July Skies – Afternoon Pips ¦ Girl On The Hill

Of summers past… “Afternoon Pips” ¦ “Girl On The Hill” by July Skies. Taken from the album ‘The Weather Clock’, released on the perfectly formed Make Mine Music label [MMM027]. 2008 Watch in HD 1080. NB – Apologies for uploading something that is already on YT, only, this track was the 2nd song that I ever submitted on here. Sadly, I deleted it moments after by mistake. I decided to add an extra track, make a new video and re-upload it to my channel as it’s a personal favourite of mine by one of my favourite musical projects. -Frobbz- July Skies: is a West Midlands (UK) based recording project commenced by Antony Harding in 1997, who has released four albums and two EPs since 2000. July Skies is also part of the fiercely independent and unique Make Mine Music label collective who have now achieved over 50 releases. July Skies is heavily inspired by faded innocence and lost times and attempt to capture this through music and design. The project is often assisted by long time collaborators Benjamin T Holton and Robert Glover from the band epic45. July Skies received support from the late John Peel and Rob Da Bank of BBC Radio1, Verity Sharp of BBC Radio3, Stuart Maconie on BBC Radio6, BBC Bristol and ChillFM. They are currently working on two releases, A Day in the Country and Observe the Weather. Antony is also part of the Birmingham experimental outfits Avrocar and juliasette. July Skies also perform occasional live events and have supported and played alongside Piano …
Video Rating: 5 / 5

I first heard this artist via his amazing song “Better Change Your Mind” www.youtube.com on the excellent Nigeria 70 compilation, recently reissued: www.amazon.com Then I heard this particular song on an Analog Africa mix: analogafrica.blogspot.com and got a little obsessed with trying to track it down. Lots of furious internet searching finally led me to this mix: www.amazon.com where I was able to download a clean MP3 copy. Since virtually none of this man’s work is available on CD, and very little is available digitally, I just wanted to help share this mind-blowing song with the world. The break at 6:56 kills me every time… From the Nigeria 70 liner notes: William Onyeabor studied cinematography in Russia for many years, returning to Nigeria in the mid-70s to start his own Wilfilms music label and to set up a music and film production studio. He recorded a number of hit songs in Nigeria during the 70s, the biggest of which was “Atomic Bomb” in 1978. “Better Change Your Mind” is taken from the same album, and, as well as slating the power-crazed nations of the world, the second half settles into a unique slice of stripped down spacey, lo-fi funk which is unlike any other Nigerian music being made at the time. William has now been crowned a High Chief in Enugu, where he lives today as a successful businessman working on government contracts and running his own flour mill.
Video Rating: 5 / 5