Album Review: The The - Ensoulment (2024)

It’s been a very long time since a truly new studio album from Matt Johnson dropped, a quarter of a century in fact, if you cast aside esoteric soundtracks, the odd single and spoken word projects. Craig Stephen offers some thoughts on Johnson's 2024 return, Ensoulment ...  

The master of a quartet of dark but sublime albums in the 80s and 90s – namely Soul Mining, Infected, Mind Bomb and Dusk - has a lot to live up to. But the production of an album in 2024 is a remarkable feat, not merely given Johnson’s semi-retirement from the music industry, but due to an emergency throat operation he went under just four years ago. It hasn’t apparently affected his voice which sounds as ever like the narrator of a teenage thriller movie and Leonard Cohen with an English accent.

 Matt Johnson’s name is front and centre of virtually everything related to The The, but Ensoulment is a record made by a five-piece band. That group comprises guitarist Barrie Cadogan, keyboardist DC Collard, bassist James Eller, and drummer Earl Harvin. Eller and Collard are old hands having been involved with The The in the late 80s and early 90s and the five of them toured as The The in 2018.

With every The The album there is a mix of the political and the personal. And Ensoulment is no different. On ‘I Hope You Remember (The Things I Can’t Forget)’, the protagonist looks back on a time that, while recent, still seems far in the distant. “The fireplace glow – the coal-tar soap/The Sunday roast – the tobacco smoke/ The jamboree bags – the penny chews/All now, disappearing from view.” It has something of a 1984 in song feel about, as fears surface about how the “machines are here to correct our thoughts” and how our dreams are now monitored and monetised.

Similarily, Johnson sings, on ‘Some Days I Drink My Coffee By The Grave of William Blake’, of a lost London which is becoming subsumed by the charge of modernity. The city, and indeed Albion itself, is now a land where the greedy are the new gods and the people are ruled by a “dictatorship in drag” re-shaped by quiet coup d’etats.

There’s a similar thoughtline on ‘Cognitive Dissident’, an Orwellian nightmare laid bare in song in which the population is now very much controlled. “Servile, surveilled/Dumbed down, curtailed/Screengrabbed, downranked/Untagged, debanked.”

And on ‘Kissing the Ring of POTUS’, The The return to a theme developed on 1986’s Infected, of an America that is a frightening world dominator and where Britain was described as the 51^st state of the USA. Sadly, for Johnson, little if anything has changed in the global superpower game of control: “The Empire of Lies secures allies/Like a spider ties up flies/Those hand-picked parasites ruling the servile satellites/Know who they dare not criticise/A psychopathic superpower spies from the sky/Transmitting viruses into the mind's eye.”

There are also a few tracks exploring Johnson’s other fascination in life, love and romance. His lustful, depraved voice reminds me of Tom Waits but is much easier on the ear. It is a tome that is very fitting for an exploration of modern day romance on ‘Zen & The Art Of Dating’ in which one of the protagonists goes on a journey from microwave dinners made for one to “That familiar throb deep inside,” after finding a lover by swiping right. It is somewhat cringey, with lines that come across as banal and repetitive but its redeeming feature is that Johnson tells the tale so well that you are riveted by the journey into whatever it is the two protagonists after searching for, be that a long-term romance or a casual affair.

Ensoulment is performed in a variety of styles – it has elements of English folk, indie-rock, jazz and a simmering of electronica. Nothing gets out of hand, it doesn’t develop into the sort of stirring pop that was the signature tune of, say, the single ‘Heartland’ or the ‘Beat(en) Generation’. It is, not, on the other hand, a yawning descent into MOR banality. The mood is right in the middle. That’s somewhat contrary to the lyrics which, as we have seen, are arresting and challenging.

You get the sense that Johnson is at home with his band, who are both engaging in their playing manner and allowing the singer’s talent to shine.

A case therefore of welcome back, and a demand that Ensoulment can be a spur to more material without such long gaps in between.

Album Review: Blur - The Ballad of Darren (2023)

Craig Stephen on the recent-ish Blur return …

In a recent review on this site, I noted that The Libertines were no longer spiky, noisy larrikins but had matured into almost sensible chaps. Likewise, Blur are now at arms and legs length from their manic Britpop days.

It’s hardly a radical about-turn, as the mood of The Ballad of Darren is to some degree an extension of the cynicism and tales of life of a middle age quartet that permeated its predecessor, 2015’s The Magic Whip (has it really been that long?).

 The friction of a band that has seen too much of each other and has led to the period of absence remains. But it is what spurs them to some extent. And yet it’s also clear that there is immense platonic love within the band. These are brothers to all intents and that means squabbles and hugs galore.

The first thing to note about The Ballad of Darren, is the cover. A lone, skinny male swimmer in an outdoor pool without another paddler or spectator around but plenty of empty chairs including the one the lifeguard should be sat at. Behind the pool are grey skies and the threat of rain. There’s a sense of isolation and troubles ahead. 

So, what does the record say? Third track ‘Barbaric’ has elements of gothic literature: “Empty grove, winter darkness. We are taking down the scaffolds very soon. We have lost the feeling that we’d never lose. It is barbaric darling.”

As we continue through the ten tracks, some rather slow, some rousing, we discover a tone of resignation, with Damon Albarn singing about moving on from a broken relationship(s). But from the standpoint that this has all happened before. And so, there’s little point getting too depressed about it, is there?  

It's quite an adult work, not in the sense that there are words that airline pilots should never utter (though ‘St Charles Square’ begins with “I fucked up”) but of a realism that comes with reaching and extending beyond middle age. ‘The Everglades’, for example, exhibits a sense of regret that is natural when you look into the past. “Many paths I’d wish I’d taken. Many times I thought I’d break,” sings Albarn in that near monosyllabic manner he has developed over recent years. ‘Country House’ and ‘Pop Life’ seem decades ago. As, of course, they were. But just as we are wondering if the narrator is consumed by a maudlin mid-life crisis, we are informed that “And calmer days will arrive.”

Some reviewers have referenced the tortured break-up album of 13 from 1999, the album that dimmed Blur’s star, but this feels like it should have been recorded by one of Albarn’s side projects, The Good the Bad And The Queen, of which Clash bassist Paul Simonon was a member. That act, which only released two albums in more than a decade, was an art project, with the second album Merrie England an attempt to understand where the country was post-Brexit and concluding that there was little to enthuse about.

Albarn’s melodies are beautifully formed and he forms a call and response liaison with guitarist Graham Coxon that adds a little frisson to the record. The production is polished but not overdone, and the band’s chemistry is the right measure to ensure that the 36 minutes glide magnificently by. 

As I put the record back in the sleeve, I look at the cover again. And I see not a scene of desolation but of peacefulness, of the kind of solitude we all aspire to at times. The swimmer is reaching his goals. Whatever they may be.  

10 Great Comebacks

Some artists go under the radar for years after being dumped by a fickle record label or are victims of current trends. Some of the artists listed below also had their own personal battles to deal with, but came out at the other end with these killer comeback albums. Craig Stephen presents ten of the finest comebacks …

Tina Turner - Private Dancer (1984)

How low did she go?

After the breakdown of Ike and Tina - both the act and the marriage - Turner became something of a nostalgia act, playing in small venues and Vegas-style cabaret shows to pay off her debts. She’d released two solo albums under her own name since leaving Ike and that last one was in 1979. Love Explosion was a disco-tinged funk album which was not even released in the United States. There followed five years of dead air.

What happened next?

Turner was in her 40s but in an era of Madonna copyists and other young female artists, a major record label took a chance on her. The end result was Private Dancer. It was a team effort with eight producers including Martyn Ware of Heaven 17 credited, and Mark Knopfler and Jeff Beck also on board. There are several covers but Turner’s vocal talents stand out and several singles from it became mega worldwide hits. Commercial radio continues to pound their listeners with ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It’ to this day.

Morrissey - You Are The Quarry (2004)

How bad was his shit?

Dropped by his record label following 1997′s dismal Maladjusted, Morrissey retreated to the Hollywood Hills, where he would become a bit of a recluse. His devoted fans sat twiddling their thumbs but no one else seemed to be bothered if Morrissey released another record.

What happened?

In 2002 Morrissey went on a world tour parading new songs and a year later signed with Sanctuary. A single, ‘Irish Blood, English Heart’, heralded a beefier sound and the album was along the same lines. Sales of You Are The Quarry on both sides of the Atlantic were excellent and critics generally gave it a thumbs up. The missing years had been dispensed with; Morrissey was a rock star again.

Johnny Cash - American Recordings (1993)

Where are we at?

Like many stars of the 60s and 70s, such as Dylan, Johnny Cash was rejected and neglected in the 1980s. Columbia dropped him and his next label, Mercury, didn’t care much. Health problems, drug issues … yep those too.

Yeah … so?

Cash was offered a deal by producer and American Recordings head Rick Rubin. His label specialised in rap and metal so this was a bizarre sideways move. The recordings were just Cash and a guitar but the critics loved it. The NME said it was "uplifting and life affirming because the message is taught through adversity, ill luck and fighting for survival". In the end of year best album reviews, American Recordings was up there with the best pop, rock, rap and metal albums around, including being rated No.4 in the British monthly Mojo’s annual round-up.

 Elvis Presley - The Comeback Special (1968)

Down the toilet?

By mid-1968, Presley was at a personal and professional low point. He had gained weight, his musical career had been taken over by a series of mediocre movies, and pop music had changed with all the ‘super’ bands like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Doors. He had been left behind.

What did he do next?

Collaborating with NBC Television, and sidelining his conservative and controlling manager, Colonel Tom Parker, The King appeared on his own show, Singer Presents …. Elvis, but more commonly known as The ’68 Comeback Special. It was a one-hour concert that aired in early December. This was the old Elvis, the leather-jacket wearing rocker and he played hits and new songs. The watching public loved it and the following year Presley released singles such as ‘In The Ghetto’ and ‘Suspicious Minds’ and he was back as pop star rather than a bad actor. 

David Bowie - Black Tie/White Noise (1993)

The lowdown:

Bowie’s solo career had slipped with the disappointing Never Let Me Down in 1987. His next move was surprising: a four-piece called Tin Machine was his attempt at being part of a band again. The self-titled debut was reasonably well received but Tin Machine II is generally considered a poor cousin and received some rather abrasive reviews. The band split due to personal issues.

The comeback:

Bowie’s first solo album in six years was presaged by the brilliant single ‘Jump They Say’ about the tragic life of his brother Terry. Bowie was in Los Angeles at the time of the 1992 riots and Black Tie/White Noise is about that and a plea for racial unity. It isn’t one of his best post-80s albums but it kick started a more productive period.

The House of Love - Days Run Away (2005)

Where were they at?

When guitarist Terry Bickers famously spat the dummy mid-tour in 1989, the band was left without its talisman. By 1993 the band had run itself into the ground and Audience With The Mind, was by far the poorest of the four albums they recorded to that point. They split soon after and didn’t lay a glove on the world for more than a decade.

What happened next?

The troubles of the past seemingly resolved and with Bickers back in the gang, the House of Love got its groove back with the result being this excellent collection. The Guardian was happy with the result. “Their sound is back to its subtle best, all Velvet Underground rhythms and guitars swooping over gentle melodies.”

Dexy’s - One Day I’m Going to Soar (2012)

Dexy’s Midnight Runners’ main man Kevin Rowland was suffering from financial problems, drug addiction and depression following the dismal reception to his first solo album The Wanderer in 1988. Over the next few years he was in and out of rehab and signing on the dole.

What happened next?

There was a band reformation in 2003 but little activity until 2012 and the release of One Day I’m Going to Soar. They were now called simply Dexys and featured old hands like Pete Williams, Mick Talbot, Big Jim Paterson and a new, female vocalist, Madeleine Hyland. Mojo wrote of the album: “Intense, painfully frank, hysterically funny, and in the end, exultant... ODIGTS isn't always an easy listen, but it does offer a fearless experience that invests pop with more theatricality than the form can usually tolerate.”

 Wanda Jackson - The Party Ain’t Over (2011)

Jackson was the Queen of Rockabilly, a massive star in the 1950s and early 60s. But once rock’n’roll became passe so did all those great stars, and Jackson then recorded country, blues and gospel albums. She had never retired and her most recent prior record was in 2006. But as numerous as they were, those albums couldn’t release her from the tag of the former Queen of Rockabilly.

What happened next?

White Stripes’ Jack White offered to produce … and who says no to him? White looked to reconnect the 73-year-old Jackson with her teenage style, resulting in frantic horns and White's fuzzed-out guitar. The result was the surprise return of rockabilly in the 2000s with an album that stood on its own.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono - Double Fantasy (1980)

Please explain:

In early 1975 Lennon released an almost forgotten collection of 1950s and 60s standards, and followed it later that year with a compilation, Shaved Fish, which sold moderately. Lennon spent the next few years as a house-husband.

What happened next?

In 1980, Lennon was inspired by the 2-Tone and new wave scenes that spawned the likes of Madness, The Pretenders and the B-52s. The album he and Yoko Ono made, Double Fantasy, was the ideal comeback, a fresh start for a couple ready to greet the world again. Alas, it turned out to a sad farewell as three weeks after its emphatic release, Lennon was killed by a lone gunman.

AC/DC - Back In Black (1980)

Which ditch were the band in?

Scots-born singer Bon Scott died of acute alcohol poisoning in early 1980. The end seemed nigh for the band with the remaining members considering closing this chapter. Instead, they roped in Brian Johnson, ex of British rock band Geordie. 

And then?

Back In Black was recorded over seven weeks in the Bahamas and released in July 1980. It had the signature guitars and hard rock of AC/DC. The album's all-black cover was designed as a "sign of mourning" for Scott. It sold 50 million copies worldwide and is regarded as one of the best heavy metal albums of all time.

Album Review: Springloader - Just Like Yesterday (2024)

Well, this is a lovely surprise, and a bit of a trip. An album which started its journey as far back as 1994, finally springing to life in November 2024. 

As the old Mainland Cheese advert used to tell us … “good things take time”. 

Springloader was initially the shared vision of Failsafe Records guru, Rob Mayes (guitars, bass), and founding drummer Dave Toland. In late 1993, with the band still very much in its infancy, they were joined by Michael Oakley (vocals, guitars), and Che Rogers (bass). 

The fledgling album began its rather fragmented life with the earliest recordings in Christchurch in the summer and autumn of 1994. Thirty years on, with a fair bit of interim tweaking, the (not really) ironically titled Just Like Yesterday has finally been released. There was essentially a dry run of the album in 2005, a low key release called Just Like Falling, which featured demo tracks and “as is” recordings of many of the tunes that make up the fully formed album we see today. 

I’ve got to be honest: beyond the music of Supergroove, Strawpeople, and one of two other local acts, much of the first half of the 1990s is a giant vacant void for yours truly when it comes to music from Aotearoa. I do know that it was a highly productive period for the genre we call “New Zealand Music” but because I was based in the UK for much of that era, I missed a whole bunch of stuff that didn’t land on those then-faraway shores. There was no internet back then, kids, and I’ve more or less been playing catch-up ever since.

And I also know - beyond nascent electronica, hip hop, and perhaps a bit of “rave” - one of the most prominent or popular genres in the UK in 1994 was this thing we’ve come to call shoegaze, with bands like Ride, Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, plus the even more niche likes of Boo Radleys and Swervedriver, all creating their own unique brands of driving guitar rock. Guitar rock that had an even more distinctive sound than the job-lots of US grunge being imported into the UK at that time. Mostly indie-driven - during an era when the Independent charts mattered more than the pop charts - it was a brand of rock that was fresh and melodic, and one which mostly relied upon its carefully crafted wall-of-sound aesthetic. When done well, especially in a live setting, it could be exhilarating. 

Which is pretty much where Springloader comes in. If the then abandoned album, had somehow - by dint of some miracle - managed to find the ear of one or two of the influential UK radio DJs back in 1994, it may well have been a very big deal. Because when I listen to the title track, which opens proceedings, I’m instantly transported back to the central Glasgow bedsit I occupied for most of that year, and the music on the radio shows I spent most evenings listening to. 

But more than any of that, there’s an experimental bent at play on Just Like Yesterday which might just give the album an important point of difference. Alternate tunings and unorthodox guitar techniques, with Mayes, perhaps better known as a bass player, clearly enjoying the creative freedom that every guitarist-at-heart craves. 

Something that, with the aid of no little post-millennium spit and polish, tends to give it, with accidental reverence to its very title, a degree of timelessness. And there’s a sense that Just Like Yesterday could just as easily have been made during any of the rock n roll eras, bar perhaps, the very first one. 

‘Just Like Yesterday’ (the track) really is the perfect title track and advance single. An almost Byrdsian indie power-pop gem, it also offers us an early taster of one or two of the more unorthodox guitar settings that then go on to proliferate the rest of the album. 

There’s a good balance of higher tempo tracks (‘Nothing I Want More’, ‘Looking Out For You’) and more introspective slower tunes (‘Closer To Further Away’, ‘All That I Want’) before the album builds to a couple of dense near mini-epics in the form of ‘One More Thing’ and ‘Too Close’, nearer the end. 

At ten tracks, clocking in at around 45 minutes, Just Like Yesterday feels a bit more than the mere sum of its parts. Whatever else it might be, for me, it is already working as a stylistic reference point to a particular time and place. Which is never a bad thing to be. And yet, yet … as alluded to above, it’s not really that at all. 

It’s an album that comes complete with its very own very-rock n roll backstory. A story that has taken some 30 years to be told. A story told in quite some detail in the extensive sleeve notes that come with the release. The story of a previously lost album finally being found. 

The sleeve notes also offer a lot of other stuff - lyrics and chords - that for the most part can be filed away in the drawer labelled: Unrepentant Guitar Nerd Stuff. 

(Everyone has a drawer with that label, right?) 

And bonus upon bonus, if the accompanying press release is to be believed, there’s already a follow-up album locked and loaded to go for Springloader in 2025. 

Check it out the Springloader Bandcamp page (here).

Up The Punks ...

Punk's Not Dead at an exhibition of music's greatest genre …

The crowd was as mixed as the exhibition itself. Young punks, old punks, baby punks, goths, emos, and people like myself way too boring to attract a label, mingled at Wellington's Thistle Hall for the opening night of a display of vast amounts of ephemera going back to the far-off days of punk rock's heyday.

Up The Punks is a celebration of the capital's punk scene going back to 1977. Plastered all over the tiny venue's walls were gig posters, photographs, newspaper articles, zine covers and what-have-yous. Curated by John Lake and reliant on contributions from a number of people among them Skippy (aka Jim Gardener), it's a showcase for a semi-underground scene that's surviving in the third decade of this putrid century.

Up The Punks is on from October 22 to October 27 at the Thistle Hall on Cuba Street in Wellington.

(Another forgotten) Classic Album Review: Five Thirty – Bed (1991)

Craig Stephen digs deep to come up with another should-have-been but never-quite-got-there classic album from the vast vaults of the early 1990s shoegaze scene …

In the days when British television made music shows that mattered, there was a one-off series that stood out because it unveiled some emerging and exciting acts.

I had long forgotten the programme’s title, but Mr Google informs me it was called the Yamaha Band Explosion, and that it was filmed at the Marquee Club in London.

The nauseating yet enthusiastic DJ Gary Crowley introduced a variety of shoegazing bands who looked aloof and immersed themselves in wah-wah effects. This contrasted with a very young and electrifying Manic Street Preachers and an act that, sadly, has disappeared off the historical radar, 5:30 (also written as Five Thirty).

Timing was cruel to 5:30 who were in the right place, at the wrong time. In 1991, the world had a choice between the Madchester / indie-dance bands, shoegazers, techno geeks and the grunge noiseniks from America. It was impossible to market a band decked in shirts from Carnaby Street, and possessed a sound that didn’t really fit into any of the above scenes.

 Their sole album, Bed, which was released a week before Nevermind, is a classic of the era, and I was delighted when 3 Loop Music re-released it a few eclipses ago with a welter of extra tracks. Indeed, there were two discs of B-sides, a John Peel session, and demos of songs that would have made up the second album.

It includes ‘Supernova’, the burning pop single with heavy tremolo-effected guitars that should have gone higher in the charts, while ‘13th Disciple’ was tuneful, assertive and owed a small debt to the Stone Roses. ‘Junk Male’ used some clever guitar techniques with a stunning opening stanza: “If God were to ever come my way, I’d spit into his face. Then calmly walk away.”

‘Songs and Paintings’ was about how creativity couldn’t change the world: “Songs and paintings never brought a regime down. It cannot be fair.”

Bed was surprisingly diverse, ranging from funk-infused numbers to slow burners to guitar-driven belters, sometimes beefed up with the use of wah-wah pedals.

While their recording output was tragically brief, the band was in existence for seven years, forming in 1985 in Oxford while Tara Milton and Paul Bassett were still at school. Despite their youth, they released a cracking EP (as 5:30!) that same year. It was headed by ‘Catcher in The Rye’, which was brimming with youthful cockiness and possessed the headstrong maturity of a more seasoned group.

What happened thereafter is somewhat mysterious as they disappeared for four years. They then reappeared in 1989 in London - having dropped the exclamation mark - and had been joined by Phil Hopper on drums. Soon after they signed to East West, in the days when real talent could get you noticed by big to middling labels.

The following year came the long-awaited second single, ‘Abstain’, which sounded like late-period Jam and The Clash rolled into one. Later, in the year of ‘Fool’s Gold’, ‘Step On’ and ‘Sit Down’, came the edgy guitar-driven ‘Air-Conditioned Nightmare’. Not quite as good perhaps as ‘Abstain’ but still way ahead of many other, more successful but more limited, British bands. Neither single was deemed suitable for Bed.

These singles set them up for a big 1991 and they were on fire during the year. ‘13th Disciple’ was released as a single in May, ‘Supernova’ in July, Bed in September, and the You EP in November. Every single was a stunner, and the album was packed full of them. However, the singles reached No.67, 75, and 72 respectively in the UK. Not surprisingly with such low sales numbers, Bed never stood a chance. The radio DJs, the music journalists and the TV producers were nowhere to be seen when they were needed most.

The almost vilified Northside had more success FFS.

Alas, 5:30 split up in 1992, a second album not progressing beyond the demo stage. Hindsight might proffer that, had they been more aware of how the tide surges and subsides, they could’ve been contenders. But you can understand why they packed it in. Pop music is a fickle industry indeed.

Tara Milton subsequently formed The Nubiles which had one decent album, the slightly left-field Mindbender, and later had a solo career. Paul Bassett was part of Orange Deluxe which released a string of albums, while Phil Hopper left the music industry altogether.

My vinyl copy of Bed is much played, and the triple disc version of Bed is getting its turn when the time allows. I only wish many more people and their pets could say the same thing.

Echoes of the Night

Two of my favourite things. Together. In the same place. Joining forces to create something new from something … well, relatively new. If you’ve read this blog before you’ll know I’ve raved a fair bit about On-U Sound production maestro Adrian Sherwood. And you’ll know I’ve raved a fair bit about Aotearoa dub legends Pitch Black. Now I (potentially) get to have a rave about both in the same blogpost because Dubmission have just released Echoes of The Night on Bandcamp (link here); four Pitch Black originals re-purposed and re-energised by none other than Adrian Sherwood himself.

 But look, rather than have me go over the same old fanboy ground, I’ll let Dubmission tell you all about it in this blurb that hit my inbox earlier today:

They say you should never meet your heroes, but for Mike Hodgson of Pitch Black, meeting the legendary Adrian Sherwood has been a transformative experience, leading to creative collaborations that have benefited both of them.

Nearly 30 years after first being mesmerized by On-U Sound’s releases, a cheeky bit of radio ripping serendipitously led to Mike helping Pats Dokter, the label’s official archivist, with his work restoring master tapes, and eventually to him creating visual content for Adrian’s live shows.

A while after this collaboration began, Adrian offered to remix some of Mike’s music, either by his solo project Misled Convoy or his work with Paddy Free as Pitch Black, and it’s four cuts by the latter that grace this heavyweight platter.

From the dreamy dub of Transient Transmission to the rolling rhythms of A Doubtful Sound, Pitch Black’s originals have been re-arranged and dubbed to $%># in Adrian’s signature style, with fluid melodies, pounding basslines and vocal samples awash in a wall of effects.

Trumpets by David “Ital Horns” Fullwood bookend the release, haunting in the first track and celebratory in the last, while Doug Wimbish (Living Colour/Tackhead) added an extra bassline to the heaving version of 1000 Mile Drift, which now also features the voice of the iconic Lee “Scratch” Perry.

Reflecting on the collaboration, Mike Hodgson says, “the whole experience has been slightly unreal, from working on Adrian’s videos to being in the On-U studio and watching him dub-mixing the tracks I’ve made, something I could never have imagined happening!”

Mike isn’t the only On-U fan in Pitch Black, as a pivotal moment for Paddy was “watching Adrian mixing Tackhead at the Powerstation in 1995 and seeing the cause-and-effect of what he was doing and hearing the unbelievable sounds coming out of the speakers. It was the first time I’d ever seen somebody dub mix like that.”

The cover of Echoes of the Night is based upon an original artwork by long-time Pitch Black collaborator (and fellow On-U aficionado) Hamish Macaulay, while the vinyl has been pressed using a 100% recycled compound known as eco-mix, making each record totally unique as the colours change across the pressing run (most appear to be green-ish).

Echoes of the Night on Bandcamp

Album Review: The Libertines - All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade (2024)

Craig Stephen on a belated yet still rather impressive addition to The Libertines legacy …

Here we are again: the lads’ lads are back in town for another crack at lighting up the Libertines torch after nearly a decade in abeyance.

Despite all the much-publicised infighting and excessive lifestyles, the erstwhile leaders of the Libertines - Pete Doherty and Carl Barat - need each other and they need the vehicle of the Libertines to display their varied and esoteric talents.

Like ABBA there was always going to be a reunion, because it seems easier to reunite than to stay out of each other’s reach. You see, messrs Barat and Doherty’s solo careers haven’t exactly gone to plan: Babyshambles was, well, a shambles, and I challenge you to name a solo Barat album. Getting the band back together wasn’t such a bad idea, eh?

 All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade - the title’s a subtle nod to the literary war classic by Erich Maria Remarque - is the quartet’s first album since the middling Anthems for Doomed Youth (again, you see the literary reference in the title) released in 2015. It is also only their fourth studio album in almost a quarter of a century.

Nine years is a long time in music and changes are mostly visual. For example, Doherty now looks like John Belushi though Barat still has that eastern European lothario look about him. Unusually, the original four-piece remains tight, 20-plus years after forming, with Gary Powell on drums and John Hassell on bass - the understated but indispensable ‘other two’ of the gang.

They now have their own hotel, the Albion Rooms, in faded seaside resort Margate in Kent. The hotel website reveals that it contains seven “uniquely designed” rooms, a venue, studio and bars. And, of course, it is where All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade was recorded.

Doherty and Barat’s observations of a decaying Britain pepper the album, most notably on ‘Merry Old England’ where they question where the country is at now, and asks the Syrians, Iraqis, and Ukrainians who have fled their conflict-torn homelands “Oh how you finding Merry Old England?”.

Referencing Dalby Square - a former pristine part of Margate which is now the home to many people on Jobseekers Allowance - the Libertines find that even the feted white cliffs of Dover are now “decaying in the sodium light”.

Inspiration for the album was just around the corner in Margate. It is a town notable for its “poverty-based polarisation” (according to researchers), with people divided into extremes of wealth and deprivation, and very few in the middle.

In ‘Mustangs’, we meet Traci, who likes a “1 Litre Liquor prize” while the kids are at school. Dropping in an iconic American clothing manufacturer, we find Traci “in her Juicy Couture tracksuit, she stares at the wall”, full of dreams and an escape from the drudgery of her life.

 There are hints of Britain’s wealth disparity on the covers. Yes, plural as there’s one cover for the LP and one for the CD. Both feature the same range of characters: a well-to-do woman dressed for another era, a mother with a cigarette in her mouth pushing a pram (possibly Traci), a Sloane Ranger carrying bags from trendy shops, a backpacking busker and a couple of footballing-loving young lads. 

We are party to the new regime in ‘Shiver’, after queues formed around several blocks in London last year to see “the old girl boxed away” leading to a coronation day for a new king.

Long gone are those fast and blast days of the rousing, raucous debut. Over the years the quartet have developed into more divergent soundscapes. And, yes, that means even ballads. In a good way. Album closer ‘Songs They Never Play On The Radio’ (cos .. “You can stream them now for free and save your soul”) is quite beautiful yet played with passion.

It’s the perfect riposte to ‘Be Young’, one of three “bangers” which any old punk would appreciate. The other two are ‘Oh Shit’ and the first track ‘Run Run Run’, an equal to any early Libertines single. The opening refrain “It’s a lifelong project of a life on the lash,” could be a self-confession. The protagonist is “an old-time blagger/ A dab hand in a band/ Still knows the streets of Camden like the back of his hand.”

There’s a wistful melancholy that pervades All Quiet … But also a feeling that the past isn’t really a glamorous location. Nor is the present. It resonates with a touch of anger, of how England has become, a nation where you’ll either be rich or die in abject poverty. It’s a sad state of a country in managed decline.

The Nomad, to Infinity and beyond ...

After a relatively prolonged period of hiatus, pioneering Aotearoa electronic producer Daimon Schwalger, aka The Nomad, has had a busy past twelve months or so; not only with a return to live performances and DJ-ing gigs, but with the careful curation of two compilation albums released to celebrate a quarter of a century of making music.

Those two compilations come in the form of Infinite and Infinite II. A recent social media post from Schwalger hinted that a third compilation might also be a current work-in-progress.

Let’s hope so – The Nomad has been at the forefront of the development of electronic music in this country, with seven full album releases, an early EP (Concentrated, 2002), and one previous compilation album (Selected Works, 2008), across that 25-year period, so it’s fair to say his back catalogue is expansive enough to easily accommodate a third volume of Infinite.

 Initially, Infinite and Infinite II were exclusive limited edition vinyl releases but thankfully they’re now both available as digital downloads on Bandcamp (here), something that will ensure their reach is a lot more widespread than it might otherwise have been.

Each volume of Infinite is notable for the variety of musical styles on offer – The Nomad’s debut release ‘Movement’ is widely touted as New Zealand’s first ever drum n bass release but the palate across all subsequent releases beyond the 1998 debut broadens into reggae, dub, trap, dubstep, techno, some experimental stuff, and morsels of just about every other club or dance music trend this century has had to offer.

The other most obvious feature of each album is the heavyweight collabs deployed with The Nomad’s co-credit support cast being a virtual Who’s Who, anyone who’s anyone, list of local musical talent. Plus a fair few of the international variety as well; local co-conspirators include Julia Deans, Pearl Runga, Lisa Tomlins, Barnaby Weir, Tiki Taane, King Kapisi, Tehimana Kerr, MC Antsman, Ras Stone, Israel Starr, Oakley Grenell, plus fellow local production pioneer Opiuo. Those bringing the overseas vibes include Dexta Malawi, MC Lotek, and true giants of the dub and reggae scenes such as Luciano and the Mad Professor.

Plus there’s been many others (not mentioned above) who have also brought the love to The Nomad’s sound across the course of his wholly unique musical journey. It is surely testament to how highly regarded he is that so many high-profile talents have seamlessly slotted into his musical vision.

 Having interviewed Schwalger for NZ Musician magazine back in 2014 (here) upon the release of the seventh Nomad album, the aptly named 7, I can attest that he was a pleasure to deal with, and certainly one of the more pragmatic, honest, and down-to-earth local musicians I’ve met. You simply don’t survive and thrive for a full quarter of a century in the music and production business in this country unless you’re cut from the right cloth, and you’re prepared or able to collaborate without fuss.  

Listening to both Infinite and Infinite II are no-skip events, so I wouldn’t recommend you single out specific cuts, but if pushed, my own Five Favourite Essential Nomad Cuts, all of which feature on either album, would be: ‘Destinations’, ‘Deeper’ ft. Saritah & Jornick, Opiuo’s remix of ‘Devil In The Dark’ ft. Julia Deans, ‘Combination Dub AD’ ft. MC Antsman, and one of his sleeper hits, ‘Seductive Wolf Eyes’ ft. Christina Roberts.

I’m looking forward to Infinite III already.

My Cassette Pet

Craig Stephen on the cassette tape mini-revival …

Defying logic, there has been something of a cassette revival over the past few years. We even have a Cassette Store Day – the format’s equivalent of Record Store Day, which has done much to revive sales in vinyl.

Its revival is one of the more curious revival movements because for decades the humble cassette effectively disappeared from store shelves. Well, in the west anyway. In some African countries, the Middle East and South Asia the tape has never gone out of fashion.

They’re cheap and don’t take up space so you can see their attraction. With new release vinyl albums now costing $NZ60 and upwards, it’s clear why a far more economical format might gain traction.

I wasn’t entirely convinced about the availability of cassettes so I had a look around. The JB Hi-Fi website has a section for cassettes for sale, and as I write there’s 15 listed. Four of those are reissues by De La Soul and there’s also 72 Seasons by Metallica and Autofiction by Suede. The retailer’s prices vary from $28 up to $49, but generally they are around the same price as the CD.

Marbecks didn’t have a separate tape section but did have a pack of blank cassettes, Southbound in Auckland had the same number as JB Hi-Fi and Real Groovy had 115 listed, which I guess was a mix of new and second hand.

There are even tape-only labels in New Zealand catering to bands that don’t have the money to invest in vinyl. This is a subject to be developed for later.

 In the big music markets, sales are on the up. The British Phonographic Industry says cassette sales have increased for 10 consecutive years – rising from less than 4000 in 2012 to more than 195,000 in 2022. That’s still small fry compared to vinyl and digital, but it’s a massive increase nevertheless. It’s the same for the United States while in Japan there are cassette-only stores and Tower Records, which is still around in the country but not anywhere else, has increased its shelf space of the format.

In the 1980s the cassette was sold at the same price as vinyl. Back then blank tapes abounded and the mixtape was an artform. This was a way of making tapes for your mates, or for yourself from a selection of albums.

You could select whatever songs you wanted, and in a preferred order too. Sod a ballad, I want just fast tracks, or I could rearrange an album whereby the weaker songs are at the start. Furthermore, I could tag on B-sides and unreleased tracks.

Meanwhile, live gigs were easily recorded and issued on cassette, providing a source - the legendary bootleg - for fans that otherwise wasn’t available in the pre-internet age.

While much of the technology we have used in the past has become obsolete (eight-track cartridge, mini-disks etc), cassettes, like vinyl, still have niche value for the music fan.

This mini revival comes as this writer is culling a box of cassettes. I have the ability to play them, I just don’t, so something has to give. I gave three to an op shop: the Stranglers’ No More Heroes because I now have the vinyl version, but the Wedding Present cassingle was a no-brainer: I just don’t like the band anymore.

Here a small selection from my all-time homemade favourite tapes:

The Associates double: Sulk, the American edition, which is slightly different from the UK release, is on one side, and Perhaps, released a couple of years later, is on the opposite. This was one of the first tapes I had and was made by a friend who introduced me to the band and other Scottish delights such as the Jesus and Mary Chain and the Cocteau Twins.

Midnight Oil 1982 to 2003: I’ve got very little Midnight Oil music as they were an oft-erratic band so it made perfect sense to go through half a dozen albums and fill up two sides of their best songs.

 Mix and match Vol 67: Hot Hot Heat – three tracks; Electric Six – three tracks; Maximo Park – nine tracks; and a bunch of tracks by the likes of Wolfmen, Razorlight, The Rapture, Stephen Duffy, and Manic St Preachers. This is quite a varied selection. The Maximo Park tracks are a selection of the B-sides compilation and 2007’s Our Earthly Pleasures.

Reggae Classics Vol 48: Reggae is so wonderful and there’s so many compilations around. I used to get loads of them out of the Napier City library and stick them on tape. This one features Gregory Isaacs, Mikey Dread, Poet and the Roots, Junior Murvin and many others.

Godzone’s Gifts: There are some great acts from New Zealand. This mixtape includes Goldenhorse, The Front Lawn, Collapsing Cities, The Bats, The Clean and Cut off Your Hands. Bands you might be challenged to lump together but it actually melds quite well.

David Bowie 1980-84: Nobody could truthfully say the eighties were a productive era for Bowie so this condenses the best of the early part of the decade, starting with Scary Monsters and Super Creeps, which takes up most of the tape. By 1984 and the Tonight album, he’s lost it, and the quality avoidance would continue until 1993.

And now for some that were commercially available, made in a factory.

Various – C86: The superstar of a long line of New Musical Express cassettes and a legend of compilations. A Nuggets for the 1980s.  Somebody has even written a book about the cassette which was later released on vinyl that same year (and much later on a 3-CD deluxe edition). The timing of the release was crucial. An underground indie scene had been brewing for a couple of years and came to the boil in 1986 with clubs and scores of releases. The twee or jangly scene featured bands that apparently only wore anoraks, had floppy fringes and played guitar music that sounded like the Byrds or Love.

 The first side of C86 included many of those scenesters: Primal Scream, The Pastels, The Bodines, Mighty Mighty, The Shop Assistants, the Soup Dragons and the Wedding Present. If it was only a round-up of all the greatest twee songs of the time it probably wouldn’t have the impact it did. Conversely, an album that showcased a burgeoning scene was in fact a varied, Catholic collection with the inclusion of agit rock-dance band Age of Chance, sarcastic bastards Half Man Half Biscuit, and acts such as Miaow!, Stump and The Mackenzies. It was a deft adventure into a world that had no boundaries.

The The – Soul Mining: Soul Mining is a classic of the time but at seven tracks was deemed to be too short for American tastes even though most of the tracks stretched to more than five minutes and ‘Giant’ clocked in at 9:34. So a version of ‘Perfect’ was added to some versions and the UK cassette version had another five goodies. It’s likely that at least one of these tracks was from the discarded Pornography of Despair album.

The Phoenix Foundation – Trans Fatty Acid: This tape came with initial editions of the band’s Give Up Your Dreams vinyl album released in 2015. Of the four tracks (all great btw), there’s a special cover of Can’s hit single ‘I Want More’. 

The Cure – Standing on a Beach, The Singles (And Unavailable B-sides): Now, isn’t that title a giveaway or what. With the extra space on the tape, there was always the opportunity to expand the track listing, and in this edition the 13 singles were joined by a dozen B-sides. These included the likes of ‘Another Journey By Train’ and ‘The Exploding Boy’. Some tracks were B-sides for a good reason, but some could have been included on a studio album. 

Various – The World At One: Another NME cassette only release available by sending a cheque or postal order and hoping that you received it in a week or so. The World At One was one of the most valuable of the series as it introduced readers to music from Bulgaria to Zambia to the French Antilles. Readers could hear almost certainly for the first time Jali Musa Jawara or Kass Kass. It was issued in 1987 as the term ‘world music’ was becoming a saleable asset.

Orange Juice – The Orange Juice: Over to my OJ-obsessed mate Scouse Neil for this one … “The Orange Juice cassette, which I got from a Woollies sale for the giveaway price of £1.99, had the 10-track album on one side, and a whole side of B-sides and 12-inch mixes on the other. Considering I hadn’t heard some of these versions before, this was like gold dust to an OJ fan. Apparently, the tape version sold more than the vinyl, which is not saying much since it was the only one of their albums not to make the Top 100.” Scouse Neil did perk up a bit at learning that the album reached No.28 in the New Zealand charts in 1984.

Bow Wow Wow – Your Cassette Pet: Released in November 1980 only on cassette, and therefore it was classified as a single for the UK charts. They were musically inept but something of pioneers as a single released a few months earlier ‘C-30,C-60,C-90’ (a nod to the different lengths of tapes) was apparently the world’s first cassette single.

For the record, the first compact cassette, in the format that became million sellers, was first introduced in 1963. The first Walkman appeared in 1979.