Needle Time

  23 Skidoo - Seven Songs [LTMLP 2528 UK 2LP 2012 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] It seems appropriate to follow yesterday's Stephen Mallinder post with this album. 23 Skidoo's 1982 reference work Seven Songs has been reissued a few times since the original Fetish Records release - I've decided to use the 2012 Les Temps Modernes double vinyl edition, mastered at SST Brüggemann GmbH and pressed at MPO. This release features the bonus LP featuring new cuts of the The Gospel Comes To New Guinea / Last Words 12" and the previously unreleased John Peel BBC Radio session from September 1981. I know that I have questioned the provenance of some LTM releases over the years, however this version of the main album does sound better than my 1982 UK original, the new cut of  The Gospel Comes To New Guinea also sounds better than my UK 12". On the contrary, I find the original pressing of Last Words sounds much better than this pressing and I continue to doubt the sources used for...

  23 Skidoo - The Culling Is Coming [OPT23 UK 1983 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Known better for their industrious & tribal post-punk, 23 Skidoo have occasionally released works to challenge the listener. The Culling Is Coming is one.... and very likely the most challenging. Side one is also known as ' A Summer Rite - 11AM 17.7.82 ' and features the band onstage at the WOMAD Festival where they were joined by David Tibet for a lengthy session of noise, loops and metal percussion. Side two is named ' A Winter Ritual ' is a gamelan-style serious of compostitions recorded at Dartington College Of Music. This is my rip from an original UK pressing, released on  Operation Twilight, a subdivision of  Les Disques Du Crépuscule. There have been subsequent reissues of this album on a variety of other labels, most of which appear to having flipped the album running orders. A1 Banishing A2 Invocation A3 Flashing A4 Stifling A5 Healing (For The Strong) B1 G-2 Contempla...

23 Skidoo vs The Assassins With Soul - Thoughts Of You [12 LEV 72 UK 1986 24-Bit FLAC] Alex Turnbull, Fritz Catlin, Johnny Turnbull and Sketch Martin reinvent themselves as The Assassins With Soul and bombard us with the slightly sentimental twisted hip-hop scratch workout Thoughts Of You . The pseudonyms Schizo-P, Splice-JT and DJ Lim were probably a good idea because this is not 23 Skidoo as we know them ....and it is from them at their best. They do however redeem themselves with the ultra cool Ooze . A1 T.O.Y. (Thoughts Of You) B1 Assassin B2 Ooze

23 Skidoo - Language [ILL 3812 UK 1984 24-Bit FLAC] Language followed Coup , it was heavier, it was dubbier, it was driven by another powerful Sketch bassline, it was just superb. Such a shame that it never benefited from the recognition that its predecessor received. A1 Language B1 Language

23 Skidoo - Coup [ILL 2812 UK 1983 24-Bit FLAC] A new 2019 24-bit rip! It has been a slight drip feed of rips and posts this week as I am busy with other stuff. I have also made a significant hardware investment and have installed a new amp which can only improve the quality of my rips going forward. I will be glad to see the back of Marantz! Coup is one of my favourite all-time twelves and this is a rip of my original copy bought back in 1983. It has stood up well to the test of time and sounds even better using the Project Classic SB turntable and moving coil cartridge. Sketch's sublime bass will just ooze from your speakers on one of the finest alternative dance singles ever recorded.  A1 Coup B1 Version (In The Palace)

23 Skidoo - The Gospel Comes To New Guinea [FE 11 UK 1981 24-Bit FLAC] As I was re-ripping Seven Songs , I realised that I had overlooked a 24-bit rip of this massive 12 inch tribalist jam session, backed with the post-punk-funk work out, Last Words . So here is a new 2019 rip of this important single from the post-punk era.. A1 The Gospel Comes To New Guinea B1 Last Words

23 Skidoo - Seven Songs [FM 2008 UK 1982 24-Bit FLAC] I managed to totally screw up my first rip of Seven Songs for ESWA during the summer of 2016. Time now to put that right! Here is the debut long player (marketed as a mini LP) by London tribal  industrial-post-punk-funk experimentalists 23 Skiddo. Most of you should have this album, if not ...why not! A1 Kundalini A2 Vegas El Bandito A3 Mary's Operation A4 Lock Groove B1 New Testament B2 IY B3 Porno Base B4 Quiet Pillage B5 Untitled

23 Skidoo - Beyond Time [TWI 1223 BEL 2015 24-Bit FLAC] Back in 2012, 23 Skidoo's Alex Turnbull co-directed a ninety minute documentary film about his late father William Turnbull , the British artist. The soundtrack comprised reinterpretations and new pieces by 23 Skidoo.  The musical elements here are very much in the experimental vein, mixing avant-jazz and electronica with their familiar Indonesian gamelan percussion. The stand out is the excellent Calypso  which builds gently as it layers samples of steel drums over pulsing electronics, bass and guitar. Pharoah Sanders guests on Kendang which is one of the three tracks reworked from the bands last self-titled album (nineteen years ago!). This is a vinyl blog, so I am not going to post the DVD documentary included with the album. If you would like a copy of that, please send money to this worthy site . Enjoy A1 Dawning (Version) A2 Ayu (Ambient) A3 Calypso B1 Kendang B2 Contemplation B3 Heli...

23 Skidoo - Ethics [PULP 23 UK 1981 24-Bit FLAC] A 2019 attempt at an upgrade rip using the current set-up. The debut 23 Skidoo single never really stood out from the post-punk era and hence copies have become quite rare. In there earliest form, the band supported Madness on tour, the consequence was that Mark 'Bedders' Bedford produced this single. Let's say this is very much a new wave single and not the post-industrial experimentation we know them for. Listening to this now, over 35 years on, I love it very much. The b-side, the reggae tinged Another Baby's Face is even better, in fact after listening to it again today, I'd say it is superb! A1 Ethics 3:36 B1 Another Babys Face

Club Tango - Performance [TUX 7 UK 1981 24-Bit FLAC] I first came across Club Tango's Performance in a box of a friend's seven singles many many moons ago. They subsequently appeared on one of the Messthetics D.I.Y. compilations and their singles became quite sought after.  Both were picked up recently from an internet sale and are in great nick. Two singles are their total output and little else is known about these post-punk funksters except that they include Alex Turnbull from 23 Skiddoo and music journalist Dave Henderson in their line-up. Henderson also ran the excellent Dining Out Records label. A1 Performance B1 Fun Specialists

23 Skidoo - Tearing Up The Plans [FP 20 UK 1982 24-Bit FLAC] The sleeve confirms that this four track EP was recorded in January 1982 by 'reduced personnel'. In fact ...just three original members were involved: Fritz Caitlin on percussion, Sam Mills on piano and Tom Heslop on everything else. Heslop and Mills were never to record with 23 Skidoo again as the band side stepped from experimental tribalism in 1983 to hard rhythmic funk with the massive Coup single   and then back again for the remarkably non-commercial  Urban Gamelan album. A1 Tearing Up The Plans A2 Tearing Up The Plans B1 Just Like Everybody B2 Gregouka