Various Artists - Live at the 101: Club Sandwich

Here is Club Sandwich from 1981, the third and final (for now, at least) vinyl rip from 101 Records' series of budget-priced live compilations. All the songs were recorded at the 101 Club in St. John's Hill, Clapham. The previous two LPs posted here each had two or three bands that went on to greater fame. On Club Sandwich, though, only one band broke through: The Fix added another X to their name to become chart-toppers The Fixx. The song included here, "The Strain", appears on some versions of their Shuttered Room album. The full Club Sandwich track list is as follows:

01 Repro Central - Ring-a-ding
02 The Fix - The Strain
03 Rock Salmon and the Pomme Fritts - Fast Cars
04 Victims of Pleasure - Slaves To Fashion
05 Nautyculture - Someday Sunday
06 Rainbow Remipeds - Tropical Milk
07 Rank Amateurs - Games Up
08 The Edukators - Electric
09 Daddy Yum Yum - Mind Over Matter
10 The Mistakes - Jukebox
11 Malchix - Demons of Light and Sound
12 Repro Central - God Don't Bleed

After The Fixx, the Rainbow Remipeds produced the largest catalog of the rest of the bands here, though mostly as simply The Remipeds. They had a horn section and played the melange of rock, funk, jazz, dub, and Latin music commonly known as "postpunk" and most often associated with Pigbag. The Remipeds don't quite have Pigbag's wit and energy, and their calypso accents in "Tropical Milk" are in questionable taste, but if you like the genre then you shouldn't miss them. They reissued their only album, The Tahiti Syndrome, in 2005 with bonus tracks. Check the album webpage for samples of all songs, and be sure to check out the opener, their signature tune "Hawaii Five-O." The Remipeds MySpace page has loads of videos which could keep you busy for half an hour or so. Rock Salmon and the Pommes Fritts and Daddy Yum Yum both contribute decent rockabilly tracks (the later featuring an accordion). I can't find any information on Rock Salmon, but Daddy Yum Yum left a bit more of a trail. A Brighton band, percussionist Willi Kerr describes their music as "thrash skiffle." Kerr and Dave Simner are now members of the "Old Time, Hillbilly and Hellfire Gospel" band The Curst Sons. Repro Central got two tracks on the album, though they are not noticeably better than the other nine bands. Rank Amateurs sound more than a bit like the Police, and the rest of the bands play competent new wave that is good for a listen but not particularly memorable. If nothing else, Club Sandwich is a fantastic time capsule, a snapshot of the bread-and-butter of new wave as opposed to the most popular stuff that is remembered today. Get the vinyl rip here or here.

(I thought for a long time that was Jim Skafish on the cover, but according to the fine print on the back it's Rick Mann.)

The Promenaders

The Promenaders were a pseudonymous project of musical anarchists (or eclecticists, depending on your point of view) Lol Coxhill and Steve Beresford, among others, and in some respects can be seen as a precursor to their long-running Melody Four group with Tony Coe. A note on the back cover sets the scene:

Pot-pourris of old and new favourites ... unique renditions of established melodies ... some insights into their own personal contributions to contemporary music. That's what you can expect from the Promenaders' first long player. It's been skilfully recorded to capture all the flavour of a Brighton performance ... music, announcements, sun, sea, holiday makers, ATMOSPHERE.

Yes, it's postpunk busking circa 1981, with irreverent versions of a whole slew of songs done medley-style, arranged to fit the (self-imposed) limitations of the Promenaders' instrumentation:

• Loxhawn Rondeaux (Lol Coxhill): soprano saxophone and vocals
• Stuart Barefoot (Steve Beresford): euphonium and vocals
• Steve Topp (David Toop): one string violin
• Mike Simple (Max Eastley): one string violin
• Derek Nyte (Terry Day): cello and percussion
• "Andre" (Peter Cusack): guitar
• Paulo "sticks" Birrelli (Paul Burwell): drums
• Violet Nightingale (?): guest chanteuse, vocal on "Moon River"

Recorded live by Dirk Pitt on Brighton Beach, with Free Bonus Track (the last track) from their performance in an "Exclusive Brighton Discotheque." And now for the incredibly long song list:

1. Nellie The Elephant
2. Louie Louie / The Promenader's Shuffle / Whistle While You Work / Calling All Workers / The Dambusters March / Do Re Mi / Eine Kleine Nachtmusik / American Patrol / South Of The Border / Let's Twist Again
3. My Grandfather's Clock / Al Capone / Ghosts / The James Bond Theme / Holy Family / Walkin' The Dog / Prommin' The Bass / Oklahoma / Parade Of The Penguins / I Could Have Danced All Night
4. Chicago
5. Moon River
6. Rock Around The Clock / Tin Roof Blues / Philly Dog / Promenaders Jazz It Up / Saturday Jump
7. Stranger On The Shore / Rondeaux Makes It Up
8. Happy Talk / The Hokey Cokey / Knees Up, Mother Brown
9. "A", You're Adorable / There's A Long, Long Road A-Winding / Do Re Mi / My Favourite Things / You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To / Chim Chim Cheree
10. (Won't You Play A) Simple Melody / Tibetan Promenade / Nellie The Elephant

The last track, which is introduced as "Won't You Play A Simple Tibetan Melody," may be the funniest song you hear all week. This is the Promenaders' only album, released by Y Records in 1982; get the vinyl rip here (new link) or here.

Cabal / Null Set

By some accounts Baltimore's first and greatest postpunk band, Null Set was the brainchild of singer Bill Dawson (previously seen here with Black Pete) and guitarist Mark Harp. Null Set's highest-profile gig was opening for the Ramones at Johns Hopkins University's Shriver Hall, and they were semi-regulars at the Marble Bar and DC's 9:30 Club in the early 80s. Their Bauhaus fandom shows pretty clearly in their early recordings; "An Evening In Town" is their "Bela Lugosi's Dead". Null Set came to an abrupt end when an identically-named band from another city put out a record; Baltimore's Null Set ended up changing their name to Cabal. In 1984 they released their only record, a self-titled 6-song EP on Buck Awf's ad-hoc Awf-Trak label; on it they started to come out from under the Bauhaus influence and expand their sound, even approaching synth-pop on "New Horizon." Commercial success did not ensue, however, and the band drifted apart. Mark Harp went on to record hundreds of hours of music in a myriad of different projects; he eventually divided them into 24 hour-long thematic sections and posted them on his website (and at the Internet Archive) as 24 Hours with Mark Harp. Mark died in December 2004, but his website is still there. What I am presenting here is the 12:00 AM hour of 24 Hours, containing all the Null Set and Cabal recordings; I have renamed the files and added ID3 tags for better playback display, and put them into a single zip file for easy downloading. The tracks are:

1. Cabal - Null Theme (Tracks 1-6 are from the Cabal EP)
2. Cabal - In Touch
3. Cabal - Future In Pain
4. Cabal - Blissful Trust
5. Cabal - Fall Flat
6. Cabal - New Horizon
7. Cabal - Open Up (Cassette only track from the Cabal EP release)
8. Cabal - Assistance (Live at The Marble Bar Baltimore 1983)
9. Cabal - Brash Finale (Also live at The Marble Bar 1983)
10. Cabal - Check This Out (Recorded live in Bill's basement 1984)
11. Cabal - No Way Out (Recorded live in Bill's basement 1984)
12. Null Set - Null Theme (Tracks 12-14 from Null Set's demo recorded 1981 at Eastern Studios in Glen Burnie, MD, produced by Sam Prager)
13. Null Set - Perception
14. Null Set - Go!
15. Null Set - An Evening In Town (synth thanks to Jack Heinicke)

CABAL - Bill Dawson - Vocals, Mark Harp - Guitars and stuff, Rich Dickson - Drums, Dave Zidek - Bass, Dick Hertz - Bass, Danny Brown - Keys, Steve Palmieri - Synth and sound, Les Hendrix - Bass, Mark King - Guitar & keys

NULL SET - Bill Dawson - Vocals, Mark Harp - Guitars & Stuff, John Chriest - Bass, Louis Frisino - Drums

Get the zip file here or here. (New links)

Savant - Stationary Dance

One of the most respected independent electronic music labels of the 80s was Kerry Leimer's Palace Of Lights, on which he released several of his own recordings (as K. Leimer) as well as albums by Roy Finch, Marc Barreca, and Michael William Gilbert. Leimer's music was mostly in the ambient vein; he used the moniker "Savant" for his more rhythm-based works, the "Stationary Dance"/"Sensible Music" single (1981) and the LP The Neo-Realist (At Risk) (1983). Palace Of Lights went dormant after 1983 and Leimer disappeared from the music scene, concentrating on his and his wife's design business, Leimer Cross. After nearly two decades of inactivity, Leimer revived Palace Of Lights in 2002, reissuing his 80s albums on CD and releasing new work by himself and others. I would have expected "Stationary Dance"/"Sensible Music" to be included on The Neo-Realist CD, but it wasn't; the initial vinyl release is all there is. "Stationary Dance" is a classic piece of postpunk art-funk, with an infectious rhythm track (looped?) featuring prominent bass guitar, overlaid with atmospheric synth lines and cut-up spoken vocals. "Sensible Music" is instrumental only, with a slow but insistent rhythm and an overall sound that recalls Jon Hassell's work with Brian Eno. Musical contributors on the record are:

• K. LEIMER: SYNTHESIZERS, TAPES, VOICE, GUITAR.
• DAVID KELLER: FRETLESS BASS, GUITARS, PERCUSSION.
• JAMES KELLER DRUMKIT, GUITARS, PERCUSSION.
• MARC BARRECA: SYNTHESIZERS, TAPES.
• ROBERT CARLBERG: PERCUSSION, ENGINEERING.

Get the vinyl rip here or here.

Mothmen - One Black Dot

The Mothmen's first album, Pay Attention, was a trippy dub affair which was released by Adrian Sherwood on his On-U Sound label in 1981. While the band produced the album themselves with no input from Sherwood, it's a dead ringer for Sherwood's own psychedelic dub style. That sound is nowhere in evidence on the band's second album, One Black Dot, released in 1982 on the Do It label. Their style this time around is more conventional, new wave-y with a bit of postpunk funk thrown in. There are hints of other bands throughout the album: the Police, Way of the West, Funkapolitan, The Blue Nile, Modern English, and Medium Medium, for examples. There are many inspired instrumental moments, and it's quite a good album over its ten tracks, but the sound never quite congeals into something distinctive, and there is no killer single (though "Temptation" comes close). The band lineup on One Black Dot is:

• Bob Harding: vocals
• Tony Bowers: guitar & sax
• Charlie Griffiths: synth
• Ronnie Hardman: bass
• Chris Joyce: drums

Bowers and Joyce would go on to be part of the original Simply Red lineup. The rest of the Mothmen, I don't know about. Get the One Black Dot vinyl rip here or here.

Perennial Divide - Beehead EP

How about some more Perennial Divide? 1987 saw them release just one record, the four-track Beehead EP:

1. Beehead
2. World Spread
3. Gentle As A Fawn Is Warm
4. Clamp

"Clamp" is a 40-second sound collage, so Beehead is essentially a three-song EP. But they're good songs, especially "World Spread," which after an excessively long intro settles into an energetic breakbeat groove with a popping bassline. The other two songs are the same kind of noisy, off-kilter funk that made Purge so great. Get the vinyl rip here or here. That does it for my Perennial Divide collection. There was another 12", "Burndown", in 1986, which was packaged together with a repressing of Purge; I didn't buy that one, as I already had Purge and didn't want to buy a second copy just to get a new 12". Then in 1988 there was an unofficial release of "Leathernecks," but I never found a copy. If you come across rips of either 12", please let me know in the comments.

Perennial Divide - Purge

By request, here is the only album released by Perennial Divide, the Swindon-based group active from 1986 to 1988 and consisting of John Corrigan, Johnny Stephens and Paul Freeguard. ("Perennial Divide" comes from Naked Lunch; it is Burroughs's play on the term "perineal divide," i.e. the "taint." But in the band's case it takes on additional sociopolitical meaning, evoking Britain's historical class system and the struggles of the working class for equality.) Corrigan and Stephens went on to form Meat Beat Manifesto, with Corrigan adopting the pseudonym Jack Dangers. Released in 1986, Purge was another exciting release from Rob Deacon's Sweatbox label, which grew out of his Abstract magazine and LP series. The cover art (of Swindon railway works) recalls Neville Brody's early sleeves for ClockDVA stylistically, and Perennial Divide's music explores the same realm of politically-charged noise-funk as that seminal band, though with more funk and less noise. There are some tasty basslines on this album, particularly in "Captain Swing." Purge is a bona fide postpunk masterpiece. The tracks are:

01 Blow
02 Parricide
03 Word of the Lord
04 Captain Swing
05 Rescue
06 The Fall
07 Trip
08 Tuna Hell
09 Burning Dogs
10 End of the Line

Some of the tracks run together, and I've made my best guess as to where one ends and the next begins. It won't make any difference if you listen to all the tracks in order (which you should!). Get the vinyl rip here or here.

Blue Rondo a la Turk - Chewing the Fat

What if Pigbag had been led by Desi Arnaz, and he sang in English? That's what Chris Sullivan's band Blue Rondo a la Turk sounded like. With a postpunk take on Latin rhythms, a full horn section (see here for the complete band lineup), and vintage zoot-suit fashions, Blue Rondo in 1982 prefigured the swing craze that would reach full force over a decade later. (Oddly, they did not sound anything like Dave Brubeck's "Blue Rondo a la Turk.") Sullivan was quite the dandy; see this profile of him in which he details his fashion history, and even takes credit for starting the New Romantic fashion movement. To be fair, he is also a skilful songwriter, singer, and a painter as well: he painted the album cover art. Chewing the Fat, released in 1982, is full of infectious Latin grooves and more straightforward pop fare. High points include a fantastic cover of Luther Ingram's "I Spy for the FBI" and the originals "Klacto Vee Sedstein" (a single) and "They Really Don't;" even a bit of Spandau Ballet shows through in the guitar intro to the single "The Heavens are Crying." The UK and German releases of the album differ slightly: the German version includes the 1981 single "Me and Mr Sanchez," while the UK version replaces that with its B-side, "Sarava." I have the UK version, so that's what I've presented here, but I also have the 45 so I've added "Me and Mr Sanchez" at the end. The full track list is:

01 Change
02 I Spy for the FBI
03 Coco
04 The Heavens Are Crying
05 The Method
06 They Really Don't
07 Sarava
08 Klacto Vee Sedstein
09 Carioca
10 Me and Mr Sanchez

I found a Blue Rondo TV performance clip (of "Carioca:) on YouTube: just to the left of Chris Sullivan (your left, his right) in the center ring is Christos Tolero, who as far as I can figure was the Paul Rutherford of the group, with his trademark Mephistophelean mustache and goatee:

Get the Chewing the Fat vinyl rip here or here.

Pigbag live

Pigbag (full band history here) was a fantastic melting pot of rock, funk, jazz, and Latin styles; unfortunately they were only together for three years, 1980-83. After the breakup, Y Records released this album of odds and ends, containing seven live tracks from five shows and a remix of "Jump the Line." Most notable are the live versions of "Sunny Day" and "Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag," and a cover of the Norman Whitfield/Barrett Strong classic "Smiling Faces (Sometimes)" which did not appear on any of Pigbag's studio albums. The full track listing is:

A1 Shack of Scraps Live - Berlin Latin Quarter - 5th April 1983
A2 Smiling Faces Live - Berlin Latin Quarter - 5th April 1983
A3 Sunny Day Live - Birmingham Locarno - 17th March 1982
A4 Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag Live - Hammersmith Palais - 16th March 1982
B1 Jump The Line Remix - Jacobs Studio - December 1982
B2 Global Terrain Live - Berlin Latin Quarter - 5th April 1983
B3 End of Ubud Live - Munich Alabama Hall - 6th April 1983
B4 Can't See for Looking Live - Tokyo Sun Plaza - July 1982

Get the vinyl rip here or here.

Vital Excursions - Give!

From the "If you like Pigbag" department, here is the only album by Vital Excursions, Give! (1982). Vital Excursions was led by saxophonist/flautist Tony Wrafter, and had a Pigbag-style lineup of:

• Voice: Angela Stewart
• Kit: Dan Sheals
• Bass: Moen Parera
• Viola: Sara Sarahandi
• Bass Violin (isn't that a cello?): Pete Brandt
• Piano: Fiona Fleck
• Congas: Steve Lewis
• Trombone: John Fairbrother
• Percussion: Paul (Nellie) Hooper

There is a real, albeit circuitous, relationship to Pigbag as well: Wrafter had been a member of Maximum Joy, which included former members of The Pop Group (John Waddington and Dan Catsis), while Pigbag also included a former Pop Group member (Simon Underwood). Wrafter and Catsis were also both members of the Glaxo Babies, as was fellow Maximum Joy member Charlie Llewellin. Clear as mud. Give! is sometimes listed as a mini-LP because it contains just six songs. It's actually a full-length album, though, because the track that takes up all of side two, "Going to the Give", is over eighteen minutes long. It combines rock and Eastern musical styles, prefiguring Eric Random's Ishmael LP which came out three years later. The five songs on side one sound like Pigbag for the most part, with the exception of the mellow jazz "In the Swim." So if you like Pigbag, get the Vital Excursions vinyl rip here or here.

The Men - Matrix of Compassion

Here is the followup to my post of The Men's first record, Herminutics. Its six songs were all very inspired funk-leaning postpunk. To repeat the basic information from the first post:

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)

That 12" would be Herminutics; they followed it up in 1982 with a full-length album, Matrix of Compassion, which finds them either stretching out or dicking around; it seems to be a little bit of both. About half the songs retain the weird, ACR-ish funk groove from the first record, but in between there is the noir jazz narrative "Sorry," the long blues piss-take "Dead Blue," the straight-up punk rocker "Nutron Baby," and a few slabs of pure weirdness. The band lineup on this record is essentially the same as on the first, but with more details:

Sven Herman: guitars, melodies, and piano
Reggie Mars McFadden: guitars, melodies, and synthesizer
Arthur E. MacQuilkin III: guitar, melodies, and vocals
John Sterling Santee: sax, melodies, percussion

also..
Amy Fischer: vocals on "Remain"
Steve George: drums

The album packaging is interesting in itself: instead of a sleeve it's a cardstock envelope (like Section 25's Always Now) with a square hole cut in the front to expose the record label. All in all it's a great relic of the creative side of the early 80s; get the vinyl rip here or here (new links 1/3/2010). (If you have any information on later musical projects of The Men or its members, please let me know in the comments.)

Surprize - Complete Discography

It's easy to post a complete discography for a band when they only released eight songs on two records! Italian band Surprize released the four-song The Secret Lies In Rhythm EP on Italian label Base Records in 1982, and another four-song EP, In Movimento, on Factory Benelux in 1984. In Movimento is known primarily for its Manchester connections: it was a "Dojo-BeMusic production," or Donald Johnson of A Certain Ratio (who also contributes bass, Simmons, and backing vocals) and Bernard Sumner of New Order (credited with DMX programming). The main credits are as follows:

• Mirko Virdo Pellati: drums, simmons, backing vocals
• Wud: voice, synthesizer, guiro, cow bells
• Luca Patini: guitars, wood block
• Francisco Garau: vibraphone, balafon, bongos, cow bells, cabasa, talking floor drum, kokiriko, backing vocalsLuciano Graffi: bass, click bass, fretless bass
• Frank Nemola: trumpet, trombone

With an instrumental lineup like that, and an ACR member at the desk, there is a definite ACR feel to the record, most like their To Each... and Sextet period. On the earlier EP, the back cover shows Surprize as a seven-piece band, though the members are not listed. While there is an arty gloss to In Movimento, the The Secret Lies In Rhythm is more lively, with the horns and varied percussion more prominent in the mix; it's more in the vein of Pigbag than ACR, and it's a lot of fun. Unfortunately it's also very short, clocking in at just over 16 minutes. But put it together with the second EP and you've got a whole album's worth of above-average, occasionally brilliant postpunk art-funk. Get them here or here.

Various Artists - The Invisible Frame

This 1983 mini-LP from Future Records contains two postpunk classics, "Lifes Illusion" by Ice the Falling Rain and "Telecommunication" by Blitz (actually a Blitz splinter band led by original Blitz singer Carl Fisher). Here's the full track listing:

A1 Blitz Telecommunication
A2 Ice The Falling Rain Lifes Illusion
A3 Two Regime
B1 And Also The Trees Wallpaper Dying
B2 Rhythm & Faith Young Too Young Girl
B3 The Visit All The Walls

Get it here or here.

"Telecommunication" appears on the Blitz album Second Empire Justice. I thought I would rip that and post it, but someone else has already done it: see Hangover Heart Attack. Here are a few more records that fall into that same category (i.e. I was gonna post it, but someone else already did):

• The Danse Society - Say It Again double 12": New Romantic Rules
• Float Up CP - Kill Me in the Morning (Neneh Cherry, post-Rip Rig + Panic, pre-solo): To Live And Shave In L.A.
• Don Cherry - Hear and Now: Music For My People

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.

A Primary Industry - Ultramarine

Paul Hammond and Ian Cooper made a name for themselves in the 90s as Ultramarine, releasing five albums of "pastoral techno" music. Before Ultramarine, they recorded as A Primary Industry (with three additional members), releasing a few singles and compilation tracks and one full-length LP entitled Ultramarine. You can definitely hear the seeds of Ultramarine (the band) in A Primary Industry, but many tracks have a more raw and lively sound, influenced by UK post-punk funk bands such as A Certain Ratio, Pigbag, and 23 Skidoo (props to Burl Veneer for spotting some particularly heavy "influencing"), and still others fall solidly into shoegaze territory. Their contributions helped make Rob Deacon's Sweatbox one of the best UK labels of the 80s; other acts on the roster included The Anti Group, Perennial Divide/Meat Beat Manifesto, and In the Nursery. Inexplicably, Ultramarine has never been reissued, so I hope to bring more attention to this lost minor classic with a vinyl rip, here or here.