DJ Alex Corton – Vinyl Reviews

Good Looking Records

PFM – The Western Tune / Hypnotizing

1995

The calendar folds over into 1995 now, and the conveyer belt of first class music continues on Good Looking Records with the second release on the label for the voyagers of sonic serenity, PFM. As you can see, it’s the promo that I have, due to being at the counter in Record Basement at the right time with DJ Lee spinning on the decks and dishing out the good candy,

    This tune has a great story behind it as I seem to remember buying it but not hearing it? The strength of Good Looking was at such a level that I was never in any doubt as to the music I was buying. The risk these days is a lot more apparent. For me (as a pretty stringent purchaser based on an upbringing for quality over quantity, and financial regulation), it went against my usual principles. However, there are minuscule exceptions to this rule. Today’s 12” vinyl release is one. GLR 12 is the main release catalogue number, just for the trainspotters out there. It’s also the first, main release sleeve to be designed outside of GLR by Mark Standere. His company would be designing the two sleeves up until Jon Black took over on GLR 14

    I purchased this record, and was with a group of my brother’s friends in Reading. They all raved with us anyway. I remember getting the train back to Basingstoke and then walking to my brothers mates house and another mate of theirs (big big Bukem fan), Jonno Goodyear was itching to get this tune on too. There was a record player on in one of their rooms, so we sat it on the floor and all sat around it, and we put on Side A.. I’ve never been in a room playing this music where not one sound came out of anyone’s mouth until the tune finished. This was a moment I’ll never forget and further confirmed the way this label was changing my life. It was played again, and again.

   ‘The Western Tune’ has PFM producing one of those tracks that finds areas of our consciousness that unlock and feed off the sounds like piranhas in an underwater meat locker. The way that ‘The Western Tune’ develops, becomes an organic evolution, structured for everlasting relish. From its dream like introduction that pin points areas for a DJ to mix this tune, the figures approaching on horseback draw the faces of the town folk upon them. Will they bring hostility or hope to the commoners of the community. From the direction they have travelled, it must have been some time before they set sight on the necessities placed below them. Then the first gun shot is fired and the breaks canter along. The way the bass and that second layer of breaks hit, leading to the pads that basically rip open your heart and replace your loved ones with this music, is accepted without hesitation. The breakdown is enough to spasm the senses, with that guitar sample which, with the pads makes me shiver and puts goosebumps up my arms yet again. 

  ‘The Western Tune’ holds such a huge part of my love of this label. It’s one of the big hitters and will always be a treasured piece of music. Although don’t write off the quality of the other side.

     Side AA I always felt was vastly overlooked on this plate. I remember Pete Tong playing this track on his Radio One show one Friday night which kind of threw me. As least he didn’t mention “Buck-em” ha ha! ‘Hypnotize’ for me is one of PFM’s best pieces of music, showcasing the extraordinary capability in the way melodies, chords and synths work and how the sweeping stages of music writing could be so o infectious. There was a deep sense of magic with PFM in 1995 and I know Jamie eventually left the partnership, but those years he was part of PFM, whatever it was, something made these tunes hit floors that towered up past the ceiling of the atmospheric towers. Epic, resonating music wrapped in silk and served on a fucking Ferrero Rocher plate. This tune is the one that I now have in my head yet again, and for all I care, it can stay there forever. 

    PFM were quietly working on some of the best music around, and Danny had the label in the right place at the right time, to platform the best from the artists making tunes. Any earlier or later, it just wouldn’t have been the same. ‘The Western Tune’ has gone down as one of the most loved and and respected pieces of music, and when you have MC Conrad RIP, sliding his vocals over this tune (as we reviewed during Logical Progression on FFRR), followed by Mike PFM’s Ricochet Mix (up later in the label), the spirit with this slice of glorious music, kept moving. It started here though and planted the flag first. It’s ‘Hypnotizing’ which really needs more credit for me. Go and find it now and enjoy the very best of PFM. 

We miss you dearly Conrad!