Sometime after Davey Henderson had ceased on his mission to lubricate your living room and the Fire Engines had stalled, he ponied up with new outfit, ‘Win’, which I rank in my top three Scandalously Neglected Acts Of The ’80s and who also hold the dubious accolade of being The Band I Spent The Most Money On A Single CD On for when I simply, positively, definitely, absolutely had to scratch that materialistic itch and possess the shiny, silvery disc of ‘Uh! Tears Baby’. If you are unfamiliar with Win (and it would not be difficult, regardless of their swagger, given the lack of commercial success they enjoyed despite the music machinery’s best efforts to Re-issue Till We Got The Message And Bought The Damn Thing with ‘You’ve Got The Power’), their confections of delicious, sugar-thrill, polished to perfection ramshackle pop, wrapped in the then relatively fresh packaging garb of über-corporate irony, certainly appealed to yours truly, if not the greater populace. But before producer David Motion had brought the same gleaming machine-finish that he had squeezed and primped Strawberry Switchblade into for Win’s ‘Shampoo Tears’, ‘Super Popoid Groove’, et al, their first release was the rougher-cut ‘Unamerican Broadcasting’. And this short but sugary sweet post shines a light on the curious custom sleeve promo copy I came by back in the day in the second-hand bins and which, until this last weekend, I had never seen another copy of knocking around.
John Foxx and the Maths live in London, October 2011
The seemingly evergreen Mr Foxx shows no signs of slowing down his progress and work rate and was in fine form this week, in the company of the Maths, judging by the two live shows in London that I managed to catch, part of a larger UK tour. The first two live outings for the Maths featured a larger complement of members, but these shows have seen a four-piece grouping with the core Maths duo of Foxx on vocals and keyboards along with Benge on electronic percussion (a great set of shiny red Simmons drum pads) and keyboards, joined once again with Serafina Steer (keyboards, bass guitar and backing vocals) plus new member Hannah Peel providing keyboards, violin and backing vocals.
First up it was evident that the band themselves were clearly really enjoying the event, which always makes a difference, smiles all round at times. A very ‘live’ experience, for sure. The addition of Hannah Peel’s violin in particular has brought another dimension to old favourites such as ‘Plaza’ and ‘He’s A Liquid’. The set list itself was largely from the ‘Interplay’ album, almost all of it played, plus a track from the just released second album from the Maths (‘The Shape of Things’), ‘The Shadow Of His Former Self’. Along with this were a fair few from Metamatic and some Ultravox! numbers such as ‘Hiroshima Mon Amour’, ‘Dislocation’, et al. Continue reading “John Foxx and the Maths live in London, October 2011”
Love and Rockets – ‘Express’ Japanese Mini LP edition CD (Imperial Records / Beggars Banquet, TECI-21238, 2004)
Never one to pass by a Japanese CD that does its best to lovingly recreate the original vinyl edition, this Love and Rockets example had been calling my name from afar for some time…
If you are familiar with the original UK issue that appeared in late 1986 then you’ll see from the image below that the fold-out poster that accompanied the release has been lovingly shrunk down to CD proportioned size for inclusion in this release, as well as the original sleeve design. It comes with an extra black and white booklet, plus the obligatory ‘obi’ strip, sealed in a plastic cover to keep that mid-’80s post-punk-neo-psychedelia flavour fresh… Continue reading “Love and Rockets – ‘Express’ Japanese Mini LP edition CD (Imperial Records / Beggars Banquet, TECI-21238, 2004)”
Talking Heads – ‘Houses in Motion’ UK 12″ single (Sire, SIR4050T, 1981)
As a fan of long standing, I find it puzzling that plenty of Talking Heads versions which only ever appeared on singles have never appeared on CD to this day. Puzzling because they were a pretty heavyweight band and were on major labels, not some obscure little indie with no budget to properly archive and store their back catalogue. I’ll no doubt visit a few of the others at some point, but to kick-off with, amongst these as yet unissued on CD versions is the ‘Special Re-Mixed Version’ of ‘Houses in Motion’ which appeared as the A side of the second single to be lifted from the ‘Remain in Light’ album in the UK in May 1981.
Now, at the time, I always thought it seemed a rather ambitious follow-up to the unexpected hit that was ‘Once In A Lifetime’, and sure enough its sly, subliminal funk didn’t really trouble the charts at all. On first listen, the single remix doesn’t seem all that radically different from the album version. The souped-up bass guitar thumps during the chorus the most ear-grabbing alteration to me, along with Brian Eno’s chorus vocals turned down in the mix and some editing scissors taken to Jon Hassell’s trumpet to rein in its pyrotechnics somewhat, while clocking in around the 3 minute 45 secs mark it is somewhat shorter than the album version. But, most differently of all, there is an extra verse added! “Turn myself around, I’m sinking backwards and forwards, I’m moving twice as much, as I was before, I will be digging, at the centre of the Earth, I’ll be down in there, moving in a room”. Oddly enough, the lyrics are to be found on the lyric sheet for ‘Remain In Light’, even though they don’t appear on the album recording. As far as I’m aware, this remix has never appeared on CD format to date. (Though please feel free to get in touch if I’m off the mark here, I’d love to be wrong about this!) Continue reading “Talking Heads – ‘Houses in Motion’ UK 12″ single (Sire, SIR4050T, 1981)”
Xmal Deutschland: ‘Incubus Succubus’ West German 12″ single (Zick Zack, ZZ 110, 1982)
This is the original issue of Xmal Deutschland’s single, ‘Incubus Succubus’, released in 1982 on 12″ only in West Germany. By mid-1983 Xmal were flavour of the month in the UK music press and by the autumn their then record label, the inimitable 4AD, had issued a re-recorded version in the UK, titled ‘Incubus Succubus II’ on both 7″ and 12″, with a new track, ‘Vito’, on the b-side and of course a beautiful new sleeve design.
This original 12″ however was only issued in West Germany. This original arrangement is not radically different from the more widely distributed 4AD version really, though not the same by any means – but it also has two unique b-sides, ‘Zu Zung Zu Alt’ and ‘Blut Ist Liebe’.