Rough Trade 1979. RT 018
This is the Cabs second single, ripped from an original 7″. Nag Nag Nag is relentlessly lo-fi, both in terms of the gear they used and the recording, but it works really well. I’m not enough of a techie to say much about it, but to my ears it sounds like the most primitive drum machine imaginable, although I guess in 1979 there was nothing else available, with other backing from crude electronics which sound to me very home made. The vocals are similarly lo-fi – they sound as though they’re coming through a megaphone with flat batteries. In a way it reminds me of watching the original series of Star Trek – a vision of the future which never came to pass. It’s a deeply weird record, but Nag Nag Nag is also a great tune.
The B side, as the title suggests is 5 minutes of pointless noodling, made bearable by more retro sounds and, surprisingly the copious vinyl crackle which is largely absent on the A side.
zshares
http://www2.*******.net/4bzixr4dgk3a
[…] transition for the Cabs, between the obstinately experimental sound of their earlier records (like Nag Nag Nag) and the more commercial sound they’d later embrace. So it has that heavy industrial sound […]
Re-upped with a spangly new rip.
Many thanks for posting!