after bringing tears to glass eyes across the globe with the lovelorn beauty of oslo, nev cottee returns to aficionado with this 10inch beauty of spring promise. rather than the balladeer of his previous outing, this time round cottee stands inspired with the arcane knowledge of a prophetic troubadour, kaleidoscopic robes flowing behind him in the desert wind. at one with the cosmos, nev speaks the gospel from the heart, those warm vocals riding the swelling wave of soaring strings, frazzled guitar and undulating synth. driven by the percussive rumble of steady backbeat and lilting bongos, if i could tell you shimmers with the sun-blazed psychedelia of laurel canyon and the transcendent frequencies of summer madness before collapsing with a cascade of keys into a harmonic ocean all of its own. backed with the unadulterated healing frequencies of an instrumental version, this is another modern classic brought to you by manchesters finest selectors.

aficionado reach their sixth release in luxurious style with a couple of gorgeous numbers cherry picked from mancunian songwriter nev cottee s forthcoming lp, accompanied by two winning remixes. within the nilsson-esque melodies of *oslo*, cottee has buried a lifetime of emotion, balancing melancholy and joy perfectly. his words conjure the image of lost love remembered and fleeting nostalgia as those heartbreaking strings soar along. this is perfect balearic for the winter seasons.

that cyberpunk chameleon of styles, manchester’s pride and dancefloor master ruf dug is back on wax on copenhagen’s music for dreams. following up the first 12” of remixes that came out last year, we once again re-visit the island life of monsieur ruffy and his debut full length album “island” (recorded during a sojourn on guadeloupe). first up we have italians on the mix. hi-jacking ruffy’s tribute to wally badarou, leo mas and fabrice opt to do their own thing: which is churning out a bouncing house belter of their own that bears little resemblance to the original lo-fi synth reverie. closer to the original then, is fellow mancunian andi hanley’s take on the same track. adding sparse percussion and and a simple but effective drum beat, this take seems to simply be an uncovered second half of the original, where it finally takes off for the dancefloor. “mangrove dub” is reworked by fresh-on-the-scene aussie producer tropical hi-fi who creates a brilliant version full of moist ambient textures and reverb-heavy dub treatments. at last but definitely not least, seahawks turns the whimsical hippie folk ballad “le rayon vert” into a more intense and neatly dressed affair, focusing on the instrumental parts and lifting aside vocalist nev cotte’s contribution to the original. still with a mindful of tropical dreams and the ocean shore close at hand, but in a more introvert vini reilly kind of way. essential package.

“the marshall suite” is a 1999 album by the fall (their 20th). the album builds on the techno-influenced beats of its predecessor levitate (1997), while also returning to a more rockabilly-influenced sound reminiscent of earlier fall line-ups.
the end result has songs like the catchy “touch sensitive”, and the strange, complex, thumping jungle beats of “crying marshall”.
the album was long out of print on vinyl, until now.

early in 2014, copenhagens kenneth bager asked electronic wizard and remix entrepreneur ruf dug if he would make an album for his acclaimed balearic imprint music for dreams. that summer, ruf dug headed off to spend three months on the island of guadeloupe in the french caribbean. seizing the opportunity to live out his own compass point fantasy, he put together a portable studio that would fit into a suitcase - two half-rack synthesizers, a couple of effects units, his laptop and a 4-track cassette recorder. he set up the studio in the spare bedroom in a rented villa and spent the next 12 weeks watching the sun set and making the album. all tracks were written and recorded in guadeloupe, with nev cottee beaming in vocals and guitar parts for a couple of the tracks direct from the heart of mancunia, hooking into the powerful and long-standing musical relationship between manchester and that most famous of sunset islands ibiza