I LOVE TOTAL DESTRUCTION

YUKARI FRESH : Yukari's Perfect! (1997)

2012-02-18T02:30:00.037-08:00

I treated myself to wee binge in Juno's sale t'other week &, amongst other elusive delights, picked up the 2-part Yukari Fresh career retrospective, Flammable Tapes (her "greatest hits" collection) & Instrumentally Flammable (a companion disc of demos, remixes & rarities). They're immaculately packaged, of course - most Japanese CDs are - each disc daintily housed inside an elegant origami-style cardboard wallet, with a 1' badge, a piece of Zen-like embroidery, & an info-packed insert printed on gossamer-thin bible paper. They're a great way to catch up with Yukari's extensive back catalogue - each containing a minor avalanche of short & sweet, playfully melodic electronic chanson that could actually be obscene paeans to noodles for all I know, my understanding of Japanese being predictably non-existent. Unfortunately, they're not cheap. I coughed up £20 for the 2, an absolute bargain considering they'd normally retail at a whopping £25 apiece (I've already seen Flammable Tapes on Amazon for £50+). That said, the former is one of the most played CDs I've bought in ages, so it was worth the splurge...

Back when I was young(-ish), £25 was a ludicrous amount of money to pay for a compact disc. Never mind if it had been specially imported from Japan in minuscule quantities, was elaborately & beautifully designed, & came complete with that all-important - sigh - obi-strip (I've no idea why I still get excited about those rather nondescript, often incomprehensible rectangles of printed card but, inexplicably, I do). One of the great advantages of Internet blogging was that I was finally been able to hear dozens of the horrifically overpriced, long deleted Japanese imports that I'd drooled over back in the mid-90s - pre-Paypal, pre-mp3, pre-iTunes. Hai!

Yukari Fresh was one of the first Shibuya-kei artists I heard - after the ubiquitous Pizzicato 5, of course - c/o Bungalow Records' genre-establishing Sushi 4004 compilation. The solo project of Yukari Takasaki (ex-Snapshot), her debut, Yukari's Perfect!, was released on the P5's Escalator label in 1997. The epitome of cheeky Tokyo whimsy, it made Altered Images sound like King Crimson (don't panic, it's also very short). As a friend once pointed out to me, if the industrious inhabitants of Bagpuss's Marvelous Mechanical Mouse Organ had ever tried their hand(s) at producing hi-NRG Yé-¥é techno, Yukari's Perfect! could plausibly have been the result. Though aesthetically reciprocal, it pre-empted Go-Kart Mozart's deadpan, Bullring Centre-inspired 'novelty rock" by a few years. Personally, I much prefer Yukari's breezier take on things. Lawrence, this may seem cynical, but I'm still not entirely convinced that "Drinking Um Bongo" was an attempt to address Rwanda's appalling human rights record, sorry.

As with many of the original Shibuya-kei artists, Yukari went on to pursue a bewilderingly prolific career over the subsequent decade, including releases under her punkier Yukari Rotten nom de plume, & collaborations with Mansfield (on this wonky cover of Beck's "The New Pollution") & Fantastic Plastic Machine, while hosting her long running Radio Active Man radio show (named after one of the songs from Yukari's Perfect! as it 'appens). Her most recent - possibly final? - record, 2008's Grrrl Summer Cape Kid Etc EP (Escalator's swan song release) was far more rough & ready than her earlier work, with each song recorded live in a single unedited take while Yukari sang, whistled, played kazoo, & wrestled with the drums. An oddball crossbreed of lo-fi & high tech, the intentionally crude samples subvert her refined electronic wizardry, & vice versa. It's strange to think that, like most of her Shibuya-kei contemporaries, Yukari is pushing 40 now, as her music's unaffected child-like charm has remained largely unsullied. One question though: why are so many Japanese indie acts obsessed, at least lyrically, with English football? Expositions on the back of a postcard please (preferably this one).

Triplicate Quackery

SONIC YOUTH : Kali Yug Express (2002)

2012-02-10T16:08:00.000-08:00

A quicky post. Sonic Youth's Kali Yug Express is currently fetching £100+ on Discogs & the like, which makes it ideal blog fodder, I suppose? A 3-song blue vinyl 10", a meagre 500 copies were given away with the French edition of the Murray Street album. Though recorded in & around the Murray Street sessions, these tracks were actually out-takes from the band's ancillary soundtrack projects, Things Behind The Sun & Demonlover, & reflect their penchant for freeform, experimental improvisation. Kali Yug Express was also released as an extended promotional CD, though the additional songs thereon were merely selections from the band's pre-Geffen back catalogue, as per the Screaming Fields Of Sonic Love compilation.

n.b. In Japan, Murray Street was appended with an exclusive bonus track, "Street Sauce", which I've yet to hear. If anybody can slip me an mp3 of it I'd be pathetically grateful (thanks).

Htuoy Cinos

ADVENTURES IN STEREO : The Attic Walk EP (1996)

2012-02-09T12:59:00.000-08:00

Jim Beattie, founder member of Primal Scream with Bobby Gillespie, formed Adventures in Stereo in Glasgow in 1994, following the break-up of his post-Primals project, Spirea X. Joined by ex-Spirea vocalist Judith Boyle, & Simon Dine (who had managed & co-produced the band towards the end of their brief career), the trio's initial trilogy of low-fi 7" EPs provided a hazily melodic, pop art distillation of The Beach Boys finest (pre-Smile) moments, & Phil Spector's early girl group productions. Based around Dine's evocative 60s-derived loops, the songs themselves were often puzzlingly fragmentary, pop art miniatures fading in & out of earshot like alluring excerpts from half remembered 60s chartbusters. Despite the bargain basement budget, their records were so seamlessly produced that it was often difficult to identify at which point the sampling wizardry ended & the authentic musicianship began. Their sonic magpie approach elicited comparisons with Stereolab & early Broadcast but, though all 3 bands certainly shared a similar retrofuturist aesthetic, A.I.S. actually had far more in common with sampledelic New York duo Dymaxion (though their records were markedly different). One thing A.I.S. definitely were NOT, however, is "twee". Twee = Belle & Sebastian, Talulah Gosh flexidiscs, bed wetting virgins with Hello Kitty hair slides, & grown men in shorts murdering jingle-jangle Byrds riffs. A.I.S. always sounded more like Saint Etienne being dragged backwards into an undulating Joe Meek vortex.

Dine split after the first few singles &, while both parties briefly continued to use the A.I.S. moniker, he would eventually knuckle down to mastermind the pandemically groovy Noonday Underground (& end up collaborating with mod coffin dodger Paul Weller, bizarrely enough!). Noonday Underground recorded a handful of LPs but called it a day when vocalist Daisy Martey jumped ship to join Morcheeba (yuk). Beattie & Boyle released a couple more A.I.S. albums, with live musicians playing a greater part in proceedings as they progressed, but both of them have slipped away into (willing?) obscurity since calling it quits in 2000. Does anybody have a clue what either of them are up to nowadays?

The Attic Walk EP was Adventures In Stereo's debut release, a 4-song 7" on their own Kinglake label, from 1996. I'm a great fan of all their records, but this one's a particular favourite.

Underground Sounds

SHOES THIS HIGH : Shoes This High EP (1981)

2012-02-04T02:32:00.001-08:00

Shoes This High weren't together for very long, only a year or so in fact, but they still managed to leave behind this incredible 7" as their defining artifact. Barrelling 'round New Zealand's North island at the arse end of the 1970s, their sketchy, Rough Trade-indebted sound suggested that either (i) somebody down under was importing copies of Grotesque & A Trip To Marineville at a phenomenal rate, or (ii) John Peel's broadcasts reached a far wider audience than the Beeb intended (hats off to The World Service!).

Eventually settling in Auckland, the band released their eponymous EP c/o their own STH Music label in 1981, & it's 4 snotty, shambling outbursts were as hermetically innovative as the benchmark 45s their South island island contemporaries - embryonic incarnations of The Chills & The Clean - were concurrently recording for the nascent Flying Nun. It's a tragedy Shoes This High didn't hang 'round long enough to record an LP but, as a result, this solitary single has since acquired semi-legendary status, like that dumbfounding What Is Oil? e.p., & justifiably so. It still sounds hilariously brilliant (& remarkably prescient) to my fagged out ears, & warrants some sort of lavish re-release, preferably supplemented with as many moth-eaten out-takes as the band's scattered ex-members can round up between 'em. Put your money where your mouth is, Mr. Domino Records, the world doesn't need any more cosy James Yorkston 10th anniversary repackages, it needs Shoes This High!

Sop Pongs

SEXY LEPER : Turf The Void (2011)

2012-01-28T04:37:00.000-08:00

The inclusion of Sexy Leper's Portobello Ghosts LP (actually a cassette) in my end of year baker's dozen has prompted a flurry of interest. Unfortunately, I'm unable to convert tapes to mp3 at the moment (rest assured I'm working on it!) so, instead, here's their tremendous Turf The Void EP, a single-sided 12" on the elusive, highly collectible, Aotearoa label (responsible also for a mind-blowing 4-disc Slither|Slather box set).

In all honestly, I'm not quite sure how to describe Sexy Leper's music: it's improvised, & based around "rock" instrumentation, but only rarely employs a tangible rhythm, the percussion being sporadic & scattershot at best. Electric guitars are a pivotal part of their line-up, though they're scraped rather than strummed, picked at rather than plucked. There's an eerie Vox Continental amongst the melee too, & a snatches of squawking, hissing shortwave radio. I'm reminded, ever so slightly, of The Dead C circa Harsh 70s Reality, & that's definitely not a bad thing, is it?

Aotearoa

ANGUS MACLISE : Trance (1987)

2012-01-12T01:16:00.000-08:00

Apocryphal or not, legend has it that Angus MacLise, original drummer with The Velvet Underground, reacted to confirmation of the band's first paid live date by angrily quitting - "You mean we start when they tell us & we finish when they tell us? I can't work that way." His brief tenure in the formative V.U. aside, MacLise was also a published poet, bookshop owner, underground film maker, calligrapher, Occultist, Fluxus-affiliated artist, & nomad. As a member of both The Theatre Of Eternal Music & the original Dream Syndicate (alongside Tony Conrad, Terry Riley, John Cale, & founder La Monte Young), MacLise's drug induced, stream of consciousness improvisations ultimately inspired the music of contemporary fringe outfits such as Sunburned Hand Of The Man, Tower Recordings & No-Neck Blues Band, whose open ended/free form performances continue to baffle audiences 30+ years after his untimely death, in Nepal, from tuberculosis . All that remains of MacLise's pioneering multimedia performances are a few reels of grainy, disintegrated sound recordings, since bequeathed to the Yale Collection Of American Literature by his widow, & fellow traveller, Hetty. Fortuitously, their crude quality somehow enhances their mind-boggling cabalistic awesomeness.

Growing interest in MacLise's clandestine oeuvre has, in recent years, resulted in a brace of fascinating archival releases from Table Of The Elements, Siltbreeze, Quakebasket & other similarly broadminded, zero budget imprints. However, the 1st label to release any of his work was Fierce Records, a long defunct Welsh bootleg emporium, allegedly masterminded by the bassist in Zodiac Mindwarp & The Love Reaction (!), & generally better known for it's abundance of nose thumbing Pooh Sticks flexis. Fierce issued "Trance" in 1987 in a meagre edition of 100 single-sided 7"s. A short low-fi tape recording of a mid-60's sine tone experiment, "Trance" was packaged pop art-style (n.b. irony alert) with an "Angus" chocolate bar, a selection of Khatmandu prayers, a "Far Out" badge, an incense cone, & a mail order list of spurious MacLise-related ephemera. Though the choice of inserts was characteristically arch (their most notorious bootleg, The Jesus & Mary Chain's "Riot" EP, included a free syringe & a torn scrap of plaid shirt!), Fierce's intentions were undoubtedly sincere, "Trance" playing an important catalytic role in the subsequent reevaluation of MacLise's life & work.

n.b. For a far more astute overview of MacLise's life & works than I could ever muster, take a look at this excellent article.

Straight Farthest Blood Towards

Super88 : Ride Around Shining (2011)

2012-01-07T14:37:00.001-08:00

New music for the new year...

I chanced upon Super88's "Ride Around Shining" a few days ago, whilst aimlessly rooting around on Youtube, & fell in love with it in a flash. Though plainly inspired by Washed Out's faded Polaroid languor, & the sedative bliss of Memoryhouse's early bedroom recordings, this exceptional track harbours a darker strand of somnolent, Boards Of Canada-type tenebrosity, a suggestion of unsettling VHS retrospection that has more in common Twin Peaks than Miami Vice. Unfortunately, I know next to nothing about them - only that they're a duo, that they possibly originate from the Allston, MA area, & that they probably named themselves after this Boston supermarket.

They're circulating a number of recordings for free at the moment, c/o their Bandcamp & Soundcloud accounts, so I've bundled a selection below for your perusal (I'm sure they won't mind). If you know anything else about them, or are a Super88 member, feel free to get in touch...

Commonwealth 1095

2011 : A Baker's Dozen

2011-12-30T01:46:00.001-08:00

In alphabetical order:

Crystal Stilts - In Love With Oblivion (Sumberland)

Death In Vegas - Trans Love Energies (Portobello)

Discodeine - Discodeine (Pschent)

Factory Star - Enter Castle Perilous (Occultation)

Roman Flügel - Fatty Folders (Dial)

PJ Harvey - Let England Shake (Island)

Isolée - Well Spent Youth (Pampa)

Legowelt - The TEAC Life (Legowelt)

Seekae - +Dome (Rice Is Nice)

Sexy Leper - Portobello Ghosts (Can't Kiss)

Shimmering Stars - Violent Hearts (Almost Musique)

John Tejada - Parabolas (Kompakt)

Wire - Red Barked Tree (Pink Flag)

WIRE : XOYO 23/11/2011

2011-12-26T08:14:00.001-08:00

I've been fortunate enough to see the mighty Wire twice this year - initially, back in February, at Nottingham's revitalised Rescue Rooms &, more recently, at Sheffield's so-so Plug earlier this month. They were were terrific on both occasions - they're back on undeniably great form at the moment - & both shows were encouragingly well attended too (on the back of their latest, marvelous Red Barked Tree LP, no doubt). Though, in every Wire crowd, there are always one or two elderly lags in Stiff Little Fingers shirts who persist in knocking back an excess of gassy lager & bellowing for "12XU" like it's still 1979, Wire reject such antediluvian requests outright these days, concentrating instead on current material & surprising selections from far flung corners of their prodigious back catalogue - & they're sounding all the better for it.

February's Nottingham set list focussed on their most recent brace of albums, Red Barked Tree (their finest full length work since 154 - fact), Object 47 & Send, with a handful of older numbers dotted throughout (i.e. "Kidney Bingos" & the perennial "Boiling Boy"). The current tour CD, Black Sessions (recorded last May for Bernard Lenoir's celebrated French Inter radio show, & released generally on 7th February), features a very similar song sequence. The Sheffield show, however, was quite staggering. Drawing extensively on their "difficult" 1980, post-Harvest era, Wire found room for half a dozen rarely aired tracks from Document & Eyewitness, & a further handful from subsequent archival collections like Behind The Curtain / Turns & Strokes. Conjecture suggests that, as the majority of those songs have never been attempted properly before (by Wire, at least - Colin Newman utilised a few of them on his early solo LPs, albeit in radically rearranged versions) the current line-up might be about to finally record them. Quizzed as to what the band would be up to in the coming year, Graham Lewis has confided that an "unusual" new project is already underway - leading to speculation that Wire might finally be in the process of provisionally assembling their aborted 4th Harvest LP. The possibility of both complete live sets from Document & Eyewitness being released has also been discussed - the controversial Electric Ballroom performance only ever having been available in severely truncated form until now, of course. All in all, 2012 sounds like a very exciting 12 months for the rabid Wire aficionado.

To whet your appetite, here's a decent recording of Wire's recent London show (23rd November at XOYO), featuring exactly the same set I saw them play in Sheffield. I discovered it during one of my occasional expeditions "off-road" into the murkier recesses of the 'net so I've no idea who's responsible, but many thanks to he/she/they anyway...

23112011

n.b. Photographs by Steve Worral, from Wire's performance at Ray Davies' Meltdown, June 2011.

Seasoned Greedings.

2011-12-25T03:20:00.000-08:00

A Christmas card from FACTORY STAR.

2011-12-18T06:27:00.000-08:00

So then, 7 shopping days left until Christmas... I guess it's high time I mentioned this little charmer? A house move, & an intermittent 'net connection (cheers, Virgin), have reluctantly forced me off line recently, otherwise I'd have written about it much earlier...

Factory Star's "Lucybel" has been hanging around for a while now, I believe? I'm pretty sure I heard a tentative version of it this time last year - possibly recorded by an earlier incarnation of the band? Sounding less obviously disheveled than anything on their excellent (still!) Enter Castle Perilous LP, it's an unusually straightforward seasonal love song that breezes along beatifically in the style of post-Cale Velvets (rather aptly... it's a Yule-tide release after all). Redolent, musically, of The Sexual Objects' & Subway Sect's recent efforts, Factory Star are lyrically much darker than either, their rheumy, red-rimmed eyes & the cobwebs on their dilapidated overcoats suggesting that, despite the tender sentiments, they might've been surreptitiously bedding down in the local graveyard when they penned it (is the protagonist a fugitive murderer lamenting a dead lover, perhaps?). Melodically, it's one of those rare singles that you casually pop onto the turntable & find yourself still whistling along to 45 minutes later, ambushed, no doubt, by the rowdy Rowlsey Street chorus. Nevertheless, it's not too difficult to see why the band chose to omit "Lucybel" from the album proper - it's inclusion would have provided an uncomfortable dash of intrusive light relief amongst the lurid netherworld of overcast back alleys & shabby, skulking hopeless cases it's 10 bleak songs depict (making it an ideal standalone release, of course). As an observer & annotator of besmirched Northern Paperback Noir™, songwriter Martin Bramah remains virtually unrivaled - he & his fine band have released 2 0f my favourite (& certainly most listened to) records this year. Meanwhile, The Fall complacently stumble along like a 4th rate Nuggets act in search of inspiration & a half decent tune, while Steven Patrick - who, by his own admission, would rather throw her arms around Paris than Ancoats these days - has long since crumpled into defeated middle age. Oh, Manchester...

The b-side of the 7" is a stately cover of Enter Castle Perilous' "When Sleep Won't Come" by fellow Occultation artists, The Granite Shore. Though I know next to nothing about them, their gentle, twilit interpretation of Bramah's funereal lullaby suggests that a forthcoming LP (due next year apparently) will be well worth a listen. The CDEP features both songs & adds a couple more from the Factory Star LP - "Away Dull Care" (a personal favourite) & "Arise Europa" (whose hurtling organ driven ruckus invokes the caustic battle cries of The Greatest Hit). You can listen to both sides of the single on the Occultation website. You'll find more of Jim Donnelly's evocative photography there too. Happy Grimbo.

EDIT: Crystal Stilts' sublime In Love With Oblivion LP was another of my most played albums this year. Interestingly, it's follow-up, the 5-song Radiant Door EP, features this rather prescient cover version.

MINNY POPS : Live EP (1980)

2011-10-29T15:03:00.000-07:00

Somewhat unexpectedly, Minny Pops, one of the lesser known & least appreciated Factory Records acts, have recently reformed & will shortly be undertaking a European tour (including several British dates in January 2012). Arguably one of the final important bands from the immediate post-punk era to warrant serious reevaluation, they'll be releasing a new CD/DVD on James Nice's exemplary Les Temps Modernes label, comprising archival live material recorded in Amsterdam & New York in 1981, at the same time. With current interest in minimal, cold wave electronica greater than it's ever been, one can only hope that Minny Pops' nervous, sardonic music might (finally) be seriously reassessed & better understood. Either way, I'm really looking forward to hearing further recordings by them, & will certainly be making an effort to see them perform (see you in Sheffield).

LTM's round-up of Minny Pops' back catalogue has been pretty exhaustive so far. A handful of later, post Factory/Crepuscule album tracks aside, James has managed to track down, remaster & re-release virtually everything the band recorded in it's relatively brief, frenetically productive lifetime. The one glaring omission, perhaps, is the band's early, difficult-to-find Live EP. Recorded at 2 Dutch shows (Delft & Amsterdam) in May 1980, it was rush released on vocalist Wally Von Middendorp's celebrated Plurex label following the success of their first English appearances - including a support slot at Joy Division's infamous Bury "riot" show on 8th April - & as a teaser for their first U.K. headlining tour that August. They'd record their debut Factory 7", the benchmark "Dolphin's Spurt"/"Goddess", with Martin Hannett during this return visit. Cut in a single day, along with The Names' "Night Shift" 45, it's become their defining moment, though it's by no means their finest. They'd also find time to complete a John Peel session while they were back in the UK, the first Dutch band to do so, allegedly (that can't possibly be true, can it?).

We're So Glad Elvis Is Dead

BOARDS OF CANADA : John Peel Session 16th June 1998

2011-10-09T03:42:00.001-07:00

Boards Of Canada recorded their first, & only, John Peel session at BBC Maida Vale studio 4, with producer Mike Robinson, on 16th June 1998. Peel sessions classically consisted of 4 songs, recorded & produced at the BBC & broadcast on Peel's show a fortnight or so later, long after the artist(s) had gone home. In a typical (for BOC) inversion of established protocol, Boards Of Canada were coincidentally recording their session in adjacent studio while Peel was on air, enabling them to be patched into the show live, & to chat briefly with the great man at the beginning of "XYZ" (pronounced "XYZee"). That track, however, was the only one transmitted on the 16th June. Listeners had to wait until 21st July to hear the completed session in it's entirety, at which juncture "XYZ" was rebroadcast, but without the opening interview.

To confuse matters further, when BoC's set was licensed by Warp & released as part of the label's Peel Sessions series in 1999 (alongside appearances by Autechre, The Black Dog, Plaid &, later, Mira Calix), the previously aired track "Bad Day" - in actuality a formative version of BoC favourite "Happy Cycling" - was replaced by a noticeably more polished take (the same one that appears as an add-on to the Music Has A Right To Children reissue, in fact). Meanwhile, though it appeared on initial pressings of the CD, "XYZ" was quickly dropped due to unresolved sampling issues, making original copies a highly prized BoC rarity. As a result, Warp's BoC Peel Sessions e.p. barely relates to the broadcast Peel session at all. What a palaver.

Here then, is that original 21st July broadcast in it's entirety, complete with Peel's intros but not, sadly, the chat with BoC that prefaced the 16th June version of "XYZ". All tracks are sourced from the a tape recording of the show itself & not the subsequent Warp issue, hence the occasional snap, crackle & pop of "authentic" FM static.

Focus On The Spiral

RAY CATHODE : Time Beat 7" (1962)

2011-10-08T04:10:00.000-07:00

Established in the late 1950s to create extraordinary musique concréte-inspired sounds & atmospheres for the BBC's progressive programming, most notably the surrealistic Goon Show & eerie Quatermass series, the Radiophonic Workshop, as it entered the 1960s, had also begun creating bespoke themes & jingles for television.

In 1962, "Time Beat", a popular ident originally composed by Italian producer Maddalena Fagandini, was reworked with technical assistance from in-house EMI engineer (& future Beatles' mentor) George Martin. A typical early 60s "light" pop piece, albeit subtly processed using the Workshop's unrivaled battery of pioneering electronic sound equipment, it was the ensemble's first commercial release, & was distributed by EMI's "novelty" label Parlophone under the facetious Ray Cathode nom de plume. Though not as astonishing as Ron Grainer's landmark Doctor Who theme - constructed by Radiophonic virtuoso Delia Derbyshire the following year - "Time Beat"'s recourse to cutting edge technology still sets it apart from the standard popular fare of the era, particularly on the demented B-side, "Waltz In Orbit". Though lacking the lunatic brilliance of Joe Meek's concurrent productions, Ray Cathode's sophisticated sound is, on reflection, rather more pleasing to the 21st century ear.

45-R 4901

KRAFTWERK : Kohoutek - Kometenmelodie 7" (1973)

2011-09-29T15:00:00.001-07:00

Kraftwerk's debut single, the impossibly scarce "Kohoutek - Kometenmelodie" (aka "Kohoutek- Comet Melody"), was released - though only very briefly - on Europe's regal Philips label in December 1973. Long unobtainable, it contained radically different, charmingly tentative versions of 2 tracks that would reappear 12 months later, fully developed, on their benchmark Autobahn album. As such, "Kohoutek" occupied an ambiguous musical Hinterland, with Hutter & Schneider, still operating as a hermetic duo, poised somewhere between the "failed" experiments of their first 3 Vertigo LPs & Autobahn's mighty leap towards accessibility. "Kohoutek" was Kraftwerk's first outright flirtation with genuine melody, quietly expanding on the Ralf & Florian LP's wistful chamber ensemble miniatures to concoct something one might've encountered on mid 1970s current affairs television. (Nostalgic resonances, faintly recalled.) Though almost 40 years old, it's esoteric ice cream van synths & primitive electronic percussion still sound utterly beguiling, pre-empting the pastoral electronic whimsy of Cluster's Sowiesoso & the like. The elementary drum machine was a Maestro Rhythm King apparently, the same model that Sly Stone used on There's A Riot Goin' On. The metronomic precision of The Man Machine was, needless to say, still some way off...

Judging by the quaint Cosmonautical sleeve design, it's safe to assume that the single was released to commemorate the appearance of comet C/1973 E1, which was first sighted in March 1973 by Czech astronomer Lubos Kohoutek. It was also observed by the crews of both Skylab & Soyuz 13, making it the first comet to be observed by manned spacecraft. Though hyped by the media as the "comet of the century", Kohoutek didn't perform as spectacularly as expected, hence it's subsequent relegation to astronomical obscurity (not before Sun Ra performed a concert in it's honour in December 1973, however). A "long period" comet, it's not expected to appear for another 75,000 years. Perhaps Ralf & Florian will have finally sanctioned the re-release of their Vertigo back catalogue by then?

Kuiper-Belt Objectivity

n.b. The postcard I've reproduced above was sent by Hutter & Schneider to Neu!'s Klaus Dinger in 1973. That's Klaus in the middle, I imagine?

THE CLEAN : Odditties (1982)

2011-08-29T05:06:00.000-07:00

Blimey, I've just noticed that some opportunistic scoundrel is flogging Odditties on Amazon for £140! Though it's definitely not the best place for The Clean novice to tune in, it's obviously a lot harder to find than I thought, so here it is...

Brothers Hamish & David Kilgour formed The Clean, with close friend Robert Scott, in Dunedun, NZ in 1978, but waited until 1981 to release their debut 45, the irrepressible "Tally Ho!", on New Zealand's rightly renown Flying Nun. Only the 2nd record the label put out, it unexpectedly made #19 on the New Zealand charts, turning a healthy profit & helping cement their position at the forefront of international independent music. Odditties was recorded throughout "1980-82 on a Revox B77 2 track (supplied by The Dead C)", & was "originally released as (a) super lo-fi cassette" on the band's own Cleano label in 1983. Anybody expecting a further dose of The Clean's breezily infectious pop-chug might be in for a bit of a shock, as Odditties frequently relinquishes the band's trademark chirpy jangle for shambling discord. The titular opening song is a veritable Clean classic, however, & there are several other threadbare gems buried amongst the detritus, so keep listening. As the images reproduced above imply, Odditties was a genuinely hands-on/ad hoc affair, to the extent that nobody appears to know how many copies of the original tape were circulated, or how many different sleeve designs were produced (!). Flying Nun briefly reissued it on CD in 1994 with a handful of extra tracks, & that's the version I've sourced here.

A second volume of Oddities, comprised largely of live recordings & covering the years 1979-84, was issued in 1988. I've never seen a copy, have you?

Band That Never Was

QUIET ROOM : She Sits Alone 7" / HALF CHURCH : Turmoil 12" (1981)

2011-08-21T05:47:00.000-07:00

Hailing from San Francisco, & affiliated with both the late 70s Mabuhay Gardens scene & precipitant Californian post-punks The Sleepers, Quiet Room only managed to put out one 7" single in their brief lifetime. Released in 1981 in a puny edition of a few hundred copies, this WiN Records release is already listed at £60+ on Discogs & the like. Whilst the A-side, the proto-Gothic synthcore of "She Sits Alone", is merely adequate, it's companion piece, the dystopian clatterbeat™ of "Pictures In The Attic" is exceptional - a West Coast response, perhaps, to the misanthropic British electronic vanguard championed by Mute & Rough Trade. The result is a ennui-soaked hybrid of Chrome & Our Daughter's Wedding, an unusual assimilation of atmospheric processed guitars & sparse D.I.Y. technologia that, though fundamentally melodic, sports a malevolent leer. I'm surprised it's not been more widely recognised or, indeed, compiled - it has far more "crossover potential" than L.A.'s scathing Nervous Gender or Screamers, 2 other neglected protagonists of seminal U.S. synth-punk. A slightly unhelpful Myspace page aside, there's virtually no information about Quiet Room online , so drop me a line if you can shed any further light on the band or their label (thanks). Incidentally, I couldn't help noticing that they look suspiciously similar to the scourge of Southend On Sea on the band portrait below...

The only other WiN release I've come across is Half Church's interesting Turmoil 12". Once again, information is scant, though I've established that it was recorded at London's Street Level studio (as frequented by the Fuck Off Records crew) in March '81, & was produced by the legendary Kif Kif Le Batteur (aka Keith Dobson of World Domination Enterprises / Here & Now). For a Californian band (&, yes, they definitely were a Californian band), Half Church sound absurdly British - like The Middle Class but better - their e.p. referencing Metal Box, Entertainment &, less predictably, UK Decay & The Mob. So who were they & what else, if anything, did they release? Intrigue!

Quiet Room / Half Church

ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS : John Peel Sessions 1977-80

2011-08-13T07:00:00.000-07:00

I don't remember Peel playing many Elvis Costello songs while I was listening to him as a kid, in fact I don't remember him playing any, but he was evidently a staunch supporter of The Attractions' from the off, commissioning 4 sessions between mid-'77 & early '80. A mere strip of a lad, I didn't start tuning until the following year, so I missed them all first time 'round.

Documenting what was arguably E.C.'s most ferociously fertile period, these early BBC appearances cover my favourite Attractions' era - from My Aim Is True to Get Happy - & include a couple of curious anomalies alongside the inevitable singles & album tracks. Without a doubt, the finest of these is the Nashville-influenced "Stranger In The House", originally recorded in late 1976 for My Aim Is True (& given away as a limited edition 7" with initial copies of This Year's Model) but pre-empting 1981's polarising country "experiment", Almost Blue. Elvis would subsequently record another version (for single release) with country giant George Jones in 1980, though the BBC take is superior to either. Additionally, there's a valiant attempt at Bacharach & David's "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" (a concert favourite from the Live Stiffs tour) &, surprisingly, "Really Mystified", a song which wouldn't appear on an official Costello release until Imperial Bedroom was remastered/rebooted for CD in 1994 . Also worth noting: as far as I'm aware, the debut '77 session remains the only extant instance of The Attractions recorded in a studio performing My Aim Is True-era songs (it's Clover - Huey Lewis' backing band! - on the LP) - citation required, etc. Already established as a fearsome live act, there's an unhinged "end of the tether"/"tired & emotional" intensity to the better known songs here that is actually a bit disturbing - E.C. & co sound like they're clinging on by their fingernails, on the cusp of an ugly crash & burn. In retrospect, Almost Blue's reserved country stylings could perhaps be seen as Elvis' lowkey equivalent to Dylan's alleged motorcycle accident - providing, at the height of his fame, an opportunity to step back, stall a disorientating, dangerous momentum, & take stock.

Taped off the radio &, thereby, unavoidably mastered from cassette, sound quality is occasionally less than pristine, but you're unlikely to hear better copies of these recordings until the BBC issue them formally. Quite why these excellent Peel sessions, plus Elvis' later Kid Jensen appearances, remain unreleased baffles me, frankly...

n.b. The pink & ink illustration of Elvis reproduced above was, reputedly, comic strip impresario Alan Moore's first ever professional sale (to the New Musical Express). And if you have any idea who the guy with the glasses & 'tash is, posing between Elvis, Nick Lowe & Suicide (circa 23 Minutes Over Brussels), could you let me know?

Radio, Radio

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND : Squeeze (1973)

2011-07-26T03:21:00.000-07:00

Once, back in the early 90s, I saw a copy of Squeeze in a record shop window here, in fine condition & priced at a measly couple of quid. Typically, in the time it took me to sprint to the cashpoint & back - 15 minutes max - it'd gone. Needless to say, I've never seen another one.

Essentially a Doug Yule solo LP, Squeeze was recorded in London in Autumn 1972, following The Velvet Underground's first visit to Europe - Lou Reed & Sterling Morrison both already having departed - to promote Loaded. Moe Tucker, though still playing drums on tour, was replaced on the studio sessions by Deep Purple's Ian Paice, reputedly as a "cost-cutting measure" (she'd been touring with her baby daughter Kerry in tow), though it's well known that she & manager Steve Sesnick didn't see eye-to-eye about much by that point. When Sesnick packed the rest of the then-current line-up, Willie Alexander (keyboards) & Walter Powers (bass), off home too it was left to Doug to play everything else (a little saxophone aside). Though undoubtedly a final, opportunistic attempt by Sesnick to (ahem) squeeze a little more cash out of the Velvets' ailing reputation, the LP itself wasn't the out-&-out travesty it's often been painted as - certainly by the prevailing bearded/flared/stoned standards of the era anyway. With hindsight, it's whimsical street vignettes sound much closer to Nils Lofgren or Stealers Wheel than anything from the 3rd V.U. album or the Yule-dominated Loaded. It's strange to consider, however, that the widely reported (& now legendary) Reed/Cale/Nico show at Paris Bataclan had already taken place by the time recording commenced.

Squeeze was released in February 1973 via Polydor Record's European wing & was never officially issued in the States. Yule, to his credit, evidently realised the game was up & dissolved the "band" after a final British tour, since when Squeeze has remained categorically out of print. Despite it's unavailability, it's significantly never quite achieved "mythic" status, & though it compares favourably to Lou Reed's slightly underwhelming eponymous solo debut (Velvets-heavy, also recorded in London, & released a year earlier), Cale's resplendent Paris 1919 (which appeared only a month after Squeeze) still towers head & shoulders above either. Mind you, all 3 of those LPs were largely ignored upon release, our forward looking music press generally being far more interested in the dismal travails of Wishbone Ash & Jethro Tull back then (check out an old copy of ZigZag or NME if you don't believe me).

Squeeze

THEE HEADCOATS : Pedophile 7" (1992)

2011-06-21T03:10:00.001-07:00

Next up, a savage 7" entry from Wild Billy Childish & his glorious Headcoats (aka Bruce Brand & Johnny "Tub" Johnson).

"Pedophile" (Billy's spelling) is a pivotal track in the Childish canon as, despite being an instrumental, it was one of his first to explicitly address the sexual abuse he experienced in his youth. In the early 90s, struggling to come to terms with painful, long buried childhood memories, Billy bravely began to address his molestation in his writing, often in uncomfortably frank lyrical detail. His first novel, 1996's unflinching My Fault, grapples with these issues head-on, & though it's deeply unpleasant in places I have to admit that I liked it a lot.

"Pedophile" is, understandably, a very angry track, the absence of an accusatory lyric redressed by the band's searing (Link Way-inspired) performance & the sleeve photograph of the family "friend" who assaulted him. Now a dedicated Buddhist, Billy claims to have since forgiven his abuser, but this track still smoulders with a fearsome, barely contained hatred, 20 years later. The b-side, the raucous "No Such Number", is a rallying cry against the corrupt & the mediocre, as are many of Billy's finest songs. The single was released in September 1992 as an installment of the Clawfist's subscriber-only 7" Singles Club in an edition of 1400 copies, all long gone.

N.B. More rare Childish to follow shortly.

Clawfisted

ROBERT FRIPP : Silent Night (1979)

2011-06-20T12:15:00.000-07:00

By rights, I should've probably waited until December to post this one but , hey, none of us are getting any younger are we? So let's crack on...

Robert Fripp's elegant version of "Silent Night" - "Silent Night á la Frippertronics" to give it it's full title - was given away, as a red 6" Eva-Tone Soundsheet (i.e. flexidisc), with issue #3 of Chicago-based arts journal Praxis in December 1979. Fripp's label, EG Records, also used it as an aural Christmas card that year - a savvy bit of promotion perhaps, but also a beautiful gratis demonstration of the Frippertronics system's haunting melodic qualities. And it certainly makes a lot more immediate sense than this contemporaneous interview.

Said track was subsequently included on King Crimson's Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream EP, a 1995 odds & sods collection that has been out of print for several years. That's the source I've used here, so it's free of the invasive polyvinyl surface noise that might otherwise have ruined it's fragile ambience.

A Small Mobile Independent Intelligent Unit

THE BODINES : God Bless 7" (1985)

2011-06-17T14:15:00.000-07:00

Yet another band to emerge from the bustling British C86 scene, The Bodines formed in Glossop, near Manchester, & their high energy pop sound drew upon the breakneck jangle typified by Josef K, Echo & The Bunnymen & (early) Orange Juice a half decade prior. You can see why Creation's Alan McGee was immediately enamoured by them- though they may possibly seem like a diaphanous Postcard throwback in retrospect, their combination of killer melodies, decent haircuts & well-honed live performances must've been positively invigorating in 1985, at the height of the self-defeatist "shambling" movement, & with the inspid Rattlesnakes edging towards the top 10.

Their divine debut, the frenetic Joe Foster-produced "God Bless"/"Paradise" 45 (CRE 016), appeared in mid 1985, housed in Creation's trademark folded paper/polythene sleeve combo. Though it's been reissued on various incarnations of the Creation Soup series, it's yet to be included on an all-encompassing Bodines compilation (because there's never been one, hint-hint) & still isn't available c/o iTunes & the like. A tragic oversight that, it's undoubtedly one of the finer debuts of it's era. Sort it out, Alan!

On the back of their 2nd Creation 45, the magnificent "Therese" (also a highlight of the original C86 cassette), the band were poached from Creation by the perennially uncool Magnet Records, home to Darts, Alvin Stardust & (choke) Bad Manners. Magnet must've been overjoyed, The Bodines seeming like a far safer commercial bet than either Primal Scream or The Weather Prophets, 2 Creation big hitters who had already attempted to cross over into the mainstream via McGee's flawed Elevation project . Groomed for "inevitable" chart success, The Bodines' debut album - 1987's Ian Broudie (over)produced Played - underperformed spectacularly & it's lead-off single, a glossier mix of "Therese", missed the charts entirely. Skint & demoralised, the band split prematurely, though they've regrouped on several occasions since. However, even if they'd only ever released this cracking 45 they'd still have earned themselves a place in my affections - 25 cynical years on, it still sounds like a breath of fresh air...

Scar Tissue

OUR DAUGHTERS WEDDING : Lawnchairs 7" (1980)

2011-06-11T03:11:00.000-07:00

Simply one of my favourite 7"s ever, purchased with 50p of own, hard won pocket money from Woolworth's' ex-chart bargain bin. Chances are you may already be familiar with it, though perhaps you've not heard it in a quarter of a century? If not, chances are you'll love it... Better late than never, eh?

Originally from San Francisco, Our Daughters Wedding (no apostrophe) began making headway as a prototypical synth trio in New York in 1979, playing the legendary Hurrahs club with James Chance, Mi-Sex & anybody else they could scrounge a support to. "Lawnchairs" was their second single &, like the earlier "Nightlife" 7", was initially released on their own Design label in 1980. An instant U.S. college radio hit, & championed in the U.K. by both Smash Hits & Melody Maker, it was quickly picked up by EMI who commissioned a complete overhaul & re-released it themselves the following Summer. Though it only made #49 on the British charts, it became a massive dancefloor hit both here & in the States, eventually breaking into the Billboard run down & racking up a million+ sales along the way. It's not difficult to see why - riddled with hooks while retaining it's experimental edge, "Lawnchairs" confidently straddles both commercial & alternate music domains. Crucially, the b-side ("Airline") is just as good, & both songs remain high water marks in synthpop's convoluted lineage. By virtue of EMI's optimistic pressing run - their label was evidently anticipating a far higher chart placing - affordable, original copies are still relatively easy to track down. ODW were also early advocates of Casio's groundbreaking VL-1 keyboard, which endeared them to many enthusiastic amateur synth boffins (me included) at the time.

Sadly, due either to pressure from their label or a paucity of fresh ideas, ODW ran out of steam pretty quickly. The subsequent Digital Cowboy EP contained 4 decent enough synth-centric rock songs (5 overseas), but 1982's Moving Windows album was a patchy affair & EMI dropped them shortly afterwards. Their final release, the U.S.-only "Take Me"/"Machines" 12", didn't appear for another 2 years, by which time they'd come full circle & were back on Design.

The only ODW retrospective to date, 2006's exhaustive Nightlife CD, is already highly sought after, with a price tag to match. Early copies were accompanied by an original Design pressing of the "Lawnchairs" 45, "given to you from the band as a way to say thanks for the continued interest in the band" & returned them by EMI when their 1981 reissue was released. It's the original version I'm posting here incidentally.

Design 1980

THE CLAIM : Birth Of A Teenager 7" (1990)

2011-05-30T04:28:00.000-07:00

Contemporaries of The Dentists & The Prisoners, but frankly better than either, The Claim hailed from the unassuming Kent village of Cliffe to become a pivotal, if neglected, cog in the booming Medway beat scene of the mid-to-late 80s. They released a couple of LPs & a brace of EPs for a plethora of shortlived & ridiculously obscure provincial labels, of which This Pencil Was Obviously Sharpened By A Left Handed Indian Knife Thrower is probably the most renown. My favourite of their releases, possibly because of Billy Childish's exquisite linocut sleeve design, is this hard-to-find 45 on Bob Stanley's short lived Caff label. Another Medway stalwart, occasional Hangman poet Vic Templar, pops up overleaf, reading his eccentric "Mike The Bike" piece. Top notch.

The Claim were a melodic hybrid of classic early 60s Mersey guitar pop (ala The Milkshakes, etc) & the more intelligent end of C-86 "shambling" scene (comparisons with The Wolfhounds might not be unreasonable). There was still a surfeit of this kind of thing knocking about when this single emerged in 1990, though much of it - Alan McGee's oft celebrated Biff Bang Pow, for instance - sounds awfully pedestrian today. The Claim, however, still sound surprisingly prescient - thanks, no doubt, to the consistently high quality of their songwriting. God knows why they didn't make it any bigger, though the dismaying lack of a (then) crucial Peel session might've had something to do with it? If you've not come across them before, give this superior single a listen & then bag yourself a copy of the excellent Black Path compilation, released by Joe Foster's laudable Rev-Ola concession a couple of years ago. It swings, sah!

For Don Pantry

FACTORY STAR : Enter Castle Perilous (2011)

2011-05-21T04:33:00.000-07:00

As you might've already noticed, there's been a spate of uncommonly fine releases from a slew of resurgent 80s post punk acts of late. Both The Nightingales & Vic Godard's Subway Sect have released some of the best music of their careers across their last couple of LPs, while the debut album from Davey Henderson's Sexual Objects, the rather dashing Cucumber, is a must-have. Elsewhere, rumours persist that Magazine are currently back in the studio, & even übergrüpenführers The Fall recently managed to get their act together long enough to complete - after an alleged nudge or 2 from temporary benefactors Domino - their sturdiest LP in more than a decade. So I'm very pleased to report that Martin Bramah has finally picked up his guitar again &, with the stormy Mancunian Gothic of Factory Star, thrown his hat into the ring too...

Bramah, I suspect, is forever condemned to labour in the shadow of his extraordinary lineage, being both an original member of The Fall circa 1978's Live At The Witch Trails (& later as Brix Smith's replacement on 1990's latter day high water mark, Extricate), & the driving force behind The Blue Orchids, whose flawless 1980 debut, The Greatest Hit, still sounds staggeringly good. History suggests that Bramah was initially slated to be The Fall's vocalist until M.Smith's less than rudimentary guitar talents necessitated they swap roles (!), while the Orchids' celebrated tenure as Nico's backing band - during her somewhat unexpected self-imposed exile in Greater Manchester during the mid 80s - is almost too perfect/bizarre to be true. On reflection, Bramah's past glories could be considered an unfortunate stumbling block in the light of his subsequent work, a hindrance rather than a benefit. How, exactly, is he expected to top all THAT?

Factory Star formed in late 2008, Bramah recruiting Hop Man Jr. (ex-Monochrome Set) on organ & fellow ex-Fallen Steve & Paul Hanley, on bass & drums, after a fleeting false start with a few ex-Sandells. Following a year's worth of warmly received live shows (& the occasional Radio 6 session, c/o Marc Riley), wherein they drew upon recent Bramah's solo work & his noted compositions for The Fall ("Rebellious Jukebox", "Psycho Mafia", "Hilary", etc), the Hanleys departed, to be replaced by the rest of the current line-up: Chris Dutton & Tom Lewis. The Hanley-era line-up's sole recorded document is the uncharacteristically breezy "Lucybel", more a tentative salutation than a full-blown statement of intent. However, last month's debut album, the bruised & blistered Enter Castle Perilous, renders all previous Factory Star activity completely obsolete. Putting it bluntly: it's a fucking belter.

Released through Exeter's intriguing Occultation label - also currently home to The Wild Swans & The Distractions - Enter Castle Perilous is simply the most striking LP I've heard all year (only Crystal Stilts' & Deerhunter's latest compare). Whereas later incarnations of The Blue Orchids acquired a palpably slicker cloak of accessibility (refer to Les Temp Modernes' edition of The Sleeper for further listening), Enter Castle Perilous gleefully scratches off the veneer with a ragged "live in the studio" approach redolent of The Greatest Hit's snarling proto-Nuggets garage band sound. Reputedly, the band were booked into the studio for a couple of days with the intention of recording a mere 7" but just... kept... going.

The result? A junk sick tumult of ramshackle shanties for a doomed underclass. Bramah's vivid gobshite vernacular conjures up a ghastly twilit half-life of spilled pints, dogshit thoroughfares, piss yellow streetlights & septic love bites. Valves crackle, the vocals fracture & the Farfisa drones like a Salford Manzerak as scuffles sporadically break out in dingy pub function rooms. Fortunately, the unflinchingly grisly character sketches are shot through with just enough pitch black gallows humour to render these disheveled losers, & their desperate travails, almost endearing (the degenerate "Cheetham Bill" for instance). On this evidence, Bramah's semi-Blakeian lyrics are some of the finest to come out of Northern England since Charlie Keigher penned the first couple of King Of The Slums EPs, & they share a similarly squalid sense of disgusted semi-amusement. 10 songs, great choruses, no filler. This is a fantastic record, a bloodied, feverish masterpiece. Treat yourself & buy the bloody thing, I'm sure they'd appreciate the cash...

N.B. I'm not posting Enter Castle Perilous in full as it's brand new & readily available, but here's a sneak preview in the form of the opening (but not the best) track:

Angel Steps

www.occultationrecords.com

STARS OF THE LID : Maneuvering The Nocturnal Hum EP (1998)

2011-05-08T12:13:00.000-07:00

Texan duo Brian McBride & Adam Wiltzie have been creating minimal, drone-based soundscapes under the Stars Of The Lid banner since 1993, releasing their debut LP - Music For Nitrous Oxide - on Massachusetts based independent Sedimental in 1995. Inspired by Eric Satie's phonometric piano compositions, Eno's pioneering 1970s ambient experiments, Tangerine Dream's spaced-in improv & the farthest reaching explorations of Spacemen 3 & Robert Hampson's Main, Stars Of The Lid's music was initially recorded on a cheap domestic 4-track utilising heavily processed guitars, while avoiding keyboards & rhythm sections entirely.

Subsequent albums vastly expanded the scale of their synesthetic drift studies, broadening their musical palate to include undulating washes of effects laden strings, piano & horns, culminating in 2001's 2 hour long, triple disc masterpiece The Tired Sounds Of Stars Of The Lid, a triumph of hypnotic kosmische emptiness that's virtually a Zeit for the 21st century. Though lazy comparisons to Boards Of Canada abound (trust me, they've got nothing in common), to my ears The Tired Sounds Of... is more akin to an aural delineation of a Rothko canvas. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it took them 6 years to complete a follow-up. If you only buy one Stars Of The Lid record, make it that one.

Though most of their back catalogue has remained steadfastly in print, 1998's Maneuvering The Nocturnal Hum EP has become almost impossible to track down. Released on London's sadly defunct Earworm label in an edition of 750 copies, each sleeve individually hand silk-screened, some of it's contents had actually been in the can since as early as 1992. Adam Wiltzie: "Side A is two old pieces crammed together in typical Lid fashion - the first 5 minutes is a piace Brian did for New York University student film superstar Dan Kem (a.k.a. Goldenboy) - the last 15 minutes is a piece that I started in '92 - it was originally slated for the Nitrous record, but didn't make the cut. The B-side is from the '96 Summer tour with Bedhead - Calgary still brings a smile to my face - everything sounded so warm & inviting, & the crowd noise seems to drone along with us...". Play loud.

Worm Eleven

ALEXEI SAYLE : Cak! (1982)

2011-04-27T03:31:00.001-07:00

And now... a rather drastic change of pace. It's probably a symptom of encroaching old age but, having grown up in the 1980s with The Young Ones & The Comic Strip on VHS repeat, I still find Alexei Sayle's early routines sporadically hilarious. Cak!, recorded live at London's Le Hot Club De Cairo, was released in 1982 by short lived comedy label Springtime (they also put out Amnesty's Secret Policeman's Ball recordings & The Comic Strip's LP), & old farts will recognise large portions of it from Sayle's weekly appearances on The Young Ones, wherein he played various members of the deranged Bawolski family. However, it's interesting to hear it here, incorporated into an unexpurgated late night club set rather than conveniently chopped up/toned down for post-Watershed (just!) BBC2. Am not sure what your average 20 year old would make of it nowadays though, particularly the surfeit of Shirley Williams jokes!

On reflection, it's difficult to disagree with "alternative" comedy's initial detractors, who dismissed most it as little more than a lot of obscene shouting, but much of Sayle's early material has retained it's splenetic bite. Strip away the acerbic Scally accent & the too-tight suits & his comedic debt to the suburban surreality of Spike Milligan (albeit injected with a generous dose of unforgiving political cynicism, & with the substitution of Benito Mussolini for Adolf Hitler) & early Python becomes apparent. His subsequent, marginally more sophisticated Emmy-winning TV series Stuff still inspires very fond memories for me, as does the brilliant, alarmingly underrated - & totally forgotten - Paris sitcom. The latter, a 1994 C4 vehicle for Sayle written by Graham Linehan & Arthur Matthews (Father Ted, Black Books, Big Train, The IT Crowd, Hippies), still hasn't been released on DVD - outrageous!!

Radical Posture

A CERTAIN RATIO : Knife Slits Water 12" (1982)

2011-04-14T02:25:00.001-07:00

Sit me down in a pub, ply me with gassy lager & get me rambling on about Factory Records, & it'll only be a matter of time before I'm drunkenly arguing the case for The Durutti Column & A Certain Ratio being the label's definitive acts, rather than youknowwho.

Though the majority ACR's records were, in retrospect, actually rather patchy, I'd still put forward 1982's Sextet LP as one of Factory's finest releases EVER. An uncanny hybrid of grainy xeroxed ethnicity, oddly detatched Chic-isms & ghostly Miles Davis inferences, it's without a doubt the band's masterpiece. This subsequent 12" release features a totally re-recorded version of that album's highlight, the opiated sub-zero funk of "Knife Slits Water" - a noticeably gentrified rendition that extends the running time to 10 minutes, with a far slicker backing track (pre-empting the uninviting academic self-absorption of their "lost" A&M period perhaps), & a brand new Donald Johnson vocal replacing the recently departed Martha Tilson's earlier, eerier attempt (does anybody know what she's done since?). Though I'll always prefer the original LP take, there's no denying that this drastic revision sounds terrific, & that ACR were way ahead of New Order & the like when addressing the dance floor (at The Hacienda or further afield). It's closer, in fact, to contemporaneous chart worriers like Pigbag or early Lynx, though far, far superior. B-side is the disembodied 11-minute mutant disco suite, "Kether Hot Knives". Unknown pleasures indeed.

FAC-62T

WIRE : John Peel Session #4 (1988)

2011-04-13T04:01:00.001-07:00

I've had a good rummage 'round on the 'net &, surprisingly, I can't find this session anywhere. As details of this set haven't been listed on the BBC's Keeping It Peel resource, I'm guessing it's nowhere near as well known as their earlier run of evening show appearances (previously compiled on this absolutely essential Strange Fruit round-up).

The reconvened "phase II" Wire only recorded this one Peel session - on 24th April 1988 with celebrated glam rock curmudgeon Dale Griffin - their first Radio 1 commission since their infamous, improvised "Crazy About Love" set from September 1979. As I've always found the A Bell Is A Cup Until It Is Struck LP's (over) reliance on intrusive electronic textures slightly oppressive, I much prefer this looser, guitar-centric version of "Boiling Boy" (long since established as a regular part of their live repertoire & an acknowledged Wire "classic"). "German Shepherds" appeared on the b-side of their "Silk Skin Paws" e.p. &, once again, on the I.B.T.A.B.A. live/remix album, but the BBC recording is arguably the definitive version. Third/finally, a breakneck techno revision of the propulsive "Drill" - a mere 8½ minutes of it on this occasion, but still quite a ride. Incidentally, I've sourced this session from WMO's sadly deleted 1997 Coatings compilation, so sound quality = A+.

N.B. Further Wire anomalies to follow v.shortly.

Lock Up Your Hats

MIRROR/DASH : Come Across (2008)

2011-03-21T14:21:00.000-07:00

Of all Sonic Youth's many on/off side projects, Mirror/Dash are undoubtedly my favourite. An exercise in somnambulistic lo-fi guitar-based improv grot, they might just as easily have been conceived by a couple of bored, provincial, narcoleptic 14 year olds (with a pawn shop Tanglewood, a 10 watt practice amp & Dad's careworn copy of the V.U.'s Banana album at hand) as S.Y.'s Kim Gordon & Thurston Moore. And therein lies their charm.

Debuting in 1992 with the otherworldly "Electric Pen" 7", Mirror/Dash have sanctioned only a scant handful of records in the 2 decades since, principally on vinyl. Come Across - a CD - accompanied an exhibition of Kim's abstract watercolours at KS Art, NYC in March 2008, & was released in a strictly limited edition of 100 hand numbered copies. At just over 5 minutes' in length, I'm guessing you're as reluctant as me to cough up the inflated £50+ price tag it currently commands (it must be murder being a Sonic Youth completist these days). Reminiscent of Sonic Youth's earliest experimental recordings, it's eerie substratal sprawl perfectly compliments Kim's illusory paintings, & suggests that Moore/Gordon share an uncanny creative telepathy - not surprising, I suppose, considering they've been a couple since 1981? Incidentally, the project is titled after their nicknames for one another: "Mirror" being an alliterative pun on Moore, & "Dash" on Flash Gordon. As Come Across is so brief, I've bundled it with their trance-inducing May 2005 live set from Scotland's Le Weekend festival - if this doesn't convince you you to track down their records then, erm, you're probably reading the wrong blog...

You can read more about Kim's art, photography & poetry here, & in her Performing/Guzzling monograph. Mirror/Dash is also the name of her rather high brow fashion label.

Tolbooth

JIM O'ROURKE : jim:computer:hotel (2000)

2011-03-12T06:04:00.000-08:00

If Jim O'Rourke only entered your orbit via his collaborations with Wilco & Sonic Youth (both since terminated), the dizzying extent of his vast back catalogue must seem an awesome & daunting prospect. If you're confused & looking for a way in, start here perhaps. Or anywhere.

Though I don't pretend to be anything like an O'Rourke completist - I'm content to merely launch an occasional random guerrilla raid on his oeurve - I am a massive fan of his music. And though his phenomenal work rate suggests that he can probably knock out stuff like jim:computer:hotel in his sleep, O'Rourke has never failed to maintain a peerless level of quality control (if he has released a mediocre record then I've yet to hear it). I have to admit that I've always found this "artist alone in a Holiday Inn with his Macbook" mode of creativity fascinating anyway - not just O'Rourke's work, but work of that ilk generally. One of my favourite LPs this year (so far) is Tim Hecker's superb, & stylistically akin, Ravedeath 1972, listening to which led me directly back to O'Rourke's early 00's work.

jim:computer:hotel (subtitled "Chicago - Ystad") was recorded in Spring 2000 & commissioned/produced by Swedish artisans Mats Gustafsson & Thomas Millroth for their Olof Bright label. It was included in The Black Box, along with Sonic Youth's impossibly rare Without Kim CD, a booklet of Loren MazzaCane Connors' drawings, & much more. Released in an edition of 100 copies, The Black Box was sold at Ystsad Art Museum's Kulturburo 2000 exhibition/event, retailing at a hefty $500. It's contents, now a decade old, have yet to be reissued anywhere.

Onetofive

EURYTHMICS : Never Gonna Cry Again 7" (1981)

2011-03-07T13:29:00.000-08:00

I know what you're thinking... & you're wrong. I'm not an enormous Eurythmics fan either, but "Never Gonna Cry Again", Annie Lennox & Dave Stewart's first release after dissolving The Tourists, may surprise you. From 1981's In The Garden LP, it was recorded in Cologne with Conny Plank & features contributions from Les Vampyrettes (aka Can's Holger Czukay & Jaki Leibezeit), DAF's Robert Görl, Blondie's Clem Burke, & Markus (son of Karlheiunz) Stockhausen. Cologne evidently had a very profound effect on them: "Never Gonna Cry Again" is a superior slice of Krautrock-inspired, Leibezeit-driven motorik pop that quietly anticipates Stereolab's perennial Neu!-lite chug. It's also notable for it's flute solo - though Lennox had studied the instrument at London's Royal College Of Music, this is one of very few occasions that she played it on record. The b-side is just as impressive - "La Sinistere" is a nightmarish, semi-improvised piece with Czukay's atonal French horn featured prominently in the mix & Leibzeit on drums again. The result? A Hammer horror soundtrack with tenable Pierre Schaffer leanings. Ever the completist, I've also included "Heartbeat, Heartbeat", the raucous b-side of their follow-up single, "Belinda". Czukay, Leibzeit & Stockhausen are all credited with brass on this track, while Görl takes over on drums. Like "La Sinistere", it sounds remarkably like something Malaria! (or Rough Trade-era Wire) might've put their name(s) to. So, where did it all go wrong? When In The Garden stiffed, Lennox & Stewart withdrew into hermitic duo mode, penned soon-to-be chart behemoths "Love Is A Stranger" & "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)", & allegedly toured the country in a horse box (!), performing live with just synths & pre-recorded backing tracks. However, long after they'd become a regular TOTP fixture, they still found time to record this intriguing single with T.G.'s Chris & Cosey, while Lennox's vocals feature on much of Robert Görl's underrated Night Full Of Tension LP.

N.B. Check out this excellent Old Grey Whistle Test perfromance, featuring Lennox in full-on Thomas Jermone Newton mode, & both Czukay & Burke in reserve - it's their first TV appearance anywhere apparently. There was an official video too, though it doesn't look like the budget stretched much further than a day return to chilly South End.

Krista Fast

2.3 : All Time Low 7" (1978)

2011-02-16T02:21:00.000-08:00

For anybody with an evolving interest in British independent music in the mid 80s, the only feasible way to hear keynote Fast Product 7"s by The Human League, Gang Of Four, The Mekons & The Scars was via the EMI-licensed compilation LP, Mutant Pop: The First Year Plan. A collection of the Edinburgh based label's first half dozen singles, the scope & ambition of it's contents was/is staggering, & it's retained much of it's shock/awe value: "Being Boiled" (one of the biggest selling self-released 45s at that point, though sadly nobody was collating a national indie chart back then), "Damaged Goods" (arguably the first post-punk record), "Never Been In A Riot"/"Where Were You?" (definitely the first post-punk punk records!), & "Adult/ery" (aloof, gothic powerpop) all still sound magnificent, 30 years on.

For the fifth band on the compilation, Sheffield's 2.3 (Two Point Three), their Fast Product release remains their sole, & thereby defining, recorded statement. Formed in May 1977, 2.3 were one of the city's few genuine punk bands, March 1978's "All Time Low"/"Where To Now?" sounding like The Clash if they'd grown up on an industrialised Northern sink estate. Their frontman was Paul Bower, renown for co-publishing South Yorkshire's notorious Gunrubber 'zine with Clock DVA's Adi Newton. A legendarily enthusiastic local music scene catalyst, it's Bower who arranged The Human League's first gig (Phil Oakey: "We put a tape together & played it to Paul Bower of 2.3 & he just arranged us a show at Psalter Lane Art College, so we had to turn up. I've probably never been so scared in my life") & fortuitously passed the original "Being Boiled" demo onto D.I.Y. label guru Bob Last, immediately changing the projected course of independent musical history (& unfortunately rendering his own band obsolete, of course). Despite supporting The Banshees, Stranglers & Rezillos early on in their career, time passed 2.3 by & they split unceremoniously in December 1979, members drifting off to Artery, They Must Be Russians, & complete obscurity thereafter (Hayden Boyes-Weston's cameos on Cabaret Voltaire's early recordings excepted).

2.3 left little in the way of unreleased recordings or historical evidence in their wake. All I (very vaguely) remember seeing is their brief mention in a 2-page article about the nascent Sheffield music scene in a late '79 issue of the perennially fab Smash Hits. Eve Wood's essential Made In Sheffield documentary acknowledged Bower & co.'s important position in the city's musical lineage. Hopefully her recent sequel, The Beat Is The Law (which I've yet to see), will restore the balance further?

Difficult Fun

THE PROPER ORNAMENTS (2011)

2011-02-12T14:49:00.001-08:00

FAVOURITE NEW BAND ALERT. The Proper Ornaments are a side project of London (via Glasgow)'s "hotly tipped" Veronica Falls - the brainchild of guitarist James Hoare in fact, with the spuriously monickered Max Claps in tow. Undoubtedly, Veronica Falls' goth-tinged contemporisation of The Shop Assistants' fuzzy garagepop is going to propel them onto the front cover of NME/Artrocker, et al as soon as they relent & compile their handful of been-&-gone 7"s onto CD. Good luck to 'em, but Veronica Falls sound too self-consciously arch &, dare I say it, twee, to my skeptical ears. Worryingly, they remind me of C86 hangers-on The Flatmates &, sorry folks, that's not a good omen! The Proper Ornaments, however, have effortlessly captured my attention/heart/wallet, etc...

Also currently based in London, & named after a Free Design song, The Proper Ornaments have only released one 7" to date, the mesmerising must-have "Recalling"/"Are You Going Blind?", c/o San Francisco's frothy Make A Mess (home also to White Fence & the marvellous Nodzzz). Pitched somewhere between Crystal Stilts/Shimmering Stars' opiated majesty & the cream of the NZ pop underground (The Chills, most evidently), their crestfallen psych pop sound has already well & truly floored me. They're been giving "Recalling" as a loss leader recently, along with a few other tracks, so I guess it's OK for me to post them all here? My favourite of the bunch is the illusory ballad "Shining Bright" - single #2 perhaps?

N.B. They've made a video too. It's worth a look, though it's surfeit of deep, meaningful glances & studied indie petulance may encourage mild hysterics & unsightly tea spluttering amongst the jaded, et al.

Ornamental

DESMOND LESLIE : Music Of The Future (1960)

2011-01-29T06:10:00.001-08:00

Type Desmond Leslie's name into Google & you'll more than likely come up with this 1962 footage of him lamping Bernard Levin, smug presenter of That Was The Week That Was, live on British television in front of 11 million viewers.

The eccentric son of an Irish baronet (who was himself a cousin of Winston Churchill), Leslie made his living as a Spitfire pilot & author (of bestsellers Flying Saucers Have Landed & The Jesus File) with a sideline in writing for the screen (Stranger At My Door, My Hands Are Clay), but also pursued a simultaneous, less lucrative career as a producer of early avant garde electronic music. Inspired by Pierre Schaffer's experiments in electroacoustic composition, Leslie began composing when the budget for a film he had scripted unexpectedly dried up, necessitating that he complete the score himself. His only LP, Music Of The Future, was recorded over a 5 year period - it's contents utilised in zero budget late 1950s potboilers such as The Day The Sky Fell In & Sacrifice B.C. 5000 - & was eventually pressed in 1960 as a one-off acetate. Thereafter, it languished in limbo for almost half a century, until Trunk Records finally stepped in & issued it in 2005. Interest was sufficiently great that it sold out it's limited vinyl pressing almost immediately, & even CD copies now exchange hands for £20+ a pop, hence it's inclusion here.

Though a sometimes arduous listen, Music Of The Future is rarely less than entrancing. Considering it's age & Leslie's lack of conspicuous precedents, it's remarkable similarities to subsequent work by the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop are impossible to ignore. Portions of it remind me, often rather vividly, of those classic early kosmiche Tangerine Dream LPs (Zeit, perhaps), or post-Syd Pink Floyd at their most unhinged (Ummagumma, definitely).

Leslie died in 2001, a forgotten & misunderstood maverick from an era of our cultural history we British still tend to overlook. You can read an extensive Telegraph obituary here.

Death Of Satan

PETE SHELLEY : Sky Yen (1974/80)

2011-01-19T01:50:00.000-08:00

Ex-Buzzcock continuum... Sky Yen is a very rare record indeed. And, no, I don't actually own a copy (more's the pity).

Released on his own, short-lived Groovy label in 1980 in a once-only edition of a 1,000 copies, Sky Yen was actually recorded in March 1974 while Pete Shelley (née McNeish) was still a student at Bolton's Institute Of Technology. It's a primitive Tangerine Dream/Cluster-influenced D.I.Y. oscillator workout that harks back to Eno's caustic Roxy-era experimentation in "The B.O.B. (Medley)", etc - the result of too much time spent sniffing Humbrol modelling glue whilst listening to No Pussyfooting with the curtains drawn, perhaps? Joking aside, Sky Yen is actually a rather impressive achievement - Shelley constructed the oscillator himself from a kit with the intention of soundtracking a film made by fellow student Howard Devoto, & the beginnings of "Boredom"'s 2-note avant garage guitar solo were definitely gestating somewhere deep within it's mordant sheets of lacerating electronic static, I think? Prior to hearing it, 12 year old moi had only previously encountered this type of acutely experimental kosmiche abstraction during the harsher passages of Vertigo's Kraftwerk reissues, or via our local library's scratchy Stockhausen LPs (the latter surreptitiously tucked away behind dogeared copies of Selling England By The Pound & Deceptive Bends).

Bizarrely, when Sky Yen was eventually released in 1980, financed by Shelley's Buzzcocks earnings, it was reviewed in Smash Hits by (of course) the legendary Red Starr. Unfortunately, he wasn't too keen on it: "No Songs, no tunes, no band, no vocals - just 2 sides of solo oscillator droning gently away, note by note, up & down, softly distorted by echo, occasionally sounding like an aeroplane. The second side is more of the same with rather less echo... The title indicates a desire to drift off into the wild blue yonder & this is the soundtrack... Why anyone would want to actually buy this double dose of droning unless they had trouble sleeping is (a) mystery." He must've been in a particularly bad mood that week as he goes on to roundly slag off Television Personalities' "King & Country" as well (there's a nice pic of The Red Krayola though!).

Coincidentally, Sky Yen inadvertently mirrors Throbbing Gristle's formative experimental sessions, which were taking place at their Martello Road safe house around the same time. It also sounds remarkably similar to the much earlier exploratory impulses of the record I'm planning to post next...

Sky Yen

TRISH KEENAN : Still Feels Like Tears

2011-01-16T10:14:00.000-08:00

Of all the recent, seemingly endless, succession of music-related deaths, news of Trish Keenan's passing seems the most shocking - partly because she was still so young (42), & partly because she was so unfailingly modest & approachable. Her death seems horribly close to home somehow, & a pointless, appalling waste of a singular & spellbinding talent.

Broadcast were without doubt one of the last decade's most interesting British bands, & Trish one of our finest singers (she'd long been one of my personal favourites). She'll be dearly missed by anybody who met her, or heard her band's often astonishing music.

Black Session / Ten Short Tape Experiments

LUXURIA : Unanswerable Lust (1988)

2011-01-03T08:54:00.000-08:00

After Magazine's collapse in 1981, & following his brief solo sojourn with the Jerky Versions Of The Dream LP in 1983, Howard Devoto dumped Virgin Records for Beggar's Banquet, hooked up with multi-instrumentalist Noko (previously bassist in The Cure & Pete Shelley's band) & formed the oft-maligned, & now virtually forgotten Luxuria (Adultery originally, a much better name if you ask me).

I'm as guilty as anybody of ignoring them at the time. In 1988 I was far more interested in the torrent of rough & ready underground rock concurrently spewing out of North America &, aside from perusing a couple of non-committal articles in Melody Maker, Luxuria barely impacted on me. Though I'm now ashamed to admit it, Howard already seemed like a spent, middle aged figure to me back then. Predictably, as I hurtle towards middle age myself, Luxuria's music has belatedly begun to aquire a faded, decadent allure. Unanswerable Lust's melodies - cloaked in an opulent fog of gaudy 80s production ("conform to deform", etc) & sounding not unlike Prefab Sprout or Breakfast Club-era Simple Minds in places - are often difficult to pin down. Engulfing themselves in so much ostentatious embellishment seems rather self-defeating in retrospect, dating their album indelibly, & I can't help wondering what these songs might've sounded like if they'd been recorded in more sober, stripped back circumstances. Tellingly, the least production heavy song here, the relatively unfussy "Lady 21", is also one of the most memorable. Howard's lyric's, however, never fail to impress, veering between sly, self-mocking sarcasm & riotous, melodramatic pretension. Unlike most rock writers, his words generally work as well on the page as in performance.

I've added a couple of related tracks: the spirited cover of Dylan's "She's Your Lover Now" from their debut Redneck 12" (with most of Shriekback moonlighting as their backing band), & a remix of the eponymous "Luxuria" (from the Public Highway EP single). I'm still missing the other Public Highway b-side, "Sickly Thug & I", drop me a line if you can help... (N.B. Some of you may also find this of interest.) Bafflingly, whereas Luxuria's second LP, 1990's less absorbing Beastbox, is still easily obtainable via Amazon & iTunes, Unanswerable Lust has been deleted for several years.

Luxuria split, largely unlamented, in 1990. Howard drifted off into a career as a photo archivist & avoided the music industry for the next decade, only re-emerging in 2001 with Buzzkunst, a one-off collaboration with fellow ex-Buzzcock, Pete Shelley. Noko, meanwhile, formed the surprisingly successful Apollo 440 with a couple of old school friends, & currently plays in Raw Chimp. Both Howard & Noko are, of course, part of the reconvened Magazine, Noko replacing the late, great John McGeoch.

Adultery

Start As You Mean To Go On...

2011-01-02T13:48:00.001-08:00

CAPTAIN BEEFHEART & THE MAGIC BAND : Bat Chain Puller (1976)

2010-12-25T04:28:00.000-08:00

I'm not going to bang on about Don Van Vliet's recent, premature passing, except to say that the world already seems a grimmer, greyer place knowing that he's not busying himself out in the middle of the desert someplace, throwing paint at a canvas & chuckling to some cryptic private joke... As Tom Waits told The Guardian last week, "Once you've heard Beefheart, it's hard to wash him out of your clothes. It stains, like coffee, or blood."

By way of tribute, here's the original & unreleased Bat Chain Puller album in EXCELLENT quality (i.e. infinitely better than Ozit's woeful Dust Sucker collection a few years back). This earlier, less acerbic version of 1978's Shiny Beast LP was recorded in early '76 by an economy sized Magic Band comprising John French (drums), Moris Tepper (guitar), Denny Whalley (guitar) & John Thomas (keyboards). Eliot Ingbar & Bruce Fowler had both left the band at the end of Beefheart's extensive '75 Bongo Fury tour & were therefore absent, though Fowler rejoined in time to appear on the re-recorded Shiny Beast renderings of these songs.

Provisionally intended for release on Frank Zappa's DiscReet label, the semi-completed Bat Chain Puller tapes were frustratingly caught up in protracted legal goings-on between Zappa & manager Herb Cohen & "temporarily" shelved. Beefheart, however, had already sent a cassette to Virgin Records' London office to see if they might be interested in releasing the album in Europe. A few dubs were subsequently handed out to sympathetic journalists, & inevitably bootlegged, before a deal had been finalised, hence...

Odd Jobs

Rest in peace, Captain.

TRASH : On & On With Lou Reed 7" (1992)

2010-12-24T09:44:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to post this for ages...

Trash were an on/off New Zealand pseudo-"supergroup" (now defunct), bringing together the licentious talents of Bruce Blucher & Paul Cahill (who'd previously played together in Cyclops & The Alpaca Brothers) with Robbie Yeats (Kiwi drummer par excellence, veteran of The Dead C, The Verlaines, The Renderers, King Loser & numerous others). The three of them also joined forces as Brown Velvet Couch, accompanying vocalist Viv Crowe, for an obscure one-off 7" on the shortlived Roof Bolt label in 1994.

Trash were decidedly less highbrow than most of the other bands they'd performed in - but exhilarating so. As you can doubtless surmise from it's titles, their "On & On With Lou Reed"/"A Short Poem With The Voice Of William Burroughs In Mind" 7" had it's tongue lodged firmly in it's cheek, but that doesn't make it any less terrific a single. A muttering, stumbling hangover of a record, it's surprisingly ended up being one of the most fondly remembered releases of Dunedin's frenetic early 90s era, with several bearded & balding gents of my acquaintance laying claim to it's being one of their favourite 7"s ever. Even John Peel, whose support for the NZ scene was curiously half-hearted, deemed to spin it once or twice. No doubt it's unruly amateurism reminded him of Swell Maps, Mekons & the like?

Recorded by boa fide NZ legend Peter Jefferies in July 1992, & released on New Jersey's New World Of Sound later the same year, both sides of this 7" sound as snottily splendid now as they did (nearly) two decades ago. It culminates in an anonymous peal of salacious, chest-rattling laughter worthy of Sid James himself, & that's always a good sign, isn't it?

Lou & Bill

TANGERINE DREAM : Live At Coventry Cathedral 1975

2010-12-21T13:20:00.000-08:00

I KNOW THE HOLE IN BABY'S HEAD

2010-12-21T11:11:00.001-08:00

Roky Erickson, filmed in 1986 at Austin State Hospital, Texas by Douglas Mobley. This unsettling clip is included among the plentiful extras on the You're Gonna Miss Me DVD...

RED LORRY YELLOW LORRY : This Today EP (1983)

2010-12-15T05:55:00.000-08:00

Red Lorry Yellow Lorry formed in Leeds in 1981 & , initially viewed as acolytes of J__ D______, were spurred on by the wave of interest surrounding the emerging drum machine driven, gothic rock sound of local acts The Sisters Of Mercy & March Violets. RLYL were definitely a "rock" band rather than a purely "gothic" one though, their thunderous assault having much more in common with the parodic rhythm & blues of The Three Johns (&, yes, Joy Division) than Yorkshire's ethereal snakebite & hairspray coterie. The intense combination of Chris Reed's booming vocal, the droning shit storm of electric guitars & the seismic doubling-up of electronic & live drums stills sounds pretty powerful to me. That's not just sentimental middle age, I hope?

The This Today 12", released via York's celebrated Red Rhino in 1983, was/is a round-up of highlights from the band's initial trio of 7"s for the label. The lead track, the sombre "Beating My Head", is a complete re-recording of the original, rather undeveloped 1982 single version (which was actually lifted directly from the demo cassette that got them signed). The remake is, for once, irrefutably superior to it's predecessor: in slowing the pace, piling on further layers of crackling guitar noise, & excising the intrusive Psychedelic Furs-style sax, it's vivid sense of foreboding becomes almost stifling. Overleaf, the cryptic, derisive "He's Read" remains not only my favourite RLYL song, but one of my favourite songs from that era full-stop.

A further run of excellent singles (all since compiled by Cherry Red) led to their debut LP, the ominous Talk About The Weather, a seldom acknowledged period archetype that's dated significantly better than concurrent albums by The Sisters Of Mercy, Skeletal Family or, God help us, The Mission.

RYLR reformed a few years back to perform live & released a handful of new songs through their website. Chris Reed currently performs solo, & semi-acoustically, as ChrisReedUnit.

Take It All

FLYING SAUCER ATTACK : In Search Of Spaces (1996)

2010-12-05T05:05:00.000-08:00

I was up in Manchester a couple of weekends ago &, during my usual slightly frantic trawl of the city's record shops, spotted that Vinyl Exchange had a copy of this Flying Saucer Attack CD, tagged at a crippling £50!

An atmospheric mosaic of gentle psych-folk melodies ("rural psychedelia") & jarring freeform feedback, Flying Saucer Attack (named after a Rezillos song, of all things) started out as the solo project of Dave Pearce ("guitar, vocals, noise"), with on/off help from then-girlfriend Rachel Brook (drums). Formed in Bristol in the early 90s, FSA spearheaded a transient low-fi shoegaze "revival" that embraced several other loosely connected & similarly minded local acts, including Light, Crescent, Third Eye Foundation, Amp & Brook's own, apparitional Movietone. Starting out as a bedroom-based DIY operation & initially recording on a domestic hi-fi tape deck, FSA's limited edition, hand-assembled early vinyl releases (via 1st generation Avon punk label Heartbeat Productions) were not only wildly collectible but also musically unorthodox enough to attract the attention of ace U.S. underground label VHF &, eventually, our own Domino Reccord (latterly the Tesco of alt-rock), both of whom issued several excellent FSA collections over the next few years .

In Search Of Spaces was released on Bruce Russell's sadly dormant Corpus Hermeritcum label in 1996 in a once-only edition of 1000. It's a 50-minute assemblage of extracts from a number of FSA live performances, recorded on the band's only bona fide tour in 1994 & spliced 'n' diced by Russell himself. It contains no songs as such, just collaged (often overlapping) sections of unstructured, experimental, strung out improvisation - the spaces between the songs in fact. It's strictly limited pressing & long term unavailability means that it's been unjustly written off as a peripheral release despite it being one of FSA's most interesting & impressive works, rivaling both the enduring "Soaring High" 7" & their landmark John Peel sessions. It's definitely worth grabbing a hard copy for yourself if you can find it at a reasonable price (i.e.less than 50 quid!) - it's packaged in a lovely, tactile letterpress cardboard sleeve with a selection of unusual hand-printed odds & ends secreted within. Nice.

Spaces

JUDY NYLON & CRUCIAL : Pal Judy LP + Carlotta 7" (1982)

2010-11-27T03:43:00.001-08:00

Lots of interest in the previous post, so now seems as good a time as any to re-up Judy Nylon's indecently fine Pal Judy LP. Recorded in 1982 with Adrian Sherwood & the On-U Sound posse, her collaborators here include members of Dub Syndicate, New Age Steppers & African Headcharge, though the overall sound is anything but "dubwise". Instead, it's a seductive suite of moody, twilight pop songs, each of them complemented by Judy's laconic drawl: "a classic rainy day bit of sound & song to drift away to", according to the NME. Though there are definite comparisons to be drawn with Nico's 80s work - a presiding John Cale influence, perhaps? - Judy's sultry cocktail post-punk rarely recalls Nico's remote, opiated ethereality.

The album was trailered by a 7" on Demon Records, twinning an overhauled version of Snatch's "Carlotta" with Pal Judy's crepuscular "Sleepless Night". I recently discovered an mp3 of the former squirrelled away online somewhere, so I've tacked it on to the end of the original album for your delectation, etc. Pal Judy itself was briefly issued as a ROIR cassette (remember them?) in the early 90s allegedly, though I've yet to see a copy.

Sadly, these recordings represent the extent of Judy's solo oeuvre. What a waste. As I suggested in my previous post, now that her exceptional collaboration with Bot'Ox has reintroduced her into the public domain, she/they should definitely consider hooking up for an entire LP. At the very least, somebody should consider remastering the Pal Judy sessions properly & making them readily available again...

Eskimo Fox

JUDY NYLON vs. BOT'OX

2010-11-24T12:36:00.001-08:00

Cosmi Vitelli (aka Benjamin Boguet) has just released his first LP in ages, under the name Bot'Ox & in collaboration with Julien Briffaz (one half of Tjékël). It's called Babylon By Car & it's bloody brilliant, everything Gruff Rhys & Boom Bip's slightly tepid Neon Neon project could/should've been (though, credit where it's due, Stainless Style is still the greatest DeLorean concept album ever). Often echoing the sleazy afterhours ambiance of Trevor Jackson's vastly underrated Playgroup LP, I've been giving Babylon By Car an absolute hammering all weekend & haven't been able to find a bad track. The highlight for me is the amusingly sardonic "Tout Passe, Tout Lasse, Tout Casse", featuring the amazing Judy Nylon on vocals (where's she been hiding all this time, I wonder?). An ominous 4 a.m. crawl through rain lashed Parisian backstreets in a chauffeur driven Cadillac, it's foreboding soundtrack of opaque 80s stripclub synths is sufficiently grand that I've already Facebooked them to suggest they record an entire album with her! And the rest of the album is just as breath-taking - if, like me, you were knocked out by the oblique techno of Jackson & His Computer Band & Para One a couple of years ago, take note.

I've only seen Cosmo perform live once, DJing in the warm-up slot on Etienne De Crecy's Tempovision tour back in 2000 or thereabouts. Defying the audience's house-hungry expectations, he dropped an aberrant & eclectic selection of early 80s post-punk & skewiff Ze-inspired disco to a rapturous reception. Not bad going for a Sunday night. A year later absolutely everybody here was playing exactly the same bunch of tunes & blathering on about a "punk funk" revival - so, er, respect, monsieur! His schizophrenic debut LP, 1998's genre-jacking Vidéo, abruptly disappeared w/o trace when his label tanked (pick it up cheap c/o Amazon, it still sounds pretty good). The follow up, the giddily commercial acquiescence of Clean, was/is just plain irritating (sorry!), but he's since redeemed himself 1000% by founding the trés frais I'm A Cliché label & is now back on spectacular form with Babylon By Car. With Air seemingly running out of steam & Acid Washed's promising debut inexplicably stalled on the hard shoulder, Bot'Ox's hot-wired debut is looking like being one of my albums of the year. It's not been off my stereo for days now...

Double entendre alert: I can't help thinking that Bot'Ox's name might be a frivolous French reference to the humble English posterior? What do you reckon?

Back In Judy's Jungle

JOCK SCOT : My Personal Culloden (1997)

2010-11-14T05:52:00.000-08:00

Self-professed "poet & tragedian", Jock Scot was born in Leith in 1952 & began his career in the music industry as a renown supplier of "good vibes" to entertainers as diverse as Ian Dury & The Blockheads, The Clash, Blondie, Talking Heads, Taj Mahal, Dr. Feelgood, Viv Stanshall & Wreckless Eric. After waking up in a broom cupboard at the end of a particularly arduous tour, Jock settled in West London just as the scene there, centred around The Warwick Castle pub off the Portobello Road, was regenerating. It was at The Warwick that he began reading his poetry publicly, to the acclaim of "speed-crazed street sweepers & landed gentry" alike, his anointed raconteur's voice sounding as if it might slide off of it's bar stool at any moment, much like it's owner.

A connoisseur of semi-mythic "bad" poet William McGonagall, it's perhaps only natural to presume that Jock's initial stage-bound ambitions might not have been entirely serious. However, his first book, 1993's roguishly autobiographical Where Is My Heroine?, quickly sold out it's entire print run &, having renewed his acquaintance with ex-Fire Engine Davey Henderson (who he'd previously known in Edinburgh & who was at that point fronting The Nectarine No.9), Jock was coaxed into making his first recordings for Alan Horne's briefly reignited Postcard label, leading to 1997's soon-to-be-legendary My Personal Culloden LP. I'd first encountered Jock's work a couple of years prior to this c/o "Going Off Someone", his first collaboration with The Nectarine No.9, originally showcased on their Un-Loaded For You EP but also included on N#9's debut Peel session (later purloined for posterity on the Guitar Thieves comp). Like the disparate handful of other folk who were listening to N#9's work at the time, I'd assumed that Jock was a semi-satirical Davey Henderson alter ego, so when he shambled on stage in person to perform with the band on their 1995 tour, supporting a pre-trauma Edwyn Collins (their short set opened with Jock's acerbic "Just Another Fucked Up Little Druggy On The Scene" & closed with "Going Off Someone"), I was honestly a little taken aback. Dark, touching, crushingly honest & frequently hilarious, My Personal Culloden barely registered outside of N#9's small coterie of listeners &, due to the untimely collapse of Postcard², it slithered in & out of print before it had the opportunity to make a proper impression. Try searching for it on the 'net, it's only a decade or so old yet it's virtually impossible to find out anything about it.

Jock's been worryingly quiet since My Personal Culloden's release. Aside from one other album, 2006's similarly caustic The Caledonian Blues with debauched accomplice Gareth Sager (The Pop Group, Rip Rig & Panic, Head, et al), he seems to have disappeared without trace. I hope he's OK, the biographical DVD that accompanies the Sager LP is a bit of an eye opener, to put it mildly! Somebody make this man a star or, better yet, give him his own Hogmanay show on Channel 5. Fingers crossed he's busy working on his autobiography... if so, the talking book'll be a riot!

N.B. Bonus Jock Alert: For completion's sake, I've also enclosed "A Cold Meat Pie" from the scarce South Of An Imaginary Line EP. Ship ahoy.

They Won't Let Me Sing

THE MEKONS : 1st John Peel Session (1978)

2010-11-11T04:44:00.000-08:00

Today's my birthday & I'm a tiny bit hungover. I'm posting this, The Mekons' inaugural John Peel session (despite it already being available elsewhere on the 'net), because I've been so fond of it for so long - since Peel repeated it sometime during the mid 80s - & I hereby reserve the right to cluelessly babble on about it at infinite length for my own amusement, etc... Don't say I didn't warn you.

"Why doesn't it rain when I'm sad? / I'll wear my Brutus jeans, they don't show the dirt."

Recorded on 14th March 1978, these 6 ragged songs were commissioned sufficiently early into The Mekon's existence that Delta 5's Roz Allen was still present on bass, & while hamfisted, intrepid amateurism was still the band's primary catalyst. Though motivated by punk's "Can't play, WILL play" ethos, The Mekons were never really a punk band as such - they were too arch & too self-deprecatingly analytical from the outset. Listened to retrospectively, in fact, their earliest recordings amount to nothing less than a satirical, "real-time" critique of the punk movement's abrupt & fatal descent into a stylistic, tribalistic cul-de-sac.

"The Sex Pistols created a tremendous amount of debris, & that was very rewarding. It's like a child who loves to destroy something in order to find out what's it's made of... they just weren't able to construct anything from the debris... (but) that was just the beginning" (Malcolm McClaren)

The Mekons were a far more complex ensemble that was necessarily apparent in 1978-80. Were "Never Been In A Riot" or "Fight The Cuts", for example, incipient attempts to express themselves via the prevailing zeitgeist of punk protest song ("White Riot"), or droll pastiches thereof ("Jilted John"), or were they something else entirely? This seminal Mekons era remains, for me, fascinating & unfathomable: "Where Were You"? No, what were you, Mekons?

Crucially perhaps, The Mekons formed at Leeds University's fine arts department in the late 1970s where, alongside members of Gang Of Four & Delta 5, they studied under T.J. Clarke, one of the few British members of the Situationist International, & Terry Atkinson, formerly of Art & Language. Like Swell Maps or Devoto's Buzzcocks before them, this afforded them a degree of subtle intellectual separation - a self-awareness born out of a passionately intense fracas of canibalistic artistic/musical improvisation & anarcho-political radicalism that ultimately ensured they avoided the foreshortened shelf lives of more conventional "contemporaries" such as, let's say, Stiff Little Fingers or Angelic Upstarts (i.e. "WHY should our second LP sound like our first?", & so on). To be fair, the mild disappointment of "Where Were You" failing to bluff it's way onto TOTP doubtless contributed to this negation too?

"I suppose... we never thought we'd get past the first single, but now that we have, it's a dilemma, sin't it? Do you just pack it in & try to get a job or some security, or do you try to do something interesting?" (Jon Langford)

A couple of this session's songs were re-recorded for the band's flawed - but no less brilliant for that - Virgin LP, The Quality Of Mercy Is Not Strnen, though these unkempt BBC versions are definitely superior (just listen to "Dan Dare"). A few more reappeared on CNT's absolutely mandatory It Falleth Like The Gentle Rain From Heaven retrospective, during the course of which The Mekons wave an understandably demoralised goodbye to the first phase of their existence (i.e. art school & Richard Branson) & tentatively embrace their second (a morris dancing hillbilly in a faded Karl Marx t-shirt). I don't think I'll ever get bored of listening to them. I know you won't believe me when I say that Smash Hits used to froth at the mouth about this stuff at the time - before either Lester Bangs or Greil Marcus - but they did & I have the dogeared back issues to prove it! On the subject of which... who was Red Starr anyway?*

(from Smash Hits, 6th September 1979)

N.B. I'm desperate to find a copy of The Mekons' December 1980 Peel session if anybody has one? It includes their embryonic version of "English Whiteboy Engineer" (later requisitioned by The Three Johns for their debut EP) if that jogs any memories? Help!

Garden Fence Of Sound

*Ian Cranna apparently.

STRANGER STATION : Minutes To Silence 7" (1981)

2010-11-10T13:27:00.000-08:00

Stranger Station were conceived towards the end of the 1970s &, based around English duo Simon Driscoll & Judith Golberg, pursued a purely electronic, percussion-free direction. Their only release, 1981's near legendary "Minutes To Silence" 7", popped up briefly on France's über-obscure Superwop label &, in recent years, has become a firm favourite on the thriving minimal synth scene. It's not difficult to see why - simultaneously dated & dateless, it's a singularly powerful example of early 80s anodic prog-pop (once heard, never forgotten) that manages to invoke the spirit(s) of Silver Apples, early Human League, & 70s Radiophonic boffins such as Paddy Kingsland. Elemental, melancholy & glacially remote, it could almost be the work of a synth-wielding, Moorcock-reading Jandek (now there's a thought). It probably goes without saying that original copies currently change hands for around £100.

Almost 30 years on, Driscoll has unearthed both sides of the single & a number of tracks recorded & mixed during the same 1981 sessions for (re)issue as Stranger Station's debut LP, Echoes In Infinity, c/o Mark Schaffer's excellent retrofuturist Anna Logue imprint (500 vinyl copies only). Now principally a Driscoll solo project, Strange Station resumed regular live performances last year.

Minutes To Silence / Strangers

SWIRLIES : What To Do About Them EP (1992)

2010-11-10T05:13:00.000-08:00

I pulled a box of rammel out from under the bed yesterday &, rather fortunately, discovered yet another box lurking behind it. And in that second, enigmatic box? Lots of long forgotten indie CDs from the 90s, including Eric's Trip, Trumans Water, Pitchblende & my entire Swirlies collection (I honestly thought I'd mislaid them last time I moved house).

Originally a Go-Gos cover band (!) called Raspberry Bang (!!), Swirlies' primary intentions were sidetracked upon hearing the emerging English shoegaze sound of My Bloody Valentine & the like c/o Boston's college radio. Promptly renaming themselves & vowing to write their own material, the by-now converted Swirlies were apostolically indebted to Loveless-era MBV from the off. However, their naked adoration was always applied with a pin sharp lucidity that Kevin & co. went to great lengths to avoid, revealing further layers of buried guitar noise & ambiguous taped detritus beneath their melodious veneer. 1992's BlonderTongueAudioBaton, 1 of the 2 LPs they released in their original incarnation, is commonly acknowledged as their woozy, fainéant masterpiece. For me, it sat comfortably alongside Pavement's otherwise peerless Slanted & Enchanted, released just a few months earlier - I certainly played both of them an awful lot back then, whilst poring over the minutely detailed cut'n'paste sleeves for morsels of revelatory info. Nowadays, with nu-gaze bands like Wavves, Yuck & Best Coast "revisiting" the Daydream Grunge™ sound of MBV, Dinosaur Jr, Swervedriver (!), et al, Swirlies' debut LP could conceivably be released next week & still sound totally "contemporary", though your guess is as good as mine as to what that says about the despondent retro-obsessive state of the current indie scene?

What To Do About Them provided a cheap 7-song introduction to Swirlies before BlonderTongueAudioBaton dropped. A bricolage of early Slumberland/Pop Narcotic 7"s, obscure compilation appearances & homeless outtakes, it remains a surprisingly effective teaser & I guarantee it'll have you surreptitiously investigating Swirlies' back catalogue further once you've heard it (mark my condescending words). And for old farts like me, it's a pertinent reminder that not everybody was moping around listening to bloody In Utero back in the mid-90s...

Her Life Of Artistic Freedom

URGE OVERKILL : Wichita Lineman 7" (1987)

2010-11-07T03:14:00.000-08:00

Big Black booted the fire exit open for a disparate bunch of Chicago post-punk/proto-grunge unknowns back in the late 80s, some of them great (Naked Raygun, Rifle Sport, Breaking Circus), some of them not so great (yuk). Urge Overkill were certainly one of the best, before they nestled up to the corporate teat with their "polarising" Saturation LP anyway.

U.O. debuted in 1987 with the nascent Strange, I... 12" on Ruthless Records, a Chicago-based co-operative (as opposed to a conventional label) founded by punk luminaries The Effigies with help from Naked Raygun & Big Black. Ruthless ground to a halt a year or so later following The Effigies' split, necessitating U.O.'s move to Touch & Go, whereupon they released this stately cover of Jimmy Webb's "Wichita Lineman" as a 7" - which is where I came in. I expect I taped it off of John Peel's show one evening & bought it in Selectadisc the following weekend...

Home to Scratch Acid, Butthole Surfers & Killdozer (& Chicago's nearest equivalent to Seattle's SubPop), Touch & Go had already established itself as one of those few labels whose every release was worth investigating &, as the pre-Britpop music scene here was still grappling with the fag-end of C86 (Pop Will Eat Itself & Talulah Gosh, God help us...), noisy American bands with names like Urge Overkill seemed obscure, mysterious &, frankly, terribly exciting. Also, the British independent scene having been evangelically anti-rockist since the late 70s, U.O.'s audacious touting of a Massive Guitar Sound™ (Cheap Trick c/o Chrome?) seemed markedly out of step & clandestine. Unfortunately, of course, this all culminated in the humourless ARENA ROCK CATACLYSM (aka Led Zep Redux) of Pearl Jam, Soundgarden & Smashing Pumpkins, but, as there are now several top shelf publications specialising in that kind of filth, we needn't discuss it here.

Though I played "Wichita Lineman" to death, I always preferred it's b-side, "Head On". It reappeared the following year on U.O.'s Jesus Urge Superstar LP, which cost me a fortune on import but quickly earned it's keep via my playing "Your Friend Is Insane" & "Very Sad Trousers" on repeat for the next 2 years...

Wichita Lineman / Head On

THE NERVES : From The Nerves EP (1976)

2010-11-01T03:36:00.000-07:00

I've been playing a lot of Blondie recently (Eat To The Beat? Love it!), & "Hanging On The Telephone" inevitably cropped up. Though Debbie Harry & co. scored a massive European hit with it in 1978, it had actually been written, recorded & released 2 years prior on this, The Nerves' solitary 7".

From The Nerves = classic Power Pop. A masterful L.A. updating of the perennial British Invasion/Merseybeat sound, fired up by The Flaming Groovies' proto-punk sensibilities & The Ramones incoming blitzkrieg tumult, it mirrored perfectly Nick Lowe's work for the embryonic Stiff label which was simultaneously taking place on our side of the Atlantic. Listening to From The Nerves now, the first thing you'll notice is that "Hanging On The Telephone" isn't actually the best song here. "When You Find Out", a crafty play on Herman's Hermits' "I'm Into Something Good" that wouldn't sound out of place on side 2 of the A Hard Day's Night soundtrack (seriously!), is even better. All 4 songs sound like potential A-side material &, needless to say, Greg Shaw leapt in with a Bomp! licensing deal the minute he heard them. And before anybody pipes up with lazy Rutles comparison or 3, I should possibly point that All You Need Is Cash didn't appear until 1978 - HA!

Though bands like The Fleshtones, The Barracudas & even (ahem) The Knack would capitalise on the Power Pop sound a couple of years later, The Nerves' one shot at fame remains it's crowning release. Alive Records' 2008 One Way Ticket retrospective anthologises From The Nerves & a slew of previously unreleased songs (including the brilliant "Paper Dolls" which would've made an irresistible 2nd 45) - you can buy it here, alongside a ton of post-Nerves releases from The Plimsouls, The Beat & others.

From The Nerves

UT : Ut 12" (1984)

2010-10-14T11:44:00.000-07:00

Finally... the mighty Ut, possibly the final ensemble from the original No Wave era whose influence & importance has yet to be adequately addressed, & one of the finest too.

Forming in 1978, they'd already racked up 5 long years' worth of performances on the NYC underground & worked through a number of line-ups before releasing this eponymous debut 12" (their first appearance on vinyl). Recorded at Brixton's Cold Storage & self-released in 1984 on their own Out label (to resounding critical indifference), you'll no doubt recognise the fantastic "Sham Shack" as Soul Jazz included it on one of their New York Noise compilations. The 3 other pieces here are just are startling, perhaps more so - all seem daunting & impenetrable initially but utterly timeless in retrospect. I only ever actually saw a copy for sale once, in Nottingham's Selectadisc in the late 80s, which I immediately bought & have hung onto through thick & thin, it's such a great, great record. Tantalisingly, Ut completed an even earlier EP for Charles Ball's semi-mythic Lust/Unlust label prior to it's abrupt collapse - c'mon Soul Jazz, get it sorted!

Relocating from New York to London in the early 80s, encouraged by the patronage of Mark E Smith & The Birthday Party amongst others, Ut eventually hooked up with Paul Smith's pivotal Blast Label to release a handful of extraordinary LPs (In Gut's House = masterpiece) before finally calling it a day in 1990. I was fortunate enough to see them them live on a handful of occasions in the mid-80s & it's fair to say that they made absolutely no concessions on stage - swapping instruments, teetering on the brink of a liberating chaos, dissecting & spitting out their ferocious, primal guitar-scraping abstractions to disconcerted, slack jawed crowds who'd much rather have been watching The Flatmates. Ut were "interested in collapsing the divide between song & free improvisation... Most songs came from improvisation & contained aspects of the free even when they became solidified". Though they'd appear at the outset to be freely, & somewhat awkwardly, improvising, the realisation would gradually dawn that, actually, the songs they were playing had been meticulously arranged to sound that way: fractured, forensic, remote & slightly cantankerous.

So, the good news is that (i) Ut performed together, unannounced, in London earlier this year for the first time in 2 decades, supporting Dial (Jacqui Ham's current outfit) at The Luminaire, & (ii) they're about to play several more shows on America's East Coast. Make the effort to see them if you get the chance, they're one of my all-time favourite bands (though it seems slightly churlish to refer to them merely as "a band") & still sound like nothing else on Earth.

P.S. If anybody reading this has Ut's Live 1981 cassette on Out please get in touch.

Eat Your Unders Out

10,000 MANIACS : My Mother The War 12" (1983)

2010-10-10T12:59:00.000-07:00

10,000 Maniacs formed (as Still Life) in chilly upper New York in 1981 & are one of those rare bands who, rather like The Smiths, seemed to emerge without precedent or any obvious influences. John Peel had a fleeting obsession with them back in 1983 &, being a compulsive listener to his show at that point, so did I. Nowadays, the band having long since retreated into anaemic (albeit politically charged) MOR, it's easy to forget how radical their first few records sounded. The unlikely combination of 17 year old Natalie Merchant's ethereal folk vocal (a female equivalent to early, expressionist Michael Stipe), Robert Buck's bizarre, overloaded guitar (a bedsit version of The Edge perhaps?) & a rhythm section that alternated between hesitant white reggae & pounding alt-rock, seemed very peculiar to a schoolkid more accustomed to the DIY dystopia of Devo, Fad Gadget & (!) You've Got Foetus On Your Breath.

This Reflex 12" was the band's first European release & slipped in & out of print relatively quickly, despite scoring a sizable hit on the British independent chart. "My Mother The War" was taken from the band's debut LP, Secrets Of The I-Ching & remains the keynote song of their early repertoire. "Planned Obsolescence" was the stand-out track on their debut, self-released EP, Human Instinct No.5, & is most notable for it's extraordinary guitar playing, totally at odds with the rest of the song (it certainly made me stop whatever I was doing & listen). It's still my favourite song of theirs by some distance. "National Education Week" is a formative (& much longer) demo version of the Secrets Of The I-Ching track that only ever appeared on the Reflex EP (the shorter I-Ching version was omitted from later pressings of the album btw). An awkward lo-fi dub track with an indecipherable child-like vocal (shades of Ari Up?), it could almost be an early 80s On-U Sound outtake.

Inevitably, considering the worldwide popularity the band achieved in the latter half of the 80s, virtually all of these early ("Fredonia") recordings were eventually compiled on Elektra's Hope Chest retrospective in 1990, albeit noticeably cleaned-up ("wet" 80s drums, etc) & losing much of their basement charm in the process. The original vinyl mixes sound vastly superior & I'd definitely suggest you hear them first if at all possible. Needless to say, as per John Peel, my interest in 10,00 Maniacs waned as their musical expertise & self-awareness grew & was bumped off once & for all by a horribly precious appearance on The Tube (don't say I didn't warn you). This EP, the only record of theirs I've ever owned, still sounds rather good though, eh?

Christian Burial Music

DELTA 5 : See The Whirl LP (1981)

2010-10-10T05:36:00.000-07:00

I had a real problem with See The Whirl when I was younger. By the time I'd "discovered" them, the Delta 5's original run of inspirational Rough Trade 45s was already held in high esteem & this, the only full length record they released during their brief tenure, had been written off as a compromised, embarrassing failure. Nowadays, predictably, I beg to differ...

Delta 5 were the third, lesser known wing of the Leeds University art school post-punk triumvirate, alongside The Mekons & Gang Of Four. Inspired by the formers' galvanising concept of "spontaneous amateurism", all 3 bands gestated in catalytic tandem, initially sharing a rehearsal room, instruments & a homemade p.a. system. Additionally, D5 bassist Ros Allen played with The Mekons early on, while Mekons' guitarist Jon Langford doubled up with the D5 at a handful of early shows & designed some of their sleeves. It was this fledgling line-up's demo tape that caught Geoff Travis's ear & led to his releasing the D5's defining "Mind Your Own Business" single, a mutant 2-bass dancefloor throb that combined the GO4's conversational left wing ideology & abrasive punk-funk with the radical feminist dialogue & "make-do" collectivism of The Raincoats.

Following a couple more well-received R.T. 7"s & a triumphant American tour (with GO4 & Pere Ubu), the band left Rough Trade for Pre, the "cool" subsidiary of the terminally un-hip Charisma label (home of Genesis & Lindisfarne) who had already poached The Scars & The Monochrome Set from the independents. Though the band's attempts to engage with a larger audience make complete sense in retrospect (GO4, remember, were much bigger in America than at home by this point), the commercial concessions demanded by Pre seem more than likely doomed from the offset. Lyrically as articulate & barbed as ever, the resulting See The Whirl LP was quickly dismissed as a bowdlerised, disappointingly bloodless affair by band, fans & critics alike. Adorned with all manner of unnecessary additional instrumentation (& featuring Bad Manners' horn on several tracks!), it sounds, on reflection, like a Marxist Haircut 100 in places, though the fractured guitar discord of old lurks just beneath the lavish veneer. A disillusioned Delta 5 gradually fell apart shortly thereafter.

Seattle's Kill Rock Stars valiantly attempted to address matters with 2006's Singles & Sessions 1979-81 compilation - collating the Rough Trade 7"s, some Charisma-era B-sides & various BBC recordings to present a alternate, much harsher version of See The Whirl, the one the band themselves perhaps wishes they'd released? The original LP, meanwhile, has yet to be issued on CD.

N.B. Ros Allen provides several insights into the band's formation & break-up here.

Different Fur

FACTORY FLOOR : Talking On Cliffs EP (2009)

2010-10-07T02:35:00.000-07:00

A ludicrously scarce Japan-only e.p., Talking On Cliffs was released in minute quantities by Magnetic Records last Summer & is currently for sale on Amazon over here (1 copy only!) for a paltry £36. I've no idea when/where this material was recorded, whether any of it will turn up as part of Factory Floor's debut album (when they finally get 'round to putting one out), or if it's even a wholly "official" release anyway - apologies for the uncharacteristic vagueness. It sounds awesome though: disembodied vocals, wrecked guitars, & jagged sequenced electronics with a thick streak of DOA-era T.G. coursing right through 'em. Surely the NME doesn't really like this sort of thing these day, does it?

I Just Left These As Attempts

THE SERVANTS : She's Always Hiding 7" (1986)

2010-09-26T09:49:00.000-07:00

A short 'n' sweet entry from The Servants, featuring the elusive David Westlake, Creation Records' Great White Hope for 1987 (along with Blow Up, Phil Wilson & Baby Amphetamine). Westlake, where are you now?*

As mid-80s Brit jangle goes, "She's Always Hiding" is a bit of a classic - reserved, subtle, nicely performed & not at all dated, despite embodying it's (much maligned) era. If nothing else, it puts paid to the common misconception that all homegrown independent guitar music from this period was the product of twee, thumb-sucking Byrds-fans with greasy fringes & uniformly appalling vintage knitwear. It also led directly to John Peel immediately commissioning their sole BBC session (though Westlake, with The Go-Betweens as his backing band, recorded a solo set for Janice Long in early '87). In hindsight, Westlake seems a superior vocalist / lyricist to many of his late 80s contemporaries, & it's perhaps unjust that The Servants somehow missed out on the critical hyperbole granted to, for example, The Loft, with whom they certainly had a minor chord or 2 in common.

Originally released on Head (Loop, The Wishing Stones, etc) in 1986, this neglected 7" has since been rounded up by Cherry Red to kick off their 2006's Servants CD retrospective. The B-side, "Transparent", overcame it's all-too-obvious debt to Syd's "Octopus" to appear on the NME's misunderstood C86 compilation, of course. Though slightly unrepresentative of the band's sound generally, it's undoubtedly their most widely heard song. Great single all 'round then!

She's Always Hiding / Transparent

* He's lecturing in English at Brunel University apparently.

STEREOLAB : The Underground Is Coming EP (1999)

2010-09-26T07:51:00.000-07:00

You might remember that back at the turn of the century Stereolab were at their most furiously, wallet-worryingly prolific - bewilderingly so in fact. The proliferation of new material they were ceaselessly hemorrhaging culminated in way too much stylistic repetition & an unnecessary glut of largely interchangeable releases that only the most financially benevolent 'Lab aficionado could ever have hoped to keep abreast of (i.e. not me). Patience & resources severely tested, I have to admit that I ducked out on 'em after 1999's Cobra & Phases Group Play Voltage In The Milky Night LP, only dipping back into their frantic release schedule intermittently, & then only for seductive boutique releases like this one, The Underground Is Coming...

I've always preferred Stereolab's succinct, EP-length collections (1995's Music For The Amorphous Body Centre remains one of their finest releases after all) &, as such, The Underground Is Coming is outstanding. A limited edition 4-track 7" in a blinding red & yellow Situationist-inspired sleeve, it was released c/o their own Duophonic label (#D-UHF-D24) & sold exclusively on tour in 1998-99. Musically, it's a frothy mélange of abstracted Abba melancholy, celestial Krautrock motorik, post-ironic elevator muzak & kitschy, wah-wah steeped synths. To date, none of it's buoyant Mooged-up miniatures have been compiled on any of the band's regular Switched On anthologies which is a bit of a shame - brief, slightly daft songs like "Fried Monkey Brains" make a refreshing change from what had by then become "standard" 'Lab fare, & The Groop sound as if they're letting their hair down a bit & having some FUN for once.

And absence really does make the heart grow fonder it seems - I'm currently fighting off a profoundurge to nip upstairs & dig out a couple of old 'Lab albums for a listen, it's been ages...

Post-Ironic Elevator Muzak

GG Allin Works The Room... (1989)

2010-09-13T12:53:00.000-07:00

A GG Allin spoken word show, recorded in Boston c.1989. Despite his fearsome reputation, he actually strikes quite a pathetic figure throughout this performance (& it definitely is a "performance"), taking his anger out on property for the most part & visibly flinching at the prospect of genuine, physical violence. It doesn't look like he'd downed his customary laxatives prior to taking the stage on this occasion either, for which I'm rather thankful - I guess he didn't feel the assembled hipster throng was worth the trouble? As the man himself quoth" "With G.G. you don't get what you expect - you get what you deserve." Having said that, he was imprisoned for "rape & torture of a female aquaintence" later this year, so they evidently got off quite lightly...

SMOG : Tired Tape Machine (1990)

2010-09-06T15:39:00.002-07:00

More nil-fi flotsam from Bill Callahan's Maryland years. Recorded, primitively, in Pasadena way back in May 1990, & originally released on cassette on his own Disaster label, Tired Tape Machine found Bill cautiously edging towards bare-bones melody for the first time. A handful of these songs were extracted by Drag City for inclusion on Smog's Floating EP & Forgotten Foundation LP. A few others appeared in reworked form on peripheral releases such as the My Shell 7" & the Burning Kingdom EP. Tired Tape Machine sounds like shit, but most early Smog did of course...

Your Cat's Name Here

MEMORYHOUSE : The Years EP (2010)

2010-09-06T11:24:00.000-07:00

OK, it's not often that I post new music on here, so make the most of this... Memoryhouse are a somnambulant, hauntological boy/girl duo from Canada. I know next to nothing about them, 'cept that their names are Denise Nouvion & Evan Abeele (a photographer & a "neo-classical composer" respectively) & that their one (DL-only) EP to date, The Years, sounds like a Kendra Smith-fronted Broadcast psychically channeling an ectoplasmic Boards Of Canada remix via Reed Richards' Negative Zone (approximately). Indie blogs'll inform you that Memoryhouse are "hotly tipped practitioners of chillwave" or "blissed-out glo-fiers" no doubt, but let's just label them good ol' fashioned psychedelia & be done with it, hmm? They've been giving these 4 hazy songs away for nothing c/o Arcade Sound for a few months now - their only non-virtual release to date, a 7" featuring 2 versions of "To The Lighthouse" on Inflated Records, has just been repressed on translucent blue vinyl & is available here. If there's one thing better than free music it's good free music, & The Years is marvellous throughout - I honestly can't stop playing it, Favourite New Band Alert, etc...

The Years

THE SOFT BOYS : (I Want To Be An) Anglepoise Lamp 7" (1978)

2010-08-29T06:41:00.012-07:00

Now then, though I've never been a fully paid-up acolyte of The Church Of Robyn Hitchcock, there's no denying that The Soft Boys knocked out a freakishly decent album or 2. The majority of their back catalogue has recently been reissued again, c/o Yep Roc this time 'round. However, despite a plethora of (download only) bonus tracks, the band's vital early singles have once again been overlooked - is Robyn making a concerted effort to distance himself from them, or what? The 2nd, 1978's "(I Want To Be An) Anglepoise Lamp" on Radar, is arguably one of their finer moments - a near-perfect compound of lysergic Barrett-fuelled psych/wonk & Python-esque suburban Surrealism that neatly condenses the first 4 XTC albums into a single, surging 3 minute power pop blipvert. It still sounds terribly exciting, 30-odd years later, & Robyn's mock rock grunt (36 seconds in) never fails to make me smirk. First-rate Barney Bubbles sleeve too.

Though many of The Softs' initial sessions exhibited little more than a lingering comedic debt to The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band & a surfeit of borderline annoying undergraduate humour (particularly live), it's perhaps only fair to put them into the glum pre-punk context of Cambridge c.1975 & imagine how fresh an alternative their deviant music hall whimsy must've provided back then, for hungry music lovers driven to lemming-like seppuku by the soporific drivel of Jackson Browne & The Eagles, et al. Ultimately, the flab-free rush of "Anglepoise" & the sinister Magic Band boogaloo of it's B-side, "Fatman's Son", atone for any earlier, rhetorical indiscretions, ditto A Can Of Bees' fearsome angularity. Crucially, Robyn's songs have always suggested that his eccentricities were/are, on the whole, genuine, whereas the gurning smart arses who followed in his wake (a.n.d.y.p.a.r.t.r.i.d.g.e.) always looked & sounded as if they were trying w-a-y too hard.

I'm sure it goes without saying that Underwater Moonlight is one of the best LPs of the immediate post-punk era, but give the lesser known Invisible Hits a listen too - despite it's somewhat impromptu nature, it's actually a beast of an album.

Scissor Your Shoots, Yeah

TAGMEMICS : Chimneys EP (1980)

2010-08-26T13:20:00.001-07:00

Tagmemics was a shortlived, Edwin Pouncey-fronted ensemble that sprang out of the earlier, almost legendary Art Attacks, following their split in 1978. The unquestionably brilliant "I Am A Dalek" 45 aside, The Art Attack's grandest moment was - they'd be the first to admit I'm sure - headlining at The Vortex with a fledgling Squeeze as support (...!). Sharing most of their predecessor's line-up (though drummer J.D. Haney had defected to The Monochrome Set), Tagmemics only managed to cough up a solitary 7", the largely forgotten Chimneys EP on Index (in a Gary Panter sleeve no less), before abruptly imploding.

Though Pouncey disowned the EP in a characteristically prodigious Forced Exposur e interview back in 1989, I like it at least as much as The Art Attacks' stuff. Too smart to be pure punk rock, but too surly & snotty for the new wave crew, it ends up being unceremoniously dumped in the messethics slop bucket by default (which is fine by me). "Take Your Brain For A Walk", arguably the best song here, was apparently covered by Devo during their early 80s pomp but I've yet to hear it. Tagmemics expired in Chimneys' immediate wake, Pouncey stomping off to carve out a career as a demonically twisted illustrator of some repute, only returning to music in the late 80s with the much-missed Kray Cherubs. More from whom shortly...

Chimneys

CAN : Turtles Have Short Legs 7" (1971)

2010-08-14T07:03:00.000-07:00

Despite Can ascending to near deity status over the course of the last decade, it's surprising how few people know about this singularly uncharacteristic 7". Recorded during the Tago Mago sessions & released on Liberty in 1971, it's sufficiently odd to suggest that both band & label realised Can's only opportunity for blagging a little chart action would be via the "weird" novelty hit route. "Turtles Have Short Legs"could, I guess, be ranked alongside similarly peculiar early 70s smashes like "Mouldy Old Dough" & "Popcorn" though, typically, Can's effort failed to chart anywhere. Intriguingly, though it was recorded in 1971, it actually sounds as if it might've been extracted from one of their far later Virgin-era LPs, the humdrum Flow Motion for instance? Incidentally, there's a marginally longer alternate mix of "Turtles Have Short Legs" doing the 'rounds on various bootlegs.

The B-side is a savagely truncated version of Tago Mago's "Halleluwah" suite, pared down from 18+ mins to just over 3. Bizarrely, it still sounds great & has never been reissued in this form to my knowledge (schnell!). It's the groovy mid-section that sounds like a listless, flower power Happy Mondays loping around a psychedelic bierkeller that made the cut, of course. Apparently there's a 3 minute edit of "Future Days" on the b-side of UA's seldom seen "Moonshake" 7" - anybody heard it?

Turtles Have Short Legs / Halleluwah (Short version)

B.C. GILBERT & G. LEWIS : Ends With The Sea 7" (1981)

2010-08-11T04:36:00.003-07:00

In the interests of balance (or something), here's a little more post-Wire fallout, from Bruce Gilbert & Graham Lewis this time. Released on 4AD in April 1981, it's interesting to see the all-too-evident conceptual division between the 2 factions of Wire when comparing "Ends With The Sea" with the previous 7" I posted, Colin Newman's comparatively commercial "We Means We Starts". That said, "Ends With The Sea" is one of Lewis & Gilbert's least alienating releases from their early 80s period but - & we might as well concede this from the off - it was never likely to set the Top 40 alight, was it? In essence: further exploratory, loop-based, almost Eastern-sounding processed / percussive music along the lines of their 3R4 album (another 4AD obscurity), or their earlier Cupol 12" (ditto), all of who's trajectories hurtled out of the controlled chaos of Document & Eyewitness with remarkable velocity. Just like Newman's first few post-Wire releases actually, but in an entirely different direction - towards Dome, in fact.

N.B. I couldn't find any decent L/G pics but René Magritte does the job rather nicely I think?

Seaend

COLIN NEWMAN : We Means We Starts 7" (1982)

2010-08-07T04:04:00.000-07:00

Virtually impossible to locate nowadays, Colin Newman's "We Means We Starts" 7" was released by 4AD in 1982, in-between his Provisionally Entitled The Singing Fish & Not To LPs. "We Means...", with it's honeyed guitar-led pop sensibilities & crafty lyrical abstractions, explicitly pre-figures the reconciled Wire's 1988 nearly-hit "Kidney Bingos" & would doubtless have been one of Not To's highlights if Newman had seen fit to include it. The B-side is a remixed version of that album's mellifluous title track & is possibly my favourite of all his solo recordings.

Both songs reappeared (briefly) in the late 80s when 4AD reissued both of Newman's LPs as a single CD. The 1st 3000 copies included CN1, an interesting "6-track companion" EP that rounded up various period outtakes omitted from the packed-out 2-fer reissue due to inevitable time constraints. Anyone interested in Newman's solo work, or Wire's Mute era, will definitely appreciate it.

Provsionally

ROBERT WYATT : 2nd Peel Session (1974)

2010-08-06T14:05:00.000-07:00

Wyatt's 2nd Peel session, recorded at BBC Langham 1 on 10th September 1974 with the mighty John Walters at the desk. It features a stripped down version of his Top 30 "I'm A Believer" single alongside a handful of songs from his venerated Rock Bottom LP, with all instruments ("piano, organ, marimba, percussion") played by Robert himself. Rock Bottom's songs were, to all intents & purposes, originally destined for the 3rd Matching Mole album, which was understandably abandoned after Robert's accident in mid 1973. Strange Fruit released these 4 songs as a 12" back in the late 80s, but it's been out of print for ages & is currently going a few pence shy of £30 on Amazon (I checked). His earlier Peel session, from December '72, is currently available on the Solar Flares (Burn For You) collection incidentally.

Link Removed. This session is currently in print.

THE DIED PRETTY : Out Of The Unknown 12" (1985)

2010-08-01T13:52:00.000-07:00

Continuing the Sydney lineage... I first encountered The Died Pretty when Peel blasted this tremendous single out over the airwaves sometime in early 1985. The Out Of The Unknown 12" was actually a British re-release (via What Goes On) of the band's 2 previous 45s on Citadel Records, home to The New Christs, Lime Spiders, The Stems, Porcelain Bus & innumerable other underground Australian psychonauts.

It's Brett Meyer's extraordinary slide guitar playing on "Out Of The Unknown" that made me stop whatever I was doing back then & listen, & I'm guessing it'll have a similar effect now, a quarter of a century on, if you've not heard it before (N.B. I've lost count of how many mixtapes I've included it on!). With hindsight, I can see why Peel was drawn to it, there are definite similarities with his mid-60s protégés The Misunderstood. Though "World Without" might initially seem slight by comparison it's inarguably a lovely track, a melancholy Beatlesque ballad & a real grower (it's not the Peter & Gordon song btw). Overleaf, the 10+ minute "Mirror Blues" is a monstrously intense marriage of early electric Dylan & The Doors circa Morrison Hotel, & sounds like a pharmaceutically energised Nuggets band playing to the absolute limits of it's abilities. It's not a complete 60s-fest though, Frank Brunetti's surging keyboards suggest that the band were as au fait with Martin Rev as with Ray Manzerak. It's the kind of sprawling, stream-of-consciousness (& fromage-free) epic that most bands are too depressingly mediocre to even consider attempting nowadays, more's the pity. All 3 songs were recorded at a single session at Sydney's Honeyfarm Studios in August 1984, & the 10 minute "Mirror Blues" was originally split in half across 2 sides of a 7". For me, this early run of singles & the following year's Free Dirt LP remain not only The Died Pretty's finest recordings, but possibly the greatest Australian rock music of the last 30-odd years. Awe-inspiring stuff, frankly.

The Free Dirt album was remastered, expanded & re-released a couple of years ago. It's not cheap but it's worth every penny. Failing that, you'll be able to pick copies of all of these records in their original vinyl editions on eBay if you're vigilant. Click hereabouts for period interviews with Bucketful Of Brains & Tarantula.

Smash The Mirror

THE CELIBATE RIFLES : The Turgid Miasma Of Existence (1986)

2010-07-30T01:53:00.001-07:00

Y'know that awful dawning of grim realisation when, on a mission to retrieve something from a rarely frequented corner of your record collection, you realise that you actually parted with that album that you need to hear right now several years ago? I've just experienced that horrible feeling with reference to The Celibate Rifles. I had virtually their entire back catalogue stashed away back in the 90s but, during an exploratory delve a few days ago, I discovered that I'd flogged the lot at some point & have no idea when or why. All I've got left is their ace live LP, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang ("blistering", as they say). Gutted.

Fortunately, I've found a rip of The Turgid Miasma Of Existence squirrelled away on my hard drive. Released on Hot in 1986, it's probably my favourite of their (14 or so) studio albums, evenly split between hi-NRG MC5 / Radio Birdman proto-punk thrashers & hallucinatory, droned-out ballads (a sound Yo La Tengo would get to serious grips with a few years later). Initial copies came with an additional 3-song 7", eventually compiled on the Platters Du Jour retrospective, I believe? Response in the U.S. was sufficiently positive that the band decided to get out of Sydney & book themselves their debut tour there, culminating in the incendiary CBGB's show that makes up that aforementioned live album. I was lucky enough to see them live, just the once, in 1987 around the time of Roman Beach party LP, & it was quite a night! Two solid hours of non-stop short/sharp "hits" interspersed with countless dry one-liners & insane amounts of booze (snakebite, no doubt), after which I fell asleep in a car park. The majority of their back catalogue is pretty difficult to aquire nowadays, so don't dither if you spot Sideroxylon, Les Fusiles Célibataires or Roman Beach Party gathering gust in a 2nd hand rack somewhere, raid your coffers & buy 'em.

LINK REMOVED:

Hot Records have since reissued this album on CD, with additional tracks, etc.

UNREST : A Factory Record 7" (1991)

2010-07-23T02:28:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of friendly competition, here's my lightning fast response to Ripped In Glasgow's Factory-related post earlier today. I've been meaning to post this for a while, so now seems as good a time as any...

I was an avid follower of Unrest back in the 90s, & though their cluster of releases on Teenbeat (curated by the band's own Mark Robinson, a serious Fac head) & 4AD never quite propelled them to the level of music press adulation that I'd expected there still appears to be a healthy consolidation of affection for them. Robinson's fascination with the minutiae of Factory's back catalogue has resulted in a number of playful Fac references in the Teenbeat catalogue, the most overt of which is doubtless this excellent EP with it's carefully constructed replicant recreations of Crispy Ambulance, ESG, Crawling Chaos & Miaow. A Factory Record was released on lilac 7" by Sub Pop in March 1991 as part of their subscriber-only Singles Club (#29). Limited edition, Long gone. Never reissued. Too bad.

Fac Off

MILTON GLASER'S BARD OF AVON

2010-07-18T05:01:00.001-07:00

As is my wont on drizzly Thursdays, I was rooting about in a shabby bookshop earlier this week & pulled a dilapidated copy of Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale off a high, rarely visited shelf. Personally, I've never understood the appeal of The Bard's lit, my only memories of his work are uniformly depressing (needless to say, I've not revisited his oeuvre since college), but Milton Glaser's unusual cover illustration immediately caught my eye. Glaser's sublime, faux-Pop artworks decorated the jackets of Signet's entire run of Shakespeare paperbacks in the late 60s & remained in print throughout the 70s. If his style seems familiar, you've probably seen his iconic Dylan profile at some point (it makes a subtle cameo in the cover to Pericles, reproduced below). He's possibly most renown for designing the original, ubiquitous "I Love N.Y." logo however, an impressive (to put it mildly!) addition to any designer's portfolio...

N.B. Apologies if I've gone a little bit overboard on the uploads this time 'round, I tried to choose my favourites but most of them are so gorgeous that it proved impossible...

MEDICINE HEAD : His Guiding Hand 7" (1970)

2010-07-15T12:17:00.000-07:00

I first heard this one on John Peel's show in the mid '90s (surprise, surprise). He'd dug it out, if I remember correctly, to highlight similarities with the work of Will Oldham's Palace, who were enjoying the zenith of their hipster kudos at the time (circa Viva Last Blues, etc). Peel certainly had a point, "His Guiding Hand" radiates a fragile rural simplicity that echoes Oldham's less priapic work & belies Medicine Head's dubious sartorial splendour: stoned & bearded polytechnic undergrads from the real ale society essentially (hey, it was a good look in 1970). Listening to it again now I can see why it promptly struck a chord with me, it still sounds peculiarly contemporary, far better than the majority of the studiously rustic, achingly devotional pseudo-folkies who have sprung up in the wake of Oldham & Alasdair Roberts. Released fleetingly as a 7" for Peel's own Dandelion label, both songs here quickly re-appeared on the band's debut LP, New Bottles Old Medicine. Said album is definitely worth tracking down, but for me it's these 2 tracks that capture that intangible "something".

Hailing from galmourous Stafford, Medicine Head were an unorthodox duo of John Fiddler (vocals, guitar, piano, drums) & Peter Hope-Evans (harmonica, jew's harp, mouthbow), though they did relent & employ additional musicians later in their career. Though their anterior releases sank without trace, their subsequent "(And The) Pictures In The Sky" single scored Dandelion's only UK chart entry - #22 in 1971. They also released an album titled The Dark Of The Moon an entire year prior to Pink Floyd's hardy perennial - coincidence? I think not.

Along with similarly schismatic bands like The Way We Live / Tractor, & Stackwaddy, Medicine Head spearheaded a largely forgotten (some might say 2nd division), Peel-championed strand of the early 1970s British folk / blues underground that Mojo & the rest of the 60s/70s nostalgia industry have yet to adequately address. For the record, I'd rather gouge my eyes out with a butter knife than read any more Fab 4, Floyd or Zep re-appraisals, thanks very much - 20 pages on Dandelion would be very welcome, however!

His Guiding Hand / This Love Of Old

IS THIS MAN A FUCKING IDIOT? DISCUSS...

2010-07-14T03:15:00.000-07:00

DMCA READ THIS: Despite once again including links to nothing but officially sanctioned sites, the following post has just been removed by Blogger for the third time. Why?

"WOODEN SHJIPS: Drunk Girls (LCD Soundsystem cover) (2010)

N.B. This'll make you hoot. Blogger have removed the following post TWICE now, without prior warning or good reason, at DMCA's request. In both instances, I was actually linking to an OFFICIAL stream & not, repeat NOT, hosting the song/file myself & thereby not, repeat NOT, infringing anybody's copyright. Conclusion: neither Blogger, DMCA, EMI Records or James Murphy's minions actually check the content of "offending" posts before spitting blood & barging in, with phasers set to "litigate".

So... I've now removed the link to those legal streams I mentioned & am posting this for the 3rd & final time. You can hear the song in question all over the internet at the click of a button or 2, or perhaps even buy it (I'd recommend the lovely 7" vinyl edition rather than a crummy DL, sanctioned or otherwise). If you've not already purchased the current, disappointing LCD Soundsystem LP I'd definitely suggest you take a cursory listen to it before committing yourself - it's a second-rate effort AT BEST. Tally ho!

Dunno whose gloriously deranged idea this was but, wow, it really paid off! San Francisco's hipper-than-thou nouveau psychedelicists Wooden Shjips pass the bucket & thrash out a grizzled take on LCD Soundsystem's terribly voguish (mwah) current single, utterly destroying the DFA template in the process. Wooden Shjips' fuzzy motorik version is actually available officially as the b-side of a limited edition LCD SS 7", so a deferential doff of the titfer to James Murphy for foresightedly sanctioning it but, really, the cover is soooo much better than the underwhelming, DFA-by-numbers original that he's probably been sulkily refusing to come out of the bathroom all weekend. Here's a thought: perhaps Murphy might consider commissioning more interesting folk of Wooden Shjips' genus to reinterpret This Is Happening (very satirical) in it's entirety as a welcome alternative to the utterly exhausted Remix Album Option? And if somebody can arrange a Suicide rework of "Losing My Edge" I'll quite happily top myself after I've heard it (you can bury me with the master tape)."

...we'll see how long this one stays up shall we?

ROBERT FRIPP : God Save The Queen / Under Heavy Manners (1980)

2010-07-10T06:20:00.001-07:00

In the same way that Fripp's 1979 Exposure LP relates explicitly to his work with Peter Gabriel (on his 2nd eponymous, vastly underrated, solo album) & Daryl Hall, so God Save The Queen / Under Heavy Manners engages with his subsequent, heady period of career defining experimentation with Bowie (Heroes / Scary Monsters & Super Creeps) & Talking Heads (Fear Of Music).

Released by EG in 1980, God Save The Queen is, as it's complete title implies, an album of 2 distinct halves. Instrumental throughout, excepting David Byrne's pseudonymous cameo (as Absalm El Habib) on "Under Heavy Manners", side 1 solely employs the Frippertonics process as it's template, adapting it somewhat on side 2 for what Fripp craftily labelled "discotronics", i.e. posthumously combining his treated guitar loops with a studio-based rhythm section. The bedrock material for the entire album was recorded live in concert in 1979, with Buster Jones & Paul Duskin (bass & drums respectively) adding their contributions later. Though he'd already established The League Of Gentlemen as a touring unit by this point, Fripp clearly intended the LP to be recognised as a solo project &, not wanting to suggest a thematic connection with Eno's collateral ambient work, the album's original title, Music For Sports, was ammended at the last minute.

Rather alarmingly for an artist of Fripp's stature, God Save The Queen / Under Heavy Manners has never been reissued (on CD or otherwise) so you'll need to scour eBay for an original copy.

Rule Britannia

SCRITTI POLITTI : John Peel Session 5/12/78

2010-07-10T04:08:00.000-07:00

Another John Peel session. Scritti Politti's debut in fact, recorded on 5th December 1978 with Tony Wilson (him again) behind the desk. It's a prevailing misconception that the Peel session Rough Trade issued as the Work In Progress EP in 1979 was Scritti's first. Surprisingly it wasn't, though the same original line-up features on both: Green Gartside (vocals & guitar), Tom Morley (Drums) & Niall Jinks (bass). I've no idea why this inaugural set has been consistently overlooked as it's first-rate, very fractured & oblique, an unlikely amalgam of Canterbury prog, NYC No Wave & Marxist art school squat punk in fact. Despite Green's subsequent chagrin (he's since dismissed his music from this period as "winceworthy"), these songs wholly epitomise a thrilling, wildly experimental era of British independent music, & not rounding them up as part of the Early compilation was a colossal missed opportunity I think? It's a long journey from here to Miles Davis (via Robert Wyatt, Chaka Khan & an alleged heart attack, aged 23), but Green eventually pulled it off, of course...

You'll lots of archived Scritti lit here, but remember to give the official page the once over too.

5/12/78

FIRE ENGINES : John Peel Session 23/2/81

2010-07-05T10:19:00.000-07:00

Fire Engines' 2nd session 1981 for John Peel is all over the 'net but their debut appears to have slipped off the radar. Recorded on 23rd February with Tony Wilson ("another one") at the desk, it's 4 frenetic blasts of Warholian blang & yelp are actually even more feral than their officially released counterparts, no doubt because (in the enduring spirit of the Peel session) they were performed live in the studio, sans overdubbing & with only a modicum of post-production.

The better known half of this set, "Discord" & "Candyskin" (both much more abrasive than their more familiar Pop:Aural incarnations), was released as a limited edition 7" by Domino on the 25th anniversary of their original broadcast (9th March 1981, pedants). The ferocious cover of Heaven 17's "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang" appeared on Rev-Ola's long unavailable Fond compilation back in 1992, but was omitted from Acute's otherwise complete Hungry Beat collection (why?). Interestingly, the remaining untitled song (aka "The Untitled One" aka "No Time To Lose") has never been released officially. As Fire Engines songs go it's relatively upfront & linear, an enthusiastically amateurist D.I.Y. pop song basically, & would've made a terrific single. "Candyskin" promptly swaggered along & changed all that of course, & perhaps that's why it's remained in the archives for so long? Apologies for the slightly ropey quality btw, 3/4's of this have been mastered from a 25 year old Scotch cassette...

Their unclassifiable 2nd session. since disowned as an embarrassing failure by foremost Fire Engine Davey Henderson, is available here c/o Cliff Richard's Neck. It sounds nothing like their earlier recordings but, despite what you might've heard or assumed, is just as uncommercial - a queasy marriage of A Certain Ratio & The Magic Band I think. Both sets are crying out for immediate release, as are Orange Juice's slew of early 80s BBC recordings (commissioned by all manner of highly uncool evening DJs, not just our lord J.P.). Get it sorted Domino.

Discord

THE DURUTTI COLUMN : Never Know (1981)

2010-07-04T14:51:00.000-07:00

Another fantastic Facebook find. More peerless, majestic melancholy from The Durutti Column, circa LC (Factory, 1981). I've watched this half a dozen times already & am still not bored, it's such a haunting combination of music & visuals...

THE GIST : This Is Love 7" (1980)

2010-07-03T05:02:00.000-07:00

Stuart Moxham formed The Gist in 1980, following Young Marble Giants' break-up. Their debut, this brilliant double A-side* 7" on Rough Trade, can't help but leave you ruminating on how a second YMG album might've sounded. Immediately following this single's release, & debilitated following a serious motorcycle accident, Stuart descended into the financially impoverished, Eno & LSD-inspired isolationist home recording sessions that culminated in The Gist's terrific, oft-ignored Embrace The Herd LP. It's been a particular favourite of mine since I picked it up for less than a quid back in the 90s, purely on the strength of spying Epic Soundtracks' name in the credits & noticing that it was recorded at This Heat's Cold Storage studio. In spite of sketchily evident stylistic similarities with contemporaries such as Marine Girls, Stuart's music has always shrugged off any lazy accusations of twee-ism by virtue of it's abiding spikiness, a persistent emotional distance that, though vague, is attendant throughout. Disappointingly, Stuart doesn't seem too keen on the Embrace The Herd personally: "It's a symbol of my misery & lack of direction at that time. There's very few lyrics on it, for example, because I had nothing to say." Apparently he prefers the original 4-track demos. To which the only sensible response is surely "Release the demos then!"? There's a slightly painful interview here that perhaps provides some reasoning for this brittle impetus behind his music. Bear in mind it's almost 20 years old though, & that Stuart's situation has, as far I understand, improved immeasurably in the interim. Hole's cover of "Credit In The Straight World" put food on the table for a couple of years, & Young Marble Giants' recent Domino-bankrolled reformation has been ecstatically received. Crikey, a happy ending for once!

Embrace The Herd has been lovingly reissued on CD (you can buy it here) but, despite a number of welcome additions, neither "This Is Love" or the later "Fool For A Valentine"7" are included, an enormous shame as far as I'm concerned.

This Is Love / Yanks

*Actually it's not a double A-side.... but it should've been.

THE HUMAN LEAGUE : On Viennese TV (1980)

2010-06-29T01:03:00.000-07:00

The original Human League, recorded live for Viennese TV in 1980 & rescued from a 30 year old VHS tape (though not by me, I should add). Quality is pretty shaky but, like me, you've probably become accustomed to leftfield musical artefacts of this vintage displaying mandatory built-in cassette wobble? You're unlikely to find visual documentation of their "Perfect Day" cover (later adapted by the B.E.F. for Music Of Quality & Distinction Vol.1) anywhere else I reckon, so make the most of it...

RIP RIG + PANIC : Go, Go, Go! (This Is It) 7" (1981)

2010-06-26T03:14:00.000-07:00

They say one's mental faculties are the first thing to go &, as I get older & increasingly jaded, Rip Rig + Panic begin to make more & more sense. I dunno if I'm comfortable with that or not...

I can remember RR+P being all over the music press when I was a kid - they even made it into Smash Hits I think? - but I have to shamefacedly concede that I only got 'round to listening to them a decade or so ago. "Go, Go, Go! (This Is It") was their 1981 debut, a 7" on Virgin, & though not quite as out there as they later ventured it remains a stupefying matrimony of The Face's Hard Times funk agenda & Albert Ayler's ESP skronk. It's a fantastic bloody mess, a full-on voodoo invocation almost, God bless Branson for pulling his wallet out & granting Gareth Sager & co. day release from whichever high security retreat they were doing time in to record it. The b-side's called "The Ultimate In Fun (Is Going To The Disco With My Baby)", a title that still virtually drips with sarcasm. And the sleeve illo's a saucy little number by some guy called Leonardo Da Vinci (he's like Banksy but older).

RR+P's entire back catalogue has finally been reissued, albeit only digitally c/o iDoom, et al. 99p a track seems a bit rich however, so I'd perhaps suggest that you use the snippets available on there to assess whether RR+P are your thing or not, & then hunt down all the original vinyl via eBay (most of it pops up quite frequently). Accordingly, next time you see Sager propping up the bar in some tatty London boozer, buy him a pint or 3 to balance the books royalties-wise.

The Ultimate In Fun

P.S. I've just amended this post from way back & updated the links to include the extended 12" mix (it's not included with the current reissues).

FLYING SAUCER ATTACK : Outdoor Miner 7" (1995)

2010-06-25T01:21:00.000-07:00

Back in the mid 90s, at the height of their prolificacy, Bristol's Flying Saucer Attack were knocking out 7"s in such manic abundance that it was a full-time job keeping up with them (especially if you were signing on as I was). Despite a couple of carefully collated anthologies, several of these singles have been regrettably overlooked, including one of my personal favourites, 1995's "Outdoor Miner"/"Psychic Driving" (c/o Domino I believe?). Up top is a dreamy, fuzzy, & perhaps slightly pointless cover of one of Wire's greatest songs. Though a pleasant enough attempt, I'm sure they realised from the offset that they'd not be able to improve on the flawless original. Underneath, literally on the dark side, lurks an archetypal piece of opaque FSA bad trip shoegazery, at which they'd become assuredly adept by this point. Not a groundbreaking record on anybody's terms, least of all FSA's, but it's sad to think this might've been allowed to slip away into total obscurity unlamented, hence this little reminder...

N.B. Lovers of "Outdoor Miner" might be curious to hear this.

Psychic Mining

FACTORY FLOOR : Aeromodelling Club (2007)

2010-06-24T01:23:00.001-07:00

Lots of interest in my Factory Floor post from earlier this month. Good to see that not everybody is worshipping at the scutty altar of Aerial bloody Pink or, worse still, eyeing up the crummy new LCD Soundsystem LP for hipster sustenance. I've had a couple of requests to put up Factory Floor's subsequent releases but would prefer not to as they're all still in print - that said, the Planning Application 12" is already becoming very difficult to acquire (buy it now while you still have the chance, it's my favourite release by them so far). I'll gladly share this curiosity with you though - a very early F.F. track from some compilation or other, that's long since drifted back into obscurity. I've not been able to surmise from where it originates exactly, so drop me a line if you have any concrete info please! It was recorded when the band where still a duo I think &, though it's not a patch on their current direction, it certainly makes an interesting digression...

Aeromodelling Club

ELECTRONIC MUSIC STUDIOS : What The Future Sounded LIke (2007)

2010-06-20T06:42:00.000-07:00

Another "lost" chapter of musical history uncovered! Matthew Bate's 2007 documentary What The Future Sounded Like provides an excellent history of the (still) relatively obscure EMS (Electronic Music Studios), a radical cell of British avant garde electronic musicians who, in experimenting with the pioneering technology of what was then possibly the world's most advanced computer music facility, reimagined the boundaries of electronic sound & created a retrofuturist soundscape for the "New Britain" of the 1970s.

Comprising of composers Peter Zinovieff & Tristram Carey & engineering wizard David Cockrell, EMS's greatest legacy is the iconic VCS3 synthesiser, Britain's first serious rival to the American Moog, made famous by the enthusiastic patronage of Brian Eno, David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Hawkwind &, eventually, Add N To (X) & LCD Soundsystem. Zinovieff, alongside Delia Derbyshire & Brian Hodgkins, ran the legendary Unit Delta Plus studio out of his garden shed in Putney in the mid 60s. Carey soundtracked several Ealing & Hammer films & was a prolific composer of avant garde chamber & choral music, but is probably most renown for his work on Dr. Who. Trunk recently released a staggeringly good anthology of his work that I can't recommend highly enough (it's the main motivation for my posting this in the first place). Cockerell, in addition to designing most of EMS's battery of equipment, later worked for IRCAM, Electro-Harmonix & Akai.

Though Zinovieff has retired, EMS still operate & maintain a website here.

THE NECTARINE NO.9 : Hanging Around (Remodel) (2005)

2010-06-20T02:21:00.000-07:00

The Nectarine No.9 have been back on the playlist 'round here recently, I'm pleased to announce. The brainchild of Fire Engines visionary Davey Henderson, & an understandably laconic reaction to his painful major label tribulations with the massively underrated Win in the late 80s (there's an alternate universe out there somewhere where Win are as gargantuan as U2 y'know), The Nectarine No.9's puzzling commercial failure remains one of the 1990s' great musical anomalies. Initially bankrolled by Alan Horne's Postcard label during it's brief rejuvenation in the mid 90s, & knee-deep in critical plaudits, The Nectarine No.9 seemed like surefire contenders for Official Coolest Band In The World Ever, their V.U. / Van Vliet / Bill Burroughs-instilled art school glam rock deadset - in theory, at least - on satiating both Mr. Mojo Reader & Ms. Artrocker Hipster alike. Sadly, 'twas not to be, & following a decade's worth of often tremendous (but totally ignored) LPs, Henderson & co. finally seemed to lose heart & admit defeat. Their final album, I Love Total Destruction (harumph!), remains one of their finest but limped into the nation's weather beaten record shops almost apologetically (or so it seemed). The band had already ceased to exist by the time "Hanging Around", one of the LPs most accessible songs, had been overhauled & readied for single release. It's projected flip, a rough 'n' ready stagger through a Sun Ra classic, still sounds marvellously deranged. As far as I can surmise, the single only ever existed in promo form, copies of which can occasionally by found on eBay for mere pence (tsk). As a swansong it's surprisingly upbeat & celebratory, & provides a seamless segue into Henderson's current outfit, The Sexual Objects, who are essentially more of the same musically but with a heavier emphasis on Bolan & early Modern Lovers. As with all of Henderson's bands to date, long term collaborators from his Fire Engines, Win & The Nectarine No.9 remain steadfastly on board. The handful of limited edition 7"s they've released to date have all immediately sold out, & supposition suggests that they're preparing an LP as we speak - don't miss out again will you?

P.S. Whatever happened to Jock Scot?

Curdled Fragments

MARK STEWART & THE MAFFIA : Jerusalem 12" (1982)

2010-06-19T05:36:00.000-07:00

Picked this up for a couple of quid yesterday. It's the initial pressing, packaged in a Crass-style fold-out sleeve & apparently quite r.a.r.e. nowadays, though I really wouldn't know tbh. I've been a fan of Mark Stewart since the early 80s, from the very first time I heard Peel play this benchmark 12" basically. As I was slightly too young to be aware of his earlier tenure in The Pop Group back then, Stewart - & this single - seemed to loom out of nowhere without prior warning, gouging a deep & enduring impression. It's almost certainly the first On-U Sound release I heard too, & Adrian Sherwood's splintered, claustrophobic production job still sounds like the musical equivalent of an inner city riot.

Though Learning To Cope With Cowardice, "Jerusalem"'s mother LP, is a longtime favourite, my copy's on vinyl & has therefore been reluctantly archived in The Shed so it's a genuine thrill to hear this again (particularly in it's original, intended 12" format). Point of interest: "High Ideals + Crazy Dreams", sequenced here medley-style with "Jerusalem" itself, only appeared on the single. The flip, "Welcome To Liberty City", is a marginally different version of the album track though, this being an On-U Sound production, it's all about the "version", of course.

On/Off, Toni Schifer's long promised Mark Stewart biopic premiered in April. Schifer reportedly spent 2 long years trailing Stewart & picking his Byzantine brain, so it promises to be compelling viewing. No DVD release in sight as yet however.

Jerusalem + High Ideals / Liberty City

PETER COOK & DUDLEY MOORE : The L.S. Bumblebee (1967)

2010-06-18T14:22:00.000-07:00

Just when you thought the 1960s couldn't get any stranger... Have a listen to this brilliant & hilarious 7" from messers Cook & Moore (aka Derek & Clive), recorded in late '66 for their Not Only... But Also... Christmas special & released early the following year (around the same time as they were filming their appearance in Stanley Donen's Bedazzled in fact). Hanging around Cook's wildly popular comedy club, The Establishment, the duo evidently witnessed mid 60s London at it's most swingingest, hence their satire of English kaleidoscopic whimsy is absolutely bang-on target ("Oh, druggy druggy, freak out, baby" - God knows what Decca must've thought!). That said, it actually pre-dates Sgt. Pepper by at least 6 months, & Moore has claimed that it was actually intended as a parody of Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys rather than paisley-decked, acid-steeped psychedelic London. Surprisingly "The L.S. Bumblebee" failed to chart, & was in & out of print so quickly that by the mid 70s bootleggers were attempting to pass it off as a Beatles out-take!

The L.S. Bumblebee / The Bee Side

FOLK DEVILS : Hanks Turns Blue 7" (1984)

2010-06-12T10:08:00.001-07:00

Though Folk Devils weren't necessarily revered in their time, it seems like everybody who loved them back then (in the mid-late 1980s) is still borderline evangelical about them now. Formed by the late, great Ian Lowrey from the wreckage of the promising (but short-lived) Ski Patrol, Folk Devils' debut was this rabble-rousing 7" double whammy on Ganges Records (bankrolled by Ray Ganges of Rude Boy fame). Allegedly recorded for £180 (the band's combined dole money), it's a seditious, sinewy marriage of inflammatory punk & alcohol-ravaged blues. Imagine Jeffrey Lee Pierce's Gun Club, circa Fire of Love, bloodied, high on something cheap & unpleasant, & stalking the streets of Notting Hill afterhours. John Peel quite rightly adored them, playing the 7" to death & booking them in for 3 legendarily snotty sessions in quick succession. Quite why they remain unreleased, & their 3/4 singles out of print, is anybody's guess.

Blue Flesh

BORIS : Buzz In (Optimo Remix) (2009)

2010-06-11T02:39:00.000-07:00

Continuing the techno/psychedelia crossover, I've just unearthed this intriguing hook-up between spaced-out Japanese metallers Boris & JD Twitch, one half of Glasgow's ever-versatile Optimo (who seem as happy remixing Flux Of Pink Indians 7"s as they are DJ-ing back-to-back with Ivan Smagghe these days). Commissioned as part of Scion's A/V remix project (it's called "doing a corporate" I believe?), it actually dates from last August so I've been dismally slow on the uptake this time 'round. Twitch's overhaul is characteristically radical: "Buzz In" originally appeared on Boris' Smile LP in standard "rock" form. His remix dispenses with practically the entire track, rendering it virtually unrecognisable while tripling it's length. I'm only a couple of plays into it as I type & am not quite sure what I make of it yet, it's certainly rather euphoric. First impressions? I'm vaguely reminded of the KLF - not sure why! - & I'd definitely be much happier if the final minute of Fennesz-esque electro-ambient wash was an hour or so longer. Am sure it makes much more sense on a massive system so, as I'm off to see Twitch here tonight, fingers crossed he'll do the honours? Tally ho.

Buzz

THE PASTELS : Marc Riley Session 10th March 2010

2010-06-10T10:21:00.000-07:00

Nice to know that The Pastels are still out there somewhere, eh? It's now 13 years since their last "proper" album, 1997's Illumination, a siesta of Axl Rose proportions. Not to dismiss 2002's The Last Great Wilderness set - it's one of their loveliest records but is, of course, a soundtrack rather than a collection of Pastels songs. And their collaboration with Tenniscoats, though charming naturally, compromises The Pastels' core sound somewhat. I'm assuming that the lack of a new Pastels LP is down to their perfectionism rather than simple lethargy?

Currently comprised of just Stephen & Katrina, with a pool of occasional contributors constantly at hand, they're apparently "still working on a new LP for Domino", due Godsknowswhen. Perhaps these 3 charming songs will be on it? For want of a metaphor, I've turned to their Myspace page where they describe their "accidental sound" as "gentle clang" & "sudden suddenness", & who am I to take issue with that?

I've Still Got My Pastels Badge

FACTORY FLOOR : Bipolar 7" (2008)

2010-06-06T04:49:00.000-07:00

"East London post punk posers" Factory Floor seem pretty much ubiquitous at present. They've already toured with Liars, Cold Cave, The Horrors & (splutter) Fuck Buttons, & both The Guardian & NME were quick to pick up on them & enthusiastically sing their praises (at inordinate length). I await their worryingly foreordained appearance on Later... with a sense of impending doom. Though I'd normally be gravely concerned by delirious hype from such dubious quarters, Factory Floor seem sufficiently ambitious, talented, & no-nonsense that I'm confident they'll eventually shake off the hangers-on. They're currently in bed with Blast First Petite & seem intent on pursuing a much more brutal, electronic/Industrial direction (with remixes by Chris Carter & New Order's Steven Morris in the offing) than the guitar-driven angularity of their earlier, post punk-referencing recordings. Either way, it's hardly the sort of thing to endear them to T4's numbskull audience &, thereby, I'm not prepared to write Factory Floor off as fly-by-night hipster fodder just yet.

Typically, it's those earlier releases that I'm slightly more fond of, particularly last year's excellent Planning Application 12" (out of print in theory, but still up for grabs if you turn over a few rocks). 2008's Bipolar was their debut, a swiftly deleted single on their own Outside Sound label. An edition of 500 orange vinyl 7"s, it's already long gone.

Bipolar

THE NIGHTINGALES : Idiot Strength 7" (1981)

2010-06-02T12:10:00.001-07:00

The 'Gales debut 7", a joint Vindaloo / Rough Trade venture from 1981. Not that it's dated in the slightest - it's angular, it's contentious, it's got a bone to pick, & if it was released tomorrow you'd probably buy a copy. The band was made up entirely of ex-Prefects at this early juncture: Joe Crow (guitar), Eamonn Duffy (bass), Paul Apperley (drums) & Robert Lloyd (cakehole) - though half of them had departed before the year was out. Immediately thereafter, Cherry Red stepped in & began releasing a string of scrappily exceptional 45s, en route to the barbed, biting Pigs On Purpose LP. Neither side of "Idiot Strength" was included on Cherry Red's otherwise obsessively thorough spate of Nightingales' CD reissues. Tsk.

Truculently provincial, The Nightingales remain one of the U.K.'s finest live bands (interested parties may also wish to click here & here). Citation required: can anybody confirm whether or not The 'Gales scored more John Peel sessions (8 in all) than anyone other than The Fall, that can't possibly be true can it?

Brumburger

impLOG : "Breakfast" 7" (1980)

2010-05-30T01:33:00.001-07:00

I originally posted impLOG's infamously elusive "Breakfast" over a year ago, & STILL it "languishes in Reissue Waiting Room Hell". Surprisingly so, in fact - there's been so much interest in their remarkable "Holland Tunnel Drive" 12" that I figured some enterprising opportunist might've stuck both of their 45s onto CD by now, supplemented with whatever contemporaneous junk Don Christensen could find in the attic. C'mon Soul Jazz, get your act together!

To reiterate: impLOG's "Breakfast"/"She Creatures" 7" was released in 1980 on the band's own Log label. A copy'll currently set you back $500 on Discogs. The "Holland Tunnel Dive"/"On B'way" 12" followed later the same year, courtesy of Charles Ball's pre-eminent Lust/Unlust. Christensen & impLOG co-conspirator Jody Harris had previously played together in The Contortions. Harris went on to found The Raybeats & collaborate with Robert Quine (on the Escape LP, another vital Lust/Unlust artifact). Each of impLOG's 4 officially released tracks could conceivably be by a totally different band. I like that. Though you might've missed it, Christensen temporarily revived the impLOG moniker in 2005 for the Philip Glass remix project, Glass Cuts.

Breakfast Creatures

ROBERT QUINE & FRED MAHER : Basic (1984)

2010-05-29T04:35:00.000-07:00

Ah yes, the intangible, enduring allure of the 2nd hand record shop! Before I found a copy of Basic in the stuffed racks of this musty emporium last week I'd not previously heard of it. Now, of course, I'm semi-outraged as to why it's been unobtainable for so long - the cursory CD reissue appears to be rarer than the original LP, for God's sake!

An instrumental collaboration between Robert Quine & Fred Maher (Material, Scritti Politti), Basic was recorded at Quine's home studio in N.Y.C. in early '84, while both of them were still fresh from their brief tenure as fellow Voidoids (on 1982's Destiny Street) & in Lou Reed's last great live band (during his Blue Mask / Legendary Hearts period, alongside bassist Fernando Saunders). For whatever reason, Quine never got 'round to releasing a bona fide solo album, but Basic comes pretty close - Maher's unobtrusive bass & electronic percussion providing a stripped back, metronomic anchor for Quine's thoughtful, serpentine Fender wrangling. Alongside his well documented interest in The Velvet Underground & involvement in New York's formative punk scene, Quine cultivated an ongoing passion for contemporary jazz, & perhaps that's why parts of Basic remind me - a stereotypically ill-informed jazz novice - of Mile Davis' early 70s electric work, albeit with something of an Eno sensibility? Lester Bangs: "Someday Quine will be recognised for the pivotal figure that he is on his instrument - he is the first guitarist to take the breakthroughs of early Lou Reed & James Williamson & work through them to a new, individual vocabulary, driven into odd places by obsessive attention to On The Corner-era Miles Davis." N.B. Edifying Quine site here.

Basic

PATTI SMITH : Hey Joe (Version) (1974)

2010-05-29T02:41:00.000-07:00

On the off chance you've not heard it before (it's a nightmare to track down afterall), here's Patti Smith's cover (of Jimi Hendrix's cover of The Leaves' cover) of Billy Roberts' "Hey Joe". Her debut, it was recorded at Electric Ladyland in 1974 in glorious mono, financed by her long-term confidante Robert Mapplethorpe, & released through their own Mer label. Her group at this point consisted of Lenny Kaye (guitar), Tom Verlaine (guitar) & Richard Sohl (piano), with Kaye also bagging the production credit. The b-side is the better known, arguably superior "Piss Factory", Patti's semi-autobiographical, semi-Surrealistic detailing of woeful factory assembly line travail. Though an outstanding track, "Piss Factory" is easily obtainable c/o the Land compilation so I'm not including it here. Satisfyingly, both sides of the 7" have retained their propensity to astonish, their allusions to Patty Heart, the S.L.A. & Rimbaud, combined with the singularly baroque sound, defiantly placing the group well outside the early 70s, Eagles-inhabited "rock" enclosure. One of the greatest singles ever, basically.

Mer

TALKING HEADS : Live 1976-77

2010-05-24T11:46:00.001-07:00

A couple of interesting Talking Heads shows from 1976-77.

The first, from July '76, is a tentative performance to say the least. Recorded on one of 5 consecutive nights opening for Television, Talking Heads at this point were still a neatly dressed, incongruously fresh-faced 3-piece - David Byrne sounds like a frightened 14 year old at a high school recital ("I was a peculiar young man", quoth he, "borderline Asperger's, I would guess"). There's a skeletal cover of The Troggs' "Love Is All Around" & plenty of amusing twixt song audience chit-chat ("You know what a talking head is?", etc) to listen out for. Sadly, no "96 Tears" though.

By the time of the December '77 show (bootlegged as part of the Sharp Objects series), "Psycho Killer" was already an established underground hit. Byrne is terse & economical rather than fragile & reticent, Jerry Harrison is on-board & filling out the sound with keyboards & additional guitar, & the band sound lean, tight & super-confident. It's another one of those Old Waldorf Theatre sets, broadcast on San Franciscan FM radio I believe? The whole show is A+ terrific, way superior to the officially released (& terribly disappointing) The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads album, & it's a fine opportunity to hear these songs in their unadorned form, before Eno fed 'em all through his subtle textural processing devices for More Songs About Buildings & Food (ditto this lot in the unlikely event you've not come across them before).

76 / 77

MARINE GIRLS : On My Mind 7" (1981)

2010-05-23T05:22:00.000-07:00

Strange how the least pre-possessing of bands are often the ones that endure. Who would have thought, for instance, that Young Marble Giants' solitary LP would be selling more copies than ever, 3 decades on? Ditto Marine Girls, whose Beach Party & Lazy Ways LPs continue to acquire new admirers on the back of Cherry Red's re-reissued 2-fer CD compilation. Your copy, like mine, probably doesn't include their standalone "On My Mind"/"The Lure Of The Rockpools" 7", originally released by In Phaze in 1981 to little fanfare (though strangely I do recall Smash Hits raving about it!) & rebooted the following year by Cherry Red. I suppose it's fair to say that Marine Girls played a pivotal role in the emergence of the bloodcurdling "Twee" scene but, as their contribution is wholly inadvertent, I'm happy to forgive them. For further reading, check this excellent Marine Girls retrospective interview, c/o the sadly defunct Plan B magazine, & the short piece by Tracey Thorn here... Pass the Oxy-Gum.

In Phaze

30 Years Ago Today

2010-05-18T11:16:00.000-07:00

D'MARC CANTU : MLK Liveset 15th January 2010

2010-05-17T14:42:00.001-07:00

I'm really loving D'Marc Cantu's stuff at the moment, though sadly he hasn't released that much (under his own name at least), just 2007's single-sided, very limited No Control 12" (you'll find it on iTunes) & the current Another Number EP, both c/o Creme Organisation. Dubby, druggy & pointedly low tech, it's exactly the kind of minimalist dancefloor-directed electronica I wish Cabaret Voltaire had experimented with in the wake of 1983's The Crackdown (Micro-Phonies struck me as such a massive missed opportunity that I still find it depressing to listen to!). Cantu's Another Number 12" is peculiarly good - dominated by slippery acidic sequentials, a clattering drum machine, & what sounds like a very overworked Space Echo, it's 5 opaque productions veer gloriously close to visceral, Detroit-indebted perfection. It's "Hungry For People" is, without a doubt, one of my favourite techno tracks of the last few months (just so you know).

As his 2 official releases are both still easily obtainable, here's a link to a way too brief Cantu live mix from Jak-Nation instead (it's podcast #5, scroll down slightly & right click). Recorded on Martin Luther King's birthday (you'll understand why that's significant when you listen to it) &, crucially, a showcase for his own productions, it starts out pleasantly enough but, rest assured, shadows begin to gather as it progresses....

DMC

JENNIFER CARDINI : FM4 La Boum De Luxe 2010

2010-05-13T02:40:00.000-07:00

These are daunting times for the techno ingenue. There's such an enormous glut of well-produced, beautifully packaged, but ultimately unimaginative & mediocre electronic dance music appearing every single month that hacking a path through the chaff must seem nigh on impossible. Consequently, I figure it's about time I posted some decent techno on here...

So few contemporary DJ/producers give me even a vague buzz these days, but Jennifer Cardini is, truly, one of the greats. Based in Paris, a resident at legendary techno clubs Rex & Le Pulp, & currently signed to Germany's uber-cool Kompakt label, her 2 available mix CDs - Lust & Feeling Strange - are outstanding examples of the genre, virtually spilling over with pulsing subterranean atmosphere(s). Alongside Ivan Smagghe & Chloe Thevenin, previous Pulp reisdents both, she's one of the most interesting DJs in the world at the moment, seamlessly marrying glacial Teutonic minimalism & sultry "fembot" house with little apparent pretence. Refreshingly, neither Jennifer or her ex-Pulp contemporaries of them seem particularly desperate to break out of the underground just yet (or ever), so it's still possible to catch them live in relatively intimate surroundings...

This short set was recorded on 9th April this year for Viennese radio's La Boum De Luxe & provides an excellent introduction to her style for the non-convert: 40 minutes, or thereabouts, of cavern deep leftfield electronic music that you can dance to (if you're so inclined), you might even enjoy it?

La Boum