New Order - Sub-Culture (Record Mirror Version) (1986)

Peerless, baroque, electronic.

Posting the work of Chic led me back to New Order and this tune which always reminds of Sheila B. Devotion's 'Spacer' (written and produced by Chic).

This exclusive version of 'Sub-Culture' came as a 7" with Record Mirror magazine (don't look for it, it's not there anymore...) which was quite a treat for a freebie. The other EP in the series had Pet Shop Boys and Depeche Mode exclusives on it. How lucky we were back then...

Download New Order 'Sub-Culture (Record Mirror Version)' (Alternative, Indie, genius, mp3) (Divshare)

More great New Order stuff over on the Recycle Project.

Carly Simon - Why? (Extended Version) (WEA, 1982)

Euphoric but philosophical disco gem from The Chic Organisation.

The variety of delicious covers of Chic songs prove that Messrs. Rodgers and Edwards were genius songwriters as well as masterful musicians and producers. Not least The Memory Band's rustic version of 'Why' but also Paul Weller's acoustic take on 'Thinking Of You'.

After creating hits for themselves through the late 70s, they became a production team for hire as the 70s turned into the 80s creating some amazing records - 'Spacer' by Sheila B. Devotion, Norma Jean's 'Saturday', Sister Sledge's 'Lost In Music', Diana Ross' 'My Old Piano' - as well as being a massive influence on the likes of New Order.

This one-off single was from a film soundtrack but the skeletal funk, silvery guitar lines, clattering drum sequences, delicious flow and that melody line work perfectly with Carly Simon's vocal. It's seven minutes of bliss.

Download Carly Simon 'Why? (Extended Version)' (Chic, funk, disco, genius, mp3) (Divshare)

Prince - The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker (Paisley Park, 1987)

More exquisite lo-fi funk genius from his purple period.

I've listened to 'Sign Of The Times' a lot recently after not touching it for years. It's by no means a perfect album but it's a great use of the double album, taking risks, experimenting, throwing in some sure-fire hits and sprawling out over four sides of vinyl.

'The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker' is a cute slice of lo-fi, skeletal funk. It's whimsical (obviously) and funny and playful.

Prince recounts a tale of a liaison with Dorothy Parker who is somehow waiting tables in a late night diner from beyond the grace. They exchange what contemporary youth would call 'banter' and she makes a pass at him. Of course.

With lyrics like "I needed someone with a quicker wit than mine. Dorothy was fast" it's just Prince at his absolute peak.

Download Prince - The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker (lo-fi funk, mp3) (Divshare)

The Supremes - My World Is Empty Without You (Motown, 1965)

Dark Motown misery-pop genius.

I'm not proposing to make a habit of it but this is such a great song that posting remix, cover and original in succession doesn't seem indulgent (to me, anyway).

Enjoy.

Download The Supremes 'My World Is Empty Without You' (Motown, mp3) (Divshare)

The Flaming Lips - God Only Knows (Beach Boys cover) (Mojo, 2012)

More delights from the Mojo 'Pet Sounds Revisited' tribute.

Fractured, radio-broadcasts-in-space version of one of the most beautiful songs/records ever made.

Wayne Coyne coos the song as he floats, untethered through space, watching Earth float away from him.

Download The Flaming Lips - God Only Knows (Beach Boys cover, mp3 download) (Divshare)

Grace Jones - Private Life (Dub Version) (Island, 1980)

Langorous. Echoplexed. Genius.

Very much enjoying the 'Compass Point Sessions' album at the moment. This gem of dubbed-out tension really stands out amongst some wonderful tracks.

Taut, damped guitar is juxtaposed against burbling synths, pattering rhythm, poised bass and ricochet-ing rimshots.

It's a prowling, febrile track that is at beautiful odds with Grace Jones' calm, controlled, dispassionate vocal. Classic.

Download Grace Jones - Private Life (Dub Version) (Island, 1980)

Scott Walker - It's Raining Today (Phillips, 1969)

Peerless, lugubrious elegance. And what a cover photo too.

Ah, Scott1, Scott 2, Scott3 and Scott4. Is there a better run of albums by an artist? Answers on a postcard...

Pick almost any song - the Scott Walker originals or the Jacques Brel covers - all are beautifully constructed, orchestrated and sung. The themes are intriguing, challenging, surprising.

'It's Raining Today' shimmers into being on cloud of gossamer strings, a warm, rich guitar strums out a gentle progression. And then, then.. the voice. A steady, sonorous voice that rises up from a sixties bed-sitting room and reminisces on love and loss.

Spectacular.

Download Scott Walker - It's Raining Today (Scott Walker mp3) (Box.net)

Edo Lobo - Vento Bravo (EMI Brazil/Odeon, 1973)

Simply a mental track - drum'n'bass vamps in 1973.

Borne of the Bossa Nova scene, Edu Lobo is a bit of a genius. 'Vento Bravo' is from his 1973 album 'Missa Breve' and, to me, I can hear a massive amount of dubstep/drum'n'bass/Warp-type complexity in it.

When you listen deep into the maelstrom of rhythmic piano lines, metronomic drumming carefully placed brass and wandering bassline, it's easy to get lost with its exquisite, hypnotic structures.

Anything you can get your hands on is worth picking up as far Edu Lobo is concerned. The two new Bossa compilations of Soul Jazz - Bossa Nova and the Rise of Brazillian Music in the 60s and Brazil Bossa Beat: The Story of Elenco Records seem to have spurred a bit of a reissue programme so I will be replacing my dodgy mastered-from-vinyl Brazilian CDs for shiny new ones.

Insanely good.

Download Edu Lobo 'Vento Bravo' (Bossa Nova, Genius, mp3) (Rapidshare)

Dexys Midnight Runners - The Way You Look Tonight (Mercury, 1984)

In celebration of the idea of a new Dexys album this year...

'Don't Stand Me Down' by Dexys Midnight Runners is one of the greatest records of all time. Bizarrely, it's a catastrophic, career-ending greatest album of all time. Pop is truly a fickle mistress.

This version of the Jerome Kern song was recorded in the sessions for said album but not released until 1988 on the b-side of a Kevin Rowland solo single. And then again on the Creation Records reissue of 'Don't Stand Me Down' in 1997, which is where I discovered it.

Kevin Rowland takes a familiar song - a 'standard' I suppose - and imbues it with so much pure passion that it's breathtaking.

A true genius.

Allegedly, there's a new Dexys album - 'One Day I'm Going To Soar' - on June 4th. Listen to a snippet on Youtube.

Download Dexys Midnight Runners 'The Way You Look Tonight' (genius, Dexys mp3) (Rapidshare)

Prefab Sprout mp3 - Donna Summer (Live 1980)

Fascinating missive from Prefab Sprout's post-punk period. Yes, really.

The version of 'Donna Summer' that was released on the b-side of 'When Love Breaks Down' in 1984 is a sultry, subtle synth-led thing. It's somehow redolent of faded glamour and reeks of showbiz nostagia. I love it and was going post that today but found this version that I'd forgotten about whilst rootling through my Prefab Sprout mp3s.

It was something of a surprise to revisit this Post-Punky early version and hear Paddy McAloon yelp "What's my name? What's my name? What's my name?!"

Download Prefab Sprout 'Donna Summer (Live 1980)' (post-punk, indie, 1980) (Box)

Prefab Sprout - Pearly Gates (Kitchenware, 1989)

Paddy McAloon ponders The End.

454 posts into the blog and no Prefab Sprout - until now.

Another graduate of the Academy of the Underrated, Paddy McAloon, is a songwriter of no little genius, capable of breathtaking beauty both lyrically and musically.

'Pearly Gates' is from their 'Protest Songs' album which was a quickly recorded follow-up to 'Steve McQueen' that wasn't released until after the chart-bothering 'From Langley Park To Memphis'. It is perhaps the most gentle and thoughtful set of protest songs ever, ending with this rumination on death.

Happy Sunday.

Download Prefab Sprout 'Pearly Gates' (songwriting genius, Prefab Sprout mp3) (Rapidshare)

Sweet Exorcist 'Testone' (Warp, 1990)

Early bleep magic from Sheffield's crucible of a machine-driven magic.

This record is made out of almost nothing, it's incredible. A bleepline, some echo, a very simple drum machine, a bassline, a snippet of vocal sample and a bit of synth for the breakdown. That's all there is to it but, my god, it conjures up so much more than the sum of its parts.

It's a groove. It's a feeling. It sums up a whole movement and the euphoria of succumbing to the tryannny of the bleep and echospace in between the notes.

Put together by former Cabaret Voltaire man Richard H. Kirk and Richard Barrett (aka Parrot, later to form the All Seeing I) in 1989, it was one of the first releases on Warp in 1990. Its lineage can be traced right back through Humanoid's 'Stakker Humanoid' to Mr. Fingers to Strings Of Life to New Order to Giorgio Moroder to Kraftwerk. Its impact was to directly inspire ten years of dancefloor mayhem - Tricky Disco, LFO and beyond.

A true work of art.

Download Sweet Exorcist 'Testone' (WAP3, bleep, electronica, acid house mp3 download) (Mediafire)

Butterfly Child 'Passion Is The Only Fruit' (Dedicated, 1995)

Giddy, ethereal alternative pop from the singular vision of Joe Cassidy aka Butterfly Child.

Butterfly Child released a brace of divine, rococo alternative pop albums in the early nineties - 'Onomatopoeia' and 'The Honeymoon Suite'. They were collections of gossamer-fragile songs, decorated with ornate melodies, swooning vocal arcs and a restless beauty.

Each album was a bucolic fantasia that, whilst reflecting the Shoegazing and whimsical nature of Slowdive et al, seemed to reject modernity and artifice whilst using drum machines and sequencer lines alongside guitars and strings. Instead the songs conjured images of angels and architecture, poets and dreamers, all drunk on love. Stuff like that.

Belfast-born Joe Cassidy seems to have disappeared and there hasn't been anything by Butterfly Child since 1998. His music has a kinship to the likes of the ethereal esperanto of Cocteau Twins, arch, progressive songsmiths Spoonfed Hybrid, dreampop orchestrators AR Kane and maybe Tim Buckley but is the work of a true original.

These albums are long-deleted but well worth hunting down.

Download Butterfly Child 'Passion Is The Only Fruit' (indie, alternative, mp3) (Mediafire)

The Stone Roses 'Made Of Stone (Demo)' (1988)

Won't be going, but nice to have them back. Maybe they will still have it.

I couldn't let the week pass without a small tribute to the reformed Stone Roses. The press conference was good value for money and, maybe just maybe, they can live up to their legacy.

If nothing else, it's been worth it just to see Ian Brown tear into a Daily Mail journalist.

Whilst you ponder whether Cressa will be joining the band for the reunion gigs, listen to this demo version of 'Made Of Stone' from May 1988. The song and arrangement pretty much in place. The magic has definitely happened even if it has yet to receive John Leckie's magic touch.

Enjoy.

Download The Stone Roses 'Made Of Stone (Demo)' (genius, indie mp3) (Box.net)

The Boo Radleys 'Lazarus (Demo)' (1993)

Fascinating blueprint of the ground-breaking indie/jazz/dub masterpiece.

'Lazarus' in its full "Sun Ra meets the Rockers Uptown with Kevin Shields at the controls" guise is a wonder to behold. It's a breathtaking journey of a song, an explosion of joy from seeds of self-doubt. Trumpets erupting in a chorus that arrives from a tasty broth of dub and noise.

It sounds like a classic studio creation but this demo version reveals that it's nothing of the sort - Boo Radleys songwriter Martin Carr had scoped it all out in his demo. All the parts are there though the vibe is sketchier. You can hear the same mind at work on the previous demo I posted for 'Upon 9th and Fairchild'.

Total genius.

Download The Boo Radleys 'Lazarus (Demo)' (Creation Records, genius, indie mp3 download)

Download the complete 'Giant Steps - The Demos' over at archive:live+rare

The Beach Boys 'Child Is Father To The Man' (Bootleg, 1967)

Harmony-drenched, excessive, far-out, genius from the aborted 'Smile' sessions.

I remember first laying my hands on a bootleg of The Beach Boys' lost classic 'Smile' about 15 years ago. I also remember how long it took me to make the leap from the simple but amazing pleasures of 'Pet Sounds' to get my head round 'Smile'. It's a journey away from straightforward songwriting into another world.

'Smile' is to 'Pet Sounds' what 'Bitches Brew' is to 'Kind Of Blue' - both great records, just a little bit more so.

I find myself posting about this album as I've just found out that 'Smile' is coming out as a staggering £125 box set - 5 CDs, 2 7"s, 2 LPs. I thought that the 3-disc version of 'Pet Sounds' was excessive - utterly brilliant - but surely as far as you can go in forensic analysis of 'classic' records. That was until I found myself forking out for the complete 'Funhouse Sessions' set by The Stooges...

Anyway, while I wrestle with the decision of whether to shell for this, check out 'Child Is Father To The Man'. It's song which veers from eerie contemplation to expansive harmonies and Charlie Brown trumpet, drilling further into the central motif in a very jazz kind of way.

Let's get lost, as someone said.

Download The Beach Boys 'Child Is Father To The Man' (classic, genius, sixties, pop, Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, mp3) (Mediafire)

mp3 courtesy of the excellent Beach Boys blog, Warnakey's Beach Boys Blag.

Echo & The Bunnymen 'The Killing Moon (All Night Mix)' (Korova, 1984)

Extended perfection from Echo & The Bunnymen.

Ian MacCulloch was never one for modesty when it came to the band's output. However, when you've given the world a song like this you've got some grounds for boasting.

As a one-off achievement, it puts them up there alongside The Smiths' 'How Soon Is Now', New Order's 'True Faith', Jesus & Mary Chain's 'Just Like Honey', Cocteau Twins' 'Pearly Dewdrops Drops' and so on.

Utterly wonderful - sweeping strings, dramatic sound, passionate vocals, it should really have been covered by Frank Sinatra on one of those Rick Rubin-produced career reappraisal albums. As it is, unless you're Sinatra, you'd have to be very brave to take this one on. Only Pavement have succeeded IMHO, but that's one for another day.

Download Echo & The Bunnymen 'The Killing Moon (All Night Mix)' (indie alternative rock mp3) (Mediafire)

Sheila B. Devotion 'Spacer (12" Extended Version)' (Carrere, 1979)

Moody disco magic from the Chic Organisation.

I've always loved this record, even before it seemed acceptable to profess a love for disco, and certainly before I was aware of the full majesty of Chic. I loved it all the more since I noticed that New Order's 'Subculture' bears - to my ears, anyway - a distinct resemblence. Maybe it's just in the same key or something.

'Spacer' also brings to mind the minor key disco pop of Phoenix's 'If I Ever Feel Better', the best of the Italians Do It Better stable or the Class Actress track I posted last week.

The song opens with a spiraling minor key piano figure, building to the entry of the familiar, tight-tight-tight bass and drums that are the hallmark of a Chic production - machine-tooled precision but wholly warm and human. It begins with the chorus setting the mood, strings sweeping and groove chugging, somehow creating a track that is equal parts floorfiller and nightdrive soundtrack.

The breakdown at 3'58" enhances the moodiness of the track further, dubbing up Nile Rodgers' guitar chops and paring the track back to the minor key bones. The mood is subtly lightened as organ and piano are mixed back in, Bernard Edwards getting chance to throw-in a few slaps.

Genius.

Download Sheila B. Devotion 'Spacer (12" Extended Version)' (mp3) (Mediafire)

Plush 'Found A Little Baby' (Drag City/Domino, 1994)

Laconic, almost-falling-apart pop genius from Plush aka Liam Hayes.

I just love this single and the Brian Wilson-style genius that is Liam Hayes. His voice is a distinctive, drawling but sweet croon with a manic edge to it.

He actually turned up as the 'turn' in the background of one of the scenes in 'High Fidelity' so if you've seen that, you'll recognise his dulcet tones (singing 'Soaring and Boring' from the 'More You Becomes You' album).

The song is a sun-dappled gem and it's embellished with slow motion drums, brass, strings, gorgeous backing vocals to create a worth successor to the questing spirit of The Beach Boys' best.

Download Plush 'Found A Little Baby' (mp3) (Mediafire)

The Beach Boys - Disney Girls (1957) (Brother Records, 1971) (mp3)

Just the most luscious piece of whimsical, melodic splendour from the 'Surf's Up' album.

The Beach Boys were on the slide, turning into a nostalgia act and they couldn't get arrested by 1971. However, I could get lost inside this record (and the 'Surf's Up' album) for days.

'Disney Girls (1957)' barrels gently along, guided by the piano and bass. Bruce Johnston's vocal is pure yearning and love, setting off the languid backing perfectly.

Typically lush Beach Boys harmonies drift into the track, setting off the restrained drumming and the break into the second section at 2:07 is pure heaven. The drifting, almost free-forming harmonies from 3:35 to end are simply beautiful.

Genius.

Download The Beach Boys 'Disney Girls (1957)' (mp3) (Mediafire)