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

Auntie Flo / Green City / A State Of Flo

Green City is a 15-minute dance-floor epic from Brian d’Souza aka Auntie Flo. The piece pulls together musicians from Africa and the UK, and its title reflects d’Souza’s global, ecological concerns. All of his projects raise funds for the charity Earth Percent. Around the track’s uptempo disco beat, layer by layer, he brings in balaphon and kalimba-like chimes, field recordings captured in Nairobi, paying tribute to his maternal roots. There are snatches of echoed vocals and griot guitar loops, and then “bang”, the B-line hits lift-off. The groove like Songhoy Blues doing Talking Heads’ I Zimbra. Ziggy Funk then adds some glorious, hypnotic Manuel Gottsching-esque space rock shredding. Spiralling, spinning, emoting, through what’s effectively a 5-minute solo. The music momentarily breaking down before finally introducing the song and some dramatic, climatic saxophone.

Coyote / Living In Heaven / Is It Balearic? 

The Coyote chaps, Timm and Ampo, are famously big reggae fans. They’ve always been upfront about their love of dub, and its aesthetics are omnipresent in their productions. However, nowhere is this passion for roots and reverb more to the fore than on their latest 12. Living In Heaven, for me, is a flashback to music made by the original South London Amnesiacs, specifically the Deja Vu crew’s Chant 4 Freedom and Natural Life’s Deb N’ Duff. With a big, big bass-line and a heavily stoned, heavily filtered B-boy break, it has the vibe of an early 1990s all-back-to-mine afters. Summoning scenes of refreshed ravers scattered about, all sitting chatting, putting the world to rights. Everyone skinning up. Live congas, like someone gently bashing bongos in the corner. Rastas rejoice and the rhythm stops and starts, washes in and out, recalling The Orb’s Towers Of Dub. I could easily get lost in its drift for an hour or 2, off with my thoughts, intermittently rocked by that massive B-line. On the flip, OMG samples and shreds Mickey Dread and mixes in cowbell, kalimba, timbales and ambient techno synths. A little more complex, and with a bit more of a kick, it’s still a pretty baked moment.

Emperor Machine / Remixes / Leng

Music from Andy Meecham’s latest Emperor Machine long-player, Island Boogie,  has picked up a few remixes. Andy himself extends and accentuates the excellence of his cover of Fox’s S-S-S Single Bed. Supplementing its seductive electro salsa shuffle by playing live percussion along with the machines. Adding Brazilian cuica squeaks a la Afrika Bambaataa’s Jazzy Sensation. Mr. Meecham’s sometime collaborator Sean “Hardway Bros” Johnston turns in two terrific takes of Wanna Pop With You. Transforming the OG’s “Rick James meets The Bush Tetras” disco-not-disco into some boisterous mid-tempo bionic bashing. Building a busy rhythm that boasts twisting acidic squelches, and a little EBM menace, Sean also seems to pull in references to Prince (guitar) and Talking Heads (groove). His densely textured dub has deranged shape-shifted vocals ride beats that sound like a riff on Hall & Oates’ I Can’t Go For That, and zooms in on the Paul Simenon-esque punk funk bass-line. Finally, Rose Robinson’s Tigerbalm rework of La Cassette is a percussive piece of electro-afro-disco, that adds space-y synth splashes and cracking kosmische keyboard solos, while totally making the most of the song’s catchy chants.

Hugo Nicolson & David Harrow / Revolvalution / Higher Love Recordings

Hugo Nicolson and David Harrow are a pair of celebrated veteran producers whose creative paths have previously crossed during stints working with Andrew Weatherall, Adrian Sherwood and On-U Sound. The track Revolvalution, however, is the first time that they’ve collaborated directly. A collage of countless samples and sound effects, the song careers along at a breakneck pace, collecting / attracting ideas like a sonic tornado, before eventually locking into a 303 groove. David delivers a two additional interpretations: One a harder acid house outing, the other a stripped down but still racing dub. Rory Natkiel and Joe Moran, as Rule Six, reinvent the piece as chunky industrial disco. Rude Audio and Dan Wainwright then team-up and take the tune on a couple of epic journeys. Both are big, long, dubbed out excursions, that buck convention and eccentrically spin in electric sitar / rock guitars, walls / waves of reverb and chopped and screwed beats. Sort of suites, dub symphonies in several parts, the VIP version is the most way out.

Puerto Montt City Orchestra / Hey You / Higher Love Recordings

Puerto Montt City Orchestra have covered 14 Iced Bears’ lovelorn, late `80s indie hit, Hey Fever, and to do so they’ve recruited the song’s original writer and singer, Rob Sekula. Reimagined as Hey You, it now sounds like Spacemen 3 / Spectrum / Spiritualized paying homage to V.U. Strung-out backwards guitar and sitar strains accompanying the fragile breathless ballad. Creating a stoned psychedelic raga, like the pre-rush bits of Heroin. The track teases briefly with a dance beat, which Jesse Fahnestock then seizes and beefs up for his 10:40 remix.* Introducing handclaps and trippy gated sequences he synthesises something akin to the aforementioned Spacemen 3’s seminal Big City Remix. An awesome meeting of acid house and acid rock.

*The first thing of Jesse’s that I heard, back in the spring of 2021, was, coincidently, his inspired dubbed-out “mash up” of Spacemen 3 and This Is The Kit. 

Xiaolin / 風花雪月: 事後 / Bless You

Hong Kong-based electronic musician Xiaolin returns to Sound Metaphors’ Bless You, with second reworking of past local pop hit. Xiaolin’s take puts Prudence Liew‘s Afterwards with a slo-mo go-go groove, swooning strings and skanking keys. The Heartbreak Dub is echoed electro, that’s a clash between sound system and street soul, and recalls the Muffin Mix of The Beloved’s Balearic fav, Time After Time. Tornado Wallace drops the song into bottomless bass, the void illuminated by blissful explosions / swirls of synths and chimes. Keeping the OG’s faux panpipe solo. Androo then loses the go-go and instead isolates Xiaolin’s vocal and pushes it to the fore. His piano playing along to the now simplified beat.