Episode 120 – Original Upload 1.10.23

This playlist is 82% vinyl friendly. Impressive.

Early Technics decks custom coloured, courtesy of digifunktechnics.co.uk. Wasn’t there a colour of Spangle a few decades back that nearly matched the above? Pimping up and beyond also available... and no, I’m not an affiliate for them.

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Any track marked * has been given either a tiny or a slightly larger 41 Rooms ‘tweak’/edit/chop and the occasional tune might sound a bit dodgy, quality-wise. On top of that, the switch between different decades and production values never helps in the mix here.

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Lyric of Playlist 120...

If I’m honest there are precious few contenders this month. At one end, maybe Mr Callier for the simplicity. At the other? Green Gartside. He’ll never sing his without them laid out in front of him.

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00.00

(Intro) THE FLAMINGOS – Stars (Edit) – Unreleased demo – 1983. Episode #1 for info.

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00.41

NEW ORDER – The Game (Mark Reeder Spielt Mit Version) – Music Complete: Remix EP, promo CD only – 2017

Berlin-based but very long time friend of the band from his Manc days, Reeder takes the slower/break down passages of the original as his starting and finishing point.

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07.00

THE BEATLES – Come Together – 7′′ b-side – Apple – 1969

A bit of a mid ’70s Heronscroft, Putnoe, Bedford ‘sense’ surrounds me when I hear this. A track that led off the Abbey Road album but played second fiddle to Something on the single.

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10.57

SCRITTI POLITTI – Lions After Slumber (Single version) – 12′′ b-side – Rough Trade – 1981

If you’re a ‘singalong on the chorus’ kind of guy there’s nothing to see/hear here.

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15.33

MARIBOU STATE – Blackoak – 12′′ – Ninja Tune – 2023

Warm sounds, limited and numbered to 300 pressed on eco-vinyl, white label copies. All hand-stamped and signed by the duo.

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20.20

OUTLINES – Listen To The Drums (Clignancourt Edit) – 12′′ – Sonar Kollektiv – 2006

Still sounding a very idiosyncratic release.

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24.50

KODŌ – Ibuki Reconstruction (DJ Krush – Extended) – Remix 2, 12′′ – Columbia – 1998

The Japanese drum troupe’s beats a rolling, courtesy of their hip-hop’er fellow countryman.

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27.48

ERIC RANDOM & THE BEDLAMITES – Mad As Mankind – 12′′ – Doublevision – 1984

Some won’t be surprised to learn this was recorded at Cabaret Voltaire’s Western Works studio and produced by Richard and Mal.

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34.09

ELECTRIBE 101 – You’re Walking (Peeping Tom Mix) – Electribal Memories, LP – Mercury – 1990

Such was the money floating around in the late ’80s, dance music had its fair share thrown at it. Courtesy of every name US house producer/remixer of note, these Birmingham lads and Billie Ray Martin’s class electronic torch pop managed to straddle both the house/club scene and the charts, and along with the latter having kept vocally active ever since, the band’s ‘lost’ second album, Electribal Soul managed to finally surface in 2021, three decades after their first.

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39.25

KHERAL – I Loved You First (Rawhouse Mix) – 12′′ – Freetown Inc – 1992

‘Kheral’s soaring vocals are driven along by Pierre’s incessant melting and moulding of all the musical elements. A combination guaranteed to send shivers down your spine – one to play from start to finish. Deeper!‘ – Rhythm Doctor, Record Mirror (Music Week), 20.3.93

DJ Pierre at the controls, it sort of plods but it also quietly builds, with the man himself also letting loose. Another first heard back in the day on late night KISS FM – with a nod here to Sarah HB’s show.

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44.09

MR FINGERS – Waterfalls – Amnesia, 2LP – Jack Trax – 1989

Hearing this for the first time won’t have been too far from the above – possibly Steve Jackson’s house show.

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48.44

SMALL FACES – Tin Soldier – 7′′ – Immediate – 1967

‘Pop’ gold! My fave ’60s band when catching up as a teenager a few years later... and they still are. Apologies if I’ve told this one before somewhere on 41 Rooms but in those early collecting days I used to get excited seeing acetates, indeed any acetate... and even after decades they can still have a very distinctive smell. In the mid ’90s I was cratedigging (not called that back then...