The Associates - Radio 1 Sessions 1984-1985

The Associates - Radio 1 Sessions 1984-1985

The second out of print collection of Radio 1 Sessions from the Associates. We start with new versions of older songs, Matter of Gender, Affectionate Punch, a far poppier Message Oblique Speech and a cover of Simon Dupree and the Big Sound's Kites. After this things get a little less vibrant, but still well worth a listen.

The last three songs seem to be lifted straight from the album Perhaps, not entirely sure why....

Prince Far I - Health and Strength

Prince Far I - Health and Strength

Another in the On-U-Sound/Pressure Sounds vein. This 1979 effort from the legendary deep-voiced DJ/toaster went missing and undiscovered for 18 years until a dubbed copy turned up. Prince Far I's voice booms over a couple of Gregory Issacs riddims, but most of the backing tracks feature appearances from Sly & Robbie, "Style" Scott, Crucial Tony, Earl "Chinna" Smith and even some melodica flourishes from Augustus Pablo as well. Personal favorites include "Easy Squeeze", "Health Warning" (inspired by the Surgeon General's warning on the packets of cigarettes), the militant and Biblical "Frontline Speech" and an order to "Leave Babylon".

The Associates - Radio 1 Sessions 1981-1983

The Associates - Radio 1 Sessions 1981-1983

Another request. I wasn't aware that the Associates Radio 1 Sessions Collections were out of print, but judging by the silly money they're currently going for, it would seem to be the case.

We've got the first four sessions the Associates did for Radio 1 here, two with the classic Mackenzie/Rankin line up (including an early version of Waiting For The Love Boat and a slightly dubby version of Australia), a couple of torch songs that he performed at Ronnie Scott's and something from around the time of Perhaps (the songs here perhaps more lively than the somewhat overcooked versions on Perhaps, includes an entertaining alternate version of Perhaps with Steve Reid on improvised vocals that was never aired for some reason...). Solid gold in every song. Enjoy!

(Part 2 coming soon...)

Family Fodder - Playing Golf (With My Flesh Crawling)

Family Fodder - Playing Golf (With My Flesh Crawling)

We've gone from starving you to force feeding you m'dears, now with the first single from the gloriously hatstand Family Fodder. Somehow it was the first thing from them I ever heard as well, I think from some ye old Napster binge back in the day. The A-side concerns itself with the horrific fate of rotting in suburbia as our hero contemplates suicide as an escape route. Far more jolly than it sounds. B-side is more of the same, but about how the missus is off her face on happy pills. Think of the two sides as His 'N Hers burning in hell to some hysteric lift music and you're half way there.

This is as good as time as any to direct you to the new Wild Swans single (which can be bought from THIS LINK HERE). English Electric Lighting was probably my single of the year (unless something else pops up before December, which is depressingly unlikely), and the new one (Liquid Mercury) isn't far behind. £4 for the single and they'll even send you some high quality mp3's as well. Bargtastic!

Alison's Halo - Eyedazzler 1992-1996

Alison's Halo - Eyedazzler 1992-1996 (Part 1)
Alison's Halo - Eyedazzler 1992-1996 (Part 2)

This is a collection of various odds and ends from a lo-fi dream-pop out of Tempe, Arizona. They recorded their music primarily on 4-track and sounded reminiscent of Slowdive, Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine or Bleach if they hunkered down in New Zealand and went for the production aesthetic of groups on the Flying Nun and Xpressway labels. Expect washes of guitar worthy of Robin Guthrie, schoolgirl vocals and very understated drumming. It's a little spotty, but "Chime", "Slowbleed", "Torn" and "Melt" are pretty gorgeous.

The Missing Brazilians - Warzone

The Missing Brazilians - Warzone

I made mention of this release in my Mark Stewart and the Maffia post. It seems that after Prince Far I was murdered, producer Adrian Sherwood lessened his focus on roots and dub and became interested in digital sounds and trying to create built-in distortion. The Missing Brazilians was a one-off from yet another collective of musicians he assembled in the wake of The New Age Steppers and Singers & Players, most notably featuring the input of On-U-Sound co-founder/in-house artist Kishi Yakamoto, who provided most of the keyboards and some of the bass lines. Most of this inorganic release straddles the line between warped dancehall and mutant dub brimming with wild and watery phaser effects, booming square wave crunches, washes of noise, (mostly) synthesized polyrhythms and some Oriental keyboard motifs. Two vocal numbers pop up in the form of "Gentle Killers" featuring Annie Anxiety (ex-Asexuals, collaborated with Crass and countless others) and "Savanna Prance" (featuring wordless singing from Shara Nelson, who would later provide the vocals for Massive Attack's "Unfinished Sympathy"). This album, like its more playful and less bewildering cousin, Voice of Authority's Very Big in America Right Now, was originally slated to be released on Cherry Red, but—unlike the VoA effort—it was too weird for them. The production also had to be scaled back a bit because the music wouldn't fit in the grooves, but the remaster restored the original sound of the album.

Dr Calculus - Designer Beatnik

Dr Calculus - Designer Beatnik

Another post, as we've been neglecting you of late.

Dr Calculus is, of course, Stephen 'Tin Tin' Duffy under an pseudonym from 1986. Ooh dear, how the hell do I start to describe this? I'm not sure I can. It's unique, which is reason enough to give it a listen really, isn't it?...eh?....hmmm?

Oh *OKAY* then, I'll have a go. Tin Tin doesn't actually sing on this, he has a terribly posh girl do it instead. Except she doesn't really sing, more talks. Sort of. Lots of brass, strings and synths. There's strange rapping at one point. Odd samples. The French. The joy of invention born out of absurdity. Ecstasy through madness. Rejoice and take heed.

Hot Gossip - Geisha Girls and Temple Boys

Hot Gossip - Geisha Girls and Temple Boys

Hot Gossip, the 80's dance troupe who featured on the Kenny Everett Video Show, are probably best known for backing Sarah Brightman on "I Lost My Heart To a Starship Trooper"......but there was more. Oh yes boys and girls, there was more. Enter Martyn Ware and the BEF hit device. Which was on the blink that day, as this sank without a trace. Featuring Heaven 17/Human League/The Men songs (including Circus of Death!), this album also has time for a Sting and Talking Heads cover. Crikey.

This album should not exist. There is no reason for it to exist. It's very existance tears at the very fabric of reality. Somewhere in here is the Black Hit of Space. Approach at your peril.

Very busy at the moment, updates may be a tad more scarce than usual for a few weeks.....

Mark Stewart and the Maffia - As the Veneer of Democracy Starts to Fade

Mark Stewart and the Maffia - As the Veneer of Democracy Starts to Fade

This record probably needs a bit of a remaster or at the very least should be played REALLY LOUD so one can discern the full impact of the often punishing old-school hip-hop oriented beats, the hyperactive sampling and the sheer sonic crunch of white noise prevalent in this release. Stewart already gained infamy five years prior for being an alum of The Pop Group, who (as you might already know) blended funk, punk, dub, free jazz, blues, noise, and lyrics ranging from the bleak to oblique that featured frequent sloganeering. Groundbreaking stuff, but on this effort Stewart and the Maffia — comprised of Sugarhill Records' house band — amped it up to another level by taking cues from producer Adrian Sherwood's built-in distortion obsession that he pioneered on The Missing Brazilians' 1984 LP Warzone. (In fact, one of the bonus tracks on this effort reworks "Igloo Inn" from the aforementioned album.) Almost every instrument sounds burdened by crushing distortion, from Skip MacDonald's guitar and Stewart's own commanding shrieks and hollers to the pummeling, stuttery drum programming. Stewart evokes the fear of the military-industrial complex, technocracy, the silencing of political opposition and more while occasionally quoting his old songs from The Pop Group (in case his warnings from the prior decade were yet to be heeded) or hits from the likes of Tavares either to seemingly lighten the mood or further disorient the listener. The production dates it a bit and lessens its impact, but this was very radical for 1985; only Swans and a handful of other groups would succeed at conjuring up anything this disturbing around that time. Meat Beat Manifesto, Tricky, the Maffia themselves — under the guise of Tackhead, not to neglect to mention Keith LeBlanc's worthy solo effort Major Malfunction based on the Challenger explosion — and the author of this entry had their conception of music utterly warped by this album.

Foetus - Peel Session 1983

Foetus - Peel Session 1983

Jim Foetus. Clint Ruin. Frank Want. Philip Toss. Whatever he's calling himself, J.G. Thirlwell never fails to be interesting. This Peel Session (which I *think* was his only Peel Session) is slightly less crowded than the studio stuff while still keeping the same sonic brick to the teeth quality.

See THIS LINK HERE to see him with Soft Cell covering Ghost Rider. Fucking epic. Also featuring Gary Barnacle from the Leisure Process.....

Owada - Nothing

Owada - Nothing
Remember when the Turner Prize was won by smiley Scottish bloke Martin Creed turning the lights in one room on and off at perfectly regular intervals? It seemed to cause the most intense press furore amongst the likes of the Daily Mail Representative Watercolours Of Flowers Or Bust (But Not That Kind Of Bust, Obviously, That Would Be Rude) brigade with regards to modern art that I'd ever seen (quite surprisingly, considering the fact that there was nothing even vaguely sensationalist a la Chapman Brothers about the work).. Well, he has a band, who in about 2002 released this very odd but strangely accessible and quite charming album of conceptual-yet-still-very-poppy tunes, which are vaguely reminiscent of the Fall. They clearly aren't hugely musically aspirational or pretentious, but have an infectiously sweet approach to writing songs which is quite similar to the feel of Creed's art; simple, mysterious and oblique, but all rather friendly and celebratory. The title is in keeping with Creed's body of work which all concerns reaching some kind of zero point or equilibrium. My personal favourites off this are probably Hello and Thirty Thirty. So there we are. Enjoy!

Til Things Are Brighter - A Tribute To Johnny Cash

Til Things Are Brighter - A Tribute To Johnny Cash

A 1988 tribute compilation on Red Rhino Records, created to raise funds for the Terrance Higgins Trust. Featuring (among other things) Cathal Coughlan doing a cover of Ring of Fire, which is the main reason I tracked it down. Other highlights included Stephen Mallinder from Cabaret Voltaire doing a fine cover of I Walk The Line and Marc Almond doing Man In Black.

A strange curio rather than an essential listen, but well worth a punt.

The Chameleons - Live at the Academy

The Chameleons - Live at the Academy (Disc 1)
The Chameleons - Live at the Academy (Disc 2)

Christ, even this has fallen out-of-print now, too. This set of material was recorded in Manchester in 2002 or thereabouts during their brief reunion and it's a very solid performance all around. Only "Monkeyland" and "Up the Down Escalator" sound a bit lackluster in execution, but luckily there are some stunning run-throughs of songs like "A Person Isn't Safe Anywhere These Days", "Second Skin", "Caution" and "Swamp Thing" to make up for it. According to the liner notes, the neck of Reg's guitar broke and went flying into the audience during "Soul in Isolation", so to make up for that omission the band included three semi-acoustic numbers (recorded in Münster, Germany in 2001) at the end of the second disc. Pity that most bands can't sound this good twenty years after their initial heyday.