Lossless Music To Offend All Tastes
Domino 2010. Rug 363
This is a Record Store Day release, and has two alternate versions of tracks from the Fall’s album Your Future Our Clutter. The cover and labels don’t agree on the track listing, but the A side is a variant of Bury!, the B side of Cowboy George.
It’s a storming single – both tracks really rock with great guitar riffs. Bury! is about the grim northern town of Bury, not the act of putting something in a hole in the ground. No idea what the B side is about though.
Monkeytown Records 2012. MTRRSD2012
I went a bit mad at record store day last year, so here’s another of my purchases. This is an exclusive track from Mouse On Mars, presumably an out-take from their excellent Parastrophics album. MOM have been around for a long time, but maintain an experimental, edgy feel to their electronica. I saw them play Llubljana a couple of years back and it was impressive how funky two geeks behind a load of electronic equipment managed to be.
Slack as always I’ve only just noticed the B side isn’t by MOM – it’s labelmates Prefuse 73 who I know absolutely nothing about. It means the file is tagged wrong – you’ll have to correct it yourself if it bothers you.
If you want more, the new album I mentioned above is worth a punt. Buy it direct from the band and cut out the tax dodging middlemen.
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.
Cherry Red 2012. Cherry501
Record Store Day has been going downhill recently; too many major labels clogging it up with pointless and overpriced re-issues of old music. This single from last year is what it’s supposed to be about – exclusive content to drag the punters kicking and screaming away from taxdodgers.com and back into record shops, although most copies of this single were bought by ebay vultures looking for a profit…
It’s best viewed as an appendix to last year’s Ersatz G.B., and in fact the original version of the live track on the B side is on that album. Victrola Time, the A side is unusual for the lack of guitar and the very weird vocals it starts with, but for me The Fall rarely put a foot wrong and this is no exception. Maybe it’s an out-take, but it’s still better than most bands manage in a career.
Just noticed that this is the 100th post. Berlimey.
Update: The Fall’s new album, Re-Mit has just arrived, and it includes Victrola Time. Not sure yet whether it’s the same version.
West Midlands Records 2012. GLUM2
Another post about the eccentric ex Felt frontman, Lawrence, this time his third band, Go-Kart Mozart. When Lawrence disbanded Felt, he started making music in a very 70s kitsch style kicking off with Denim’s first album Back In Denim. Since then, he’s been ploughing a very similar furrow with mixed results. I really think it’s time he moved on, but Lawrence’s artistic motivations are always hard to fathom.
This is a 7″ single which appeared at Record Store Day last year, so is already deleted. The A side is lifted from the Lawrence biopic Lawrence Of Belgravia and is a cover of New World In The Morning, originally recorded by whistling housewives’ favourite of the 70s, Roger Whittaker. It’s easy to laugh at Roger Whittaker, but this is actually a pretty good song and it works well with Lawrence’s 70s stylings. The B side is nuts even by Lawrence’s standards; it takes longer to say the title Gizmos, Gadgets, Unrock, Electric Guitar Clock Tick Tock than it does to play the track which clocks in at only 1 minute. Actually very short songs are something Lawrence has explored before to good effect – pop music should use them more. No repetition and verse/chorus/verse structures to bore you – just a quick romp through and end. What this song is about is anyone’s guess, but Lawrence always had a knack for making strings of nonsense sound good.