Recipe - Skinny-Dipping

Dave Henderson's liner notes from Recipe's 1986 album on Dead Man's Curve are informative enough to be reproduced here verbatim:

A cold night on Singles duty for Sounds magazine and nothing is shaking -- not even the leaves on the trees. Recipe's debut opus, 'Upriver', slips neatly from its nice cheerful sleeve. It breaks the ice. It moves mountains. It doesn't give me a headache. And, how? How? How come it isn't on the radio at any God-given moment (and every God-given moment).

Further investigation reveals that Recipe had a previous 45 called 'Waterglide'. It's similarly impressive. Douglas Benford (a Recipe) tells me all about it. His cohort, Kevin, is part of Always (they are great, too). Both are on Inertial (an Uxbridge label).

Always sign to El. Nothing happens. Recipe sign to Survival, a single and video are released ... still superb. Nothing happens. Time goes on (as it does) and eventually Always do release something on El, but Recipe are homeless.

Enclosed on this magnificent piece of plastic are the life and times of Recipe. Herein you can study those first recordings, get to grips with their Survival smash. Hear the track that they contributed to Food's 'Imminent 2' and get a lot of other wonderful tracks thrown in for good measure.

If you don't buy this, don't come running to me when your deadliest rival tells you that it's the hippest thing this side of life. Hey, we told you so, everyone doesn't have to be deaf.

Listen in good health.

The Survival single is "Outboard", and the Imminent 2 track is the lovely "Home's Over." The LP contains ten songs plus eight excerpts of other songs interspersed throughout. I have ripped those to separate tracks, as on the LP, and have preserved the playing order. (So it only makes sense to listen to the whole album start to finish!) I would love to see a CD reissue that includes the excerpted songs in their entirety, but I won't hold my breath. Recipe's sound is not far from Furniture, which is not surprising given both bands' origins on the great Survival Records label. So if you like Furniture, give Recipe a whirl; get the vinly rip here or here.

Various Artists - Imminent 2

In 1985 and 1986 the Food Ltd. label released four compilation albums entitled Imminent 1-4. Each one was a superb sampling of UK indie acts of the day, cutting across all styles and genres of rock music. A rip of the first one, featuring exclusive tracks by Eric Random and Brilliant, among others, is available at the excellent but seemingly abandoned blog Dirk Wears White Sox. A rip of the second volume is available right here. On Imminent 2 we get skronk from Biting Tongues and Gasrattle, a shimmering synthpop ballad from Recipe, an early demo from 400 Blows, Karl Blake riffing on Bad Company (!) with the Shock Headed Peters, an extended soundscape from UV Pop, some hard Sheffield throb from Hula, grebo from Zodiac Mindwarp, and more noisy rock from the rest of the bunch. Some tracks are unavailable elsewhere, I think, though I'm not going to research each song. Here's the full list:

01 Kill Ugly Pop - Church of Bloody Deception
02 Biting Tongues - The Boss Toyota Trouble
03 UV Pop - Zuitar
04 Gasrattle - Beach Party
05 Recipe - Home's Over
06 Living In Texas - Hate Me More II
07 Shock Headed Peters - Head Thorax Abdomen
08 400 Blows - Strangeways
09 Sting-Rays - Never Had It So Good
10 Hula - Bad Blood
11 Deep Freeze Mice - Here Comes the Sun Explosion
12 Zodiac Mindwarp - Drug Shoes

Get the vinyl rip here or here. The LP came with a poster, too: