It took me a couple of searches before I was able to find a video of the Altered State mix of Gloworm’s Top 20 hit single, I Lift My Cup (To the Spirit Divine). While doing so, I chanced upon the radio edit of the track and realised to my nostalgic delight that having reached 1993, I shall be able to enjoy for a time, what I considered the Golden Age of Clubland Techno. Not in a Ministry of Sound sense, but I certainly remember those catchy, shrill synths of the radio edit on I Lift My Cup soundtracking walks around the edge of the dancefloor of various Cornish nightclubs through 1993 to about 1995. Those walks were usually done with drink in hand and invariably seemed to be accompanying me and my friends during the hour of purgatory that would be spent if you arrived too early at a nightclub so that you could find somewhere to sit. Don’t get me wrong, it was great to know you’d ensured that you weren’t going to be on your feet for 2 and a half hours, but with the nightclub empty and the music blasting out regardless, one invariably fell into (physically) strained conversation rather than dancing. All dressed up but with no-one to appreciate it. The only consolation if you were visiting the awful but spacious Club International in Falmouth was that the tracks would invariably come round again an hour or so later, once the club had filled up a bit, given the paucity of records their DJ had. This was a man who I once heard play a set in a pub next to where Club I was. He finished up just as last orders were called and we were all having such a good evening’s drinking that we decided to go to the club for a few more drinks. He promptly turned up at the club as well and proceeded to play exactly the same set with the same banal commentary that we had heard him deliver for the previous 2 hours.
The Altered State mix trades up the club synths for a weird hybrid vibe that brings in wah-wah guitar to provide an Outback feel, which is odd given that none of the main players in the Gloworm collective were Australian. Nevertheless, the sense of wilderness fits the lyrical mood of the song with its prayers to Jesus to replenish a spiritually parched population. Looking at the timelines, I’m reminded that Gloworm were pushing the gospel-dance sound at the same time as Dr. Alban, but tracks like Sing Hallelujah sound stodgy and predictable next to the more soulful sound of I Lift My Cup.
Video courtesy of mario Suoni
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