Showing posts with label Proto-Indie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Proto-Indie. Show all posts

Tuesday, 5 July 2022

Fall Of Saigon – "Fall Of Saigon 1981-1984" (Gazul Records – GA8851) 2011


No its not a North Vietnamese Fall tribute band!
It's frenchy Minimalist composer Pascal Comelade,moonlighting with his minimalist pop trio named after a This Heat tune. 
Harboring a knowing glance in the direction of Young Marble Giants,and maybe even..... Weekend
Pascal is not shy of wearing his influences on his sleeve....that's him on the right there,with influenced sleeves rolled up,trendily, to the elbows.I remember when the Style Council used to do self-consciously french things like that,such as wearing,(or rather NOT wearing) a cardigan tossed stylishly over the shoulders and tying the sleeves into a loose knot atop a Breton inspired polo shirt.You can take the boy out of Woking,but you can't take the Woking out of the boy.....but you do have to leave Woking if you wanna wear a Breton top....fact!
There also a version of my funeral theme tune on here, The TV Personalities' classic "Part-Time Punks",further emphasizing Pascal's fondness for "les Rostbif pop",especially it seems Kevin Ayers too....which i think stems largely from the fact that posh Boy Kevin had a handy grasp of French thanks to the British Public school system. And as we all know,if you slot anything French or in French into an English pop tune you have a career for life..... in France!...just ask Sting.
However, similarly, the Brit's love to hear a French bird singing in Engleesh, which surprisingly didn't lead to Indie success in grey old foggy Albion.They could have stuck to it a bit longer, but i think Pascal had other things in mind for himself,embarking on a prolific solo career that continues to this day.
The other French musical commandment that has been observed here on this compilation,is the obligatory Doors homage.Every household in France has a Doors Album, or Zer Doorsss as they call them.They all think Morrison was a poet....in fact Morrison thought he was a poet too,maybe even a great poet?So as he died and was buried in Paris,this means that their hero is now French,so Zer Doorsss are forever enshrined in marble and stone among the elect of French art and culture......Would i be out of order to suggest that they can flaming well have him...slash...them? Plenty more where he came from.
Nonetheless, this version of "The End" is actually rather good?
The End!

Track Listing:

1.Visions 2:21
2.Blue Eyes 2:08
3.She Leaves Me All Alone 4:22
4.So Long 2:28
5.On The Beach At Fontana 3:22
6.The Swimmer 2:15
7.The Model 3:21
8.Part Time Punks3:12
9.The End 9:43
10.Andalucia 2:02
11.I'll Never Be Back 4:54
12.Sha La La La 2:58
13.Let It Go 2:41

Friday, 18 September 2020

Marine Girls ‎– "Beach Party" (In Phaze Records ‎– 002 1/2) 1981



Once upon a time,back at the Birth of the Indie Sound,which was specific to the British Commonwealth only. We find four sixth formers from Essex taking Young Marble Giants' minimal de-butched rock and putting it through the mangle, squeezing out everylast piece of alpha-male rubbish and flushing it.Also obviously influenced by the Raincoats' demasculated post-punk they were spotted by Indie group numero uno The Television Personalities,who released this on their own Whaam records as a proper LP.
Ok, so Tracey Thorn went on to adorn the coffee tables of the Thatcher 'loadsamoney' generation, but this was one big v-sign,middle finger, to all those butch punkers who,instead of destroying that uber macho Rock nonsense,carried it on,but with a sillier haircut. The Marine Girls were the unwitting pre-cursors of an indie pop future,you can't get Twee-er than this,but,oh, how they tried!
Kurt Cobain was a fan,as he allegedly was of Young Marble Giants also........again.....was he actually listening?
It's not his fault,just another victim of the American need to 'Rock Out Maaan'.This is also why the american Indie route led directly back to where it all came from.....Rock,but this time renamed 'Grunge' for some unfathomable reason.Long hair was back and feet on monitors,calls for seeing hands in the air were heard. In the beginning of the post-punk period,as Punk never really happened in the USA, all the groups wanted to be Devo before they reverted to type,so all the American groups were herky jerky Devo-a-likes,before eventually mutating ,maybe via hardcore, into Dinosaur Jr....which was thee proto-grunge band or what(?); or The Jesus Lizard,who were still Devo really,but Rocked Up and dressed down.
Meanwhile there were no Grunge groups in the UK,post-punk had gone pop,and all that was left were just twee indie bands,and nothing else until Ecstacy hit in '88....and we all know what happened then don't we.Stll living with the consequences today. Just thousands of types of 'Metal' and 'Hip Hop' are the dreadful result of all this chaos.

Recorded at the In-Phaze garden shed.

Tracklist:

A1 In Love
A2 Fridays
A3 Tonight?
A4 Times We Used To Spend
A5 Flying Over Russia
A6 Tutti Lo Sanno
A7 All Dressed Up
A8 Honey
B1 Holiday Song
B2 He Got The Girl
B3 Day Night Dreams
B4 Promises
B5 Silent Red
B6 Dishonesty
B7 20,000 Leagues
B8 Marine Girls


Thursday, 17 September 2020

Various Artists - "Here's The Shit!" (Greenwich Performance Collective) 1984


 




Those wacky chaps at the Greenwich Performance Collective were at it again in 1984 with more classic DIY tchoons from all our favourites.
Cancer Club return with another minimal synth masterpiece that could have been a 'Hit' but is content with just being the 'shit',as are we all?
The 'Well Known Wankers' scum up our current political situation nicely with "Government Scum", and 'Your Heterosexual Violence' return with an attempt at sensitive songwriting.....did they ever make an album?...dunno, but, they are on Bandcamp incredibly!?
'Psyco Psyco' are a new GPC act that didn't appear on "Dennis",with the Post-Punk anti-war classic "Headstrong Big War", and the 'Bulbous Skunk Cabbages' show that not only can your bandname finish your career, your songs can too.
But that's not the point is it? Careers are for the others,as are profits too.This selection displays all the lack of ambition, lack of professionalism, and lack of commerciality of a pure independant soul. Property is theft, but sharing isn't.

TRACKLISTING:


Tuesday, 15 September 2020

Various Artists ‎– "Dennis" (The Greenwich Performance Collective) 1984





 Balancing carefully on the zero degrees longitude meridian ,and therefore at the center of the Earth, The Greenwich Performance Collective were also balancing on the watershed point of the 80's,at the point when the Proles started to get into vintage clothes and buy hit Cardiacs singles....like Punk never happened.Worse was to come with surreal visions of white factory fodder dancing to electronic music and getting Psychedelic. Not that I can imagine 'Your Heterosexual Violence' from the Greenwich Performance Collective (the GPC) ever shaking a tambourine to the funky drummer beat.
This collective compilation is Indie/DIY crossover at its zenith before the unwashed masses heard that the Roland TB303 bassline wasn't a piece of shit after all, oh the purity.
One does suspect that a lot of these marvellously named groups on 'Dennis' contain the same members,but its rather better disguised than some of Jim Whelton's attempts at faux-compilations,like the otherwise excellent, "Psst!Wanna Buy A Tape"
The best part about making music is always making up band names.It's ALL downhill from there.Whether you're in 'The New Catalonian Slipper Boys','The Dandy Lions','Dead Celebrities','0.2.WOT',it's all going the same way. If only Boy George was in 'Cancer Club' and not the sickening concept that we're all in this together and getting on with each other that suggests the name of his own group, then we probably wouldn't hate the fucker's guts anymore....there would have always been the name to raise a smile instead of a small bit of vomit into the buccal cavity.
Basically,my adice to any youngsters who wanna rediscover indie pop,just find a name that makes you laugh,then just keep it at that,forget the music part.
Who wouldn't want to be in a group called 'Your Heterosexual Violence' for chrissakes? An added bonus is that musically they sound like a more incompetant Nightingales.
I also like the fact that there's a group called 'Dali's Car'at exactly the same time of that Neu Romantic/Goth supergroup pairing of Mick Karn and Peter Murphy...also called 'Dali's Car'....unless they are the same entity,in which case mucho respect to Karn and Murphy.Personally I like both of Dali's cars.I also like Dali's moustache,a version of which I now proudly sport on my upper lip.
It's not just DIY and Indie punk on this fantastic cassette, there's stuff for the intellectuals and european music fans,some cosmic and minimal synth stuff,so,sadly, it's not totally offensive to the average music bore.There's also some disco for dancing, and even some white boy Rap.....you may never need another tape?

Tracklist:

A1 –Your Heterosexual Violence - Incredible Story
A2 –The Vinegarettes - Guilded Youth
A3 –0.2.WOT - Skeleton Fields
A4 –Dead Celebrities - Dead Celebrities
A5 –Almonds And Diamonds - Talk
A6 –Malvinas Brothers - Hollywood
A7 –Unknown Colours - Gun In Your Pocket
A8 –Violet Circuit - Ash Wedding Wednesday
A9 –Thee Mystery Trend - Count Down
A10 –Cancer Club - There Is No Fate Worse Than Death
B1 –Adventures In Colour - Cost Of Living
B2 –Replaceable Hedz - I Can't Sing It
B3 –Climbing Frames - The Pick Up
B4 –Dalis Car - Glad To Be Alive
B5 –Spring Hippies - Christ Died In Springtime
B6 –The Ringing - Doctor
B7 –The Dandy-Lions - Engine No.9
B8 –Paul Dunbar - The Regressus
B9 –Ptah Sokar - Pyramid Rise
B10 –The New Catalonian Slipper Boys - B.B.C.
B11 –The Pus - Split The Party


Monday, 14 September 2020

Bona Dish ‎– "EP" (In Phaze Records ‎– IP 010) 1982



So, we've established that The Shaggs were the first 'Indie' group, Subway Sect Guitars, Beefheartian syncopation, charityshop elegance, twee vocals,and all that the Velvet Underpants contributed were the Sunglasses apparently?
That's until some smart arse finds a group obscure Patagonian herdsmen whom the Shaggs ripped off,both musically and satorially. There's one for every genre,like, apparently, some black dudes from Detroit called, Death, invented Punk Rock as we know it.....just that they only played a couple of empty gigs in 1974 and made some incompetant demo's that accidentaly sounded.... well.... 'punk'? They were just trying to sound like The Stooges, but they were even more incompetant than that lot even. Generally the rule of thumb is that your style of music,especially 'Rock' music, usually gets a name during the lifetime of its originators; anyone before that event is something else.
For me it was either Subway Sect or The TV Personalities wot done the Indie thing first,as much as I wish it was The Shaggs.
Bona Dish were there at its inception, and this cassingle is a rather good example of what creature was swimming about in the Indie primordial soup at the beginning of the 1980's
 
Tracklist:

1. 8 AM 3:15
2. Sand 2:06
3. Fractured Heart 3:04
4. Normal Day 2:30


Saturday, 12 September 2020

Bona Dish ‎– "On C30" (In Phaze Records ‎– IP003) 1981

As discussed on the previous post, what was and what wasn't 'Post-Punk';putting my revisionists hat on again, one came to the conclusion that there wasn't any Post Punk until it got a name.
This third Velvet Underground album inspired 'Post-Punk' cassette, on the legendary 'In-Phaze' DIY label, could have a claim to be the first 'Indie' band on record? It could have been titled Bona Dish on C86 if only they had a pop music crystal ball and saw the near future.
The acronym 'C86' itself conjures images of twee light weight pop,with a Velvet Underground leaning, but that actual cassette was full of the more spikey end of the independent music scene in the UK at the time.....I mean, Bogshed were on it for Lou Reed's sake!?Again betraying another fake scene as invented by the British music press,still desperate for another Punk Rock.
Who were the first Indie band then?....Well obviously it was the post-cale Velvets, a 'Proto-Indie' band if ever there was one;but, compared to the UK Indie sound they were virtually Heavy Metal when put alongside stuff like Bona Dish. Clean Guitars, Beta-male rhythm section,twee girly singers, fringes, apathetic and proud. Was Indie nothing more than well-played UK DIY,or post-punk with a rosy outlook?....the answer may well lie on this C-30.

Tracklist:

A1 Mutation
A2 Challenge
A3 Intense
A4 Jungle
B1 Actress
B2 Girl
B3 See - Line Woman
Β4 Etc.


Friday, 11 September 2020

The 49 Americans ‎– "Too Young To Be Ideal!" (Choo Choo Train Records ‎– CHUG 2) 1980


Blimey! In the space of less than a year the next 49 Americans EP cost a whole One Pound and fourteen new pence more than the first one. Now's thats galloping inflation on a Zimbabwean scale!?
And what do you get for your extra expenditure? 
A lousy extra six minutes of The 49 Americans in action!
The cover states that this is a Twelve-Inch Single......so its the extra five inches of plastic that gets the blame for the increase in entry fees is it? And I thought these guys were a bunch of communists?
Can't trust anyone these days,even back in the 1980's it seems?
Well before Facebook and post-truth we had Post-Punk.So if we applied the same criteria as applied to alternative facts, that means that Post-Punk is actually Punk that wasn't Punk......it's all so clear to me now.At the time I thught all Punk was Punk,and that, there being a time when the term Post-Punk had yet to be coined,I thought stuff like Gang Of Four, The Pop Group,and Wire were actually 'Punk'.Then some bright spark Journalist,either Jon Savage or Paul Morely, came up with this pigeon hole around 1980-ish,meaning bands who didn't sound like The Ramones or look like The UK Subs;when before the term used to mean everything after 1976.
The first genuinely Post-Punk bands were stuff like Siouxsie and The Banshees,Wire,and PiL;but bizarrely there were Post-Punk bands before Punk too,like Pere Ubu,and Talking Heads...proto-post-punk anyone?
This is the true spirit of Punk Wok, moving forward,striving to be an individual,and not being a UK Sub doing 'Stranglehold' for the upteenth time in your seventies.
Punk Wok is The 49 Americans,doing it yourself,and not copying the Womones and the Thex Pithtols, that's....Wunk Pock.....as in the last post I used a 'Palindrome'event,now is the chance for me to use a Spoonerism.....and I'll do it again,watch....Wunk Pock. Ta Daaah!
I'm too old to be an Idealist!

Tracklist:

A1 Theme
A2 Woe Ballad
A3 Yucky Nightclub Job
A4 Love At First Sight
A5 Don't Sing The Blues
B1 I'll Make You A Star
B2 Love Has Solved My Problems
B3 Successful Wonder Glory / Success Turns Sour
B4 Big Decision
B5 Should Be More Ideal

The 49 Americans ‎– "The Hit Album" (NB Records ‎– NB 4) 1980



Radio Free Europe may have asserted that 'All Americans Are The Same', but there were at least 49 of their compatriots who were certainly NOT the same......mainly because 48 of them were made of pasty faced English wimps,the types who'd get sand kicked in their collective faces by those real American boys who all look like Henry Rollins, while berating them as a bunch of Fags. Which of course, in England-land is a packet of Cigarettes,or ciggies. 'Fag' was also a Public School term,used by the sixth form,for their 1st year servant boy,who would invariably end up being abused violently and sexually by their adolescent masters. ...."Come here Blenkensopp,I'm going to give you a damn good bumming,you snivelling little Turd!"
This is what the British Empire was built on,alongside Tea, and a leaky raft of 'Good Intentions';and we all know the road to hell is paved with these good intentions"(C.S.Lewis)...don't we? 
A deadly accurate portrayal of British Public school life can be viewed here,Episode 1 of "Ripping Yarns"...."Tompkinson's School Days"
Using Rape as a weapon is the time honoured way of creating generation after generation of traumatized and suggestable future leaders.Most of the British Govenment have been through it....I mean just look at Boris Johnson!?......its a system that seems to work,keeping everything just fucked up enough to function, yet dangle a distant unattainable carrot of hope to aspire to,dangling on the far side of the pit of dispair. I'd love to know for whom Johnson fagged for at Eton,he does,after all come from 'New Money',so he probably got an extra special bumming in the 'Boot Room' at Eaton.
You Americans don't know how good you've got it....yep, it's that bad!
The 49 Americans were recruited from the J-Arthur ranks of the London Musicians Collective by the sole American in the group, ex-pat Andrew "Giblet" Brenner.This included such improv luminaries as David Toop, Steve Beresford, Max Eastley, Lol Coxhill and Peter Cusack, as well as Nag and Bendle of The Door And The Window ,Vivien Goldman and 'Slit' Viv Albertine (I somehow doubt that her time with 49 Americans will make it into the proposed cinema biopic of her life).
This amateurish, no-fi, non-pop...er...pop(?), is about as far as one can get from a standard rollicking,rocking,or Rawking, American Group as you can get.All that for 85 new-pence,with each mini-symphony lasting 58 seconds, which is a numerical palindrome of 85.Those krazzee kidz!

Tracklist:

U.S.A. Side:
A1 American Wonder Song 0:58
A2 Newton's Law's 0:58
A3 What We Want 0:58
A4 Gail Was A Victim 0:58
A5 Move Around All Day 0:58
A6 Is This Rock And Roll? 0:58
A7 Julie Andrews (A Tribute) 0:58
U.S.B Side:
B1 One Germ 0:58
B2 Intelectuals On Parade 0:58
B3 Pigs 0:58
B4 The Uncertainty Principle 0:58
B5 Architecture Stops 0:58
B6 Missionairies 0:58
B7 Stupid Boy 0:58


Friday, 8 March 2019

The Record Players - "Singles and Ep's" (Wreckord Records) 1978/1981


The Record Players ‎– "Double C Side EP" (Wreck 001) 1978

Tracklisting:

A1 M.O.R.
A2 Don't Go Backwards
B1 Wrong Song
B2 Ignore Us



The Record Players ‎– "60-7 Inches EP" (Wreck 002) 1979

Tracklisting:

A1 Don't Give An Inch
A2 Squirmin' In The Vermin
B1 67
B2 Parasite City



The Record Players ‎– "Money Worries" (Wreck 003) 1981

Tracklisting:


A Money Worries
B Two Wrongs Don't Make A Right

I know next to nuffink about The Record Players,but I suspect they were from the Kent area of the UK.Tried to narrow it down by googling the 40 year old telephone code,but nothing popped up....its that old!
Facts aside, The Record Players had a string of foot-tappin'sing-a-long singles to rival The Buzzcocks;but, unlike their mancunian cousins, they didn't sell out to the majors.....in fact, I doubt they even had an offer at all, being in the hinterlands of southeast England, and not trendy looking enough.The lyrics to "Ignore Us" seem to be slightly autobiographical somewhat.
They left us with some great tunes made in a pure DIY ethic,and without pretentions towards being Rock stars,or even playing rock at all.Ten UK DIY jangly power-pop classics,with an added sense of humour, that can serve as their headstone for a future generation.

Wednesday, 6 March 2019

Performing Ferret Band ‎– "Performing Ferret Band LP" (Pig Productions ‎– PIG1) 1981




Apparently Antony H. Wilson told them to do an LP in the Hacienda after an echoey gig. So they did just that. On their own label, 'Pig Records'.....we're still waiting for PIG2.
In the time between their first cassette and this album they seem to have added the word 'Band' to their moniker. A word that always seem to upset Mark E. Smith......"We're a fucking Group not a fucking Band!"...he would often say.
It seems that everyone in Manchester with an ego had a middle initial also?
Basically,this LP is a UK DIY proto-indie post-punk classic of faultless proportions. Knowingly charming.

Tracklisting:

A1 Plastic Macho Man
A2 Fizzy Drinks
A3 Howler Monkey
A4 Lung Cancer
A5 Field Of Yellow Flowers
A6 The Rush
A7 Bar Room
B1 Bottle Fruit
B2 Decorations
B3 Disco One (II)
B4 A Story
B5 Fallen Tyrant
B6 Nudes
B7 Great Duos Of Our Time


Tuesday, 5 March 2019

Performing Ferrets ‎– "The Ferretable Thing" (Dead Hippy ‎– DHC2) 1979




Well after all that mindless noise, its time to get back to some classic UK DIY and Outsider Punk, starting with Maidstones own Performing Ferret Band, and their classic post-punk pre-indie student pop sound. 
This being their debut cassette, of course recorded in glorious Mono, on the rather 'Punk' titled Dead Hippy label.
For more info check out their website (!)

Tracklisting:

1 Brow Beaten
2 Develop That River
3 Shoo-Shar
4 Morgan
5 Rouse Rouse 

6 Dut Dut Dut
7 Didn't Like Us So we didn't like them

Friday, 25 January 2019

Various Artists ‎– "Color Supplement" (Color Disc ‎– colors 4) 1988


Its 1988, we're all E'd up, shaking maraccas, and white man-dancing like idiots;but there were small oasis's of sanity to be found.One of those places of solace was Color Tapes, and probably the most well known Color Disc/Tapes compilation is dis (sic).
It's got the usual array of Gary Ramon,Lives Of Angels collaborations, and the usual mix-up of Neo-Psych and minimal synth tracks. There are few tracks that i haven't already featured elsewhere on the Blog, but it makes a fine introdustion to one of the founding father labels of British Independent music culture.

Tracklisting:
A1 –Modern Art - Golden Legend
A2 –Modern Art - Forbidden Universe
A3 –Modern Art - Cutting Water
A4 –Mystery Plane - Snakebite
A5 –Mystery Plane - Burning Desire
A6 –Mystery Plane - Crazy Bombs
B1 –Lives Of Angels - Look Out Kid
B2 –Lives Of Angels - Red Suit
B3 –Lives Of Angels - After Dark (Intended Version)
B4 –WeR7 - Bread
B5 –WeR7 - Caped Crusader
B6 –WeR7 - Now Wash Your Hands


Tuesday, 22 January 2019

Mystery Plane ‎– "Still Life" (Color Disc ‎– COLOR LP 04) 1981/2016


This record was originally a demo cassette made in 1981 that was hawked around record labels with a view for release. Color Tapes later released a 100 copies edition.......it says.
Mystery Plane was basically a Modern Art/ Lives Of Angels color Tapes sooper groop, plus a new singer who sounds not unlike an young English Stan Ridgeway at times,american inflections and all.
Singer aside, what we're served with is an electronic neo-psych indie pop musical tapas which trys, reasonably hard, to make foot tapping pop tunes for the disenfranchised student type.

Tracklisting:

A1 Telephone
A2 This Is Your Life
A3 Something To Prove
A4 Tightrope
A5 Someone Else
A6 Poor John
B1 Crying Again
B2 Death Sentence
B3 (Do The) Shah Of Iran (Twist)
B4 Still Life
B5 Silence After Midnight


Friday, 18 January 2019

Lives Of Angels ‎– "Hole In The Sky" (Dark Entries ‎– DE-172) 2017


Lives of Angels ,after disappearing through a hole in the sky,have now qualified for a career spanning retrospective on Dark Entries. Including tunes from 1983 to 1989,and a few unreleased tracks thrown in for good measure.
Better quality versions of tracks from those Color Tapes compilations, and from their previous cassette albums can now be heard with almost crystal clarity. Now a new generation can thrill to the O'Connell's proto-indie sound of neo-psychedelic guitar jangle mixed with minimal synth pop analogness. Imagine Spacemen 3, Felt, 3rd album VU,and Depeche Mode in the same concrete mixer with added strawberry flavoured Angel Delight,resulting in a rather pleasent fluffy blancmange and you've got Lives of Angels.....or, Lives Of Angels Delight?

Notes:
Lives of Angels are Catherine O'Connell and Gerald O'Connell
All songs previously unreleased except:
A3,A6 originally released on ‘Elevator To Eden’ cassette by Color Disc, 1983
B2 originally released on ‘An Hour Of Color Vol. 2’ cassette by Color Disc, 1985
B5 originally released on ‘Color Pop Explosion’ cassette by Color Disc, 1989

Tracklisting:

A1 Call Moscow
A2 I Know About You
A3 Nothing Yet
A4 She Turns Aside
A5 Popular Violence
A6 Heartland
B1 Somebody Else
B2 Threatened
B3 Look Out Kid
B4 After Dark
B5 The Infinite Corridor


Tuesday, 15 January 2019

Modern Art ‎– "Sonic Dimensions 1982-1985" (Vinyl-on-demand ‎– VOD112) 2013


Here's one of those DIY for rich men compilation/career overviews on Vinyl On Demand. This time on Color Tapes stalwarts Modern Art, who were basically Gary Ramon plus mates.
Mostly released on cassette, Modern Arts sound balanced between a neo-psych indie jangle and minimal synth driven cold wave.
A rather high quality but prolific output for such an ignored group.Rightfully given a chance to be heard in hi-fi quality.
\if you prefer the smoggy cassette versions of a few of these songs a couple of early tapes can be found earlier in this blogs tenure.

Tracklisting:

Previously-Released Tape Recordings 1982-1985
A1 (Trying To Find) The Hidden World 4:02
A2 Hello/Goodbye 6:45
A3 Landscape From A Dream 4:01
A4 Sad Delusion 3:46
A5 Confrontation 3:45
A6 Oriental Towers 4:56
B1 Dreaming Again 4:00
B2 Still Life 3:28
B3 Fatal Crash Immersed The Start 8:13
B4 Search For A Soul 7:53
B5 Beach On The Horizon 4:02
Publisher Demos 1985
C1 Forbidden Universe 4:45
C2 Hello/Goodbye 5:34
C3 Confrontation 5:04
C4 Red Tornado 5:46
C5 Breakdown 6:32
D1 (Trying To Find) The Hidden World 3:56
D2 Dreams To Live 3:38
D3 Age Of Lights 6:18
D4 Sight And Sound 6:44
D5 Early Warning 6:16
Previously-Released Tape Recordings 1983-1986
E1 Stars (Dreaming Again) (Instrumental Version) 3:58
E2 Clear Light 5:29
E3 Driftwood (Publisher Demo) 5:16
E4 Dimensions Of Noise Soundtrack (Part 4) 5:22
E5 Barriers 4:53
E6 Beach On The Horizon (Publisher Demo) 3:03
F1 Forbidden Universe 3:41
F2 Harmony In Red 3:04
F3 Figure Of Eight 3:22
F4 Black Into White 2:56
F5 Vertikal Parallel 3:30
F6 Passing Days 2:45
F7 Vision 3:15
F8 Dimension (Edit) 1:51
F9 Calico Shadows 3:23


DOWNLOAD  a sonic dimension HERE!

Sunday, 13 January 2019

Various ‎Artists – "Purple Twilight" (Color Disc ‎– Colors 2) 1985



Despite 'Color' being a glaring spelling error, (The american spelling!), there are very few errors on any of their compilations.
Purple Twilight being one of them.Although the title would suggest that it may have been one of those Bam Caruso Brit-psych/Freakbeat compilations, if one didn't know better.
There are some Neo-Psych tracks within however, but scattered among the Minimal Synth, proto-Indie tchoons, and Cold wave classics.The Duke Of Disrespect also makes another, but welcome, appearance with the samplerdeclic non-hit hit, "You Tell Lies".
Experimental improv combo,'New 7th Music', featuring Paul Keldays brother ,Phil, also makes a very rare outing on vinyl.
A smogasbord of excellence.

Tracklisting:

A1 –Mystery Plane - Red Slime Creepers
A2 –Eye See - Evenings
A3 –Space Brothers - Sixteenth Avenue Atmosphere
A4 –The Duke Of Disrespect - You Tell Lies (Banging Away)
A5 –The Teamtones - Build A House And Marry, Tom
A6 –WeR7 - Revolve Her
A7 –Timothy London And The Soho Sisters - Hold Me Down
B1 –Modern Art - Death Wish
B2 –New 7th Music - Hibakusha
B3 –Omming For Works - Change Of Intention/The Punished Animal
B4 –Face In The Crowd - How Much Do You Know?
B5 –Andy Boot Quartet - Is That Close Enough?
B6 –The Ordinary - Wessex Tales


Saturday, 12 January 2019

Various Artists ‎– "An Hour Of Color Vol. 3" (Color Disc ‎– Color 13) 1986



The incredibly high standard of stuff from Color Tapes continues with volume 3 of the 'An Hour Of Color' series of compilations.I've said it all before, you know what you're gonna get, so get on with it.....its good.

Tracklisting:

A1 –Space Brothers - Lost Civilisation
A2 –Modern Art - Monument Of Heaven
A3 –Lives Of Angels - Lives Of Angels
A4 –WeR7 - The Hearts Outstanding
A5 –Kata Kolbert - Poor Poor Thing
A6 –Cleaners From Venus - Ilya Kuryakin Looked At Me
A7 –Moisten Before Use - Where To Now
A8 –Bill Pritchard - Fact Or Fiction
B1 –Space Brothers - Purple Twilight
B2 –Modern Art - She Cannot Yet Be Seen
B3 –Lives Of Angels - Green On Black
B4 –Kata Kolbert - Marriage Of Inconvenience
B5 –Shadow Of Light - Play Your Joker
B6 –Cleaners From Venus - Follow The Plough
B7 –3D5 - Special Fx
B8 –Face In The Crowd - Somewhere, Sometimes
B9 –Mystery Plane - Madame Sin


Friday, 11 January 2019

Various ‎Artists – "An Hour Of Color Vol. 2" (Color Disc ‎– Color 10) 1985


Another one of the many compilations released on cassette by Color Tapes in the eighties, this one is from 1985....not a vintage year elsewhere, but on the Color label, it was as if the 'New Romantics' had never happened.
We are treated to two melodic classix from the cruelly ignored 'Cleaners From Venus', worth the admission money all by themselves.This is countered by the truly awful 'That It', with some over-clever lounge jazz for the discerning pseudo intellectual.
The rest is populated by the usual Color crew, normally involving Gary Ramon somewhere in the mix of Minimal Synth, Cold Wave, and Proto-Indie ditties...really rather marvellous.

Tracklisting:

A1 –Cleaners From Venus - Soul Monday
A2 –Lives Of Angels - Red Suit
A3 –Take-It - Fallen Out
A4 –Modern Art - Confrontation
A5 –Berserk In A Hayfield - Pulse
A6 –WeR7 - I Was Not A Jew
A7 –Space Brothers - Lodore
B1 –Cleaners From Venus - Julie Profumo
B2 –Take-It - I'd Like To Talk To You
B3 –Berserk In A Hayfield - Fear
B4 –Mystery Plane - Dungeon Blues
B5 –Timothy London - Mission Impossible
B6 –The Teamtones - She Says No
B7 –Lives Of Angels - Threatened
B8 –Andy Boot Quartet - Perfectly Perfunctory
B9 –WeR7 - I Pray To A Moving God


Monday, 15 October 2018

The Clean ‎– "Odditties" (Cleano Productions) 1983


From the more conventional post-punk/proto-Indie end of the New Zealand ghetto are The Clean.
They make proper pop songs, melodic ,strummy, hooky with rhyming lyrics and a hint of jangle.
This is an early self-released cassette that hints of greater things.

Tracklist:

A1 Odditty
A2 Success Story
A3 Thumbs Off
A4 Yellowman
A5 Getting Older
A6 End Of My Dream
A7 Platypus
A8 This Guy
A9 David Bowie
A10 Mudchucker Blues
B1 At The Bottom
B2 Hold Onto The Rail
B3 Fats Domino
B4 Sad Eyed Lady
B5 Tell Me Why
B6 In The Back
B7 Band That Never Was
B8 Wheels Of Industry
B9 Point That Thing Dub
B10 Safety At Home


Sunday, 23 September 2018

Various Artists - "Dunedin Double" - (Flying Nun Records ‎– DUN 1) 1982


From Dundee to Dunddin one goes effortlessy.
New Zealand was made for this kind of Proto-Indie music.Everyone looks and dresses like they should be in an Indie band. Side partings, finges,cosy sweaters,sensible slacks and suede shoes,all topped off with that popular generic face that sets them apart from the slightly inbred look that Australians have. Like that bloke from Crowded House who was in Split Enz.
This album is more of a shared effort rather than a compilation,but there's not a duff track on it. 13 prime cuts of 1982 style proto Indie,when Indie didn't even have a name.Very tuneful, with jangly guitars strumming atop the melodious cry of a angst ridden but polite geeky lead singer. They all listened a lot to later period Velvet Underground without doubt.Which is no surprise, as VU were undoubtedly the very first 'Indie' band. (Discuss).

Tracklist:

A1 –The Verlaines - Angela
A2 –The Verlaines - Crisis After Crisis
A3 –The Verlaines - You Cheat Yourself Of Everything That Moves
B1 –The Stones - Something New
B2 –The Stones - See Red
B3 –The Stones - Down And Around
B4 –The Stones - Surfs Up
C1 –The Chills - Kaleidoscope World
C2 –The Chills - Satin Doll
C3 –The Chills - (Frantic) Drift
D1 –Sneaky Feelings - Pity's Sake
D2 –Sneaky Feelings - There's A Chance
D3 –Sneaky Feelings - Backroom