2022 Purchases

Bandcamp also provide all physical purchased in CD quality downloads, which was, again…in theory, a wonderful thing. On the day of release I downloaded my copy in 44.1/16 and was dismayed, but not surprised, to find brickwalled files. Since the 2009 Cherry Pop Vicious Pink CD was also brickwalled, this played out like my worst anticipation. This was why I ultimately ordered the LP instead of the cheaper DL. I had hoped that if the DL was junk, then I could digitize my LP copy. Hopefully, the pressing would not be made at CZ media. The CZ pressings I had bought in recent years were M records that sounded VG.

But of course, the pressing was made by CZ! I can’t win for losing! I have yet to have the enormous time to spin this and to digitize it in two weeks. In advance of receiving this, I had begun digitizing my entire Vicious Pink collection for a BSOG. Wish me luck.

Subtotal: $44.00

March 2022

1. The Blow Monkeys: Choice? – RCA Records – PD 42886 – UK – CD5 – gift
2. Fiction Factory: Throw The Warped Wheel Out – Cherry Pop – CRPOP 130 – UK – CD – gift
3. The Metamorph: Mechanismo – The Metamorph – UK CD-3 – gift
4. Altered Images: Bite – Epic – EPC 40 25413 – UK – CASS – gift
5. Mari Wilson: Storyline – Beehive Records – CDBEEH1 – UK – CD5 – gift
6. Billy MacKenzie – Satellite Life – Cherry Red – CDTRED856 – UK – 3xCD – Promo
7. Paul Haig: The Warp Of Pure Fun DLX RM – Les Disques Du Crépuscule – TWI 669 CD – UK – 4xCXD – Darla.com/$30.00
8. The Invaders: The Best Thing I Ever Did [New Future] – Polydor – 2059 157 – UK – 7″ – gift
9. The Invaders: Magic Mirror – Polydor – 2059 263 – UK – 7″ – gift
10. The Invaders: Girl’s In Action – Polydor – 2059 111 – UK – 7″ – gift
11. Nathalie: My Love Won’t Let You Down – Vogue – VB. 706 – NE – 7″ – gift
12. Visage: Der Amboss – Polydor – POSPV 523 – UK Promo – 12″ – gift
13. Invaders: Backstreet Romeo – Polydor – POSP 180 – UK – 7″ – eBay/£6.00/$7.86

Wow. So many things came in this month at no cost. I’m stunned. Commenters sent me a Blow Monkeys CD-5 I only recently realized that I needed as well as the Fiction Factory DLX RM of “Throw The Warped Wheel Out” that I was all too aware of. It was the month for Alan Rankine productions, obviously, as his vibrant period of producing Paul Haig was covered in an amazing BSOG of “The Warp of Pure Fun.” What’s this with warps and Alan Rankine? I hope he’s not warped! I wrote about this last year and finally snapped and ordered it. More to come, of course!

Gavin sent me an astounding tithing, including various music related things [not necessarily music itself], but the real stunner was the artist proof copy of his “Mechanismo” CD-3 EP which was, yes, far more visually impressive than the DL I had purchased from Bandcamp! ‘Tis true. So my physical collection of Gavin’s music expands! We already had his fantastic 10″ from last year.

Meanwhile another commenter helped me get 3/4 looooooooooong desired Invaders singles. Inspiring me to pounce on a copy of the scarce 4th and final single, “Backstreet Romeo,” which was an evilBay purchase this time. Not too many of those in the last 15 years! Now I can finally make the long awaited [by me, at least] Compleat Invaders REVO CD. And not stopping there this commenter added the Nathalie single as written and produced by fave Peter Godwin [it was on the want list] as well as the highly desired “Der Amboss” WLP12″ by Visage. A record I thought I’d never own!

Subtotal: $37.86

April 2022

1. Prince/Bria Velente: Lotusflow3r/MPLSound/Elixer – NPG Records – US – 3xCD – Discogs/$4.99
2. Prince/Danhi Harrison/Tom Petty/Steve Winwood: While My Guitar Gently Weeps [live] – Time Life – US – DL – iTunes/$1.29
3. Adult.: Gimme Trouble – Thrill Jockey – THRILL 159 – US – CD – Harvest Records/$2.99
4. Ultravox!: Live At The Rainbow 1977 – Island Records – 387 908-0 – US – LP – Harvest Records/$28.99

The loved one is going through a Prince phase right now with her reading several books and she discovered the “Lotusflow3r” album and needed a copy in the Record Cell to hear, so we aim to please at home and a copy of the 3xCD target edition was duly sourced. And then, the next thing we knew was that we needed to buy a DL of the Prince Performance where he walked off with a cover of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” that made us glad for DLs.

Then the appearance [finally!] of the Ultravox! “Live At the Rainbow 1977” album, which was previously DL/streaming only landed on a RSD album release that saw me venturing to my local emporium a few days later to avoid the ugly crowds. The 30 minute disc spun at 45 RPM and was the 2nd clean sounding GX pressing in a row for me. Sadly, both titles [see also: Vicious Pink] were only available on DL/LP with no silver discs in sight. Remind me what year this is again? While I was at the depressing local store, which now had almost no CD stock any more [but it had beer cozies where CDs once were…beer cozies!!!], I managed to find an Adult. CD I didn’t have yet for a pittance.

Subtotal: $38.26

May 2022

1. Various: Night Of The Proms 2001 – BMG Classics – 74321 89762 2 – BEL – CD – Discogs/$0.52
2. Steven Jones + Logan Sky: Summer Herz – Etrangers Musique – UK – DL – Bandcamp/£3.00/$3.68
3. Jan Linton: Melatonin – HK – DL – Bandcamp/$4.00
4. Jan Linton: Byzantine Remixes – UK – DL – Bandcamp/£6.00/$7.35
5. The Vels: Private World – Mercury – 880 138-1 DJ – USP – 12″ – Discogs/$2.99
6. The Vels: Look My Way – Mercury – 880 407-1 DJ – USP – 12″ – Discogs/$1.99
7. xPropaganda: The Heart Is Strange – ZTT – ZTT novis1BLU – UK – Blu-Ray 5.1 – Superdeluxeedition.com/£22.00/$27.70
8. Illustrated Man: Illustrated Man – Capitol Records – MLP-15020 – US – EP – gift
9. Vicious Pink Phenomena: Live At Leeds Warehouse 19/03/83 – DL – gift

The one CD I bought was <$5 including shipping from Belgium! I finally had the Martin Fry Proms performance for the long neglected ABC BSOG. I also caught up with Art Rocker Jan Linton, who had some catalog remixes as well as a new single out. Steve Jones + Logan Sky [who use Linton’s guitars of late] had a new single out themselves; all at Bandcamp. And a reader offered up his Illustrated Man EP that was just not quite doing it for him. I recall seeing the New Wave supergroup [ex-JAPAN, Gang of 4, Numan band] back in the day but inconclusive reviews stayed my hand. 38 years later, with John Punter producing, it’s probably a must have [if you’re me].

I already had copies of the two Vels 12″ singles above, but they were pretty badly trashed. I hope thousands of people danced to those cuts in clubs! When I was moving on making the DLX Rm of the first Vels album, I knew I had to source better copies. So I finally did. Now I can get back to that abandoned project [hah!]. DJ Paul Dakeyne reached out since he was hosting the Vicious Pink album release party for their new “West View” compilation on Minimal Wave Records. Would I like to attend the release party to be held online at Twitch; a phenomenon far outside of my purview? Absolutely! It was a fun new phenomenon for me, great to reach out to Jose and Brian and I won one of the trivial contests, so that meant that I got a free DL [on the want list already] of their live 1983 DL at their Bandcamp store.

And I finally bought my first Blu-Ray in 5.1 sound version of the neu xPropaganda album because numbers were severely limited and by the time may have had a Blu-Ray player, the disc would be three figures! Heck, I was lucky to get one in the day-long window of availability! This helped my outlay for music this month to scrape dangerously close to $50! Then when commenter schwenko saw that I didn’t have a Blu-Ray player, he had his old one laying around and offered to ship it off to me. Yow! And since he’s cut from similar cloth to me, it was a region-free, multistandard unit of the type I always buy myself when buying a disc player. I think he even buys from the same dealer!

Subtotal: $48.23

June 2022

1. Illustrated Man: Illustrated Man – Guerra Sound Record – GSR 81035 – RUS – CD – gift
2. Siam: Farewell Siam – VM records – VMA 001 – UK – LP – gift
3. ABC: Look Good Tonight – Electronic Sound – ES790 – UK – gold 7″ – Electronic Sound/£11.99/$14.60
4. Oingo Boingo: Only A Lad DLX RM – Rubellan Remasters – RUBY25CD – US – CD – Rubellan Remasters/$14.99
5. Oingo Boingo: Dead Man’s Party DLX RM – Rubellan Remasters – RUBY28CD – US – CD – Rubellan Remasters/$14.99

Just two days after receiving the Illustrated Man EP [and I had already digitized the A-side; some sort of record for me…], I was on the receiving end of another gift from a reader. It transpired that schwenko saw that I had bought the xPropaganda Blu-ray 5.1 disc even though I didn’t have a Blu-ray player. As usual, he had an extra laying around that he had not gotten around to jettisoning; would I want it? Well, Sure! It arrived in the mail yesterday and schwenko had warned me that there would be a bonus CD thrown into the box I may have an interest in. The CD in question? A pirate CD [manufactured] of the EP along with a few bonus tracks! Yes lord, I get it! I will review Illustrated Man…TODAY!

And then I got another gift yesterday from down under when fave singer Jacqui Brookes sent me her spare copy of the rare Siam posthumous live album. She had contacted me earlier asking for an MP3 of one of her B-sides and I sent her the full 2xCD-R I had made of the excellent “Sob Stories” album she had recorded with Jimme O’Neill of Fingerprintz. She offered that she had a second copy of the Siam LP and would send it to me once she had sorted it out. And yesterday it arrived! Now there’s only one Siam 7″ I need to make a CD with everything not already on the first two CD-Rs I made.

Subtotal: $44.58

Half Year Subtotals: 40 releases | $227.92 | average cost – $5.70/title

Yow! Last year at this time I had only spent $303 on music by mid-year’s point. A modest amount for me, to be sure. But this year I’ve managed to shave off a quarter of that amount! Much of this is down to tremendous home improvement expenses that have been building up in the last few months in that we have re-done closets, removed the ceiling texture [popcorn] on the Record Cell [which has lain empty for over five weeks thus far] as well as painted the room, which we skipped when painting the rest of the home interior last year. Right now as I type these words, most of our belongings are stored in our places of work, neighbor’s homes, and a storage pod in our driveway. A flooring crew is ripping out the nasty carpeting and linoleum that we’ve hated for 18 years and is installing new laminate flooring. But there was also the push to limit the music budget and to try to enjoy what’s already there more.

That doesn’t mean that I’m starving for music because the universe has responded by having a wave of generous tithes and promos take up much of the slack. In fact, 24/40 incoming titles were from the hand of others. And I am truly humbled by the gestures. I will try my level best to live up to such generosity with the community that is PPM.

July 2022

1. Jan Linton: Byzantine Remixes – MRC – K1014 – HK – CD-R – gift
2. Jan Linton: Melatonin – MRC – 016 – HK – CD-R – gift
3. Dr. Jan Guru: Planet Japan – MRC – K1014 – HK – CD-R – Bandcamp/$20.00
4. John Foxx: The Marvellous Notebook – Metamatic Records – META72LP – UK – LP [grey] – Foxx Webstore/$29.99
5. John Foxx: The Marvellous notebook – Metamatic Records – UK – CD – Foxx Webstore/$13.99

A quiet month [as is becoming the norm] with only influx from the always worthwhile Jan Linton and John Foxx. Foxx with an outlier in a spoken-word album on the silver and grey discs. Linton released a mixture of catalog and brand new material that further fleshed out his tasty Art Rock resume.

Subtotal: $63.98

August 2022

…more to come

1. Associates: Sulk Boxed Set [ltd. ed.] – BMG – ASCBOOK1 – UK – 3xCD + LP [blue] + CD-5 – SuperDeluxeEdition.com/£50/$60.40

Just one purchase this month and it was the ultrabox of the masterful “Sulk” by Associates. Sure, sure, There was mandatory vinyl dragging me down, but the SuperDeluxeEdition bundle came with a 4th free CD-5 of “Party Fears Two” that was actually free! And their shipping costs to America were a huge victory. The album revealed new details in the density of its songwriting and production in this new expanded form. A reminder of when titans once walked the earth.

Subtotal: $60.40

September 2022

1. Fiat Lux: Hired History Plus – Cherry Red – CDBRED 742 – UK – 2xCD –  gift
2. Associates: Fourth Drawer Down DLX RM – BMG – BMGCAT2CD54 – UK 2xCD – gift
3. Altered Images: Mascara Streakz – Cooking Vinyl – COOKCT825 – UK – Cassette [autographed] – Altered Images webstore/$10.00
4. Altered Images: Mascara Streakz – Cooking Vinyl  – COOKCD825 – UK – CD [autographed] – Altered Images webstore/$10.00
5. Altered Images: Clara Libre EP – Cooking Vinyl – FRYCD1507 – UK – CD-5 – Altered Images webstore/gift

The birthday  month saw a pair of  desirables wing their way to the Record Cell courtesy of my good friend Mr. Ware. The Fiat Lux was a fantastic set that I was keen to get before Cherry Red “re-pressed” it as a CD-R! Something they are doing right now and it makes me sad. The DLX RM of my favorite Associates album, “Fourth Drawer Down” was several cuts longer than the 2000 CD on the racks. Now I still need the 2xCDs of “The Affectionate Punch” and “Sulk” since they each had a few tracks I don’t have elsewhere. Not even in the “Sulk” Box!

The one thing I bought this month was such a deal! For $20.00 I got the autographed new CD from Altered Images, along with an autographed cassette of the same title, and the bundle was capped off with an exclusive CD EP of re-thinks of Altered Images hits in a tropical vein.

subtotal: $20.00

October 2022

1. TV Toy: Shards 1977-1983 – Reversing Recordings – RR 15 – US – CD – promo
2. Steve’s Theme Park: It’s A Global Rock Thing – US – CD – promo
3. CMC – Custom Made Country: The Lubec Years 1984-1989 – MYC5351 – US – CD – promo
4. Simple Minds: Direction Of The Heart DLX – BMG – 4050538826470 – UK digibook CD – Simple Minds webstore/$27.99
5. The Countess Of Fife: Star Of The Sea – Self-released – COUNT 01 – UK – CD – Kickstarter/£30.00/$34.40 [$MC

Another quite month of almost no acquisition, save for promos that came from Steve Peer; the ex-Red Noise drummer had struck up a conversation about his new album project that involved dozens of people he knew from all over the world. Meanwhile the only purchases were from Scot bands; the new DLX Simple Minds album, and a previously pledged for CD [2019] from Fay Fife with her new country music project. The Simple Minds album was a slight backslide for the caliber of albums they’ve been putting out this century. They need to get back to being a band in the recording studio, though this was a “lockdown” project.

subtotal: $62.39

November 2022

1. Pet Shop Boys: Release DLX ED – Sanctuary Records – 06076-84554-2 – US – 2xCD – Antique mall/$2.40
2. Messengers: I Turn Into You – Chrysalis – CHS 2663 – UK – 7″ – Antique Mall/$0.50
3. Pete Wylie: Diamond Girl – MDM Records – MDM 12 – UK – 7″ – Antique Mall/$0.50
4. Shriekback: Bowlahoola – DL – Promo

A tumultuous month of music shopping as I went to an antique mall and bought three releases for for less than $4.00! I already had the Messengers single but at 50¢ you buy it again! I was amazed to see the Pete Wylie single that was actually on my want list there! The odd one out was the Pet Shop Boys DLX 1st pressing of “Release.” Oh my.  I’d heard about how PSB went off the rails in the late 90s/naughts and I guess they were talking about this CD! Not their finest hour by far. This contained a shocking amount of [presumably Neil] on acoustic guitar. And the design with the foiled mauve embossed rose on the O-card and white CD case with clear gloss printing on it, made it look like mid-80s US shopping mall aesthetics! In short, a complete artistic failure. Thank goodness Shriekback came through with a typically zesty new album just when we needed it!

subtotal: $3.40

December 2022

1. Altered Images: The Other Side – Cooking Vinyl – DL – iTunes/$1.29
2. Ultravox: Rage In Eden Superdeluxe Box – Chrysalis Catalogue – CDLB1338 – UK – 5xCD + DVD-A – popmarket.com/$67.79
3. Essential Logic: Logically Yours – Hiss + Shake Records – HAS001LP – UK – 5xLP Promo DL – Promo
4. Department S: Burn Down Tomorrow – Westworld Recordings – DL – Promo
5. Tommy Frenzy: You, Yeah You – Violent Breed Records – US – CD-R – Promo
6. The Catburgers – Dreamworld Sessions – FELT – DL – Promo
7. Various Artists: PUNK 45 – I’m A Mess! D-I-Y Or Die! Art, Trash & Neon – Punk 45s In The UK 1977-78 – Soul Jazz Records – SJR CD505 – UK – CD – gift

subtotal: $69.08

December went out with a bang as the ultrabox for “Rage In Eden,” Ultravox’s last imperial period album finally got released in America.Deep dive yet to happen on that one owing to my hectic schedule. But rest assured, it will get the attention. Soon. Altered Images pulled a rabbit out of their hat with a completely unexpected new DL single hot on the heels of their long-awaited fourth album. And then we got a late-in-year burst of promo materials. I was spellbound by the Essential Logic complete collection, capped off as it were by the first new album in 40 years. Meanwhile the new Department S single was a scorcher! We can’t wait for their upcoming album.

The end of the year was a Tommy Frenzy event horizon for me, personally. Until 2022, I was unaware that he was the singer who took over after Robert Gordon [R.I.P.] left the band on the lone Tuff Darts album, though I recall hearing the name back then. First he contributed plenty of vocals and guitars to the Steve’s Theme Park album; coming to my attention for the first time. Then a musician acquaintance of mine re-connected over an obituary I’d written about a mutual friend and lo and behold, she and her husband were currently the rhythm section in Tommy Frenzy’s latest power trio project and that EP [from early 2020] was another scorcher! Look for more on Tommy Frenzy’s “You Yeah You” coming soon on PPM.

Year End Totals: 68 releases | $507.17 | average cost – $7.46/title

…no more to come.