Dolly Mixture - Demonstration Tapes (1983)

Twee pop is either the greatest or the worst depending on what twee pop you're hearing. Dolly Mixture make me wonder why I don't listen to twee pop every day

A



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React!

Because doing what I said ZZ Top did is a weird idea and won't benefit you at all, unless we're talking Eliminator if you're open, Trans if you're forgiving, and Re-Ac-Tor if you're musically stupid, like I am, and want to hear Neil attempting to roboticize/new-wave his sound without sacrificing those wild guitars, and instead compromising to repeat got mashed potatoes, ain't got no t-bone for 9 minutes on the suitably titled T-Bone. Actually, fuck it, neither this nor Trans benefited anyone. It's just fun to occasionally forget his legacy and/or stature as he so frequently asked the world to, and enjoy bizarro mistakes like this. I mean, sometimes he's really begging us, right?

B-

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Singles (1986)

Killing an Arab's hipster indifference followed by ~16 tracks about how much he feels. Yeah, it's silly, Smith's a cool guy less Meursault than sentimental new wave half-handsome ladies man and if he's a stranger he thinks you're an outsider too and he'll sing about yours and his feelings with some of the best hooks and deepest moods of the 80s and for all they stand for (Faith and Pornography) it's where they just aren't like that that a compilation such as this works. I wouldn't even call it a document like people seem to do because a) that's bullshit and b) it takes away from how well Staring at the Sea flows through 7 years of the band's material

A+

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Ecstasy at the Uffington White Horse

I mean, if it's good enough for Mandy...

Woah! Seriously though, English Settlement is great. I first started getting into XTC when I was into Scott Walker 'cause I was real into the idea of the pop star going weird, and heard Andy Partridge (singer, guitarist of XTC) didn't exactly go batshit but got sophisticated or something (Talk Talk?) but shit's crazy, he was always good/artistic (Talk Talk!) and then was all appreciative of the art of growing as an artist within pop rather than going avant-tard or quoting Camus. Nah sorry Scott you're still cool. But that Andy Partridge! New waver staying new wave but just getting better is my jam. English Settlement shows how insanely well he understands rhythm and acoustic guitar while retaining the poppiest of pop sensibilities. Hear that, Anco? I'm onto you! I'd call it their best 'cause I'm listening as I type and MAN that acoustic sound rulz and MAN those downer tracks at the end of Skylarking really fuck things up, but I'm not sure. Always the same, always better.

A

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Killing Joke - Duende: The Spanish Sessions (2008)

I met Jaz Coleman when I was 13 and he signed my CD Jaz and then my t-shirt be a man not a hairy arsed boy and then gave me life advice and he was the coolest dude. Hope they find him soon :(

Duende- Spanish Sessions is a reformed Killing Joke performing some of their best songs. I'd give at an A 'cause Jaz's voice is haggard and the band are incredible and raw on it. I'll copy+paste some Prindle tho:

Paul Raven passed away in 2007. He asked not for it, lest none of us betwixt thither and thou. But lo, with tragedy comes retribution, and thus the original Killing Joke line-up reunited for the first time since Revelations to tour the world in a gigantic space van with "The Who" written on the side. The result was this album: the reunited band's practice session! Kicking bleeding bloody arse on 6 Killing Joke (Original), 3 Pandemonium, 2 Night Time, 1 what's THIS for...! and 2 non-LP tracks, Killing Joke prove that they remain the greatest band of mentally ill paranoiacs in the worldiverse!
Geordie plays his distorted high-pitched guitar, Jaz sings through his scraggly hoarse throat, Paul hits the drums hard and on time, and Youth plays the bass like he never recorded two horrible techno albums with Paul McCartney. The mix is terrific, the set list is mostly on-the-knob (except maybe the overlong "Tomorrow's World" and dull-versed "Millennium") and the performances are completely top-of-house (except "Pandemonium," which finds a clearly bored-as-shit Geordie playing dick-around metal licks instead of the jubilant original riff).

The thing is: the performances are so strong and faultless (complete with the appropriate synth tones for each track -- including latter-day House Rave Dance Spectacular "White Out"!) that there's really no reason for anybody but Killing Joke completists to hear them! Unless you're just blown to bits by the thought of Paul Ferguson drumming on some Pandemonium songs for the first time ever, this is just another great recording of this great band performing great songs that they've played many, many times before. And yes, what's here is great, but it's also awfully disappointing that they chose to touch on a mere FOUR of KJ's twelve studio albums. For example, what in Hell happened to Revelations? It's one of only THREE studio albums to feature this line-up, and they pretend it doesn't exist!? Well it DOES! I've been there, on that album.

Of particular note are these points I am about to make:

- With Youth back in the bass fold, "Pssyche" finally gets its disco bass line back!
- Whoever sings "Pssyche" is unable to sing it with anything near the vitriol of the original. Thankfully, the band kicks the absolute fucking energetic holy hell awesomeness out of it.
- You can hear the three descending keyboard chords in the chorus of "Are You Receiving?"! It's amazing how many renditions of that song completely bury what is easily the most melodic part of the song.
- Geordie uses a cleaner guitar tone in "$036," somehow rendering the song even creepier!
- Jaz is incapable of shutting his lousy pie hole (or "Mouth") during the supposed instrumental "Bloodsport," instead taking the opportunity to share such critical insights as "I defend the right of every citizen to bear arms. Not to protect yourself, but just for pleasure!"
- Near the end of "Pandemonium," silly ol' Geordie sneaks in a couple bars of the "Democracy" riff! Oh you Geordie! You're always Geordiein' us around like that!
- There's some creepy descending noise going on in "Eighties"! What is it? A second guitar? A synth? Jaz shaking a fly swatter at the government-controlled mosquitos that are implanting violent thoughts in his mind?
- How in Dicksville USR is Jaz able to hit the high notes in final track "Love Like Blood" after he's just spent the previous hour raspily shouting through the shredded skin-flaps of a mutilated throat?

Actually, okay -- if you're as big a Killing Joke fan as I am, you NEED THIS. I've given you all the reasons. GO BUY IT! And let's pray that this line-up manages to put together a new studio album before Jaz runs off to Iberia to avoid The Big Conspiracy. 9/10

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Killing Joke - Brighter Than A Thousand Suns (1986)

Last one for the day: one that I was scared of and then heard and then thought needed defending. The infamous (but not infamous-est one, that'd be Outside the Gate) synthpop/new-wave record from the band who famously i) took synthpop/new-wave and then ii) metal-ified/punk-ified/noise-ified it, but for a few releases (like this one) stopped after the first step (i), leaving Duran Duran pop gone to hell or waiting for the apocalypse. Sound good? It is!

Geordie's guitars buzz and cut and weave like they should, and Jaz appears like a prophetic maniac: "Insane crusades, destructive gesture of the freedom bringers and all the bells shall toll, as holy banners fly and all will talk of freedom. Revolution – points of no return. Evolution – we cross the Rubicon"

Brighter Than A Thousand Suns is obsessed with mortality- like Tibet (I read), Coleman's convinced that the world we belong to is an empire that'll fall in due time. Like Vonnegut (I think), he often points out why he thinks everything's going to hell- Darwinism, war, and so on- but here he can't seem to see any sign of hope. People who've heard Killing Joke are probably used to his rants- humanistic or nihilistic- but here they're made unsettling by his lovely singing voice and catchy synth-heavy arrangements. For once it's all mood, no aggression.

If you haven't heard them before, don't start here. Get onto that shit quick though, they're the best post-punk band there ever was! If you have, take a listen! They make a pretty good pop-band-on-the-verge-of-a-mental-breakdown

B+

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The Style Council - Introducing The Style Council (1983)

Admittedly I a) have never really given a shit about The Jam although All Mod Cons is pretty cool, b) was not alive when this was released, and c) am not British, so Weller's transition from beloved mod revival punk rocker into cornball sophisti-popper has no way of upsetting or disappointing me- especially when becoming said cornball popper gave him the freedom to write songs as undeniably great as Long Hot Summer. And as a non-fan of The Jam, I find the famous national disappointment weird because I heard traces of white boy soul and new wave through the (admittedly polarizing) The Gift. Introducing has Weller introducing (yep) his new sound to the world as a mini-LP so as to soften the blow of a full-length a year later. That's right, he's serious, and having taken two years to get used to that, people started to warm up to it with 1985's Our Favourite Shop. But I'm here for Long Hot Summer. I went in thinking that the others would just be extras, but I didn't think I'd be so right. Two bland (maybe they sounded good in the 80s) "club" remixes so you can take your dinner party to the club if you feel like it, two more beloved singles, and a few rough sketches. I dunno. Maybe it all comes down to charm. And I am charmed! But I also love Long Hot Summer so much that charm can't save me from the disappointment at not finding a few more songs of that quality here

C+

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Wall of Voodoo - Dark Continent (1981)

1. Red Light 3:05

2. Two Minutes Till Lunch 2:15

3. Animal Day 3:14

4. Full of Tension 2:12

5. Me and My Dad 3:23

6. Back in Flesh 3:40

7. Tse Tse Fly 3:59

8. Call Box 2:32

9. This Way Out 2:59

10. Good Times 2:28

11. Crack the Bell 3:31

Here's what happens when you hear something as strange as Dark Continent and you need to describe it for a blog post

Devo playing new wave versions of a spaghetti western adaptation of a Raymond Chandler story staying true to the spaghetti western sound but they're also playing on halloween and they've been listening to too much Suicide

Ugh

B-