Eternal Triangle - Nothing But a Friend (12")

Eternal Triangle - Nothing But a Friend (12")

From 1984 and on Situation 2, I don't know a great deal about this band, seems to have been made up from the keyboard player from Fischer-Z and a chap from the Berlin Blondes. A minor synth pop classic that was somewhat hampered by rather *meh* remixes for the single (I've included the album version so you can see what I mean).

The Dentists - Strawberries Are Growing In My Garden (And It's Wintertime)

The Dentists - Strawberries Are Growing In My Garden (And It's Wintertime)

Mid/late 80's indie band who sort of got lumped in with the c86 thing a bit but were far more psych/60's influenced. This was their first single (from '85) and is a lovely little number to go wandering around with a vague idea to get a sausage roll from the bakery down the road on a wintery November morn. Which, funnily enough, I've just done. Nom nom nom.

B-sides are also pretty cracking, especially Burning The Thoughts From My Skin.

Kling Klang - Rocker/Vander

Kling Klang - Rocker/Vander

Possibly the first (though I could be wrong) single from Liverpool's Kling Klang. Violent, apocalyptic space prog that marches upon Earth, wipes it clean of all life and sets it's flag upon it as a warning to others. Wagner, Holst, the beards of a thousand hippy Germans noise mongers marched as one upon the dawn of the 21st Century. This is epic, and possibly one of my all time favourite singles. You put it on and you want to prance around like some sort of green skinned space dictator. On the crack.

Anyway, this is glorious. Listen and love!

Naked Lunch - Make Believe/Breathe

Naked Lunch - Make Believe/Breathe

I've seen some Naked Lunch singles doing the blog rounds but I don't think I've seen this one (haven't looked for a bit though), so here it is. Naked Lunch are your classic early 80's synth act who through straight under the radar and into a wall, leaving nary a trace....at least they would have done if it wasn't for the legendary Some Bizzare Album compliation, having one track (La Femme) included.

The A-side of this is a stab at doing chart friendly synth pop, it's alright. Not bad. Not great. You can see why it didn't do much and you can see why it would have done something if it did. The b-side though....ah, quite another story. A gloriously sleazy romp, with synths of questionable morality, words sustained long past the realms of decency and is generally a bloody good track.

Best thing this band ever did (for my money, at least), was a track called "Horror Shock Horror" that only surfaced on a compliation of synth pop acts back in 84ish. If I can find the whole thing, I'll post it later....

Charles De Goal - Dancing

Charles De Goal - Dancing

From 1986, this was released just before the album 'Double Face' and features a remixed version of (Retour Au) Dancing from said album. We've also got a rather spirited cover of Ballroom Blitz, titled "He's Gonna Step On Your Ballroom Blitz". The whole thing is polished off with (what I think) is a remix of Clic Clac.

I'm pretty sure Charles De Goal have reformed lately, though they managed to last through most of the 80's, releasing at four or five albums.

Busy, busy, busy at the moment. Thank you for any comments through the archives, I do read them I just have very little time at the moment so replies are somewhat sporadic. Requests are happily catered for if I've got it.

Should be rearranging a few things in the coming weeks, guest posts etc, keep 'em peeled....

Carol - Breakdown

Carol - Breakdown

This wonderful, wonderful new/cold/whatever wave single from 1981 features an A-side written by Snowy Red (and who would re-record said A-side with Carol again in 1984 on one of his albums) and a beautiful B-side with tears twinkling long into the night. Gorgeous.

Snowy Red would have several albums out but as for Carol there is little sign. There was no other singles that I can find and apart form her brief return in '84, she twinkled no more.

The (Hypothetical) Prophets - Person To Person

The (Hypothetical) Prophets - Person To Person

One of my favorite singles, delightfully unsettling, a seemingly mundane glance through some personal ads set to minimal synths and dry vocals. B-side (On The Edge) with altered spoken word vocals and sax over the synths keeps up the unease. The (Hypothetical) Prophets had three singles and an album before disappearing around 1983. Difficult band to pin down really, follow up single Fast Food could almost be described as a novelty song and in some parallel world is probably mentioned bitterly by Ultravox as they lament their lack of a Number 1 hit.

Gloriously enough, there is a video for this (can be found on Youtube *HERE*) that lives up to it's soundtrack. Fast Food should be around as well....

Eberhard Schoener - Why Don't You Answer

Eberhard Schoener - Why Don't You Answer

Eberhard Schoener appears to have been some kind of German disco Rennaissance man according to his Wikipedia page, influenced by headily credible classical composers as much as the contemporary pop/electronic experimental scene around him, and even producing traditional operas alongside his synth stuff. I know nothing of this because I am a philistine. However this is a great record, mysterious and minimal and spacey italo-disco. And yes, it does have Sting on it, but miraculously it works, his yelpiness is complemented very well by the detached darkness and eerie samples going on around him. I like the phone-box intro as well, and the way the dial tone is incorporated into the synth-drone of the rest of the record - very noirish.
(The image used is for a different version of the song which was later released, with Hazel O'Connor on vocals - unfortunately I've been unable to find that but I can't quite imagine what that would sound like and frankly I'm a little scared at the prospect)

Bad Dream Fancy Dress - Curry Crazy

Bad Dream Fancy Dress - Curry Crazy

Fun with 'El Records. Simon Fisher Turner gets drunk with two schoolgirls and does an album. Hilarity ensues. A-side is about Curry and about being crazy about said dish, the B-side is a tribute to the King of Luxembourg himself ("it's time to buy his records, he needs a sodding hit") .

Fun, silliness and champagne. What else do you need?

Hard Corps - Lucky Charm

Hard Corps - Lucky Charm

Excellent synth pop from 1987, Hard Corps supported the Cure and Depeche Mode before evaporating sometime around 1990. Daniel Miller produced, but sounds a bit different from his normal work. Slightly more evolved, which is understandable as it was one of his later works. An interesting single.

Hugely, massively busy at the moment. Updates when I can fit 'em in....

The Nosebleeds - Ain't Bin To No Music School

The Nosebleeds - Ain't Bin To No Music School

My favourite punk record. Not amazingly obscure but rare enough, and absolutely stellar, this is by the band Morrissey was briefly in before he rose to indie-hero fame (although he joined after this record was released). Featuring Vini Reilly going mental and spacey on guitar inbetween all the standard (but very well realised here) punkabilly freneticism. Glorious, energising, thrashy - but highly intelligent - stuff.