My perusing Jah Wobble's catalogue also led me to this. What a treasure to uncover.
A world star that few know...Leslie Winer.
Leslie Winer moved from Weston, Massachusetts to New York City in the late 70s to attend School of Visual Arts. While there she met William Burroughs (who became her mentor & life-long friend) & dated Jean-Michel Basquiat. In 1980 she began a career as a fashion model. Her androgynous look & being difficult to work with gained her fame in the modelling world. She was a Chritian Dior girl & appeared on numerous Vogue covers. In the mid 80s her modeling gigs brought her to London. She became a regular at the Taboo nightclub where she became friends with Jah Wobble.
In 1990 she recorded her debut album Witch with Jah Wobble. John Peel played some tracks from the white-label promo & the recording became a minor cult classic. With this debut album Winer recorded one of the earliest testimonies of a new genre that was to become the signature sound of the 90s, Trip-hop. Although recorded one year before Massive Attack's Blue Lines, Witch never saw release until 1993. Witch is still considered by those in the know to be the birth of the fusion of hip hop with Jamaican dancehall, integrating a psychedelically colourful bouquet of Funk, soul, house, & R&B elements with electronic stylings.
all decryption codes in comments
He Was
Flove
N1ear
The Boy who Used 2 Whistle
John Says
5
1nce Upon a Time
Skin
Dream 1
The musicians Winer has collaborated with include acts as diverse as Björk, Bill Laswell, Tim Simenon aka Bomb the Bass, Holger Hiller, Karl Bonnie (Renegade Soundwave), Jon Hassell, Vincent Gallo, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Mekon, Diamond Version, Christopher Chaplin, Jay Glass Dubs, & Maxwell Sterling. Winer's songs have been interpreted by the likes of Grace Jones, Boy George, & Sinéad O’Connor.
About Winer, Boy George sez:
"She might just be the coolest woman on the planet!"
But despite her coolness, her closeness & connection with legendary artists, her name is familiar to only a small minority. This next is a career-spanning anthology of Winer's music. It covers three decades of a musical body of work that is unparalleled in terms of independence & originality. "Hold on Postcards" & "Fragment #2" are previously unreleased.
When I was Walt Whitman
N1 Ear
Tree - Leslie Winer
Personals - Jon Hassell & Bluescreen featuring Leslie Winer
Dream 1 - Leslie Winer
Dunderhead - Purity Supreme
The Boy who Used 2 Whistle
Hold on Postcards
He Was
RoundUp Ready
Skin
Box - Leslie Winer
This Blank Action (Diamond version featuring Leslie Winer)
Battle Porn - Leslie Winer
Woodshedded - Leslie Winer & Jay Glass Dubs
Fragment #2 - Leslie Winer & Mari G. Mooney
The song “Woodshedded” above is from the Leslie Winer & Jay Glass Dubs - YMFEES. It is an amazing record, a superb mix of spoken word & Ambient Dub, I couldn't not share it here as well.
Side A -
Woodshedded
Tin Mine
Cogged
Side B -
About the Author
#29
No Famous Actors
Enjoy,
NØ




Outta site ... five guns
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing FGW. Thanks.
DeleteJust played 'Witch' through ear buds on the bus & it sounds great. Can't wait to listen to the other 2. Cheers bud.
ReplyDeleteBussing with Leslie. Hope you like the others. She's a rare bird for sure.
DeleteThanks NØ! Sometimes you share music that is important and well-connected that I haven't come across. It's like discovering there's an eighth continent that no one told me about!
ReplyDeleteWhy are they holding back on the eighth continent info. That doesn't seem right. Next they'll be saying there are only eight planets. Whatever. Glad to share another Win(n)er.
DeleteI've had "when I hit you "before and find it a great album. Looking forward to hear the other two. Thanks
ReplyDeleteKoenraad
Thanks, Koenraad. Hope you enjoy the other two.
DeleteHi NØ, nice one. I bought the Witch LP when it came out in 1993 (since lost). In the same time batch of vinyl I bought a 12" that included a northern English spoken word monologue lamenting Thatcherism over a musical rendition of Jerusalem. This is also lost, alas, and I have no memory of who made it. Do you happen to have any idea?!
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't swear to it, but it sounds very much like something Chumbawamba would put out. I only have a couple of theirs, but i'll give 'em both a listen and see.
DeleteThanks for the suggestion RM. Here's a bit more info as I remember it (hopefully not unreliably): a female vocal reciting a word by word / phrase by phrase list of things to hate, which included Thatcher; likely a double-sided 12" (with a blank black label); I conflated it with Winer's [(c)] Witch for a while until I relistened to this again a few years ago and realised that Winer is American not northern English!
DeleteI am thinking about "Big Hard Excellent Fish a 12" called imperfect list".
DeleteKoenraad
I dropped it on we transfer. Link for 3 days only.
Deletehttps://we.tl/t-u8Ezj7Q6SNjZ3gEB
Enjoy!
One Little Indian sez:
Delete"One day a woman arrives unnanounced at the One Little Indian offices in London. She tells label boss Derek Birket that she wants a deal for her new single. Let's hear it then, he replies.
Instead of playing him a demo, she reads out, in a dour northern accent, her 'imperfect list'. Birket is blown away by the words, and decides to take a punt, offering her a tiny recording budget
A few weeks later, the anonymous lady returns with the masters. To everyone's amazement, not only is the track kinda amazing, but it is recorded by Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins and Pete Wylie, and has Andrew Weatherall remixes already arranged...
It's a jaw-dropping song, this, especially in its original beatless version - a list of evildoers and nastiness spat out in a vitriolic Scouse accent over a dark ambient drone."
"Adolf Hitler. the dentist. Terry & June. fucking bastard Thatcher. Scouse impersonator. silly pathetic girlies. silly pathetic woman. macho dickhead. Bonnie Langford. neighbours. lost keys. phoney friend. ungrateful accusing mate. the Royal family. Stock Aitken & Waterman. smiling Judas. heartbreaking lying friend. Myra Hindley. acid rain. stinking rich female in furs. disloyal lover. wife & child beater. drunken abuser. racist. bully. The Sun newspaper. AIDS inventor. Leon Brittan. all nonsense. massive massive oilslick. Jimmy Tarbuck. loneliness. cancer. hunger. greed. gut wrenching disappointment. evil gossiping fashion bastard. tasteless a&r wanker. hard cold fish. overdraft like a mountain. the Jimmy Swaggart show. the Tory invention of the non-working class. poll tax. commie bashers. mister Jesse Helms. Hillsborough. weird british judges. apartheid. John Lennon's murder. anyone's murder. the breakdown of the NHS. the death of the rain forest. Heysel stadium. rednecks. rape. homelessness. the all-American way. Clause 28. Tiananmen Square. sexual harrassment. Nelson Mandela's imprisonment. Nancy's term. Ronnie' s term. miscarriage. where were you?"
Thanks, Koenraad.
Well, well, well ... Koenraad has nailed it. Blimey! It was indeed 'Imperfect List'. At least, it was definitely the vocal, though I don't recall any of the backing music featured here at all. But 'Jerusalem' would appear to have been a very big red herring (as opposed to excellent fish). Possibly I was, yet again, conflating it, or was it a mix that existed only in my imagination? Who knows?! Many thanks to K nonetheless! (PS. This release also fits neatly with NØ's many Wetherall posts, being produced and then later remixed by him ...)
DeleteAnother musickal mystery solved, thanks to Frenz of NSS Koenraad. Thanks anonymous for sending us this quest. That was most fun. The Weatherall connection was indeed excellent.
DeleteHey I was very pleasantly surprised with "witch", it's very "modern" as well and she looks like a unique character ! I came back to have a look at the comments and stumbled upon this, totally my alley (crass for that matter, did not listen to it yet though), thanks Koenrad, and Nø for the letters... A rare treat
DeleteHi NØ, here’s a link to a Jay Glass Dubs compilation – “Dubs” – for your listening pleasure ... https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OHS6KgodQ3AfzW6R8FKwLYqQIsFsvq5V
ReplyDeleteThanks so very much for te Jay Glass Dubs - Dubs.
DeleteHi NØ, thank you for sharing! Excited to delve into her music. I noticed that LitA comp seems to be missing track 13 - any chance you could reupload please? 🙏
ReplyDeleteSo sorry, Sam S. My bad. I fixed the file, re-uploaded it. Thanks for letting me know. To anyone else, the new link is the complete When I Hit You.
Deletenew decryption codes:
Witch
8lcNK8mUHhajYDkko649gcgO6Jzx7zR_KWfG5vpfnUs
When I Hit You, You’ll Feel It
KvhpsiavAPv3we3rn_4FHPnH5_Axuzue1-mHfBPDS60
YMFEES
6Dz7ho2vsjZTGp_td3CyoIzvfI8Jc5gMEcw_Lex8roc
No worries! Thanks so much for fixing it so quickly!
ReplyDeleteAnd visiting here again (see upper commentary), I just downloaded jay glass dubs (bokeh reminds me of some wicked sound system September?), ' cause she's cool..
ReplyDelete