Both Ears and the Tail

We seem to have a new album on our hands. Here's the story.

Our second long-player was finished early this year. You haven't heard it yet because we'd like to get a vinyl edition out before posting it. It's an art thing.

What you have here instead is a Soundcloud set containing remixes of the core material which makes up the main Belleville songs. These songs are pastoral in inspiration but deal with a specific moment in English pop culture, the first wave of rural raves and warehouse dance parties through the second summer of love.

Both Ears and the Tail, is the title of a Swarbrick/Carthy album, but we use it here in its original meaning.

Nothing is wasted. Everything is consumed.

Rocking on your radio

Their really is nothing quite like hearing one of your own songs playing on the radio, so it's a big Stately thankyou to Little Chris for playing this tune on his Monday night Brumcast show. Check it out Rhubarb Radio.

Another teaser from the Belleville sessions, this is actually a mashup of an old Stately tune, Split The Atom and Everything Rocks, which closes the new album in a very different mix. Chris described it as "electro-Shoegaze", which seems fair. It certainly puts us in the referential ballpark.

Anyhow, do tune in to Brumcast or download the podcast, especially if you're outside the West Midlands, there's some seriously talented people in this connurbation.

Watch out for some more Stately goodness soon.

Noddy Holdings

The road to Belleville is paved with many detours. The basic nine songs for the second Stately album have been completed and we can't wait to play them to you. Rather than release them for free this time, we're hoping to secure a short run of physical product, vinyl if possible. At that point we'll release the MP3s.

This, of course, is not for financial reasons. We'd just like to have something totemic as a fruit of our creative collaboration. It's the hot wax that runs through our veins; the long Saturdays spent trawling through the second-hand record shops of London, Brighton, Birmingham, Newcastle and Bristol.

In the meantime, we're having great fun mashing up the material and remixing it. Here's a different view of Bellevile's closing euphoric meltdown, Everything Rocks. This campfire drum circle jam goes by the name of Shake Jackson Pullover.

Now, bet you can't wait for the chorus?

Miscegenation

Have a blast on this, then read on.

Not so long ago, the remix was a record company whip to boost credibility and sales. We'd dance slowly but furiously to Maxi Priest... and oh, how we danced. It was different then.

Steve "Silk" Hurley could slap a few house beats and strings over the new Dannii Minogue single and cash his cheque. We'd pay £1.99 in Our Price every Monday. It all stacked up.

The best remixes take a fantastic song and kick it into a new dimension, even if they date faster than sushi in the process. Norman Cook did it with Cornershop's Brimful of Asha. Andy Weatherall likewise with New Order's Regret. Coldcut brought DJ kicks to UK hiphop heads with their thieving Paid In Full classic. Witness also Orbital's stunning encapsulation of Meat Beat Manifesto's Mindstream.

Credit crunch economics have seen the remixer's art move from the corporate to community and the easy sharing of digital files has led to a reinvigorated culture of cross-pollination among today's underground musicians. Mash-up culture is now our Lingua Franca.

We're no longer children of the sampler, so the old cut and paste metaphor no longer applies. Rather than sticking a DAT in the post, we share stems and we drag and drop.

Which is a convoluted way of introducing you to Tiger Mendoza.

Missing On The Motorway, his mash-up of Everything But the Girl's Missing and DJ Shadow's Mashing On The Motorway recently took joint prize in Shadow's own remix competition on Soundcloud. Tiger's own tunes are even better.

Here's the first fruits of a remix swap between the Tiger camp and Stately Homes of England. It could be the second greatest shoegaze power ballad.

The Stately Belleville project is now on the runway. Click the button below for an in-house remix to whet your appetite.

Quick link to pic disc