God Mother & Country - Foot on the Rock

God Mother & Country existed for a short time and put out just this one 12" in 1985, on the Kaz label. Official band members where David Wright and Bruce Smith, Neneh Cherry's first husband and likely the reason she sings lead vocal on this track. Other Rip Rig & Panic alumni appear as guest musicians, the whole list being: Sean Oliver, Nick Straker, Paget King, Henry Defoe, Dave Defries, Ashley Slater, Simon Morton, and Afrodiziak. As for the sound it's pretty standard electrofunk, along the lines of the more commercial efforts of 400 Blows or Brilliant, though with a nice skronky sax solo at the end. The B-side is a dub version of the A-side. The record was cut with insanely high levels; I've done my best to tame them, but there's still some distortion and clipping in the rips. Get the vinyl rip here or here.

The Bridge - Love Dance

Before founding UK alternarock band Zerra One, Paul Bell released an electro single called "Love Dance" as The Bridge on the Second Vision label in 1984. It is about as close a copy of New Order's "The Beach" as you can get without being sued. The over-8-minute "Love Mix" (vocal) is on the A-side, with the almost-8-minute "Industrial Mix" (instrumental) on the B-side. The "Industrial Mix" should really have been called the "Dub Mix" or "Instrumental Mix" as there's nothing particularly industrial about it. Apparently there is another version of the 12" that adds a 7" mix and is titled "Industrial Love Dance"; I suppose that was the one for UK release, while this one is labelled "Export Only" on the sleeve (because people outside the UK didn't deserve a shorter version of the song?). You can probably recreate the 7" mix by stopping the Love Mix after about four minutes. All that aside, this really is a great dance record, and if you like "The Beach" but don't necessarily want to hear it again, "Love Dance" should do quite nicely. Get the vinyl rip here or here.