CLOSE-UP : THE CINERAMA SINGLES (Part 8)

A GUEST SERIES by STRANGEWAYS

Close Up: The Cinerama Singles #8 :  The Post-Torino Singles (1)

As we near the end of this ten-part series, we’ve split the last four Cinerama singles in two. Bunching them together would have made, even for these contributions, an obnoxiously long post.

For now though, you’ve stuck with it this far – so, to recycle the gag that opened this series, whatever you do…

Don’t Touch That Dial (2003, Scopitones)

A big, brooding bruiser of a single, Don’t Touch That Dial was released in October 2003. Unless you really want to dive down rabbit holes – and admittedly we’ll peek inside them across this post – this would be the final Cinerama single (and certainly the last – so far – on the band’s own Scopitones label).

It was an epic ending – though more heartfelt-note-on-the-fridge than screaming row and swiftly packed suitcase. And in its huge and hurt manner, Don’t Touch That Dial provided a not-so-cryptic clue to the reassembling of The Wedding Present that would begin a short time later.

mp3: Cinerama – Don’t Touch That Dial

Don’t believe me? Look only to Take Fountain, the Weddoes LP that emerged just a couple of years after this single. Among its eleven tracks you’ll find Don’t Touch That Dial (Pacific Northwest version), that appendage reflecting Gedge’s home at the time: the Emerald City of Seattle, a location hardly a stranger to a distorted guitar or two.

Themed around the dying of a relationship, Don’t Touch That Dial turned a bit of a trick then: closing one era whilst contributing to the opening of another.

The One That Got Away is your first B-side. It’s a real doozy, relentless and dinky, and decorated with an Ennio Morricone-style break, its whistled construction calling out for tumbleweed and cacti.

mp3: Cinerama – The One That Got Away

Last B On/Off is a bit of a blast. It doesn’t hang around long and although it’s hardly the greatest Cinerama B-side it’s a fine listen that makes room for some scurrying organ.

mp3: Cinerama – On/Off

A notable feature of the Don’t Touch That Dial CD is the inclusion of a video for the preceding Cinerama single, Careless. The sleeve, meanwhile, a subtle, red-bathed shot of a woman’s legs and feet, could almost be grabbed from a 70s James Bond title sequence.

But as the end credits roll on the Scopitones releases, let’s get silly and look at the lesser-known Cinerama singles. At the time of writing there are four of these, all are on seven-inch vinyl and I’m actually looking forward to getting to know them a bit better myself.

It’s Not You, It’s Me (2004, Go Metric!)

Limited to 1,500 singles, It’s Not You, It’s Me was released in June 2004 on the short-lived Go Metric! label.

Barring compilations, the single, in a shade of yellow that flirts dangerously with being light-brown – a real gift for detractors – would be the last from the band for almost ten years.

mp3: Cinerama – It’s Not You It’s Me

It’s Not You, It’s Me is a decent, if gruff and lo-fi, affair. It’s kind of dialled-down and despite the band name on the sleeve – which features a line drawing of a lounging, clotheless woman caressing what might be a ukulele – is pitched closer certainly to The Wedding Present than Cinerama.

B-side was Erriner Dich, a cover of a track by the Cologne-based band Klee. This group would go on to create a very fine remix of a Wedding Present song: I’m From Further North Than You, from 2005’s Take Fountain LP.

mp3: Cinerama – Erriner Dich

Erriner Dich – a song I am very unfamiliar with, is a great surprise. It’s sung in its native German and a driving rhythm, home also to female backing vocals from Terry de Castro, plus keyboard parts, is maybe a bit reminiscent of Stereolab. The track’s title translates as Remember Yourself, and I should know because I just checked it on Google Translate.

Thanks to both that limited pressing and the imminent dissolution of the band, both songs were, I suppose, something of a rarity. There were no digital releases back in the day either. But in 2014 their inclusion on the elegantly-sleeved Seven Wonders Of The World compilation gifted them a wider release.

I Wake Up Screaming (2013, Artificial Head Records and Tapes)

Courtesy of Artificial Head Records and Tapes of Houston, Texas, I Wake Up Screaming is as bright as its almost day-glo pink vinyl. Five-hundred copies were pressed up and Discogs tells me that – in more trouble for completists – 100 of these were in a ‘mixed marble’ colour.

As for the A-side it’s a cracking quiet/loud number all about betrayal and a recurring, haunting dream, the content of which results in the song’s title. It’s well worth a listen.

mp3: Cinerama – I Wake Up Screaming

Either by accident or design, this is another track that shares its name with that of a film: this time a 1941 noir. Either that or it’s a homage to the 2011 Kid Creole and the Coconuts album of the same title (and itself named after the film).

Your B-side here was a live version of the slinky Disco Volante track Unzip. It’s taken from David Gedge’s annual-when-there’s-not-a-plague-on At the Edge of the Sea Festival held in Brighton.

mp3: Cinerama – Unzip (Live At The Edge of The Sea)

Sleeve-wise, a couple of portrait shots recall the majority of the covers from Cinerama’s heyday.

Thanks for reading this far. Next up we’ll be almost all done…

strangeways