Tuesday 3 January 2017

Animals & Men ‎– "Revel In The Static- A collection of demos and singles, 1979-83" (Hyped2Death ‎– Messthetics #201) 2005


The Terraplanes, also known as Animals & Men after an Adam and the Ants(Mk1) track, are another beyond great Post-Punk group to slip through the net. This is up there with Kleenex/Liliput for shambolic amateurishness; but no LP's on Rough Trade for Terraplanes!? They were left inexplicably on the shelf until Hyped2Death resurrected their corpse. The result is this cd-r compilation from 2003/5.
One definite kiss of death for pop groups is changing your name......as tempting as that may be....you are guaranteeing sub-cult status immediately. The Spizz Energi syndrome,who admirably changed their name every year to garner anti-commercial kudos, and eventually desperately back to Spizz Energi 2, to remind the public that they had had a hit single as Spizz Energi 1.
Of course, these hallowed pages are the first to applaud such an ambition-less display of  commercial suicide. The result of which are these 25 tracks of unspoilt suburban nature, now undeniably extinct.
If i could extract a sample of DIY DNA from these tunes and clone a duplicate of this group and der zeitgeist, it would fail disastrously in the modern 'everything you want now' hell we find ourselves imprisoned amongst.
To make music like this, we need freedom from choice, lack of opportunity, freedom from information , and denial of the trappings of success , dangled as a very distant carrot, just enough to keep an unattainable dream in intensive care.
The Mystery and the Dream are both now beyond resuscitation, like pop culture in general. Everyone can easily have their empty 15 minutes, if they so desire, in a world where the fatuously attainable is yours for the taking. Unless its owned by the Rothchild mafia naturally.The American Non-Dream......
If ever there was a moment for some William S. Burroughs quotes, this is it:

"The way to kill a man or a nation is to cut off his dreams"
"Communication must become total and conscious before we can stop it."
"Modern man has lost the option of silence"
"The...merchant doesn't sell his product to the consumer, he sells the consumer to his product. He does not improve and simplify his merchandise. He degrades and simplifies the client."
"America is not so much a nightmare as a non-dream. The American non-dream is precisely a move to wipe the dream out of existence. The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set up by the non-dreamers."

Ahhhhh....that feels better.(feel free to contribute more)

7 comments:

Andy Rubio said...

Is t here a download link?

Jonny Zchivago said...

Hi Andy, sorry i forgot to paste it in place!.....I'm ill, thats my excuse.
Its ready to download as of now.

Andy Rubio said...

Thanks for that. And while I'm at it thanks for absolutely everything, the blog is incredible.

ROOKSBY said...

Thanks for this one. :)

jonder said...

Many thanks for this! "Don't Misbehave" is a classic. Animals + Men got back together about a decade ago, and WFMU shared the results:

freemusicarchive.org/search/?quicksearch=animals+men

Lynton said...

Hey thanks for all the excellent posts-I'm about to delve into this one. I really enjoy your writing,keep up the great blogging!

Estudio Profano said...

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....gracias!!!