On January 7th 1955, “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley and his Comets made its debut on the UK chart. It is often cited as the biggest-selling vinyl rock and roll single of all time with sales over 25 million. It made it to number one and has been in the charts at least three times
Benjamin Muñoz Varas is a self-taught producer, singer and songwriter. He uses the name Varas. With roots in Chile, Varas grew up in a small town called Götene in Sweden. When he was twelve his father introduced him to Led Zeppelin. At this time he took up the guitar. Having listened to his new single I am glad he got into music. The current single might not contain any guitar but it is a spine-tingling piano driven dark-tinged ballad. This song is the sort of thing I could drown happily in, it is a thing of pure beauty. It has a delicate fragility and the emotion is palpable. The track comes from his upcoming ‘Eaten by Worms’ EP which is due out next month.
Varas said this of the song “It’s about that feeling of embarrassment, but also liberation, when someone close to you points out that you look worn out and tired. I don’t even see that weariness when I look in the mirror, but having it highlighted by another person can be both mortifying and strangely cathartic. There’s a sense of the facade being as thin as rice paper, and a desire to be scrutinised, to be seen in our truest, most unguarded form.” This is a song you sit down in a relaxing environment and listen to. Do that now, you will not regret it!
This is the sixth in the Mayhem 12 Inch single series. I apologise again for the rather smutty, Carry On, double entendre, innuendo title for this feature. Can any of you constant readers think of a better title? But I am quite obviously talking about the 12-inch vinyl single. This series is now a playlist of my favourite 12-inch singles. I used to own many of them on vinyl. There are six songs so far and as they are extended versions that is more than 50 minutes of music! The sixth song is the second longest so far. It clocks in at more than 10 minutes. It is a monumentally glorious cover of “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” by Santa Esmeralda (starring Leroy Gómez).
I bought this record while on holiday with my mates in Benidorm, Spain in 1977. I know it is hard to believe, but I was only 18 at the time! Santa Esmeralda were a French-American disco group. The group was created in the studio by French producers Nicolas Skorsky and Jean Manuel de Scarano. The duo recruited Leroy Gómez to sing on their first single, which was “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”. Prior to this Gómez had been in other bands. His biggest claim to fame up to that point was that he played sax on “Social Disease.” This track is on Elton John’s 1973 opus ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’. “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” was the acts biggest hit. It hit number one in France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. It didn’t chart in the UK and only limped to number 8 in Spain where I bought it.
The Pistols on the day they signed with EMI (6th October 1976)
On 6th January 1977 EMI Records decided that they couldn’t handle the Sex Pistols. The company dropped them from the label and gave them a parting gift of £40,000 to cancel the contract. They were later dropped by A&M before eventually signing with Virgin. The incident did lead to the fabulous punk track “EMI” included on the Pistols first and only album ‘Never Mind The Bollocks Here’s The Sex Pistols’
Eugene is Eugenio Valente from Rome. He is described as an eclectic artist and producer with a special focus on electronic sounds. He also works as a remixer and soundtrack composer. His new EP is called ‘Sydereal’. I imagine that many of you are thinking, why is it called that. Well it contains some electro styled covers of some classic Syd Barrett tracks. There are two tracks from ‘The Madcap Laughs’ (1970). One track is from ‘Barrett’ (1970). Another one is from Pink Floyd’s debut album ‘Piper At The Gates Of Dawn’ (1967). Eugene captures the wonderful whimsy sound and feel that filled many of Syd’s songs. But he brings them neatly and nicely into the 21st Century.
The EP kicks off with two tracks from ‘The Madcap Laughs’. “Golden Hair” and “Love You”. “Golden Hair” has a really dark tone. It possesses an almost light horror quality. In some ways, it haunts you long after it has finished. Eugene gives “Love You” a wonderful electro pop style makeover which in some ways made me think of Mika. This is the first single to be taken from the EP, and given how catchy the sound is I am not surprised. Could anyone other than Syd Barrett have written a song called “Effervescing Elephant”? I suspect not. Eugene keeps the spirit of Syd well and truly alive with such a fun take on a fun song. The EP closes with an ethereal, fairground like, chilled dance spin on “Astronomy Divine”. I felt like I could drown or drift away in the cinematic waves of sound in this song. This is probably my favourite track of the four, but it is a close competition.
Eugene had this to say about why he likes Syd and why he decided to do this EP. “Barrett has always represented the purest example of creative freedom to me. He transcends time and evokes something cosmic—something ‘sidereal’—that gives life to unimaginable dreams, just like the cover artwork, where an electronic circuit is brought to life by a magnificent diamond through what feels like magic or alchemy.” Please check out ‘Sydereal’ I love it and I hope that you will too!
On January 5th 1991, Iron Maiden went to Number 1 on the UK singles chart. They achieved this with a late period classic, “Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter.” It was the second single from their album ‘No Prayer for the Dying’. It was the lowest selling Number 1 since 1960, with just over 42,000 copies sold in its first week. I wonder how that has changed in these days of greedy bastard streaming companies? Bruce Dickinson originally recorded and released the song as a solo artist. It was for the soundtrack to ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child’.
It has been a few months since the last entry in Mayhem’s Parental Advisory Playlist (The Tipper Gore Mix). So here is another fine fucking addition. The thirteenth song. It is sometimes hard to shake off a great earworm of a song even if that song drops regular F-bombs and other profanities. The new addition to the playlist is Wayne/ Jayne County and the Electric Chairs with “Fuck Off”. I always thought this had the longer title of “If You Don’t Wanna Fuck Me Baby, Fuck Off”. Either title is fine, it remains a great slice of punky 70s sound. The link to the full playlist is below.
“Stanley” is the current single from queer Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Camille Schmidt. It kicks off with some perky metronomic percussion before bringing in some super insistent riffs. Then the piece de resistance of the song is Camille’s voice. She captures the dark humour of lives observed in the lyrics. Jarvis Cocker used to do this so well. Camille had this to say about the track: “I started thinking about my plane ride the night before. This woman in front of me had been texting a friend about her boyfriend, Stanley (who I later discovered was a few rows behind us). I was thinking about the loneliness you feel when you’re alone, but also the deeper loneliness when you’re with someone, and that person doesn’t fill the hole inside you the way you’d hoped. It was a time when I was searching for comfort in anything – overheard conversations, interactions with strangers, little jokes I would make to myself.”
The lyrics make it very clear that the titular Stanley is not very nice, certainly a bit of a loser. These lines really describe that Stanley bloke! “Stanley sits and Stanley drinks. When he takes off his shoes he stinks. He’s going nowhere, going nowhere“. Having heard this rather ace song and watched the weird, warped and wonderful video I will be seeking out more of Camille Schmidt’s music. You should do the same!
Irish rockers Celtic Legacy are clearly fans of the Crow, the supernatural superhero. The character was first seen in a 1989 comic book series and has appeared in films in 1994 and 2024. The first saw the sad death of actor Brandon Lee. The band are such huge fans that they have a new song out called “The Crow”. It tells the tale of the titular hero. He gets murdered with his girlfriend. A crow brings him back to life to seek vengeance. The song is dark, heavy and wonderfully constructed melodic metal. The riffs are perfectly persistent. I love the vocal from John Bonham and the guitar solo screams like the best of 80s classic rock. This is a band on top of their game. The chorus eases into you quite easily and locks itself in.
The video is slightly extended by some great Crow related narrated animation based on the original graphic novel. When the first riffs kick in the band appears against the animation background as kind of partially drawn lifelike characters. The video certainly adds to this already great song. The video was filmed, edited and directed by Dave Morrissey, one of the bands guitarists. Weirdly my wife saw the video and is now convinced that I have a doppelganger in bass player Dave Boylan! This is the first new music from the band since 2015. They are already planning two more singles for 2025. I don’t know if they will also be Crow related. But based on this song I will definitely check them out.
Finnish producers RORO and Snapir have joined forces to put out a collaborative album. It is called ‘Colors Left’ and will be released on 17th January. The latest single from the album is “Fractures”. It starts with some ethereal sounds. These sounds would match some of David Bowie’s best work with Brian Eno on the Berlin Trilogy. They would also fit well with the 1995 Bowie Eno collaboration on ‘1# Outside’. It has an undercurrent of a weird combination of Jean Michel Jarre and the Aphex Twin. The sound captures your attention. It drifts into your mind. It prepares to haunt you for a very long while. This is experimental elactronica at its finest. Based on this the album could be quite special!
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 