Oliver: Krispy 3 - Don't Be Misled (28 November 1991)

As exciting and brilliant as hip hop can be, it's an inescapable truth that when tracks from a hip hop album are listened to in isolation, deciphering the lyrics becomes an act of pure guesswork on the part of your humble blogger.  Taken from the Chorley trio's eponymous debut album, Don't Be Misled sounds like part of a concept suite of tunes about the difficulties of making it in the music business or of trying not to compromise artistic principles ("This tour ain't no sell out" - but what kind of non-sell out are we talking about?) before broadening out into an entreaty not to be seduced by the agendas of the media and for policemen to stop assuming that any black man driving around in a nice car has to have stolen it.
Or I could be completely wrong.   But I hope not.  I've got everything crossed that the "concept album inside the music business" fantasy comes true because from what I've heard of Krispy 3, including a fantastic Peel session which alas doesn't seem to be available for sharing, they could make it fly.

Some more information about Krispy 3.

Video courtesy of Ragga Hlp Hop.

Oliver: The Infinity Project - Virtual Reality is Here (28 November 1991)

Virtual reality is here, they said and as the film, The Lawnmower Man, showed the following year, it looked shit.

Several degrees better though was this splendid piece of techno from The Infinity Project, which was the b-side to their first 12" release, Hyperactive.  The Infinity Project was the brain child of Raja Ram who together with several collaborators including The Man With No Name and Graham Wood pioneered a form of dance music known as psytrance which had its roots in the Goan dance scene as thousands of old and new hippies who had gone to Goa attempted to attain enlightenment to frenetically blissed out music.  The Infinity Project released consistently through the 90s before Ram formed Shpongle and continued to release ambient music under this name up to the present day.

All of which is even more impressive when you consider that at the time Peel was playing The Infinity Project's first release, he had cause to remember playing Ram as part of his first musical incarnation, Quintessence, some 20 years earlier.  Ram was the flautist with this band, who specialised in spiritual/religious rock music but did it with a delightfully light touch in songs such as Notting Hill Gate, so as to ward off any of the naffness that the words "Christian rock music" can conjure up.  Quintessence often spoke in interviews about their music attempting to bring themselves and the audience closer to "infinity".  Perhaps the leap Raja Ram made when he swapped flute for mixing desk wasn't so large after all?




This video doesn't show them at their best, but I've included it as a potential link between Quintessence and The Infinity Project comes out of the mouth of the bassist, but sadly doesn't feature the London Weekend Television ident which is on the other video of this but which won't play on this site 😞.





I don't remember hearing this on the soundtrack to the Richard Curtis film, but I wish it was.

Videos courtesy of avsi gavilov (Infinity Project), colinharpervideo and Inner Life (Quintessence)

Oliver: Rum & Black - Wicked (28 November 1991)

I didn't listen to Radio 1on the day that Robin Williams died.  I'm sure that if any of their DJs played a musical tribute, it would have been Williams's performance of Blame Canada from the South Park movie which was nominated for Best Song at the 1999 Oscars.  However, I hope someone with a long memory pulled out this slice of breakbeat brilliance from the Hackney based dance duo, Rum & Black.  It's an equally fitting tribute, I promise you.



Lost out to Phil Collins, natch - The Oscars really do suck, don't they?

Videos courtesy of Mickeybeam01 (Rum and Black) and kyosexkittens (Williams).

Oliver: Gear Jammer - Two Tons of Chrome (28 November 1991)

I've listened to most of the programmes John Peel hosted, at home and abroad, between 2 November and 29 December 1991 and throughout that run, one record label's output has been almost ubiquitous: Minneapolis based, Amphetamine Reptile  Records.  The label specialised in noisy rock blues through bands such as Helmet, The God Bullies, The Melvins and Tar.  The majority of tracks I've heard so far from Amphetamine Reptile haven't quite persuaded me but this punchy rocker from a side project that brought together members of Killdozer, Halo of Flies and Like Hell was a cut above Tar's On a Transfer or Helmet's Unsung which nearly made it on here in a double bill with this track until I decided it just wasn't good enough.

Built around a riff that sounds like The Anthill Mob's car, Chugga Boom on steroids, this track had to have been in the young Jack White's record collection back in the day.  Astonishingly, it would be another 3 years till the members of Gear Jammer reconvened to record a follow-up EP after which they were permanently back to their day jobs.  Such is the nature of the side project and in the fact it produced this astonishing tune, perhaps we should be grateful they chose not to try and sustain it to ever diminishing returns.

Video courtesy of Haze XXL.

Oliver: Aurlus Mabele - Rosine (28 November 1991)

You don't need to read a big write-up for this tune.  Just be aware that it's Aurlus Mabele.  Backed by Loketo.  With Diblo Dibala on guitar.
Put down what you're doing.  Press the play button on the video. And DANCE!

Videos courtesy of Tonton Ouzouk.

Oliver: John Peel Show - Radio 1 (Sunday 24 November 1991)

The selections from this show came from a 90 minute recording posted from about halfway through the programme.  I came up with 8 selections that I would have kept on a mixtape of which only 1 of them is unavailable for sharing or at least unavailable for sharing in the form I would like.  The Divine Comedy were a very different beast when they started out, from the urbane, lounge pop outfit that they had success as.  Neil Hannon was always a Cole Porter in waiting, but his deliciously sophisticated lyrics were, on the band's initial recordings, backed by a Byrds-like jangle.  Peel played their 12" single Timewatching on this night, a gloriously urgent tune about aging, but alas all that can currently be shared is the slower re-recording from a few years later.  I get impatient with it but will include it for any Divine Comedy fans who chance upon this blog.


The Divine Comedy - a little faster please!

This was a fairly momentous Peel show because for the only time in its history, the Festive 50 was abandoned by Peel, who, depressed by the slow trickle of entries which had been coming in through the month and which would have lead to any entry receiving a handful of votes getting placed in the chart, decided to abort it and instead choose his own favourite records and sessions of the year.  The Festive 50 would return the next year and the 1991 chart would be broadcast at the rate of one entry per show through the first half of 1993.  I have to say that having heard the Peel choices, I could have happily let him go on selecting "best ofs" for the rest of his life.  It was the only true reflection of the breadth of music he played year on year.

The programme was also memorable for news of a rock star death and Peel indulging in a rare piece of tribute playing as a result.

Programme tracklisting

Oliver: Mnaga a Zdorp - Ne, Ted Ne!; The Juwata Jazz Band - Tupa Tupa (24 November 1991)

Apologies for the philistinism, but I've put the opening two selections from this programme together as they are both foreign language compositions.

Czech band Mnaga a Zdorp (Peel: You have to get guttural in the middle of letters that don't really allow you the opportunity to do so.) which translates as Mud and Gadget owe the play of their track down to a meeting that the band had with Peel earlier on that day in a London market.  They implored him to listen to their album and he duly did, though I'm surprised that he played Ne, Ted Ne! (aka Not Now!) given that it features such a prominent saxophone in it.  Use of a saxophone was on Peel's blacklist for bands together with such crimes as:
Wearing silly hats in promotional photos.
Having band members who spell their names in unconventional ways - Jhon rather than John etc.
Bands who cite The New York Dolls as an influence.

Nevertheless the saxophone bookends a lovely tune.  If the video is to be believed, the song is about trying not to get ripped off by theives and strippers when you're on shore leave.

The Juwata Jazz Band track comes from the same album as the Orchestra Maquis Original track from the night before.  But whereas the Orchestra Maquis Original seemed to come almost from folk tradition, Tupa Tupa conjures up the sense of a sweaty night's dancing in a bar in downtown Dar es
Salaam.

Videos courtesy of Dan Konecny (Mnaga a Zdorp) and Power Nguzo (Juwata Jazz Band)