by Vinyl301 -

The Soup Dragons: The Sun Is In The Sky EP + Whole Wide World

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Subway 1986.  Subway 2

Discogs

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Subway 1986. Subway 4

Discogs

I sent for the Soup Dragons single….  Mail Order only….  £1.30 to Martin Whitehead but it never came.

The gods were smiling on me , because Martin Whitehead did send me the Soup Dragons single.  It now resides in a box of valuable records I don’t like very much, alongside the Fast Set.  People compare this to the Buzzcocks, but you’d have to have cloth ears to think there was any sort of similarity.  It’s the sort of trashy indiepop which gave the genre a bad name.  Dodgy material badly played…..

It’s always listed as “unreleased” but since you could buy it direct from Subway I guess undistributed is probably more accurate.  I seem to remember it had something to do with Subway going bankrupt, although this was only their second release,  the first, by The Shop Assistants did pretty well and they carried on for quite a while after this one.

I’ve also posted the bands first properly released single, which resides in another box of singles which I don’t like and which are worthless.  It’s better than the first EP though.

So why have I posted this stuff?  Mainly because it’s rare.  I know people want it.  Two posts in a row like this – I’ll try to get back to posting good music asap.

by Vinyl301 -

The Fast Set: Junction 1

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AXIS 1980.  AXIS1

Discogs

This 7″ single is of interest more for the label than the music.  It was the first release on AXIS records, who were sued soon after by another label also called Axis, so they changed their name to 4AD, and the rest as they say, is history.

It doesn’t have much in common with the musical powerhouse 4AD would later become, either in terms of the music or the artwork, excpet maybe the somewhat gothy feel of The Fast Set.  In fact it was a rather inauspicious start for 4AD – this is rather second rate synth pop by a band who released nothing else, apart from a surprising contribution to the first Some Bizarre LP (which I don’t have).  However I often like records as anchored to their time as this one is – primitive synthesisers probably do that better than any other instrument.  The B side (and their Some Bizarre contribution) is a weird Marc Bolan cover.

If you want more, and I realise that’s unlikely, you can download some demos here.

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Various Artists: Head Over Ears

R-1250126-1259694307

Play Hard Records 1987.  DEC 7

Discogs

This is a worthwhile compilation put together by Debris magazine with a surprising number of big names contributing exclusive tracks including The Fall, Big Black, King Of The Slums, The Railway Children and A House.

I particularly like The Fall’s contribution – often their live recordings are pointless, but this one sounds as though someone’s playing space invaders in the background which I quite like.  It’s always good to find more Big Black – there just aren’t enough Big Black records for my liking.  The studio version of this live track originally appeared on their debut Lungs EP.

Not surprisingly every artist here has produced better work on their own releases, but the stellar line-up makes it hard to resist.

by Vinyl301 -

Robert Lloyd And The New Four Seasons: Something Nice

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In Tape, 1988.  ITT056

Discogs

Writing about the long tracks on Dexy’s Don’t Stand Me Down put me in mind of this very fine Robert Lloyd single which clocks in at a hefty 9 minutes or so, but like Dexy’s, doesn’t outstay its welcome.

Robert Lloyd is mostly known as a founder member of The Nightingales, but he had a brief stint in the late 80s as a solo artist, initially on Marc Reilly’s In Tape, then Virgin.  He also used to run Birmingham’s Vindaloo Records who were responsible for discovering Ted Chippington (he justified his existence by this alone) and Fuzzbox.

His solo career didn’t go well at all, but it wasn’t for want of good material.  This single is as good as anything I bought that year; a wonderful song played with a real energy complete with Stone Roses style drumming, a year before the Stone Roses really made it big.  The B sides aren’t too shabby either.  I have no idea what the “New Four Seasons” thing is about though.  He doesn’t sound anything like them.

Further listening: well none of his solo material is available, but the Nightingales are soldiering on and always worth a listen.  Their current album No Love Lost is as good as anything they’ve done, which is no mean feat with a back catalogue like theirs.

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Dexy’s Midnight Runners: Don’t Stand Me Down

Writing a music blog is a geeky thing to do at the best of times, but this is a geeky post even for a music blog.  It’s also a terrible shame that I’m able to do it at all – this album should be available, but since it’s not….

You probably already know that this album, Kevin Rowland’s magnum opus, bombed on release, partly because he refused to issue singles, partly because of the very odd cover, partly because it wasn’t what people were expecting after Come On Eileen and partly because it’s bonkers.

Without a doubt it’s the best music ever made by a Brummy.  It’s a contender for best 80s album, although at the time I thought The Smiths’ The Queen Is Dead was better, but it’s certainly the greatest “lost” album of the decade.

It existed in three different versions, all of which are here (that’s the geeky bit).

So let’s start with the original issue:

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Mercury, 1985.  MERH56

Discogs

This is a vinyl rip of my original 1985 copy.  It’s not strictly speaking complete because the CD version (which is very rare) has an instrumental version of This Is What She’s Like, but that’s clearly not essential.  It has only 7 tracks, and at the time, I didn’t find it a particularly easy listen, but it doesn’t take long for This Is What She’s Like to get under your skin: 12 minutes of searing brilliance which justifies every second, even the rather odd conversation at the start which sets up a suitably tense atmosphere for when the band kicks in.

Rowland doesn’t put a foot wrong throughout, although there are more surreal conversations between some of the tracks.  Every one is better than most bands produce in a career, and it’s brilliant precisely because Rowland was mad.  This is the result of a level of obsession and perfectionism which clearly drove everyone around him nuts, but which created not just brilliant material, not just superb performances, but a manically intense whole which is like nothing else before or since.

dsmd creation

Creation 1997.  CRECD 154

Discogs

Kevin Rowland’s obsession with this album continued long after its release, so when Alan McGee offered to re-issue it on Creation, simply because he loved it, Rowland took the opportunity to tinker with it.  There was new artwork, although with the same clothing style which Rowland described as “Ivy League”, two extra tracks (Reminisce Part 1 and The Way You Look Tonight”).  Knowledge Of Beauty became My National Pride, its original title which Rowland was too afraid to use first time around, and Listen To This became I Love You (Listen to This).

However, Alan McGee, never much interested in sound quality, hired a muppet to master it who used something called a stereo enhancer which ruined the sound.  Rowland was bitterly disappointed, and the album quickly disappeared again.  It’s worth having for the two extra tracks which appear nowhere else.

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EMI 2002.  537 0130

Discogs

Finally we have the Director’s Cut, a second re-issue from 2002 which Rowland currently says he’s happy with. It features a third set of artwork, another new track Kevin Rowland’s 13th Time but the removal of the extra tracks on the Creation issue.  Crucially a good job was done on the mastering, so it sounds great, and it seems to be that more than anything which Kevin Rowlands was interested in.  However, this re-issue also disappeared quickly and is now insanely expensive.

This version also appeared as a limited edition with a DVD of promo videos.  I’m not usually much interested in videos, but this is an exception, so I’ve posted it too.  I first came across it at a film festival during an afternoon screening of sundry short films.  Suddenly the video for This Is What She’s Like came on and I wondered why they were playing it.  It soon became clear: the film is every bit as gripping as the music it accompanies, and it was the only one of the shorts I saw that afternoon which got a round of applause.  I’ve heard that Rowland himself doesn’t like this film being seen.

I know about ripping music, but I’m a bit clueless about DVDs I’m afraid.  What I’ve done is created an image of the DVD, and it plays fine from the files on my PC, and you should also be able to burn a DVD from it.

As for further listening, Dexy’s never released a duff album, but apart from this my favourites are Searching For The Young Soul Rebels (their debut), The Projected Passion Revue (An amazing live album) and their first new album since this one, One Day I’m Going To Soar (which is a triumphant return to form).

by Vinyl301 -

The James Taylor Quartet: Theme From Starsky & Hutch

James Taylor Quartet

Urban 1988.  URBX24

Discogs

The James Taylor Quartet are a bit of a one trick pony, but what a trick it is – funked up Hammond driven jazz.  This single is their finest and turns the theme from Starsky & Hutch into something you wouldn’t think was possible, with the help of a fair chunk of James Brown’s brass section.

They’re fantastic live as you might imagine from listening to this, but it does start to get rather samey after a while.  I’ve seen them play twice, once in around 1987 just after their first single Blow Up had come out (at Sinatras in Birmingham if anyone remembers it?) and again last year.  A 24 year gap, but things had remained pretty static – superb funkiness for a while followed by me wishing they could diversify a bit.  In fact it was a carbon copy of a festival performance by Booker T Jones I saw last year, that other Hammond maestro  who suffers from exactly the same problem.  For both, the solution is the same: buy singles.

Play this loud and dance around the room.  It’s compulsory.

 

by Vinyl301 -

Cabaret Voltaire: Nag Nag Nag

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Rough Trade 1979.  RT 018

Discogs

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.

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Mild Man Jan & Mark E Smith: Fistful Of Credits

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Switchflicker, 2000.  SWALF1

Discogs

This is a rather mysterious 7″.  Mark E Smith is of course the man behind The Fall, so not mysterious at all, but that seems to be all that’s straightforward about this release.  Mild Man Jan appears on several V/VM albums, and is, I suspect, one of V/VM’s founder James Leyland Kirby’s aliases.  According to Wikipedia he lives in Stockport, so there’s a distinct possibility they know each other.

The music is downtempo electronica, not the assault on the eardrums Kirby usually produces.  Fistful Of Credits has, as expected MES on vocals, but the B side, Skin Deep which is credited to “My Mate Mark” isn’t, as you’d expect, MES again, but a woman who sounds very much like Martina Topley-Bird who sang on Tricky’s Black Steel, but it seems unlikely it really is her.

I can’t tell you much else.  It’s on pink vinyl and is really very good, but that’s about it.

Postscript:  Well, the knowledgeable people over at The Fall Online have filled me in on some of the background to this.  It turns out Mild Man Jan is a guy called Spencer Marsden, and that the A side of this single is available on the Fall compilation A Past Gone Mad. 

by Vinyl301 -

Various Artists: Flowers In The Sky

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Creation Records 1988.  CRELP 028 CD

Discogs

I bought this the same day I bought my first CD player.  As I left the shop I realised I had only one CD, Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me by The Smiths – a good start but listening to one single over and over was going to drive me nuts, so I rushed out and bought this and the New Order Substance compilation.  As far as I know this was also the first CD Creation released – there are some with lower catalogue numbers, but with those the CD was issued some time after the vinyl.

Creation had a habit of putting out way too many compilation albums, usually when they were short of cash, and quality was often poor.  This one works well though.  It’s a retrospective of their early singles, although strangely the Revolving Paint Dream track it’s named after doesn’t appear.  It has the artists you’d expect – Primal Scream in their jangly phase, House Of Love & Felt, as well as forgotten gems like The Loft.  It works as a reminder of what made the label great in the first place – not that some of their later phases weren’t great too.

 

by Vinyl301 -

Derek Bailey: Playbacks

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Bingo Records 1999.  BIN004

Discogs

This is one of a pair of releases in which guitar improv legend, the late Derek Bailey improvises over material sent to him by a range of artists.  The other one, Guitar, Drum ‘n’ Bass I’ll post another time.  It also works as a reverse of Thurston Moore’s Root project, where it was Moore who sent the music out.

I generally don’t find Bailey’s work that accessible, but in this context it’s much easier to deal with. Oddly, I once saw him play live and it made much more sense – maybe it needs more concentration than I can muster at home.

It’s also worth noting that he doesn’t play on two of the tracks.  John Oswald’s contribution was, as you’d expect, a cut-up of many older Bailey performances, which Bailey felt was complete when it arrived, and the hilarious last track where he talks (but doesn’t play) about his obsession with the name George.

Most of the other contributors, including producer Sasha Frere-Jones are luminaries of the 90s alt-rock scene, particularly people involved with Tortoise, although John French used to play with Captain Beefheart.  Even when the backing track is rather uninspiring, Bailey rescues the project – he seems to be able to play along to more-or-less anything.