Fine Time

I promise not to bang on about Underworld again

We’re still in that early-January lull when things are slowly getting back to normal. Most Q1 releases have been planned out and set up, and thoughts start to turn to the summer months, Ibiza, festivals and all that.

The quiet time allows me to catch up a bit with music I’ve not listened to in a while, which is always nice. Spending some time with an old album, getting familiar with it again is always a real pleasure.

This month I’ve been going back to a few things, firstly Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness by the Smashing Pumpkins - this is normally the kind of thing that’s way too heavy for me, I struggle to get into heavy/hard rock, and really don’t enjoy metal or emo or anything like that. Techno - give it to me as hard as it comes, but there’s something about rock/metal that I just really find difficult to enjoy, with a few exceptions. This is one of them, I think because it’s a fairly diverse album in styles, and for all the really heavy stuff on the album there is also moments of real beauty, as well as great songs. I guess what I’ve touched on before, like the environment we consume music can be a big influence and although I can’t really remember when I first heard it (almost certainly via seeing the Tonight, Tonight video on MTV) it must have spoken to me at that particular point in my life, certainly enough for me to buy the double CD of it at some point, which then became a regular fixture in my car as a teenager, amongst the variety of Global Underground and Pure Garage CDs I kept in there. Regardless of what drove me to love the album it’s still been nice going back to it - Billy Corgan’s voice is one of those you either love or hate (similar to Michael Stipe from REM), and as a double album there’s a lot to get through. I don’t like every track on it (unsurprisingly it’s the heavier stuff that grates) but when it’s good, it’s very good. Would I consider myself a Smashing Pumpkins fan? Absolutely not, but am I a Mellon Collie fan? Yeah, for sure. (Will I spend £100 on the deluxe boxset of it? I doubt it.)

I’ve also been listening to New Order’s Technique a lot. Everyone has a favourite New Order album and this isn’t mine. I prefer Power, Corruption & Lies, and the more I listen to Technique the more that reinforces my belief. It’s not that it’s a bad album, but I just prefer P, C & L. (That said, I have a cool Technique T-Shirt). I’ve never figured out why you can like one album from a band but not another. Some people buy into blind fandom where they love everything from a given artist, but I think it pays to be more critical. There’s nothing wrong with Technique, it’s a good album, it sounds great, the artwork is cool, the production tip-top. I would have come to these albums around the same time (they came out when I was too young to engage with popular culture) but why did one stick and the other not? A mystery…

Mr. Disco

Anyway, there’s been some new music this week. If you follow me on socials you probably saw me share the announcement that Athens of the North are releasing an album worth of material from Bo’vel. Be With put out a 12” of Check For You a few years ago (with a decent UKG mix on the flip), but Athens have gone one further and licenced a whole load of unhead material from the Manchester-based singer. It’s not all Street Soul either, a few of the tracks are dancier, a few touch on reggae & dub, but it’s 100% killer for sure. It’s not out yet, but Check For You is on Spotify and it’s a bona-fide under the radar classic so start there.

LIES bossman Ron Morelli has a new EP out today- his album Heart Stopper was a favourite of mine last year, and this one’s a bit more classic Morelli, proper jackin’ stuff that fits that LIES sound perfectly.

Electro seems to be having a bit of a moment right now (some will say it never went away). VHS Head has a new album out this week, and Global Goon dropped something on CPU at the end of last year. That whole CPU label has really been driving this sound over the past few years, it’s a proper reliable label if you’re into this kind of gear.

Thanks again for reading, tunes are in the playlist below, and please feel free to share/comment/question anything I’ve said here!