Five Go Down To The Sea?: Singing In Braille

Panorama

Creation 1985.  CRE021T

Discogs

Five Go Down To The Sea? weren’t much like any other bands on Creation at the time.  Their music was jagged, discordant and chaotic with unhinged vocals, but was very much part of the achingly cool (back then) Ron Johnson sound, although despite their three singles being on three different labels, they never recorded for Ron Johnson.  The band apparently claimed that the much more successful Stump ripped them off, which is certainly a plausible story.  I think they’d spent too long listening to old Beefheart records.

This was the band’s last single, issued shortly before the lead singer drowned in Hyde Park while drunk.

So is it any good?   Well that depends on how much you like discordant music.  If you do it works well, but if you’re after the jangly indiepop more typical of early Creation singles, you’re in for a disappointment.  Whatever it’s the sort of obscure record this sort of blog should be about.

Fingers Inc Featuring Chuck Roberts: Can You Feel It

R-24874-1198441799

Desire Records 1988.  WANTX 6

Discogs

Fingers Inc, Mr Fingers or any number of other aliases involving Fingers was a nom de groove of Larry Heard, house music pioneer.  This is the best known version of his best known track; an absolute classic slab of deep house.  Heard himself didn’t approve of this version because he didn’t like sampling without permission – but it didn’t stop it becoming huge.  This track though goes beyond sampling.  It takes Heard’s original track with it’s monster bassline and superimposes a spoken word piece by Chuck Roberts where he’s talking about the significance of house music in an almost biblical way.  The combination is much more than the sum of its parts.  What works less well are the samples from a live Jacksons album, but they’re no more than occasional embellishments.

The B side is a bit odd.  Chuck Roberts’ words stripped of backing just sound absurd.  Better to ignore the words and concentrate on the mood.  When Chuck stops talking and the music kicks in it works rather better but doesn’t bear much relation to the A side.

I’ve got quite a few singles on this label and I’m a particular fan of the covers.  It’s not just the design, which to me is an icon of late 80s house music, it’s because of how they’re made.  It’s an old record cover turned inside out and re-glued.  I guess it was done to save cash, but printing on the wrong side of the card gives them a weird matt finish which works really well with the art work.

Surreal Estate: Midas Touch

Folder

Probe Plus 1985.  PP12

Discogs

This is a rather obscure single about which I know very little.  The band are from Liverpool and the label was run by the excellent and still trading Probe Records which you should visit if you’re ever in town.

I’ve posted it because it’s really very good.  It caught my ear on John Peel’s show because of the great title track and an individual sound which is an appealing mixture of psychedelia and 80s indie.  They made one more single which I’ve never heard and then vanished.  A spot of googling turns up the existence of a John Peel session, a possible connection to Echo and the Bunnymen… and nothing else at all.  Still it’s the music not the back story which counts.  It’s best viewed as a strong three tracker because the fourth track is a rather inept dub mix I think we’d all be better off for not hearing.  In its defence, most 12″ singles of this era only had three tracks.

Update: It turns out that the Echo and the Bunnymen connection is that half the band (although I don’t know which half) were hired as session musicians for the title track.

 

The Three Johns: Death Of The European

Folder

Abstract Records 1985.  ABS 034

Discogs

Today’s post is a journey into somewhat darker territory than yesterday’s jaunty Robert Lloyd single.  The Three Johns have a more gothy sound than I usually go for, but this is a great song which Peel played quite a bit.  According to Wikipedia it was also an NME single of the week – and deservedly so.  The sound on this 7″ single is decidedly murky.  Whether that’s deliberate or a duff recording I have no idea, but it really works with this material I think.   The sound is also made unusual by the use of a drum machine which is rarely effective with a guitar band I think, but here it adds to the atmosphere created by the murky sound.

Robert Lloyd: Funeral Stomp

Folder

Virgin 1990. VST1196

Discogs

This was the final single of Robert Lloyds brief solo career. I’ve posted his two indie singles here and here.  This suffers somewhat from major label over-production which as I recall alienated his existing fan base while failing to win any new ones.  As a result it featured heavily in bargain bins throughout the 90s.  However underneath all of that it’s a decent enough song, and the B sides didn’t suffer so much from the production, so are more rewarding listens.

The last track features Peter Byrchmore on guitar.  I went to school with him, although he was in the year above me, so he was never a friend.  The riff he plays here is very familiar – I’ve heard him use it live, but not with Robert Lloyd, or even I think the Nightingales, who he’s best known for playing with.   It’ll come to me eventually.

Bonnie “Prince” Billy: Get The Fuck On Jolly Live

fuck

Monitor Records 2001.  MAP001

Discogs

This is a very rare (500 copies) tour only album, which is, as the title suggests a live version of the Get On Jolly EP, although it’s a lot longer than the studio version.  It’s unlike anything else he recorded, being almost ambient in character in that it meanders along with no obvious sense of purpose until the last track, where things get a bit more conventional.  Don’t let that description put you off though, this is a beautiful piece of work.  The guitarist is Mick Turner, better known for his work with the Dirty Three and it’s the interplay between his inspired playing and Will Oldhams’s vocals which really make this album shine.

These two work together reasonably regularly, most recently a couple of months back on a rather fine vinyl only single, available here.

Daisy Hill Puppy Farm: Spraycan

R-1491719-1223720662

Lakeland Records 1989.  LKND 009

Discogs

An Icelandic band which isn’t Sigur Rós or Björk is a bit of a rare thing to hear about.  This band made quite a splash at home apparently but beyond some enthusiasm from John Peel, they were largely ignored elsewhere.  If they’re known at all it’s for the feedback laden cover of Heart Of Glass on their debut EP which I’ll post another time.  This is their second and final EP, which I think is the best of them.

So what’s it like?  Well it’s very derivative of the Jesus and Mary Chain, but with more in the way of riffs.  The main guy apparently went on to form a metal band which kind of makes sense listening to this.  I’ve heard it said that the Mary Chain sounded a bit like this later in their career, but I wouldn’t know having lost interest in them by the time Darklands came out.  An appealing style is no use without decent songs, and they mostly pass muster on that front too which makes the whole thing a worthwhile listen.

Daisy Hill Puppy Farm was where Snoopy came from in case you were wondering.

Various Artists: Double Articulation > Another Plateau

Various Artists - Utopian diaries. Double articulation.

Sub Rosa 1996.  SR110

Discogs

This is the third and final compilation released in tribute to the late French philosopher Gilles Deleuze.  The first is here, and the second, which is a companion to this one, is here.  Essentially this album is a remix of Folds and Rhizomes; the various artists have swapped tapes and reworked each others contributions.  It’s a pretty successful project – after all the contributors mostly represent the cream of 90s electronica.  As usual, I reckon Mouse On Mars is the highlight, both the Scanner remix of Subnubus and their remix of the fourth track which seems to include everyone.

This is mostly minimal electronica.  If you want to know more, the links above give a more detailed description of what to expect.

Various Artists: The Melting Pot

front

SST 1988.  SST 249

Discogs

The cover of this album implies that it’s a film soundtrack, but as far as I can tell it wasn’t.  It’s just SST artists from the late 80s covering songs you’ll mostly be familiar with.  Apart from Sonic Youth the bands represented aren’t that well known, but SST had a house sound during this time, so if you like late 80s US punk, you’ll feel at home.

Inevitably some of it works, some of it doesn’t.  I reckon SOS is by far Abba’s best song but their voices grate so this was an open goal as far as I was concerned – but the version here is rather lacklustre.  Highlight for me is Tales Of Brave Ulysses – it betters the original in my view, and the cover of Hawkwind’s Master Of The Universe works well too.  There’s also a competent cover of the Beatles Wild Honey Pie which is worthy of mention for the guitar work.

Pigbros: The Blubberhouses

Folder

Vinyl Drip 1985.  DRIP 3

Discogs

Another Vinyl Drip release and another debut EP, this time from Brum’s Pigbros who I’ve featured before.  Like Cheap Life there’s some great material here and it’s well played, but it’s a bit let down by the production which doesn’t capture the power they had live.  However it’s not hard to see through that limitation and see this for the inventive debut it was.  There’s a dark gothy feel to much of it – a sinister guitar sound, lyrics often with a slightly subversive political edge and some great drumming.

This EP is notable for the one obvious recorded appearance of drummer Fuzz Townsend’s trademark tin bath on the track Excessive.  Before Pigbros he was often to be seen busking with it, especially in the piss filled pedestrian underpasses near Birmingham fruit and veg market, but here it’s been incorporated into his kit.  As Pigbros neared the end of their career the tin bath had started to disintegrate under the assault from Fuzz’s sticks.  Maybe that was why they split up?