Friday 3 August 2018

Various Artists ‎– "Street To Street Volume Two" (Open Eye Records ‎– OE LP 502) 1981


As occurs with Film sequels, they are normally terrible, and up the ante by repeating the good bits from the original over and over again,by adding more of them.Like Jaws 2, where instead of one kid getting munched down in the sea, theres loads of them getting munched down.
As they were awful whiney american middle class teens, we enjoyed that immensly, never mind how shite the film was. I could watch American Teens getting liquidized all day long, its like spending hours in a flotation tank for me.....very relaxing.
Street To Street Volume 2, paradoxically, fails to learn the lessons of Jaws 2, and repeats all the worst bits from volume 1 over and over again, until you're glad there's only 10 tracks to endure.There aren't even any recordings of American Teenagers getting mutilated,to ease the seemingly endless Flock of Seagull-isms and help oneself get over the fact that this is 40 minutes you'll never get back.
I remember thinking that The Cooling Towers were ok,and 'The Thesis' is probably the best track on the album.Their second contribution is ruined by some terrible six-form Ian Cutis-isms,as the compilers try to claw back some post-punk creedence from Manchester.....and fail cluelessly.
The rest are similar in the local scenes attempt to be Section 25's less talented brother, or even Flock of Seagulls less talented cousin's sister.
I don't think the bands on here ever made it to be 'Jaws 3D'? They faded away long before they could inflict that nonsense upon us.
Apart from that i quite enjoyed it really.....I am a Flock of Seagulls fan after all(not Joking!)

Tracklist:

A1 –Egypt For Now - Days On Edge
A2 –Cooling Towers - The Thesis
A3 –Systems - Total Recall
A4 –Chinese Religion - Eden
A5 –Games - Unrest In The Real World
B1 –Games - The Song
B2 –Systems - Glare Of The Lights
B3 –Cooling Towers -  Make This Day End Soon
B4 –Egypt For Now - Soldiers
B5 –Chinese Religion - Chambers


1 comment:

Philip Johnson said...

Systems and Activity Minimal (on Vol 1) were actually the same band. A few years earlier a couple of them had been in a sort-of punk band with my brother.