by Vinyl301 -

Bogshed: Let Them Eat Bogshed

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Vinyl Drip 1985.  DRIP 2

Discogs

I bought this in the same way as I bought so much else.  Listened to John Peel and then went record shopping in my lunch hour.  Bogshed were huge Peel favourites, and according to Wikipedia he coined the term shambling to describe them.  Their angular, jagged sound, always seeming to be on the verge of collapse was similar to the sort of stuff usually to be found on the Ron Johnson label, but Bogshed stood apart from those bands with a sound of their own.

This EP was their debut, and I think their best, although like Mighty Mighty they reached a wider audience on the legendary C86 compilation.

 

by Vinyl301 -

Mouse On Mars: Miami

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Monkeytown Records 2012.  MTRRSD2012

Discogs

I went a bit mad at record store day last year, so here’s another of my purchases.  This is an exclusive track from Mouse On Mars, presumably an out-take from their excellent Parastrophics album.  MOM have been around for a long time, but maintain an experimental, edgy feel to their electronica.  I saw them play Llubljana a couple of years back and it was impressive how funky two geeks behind a load of electronic equipment managed to be.

Slack as always I’ve only just noticed the B side isn’t by MOM – it’s labelmates Prefuse 73 who I know absolutely nothing about.  It means the file is tagged wrong – you’ll have to correct it yourself if it bothers you.

If you want more, the new album I mentioned above is worth a punt.  Buy it direct from the band and cut out the tax dodging middlemen.

by Vinyl301 -

The Beatnigs: Television

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Alternative Tentacles 1988.  VIRUS 71T

Discogs

The Beatnigs were a short lived project led by Michael Franti who went on to form the Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy.  They made only one album, from which this single was taken.  It’s an interesting mix of punk, hip-hop and industrial, and while it is very much of its time, it still works 25 years after the event.  The single version was reworked by Adrian Sherwood and the On-U crew.

I miss politics in music.  I remember during the Iraq war the intense irritation of Neil Young when he felt obliged to make an angry album about it because no-one else had.  OK, it wasn’t a great album, but the anger politics can inspire has made as much great music as it has bad.  This track deals with a theme that is as important now as it was then and is an old one in media studies.  Television it argues, fills so much of our lives with its banal garbage that it crowds out what’s important.  While the rich fleece us for every penny we’ve got, instead of doing something about it, we obsess over X Factor.  I don’t really watch TV, but I obsess over music and maybe that’s as bad.

by Vinyl301 -

Momus: The Poison Boyfriend

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Creation Records 1988.  CRELP 021 CD

Discogs

Rownderbowt over at the excellent Huremics wanted some Momus, so I’ve re-upped all my old Momus posts, and added this one, which is his second album, and the earliest one I own.  The further back you go through his catalogue, the less he uses irritating bedroom electronica as backing, so on this album his excellent songwriting and lyrics are relatively unencumbered.

This is the CD issue which includes the contemporaneous EP Murderers The Hope Of Women as the first three tracks.  Normally I separate out this sort of thing and present them as they were originally released, but not this time – just didn’t get around to it I’m afraid.

I haven’t really got anything more to add to what I said when I posted Tender Pervert – you can read all that stuff here.

by Vinyl301 -

The Screaming Blue Messiahs: Good And Gone

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WEA 1985.  WX16

Discogs

The Screaming Blue Messiahs were a proper Rock ‘n’ Roll band.  They were loud, chaotic, exciting and completely over the top.  This was their debut EP/mini album which the critics raved about, Peel championed and the punters bought.  Live they were even better.

Rather strangely, after three excellent albums they simply vanished for no reason that I could ever fathom, and are now largely forgotten about.  This incendiary album has never been re-issued, and only ever existed on vinyl.

There aren’t any standout tracks – all six are absolute monsters.  Turn it up to 11.

As for further listening – there’s only a live album available which I’ve never heard, but none of their back catalogue is rare, so it’s cheap enough from the usual places.

by Vinyl301 -

Magnétophone: Relax, Its The End Of Electronica

magnetophone-special-lady-2002

Static Caravan 2002.  VAN 40

Discogs

Magnétophone usually record for 4AD so this beautifully presented and very limited 7″ was slightly surprising, although their geeky, glitchy electronica fits rather better here than there.  Perhaps it’s because it’s less accessible than their usual stuff, especially the B sides which have little in the way of conventional structure.  Regardless, the band are probably the most effective exponent of this genre.

Unfortunately Static Caravan’s love of the 33rpm 7″ continues here.  It really is the most abominable format this side of the cassette tape.  Still, it’s worth a listen.

by Vinyl301 -

Heidi Berry: Below The Waves

Heidi Berry

Creation 1989.  CRELP 048

Discogs

Heidi Berry’s second album marked quite a departure from her first.  It’s darker, quieter and more powerful, but has the same excellent songwriting and vocal performances.  The mostly acoustic backing is superb too; sometimes guitar, sometimes strings and sometimes keyboards, her arranger Christian Lunch did a really good job.  She deserved more recognition than she got – was that because of her rather odd residence at Creation?  Would she have done better at a more folky label?  Maybe Creation gave her a new audience – I doubt I’d have bought this if it was on a different label.  Whatever, she’s a testament to Alan McGee’s ear for great music.

The material on the album is so strong, it’s difficult to pick a stand-out, but I guess I’ll plump for North Shore Train.

As before, I don’t actually have the album as linked to above.  The CD issue combined Firefly and this album, but they work much better separated.

Further listening?  Well her 2000 retrospective Pomegranate is still available, or you could trawl the usual places for second hand copies of her original albums – they’re not worth much.

by Vinyl301 -

Space: Space

Space_front

KLF 1990.  SPACE CD 1

Discogs

This album was intended to be The Orb’s debut and was worked on by Alex Patterson and Jimmy Cauty.  However the two fell out, so Cauty removed Patterson’s contributions, finished it himself and released it as Space.  It is of course well known what happened to Alex Patterson..

It works as a companion piece to the KLF’s groundbreaking Chill Out (which I’ll post another time), although it was nowhere near as well known, probably because it wasn’t released under the KLF moniker.  At the time ambient house was widely regarded as a joke, a typical KLF prank.  After all, how could you possible have dance music without rhythm?  Listening to these albums quickly shows that it wasn’t a joke, they are both as good as anything else the KLF did; in fact I’d argue Chill Out was their best.  Of course the idea of ambient music is an old one; Brian Eno is usually regarded as a pioneer in that area with his album Music For Airports, but you can trace it back further than that, for example with early Tangerine Dream, and even further with Satie’s Vexations.  All that was new was who it was being made by and the audience.

Space is very sparse.  It has long silent gaps, and when there is sound, there’s not much of it.  But like Chill Out it’s beautifully constructed and on its own terms it works well.   The cover gives a tracklisting which is just the names of the planets in order of their distance from the sun, just like Holst used for his Planets suite.  However the CD has only one long track, so it’s up to the listener to figure out what’s what.

The album was never officially re-pressed so became insanely rare very quickly.  Inevitably it was widely bootlegged; in fact most extant copies are bootlegs.  This however is a rip of the real thing; the original CD issue.  Whether it’s different to the bootlegs I have no idea, although bootleggers aren’t exactly renowned for being worried about sound quality.