The Sound: Psysical World E.P 1979 + Propaganda 1979 (1999) + Thunder Up 1987

 

The Sound were formed in London (Wimbledon) in 1979 from the remnants of the punk band the Outsiders. The original lineup of the Sound consisted of Adrian Borland (vocals, guitar) and Graham

Bailey (bass guitar), both ex-Outsiders, along with Mike Dudley (drums) and woodwinds player Bi Marshall (born Benita Biltoo). While not a member, ex-Outsider Adrian Janes would contribute ideas and co-write lyrics to the Sound's music. Borland and Bailey also made up the band Second Layer, formed around the same time as the Sound.
                 

THE SOUND - PSYSICAL WORLD EP 1979
                 

The Sound – Physical World E.P.
Label: Reminder Records – REM 03, Reminder Records – rem 003
Format: Vinyl, 7", EP, Reissue 2020
Country: USA & Canada
Released: 1979
Genre: Rock
Style: Dark Wave, Post-Punk

SIDE A.

          

A1.  Cold Beat    3:23

SIDE B.

                 

B1.  Physical World    2:16
B2.  Unwritten Law    3:40

Flac Size: 74 MB

THE SOUND - PROPAGANDA (RECORDED: 1979 - RELEASED: 1999)

                 

This album was recorde before Jeopardy, between May and June 1979, and is seen by THE SOUND as their true first album. It has never been released before in any form. They had just

changed their name from "The Outsiders". Three of the tracks - Missiles, Night vs day, and Words Fail me - subsequently appeared on Jeopardy in different versions. It is a raw, powerful album, and a fascinating insight into the evolution of one pf the most exciting and influential guitar band of the 80's.
The record has been digitally mixed by the legendary Wally Brill (Producer of Heads Ans hearts).
                    

This record was originally going to be released on April 26th, the day that Adrian took his own

life. He had written the sleevenotes and helped Wally mix it, and was thrilled with the outcome. It is Adrian's parents wish that the record should be released as originally intended so that his music may live on. It is released in his memory - he was a friend and we shall miss him.
                     

The Sound – Propaganda
Label: Renascent – REN CD 3
Format: CD, Album
Country: UK
Released: Apr 26, 1999
Genre: Rock
Style: Dark Wave, Post-Punk

TRAXS

                  

01. No Salvation    3:12
02. Deep Breath    2:41
03. Cost Of Living    3:53
04. Quarter Past Two    3:35
05. Night Vs Day    3:08
06. Physical World    3:27
07. Statik    4:22
08. Music Business    4:56
09. Propaganda    2:50
10. Words Fail Me    3:01
11. One More Escape    3:17
12. Missiles    5:35

Flac Size: 288 MB

THE SOUND - THUNDER UP 1987

                 

The final testament of the tragically underrated (at least in their own time) Wimbledon outfit The

Sound, whose best albums (the first three) would make any admirer of moody-broody Mancunian pop blush with shame for missing out on this band's dark treasures during their short existence. Regarded as their masterpiece by several of the band members, Thunder Up is the rawest account of Borland's inner turmoil in terms of lyrical content while also being the band’s most conventional sounding. It is hard to ignore the gauzy, reverb-drenched late 80s overproduction. The Sound really

benefited from a more minimalist approach when capturing their unique sense of ennui, a feeling of unrest that never fully boils into rage but simmers at a pitch of melancholic contempt. The most obvious detail that distracts the ears, particularly in terms of production, is the use of pre-set synth sounds.
                    

Whereas in earlier Sound albums, they always managed to develop evocatively chilly synth sounds to

match the specific mood of each song (the best example being the palette used in their existential masterpiece "Silent Air" from The Lion's Mouth), most of the keyboard tones used here sound like they were shaped in a Casio factory. Of course, it should be noted that this album is a contemporary of late 80's Cure, a discography replete with ridiculous but effective synthetic horn sections (thinking of "Why

Can't I Be You" in particular). Robert Smith's manic whimsy somehow makes up for those embarrassing synth pre-sets. But if there is one topic that The Sound is not known for exploring, it is manic whimsy. Borland does not take on different characters or experiment with irony; he can only express his own misery from his own point of view, which is why this band is so great, but it also means that their sound can come of as brittle when drenched with glossy production.
                  

But enough about the production. More importantly, the songs on this album are frequently excellent.

Rather than relating this album to the rest of the band’s back-catalogue, if you consider this album solely on its own merits, some true gems will soon worm their way into your mind, such as the idiosyncratic tubular bell-led march of “Barria Alta,” the spirited chorus of “Kinetic,” which sounds like an odd Siouxsie Sioux/The Replacements mash-up (who knew that combination would be so rewarding?), and the fist-pumping sadness of “Prove Me Wrong,” an insanely catchy essay on the

futility of human connection. These three songs are easily on my Sound top ten list. All of this is to say: don’t let the gauzy production and the seeming upbeat tone of the music fool you. After a few listens, the album’s surface level disintegrates in a way that seems intentional, illustrating how the more we try to hide our sadness from one another, the more we become subsumed by the ‘silent air,’ growing thicker and thicker around us everyday.
               

Adrian Kelvin Borland (6 December 1957 – 26 April 1999) was an English singer, songwriter,

guitarist and record producer, best known as the frontman of post-punk band the Sound. Following a substantial musical career spanning numerous groups, as well as a solo career, he died by suicide after jumping in front of a train on 26 April 1999. Some have speculated that his death was caused by his symptoms of schizoaffective disorder.
                         

The Sound – Thunder Up
Label: Play It Again Sam Records – CDBiaS 53
Format: CD, Album
Country: Belgium
Released: 1987
Genre: Rock
Style: New Wave, Dark Wave

TRAXS

                   

01. Acceleration Group   3:34
Written-By – Borland
02. Hand Of Love   3:20
Written-By – Borland
03. Barria Alta   4:50
Written-By – The Sound
04. Kinetic   5:16
Written-By – Borland
05. Iron Years   4:11
Written-By – Borland, Bailey
06. Prove Me Wrong   2:23
Written-By – Borland
07. Shot Up And Shut Down   4:40
Written-By – Borland
08. Web Of Wicked Ways   3:00
Written-By – Borland
09. I Give You Pain   5:08
Written-By – Borland
10. You've Got A Way   5:09
Written-By – Borland

LINE - UP

             

         

Bass Guitar – Graham Bailey
Drums, Percussion – Michael Dudley
Keyboards, Guitar – Colvin "Max" Mayers
Vocals, Guitar, Lyrics By – Adrian Borland

Flac Size: 239 MB

The Sound On Urban Aspirines HERE

The Sound: Shock Of Daylight 1984 + Heads And Hearts 1985

 

The Sound's inability to break through to the type of '80s post-punk prominence reserved for the likes

of Joy Division and Echo & the Bunnymen, the two bands the Sound fell in between sound-wise, isn't all that easy to explain away. When a deserving band fails at to become something of a household name, the easy targets -- the industry, the press, the drug problems, the coke-head producer who mangled what was supposed to be the "Big Record" -- are normally fingered.
                                                                                                                  

But none of those targets truly apply here in the strictest sense. While most of the Sound's records weren't released in the U.S., no American record executive can take any blame; they can simply point to the fact that the Sound were merely respectable unit shifters -- a prototypical cult act -- in their homeland of England, so they wouldn't have fared well across the pond.
                                                                                              

The press was generally supportive, especially early on; collectively they gave the band more positive reviews than most others, which makes perfect sense because none of the Sound's five studio LPs suffered from uneven characteristics. Each one made progress from the previous and each one ranged from good to spectacular.
                                                                                         

Their songs had hooks and emotional impact without bombast, with lyrics that often confronted the

problems of young adulthood without simply moping and falling into escapist chutes. The members themselves weren't cute teen idol types (though they were far from being tough on the eye), and they didn't have big personalities or say big things during interviews, but that's obviously no fault of their own.
                                                                               

They were able to cultivate large followings in Germany and Holland, but aside from those countries and a couple other European territories, indifference and history has made them all but invisible.
By Andy Kellman

                              

Label: Renascent ?– REN CD 1
Format: CD, Compilation, Remastered
Country: UK
Released: 1996
Genre: Rock
Style:
New Wave, Post-Punk, Dark Wave

SHOCK OF DAYLIGHT   1984

                                                                                        

01. Golden Soldiers     3:18
02. Longest Days     5:09
03. Counting The Days     3:36
04. Winter     4:19
05. A New Way Of Life     4:39
06. Dreams Then Plans     4:06

HEADS AND HEARTS   1985

                                                                                    

07. Whirlpool     4:02
08. Total Recall     4:31
09. Under You     4:20
10. Burning Part Of Me     3:27
11. Love Is Not A Ghost 4:16
12. Wildest Dreams     5:13
13. One Thousand Reasons 3:04
14. Restless Time     3:38
15. Mining For Heart     2:47
16. World As It Is     2:11
17. Temperature Drop     4:22

BONUS TRACKS    

18.     Blood And Poison   3:23
19.     Steel Your Air   3:37

                                                                                            

MEMBERS

Bass – Graham Bailey
Drums, Percussion – Michael Dudley
Keyboards – Colvin Mayers
Producer – Pat Collier (tracks: 1 to 6), Wally Brill (tracks: 7 to 17)
Saxophone – Ian Nelson
Trumpet – Sarah Smith (2), Tim Smith
Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards – Adrian Borland

Notes
Digitally remastered compilation reissue of the albums "Shock Of Daylight" (1984, tracks 1 to 6) and "Heads And Hearts" (1985, tracks 7 to 17) with two bonus tracks (18 and 19) which were previously released as B-sides on the "One Thousand Reasons" 12".

These two albums had not been previously issued together as a single compiled release.

"Shock Of Daylight" produced at Townhouse 3, January 1984.
"Heads And Hearts" produced at Townhouse 3, November 1984.
"Blood And Poison"/"Steel Your Air" produced at Silo, July 1984.

MP3 @ 320 Size: 170 MB
Flac  Size: 473 MB

BLOOD AND POISON  LYRICS

 

There is
good in all of us
There is beauty in all things
But when the sense of this is lost
We begin our poisoning
Words are weapons, words are swords
We use to cut each other down
Are we only happy when we're lord
And we can watch the lowly kiss our ground?

And he won't talk to me so the silence is set
And she won't sing for me, only one sad lament
Poison is seeping through into the essence we kept
Revenge pours on revenge
And as the blood drains away
It's the poison that stays corrupting the veins

And we take something from the sky
And we grind it into dirt
And then we wonder where it's gone
Then we wonder what we've done
What went wrong?

The Sound albums on Urban Aspirines HERE

The Sound: BBC Live In Concert (From The Sound CD Box)

 

This post is dedicated to our brother Blog VOODOO WAGON.
The CD is from the "Sound Box"
                                                                     

                                                                                 
The BBC Recordings is a live album by English post-punk, New Wave band the Sound, consisting of two sessions and two live recordings from 1980 to 1985 done for BBC radio. It was released in 2004 by Renascent.
                                                             

                                                                           
The first disc of The BBC Recordings consists of two recorded sessions, the first for Mike Read, which was originally broadcast between 6 and 9 October 1980, and the second for John Peel, broadcast on 16 November 1981. The second disc consists of concert recordings, the first broadcast on 21 November 1981 and the second broadcast on 15 June 1985.
                                                  

                                                                                 
The BBC Recordings received a positive response from critics. Peter Parrish of Stylus wrote: "Capable of oppressive gloom and fiery beauty in equal measure, this double-CD compilation captures the band at their intense best". AllMusic's Andy Kellman called the Mike Read session "thrilling to hear two decades after the fact, and must've been a revelation in 1980".
                                                

                                                                           
[“I can’t believe how good we sound,” writes drummer Mike Dudley in the sleevenotes, and indeed for fans of this colossal, neglected group, here’s a find on a par with nectar on Mars. From various sessions

and In Concert performances emerge four glorious bursts of adrenalin-dripping art-rock, too fast and furious but all the more exhilarating for that. On earlier songs like “Heartland” and “Winning”, the late, great Adrian Borland was a match for any singer or guitarist on the planet at that moment. By ’85, frustration’s creeping in, but on “Under You” and a scorching “Missiles” he makes it work for him. U2? Joy Division? Bunnymen? They pale in this band’s shadow.
UNCUT Magazine]

TRAXS

01. Pete Drummond Intro (live concert recording, originally broadcast on 21 November 1981)    0:34
02. Unwritten Law (live concert recording, originally broadcast on 21 November 1981)    3:36
03. Skeletons (live concert recording, originally broadcast on 21 November 1981)    3:47
04. Fatal Flaw (live concert recording, originally broadcast on 21 November 1981)    4:21
05. Winning (live concert recording, originally broadcast on 21 November 1981)    4:10
06. Sense of Purpose (live concert recording, originally broadcast on 21 November 1981)    3:30
07. Heartland (live concert recording, originally broadcast on 21 November 1981)    3:24
08. New Dark Age (live concert recording, originally broadcast on 21 November 1981)    5:55
09. Pete Drummond + Intro Music (live concert recording, originally broadcast on 15 June 1985)    3:54
10. Golden Soldiers (live concert recording, originally broadcast on 15 June 1985)    3:36
11. Under You (live concert recording, originally broadcast on 15 June 1985)    4:46
12. Total Recall (live concert recording, originally broadcast on 15 June 1985)    4:41
13. Burning Part of Me (live concert recording, originally broadcast on 15 June 1985)    3:31
14. Whirlpool (live concert recording, originally broadcast on 15 June 1985)    3:59
15. Missiles (live concert recording, originally broadcast on 15 June 1985)    7:51

Total length:    61:41

Personnel

                                                        

Adrian Borland – vocals, guitar
Graham Bailey – bass guitar
Colvin "Max" Mayers – keyboard (tracks 1.5–2.15)
Bi Marshall – keyboard (tracks 1.1–1.4)
Mike Dudley – drums, sleeve notes

Additional personnel

Ian Nelson – saxophone (tracks 2.10, 2.11 and 2.14)

MP3 @ 320 Size: 133  MB

Flac  Size: 456 MB

The Sound : All Fall Down 1982

All Fall Down is the third studio album by English Dark Wave band the Sound, recorded from March to August 1982 and released in November 1982 on record label WEA.

After being pressured by their record label to release a more commercially successful album, since their previous records failed to attract the attention of the public, the Sound rebelled and recorded All Fall Down, which has been called "distinctly uncommercial".

The album was poorly received by critics and led to the termination of the Sound's contract with WEA. No singles were released from the album.
This is is a great Dark Wave album full of desperate lyrics , deep pain and great songs .

"All Fall Down" is one of those maligned records where some fans bailed but a select few would be inclined to attempt through demonstrative hand gestures and longwinded, shouty, pouty explanations of the circumstances surrounding it why it's the band's greatest achievement. All this despite the fact that the majority of the other people who have heard it will tell you it should be avoided at all costs.

"It's hopelessly 'down,' it's got no 'tunes,' it doesn't go anywhere," etc. Truthfully, it falls somewhere between those two views. This is one of those records where patience pays off, because it will gradually become more apparent that the songs all fit together and pretzel themselves in a sense that each one's effect is optimized with the context of those surrounding it. 

It's not a sprawl of songs but an album. Nothing comes by and smacks you in the face; its progression unfolds slowly. They play around with song structures, avoid choruses, drop down unexpected portals, use rhythmic drives for extended stretches, and employ chanted refrains, tape effects, and mechanized handclaps. Some songs build and build and build on a slight gradient and fade out or disappear with no resolution, no catharsis. 

None of these developments emaciate the band's power. However difficult the record is to crawl into, it shows a band that had reached another level of mastery. Renascent reissued All Fall Down in 2002 with superb sound and added three previously unreleased songs. The vocal tracks seem to be slowed down significantly, making Adrian Borland sound very intimidating.

ΤRAXS

01. All Fall Down      2:28
02. Party of the Mind     3:57
03. Monument              5:08
04. In Suspense             4:05
05. Where the Love Is      4:09
06. Song and Dance      3:55
07. Calling the New Tune 3:30
08. Red Paint             3:15
09. Glass and Smoke      6:54
10. We Could Go Far     4:04

Bonus Tracks

11. The One And A Half Minute Song     1:32
12. Sorry     3:47
13. As Feeling Dies     4:38
14. We could Go Far  3.31
15. Plenty  4.49
16. Neath Dancing Waves 2.46
17. Amber  3.57
18. Scapegoat In A Country Churchyard  2.52

Personnel

Adrian Borland – vocals, guitar, production

Adrian Kelvin Borland (6 December 1957 – 26 April 1999) was an English singer, songwriter, guitarist and record producer, best known as the frontman of post-punk band The Sound.

Another Dark Prince is gone . He cut his life lost in Glass and Smoke .

Graham Green – bass guitar, sound effects, drum machine programming, percussion, production

Max Mayers – keyboards, production

Mike Dudley – drums, percussion, production

Additional personnel

Manor Choir – backing vocals on "All Fall Down"
Craig Milliner – engineering
Flood – engineering
Steve Prestage – engineering
Bill Smith – sleeve artwork design
Andrew Douglas – sleeve photography
Nick Robbins – production

All Fall Down  LYRICS

The simple notions
Of this damned nation
There's words on the page still
But where's all the rage gone?
All fall down, all fall down

Dance in the streets
Sing ring-a-ring-a-roses
Their disease is complete
With a pocket full of poses
All fall down, all fall down

Pack of cards, den of thieves
Safe as houses until the breeze
Just watch it all fall down
Just watch it all fall down

Don't turn the clock back
Break its hands off
Two minutes to midnight
Are you ready to collapse?
Ready to all fall down


GLASS AND SMOKE LYRICS

The world is turning
The world is turning
Full speed, full moon
It'll be the right time
To get right out soon

We have killed our days

With boredom

Drank the hours

Left them undone

When glass and smoke call

It's a farewell, a sad farewell

We are lost in glass and smoke
Cut by glass, choked by smoke

I'm not stupid
I know i'm guilty
Going on a journey
You can't come with me

 Adrian Borland

Following a substantial musical career spanning numerous groups, as well as a solo career, he succumbed to symptoms of what is known as schizoaffective disorder, and committed suicide by jumping in front of a train on 26 April 1999.

 Flac  Size : 506 MB

Other Albums of The Sound : HERE