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 -

Felt: The Final Resting Of The Ark

Folder

Creation 1987.  CRE048T

Discogs

This is an absolutely beautiful single, one of the highlights of the band’s time on Creation.  It was the ninth of the ten they released as part of Lawrence’s vision of ten albums and ten singles in ten years, and like several of his other releases is very short; five tracks clocking in at less than ten minutes.  In a way, it’s even shorter than it seems because three of the tracks are instrumental ditties, leaving only two for real songs, but what songs they are; delicate masterpieces both. The three short instrumentals were produced by the Cocteau Twins’ Robin Guthrie; his influence is very obvious. I’m not sure anyone would have paid attention to these tracks were they not by Felt, but I really like them. It’s a side to his work which is often criticised which I think is unfair, but it’s true that at first listen they are a bit like acoustic wallpaper. Their worth becomes more obvious the more you listen to them.

The title track has appeared here before, and is currently available on several Felt compilations, e.g. Absolute Classic Masterpieces Vol II and Goldmine Trash.

by Vinyl301 -

The Jazz Butcher: Spooky

jazz butcher

Creation Records 1988.  CRE059T

Discogs

This is the latest installment of what seems to be an inexhaustible supply of Creation stuff.  I’ve always been rather fond of this single and the couple of Creation albums I have by the band, but I hadn’t realised that they’ve been around for 30 odd years, are still active, and have a pretty impressive back catalogue.

This single is a slick blend of jazz and pop; not really typical of Creation at all, and the extended version of the title track manages not to sound too stretched.  Even the JFK assassination samples manage to sound good – I guess they weren’t such a cliché back then.

The Jazz Butcher is, in effect Pat Fish with an oft changing cast of supporting musicians.  On the strength of this single and the way he looks I’d got him filed away in my mind under “cool dude” so I was quite surprised when I saw him play last year in a tiny cafe supporting Micky Greaney.  It was just an acoustic set, but he seemed rather a tragic figure – not a great performance and seemed like a guy who had spent way too long on the road.  I guess after all that time it’s hard to do anything else.  Perhaps I judged him a bit harshly – according to his web site he released a new album last year for which the funding was crowd sourced – clearly he still has a following.

Whatever the merits of his current work, this is a fine single, and I’ll probably get round to posting more from him another time.

by Vinyl301 -

Various Artists: Creation, Purple Compilation

images

Creation Records 1988.  CRELP 032 CD

Discogs

Some time ago I listed Creation’s first ever CD, a compilation of early singles. It’s been one of the most popular posts, so here’s its companion release, Purple. It covers similar ground, has similar artists and is of a similar high standard. As I recall it didn’t sell nearly as well as the first one – I guess people thought one of these compilations was enough. Anyway if you liked the first one, you’ll like this one too.

by Vinyl301 -

Heidi Berry: Firefly

Heidi-Berry-Firefly-287921

Creation Records 1987.  CRELP023

Discogs

I seem to be putting much more Creation stuff on this blog than I expected.  This is Heidi Berry’s debut which was rather out of place on the label with it’s resolutely folky style.  She was (Loft/Weather Prophets frontman) Peter Astor’s girlfriend which I guess had something to do with it, but the quality, if not the style is certainly worthy of the label.  The usual comparisons are Sandy Denny and Nick Drake, and while her work doesn’t scale the heights they managed, it gives a good idea what to expect.

After this and a full length LP for Creation, she signed for 4AD which was slightly more appropriate for her than Creation, but still an odd place for a folk singer to end up.

I’m slightly cheating here.  I don’t have the album as linked to above – Firefly was included as bonus tracks on the CD release of her next Creation album, but I’ve separated them because they work better that way.

Surprisingly given how long it’s been since she released anything, you can still get a rather nice retrospective called Pomegranite, but her regular albums are more-or-less worthless second hand.

by Vinyl301 -

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:

front

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.

dexys-midnight-runners-dont-stand-me-down-the-directors-cut-100127227

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 -

Various Artists: Flowers In The Sky

fits

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 -

Momus: Right Hand Heart 7″

Folder

Creation Records 1988.  CRE-FRE 3

Not separately listed on Discogs.

This 7″ was given away free with the first few copies of Momus’s best (I think) album, Tender Pervert. Both tracks seem to be demos, although info about this release is hard to come by.

What I do know is that this is one of the shoddiest 7″ singles I own. It’s pressed off centre, is distorted and crackles a fair bit. I thought about not bothering posting it, but it deals well with Momus’s biggest musical problem, which is burying his songs under loads of bland and/or irritating arrangements. These much simpler versions work far better, and so it’s worth putting up with the poor sound quality. Alan McGee apparently agreed – he liked Momus’s demos more than the released versions.

Momus is still recording, although I’ve bought nothing for at least a decade so no real recommendations. He’s written books too which I might check out at some point.

Tracklisting:

Right Hand Heart
The Poison Boyfriend (1982)

by Vinyl301 -

Bill Drummond: The King Of Joy

Folder

Creation 1987. CRE039T

Discogs

Hallelujah.  After a long wait my turntable is up and running again (new phono stage if you’re interested), so here’s the first vinyl rip.

Bill Drummond’s career has been endlessly interesting, right back to his stint as manager of The Teardrop Explodes and Echo And The Bunnymen.  Since then he’s best know for his commercial success with The KLF, as the guy who burnt a million quid, and more recently as artist and author.

Between the Manager phase and the KLF phase was a short lived period as a solo artist on Creation which yielded an album (The Man) and this single.  It is one of the most uplifting  records I own; I’ve spent far too much time this morning gyrating around the house to it.  While completely different in style to what he did next, the quality of these two tracks shows that the appeal of the records he made with Jimmy Cauty was grounded not in the pranks, but in the ability to write and produce great material.

The title track, King Of Joy is lifted from the album I’ve already mentioned.  Drummond himself says the song which is his “theme” is True To The Trail, a country style ditty from The Man, but for me King Of Joy does the job much better.  It’s a great song, and I’m a total sucker for pop songs with trumpet parts.  Never mind that ol’ Bill isn’t much of a singer – the overall effect is great and works all the better for his Scottish accent.

I Want That Girl is also on the album, but this is an instrumental version including a beautiful trumpet part by Henry Lowther.  It also has a Hammond solo too – could it get any better?

The B side is the spoken word The Manager, apparently the soundtrack to a film, although I’ve never seen it.  He’s ranting about the state of the music industry and what he’d do to fix it in his usual slightly unhinged but very entertaining way.  It works as a kind of statement of intent for what he was to become famous for.  You can hear True To The Trail playing in the background at the start.

Further listening?  Well there’s nothing available.  His Creation material is long deleted and the KLF and related stuff was all ceremonially deleted by Drummond and Cauty when they left the music industry.  He’s written quite a few books over the years, most of which are also out of print and very rare, but right now you can get 45 pretty easily which is a great read about his rather idiosyncratic take on the music industry.  It’s also worth keeping an eye on his web site.

The album is available (for a short time) here

by Vinyl301 -

Adorable: Sistine Chapel Ceiling

sistine

Creation 1993.  CRESCD153

Discogs

Adorable were short lived (1990 – 4) and had a crap name, but they made some great guitary indiepop for Creation.  This was their fourth single, and like their debut, was single of the week in NME.

I bought a couple of Adorable singles, and while I liked  them, I never got really into them.  Maybe I’d heard too much of this sort of stuff by then – and according to this article on Creation’s web site it was all very badly timed anyway.

Twenty years down the line, I’m writing this because I feel like listening to some 90s indiepop, and it sounds pretty good to me.  I guess they deserved more success than they got.