The spirit of Arthur Russell.

I was thinking this week about the song I'm going to post at the bottom, 'Another Thought' by Mount Florida. I can't remember what got me thinking about it, possibly it came onto my iPod shuffle. In many ways the EP that this song features on, 'Storm', along with its predecessor, 'Stealth', are two gateway records; records which I can see led me to many more records in my collection.

It was filled with obscure references to things which while my 19 year old self hadn't heard of yet were strangely intriguing. Unfamiliar names like 'Satie' and 'Muslimguauze' sat in song titles alongside some which I did know such as Jamaica Street.
After many a late night listening to this EP, sucked in by the four tracks of otherwordly dub, I asked the guy who had sold me the record about this band and if there were any other records by them. That weekend I was taken by said record shop guy, Mr. Jon McCue, to my second ever Optimo (my first had been a few years before in 1997 but I think I was too young to 'get it'.)
And so the door opened to all sorts of music which I had never heard and many, many new friends.

Later, I bought the second E.P. and I went home excited not only by the prospect of yet more slightly oddball music but by a set of records with a running design theme. (I'm a sucker for that sort of thing.)

The first track was instantly a hit. A warbling synthline introduces a big dub beat and then a beautiful female voice yearning for an erstwhile or faraway love. The words were credited to one Arthur Russell which at the time I assumed was someone that the guys in Mount Florida knew. It wasn't till a few years later that I was introduced to the original version, which I mistook for a cover of the Mount Florida track.

Anyway, the point of this post is that I vaguely recalled there was an interesting story behind this version which I thought might me nice added to my story of how I came to go to and therefore work at Optimo so I emailed Keith McIvor (Optimo and Mount Florida's J.D. Twitch) to ask a few questions about this track. It turned out there was indeed a great story, though it wasn't the one I'd thought about:

The cover you did was out way before any of the Soul Jazz compilations or the documentary 'Wild Combination', how had you first heard about Arthur Russell? At that point, how many of his records had you heard/bought?

In my teens and early 20s there used to be a Rough Trade magazine called "The Catalogue" which was full of information about records that Rough Trade / The Cartel distributed.
There was a lot of editorial in it and in one issue they had a feature about Arthur's "The World Of Echo". I didn't ever see a copy but he sounded like an interesting guy and was thus vaguely on my radar. A few years later, around 1994, I was reading some fanzine and there was a review of his "Another Thought" album that made it sound like something I had to hear so I bought a copy and became completely obsessed with it.
I have probably listened to it more than any other album and it inspired me in so many ways as well as helping me get through a rather low patch I was in at that time. I went on a mission to find everything he had ever recorded and was lucky that my sister was living in New York at that time and I went over to visit her on a number of occasions. New York record shopping then was maybe the best in the world and over the course of a few visits I found all his dance records and a few other bits and pieces.

By about 1999 I think i had almost everything he had ever had put out up until that point.

I seem to remember that there's a nice little story about how you met Madeline MacDonald, the vocalist who arranged and performed the song for you. Would you mind going into that for me? Had she heard the original before she arranged and sang it?

Madeline used to own a restaurant called "Madeline's" which is where the Korean restaurant on Argyle street is now. My then girlfriend lived around the corner and we used to eat there all the time. Madeline was quite a character and had been a professional singer so she used to do singing nights at the restaurant where after dinner she would sing torch songs. I was entranced by her voice and asked her if she would sing on a track we were working on.
We didn't let her hear the original song until after she had recorded it but gave her a typed sheet of the lyrics so she could work out her own arrangement.


Was the music written intentionally as a cover or did it just happen in a round-about way?

No, it was just an instrumental that I thought could be enhanced by having a vocal. I had struggled to write a lyric and then came up with the idea of using Arthur's lyrics.
In effect it's not really a cover as the music and the vocal phrasing bear no relation to the original song. It's really just a track with borrowed lyrics (he is of course credited with this). Just to make it more confusing, although it's called "Another Thought", the words are from his song "A Little Lost" as our previous EPs first track had been called "Lost in Satie" and I didn't want to repeat the "Lost" theme.

The best thing about the track is that it led to a beautiful friendship. I had to do a lot of phone interviews with journalists when we were putting out the album. Matador (our label) in New York would arrange conference calls and one day I had to do 8 hours of these. There was one left to do and I was totally fed up and intended to make the last one as short as possible.
So, the phone goes again and the press person at Matador says "I have Kurt in Seattle on the line for you". Kurt was massive Arthur fan (quite a rarity at that time) and had wanted to interview me as he was blown away that someone had covered one of his songs. We instantly hit it off on so many levels - it was as if i had an identical twin on the other side of the world albeit one who was short and gay. i think we did the interview in about three minutes and then ended up chatting for over two hours (every so often getting interrupted by the press person to see if everything was ok as they couldn't understand why it was taking so long).

He remains a friend to this day and we have met up a couple of times and his writing has inspired me greatly. We both joke that the spirit of Arthur was guiding us towards each other.

Ten years later and the piece Kurt wrote is still online!

http://www.seattleweekly.com/2001-01-24/music/scaling-mount-florida/


The album, 'Arrived Phoenix' is available on iTunes, do you know if there's any plans for the E.P.s to become available to download or are they just going to remain vinyl only 'oddities'?

Vinyl only I reckon which I kind of like.

So here's a link to a pretty scratchy rip of Mount Florida's 'Another Thought'. It should be pretty apparent by now that I have played this copy a lot so apologies for the surface noise. If you like it, go buy a copy of your own. There's a few on discogs.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/pokkpf

Oh, and THANK YOU ARTHUR! May your spirit continue to guide us all to places and people with whom we belong.

*EDIT* There's now a version of this track up on Twitch's soundcloud page so you don't have to deal with my battered rip.
(From the vault - 1999) Mount Florida - Another Thought (Arthur Russell "cover") by JD Twitch

Lost In Music.

It's a bit of a funny one but Larry and I have known each other for nearly ten years and have been DJing together for four of them yet I don't think I've ever been record shopping with him. This might not seem that strange as I realise that record shopping has changed quite a bit over the last few years and that it's much more common for people to search for music via the internet before buying or just to go and download it but I'm a romantic old soul who still loves the ritual of record shopping and I'm fairly certain Larry does too as he still buys records. Yet we've never been to a shop together.

Perhaps one reason for this is that Larry, as I have mentioned in previous posts, plays a lot more modern music than I do so he'd be much more likely to be found in the frankly excellent Rubadub or Monorail than the dusty shit-tips I frequent which don't even have new-fangled things like websites. (I should also point out my slight guilt in not buying many new records as I realise that we in Glasgow should be very grateful indeed to still have not one but TWO records shops with nice staff who really know what they are talking about.)

There's something about second-hand record shopping that really appeals to me: the uncertainty of there being anything worth looking for; the real knowledge that you need to get the really good thing; the chance, no matter how slim, that there might be a REAL bargain in the somewhere, getting to know the staff so they point you in the direction of the new arrival or even sometimes put stuff aside for you. Even the dust that invariably gets on your hands (it's really not for molysmophobics) and the sore back and pins and neddles in your feet you sometimes get bending over the pound bins. These things all add up to create a perfect little ritual.

Recently, I've been having some really good luck digging in the crates in Glasgow and found a few oddities, some old classics and on two occasions that holiest of grails: a record in the pound bin worth substantially more than a mere quid.

As well as being a romantic old soul, I'm also generous so here's some links to a few of the cheaper tracks I picked up today. You should be able to find these online for a few quid, so if you like them, please go buy the record. They can be such things of beauty and as Keats said

"A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its lovliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing."

Now I don't think you could say that about an MP3, could you?


Sister Sledge - Lost In Music (Special 1984 Nile Rodgers Mix)

Featuring Simon Le Bon and Andy Taylor from Duran Duran on 'background vocals' as they were in the studio next door to Nile, recording 'Wild Boys'.
Quite why 'Lost In Music' needed another mix or quite what the Wild Boys contributed is another matter.

Carrie McDowell - Uh Uh No No (Sunrise Mix)

Carrie McDowell - Uh Uh No No (Club Dub)

Carrie McDowell was signed to Motown in the mid to late 80s and this was the only single to make any impact on the charts. Whilst some of the lyrics in the chorus are a bit clanky in my opinion, the music is good enough to give it charm. Also her voice is fantastic. I never would have guessed she was white either. There's a dub if you don't agree (or do agree about the lyrics.)
Carrie now lives in Tennesee and does Christian albums with her husband, so I guess a song espousing sexual abstinence is a fitting legacy to be carrying.

Your call is important to us...

I, like many people in the modern world, love music. I have been pretty much obsessed with the mathematically explainable way my brain interprets certain frequencies since I can remember. The first record my Mum bought because I pestered her into it was the Culture Club album with Karma Chamelion on it (Sadly this record perished before my 5th birthday as it was left in direct sunlight and got warped.) and since then I have been crazy about those funny bits of black plastic we call records.

However, there is one type of music which I loathe and that is HOLD music. You know, the music you get played whilst waiting on a call centre operator to answer. Its crimes are numerous: repetative; often badly made; constantly interupted by some voice telling you you are in a queue (AS IF YOU DIDN'T KNOW!) and worst of all, tinnier than the Tin Woodsman's toenail clippings.
Sometimes though it's not so bad; some call centres have put a little thought into it, realising that the hell that is waiting can be alieviated somewhat.
So whilst on the phone today, I decided to have the inaugural

Official Wrong Island Call Centre Hold Music Championships™.

Call centres around the country, NAY...THE GLOBE, will be be selected and audited on the following criteria:

1. Style of Music and relevance to the type of business
2. Repetativity (I don't know if that's actually a word.)
3. Time between announcements
4. Relevance of announcements
5. Boredom factor
6. Tinniness

The scores will be totted up (in my head) and an overall score will be posted out of 12.
The winner will be awarded the no doubt soon-to-be sought after title of Wrong Island Best Call Centre Hold Music Champion 2011.

May the least annoying cunts win!

First up, from East Kilbride in Scotland it's

Centre One Tax Office (part of HMRC)!

So the hold music here is pretty dreadful. Three different loops being switched between every 20 seconds or so. It's not unlike listening to a 19 year old DJ with ADHD and a newly torrented copy of Traktor playing three loops from The Greatest Hits of General MIDI.
One loop is a picked guitar thing, another sounds like a duck getting squashed and the other so stultifyingly dull that I've forgotten what it sounds like. No matter though because it'll be back on in 40 second or so. Joy unbridled.
Mind you, saying as some people will be ringing up to find out that they have a tax refund due, the Government probably commissioned someone to make the music as brain melting as possible so that you don't hold on long enough to actually get through. God forbit anyone ringing up to find they've not paid enough though. Mind you, would the Taxman care? Of course not, the utter bastard.

Overall rating: This is pretty bad and I can't imagine anyone having a hold 'experience' worse. The music might well be designed to put you off so I suppose it should get points for relevancy but otherwise, there's nothing redeeming about this except the lure of a tax refund so I'm giving them 3 out of 12

Recommended replacement music: Taxman by The Beatles or perhaps Money by Pink Floyd

Our next contestant hails from the lovely city of Glasgow....give a warm welcome to:

Direct Line Insurance
First impressions are good. The initial music sounds like Santo & Johnny. Nice and relaxing and doesn't sound so bad being tinny.
After getting the call answered and asking the operative on the line a few questions that I know I'll be put on hold for, I am greeted with the strains of 'Love and Marriage', best known to me and most people my age as the theme tune to Married With Children. I melt away into nostalgic daydreams of Peggy Bundy tossing my salad, quite happy to hold on. Next up is They Can't Take That Away From Me as sung by Ol' Blue Eyes himself.
This choice of big band classics works very well as hold music; inoffensive, friendly, jocular. All things one wants to hear before a nasal Scotsman tells you how much it'd be to insure a 25 year old female learner driver for 3 months.

In addition to the excellent music choice, the announcements are different ever time and often informative.
Why no, I didn't know that if an uninsured driver hits me that Direct Line will cover the excess. And my No-Claims won't be affected? Why, I'm really learning here.

Overall rating: these guys have put a bit of thought into the hold reel here. With the possible exception of the music not really having anything to do with cars or insurance, they have really hit it on the head.
10 out of 12

Recommended replacement music: Warm Leatherette by The Normal, Baby You Can Drive My Car, something by INXS, High Risk Insurance by Ramones, Take Good Care Of My Baby by Bobby Vee

Contestant number three, representing the North East of England, it's mobile telephone company

Orange

Oh dear...it takes forever to actually get to some music here. Far too many button presses and questions. Don't they realise there's a Championship at stake here?!
Finally, when I get through, the music is pretty bad. Tinny as fuck pop music from the last five years. Eek.
Thankfully and, if I'm honest, unusually for Orange the call is answered quickly and I am soon greeted with the lovely voice of a Geordie. Having a call centre in the N.E. of England is a pretty good move as that soft, lilting accent is so soothing that the operative could tell you that it turns out that your phone actually is giving you brain cancer and you'd still be pretty cool about it.
They should really replace the music they have got with one of the middle aged women that seem to make up 90% of the staff telling a nice story. Though your brain might get confused and think it's a bed-time story and you might miss the call due to having a nice nap. They should definitely replace the 'sexy' voiced southerner that does the voice of the answerphone on Orange. She gets on my tits.

Overall rating: The music is pish but the operatives are so nice, i'm going to give them an extra point so they get 8.

Recommended Replacement Music: Eberhard Schoener Feat. Sting - Why Don't You Answer
Not only for the Sting-north East connection but also because every other time I've rang orange, it's taken the best part of half an hour to get through.

The first heat is over and we have some strong contenders here. Feel free to email in with any suggestions for companies I should be checking out.

Lime

Lime were one of those oddities that the 70s and 80s threw up which you probably wouldn't find today. A slightly odd-looking man-and-wife band (Though they used a more attractive couple to appear as them in public.) who sold records by the millions. And just to add to the weirdness, they were call Denis and Denise.

They are probably best known these days for the Italo track 'On the Grid' which sounds very much like it had an influence on the music made by New Order around the same time. This was certainly the first track by them that I'd heard and it fits in nicely with lots of different genres of dance.

For me though, the better stuff (and I'm using "better" in a very subjective way here as I'm sure some people will think I've lost the plot) is in the sometimes over-blown songs they released such as 'I Don't Want to Lose You' and the totally over the top 'Babe, We're Going To Love Tonight'.
The latter track is a hyper-fast fusion of Hi-NRG and Italo with vocals that sound like they are channelling AM rock-pomp and Kate Bush. Check out the video to see what I mean by "slightly odd looking".

I played "Babe..." at the last Wrong Island and the crowd really went for it, which I was quite surprised by if I'm honest. I thought it would be the wrong side of OTT and the floor would clear.
Another thing that attracts me to these records is the real sense of cohesion that runs across all the releases not just in terms of music but also the artwork on the sleeves. Very 80s but very futuristic at the same time. Or at least what they thought futuristic would look like in the 80s. Anyway, the nice bright colours and 2000A.D. style art catch my eye which also makes them very hard to miss when yr out digging in second hand shops.

...and just in case you haven't had enough yet, someone's done a nice mega-mix of lots of Lime stuff here

Larry's Track of 2010.

Sooo just about recovered from new year celebrations and finally I get round to posting my first contribution to our new blog.
Always find it pretty tough trying to pick one track from a whole year worth of great music being released and this year has certainly been no exception.

I wouldn't say there is ever one track to out do them all, I like loads of different tracks for different reasons. However there is one particular young man who has been killing it with every new release and remix he touches, yes it's the man(boy) Ramadan. David Kennedy aka Ramadanman / Pearson Sound, has really come into his own over the last year or so with every new record seeming to trump the one before. So it only felt right that my track of 2010 would have to be one of his. Choosing my favourite has also been tricky. However the one that did it for me the most was his latest release "Blanked" on his own imprint Hessle Audio under the Pearson Sound guise. He combines his trademark bass heavy production and tight percussion drum patterns with a stunning midway synth drop that does the damage in the club and moves me at the same time.
David Kennedy, 2010 was your year and "Blanked" is my choice cut of 2010. Can't wait to hear more from this kid in 2011..

Wrong Island do Luckyme mixtape.

Our good pals at Luckyme asked us to do a mixtape for their excellent series of podcasts ages ago. We took forever to get our arses in gear and do it. We then forgot all about it and thought maybe they didn't like it, so it was a great surprise to get this on the feed today.

It's a bit more downtempo than what we'd do at our parties. Maybe the sort of thing you might hear in the first hour; bit of post-dubstep or funky or whatever it's called this week alongside some old boogie records and stuff you might like to hear at a roller-disco if they still happened.

The only problem was that after a very long festive period, what they'd written about us was so lovely that I got a bit emotional. Time for some Horlicks and two days in bed with a book maybe?

Wrong Island Luckyme Mixtape

First footing & tune of 2010 (teamy)

Happy new year everyone. Hope you have a wonderful 2011, filled with much joy and loveliness.

Around this time it's traditional to do some sort of list of the top tunes of the previous year, which often leaves me a bit lost as for the last few years I hardly ever went off doing crazy things like buying new records; at our Wrong Island parties, Larry is much more the one to be found playing the new stuff while I back it up with all the 'new' old records I have found whilst getting my fingers dusty from flicking thru piles of records in second hand shops or charity places.

That said, after a little bit of thinking I have realised that there was one record which didn't leave my record bag from the moment I bought it this year. It's called 'No Worries' by Butch and came out on Cecille Records sometime in 2010.
It's a jacking house thing that really reminds me of the sort of stuff I was mad about circa 1999 like Roulé and Crydamoure which I had a bit of a reminiscence about last year.
It's got a really good build up to a BIG bass drop but without feeling like it's following a traditional structure.

I'm going to stop talking about it and just link it. Turn it up LOUD. (on a stereo, not yr laptop speakers...)