Foxbase Alpha was the soundtrack to my last year living in the North, and my first years living on the edge of the Big Smoke. The exotic sounds, places and people it conjured up in our imaginations soon became the theme music to a city full of ideas just a travelcard journey away.
The realities of being able to take a tube to Camden Town still didn't dull the sense of wonder and possibility. It was here the band lived and filtered their personal love of all things dance, dub, pop and soul through the spirit of the times and onto their records. London seemed to be the catalyst for it all.
Fast forward and I'd found myself moving on from standing outside their houses (sorry about that) to standing in the studio with them. Beta was conceived at The Secret Garden party in July 2008, possibly from one of Pete Wiggs jokes, and work started later that year.
With Ian Catt's assistance the dusty reel to reel multitracks coughed forth their secrets and Emax sampler discs sang out their distinctive grainy tones. Found sounds from the bands vaults were spun in as Sarah and Debsey brought new ideas into familiar songs. Bob and Pete's abandoned sonic experiments lived again and the mystery of the reverb shrouded looped vocal was finally revealed, then covered up again.
Listening again ten years later it's pleasing that Beta still seems infused with Alpha's ethos and essence and not too much of the era in which it was made. That was really what we'd set out to do, not just remix but reimagine the world that Alpha had set out all those years before. Now Foxbase Beta can spin on again to accompany our next adventures.
Richard X - London 2018
Foxbase Beta UK 2009 Saint Etienne Limited, Heavenly
Journey through the past, part 5. Rumours have been flying left right and centre, but we can finally confirm that disco dynamo Richard X has taken Foxbase Alpha and re-arranged it into a brand new beast called FOXBASE BETA. Using the original masters, adding cellos, electrix, choirs, and the spirit of Brian Cant he has created something really special - spruced-up yet reverential, it is essentially a 2009 up-date of Foxbase Alpha, given a shot of vodka and a loving caress. We're chuffed. It feels unnervingly like jumping into a Tardis.
FOXBASE BETA will be issued, via the fan club, as a limited, numbered 2cd set of 3,000 copies, which will also include FOXBASE EXTRA, three unreleased recordings from the original album sessions: a just discovered coda to Girl VII (we'd forgotten it existed), a summery instrumental called Richard III, and the first, very different, take of Kiss And Make Up, which was the very first Saint Etienne recording. We cut it one afternoon in January 1990, and then Only Love Can Break Your Heart in the evening! It was all so simple then. These tracks won't be available anywhere else.
There will also be a 'directors' commentary' on the bonus disc. Informative, yes. Pithy, quite possibly.
An un-numbered, single disc edition will be available at gigs and through Rough Trade. It will also be available for digital download via itunes (with the commentary but without the bonus tracks).
Foxbase Beta will be available to pre-order on Monday 21st of September (Note: bumped to Sep 23).
