The Box - Great Moments In Big Slam

This post is made possible by a generous gentleman from Sheffield, who donated his copies of two records by The Box to fill in the gaps of the blog's Box discography. In 1983 Go! Discs released "Old Style Drop Down" from the Secrets Out album as a single; presented here is the 12" version, with an extended mix on the A-side and the original mix on the B-side, plus the non-LP track "Momentum." Then in 1984 The Box recorded the 8-song mini-album Great Moments In Big Slam and came as close to success as they ever would: their label Go! Discs had struck a distribution deal with Chrysalis. Unfortunately the increased marketing muscle could not sell the general public on The Box, who (thankfully) had not made any concessions to the mainstream in their recordings; on Great Moments In Big Slam Peter Hope and the crew are as skronky as ever. The Box were subsequently dropped from Go! Discs and went on to make just one more studio record (the Muscle In EP) before disbanding. Their final release was the live album Muscle Out, which is my only remaining hole in the discography. When I get ahold of it, and it's just a matter of time, be assured that I will post it here. Until then, thanks to our donor, here are Great Moments In Big Slam and Old Style Drop Down. (Or here.) The Box's reedman, Charlie Collins, is still active in the Sheffield free jazz scene, though he plays mostly percussion instruments now. See here for more info.

Peter Hope & the Jonathan S. Podmore Method - Dry Hip Rotation

Here is another of Peter Hope's one-off collaborations after the breakup of The Box in 1985. 1986's Dry Hip Rotation, recorded with Jonathan "Jono" Podmore (who would later become known as Kumo) has Hope's trademark growl/howl and off-the-wall lyrics over decidedly unconventional backing tracks (even for Hope). Podmore supplies most of the instrumentation, which includes: half-pound baking tin, cutlery, Parkinson Cowan oven, Robot Chef, plates, Hoover Junior, Creda Tumble Drier 400, C. Z. Gate, stone, tapes, EMS Synthi AKS, stairs, harmonica, ceramics, four pound sledgehammer, prepared piano, violin, rhythm box, two foot scaffolding section, EMS VCS 3, drills, screams, and masonry chisel. Cabaret Voltaire fellow-traveler Alan Fish provides percussion on a few tracks, and there are also guest spots by Sheffield noise mavens John Janosch and Charlie Collins. All this came six years before Tom Waits would impress everyone and reignite his career with a similar approach on Bone Machine. Coincidence? Get Dry Hip Rotation here or here. (Links removed: album reissued!) Hope and Podmore recorded one more song together, "Toilet", which appears only on the 12" single of "Kitchenette." I don't have that one; if anyone can supply a rip of "Toilet" I'll add it to the DRH archive; please leave a note in the comments.

Pinski Zoo - The Dizzy Dance Record

In the same vein as The Box, Rip Rig & Panic, etc. (which is to say, no-wave free-jazz skronk, but without the vocals) was reedman Jan Kopinski's Pinski Zoo, from Nottingham. Or that should be is, since amazingly, the band is still active. Here is the info on this 1982 record, Pinski Zoo's second, from Kopinski's own website:

JAN KOPINSKI tenor / soprano saxophones / voice
STEVE ILIFFE electric grand piano / harmonium
TIM BULLOCK drums
TIM NOLAN bass
MICK NOLAN percussion

1. It’s a Monster Steve
2. Spasm and Split
3. Dizzy Dance
4. Erase My Memory

For this 12” mini LP, Jan collaborated with famous Dub producer, Adrian Sherwood, who produced it at Berry street Studios. Dizzy Dance is about trying to hear many harmonies and rhythms as if they were crossing the street at once and picking your way through it. Steve Iliffe’s use of the harmonium is an interesting clue to his later masterful use of sounds with keys and samplers in the 90’s.

It came in a plain white open-centered sleeve--at least mine did--so there's no cover art. That's okay, because the music is great! Get it here or here.

Update: a helpful chap has found a cover image for me, I've placed it below. I will eventually incorporate it into the archive file, re-upload, and re-link; in the meantime, right-click below as Save Image As...

The Box - Muscle In

After 1984's Great Moments in Big Slam LP (which I missed getting, somehow), The Box were dropped from Go! Discs. They recorded four more tracks in Cabaret Voltaire's Western Works studio in October 1984 and released them on the Cabs' Doublevision label as Muscle In (DVR 10). The manic Box energy is still there, but Charlie Collins's woodwinds are notably more melodic; take away the vocals and some of this material could pass for A Primary Industry (or their later incarnation, Ultramarine). Richard Kirk produced "radical remixes" of two of the tracks for a promotional 12", DVR P1.

According to brainwashed.com this was a very limited edition, with as few as 200 copies pressed. Fortunately I have one of them, so I've included the so-called Muscle Mix 12" as well. Links removed: track reissued on Peter Hope's Exploding Mind - Hoodoo Dance.

The Box - Secrets Out

Continuing the catalog of Sheffield band The Box, composed of ex-Clock DVA members Charlie Collins (sax, flute), Paul Widger (guitar, vibraphone), and Roger Quail (drums), plus Terry Todd (bass) and Peter Hope (vocals), here is their first full-length LP, Secrets Out (Go! Discs VFM4, 1983). I've already written about The Box here, so I won't repeat it, except to reiterate that The Box's version of skronk/no wave is second to none. Pete Hope sounds like a cross between James Brown and Tom Waits after a triple espresso. Now that I've thought about it for a week, I've found a good comparison band for The Box: the Fire Engines. The Box produced the same kind of aggressive, abrasive, free-jazz/rock hybrid music, but took it even farther afield. Secrets Out contains a generous helping of twelve songs, though only one of them is over three minutes long. Get the album here or here.

The Men - Herminutics (Chicago, 1981)

I bought this record in a sale bin back in the 80s and was pleasantly surprised at the contents: while the band was from Chicago, the music sounded like it came straight out of the UK postpunk scene. Herminutics is a six-song EP with a "Dance" side and a "Listen" side. There's a remarkable breadth to the musical style from song to song; at different points the Men sound like all four of the Pop Group's splinter groups (Pigbag, Rip Rig + Panic, Mark Stewart + Maffia, Maximum Joy; that's all of them, isn't it?). "Sacrifice of the Gods," on the Dance side, sounds just like something from A Certain Ratio's first two albums (vocals aside) and benefits from a dual-bass lineup. The Listen side is weirder, opening with "Middle Man" and its processed spoken vocals which land somewhere between the bureaucratic paranoia of Mark Stewart and the psychedelic ramblings of The Mars Volta. The side closes with "Four D", possibly the weirdest piano ballad ever recorded. Who were The Men? The credits list them as Arturo Eduardo MacQuilkin III, Reggie (Mars) McFadden, Sven Herman, Jack Santee, and Steve Georgiafaundis. I've gleaned a little information on them from the web:

Men were a Chicago punk/industrial band from the early 80s, sharing or featuring ex-members of the more popular band The Mentally Ill. Founded by Snat 5 Records head Art MacQuilkin, they released a 12" in 1981. (The Chicago Punk Database)

There's also a brief discography on Collectorscum.com, which lists this EP and an album, Matrix of Compassion. I have that too and will post it here eventually.

How did The Men get so completely overlooked? They rank with the best postpunk/no wave bands of the era, yet I've never met anyone who has ever heard of them. I hope you will take the time to download this exceptional record and give it a listen. Get it here or here.

The Box

Despite the critical success of ClockDVA's 1981 album, Thirst, bandleader Adi Newton (Gary Coates) sacked the rest of the band and assembled a new one with the intention of going in a funkier direction. As Mick Fish tells it in Industrial Evolution:

One of Newton's new lyrics was the appropriately titled song "Bone of Contention". That's exactly what the newly proposed direction became. "We're not fucking playing that sort of stuff," was the reaction from the rest of the band. Newton, being from the same Sheffield soul boy clique as Oakey, the Cabs et al, was still obsessed with white boy funk. It was obvious that there was no way Newton was going to drag Paul [Widger, guitar] or Charley [Collins, sax] away from Captain Beefheart and towards James Brown. The end, when it came, wasn't so much a firework display as the fizzling of a spent sparkler. "Oh look, we've got a gig in Brighton," Paul noted on browsing the music papers. What the singer had in fact failed to tell them was that Clock DVA did indeed have a gig, but that a whole new band of musicians were being invited along for the ride.

Widger, Collins, and drummer Roger Quail recruited bassist Terry Todd to form The Box. Fish again:

The Box tried a number of singers, one who sort of whooped like a Red Indian chief but couldn't sing in tune. They even played two gigs with Mal [Stephen Mallinder of Cabaret Voltaire] on vocals -- a marriage of styles that was quite successful in its own way.... The Box eventually advertised for a singer. By far the best response came from Pete Hope from Hertford. Vocally somewhere between Tom Waits and Howlin' Wolf, he moved up to Sheffield with his young family.

(See Destroyed By Gods on Noise Heat Power for an amusing anecdote about Pete Hope in the notes to Track 14, and be sure to download the Sheffield mix from the same page.) Skronk may have originated in New York, but no one did it better than The Box. They became the first band signed to Andrew MacDonald's Go! Discs, which would later find great success with the Housemartins, Billy Bragg, and Portishead, among others. There is no Peter Hope or Box material available on the web other than a four-song live set on Pandora's Music Box, so I'll take it upon myself to remedy that by offering up the first release by The Box, a self-titled five-song EP from 1983 (Go! Discs VFM1). Also highly recommended to fans of The Pop Group. Get it here or here.

Naúx: Light, Traps and Exploding Wires

Here is Light, Traps and Exploding Wires, the only solo album by "Naúx" (Juan Maciel). Naúx is pronounced "nah-ooj," apparently based on a reversed spelling of his first name. Naúx was a guitarist for Richard Hell during the Destiny Street sessions, and was a member of the core duo (with bassist Steve Cohen) of China Shop. China Shop has enjoyed a retrospective digital download release from Anthology Recordings, but Naúx's solo album remains a vinyl-only rarity. Light, Traps... was the second release on the Noise New York label (NNY 002, no year listed but probably 1983), recorded at Noise New York studio by Eddie Ciletti "when it was located on 34th Street above La Polpetta (the Meatball) and owned by Frank and Dwight Eaton (pre-Kramer)" (per Ciletti). It has all the hallmarks of the No Wave catchall: jagged guitar lines, funky basslines, lyrics of alienation, and an all-around artiness; you know, the style introduced by Talking Heads on Fear of Music and Remain in Light. Other musicians on the album include Fred Maher, Robert Quine, Sussan Deihim, Richard Horowitz, and Frank Eaton. Richard Horowitz and Sussan Deihim would go on to release exquisite albums of synth-heavy Western/Middle Eastern fusion; Fred Maher was the original drummer in Material; and Robert Quine is well-known as Richard Hell's main guitarist, and for his guitar work on Matthew Sweet's "Girlfriend". Come to think of it, Maher was a guitarist as well as a drummer, and he and Quine released an album together called Guitar Men. Steve Cohen may play bass on at least one track, as he shares a songwriting credit too. So whatever happened to Naúx? I can't find any evidence that he continued in music after the mid-80s. He was still alive as of 2006, when he supplied some China Shop history to Anthology Recordings. I would have liked to hear more music from him. In closing, I will direct you to WMA files of four more Naúx songs on this page of Eddie Ciletti's website.

Get it here.