May 2013 – Vinyl301

by Vinyl301 - May 31, 2013June 1, 2013

Field Music: Actually, Nearly

Memphis Industries 2012. MI0255S

The only recent stuff I can post is from Record Store Day because it’s (mostly) immediately deleted. This is a fine pair of Pet Shop Boys covers by Field Music. I’m not supposed to like the Pet Shop Boys, but I’m a sucker for a perfectly crafted pop song and am old enough not to worry any more about what people think of my musical taste. Obviously I also like Field Music. Apparently they’re post-punk but I have absolutely no notion what that means. In fact I have a frighteningly poor grasp of the labels people attach to music for someone who’s set himself up as a music blogger. The cover’s pretty funny too.

As for further listening, this is mainstream stuff so I’m sure you can figure it out.

by Vinyl301 - May 30, 2013May 31, 2013

Yeah Yeah Noh: Temple Of Convenience EP

In Tape 1985. ITTI 023

Discogs

Ah, Yeah Yeah Noh. A band whose records I rarely play but whose lyrics I often find myself quoting and whose songs I often find myself humming. They really couldn’t play that well, and the singer, Derek Hammond was terminally flat, but neither of those things stopped them from being entirely wonderful and Peel favourites. Early in their short career the amateurishness of their playing added to the charm, although as their competence grew, lineup changed and they drifted into psychedelia, they became less original, but still a rewarding listen.

This EP is from the start of their psychedelic phase. The title track is typically sardonic social commentary, and the other highlight is the lengthy Jigsaw which includes manipulated announcements from John Peel, presumably giving details of one of their sessions for his programme, together with a cheeky and I imagine unauthorised Beatles sample. It ought to be a disaster, but actually works pretty well. The cover claims it’s 4 separate tracks, but really it isn’t and I’ve ripped it as such.

The fourth track is worthy of special mention. It’s a cover of The Beatles’ Rain by The Psychedelic Filberts, which YYN claimed they found in the basement of a studio in Leicester. At the time that story was obvious nonsense, especially with the obvious Leicester FC reference, but it wasn’t clear what it actually was. It turns out it was Diesel Park West, also from Leicester. Why they appear on this EP is anyone’s guess.

All their original albums and singles are long deleted, but there is a mighty fine retrospective on Cherry Red which is worth a tenner of anyone’s money. Rumour has it that their entire back catalogue will be re-issued at some point.

by Vinyl301 - May 28, 2013

Flying Saucer Attack: Home

Domino Records 1997. RUG57

Discogs

Flying Saucer Attack were, I think, the finest exponents of the loud fuzzy guitar/quiet vocals thing popularised by the Jesus and Mary Chain. And yes, I know the Velvets invented it… This was their last single and is classic FSA lo-fi goodness.

Surprisingly their first album is still available. I’ve never heard it, but everything I do have by them is well worth getting, so you could do a lot worse…

by Vinyl301 - May 26, 2013June 2, 2013

Kramer: The Guilt Trip

Shimmy Disc 1993. Shimmy 055

Discogs

I first became aware of Kramer as one half of the hilarious/excellent Bongwater when I bought their debut Double Bummer. One day I may get round to ripping that. However his name crops up all over the place. He played bass for the Butthole Surfers for a while, and turned out a surprising amount of solo material. What I didn’t notice at the time was his production work on some of the most interesting US music from that period, including Galaxie 500’s albums and some of Low’s material. Perhaps though he’s best known for the label he ran, Shimmy Disc which seemed to be a home for all the insanely brilliant American bands back then who no-one else would touch.

Owning a label is key to understanding this release. It’s so self indulgent, so vast and so, well, nuts, that it could only ever have been self released. 36 tracks across 3 LPs or 2 CDs for a debut solo album eclipses even George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, including as it did an LP of jam sessions. This is all proper songs! What’s most surprising is that he pulls it off. It veers in style from psychedelic rock referencing The Beatles to Led Zeppelinesque instrumentals. He’s also been listening to the 13th Floor Elevators, Syd Barrett, The Grateful Dead and well, most of what’s been worth listening to since the 60s. This is a guy who understands music intimately and really knows how to bring all these influences together into an insane rock opera. It is of course pretty unmanageable – a good one for a rainy day, but there’s surprisingly little filler here.

by Vinyl301 - May 25, 2013May 25, 2013

Coil: Musick To Play In The Dark, Volume 2

Chalice 2000. Graal CD 005

Discogs

Having posted the first volume of this series yesterday, it seemed only right to post the second today. They work superbly together – it’s a shame to have one without the other.

That this doesn’t work quite as well as volume one is hardly a criticism. It means that it’s the second best Coil album, and for me the second best electronic album of the 90s – still essential listening.

It ploughs the same dark furrow as the first volume, which it does more effectively than any other artist I’m familiar with. Standouts for me are Something and Ether.

by Vinyl301 - May 24, 2013

Coil: Musick To Play In The Dark, Volume 1

Chalice 1999. GraalCD003

Discogs

I’d intended to put much more Coil on this blog than I have. I love Coil and have most of their catalogue, but the problem is that I find them very difficult to write about.

Many people say this is their best album, and today, I’m inclined to agree, although tomorrow I’ll probably have a different view. It’s not as industrial is much of their output – you could even describe it as pretty easy to listen to. Stylistically, it’s very varied. Sometimes it sounds like early Tangerine Dream, sometimes it’s much darker electronica, but always with an intense humanity. This is dark, otherwordly music which is best listened to, as the title suggests, in the dark with headphones. Is it one of the most important electronic albums of the 90s? Well I think so, and it was certainly influential. However typically for Coil it was pretty hard to come by at the time, and much more so now, so few have ever heard it.

My copy is a second edition, which has different (but still terrible) artwork. The music however is the same. I’ll post Volume 2, which is an essential comapnion to this another time.

by Vinyl301 - May 23, 2013May 26, 2013

The Fall: Ed’s Babe

Cog Sinister 1992. SIN CD 9

Discogs

Someone over at The Fall online was looking for a rip of this so I thought I’d oblige.

It’s a single from the Code Selfish era, although none of the tracks appear on that album (they’re all on the 2007 2CD version though). It’s not usually considered a classic Fall vintage, but I like it.

It’s an unusually easy listen. Nice tune, mellow delivery… is this really The Fall? The third track, The Knight The Devil And Death appears not to feature Mr Smith at all, and Free Ranger is a vastly inferior remix for Free Range from Code Selfish. Still, taken as a whole it’s worthwhile (although there’s not much Fall material I don’t like).

The only gripe I have is that the remix of Free Ranger is much inferior to the album version.

Further listening? Well their new album Re-Mit landed on my doormat this week and it is as Mark E Smith promised, and improvement on Erstaz GB, not that I thought that was too shabby.

by Vinyl301 - May 22, 2013July 18, 2013

Cabaret Voltaire: Drinking Gasoline

Virgin 1985. CVM1.

Discogs

I guess you could call this an album – it’s actually two 12″ singles, but the total playing time is almost an album. Actually the 2×12″ format is superb because the sound is better, especially with music like this.

It represented an interesting 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 and chanted lyrics they were known for but with dancefloor friendly bass heavy riffs. At over 8 minutes per side they’re perhaps a bit long, but it works for me.

It is apparently the soundtrack to a video called Gasoline In Your Eye which I’ve never seen. My copy is mispressed – according to Discogs all the UK copies were, so I’ve corrected the tagging to reflect what is actually playing rather than what the label says. I’ve sequenced them in the order they appear on the cover.

by Vinyl301 - May 22, 2013May 22, 2013

Various Artists: Kalevala Singles

Kalevala 1997. KALA 001 – 006

Discogs

I posted a fake KLF single here, and this is another KLF related fake, this time, the band pretending to be someone else, rather than the other way around.

It was one of their more peculiar projects – a fake Finnish record label purporting to be tapping into a dynamic but hitherto unknown Finnish music scene. What it actually is, is Bill (Drummond) and Mark (Manning) holed up in a studio in Helsinki with sundry locals making records by bands that didn’t exist. That it was all a hoax was an open secret at the time, but it didn’t generate much interest and the project fizzled out after 6 singles, of which only 500 of each were pressed. Rumour has it that Drummond still has most of them, which would account for the silly prices they now go for. There was supposed to be an album of all the single tracks with a few extras, but only a handful of test pressings were ever done. There was also an album of sorts recorded with a local singer, but again only a few test pressing materialised. This is a rip of all 6 singles, bundled up together as an album.

Bill had a Scandinavian connection which seemed to be the driving force behind this. They’d travelled to Sweden to try to persuade Abba to allow the Dancing Queen sample of their 1987 LP, and the book Bad Wisdom (by Drummond and Manning) was set there, inasmuch as it was set anywhere at all.

So what are they actually like? Well in the main they’re rather fabulous, and of course bonkers. It kicks off with Dracula’s Daughter which is a pretty successful fuzzy Velvets sounding track, then The Fuckers with a punk ditty about Roy Orbison. Things go a bit wrong on the third single, by Gimpo, the KLF’s roadie and general fixer – side one is a pointless load of swearing and side two is Gimpo relating a rather grubby story. Single 4 is by the Daytonas, a kind of surf-punk outfit which works well, the 5th (which suffers from playing at 33rpm) has bizarre covers of The Doors, Elvis and Bert Kamfaert in a kind of overblown Vegas style (probably my favourite). It finishes with Aurora Borealis which is a pair of ambient tracks not too dissimilar from the KLF’s ambient works (which is a good thing). I’m not so sure about Mark Manning, but this stuff works because Bill Drummond really understands music. Yes, it’s a fake, none of these band exist and most of the sounds are made by session musicians, but that doesn’t really matter. Drummond knows very well what a great surf-punk record should sound like, and can make it happen with a bunch of random Finns in a studio. Importantly he’s also nuts enough to think that doing this is a good idea.

Probe Records have a rather odd page about Kalevala here.

by Vinyl301 - May 18, 2013

Various Artists: Not Alone

Durtro Janana 2006. Durtro Janana 1963

Discogs

I’ve been listening to compilations a bit lately, mainly because I usually neglect them and forget the hidden gems they contain. This one is a bit of a beast; five full CDs and 75 artists, so it is a bit overwhelming but there’s so much interesting stuff it’s essential if you’re into the offbeat.

It was put together by David Tibet (of Current 93) who obviously has a hell of an address book as a benefit for Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders). While it lacks the stylistic coherence of most of the compilations I’ve posted here in the past, the quality is mostly very high, and some effort has been made to make to album flow. Realistically, you’ll never play the whole thing in one sitting, so the CDs are made to work pretty well as standalone albums.

It’s so vast and so varied I don’t really want to attempt a description – I’ll be typing all day. I bought it for the Bonnie Prince Billy track, but soon realised it’s full of stuff I like, or at least stuff I would like if I’d heard it. There are the avant garde names you’d expect, but also people representing his interest is the weirder end of folk, such as Bill Fay.

Really the best thing to do is look at the tracklisting below and to trust me that there’s very little filler.

Posting a charity album here might seem like a really bad idea, but it is sold out now. If you enjoy it, you could assuage any guilty feelings you might have by donating to Medecins Sans Frontieres here. They do really useful stuff providing medical help in places where it wouldn’t otherwise be available.