Jon Hassell and Brian Eno ‎– "Fourth World Vol. 1 - Possible Musics" (Editions EG ‎– EGED 7) 1980

Around 1980 the horrible blight of white man mucking about with, and in most cases, just openly misappropriating African music began to float to the surface like scum on a millpond.
Lack of ideas lead to such affronts to the exploited people of the birthplace of the homo-sapien like Paul Simon stealing a whole album from Soweten musicians and paying them,basically,fuck, all.
Then we had Peter Gabriel doing the same in the name of political consciousness with 'Biko' and god knows what else in his dodgy eighties back catalogue.
In the 'Pop' world we got Bow Wow Wow and Adam Ant squabbling over who thought of using the Burundi beat backing to their hits first.
The middle classes were seen wearing African print at the WOMAD festivals,and began leaving Bhundu Boys albums openly on their coffee tables.
Personally, I can't stand all that Afro-beat stuff,and the entire 'World Music genre;most of which is just for white people to show how open minded and cosmopolitan they are.
Of course, with all dodgy directions in music there are always a few persons who get it right,....."and Eno" is,as always, one of them.
Ex-Lamonte Young collaborator, Jon Hassell, had developed a bizarre, heavily effected, breathy Trumpet style and an unhealthy interest in recreating landscapes through music......I blame his classical training. In classic Eno style, our Brian, spotted the potential, and as is his way, allied himself with a 'proper' musician to create something innovative and forward moving.
This was the first album I bought that had Eno on it, and was suitably impressed at the success this duo had in recreating something like an aural jungle in my bedroom.This stuff has a smell, like dense, humid, rain forest; and has a sense of danger,like wading through a tropical swamp,not knowing what horrendous creatures lurk below the slick of algae on the surface (maybe a poisonous dwarf like Paul Simon?).
A very rare attempt at merging the third and first worlds, without patronising,or exploiting, indigenous peoples.

Tracklist:

Chemistry 6:48
Delta Rain Dream 3:22
Griot (Over "Contagious Magic") 4:00
Ba-benzélé 6:03
Rising Thermal 14° 16' N; 32° 28' E 3:34
Charm (Over "Burundi Cloud") 21:24

DOWNLOAD this possibly fourth world music HERE!

Fripp & Eno ‎– "Live In Paris 28.05.1975"

Everyone's had an Eno collaboration haven't they?....except me!
The suffix,"...and Eno", has appeared many times ,stuck on the end of another experimental, or otherwise, musicians family name. Another common appearance of Eno's own family name , was as producer; where he committed his worst faux-pas's as the man behind the desk of some of U2's most offensive work. I guess that the money was good at least.
In contrast, some of "...& Eno's" greatest work was done with Mr Toyah Wilcox himself, Bobby Fripp. Sharing the oxygen with our Brian's manipulated tape-loop, electronics and delay mechanisms providing an ethereal ambient backing for Fripps heavily sustained guitar accompaniment.
Nowadays, we all have a little electronic box to do all this looping malarkey,so it's nothing special for granny and grandad to put together an experimental ambient album in their lunchtime; but back then, one had to use two chunky reel to reel tape recorders and yards of analogue tape streaming back and forth, a razor blade and some splicing tape. A bit cumbersome but quite effective.
Here we have three cd's documenting the duo's performance in Paris during the technically malfunctioning tour of 1975.Problems with the equipment beset our hero's frequently during this short trek around europe,including cancelled concerts, audience booing and walkouts,and general difficulty for the public to accept this as music. Nowadays this kind of set-up is normal, and goes to prove that if the public 'Boo' your work you are probably doing something right.....Fripp and Eno certainly were doing something very right.
One concert when it all went very very right,even if the audience didn't know it at the time, was on the 28th of may 1975 in Paris. Luckily this superb couple of hours of pure innovation was captured on tape and bootlegged. Here's the 'official' 3 CD bootleg version, complete with some of the backing loops faithfully recreated for you to do your own accompaniment to, and play at being Fripp and Eno for an evening.

Tracklist:

1-1 Water On Water 10:46
1-2 A Radical Representative Of Pinsnip 9:39
1-3 Swastika Girls 7:44
1-4 Wind On Wind 2:00
1-5 Announcement 1:13
2-1 Wind On Water 9:44
2-2 A Near Find In Rip Pop 7:21
2-3 A Fearful Proper Din 4:12
2-4 A Darn Psi Inferno 4:59
2-5 Evening Star 5:59
2-6 An Iron Frappe 10:33
2-7 Softy Gun Poison 12:31
2-8 An Index Of Metals 7:20
3-1 Test Loop I 4:07
3-2 Test Loop II 0:47
3-3 Loop Only: A Radical Representative Of Pinsnip 10:39
3-4 Loop Only: Wind On Water 9:53
3-5 Loop Only: A Darn Psi Inferno 5:40
3-6 Loop Only: Softy Gun Poison 14:45
Bonus Tracks
3-7 Loop Only: Wind On Water Reversed 9:50
3-8 Later On (Single B Side) 4:56

DOWNLOAD some rock'n'roll without the rock or the roll HERE!

The League Of Gentlemen - "The Greyhound,London 19-09-1980" (Bootleg)

An very good quality audience recording of a rather hot gig at The Greyhound.....in Fulham?
A very tight and cohesive unit The League of Gents were by this time in the year.
Theres some Fripp banter too, and some expert handling of a heckler in the audience.All good stuff.

Tracklist:

01 Inductive Resonance 05:45
02 Trap 04:54
03 Heptaparaparshinokh 03:30
04 Thrang Thrang Gozinbulx II 03:11

        (Fripp Speaks)

05 Boy At Piano 04:04
06 Christian Children Marching, Singing 03:45
07 Dislocated 05:30
08 Thrang Thrang Gozinbulx III 03:30

09 Untitled
10 Minor Man 03:28
11 Farewell Johnny Brill 04:09
12 Eyes Needles 03:24
13 Inductive Resonance 05:01

14 Encore 1

15 Encore 2

DOWNLOAD from a greyhounds rear end HERE!

The League Of Gentlemen ‎– "Thrang Thrang Gozinbulx (Official Bootleg Live in 1980)"

Recorded live at El Mocambo, Toronto, 17-18 June 1980, and Harpo's, Detroit, 10 July 1980, during The League's lengthy tour that comprised of virtually their entire existence as a band.
Fripp wanted to return to making music for people, specifically to 'Dance' to,and this was the result. A sped up version of 1980's King Crimson, with organ. It certainly gets some kind of foot tapping reaction at times, yet still retaining that artsy edge to raise it above being a wedding Disco band with pretensions. They definitely come under the label of 'Concept Band', in a twist from the classic prog rockers penchant for things conceptual, thee 'Concept Album'; which I assume the official album is.
The 'High-brow Guitarist plays in jobbing dance band' concept.They could have been XTC.

Tracklist:

1 Inductive Resonance 5:15
2 Thrang Thrang Gozinbulx I 2:17
3 Trap 4:53
4 Boy At Piano 4:24
5 Heptaparaparshinokh 2:09
6 Thrang Thrang Gozinbulx II 3:20
7 Christian Children Marching, Singing 3:46
8 Ooh! Mr. Fripp 4:34
9 Dislocated 4:25
10 Minor Man 3:31
11 Thrang Thrang Gozinbulx III 3:38
12 Farewell Johnny Brill 3:58
13a Inductive Resonance 5:25
13b [Silent] 5:21
13c [Untitled] 0:49

DOWNLOAD this gentlemanly combo in action HERE!

The League Of Gentlemen ‎– "The League Of Gentlemen" (Editions EG ‎– EGED 9) 1981

All ex-prog rockers loved XTC, so if you wanted to do some post-punky thing for the kids you had to have an ex-XTC member in your new dance group, hadn't you?
XTC were never the same for me after Barry Andrews's steam organ and stripped down upright piano left the line-up after "GO 2"....and where did he go too (see what I did?)?......Robert Fripp's new mutant Disco inspired dance combo, "The League Of Gentlemen".
Understandably they sound not unlike a combination of XTC and discipline-era King Crimson, with some inspired contributions from Danielle Dax as the cherry on this particular cake.
They did a massive tour,following on from Fripp's massive Frippertronic's tour from the previous years. One has to admire Robert's work ethic.A musician,although he didn't see himself as one, who actually works hard to earn his money.This is all in tandem with his revinvented version of King Crimson,which was also happening at the same time.
You get sick of hearing Pop Stars moaning about illegal downloads costing them money.Why don't they take a leaf out of Fripp'sbook and actually work for a living like everyone else has to.It's the modern era, the recording some crap tunes then sitting back watching the cash roll in has died due to market forces,move with the times, shut up, and play live.

Tracklist:

A1 Indiscreet I 1:47
A2 Inductive Resonance 4:35
A3 Minor Man 3:45
A4 Heptaparaparshinokh 2:03
A5 Dislocated 4:35
A6 Pareto Optimum I 2:07
A7 Eye Needles 3:12
A8 Indiscreet II 2:35
B1 Pareto Optimum II 1:27
B2 Cognitive Dissonance 3:38
B3 H.G. Wells 3:25
B4 Trap 4:45
B5 Ochre 3:07
B6 Indiscreet III 1:26

DOWNLOAD and conduct yourself like a gentlemen while you're doing it HERE!

Robert Fripp - "Frippertronics @KSAN-FM, San Francisco, 28th July 1979" (Bootleg)

As a Frippertronics recording you can't get much better. This came from a visit Fripp made to KSAN FM radio in 'Frisco,the day after his Tower Records appearance in Hollywood, and recorded these four tracks for the Phil Charles Show later in the night.
The context for these performances is slightly different, as they were intended for broadcast, probably only once, and not part of a live performance with an audience. He often spoke of the 'Vampiric' relationship between audience and performer.Something which is altered drastically on record and on radio.These tracks fall somewhere between live and studio,and musically are some of the best recorded versions of Frippertronics I've heard.It's just missing Roberts between track banter.

Tracklist:

01 Music For Streets 4:49 
02 Music For Wrong Ways 4:46 
03 Music For Madams 13:01 
04 Music For Backward Ladies 8:11 

DOWNLOAD fripp in the home of hippie HERE!

Robert Fripp - "Frippertronics at Tower Records,Hollywood 27-07-1979" (Bootleg) 1979

This is a high quality audience recording from Robert Fripp's "Small, Mobile, Intelligent Unit" Frippertronics tour at Tower Records, Hollywood, on July 27th 1979. Despite him specifically asking the audience not to record any of the music.
I do like the idea of something happening just once, then left to disappear and mutate in the memories of the persons present at the time.To eventually die altogether with the ultimate demise of the beholder. Some things should never be repeated or reanimated, and allowed to live their natural lifespan; like improvised music.Which is designed for a specific time and place and should be remembered as a total experience that lived briefly and died,like a sickly child. To reproduce it on a tape and play it back in your living room out of the context in which it was made,changes it completely.
So having said that, here's your chance to change the context and experience some classic Frippertronics in your own living room.Much to the disgust of Mr Fripp,who has successfully clamped down on any being easily available on the net or anywhere else for that matter.....so grab it while you can.
If you don't know what "Frippertronics" is, uncle Bob himself will explain it for you on track 2,interlaced with his mannered dry wit.

Tracklist:

01-Greetings
02-What is Frippertronics?
03-Frippertronics 1
04-Frippertronics 2
05-Frippertronics 3
06-Frippertronics 4
07-Buy my record

DOWNLOAD bob in hollywood HERE!

Robert Fripp ‎– "Let The Power Fall" (Editions EG ‎– EGED 10) 1981

Fripp, as he referred to the touring version of himself,a 'small compact unit', treating us to a album of Frippertronics; which,if you didn't know, is Bobby improvising with tape loops of himself, through various delay units and effects.

The effect is very hallucinogenic,and meditative. The studio version of this music lacks a little bit of the immediacy that cold be generated on the many live appearances he made in cafe's and shopping malls all over the western world on the cusp of the eighties. He dressed like a business man and certainly saw himself more as a business man than a musician,and wasn't afraid of a lot of actual hard work.Something that frightens the living shite out of a self-titled musician.Refreshingly, our Robert,always made it clear that he wasn't a natural, and created his style(s) through sheer endeavor, rather than the Jimi Hendrix route.The result is a thoughtful, considered style, full of technical exactitude.Something reflected in his manner and self-presentation.An admirable anti-rock stance that was invigorated by the onset of the so-called 'Punk Explosion'.He stood apart, but ultimately fitted in. 

The end of his so-called 'Drive to 1981' concept, and the start of 'The Decline to 1984' period.   

Fellow outsider,Lemon Kitten Danielle Dax provided the artwork by the way....certainly a step up in collaboration class from Darryl Hall.

Tracklist:
1984 12:09
1985 11:20
1986 5:21
1987 5:14
1988 6:33
1989 11:32

DOWNLOAD some falling power HERE!

Robert Fripp ‎– "God Save The Queen / Under Heavy Manners" (EG ‎– EGLP 105) 1980

The more experimental follow up to "Exposure" was this Frippertronics heavy tribute to 'Our' Queen, with much of the work being performed by improvisation.

On the Under Heavy Manners side of the album, the effect was modified in what Fripp described as "Discotronics", adding a solid drum beat, a bit like those 'Hooked On Classics' records, and a funky bass line to create a dancier sound.Obviously influenced by that Mutant Disco stuff from the clubs of New York,where he was living at the time.David Byrne guests on urban ethnic vocals,straight from the 'Mudd Club'.

"God Save the Queen" itself bears little resemblance to the British national anthem, although it is based on the opening notes of that tune. It was inspired by a comment from an audience member at a Frippertronics gig, who suggested that, as the performance was taking place on the tenth anniversary of the Woodstock Festival in August 1979, Fripp should reprise Jimi Hendrix's performance of "The Star Spangled Banner".I would love this to be the new anti-anthem for the English at the commonwealth games and other such events; completely lacking in Jingoism and rousing knuckleheadedness. It more than adequately portrays my own personal emotional connection to my motherland, which i have recently fell out of love with.Don't worry it's just a lovers tiff,i'm sure it'll all work out in the end when all the bigoted loony tunes go back into their bunkers after this new wave of populist politics reveals itself to be a disaster.

In the meantime we can listen to the stuff that made that sceptered Isle full of noises the culturally great place we all knew, instead of a book burning hinterland land for dumb bigots.....excuse me for a moment while I snarl....WANKERS!.....better out than in i suppose....that's anger not a reference to the EU, if there's any thick Brexshitters reading this?....which I very much doubt.Don't think yer average bigot has even heard of 'Art' never mind Fripp, or even left the country beyond the Costa del Scunthorpe. Soon, if Fripp and Eno want to go and play another gig in Paris, they'll need a visa and a work permit.Ah, the Freedom of it all?

Tracklist:

God Save The Queen:
A1 Red Two Scorer 6:54
A2 God Save The Queen 9:50
A3 1983 13:20

Under Heavy Manners:
B1 Under Heavy Manners 5:14
B2 The Zero Of The Signified 12:38

DOWNLOAD and save yourself from missing out on more Fripp HERE!

Robert Fripp ‎– "Exposure" (EG ‎– EGLP 101) 1979

Back to the theme of the Prog influence/infiltration on Post Punk. Who better to start with than thee arch-prog experimentalist on the six string,Robert Fripp.
As a teenager, brought up on glam,a bit of prog and the new wave, I always wondered who this smart looking gentleman was who was always pictured in the music press. One was very impressed at how out of place he looked, like a stockbroker who'd accidentally stumbled into a music store. He was often seen with Eno, who used to be in Roxy Music,so one knew who he was, therefore the conclusion of that was that this Fripp chap couldn't be all bad. I had heard of King Crimson,but didn't know he was in them, so hearing this unusual take on rock music was a revelation to someone who thought The Ruts were a bit too good on their instruments for their own good.
Fripp,was and still is, my favourite Guitarist, and the most 'white' by far.You won't find Fripp relying on Blues licks to flesh out a tune.Unusual time signatures, and fractured riffs, coupled with some ambient sustain driven Frippertronics, make his style hard to pin down for more than five minutes.And the fact that he insists on playing while sitting on a stool,scores the highest anti-rock points currently available.
This album is a kind of Prog super group album, with that other great forward moving dark-progger Peter Hammill of Van Der Graff Generator contributing some vocals and lyrics, and various Genesis chums Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel contributing the stuff they do best.
There is but one faux-pas included here.....Darryl Hall!!!!..but we can overlook that can't we?
Of all the progressive rock bands,it was probably these luminaries who absorbed the Punk message the best,and produced something new from it,in sync with the rest of the Post Punk/prog brigade.
This era of Fripp,also produced one of the great images of all time, up there with Doctor Feelgood, and the Magic Band.

Tracklist:
A1 Preface 1:15
A2 You Burn Me Up I'm A Cigarette 2:23
A3 Breathless 4:41
A4 Disengage 2:46
A5 North Star 3:06
A6 Chicago 2:12
A7 NY3 2:16
A8 Mary 2:06
B1 Exposure 4:25
B2 Häaden Two 2:53
B3 Urban Landscape 2:35
B4 I May Not Have Had Enough Of Me But I've Had Enough Of You 3:50
B5 First Inaugural Address To The I.A.C.E. Sherborne House 0:03
B6 Water Music I 1:27
B7 Here Comes The Flood 4:01
B8 Water Music II 4:16
B9 Postscript 0:39

Bonus Track:

18 Exposure (Alt Take)

19 Mary (Alt Take)

20 Disengage (Alt Take)

21 Chicago (Alt Take)

22 NY3 (Alt Take)

DOWNLOAD for some decent exposure HERE!

Section 25 - "Illuminous Illuminae" (Relevant Music) 1982

Section 25 were probably one of the most successfully inept musicians since Neu to be taken half-seriously.As the only interesting group to come out of Blackpool who were named after a section of the mental health act;they made a strain of northern English Blackpool Krautrock. Another source of inspiration from the Prog era that infected the Post-Punk scene.
This cassette of demo's, jam's,and live bits, reminds one of second album Section 25, "The Key Of Dreams"; which was about as psychedelic as  Factory ever got with its sparse rudimentary guitar solo driven jams.Allegedly, that album was edited down to forty minutes from five hours of jam sessions.....must have been a job and a half finding something half good from that lot......this is of course, How funky krauts'Can' made their albums; the difference was, 'Can' had four very competent musicians to knock out some famous repetitive grooves, and Section 25's drummer was certainly no Jaki Liebezeit (RIP).....but shockingly, I think I prefer Section 25 to Can.....at least until they (S25) went 'disco'. Some would even label them as Acid House before Acid House?...which is pushing it a bit I think!?

Tracklist:

1–New Horizons Intro (Demo 1981)2:48

2–Are You There? (SSRU Demo 1981)2:09

3–Floating (SSRU Demo 1981)4:26

4–There Was A Time (SSRU Demo 1981)5:26

5–Rigi Rigi (Demo 2.1981)5:47

6–Mirror (London Lyceum 29.2.1980)2:57

7–You're On Your Own (Den Haag 1.11.1980)4:12

8–Friendly Fires (Den Haag 1.11.1980)3:56

9–One Step (Nottingham Rock City 18.4.1981)6:23

10–Opening (London The Venue 6.5.1982)8:47

11–Virtually Every (SSRU Demo 1981)3:28

12–Fallen (SSRU Demo 1981)1:12

13–Tape Loop (SSRU Demo 1981)3:33

14–Cry (SSRU Demo 1981)3:54

15-Subferior (SSRU Demo 1981)3:36

16–In The Garden Of Eden (SSRU Demo 1981)1:58

17–Never Mind The Sex Pistols Here's The Bollocks (Poulton Old Library 29.12.1978)1:26

18–Just To See Your Face (Blackpool Mardi Gras 7.1979)6:36

DOWNLOAD blackpool's post punk illuminati HERE!

Crispy Ambulance ‎– "Frozen Blood (1980-82)" (LTM ‎– ltmcd 2327)

To round up our short ride in a crispy ambulance,here's the obligatory Singles,and sessions compilation from the Ambulance's best years before they broke up for the first time. Allegedly, they are together again and touring.(Wasn't there a Half Man Half biscuit tune where the line 'You're Going Home In A Crispy Ambulance' was chanted in a football terrace chant stylee?)
This includes a high fidelity version of their Peel session from january 1981, which you should already have downloaded on the "Blue and Yellow Of the Yacht Club" cassette.
Also we have the first three singles on Factory, and some live stuff to fill it up with.
Do 'they' call this stuff 'Cold Wave' these days? I dunno, but the term seems to safely describe the Isolation one feels when listening to this band; not helped by the fact that not many of your mates thought that they were any good .A myth spread by the music media of the early eighties.Like a fine wine this music has matured nicely into a full bodied frozen blood Manchester red, thawed out from the vintage years of 1980-82.

Tracklist:

1 Not What I Expected 3:56
2 Deaf 4:04
3 Come On 2:09
4 Drug User - Drug Pusher 6:24
5 October 31st 3:32
6 Egypt 5:07
7 A Sense Of Reason 4:00
8 Eastern Bloc 5:24
9 Concorde Square 3:09
10 The Presence 5:15
11 Headhunters 2:54
12 Frozen Blood 4:42
13 Turnbuckle 5:03
14 The Gift Of Danger 3:18
15 Hollow Points 4:39
16 The Grind 4:30
17 Cult 3:13

DOWNLOAD cryogenically from a crispy morgue HERE!

Crispy Ambulance ‎– "Open, Gates Of Fire" (Les Temps Modernes CSBT V: III) 1983

Mail order only cassette of live Crispy Ambulance; although where the audience actually was on this tape I dunno.It sounds like they are playing to an empty room,which they probably were.
Its good to hear these songs without any production,or effects, like they're playing inside a large cardboard box. Hempsall seems to be responding to an audience, but they don't register in the recording process at all; lost in the noise reduction-less tape hiss.
I have no information as to where or when these tunes were actually recorded,but i'm guessing around 1982-ish.

Tracklist:

1. United, 

2. Chill,
3. I Talking/You Talking (Parts 1 + 2),
4. Federation, 

5. Travel Time, 

6. Say Shake, 

7. Cult,
8. Green Light/White Shirt, 

9. Brutal,
10. The Plateau Phase, 

11. Choral,
12. Nightfall Ends The Ceasefire, 

13. The Poison

DOWNLOAD and open the gates of a muffled post punk world HERE!

Crispy Ambulance ‎– "The Blue And Yellow Of The Yacht Club" (CSBT V.II) 1983

Another Danny and the Dressmakers member went on to be in, so-called 'Joy Division copyists', the wonderfully monikered, Crispy Ambulance.
None other than thee Alan Hempsall, who famously, had to fill in for Ian Curtis at a gig while he had a Epileptic Fit. According to the Joy Div biopic, he was offered twenty quid by Rob Gratton, and when he asked for his twenty notes came the classic reply of "Oh sure, here it is,it's in my FUCK OFF pocket!"
Of Course, Crispy Ambulance sounded nothing like Joy Division.Whoever made that comparison must have never heard or seen either band.
Personally I'm a Crispy Ambulance Fan, especially of this Non-Hannett lo-fi stuff.Although Chris Nagle's version of Martin's over-production of the bands Official album, 'The Plateau Phase',actually worked quite well.In some ways darker than 'Closer'?
This cassette-only compilation, bungs together their only Peel Session,with other fuzzy live stuff, stumbling interviews, and other radio sessions.Post-punk miserablism at its finest.

Tracks A7 to A10 recorded for Picadilly Radio at Pennine Sound Studios, Oldham 16/7/80. 
Tracks B6 to B8 recorded for BBC Radio 1 John Peel Session at Langham 1 12/1/81. 
Track B13 recorded at first ever Crispy Ambulance gig at Spurley Hey Youth Centre in 1978. 

Tracklist:

A1 Motorway Boys
A2 Suzie's In Fragments (Live)
A3 This Perfect Day
A4 No Surrender
A5 Interview (Radio 17/3/81)
A6 Opening Theme
A7 The Presence
A8 A Sense Of Reason
A9 Concorde Square
A10 The Eastern Bloc
B1 3 Minutes From The Frontline (Live)
B2 From The Cradle To The Grave (Live)
B3 Interview (Radio 17/3/81)
B4 Deaf (Live)
B5 New Violence
B6 Come On
B7 October 31st
B8 Egypt
B9 Interview (Radio 17/3/81)
B10 Rain Without Clouds (Live)
B11 The Presence
B12 Feedback Phase
B13 Drug User/Drug Pusher (Detail)

DOWNLOAD to play at the next yacht club soirée HERE!

Biting Tongues ‎– "Libreville" (Paragon – VIRTUE 1) 1983

More excellent experimental post punk with a smell of avant jazz mixed in for comfort.
Yes this Mancunian combo really did include future 808 state and Danny and the Dressmakers legend Graham Massey; who, coincidentally, I heard had recently received an Honorary doctorate from some dodgy university in Lancashire? This is a man who once co-wrote a song called 'Com'on Baby Light My Shite'!? 

Tracklist:

A1 First Use All The G's 10:05
A2 Forty Four 3:18
A3 Smash The Strategic Hamlets 5:26
A4 Live It 1:34
B1 The Toucanostra 4:30
B2 Doctor Restore He Sight 6:15
B3 Dirt For 485 3:24
B4 Aair Care 5:00

DOWNLOAD from libreville HERE!

Biting Tongues ‎– "Don't Heal" (Situation Two ‎– SITU 1)

Hey weren't that bloke from 808 State in Biting Tongues?.......who gives a shit?....unless it's the same bloke who was in the immortal 'Danny and the Dressmakers', which it is, so this album must be incredible, right?
Graham Massey was indeed in both truly awful baggy-rave hitmakers 808 State, and bag-o-shite shitkickers,and truly wonderful,DIY legends Danny and the Dressmakers. How could this dichotomy exist? And now we find him in Improv Progressive-Jazz-art post-punkers Biting Tongues, whose very presence seems to make the cop-out musical category of ,'experimental', seem to be invented just for them.....well,not quite,but it sounded good.
As do they!
I always suspected that Danny and the Dressmakers contained proper musicians with prog leanings within their ranks,and this is the proof. If you played music like this in 1978 you would have risked a lynching. So it was highly advisable to hide any musical ability,and/or intelligence, behind a fog of incompetence and 'gob'.
After repressing your real IQ was becoming tiresome by 1979, interesting music started to reappear under the Post-Punk epithet,and Progressive music was cool again....well, I say 'again ' advisedly;maybe it made Prog cool for the first time in fact?
Biting Tongues were a truly uncompromising 'experimental' prog-punk outfit, but there was a hint,or a stench, of accessibility that so much 'experimental' music lacks. You can really play this more than once, maybe even dance to it?.......or maybe not?

Tracklist:

Face Up - The White Valise

A1 Blue Traces 4:38
A2 Dog Face 5:50
A3 Heart Disease 4:20
A4 Or With Eyes Closed 5:56

Face Down - Darkroom Skin Transfers

B1 Stabbing Soft Ice 5:06
B2 You Can Choke Like That 3:51
B3 Walkaway 1:59
B4 Coil 4:40
B5 R.R.O.R. 1:48
B6 Give Diamonds / You Can't 6:40

DOWNLOAD and bite the pillow HERE!

The Mud Hutters ‎– "Factory Farming" (Defensive Records ‎– NATO 3) 1980

" A Small car dwiven at high speed phwoo a cwowded stweet"???? This is worth it just for forcing the singer to sing that line when he has a pronounced lisp. Up there with Toyah's "It'th a mythdery" as the one of the most inadviseable adventures into verbal gymnastics in pop history. Awwww bless?
Check out the lovely Toyah sending herself up on legendary UK 'kids' saturday morning show "Tiswas" back in '81, singing "I'm A Misery", and getting pied by 'The Phantom Flan Flinger'.....click here,it's great stuff.

Oh yes,nearly forgot...., The Mud Hutters were superb post-punky proggy classic UK DIY(but with obvious musicianly talents,especially the drummer), and use the same cheapo organ that all those Manchester bands had at that time,like The Fall and The Spherical Objects; probably the actual same organ that they shared about to save the cash they didn't have.

Tracklist:

A1 Taking The Biscuit
A2 I Can Be
A3 Small Car
A4 Feels Right
A5 Page 39
A6 Bowl Of Cherries
B1 MPC With Me
B2 Coloured Glass
B3 On The Beach
B4 Cultivation
B5 Page 41
B6 Rearranging

DOWNLOAD some free range produce HERE!

The Mud Hutters ‎– "The Declaration EP" (Defensive Records ‎– N.A.T.O. TWO) 1979

A declaration of independance that hasn't become as Ironic as its more celebrated political cousin in the new world.....(Notice I ignored the opportunity to make a NWO pun,mainly because I no longer recognise its existence outside the fantasies of the paranoid masses).
Basically any group which has a lead singer with a speech impediment and a future Diagram brother in it has to be good?......I can confirm that they are very good by the way!Perfect,art damaged lo-fi post-punk from manchester in 1979....can't get better than that combination of wow factors?!
In fact there's more Mud Hutters on the "Four Ways Out" compilation, also on their own Defensive Records label.

Tracklist:

Bouncy Side:

A1 Water Torture
A2 Chances
A3 Stabbings

Hot Side:

B1 Fragments
B2 Danger
B3 It Doesn't Seem To Help Now

I declare this DOWNLOAD open!

The Mud Hutters ‎– "Information EP" (Defensive Records ‎– N.A.T.O. ONE) 1979

As well as The Diagram Brothers, and Dislocation Dance, Andy Diagram was in The Mud Hutters; a lo-fi prog-punk combo who could obviously play their instruments.That's right, a post punk group that included musicians!? Especially impressed by the jazz rock drumming of 'Muddy Dick' (Who I assume was Richard Harrison? Who played with such liminaries as God Is My Co-Pilot,Sterolab,and of course, Dislocation Dance, among many others)
This 33rpm 7" EP, fitted in nicely with the DIY look;the hand printed sleeve,appropriately  muddy sound, standard junior typewriter typeface, and a bunch of unpretentious choons.
"No God" has a disposable John Barry-esque melody line that would not have gone unplaced on an early Dislocation dance record.

Tracklist:

A1 No God
A2 Nice Guy/Left Right
B1 All About
B2 Neolithic Dub

DOWNLOAD from the information EP superhighway HERE!

Dislocation Dance ‎– "Music Music Music" (New Hormones ‎– ORG 15) 1981

The title of this LP by Mancunian Indie-Jazz combo, Dislocation Dance, should really have been 'Muzak Muzak Muzak' and played in shopping malls everywhere,the BBC2 afternoon test-card, with the odd daytime TV theme tune thrown in.Very pleasant it is too, in a Herb Alpert and his Tijuana Brass meets Belle and Sebastian kind of way.
It comes from around the time that groups like Weekend, and Everything but the Girl were polluting the proto-indie stream with their Jazzy Pop blandness.This at least has something spookily strange about its post-punk easy listening vibe, and if it was less 'cool' would have not been out of place being spun in the chill-out rooms of clubbing culture in the nineties.If this was by the Harvey Averne Dozen I would have bought it for the second time around in 1995.
A weird fact is that is was released on the label that kick started the DIY boom, the Buzzcocks' New Hormones, and features Andy Diagram of the wonderful Diagram Brothers, moonighting, on the Trumpet.
They were in fact a lot less polished than this,and a tad more Post-Punky and funky when they appeared on the classic UK DIY Manchester Musicians Collective compilation "Four Ways Out" only the year previously.How fast things moved in them thar days?

Tracklist:

A1 Stand Me Up
A2 Don't Knock Me Down
A3 YOPS Course
A4 Meeting Mum And Dad
A5 Friendship
A6 Take A Chance (On Romance)...
A7 ...Have A Chance
B1 Roof Is Leaking
B2 With A Smile On Your Face And A Frown In Your Heart
B3 Vendetta (Theme)
B4 Narrow Laughs
B5 Footloose
B6 Can't Race Time... And The Mad Killer (Coda)
B7 Wonder What I'll Do Tomorrow

Bonus Tracks:

15 Rosemary (7" single)

16 Shake (B-Side)

17 Can't Race Time....& The Mad killer (12" Version)

18 You'll Never Know (7" Single)

19 You Can Tell (B-Side)

DOWNLOAD some Muzak Muzak Muzak HERE!

Medium Medium ‎– "The Glitterhouse + Singles" (Cherry Red ‎– BRED 19) 1981

Nottingham's contribution to the post-punk funk party, was Medium Medium, last seen on the "Hicks from the Sticks" compilation.
I'd like to say that they were the thinking person's "ABC", but ABC, were the thinking person's ABC.
The best equivalent I could dream up was that they were a moodier, less naff Duran Duran, but without the shit clothes, and lacking  Le Bon's subhuman poetry....(I've still yet to hear any lyrics to beat "You're just about as easy as a nuclear war" for shear pretentious incompetence).
Compared to Duran Duran, Medium Medium (notice the similar group name style?), were Stockhausen.
Around this time there was a fine line between chart friendly naffness and cult status.One minute you're as cool,and as skint, as A Certain Ratio, the next you've turned into Modern Romance and rightly contemplating suicide.
I have a sneaking suspicion that Medium Medium wanted to be Modern Romance,or at least the thinking person's Duran Duran.

Tracklist:

"The Glitterhouse LP":

1 Hungry So Angry 3:54
2 Serbian Village 4:47
3 The Glitterhouse 2:11
4 Guru Maharaj Ji 8:48
5 Further Than Funk Dream 5:56
6 Mice Or Monsters 5:40
7 That Haiku 5:44

BONUS TRACKS:

8 Nadsat Dream (B-side of Hungry so Angry 7")

9 Splendid Isolation (Splendid Isolation EP)

10 If You Touched Her She'd Smear (Splendid Isolation EP)

11 7th Floor (Splendid isolation EP)

12 Them Or Me (7" Single 1979)

DOWNLOAD in hunger not anger HERE!

A Certain Ratio ‎– "The Graveyard And The Ballroom" (Factory ‎– Fact 16) 1980

One of the earliest of the post-punk crowd to introduce the 'Funk'into the 'Punk', was Manchester's shorts wearing doom funk merchants, A Certain Ratio.

Factory undoubtedly flirted with Fascist chic,both in their artwork and the group names.There are obvious examples,but here we're looking at 'A Certain Ratio'. Their name came from a speech by Hitler referring to the ratio of Jewish blood someone needed to have before they were considered as being a Jew.This was later explained away as coming from Eno's song "The True Wheel".....if correct, maybe they should have done a bit more research before using it.....but then again why not? These days all one has to do is mention anything 'Third Reich'-y, and the finger pointers are out labelling one a Nazi.Which is a major violation of the old adage, "Forget the past and you're doomed to repeat it".

A bit like pop music and art I suppose. 

Back when Cassettes were futuristic in conception,this cassette only release,hit the streets in February 1980,and came in plastic pouches of various colours and designs.Not very Nazi-chic,until you see the photo of four sharp young men clad in various tank tops,cardigans,with the odd moustache,then think that this wouldn't have looked out of place on the cover of a Laibach album in the 90's. 

"The Graveyard and the Ballroom" contains 14 tracks: 7 demo songs from a session recorded at Graveyard Studios in September 1979 (side A) and 7 songs from a gig at the Electric Ballroom in October 1979 (side B), together with Joy Division* and The Distractions.

This album captures ACR at their best, still raw (as in BH...before Hannett),Dark and not too funky.

[*NB....Just so happens that I have a bootleg of the Joy Division set from that night as well.....which you can download by clicking HERE!]

Tracklist:

The Graveyard
A1 Do The Du (Casse)
A2 Faceless
A3 Crippled Child
A4 Choir
A5 Flight
A6 I Feel
A7 Strain

The Ballroom
B1 All Night Party
B2 Oceans
B3 The Choir
B4 The Fox
B5 Suspect
B6 Flight
B7 Genotype/Phenotype

DOWNLOAD from beyond the graveyard HERE!

The Pop Group ‎– "Y" (Radar Records ‎– RAD 20) 1979

To wrap up this brief sojourn into the seedy underbelly of post-punk Bristol, we end logically at the beginning, with The Pop Group's rather marvelous "Y" album.
Along with PiL's first two albums and anything by This Heat, this magical record loomed large in my teenage years. Everyone who reads this blog must be familiar with it(surely?),but it can't hurt by posting it again!? 
I hardly noticed the overbearing politics when i was a yoof, but without doubt they must have crept in by osmosis, because I'm the same kind of pain in the arse as Mark Stewart is.......but at least i recognise it and occasionally shut the fuck up!......i do describe my self as a Nihilist these days though,which is a nice cop out for me.
There are so many classic tunes on here, but what i like the best about it is they never thought twice about mangling them up completely, with the help of Brit-Dub producer Dennis 'Blackbeard' Bovell .
"We Are Time" has that classic, 'surely it had been written before' vibe that all classic tunes have.....could have been a hit if Echo and The Bunnymen had released it in its straight form; but with admirable,and fashionable for 1979, anti-commerciality, they walked the walk and rendered it unsellable.Nearly perfect in it's imperfection.....Y?.....because i say so! 

Tracklist:

She Is Beyond Good and Evil

Thief Of Fire
Snowgirl
Blood Money
Savage Sea
We Are Time
Words Disobey Me
Don't Call Me Pain
The Boys From Brazil
Don't Sell Your Dreams

3:38

DOWNLOAD Y and all the other letters of the post-punk alphabet HERE!

The Pop Group ‎– "For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder?" (Rough Trade ‎– ROUGH 9, Y Records ‎– Y 2) 1980

The Pop Group's 'disappointing' second album,is in fact really good; despite some rather chaffing in-yer-face politics.
Snappy album title that, I wonder what these chaps' message to all us unenlightened worker ants is?
The Cover photo is a tactic used today by Charities,whose directors draw huge salaries, on those TV adverts voiced by millionaire actors who urge us to donate £3 a month with a background of sad piano music to manipulate our emotions.Except in this case the background music is designed to turn us into angry militants.......albeit dancing angry militants.
Its kind of patronising, and insulting.......but then again some of us need to be patronised and insulted, so fair enough.
Preaching self-righteousness aside, the music is ferocious punk-funk-dub, spat out with all the venom of a napalm attack on a village of vietnamese children.
The answer to the question?
We will continue to tolerate mass murder, because that's what the human race has always done.One day we will all realise,in all our arrogance, that we are not the chosen ones,but are merely on the top of a food chain and will do anything that maintains that position, including killing the opposition .If that means destroying ourselves then that is what we will do, clearing the way for a more successful species that can manage itself better than Homo-sapiens obviously are incapable of doing.

Tracklist:

1.Forces Of Oppression
2.Feed The Hungry
3.One Out Of Many

4.We Are All Prostitutes
5.Blind Faith
6.How Much Longer
7.Justice
8.There Are No Spectators
9.Communicate
10.Rob A Bank

DOWNLOAD and tolerate the pop group HERE!

The Cortinas ‎– "For Fucks Sake Plymouth (Live in Plymouth 1977)"

Ridiculous title aside, this is an electrified performance captured in the amphetamine charged atmosphere of 1977. This was very relevant for the year of Punk Rock, not 1976, which was the year of the Punk Rock  clique, a club basically which YOU weren't a member of; this all changed in '77 when it became inclusive.Then 1978 it became too inclusive,and the Punks/Chav's destroyed it,and they're still there today, bedecked in studded leather, jeans, boots and that fucking tired Travis Bickle inspired mohawk.Duh!
Thankfully, real Punk ideals split off into what we now call,rather unimaginatively, 'Post-Punk'; back then it was just ALL Punk to us kids.....in retrospect it definitely wasn't Punk Rock....that was crap like the UK Subs, Vice Squad, and the laughably moronic Exploited.
Anyway, enough of this boring 'Punk' analysis. Here we have some proper Punk Rock, with The Cortinas at their peak in the golden year of '77, with several unrecorded songs, on what would have made a fine debut LP. They missed the boat, like a lot of other groups from that era.

Tracklist:

1 Defiant Pose
2 Tired Of Compromise
3 They
4 We're Gonna Play In The Subway Today
5 Further Education
6 Fascist Dictator
7 Tokyo Joe
8 Gloria
9 Gonna Get Mary In The Bus Shelter
10 Have It With You
11 Television Families
12 Have It With You
13 Slow down

For Fucks sake DOWNLOAD this relic HERE!