Midnight Cleaners - Cleaners From Venus

Midnight Cleaners from 1982 is probably the most well known Cleaners From Venus album. This was originally a tape only release. Martin Newell’s diy post-punk lo-fi psychedelic pop is glorious. 

Midnight Cleaners starts out with doomy basslines, then drums, glockenspiel & synths follow through via his bedroom's echo chamber. 

Wow the splendid melodiousness of this never ceases to amaze. In a parallel universe... 

When they hit their stride with superior jangles, angular tangents and ecstatic bursts of majestic bittersweet melodic pop, it’s almost too much.

A month or six ago Martin Newell announced on instagram that this wonderfully blissful anthem had hit 6 million streams on Spotify. Not bad for an unknown 80s band who were always in between scenes. A true cult pop phenomena finally reaching critical mass forty years later.

This. Just when you're thinking this is some Saxamophone instrumental noodle with amazing bass a verse comes in, then bang just the ecstatic everything. Anthem!

Martin's got wistful deep within his bones down to his socks. This is psychedelic raindrops. Cleaners From Venus pack an emotional punch that few bands ever do, all the while being quintessentially English. 

This despondent paean to drudgery, gentrification and dystopia is quaint by today's standards. Nostalgia for nostalgia. If only dystopia was this cute.

"The sun unfolds but it never shines" The glorious gloom of it all. 

Not to forget the dubbed out saxanophone jamz. At this point they were only comparable to The Homosexuals at their most sublime.

Like most of the population I didn’t discover Cleaners From Venus during the 80s. I came across them in the 90s via the compilation cd that came with the book Unknown Legends Of Rock 'n' Roll. Then in the early 00s I found a shonky cdr copy of Midnight Cleaners in a 2nd hand record shop in Melbourne. Anyway it wasn’t until thirty years after the initial release that Midnight Cleaners got issued for the first time on vinyl and yeah I know you really only need this on tape or a shitty cd but I hope Martin got some money from my purchases of his reissues.

best of 2022

RECORDS/TAPES/CDs

Human Remains - Robert Haigh

If A City Is Set Upon A Hill - Current 93

Music For The Death Cult Church - Controlled Death

Death Synth Box - Controlled Death

Antidawn - Burial

Expressed, I noticed Silence - M Geddes Gengras

Is there any point in writing here anymore now that ChatGBT has arrived? The year end round up was always the biggest post of the year with thousands of people reading it. In the last two years though visits to CardrossManiac2 have waned to just a trickle of people. This has only happened since I've added the occasional post criticising current political absurdities. I do not toe the retarded party-line orthodoxies of Google plus I openly call them corrupt so like they used to always suspend me on twitter they've probably demoted my posts, pretty much shadow banned me and buried the blog. No anti-establishment sentiments allowed! Having said that does anyone read blogs anymore? I know I don't, so...

It was another year of being out of action most of the time. Only a handful of albums from 2022 really register in my brain right now so go elsewhere for a more thorough overview of current music. It's hard to imagine that it was only as recent as 2019 that 45 new records were mentioned in my year end list. The above list is in no particular order. I have vague recollections of enjoying a few other new albums in 2022 by the likes of Pan American, Sulk Rooms, Rangers, N Chambers, Huerco S, Deepchord and that's about it. It's always touch and go as to whether Moon Wiring Club make it into the list. The mail has been slow to Australia this Christmas so they miss out as I'm yet to hear Medieval Ice Cream. I didn't even realise Actress and Diamanda Galas had new albums out in 2022 so... oh wait I forgot, Kemper Norton released two excellent tapes of experimental rural psychedelia/drone-y dark ambient. The highlight being the traditional tune My Love Is Gone at the end of the Rife cassette. 

The music innovation era died with the great 20th century, maybe there was a slight afterglow into the 00s up until about Burial's record. Plus the odd flicker here and there in the 00s with Young Thug, Future and the like. I now realise I was so lucky to live through the 70s, 80s and 90s...

Current 93's David Tibet

The first four above albums were made by artists who are reaching late career peaks after getting started in the 80s. I think both Robert Haigh and Current 93 have retired so these might be their final offerings. Robert Haigh the mastermind behind the genius jungle act Omni Trio, continues to excel with another impeccable LP of exquisitely melodic piano vignettes. Current 93's If A city Is Set Upon A Hill has David Tibet at the top of his game as he recites his doomed mystic verse with startling restraint and age-d charm. Legendary Japanese rock star noise performance artist Maso Yamazaki aka Masonna is in the midst of an absolute purple patch with his dark ambient cosmic noise project Controlled Death. This blaze of creativity that started in 2018 has now amassed over 24 releases and has gone unnoticed by everybody in music media as far as I can tell. Get on board it's a gas! Antidawn is Burial at his blissful, beautiful and beat-less best. Burial aka William Bevan aka the most idiosyncratic and innovative musical visionary of the 21st century reminds us why he holds this undeniable title with an elegiac soundtrack for 2022. Funnily enough M Geddes Gengras's ace cosmic-ambient jam Expressed, I Noticed Silence is the most retro record on the list yet Gengras is the youngest of the lot. His career began in the mid-00s in the hypnagogic era.

I heard no pop radio or any music radio for that matter in 2022.

I did hear some newly made jungle...what's the point? It's the new garage rock revival except for me it's worse. I wasn't there in the 60s so the 80s revivals of garage and psych were fine with me. Eventually I would become fully acquainted with what they were referencing and my record collection today is more a reflection of that than the 80s 60s revivalists. Still can't go past The Stems though! So this new jungle shit just stinks to high heaven because I was right there when jungle originally emerged and then through subsequent beat permutations etc. Nu-jungle, or whatever the fuck it is, as a signpost for youngsters of where to go back to to find when the amazing burst of innovation and excitement happened is fine but come on people beyond 40 you know the score. My dad didn't hear the Black Crowes in the 90s and say "Gee Tim have you heard this terrific new group. They're like an exciting new take on The Rolling Stones. Don't miss out on these amazing new innovations" No, he knew better. 

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REISSUES/COMPILATIONS/ARCHIVES

Classic Productions by Surin Phaksiri 2: Molam Gems 1960s - 80s - Various

Wamano Groove Shakuhhachi & Koto Jazz Funk 76 - Kiyoshi Yamaya, Toshiko Yonekawa, Kifu Mitsuhashi

Peru Selvatico: Sonic Expedition Into The Peruvian Amazon 1972 - 86 - Various

Cumbias Psicodelicas: Ayahuasca Volume 2 - Various

Sonido Verde De Moyobamba - Sonido Verde De Moyobamba

The Afrosound Of Colombia Volume 3 - Various

Orkos - Maha

Mawood - Abdel Halim Hafiz

Mogadishu's Finest The Al Uruba Sessions - Iftin Band

Sense May Come - Controlled Bleeding

Neptune's Lair - Drexciya

Convextion - Convextion

A Spare Tabby At The Cat's Wedding (LP Edition) - Moon Wiring Club

Last year I had something like over 30 records in me reissues/compilations list. This year I've got not one disco compilation and only one reissue of Japanese music. Apart from my lack of paying attention, there did seem to be not as many enticing releases from the usual "reissue label" suspects. This game goes in cycles though doesn't it?

EM Records continue to excavate terrific tunes from 20th century Thai pop genres luk thung & molam. This year we got a double vinyl dose of exquisite molam productions by Surin Phaksiri. These splendid tracks were all originally specifically released on 7" vinyl during the cassette era of Thai music. All songs are getting the reissue treatment for the first time on this historic release that has been years in the making.

There was at least three choice Peruvian psych-cumbia archival releases in 2022. I don't understand why the complete 70s catalogues of legendary groups like Los Destellos, Juaneco y Su Combo, Los Orientales de Paramonga, Los Wembler's de Iquitos, Los Mirlos et al. don't get the comprehensive reissue treatment. I would have thought this would have happened after those Roots Of Chicha compilations came out in the 00s. We have to be content to get a track here and there on a compilation or if you're lucky a greatest hits collection. It is impossibly rare to see a reissue of an LP for a Peruvian cumbia group. Anyway we get two compilations of Amazonian cumbia from the great Analog Africa label and a second dose of Cumbia Psicodelicas from Peruvian label Repsychled (get it?).

Tresor reissued Drexciya's 90s electro masterpiece Neptune's Lair. I've always said it was the last great 90s album and it belongs in everyone's collection. Get the cd as the vinyl version doesn't have all the tracks.

Maybe It's just listlessness from a combination of the sweltering 40 degree heat and anaemia but I really cannot get enthused to write any further. Perhaps more on a better day...

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ON THE TELLY

THE SOPRANOS

The best show on telly twenty three years ago was 2021's best show and 2022's best show and so on for eternity. This year I've realised my memory's so far gone that I can probably watch Sopranos every year until I die which is handy because current television and movies are bullshit.   

SLOW HORSES

We tried to watch so many new tv shows but I think they all got switched off during the first episode because they were bollocks so it was lucky that we got two seasons in one year of the only watchable new show in 2022. Spies hey?

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WAR IN UKRAINE CAUSES DEAD HUMAN PEOPLE CRISIS 

*Some US officials have estimated that as many as 200 000 human people have already died in this proxy war. At least 7000 civilians are dead including 428 kids. That's 428 DEAD CHILDREN: These are WAR CRIMES! It all could have been easily avoided. Our governments have got blood on their hands and it's a revolting tragedy! Lets stop support of this festival of death, help save human people from being killed and demand a ceasefire now. 

GANGSTA BOO 1979 - 2023

KOOPSTA KNICCA feat. GANGSTA BOO - NOW I'M HI PT. 2

I coincidentally listened to Koopsta Knicca's Da Devil's Playground tape in the wee small hours last night, finding out afterwards via instagram that Gangsta Boo had died. Weird. Is this a slightly remixed version of Now I'm So Hi Part 2...I dunno...but it's fucking wicked. That early smoked out lo-fi Triple 6 sound and then the verses so nonchalantly delivered by the supreme Boo. I've noted several times over the years that the ladies rapping on 90s Memphis devil shit is the perfect combination like peanut butter & chocolate. Gangsta Boo is the queen of Memphis: The Original.

Boo w Scarecrow & Crunchy

I'm outa love with modern pop music which includes hip-hop but it's not Gangsta Boo's fault she influenced a bunch of less than interesting rap sell outs. Apparently she was actually well aware of her artistic impact, stating recently that she was the blueprint for current rap cadences female & male. And she's totally fucking correct! Her output is awesome without post context though. You don't need to measure her talent by what she influenced. Her recordings speak for themselves. She was often astounding. So RIP Gangsta Boo aka Lola Mitchell: You are legendary!

I'm sure many of you out there might be off hip-hop of late but that does not take away from the achievements of the great rap of the 80s & 90s. It became highly elevated pop art. The 90s Memphis style was one of the best, most unique and innovative. It still remains a cult underground thing to this day despite Boo having had platinum selling hits with Three Six Mafia and guesting on Outcast and Lil' Jon records. She most recently appeared on a Run The Jewels LP but Lady Boo's not a household name like the people who cribbed her style, commercialised it and are now world famous.

The Backyard Posse/Triple 6 Mafia/Three 6 Mafia crew are legendary. They were particularly noteworthy during the 1990s Memphis Rap Underground era, including all the 90s dark lo-fi affiliate mixtapes, albums and productions. Gangsta Boo was just 15 when she joined Three Six Mafia and was there droppin' verses for their run of albums from the cult classic debut Mystic Stylez in 95 to the million selling When The Smoke Clears in 00 (All the tracks posted on this page are from the lo-fi horror era when she was 15 or 16). 

THREE SIX MAFIA - I THOUGHT YOU KNEW

This! 

Dj Paul & Juicy J lay on the horror soundtrack samples adding extra menace to the creepiness of this pitch black ode to crime where Lady Boo is joined by Crunchy Black. The devil's daughter Gangsta Boo was only 15!

DJ PAUL & LORD INFAMOUS - GRAB DA GAUGE

The lo-fi psychedelic creepin horror of the early triple six mafia is so so good. DJ Paul & Kingpin Skinny Pimp kill their verses then Gangsta Boo just comes in and effortlessly nails her verse with her cold blooded deadpan flow. 

THREE 6 MAFIA - IN DA GAME

I mean what the actual fuck! This is peak rap attack craft. One of the most astonishing flows in tha game and despite Juicy J, Dj Paul & Scarecrow's best efforts Gangsta Boo cannot be outdone...immortal.

KINGPIN SKINNY PIMP - I DON'T LUV'EM

This is one of DJ Paul & Juicy J's strangest productions. It's a cosmic psych jam of proto-hypnagogic proportions. This scenario is an horrific peak inside the minds of three drug fuelled homicidal maniacs. The psychosis goes deep. It's another incredibly jaw-dropping delivery of a verse from Gangsta Boo. Skinny Pimp is the kingpin but who is the real kingpin? Know what I mean? 

Juaneco y Su Combo 1976

MANGUITO DE SAL

You might initially think "oh this is just ho-hum Peruvian cumbia" but seconds later you will drawn in to the sublime poly-rhythmic vortex then the mesmerising mystical guitars. All of a sudden you are lost in sweet incandescent sound. These are deep Amazonian jamz and Juaneco y Su Combo were at a ceaseless peak.

EL HIPPIE MUCA

Another deep cumbia Amazonica jam with tantalising kaleidoscopic rhythms and those complimentary divine psychedelic guitar tones will have you enraptured. These two tunes are the final tracks of their 1976 LP Linda Nena on Infopesa. Juaneco y Su Combo were at the peak of their powers here and seemingly unstoppable but sadly it all came to a dark and abrupt end. In 1977 five members of the band, including guitarist/main songwriter Noé Fachin, died in a plane crash. Several remaining members would reform the group later and while still very good they never quite recaptured the magic of the Fachen-led era.

Pink Floyd - Welcome To The Machine

Heard Welcome To The Machine for the first time since the 80s this year and can't believe how fucking great it is. The outa control swathes of noise-y synths combined with that lovely 12 string strum, bass pulse and those tormented vocal vibes are just the ticket for epic ominousness and silly self-seriousness. I'm sure millions of you (well at least the three people who still read me blog) are cringing at me right now, saying "you took your time getting here man!" 

Barring Syd-era, I always thought Pink Floyd were too middlebrow for me. The 70s were Can or Abba, Bolan or Beefheart, Black Sabbath or Bee Gees. I didn't hate Pink Floyd I just never actively listened to them. They were still hanging around being lame when I was a teenager circa Momentary Lapse Of Reason thus were easy to ignore. I also never had that clichéd rite of passage where I went all in on the discovery of pot. I never owned my own bong or bought a quarter or burnt incense trying to mask marijuana smoke from my parents while looking at my Bob Marley poster and listening to David Gilmour soloing for eternity into the abyss...aww I know this is too so sad.  

Anyway I thought maybe one day my Pink Floyd time would come. I thought I'd missed my chance though as its been 30 years since discovering and digging the delights of other English proggers and space rockers Van Der Graaf Generator, King Crimson, Gong, Hawkwind etc. Hopefully there's much Pink Floyd goodness to discover... I have vague recollections of Wish You Were Here and Animals being good, however it wasn't that long ago that I gave Dark Side Of The Moon another chance and I just couldn't stomach it at all...we'll see...

*Roger Waters (yeah we know he's an insufferable twat) has coincidentally been on the radar in 2022 because he is one of the few anti-war voices (alongside Max Blumenthal, Glenn Greenwald, Jeffery Sachs, Jimmy Dore) who understands the bullshit western media propaganda surrounding Zelensky and the retarded lies of the American war machine. We're expected to believe nonsense like "Putin blew up Nord stream" or "Zelensky is Churchillian" which is hilariously absurd. We all marched in opposition to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, two hundred thousand of us in Melbourne, I recall. They invaded then committed war crimes anyway. Since then what? Let the anti-war movement recommence. 

Noche Tropical - Juaneco y Su Combo

NOCHE TROPICAL 1975

Juaneco y Su Combo are all about the poly-rhythms, designed specifically for good times dancing. At 0:52 we get a wicked break then the incredible extended 15 second break at 2:00 which is as good as anything in funk or disco. By the time you've puffed yourself out from dancing, the insidious tune will be stuck in your head. Peak Cumbia Amazonica!

Juaneco y Su Combo

CABALITO NOCTURNO 1969

Juaneco Su Combo were there from the start ie. the conversion of old school cumbia (of the Colombian variety) into electric Peruvian psych cumbia. There's an entire pre-history to this band but the combo we're interested in here is the one led by Noé Fachin who was "a wizard" or a "witch doctor" (depending on how good your Spanish is) of the guitar. 

Cabalito Nocturno was the opening track on their debut self-titled LP released by Peruvian label Imsa Records in 1969. Keyboards were pretty rare on early Peruvian cumbia, really only becoming prevalent when synths gained in popularity later in the 70s and into the 80s. 

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MUJER HILANDERA 1972

This is their most famous tune featuring vocals although that lyrical guitar melody is competing with the chanting to be the star of the song. You gotta love that percussion too. It's always doing something to capture your attention. This featured on their second LP El Gran Cacique from 1972. For this record they signed to Alberto Maravi's Infopesa label. This was a successful partnership that lasted up until 1984 and yielded ten top notch LPs.  

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UN SHIPIBO EN ESPAÑA 1973

This one is all about the rhythm. I mean it's all good, such a wonderful cumbia jam that distils the elements of the genre down to their bare essentials: great tuneful twangin' guitar, a bit of yelling/MC-ing, that infectious tropical beat...and at 2:43 you even get a breakdown which isn't all that common in 70s Peruvian cumbia. This is peak cumbia from the Amazon!

Grupo Genesis - Vuela Cóndor Vuela

VUELA CÓNDOR VUELA 1987

If you think all Peruvian cumbia sounds like The Ventures with Tito Puente on drums think again. The 80s ushered in a much more slickly produced sound which was a lot more glossy, synthetic and electronic. A whole new set of influences were on the cards: Euro Disco, electro-synth-pop, cosmic synth, prog etc. while the tunes became more vocal and lyric based. There were new stylistic flourishes, to add to the usual tropical twang-fest, that hint at shoegaze and vapourwave while still retaining the fuzz/wah wah guitars and danceable latin poly rhythms. 

Anyway Vuela Cóndor Vuela always blows my little mind especially when it gets to the surreal almost shogaze-y bit where it lifts off into the stratosphere followed by that disorienting backwards/forwards "what's going on?" sonic moment before getting back to the tune. Quite a trip. Anthemic!

*Also LOOK that outfit, it says it all. 

Los Orientales - Chinito Bailarin

CHINITO BAILARIN 1970

This tune... Peruvian cumbia at its most mesmerising, psychedelic and intense. There's a guitar line that starts at 0:58 to 1:13 you could imagine Bernard Sumner or Marty Wilson Piper playing then another guitar turns in that incredible new wave-esque oriental break. How this tune manages to stay true to its cumbia roots, in fact more so than a lot of other Peruvian cumbia songs usually do, is a testament to this combo's integrity. Chinito Bailarin is from Los Orientales second single. I like to imagine this is a mini guitar duel with Maximiliano Chavez fervently trading licks with Victor Ramirez just before they parted ways and the group split into two. I mean we don't know who played what exactly so this story, which is possibly true, is what I'm going with. The best!

Los Orientales de Paramonga Maximiliano Chavez - EL DRAGON

EL DRAGON

Quite possibly my favourite tune from Maximiliano Chavez's Los Orientales. El Dragon from 1972 or 73 is the most unhinged track they did. That makes this single pretty atypical as Los Orientales were usually the most mellifluous of the original bunch of psych cumbia groups that formed in Peru during the late 60s. This is as rock as Chavez ever got and it's intoxicating, menacing and punk. When he starts slashing at his guitar at 0:45 it's a fucking psychedelic tropical noise party. Then that manic rhythm goes even more nuts and there's a weird deep bass chugging away in a chasm while horns blast away towards the end. The Best!

Los Orientales de Paramonga Maximiliano Chavez - LA DANZA DEL MONO

LA DANZA DEL MONO

Guitarist and bandleader Maximiliano Chavez claims his Los Orientales de Paramonga are the authentic band out of the two that existed in Peru simultaneously from 1971 onwards. Who am I to disagree? He wrote their original first 4 sides that appeared on Dinsa 7" singles in 1970 before the group splintered off into his combo and the other directed by guitarist Victor Ramirez.

 

La Danza del Mono from 1971 was the brilliant first single to be credited to Los Orientales Director M Chavez 

Los Orientales de Paramonga

LOBOS AL ESCAPE

If you've only heard a handful of Peruvian psychedelic cumbia tunes chances are this is one of them. Iconic is right! Now here's some more confusing information about this Peruvian scene. I'm not a hundred percent sure about this but I think in the 70s there were two groups called Los Orientales de Paramonga playing a very similar style. I cannot work out if the two groups are related, if one was a splinter group or what the story is. One version of Los Orientales was led by Maximiliano Chavez while the other was perhaps led by Victor Ramirez. Perhaps at one stage Chavez and Ramirez were in the same group then splintered off into two bands, causing this confusion. Maybe they're the same guy (?).

*STOP THE PRESS

I finally found an article that clears up some of the confusion about the information on Discogs and other websites. It turns out I'm right Chavez and Ramirez were both original members of Los Orientales de Paramonga formed in 1968. It is assumed they both appear on the debut single on the Dinsa label from 1970 Lobos Al Escape.

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CAPTURA DE LOBOS

The rest is pretty vague. Sometime in 1971 singles started appearing on the Sono Radio label by Conj Tropical Los Orientales de Paramongo as directed by by Victor Ramirez with the writing credits also going to Victor Ramirez. This is the beginning of the 2nd Los Orientales combo who would run in parallel with the Maximiliano Chavez led version with the same name.

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CAPTURA DE LOBOS

It must have been confusing for Peruvian fans at the time too because the exact same tune (I'm pretty sure it's also the exact same recording) turned up on different labels with different writing credits. This Captura de Lobos single on Dinsa is credited to M Chavez and performed by Los Orientales directed by Maximiliano Chavez. 

La Danza Del Petrolero - LOS WEMBLER'S DE IQUITOS

LOS WEMBLER'S DI IQUITOS 1974

If you could do a basic equation of what Peruvian cumbia (aka psych cumbia) is it would be surf/fuzz/wah-wah guitars playing the melody line that in traditional Colombian cumbia would have been played by the accordion plus awesome danceable latin rhythms. Sure it's much more than that. I mean if I was an ethnomusicologist I'd be able to tell you the different types of latin rhythms utilised, their geographic origin and historical importance. Then there's Andean and Amazonian folk influences particularly in the singing style. Synthesisers increasingly play a role as the the style develops into the late 70s and 80s. There's a social and political element too but I suppose because the lyrics aren't in English that's less tangible.

Anyhow Los Wembler's original version of La Danza Del Petrolero is a totally infectious toe tapper with its very peculiar wall of rhythmic sound containing all sorts of chirps and fizzy noises bubbling away. From what I can gather the brief lyric translates as "This is the dance of the oil tanker. Where the black gold reigns" which makes sense as there was an oil boom in Peru at the time. 

LOS MIRLOS 1975

The Los Mirlos cover of La Danza Del Petrolero came out a year later. The guitars are a bit more off kilter here. It's a wobbly psych cumbia journey that Los Mirlos make their own. I probably enjoy the Los Wember's maximalist rhythm more but the guitars in the Los Mirlos version are pretty noice so I guess it's like a draw. Then again if I had to pick one it would be the Los Wembler's de Iquitos original.  

Sonido Amazonico - Los Mirlos/Los Wembler's de Iquitos

LOS MIRLOS 

It's been 20 years since this tune turned up on the great Vampi Soul compilation Back To Peru. Honestly it feels like longer. Anyway it's summer time so we gotta have the Peruvian cumbia tunes at the ready. Once upon a time I used to spend my summer holidays sipping cocktails in the tropics. It all seems like a dream now. The last 10 years have been a bloody health nightmare. I need to dream in hope that maybe soon I can at least make it out to the backyard and have a cold beer with old friends. This classic 1975 recording from Los Mirlos is on at least 3 compilations in my collection.

LOS WEMBLER'S DE IQUITOS

The original version of Sonido Amazonica from 1974 appeared on the Decibel label. I read recently about a beef between Los Wember's de Iquitos and Los Mirlos that maybe ended up in a seven year court-case or something insane like that. I can't actually confirm if that's true because I now can't find the source. What we do know for sure though is that Los Mirlos became famous and much more successful than Los Wembler's after recording a couple of their tunes including today's theme tune Sondido Amazonico. It all seems pretty shonky. 

I do realise I've got this all arse about but the Los Mirlos version is the one we all know and love but hey the Sanchez brothers of Los Wembler's were there right at the beginning of Peru's electric conversion of cumbia in the 60s alongside fellow pioneering legends Los Destellos and Juaneco Y Su Combo. 

Macchu Picchu

I was listening to this 2022 Vampi Soul compilation 14 MAGníficos Bailables today and the above boogaloo jam turned up at the end. It's an impressive piano and percussion pile up party. Coincidentally Macchu Picchu is in the news today as there is some kind of uprising in Peru but getting a good comprehensive news report on events is "surprise surprise" impossible to find. What are the chances the good old CIA are involved here? All these reporters care about is Westerners being stranded in foreign riot zones. What the fuck happened to news media? 

Anyway for what it's worth Vampi Soul in the last year or two have been reissuing a stack of stuff from the ye olde Peruvian record label MAG.

WAR PIGS

We all know Vladimer Putin is nuts and that NATO have been taunting Russia since the 90s but this goes out to, as Jimmy Dore would say, the WAR PIGS Joe Biden and his Democrat Party, including sell-outs Bernie and AOC. Nearly a hundred billion dollars of American money has been given to Ukraine's war effort. The Ukraine being a country led by a dodgy corrupt regime who have a battalion in their army run by actual neo-nazis. Horrific war crimes have been reportedly committed by certain Ukrainian voluntary forces. Surprise, surprise that weapons sent by the US to Ukraine have shown up in the hands of terrorists in Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and The Netherlands. Why are we in the West being asked to cheerlead the military-industrial complex and this retarded proxy war against Russia? Fuck off war pigs.

*Oh and don't mention Yemen. 

Anyway how good is this Black Sabbath performance of War Pigs? So tight and on the money! Outstanding magnificence. 

MOON WIRING CLUB

Spell Casting Summat (2011)

In anticipation of the usual Christmas tradition ie. the imminent release of the new Moon Wiring Club LP, I've been listening to some older tunes by Ian Hodgson. He is the one man band behind the MWC moniker. I think I say it every year in December but why aren't Moon Wiring Club in the Pitchforks and Wire Magazines or featured anywhere because really they should be as big as Depeche Mode, I'm sure. Since the release of their classic debut An Audience Of Art Deco Eyes in 2007 they have had a non-stop annual release schedule that has been top notch quality all the way. 

2011's Clutch It LIke A Gonk was probably my my most neglected and least listened to MWC concoction almost a designated relic. Recently however I've come to appreciate its perhaps more streamlined and slightly changed approach. They call these albums transition records. A catalyst for the catalyst. Gonk was slightly askew sonically to what had come before and that would remain a constant from then on for this eerie aural project. MWC strayed and expanded into off-beaten territories but they kept enough of their established charms so as to be the changing same. How could this be? Spooky sonic alchemists they are and magic tricks are their game and their sorcery secret is changing while staying the same.

Anyway how good is the above track Spell Casting Summat from the Clutch It Like A Gonk cd. Hallucinatory dark ambient steppy electro garage dub kinda jam.

Anglo Saxon Androids (2022)

So this is the teaser for the new Moon Wiring Club LP Medieval Ice Cream. It sounds like it's going to be a foray into the outer limits of plagued electronic psychedelia with the added appearance of creepy ancient goblins & ghouls from deep space. 

Make Yourself At Home (2012)

Here's a golden oldie from the haunted hit parade. Genuinely eldritch and unsettling. Moon Wiring Club hitting upon perfection here. From this point on they would be in a class of their own.

Iron Man - Black Sabbath

My birthday theme tune. I am Iron Man after an overnight iron transfusion. Thanks to the transfusionists. Haven't heard this in ages and fuck me how good? All of the puzzle pieces! Bill fucking Ward! Geezer the Butler, Tony the goddamn Iommi and Ozzy and the Orange amps and the riff-a-rama and the drums and the Ozzy sings and the colour and the hair and guitar bits that follow bass bits and the tone and the sci-fi narrative and the heavy downward vibe and the guitar bits that follow Ozzy vocal bits and the perfectly in the pocket-ness of the rhythm and the little freak outs and the speed ups and the slow downs and the threads and it's just the best. 

Retro Retro - Future

Yeah yeah shonky dancing in shonky clothes but wait for the strangest moment when the studio cameras become the dancers to the Moog-y-licious hauntological score. It's all a bit cheesy yet uncanny too.

R. Dean Taylor - There's A Ghost In My House

One afternoon twenty years ago at work I had the Friday soul show on the radio and this song came on and blew me little mind. I always thought this was an 80s tune penned by The Fall and a fine one at that but no I was hearing an even better version from the 60s. This was a Holland/Dozier/Holland composition released on the Motown subsidiary V.I.P. Records in 1967. Weirdly it's performed by Canadian Motown hit Songwriter R Dean Taylor. It was not a hit though. However Ghost In My House was re-released in 1974 in the UK due to Northern Soul DJs giving it a thrashing at their amphetamine fuelled all night discos (Is that what they were? I'm no expert on this particularly English scene). It became a smash hit peaking at No 3 on the charts. Fans of freakbeat, 60s pop and soul rejoice, this is peak tuneage! 

Insistence is brilliantly baked into the rhythm, melody and incredible vocal arrangement here.... that outrageous riff-age, underlying terror and those contagious hand claps are something else too... the sonic alchemy of synergy on display on this production is so damn infectious...REWIND!

Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons - The Night

SPACE DEBRIS GOES TO THE SOUL DISCO

I mean what can you say?! This richly melodic funky tripped out jam is just the best! It gets better and better as time goes on forever. All the elements of this meticulous arrangement combine to create pop perfection. It's beautifully balanced to be effective on both the radio and the dance-floor. 

I never knew until one minute ago that Frankie Valli's glorious 1972 non-hit The Night was covered by both Soft Cell and Pulp amongst others. Me and Emma and Cooper (the dog) just had a boogie to this, you can't not!

*In 1975 The Night was re-released in the UK and became a top 10 record.

DJ CRYSTYL

DJ Crystl: Dee Jay Recordings 1993: REWIND of post from 26/3/22 with reinstated audio courtesy of odysee.

To me Dj Crystl is one of the great sound designers of the jungle era. Perhaps Pete Parsons aka Voyager, his engineer and right hand man deserves some credit here too. The tunes below display a producer at the peak of his powers going from strength to strength like Omni Trio, Foul Play, 4Hero and Goldie all were at roughly the same time. While Dj Crystl's 1993 was brilliant choon-wize and his 1994 was also pretty good, it was the following year that things just did not blow up for him how they were supposed to as jungle ballooned into Drum & Bass. Crystl somehow missed the momentum and it felt like his potential was never fully realised. Like is there several albums worth of material that never got released? What happened? While that's probably an interesting story (that I don't actually know) I just want to point out here what a stellar set of releases DJ Crystl issued in 1993 on Dee Jay Recordings. 

Dj Crystl's three 12"s on Dee Jay Recordings and one 12" on Force Ten Records in 1993 make up one of Jungle's most sublime winning runs. If Crystlize, Deep Space, Meditation, Warp Drive, Sweet Dreamz, Your Destiny, The Dark Crystl and Inna Year 3000 were all put on one cd it would have been one of the top jungle albums of all time along with The Deepest Cut, Parallel Universe & Black Secret Technology. Actually I can't believe somebody didn't have the foresight or hindsight to compile that (?). 

I suppose Dj Crystl was one of the original ambient jungle producers. I always think he's got a vague shoegaze vibe too with his walls of synth sound, drones and ethereal vocal science scattered amongst the jungle elements. I wonder if Kevin Shields or Seefeel were fans? or vice versa? Anyway his sides are a lot crisper than you might imagine or remember. They are immaculately put together with all sorts of microscopic detail. I imagine Dj Crystl spent a lot of time meticulously crafting each second of his tuneage while never losing sight of the big picture. The sound while fastidious however never appears to be too fussy, often quite the opposite and that balancing act is where his potency lies. Like Omni Trio there is an aura of splendid excitement, elegance, generosity and transcendence in Dj Crystl's jungle.

DJ Crystl - Crystlize

Swirls of synths, shapeshifting walls of sound, time-stretched drum opulence, alluring dark tunnels, ethereal vocal science and an uncanny rattling clang accompany the endlessly chopped snares into the Crystlized echo chamber.

DJ Crystl - Deep Space

Frantic intricate choppage that is somehow mellifluous. Those melodic snares are cushioned perfectly amongst the atmospheres of enchanting darkness. 

DJ Crystl - Meditation

Oceanic pools of sound, bleeps and waves of delicate vocal science eventually make room for exquisite rhythm-ology. At  5.10 a dramatic halt to proceedings occurs to allow the sonic waves back in before the beat momentum effortlessly picks up again. In the remaining couple of minutes it moves into mesmerising choppage of sparkling ambient snares. 

DJ Crystl - Warpdrive

Dj Crystl's most in yer face moment in 1993. This is a deluge of chopped and stretched breaks that go euphorically haywire amongst ominous drones. Don't forget that gloriously dark synth lull at 3.12. then the breaks continue go more and more insane. Holy shit this is the Best!

DJ Crystl - Sweet Dreamz

Idyllic sounds of the seaside with heaven bound synths, a woman's soothing meditative voice and a beat much less frantic than most jungle. Sweet Dreamz is all space age tropical vibes of calm tinged with disorientation and twilight. Pretty psychedelic.

DJ Crystl - Your Destiny

Waves of miniature ambient delirium and disorienting backwards abstractions where the spirit of MBV circa Glider lurks. The rhythm stop starts until 2.53 when it gets fully rolling as the darkness encroaches with a spectral presence coming in and out of focus. Choice dubby bleeps add to the subtle elusive charms of Your Destiny.