Super Weird Substance Mixtapes

STARRING KERMIT LEVERIDGE, EVM128 & THE REYNOLDS
FEATURING BB. JAMES (LEAD VOCAL 'GIVE IT AWAY')

Uplifting, life-affirming, and perfectly timed for the summer months - cobbled together, Heath Robinson stylee, more by serendipity than design, into a coherent whole by DJ / Producer Greg Wilson. Most of the tracks featured are by Blind Arcade (Kermit Leveridge & EVM128), either existing demos or works in progress, but the mixtape is also peppered with half-a-dozen GW edits, lyrically laced to bubble the Super Weird stew – the constant presence, and main ingredient, being Kermit, for it's his inspirational tale of faith and redemption at the very core of this morphogenetic mixtape. Following on from the Ruthless Rap Assassins and Black Grape, we believe that this is his greatest musical odyssey, drawing from the deep wells of his own mythos and logos. There were 3 frontmen in the Rap Assassins, 2 in Black Grape, but now, for the first time, Kermit steps to the fore – no longer to be described by such a limited term as 'rapper', but as a sabre-skilled vocal chameleon, his shades and depths ranging from wise old soul to lovestruck adolescent, invoking his many I's as a cast of compelling characters, both comic book and close–up personal, whilst, in trickster tradition, keeping us on our toes, not knowing what to expect next.

Let me take you by the hand
So you know what's going on
Let me take you step by step 
On a journey that won't take too long
Come let me show you
Reality is not what it seems
It's all a construct
And what you see might not be real

Kermit Leveridge – The Construct

Accompanying blog post (inclusive of tracklisting):
http://www.gregwilson.co.uk/2014/06/blind-arcade-meets-super-weird-substance-in-the-morphogenetic-field/

Check out our Super Weird sounds at: https://superweirdsubstance.bandcamp.com

Interview re Super Weird Substance:
http://thepool-london.com/loop/greg-wilson-qa-on-blind-arcade-meets-super-weird-substance-in-the-morphogenetic-field.html

Thanks to all who contributed to the various stages of recording – Blind Arcade’s Kermit Leveridge & EVM128, of course, studio engineer Derek Kaye, singers BB. James, Amy Wilson, Katherine Reynolds, Carmel Reynolds and Tracey Carmen, trumpeter Kevin G. Davey, saxophonist Marc Rockwood, special guest vocalists Howard Marks and MC Tunes, plus Martin Foster, Ollie Miles, Ché Wilson, Sam Heller, Alexis Billington and Asha Billington, who also leant a hand along the way. It’s wonderful what spells we can muster when our magic is combined.

Links:
https://soundcloud.com/super-weird-substance
www.superweirdsubstance.com
https://www.facebook.com/SuperWeirdSubstance
www.kermitleveridge.co.uk 
http://evm128.com
https://www.gregwilson.co.uk

Blind Arcade Meets Super Weird Substance In The Morphogenetic Field (Greg Wilson Mixtape)

STARRING KERMIT LEVERIDGE & THE REYNOLDS
ADDITIONAL VOCALS: THE REVEREND CLEVE FRECKLETON & TRACEY CARMEN
 
More about the project: http://www.superweirdsubstance.com/alan-moore-mandrill-meets-super-weird-substance-arts-lab-apocalypse  
 
Obey the Mandrill: www.facebook.com/mandrillifesto

Mandrillifesto words by Alan Moore.

Big thanks to: Josh Ray, Ché Wilson, Derek Kaye, Joe Brown, James Mellor, Dominic Mandrell, Marcus Hislop, The Arts Lab Northampton.
 
Artwork by Pete Fowler
 
2017
 
COMETH THE MOMENT, COMETH THE MANDRILL

In times of national demise, speaking historically,
the mulch of crumpled dream and culture is a laboratory,
that breeds outrageous saviours and monsters without warning; 
Cromwell, Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Jeremy Corbyn – 
emerging from a broken world to find a hole they can fill,
cometh the moment; cometh the Mandrill.

This greed and gore emporium is not how life was meant to be,
with franchises and fads reheated from a previous century,
and nothing new, a neutered future on the retro record deck,
that’s stuck and endlessly repeating in a firebombed discotheque. 
Your TV’s in a coma and you can’t get it to wake up.
What you need is a dictatorial baboon in makeup.

Overstated, aggravated and horrifically mutated,
here to see that you’re berated. What’s the last thing you created?
All those logos on your raiment, brand-name badges of enslavement,
drip-fed passive entertainment. Was this your intended statement?
When you have nowhere left to stand you'll have to take one.
If there’s no culture in the land then you must make one. 
Psychopathic, charismatic, I could go on but don’t need to:
as the higher primate it’s my long-awaited fate to lead you.
You have no choice but me, so please do not suggest so.
Hear now the poetry of my Mandrillifesto!

The light of burning corporations will repaint the sky in grenadine. 
There’ll be billions of banners and Art Nouveau butterfly bombers like this world has never seen before. 
We’ll march on ugliness and stupidity. 
We’ll make loveliness compulsory.

And the roar of our orchestra engines will soar evermore in a glorious annihilating symphony, for the tyranny of beauty is our God-given duty. 
Every child at birth is to be issued with a ukulele, 
given their own flag and granted absolute and utter sovereignty, 
and so long as it’s coloured in nicely and has an old woman on, make their own currency. And we’ll turn every urban address into a dripping Rousseau wilderness, and we’ll keep advancing until there’s nobody not dancing.

We’ll put politics in the pillory,
put the art back in artillery.
We can weaponise wonder
and our voice shall be as thunder.

From times of national demise arise new apes like me, 
with, in our leopard-scaring eyes, manifest destiny. 
I’ll lead you to a fluorescent utopia if you’ll let me: 
love me, worship me, obey me – but never pet me. 
If we can’t build a future then we’ll be its human landfill. So…
Cometh the moment, cometh the Mandrill. 
(Repeat until indoctrinated)

Alan Moore's Mandrill Meets Super Weird Substance At The Arts Lab Apocalypse (Greg Wilson Mixtape)

Bookings: matt@thepool-london.com 
Promos: promo@gregwilson.co.uk 
DJ Dates: https://blog.gregwilson.co.uk/upcoming-dj-dates/
Greg began DJing in 1975 and is regarded as one of the most important figures on the UK dance scene. He enjoyed hugely popular residencies in the early eighties at Wigan Pier and Manchester’s majorly influential Legend, having originally started out in his hometown, New Brighton. A pioneer of mixing in the UK, he became the first ‘dance music’ specialist hired for a regular weekly session at Manchester’s now legendary Haçienda club in 1983. Greg was instrumental in breaking the new electronic, post-disco records coming out of New York, a sound he has dubbed ‘Electro-Funk’.

In 2003 he set up electrofunkroots, a website documenting this crucial era in the evolution of dance culture. After a two decade hiatus from the booth, he returned to DJing and soon welcomed bookings throughout Europe and, subsequently, worldwide.

Greg was the first DJ to mix live on British TV, putting together the first UK radio mixes of their type for Piccadilly 261 in Manchester and showing a certain Norman Cook (later Fatboy Slim) how to scratch.

Nominated by DJ Magazine for outstanding contribution, and also named amongst their top twenty remixers of all-time, Greg’s remix credits include Grace Jones, The XX, Groove Armada, Bryan Ferry, Confidence Man, Gilberto Gil and Simian Mobile Disco, whilst he’s edited tracks by A Guy Called Gerald, Talking Heads, O.M.D., Electronic, Imagination and Missy Elliot.

In January 2009 Greg’s reputation was further enhanced when his Essential Mix on BBC Radio 1 received almost universal acclaim and was selected as one of 10 classics that spanned the show’s near 17 year history.

Greg’s Blog, ‘Being A DJ’, was launched in June 2010 for observations on various aspects of club culture now an online touchstone for an ever-increasing amount of dance enthusiasts and aficionados.

In August 2010 he co-curated areas at the inaugural Vintage Festival at Goodwood, which was named ‘Best New Festival’ at the UK Festival Awards.

He has produced a series of documentary podcasts, Time Capsule, Random Influences and Early 80’s Floorfillers, as well as the long-running blog series, Living To Music.

Greg has given talks on music and DJ culture at a number events at venues The Tate Gallery in Liverpool and London's Southbank and Institute Of Contemporary Arts, whilst in 2013 he was invited onto a panel alongside legendary figures Nile Rodgers and Giorgio Moroder @ ADE in Amsterdam. 

In 2014 he unveiled the multi-media label Super Weird Substance, focusing on recording and live events. In 2015, the label released 8 vinyl singles, brought together in the 2 CD comp, 'Greg Wilson Presents Super Weird Substance'. September 2015 saw a memorable Festival No.6 Happening in Portmeirion and Greg rounded off the year with the Liverpool-based celebration of the 40th anniversary of his first club date in 1975 as well as being presented with DJ Magazine's Industry Icon award.

Greg launched his Credit To The Edit club collective at 2016's Festival No.6 and since then has taken it to Liverpool, Berlin, Brixton, Bethnal Green and finally back to Portmeirion for Festival No.6 2017.

2017 saw his label host the epic 14 Hour Super Weird Happening at Liverpool's Florrie, following a mixtape collaboration with Alan Moore, who also appeared at the Happening, whilst it also saw the digital release of The Super Weird Society's 'Gone With The Vibe', released the following year on the first Substance Select 12" vinyl alongside 'The Ghosts Of Watling Street', 'The Best Is Yet To Come' and 'Summer Came My Way'. 2018 also saw the release of Vol.3 in Greg's long-running Credit To The Edit compilation series.

After a handful of further releases, the label was put into hibernation with the onset of covid. Diversifying, ‘Greg Wilson’s Discotheque Archives’ was issued during 2020 lockdown as a limited run paperback, with more books, both Wilson’s own projects and by other authors, now planned.