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

Florecer / Hidden Thoughts / Is It Balearic?

After collaborating with Coyote on last year’s Mellow Stone, Californian duo, Florecer, release their first solo single on Is It Balearic? Hidden Thoughts is a summery lullaby. Fluttering and floating, not beatless but bubbling and effervescent, rather than tied to a rigid 4 / 4. Hitchhiker’s remix has the song dance to an Italo disco b-line and driving drums. Listening, I was thinking back to Sunscreem. Both hook a hippie vibe up to some proggy pounding. Das Komplex takes things deeper, and darker. Going in for some strobe-lit acidic squelching, while also reviving some old school rave riffs. Current Cafe del Mar resident, Ken Fan, then creates a cut of head-nodding funk, focused on some sensitive 6-string picking, and Allie Schulz’s echoed vocal. Bringing out the Liz Fraser in the fragility of the latter.

Flowered Up / Weekender (Beyond The Wizards Sleeve Re-Animation) / London Records

Flowered Up’s album, A Life With Brian, celebrates its 30th anniversary with an expanded edition, released on London Records. Part of the package is a brilliant Beyond The Wizards Sleeve Re-Animation of Weekender, where Richard Norris and Erol Alkan bravely reprise the Ecstasy Generation anthem. I went on at length about this song when it was reissued for Record Store Day a few years ago. For those who experienced the UK’s Second Summer Of Love at first hand, it seizes the zeitgeist of that chemical crazed rollercoaster. Both the highs, and the inevitable crash.

The Wizards have rendered the tune a glorious mid-tempo go-go-not-go-go groove. Don Weller’s sax and Joe Maher’s axe giving glimpses of the chaotic catharsis, the rush, of the original’s battle cry. Liam’s voice, and lyric, for me, though induces a sharp intake of breath, in hindsight – like taking a deep, deep toke – and a moment to remember, and acknowledge, that I survived. Three decades ago I was in a world of excess. I was aware I was a mess, but had staked a claim on a self-destructive path. When the wise would have called it a day, and found something more constructive, more positive, to do, I, and I’m sure many others, simply doubled-down on bad habits. It was far easier to neck up again, chop another line, than come up with an alternative. Personally, I’m not sure if was fun anymore. I’m not sure if I even bothered pretending. To all the other survivors, weekenders or not, I salute you. I hope whatever you’re doing now makes you happy.

Gratts / Submerge Me / Be Strong Be Free

Gratts is back with Submerge Me, a superb slice of sunset / sunrise house. A second collaboration with singer Mr. Beale, the music is tribal-tinged, afrocentric, full of bongos, congas, and seashell shakers, while the song itself is sexually-charged. Lyrically laying out an obsession with the submission to another’s will, while Ellie’s jazzy delivery mirrors Melanie De Baiso’s moody, magnificent I Feel You.

Gilb’R then graces us with a remix. Taking a deeper dive. Reducing the melody to a single sustained tone, and the percussion to a gentle percolating, while making the beats a lot more banging. Details from the original are diced and diffused into a dubby drift, over which a funky synth takes flight.

Lexx / Right By Your Side / Lexxmusic

Lexx has a new 7 in his shop. A collaboration with Stones Throw stalwart, Stimulator Jones, Right By Your Side is sophisticated street soul / R&B, that’s super suitable for chilling in sunny climes. Similar in some ways to Lexx’s previous hook up with Woolfy, Too Hot, it’s a proper song, proper pop, with a theremin-like theme and delicate use of dub and delay. On the flip, L.A.’s Jamma-Dee creates a B-Boy Fantasy, looping just a little of the lyric and adding a classic break. His arrangement gets almost orchestral, with keys that wanna be reeds, and subtle snatches of scratching. Both versions are very, very bass heavy.

MoodyManc / Joy Dubs / Exploited

MoodyManc’s Joy was released 13 years ago, manhandling Maze to produce a now sought after house anthem. The DJ behind it, Danny Ward, has now unleashed two new remixes / dubs. The first is a percussive, latin-flavoured, party-starting piano banger. Complete with big breakdowns, it’s perhaps a bit too “straight” for Ban Ban Ton Ton’s palette these days. However, donning the guise of Dubble D, on the second Danny hits the spot. This remix revolves around a retro breakbeat – that strangely enough makes the track sound more in vogue (circles, cycles, pop will eat itself and all that… ). A case of disco definitely taking revenge it sounds like something by Paul Simpson, looped and sped up. Chopping and changing the main riff, manically, while adding filtered keys and crowd noise, it’s the sort of stuff that fuelled the pirates, circa `89 / 90. With shades of The Strings Of Life, all it needs are some sirens and whistles. Relentlessly referencing the rave of yesteryear, when the hook comes in for a final time it’s enough to make even the most jaded old cynic give in and force a smile.

The Night Institute / Volume 1

The Night Institute is a new label, spun out of the long-running Belfast party of the same name. The first E.P. features four cuts of leftfield dance and house. Hi-Fi Sean’s The Beat is electro, Italo-esque, disco. Arpeggiated and sleazy with snares like the crack of a dominatrix’s whip. Its big synths paying homage to Simple Minds’ Themes For Great Cities. It’s kinda BDSM, but it’s also kinda camp and cute. Jordan Nocturne’s C’Mon is also electro-fied, but slower, machine funk. Stripped back to the bone, making room for a little acid, and an echoed diva. Justin Cudmore gets trance-y on Arcade Rhythm. Bedevilled by disorientating disembodied voices and an increasingly energetic TB-303, it’s a metallic mix of techno and EBM. Finally, Timmy Stewart teams up with Megan Sylvan, whose half-sung / half spoken delivery helps give the bouncing boompty boomp of Kintsugi an urgent post-punk edge. Something cemented by live-sounding pots and pans percussion and blasts of buzzsaw effects. This last one is a must for fans of Timmy’s old friends Phil Kieran and David Holmes.

Richard Norris / Oracle Sound Vol. 3 / Group Mind

Richard Norris teases with two tracks from the latest volume of his Oracle Sound. Conqueror Dub is dread, downtempo funk, with an echoed trip hop-like beat. Its sampled Jamaican MC / DJ shouting out over Richard’s now trademark twin bass-lines – one digi, one melodic – while congas are detuned, and a modular theme wafts around like pungent ganja smoke. Touchstones might be Massive Attack, with Mad Professor, and Bomb The Bass’ Dark Heart. Inner Communication is a livelier lick. Again it’s not really reggae – the b-line could be a slo-mo vamp on Loft classic Crystal World – but dub is for sure at its core. Haunted by horns, ethereal exclamations, and Basic Channel-esque trimmings, this one’s for fans of Crooked Man’s Earth Angel.

Richard Norris / Weatherall Last Stand / Group Mind

Yet another marvellous musical missive from Mr. Norris. This time it’s a terrific track to comemorate the birthday of his dearly departed friend Andrew Weatherall. Tipping its hat to “The Guv’nor”, The Chairman’s own productions, this is a dance-floor march that’s kosmische / motorik coloured. Partnering pretty percussive patterns with a throbbing bottom-end, its acidic sounding Arp slowly builds, becoming more and more euphoric. A No Pads Dub features kick and snares that have a sharper snap. Consequently the piece feels a marked increase in the power of its propulsion. Its breakdown is an appropriately Weatherall-esque whirlpool of spinning cosmic effects.

Pye Corner Audio / There’s Dust On It / Pye Corner Audio

Martin Jenkins aka Pye Corner Audio pays tribute to Basic Channel’s dub techno sound on the single, There’s Dust On It. While the music might be muted, muffled, hypnotic and mediative, its bass is also serious room rattling / body moving, and its roots remain in Chicago jack.

Kim Yaffa / Once Bitten / New Islands

Originally released in 1989, Once Bitten was the sole single by L.A.-based singer, Kim Yaffa. New Islands, local label Pleasure Of Love’s reissue offshoot, have recently rescued the song and pressed it on a 12, alongside a couple of remixes. Nick The Record and Dan Tyler’s edit is my personal pick. The duo deftly extending the already quality OG, with the minimum of studio trickery, but a deft dose of dubwise delay. A prime piece of Mediterranean pop – inspired by Sade and Taylor Dayne – its arrangement could have come from a classic Mike Francis record. All fluttering flute, and acoustic picking, with a decidedly romantic air. A breathless Kim recalling Balearic goddesses Linda DiFranco and Mandy Smith. Dan and Nick expertly expanding the short Spanish 6-string snippets into something more like solos, and adding significantly to the White Isle vibe. It’s the sort of thing you’d come back humming after a holiday on the continent. A sonic souvenir of a sun-stroked fling.