix)
B - Breakdown (Secret Knowledge Dark Mix)

Buy it here

Steve Bicknell - The Essence of Zen EP

Steve Bicknell, he of Lost club in London fame...

This is the second in a series of 3 EPs he did for his own Cosmic label (hence the track titles, I guess). This previous post has some MENTAL remixes, supposedly of tracks from here but you'd never know. I don't have EPs 1 or 3, so this will have to do for now.

Genius minimal techno, subtle as hell - the casual listener could be mistaken for thinking they were listening to a monotone, but there's stuff going on under the radar that keeps you coming back for more.

Never made it down to Lost - the closest I got was seeing Steve DJ at Club 69...



S Bicknell - The Essence of Zen EP
A1 - Track 5
A2 - Track 6
B1 - Track 7
B2 - Track 8

Link for amended track A2 (see comments re: fuck-up)

Buy it here

Psyche / Rhythim Is Rhythim - Relics (Album Sampler)

This Psyche track first got me into Carl Craig, played whilst he was DJing at the infamous Pussypower nights in Glasgow circa 1993. I bought a (long since departed) tape of the evening from one of the hosts (Terry) which featured this track and took the tape into various record shops until I got it. The mighty Rub-A-Dub only existed in Paisley at this point and and it wasn't worth getting stabbed to go there and get it.

I just love the fucked-up piano in it - you think it's all gone tits-up then it all just falls into place. A magnificent track - Craig at his best!

This 12" was a sampler for the 'Relics' album, so I've upped the other tracks which are both classics - a Carl Craig remix of Kao-Tic Harmony and a remix of Beyond The Dance.

They don't come much better than this - this is one of the best records I have...



A - Psyche - Crackdown (Re-Mix)
B1 - Rhythim Is Rhythim - Kao-Tic Harmony (Relic Of Relics) (Carl Craig Remix)
B2 - Rhythim Is Rhythim - Beyond The Dance (Re-Mix)

Buy it here

Cyrus - Inversion

This was the first Basic Channel record I bought and to be honest I wasn't sure at first. The first time I 'got it' was round at a mate's house one day with a homemade bong, and whaddya know it suddenly all made sense. I couldn't get enough of them from there on in. The B-side's still an endurance test, but I've just managed it no problemo. Oddly enough there's a story here as well:

Picked this book up at Fopp for £2 for m'lady, as she'd started reading it round at someone else's while I was sleeping and had got quite into it. I always thought the guy was a cunt (had never seen him but the name alone was enough), but turns out there's a recipe for 'hash' brownies in it (can't see Oliver or Ramsay doing THAT!?). So, I'm on holiday this week and have come down with the lurgy, which is pish. Haven't done anything much since Saturday due to feeling like shite and was getting a tad pissed off. Remembered about this book, discovered I had all the ingredients so hey presto! Sampled the goods just as I started ripping 'Inversion'. The 20min 'Presence' that followed was a joy to behold!

Ah, it's like being 22 again. Ripped in Glasgow indeed...



Cyrus - Inversion
Cyrus - Presence

Buy it here

The Sabres Of Paradise - Tow Truck (Remixes)

This was released as a nice wee remix pack of three - a 7" (watch this space), 10" (featured here) and this 12".

For me, the better mix is the Depth Charge one, and not just because I'm not a fan of the Chemical Brothers. The DC mix has a lot more going on in it, where as the Chemicals one simply plods along in typical Chemical Brothers fashion.

Time for a request here - I would cut off a finger for a recording of The Sabres Of Paradise supporting Primal Scream on the Dec 1994 tour. I asked Mr Weatherall if he had any and he didn't (but said he'd like one as well). I never saw any at record fairs back in the day, or nowadays knocking about on the likes of DimeADozen. My memory of the shows isn't too great but I remember being blown away (and being unable to spot AW anywhere). Anyone...?



The Sabres Of Paradise - Tow Truck (Remixes)
A - Tow Truck (Chemical Brothers Mix)
B - Tow Truck (Depth Charge Mix)

Buy it here

Global Communication - The Way / The Deep

A deep house classic, this record doesn't sound remotely like it came out 13 years ago. I'm glad to be ripping this as the middle bit in my record is fucked due to too much drunken putting on/taking off the decks over the years. I'd like to think it was a design fault though - it's a bugger to get it to play properly.

They were always an interesting bunch, this pair. I loved the way they moved between genres at the drop of a hat, but always preferred this and their electro stuff to the ambience. Tom Middleton's DJ sets are the stuff of legend as well - check out the tracks on his mix CDs.



A - The Way (Secret Ingredients Mix)
AA - The Deep

Buy it here

Sapiano - Spike It!

Released on Sabrettes, the 'quirkier' sister label to Sabres Of Paradise, this is one helluva weird 12". On the A-side you have Tony Sapiano in full-on pounding techno mode - a belter of a tune with some great noises on it. On the B-side, Weatherall in sinister-as-hell mode for a Lords Of Afford remix.

The Weatherall mix is really fucked up, consisting of drones and a familiar(!) voice repeating "Spike It!" with increasingly disturbing effects. I can picture a London Trainspotting-style scenario with them all sitting there, tourniquets on, arms demanding a fix. Or maybe not...



Sapiano - Spike It!
Sapiano - Spike It! (Lords Of Afford Mix)

Buy it here

Disintegrator - Schizophrenic EP

OK, lets have some more hard-acidy-techno then. I've already uploaded a classic from this bunch, as Koenig Cylinders on the Industrial Strength label. This sees them on Direct Drive, on one of those records that plays from the inside out. You can't take your eye off the ball with this lot, eh?

Four distinctly dark tracks, which are still sounding pretty darn good in 2009.



Disintegrator - Schizophrenic EP
A1 - Schizophrenic
A2 - Human
B1 - Nrgo
B2 - Flash Back Attack

Buy it here

Resistance D - Human E.P.

In response to the comments yesterday about some stuff similar to Acid Air Raid, here's a 12" from Frankfurt's Resistance D on the Harthouse label. Lots of fast acid techno here, the B-side is virtually a ballad as it's only 133 bpm!

Admittedly, this is much harder/faster than most of my records - will dig some out from time to time though, they're always good fun. Lurking somewhere is the classic Hardfloor Hardtrance Acperience EP (my first 'acid' record!) - will need to get hunting for that one...



Resistance D - Human E.P.
A1 - Connected Science
A2 - Human
B - Morning Sunrise

Buy it here