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The mighty Subhead: with what is in my opinion their best track, released on the Subemerge EP on Sativae in 1996. One thing occurs to me about 1996. I can remember at the time thinking it was bloody ages since 1992.
It sounded like nothing else at the time when I excitedly brought it home to Atholl Gardens from Fopp on Byres Road, and still sounds raw and fresh today. I love how it fidgets and mutates right the way through and keeps on surprising you. In 1996 techno was full of Jeff Mills copyists – pounding, relentless, dull, monotonous loops, and these guys were blazing their own funky path.
Phil Wells, half of Subhead, was a legendary geezer and all round good crack who sadly died in 2007. The other half of the group, Jason Leach, is still releasing mental music under a variety of aliases. Please visit his site.
Notice I have avoided the W word….wonky. Oh…