Colin Newman - CN1

Colin Newman - CN1

Limited release six song 1982 EP from Wire's Colin Newman, released in the massively prolific time between Wire splitting and and reforming. Mainly posted as H.C.T.F.R is one of my favorite Wire/Newman songs.

Awfully busy at the moment, hence the rather more infrequent updates, am working on collaborators to hopefully pad things up a bit. Watch this space.....

New Order - Xmas Flexi Disc

New Order - Xmas Flexi Disc

Okay, I'm massively out of season with this, but no matter. Given away at the Haçienda on Christmas Eve 1982, this flexi disc contains a cover of Beethoven's Ode To Joy and a xmas flavoured piece called Rocking Carol. Very minimal sounding and there was confusion for a long time if this was actually New Order at all. A nice little rarity from their early days.

(Given catalogue number Fac51b as the Haçienda was Fac51)

Chameleons - Strip

Chameleons - Strip

This seems to be deleted now and is on the likes of Amazon for silly money so I'd thought I'd share it. The first fruits of the Chameleons reunion back in 2000, an acoustic album of old tracks and two new songs, one of which is the beautiful instrumental Road To San Remo. I know "acoustic album" is a term that sends me fleeing to the eject button normally, but this is a beautiful album, and the version of Nathan's Phase here might even better the original.

Soon after this, they'd release a proper new album (which as comebacks go was pretty bloody good) and embark on a reunion tour which I managed to miss due to being in my late teens and utterly skint. This fact still annoys the bejesus out of me to this day. Next time Mark Burgess comes anywhere near these shores with a guitar I don't care what I've got on, I'm bloody well there.

Pulp - Everybody's Problem

Pulp - Everybody's Problem

Released a few months after It, this was Pulp attempting pop. An upbeat, toe-tappy number that pretty much killed the first phase of Pulp and saw a new line up return in 1984 with a far darker style that would (a few years later at least due to record company joys) culminate in Freaks. The b-side is a bit more subdued and more in the style of the previous album. Both tracks were on the original reissue of It back in 1994, but were dropped from the later release.

A curio then, and a half decent song that didn't really deserve to be lost in obscurity.

Serge Gainbourg - Love On The Beat

Serge Gainbourg - Love On The Beat

Serge meets synth in 1984. A strange album with Larry Fast (synth composer who worked with, er, Peter Gabriel) that sees Gainsbourg using synths in his music with mixed results. Lemon Incest is the most famous track here, a duet with his 12 year old daughter with a rather uncomfortable video. I'm sure it didn't do her any harm, as Charlotte Gainsbourg can now be found in infamous new film Anti-Christ, where she smashes a chap's bollocks with a block of wood before masturbating him until he ejaculates blood.

Anyway, it's not a bad album. I'm rather fond of Harley David, Son of a Bitch (covered by the Bollock Brothers), which is a mission statement if I've ever heard one.

The Macs - The Cowboy Song/Walking Down The Street (7" Single) and I'm 37

The Macs - The Cowboy Song/Walking Down The Street (7" Single) and I'm 37

I've been meaning to post these for ages.....What we have here is the entire recorded output of The Macs, a whole three songs (though I would *love* to be proven wrong about this). One 7" single and a track on a compilation album (Seattle Syndrome) from 1980/81. I'm 37 is the highlight, late night dread at the 24-7, watching the world going by but not truly being part of it. "What they do I wouldn't know, but they always seem to have a place to go". Existentialist, eerie punk with brains. Cowboy Song is a bit more raucous, but Walking Down The Street is along the same lines. I know very little about this lot, they may or may not have had a 3 Swimmers and Cinema 90 connection but I can't find anything concrete. I can't even remember how I first heard them now, they're a barely remembered ghost of a band, making them all the more haunting. Excellent stuff.

Fad Gadget - Collapsing New People (7" Single)

Fad Gadget - Collapsing New People (7" Single)

Is this one of the greatest singles ever released? Yes. Yes it is. Frank Tovey and chums team up with Einstürzende Neubauten (Collapsing New Buildings....Collapsing New People....DO YOU SEE?) to produce pure undiluted GENIUS. Tarred and feathered, Frank Tovey would stalk the stage wiping muck on his white suited band members to the sound of unrelenting steel. Industrial music for industrial people, clunk click every trip. B-side is Spoil the Child, which never hit the reissues and has female lead vocals.... not too shabby.

Back in my "DJ"ing days I think one of my finest moments was sneaking this on in the middle of a set of disco and getting a room full of suits who had taken a wrong turn on a Easter Weekend to get the fuck down to Fad Gadget.

I've started to get me some collaborators, more bang for your buck duckies. Don't say I'm not good to you.

Six Finger Satellite - live in Michigan 1995

6FS - Live in Grand Rapids 15/10/95

Six Finger Satellite = Absurdly frenetic noise-dance-punk from mid-nineties Rhode Island (of course). You have possibly heard the excellently/ridiculously-titled Moog-freakout single Rabies (Baby's Got The) but if not you ought to as it's rictus-grin-inducingly mental (not to mention insanely danceable), and will likely spur you on to getting hold of their other stuff.

Here is a recording of their gig in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1995, a few months after the release of their sterling third album Severe Exposure. It's basically a set comprised of the songs from the album apart from, sadly, the wonderfully OTT closer Board The Bus (perhaps they couldn't make the requisite random machine-gunfire sounds of the track in a "live context" without actually shooting people). The sound quality's not amazing, as is the wont of a bootleg, but it's alright, and the songs stand up to it. It's a bit Gang Of Foury, a bit Crampsy, a bit Damnedy, but much noisier, synthier and spazzier than all three, and all marvellous. Get the record (I'm not uploading it here as it's on S*b P*p) if you can; it's really quite excellent.

Non-interesting factoid: James Murphy, now of DFA Records/LCD Soundsystem fame, produced the band's last album Law Of Ruins. Bye!

Malaria! - Weisses Wasser/White Water 12"

Malaria! - Weisses Wasser/White Water 12"

1982 single from Malaria, A-side Kaltes Klares Wasser was covered by Chicks On Speed back in 2000 and is probably their most high profile song, the b-side (Weisser Himmel Weisses Meer) is an eight minute dirge that I hated first time I heard it but it's grown on me over the years. Top shelf Neue Deutsche Welle to be sure.

Care - My Boyish Days (12")

Care - My Boyish Days (12")

The first single from Care, which was Paul Simpson from the Wild Swans and Ian Broudie (Zoo producer and later of the Lightning Seeds). Optimistic pop on a grand scale that outweighed it's beginnings from the tragic split of the first and most magical incarnation of the Wild Swans.

I'm enormously happy to report that the new Wild Swans single, English Electric Lighting is possibly the finest comeback of all time. No, really. Get thee to their Myspace and buy a copy as soon as your fingers can carry you. Doesn't sound like the band of old, but it feels like it. They found their heart, and this time we can only hope they can achieve the heights that should have been before.