Kenickie - People We Want (EMIDISC, 1997)

Loud-quiet indie melancholynonchalance.

The Eat Junk Become Junk blog recently posted Kenickie's 'At The Club' album and reminded me what a great song 'People We Want' is.

'At The Club' is a genuinely good record with the bubblegumpunk of 'Punka' and lots more besides. 'People We Want' is a shimmering vignette of regret, faded glamour, lost love, tears and Cinzano. It fizzes along on a loud-quiet guitar attack, underpinned by some Pulp-y synths. Perfection.

Download Kenickie 'People We Want' (indie mp3) (Divshare)

 

187 Lockdown - Gunman (East West, 1997)

Fantastically non-cerebral Speed Garage workout.

There were definitely better-crafted, more genre-bending records to emerge during the wave of Speed Garage/UK Garage in the late 1990s. However, 'Gunman' by 187 Lockdown has an enduring straightforwardness to it that I love.

One might even go as far as to say it's a gloriously 'dumb' record with its repeated "selec-tah" and gunshot samples and the obligatory chant of "re-wind!".

And, no, it's not as soulful as 'Anytime' by Nu-Birth or 'Gabrielle' by Roy Davis Jr. or as innovative as MJ Cole's 'Sincere' but it has a charm of its own.

Download 187 Lockdown 'Gunman' (Speed Garage, UK Garage, mp3) (Divshare)

Acid Brass - Let's Get Brutal (Blast First, 1997)

Classic early House given a roughing up in West Yorkshire.

Oh, now this is special.

There's probably a whole dissertation online somewhere about the parallels between urban dance music pioneers in the 1980s and colliery employees in the 1930s. Or maybe not...

Whatever, the fusion works perfectly on the 'Acid Brass' album and rocks particularly hard on Nitro Deluxe's 'Let's Get Brutal'.

It breaks into life, low and brooding, with real, live handclaps that are a revelation of effective simplicity. Rolling toms and xylophone mark out a twilight zone where majorettes march out of t'pit, grime smeared across their faces, uniforms dirtied and torn. Then the melody comes in crisp and clear and you reach for the fluorescent lights.

NB. Please note that this post was published at 8:08 as a tribute to the pioneers of Acid House.

Download Acid Brass 'Let's Get Brutal' (Brass Band, Acid House, mp3) (Rapidshare)

Roy Davis Jr 'Gabriel (Live Garage Version)' (XL Recordings, 1997)

Perfectly understated piece of low-slung Garage action.

Such a perfect tune, drifting along an ascending bassline and puttering percussion, the soulful vocal lilting over rafts of gentle Rhodes.

'Gabrielle' is a very gentle, uplifting, presumbly spiritual song. Roy Davis Jr had a habit of naming tracks after archangels - 'Michael' was another doozy. It sounds perfect for some late summer sun, spun into the mix with Isolee's 'Beau Mot Plage'.

My copy of this sits on an excellent, but largely totally bangin' collection of UK Garage tunes that don't have the subtly of this tune. Funnily, we're kind of getting a revival as the likes of SBTRKT display a mix of future beats and soul that recalls the first wave of post-drum'n'bass, UK Garage - MJ Cole's 'Sincere', 'Dreams' by Smokin' Beats, 'Anytime' by Nu Birth.

Takes yer back dunnit.

Download Roy Davis Jr featuring Peven Everett 'Gabriel (Live Garage Version)' (Deep House, Garage mp3 download) (Mediafire)

Can 'Vitamin C (UNKLE Remix)' (Spoon/Mute, 1997) (mp3)

James Lavelle dubs and re-rubs the 'Ege Bamyasi' classic into an eight-minute, beat-led krautrock monster.

This UNKLE mix from 1997 gentle massages and echoes up the dub-quotient until the beat is monstrous and the momentum undeniable. More angular and less conventional than Can's 'I Want More' which I posted about last week.

James Lavelle does enough to make the remix interesting, taking the track somewhere different without detracting from what was great about the original. Pretty clever that.

Download Can 'Vitamin C (UNKLE Remix)' (mp3) (Mediafire)

Lemonheads 'Hospital (Live)' (1997) (mp3 download)

'Hospital' is from the Lemonheads' 1996 album 'Car Button Cloth' which was the start the downslide which saw him/them disappear for years.

The trademark melodic indie pop is still there but there's a slightly darker edge to many of the songs.

'Hospital' is a perfect illustration of this. The album version opens with atonal piano tinkling before breaking into catchy indie rock/pop but with lyrics suggesting time spent in rehab. This live version from 1997 is more straightforward but still has an edginess to it.

Download Lemonheads 'Hospital (Live at Rockpalast 1997)' (mp3) (Mediafire)

Plone 'Press A Key' (Wurlitzer Jukebox, 1997) (mp3 download)

The mysterious Plone were a short-lived Birmingham experimental audio lab that released one album on Warp as well as a handful of singles and this, their debut 7" for Wurlitzer Jukebox in 1997.

Obviously in thrall to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and peers of Broadcast, Pram and Stereolab, Plone set the ground for the Ghost Box label to deal in their quirkily-synthed hauntology.

'Press A Key' is a mellow piece of library music that is based on a rolling groove of synth bass and analogue-sounding drum machine. The melody is pure Radiophonic oscillation, suggesting a public information film about the dangers of larking about on trains late at night.

Or maybe it sounds like the entry into the Music 2000 competition on Look Around You of Stanford Torpedo a computer programmer from Milton Keynes who has managed to make music by converting the brain activity of toads into machine code.

Download Plone 'Press A Key' (mp3) (Mediafire)

Ganger 'Geocities' (Wurlitzer Jukebox, 1997)

Unsung godparents of post-rock, Ganger dug a particularly lovely, bass-led furrow in the late 90s. It's fair to say that Mogwai were taking notes and there is a particular round, metallic, twin-bass sound that Ganger should have trademarked but I suppose they themselves owe a bit to 'Djed'-era Tortoise.

I'll admit came to them late and have, once the 'Fore' and 'Hammock Style' albums and have been keeping an eye out for other EPs and 7s over the last few years.

This track - 'Geocities' - is a coiled, poised little beauty that comes in on a delicate, interlocking bass figure, before mathematical but clattering drum set out a spacious beat. It builds and the second bass adds ballast to the track, adding momentum and groove. It resolves into a sweeter expressive passage, the drums loosening up and creating a panorama of sound before the tracks resolves to a close.

And it doesn't go, quiet-loud-quiet-scree neither. Dead restrained.

Download Ganger 'Geocities' (mp3, Rapidshare)

Visit the Ganger website.