Paraphrasing the Soul Sonic Force and sorting through today`s releases for tunes that could have graced Alfredo Fiorito & Leo Mas’ Amnesia dance-floor…

Adioa / Toubab Bilé  / Secousse

Balearic Mike’s raved about this record before, about how it was comped by Danny McLewin of Psychemagik, and how the prices of the original 12 subsequently soared. Toubab Bilé has now, care of Secousse, received a legit reissue. The song concerns the Thiaroye Massacre, which took place on December 1st, 1944, near Dakar. Where hundreds of African soldiers, while in the service of the French military, were shot / murdered in a dispute over pay. The solo debut by Senegalese musician Maxidilick Adioa, it was recorded in Paris, in 1987, at the artist can’s own expense, and immediately became a huge hit. The success landing Adioa a deal with Island, which in turn led to global stardom. Serious subject matter aside, this is a superior slice of synth-pop, afro-reggae. Boogie-ing on the Balearic Beat / Cosmic Club border it’s incredibly catchy, and is helped along the way by some heavy rock riffing. The vibe is very similar to Touré Kunda’s classic, E’mma. 

Vince Clark / The Lamentations Of Jeremiah / Electronic Sound

The Lamentataions Of Jeremiah is another excellent single from Electronic Sound. The 7 comes as part of a package with the latest issue of the magazine (#105), which features a cover interview with Vince Clark. The track, taken from Clark’s forthcoming debut solo album, Songs Of Silence, is a striking neo-classical composition for drone and cello (played by Vince’s close friend Reed Hays). It stands in stark contrast to the synth pop Clark made, and pioneered, as a member of Depeche Mode and Yazoo, and continues to make with Andy Bell as Erasure. Its see-sawing melody summons images of a storm at sea, with arabesques that wouldn’t be out of place scoring a silent movie. Its drama could easily have slotted into a Jose Padilla / Cafe del Mar sunset session. On the flip you’ll find The Cave, which is, appropriately darker still. A moment of moody, uneasy ambience, generated on a Eurorack modular synthesiser. The gear, growling, disintegrating  around disembodied voices. A buzz building, leading its deep (listening) descent. 

David Holmes / Necessary Genius / Heavenly Recordings

David Holmes’ new single,  Necessary Genius, comes with a whole host of fine remixes – Decius, Phil Kieran, Lovefingers, Skymas, and Robin Wylie on the knobs – beginning the hype for David’s first solo album in 15 years, Blind On A Galloping Horse. However, for me it’s all about the OG. Rocking to a racing electro rhythm – a touch of Egyptian Lover’s TR-808 – and a rumbling Peter Hook / Joy Division-esque bass-line, the song finds Raven Violet reciting a long-list of uncompromising artists. Activists across all media, from all walks of life. “Dreamers, misfits, radicals, outcasts”, those who bend, break, and operate outside of existing rules. Those who challenge mediocrity, and “the norm”, and in doing raise the bar and set new standards, new ideals. Hopefully, in the process forcing us, as a species, to evolve, at least morally. Sparkling, cascading, classic komische sequences shower it’s roof-raising celebration of the underdog, no compromise, and no sell out. 

Yasushi Ide / A Place In The Sun / Love Injection

Yasushi Ide is a hugely respected Japanese artist, who’s been releasing music since the mid 1990s. Initially under the umbrella of Lonesome Echo Productions, and more recently via his shop / label / brand, Grand Gallery. Over the decades Ide’s worked with legends from all genres, from funk (Bernie Worrell), jazz (Pharoah Sanders, Lonnie Liston Smith, Naná Vasconcelos), new wave (James Chance, Tom Verlaine), to techno (Jeff Mills), and he’s also had actor Viggo Mortensen supply vocals. Reggae has always been a big, big influence, which has lead to a long roll call of Jamaican collaborators: Big Youth, Ken Boothe,  Mutabaruka, Rico Rodriguez, Style Scott, and U-Roy. Ide has released albums with Compass Point engineer / producer Steve Stanley, and UK “cultural icon”, Rebel Dread, Don Letts. A Place In The Sun, a track from Ide’s 2012 album, Late Night Blues, features venerated, veteran guitarist, Ernest Ranglin. 

New York’s Love Injection have now licensed the tune for a 45 release.  On the A-side, Yoko Ota delivers a luxuriant, laidback, chilled-out, dub. Ernest’s jazzy picking providing a slick city pop feel, while Nobuyuki Nakajima adds some electric Fender Rhodes runs. On the flip Kaoru Inoue crafts a still more horizontal mix. Beat-less, bass-less, the 7” edit even loses the guitar. He concentrates instead on the classy keys. Surrounding those with gentle percussion and romantic synth swells. 

Mildlife / Return to Centaurus (Lovefingers Bathhouse Odyssey) / Heavenly Recordings

Bongos, congas, echoed guitar chords. Slowly bent blues-y licks sailing over big tribal tom toms, at a sleepy post-siesta tempo. The L.A.-based Lovefingers turns in a 14-minute epic remix of New Zealanders Mildlife. Mixing pagan poetry, performed in spooky pitched down vocals, with chilled, countrified pedal steel, his Bathhouse Odyssey tells the story of the Centaur – the half human, half horse creature from Greek mythology that gave its name to the constellation, Centaurus, which in turn gives the track its title. The piece’s punchline is a mad, Moog-y solo, followed by flute, and just a little Hammond organ. It’s a serious mind / head fuck if you’re really stoned, or tripping. A flashback to the weird, wired late 2000s boogie of Golf Channel stuff, like Heroes Of The Galleon Trade. Those strange records, usually out of New York, that mixed soft rock with dubhousedisco, and reflected the eclectic tunes in everyone’s highly DJ Harvey-influenced box. 

Nairobi Sisters / Promised Land / 333

Promised Land is fine funky reggae – the funk down to its loose percussion and b-line. Afro-leaning, with clipped guitar and punchy horns, it reminds me a little of Nigeria’s lovely Lijadu Sisters. Its shuffling groove also accommodating wicked wah-wah licks and some saxophone. The work of producer Winston Jones, and Jamaican vocalist, Judy Mowatt, the 45 was originally released on Brooklyn-based label, Flames, back in 1975. I picked up the dub / version on a Ximeno boot, about a decade ago, but now the song has got a full reissue care of the fantastic 333. 

No Zu / Last Words / Chapter Music

Having played an incredible run of incendiary live shows through the summer of 2022, in March of this year powerhouse performers, Melbourne post-punk-funkers par excellence, No Zu called it a day. They mark, nay celebrate, this occasion, in a typically joyful fashion with a digital single. A parting shot. Going out, all friends at once, going bang! Both tunes are right up there with some of the best stuff they’ve ever done. The A-side is a cracking cover of 23 Skidoo’s Last Words – where the lyrics have been changed to add cryptic clues to past No Zu glories / stories, and to pay tribute to band member, Daphne Camf, who sadly passed in 2021. The frantic frugging, barmy, barely contained carnival chaos, is packed with whistles, timbales, party shrieks and shouts. That’s paired with a remix of Heat Beat Head, where Grim Up North – a new project from Rune “Drum Island” Lindbaek and The Idjut Boys’ Dan Tyler – manhandle the mixing desk controls. Calming the crazy cavorting, slightly, by fixing the frolicking to a more uniform 4 / 4. Introducing extended instrumental breaks, providing space for the bass, especially, to flex and show-off its big biceps. It’s still brilliantly bonkers. I’ve been a firm fan of the band for a long time now, and wish them all – Becky Sui Zhen, Adrian Vecino, Nic Oogjes, Andrew Noble, Tom Gould, Mitch McGregor, and Cayn Borthwick – the very best with everything they decide to do next. 

Primal Scream / Running Out Of Time (Sons Of Slough Mixes) / Tici Taci

Ian Weatherall and Duncan Gray return as Sons Of Slough with remixes of Primal Scream’s Running Out Of Time. Where the original – taken from 2013’s More Light – was kinda George Clinton and crew inspired psychedelic funk, SOS deliver two dancefloor dubs. The first retains the stoned, acid wah-wah-ed guitar lick, and Bobby G’s apocalyptic lyric, but that’s about it. Adding, instead, a slow, sorta tribal beat, melodica, and a skanking digidub bass-line. Making the track over as a moody Mogadon-ed march. Its drums dropping out. Its percussion constantly colliding, clattering, caught, captured in delay. The tune’s dark tone similar to Ian’s brother, Andrew’s posthumously released, End Times Sound, and their own 2021 cover of New Order’s In A Lonely Place, recorded in tribute to Andrew. 

The second mix introduces some cowbell and beefs up the kick. The vocal limited to a single looped refrain, “Live tomorrow, love tomorrow” – which lifted out of context sends a much more positive message.