Music For Pleasure - Fuel To The Fire

Originally formed in Leeds in 1979 and heavily influenced by New Wave and Krautrock, Music For Pleasure signed with Rage Records and released their debut single The Human Factor in 1980. Their minimal synthpop is filled out with flourishes of rhythm and synth that reflects Tubeway Army and the pop punk sensibilities of the era. With the second Rage Records single Fuel To The Fire in 1981 a more post punk frame is drawn that shows influences from The Sound. Eventually picked up by Polydor Records the debut album Into The Rain was co-produced by the band and Polydor “In House” production guru Mike Hedges. The album was preceded by the 7” single Switchback/I Recall, showing the bands true post punk imagery with big Comsat Angel drums and guitar phrases, filled out with bass lines that pop and break into danceable swatches of colour. Throughout the album there are glimpses of Killing Joke, Duran Duran, The Cure, the Chameleons and Comsat Angels. The band moved gracefully between all of their influences, never having too much of one to overpower the other. Slowly finding that their sound developed in similar ways that The Passions were on Michael & Miranda.

Two final singles released by Polydor in 1983, Time and Dark Crash, signaled the end of the recording deal with Polydor. Two further singles were released on the indie Whirlpool label with their final release in 1985 of the album Blacklands. Eventually splitting up in 1986 Chris Oldroyd went on to join Red Lorry Yellow Lorry and Chris Whitaker joined Danse Society.

Blacklands

Let's face facts. The overwhelming majority of obscure bands deserve to remain obscure. There is the occasional pleasant surprise to be had and some that after some re-assessment could move from being C-listers to B-listers. However, those who reside on Olympus reside there for a reason, so looking for some overlooked gem is often a fool's errand. After giving Music For Pleasure's "Blacklands" a couple of listens, I came to the conclusion that this was a band that with a few tweaks and a little luck could have been a solid B-List post punk band. The musicianship and the song writing are pretty solid and their sound tends to hover in that darkened, gothy, drama zone bands like The Mission or The Sisters Of Mercy liked to skulk in. Unfortunately, MFP's vocalist Mark Copson croons and growls unconvincingly through most of it, dragging a lot of the material down to an all-too-familiar level of mediocrity. However, when he pushes more toward the theatrical rather than the dramatic like on "Grey Parade", things get a little more interesting and engaging, sounding a lot like a sootier version of "New Gold Dream"-era Simple Minds. Sadly, those moments are few and far between, leaving you with what this album ultimately is a forgotten C-List curio to investigate if you're digging deeper into this vein of post punk. Meh Plus

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