Pete's short-takes June 2003
Lets start with the three new 7"s from the Felicite Singles Club, a fairly new German label (www.felicite.de). The biggest name among the three is 'The King Of Luxembourg', 1980s El label artist. In the 90s he released some records under his real name of Simon Fisher Turner, not very interesting stuff if you ask me. Now he is back under his royal moniker. The two songs on the 7" are from 2002 but they don't impress me at. Nothing new, nothing special.
The second 7" is by a Scot called 'Roy Moller', beautiful ultra-thick white vinyl. Both tracks 'Maximum Smile' and 'David Niven' are fine indiepop pop songs. The third 7" is a 4 track EP by The Catalysts recorded back in 1985 and it does sound like that, which if you know me is a good thing. Apparently the members later played with The Golden Dawn, but this is bit more poppy. The two Scottish singles are definitely worth looking after, but leave the King Of Luxembourg to the Japanese collectors.
The only new Swedish release this month comes from 'Action Biker' (hem.passagen.se/actionbiker), a three track 7" on Break and Enter Records. The two songs on the b-side are already really nice electro-pop pieces, you know the whole early 80s revival thing. I'm not an expert of this stuff but I heard a few things and I usually think, well some nostalgic Casio sound doesn't make a good song. But these guys got it right, there are nice hooks in the songs and I like the voice a lot as well. The A-Side 'Sandy Edwards' is in the same style but it is a real hit, meaning you play it tens times in a row and are still not tired of it. The letter from the label said 'You will love this very much' and yes, they were right.
Speaking of early 80s, but more Yamaha than Casio, 'Mad World' was originally a hit for 'Tears For Fears' in October 1982. It is now the title track of the debut 7" by The Snowdrops, the latest in a string of bands fronted by Pam Berry. This time backed by Keith and Dick from Lovejoy. As far as I remember the instrumentation on Mad World is pretty similar to the original but Pam's lovely voice makes this a pearl. The B-Side is more traditional acoustic guitar stuff but nice too.
The last 7" for today comes from the Irish band 'The Thrills', it's on Virgin and the may as well be in the Top 40, but I wouldn't know because I don't listen to the radio or read any music press. 'Big Sur' does deserve to be in the Top 40, a great pop song. Along with Action Biker this single will visit my turntable pretty often in the next few weeks.
Volume 3 of 'The Sound Of Leamington Spa' (www.twee.net/spa/), again collects loads of obscure guitar-pop from the eighties. This time we found most of the bands by writing to 15 year old addresses from the original record-sleeves. My favourite song on Vol.3 is the opener 'Sound Of Summer' by The Candidates, it is not only a great song, it also sound quite different from the rest of the CD which has a very similar sound and it's sometimes hard to believe that there are in fact 20 different bands on it. Pure's hit 'Aspidistra' is available on CD for the first time and it's great to hear again. The rest are all good songs and they grow on you over time. But a bunch of good jangly songs makes only a good compilation not a great one. 'Motorcycle Baby' stands out not only because it got some great la la las but it also has the first female singer in the series since The Siddeleys on volume 1. This is still very essential stuff for any 80s indiepop lover but next time more hits and a bit more variation please.
The Foxgloves have been around on the London scene for years but I don't think the actually ever released anything, at least I couldn't find anything by them. As far as I remember they are a two piece, Joe who is also in the Pines with Pam Berry and Stevie Trousers of Papercut fame. 'Lives you didn't lead' is a 4 track CD on Foxyboy Records. Imagine the Pines without Pam singing and you get the idea. Both chaps are singing here and it is quite lovely. Morrissey fans have to get it for the 'I know very well how I got my name' cover alone.
Slipslide's 'the world can wait' may be a reference to the album itself. It took Mr. Graeme Elston about 15 years to release a full-length. With The Love Parade, Pure, and Eva Luna, he never managed anything but singles or EPs (Okay there is an Astronaut album but that doesn't count). Well, it was worth all the waiting, Graeme is still able to write great pop-songs and his voice has always been fantastic. Two of the 11 songs were written and sung by Matthew Hawes and there are pretty good as well. All I wish for now is that they will manage to sound like this live as well as on record. (www.slipslide-online.com)
If you happen to be in London in mid-July, why not come around to our new club. It's called the Clarendon Ballroom and we will play a lot of the stuff I am writing about here plus some classics as well. Check here for details.
The only new Swedish release this month comes from 'Action Biker' (hem.passagen.se/actionbiker), a three track 7" on Break and Enter Records. The two songs on the b-side are already really nice electro-pop pieces, you know the whole early 80s revival thing. I'm not an expert of this stuff but I heard a few things and I usually think, well some nostalgic Casio sound doesn't make a good song. But these guys got it right, there are nice hooks in the songs and I like the voice a lot as well. The A-Side 'Sandy Edwards' is in the same style but it is a real hit, meaning you play it tens times in a row and are still not tired of it. The letter from the label said 'You will love this very much' and yes, they were right.
Speaking of early 80s, but more Yamaha than Casio, 'Mad World' was originally a hit for 'Tears For Fears' in October 1982. It is now the title track of the debut 7" by The Snowdrops, the latest in a string of bands fronted by Pam Berry. This time backed by Keith and Dick from Lovejoy. As far as I remember the instrumentation on Mad World is pretty similar to the original but Pam's lovely voice makes this a pearl. The B-Side is more traditional acoustic guitar stuff but nice too.
The last 7" for today comes from the Irish band 'The Thrills', it's on Virgin and the may as well be in the Top 40, but I wouldn't know because I don't listen to the radio or read any music press. 'Big Sur' does deserve to be in the Top 40, a great pop song. Along with Action Biker this single will visit my turntable pretty often in the next few weeks.
Volume 3 of 'The Sound Of Leamington Spa' (www.twee.net/spa/), again collects loads of obscure guitar-pop from the eighties. This time we found most of the bands by writing to 15 year old addresses from the original record-sleeves. My favourite song on Vol.3 is the opener 'Sound Of Summer' by The Candidates, it is not only a great song, it also sound quite different from the rest of the CD which has a very similar sound and it's sometimes hard to believe that there are in fact 20 different bands on it. Pure's hit 'Aspidistra' is available on CD for the first time and it's great to hear again. The rest are all good songs and they grow on you over time. But a bunch of good jangly songs makes only a good compilation not a great one. 'Motorcycle Baby' stands out not only because it got some great la la las but it also has the first female singer in the series since The Siddeleys on volume 1. This is still very essential stuff for any 80s indiepop lover but next time more hits and a bit more variation please.
The Foxgloves have been around on the London scene for years but I don't think the actually ever released anything, at least I couldn't find anything by them. As far as I remember they are a two piece, Joe who is also in the Pines with Pam Berry and Stevie Trousers of Papercut fame. 'Lives you didn't lead' is a 4 track CD on Foxyboy Records. Imagine the Pines without Pam singing and you get the idea. Both chaps are singing here and it is quite lovely. Morrissey fans have to get it for the 'I know very well how I got my name' cover alone.
Slipslide's 'the world can wait' may be a reference to the album itself. It took Mr. Graeme Elston about 15 years to release a full-length. With The Love Parade, Pure, and Eva Luna, he never managed anything but singles or EPs (Okay there is an Astronaut album but that doesn't count). Well, it was worth all the waiting, Graeme is still able to write great pop-songs and his voice has always been fantastic. Two of the 11 songs were written and sung by Matthew Hawes and there are pretty good as well. All I wish for now is that they will manage to sound like this live as well as on record. (www.slipslide-online.com)
If you happen to be in London in mid-July, why not come around to our new club. It's called the Clarendon Ballroom and we will play a lot of the stuff I am writing about here plus some classics as well. Check here for details.
| Source: | TweeNet Internal | Link: | |
| Published: | 25 June 2003 | Author: | Peter Hahndorf |
| Category: | Unclassified | TweeNet: |
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