Guess What

A belated happy birthday to Marina Diamandis, born 10th October 1985.

My joy at the news that Marina is celebrating this - and 6th album Princess Of Power - with a UK tour, including a date at the Beacon in Bristol, was tempered at approx. 10.05am on Friday when I found that it had already sold out, bar a couple of 'reserved seating' tickets way back, going for £117 a pop. 

That's the challenge with multiple tour tickets going on sale simultaneously at 10.00am on Friday. My first stop had been to get tickets for Cabaret Voltaire's final tour (as I wrote about on Wednesday), then Marina, then Tinariwen. Two out of three ain't bad, as Meat Loaf once opined.

I'm consoling myself with the fact that the majority of tickets may have been snapped up in a pre-sale and my five minutes prioritising the Cabs sealed my fate.

A shame though, as I have no doubt that it will be a spectacular show in a venue that can manage big artists whilst feeling intimate at the same time. And Marina is big: all six albums have been Top 20 in the UK, five of them Top 10, three of them Top 5, one (2012's Electra Heart) went to #1.

Marina is often described as 'anti-pop', but that's missing the point. Her music is unequivocally pop, though pop that doesn't shy away from sharp lyrical observation and commentary, especially on the industry that she has been immersed in for half her life.

Sex Yeah!, the opening song on today's selection, sums it up perfectly:

Question what the TV tells you

Question what a pop star sells you

Question mom and question dad

Question good and question bad

If women were religiously recognized sexually

We wouldn't have to feel the need to show our ass-ets to feel free

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt

Sold my soul, and yeah, the truth hurt

Tired image of a star, acting naughtier than we really are

Listening to artists like Charli XCX and Wet Leg, I hear the influence of Marina, in the song narrative, hooks and riffs and spectacular vocal range. There's a fascinating interview with Marina for Harpers Bazaar, posted in June when Princess Of Power was released, which is well worth ten minutes of your time.

So, if like me you've missed out on Marina tickets and need cheering up, I've created an hour long, 15-song selection of pop gems. There are some gaps: I haven't yet bought Princess Of Power and I have also so far managed to miss her 2019 mononymous debut, Love + Fear.

Whilst the selection is heavy on her music as Marina & The Diamonds, it's a veritable treasure trove of album cuts, singles, remixes, demos and even a cover version of Rita Ora, performed on BBC Radio 2.

If you're unfamiliar with Marina, then this is as good a primer as any, and hopefully the start of your latest musical obsession. Enjoy!

1) Sex Yeah! (Demo II): Marina & The Diamonds (2012)

2) Homewrecker (Album Version): Marina & The Diamonds (2012)

3) Obsessions (The Aspirins For My Children Remix By Daniel Barker): Marina & The Diamonds (2009)

4) Valley Of The Dolls (Lonely Hearts Club Tour Studio Version): Marina & The Diamonds (2013)

5) Fear & Loathing (Album Version): Marina & The Diamonds (2012)

6) Scab & Plaster (Demo II): Marina & The Diamonds (2012)

7) Savages (Album Version): Marina & The Diamonds (2015)

8) Purge The Poison: Marina (2021)

9) Primadonna (Album Version): Marina & The Diamonds (2012)

10) I Am Not A Robot (Doorly Remix By Martin Doorly): Marina & The Diamonds (2010)

11) Froot (Album Version): Marina & The Diamonds

12) Hollywood (Gonzales Version By Jason Beck): Marina & The Diamonds

13) How To Be A Heartbreaker (Single Version By Benny Blanco): Marina & The Diamonds

14) Only Want You (Live @ Dermot O’Leary Show, BBC Radio 2) (Cover of Rita Ora): Marina (2019)

15) Girls: Marina & The Diamonds (2010)

2009: Obsessions EP: 3

2010: Hollywood EP: 12

2010: I Am Not A Robot EP: 10

2010: The Family Jewels: 15

2012: Electra Heart: 2, 5, 9

2012: How To Be A Heartbreaker EP: 13

2012: The Rejects: Demos (bootleg MP3): 1, 6

2013: The Lonely Hearts Club Tour (Studio Version) (bootleg MP3): 4

2015: FROOT: 7, 11

2019: Live At BBC Radio 2 EP: 14

2021: Ancient Dreams In A Modern Land: 8

Guess What (1:01:59) (GD) (M)

I managed to miss Marina's birthday in 2023 too, and similarly celebrated in belated style with a Dubhed selection of Marina's songs, remixed and reinvented. You can find it here.

Ear Worms

A whistle stop post, with four songs that have grabbed my attention this month.

Marina (Diamandis, that is) releases 6th album Princess Of Power on 6th June. The third pre-release single is Cuntissimo, with a lavish video, a lyrical focus on female empowerment and hooks aplenty, even if mainstream daytime radio play is a non-starter. I've been a fan since her beginnings as Marina & The Diamonds, and this is great stuff.

SAULT dropped their latest album at the weekend, with little fanfare, although it apparently snuck out briefly on Spotify and was pulled, before officially reappearing on Saturday. In that short time, all of the song titles have also been reduced to acronyms. So, this is a smooth, Cleo Sol-fronted track called K.T.Y.W.S., previously named Know That You Will Survive. 

Easter Sunday saw another very welcome new release, with Jesse Fahnestock confounding expectations with 10:40 Presents Retro Fit. The 3-track single, An Alternative History, was inspired by Swiss Adam over at Bagging Area, who wrote a brilliant and fascinating post last year, imagining a divergent timeline for The Stone Roses. Jesse took that concept and has created a song that could have been, fashioning two further versions that stretch the concept whilst remaining tantalisingly within the realms of plausibility. Read about it here. Adam and Jesse, I salute you!

Last stop is Senegal-based artist Cheikh Ibra Fam's new single Xam Xam, which is "Infused with the hypnotic pulse of Caribbean zouk and Angolan kizomba, the ethereal strings of the kora, and the soul of West Africa". Fair to say that this would also sit very comfortably on an Ibiza playlist and brought a little promise of summer to a weekend at Casa K that veered wildly from sunshine to continual rain.

Xam Xam is described as "a call to embrace knowledge as the most valuable treasure of all" and, true to his word, Cheikh Ibra Fam is seen on several occasions in the video in a library and reading a book. "Libraries gave us power!" as James Dean Bradfield once sang, and he wasn't wrong. 

#Colours Top 20 (First Shade)

So, I've been participating in another (E)x-Twitter 'countdown' these past couple of weeks, songs, artists or lyrics featuring a colour.

I've played this one straight and stuck with song titles (goodness knows there are plenty of them) and today's Dubhed selection coincides with my 10th or 20 choices, which seemed like a good point to round things up. It also comes in at just under 41 minutes, which is handy.

I didn't bother with the whole 'countdown' thing so no, I don't consider Yellow Balloon by Jan & Dean to be better than Soldier Blue by Julian Cope (as if!) or a My Life Story B-side superior to one of Madness' finest songs committed to 7" vinyl. 

 

There was a little bit of method, though: in a very cack-handed way, I did try to think about the subsequent colour complementing the one that had preceded it; the fact that I managed to then find songs that (I think) didn't jar when placed in sequence was a happy accident.

Possibly the only compilation today that will take you from The Arch Drude and Lenny Bruce to Roni Size by way of Lawrence and his Mozart Estate and the Icelandic-Bulgarian-Russian triptych of GusGus, Metodi Hristov and Maksim Dark aka Maxim Surzhik. 

 

Oh, and check out the video for Ruby Red by Marc "Mohican" Almond for a reminder of the good old days when his songs and visuals were routinely banned, to the disappointment of his chart-hungry record label(s).

 

1) Soldier Blue (Album Version): Julian Cope ft. Lenny Bruce (1991)

2) Indigo Eyes (USA Single Edit): Peter Murphy (1988)

3) Yellow Balloon: Jan & Dean (1966)

4) Grey Day (Album Version): Madness (1981)

5) Pink And The Purple: Mozart Estate (2023)

6) Orange Trees (Claptone Extended Remix By Christoph Göttsch & Daniel Brems): Marina (2019)

7) Magenta (Maksim Dark Remix By Maxim Surzhik): GusGus & Metodi Hristov (2018)

8) The Return Of Emerald Green: My Life Story (1997) *

9) Ruby Red (Album Version): Marc Almond ft. The Willing Sinners (1987)

10) Brown Paper Bag (Full Vocal Mix): Roni Size Reprazent ft. Dynamite MC (1998)

 

1966: Save For A Rainy Day: 3 

1981: 7: 4

1987: Mother Fist And Her Five Daughters: 9

1988: Indigo Eyes EP: 2

1991: Peggy Suicide: 1 

1997: Strumpet EP: 8 

1998: Brown Paper Bag EP: 10

2018: Magenta EP: 7

2019: Orange Trees EP: 6

2023: Pop-Up! Ker-Ching! And The Possibilities Of Modern Shopping: 5

First Shade (40:48) (KF) (Mega)

 

* I tweeted the original version of Emerald Green (B-side to 1997 single Sparkle) but I didn't have a digital copy to hand for this selection. To the best of my knowledge, there have been at least 4 other variations/sequels which appeared on various B-sides between 1997 and 1999, namely The Return Of Emerald Green, Emerald Green Strikes Back, Paint It Emerald Green and Emerald Green Blah Blah Blah. I've gone for the first one as it segued nicely into the next song.

Reinvent, Remix, Reveal

Marina & The Diamonds to round off the week, with a baker's dozen of remixes drawn from the three albums, The Family Jewels (2009), Electra Heart (2012) and Froot (2014).

Marina has performed and released records mononymously since 2018 but her earlier material is still fertile ground for reworks and re-edits. Interspersed with the contemporaneous remixes by 'name' artists such as Fred Falke, Benny Benassi and Blood Orange/Devonté Hynes, here you'll find some fan-based versions by Solitary Jewel, Gabrielle B, Exile and MATDMixes. 

 

Several of these bootleg mixes imagine a parallel universe where Marina was born twenty years earlier and became a huge star in the 1980s. Sounds odd - and the accompanying Photoshopped images are even odder - but strangely it works.

I've been a fan of Marina since hearing I Am Not A Robot for the first time in 2009. In an overcrowded world of pop, she's found a place somewhere between Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey that's unmistakably her own and continues to explore new territory with each album, whilst retaining the irresistible hooks of those early singles.

 

For more treasures, the official Marina website is chock full of visual and aural delights.

Oh, and a very belated happy birthday to Marina Lambrini Diamandis for 10th October.

 

1) Electra Heart (Alternative [Hard Rock Inspired] Version-Remix By Solitary Jewel) (2021)

2) Oh No! (Grum Remix By Graeme Shepherd) (2010)

3) Shampain (Fred Falke Remix) (2010)

4) Mowgli's Road (Mille Remix By Mille Ponken) (2009)

5) Froot (Synthwave Electro Remix 80s By Gabrielle B) (2022)

6) Obsessions (Ocelot Remix By Aaron Peacock) (2010)

7) Teen Idle (1987) (Exile 80s Ballad Remix) (2022)

8) Living Dead (Extended Mix By MATDMixes) (2020)

9) I Am Not A Robot (Penguin Prison Remix By Chris Glover) (2010)

10) Radioactive (Blood Orange Remix By Devonté Hynes) (2011)

11) Blue (Holychild Remix By Elizabeth Nistico & Louie Diller) (2015)

12) Hollywood (Monarchy Gliese Remix By Andrew Kornweibel & Ra Khahn) (2010)

13) Primadonna (Benny Benassi Remix) (Full Length)  (2012) 

Reinvent, Remix, Reveal (1:12:20) (GD) (M)

Some Days It Just Doesn't Pay To Get Out Of Bed...

It started off well enough. 

 

I woke up at 6.45am, fed the cat, made myself a cup of tea, checked some emails, casually mooched around the house.

Mrs. K entered the kitchen, looked at me, oddly I thought. I talked about some ideas for the day.

"You do realise that it's Friday, not Saturday?" she said.

Oh shit.

The day didn't get any better, believe me.

The post that I'd originally planned for today that was half written and due to be finished off this morning will now see the light of day on Monday. That's if I remember what day it is and post it...