The Bodines: Decide

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Play Hard 1989.  DEC018

Discogs

The Bodines were one of the better jangly bands on Creation, and appeared on the C86 compilation with their excellent Therese.  However they were an ambitious bunch and quickly signed to a major who chewed them up and spat them out, surgically removing what made them good in the process.  That should have been the end of this promising band, and for a while it seemed that it was, but they reformed briefly in 1989 producing this single which turned out to be their swansong.

It’s something of a departure from their early material – they were clearly trying to muscle in on the whole Madchester thing, but they made a good job of it, and really, this is as worthwhile as anything they recorded in their heyday.  The standard remains high on the B sides too.

Various Artists: Pensioners On Ecstasy

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Creation 1990.  CRELP 082

Discogs

Creation were in the habit of putting out endless badly compiled and pointless compilations whenever their bank balance was a bit low, which with Kevin Shields’ studio bills to pay, it often was.  This one is certainly badly compiled and some of the tracks are awful, but it isn’t pointless because there are some rare gems amongst the garbage.

First up is The House Of Love with a sublime live acoustic version of Shine On recorded live, apparently during one of Guy Chadwick’s meltdowns.  It was originally on a flexi given away at gigs, and Creation, being hopelessly disorganised had lost the tape, so this was mastered from a rather damaged flexi.  It sounds surprisingly listenable given the source and it’s well worth downloading the album for this track alone.

Next is a My Bloody Valentine rarity – an instrumental taken from a 7″ single given away free with the first few copies of Isn’t Anything.  It’s unlike anything else they recorded, in that it uses a drum loop – in fact the same drum loop Madonna later used on Justify My Love, and works really well.  It’s doubly welcome here because it sounds much better than the original 7″, although it has more recently been included as an extra track on the re-issue of Isn’t Anything.  The same comment applies to the excellent Momus track (I’ve posted a rip of the terrible sounding original 7″ already – this pressing is much better).

The rest are dodgy album out-takes and rejected singles.  Mostly it’s not hard to see why they were rejected, although if there are any bands here you particularly like, they’re worth having.  The Jazz Butcher track is rather good, but this Peel session version is inferior to the officially released one which I’ll post at some point.  Of interest is the Nikki Sudden track which was recorded with Peter Buck of REM – and anyway you can never have too much Nikki Sudden.

The Three Johns: Brainbox (He’s A Brainbox)

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Abstract 1985.  ABS036

Discogs

Another single from the ever reliable Three Johns, this one being the follow-up to Death Of The European.  I doubt I’ll be posting much else by them, because according to their web site, they’ve bought the master tapes from Abstract and will be re-releasing their back catalogue.  The site also has stuff to listen to including a bunch of radio sessions, and it seems they’re actively gigging again.  If they’re even half as good as they were back in the 80s it would make a good night.  There are a couple of Three Johns tracks on compilations I’ve posted in the past, all of which should still be available.

Epic 45: You Are An Annual

Epic 45

Wayside And Woodland 2008.  W&W001

Discogs

This is a rather handsome and extremely limited (300 copies) single from the local (to me) ambient post-rock outfit, Epic 45.  I don’t know a massive amount about the band – I caught a gig a few years back (maybe at the Supersonic Festival) and have bought stuff now and again ever since.  It was only when I looked this up on Discogs that I realised how prolific they’ve been…

This is a fantastic single, really cinematic and not unlike Boards Of Canada, but there are bits of Felt, Sigur Ros (without the bombast) in there as well.  These are remixes, but I don’t have the originals, so I don’t know how radical they are.

Further listening?  Well I really rate Weathering from 2011 which is still available, or In All The Empty Houses. Their more limited stuff (like this 12″) is self released here.

 

Various Artists: Presage (s)

Presages

4AD 1980.  BAD11

Discogs

This is a very peculiar release, not for the first time on this blog.  Like this post, it’s an extremely early 4AD release, and like The Fast Set, not much like the style they became known for, either the music or the artwork.  In fact it was 4AD’s first compilation.

What makes this odd is that all the bands on this compilation were unsigned at the time.  Only Modern English went on to become 4AD regulars – apart from that all the bands here disappeared without trace.  It has to be said that were this not on 4AD, it would be of no interest to anyone, apart from, maybe, the people appearing on it.

The music itself is somewhat experimental gothy synth based stuff and it’s really not that great.  Most bizarre, although I kind of like it, is the Red Atkins track – a 65 year old who sounds like a busker, and who, apparently is recording again.

So, this is really only for 4AD obsessives.

 

Various Artists: Surfin’ In The Subway

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Subway Organization 1987.  SUBORG4

Discogs

I’ve been quite rude about the Subway stuff I’ve posted in the past (sorry Tom), but I must say, digging this out decades after I last heard it was a pleasant surprise.  Yes, it has all the features of Subway which I don’t think have aged too well, but somehow here it works much better.

Stars of the show are The Flatmates with the final track, Love Cuts.  It has all the Flatmates’ hallmarks – corny tune with worse lyrics, badly played and sung but I actually really like it, although I’m not really certain why.  It’s the bit at the end which particularly works – all they’re doing is strumming their way through the chords which make up the song, but it had me jumping around the room.  They obviously knew it was good – it’s the only time I can think of that a  Flatemates track goes beyond a couple of minutes.  The preceding track by Bubblegum Splash, The 18.10 To Yeovil Junction achieves something similar although not quite as well.  The Razorcuts come up trumps with the hilarious Big Pink Cake. If you’re going to be twee, you might as well go completely over the top with it.  The rest is fairly standard Subway stuff, good if that’s what you’re into, although Rodney Allen just makes me want to listen to Billy Bragg, who did the same thing infinitely better.

This is a sequel to Take The Subway To Your Suburb which I’ve re-upped.  In fact the two albums were released together on CD at some point (in Japan I think).

The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu: Who Killed The Jams

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KLF Communications 1988.  JAMSLP2

Discogs

This is the follow up to the JAMS notorious debut, 1987, What The Fuck’s Going On.   That album was groundbreaking, brave, hilarious, conceptually amazing, illegal, but not that great.  The material was pretty weak, it was technically laughable and clearly thrown together.  This one though is an altogether different proposition.

On the face of it, it’s a good-time disco record.  It’s uplifting, you can dance to it, the samples work well (at least by the standards of the time) and the material is mostly really good.  Delve a little deeper though and there’s more to it.  The cover shows Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty with their American cop car in a field in Sweden burning the remaining copies of their debut LP.  That album was withdrawn at the insistence of Abba because it “sampled” (wholsale theft is a more accurate term than sampling) huge chunks of Dancing Queen.  They were ordered to track down all the unsold copies and destroy them.  What they actually did was track them down and then head over to Sweden to talk to Abba, artist to artist as they put it.  Of course no meeting took place, so the albums were burnt in a field.  At the time it seemed like another KLF stunt, but listen to this album (particularly the none-too-subtle track Burn The Bastards, but also Disaster Fund Collection) and it’s clear that they were really hurt by what Abba did and intended to have that meeting.  There’s also a potted history of the band on Prestwich Prophet’s Grin which of course namechecks The Fall’s Mark E Smith, the real Prestwich Prophet (1987 has a Fall sample which was the only one they got permission to use), and made the album sound as though it would be their last, which indeed it was.  Most subsequent releases were credited to The KLF, and apart from a single or two, the JAMS name was abandoned.

The technical development here is remarkable.  1987 was amateurish in the extreme, to the extent that it’s barely listenable now, but this, appearing very hurredly soon after, is well constructed, especially when you consider how new the techniques they were using were back then.  It was well reviewed and set the scene for the huge stars they were about to become.  It’s strange that this, of all their albums, is most overlooked.

I may or may not post the 1987 album.  It’s so widely available online that I imagine that everyone who’s interested has heard it.  Let me know if you want it.

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Electronic Eye: Closed Circuit

R-227183-1123316426

Beyond 1994.  RBADLP 08

Discogs

This wasn’t an album I intended to rip simply because it’s so long – a quadruple.  However two things made me change my mind – firstly how good it is, and also because my newborn son (Sam) really likes it.  Laid back bass heavy electronic music seems to be his thing, so sitting around listening to this was even more of a pleasure than usual.

Electronic Eye was one of a multitude of aliases for Richard H Kirk.  He’s best known as a founder member of Cabaret Voltaire (2 earlier posts for them here and here), and he also appears on this blog as Sandoz.  He’s produced such a vast body of work, I can only claim to have scratched the surface, but for me this is one of his best and stands up as one of the best electronic albums of the 90s.

It is perhaps a bit long – the ideas here could have been condensed down, but the best tracks (Bush Channel Stepper and Data Crime stand out for me) more than make up for it.  Still with an album of this quality, a bit of self-indulgence is more acceptable than usual.  I prefer my electronica dark, and as you’d expect with the subject matter (surveillance, hence Electronic Eye) this album delivers on that score too.

Yeah Yeah Noh: Cutting The Heavenly Lawn Of Greatness… Last Rites For The God Of Love

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In Tape 1985.  IT021

Discogs

Yeah Yeah Noh, or √√X as they’re known by the cognoscenti never fail to bring a smile to my face.  This was their only proper album (the others being compilations or Peel sessions) and was released near the end of their brief career.  They were championed by John Peel, as was so much on this blog, but he was apparently disappointed by this album.  I suspect he was less keen on their emerging competence – by this time they’d moved from being one of the most shambly of shambling bands to a pretty decent psychedelic pop outfit, albeit one with a terminally flat singer.  Put another way they’d lost much of what made them so original when they first appeared.   Their early stuff also bears more than a passing resemblance to The Fall, which I guess would always be popular with Peel.

Setting aside questions of style and Peel’s disappointment, this is actually a really fine album.  The lyrics, always a strong point with √√X are as sharp as ever, there are good tunes, and some effective psychedelic arrangements, so providing you can handle Derek Hammond’s, er, individual approach to singing, what’s not to like?  Actually what’s not to like is the rather poor sound quality – there’s a murkiness to it, which if you’re feeling generous, adds to the amateur retro thing, or just annoying otherwise.

My favourite is the gospel influenced Stealing In The Name Of The Lord (although the Peel session version is better) which is a none-too-subtle rant about religious hypocrisy, and Home-Owner Sexual (AKA Another Side To Mrs Quill) about a frustrated housewife.  Blood Soup would be on the list too if it didn’t sound so murky.

I’ve re-upped my other √√X post, which is here.  That also directs you to the only √√X music you can currently buy.

Charles Manson: Sick City

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Fierce Records 1987.  FRIGHT006

Discogs

I haven’t posted anything from Fierce for a while, so here’s a rare thing – a single by a convicted mass murderer.  Fierce were all about annoying people, so what better way to kick things off than re-issue Charles Manson’s 1970 album, Lie: The Love And Terror Cult.  I don’t have that album, but this single is taken from it.  As is typical of Fierce, it’s one sided and very short.  The single actually has two tracks, but the second is silent, so I didn’t bother ripping that.

The music is pretty much what you’d expect from 1970 low budget hippy ramblings.   It’s not bad exactly, but no-one would be listening to it if it wasn’t Charles Manson.  But don’t let me underplay that.  It is genuinely unsettling listening to this when you know what he was getting up to.

So is this single in bad taste?  Probably, but many of us, me included find people like Manson horribly fascinating.  We read about these killers in the paper and watch TV documentaries about them in an effort to find out what makes such a monster as this tick.  I can’t see that listening to him sing is any different.  You can rest assured that not a penny (cent?) from this stuff ever made it back to Manson.