Oblique Saturdays

A series for Saturdays in 2026 inspired by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's set of cards, Oblique Strategies (Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas). Eno and Schmidt created them to be used to unblock creative impasses and approach problems from unexpected angles. Each week I'll turn over an Oblique Strategy card and post a song or songs inspired by the suggestion. 

Last week's Oblique Strategy suggestion was You can only make one dot at a time. 

This made me start joining the dots between One Dove and Dot Allison, Arab Strap, Wire and Dot Dash, Ry Lichtenstein, The Jam and Pete Wylie and Ariadne's Labyrinth. From the wider Bagging Area community came these dots- C with Angines de Poitrine, Ernie with The Blue Aeroplanes ...And Stones, Al G and Jonathan Richman and Vincent van Gogh, Craig with Hot Chip's Over And Over, Noone and Les Rallizes Denudes, Rol and The Teardrop Explodes, the Swede with The Beat and Ranking Full Stop, Walter with !!! and Chris ZenArcade with some lysergic dots and E.D. 209's Metre and that Robocop sample...

This week's Oblique Strategy card is this- A very small object. It's centre.

My knowledge of physics is fairly limited. Last year a friend lent me Carlo Rovelli's Helgoland,a  very readable account of the story of quantum physics. I still couldn't explain even in the simplest terms much about quantum physics but I enjoyed the ride. 

I do know that atoms are extremely small and are the basic particles that make up everything. At the centre of an atom is the nucleus (which must therefore be smaller than an atom- right?). Atoms are so small we cannot see them, a million times smaller than the breadth of a hair. Coincidentally (and I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that nothing about this series is coincidental, it all seems to be connected), earlier this week I was wandering around the campus at Manchester University where I photographed the Humanities building, a rectangle of concrete opened in 1970. It is the picture at the top of this post. It is just round the corner from the Rutherford Building, which contains the room in which in 1917 Ernest Rutherford split the atom* and so created the modern field of nuclear physics (I once went on a course in the exact room where Rutherford made his discovery). 

Sixty seven years later, also in Manchester, Factory Records released FAC 102, Atom Rock by Quando Quango.

Atom Rock

Quando Quango were a dance act somewhat ahead of their time, Mike Pickering channeling electronic music from New York and Chicago into mid- 80s Manchester along with Gonnie and Reinier Rietveld. They formed in Rotterdam in 1980 and then relocated to Manchester in '82 when the Hacienda opened. Mike Pickering's role in modern Manchester and Factory cannot be overplayed. 

Atom Rock is a light on its feet slice of 1984, pioneering dance music with jazz and Latin influences worn on its sleeves, produced by Be Music (Bernard Sumner and Donald Johnson of ACR). That jangly, funky guitar riff is a moonlighting Johnny Marr (the birth of Electronic, Marr and Sumner's late 80s band, is this record). It's one of those songs that made Factory such an interesting record label in the mid- 80s. 'Fela Kuti meets Kraftwerk somewhere between Rotterdam and Manchester', said Gonnie of the band's sound. 

A year later there was a Mark Kamins remix, Kamins putting his Roland 808 through its paces (Kamins was the man who launched Madonna)...

Atom Rock (Mark Kamins New York Remix)

Juan Moreno's Atomism Theory came out in 2024, an eight minute ambient piece that actually sounds like it could be the sound of atomic particles and nuclear fission.

Atomism Theory

And in a nice link to Carlo Rovelli's Helgoland, in 2009 Massive Attack released Heligoland (both named after the same piece of land, an archipelago in Germany). The first single from the album was Splitting The Atom, with Horace Andy on co- vocals and Damon Albarn on keys. 

Splitting The Atom

I have several other atom/ atomic songs but I'll stop there. Feel free to split your own atoms in the comments box or make any other responses to the Oblique Strategy card- A very small object. It's centre.

* Apparently 'splitting the atom' is a poor choice of words for what Rutherford actually did. The University of Manchester's website says that Rutherford was ''the first person to create an artificial nuclear reaction... now described as 'splitting the atom' in popular accounts''

Stab A Sorry Heart

Echo and The Bunnymen on Top Of The Pops, July 1984. A masterclass in making an effort and blowing early evening teenage minds, the Bunnymen at their most pop and most stoned. 

The Bunnymen travelled all the down from Liverpool to the Top of The Pops studios to mime to the third single from Ocean Rain, their poppiest moment, the epic, swooping grandeur of Seven Seas. On the left, Pete de Freitas is dressed a penguin, white face paint and puffed out chest, a minimal kit (two cymbals and a snare). He looks deadly serious as only a man dressed as a penguin should. 

On the right, Will Sergeant (I presume, it could be anyone) miming guitar and dressed as a fish. Unlike Pete there is less effort made at the miming. Will/ the fishman strums an F chord for the entire performance. 

In the centre, Ian McCulloch. Ian is of planet Earth but not on planet , a man spiralling far away, distant and alone, porcelain skin and bird's nest hair, swimming on dry land, dancing in front of a mirror of his imagination, Narcissus in high waisted pleated trousers. Stoned immaculate. It's a miracle he can remember the words.

As the band give it their very best shot, a giant fish dangling above them and down the front Bill Drummond stands by, mouthing the words to Seven Seas and operating the stage prop waves as the band hit the third chorus. Where is Les? Missing, lost at sea...

Magnificent, the stuff that dreams are made of. Seven Seas is peak McCulloch, a song of romance and travel, cavemen and mother religious. The tortoiseshell is apparently a reference to cocaine and sex (or sex on cocaine) but let's not dwell on that right now, it might spoil the mood. 

Seven Seas

The Peel Session version of Seven Seas is a diverting take on the song, recorded in June 1983, the band still working the song out with Will's guitar front and centre and a drunken glockenspiel part that didn't make the final version. 

Japan Italy Nuremberg Todmorden

A truly globetrotting post today, from the Far East to Europe, with two reviews I've done over at Dr. Rob's Japan based Ban Ban Ton Ton blog in the last month, a pair of albums that are lighting up summer 2026. Both albums have something in common in sound and outlook, a European cosmische sensibility, one from Italy and one from Germany. 

First, Italian ambient artist Gigi Masin and an album called Movement which spans the electronic spectrum with ambient drones, heavenly choirs, cosmische excursions, sidesteps into jazz and breakbeats and more besides. My review is here and the album is at Bandcamp here. 

Deception Dance is a seven and a half minute triumph, a marriage of the synthetic and robotic with the organic and human. 

From Italy we head north through the Alps to southern Germany and Nuremberg's Konformer who have just released their second album, Konformer II. The band play instrumental kosmische, synths and drums following the bass guitar which usually takes the lead and creates the energy- loops of bass that become grooves, spacey, minimalist and motorik sounds. Three of the six tracks are named after places, Mont Ventoux, Marseille and Todmorden. The last of these three will host Konformer when they play a week long tour of the UK in late August/ early September, concluding at Manchester Psyche Fest.

My review at Ban Ban Ton Ton is here and the album, out now on Jason Boardman's Before I Die, is here and below.  

The Morning Of The Trip

In 2023 Andy Bell and Masal released an album, called Tidal Love Numbers- four long ambient pieces that wandered into psyche, folk, jazz and blissed out noisy drones and back again, Andy's guitar and Masal's harp and synths all blurring into a greater whole. Andy and Masal have a new album out in October called Common Primitives and ahead of it this single, The Morning Of The Trip...

The Morning Of The Trip is the soundtrack to something- a slow film about the passage of time perhaps, time lapse photography of the start of a new day, a long descent from the heavens by balloon. A theme tune. Visual music. Shoegaze/ ambient and harp. 

You can buy it and pre- order the album at Bandcamp

In a handy moment of coincidence this is the morning of my trip too- I'm off to Glasgow for a couple of days where I shall meet up with JC (The Vinyl Villain) and a few other like minded folk. When I booked my train a few weeks ago I wasn't really thinking about the World Cup and which teams might have made it to the semi- final stage. It has transpired that tonight I shall be in Glasgow when England play their semi- final against Argentina, a place where an Englishman supporting England is unlikely to be particularly popular. 

I have been drawn in by the World Cup despite my misgivings about it- about Trump's USA being the hosts, about the advert/ hydration breaks, about Infantino and FIFA (and some of those misgivings have been very much realised such as Trump pressuring FIFA to rescind a US player's red card not to mention their treatment of the Iranian team and Omar Artan, the Somali referee who was barred from entering the country). 

The sheer variety the World Cup brings- teams and fans from countries as far afield as Japan, Morocco, Belgium and Mexico, the collision of styles and cultures, the colour and the spectacle- is very much to be applauded and soaked up. The world in all its varieties. 

I often have an unease about supporting England- the flag, the national anthem, the fans dressed as crusaders, the endless recycling of that song and of 'football coming home'. It's all so, as the kids say, cringe. But in the current climate, a multi- cultural team of young men from a variety of backgrounds doing well is a good thing (three examples- Bukayo Saka, Nigerian parents, born in Ealing; Jude Bellingham, Irish and Jamaican parents, born in Birmingham; Djed Spence Jamaican and Kenyan parents, born in London; this is England and the racists, the Reform voters and the lamppost flaggers are having to deal with it. It's the England most of us are actually happy to be part of and to live in). When Jude Bellingham scored against Norway in extra time late on on Saturday night I was leaping round the living room like a lunatic. Fingers crossed we find a pub in Glasgow where we can watch England go one step further. 

England's Irie

Everything's Coming Undone

This was the sky on Sunday evening, taken from the back of our house- the sun being obscured by smoke and the air thick with the smell of burning moorland. There was a major fire on moorland around Dove Stone reservoir, east of Oldham twenty two miles away, started apparently by youths setting fireworks off. The fireworks were to commemorate an eighteen year old who died swimming in the reservoir last week. One depressing thing leads to another. The smell of burning was still in the air yesterday, depending on wind direction, there's a layer of ash everywhere and in the evening the skies became filled with smoke and dust again. 

In 2009 a tribute album to Mark Mulcahy was released featuring covers by assorted stars from the indie/ alternative world- Thom Yorke, the National, Dinosaur Jr, Frank Black, Mercury Rev and Juliana Hatfield all contributed as did Michael Stipe. 

Mulcahy was the frontman and singer in 80s guitar band Miracle Legion and then Polaris and a solo artist too. The tribute album was released to raise funds for Mark when his wife Melissa died unexpectedly leaving him to raise their then three year old twin girls single handedly. An expanded version of the album, Ciao My Shining Star, came out in 2016- you can find it at Bandcamp. 

Everything's Coming Undone is a song from Mark Mulcahy's 2005 solo album In Pursuit Of Your Happiness, a visceral and misanthropic set of songs with J Mascis and Joey Santiago providing musical backup. It's also at Bandcamp.  

R.E.M. were still active at the time of this cover. Michael's cover version has some lovely Velvets style organ drones, a rudimentary drumbeat and Stipe in very good voice, 'I know that I will be alright', he sings, the sort of line that sounds utterly convincing when coming out of his mouth. The chaotic, noisy end section is also a joy in itself. 

Everything's Coming Undone

Monday's Long Song

Recently we watched the three part Kylie documentary on Netflix. I say recently, it was several weeks ago, before the World Cup and Love Island started (the football on in the back room for me, Love Island in the front room for Eliza). The series covered her life and had some affecting parts- her relationship with Michael Hutchence (clearly still something she feels deeply about), her cancer diagnoses and treatments, and the unreal level of animosity towards her from some of the tabloids in the late 80s are all covered. There's some amazing home video footage of her on the Orient Express with Michael Hutchence, seemingly just another young couple in love and in lust but also both at peak fame. The 90s when she freed herself from SAW and took control of her music and image, leading to her becoming even bigger eventually. 

Celebrity documentaries can feel very 'curated', the level of production control clearly something that tilts the story telling. Kylie has been incredibly famous since 1987. In the series she is going through boxes of photos and letters, each one offering something that goes beyond the public image and there was the sense that she was allowing the film crew some quite intimate access into her life. At the same time, some of the interview sections felt quite controlled, Kylie presenting herself as a construct, as Kylie. Interesting stuff and in the 80s and 90s sections, a glimpse into a world that has long gone, the pre- internet, pre- social media world of the recent past. 

Nick Cave turns up among the cast of interviewees and is witty, insightful and erudite. It sent me back to Murder Ballads, the 1996 Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds album, one I haven't listened to for a long time. My copy is on CD. I don't remember where or when I bought it but it must have been second hand. Inside the booklet on the first page, written in biro, is this- 'Andy/ Hope this doesn't Depress you too much! Best Wishes, Nick Cave'. The signature looks like examples of Nick's I've seen online so it seems genuine. I've no idea who Andy was or why he sold or donated his CD. 

The album is veers between morose and high camp, traditional folk songs and blues, a Bob Dylan cover (Death Is Not The End, the only song where no one dies) and several Bad Seeds originals including the fifteen minute long O'Malley's Bar. 

O'Malley's Bar

O'Malley's Bar was the song that kick started the album. It was recorded when the band were making Henry' Dream in 1992 but didn't fit on that album. The Bad Seeds had to make an album Nick Cave said, 'where the song could exist'. 

The song starts with a vampy organ part, late 19th century saloon bar music, and Nick begins the lengthy song with the line 'I am tall and I am thin/ Of an enviable height/ And have known to be quite handsome/From a certain angle and in a certain light'. He enters O'Malley's Bar and within a few lines the murders begin- first O'Malley, then O'Malley's wife, then a customer, Caffrey. Mrs Richard Holmes is shot and a further five drinkers before the police arrive and Nick's narrator is taken into custody, counting on his fingers the number of people who died in O'Malley's Bar. 

We're clearly not supposed to take all of this seriously, it's story telling and theatrical, a Hallowe'en version of death and murder, a macabre epic, cartoon violence mixed with liberal swearing and Biblical allusions. It's a world away from the Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds of Wild God. That's not a criticism of either work but it's difficult to imagine the Nick Cave of 2026 making Murder Ballads. He's just not that person any more. 

Forty Five Minutes Of Big Audio Dynamite

When Mick Jones was kicked out of The Clash in 1984 he moved on immediately, a man with something to prove. His first post- Clash band was Top Risk Action Company (T.R.A.C.) with Topper and basisst Leo 'E- Zee Kill' Williams on board but Topper's health prevented that from going anywhere. Mick and Leo hooked up Don Letts and segued T.R.A.C. into B.A.D., recruiting drummer Greg Roberts and Dan Donovan (keys). That line up made four albums, between 1985 and 1989- This Is Big Audio Dynamite, No. 10 Upping Street (with Joe Strummer co- writing and producing), Tighten Up Vol. 88 (cover art  painting by Paul Simonon) and Megatop Phoenix. All four are chock full of tunes, songs, wit, samples and the spirit of adventure, embracing new technology with an openness and joie de vivre. 

In 1990 the line up broke up and Mick formed B.A.D. II with three new players (Nick Hawkins, Gary Stonadge and Chris Kavanagh), releasing singles and albums that showed Mick's songwriting chops were still more than evident (and once again tapping into the pop culture with Shawn Stussy on sleeve art and design duties). There's a long and messy Big Audio Dynamite tail (including 1995's F- Punk which has the wonderful two chord autobiography I Turned Out A Punk on it) before Mick wound B.A.D. down and moved on (again) forming Carbon/ Silicon with Tony James.

Such are the riches of the Big Audio Dynamite back catalogue that this forty five minute mix only really dips a trainer in. A couple more could follow. In the meantime, sit tight and listen keenly while I play for you a brand new musical biscuit...

Forty Five Minutes Of Big Audio Dynamite

• B.A.D. Overture
• The Battle Of All Saints Road
• The Bottom Line
• Sony
• V Thirteen
• Contact (12" Version)
• The Globe
• C'Mon Every Beatbox (Extended Vocal Mix)

B.A.D. Overture is the music B.A.D. would play three minutes before arriving on stage in a blur of baseball caps, overcoats, lights, Dalek guitars and grins. The Overture samples B.A.D.'s own songs and others, mashing them up with a chunky drum machine, sirens, screeching tyres, guitars and Sergio Leone samples, the full hyperactive, everything and the kitchen sink experience. 

The Battle Of All Saints Road is from 1988's Tighten Up Vol. 88, a collision of rock, reggae, and dueling banjos and a story of battling street gangs united by a joint and their opposition to the police and the yuppies, all done with Mick's toothy grin and his love of West London. 

The Bottom Line is from the 1985 debut album, an album that has three bona fide B.A.D. classics- The Bottom Line, Medicine Show and E = MC2. The Bottom Line with its stuttering bassline, chiming guitars and constant energy is a truly great song. Even the Soviets are swinging away. 

Sony is from the same album, a day glo, drum machine and synths tribute to mid- 80s Japan, its clubs and technology, with Mick's trademark quivery vocals. 

V Thirteen is from 1986's No. 10 Upping Street (the home according to Joe Strummer of an alternative 'funky Prime Minister'). Joe co- wrote V Thirteen, a glorious tune referencing DJs, Knock On Wood and street gangs.

Contact is from Megatop Phoenix, a 1989 single too, that showed Mick and the B.A.D. gang once again moving on, now soaking up house music. The album was completed and released following Mick's brush with death- he was hospitalised with pneumonia and seriously ill in 1989, hence the phoenix of the title. Contact was a Jones/ Donovan co- write.

The Globe was a B.A.D. II single, Mick sampling Should I Stay Or Should I Go, stitching samples and instruments together with a killer chorus and none- more 1991 rap.

C'Mon Every Beatbox is B.A.D. to the max, Mick and Don taking samples from TV and film and trading lines, words rattling by a hundred a minute, nicking a guitar solo from Jimi Hendrix and sounding like they're having the time of their lives.