Category: Various

……and put this mixtape on.

mp3: Various – Make A Cup of Tea

Propaganda – Dr.Mabuse (A Paranoid Fantasy)
Arab Strap – The Turning Of Our Bones
Gang of Four – I Found That Essence Rare
Working Men’s Club – Valleys
Pet Shop Boys – Hell
Luke Haines – Smash The System
Yard Act – The Trench Coat Museum
Elastica – Waking Up
Blur – Barbaric
Spare Snare – Bleached (remix)
Alison Eales – Minuet
David Holmes ft. Raven Violet – It’s Over, If We Run Out Of Love
Bar Italia – Punkt
Coach Party – What’s The Point In Life
Pixies – Dig For Fire
Otoboke Beaver – Do You Want To Send Me A DM

If this is the sort of thing that you enjoy giving a listen to, then I could make no better recommendation than suggesting you drop over to A History of Dubious Taste, where you will find Jez‘s Friday Night Music Club, which is one of the best things out there across the entire internet.

JC

Hopefully, there’s a little bit of something for everyone.

mp3: Various – Don’t Get Fooled Again

Mogwai – Party In The Dark
The Fall – Open The Boxoctosis #2
Charlotte Hatherley- Bastardo
Joy Division – Transmission
Pixies – Planet of Sound
David Westlake – The Word Around Town (BBC Session)
The The – Uncertain Smile (7″ version)
The Motorcycle Boy – This Road Goes On Forever
The Pains of The Pure At Heart – Young Adult Friction
Trembling Blue Stars – A Statue to Wilde
Cinerama – Dance Girl Dance
The Strokes – Reptilia
McAlmont & Butler – Yes
James – Come Home (Weatherall Mix)
Chumbawamba – Blackpool Rock

Worth mentioning, in passing, that the David Westlake song was part of a session broadcast on the Janice Long show on Radio 1 on 25 February 1987.   His backing band for the session included three members of the Go-Betweens, with Robert Forster on guitar, Amanda Brown on violin, oboe and backing vocals, and Robert Vickers on bass.

I also want to thank everyone who entered the competition to win a copy of Four For A Boy, the new EP from Alison Eales.

The answer to the question ‘For which Glasgow-based indie-band does Alison Eales play keyboards?’ is Butcher Boy.

The three names drawn out of the hat were Gary O’Connor, Conrad Zimmer and Neil Tilston.   I’ll get the vinyl in the post later this week.

Watch out for another TVV competition coming your way on Wednesday.

JC

Once again, this is the part of the series where I consult one of my reference books and find some new 45s which didn’t sell in enough numbers in March 1979 to bother the chart compilers.

I’m starting things off with The Distractions.  The Great Indie Discography, written back in 1999 and updated in 2003 by Martin C. Strong (from now on in referred to as ‘The Big Red Indie-Bible’) tells us this:-

“Consisting of founder-members Mike Finney (vocals) and Steve Perrin- Brown (guitar), together with Adrian Wright (guitar), Pip Nicholls (bass) and Alec Sidebottom (drums), this Manchester-based outfit had a hectic touring schedule supporting the likes of Magazine, Buzzcocks and just about every Mancunian New Wave act around at the time.”

They signed to TJM Records, a label that had been launched by Tony Davidson, the owner of TJ Davidson Rehearsal Studios in Little Peter Street, Manchester, the location from whom which many a band launched a career, particularly Joy Division.

The debut release was the You’re Not Going Out Dressed Like That EP, from which this was the lead track:-

mp3: The Distractions – It Doesn’t Bother Me

The group would release another single before the year was out, this time on Factory Records.  I’ll highlight that later in the year.

Staying with the letter ‘D’

mp3 : Doll by Doll – The Palace Of Love

Doll by Doll was formed by Kirkcaldy-born Jackie Leven, who, having started out as a folk musician, was another to be smitten by the advent of punk/new wave.  The band, which also had Jo Shaw, Robin Spreafico and David McIntosh as members, signed to Automatic Records, an off-shoot of Warners.  Whoever pulled together the wiki page got this right:-

“They came to prominence during the new wave period but were largely ignored by the music press of the time – their emotional, psychedelic-tinged music was judged out of step with other bands of the time”.

There were a few performers/bands who despised the new wave scene, particularly in New York.  This led to what was termed ‘No Wave’, and I’ll again turn to wiki:-

No wave was an avant-garde music genre and visual art scene which emerged in the late 1970s in Downtown New York City. The term was a pun based on the rejection of commercial new wave music. Reacting against punk rock’s recycling of rock and roll clichés, no wave musicians instead experimented with noise, dissonance, and atonality, as well as non-rock genres like free jazz, funk, and disco. The scene often reflected an abrasive, confrontational, and nihilistic world view.

One of the leading proponents of the no wave scene was Lydia Lunch.  Her band, Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, released a single in March 1979:-

mp3: Teenage Jesus & The Jerks – Baby Doll

I’ve a feeling most of you will be pleased it’s all over and done with in just over 90 seconds.

And now for something completely different:-

mp3: Tubeway Army – Down In The Park

They had started out as a guitar-based new wave band, Mean Street, but the dawn of 1978 saw a change of name to Tubeway Army, albeit the new wave element was still to the fore (they supported The Skids at gigs in the summer of ’78).  By the end of the year, a debut album had been released, with the lead singer changing his name from Gary Webb to Gary Numan, and looking to incorporate synths into the group.  The album sold modestly, but there was enough interest at Beggars Banquet to fund a follow-up for planned release in mid-1979, and Down In The Park was seen as being the advance single.  It didn’t sell very well, but things were about to change….as will be seen later in the series.

mp3: The Pop Group – She Is Beyond Good and Evil

I’m not someone who has ever been fully enamoured by The Pop Group, which is why they haven’t previously featured on the blog, but there’s no denying that they are so often cited as being a huge influence on the way music would shape and form in subsequent decades.  The debut single was released in March 1979.

It was also the month in which the final 45 from the original line-up of this lot was released before the frontman went solo:-

mp3: Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers – Lydia

Having started off things off in Manchester, I think it’s appropriate to finish with the lead track from another EP released on the TJM label in March 79.

mp3: Slaughter and The Dogs – It’s Alright

Hmmmm…….on this evidence, it’s easy to see why this lot never really got much attention beyond that provided by a local fan base.

JC

Here comes an ICA from a short-lived band, with just two albums and seven UK singles to select from.   Despite this, it was still a bit of an ask to narrow it down to just ten songs.

First thing to sort out….the name of the band.   The first album and early singles were credited to The Colour Field.    Come 1987, with the release of the lead single from what proved to be the second and final album, they were known as The Colourfield.  Later compilation albums, whether encompassing Terry Hall‘s wider career or being solely focussed on this particular band, refer to The Colourfield.   As I’m now going to do from now on.

The demise of Fun Boy Three led to Terry Hall pulling together The Colourfield in 1984. The other two members were Toby Lyons on keyboards/guitar and Karl Shale on bass.   Toby had been part of The Swinging Cats*, a ska-influenced group from Coventry who had released one single on 2 Tone Records back in 1980, while Karl, also from Coventry, had played with a couple of new wave influenced bands who never quite made it.

Chrysalis Records, having been happy enough with the commercial success of Fun Boy Three, put a deal on the table, and as such, every Colourfield release in the UK would be via the label.

SIDE A

1. The Colour Field (single, January 1984)

It makes sense to start proceedings with the debut single, released in January 1984. Terry Hall promised that his new band would be taking a totally different direction to what had come before.  Some of those who had championed him since he had burst onto the scene weren’t impressed.  One journalist in a UK music paper, on reviewing the debut single, went as far as this:-

‘This lot have absolutely nothing going for them. No sense of humour. No glamour. No good melodies. No danceable rhythms. No excitement. No controversy. No emotion. Nothing whatsoever. They are, in short, ruddy awful’

Utter bullshit.   The problem was that such reviews and other less than fulsome praise, combined with the single not getting onto the A-list at Radio 1, meant it wasn’t all that widely heard and so ended up missing out on being a big hit, stalling at #43.

2. My Wild Flame (b-side, January 1985)

In terms of the chronology of the band, there would be an even bigger flop as the second single Take, released in July 1984, barely scraped into the Top 75.   The record company executives may well have been examining the fine print of the contract as 1985 rolled around, with the debut album scheduled for release in the spring/early summer.  In some ways, a reset button was pressed, and a big push was made on the third single, released in January 1985.  Thinking Of You was a hit, getting to #12.    I’ll get round to that later in this ICA….in the meantime, I’m offering up the poptastic and jaunty b-side for your enjoyment.  And yes, it is more or less a re-write of the debut single!!!

3. Things Could Be Beautiful  (single, January 1986)

The hit single had helped the debut album, Virgins and Philistines, reach #12.   It only hung around the charts for seven weeks, primarily as neither of the next two singles lifted from it made any dents.  The group went into the studio towards the end of 1985, with an additional member, Gary Dwyer (ex-Teardrop Explodes), behind the drum kit.  A very jaunty and upbeat 45 was recorded and released, assisted in no small measure by the production skills of Ian Broudie.    Sadly, it flopped, leading to Terry Hall spending a few months reassessing things. It also led to the record label deciding to have a bigger say on things.

4. Hammond Song (from Virgins and Philistines, May 1985)

A cover version.  The original dates from 1979 and was the work of The Roches, a trio of sisters from New York whose folk-like tunes leaned heavily on their sibling harmonies.   The Colourfield’s take on things sort of keeps these, although in a way akin to Kirsty MacColl‘s way of doing things, as it sees Terry harmonising with himself.  A song in which acoustic guitars strum gently in the background and provides something that all hangs together in a rather lovely way.

5. Thinking Of You (single, January 1985)

The one big hit for The Colourfield.  The third single, and one with a prominent co-vocal from Katrina Phillips.   A bitter-sweet love song which, in many ways, provided the template for The Beautiful South.   As I said in a previous post back in 2014 looking back at the debut album, I reckon its fair to assume the main reason no-one took the band seriously was that Terry Hall had forged a reputation as a representative of disaffected youth and having been pigeonholed in such a fashion, not too many were keen to allow him to carve a different and more lasting niche.  Thinking Of You might have been more a Radio 2 than Radio 1 sort of song, but it was still well worth a listen.

SIDE B

1. Miss Texas 1967 (from Deception, April 1987)

The second album was recorded in New York, with an American veteran producer, Richard Gottehrer, behind the desk.  The band was now reduced to just Terry Hall and Toby Shale, backed by session musicians.  The overall result is a bit of a mess, with the sound being very different from the first album and the Ian Broudie single.

Despite the mostly awful production, there are a few worthwhile moments on Deception, not least this lovely number which has a really intriguing title.  Intriguing?  Well, the actual winner of Miss Texas 1967 was 20-year-old Molly Grubb from Fort Worth, but the TV soap-opera Dallas would reference the contest as part of its scripts, with the winner being Sue Ellen Shepherd, a beauty queen who later married J.R. Ewing, the main heir to the family’s oil business (and an all-round bad guy!!).

2. Monkey In Winter (b-side, May 1987)

The original version of this can be found on Deception, an album which sold very poorly, spending just one week in the Top 100, reaching #95 in April 1987.   The following month, a single from the album was released.  She had been written in the mid-60s by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, one of many songs the duo had composed for The Monkees.   The Colourfield version failed even more dismally than the album, but tucked away on the b-side is a remake of Monkey In Winter, with the remix duties being taken care of by Gil Norton, whose work led to a much more sympathetic rendition of the tune.   But the key to everything was Terry deciding that the lead vocal would be better delivered by someone else, and he came up with the idea of having Sinead O’Connor come into the studio.  It might not sound like anything else The Colourfield ever made, but it’s very much attributed to them.

3. Armchair Theatre (from Virgins and Philistines, May 1985)

Remember how the critics had laid into Terry Hall for failing to be controversial?   He kind of thumbs his nose at them with this one.

I’m sitting on the fence again
Drawing straws and pulling strings
Demonstrations pass me by
This must be the age of something

And this was after he had written and recorded the next song on the ICA

4. Cruel Circus (from Virgins and Philistines, May 1985)

Khayem included this on his career-encompassing Terry Hall ICA (#277, February 2021), and in his words, “a biting commentary on animal cruelty, Terry’s lyrics and vocal delivery have lost none of their power and relevance in the subsequent three decades.”  1985 was the year of Meat Is Murder, and I often think that Terry’s contribution to the debate, which focussed on laboratory experiments and fox-hunting, sort of got lost a bit when it should have been the subject of many an article across the broadsheet media.

5. Sorry (b-side, January 1984)

And so we find ourselves going full circle, with the b-side to the debut single, and a track which was also used, more than 15 months later, to end the debut album.  If, like me, you’re a bit of a sucker for the bitterly honest and straight-from-the-heart break-up songs (the sorts that Elvis Costello and David Gedge have often specialised in over the years) then I hope you’ll agree that this is  up there with the best of them.

BONUS EP

Told you earlier that I couldn’t keep it down to 10 tracks.   So, here’s the limited edition 4-track EP, available only with the initial copies of this ICA.

(a) mp3: The Colourfield – Castles In The Air
(b) mp3: The Colourfield – The Windmills Of Your Mind
(c) mp3: The Colourfield – Goodbye Sun Valley
(d) mp3: The Colourfield – Your Love Was Smashing

(a) Another flop single, the follow-up to Thinking Of You.  Should’ve been a hit but stalled at #51.

(b) A b-side, to the second single, Take.  A cover of the song best known as the theme tune to the 1968 film, The Thomas Crown Affair.

(c) The closing track on Deception.  The session musicians earn their corn on this one with almost enough different instruments for its own ICA a la JTFL.

(d) Yet another b-side, this one being found on Castles In The Air.   I do think Terry Hall took a great amount of perverse pleasure in having some of his best songs of this era being quite obscure in terms of where they were released.

JC

* I’ve had this piece prepared for some time, just waiting on a gap in the schedule to slot it in.   Over the weekend, I received a guest posting which, by sheer coincidence, makes reference to The Swinging Cats.  Please tune in tomorrow when all will be revealed.

A guest posting by Fraser Pettigrew

Many are the pieces of vinyl that have passed through our hands that were bought, listened to, and then disposed of. Either they were traded in to generate funds for new purchases, or loaned, never to be seen again. Some we don’t miss, for others we harbour slight regrets, and some we mourn deeply, regretting to the depths of our souls the idiocy that caused us to ever contemplate parting with them. This is my confessional list, the ones that got away…

Ok, let’s start with the pieces over which we have no regrets, where we quickly recognised that a mistake had been made or where time eroded whatever mild entertainment the disc might once have provided. No regrets, however a sad experience follows that some of you may empathise with.

The follow-up to Generation X’s peerless first LP was eagerly anticipated by my school friend and I at the beginning of 1979. Thus, clutching four quid each in our sweaty fists, we sprinted out of school at 3.30pm on release day, Friday 26 January, and bussed into town straight to the Virgin shop on Frederick Street in Edinburgh, whence we emerged shortly afterwards each with our own brand-new copy of Valley Of The Dolls.

Monday morning at 9am, we re-encountered each other outside the school and exchanged a look that wordlessly conveyed what dozens of music journalists would fill many column inches expressing: Valley Of The Dolls was shite and our £3.99 had been utterly wasted. My copy went to Greyfriars Market 2^nd hand trade-in long before the year was out.

Even The Lurkers’ first two albums lasted longer in my esteem than Valley Of The Dolls, but eventually the guilty pleasure I derived from the Status Quo of punk rock wore down and they had to go. Similarly, the first Simple Minds album Life In A Day was recycled even though I still maintain an equally guilty pleasure in the rest of their early output up to New Gold Dream.

Which makes it rather baffling that I got rid of my copy of Real to Real Cacophony at some point, as well as Empires and Dance. The latter is more understandable as my first copy was pressed on defective vinyl with a sort of crusty pustule in the middle of This Fear of Gods that only burst after a couple of months playing, by which time the receipt was long gone. Thankfully, I have been able to re-buy decent vinyl copies of both, though probably for five times the original price.

The sacrifice of items from one’s collection was a necessary evil in days when budget was low, and it would be interesting to remember what it was that I bought with the proceeds of falling out of love with those early Simple Minds albums, or the likes of XTC’s Go2 (complete with bonus 12” dub remix EP Go+), or Glaxo Babies’ Nine Months to the Disco, or Vibing Up The Senile Man, the second album by Alternative TV.

All of those records I wish I still had, even though I know I wouldn’t be playing them much. By 1979 my taste for the avant-garde was sufficiently advanced to make me want to buy them in the first place, but it must be admitted that the ATV and Glaxo Babies releases were interesting but hardly classic. Another in this line was Andy Partridge’s solo extension of the Go+ concept, Take Away/The Lure of Salvage, a collection of XTC tracks unrecognisably deconstructed in the editing suite. I recently came across a copy of it here in New Zealand, many years after I’d sold my original, and while it’s nice to have it back I am reminded why I let it go in the first place.

My tolerance for music at the outer limits only goes so far. I once snapped up a double album by American saxophonist Marion Brown on the strength of his luminous and lyrical contribution to Harold Budd’s Pavilion of Dreams, one of Brian Eno’s early Obscure Records releases. Imagine my disappointment when my bargain £2 purchase delivered four sides of unlistenable free jazz torment. My stylus passed through the grooves once only, if that, and then it was gone again.

As the years go by, it’s impossible for me to deny that I now find much of The Stranglers’ output to be embarrassingly stupid and vulgar. How much of this is justified and how much is a failure to appreciate subtle irony I can’t say, but I think I’ve got a pretty good nose for irony, so I call stooopid. Consequently I’m only a little annoyed that I parted with No More Heroes and Black and White, despite some really top moments on both.

I used to really like The Stranglers. They were one of my ‘big three’ new wave bands along with The Jam and The Clash who were flying the punk flag in the saccharine mire of the charts in 1977 (the Pistols were in a class of their own). I liked them so much that when Black and White came out in May 1978 just when I was out of the country on a school exchange trip, I made my older brother (who loathed punk) go and buy it for me to make sure I got the free white vinyl 7” with it.

Their cover of Walk On By on that single is a decent, respectable version of a great song, but the flip side, a song called ‘Tits’, sums up the other face of the band. Lad humour only lasts as long as you’re a lad, and eventually you have to grow up. I think I sold No More Heroes, but Black and White, funnily enough, may still reside in my brother’s attic. He can keep it. The single I sold separately.

The one Stranglers item I DO regret losing is an American release pink vinyl EP, containing four of their very best tracks: Something Better Change, Straighten Out, (Get a) Grip, and Hanging Around. It’s not worth a great deal now, but I doubt I got anything for it when I traded it in.

But now we get to the bad stuff. A short list of records I have willingly sold, at which I can only hang my head in shame. Deep breath, here goes: Give ‘Em Enough Rope by The Clash, Remain in Light by Talking Heads, Cut by The Slits, Penthouse and Pavement by Heaven 17. Yes, seriously, I possessed first pressings of all of those stone cold classic albums, AND I SOLD THEM! WHAT A FUCKING ARSE!!

The Clash were one of the first bands I ever saw live, at an epic gig supported by The Slits (described in my very first guest post for JC). It was the promo tour for Give’ Em Enough Rope, which I bought and loved at the time. But some time later I decided it was dispensable for some reason. I blame my friend, the one in the Valley of the Dolls episode above. I was young, naïve, and susceptible to his influence, and somehow I picked up a vibe that The Clash ceased to be indispensable after the first album.

To be fair, The Clash did generate a fair bit of debate around their dispensability or otherwise. One moment The Most Important Band in the World (© New Musical Express 1978), the next authors of an eclectic rag-bag of Americana despite being once ‘so bored of the USA’. I knew someone who bought and sold Sandinista! no fewer than three times in the confusion. I re-bought Give ‘Em Enough Rope some years later, an identical first pressing to my original, at a decent price.

With The Slits, I was always a little less enthusiastic about the Dennis Bovell studio incarnation compared to the gloriously ramshackle abrasiveness of the group I saw on stage and heard in the John Peel sessions. I had the Strange Fruit mini-album of those sessions and felt that I could live without the ‘official’ album, so some lucky 2^nd hand shop reaped the benefit of my imbecility. When I got the opportunity to re-buy it later, it was in a shitty re-press with I Heard it Through the Grapevine shoehorned onto the end and artwork that was obviously just scanned from a printed copy of the original sleeve. Better than nothing, but I still prefer the Peel sessions.

I don’t know what I was on when I sold Remain In Light. Some mind-altering substance that severely impairs aesthetic judgement, clearly. I mean, everything Talking Heads did AFTER that is certainly dispensable (though I still have it all and never play it!) but Remain In Light is the watershed, the point BEFORE it all drops off, so I really can’t offer a decent excuse. Once again, I struck lucky when I found an almost perfect 2^nd hand copy to restore my collection with.

And finally, Penthouse and Pavement. What can I say? All of us go through phases in our tastes, we are momentarily consumed with an obsession for Balkan folk music, or zydeco, or free jazz (well, up to a point), and conversely we drift away from certain former favourites. And in that drift lies the danger that we think we’re never going to drift back, so we spring-clean, and then years later we do drift back, especially when we realise it’s not just nostalgia. We have erred. Indeed, we have sinned! And we repent, and seek forgiveness, and must pay penance. Much penance. Much more penance than the pennies we paid for something in the first place. But there it was, a pristine UK pressing of P&P in Slow Boat Records here in Wellington. $35. Probably at least six times its original price. Forgive me father, I won’t do it again, promise.

Fraser

JC adds……..

Fraser never made any suggestions as to which tunes should accompany his brilliant post.   What follows is down to me. But all the songs included are referred to above.

mp3: Various – Fraser’s Ones That Got Away

There’s a running time of 40:43.

Tracklist

Generation X – King Rocker
Alternative TV – Facing Up To The Facts
XTC – Are You Receiving Me?
Glaxo Babies  – Shake (The Foundations)
The Slits – Love und Romance
Simple Minds – Life In A Day
The Lurkers – Shadow
The Stranglers – Something Better Change
Mr Partridge – Commerciality
Talking Heads – Crosseyed and Painless
The Clash – Stay Free
Heaven 17 – Penthouse and Pavement

 

It’s the first day of a new month.  You should know the drill by now.

mp3: Various – Marching Mostly To An Old Beat

Quite proud of this one, if only for the fact that, without any judicious or unnatural editing, it comes in at exactly sixty minutes and zero seconds.

Oh, and sweary words alert or whatever sort of advisory warning is de rigueur these says.

Enjoy.

Massive Attack  – Angel
Talking Heads – Psycho Killer
Arab Strap – Here We Go
Martha Wainwright – Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole
Tindersticks – Her (original version)
Echo & The Bunnymen – With A Hip
Care – Whatever Possessed You (12″ version)
Bjork – Army of Me
The Fall – New Big Prinz
SPRINTS – Up and Comer
Hamish Hawk – Desperately
Idlewild – Little Discourage
Butcher Boy – You’re Only Crying For Yourself
Coach Party – Weird Me Out
Pulp – Razzmatazz
The Velvet Underground – Sunday Morning

JC

The giveaway with MOJO Magazine in February 2012 was an interesting one.

The magazine’s cover stars were New Order.  The free CD consisted of a bunch of New Order cover versions, consisting of all eight tracks on Power, Corruption and Lies (the band’s 1983 album), with a further five songs covering A and B-sides of singles from the same(ish) period.

As with all of this sort of thing, the compilation was a bit hit-and-miss, but in a way that fans of New Order would no doubt disagree on which versions were decent and which bordered on the unlistenable.

I’ll offer up all 13 and leave things in the capable hands of the TVV cognoscenti to have their say via the comments section, should you wish.  Some info on each act is lifted from the Discogs summary on each of them.

mp3: Age Of Consent – The Golden Filter

The Golden Filter : American/Australian electronic music duo from New York City, formed in 2008, now based in London.

mp3: We All Stand – Tarwater

Tarwater : German electronic/rock duo founded 1995 in Berlin.

mp3: The Village – Errors

Errors : an electronic/indie/post-rock band from Glasgow, Scotland.

mp3: 5-8-6 – S.C.U.M.

S.C.U.M. : British post-punk/art rock band founded in 2008 in London.

mp3: Your Silent Face – Fujiya & Miyagi

Fujiya & Miyagi: Indie rock band from Brighton, England formed in 2000 with heavy Krautrock and Italo-Disco influences.

mp3: Ultraviolence – Seekae

Seekae: Australian electronic music group based in Sydney.

mp3: Ecstacy – Walls

Walls : from London, UK

mp3: Leave Me Alone – Destroyer

Destroyer : Canadian indie rock band from Vancouver formed in 1995 and fronted by singer-songwriter Dan Bejar.

mp3: Blue Monday – Biosphere

Biosphere: the main recording name of Geir Jenssen (born 1962), a Norwegian musician who has released a notable catalogue of ambient electronic music. He is well known for his “ambient techno” and “arctic ambient” styles, his use of music loops, and peculiar samples from sci-fi sources.

mp3: The Beach – Zombie Zombie

Zombie Zombie : French electro-pop trio.

mp3: Cries and Whispers – Lonelady

Lonelady:  Singer, songwriter, and producer from Manchester, England, spanning influences such as post punk, electronic, and pop.

mp3: Lonesome Tonight – Another’s Blood

Anothers Blood : Richard Frenneaux

mp3: Murder – K-X-P

K-X-P : Experimental electronic/alternative/space rock group from Helsinki, Finland, founded in 2006.

Enjoy the treasure hunt!!!

JC

A guest posting by Leon MacDuff

Recently on these pages, if pages they be, Adrian Mahon offered up a selection of surprising and interesting originals of well-known covers, signing off with “I’m sure you’ll have a few of your own!”. Challenge accepted…

Let’s start with a couple of very well known 80s hits. Yazz and the surely fictional Plastic Population (and her real-life pals in Coldcut) made this one into a huge house-pop success in 1987, but the original goes back to 1980 (and a bit of a throwback even then; from the sound alone, I would have guessed about 1974). I’ve always reckoned that Yazz’s reading feels like false hope, but Clay actually makes it believable.

mp3: Otis Clay: The Only Way Is Up

Like most people, I knew this next one from the 1982 smash by Odyssey. And like most people, I associated its author Lamont Dozier pretty much exclusively with being a songwriter for the sixties Motown production line. But post Motown he went on to issue a string of solo albums, and this future classic arrived on his 1978 offering, Peddlin’ Music On The Side. I do prefer the Odyssey version though:

mp3:  Lamont Dozier: Going Back To My Roots

Nowadays no Sam and Dave compilation would be complete without this song, but without Elvis Costello it might well have remained just a little-known throwaway B side to a single nobody bought:

mp3: Sam and Dave: I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down

Some songs come a long way from their originals. You definitely will know this one, but see how long it takes you to recognise it from the original 1948 version, in German…

mp3:  Horst Winter und die Swingsingers: Und jetzt ist es still

I always loved Dubstar‘s version of Not So Manic Now. A song with subject matter you don’t hear very often and full of words you would imagine had no business appearing in a pop song. I did notice the writing credit wasn’t for the regular band members, but it was a few years before I got to hear the original by fellow Novocastrians Brick Supply. It was the lead track on their 1994 release Somebody’s Intermezzo EP, which got some decent critical notices but basically went nowhere.

mp3: Brick Supply: Not So Manic Now

And finally, a bit of a mystery, and a bit of an investigation. For this one I’m going to share the cover as well, so from 1980 here is the debut single by It’s Immaterial, and from 1967 the original by The First Impression:

mp3:  It’s Immaterial: Young Man (Seeks Interesting Job)

mp3: The First Impression: Young Man Seeks An Interesting Job

It’s Immaterial are cult favourites of course, but weirdly, there’s practically nothing out there about The First Impression. What we do know is that they recorded two LPs for budget label Saga in 1967: the all-covers Beat Club, and the majority of an album called Swinging London which also included a scattering of Beatles covers by Russ Sainty (replaced on the second pressing with a handful of originals by The Good Earth, who subsequently morphed into Mungo Jerry). Young Man is from the Swinging London LP, the sleevenotes of which tell us only that The First Impression are “top discotheque favourites” (Beat Club is similarly unhelpful, offering no description beyond “top London beat group”) – and while some of the songs have appeared on subsequent compilations of 60s mod and psychedelia, the sleevenotes to those seem to just take Saga’s blurbs at their word and have nothing further to add.

Perhaps they were indeed a top London beat group, but even if they were, nothing about their one-and-two-thirds album discography suggests that they were engaged as anything other than a session band. Saga Records weren’t actually a “pop” label – their specialism was cheaply-recorded classical albums, plus bought-in jazz and folk LPs. And really, everything about “Beat Club” and “Swinging London” screams “cheap cash-in played by anonymous session musicians”. They can’t even manage to keep the name of the group consistent: while the back of the Swinging London LP, and the labels, credit The First Impression, the front names them as The First Impressions. My first impression is: oh dear.

So can we find out anything at all about this group? A line-up, for example? Apparently not. Or perhaps somebody’s shared memories of seeing this band playing at the time? Not that I can find. I was briefly led down a dead end by a suggestion that before recording for Saga, The First Impression were signed to Pye. But no, that was a group legitimately called The First Impressions, who in 1967 were recording their own original material for Parlophone, having changed their name in the meantime to The Legends. So I think we can rule them out.

The album credits someone called Britten as writer of the First Impression songs, maybe can we track him or her down? I was initially led astray by the Discogs entry for the It’s Immaterial single, where somebody’s linked the name Britten to Terry Britten. In 1967, Terry was playing in the Australian group The Twilights, and the following year he had one of his compositions recorded by Cliff Richard, opening up a successful career as a songwriter for others with hits including Devil Woman and Carrie for Cliff, and What’s Love Got To Do With It and We Don’t Need Another Hero for Tina Turner. That he also, even by accident, penned It’s Immaterial’s debut single would be an entertaining little factoid but alas, it’s not true – as I realised when I turned to a second line of enquiry.

Most of the First Impression tracks, including Young Man, credit Britten alone, but two bear a credit to Cumming / Britten – could I perhaps find this equally mysterious co-writer? That was easier: just a couple of minutes checking the various Cummings on Discogs (I didn’t bother clicking on Alan though, since while the theme song for The High Life may be a major earworm, 1967 was definitely going to be too early for him) and I was able to identify Britten’s collaborator as one David Cumming, a comedy scriptwriter with a sideline in songwriting who that same year not only supplied a B side to Kiki Dee, but even more interestingly, also released a single himself which was co-written by not Terry but John Britten. That’s our man! It looks very much like our tunesmiths are not people in a “top London beat group” – they are a producer of budget albums and a scriptwriter who both dabble in songwriting.

All of which means that honestly, I’m just not buying this “top discotheque favourites” line. I think Saga Records, looking to cash in on the mod scene, just put some session musicians in a studio and gave them a bunch of songs written to order by… well, hacks. But I still think “Young Man Seeks An Interesting Job” is a good one – even if it took It’s Immaterial to tease the quality out of it.

Leon

RIPPING OFF THE IDEA FROM JONNY THE FRIENDLY LAWYER

JTFL, having offered up some ICAs featuring Trumpets, then went one better with an ICA  made up of ten tracks in which uncommon instruments were used – Steel Drums, Theremin, Oboe, Musical Saw, Harp, Xylophone, Melodica, Spoons, Harpsichord and Mellotron.

The task I set myself was to come up with ten completely different instruments.  I’ve managed it, and while there’s a few more familiar instruments involved, they are not heard on recordings on a very frequent basis.  Oh, and I only had to look one of them up.   Let’s starts with something Scottish……

SIDE A

1. Bagpipes

Sleep The Clock Around – Belle and Sebastian

The pipes drone their way in at the end of this, the second track of the band’s third album, The Boy With The Arab Strap.   Credit is given to Ian Mackay for this one and appears to be the only song on which the piper is credited anywhere on Discogs.

2. Banjo

Sing – Travis

I’m not a musician and haven’t ever paid much attention to the origins of any instruments.  I’ve always assumed the banjo came out of one of the states of America, but have now been educated and finally know that the modern take on it derives from African-style instruments brought to that part of the word by enslaved people.

Sing was the first single to be lifted from the album The Invisible Band and, in reaching #3 in May 2001 turned out to be the most successful 45 released by Travis.  The banjo is played by their guitarist, Andy Dunlop.

3. Chapman Stick

I Don’t Remember – Peter Gabriel

This is the one I had to look up.   I had come up with nine instruments, but reckoned that a glance at the credits on Peter Gabriel 3, released back in 1980, would throw something different up.  And so it proved.

The Chapman Stick was developed in the early 70s by jazz musician Emmett Chapman.  It has ten or twelve individually tuned strings and is used to play bass lines, melody lines, chords, or textures, and unlike the electric guitar, it is usually played by tapping or fretting the strings, rather than plucking them. (you can tell I’ve looked this up!!).  Tony Levin, a proliic session and touring musician, was one of the first to specialise in playing the Chapman Stick and it’s his work you’ll hear on I Don’t Remember.

4. Glockenspiel

No Surprises – Radiohead

A rather beautiful number from OK Computer (1997) which was later released as a single and reached #4 in January 1998.  The single was accompanied by a brilliant but scary video that I’m sure all of you have seen.  If not, then head over to YouTube or the likes.  The glockenspiel on this one is courtesy of Jonny Greenwood.

5. Trombone

Hyperactive – Thomas Dolby

It seems that Thomas Dolby wrote this with the intention of having Michael Jackson record it.  Having sent the ‘King of Pop’ a demo version but hearing nothing back, he decided to have a go at it himself, and in doing so kind of throws the kitchen sink at it, including a trombone solo from Peter Thoms

SIDE B

1. Accordion

This Is The Day – The The

An instrument that makes me think of France, as it seems to accompany any first sighting of the Eiffel Tower in any feature film or documentary.   It’s use on this, one of my favourite songs of all time, made it a certainty for the ICA.  It is played by the then 24-year-old and largely unknown Wix, but who has since become a bit of a legend as part of Paul McCartney‘s touring band since 1989.

2. Mandolin

When I’m Asleep –Butcher Boy

Yet another song in which the accordion introduces proceedings, this time thanks to Alison Eales.  But its inclusion on the ICA is thanks to Basil Pieroni’s contribution via mandolin.  It was either this or Losing My Religion, but I reckon you’re being treated to a better song.

3. Harmonica

For Once In My Life  – Stevie Wonder

I wasn’t sure about including the harmonica in the ICA as it is quite common, relatively speaking.  There are hundreds of examples out there, but I’ve settled on this rather fabulous upbeat pop single from 1968.  Stevie Wonder‘s take on it is quite different from the original, as it was written as, and subsequently recorded as, a slow ballad by a number of different performers.

4. Bassoon

Flaming Sword – Care

I knew this single from 1983 contained an unusual instrument, but I couldn’t have told you what was making the sound.   But I’ve just finished reading Revolutionary Spirit: A Post-Punk Exorcism, the very enjoyable memoir penned by Paul Simpson, who among other things was one-half of Care, and he mentions, on Page 205, that it is bassoon-laden.  He doesn’t say, however, who played it.

5. Clarinet

Say Hello Wave Goodbye – Soft Cell

Not the version you all are most familiar with, either through the 7″ or 12″ singles that have been featured on the blog on many previous occasions.  This is the b-side of the 7″.  It’s an instrumental version.  It’s rather wonderful, thanks  to the two Daves – Mr Ball or synths and drum machine and Mr Tofani on clarinet.

Bonus Song

Tindersticks – No More Affairs (instrumental)

In keeping with the closing track of the ICA, here’s the b-side of a 1994 single, in which the voice of Stuart Staples is replaced by the magnificent Terry Edwards on trumpet.

 

JC

mp3: Various – Welcome to Nothing Much

First new day of the month has come to mean an hour-long mixtape round these parts.

Hope this one meets your approval.

The National – Apartment Story
Basement Jaxx – Red Alert
Magazine – Definitive Gaze
Buzzcocks – Ever Fallen In Love?
Sons & Daughters  – Dance Me In (album version)
Pet Shop Boys  – Domino Dancing
Working Men’s Club – Teeth
Dinosaur Jr. – Freakscene
dEUS – Suds and Soda (album version)
Brenda – Cease and Desist
Kirsty MacColl – Walking Down Madison (album version)
The Clash – The Magnificent Seven
Electronic – Feel Every Beat (7″ remix)
Album Club– The Hard Part
The Wedding Present – What Did Your Last Servant Die Of?

JC

A GUEST POSTING by MARTIN ELLIOT

(Our Swedish Correspondent)

Hi Jim,

Although this time I might not really be in the place to answer that question, I will as tradition now has it at least say something about what happened in Sweden last year. Of course, we’re talking music, for a while let’s forget last year’s double digit inflation, skyrocketing interest rates and worst of all the way too strong influence on our government by the populist right-wing morons in the Sweden Democrats Party. Frankly, a quite miserable story.

Looking back, last year saw a not neglectable increase in records joining the collection, but at a closer look – very few Swedish acts were included. Whether this is due to my oversight or it actually was a quiet year, I’m not totally sure. Several of the artists I have my eye on released records in 2021/2022 so since not all bands are as feverishly active as Bar Italia it might be a natural thing.

As you will notice there is a strong majority for electronic music here, only 7ebra would qualify for the normal kind of indie shared here at TVV, which is kind of odd as the opposite is valid for international artists finding their way to my home last year.

So this time it’s just an EP – This Happened In Sweden Last Year.

A1.  Kite – Don’t Take The Light Away

Synth duo Kite actually released several 7″ singles last year, but as all but this one had been released digitally earlier, they were disqualified. Kite do very emotional and dramatic music, it’s almost operatic in the way singer Nicklas Stenemo delivers. They without competition won the prize for best live performance 2023 for their show at Dalhalla, a former quarry now transformed into a spectacular arena (Bernard S announced it to be the coolest place they ever played when I saw New Order there a couple of years ago). For the first time they had a full band on stage, which added depth (and guitar) to the performance. A magical night!

A2.  The Mobile Homes – Some Days

After a long hiatus, The Mobile Homes returned in 2021 with Trigger, now reinforced with two of the guys formerly in Swedish indie (“emo”) rock band Kent. Last year saw the release of Tristesse, which is very much a false declaration. These two albums are the two best Depeche Mode albums released since Violator…

A3.  7ebra – Lighter Better

The odd bird this time (pun intended as the album is called Bird Hour), 7ebra reminds me a lot of my old DIY records by Young Marble Giants, the Gist and Weekend.

B1.  Memoria – From The Bones Of The Dead

Memoria is Tess De La Cour, wife of Henric De La Cour who has a past in the same band(s) as Christian Berg, nowadays the other one in Kite. The album From The Bones is filled with dark and moody synths, it’s her second release under the Memoria moniker – both worth having if you’re into darkwave. Kite vocalist Nicklas makes a guest performance on one of the tracks; Along The Sea.

B2.  Natten – Ringen

I discovered Natten (The Night) by chance, going to a gig night with 3 different acts. They played an organic variant of half ambient electro, almost techno, adding saxophone and vocals to the mix, I was totally blown away by the combination and got hold of their only full length album so far, Dolce Vita from 2017. Later in 2023 they released the EP Máni digitally through Bandcamp, a slight bit more towards the ambient side compared to the live experience.

B3.  Kite – Remember Me

So I break the “only one song per artist”-rule by ending this EP by the flip of the Kite 7″ starting it off. This is 8 minutes drama, a long intro and then a full-blown pledge to Remember Me, an almost overloaded ending I just couldn’t omit.

Enjoy!

Martin

JC adds..…As I say every single year, I always look forward to Martin’s end of year round-up as there’s inevitably something in there that is of huge appeal, and this year is no different. These tunes are well worth a listen.

A GUEST POSTING by ADRIAN MAHON

Given that I’ve plenty 12″ singles sitting in the very large and near antique cupboard in which most of the vinyl sits, it makes some sense to introduce (or more likely, re-introduce) some of them to you.

Things are kicking-off with one that I picked up on one of my numerous trips or stays in Toronto.  The Fatima Mansions were on Kitchenware Records here in the UK, but it was Radioactive Records for the American releases.

Blues For Ceausescu, an absolutely blistering and incendiary piece of music, had been put out as a stand-alone single on Kitchenware in September 1900.    In some parallel universe, this will have acted as a call-to-arms to the disillusioned and downtrodden, provoking them into some sort of action that led to much-needed and desired change.   The reality was that it was ignored, being far too provocative for our media outlets to give time to.

mp3: The Fatima Mansions – Blues for Ceausescu

I have absolutely no idea why the American label, some six months later, issued it on  a 12″ single and CD, complete with a remix, but I’d very much like to thank them for doing so.

mp3: The Fatima Mansions – Blues for Ceausescu (Only Solution Mix)
mp3: The Fatima Mansions – Chemical Cosh (Scream Mix)
mp3: The Fatima Mansions – Chemical Cosh (LP version)

The Only Solution Mix is radically different.   Indeed, you’d be hard pushed to find elements of the original tune – it sounds in places as if Cathal Coughlan is fronting Pop Will Eat Itself…..which is far from a bad thing.

The LP version of Chemical Cosh is less than two minutes long, while the remix extends out to almost four minutes.  Both are interesting but kind of challenging, in different ways, to listen to.   But then again, the whole idea of The Fatima Mansions was not to make things comfortable for anyone.

Ciao.

JC

Things will now get back to something approaching normality, including some very welcomed guest contributions and the return of our dear friend, Dirk.

For the first time in a very long while, I stayed well away from the blog, so much so that the comments section got all messy with loads of things attributed to anonymous sources that hadn’t ever been corrected.  A huge thanks to everyone who dropped by and had their say.

I know that I took some liberties late last year with the number of hour-long mixes and so, for many of you, this might not be the most ideal start to TVV in 2024.  But here goes anyway……..and this one includes a fair bit of music that I got to Santa to bring me, thanks in many instances to recommendations from various ‘best of year’ lists on other blogs.  Much appreciated!

mp3: Various – Welcome to The New Year

Micky Dolenz – Shiny Happy People
Peaness – Oh George
Sleaford Mods – West End Girls (Pet Shop Boys remix)
The Fall – Hey! Luciani
Mick Harvey & Amanda Acevedo  – Song To The Siren
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds  – Jack The Ripper
One Dove – White Love
Bar Italia – Missus Morality
Hi-Fi Sean & David McAlmont – Hurricanes
Hamish Hawk – Dog-Eared August (alt version)
SPRINTS – Delia Smith
Problem Patterns – Advertising Service
Steve Mason– The People Say
Coach Party – What’s The Point In Life?
Alison Eales – Come Home With Me
Chumbawamba -Behave!
Lloyd Cole – On Ice

Oh, and keep your eyes peeled later this week for a chance to win some goodies!!!

JC

Sippin’ on the dock of the bay?

mp3: Various – Holiday Hymns (7)

I Am A Poseur – X-Ray Spex
Pigs – Brenda
Heaven Help You Now (12″)  – Paul Haig
My Doorbell – The White Stripes
Mo’Pop – Dot Allison
Wrote For Luck – Happy Mondays
Sabotage – Beastie Boys
Heads Will Roll – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Love Is Short – Otoboke Beaver
Up Up And Away (Happy Sexy Mix) – The Beloved
My Delirium – Ladyhawke
Abba & The Bunnymen – Go-Home Productions
Well Done Sonny – The Weather Prophets
Last Nite – The Strokes
Grand Final Day – Ducks Ltd.

JC

You can just about see the room that myself and Mrs Villain are currently occupying.  During the daytime, we will likely be making use of those blue beach umbrellas

mp3: Various – Holiday Hymns (6)

Bodega Birth – Bodega
Just Step Sways – The Fall
Dreaming  – Allo Darlin’
Dog-Eared August – Hamish Hawk
A Cloud In A Box – Pet Shop Boys
Chaise Longue – Wet Leg
Heads Will Roll (summer mix) – Echo and The Bunnymen
For You (single mix) – Electronic
Landslide – The Popguns
White Man (In Hammersmith Palais) – The Clash
Man o’ Sand to Girl o’ Sea (single version)  – The Go-Betweens
Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey) (Party Line Mix) – De La Soul
Each and Everyone  – Everything But The Girl
Dennis and Lois – Happy Mondays
Carte Postale – George Pringle
Shampoo Tears – Win
Moscow Olympics – Orange Juice

JC

Last week,  I shared one from August 2016 that had over-run by 20 seconds.

I made a better fist of things in December 2017.  Well, I made it out as if I did.    This one was almost a minute too long!!!

Blame it on the old habits of being a spin doctor working in the public sector.

mp3 : Various Artists – One side of an old C120 (Precisely)

If I Can’t Change Your Mind – Sugar
Brimful of Asha (Fatboy Slim remix) – Cornershop
Seether – Veruca Salt
Speed-Date – Arab Strap
Daft Punk Is Playing At My House – LCD Soundsystem
Sub-Culture – New Order
Tainted Love – Gloria Jones
Wrote For Luck – Happy Mondays
Slave To The Rhythm – Grace Jones
To Lose My Life – White Lies
Totally Wired – The Fall
Satisfaction – Rolling Stones
Love Plus One – Haircut 100
Ever Fallen In Love…? – Buzzcocks
Blue Boy – Orange Juice
Kennedy – The Wedding Present
Roi (reprise) – The Breeders

JC

Volume 5 of the holiday mixes.    Couple of neat changes in this one, if you don’t mind me saying…..

mp3: Various – Holiday Hymns (5)

Freeworld – Kirsty MacColl
Has It Come To This? – The Streets
Frozen  – Curve
Black Lucia – Aztec Camera
Monday Morning – Pulp
Would You Fuck – The Lovely Eggs
Firestarter  – The Prodigy
Sleepwalk – Ultravox
Funeral Pyre – The Jam
Reggie Song -PiL
Microscopic Baby – Brenda
Rotten To The Core – Friends Of The Family
Cannonball – The Breeders
Debaser – Pixies
Free Range – The Fall
Pristine Christine –  The Sea Urchins
Upside Down  – The Jesus and Mary Chain

JC