Doves 'Here It Comes (Live at Maida Vale)' (December 2000)

Soupy, organ-heavy, urgent version of the early Doves single.

Live session version from 2000. Top notch version, shot-through with an almost desperate urgency, bringing back memories of the debut album and inspiring the likes of Cherry Ghost.

Download Doves 'Here It Comes (Live at Maida Vale)' (indie mp3 download) (Mediafire)

Download the whole Doves Live at Maida Vale, December 2000 set over on archive:Live+Rare

LCMDF 'Gandhi (Andrew Weatherall Mix)' (Heavenly, 2010)

Tooth decay sweet, baggy/Madchester pop turned into low-slung groover by Andrew Weatherall. Is it 1991?

The original version of this track sounds like a Hypnotone Remix of a Screamadelica-influenced Flowered Up b-side with the kind of nursery rhyme gibberish that would make Sean Ryder a happy man in his dotage.

It also makes me think of the 'imagined bands' of Saint Etienne's Icerink label. I always assumed most of them were just Stanley and Wiggs letting loose in the studio and then thinking of a concept later - whether it was glorious dub minimalism or saccharine pop metal-lectro.

The baggy retro nature of this track makes it seem fitting to get Andrew Weatherall to go back in time and create one of his long, long low-slung dancefloor detonators. The ice cream van chime of the original melody and a snatch of vocal occasionally being spliced in.

HVN210 LCMDF - Gandhi (Andrew Weatherall remix I) by heavenlyrecordings

The original version:

Espiritu 'Francisca (Junior House Style Dub)' (Heavenly, 1992) (mp3)

Chunky piece of dubby house business from Junior Boys Own maestros Heller and Farley.

It opens with a subtle attack of brass before adding a chunky drum pattern, some stabbed keys and a nice bassline. One of the few remaining elements from the original is the ba-ba-ba-da-ba-ba-da-ba-ba vocal line and it's a sumptuous stew of deep, dubby house with a latin twist and one of my favourite Heller/Farley productions.

The original's not bad, one of a handful of singles that former Frazier Chorus man Chris Taplin made with singer Vanessa Quinones before she flew solo as Espiritu and had a hit with a cover of 'Always Something There To Remind Me'.

Being on Heavenly, they had access to some top remix talent. Andrew Weatherall turned in some mixes on their 'Conquistador' single and this extended mix is a dreamy swirl of influences. It sits comfortably alongside contemporaries like Flowered Up and Saint Etienne's forays onto the post-Second Summer of Love dancefloor.

Download Espiritu 'Francisca (Junior House Style Dub)' (mp3) (Mediafire)

Flowered Up 'Weekender' (Heavenly, 1992)

Flowered Up had - to me, anyway - seemed a bit of a joke up to this point. They seemed to the be the result of a major label head thinking "Christ, this Independent Dance thing is selling records, I'd better get some of that for my label." They just seemed like the Cockney Mondays and weren't to be taken seriously. They - and this track in particular - I'm sure owe a debt to the likes of World Of Twist too.

So, as statements of intent and vision go, the magnificent 'Weekender' was a complete challenge to that preconception. Doing a long record is a tricky thing to get right - I mean, it's easy to make a long record but to make a long track that's compelling is hard. When it works, though, you've created A Journey (a word that has become somewhat devalued by The X Factor et al).

'Weekender' is a total trip, shining a light on the split between those who were 'living it 24-7' (the Flowered Up lads, presumably) and those who were dipping into the ecstasy culture for 48 hours a week. It enters quietly before erupting into a rolling, shuffling indie dance beat with spindly Mondays guitar. So far, so expected.

When it gets to the chorus, the ante is just upped and the track encompasses searing guitar and then runs into a more free-form jam, rolling through section after, breaking down into mellowness, building back up, then breaking down into a sunsplash section with crisp licks of guitar and synthetic brass, crashing back into the main riff, entering the chill-out room with a squelchy acid section with Pacific State sax, then carrying the sax back into the main song and winding up for ferocious climax, just leaving us with a nice snatch of dialogue that sums it all up.

Download Flowered Up 'Weekender' (Baggy, Indie Dance mp3) (Box.net)

Cherry Ghost 'Finally' (Heavenly, 2010)

A gorgeously downbeat take on Ce Ce Peniston's euphoric 90s pop-house stormer.

Cherry Ghost turn it into a rolling, insistently groovy treat that gives the dayglo dancefloor original a downbeat Mancunian makeover, much in the mood of Doves or Elbow.

Loved the original and love this version which took me by surprise at the end of their set at the Ben & Jerrys faux-festival on Clapham Common last summer. Cherry Ghost are definitely glass-half-full merchants but this a fond, sympathetic reworking that recasts the joy of love-at-long-last into an ambivalent shrug of resignation.

Perhaps it shouldn't work but the propulsive groove with almost apologetic syndrum fill takes you into its slipstream and cocoons you in a warm fuzz of bass, beats and thrum.

Download Cherry Ghost 'Finally (Extended Version)' (cover version, indie music download) (Mediafire)