Request: WORLD DOMINATION ENTERPRISES - Let's Play Domination

LP Product Inc. 1988
CD reissue Free Love Records 2009 with bonus tracks



"During the days that Melody Maker liked to call 'arsequake', World Domination Enterprises were never far from the spotlight, but their star seemed to fade quickly with the passing of time. Nowadays Keith Dobson is better known for his time with hippie-punk straddlers Here And Now, his Fuck Off Records label, Street Level Studios and his previous band The 012, who released an album on Flicknife called Let's Get Professional. World Domination Enterprices formed in 1985, the parody of their name carried through on press releases and other publicity gimmicks designed to publicise the band and the issues that interested them. Their debut signle was the environmental protest Asbestos Lead Asbestos. The played this live, busker fashion, in The City business district in London. They went on to release several singles and two LPs before splitting circa 1990".
(angelfire.com)

"The disturbing noise/chaos level achieved by this angular Ladbroke Grove (London) trio - formed by singer/guitarist Keith Dobson after the dissolution of his previous band, 012 - is indeed something marvelous. The astonishing high-pressure racket of Let's Play Domination's opening salvo (Message for You People) may send you rushing to the turntable to see if your stylus is accidentally gouging a hole in the platter. Besides sturdily unsettling originals, the album - clearly a stiff-upper-lip cousin to Big Black, Birthday Party and other punishing pain-inflicters - includes a relatively straight rendition of L.L. Cool J's I Can't Live Without My Radio as well as deranged interpretations of Lipps, Inc.'s Funkytown and a U-Roy number. As Dobson layers on the scathing, slithery guitar and sings in a plain, serviceable voice, the rhythm section lurches and pounds in a tight phalanx; producer Dave Allen captures the entire meltdown with thrilling clarity".
(Ira Robbins, Trouser Press)

ENJOY


Asbestos Lead Asbestos

THAT PETROL EMOTION - Manic Pop Thrill

LP Demon Records 1986
CD reissue Diablo Records 1997 with bonus tracks



"Damian and John O'Neill left the ashes of the Undertones behind with few prospects for their musical future. While Feargal Sharkey began his transformation into a boring California pop chanteur, they lay low, quietly scorning the business that had shattered their teenage dreams. After several false starts, they launched That Petrol Emotion, an excellent Gaelic-conscious quintet that built on past accomplishments without revisiting them. Damian took up bass, big brother John (now known as Seán) and Derry homeboy Reámann O'Gormáin play guitar, drummer Ciaran McLaughlin and New York (by way of Seattle) singer Steve Mack completed the band, which was politically aware, occasionally abrasive and devoutly independent. Manic Pop Thrill is an apt title for an album of angry, articulate rock melodies that span the continuum from sweet balladry to PiL/Fall-like noise. Mack is a fine, controlled shouter in the Keith Relf/Steve Marriott tradition; the band's combination of slide guitars, Bo Diddley beats, wild harmonica wailing and raveup energy recalls the early Stones, Yardbirds and Velvet Underground. The utter lack of nostalgia or revivalism here suggests that, even with all the crap that masquerades as music nowadays, some things about rock 'n' roll will never die".
(Ira Robbins, Trouser Press)

"That Petrol Emotion's scintillating debut reminds everyone, first and foremost, what an incredible musical alliance the O'Neill brothers can be. Following a succession of independent singles (after all, who wanted to touch a couple of ex-Undertones in the mid-'80s?), they settled on Demon for this inspired debut. It's a Good Thing, Mouth Crazy, and Circusville are typical of the contents - relentless pop hooks married to surging guitar chords, underpinned by hints of swamp blues and nods to garage rock and other mutant strains of the rock & roll animal. As naked, bold, and impassioned a record as had been heard in years. The title says it all".
(Alex Ogg, All-Music Guide)

ENJOY


Natural Kind of Joy

COWBOY JUNKIES - Whites Off Earth Now!!

LP Latent Records 1986
CD reissue RCA/BMG 1990



"Although it didn't originally have anything to do with their sound, the Cowboy Junkies' name wound up seeming pretty accurate: their music was grounded in traditional country, blues, and folk, yet drifted along in a sleepy, narcotic haze that clearly bore the stamp of the Velvet Underground. The vast majority of their songs were spare and quiet, taken at lethargic tempos and filled with languid guitars and detached, ethereal vocals courtesy of Margo Timmins. Over the late '80s and '90s, the group recorded a succession of critically acclaimed albums that found favor in the alternative rock community".
(Steve Huey, All-Music Guide)

"Featuring only one original song, the Cowboy Junkies' debut, Whites Off Earth Now!!, captures the band forming their own sound through covers, including songs by Robert Johnson and Bruce Springsteen. It's not as captivating as their later releases, but it's fascinating to hear their signature country-on-valium sound develop. Margo Timmins sings beautifully".
(Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All-Music Guide)

"The Junkies' shimmering 1986 debut immediately catches your attention simply because of the unique concept: a lethargic, languid, country-tinged band interpreting an emotionally intense art form - the blues - with utter detachment. Seven of the nine cuts are blues covers (including three from John Lee Hooker and two from Robert Johnson), with one original and one stark Springsteen cover tossed in for good measure. The formula succeeds magically, thanks to Margo Timmins's drowsy, pristine vocals, Michael Timmins's gently snapping guitar, Alan Anton's quietly rumbling bass, and Peter Timmins's soft percussion palette. Whites not only serves as a perfect introduction to the doleful Junkie aesthetic, it somehow makes apathy sound compelling".
(Marc Greilsamer)

ENJOY


State Trooper

POESIE NOIRE - Love Is Colder Than Death

LP Antler Subway 1989
CD Antler Subway 1989 with bonus tracks



"Poesie Noire were a Belgian band that rose to prominence in the mid-80's and whose active career lasted until the early 1990s. Their Belgian origins and tendency to develop a goth-oriented, synthetic, gloomy universe with low-pitched voices (...) had them categorized as EBM such as other Belgian members of the 1980s industrial music scene like à;GRUMH or A Split-Second. However, much in the manner of various renowned Belgian EBM bands like The Neon Judgement and, to some extent, Front 242, they declared, through their music, a will to step away from the usual industrial aggressiveness that characterized Electronic Body Music and developed a more mainstream accessible dark pop sound that helped them to be regarded as plain New Wave or Goth New Wave".
(Wikipedia.com)

"'You never know with Jo Casters', we've written this already many times. But with this album Love Is Colder Than Death he beats everything. It seems that the New Beat had a positive effect on him because this Poesie Noire is unrecognizable. No samples, no electronics, no more growling. Instead of this we get a sensitive album full of acoustic instruments, soft, darkbrown vocals, black romanticism. We can hear the very early Poesie Noire again, the period of Gioconda Smile when Casters and Co. were an alternative danceband with recognizable songs".
(Dirk Hermans, Backstage review)

ENJOY


Oblivion

DUET EMMO - Or So It Seems

LP Mute Records 1983
CD reissue Mute Records 1992 with bonus track



"Originally released in 1983, Duet Emmo's Or So It Seems was one of the numerous projects pursued by Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis during Wire's hiatus in the early '80s. While preparing the third Dome album, the pair began working with Mute Records founder Daniel Miller, brains behind the Silicon Teens and also known as The Normal, whose single T.V.O.D. / Warm Leatherette had been a foundational recording for electro-pop. In theory, Duet Emmo - an anagrammatic combination of the names Dome and Mute - promised to be an engaging hybrid of Gilbert and Lewis' abstract, minimal textures and Miller's rigid, song-based electronics. However, Or So It Seems didn't completely realize that potential and the album is less a seamless marriage of the collaborators' aesthetics than an awkward cohabitation of abstruse Dome material with more accessible and melodic synth-oriented fare. (...) The trio's composite name suggested a blending of creative identities. Nevertheless, the fruit of this collaboration is a largely schizophrenic affair in which the Dome-flavored material accounts for the less compelling moments. ".
(Wilson Neate, All-Music Guide)

ENJOY


The First Person

AMERICAN MUSIC CLUB - California

LP / CD Frontier Records 1988



"Although chosen for its deliberately nondescript qualities, in retrospect the name American Music Club was the perfect moniker for the lauded San Francisco-based band led by singer/songwriter Mark Eitzel: over the course of nine acclaimed albums, the group tied together the disparate strands of the American musical fabric — rock, folk, country, punk, even lounge schmaltz — into a remarkably distinct and riveting whole, creating a brilliant and cohesive body of work dappled by moments of haunting beauty and impenetrable darkness".
(Jason Ankeny, All-Music Guide)

"When the time came to record California, Eitzel’s personal circumstances had changed. He had moved to one of San Francisco’s less salubrious areas. A down at heal neighbourhood of bedsits, bars and strip joints populated by the lost, broken, drunk and lonely. Perfect grist to the mill for a songwriter with Eitzel eye for the dispossessed. Eitzel had also changed his listening habits in a conscious attempt to strip the traces of 'rock' from the songs he was writing. Overdosing on Nick Drake records, the demo’s that he brought to the band where radically different from anything he had preciously attempted. Many where not 'songs' at all, in the conventional sense, just tiny fragments of despair, lacking choruses or even chord progressions. (...) California fused Eitzel’s stories of loss, regret and loneliness to a sound that echoed his obsessions. The album reverberates to the haunting sounds of empty spaces, brooding silences, quite eddies of feedback and washes of pedal steel guitar".
(Tony Heywood)

Read entire review here

ENJOY


Pale and Skinny Girl

FRIENDS AGAIN - Trapped and Unwrapped

LP Mercury/Phonogram 1984
CD reissue Fontana 1989 with bonus tracks



"While many of their compatriots wrote new wave pop songs propelled by jangling guitars, Glasgow, Scotland's Friends Again distinguished themselves from their peers by combining '60s-influenced rock with funk, R&B, and country. Featuring Chris Thompson (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), James Grant (lead guitar, vocals), Neil Cunningham (bass), Paul McGeechan (keyboards), and Stuart Kerr (drums), Friends Again formed in 1982. The band produced three singles, Sunkissed, Honey at the Core, and State of Art on Moonbot Records before signing to Mercury Records. The group released a self-titled EP in 1983 and then recorded their debut album, Trapped and Unwrapped, in 1984. The LP explored the band's various musical influences, veering from '70s-style funk (Lullaby No. 2) to soulful balladry (Old Flame) sung with Thompson's David Bowie-esque croon. However, the LP received mixed reviews, namely for Bob Sargeant's slick production, and it was also a commercial failure. Longing for an outlet for his own songs, Grant left the group in 1984, and Friends Again immediately fell apart. Grant formed Love and Money in 1985, delving deeper in the funk, R&B, and country influences that guided Friends Again. McGeechan, Kerr, and Cunningham followed Grant in Love and Money while Thompson created The Bathers in 1987".
(Michael Sutton, All-Music Guide)

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State of Art

Request: DELTA 5 - Singles & Sessions

Original recordings 1979-1981
Compilation CD Kill Rock Stars 2006



"The original members of Delta 5, Julz Sale (vocals/guitar), Ros Allen (bass) and Bethan Peters (bass), formed the band 'on a lark', but soon became a part of the thriving Leeds post-punk scene, and later added Kelvin Knight on drums and Alan Riggs on guitar. Combining feminist politics with a two-bass funk-punk sound (much in the style of another, more famous Leeds band, Gang of Four), they released in 1979 their debut single, Mind Your Own Business. (...) Delta 5 were also important figures in the Rock Against Racism movement, and were the subject of a highly-publicized assault at the hands of a right-wing group affiliated with rival movement Rock Against Communism. After the release of second single You, the band went on a very successful tour of the US, and soon thereafter left Rough Trade for Charisma Records imprint Pre. They recorded their debut album, See the Whirl, which suffered from overly clean production, and received low marks both critically and commercially. Because of the failure of the album, the group disbanded".
(wikipedia.com)

ENJOY


Mind Your Own Business

THE FLYING LIZARDS - The Flying Lizards

LP Virgin Records 1979
CD reissue Virgin Records Japan 1995 with bonus tracks
Japanese 20-bit remaster



"The Flying Lizards are remembered by most listeners as new wave one-hit wonders thanks to their deliberately eccentric cover of Barrett Strong's Money, which became a surprise chart success in 1979. But the Flying Lizards were in fact the brainchild of David Cunningham, a well-respected avant-garde composer, producer, and visual artist, and it became one of the first salvos in a long and fascinating career".
(Mark Deming, All-Music Guide)

Thanks to the break-away success of the Money (That's What I Want) single, this Dada/Fluxus inspired debut album by The Flying Lizards became an instant sleeper (even being released on 8 track!), and ultimately made it onto a certain generation's list of 'favorite albums of all time' because of it's catchy humor and accessibly abstract qualities. Arty and erratic, but somehow symmetrical, this album has everything from irreverent Zappa/Residents humor and catchy Kraftwerk robotics, to Eno sound-scapes and chilly, Joni Mitchell-esque ballads framed in Cage found-sound hi-jinks. The postmodern subjects of the album are often presented in a quirky and robotic sound that was appropriate for (and slightly ahead of) it's time. Yet for the Lizards, even when the sound of the music is stop/start herky-jerky and Devo-esque, it's mid tempo sound is heavily reverb-ed, spacious and soothing. In some of the album's brightest moments, themes of 80's materialism and Orwellian prophecy are conveyed not with synths, samples and deconstructed 4/4 beats, but with sounds of breezy dub, homemade percussion and the hum-able summer dusk ambiance of your favorite modern suburb".
(markallencam.com)

ENJOY


Money (That's What I Want)

MIRACLE LEGION - Me and Mr. Ray

LP / CD Rough Trade 1989



"Miracle Legion were a Connecticut-based band that immediately sprung to life on the heels of post-R.E.M. guitar-rock boom, chiefly because lead singer Mark Mulcahy's voice bore an uncanny resemblance to Michael Stipe's, and the arpeggio guitar structures were akin to Peter Buck's. But the band, Ray Neal (guitar), Jeff Wiederschall (drums) and Steven West (bass), and later just Mulcahy and Neal, ultimately became unique in their own right. (...) By 1989, Mulcahy and guitarist Ray Neal were working as a duo and released Me and Mr. Ray a savvy acoustic album on Rough Trade. Having abandoned the R.E.M. sound, the band found their own direction as a country-rock duo. Mulcahy continues to perform as a solo acoustic artist".
(Denise Sullivan, All-Music Guide)

"Starting out in 1984, Miracle Legion released a few EPs with little fanfare before signing to Rough Trade in 1987. During this three-year period, they garnered minor college radio success, but were always dogged by lazy, cursory comparisons to R.E.M. Ostensibly, these comparisons might seem valid, but contrasting Stipe and Mulcahy's approach to songcraft paints a wildly divergent picture. It wasn't until Me and Mr. Ray, their third proper full-length, that Miracle Legion started to chart new directions and shake erroneous associations. From opening track The Ladies From Town, it's obvious that Mr. Ray is a more idiosyncratic and experimental endeavor, though it doesn't end up straying too far from the pop hooks the band were so good at. In lieu of jangly, electric guitars, the majority of the album favors pristine acoustic arrangements and playfully abstract lyrics, often bolstered with equally youthful and capricious instrumentation. Even more, the rhythm section seems much further subdued (You're The One Lee), even disappearing altogether at points (Old & New). Through conscious effort, Mulcahy's songwriting is in the forefront, resulting in newfound sense of immediacy. You can't help but give Me and Mr. Ray your full attention as it shifts from fast-paced folk songs like The Ladies From Town to dark, slow-burning ballads like Pull The Wagon, which acts as the album's centerpiece and is arguably the most complex and bleak song Miracle Legion ever penned".
(tinymixtapes.com)

ENJOY


Pull the Wagon

CARTER THE UNSTOPPABLE SEX MACHINE - 101 Damnations

LP / CD Big Cat UK Records 1990



"Carter the Unstoppable Smartalecks is more like it. Two of the brightest bulbs ever to hook themselves to a drum machine and let rip, South London's Fruitbat (Leslie Carter, guitar) and Jim Bob (Morrison, vocals) - veterans of a dozen years together in various obscure bands - seem like the kind of overstimulated chums who would have given teachers fits in school. Their energetic albums employ the clattering drive and sampling inserts of industrial music, the verbosity of rap, the bratty topical posturing of punk's intellectual wing and the melodies of chart pop. Packed to the gills with product and people names, inverted puns, non-didactic political outrage and persistent rock gripping in its breathless enthusiasm, the runaway sequencer-driven doses of scattershot literate whimsy (shades of Dylan on acid) can be far too chaotic and complicated. But for those raised on Mad magazine and methedrine, Carter is a dream come true, a contact high of instant culture overload. If only the ultra-British records came with footnotes".
(Ira Robbins, Trouser Press)

ENJOY


Sheriff Fatman

SLEEPERS - The Less An Object

Original recordings 1978-1981
Compilation CD Tim Kerr Records 1996



"One of the earliest San Francisco punk bands, the Sleepers were also one of the first U.S. outfits to stretch the boundaries of the style into what is recognized today as 'post-punk'. Featuring the deep vocals and inscrutable lyrics of singer Ricky Williams (formerly a drummer with Crime), the Sleepers' material stressed ominous atmosphere, throbbing bass lines, and quirky instrumental shifts that challenged the rigid bash-'em-out structures of early punk. Particularly in their later days, their recordings looked forward to elements of goth rock, in both Williams' increasingly Bowie-esque vocal delivery and the sophisticated electric guitar textures. The Sleepers' obscurity is mostly attributable to their sparse output, which was limited to a 1978 EP, a single, and a 1981 LP, all on small labels with limited distribution. Williams, an instable character who was thrown out of an embryonic lineup of Flipper for being too weird, later sang with the Toiling Midgets, and died in 1992. Drummer Tim Mooney, also a member of Toiling Midgets, went on to work with American Music Club. [The Less An Object is] a comprehensive retrospective of this minor but significant band's slim recorded legacy. The 18 tracks include the 1978 EP, a single, a limited edition 7-inch, seven songs from their sole album, and a couple of previously unreleased cuts. Considering their sparse body of work, the collection is fairly diverse; punk rockers will much prefer the early EP tracks, while goth-mongers and post-moderns will be more attracted to the later, more intricate compositions and arrangements".
(Richie Unterberger, All-Music Guide)

ENJOY


Theory

Request: LiLiPUT - Liliput

Original recordings 1978-1983
Compilation 2xCD Kill Rock Stars 2001



"During the punk rock era of the late '70s, there were three bands comprised of women who made some of the best, most adventurous, exhilarating, and most critically derided music of the time. Two were the English bands The Slits and The Raincoats, and the third band, from Switzerland, was Liliput. Fans of all three bands will argue ad infinitum as to who was the better. But one thing is for certain: Liliput was an amazing band that recorded amazing music, and comparing what they accomplished to that of another band is a useless intellectual exercise. Besides, it detracts from valuable listening time".
(John Dougan, All-Music Guide)

"Liliput were one of the finest in their field, male or female. From their punkier singles as Kleenex to their more avant-garde developments as Liliput, this compilation offers over two solid hours of great music that hasn't depreciated at all. In light of all the bands they've inspired, this stuff probably sounds even better than it did when it was first issued".
(Andy Kellman, All-Music Guide)

LISTEN
&
ENJOY


Die Matrosen


A Silver Key Can Open an Iron Lock Somewhere

ABOVE THE RUINS - Songs of the Wolf

Cassette Grimnir 1984
MiniLP reissue First Floor Records 1986
CD reissue Tursa 1996



"After being asked to leave Death In June, Tony Wakeford formed Above the Ruins. None of the group's releases name any of its members, but it has been suggested that Liz Grey, Ian Read and Gary Smith (of No Remorse) were also involved. Above the Ruins released one EP, entitled Songs of the Wolf. The album's sound was similar to the dark post-punk of early Death In June. The group also contributed a track to the British National Front benefit album No Surrender vol 1 alongside the Nazi groups Skrewdriver and Brutal Attack. Wakeford has stated that he has had no connection or interest in such ideas for 20 or more years. He formed Sol Invictus shortly after this project was abandoned".
(wikipedia.com)

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Progress

PUNISHMENT OF LUXURY - Laughing Academy

LP United Artists 1979
CD reissue Dojo Limited 1993 with bonus tracks



"Punishment of Luxury, or Punilux as they were sometimes called for short, formed in the North East of England in 1976. The group, which initially consisted of Brian Bond (vocals, keyboards), Jeff Thwaite (drums), Malla Caballa (guitar, vocals), Nevill Luxury (guitar, keyboards) and Jimmy Giro (bass), released their debut single, Puppet Life, in 1978. (...) If you can imagine a punk band, all of whose members were suffering from schizophrenia, then that is something like what Punishment of Luxury sound like on the demented The Laughing Academy. While the album has a very earthy punk sound, the mood and the tempo of the songs changes constantly throughout. I don’t think that you could get a band more individual. The Laughing Academy is like a story book. Each track on the album tells a tale very different from the last one. It is the equivalent of watching a video or a DVD consisting of several different episodes of The Twilight Zone..."
(pennyblackmusic.co.uk)

ENJOY


Laughing Academy

MICK KARN - Titles

LP Virgin Records 1982
CD reissue Virgin Records 1990 with bonus track



"Multi-instrumentalist Mick Karn's first album as a solo artist reveals the significant degree to which Japan's sound was shaped by his bass playing. The presence of Japan drummer Steve Jansen and keyboardist Richard Barbieri, combined with Karn's own singing style (which owes a heavy debt to former bandmate David Sylvian), only strengthens the impression that this is a Japan album in all but name. While Karn plays various woodwinds and keyboards as well as bass on Titles, it is his amazingly agile and creative fretless bass playing that holds center stage, even when he is singing".
(Rick Anderson, All-Music Guide)

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Sensitive

Request: VARIOUS ARTISTS - Air Balloon Road

Original recordings 1987-1990

Compilation CD Sarah Records 1990

"During the first years of its existence, Sarah Records adhered to a strict policy of releasing only vinyl and only 7" singles, so when the label first started compiling those records in digital format via compilations like Shadow Factory and Temple Cloud, it was surprising enough; Air Balloon Road was even more of a shock, however, a 23-cut label best-of that effectively distilled Sarah's history thus far into a single aluminum disc, a concession to contemporary purchasing and listening habits that seemed entirely antithetical to the cloistered, indie-snob mentality at the core of the label's aesthetic. Or perhaps Sarah founders Matt Haynes and Clare Wadd realized that CD compilations like Air Balloon Road gave the label's focus real shape - only when stacked side by side did the scope of Sarah's singles output become truly obvious, revealing both the uniform melodicism and the subtle gradations of this lovelorn, bookish guitar pop. So if you're new to Sarah and willing to shell out the cash Air Balloon Road now commands in collectors' circles, it's a great place to start - highlights like Another Sunny Day's I'm in Love With a Girl Who Doesn't Know I Exist, the Field Mice's Sensitive, and the Sea Urchins' Pristine Christine are near-definitive examples of what the label was all about, and they've aged at least as well as any pop music of their era".
(Jason Ankeny, All-Music Guide)

ENJOY


Pristine Christine

BOW WOW WOW - The Best of Bow Wow Wow

Original recordings 1980-1983 &1986
Compilation CD RCA Records 1996



"Bow Wow Wow may have been easily dismissed by some as rock entrepreneur Malcolm McLaren's creation, but the band deserved better. Combining musicians lured away from Adam and the Ants (with whom McLaren had briefly worked) and fifteen-year-old singer Annabella Lwin, the ever-provocative McLaren formed the band, launching their career via a 45, C-30, C-60, C-90 Go, which espoused the virtues of home taping at a time when the band's record company (and virtually all others) were beginning to bitterly oppose it".
(Scott Isler / Ira Robbins, Trouser Press)

"The Best of Bow Wow Wow is a thorough overview of Malcolm McLaren's manufactured new wave pop group, featuring all the highlights of the group's albums and EPs - including, of course, I Want Candy, but also Go Wild in the Country, W.O.R.K. and Do You Want to Hold Me - as well as the previously unreleased Where's My Snake. Since the group didn't make consistent albums, The Best of Bow Wow Wow is the best way to listen to the band, since it features every one of their worthwhile tracks, plus good liner notes".
(Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All-Music Guide)

LINK REMOVED


I Want Candy

LOWLIFE - The Black Sessions

Limited edition promo LP Nightshift 1988



"Lowlife were formed in Grangemouth 1985 when original Cocteau Twins bassist Will Heggie joined former Dead Neighbours members Craig Lorentsen, Grant McDowell and Stuart Everest. Their atmospheric, moody soundscapes were often compared to Joy Division, New Order, Comsat Angels and – yes – The Cocteau Twins, yet the band received widespread acclaim over the course of six albums released through indie label Nightshift: Rain (1985), Permanent Sleep (1986), Diminuendo (1987), Godhead (1989), The Black Sessions (1988), San Antorium (1991) and Gush (1995)".
(LTM Publishing publicity release)

"Lowlife emerge from a distant eerie grace, out of an echo or pause with unworldly drama. The isolation, resonance of this music can bring to mind the notion of music of the spheres. (...) Inevitably though, Lowlife are most profound when they are devastatingly desolate. They remain immaculate sonic tragedians, utterly peerless".
(Ian Gittins, Melody Maker)

"During 1988 plans were laid for the next album, and in the summer the band started to record assorted demos at Stuart's house on an old Portastudio and even more ancient two-track Revox. These songs were to form the basis of Godhead more than a year later - as well as what has become known as The Black Album, something of a holy grail amongst Lowlife devotees. What happened was this. The demos were presented to Jeff at Working Music, who in turn was tied to Chappell Music, where one Charlie Gladstone was based. He also ran an in-house label - Idea Records - and it was intended that the album would be financed and released by them. Chappell then pressed up around 250 copies of the 1988 demos in a plain black sleeve and circulated these around the business, mainly at the Midem trade festival in Cannes in January 1989. Stephen Fellows of The Comsat Angels heard the demos, and agreed to produce the next album at Axis in Sheffield. I personally was a huge fan of The Comsats since interviewing them during my time writing for Sounds. However, all was dependent upon our next option with Working Music and Chappell being exercised to fund the sessions. However US giant Warner Bros Music took over the Chappell operation, and the new regime didn't like what they'd heard about Lowlife, or our reputation, or the ICA incident, or the cost of taking up the option. So we were dropped, and gloom and despondency set in".
(Brian Guthrie, Nightshift)

ENJOY


Moved To Tears

THE SOUND - The BBC Recordings

Original recordings 1980-81 & 1985
Compilation 2xCD Renascent 2004



"'I can't believe how good we sound', writes drummer Mike Dudley in the sleevenotes, and indeed for fans of this colossal, neglected group, here's a find on a par with nectar on Mars. From various sessions and In Concert performances emerge four glorious bursts of adrenalin-dripping art-rock, too fast and furious but all the more exhilarating for that. On earlier songs like Heartland and Winning, the late, great Adrian Borland was a match for any singer or guitarist on the planet at that moment. By '85, frustration's creeping in, but on Under You and a scorching Missiles he makes it work for him. U2? Joy Division? Bunnymen? They pale in this band's shadow".
(Chris Roberts, Uncut)

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I Can't Escape Myself

Request: THE FIELD MICE - Where'd You Learn To Kiss That Way?

Original recordings Sarah Records 1988-1991
Compilation 2xCD Shinkansen Recordings 1998



"Although revered in certain indie circles, for far too long the Field Mice appeared in danger of languishing as the great lost pop band of the early '90s, with their records out of print and fetching obscene prices on the collector's market. A lavish two-disc retrospective worthy of their growing legacy, the extraordinary Where'd You Learn to Kiss That Way? finally restores the group to their rightful prominence, assembling all of the key tracks they released on the legendary Sarah label between 1988 and 1991. With their shimmering guitars, indelible melodies, lush arrangements, and Bobby Wratten's heartbreaking songs, in retrospect the Field Mice now seem like the missing link between the Smiths and Belle & Sebastian - at their best (Emma's House, This Love Is Not Wrong, Coach Station Reunion, and countless others), they achieve the same kind of pop transcendence, spinning tales of love and loss with an elegance and grandeur that are often breathtaking. And while it's a shame Shinkansen didn't opt to include a third disc and release the band's complete recorded output, each of the 36 tracks which did make the cut sparkles. No longer lost, the Field Mice were simply a great pop band, and with Where'd You Learn to Kiss That Way?, their music might finally reach the wide audience it so richly deserves".
(Jason Ankeny, All-Music Guide)

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&
ENJOY


If You Need Someone

LYDIA LUNCH - Honeymoon In Red

Originally recorded 1982/83
LP Widowspeak 1987
CD reissue Widowspeak 1990 with bonus track



"After leaving the seminal New York no wave outfit Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, poet/actress/vocalist Lydia Lunch embarked on a solo career marked by frequent collaborations and band changes, plus an attitude of confrontational nihilism expressed in both her sound and her often violent and/or sexually oriented subject matter".
(Steve Huey, All-Music Guide)

"Lydia Lunch collaborated with a wide variety of musicians on Honeymoon in Red, including Clint Ruin (later known as Jim Foetus), Roland S. Howard and the Birthday Party. The result isn't that much different from the standard Lunch album, but it has a stronger collection of songs than her average album, and the Birthday Party captures the sound of urban life imploding, which is the sound Lunch is always striving to achieve".
(Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All-Music Guide)

"Lydia Lunch is not a drug-adled weirdo performing for a slavish tribe of punks - Honeymoon In Red is an album fired by a sad but wise consciousness. It's the sound of America dying".
(Jane Solanas, New Musical Express)

"Honeymoon In Red is a magnificent ruin".
(Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker)

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Done Dun

THE PASTELS - Suck On The Pastels: Retrogressive 1983-1985

Compilation CD Creation Records 1988



"Thoroughly wistful and eternally childlike, Glasgow's The Pastels exemplify a much maligned style of UK music that was, for a time, referred to as 'anorak pop'. Characterized by an amateurish devotion to '60s pop conventions and wide-eyed naïveté, the sound is as lovable as it is easily copied. The Pastels have the distinction of being more influential than imitative, and are one of the better outfits working in this well-trod arena. Formed in the early '80s by singer/guitarist Stephen Pastel (McRobbie), The Pastels were among the first indie-pop bands to mount a do-it-yourself aesthetic based on a wide-eyed, almost childlike view of the world but grounded in a '60s-revering love for sweet melodies and beholden to 'a rejection of orthodox pathways', as Stephen Pastel spells it out in the notes to the Truckload of Trouble compilation. That ethos threw the band in line with punk, at least ideologically; musically, The Pastels' avoidance of such accepted premises as singing on key made the group pop rebels to some, a hard-to-acquire taste for others. But like their American cousins Beat Happening, The Pastels' effusive charm elevates the artistic reach of their endeavors, yielding a number of wonderfully memorable songs".
(Trouser Press)

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