SLAB! - Death's Head Soup

Slab!'s final recording before a 19-year hiatus was 1989's "Death's Head Soup" single, which I will once again let currybet describe:

The final flurry of the band was 1989’s Cameo ‘Word Up - Sucker DJ’ sampling anti-Thatcher rant of knuckle down and eat your “Death’s Head Soup”. With a sole writing credit to Stephen Dray I have no idea whether it was a solo record or not, but it certainly was a long way from “Mars On Ice”...

I've been listening to "Soup" for nearly 20 years without realizing that was a Cameo sample, but now that I read that it's so bleeding obvious! How could I have missed that?! No, it wasn't a Dray solo record, the full lineup was:

Stephen Dray - Vocals
Paul Jarvis - Guitar / Samples
Nick Page - Guitar
Boleslaw Usarzewski - Bass Guitar

With : Dave Bryant - Drums
Kevin Sanderson - Percussion
Corrie Josias - Backing Vocals
Lynne Gerald - Backing Vocals
Simon Walker - Keyboards / Violin

They sure went out on a high note; I could listen to this driving beat and insistent fuzz-bass riff for hours, shouting along "Knuckle down, drink your death's head soup!" all the while. The B-side is the Descension album track "Switchback Ride"; the 12" single added a club mix of "Death's Head Soup." Get the 12" vinyl rip here or here.

SLAB! - Smoke Rings

The "Smoke Rings"/"Abbasloth" double-A-side single, released in 1987, was Slab!'s final recording with a horn section, and it's a killer! The tempo and the rhythm are akin to George Clinton's "Atomic Dog", but everything is so much heavier: the slapping bass, the slamming drums, the scraped guitar a la Sonny Sharrock. It's an amazing melting pot of funk and sludge that demands to be played LOUD. On the defunct BBC Collective website there is a good overview of Slab! records by user "currybet" which contains the following about "Smoke Rings":

“Smoke Rings”Slab!’s third single, “Smoke Rings”, a love song for nuclear missiles from the point of view the military, was a disaster. Later, when I met Stephen Dray, Slab!’s singer, he said that it had been led on by the record company asking for a ‘hit single’ - and it was the first time that Slab! had released an edited 7” single to accompany the 12” release. Mind you he also said that he thought the vocals on their debut single “Mars On Ice” sounded like they had been recorded in a toilet, and it is one of my favourite records ever, so what does he know?

I find it odd to see "Smoke Rings" described as a "disaster", as I recall reading several positive reviews of it at the time, and it seemed to be popular in the cutting-edge dance clubs. Perhaps Mr. Dray can give us a little more of the story?

In addition to "Smoke Rings", the 12-inch also includes a dub version, "Cruise Missile Smoke Rings", and the instrumental "Abbasloth", which has a similar monster beat but substitutes free-jazz horn freakouts for vocals. It is a MUST HAVE. Get the vinyl rip here or here. Check out the new Slab! website here. Check the comments here for occasional updates from Steve Dray (the mosesman) on the progress of the new Slab! album! See here for Slab!'s Music from the Iron Lung mini-LP. Click here for all my Slab! and Slab!-related offerings.

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.