A Very Avery Dozen

I'm constantly fascinated by and drawn to Daniel Avery's music, whether his own creations or his reworkings of other artists. Daniel is experiencing a particularly productive period with the latter of late, so much so that it's hard to keep track of it all. 

Last week's release of Out Of My Reach by Jehnny Beth was the latest addition to a dizzying and varied collection of Daniel Avery remixes. 

So, as a post-cum-shopping list, here are twelve remixes from the last couple of years, and mostly from the last 12 months. Many of them are available to buy in digital format, but I've also included links to the artist's own store or Bandcamp page so you can have a rummage around their catalogue whilst you're there. 

1) Out Of My Reach (Daniel Avery Remix): Jehnny Beth

2) Atom Bomb (Daniel Avery Nuclear Summer Remix Edit): Fluke

3) The World’s Biggest Paving Slab (Daniel Avery Remix): English Teacher

4) DRONE:NODRONE (Daniel Avery Remix): The Cure

5) Wait And Wait (Daniel Avery Remix): MOTO SOLO

6) Hallelujah (Daniel Avery Remix): Happy Mondays

7) Be Enough (Daniel Avery Remix): Acopia

8) Powerless (Daniel Avery Remix): Woomb

9) Endless Deathless (Daniel Avery Remix): Just Mustard

10) Carry The Blame (Daniel Avery Remix): Demise Of Love

11) kisses (Daniel Avery Remix): Slowdive

12) Weak In Your Light (Daniel Avery Remix): Nation Of Language

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boxing Day, Fighting Fit, Gloves Off

Boxing Day blues kicking in already?

Fear not, I've created a brand new hour-long Dubhed selection to banish the blues and hopefully not leave you seeing red!

I worried that my 2021 Boxing Day offering was too obvious, being themed around boxes. Four years later, I've clearly not learned my lesson, as today's selection is based on boxing-themed song titles. 

In fact, it turned out that I hit a rich seam of gold in my digging, unearthing enough songs for at least one more selection. 

Left out of the ring on this occasion were The Affectionate Punch by Associates, Pulling Punches by David Sylvian, Punch Drunk by Gene Loves Jezebel, One Armed Boxer by Lee 'Scratch' Perry & The Upsetters, Saved By The Bell by Robin Gibb and of course Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On) by Talking Heads.

Decayed, my recent series focussing on the 1990s, also featuring boxing obsessed songs like Muhammad Ali by Faithless, Lessons Learned From Rocky I To Rocky III by Cornershop and Heavyweight Champion Of The World by Reverend & The Makers, all left in the changing room on this occasion.

I think, blow-by-blow the fifteen rounds here deliver a knockout selection, an (upper) cut above the rest and proof if needed that I'm in your corner. 

And before I stretch my efforts to insert boxing references too far, it's time to hang up my gloves, know what I mean, 'Arry?

1) The Boxer (Album Version): The Chemical Brothers ft. Tim Burgess (2005)

2) Knockout Position (DJ Muggs Remix): Kaliphz (1995)

3) Another Blow On The Bruise: Gavin Friday & The Man Seezer (1989)

4) Sucker Punch: Fujiya & Miyagi (2006)

5) Fighting Fit (Album Version): Gene (1996)

6) Southpaw (Fluke's Glassjaw Remix): Trisco (2005)

7) Lazyitis (One Armed Boxer): Happy Mondays ft. Karl Denver (1989)

8) Lightweight: Marco Rossi (2024)

9) Down And Out: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (2015)

10) The Boxer (Cover of Simon & Garfunkel): Bob Dylan (1970)

11) Still Fighting: The Sabres Of Paradise ft. Denise Johnson (1993)

12) Knuckle Sandwich Nancy: Slade (1981)

13) Reign Of Blows: XTC (1984)

14) Boxerbeat (Album Version): JoBoxers (1983)

15) Boxing Clever: The Selecter (2023)

1970: Self Portrait: 10

1981: Till Deaf Do Us Part: 12

1983: Like Gangbusters: 14

1984: The Big Express: 13

1989: Each Man Kills The Thing He Loves: 3

1989: Lazyitis EP: 7

1993: Sabresonic:: 11

1995: Seven Deadly Sins: 2

1996: Drawn To The Deep End: 5

2005: Push The Button: 1

2005: Southpaw EP: 6

2006: Transparent Things: 4

2015: Freedom Tower No Wave Dance Party 2015: 9

2023: Human Algebra: 15

2024: Since Returning From The Moon: 8

Boxing Day, Fighting Fit, Gloves Off (1:01:50) (GD) (M)

They Could Have Been Contenders

I'm having a lot of fun compiling the Decadance series and revisiting tunes from the 1990s. 

Making the cut for the final dozen can be a challenge though, and many excellent, or memorable, or both, songs get discarded along the way (and not just Pop Will Eat Itself, I mean).

I've rescued a couple from each year that I've covered so far, not least because most of them were accompanied by hugely enjoyable videos, albeit each for different videos. Step up (or step on) Pet Shop Boys, The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy, R.E.M., Siouxsie & The Banshees, Depeche Mode and Happy Mondays.

There was no video for Her Jazz by Huggy Bear, but they did make an unforgettable appearance on Channel 4's The Word, not least for their post-performance diss of Terry Christian and subsequent removal from the studio. 

Likewise, no pricey promo for Middle Of The Road by Denim. What you get instead is a video filmed specially for ITV's graveyard shift music programme The Beat in 1993. With an intro by presenter Gary Crowley and Lawrence and co. squashed into the back of a stretch limo, of course it's brilliant.

1) I Wouldn’t Normally Do This Kind Of Thing: Pet Shop Boys (1993)
2) Her Jazz (Live @ The Word): Huggy Bear (1993)

3) Television, The Drug Of The Nation: The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy (1992)

4) Middle Of The Road: Denim (1992)

5) Losing My Religion: R.E.M. (1991)

6) Kiss Them For Me: Siouxsie & The Banshees (1991)

7) Enjoy The Silence: Depeche Mode (1990)

8) Step On: Happy Mondays (1990)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Man, The Medd, The Legend

Today's Dubhed selection is dedicated to John Medd. If you've been following his blog Are We There Yet? (and if not, start today!), you'll know why.

 

I've gone back through all the comments that John has left on this blog in 2024 and curated a 19-song selection from the songs or artists that he's liked, plus some that he suggested I check out and consider for a future post. Well, today's the day and this is that selection.

 

I think (I hope) I've tracked down Frank Sinatra's original take on a Gershwin classic from 1954, he revisited and recorded the song many times in his career, from what I can gather. That's by far the oldest song here, with many fresh out in 2024, including a live version of The Zuton's infectious single Creeping On The Dancefloor.

 

One artist that John hasn't mentioned here this year (so far) is Robyn Hitchcock, But I have John and fellow legend The Swede to thank for their own enthusiasm leading to my belated appreciation of the Robyn's work, so he sneaks in with the penultimate song on this selection.

 

The working titles for this selection were 'Medd in Nottingham' and 'Dear John', but a chance comment on the monthly photo challenge over at John's blog on Sunday sealed the deal. 

All in, just over an hour and a half of eclectic and great music, which I hope will provide some entertainment over the coming days and weeks.

Will be thinking of you tomorrow, John, and sending good vibes and love your way.

 

xx

 

  
1) Only The Best Will Do (Album Version): ABC (1997)

2) Aim High (Aim Higher) (The Amorphous Androgynous Remix): Paul Weller (2010)

3) Teenage Lament '74 (Single Version): Alice Cooper (1974)

4) They Can’t Take That Away From Me (Album Version) (Cover of Fred Astaire): Frank Sinatra (1954)

5) Silently (Album Version): Blonde Redhead (2007)

6) They Don't Know How To Fall In Place (Album Version): The Lemon Twigs (2024)

7) Take You Down: Daniel Pemberton (2017)

8) Creeping On The Dancefloor (Live @ Hertford Corn Exchange): The Zutons (2024)

9) A.L.O.E: Bicep (2024)

10) Unfinished Symphony (Ion Rayne Remix): GusGus (2023)

11) Paper (Single Version): Saint Etienne (1992)

12) Love Plus One (BBC Radio 2 Piano Room): Haircut 100 ft. BBC Concert Orchestra (2023)

13) Transition 2: Joy O & Ben Vince (2018)

14) Aqua Grey (2019 Short Edit): Meditation Y.S. (Yoshihiro Sawasaki) (1994)

15) "Bed Heads": Jezebell (2022)

16) Hallelujah (Ewan Pearson Remix): Happy Mondays (2020)

17) ONE (Extract XI): Noema (2023)

18) Belltown Ramble: Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 (2006)

19) The Good Old Human Race: World Party (2012)

 

1954: Songs for Young Lovers: 4

1974: Alice Coopers Greatest Hits: 3 

1992: Avenue EP: 11

1997: Skyscraping: 1

2006: Olé! Tarantula: 18

2007: 23: 5

2010: Wake Up The Nation/Change Up The Nation (Deluxe Edition): 2 

2012: Arkeology: 19

2017: The Man From U.N.C.L.E. OST: 7 

2018: Transition 2 / Systems Align EP: 13

2019: Perfumed Garden Edits EP: 14 

2020: Hallelujah EP: 16

2022: Shelter Me: 15

2023: BBC Radio 2 Piano Room, 16 February 2024 (bootleg): 12 

2023: ONE: 17

2023: Unfinished Symphony EP: 10

2024: A Dream Is All We Know: 6

2024: CHROMA 001-005 EP: 9

2024: Live @ Hertford Corn Exchange, 22 February 2024 (bootleg): 8

The Man, The Medd, The Legend (1:31:39) (KF) (Mega)

Goin' In, Out, Goin' In, Not Out

I know it's Friday but pre-empting the week ahead, here's the Happy Mondays with - what else? - Hallelujah.

 

I have a stupidly early start for work, and slightly more so this morning, as I'm typing this post whilst it's still dark (& raining outside) so I didn't stay up all night to watch the election results coming in.

Even so, it was hard to imagine waking up to a nightmare scenario where somehow, impossibly, the Tories had managed to cling onto government. At the time of writing, we're still some way to go but it's clear that the reality and long-held hope is that they are out, out, out. Labour have a lot to do, and to prove, especially in the next year or so, but at the very least we have change and we have hope.

Thankfully, my patch is no longer blue and we have a Lib Dem MP for the first time since 2015. In a marked contrast to scenes elsewhere shown on TV, when I arrived at my local polling station on my way home from work, there was one other person at a voting booth, so we were outnumbered 3:1 by the election volunteers. Numbers of voters who turned up yesterday was 2% up on 2019.

A more worrying statistic - yet, having lived here long enough, not entirely surprising - is that a large chunk of the Tory vote appears to have shifted to the Reform candidate, who comfortably came in third with nearly 50% more votes than Labour (though their candidate did improve on 2019). Farage is now an MP, so we'll no doubt be subject to even more of his smug mug and hate-filled hyperbole on screen, but...we also have change and we have hope of something better.

Back to Happy Mondays, I was always tickled by the video for the single, mostly Shaun, Bez and the band in slo mo, with a hint of the chaos that underpinned pretty much everything that they did. 

 

Given the song is two minutes and forty three seconds long, I have to feel for the video directors and editor, who I suspect may have had a substantial amount of footage yet very little that they could actually use! Opting for slow motion to eke out the precious few seconds may have been a reactive measure out of necessity perhaps, but somehow it works.

What I hadn't realised before now was that Richard Heslop and the Bailey Brothers (Phil Shotton & Keith Jobling) were in fact sent the extended Club Mix by Andrew Weatherall and Paul Oakenfold to shoot the video too, so in fact they had nearly seven minutes of music to work with. I think they did a pretty good job.

When Ewan Pearson remixed the song in 2020, a couple of official videos were commissioned to assist with promotion. I've opted here for the Dub Remix version, which stretches the song out to nine and half minutes of mind-bending bliss, with video director Glenn Kitson pushing elements of the original video through a psychedelic rinser.

And I think it's a mandatory requirement (or if it's not, it should be) that any post about Hallelujah must include Happy Mondays appearance on Top Of The Pops, joined on stage by the wonderful and much-missed Kirsty MacColl. 

7 To 10 Inches Longer

Side 2 of a mixtape, originally recorded 5th October 1997, collecting tracks from various 7" and 10" vinyl records, pops and crackles intact on several. Even more than an album or 12" single, there's something special about putting a 7" or 10" single on a turntable and listening to just one or two songs in succession. In the 1980s, music rags like NME, Sounds, Record Mirror and Melody Maker would occasionally tape a free 7" single to the front cover and these were often my first (and sometimes only) experience of an artist's music. 

 

Some tracks inevitably turned up on a subsequent album (Iggy Pop, Tom Waits) or deluxe reissue and/or compilation (The Woodentops, The Jesus & Mary Chain). Some remain rare and wonderful, such as one of the great lost B-sides from Prefab Sprout. The Jack Rubies and Westworld remain highlights, though I bought very little else by either of them afterwards. A quarter of a century on, for such a hotpotch of songs and artists, I quite like this collection as a whole. I hope you do too.

 

1) I Give To You (Elemental) (Remix By Barry Adamson & PK aka Paul Kendall): Nitzer Ebb (I Give To You 10") (1991)

2) Hey! Luciani (Original Version By John Leckie): The Fall (Sounds Showcase 1 7") (1987)

3) Move Me (Long Version) (Remix By Godwin Logie): The Woodentops (Everyday Living ltd 2x 7") (1986) 

4) Hot Meat (Single Version) (aka Coldsweat (Version)): The Sugarcubes (Regina ltd 7") (1989)

5) Vendetta: Prefab Sprout (Cars And Girls 10") (1988)

6) Vegas Throat Stomp: The Jack Rubies (Sonic Sounds 1 7") (1987)

7) F***in' Alone: Iggy Pop (Beside You 10") (1993)

8) Nasty 'n' Cheap (Remix By Mark Ferda): Westworld (Ba-Na-Na-Bam-Boo ltd 2x 10") (1987)

9) Hallelujah (In Out Mix By Steve Lillywhite): Happy Mondays ft. Kirsty MacColl (Madchester Rave On ltd 7") (1989)

10) Shake: The Jesus & Mary Chain (Happy When It Rains 10") (1987)

11) A Little Rain: Tom Waits (Goin' Out West 10") (1992)

12) Come On Home (Album Version): Everything But The Girl (Come On Home 7") (1986)

Side Two (45:17)

Side One here

Wise Up!

Side 2 of a mixtape, recorded December 1991 to January 1992. I'd clearly recently bought Keeping The Faith: A Creation Dance Compilation, as it features heavily on both sides. I'd also taken delivery of a box of stuff that I'd picked up during my short time living and working in Perth, which I'd packaged and shipped home via sea- and land-mail services at the end of my year in Australia. I think it took about three months to reach me but it was like an early Christmas, especially the small selection of vinyl that I'd bought over there. The Soft Cell and Cabaret Voltaire tracks definitely came from that shipment. The Julian Cope track was the third of a trilogy of Hugo Nicolson remixes, this one in a lovely picture disc in yellow packaging. A bastard to store without damaging, especially with the number of short-term rents and constant moves I had in the 1990s, it has to be said. Very few of these songs could be found on the college jukebox or were being played out in the clubs that I was going to at the time. I was probably going to the wrong clubs...

 

1) Philly (Jamorphous Mix): Fluke (1990)

2) Time Beats (Album Version): Cabaret Voltaire ft. Lorita Grahame (1990)

3) Acid Love (Original Mix By Adam & Eve): The Beloved (1988) 

4) Memorabilia (12" Version By Daniel Miller): Soft Cell (1981)

5) Hypnotonic (Promo 12" Version): Hypnotone ft. Carlos (2 Supreme) (1991)

6) Heed: Of Penetration And The City Dweller (Head Remix By Hugo Nicolson): Julian Cope (1991)

7) Repetition (Dub): Tackhead (1990)

8) W.F.L. (The Vince Clarke Mix): Happy Mondays (1989)

 

Side Two (45:49)

 

Dirty Discollision!

Further inspired by yesterday's post, I realised that every track had subsequently been covered by other artists. So, here for your listening (dis)pleasure, is the dirty disco diversion from the Discollision compilation, 15 years later.

 

1) Pop Muzik: Tricky (1999)
2) Funky Town: World Domination Enterprises (1988)

3) Relight My Fire (Single Version): Tokyo Discotheque Orchestra ft. Silva (2015)

4) Stayin' Alive (12" Edit By Paul Oakenfold & Steve Osborne): Happy Mondays (1992)
5) Love Hangover (Remix By Mark Arthurworrey): Associates (1982)
6) Moskow Diskow: Señor Coconut & His Orchestra (2008)

7) Supernature: Lene Lovich (1987)
8) Everybody Dance (Chic Inspirational Mix): Evolution ft. Yvonne Shelton (1993)
9) I’m A Man: Ty Segall (2018) 

10) More, More, More (Demo): Babes In Toyland (1995)

11) Heart Of Glass (Auchterhouse Mix By Robert Gordon): Associates (1988)
12) Disco Inferno: Age Of Chance (1986)

Dirty Discollision! (54:06)

 

And here's yesterday's compilation, ever so slightly extended, as a palliative.

 

1) Pop Muzik (Full Length Disco Mix By Nick Launay): M (1979)
2) Funky Town (12" Disco Mix): Lipps, Inc. (1979)

3) Relight My Fire (12" Progressive Vocal Edit By John Luongo & Michael Barbiero) (Re-Edited By Ben Liebrand): Dan Hartman ft. Loleatta Holloway (1979)

4) Stayin' Alive (Tom Moulton Disco Mix): Bee Gees (1977)
5) Love Hangover (12" Disco Mix): Diana Ross (1976)
6) Moskow Diskow (Disco Mix) (English 12" Version): Telex (1979)

7) Supernature (Full Length Album Version): Cerrone (1977)
8) Everybody Dance (12" Disco Mix): Chic (1977)
9) I'm A Man (Khayem's So Macho Outrovert Re-Edit): Macho (1978) 

10) More, More, More (A Tom Moulton Mix): Andrea True Connection (1976)

11) Heart Of Glass (Long Version By Mike Chapman): Blondie (1978)
12) Disco Inferno (Full Length 12" Disco Mix): Trammps (1976)

 

Discollision! (1:25:19)