Dissident World Cup! (Part One)
Welcome to the Dissident World Cup!
If memory (and whatsapp history) serves me well, I think it was at Lux Frágil’s anniversary back in October that my friend Teamy and I hatched a plan: to conduct a knockout championship bracket of all the releases on Dissident, the label run by Aslan-like DJ and general ledge Andy Blake.
Andy was co-founder of the party World Unknown, which Teamy describes as “genuinely the only party in London I ever went to where I thought, that’s what a party should be like”. I too was a semi-regular at WU back when it was under the Loughborough Junction arches. Dissident, for its part, burned briefly but brightly from 2007 to 2009, though it’s difficult to put any kind of chronological order on its cavalcade of releases thanks to Andy’s choice of non-numerical catalogue numbers. With their distinctive single-sided vinyl, eye-catching artwork (it’s a needle in a groove!) and fonts that pop, Dissident records are a welcome, though in some instances very rare, sighting in second hand bins across the planet.
I confess, however, that before this tournament bracket my exposure to Dissident was rather limited, with only four of the records ever making it onto my shelves. Teamy, by contrast, actually worked for Dissident for a stretch, and as a result is the proud owner of much of the catalogue:
And so, a date was set for us to spend an evening listening to and appraising the 62 records put out by Dissident, pitting them against each other in a ruthless single-elimination bracket until there was only one left. Who would emerge victorious? Follow this series to find out.
The bracket
Aside from two tracks pre-selected by Teamy that received free passes into the second round, no other seeding was implemented going into the bracket groupings. This was a decision that caused some regret, leading as it did to some painful decisions early on. But our resolve held strong, and we did what had to be done.
For the handful of Dissident releases that feature more than one track, we decided to select our favourite tune from the record and discard the rest. Hence Kruton’s stonking ‘Hollow Demon’ does not make an appearance, as it lost out by a hair to its even more stonking A-side bedfellow ‘Cheddar Heights’. In truth both tracks could have made it far into the bracket — what a killer EP that was!
Round of 62: Group One
The first quarter of the bracket saw Glaswegian live synth duo Den Haan (‘The Chicken’ for those asking) get an opening round pass with their hit ‘Night Shift’ — more on that when we get to the next stage. That left 14 other records vying for their first victory in the tournament. Read on to find out who made it over the first obstacle and into the second round.
Kruton - ‘Cheddar Heights’ vs The 24seven - ‘Rokkoko Raduno’
“Surprisingly subdued” was my initial verdict on The24seven’s ‘Rokkoko Raduno’, since the handful of Dissident records I was already familiar with were all unadulterated bangers. But Teamy soon put me straight, pointing out that Dissident started off as a slower, chuggier disco label before branching out into more frenetic fare. We both liked this, but it was up against fierce competition.
Kruton, or Milo Smee to his mother, appears several times in this tournament under this alias and others like Binary Chaffinch, or as one half of Invincible Scum with Andy Blake. ‘Cheddar Heights’ was one of the aforementioned handful of slammers I actually own and I played it a lot this year, including at Adonis and Dimensions. Neither I nor Teamy could help but pull a rave face while this was on, and the rave face never lies.
Winner: Kruton — ‘Cheddar Heights’
Invincible Scum - ‘Shake It Up’ vs Cage & Aviary - ‘Television Train’
One of the label’s earliest releases, Invincible Scum’s ‘Shake It Up’ sounds like a live drummer finding their groove and going at it for 8 minutes. Teamy and I discussed this skill of Andy’s, catching a groove and sitting in it for minutes on end, and it was something that came up again and again throughout this tournament. His Cave Paintings series is another example. The ricochets from the echo box add a psychedelic edge to this otherwise straight-up rockin’ jam. (Remaining unresolved is the question of whether ‘Invincible Scum’ is a pun — it sounds like one, but what on?)
‘Television Train’ by Cage & Aviary — who I thought sounded like a second string British comedy duo — is a poised bit of slow-mo dance punk, and sure enough it would later be licensed by DFA Records for a wider release through their Death From Abroad sub-imprint. It was at this point we discovered that Nigel Hoyle, one half of Cage & Aviary, was an original member of flash-in-the-pan Britpop band Gay Dad. “Does that mean you can draw a straight line from Gay Dad to Andy Blake?” Teamy asked incredulously. We can safely say Hoyle’s bass chops were put to much better use on this project with Jamie Paton than on ‘To Earth With Love’.
A close one, this battle of contrasts, but the presence of better Invincible Scum offerings later in the bracket and the paucity of disco hits gives Cage & Aviary the edge.
Winner: Cage & Aviary - ‘Television Train’
Clap Rules - ‘Buio Omega’ vs Invincible Scum ‘House Of The Rising Scum’
The promo for Invincible Scum’s ‘House Of The Rising Scum’ says: “If the word hadn’t been hijacked by the 2 bob electro house fraternity then filthy would be the adjective in use here.” I’m going to use it though, because this is FILTHY.
The Clap Rules quartet included Fabrizio Mammarella, who co-founded the modern italo powerhouse Slow Motion in 2009, and this track would certainly fit on that other label. Both of us thought ‘Buio Omega’ sounded like a Giallo soundtrack — and we were right! It is indeed a cover of Goblin’s soundtrack for Beyond The Darkness, a 1979 film about a murderous taxidermist.
Invincible Scum’s snarling acid modulations take them through to round two. (Teamy, however, revised his earlier opinion on which was the best SCUM, in favour of ‘Shake It Up’.)
Winner: Invincible Scum - ‘House Of The Rising Scum’
Binary Chaffinch - ‘False Energy (Invincible Scum Remix)’ vs Gatto Fritto - ‘Hungry Ghosts’
“Oof” says Teamy as the bassline to ‘False Energy’ drops in. As with most of Milo Smee’s output, I like how this one sits between industrial and disco, though it also suffers from his tendency to take things in a slightly suspect direction as it progresses. Teamy wisely notes it could have done with an edit. We both prefer the Invincible Scum remix. (By happy coincidence one of the comments on the record’s discogs listing is by Jim from Kiosk Radio — big ups Jim!)
“Does Gatto Fritto mean ‘fried cat’?” I ask. Yes, comes the answer. I actually own his self-titled album but have never listened to it much. This track is so laid back it reminds me a little of Walter Murphy, while Teamy describes it as a ‘borderline melter’, the quintessential ‘melter’ of course being Oni Ayhun’s ‘OAR003-B’. Teamy: “It sounds like falling in love”. Well, that’ll do it.
Winner: Gatto Fritto - ‘Hungry Ghosts’
Brassica - ‘The Centre’ vs Helium Robots - ‘Metallic Dawn’
Teamy feels bad for this Brassica track because he knows it’s up against one of his favourites. I think Brassica sounds like the name of a producer from early Hessle Audio, which, incidentally, was also founded in 2007. The musical reference point I reach for with ‘The Centre’, though, is LCD Soundsystem’s workout album 45:33, at least until the shouty vocals come in. I’m a fan, as is Teamy. (My favourite brassica, by the way, is cauliflower, while Teamy’s is any kind of cabbage for making coleslaw.)
Unfortunately for the broccoli man, Helium Robots’ ‘Metallic Dawn’ is stiff competition. It’s a slippery, gliding number with a stunningly effective little fake-out silence at the end of the break. And who should be there when I look at the discogs listing but Teamy himself? He was able to quote back to me almost word-for-word his comment on the record, exactly fifteen years later:
Teamy did indeed play ‘Metallic Dawn’ at peaktime at his own Wrong Island party in Glasgow, around its time of release, with Andy Blake himself in attendance to give an approving nod. Sorry, Brassica, but you can’t beat that story.
Winner: Helium Robots - ‘Metallic Dawn’
Spacelex - ‘Happy Birthday’ vs Colombia #1 - ‘Colombia #1’
The marching band oompah of Spacelex’s ‘Happy Birthday’ divides me and Teamy, he in favour and me against. I’m also disappointed it’s called ‘Happy Birthday’ without being the actual song. The cheeseball in Teamy is appeased by this one, I am not.
‘Colombia#1’, by contrast, is one that Teamy doesn’t own because he didn’t like it much at the time. Specifically, he wasn’t happy with the way it samples the voice of the computer from Star Trek. Not being a Star Trek fan myself, I’m ambivalent about the vocal, but I also think the track is a bit dull. ‘Happy Birthday’ it is, then.
Winner: Spacelex - ‘Happy Birthday’
Muravchix - ‘Tropical Warrior’ vs Hardton - ‘Marilyn (Zoe Xenia Remix)’
Hardton, an Italian duo whose debut on Dissident proved to be the start of a very successful recording career, appear in the next group with the original of ‘Marilyn’. Here we have a remix of the track by Zoe Xenia, who around this time was releasing on long-tail mnml/house labels like Connaisseur and Bass Culture. We both agree that it’s not particularly interesting, but we might yet be convinced if someone dropped it at the right time in a set.
Dapper dude Sebastian Muravchix was one half of the band Heartbreak alongside Ali Renault, who will be making his own solo appearance later. ‘Tropical Warrior’ is a sunset top-down drive along the waterfront, babes in the back. “In the interests of efficiency, this is going through, right?” says Teamy after about 20 seconds. I concur.
Winner: Muravchix - ‘Tropical Warrior’
Round of 62: Group Two
Group Two didn’t have any obvious heavy hitters when we started it, but as we played through there were more than a couple of pleasant surprises. Ali Renault has strong representation, both solo and in duos, while Andy Blake appears across four originals and remixes. This group really shows off Dissident’s range, and I couldn’t help exclaiming at how crazy it was that all of these records were released in the space of three years. Let’s get into it.
Gatto Fritto - ‘Invisible College’ vs Hardton - ‘Marilyn’
A highly sought-after track by Gatto Fritto, ‘Invisible College’ appears on his aforementioned self-titled album that has been sitting on my shelf for years. “I imagine the sort of collectors who wear Hawaiian shirts go for this” says Teamy. There’s no denying it’s an effective piece of Balearic and the bassline slaps, but I was a quite unsettled by the church organ and the nagging feeling I’d heard it all before.
Speaking of hearing it all before, we chose Hardton’s original of ‘Marilyn’ over its A side ‘Time To Jack’ as it was the less pastichey and less “farty” (Teamy’s word) of the two tracks. Yet it’s still incredibly pastichey, sounding like the gays melted down George Michael and Kylie into a serum for direct injection.
There’s no denying the gays, so Hardton take this one.
Winner: Hardton - ‘Marilyn’
Mark Broom - ‘Mandate (Kruton Remix)’ vs Discodromo - ‘Guinea (Andy Blake’s Edit)’
This Mark Broom record is one of the handful of Dissident records I’ve owned over the years, and I even have a strong memory of playing it at the New Year’s Day afters at Picklée Factrée one year. I sold it though, and now looking at the discogs listing I see it has since become sought after. It has an immediate rave-face-ness to it but it doesn’t really go anywhere interesting.
We listen to ten seconds of Andy Blake’s chuggy edit of ‘Guinea’ by Discodromo, the founders of Cocktail D’Amore, and it takes the win. We’ll listen to it in full in the next round.
Winner: Discodromo - ‘Guinea (Andy Blake’s Edit)’
S.C.S. - ‘Redemption’ vs Electric Man - ‘Bubble Wrap’
This seems to be an Andy Blake double header. Neither Teamy nor I have heard ‘Redemption’ by S.C.S. before, and we both immediately decide we want to play it out. Andy goes garage? It’s got spacey dub elements in it too and sounds little like anything else we’ve had so far. It’s a banger.
‘Bubble Wrap’ by Electric Man is “pretty gnarly”. We both like these two efforts a lot and agree that ‘Bubble Wrap’ could go far, but it finds itself unceremoniously unseated by the garagey upstart. “Andy wins either way,” Teamy observes, philosophically.
Winner: S.C.S. - ‘Redemption’
Spacelex - ‘Pretty Face’ vs Ali Renault - ‘Lacrimal’
The first Ali Renault solo appearance in this tournament, ‘Lacrimal’ is notable for its sub-100bpm pace and many layers of growling italo synths. We don’t have much to say about it but it’s a vibe.
I wasn’t much of a fan of Spacelex’s ‘Happy Birthday’ earlier and my immediate response to the other side of the same record, ‘Pretty Face’, is to say “this is a bit silly”. Teamy abdicates from all responsibility and hands me the decision. I’m completely ambivalent. I think we both know, even though we don’t say it, that neither of these tunes will make it past the second round. I hand it to Spacelex with a shrug.
Winner: Spacelex - ‘Pretty Face’
The Off-Key Hat - ‘Emergency Calling’ vs Truffle Club - ‘Gone Blue’
The Off-Key Hat were the trio of Darren Morris, Leon Mayes and Michelle Manetti. I know the latter from her DJing appearances at Adonis and Love Muscle. There isn’t much info on Leon Mayes, but Darren Morris is a musician of some pedigree. ‘Emergency Calling’ has a strong Maurice Fulton/Alice Smith vibe to it. “Oooh” we both go as the stabs come in. This is going to be a strong contender.
Truffle Club is Dave Clark (“not that Dave Clarke”) and Truffle Club was apparently the name of a strip club in Glasgow above which he had his studio. We both agree Truffle Club is a hilariously bad name for a strip club. ‘Gone Blue’ is a Goldfrapp-y number, short and fast compared to most other entries in the Dissident catalogue. We briefly debate the pros and cons of single-sided releases (as discussed on the discogs label comments) as it is playing. Here you get less than 5 minutes of music on a 12” record — but Teamy points out that single sided records are always useful for balancing the tonearm, and of course vinyl was a lot cheaper back in 2008.
We both like ‘Gone Blue’ a lot, but in an upset it loses out to the more distinctive and sexy slowjam.
Winner: The Off-Key Hat - ‘Emergency Calling’
John Waynes - ‘Take Me Out’ vs Ali Renault - ‘Zombie Raffle’
Teamy tells me the bizarrely named John Waynes were a Portuguese duo from Aveiro, and according to the promo for ‘Take Me Out’ it was a hit at the “John Waynes beach parties” of 2009. It’s a slowjam that sounds like the credits theme from a 80s cowboy drama and I am not a fan of the shallow clippy cloppy vibe, which can only ever remind me of ‘My Lovely Horse’.
“I don’t think this will take long then” says Teamy, as it’s going up against one of the better Ali Renault tracks. Indeed, we only need about 10 seconds of ‘Zombie Raffle’, a 110bpm facemelter, to make our decision. “This has got fetish night written all over it,” says Teamy, and I immediately start to plot a new fetish night named Zombie Raffle.
Winner: Ali Renault - ‘Zombie Raffle’
Brassica - ‘Illness From Awareness’ vs Ape Into Jam - ‘1972’
After his first releases on Dissident, Brassica ended up releasing on Bicep’s label among others. In fact this is true of many artists on the label: Andy (and Teamy) clearly had a knack for spotting/finding promising producers. This one sounds like an old console soundtrack for a first-person shooter, and we learn that in 2021 Brassica did actually put together a soundtrack for a retro kung fu game called Okinawa Rush. I say I’d have loved to see him do a live set, and it turns out he was still performing into mid-2022. Lisbon promoters, get on it!
Ape Into Jam is an anagram of Jamie Paton, one half of Cage & Aviary, and this is very much another C&A kind of jam. Personally I find the whistling motif a bit cloying, and realising we’re stuck with it for the entire 12 minute runtime doesn’t help. We have a split of opinion, though, as Teamy would put this ahead of Brassica.
It’s not a big swing for either of us, and since we put out ‘The Centre’ earlier we give Brassica a pass this time. It’s a technical victory.
Winner: Brassica - ‘Illness From Awareness’
Alexander Robotnick - ‘Obsession (Andy Blake Remix)’ vs Heartbreak - ‘Akin To Dancing (The Horrors Remix)’
On paper, the combo of Alexander Robotnick and Andy Blake should be a surefire winner. At 15 minutes it’s possibly the longest acid jam we’ve had so far and it sounds pretty great in a Passarani kind of way, though as expected it doesn’t go anywhere much. “Do you think he just went for a cup of tea or a shite?” Teamy asks, reasonably.
It’s up against a remix of Heartbreak (Ali Renault and Muravchix) by The Horrors, a band I was into back in 2006 for their Pitchfork-approved 90-second debut single ‘Sheena Is A Parasite’. It seems that by 2009 they had morphed from punk pop to synth pop, at least as far as this remix goes.
We both give ‘Akin To Dancing’ the nod before moving on to the second half of the bracket.
Winner: Heartbreak - ‘Akin To Dancing (The Horrors Remix)’
And with that, we are halfway through round one of the Dissident World Cup knockout tournament! There were some upsets, some routs (or ‘squash matches’ as Teamy, an avowed wrestling fan, described them) and a couple of unmemorable scoreless draws.
Both of us were consistently struck by the variety of the tracks, which just reflects Andy Blake’s overall philosophy as a DJ and label head. We both foresee more surprises in the second half of the bracket, which features one of my favourite Kruton tracks and probably the strangest Andy production of all…
Stay tuned for Part Two!