Friday, March 28, 2008

My Peel Tapes: Part 3


Good morning dear friends,

here we go with the third part of the 'My Peel Tapes' - series and I do sincerely hope some enjoyable stuff will be there amongst it for you:

(11) New Order - 'Sub-Culture' (mp3). May 1985 and New Order just released their third studio album, 'Low-Life'. With this album, New Order put forth their most commercially accessible effort to date. In my eyes, 'Low-Life' for the first time showed that they no longer were Joy Division, in the previous two albums the 'darker' elements of their childhood were much more obvious. Which, I might add, wasn't a bad thing at all. I remember buying the LP in a Belgium supermarket whilst shopping with my Mum ... those were the days, ey?
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[upon request:
New Model Army - 'No Rest'
Foyer Des Arts - 'Schimmliges Brot']
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(12) The Nirvana Devils - 'Some Foreign Shore' (mp3). From Germany and taken from a 7" on Exile Records. An old review read: "Two catchy, finger-snapping dittles make this single a worthy investment for those who might like an amalgam of textured '60's pop and late '70's-power pop. The slightly off-tune and off-time female vocals somehow adds to the effect as it did for the Mo-dettes long ago. Recommended." There's nothing much to add to that, I would think.
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[upon request:
New Order - 'Love Vigilantes'
New Order - 'Sooner Than You Think'
New Order - 'Sunrise']
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(13) Another tape where one great songs segues into another, which makes it hard for me to decide which one to post. And because I'm a lazy chap, once again you're gonna get a whole bunch, so:

(13-1) Green On Red - 'That's What Dreams' (mp3). From their third album 'Gas Food Lodging', recorded in Hollywood in 1984, released the following year on Torso Records from the Netherlands. Chuck Prophet and Chris Cacavas are names which ring a bell, right? Green On Red homepage: here.

(13-2) Jilted John - 'Jilted John' (mp3). Well, if you don't know this little gem from 1978, I will have very much to explain to you. You better read the full story behind this absolutely classic 7" on Rabid Records here. One of my all-time favourites, that's for sure!

(13-3) The Go-Betweens - 'Draining The Pool For You' (mp3). Originally on the 1984 'Spring Hill Fair' - LP, a record which I once owned but I think lent to someone and never got back. But I still have a useful Go-Betweens compilation, a double-LP in fact, called '1978 - 1990', where the track can be found on: amongst other goodies, of course: ideal for Go-Betweens - beginners, if such creatures exist ....

(13-4) Blood And Roses - 'Love Under Will' (mp3). From a 4-track 12" on Kamera Records, released in 1986, which leads me to believe that Peel must have had an advance copy on his desk at the time of the broadcast. Because I'm pretty sure that I taped this show back in 1985. Anyway: Blood And Roses were the group most closely identified with the "positive punk" movement of the early 80s, although they were also variously described as anarcho punk, hippy punk, even acid punk. Of course, the "positive punk" scene, of which Blood And Roses, along with UK Decay, Brigandage et al, ranked as leaders, is now identified as a vital precursor to what would become Goth.
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[upon request:
Ramones - 'I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You'
Anne Clark - 'Short Story'
Los Violadores - 'Viejos Patéticos'
Cocteau Twins - Ivo']
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(14) The Loft - 'Up The Hill And Down The Slope' (mp3). Their second 12" on Creation Records, released in 1985 and the follow-up to [the also brilliant] 'Why Does The Rain' from the previous year. The Loft weren’t around to see where that path they had worn ended up, amidst an infamous break-up in 1985. The Loft split onstage at The Hammersmith Palais, London as Peter Astor walked off stage prior to the final song of the night, perhaps one-upmanship on the others. I also have two solo albums ('Paradise' and 'Submarine') by Peter Astor, the lead singer: you will rather easily find them in the 'cheap stuff bin' at your local record store, a shame really, 'cos they're worth hearing.

Around the time this was released, another band - much more famous than The Loft - brought to our attention their second album:
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[upon request:
Three Johns - 'Death Of The European'
Krupps - 'Risk']
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(15) The Pogues - 'I'm A Man You Don't Meet Every Day' (mp3). Taken, of course, from the 'Rum, Sodomy & The Lash' - LP on Stiff Records, 1985. The Pogues' best work to date, much better than their debut, 'Red Roses For Me'. (Then again, 'Red Roses ...' had 'Boys From The County Hell' on it, a remarkable track by any means). But the pure amount of awesome tracks on 'Rum, Sodomy & The Lash' made it much more worthwile, I would think: I cannot remember a single track from it that would not have been played by Peel at this time.
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[upon request:
Pogues - 'Navigator']
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(16) The 3 Johns - '20th Century Boy' (mp3). From the backside of the excellent 'Death Of The European' - 12" on Abstract Records, 1985, and a definitive reading of the old Bolan favourite. The 3 Johns still were somewhat special back then, Jon Langford's way of singing was hard to beat, I would say ...
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[upon request:
New York Dolls - 'Looking For A Kiss']
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I hope you enjoyed this little episode, just let me know if this was the case, please!

Have fun,

Dirk

1 comment:

Unknown said...

"I remember buying the LP in a Belgium supermarket whilst shopping with my Mum "

Now there's a sentence I never dreamed I would see when reading a post about New Order.

The Lowlife LP was one that got an awful lot of play in the student flat I was living in back in 1984/85. One of the few records that all 8 of us agreed on.....

And that double LP of the Go-Betweens that you mention is surely one of the best 'Best Ofs' ever released.....