Some scattered thoughts on dipole of Paul Oakenfold & Andrew Weatherall

On Saturday I had the opportunity of listening to a DJ set by Paul Oakenfold, the former DJ superstar of the 90's and 00's. The feeling of nostalgia was intense, hearing again classic tunes (even in bastardized versions for my taste) and remembering a forgotten era. During the event I recalled somehow the DJ set by the late Andrew Weatherall, performed in Athens in 2019, one year before his unfortunate death from pulmonary embolism. His set was very eclectic, consisting of playful tracks with the beat constraint under 122 bpm.

It is strange how two Englishmen that started in the same period but followed extremely different paths (Greg Wilson's article describes this matter way better than I could ever articulate) influenced my taste for electronic music throughout the years.

I familiarized myself with the iconic Essential Mixes of Paul Oakenfold at the start of the new century, the time at which he reached the ultimate stardom. My brother had even bought the seminal Global Underground 007: New York CD; while the mixing can not be considered smooth, the diverse track selection is superb. For several years, Paul Oakenfold was my favorite DJ, blending tracks from ambient and drum & based to progressive house & goa trance.

Ten years later, I was deeply disillussioned with the direction of electronic music. As a former trance-head, I was not interested at all in the new genres that emerged and the marketeering approach of popular DJs. Luckily for me, I came across with the ALFOS sessions performed by Andrew Weatherall and Sean Johnston. Surely, I was aware of Sir Andrew's early work (incl. Primal Scream, Sabres Of Paradise, etc.), but to be honest, I never performed a deep dive to go into details. Adopting an "it's never too late" mindset, I started listening more to his early & more contemporary works and I appreciated his approach on music production & mixing. Furthermore, I started liking other genres such as leftfield, nu-disco & indie dance, which were seamlessy interchanged in his sets. 

Back to 2019, after the completion of his DJ set in Athens, I approached Mr. Weatherall and shook his hand, congratulating him for the quirky set. He was very kind to thank me for my feedback, giving me the impression of a simple and humble man, despite his enormous contribution to electronic music. I performed the same gesture to his partner in crime, Sean Johnston, when he played an ALFOS set in a mini club at the centre of Athens in 2022. I am sure that Sir Andrew would be very proud that Sean Johnson preserves the atmosphere of the sets when they performed together. 

Fast forward to today, I did not have to chance to interact with Paul Oakenfold after the set (I left earlier prior the completion of the event), but I assume that it could be not possible due to his stardom persona (and frankly I was not interested in it). 

After many years of listening to electronic music, I am certain that these two figures were essential for crafting and evolving my taste in music. Paul Oakenfold (although irrelevant for me today) would introduce me to dance tunes that would be club mega-hits at the time and Andrew Weatherall would broaden my mind to explore different styles and appreciate more tunes that are not necessarily club-oriented. For the above reasons, I thank them both!

I will conclude with the obvious co-production:

HAPPY MONDAYS - HALLELUJAH (CLUB MIX)

Label Realm: euForic melodies

F Communications was (or maybe is?) an electronic music label founded in 1994 by Frenchmen Eric Morand & Laurent Garnier, as the successor of Fnac Music Dance Division (1991-1993). It was the most important label for French electronic dance music (along with its predecessor), curating great artists such as St. Germain, Laurent Garnier, Shazz, Scan-X, Jori Hulkkonen. Mr. Oizo and Nova Nova. One of my favorite artists back in the days was Ludovic Navarre (the guy behind St. Germain alias) with his seminal albums Boulevard (1995) and Tourist (2000), although the latter was released by the jazz-infused Blue Note label. The company folded its operations in 2008, only to re-open in 2015 for vinyl releases of monsieur Garnier. Nowadays, the label celebrates the 25 years with remastered vinyl releases of F-Comm All Stars!

Full Frequency Range Recordings (FFRR) is an influential label that introduced the masses in dance music. It started in 1986 as a subdivision of London Records, run by Pete Tong, the mastermind behind the BBC Essential Mix. Focused on hip-hop and house music releases during the second half of the 80's, it expanded in other electronic music genres throughout the 90's. The label hosted important artists such as Orbital, Goldie, CJ Bolland and Armand Van Helden. Aligned with the digital era of the last 10 years, it continues to release music exclusively in digital format.

Fides is a small Italian label owned by Giuseppe Maffei, known for his Z.I.P.P.O. pseudonym and his participation in project 3KZ with fellow Italian Nico Campanella. Their collaboration produced the seminal album Parallel Reflections, one of the best releases for 2017 (powered by Fides).

The last (but not least) label to be introduced is FM Records. The Greek label was set-up at the turn of the eighties by Giorgos Koutris. Although it does not focus only on electronic music, since the variety ranges from rebetiko, folk music to rock, pop and hip-hop, it engaged the Greek audience into the alternative music scene of various genres. Several Greek artists collaborated with the label, like Stereo Nova, Imiskoumbria, Terror-X-Crew, Goin' Through (before going full commercial), Ypogeia Revmata and Endelecheia. It was one of the first Greek labels to foresee the future of music platforms, releasing its back catalog in digital format since 2005! I believe that this is the main reason that the company continues as an independent label, although physical format continues to be released by the company in small numbers...

Tune #101: The Space Cadets - Stotinki

In a previous post I mentioned the need for an experimental DJ set, following the standards of The Future Sound of London. A perfect learning start would be their first Essential Mix at BBC Radio 1, aired on 12 April 1993 (whoa, time flies!). Many obscure tracks are presented in the set, a personal favorite of which would be Stotinki by The Space Cadets.

The Space Cadets was a one-off collaboration between the British Asian Haq Nawaz Qureshi and Cypriot Harri Kakoulli.

Nawaz's history is definitely not common. He was born and grew up in Bradford. At the start of the eighties, he was the drummer in gothic punk band Southern Death Cult (until 1983) and later in alternative rock band Getting The Fear (1984). In 1986, he moved to London, in order to set up a company for signing artists to major record labels. Two years later, with no signings of compositions that fused world music with dance elements, he started with Katherine Canoville a new music label that focused primarily on that goal. The label was Nation Records, an early home for groups such as Asian Dub Foundation, Transglobal Underground and Loop Guru. In 1997, Katherine's involvement in the label ended, making Nawaz the sole head honcho. The steps followed by him were controversial. Spending a lot of his time travelling, he met with extremists and jihadists and he even attempted to meet Osama Bin Laden back in 1998. His controversial actions can be identified in his primary music project Fun-Da-Mental, with strong preference in Islamic fundamentalism. The ideology projected through his tracks was provocative and uncompromising, leading to trouble with the law and the label's directors.

Harry Kakoulli is multi-instrumentalist, mostly known for his tenure as the bass player for Squeeze, between 1976 and 1979. Throughout the first half of the 80's, he followed a solo career that spawned an album and a handful of EPs. Since the end of the 80's, he has been an early collaborator for Nation Records, composing records that fuse world music, techno and trance (adopting the label's ethos). His valuable experience gave him the chance to produce the first compilations of the music company (Fuse 1 & 2). Nowadays, he still involved in electronic music production, ranging from downtempo/balearic to progressive house and psy-trance (always with a Middle Eastern music essence!).

The original version of Stotinki (as well as the Dub mix) appeared for the first time in 1991, included in the second installment of the Fuse series. Two years later, a remixed version by Transglobal Underground (Tim Whelan & Hamilton Lee) surfaced in another Nation compilation, named Global Sweatbox Remix Album. The last version is the one that was used by FSOL for the Essential Mix.

The female vocals in the track are undoubtedly astonishing and they belong to Anglo-Egyptian singer Natacha Atlas, whose contribution to Nation Records is immense. Her singing career started by being a member of Transglobal Undeground and she is now considered one of the prominent singers in ethnic electronica genre.

Finally, you can enjoy the 3 versions of the track:

THE SPACE CADETS - STOTINKI



THE SPACE CADETS - STOTINKI (DUB MIX)


THE SPACE CADETS - STOTINKI (TRANSGLOBAL UNDERGROUND MIX)


P.S. I cannot imagine the connection between the sub-units of the Bulgarian currency (stotinki) with the track...

Tune #39: Circulation - Turquoise

Σε προηγούμενη ανάρτηση είχα αναφερθεί στην τωρινή μόδα της deep house / tech-house. Ήρθε η ώρα να δώσω και ένα παράδειγμα, στο οποίο η tech-house προσφέρει ένα πραγματικά δυνατό κομμάτι:

CIRCULATION - TURQUOISE (ORIGINAL MIX)


Οι Circulation είναι οι Βρετανοί Matthew Jackson και Paul Davis. Γνωρίστηκαν το 1996 σε ένα δισκοπωλείο και από το 1998 κυκλοφόρησαν οι πρώτες του παραγωγές με αυτό το ψευδώνυμο. Είναι ιδιαίτερα γνωστοί για τα "χρωματιστά" κομμάτια τους, καθώς αυτά έχουν ονοματιστεί σύμφωνα με διάφορες αποχρώσεις. Τα περισσότερα από αυτά κυκλοφόρησαν μέσω των 2 studio albums τους, Colours (2000) και Colours 2 (2003), τα οποία αποτελούν ορόσημα της tech-house. Αυτό βέβαια δεν σημαίνει ότι οι παραγωγές τους περιορίζονται στο συγκεκριμένο μουσικό είδος, αφού τα κομμάτια τους είναι επιτυχημένα μείγματα από ambient, groovy, funky και techy γνωρίσματα.

Η μουσική τους έγινε σύντομα γνωστή στα αυτιά φημισμένων DJs (Sasha, John Digweed, Danny Howells, Steve Lawler), οπότε ήταν αναμενόμενο να ακουστεί σε πολυάριθμα sets. Βέβαια, και οι live εμφανίσεις των ίδιων των Circulation ήταν ιδιαίτερα ενδιαφέρουσες (όπως το Essential Mix της 01/04/2002).

Το 2005 φαίνεται ότι ο Matt Jackson αποχώρησε από το σχήμα, οπότε το alias συνεχίστηκε (κυρίως σε remixes άλλων κομματιών) από τον Paul Davis.

Το Turquoise είναι το πιο γνωστό κομμάτι των Circulation (έχει άλλωστε τα περισσότερα releases). Κυκλοφόρησε αρχικά το 1999 σε βινύλιο, ενώ το 2000 αποτέλεσε τμήμα του πρώτου τους album. Η μουσική του δίνει την αίσθηση ενός παγωμένου τοπίου, το οποίο είναι ταυτόχρονα ήρεμο, βαθύ και σκοτεινό.

Το 2012 ανακατασκευάστηκε ως remix από τον tech-house παραγωγό Guy J. Η εκδοχή αυτή μπορεί να φαίνεται πιο φρέσκια και συμβατή με τα δεδομένα της σημερινής εποχής, αλλά δεν φτάνει σε καμία περίπτωση τoν υψηλό πήχη της original version...

CIRCULATION - TURQUOISE (GUY J REMIX)


Συνοψίζοντας, ένα πράγμα μπορούμε να πούμε με σιγουριά: αν τα χρώματα είχαν φωνή, αυτή θα ήταν τα κομμάτια των Circulation!