(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.

Please Release Me … Top 10 potentially great unheard albums

Nostalgia is a niche sales opportunity in the music industry and labels have become adept at tapping into fans’ desire to have as much music as they can by the artists they adore. I’m thinking of David Bowie’s Toys or Neil Young’s Homegrown which were released about 20 and 40 years after being recorded.

Critical acclaim was unlikely to be foisted upon either album if they were released in 2001 or 1975 respectively, but the focus now is giving the punters what they want.
In the blog’s latest line of compilation lists, Craig Stephen lists a mere 10 albums that never saw the light of day at the time – and probably should have. These include completed albums, works in progress and even just album ideas.

 The Who: Lifehouse (recorded 1971/1972)

After Tommy, The Who intended on doing a science fiction proto-environmental catastrophe rock opera. Sadly, as exciting as this idea sounded, the project was abandoned in favour of the traditional rock delight Who’s Next. Very little of it has not been released (elsewhere) with half a dozen tracks, including ‘Bargain’ and ‘Baba O’Riley’, appearing on Who’s Next and others popping up on Odds and Sods or other albums. But fans still want the album as it was supposed to be recorded and released.

House of Love: Untitled (recorded 1989)

After the burning success of their phenomenal self-titled debut and following their signing to Fontana, the House of Love hit the studio to record what was due to be their second masterpiece. It didn’t quite work out, however. The band was disintegrating and the recording sessions are said to be below par. What is certain is that two singles, ‘Never’ and ‘I Don’t Know Why I Love You’, would have been at the forefront of the album. As would ‘Soft as Fire’ and ‘Safe’, both B-sides but certainly album material. In 1990, after the official second album, Fontana or the Butterfly Album as it is sometimes dubbed, the label issued a collection of B-sides and outtakes called Spy In The House of Love. Among these were four tracks that would have been on that now mythical album. The standout was ‘Marble’, but the other three do hint at the issues the band were experiencing.

The The: Pornography of Despair (recorded 1982)

This would have been Matt Johnson’s debut album under the moniker of The The but was considered too oblique. Several tracks were released as B-sides and some of the album landed on the cassette of Soul Mining, the incredible album that was released in 1983 to massive acclaim and chart success. It is logical to see the merits of this decision as tracks such as ‘This Is The Day’ and ‘Uncertain Smile’ are among the best tracks The The have ever recorded.

 Clare Grogan: Trash Mad (recorded 1987)

When Altered Images broke up in the mid-80s it was only natural that lead singer Clare Grogan be set free on a solo career that capitalised on her beautiful voice and photogenic appearance. Trash Mad was written and recorded and all set to sail in 1987. But … the opening single ‘Love Bomb’, ahem, bombed despite a number of TV appearances. It certainly wasn’t a stinker, in fact it’s a near perfect pop song. Its follow-up ‘Strawberry’ was subsequently shelved and London Records also pulled the album, causing distress to millions of schoolboys. Surely Cherry Red will have eyes on issuing Trash Mad for the first time ever, ending nearly 40 years of hurt.

The Clash: Rat Patrol From Fort Bragg (recorded 1981/1982)

There was the double album (London Calling) and the triple album (Sandinista). How could the Clash possibly follow these lengthy meisterwerks? The original idea was for another double. This was Mick Jones’ baby, but sadly he was outnumbered and outgunned. Fort Bragg was shelved, and instead CBS issued Combat Rock, which is not a bad album to have in your cannon. Jones distilled various elements and influences that The Clash had used previously into a 75-minute, 18-track beast. Fort Bragg would’ve included all of the tracks that made up Combat Rock, and plenty more besides. But ‘Rock the Casbah’ et al would’ve sounded so very different. Various bootlegs have appeared over the years, but the full, unedited and mastered version NEEDS to be given a proper release.

The Bodysnatchers: Untitled (some tracks recorded 1980)

The Bodysnatchers only issued two singles, ‘Easy Life’ and ‘Let’s Do Rock Steady’, eager takes on the ska revival sound that 2-Tone mastered so well. As well as their B-sides, there’s a track that was recorded for John Peel and a version of ‘The Boiler’ which was later covered by singer Rhoda Daker and the Special AKA. In 2014 Dakar recorded an album entitled Rhoda Dakar Sings The Bodysnatchers. You can imagine that the 10 tracks were set to form The Bodysnatchers’ debut album, but it is still a solo effort.

Space: Love You More Than Football (recorded 2000)

Space were everywhere in the 1990s with supernova global hits like ‘Female of the Species’ and ‘The Ballad of Tom Jones’. After the latter, a top five hit in the UK no less, the public’s interest waned and when a single, ‘Diary of a Wimp’, flopped like an octogenarian in a brothel, the Edwyn Collins-produced Love You More Than Football (an impossible construct, of course) was scrapped. Promo copies popped up at the time and the odd track subsequently came out on compilations. It wasn’t till 2019 that a remixed version of the album was included on a boxset of all the band’s material. Is that a proper release for an unissued album? Don’t be so daft, lad.

 Department S: Sub-stance (recorded 1981)

Named after a 70s television series, this English outfit had a surprise UK hit at the end of 1980 with the rather eerie but beguiling ‘Is Vic There?’. Subsequent singles, ‘Going Left Right’ and ‘I Want’, both excellent ditties, flopped and the band have now become known as one-hit wonders rather than the indie stars some liken them to. The album recording sessions were iffy and with poor sales from the two follow-up singles, Stiff Records dropped them. A version of the album has since been released, albeit a very low-key release. Somebody do the proper thing eh!

David Bowie: The Gouster (recorded 1974)

Sometimes there’s a thin line between an unreleased album and the one that came after. The Gouster is one such item. The question is whether it was a bona fide album, or an early version of Young Americans. By 1974 Bowie had become infatuated with American soul and funk. His 1972 single ‘John, I’m Only Dancing (Again)’ was updated with the sound of Detroit and New York for The Gouster. The opening three tracks clocked in at 20 minutes, so only seven tracks would fit onto the vinyl. Four of them, ‘Young Americans’, ‘Somebody Up There Likes Me’, ‘Can You Hear Me’, and ‘Right’ were re-recorded for Young Americans which came out in 1975.  That leaves the abovementioned ‘John, I’m Only Dancing (Again)’, ‘It’s Gonna Be Me’ and ‘Who Can I Be Now?’ as discarded waste. The Gouster appeared as part of the Who Can I Be Now? (1974-1976) boxset. 

The Clash: Cut The Crap (1984-ish)

Yes, Cut The Crap was released and I retro-reviewed it [here]. But the version that appeared in 1985 was a travesty, a record that only really involved Joe Strummer and band manager/wannabe producer Bernie Rhodes. Paul Simonon was sidelined, and guitarists Nick Sheppard and Vince White and drummer Pete Howard weren’t even playing. Rhodes used an electronic drum machine instead of Howard. Nevertheless, when the new songs were played live in 1984 they sounded fresh and the demo versions made that year were the sound of a proper band. Rhodes takes all the blame for the dismal final effort and that is fully justified. But there is an album in there, it just needs someone to take the original demo tapes and rework them.

Album Review: Beat Rhythm Fashion - Critical Mass (2024)

When Beat Rhythm Fashion returned after a 35-plus-year hiatus in early 2019 with a tour and a new album (Tenterhook, reviewed here) it felt like it would be a one-off. A chance for key protagonist Nino Birch to get some stuff off his chest. A belated swansong of sorts, and closure for a band that never really drew a definitive line under its former life as one of Wellington’s original post-punk pioneers.

An early/mid-1980s move to Australia, followed by the death of Nino’s brother and band mate Dan Birch in 2011, plus, I imagine, a host of other key sliding door moments along the way, meant the music of BRF, and that of Nino Birch specifically, was in danger of becoming little more than a distant memory for fans of the band’s earliest incarnation.

An inspired 2007 Failsafe Records compilation of early singles and other recordings, Bring Real Freedom, sought to remedy that, and it worked as a welcome reminder of the band’s early material. Underlining what might have been had choices and circumstances taken the brothers down a different path. It certainly stands as a great legacy document for that first phase of BRF’s existence.

 Another half decade on from Tenterhook, Birch and co-conspirator Rob Mayes have returned with Critical Mass, an eleven-track album release which expands on some of the themes explored on the “comeback” album, while also seamlessly merging the personal with the political.

One of the things I took from the band’s live performance at Meow in Wellington in 2019 (see here) in the immediate wake of the Christchurch terror attack - which had occurred a day prior - was a sense that Birch is a man who cares deeply about the world. A thinker, and someone who isn’t shy about asking hard questions. Almost every track on Critical Mass offers a lyric or line which seeks to provoke or prompt an alternative view of the world. Which is never really a bad thing.

And certainly, the intervening years between Tenterhook’s release and the slow burn evolution of Critical Mass have not been found wanting for source material: a marked worldwide political swing to the right, horrific wars - at least two of which border on mass genocide - and of course, there’s been that global pandemic thing.

Beat Rhythm Fashion offer takes on all of these things, and more, and it’s impossible to fully absorb Critical Mass without being prompted to think a little bit outside the box. Even if it’s just for a fleeting moment, that might be enough.

Musically the album is polished listen. Despite the logistical issues Birch and Mayes would have faced living in different countries, with Birch based in Australia and Mayes in Japan, sending lyrics, ideas, and musical stems back and forth in order to pull everything together. Something they’ve achieved with aplomb.

Naturally it has the same post-punk feel the band has always been associated with, but as with Tenterhook, it’s a much fuller sound than that really early stuff. Birch’s voice has aged well, and I’d contend that Critical Mass contains some of his strongest, most nuanced vocal work.

There’s a lot to love about where Beat Rhythm Fashion finds itself in 2024. I only hope there’s more to come …

Best tracks: I can’t go past ‘Asylum’, one of the softer mid-album tracks, as my favourite. There’s just something about that track which resonates strongly with me. Not only the delicate tensions within the music itself, but its lyrical content, and the wider resignation that “this is not my world” and we can’t just “make it go away” … plus, the pre-release single ‘No Wonder’, ‘Remote Science’, ‘Atonement’, and the closer ‘Doubt Benefit’.

But look, it feels churlish to single out specific tracks, and the whole album is solid. Critical Mass is one of those rare local (well, local-ish) releases that just gets stronger with each and every listen. An album, perhaps, that may require multiple listens before all of its subtle charms are fully exposed.

You can buy Critical Mass here.

Classic Album Review: 1990s - Cookies (2007)

Craig Stephen revisits a lost noughties classic (well, sort of … just go with it) from Glasgow …

If Glasgow indie band Yummy Fur were to reform today they’d be heralded as a supergroup.

Despite making as much presence on the music scene in their several years of existence as a provincial election in Guinea-Bissau makes on global politics, the band gave the world Alex Kapranos and Paul Thomson of Franz Ferdinand, and Jackie McKeown of the band known simply as 1990s. Not a bad record then, even if their own ones weren’t much cop.

After Yummy Fur, McKeown eventually formed 1990s (no The) in the 2000s alongside Michael McGaughrin and Jamie McMorrow – who was also a founding member of Yummy Fur. It was a good time to be a Glasgow band, Bis were in their heyday, Franz Ferdinand were stratospheric and, erm there were The Delgados too. The city was far enough from the feeding frenzy of London to do things its own way.

 Sizzling with glam-rock guitar hooks and a touch of the Britpop swagger, 1990s released a couple of singles in 2006 before pumping the Bernard Butler-produced Cookies out into the world.

The band’s debut single ‘You Made Me Like It’ opens the album and what better way to introduce yourselves. It’s a preening 70s jigabout rekindling memories of Mott the Hoople and early Supergrass.

One of the verses is somewhat esoteric: “T.B Sheets, Irma T, money back guarantee/ Lady drum, Lady Di/ How'd you make your baby cry/ FTQ, FTP, Bobby D's in Mozambique/ Me, I'm on Decatur Street .”

Google is your friend here, but if I hear that last line correctly, we’re in New Orleans.

The second single was ‘You’re Supposed To Be My Friend’ which appears to be about those people who say they’re your their mate, but reality tells a different story.

Friendship and lovers are something the band keep coming back to. While most tracks could be centred in Any Town, ‘Pollokshields’ is a reference to the ‘garden suburb’ of southern Glasgow. It’s more appealing than New York: “Chelsea Hotel, did it ring my bell?/ I'd rather be … in Pollokshields .”

‘Cult Status’ is one of those risqué tracks that could still have been acceptable in 2007 but you wouldn’t try that trick now. As with most of the tracks on Cookies, the drums are simple and the guitar chords not too overbearing. While McKeown sounds positively perverted. "Strange faces ... not too clean / Wrong side of 16".

‘Arcade Precinct’ celebrates the humdrum banality of being young and walking the streets of your own town. Teenage girls who are “just getting away from their dads/ Busy tea-leafing, grabbing things for free,” while hanging around arcade precincts and foodhalls as they embark on their tentative steps into the big bad world of adulthood.

Sometimes the songs aren’t about much at all, like ‘Enjoying Myself’, which is a rather humdrum tale of partying. Like, that’s never been done before, right? But the basslines, the working class life manifestos, the cocksure attitude and the spirit of the west coast of Scotland make Cookies a vital and musically faultless album. It’s the sound of Britain in the 1970s updated for the 2000s by a band called 1990s.

A couple of years later 1990s delivered another excellent album in Kicks, which was again produced by Bernard Butler, and which I’ll review later this year. In 2011 the band appeared set for a third long-playing release with a single preceding it, ‘My Baby’s Double Espresso’, but the LP sadly and strangely never appeared. It wasn’t until 2022 that Nude Restaurant was released on limited edition green vinyl. Needless to say it was excellent.

Top 10 of ... Punk Dub

That punk rock, it was all shouty noise and noisy shouting wasn’t it?

Ah, now you see one of the great stereotypes of our times; that punk was just about making a racket. Well, it wasn’t jazz but there was far more to the genre than a lot of people think.

Back in 1976, punk and reggae seemed intertwined; at the punk clubs, reggae was played by Don Letts and other DJs as there were so few punk records to actually play. Bob Marley & The Wailers got in on the act with 1977’s ‘Punky Reggae Party’ … “The Wailers will be there/ The Damned, The Jam, The Clash/ Maytals will be there/ Dr Feelgood too.”

And punk bands found dub reggae to their liking.

That produced the cracking records from punk and post-punk outfits. Like these …..

The Ruts: Jah War (1979)

Hit singles such as ‘Staring at the Rude Boys’ and ‘Babylon’s Burning’ tick all the requisite punk purity boxes. But The Ruts were far more diverse than many of their peers, which can partly be attributed to being late starters and hearing more than the early punk rockers. ‘Jah War’ appeared on the classic 1979 debut The Crack. It has a heavy roots-reggae feel and is also political, tackling the violence perpetrated by the London Police’s controversial SPG (Special Patrol Group) during trouble in the ethnically-diverse suburb of Southall in 1979.

Released as the third single from The Crack, the BBC banned it for its message.

The Clash: One More Dub (1980)

The Clash laid their love of reggae and dub to the mast early on: a cover of Junior Murvin’s ‘Police and Thieves’ was released as a single in 1977. A year later they released ‘White Man (In Hammersmith Palais)’ which namechecked a litany of reggae stars to a Jamaican vibe backdrop.

‘One More Dub’ followed on from ‘One More Time’ at the end of side two of the triple album meisterwerk Sandinista. The standard track is about poverty and its effects in so-called ghetto towns; ‘One More Dub’ strips the lyrics down, more or less to the chorus: “One more time in the ghetto/ One more time if you please/ One more time for the dying man/ One more time if you please.”

 Generation X: Wild Dub (1978)

Generation X’s second 45, glam-punk stomper ‘Wild Youth’ was paired with ‘Wild Dub’ which revealed the band’s reggae influences with singer Billy Idol toasting at the end, “Heavy, heavy dub/Punk rockers!”. The single was produced by Phil Wainman in late 1977, and while neither track were included on the self-titled debut album, they were both part of the much-changed US version.

Stiff Little Fingers: Johnny Was (1979)

A cover of a Bob Marley & The Wailers song, the Irishmen’s version revamped the lyrics to reflect the violence of the time in Northern Ireland. While both songs convey the horror of a mother who’s son has been killed by a stray bullet, the Wailers made it non-geographical while SLF’s take added the following line to make clear where the incident occurred: “A single shot rings out in a Belfast night and I said oh Johnny was a good man.”

Steel An' Skin ‎- Afro Punk Reggae (Dub) (1979)

Steel An' Skin were a British-based group who came from West Africa, the Caribbean and the UK. Reggae, post-punk and Caribbean steel drums are all prevalent on this 12-inch record. Perhaps the punk link in the title was somewhat tenuous but there’s no doubting that some of the influences could have been from Bristol’s The Pop Group or London all-girl four-piece The Slits.

Alternative TV: Life After Dub (1978)

A-side ‘Life After Life’, B-side ‘Life After Dub’. The A-side was a clear nod to Jamaica, with vocals from Sniffin’ Glue editor Mark Perry, sounding positively positive. The B-side was a straight-through dub version with echoes and clipped lyrics. One of the band’s finest moments.

Bad Brains: Bad Brains LP (1982) 

American band Bad Brains were out on their own, with many of their songs actively fusing hardcore punk and roots reggae. They were that rarity of being a black punk band. They were also followers of the Rastafari movement, so the reggae/dub side came easily to them. The first five tracks of this debut LP are pure hardcore (with noticeable nods to reggae) then track six, ‘Jah Calling’, is akin to a dub interlude. ‘Leaving Babylon’ is another track that is 100 percent reggae and the shift in moods works perfectly, though it does seem at times that there are two bands at play on the same record.

Public Image Ltd: Metal Box (1979)

After the punk wave disintegrated by the beginning of 1978, post-punk came into play. The Sex Pistols’ Johnny Rotten reverted to his birth name John Lydon and formed PiL which threw out the three cord thrash and explored a buffet of divergent genres.  Jah Wobble’s booming bassline sounded like it was torn directly from dub plates. Same for the band’s production, especially on the second LP, the much-lauded and pioneering Metal Box.

Gang of Four: I Love A Man In Uniform (Dub version) (1982)

Way before the Gang’s finest hour, the Leeds disruptors were well versed in the art of reggae and dub with the band’s discordant basslines clearly being influenced by Kingston producers. This version of the group’s biggest hit single only initially appeared on US and Canadian 12-inch releases. It helped the single become a big hit in American clubs and on the dance charts.

Bauhaus: Bela Lugosi’s Dead (1979)

Bauhaus are often unfairly labelled as a Goth band, so many people will be surprised to learn that they highly influenced by dub, with bass player, David J saying that their signature song "was our interpretation of dub". Several singles contained dub-tinged versions.

Top 10 of ...Truly Pitiful Political Songs

Everythingsgonegreen takes no issue with political and social commentary songs. Songs like ‘Respect’, ‘This Land Is Your Land’, ‘Free Nelson Mandela’, and ‘Get Up Stand Up’ were pivotal to the movements they supported at the time and remain classic examples of where political lyrics can hit the mark.

Unfortunately, sometimes it just doesn’t work and here are some examples – from the left, the right, and up the middle – from songwriters who should’ve kept to subjects like love and emotions. Craig Stephen pops his head above the parapet to take a peek … 

Extreme - Rest in Peace (1991)

All-American soft rock boys Extreme reached out to the redneck fraternity with this pro-war dirge that shouted ‘shut up pinkos and watch as our American heroes kill and maim’.

Dumb-ass right-wing sloganeering is nothing new and this was another crude attack on people who sang ‘Give Peace a Chance’. Extreme even reference Lennon’s song but, in that crazy right-wing delusional way, suggest that going to war is the only route to a world free of violence.

Here’s a snippet: “Let's talk of peace/ Sounds so cliché/ A novelty/ Catch phrase of the day.”

And another: “Make love not war, sounds so absurd to me/ We can't afford to say these words lightly/ Or else our world will truly rest in peace.”

Yes, that’s right by trying to stop wars, peace campaigners are actually making the world worse.

Plastic Ono Band - Give Peace a Chance (1969)

And of course, we all want love, peace and a world free of wars, but this effort was so cringy and inane that peace groups must’ve groaned with embarrassment.

‘Give Peace a Chance’ reduced global geopolitics into a hippy flower-waving slogan. As a result it’s irritating and banal.

It’s a song to sing to make you feel like you’re doing something about the state of the world even if you’re not.

Typical stream of consciousness line: “Everybody’s talking about/ Revolution, evolution, masturbation, flagellation, regulation, integrations, United Nations, congratulations.”

Eric Clapton - This Has Gotta Stop (2021)

Entitled white rich guy scenario in excelsis. Released during the height of the Covid-19 restrictions, Clapton takes the side of the conspiracy theory lunacy wing as he just wants his ‘freedom’ while millions of people were dying from the disease.

Here’s a portion of this whingeathon: “This has gotta stop/ Enough is enough/ I can't take this BS any longer/ It's gone far enough.”

Another veteran of the 60s turned tinfoiler Van Morrison meanwhile released a string of anti-lockdown songs, such as ‘Born to Be Free’ and ‘No More Lockdown’, with lyrics claiming that government control was over-reach, and that pandemic researchers were "making up crooked facts". 

The Cranberries - Zombie (1994)

The song is about the tragic death of two children in England during the Troubles (as a result of the 1993 IRA-Warrington bombing). A worthy sentiment and if they had left it that, who would’ve complained.

But in ‘Zombie’ Dolores O’Riordan and co take on the entire nationalist movement, decrying “It's the same old theme, since 1916/ In your head, in your head they're still fighting”.

The pointing to the date is the Easter Rising in Dublin, a rebellion that ended in defeat but ultimately played a prominent role in the events that led to the end of British colonial rule in Ireland.

It’s a significant moment in Irish history, but one which seems to be scorned at by The Cranberries, who hailed from Limerick in the Republic.

Merle Haggard - Okie From Muskogee (1969)

Merle Haggard is renowned for songs such as ‘Mama Tried’ and ‘Workin’ Man Blues’, but his lasting legacy is ‘Okie From Muskogee’, a joke that snowballed into an anti-hippie anthem.

It was hijacked by those who used it for their own means – such as then President Richard Nixon and, just like Springsteen’s ‘Born In the USA’, the meaning has been lost and misused. 

It was lyrics like "We don't burn our draft cards down on Main Street, we like living right and being free," that appealed to many and made Haggard a star.

In 1981 Haggard told media that the song made him “appear to be a person who was a lot more narrow-minded, possibly, than I really am.” Later still he would express regret at expressing his opinions in song.

Phil Collins - Another Day in Paradise (1989)

Written by a struggling musician, the song may have received a pass mark. But in the hands of a multi-millionaire and vehement supporter of Britain’s Conservative Party, it just seemed like a way of cashing in on a problem he would only see from the wheel of his expensive car.

It tells the tale of a homeless woman being blanked by those who would easily be able to help her. Collins may have meant well but the song was branded cringeworthy and worse. In 1997 the ex-Genesis man threatened to desert Britain for the more tax friendly Switzerland if a fairly timid Labour Party won the election. Labour won in a landslide and Collins made good on his promise. 

Toby Keith - Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American) (2002)

Proving that country and western music can result in some of the worst redneck malarkey is this dire ‘patriotic’ song that wallows in retribution.

The rally-around-the-flag anthem was released in the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon - aka 9/11 - with cartoonish goon squad lyrics like “you'll be sorry that you messed with the U.S. of A / 'Cause we'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American way.” 

Oliver Anthony - Rich Men North of Richmond (2023)

Plenty was said about this song last year and Billy Bragg wrote his own reposte. It’s not so much the stance of the song, it’s the utter naivety that takes the biscuit.

Initially, Anthony rails against low pay and greedy politicians in Washington D.C. Then he turns away from the fat cats and the corrupt Congressmen and women to lash out at the very people he initially defended - those made unemployed by the greed of the system and forced to exist on welfare. Anthony seems oblivious to the connection between low pay and unemployment and how both are used as tools by the establishment to keep people down.

D:Ream - Things Can Only Get Better (1993)

The song wasn’t political, in fact it was a feel-good dance anthem about, well, how you can go from shit street to happy town if you persist.

But it became political when the British Labour Party adopted it and D:Ream gave it permission, either through loyalty to the Tony Blair project or just because they needed the cash.

The New Labour governments from 1997 to 2005 are synonymous with the illegal war in Iraq and the continuation of Thatcherism. The former may not have been predicted in 1997 but the latter certainly could have so the band were hardly innocents who were taken for a ride.

It’s also a fucking annoying piece of disco pap.

The Deplorable Choir - Real Women Vote For Trump (2020)

Do I even need to comment on this?