Bloc Party – THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

IT REALLY WAS A CRACKING DEBUT SINGLE (74)

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I think I should issue the reminder that the heading of this series doesn’t mean that the singer or band in question never released anything as brilliant or memorable as the debut 45.

Bloc Party.

As I wrote last time around when they featured on the blog, (November 2021), it took quite a while after forming in 1999 before there was any sort of recognition.

Come 2004, there was something of a surprising but welcome resurgence in the popularity of angular post-punk music here in the UK, and before too long, a number of groups whose influences had to include Television, Wire and Gang of Four were being played on mainstream radio. It did prove to be short-lived, but it was fun while it lasted.

It was Trash Aesthetics, a newly formed London-based independent label, which took a chance on Bloc Party. The first 7″ single on the label, in February 2004 was this:-

mp3: Bloc Party – She’s Hearing Voices

It’s a hypnotic and pounding tune that might have got some young folk off their chairs and onto the floors of the alternative discos, but it really is something of a disturbing number, with a lyric inspired by a friend of singer/lyricist Kele Okereke who had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. It certainly wasn’t anything as radio friendly as later singles such as Helicopter, Two More Years or Banquet, all of which went Top 20.

Here’s the two tracks that featured on the b-side:-

mp3 : Bloc Party – The Marshals Are Dead
mp3 : Bloc Party – The Answer

The former has a vocal delivery and occasionally lo-fi production that does make me think that The Fall were more of an influence on Bloc Party than has perhaps ever been admitted to, while the latter is a full-on 100mph assault on the senses that makes me think it was often deployed as the closing song during many of the early shows.

I don’t have a copy of said single, but I did pick them up a while afterwards when they were included on the later Bloc Party EP, which was released on CD by Wichita Records.

JC

Bloc Party

REMEMBERING THE MID-00’S (Part 2)

Bloc Party came about after two friends, Kele Okereke and Russell Lissack were inspired to form a band after attending the Reading Festival in August 1999. Gordon Moakes and Matt Tong would join later after answering adverts in the NME and auditioning. The story is that they got their big break in 2003 when singer Okereke went along to a gig in London and handed a copy of their demo to Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand and also to BBC Radio 1 DJ, Steve Lamacq.

A couple of early efforts came out on small independent labels before the band signed to Wichita, a London-based label which was very much at the forefront of this seemingly sudden reignition of interest in guitar-led indie music. 2004 saw the band grow in popularity, thanks to a number of single and EP releases, as well as extensive touring. The debut album, Silent Alarm, was released in February 2005 and was a huge success, hitting #3 in the UK, going on to sell more than half a million copies and spending the best part of 60 weeks in the Top 100, thanks in part to a run of hit singles, including new songs which were then added to a re-released and expanded version of the CD album.

mp3: Bloc Party – Helicopter
mp3: Bloc Party – So Here We Are
mp3: Bloc Party – Banquet
mp3: Bloc Party – Two More Years

All great stuff if you want my take on things. It had been quite a while since I last listened to this album prior to pulling this post together. I had forgotten just how well it maintained a high standard throughout.

JC

Bad Lieutenant, Banderas, Bats, Bettie Serveete, Bloc Party

CLEANING UP THE I-TUNES : ‘B’

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So here we are again, looking to bring a few singers or bands who haven’t featured before on this particular version of the blog, some of which will have only come back into my mind as a result of me faffing about and tidying up the i-tunes. It’s ‘B’.

mp3 : Bad Lieutenant – Sink Or Swim

Back in 2008 it appeared that New Order had broken up for good this time, especially when Barney announced he was forming a new band which was to be called Bad Lieutenant, named after the infamous 1992 film which starred Harvey Keitel as a cop having a breakdown. Phil Cunningham and Stephen Morris were also involved in the band and so in some ways you could almost look on it as a Hooky-less New Order.

After a couple of digital only singles, October 2009 saw the release of a debut album entitled Never Cry Another Tear. I didn’t buy it immediately, deciding it was late enough in the year to wait to suggest to a few family members that it could eventually be a Christmas present. It would have therefore been the following January that I finally listened to it. It was dreadfully bland and unimaginative plod-rock, a view that didnt;t change on second listen a ew days later.

The third time it’s been played is the past few hours. It still has no redeeming features. It’s only on here as just about every other New Order spin-off has featured at some point or other.

mp3 : Banderas – This Is Your Life

I know for a fact this superb single from 1991 was posted on the old blog.

Banderas were a female duo consisting of Sally Herbert (keyboards/violin) and Caroline Buckley (vocals), both of whom were part of The Communards. They released three singles and one album, calling on the likes of Jimmy Somerville, Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner to play on the records while Stephen Hague was happy to occupy the producer’s chair.

Theirs is a sound not a million miles removed from the smoother synth-pop of the Pet Shop Boys but with a vocal contribution that is powerful yet soulful. Sally and Caroline didn’t really play the game of fame in the pop world – they had crew cut haircuts and their dress sense could be best be described as androgynous – as they tried to demonstrate that female acts, especially in the dance field, did not need to be highly sexualised to be a success.

This Is Your Life was the debut and it was a deserved #16 hit in the singles chart. For a follow-up, they chose the biting and uncompromising She Sells in which the use of the female image in advertising to flog all sorts of products that are solely of appeal to men is given a good kicking over a catchy beat. Sadly, the record stations and record buying public ignored it and before too long they called it a day.

mp3 : The Bats – Made Up In Blue

There will, I’m sure, be readers who are well qualified to tell the story of The Bats. They’re a four-man line-up from New Zealand who have been making well-crafted and intelligent guitar music since 1987 apart from a short hiatus between 1995-2005 when bringing up children became the priority. There’s been eight albums all told along with loads of singles and EPs.

I only discovered them through the internet having downloaded some songs from another blog – I wish I could say which but I genuinely don’t know. The featured track is the lead track from an EP dating back to 1988, just after Daddy’s Highway, their debut album (partly recorded in New Zealand and in Glasgow!!) was released on Flying Nun Records.

mp3 : Bettie Serveete – Hell = Other People

Some indie-style music from the Netherlands.

Bettie Serveete initially consisted of Carol van Dijk (vocals and guitar), Peter Visser (guitar), Herman Bunskoeke (bass) and Berend Dubbe (drums). They initially tried to make a go of it in the mid 80s but to no avail. By the time the four of them were in their 30s they tried again, this time with a fair degree of success and longevity with nine albums in a twenty year period from 1992, albeit they have gone through a succession of drummers since 1998. The featured song is an album track from 2006

mp3 : Bloc Party – Banquet

Bit of a surprise that I’ve never mentioned Bloc Party before as I’m a fan of their debut album, the million-selling Silent Alarm, released back in 2005 (although I was horrified in looking it up to realise just how long ago it was!!).

My big problem with bands who emerged around that time was that I got interested in blogging back in 2006 and started focussing on nostalgia, not paying too much attention to new music unless it was on my doorstep in Scotland. I’m sure Bloc Party have made great records since the debut but I haven’y actively sought any of it out. If there’s ay long-time fans out there, then I’d be very happy to post an ICA….

Cheers.