The Durutti Column: Demos/Studio Bonus (From Four Factory Records)

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Kooky 2009. Kookydisc 027/5

Discogs (This link is for the whole box, but only disc 5 is presented here.)

Over at the consistently excellent Everything Starts With An A there have been a three wonderful Durutti Column posts recently, which reminded me to post some of mine. His back catalogue is vast and largely unavailable, so I’m spoilt for choice. Actually I haven’t got around to figuring out what is still available, so I’ve started with something I know definately isn’t.

In 2009 Kooky re-issued the first four factory albums and included two bonus discs. This is the first of them and consists of demos and studio out-takes from the same period, i.e. 1978 – 1981. The sound quality is a bit variable – the home demos are a bit rough, whereas the studio recordings are great, but everything is perfectly listenable, and essential if you’re into this period of his work. Many fans say that LC is his best work, so outtakes from the same period are worth a listen. In that sense there are no surprises here – the disc sounds exactly as you’d expect.

The boxed set is a bit odd. It comes in a huge box, but the CDs just rattle around in slip cases along with album artwork and a handful of interviews printed on square card. Only 4 years after the event it’s already deleted and selling for silly money. Since Vini himself is broke and illness seems to have brought an untimely end to his playing career, it seems odd that he’s not able to make much needed money from sales of his back catalogue.  So, if you enjoy this CD, consider buying something from his web site. In an earlier post I recommended Vini Reilly; today’s recommendation is his highly personal tribute to Factory boss Tony Wilson, Paean To Wilson.  The vinyl edition looks particularly yummy – unfortunately I only have it on CD.

Various Artists: Take The Subway To Your Suburb

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Subway Organization 1986. SUBORG 1

Discogs

I have a somewhat uneasy relationship with Subway stuff.  Clearly I liked it because I bought quite a bit of it, but of all the jangly indiepop I listened to back then, this seems to have stood the test of time particularly badly.  It’s not that I dislike jangly indiepop, but Subway has a very particular sound which is starting to grate a bit.  Still, digitising all my old vinyl isn’t just about unearthing forgotten nuggets, it’s also about nostalgia.  Subway stuff makes me cringe, but it also reminds me of my late teens which is good.

This album was Subway’s first and is mostly a roundup of their roster at the time.  The Flatmates are of course represented, because guitarist Martin Whitehead ran the label.  Their stuff is mostly horribly corny and formulaic, but When I’m With You kind of works I guess.  For some reason my favourite by far is the Rosehips The Last Light.  It sounds like a demo and the singing is horribly flat, but I really like the guitar sound and the overall effect is strangely compelling.  I also have a flexi by the band which I’ll post at some point because I love it but have absolutely no idea why.   Pop Will Eat Itself who I saw play more times than I’ll admit to (because they were local) manage a couple of half decent covers – Hawkwind’s Orgone Accumulator and fellow Black Country grebos The Mighty Lemon Drops Like An Angel.  No idea what they’re doing on a Subway compilation – this is the only time they appeared on the label.

This was picked up by the Japanese in the early 90s as part of their inexplicable obsession with 80s UK indiepop so it had a Japanese CD issue too, but this is ripped from an original UK vinyl copy.

Modified Toy Orchestra: New Sounds From Old Circuits

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Static Caravan 2002.  VAN35

Discogs

Ah, the Modified Toy Orchestra.  Hilarious, totally original, inventive, funky….  MTO is the brainchild of sound artist and ubergeek Brian Duffy.  He gathers together old children’s toys which produce electronic sounds of one sort or another, alters the wiring (called circuit bending) and uses the sounds they produce to make records.   On one level it’s hilarious – a wonderful novelty band: grown men on stage playing Speak and Spell machines and plastic guitars, but there’s much more to it than that.  The toys provide an entirely new sound palate from electronics which have nothing at all in common with the usual sources of electronic sound.  Yes, those toys sounded tinny and awful, but that was mainly because of the tiny speakers they used – hook them up to a decent PA and you have an entirely different proposition.  It follows the same rationale as the craze for tracking down obsolete keyboards but takes it one stage further.  Those ancient (and very valuable) keyboards were intended to be musical instruments and became obsolete.  The toys were never intended to produce music and have never been used in this way before.

All of this would be nothing more than an interesting art project were it not for Brian’s skill at turning these insane sound sources into something worth listening to – MTO works musically, not just conceptually.

This is the first MTO single, and is musically more experimental and less developed than what was to follow.  It sounds not unlike the sort of glitchy electronica I’ve posted previously on the blog, which is no bad thing of course, but it wasn’t until the first album, Toygopop that Brian created the pop/experimental electronica hybrid which works so well.  It suffers slightly from Static Caravan’s love of the 33rpm 7″ single, a truly awful sounding format – fortunately only affecting the B side.

While Brian is the creative force and produces the music himself in the studio, live performances require more people.   A good friend of mine is in the live band and brought his two boys around who’d been busy circuit bending an old plastic guitar from a boot sale.  The process it turns out is pretty random – it just involves messing around with the electronics until something interesting comes out of the speakers.  A few extra switches, dials and LEDs complete the transformation to something both bonkers and wonderful.  I also have to mention the rather alarming Barbie Doll Brian uses on stage.  It produces sound of some sort, but the red LEDs he’s fitted where her eyes should be are truly scary – she looks like the devil.

Both their albums are utterly original and, I think essential and you can get them from Warm Circuit. For the full effect you really need to see them live. They don’t play that often – the toys are rather fragile, but there are a handful of dates on their web site for this summer. Go see them – it’s like nothing else you’ve ever seen.

Update: Well it seems there are no dates for this summer. The stuff on the web site is from last year. However the good news is that Brian has finished a new MTO album. I’m sworn to secrecy about the title, but it should be out soon via Warm Circuit.

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Various Artists: Good Morning Mister Presley

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Grunt Grunt A Go Go Records 1985. GGAGG 1

Discogs

In the 80s record shops groaned under the weight of indie compilation albums.  This is a rather obscure one, but consistently strong.  Most of the highlights are on side one – Marc Riley who used to be in The Fall, the always entertaining Yeah Yeah Noh with a different recording of Crimplene Seed Lifestyle (more from them another time), and what is for me is the best track English White Boy Engineer credited here to The Botha Boys who are actually The Three Johns.  The name change is just to emphasise the anti-apartheid message of the lyrics.  If you’re not up on South African history, PW Botha was the last apartheid prime minister.  The Bomb Party track is lifted from The Ray Gun EP which I’ll post another time.

The best known name is probably Microdisney who for some reason completely passed me by.

There’s not much information out there about this complilation so I don’t know how many of the tracks are exclusives, but it’s a worthwhile listen regardless.

The Atom Spies: … And Their Treacherous Pop On Microdot

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Cake Records 1987.  12 Slice 3

Discogs

Another long forgotten Birmingham band today: the short lived Atom Spies who made only this one single, although I seem to remember that they also recorded a Peel session.  However they do have a claim to fame, which is that the band’s Chandra Blunt (Geddit?) went on to become Steve Chandrasonic of Asian Dub Foundation.

The Atom Spies always came across very much as a work in progress.  As their name and the title of this single suggest they were into the whole 1960s spy look, and they were often to be seen mincing around Birmingham in their sharp 60s suits.  The look worked well, and they had some pretty inventive material to go with it, but in those days their ability to play didn’t quite match up to their ambition.  Live they got away with it – I remember seeing them at Aston Triangle and at Peacocks supporting Pigbros and liking them, but the sound on this single is pretty thin – it was obviously recorded on the cheap and the artwork is similar.  However the material is really good and the whole 60s spy chic paranoia is pretty effective.  It’s a shame they never developed the idea, but I’ve always been fond of Asian Dub Foundation, so it’s not like their talent went to waste.  Anyway, for all its limitations I really like this single, and it turns out to be quite valuable, I guess because of the Asian Dub Foundation connection.

Various Artists: Creation, Purple Compilation

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Creation Records 1988.  CRELP 032 CD

Discogs

Some time ago I listed Creation’s first ever CD, a compilation of early singles. It’s been one of the most popular posts, so here’s its companion release, Purple. It covers similar ground, has similar artists and is of a similar high standard. As I recall it didn’t sell nearly as well as the first one – I guess people thought one of these compilations was enough. Anyway if you liked the first one, you’ll like this one too.

The Fidels: Try A Little Harder

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DJM Records 1963.  DJS 10689

Not listed on Discogs.

This is one of the first records I ever bought.  I reckon I was about 7 at the time, and according to the cover it cost 15p.  I’d like to pretend that I was really into obscure northern soul at that age, but I actually bought this record because it was cheap and because I liked the idea of having an instrumental version on the b side.  Fortunately it’s a really good single – a slice of classic northern soul goodness.  There seems to be no information at all out there about the Fidels, other than an alternative spelling, The Fi-Dels, and they released only a handful of tracks.  They certainly know how to play, so I guess they were session musicians.  It would be nice if this was also valuable, but it seems the 15p I paid is probably about what it’s worth.  It does however crop up occasionally on northern soul compilations.

Kid Chaos: 20 Greatest Hits EP

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Fierce Recordings 1988.  No catalogue number.

Discogs

This continues the Fierce theme and is something of an oddball record.  It claims to be by the KLF, and was sent to the music papers in 1988 for review.  However the KLF themselves denied all knowledge of it while heartily approving of the idea of musicians pretending to be other musicians.  It should have been obvious to anyone with even the slightest knowledge of the KLF that this was a fake because it lacked any of the features which made the KLF worth paying attention to.  There’s no humour, no statement, no Scottish ranting, no flair and no tunes, but the British music press fell for it and reviewed it as a KLF release.  To their credit it got the bad reviews it deserved.

What this actually is, is a Fierce scam, a real one this time, not a pretend one.  It was made by Kid Chaos – which does give a KLF connection because he played bass with Zodiac Windwarp, aka Mark Manning who co-wrote various books with Bill Drummond, most notably Bad Wisdom.

The A side, probably called Borderline is Jon Bonham’s drum break from When The Levee Breaks looped with some random records playing in the background.  To call it sampling would imply some sort of competence.  So it’s garbage, but still an enjoyable listen because the looped drum break is fabulous.  It would have been better without Kid Chaos’s inept turntablism in the background though.  The first of the B sides, All U Need Is Love actually has some merit.  Like Borderline it has looped drums, although I don’t know where they’re lifted from, which create a powerful sense of tension.  In the background is a Morcambe and Wise skit, but without the laughter track.  For some reason it works really well – maybe I’m just a sucker for anything different sounding.  The final track, BFB is a rip-off of the Public Enemy track She Watch Channel Zero – it samples the same Slayer riff and dumps more random bits of music on top.  It is utter garbage and doesn’t even have the appeal of the first track…

The “info” sheet it came with is above, and I’ve pasted a couple more letters from Fierce below.  It’s an interesting historical curio and worth hearing if you’re interested in Fierce or the KLF.

Update: I’ve just played this to a friend and he described it as fascinating, so maybe I’ve been a little harsh. It’s certainly true that it doesn’t sound like anything else.

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Sonic Youth: Stick Me Donna Magick Momma

Sonic Youth

Fierce Recordings 1988.  Fright 015/016

Discogs

When this was released, Fierce implied that it was a bootleg and very much part of their identity as a subversive label.  However it later transpired that they had permission from Sonic Youth to to this, a pattern that was repeated with later releases.  It also continued their habit of releasing little music for a lot of money – this was originally 2 one sided 7″ singles, although my second pressing dispenses with that silly format.

The music here is interesting.  The A side, Stick Me Donna Magic Momma is a Peel session version of Expressway To Yr Skull which later appeared in a more polished version on Evol. It’s undermined by the format of this release – a 33rpm 7″ single which makes the sound quality a bit dodgy.  Given how expensive this single was, they could have sorted that out, but if you’re into early SY, it’s still worth hearing.

The B side is a re-issue of the insanely rare first single, (Over) Kill Yr Idols, and since it plays at 45rpm it sounds better than the A side.  Like the A side, it isn’t an easy listen, but it’s worth persevering with.

Psychic TV: Godstar

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Temple Records 1985.  TOPY S 009 + TOPY H 009

Discogs: double 7″

Discogs: 12″

For some reason I have both the 12″ and the double 7″ of this release, but it is a favourite.  Godstar is about the late Brian Jones who died just before the Stones famous 1969 Hyde Park gig and has since been credited with all sorts of mystical powers.  I wouldn’t know about that, but it’s certainly the sort of thing you’d expect Psychic TV to pick up on.

The cover claims that it’s from the soundtrack of a forthcoming film, although I’ve never heard of it actually being released or even finished.  The title track is very Stones inspired, which is quite a departure for PTV, although they do a really good job of it, especially on the 7″ version which is by far the best.  Hard to imagine such a listenable track was created by someone who was a founder member of Throbbing Gristle.  The remainder is a bit patchy, but the Hyperdelic mix works well.

More recently, Psychic TV founder Genesis P Orridge has become better known for his attempt to create a hybrid being with his wife, which involved him having radical plastic surgery in order to look like her.  She died a few years back, leaving his project not just bizarre to everyone else, but also tragic.