Richard Bone - Joy of Radiation 12"

Another small file for you this time, I'm afraid. I was all set to rip the Abstract Magazine #5 LP, with Colourbox, The Jazz Butcher, Cindytalk, etc., when I did a quick blog search and found that, once again, someone has already posted it, this time on the Waves of Champaign blog. He's also scanned the magazine into a separate file, much more thorough than I would have been, so hurry on over there and download it if you don't have it already. Another record I've been meaning to post is Richard Bone's classic 1983 album of minimal synthpop Brave Tales, but I still can't find my copy. I did, however, find the 12" of "Joy of Radiation", with an extended version of "Joy" on the A-side and three tracks on the B-side: "Sordid Affair", "Do Angels dance", and "A bit of Joy", so I hope that will do for now. Get it here or here; click the Survival tag for other records from the great Survival label available on this blog.

Furniture - The Lovemongers

By the time Furniture scored their two big hits in 1986, "Brilliant Mind" and "Love Your Shoes" from their Stiff Records album The Wrong People, they had already been together for seven years and released a string of singles and EPs on Survival Records and its subsidiary Premonition. Premonition also released a full Furniture album called The Lovemongers, which is an original album and not merely a collection of their single and EP tracks. The full track list is as follows:

1. The Lovemongers
2. Throw Away the Script
3. Love Your Shoes (original version; rerecorded for Stiff)
4. Escape Into My Arms (original version; rerecorded for Stiff)
5. What the Fog Said
6. Dancing the Hard Bargain (a 1984 single & Survival compilation track)
7. Bullet
8. Talking Kitten
9. Sang Froid
10. I Can't Crack (a 1985 single)

If you know Furniture then you'll already know what this sounds like; pick up the vinyl rip (here or here) for more of the same dinky organ and lounge-y crooning, plus some more introspective pieces in the vein of It's Immaterial. Furniture were unfortunate victims of the record business, getting lost in the shuffle with the sale of Stiff Records and never regaining their momentum, despite releasing one more album, Food, Sex & Paranoia, on Arista in 1989. Their spirit lives on, however, in the contemporary San Francisco band The Music Lovers.

VA - The Art of Survival

A visitor to one of the previous Survival Records posts asked for the Richard Bone album; I haven't found that yet (there are those who make fun of people who shelve their records in order, but it really does help, since having one's records all out of order makes it hard to find a particular record, as I am reminded every day), but I did turn up another Survival Records sampler LP. The Art of Survival is from 1984 and includes:

A1 Hard Corps Respirer (To Breathe)
A2 Thirteen At Midnight Time Is Tight
A3 Eddie & Sunshine All I See Is You
A4 Tik & Tok Screen Me (I'm Yours)
A5 Play In My Mind
A6 Furniture Dancing The Hard Bargain
B1 Tik & Tok Higher Ground
B2 Eddie & Sunshine There's Someone Following Me
B3 Faith Global Earth Report
B4 Jeanette In The Morning
B5 Richard Bone Living In Party Town
B6 Thirteen At Midnight Skin Deep

This is simply one of the best original collections of indie synthpop ever, and the fact that all these acts were on the same label is is pretty amazing. Vinyl rip, get it here or here.

Survival Records - Mind & Matter/Megamix

How about another LP from 80s minimal techno label Survival Records? This 1983 label sampler is divided into "Mind & Matter" (Side A) and "Megamix" (Side B), with each track of the Megamix running straight into the next one with no gap on the LP. Track listing:

A1 Faith Global - Knowing The Way
A2 Drinking Electricity - Superstition
A3 Richard Bone - Monster Movie
A4 Play - Deeper Than Blue
A5 Jeanette - Sunny Side
B1 Play - Chasing The Sun
B2 Richard Bone - The Quantum Hop
B3 Drinking Electricity - Breakout
B4 Do It - Do It

("Do It" is label sleeve designer and Drinking Electricity bassist P.K. (Paul) Edgely. ) Get it here or here.