Thread by @ximenesuk

The Abecedarians, the first band alphabetically in my collection. I’m not sure I have listened to this since I bought it. Fac 117, is a 12” 45, just two tracks, electronic with nods to other Factory bands. No idea what happened to them.
#abecedarians #factory #factoryrecords

Backstory: In an effort to listen to a wider variety of the music I own for the first half of this year I’m dedicating a week to each letter. I thought I’d start with the disc that has sat leftmost on the shelves since some time in the eighties!

A Certain Ratio. A couple from them today, between the two marking a huge change from fucked to funky.

#factory #factoryrecords #acr #acertainratio

Fac 5: All Night Party/The Thin Boys, a 7” 45. “Paper and vinyl construction in an edition of 5000”. This is brilliant, but dour. No drums! Produced by Martin Zero.

I work all day
I drink all night
My life is just an angry blur

Fac 22: Blown Away/Flight/And Then Again, 12” 45. This disc brackets their cassette-only album and a Factory Benelux 7” and shows a marked change with Donald Johnson joining the band on drums. Much more upbeat, Flight is positively funky!

Produced by Martin Hannett, who’d given up the moniker Zero by then.

And I’ve only just seen that some of the artwork is by Richard Boon and some by Steve Diggle!

The Advisory Circle, Ways of Seeing, the first album this week. It has a very shiny cover that doesn’t include my hands and phone!

#theadvisorycircle #ghostbox #ghostboxrecords #hauntology

This is from 2018, The Advisory Circle is one of the recording personae of Cate Brooks, this one on Ghost Box Records. Coincidentally today Radio 4 are looking back to their series from 50 years ago, Ways of Seeing.

The music is instrumental, driven by analogue synths. It probably falls under the genre of Hauntology, I’ll let you look that one up.

This is a sublime album that I have played to death with a crap stylus at some point. I need a repress!

Big Science by Laurie Anderson contains, what many saw as the novelty hit, O Superman (For Massenet).

#laurieanderson #bigscience #osuperman

The album itself is an extract from a much bigger live work, United States I-IV, later released as a 5 disc box set. It’s also a very funny album, musically and lyrically, honest.

John Peel was responsible for the UK chart success of the single and raising the profile of Anderson above that of the avant garde art world. He was also responsible for me buying this album and many others.

Into Battle with The Art of Noise. The band name is borrowed from an Italian futurist manifesto, The Art of Noises by Luigi Russolo.

#artofnoise #theartofnoise #theartofnoises #zangtumbtumb

This was the first release on the label Zang Tumb Tumb, its name taken from an Italian futurist poem by Filippo Marinetti. You can tell Paul Morley was involved!

Russolo made noise with amazing noise making machines (look him up on YouTube), The Art of Noise made music with the Fairlight sampler.

The band in its original form lasted two years before the three musicians left the writer and the producer. It was acrimonious.

Virginia Astley, Promise Nothing. Released in 1984 but originally recorded for release in 1981. A record that showed the flowering of post-punk was growing in every direction possible. Bucolic!

#virginiaastley

I first came across Astley via the Ravishing Beauties Peel session, though she has recorded or worked with just about everybody at some point!

I did insist to myself that I would listen to and include records I may not have listened to since I got them. I must have liked something about Attrition when I bought this 12” EP, The Voice of God. I also seem to own an album.

#attrition #thirdmindrecords

I was listening to a lot of related bands at the time, bands that might have been called industrial then but I now see the Attrition described as darkwave (?) and even goth.

Some bands I didn’t get around to listing this week, though all are listened to regularly, include The Anchoress, A Winged Victory for the Sullen (what a name!) and Azure Blue.

New week, new letter. B is for Baltic Fleet, my first disc alphabetically. I’d forgotten about this 2016 LP, The Dear One. Baltic Fleet is a Liverpool pub.

#balticfleet

Baltic Fleet is Paul Fleming, who has played keyboards with Echo & the Bunnymen. This album is inspired by the Dear One Diaries of James Darlington. I have no idea either!

I have so many Bs I’ve decided just to do 80s indie stuff. So here’s Bernthøler with My Suitor/Pardon Up Here bw Lunacies and Emotions. Utterly beautiful from the opening cello to Drita’s voice.

#berntholer #dritakotaji #blancoynegro

I still have a letter returned, address unknown, from Belgium, my vain attempt to get this record before it was released in the UK. I must have misheard Peel!

A couple of 7” singles by the Manchester-based post-punk, cowboy Shadows, Bet Lynch’s Legs. The first, The Good, the Bad and the Indifferent, comprises Riders in the Sky bw High Noon. The second, Some Like it Hot bw Some Don’t.

#betlynchslegs #absurdrecords #absurdrecordings

Two sequential releases on Absurd Records. The band appear to be John Scott and Ian Morris. The second disc is engineered by Phil Spectre, so who knows who else was involved.

All four tracks are guitar and sax over a drum machine with bits of whoopin’ and hollerin’. Never heard of them again. Maybe their still musicians, maybe they are accountants!

Another Manchester band, Biting Tongues. This is their third album, Libreville on Paragon, that label’s first. First Use All the G’s!

#bitingtongues #paragonrecords

More post-punk, maybe jazzy, it chimed with some of the post-Pop Group bands around at that time. The band members all went on to do great things elsewhere.

I saw Biting Tongues a few times as they did a Sunday lunchtime residency at the Old Grey Horse in Didsbury. We trekked over from Moss Side for a pint more than once!

More from Manchester, Hulme in fact. Two 45s from Big Flame. Sharp, spiky, guitar pop.

I saw them quite a few times as well as seeing them wandering about Hulme. Their hair was as sharp is their music!

#bigflame #laughinggunrecords #ronjohnsonrecords #ronjohnson

I picked these two together because they were both on Go! Discs. But it turns out they weren’t, but they were both explicitly-Thatcher!

The Boothill Foot Tappers didn’t last much longer than this 12” EP; Billy Bragg stuck around and moved to Go! Discs after this mini-album.

The Tappers, as I am sure they would have become known had they been huge, sounded like they looked. Bragg in this first release was as stripped back as they come, pretty much live in the studio.

#theboothillfoottappers #billybragg #godiscs #utilityrecords

Rounding off the Bs with Bowie. Who else. Most of my Bowie is post hoc on CD. But these four on vinyl are special or weird!

#davidbowie #bowie

Scary Monsters… and Let’s Dance are two of my favourite albums. But they are the first two Bowie albums I bought, for some reason.

Blackstar is obviously a special album. The yellow one is just weird, The Top of the Poppers doing Bowie covers for Pickwick compilations! Needs to be heard to be believed.

C in my vinyl is dominated by two bands. One is Cabaret Voltaire, The Crackdown is a favourite album. The second mini-LP here is linked through the Cabs’ Stephen Mallinder and because it sits next in the shelf!

#cabaretvoltaire #juliecampbell #stephenmallinder #benge #lonelady

Clinker by Campbell•Mallinder•Benge is a recent, extended collaboration between three musicians who all appear elsewhere in my collection. Great guitar, synth, distorted pop!

The Church by The Church, 1982. It was originally released as Of Skins and Heart in the band’s native Australia but eponymously with a different track, sequencing and cover in both the UK and US.

#thechurch

Out-of-time psychedelic rock with the odd hint to The Beatles. It was the sublime track, The Unguarded Moment that sold me on the band.

Cocteau Twins. Everything by the Cocteau Twins, simply because they are the Cocteau Twins.

#cocteautwins

Colourbox were labelmates of yesterday’s band, on 4AD. Confusingly, they released two eponymous albums. This is their second, full-length one. Notable for a great cover of You Keep Me Hanging On, among their own superb tracks.

#colourbox #4ad #4adrecords

The 12” single really should have been the official BBC World Cup theme! The b-side, Philip Glass, sounds like Philip Glass!

Just one outstanding 12” single today, Coil - Panic/Tainted Love. This is regarded as the first AIDS benefit music release with proceeds going to the Terrence Higgins Trust.

#coil #taintedlove

The b-side, and the reason I bought this, is a slowed down, poignant cover of Tainted Love which has to be played loud! It’s far away from the Northern Soul and electro-pop versions that preceded it.

I don't normally add links to the music, but for this one here is the official video, with a cameo by Marc Almond.

From the sublime to the ridiculous, Anne Clark and Ted Chippington, which ever way you prefer.

#anneclark #tedchippington

Anne Clark is a poet. The Sitting Room is a mini-album backed by some beautiful music, Shades is luscious. The words can be a bit down! - All we have to be thankful for.

Ted Chippington is probably best described as a post-punk comedian. I had forgotten that this live 7” 33 ended with a snatch of New Order and The Fall. Head to toe!

Three Cs to close the week, all reflecting that plagiarism is necessary, progress implies it.

#chumbawamba #jesushchrist #culturcide #tackysouvenirsofprerevolutionaryamerica #cicconeyouth #intothegroovey

Chumbawamba, the anarcho-punk-pop-folk “one-hit wonders”, used a lot of other music on their album Jesus H Christ. So much so that the album wasn’t released for legal reasons, they were all destroyed. This disc does not exist! They released Shhh! a little later.

Culturcide we’re very blatant in their plagiarism. Their album, Tacky Souvenirs of Pre-revolutionary America, is a series of major hits by other musicians with the band singing their own subversive lyrics over the top, with some added guitar and noise.

The reworkings vary from commenting on US events to lambasting the pop stars their steal from. I owe my love of this record to Steve Barker, On The Wire.

The final band is Ciccone Youth, which is just Sonic Youth obsessing over Madonna instead of Karen Carpenter. The 12” single, Into the Groovey is, for the most part, them singing and playing over the original.

Something old, something new to start the Ds. Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft, aka D.A.F. released a new album very recently, sadly without Gabi Delgado. Forty years ago the band, and the album here, Alles Ist Gut, was a revelation. Der Mussolini is magnificent.

The new album, Nur Noch Einer, is new but definitely D.A.F., same sound, same typeface albeit with a more colourful cover!

#deutschamerikanischefreundschaft #daf #allesistgut #nurnocheiner

Dalek I Love You (shortened by the record company on the sleeve to Dalek I) were one of those Liverpool bands where everyone went off to be in or manage other bands: Big in Japan, The Teardrop Explodes, OMD.

#daleki #dalekiloveyou #compasskumpas

Their debut album, Compass kumˈpəs, is superb, sometimes sparse, experimental electronic pop. There’s even a Kinks cover on there. They really got me!

Dead Can Dance: Spleen and Ideal & Within the Realm of a Dying Sun. A glorious, gothic (not goth!), grandiose sound; but this is a tale of two covers.

#deadcandance #4ad #4adrecords

We were watching TV in our flat in Lingbeck Cres., Moss Side when we heard the dull thud as the window frames shook. Looking out we saw that there had been a big explosion in Trafford Park.

We turned the TV off and headed over there. I took a very similar shot to this one of the “successful completion” of phase 1 of the demolition of a grain elevator.

Some time later this album was released. John Peel suggested the cover was somewhere in East Europe, no doubt. I wrote to him with one of my photos and got a very nice reply!

A little later I was on holiday in Paris, my first ever flight. While wandering around Père-Lachaise cemetery looking for all the famous graves I took a photo of this magnificent tomb. Some time later the other album was released!

Anna Domino’s East and West. Just a lovely record! Includes Virginia Astley too.

#annadomino #eastandwest

The Durutti Column. If I had the original sandpaper-sleeved Return of… I would probably have posted that one. But I don’t, so here’s Without Mercy, in all its beauty. Although I could have picked almost any album.

#thedurutticolumn #durutticolumn #vinireilly #factoryrecords

This band, really just a vehicle for Vini Reilly, dominates the Ds in my albums. I probably have everything the band ever recorded, at least twice!

This album was a single, classical piece, suggested by Tony Wilson, the band’s mentor and occasional producer. It featured Bruce Mitchell, a long-time collaborator, on drums and Blaine Reininger, who appeared on yesterday’s disc too, among the players.

I don’t know much about Danielle Dax. This and other covers around this time were by Holly Warburton. The music is distinctive! And a bit mad. And good.

#danielledax

Oh, before I forget, Dub Syndicate, Tunes from the Missing Channel. An On-U Sound production. So many great musicians: Steve Beresford, Bim Sherman, Doctor Pablo, Keith Levene, Jah Wobble,… wonderful stuff!

#dubsyndicate #onusound

I don’t have many Es on vinyl. Here’s the first single, Night and Day, from Everything But The Girl. At this stage a one-off collaboration between two Cherry Red artists. They did well!

#everythingbutthegirl #cherryred

The Ex, file under E for ex. 1936 is a double 7” single bound into a book of photos, posters and words about the Spanish Revolution.

#theex #ronjohnsonrecords

The four songs from this Dutch post-punk group draw on traditional revolutionary songs.

There are some great images, and some funny captions!

808 State, which for me comes under E. The band links back to Biting Tongues through Graham Massey. This mini-album, Quadrastate contains their hit Pacific State.

#808state

Back home for my final E of the week! It’s Einstürzende Neubauten, everybody’s favourite found-instruments noise-merchants (after Test Dept. and SPK at least).

#einsturzendeneubauten #foundinstruments #hacienda

I saw them at the Haçienda once. I can’t remember if they tried to deconstruct it or just burn it down. Maybe SPK tried to burn it down? I’m sure someone remembers.

Alles in Allem is a newish album but I like their more mature sound and the cover.

The Fall.

#thefall #theonlyeffthatmatters

Felt. One of those bands that probably should have been huge but never would be. This 12” single, Primitive Painters, featured the vocals of Elizabeth Fraser so is excellent by default.

#felt #lawrence #lawrencefelt #mauricedeebank

It’s worth watching the documentary, Lawrence of Belgravia about Lawrence, a flawed genius? Not sure what happened to the brilliant guitarist Maurice Deebank.

Apparently the name Felt comes from the song Venus from Marquee Moon by Television.

400 Blows, “…If I kissed her I’d have to kill her first…” is a belter of an LP. There’s beautiful meditative pieces, funked-up beats, found sounds and clips, and even Charles Manson! 1984….Year of the dog.

#400blows

Fossil Aerosol Mining Project, The Day 1982 Contaminated 1971. I won’t even try to explain this. I think they are some people from Illinois. This is from their bandcamp page:

#fossilaerosolminingproject #fossilaerosol #helenscarsdaleagency

The source material for the work consists of dissociated fragments from nearly-lost genre films of the 1970s, filtered by scratched celluloid, bad splices, dropouts, and damaged control tracks.

[It] was released on vinyl by the Helen Scarsdale Agency in 2015. The first 200 copies of the pressing included fragments of 1970s intermission film, recovered from an abandoned drive-in theater during the early 1980s and affixed to the cover art of the album.

I effing forgot my eff yesterday! Here it is a little late, John Foxx with Endlessly, a great pop single from the co-founder of Ultravox! that would become Ultravox before Foxx went his own way.

#johnfoxx #foxx #ultravox

A band I could list under W, but We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Gonna Use It!! is under Fuzzbox in my collection. I think I bought this for the slightly bonkers version of Bohemian Rhapsody on the b-side of this 12” single.

#fuzzbox #wevegotafuzzboxandweregonnauseit

They collaborated with one-time label-mates Ted Chippington (see C) and The Nightingales, the two b-side tracks are produced by Robert Lloyd. The back cover features the guitarist Jo Dunne, who sadly died of cancer in 2012 at just 43.

It’s the F-F-Friday f-f-final F, Fujiya & Miyagi with a 2021 re-release of their 2008 album Lightbulbs. Who doesn’t love a die-cut sleeve. This one lets you turn the light on and off!

#fujiyamiyagi

A recent discovery for me but I love their take on Motorik beats, great melodies and baffling lyrics. The first track I heard of theirs reminded me of Neu! They are very far from copyists but the influence of Neu! and Can is clear.

I don’t have many Gs on vinyl, just a couple of older ones, so I thought I’d start late. Robert Görl is the surviving half of D.A.F. Mit Dir is a lovely electronic pop song, with a great middle 8.

#robertgörl #robertgorl #daf #deutschamerikanischefreundschaft

Grand Master Flash & The Furious Five, The Message. A classic.

#grandmasterflash #grandmasterflashandthefuriousfive #themessage #sugarhillrecords

Two closely related albums today. Pastoral, by Gazelle Twin is an exploration of England and Englishness. It’s a wonderfully uncomfortable and, at times, disturbing album.

#gazelletwin

The second, Deep England by Gazelle Twin & NYX is a reworking of Pastoral with new material. NYX is an electronic drone choir and so the album has a very beautiful, distinctive sound.

It’s worth finding the live performance of Deep England on YouTube.

#gazelletwinandnyx

I nearly forgot my first H. Here’s Happy Mondays with “Squirrel and G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out)”.

#happymondays #factoryrecords #squirrelandgmantwentyfourhourpartypeopleplasticfacecarntsmilewhiteout

This is the original release of 3000 with the track Desmond, which borrowed from a Beatles song owned by Michael Jackson. Jackson’s people weren’t happy! The copies were supposed to be destroyed, but probably weren’t. Later releases had a different track.

The cover of the first release had the lettering on a plastic outer sleeve. This shot is the image on the inner card sleeve.

I didn’t buy this. At the time I set the crossword puzzle for Manchester’s City Life magazine. I didn’t get paid but I did get to root around the reviews boxes. Clearly no one in the office rated the Mondays! The number of the promoter, Tony Michaelides, on the back may not work!

Hard Corps. French. Electronic. Rushent. What’s not to like.

Je suis passée came in numerous versions, I was swayed by the yellow, plastic gatefold sleeve, clearly. But the plain sleeve version was necessary to get all the mixes!

#hardcorps

Respirer and Porte-bonheur are both great songs, though I have no idea what she’s singing about. Not sure what happened to the band.

I had forgotten just how much stuff I had by Hula until rooting around the aitches: several albums, including Murmur; several 12” singles, including Walk on Stalks of Shattered Glass.

#hula

Surprisingly, Sheffield’s Hula don’t have a Wikipedia entry, but they did come out of a house-share with members of Cabaret Voltaire and Clock DVA. File under Industrial or EBM?

Another Sheffield band found under H, Heaven 17 with Penthouse and Pavement. A classic album with the brilliant single, (We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang.

#heaven17

I don’t have any vinyl by the other Sheffield H-band, Human League. As well as Heaven 17 and Human League sharing a their roots they probably all knew the guys from Hula.

A slightly odd H today, The Happy Family. A band comprising Nick Currie, who would go on to record as Momus, and various members of Josef K. The Man on Your Street on 4AD was their only album.

#thehappyfamily #momus #4ad

This record, I never had the sleeve, was given to me by someone I have never met! A university friend who was working in Liverpool was given it to give to me. The only thing the other person knew about me was secondhand.

Several years later I discovered Momus - I now have rather a lot of Momus! - and only afterwards realised the connection. I like to think that unknown person in Liverpool was guiding me towards Momus. Thank you.

Hen Ogledd. Probably the greatest slightly odd pop band of all time. Crazy guitarist (Dawson), experimental harpist (Davies), space synths (Bothwell & Pilkington) AND a song about a cat!

#henogledd

Free Humans contains the track Trouble about a beautiful black cat 🐈‍⬛. The video was even made by the cat. But just look a the track names and say you’re not intrigued!

The final H, Darren Hayman, who, as he was in Peel favourites Hefner, could have qualified twice this week. This is the third of a three album series, I have all three.

#darrenhayman #thankfulvillages

Thankful Villages were those whose young men went to fight in the Great War and all returned alive. Darren visited all 54, writing a piece for each one. This third collection is special as it includes Hunstanworth in County Durham, where I lived for 9 years.

My partner provided some of the source material for Darren, and gets a mention on the album. The cover of the CD release has a watercolour of the school’s giants stride.

We got to see Darren performing some of the songs in Newcastle at an amazing event commemorating the 100th anniversary of the armistice.

I don’t have many Is, I may not last the week. I’ll start with In The Nursery and their debut mini album, When Cherished Dreams Come True.

I remember the smell of this album! The cover was screen printed by hand and still smelled of the paint when I got it.

#inthenursery

As ever, I first heard a track on Peel and the probably ordered it at Record Peddler. I still love the track Stone Souls.

I’ll Show Harry, a Hulme band. This is their 1983-84 7” EP. They were a drink in the same pubs sort of band. I saw them live a few times.

#illshowharry

Another band that would fit the same bill would be the Inca Babies; I, Hulme, pubs, live, etc., though another music in different haircuts. Oddly I have nothing by them!

#incababies

In Camera. They didn’t exist very long, releasing one single and two EPs, just nine tracks, not all different. Even so, their label, 4AD, managed to eke out a couple of retrospective albums!

#incamera #4ad #fin

This EP, Fin, was a Peel session and their final release as a band. After splitting Andrew Gray went on to join The Wolfgang Press, not sure about the others.

The track The Fatal Day is 11:30 long, 8:15 of that is an thudding bass-driven intro. The only words I can make out in the two minutes of singing are the final words, “Ha bloody ha!” before the track outros for a minute with a Joy Division bass line.

I don’t have many bands under J, but one of the ones I do have is the most important band I have heard, Joy Division. I may string this one out.

#joydivision #closer #factory #factoryrecords #manchester

Closer, their second and final studio album, is probably the greatest album ever made. I’ll let you know the second greatest tomorrow.

This is a recent reissue on vinyl, I first listened to this album via a borrowed copy and so ended buying the CD over the original vinyl!

The second greatest album, ever, is Joy Division’s first, Unknown Pleasures. This is my very battered original and a recent reissue with an inverted sleeve.

#joydivision #unknownpleasures #factoryrecords #martinhannett

The album contains what is probably the finest song ever written, New Dawn Fades. Joy Division’s recorded material is as much about the producer Martin Hannett, whether the band liked what he did to their music or not.

The astronomical image on the cover has now become iconic, appearing in numerous forms over the years. Coincidentally, last night I saw the comedian Rob Newman and even he made a self-deprecating joke citing that image!

Joy Division released just three singles, effectively. There were a few other limited releases both on Factory and before. None of the singles featured album tracks, as was the label’s wont.

#joydivision #factoryrecords #transmission

This, their first single, Transmission, was pressed in over-confident numbers. The label thought the lyrics, “Dance, dance, dance, dance to the radio”, would get guaranteed radio play. They thought wrong. The sleeve is a bit shiny!

LOVE WILL TEAR US APART

#joydivision #lovewilltearusapart #factoryrecords

The final Joy Division single, Atmosphere. It was originally released as the A-side on the limited-edition French-only Sordide Sentimental 7” package Licht und Blindheit with Dead Souls. It is now worth more than a grand.

#joydivision #atmosphere #factoryrecords

The track was rereleased after Ian Curtis’s death on a Factory US 12”. Oddly in the US the UK B-side She’s Lost Control was the A-side!

Time for a different J, The Jesus and Mary Chain, or Marychain. Probably the coolest band in the world for a few months. This is their first single, Upside Down w. Vegetable Man (by Syd Barrett).

#jesusandmarychain #upsidedown #vegetableman

Apparently, I only found out today, this colour variant of the cover was limited to 1000 copies and was printed by Bobbie Gillespie before he became the band’s drummer.

When I went to see them at the Haçienda they had a reputation at gigs for, er, disruption. When we arrived someone was being stretchered out. And this was before the band came on. It turned out some bloke had just slipped on the floor!

I missed my first K yesterday, but I only have a couple on vinyl. This is Killing Joke’s first eponymous album. This is a great record. I’d forgotten just how great. I saw them once at some nightclub on Oxford Road (maybe even Street) in Manchester, Rotters?

#killingjoke

I have a couple more of their earlier albums and then lost touch when Youth left and there was some weird shit about Iceland.

Jaz Coleman is the equivalent of a knight in France, Youth went on to produce just about everybody. I must listen to some more of their later works.

I told you I didn’t have many Ks! So, here’s an L to start a new full week. And I might as well start weird. This is 1948 by L. Pierre, aka Aidan Moffat.

#lpierre #aidanmoffat #1948 #mendelssohn

Yes, it has no sleeve. Yes, it is scratched. And, yes, it will become more scratched, I don’t plan on putting it in a sleeve.

The album is based on the first 33⅓ 12” album produced, a recording of a Mendelssohn concerto released in 1948. The samples are all ripped from YouTube.

Laibach. I have a lot of Laibach. What other band would play the Sound of Music live in North Korea? (Check out the film!) What other band would cover Let It Be, producing an utterly gorgeous version of Across The Universe?

#laibach #neueslowenischekunst #nsk #muterecords

What other band would have a woodcutter as their support act at the Boardwalk gig all those years ago? They have produced some amazing cover versions (NATO) and some fantastic originals (Spectre). Their videos are always interesting.

I like Laibach!

I don’t know much about this one. Ledernacken (leather neck) and their first album, Double Album. Their second album was called First Album. It’s effectively the recording name of Folke Jensen, though that doesn’t help much. Hand-painted sleeve though!
#ledernacken #folkejensen

Lightning in a Twilight Hour with
And All The Ships At Sea. A dreamy record of seascapes.

#lightninginatwilighthour #tremblingbluestars #fieldmice #northernpicturelibrary #bobbywratten

The band is an alter ego of Bobby Wratten of the Field Mice, Trembling Blue Stars and Northern Picture Library.

Magazine. The first truly post-punk band? These two albums, their first two, are heavily played and rank highly in my favourites.

Real Life is sharp and spiky, just listen to Shot by Both Sides! (Which shares a Shelleyan guitar riff with Buzzcocks’ Lipstick.)

#magazine

Secondhand Daylight is more expansive and exploratory, moving further away from the punk roots of Devoto’s Buzzcocks. Listen to The Thin Air followed by Back to Nature.

The band had two of the greatest guitarists and bassists in John McGeoch and Barry Adamson.

Ls missed due to not having photos when away from home: Lonylady, Mica Levi, Ladytron and Leitmotiv.

More marvellous Ms, Malaria! I saw quite a few German bands of that era live but sadly I never caught Malaria! (The exclamation mark is part of their name!)

#malaria

Their only album Emotion was my introduction. This year it has been re-released with a second disc containing singles and other tracks, pretty much everything they ever recorded.

The 7” Christmas single here is not technically Malaria! but does include a couple of the band members. It’s alternative!!

I forgot yesterday’s post, so here are two Ms, both Scouse Ms as far as I can tell. I don’t know much about Marshmallow Overcoat or The Melotones. Both names have been used by other bands which rank higher on Google.

#marshmallowovercoat #themelotones

The Marshmallow Overcoat 12” single is a disc of two halfs. The three track side is terrific psychedelic pop, one lyric of Hell is a shouted, “Is this psychedelic enough for ya?” Jelly Shed is just a racket!

The Melotones were contemporaries with similar psychedelic leanings. The second disc, I think eponymous? Was a disaster of a sleeve. The plastic outer, printed on the inside didn’t quite last!

I have a lot of great Ms, too many to get through, so here are four from the 80s, in no particular order: Modern English, Mekons, Marine Girls and Microdisney.

#modernenglish #mekons #marinegirls #microdisney

Final M of the week. Pauline Murray. She was in the NE punk band Penetration, but then she branched out into beautiful post-punk pop. Initially in 1980 with the Invisible Girls…
#paulinemurray #paulinemurrayandtheinvisiblegirls #paulinemurrayandthestorm #paulinemurrayandthesaint

..,then with the Storm and the Saint,…

…and latterly in 2020 as herself.

Like there was pretty much one J so there is one N.

More N

This one!

Yet more!

Two more.

From Ceremony to Confusion.

Like there was pretty much just one band for J so there is for N. This is New Order’s first album, Movement, and is not that far from Joy Division, but they would travel a long way in 4 years.

#neworder #factoryrecords

The other images this week: Procession, Everything’s Gone Green, Temptation, Blue Monday, Power, Corruption & Lies, Thieves Like Us and Murder spanned those 4 years, from 81 to 84.

My final N of the week is not NO, it’s Bill Nelson. Chimera is a wonderful mini album and the final track, Another Day, Another Ray of Hope, is sublime.

#billnelson

So much so that here’s a badly cut snippet of the intro.

I don’t really have many Os. But here’s one that is coincidentally the same artist as yesterday’s N.

Orchestra Arcana was a name used by Bill Nelson to get around his contractual obligations. It’s also a great 12” EP.

#billnelson #orchestraarcana

One of the strangest Hulme bands was definitely The Old Men. This 7” EP, Sack, features the classics Nine Holes and Chicken.

#theoldmen #edwardbarton #janeandbarton

The former explores the contortional possibility of blocking up all nine orifices. The latter laments the lack of chicken, though somewhat offset by a surplus of wooden chairs.

Edward Barton, the songwriter here, went on to write Confide in Me for Kylie as well as other hits. He was clearly onto something with his wooden throne in his hollowed-out Hulme Crescent flat!

I never did send off for the good package, just two pounds. I missed a bargain.

OMD or Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, an O either way. I really liked some of their stuff: Electricity, Red Frame/White Light, Stanlow, but I never bought much. I did buy this 10” single, Souvenir, probably because the other bloke sang.

#omd #orchestralmanoeuvresinthedark

I bought this Omega Tribe 12” single for the b-side, Nightlife. They were anarchist punk band that brought out a upbeat dance record. A cynical one, maybe.

#omegatribe

For my final O, a newish record of old material, Oramics by Daphne Oram. A composer, electronic musician, pioneer of musique concrète in the UK and a co-founder of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

#oramics #oram #daphneoram

First Ps of the week, I have loads! Two early Creation 7” singles from The Pastels, Something Going On, and Primal Scream, All Fall Down.

#thepastels #primalscream #creationrecords

Probably my favourite P, The Psychedelic Furs. Their first eponymous album is just terrific, the opening tracks, India and Sister Europe, especially.

#thepsychedelicfurs #prettyinpink

Their second album, Talk Talk Talk, has that song on it, you know the one. A more straightforward song-oriented album, excellent but maybe not as varied at the first.

Two 12” singles from Propaganda. A German band styled (over-stylised?) by ZTT. But Dr Mabuse is a great single and the b-side cover of Femme Fatale isn’t bad either.

#propaganda #zangtumbtuum #ztt

Pink Industry. A great Liverpool band. The main two members, Jayne Casey and Ambrose Reynolds, came out of Big in Japan, a pre-super group - other members included Drummond, Balfe, Broudie, Johnson (Holly), Budgie.

#pinkindustry #pinkmilitary #biginjapan #zulurecords

And just to confuse things, before Pink Industry came Pink Military (aka Pink Military Stands Alone.)

There are some great songs on these albums, and the band’s third album, New Beginnings (not photographed). And some fantastic bass sounds from Reynolds (more of whom later!)

Portion Control. One album, one EP. I have several 12” singles. I once went to see Depeche Mode for the support. I didn’t see the main act.
Portion Control were electronic industrial, for want of a better term. They sat alongside 400 Blows, 23 Skidoo, etc.
#portioncontrol

I was a teenage Pink Floyd fan. Here’s Atom Heart Mother. I have an album by Atom Earth Mother too. Not in any way musically related to Pink Floyd.

#pinkfloyd

Final P of the week. Penetration, old and new. County Durham’s finest. Led by the wonderful Pauline Murray.

#penetration

A new week, a new letter. My first, last and only Q on vinyl is Quando Quango’s 12” single Go Exciting bw Tingle. Latin-inspired dance. I will now take a holiday until next week!

#quandoquango #factoryrecords

Whoops, after a quiet week of no Qs I forgot my first R! Well, I am still on holiday. So, yesterday’s Rs are two 7” singles of cover versions, The Raincoats and Real Macabre.

#theraincoats #realmacabre

The Raincoats cover Sly Stone’s Running Away; Real Macabre cover everyone’s favourite TV theme, White Horses. Both covers are nice uptempo pop songs.

Today’s R is (The) Royal Family and the Poor. Quite a strange band, though effectively just Mike Keane supported by other Liverpool and Factory musicians.

#royalfamilyandthepoor #factoryrecords

The Project (phase 1) is probably the most Situationist record Wilson ever released. The song I Love You (Restrained in a Moment) is beautiful.

One of the things I most like about P’s Pink Industry is the bass sound of Ambrose Reynolds. So here’s an album for R by Reynolds himself.

#ambrosereynolds #zulurecords

Greatest Hits is a brilliant album where Reynolds mixes bass, drum machine and US TV and radio recordings on shootings and assassinations. Just look at those track titles!

I’m a bit ill at the moment so finding it difficult to get my Rs into gear! But here’s a couple of albums from the Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus.

#revolutionaryarmyoftheinfantjesus

The band released a few mysterious albums and EPs between 87 and 95, then disappeared returning two decades later with actual names on the sleeves!

These are two of their three recent albums. The music could be described ambient or sacred, even classical.

I’m filing this one under R despite it being split LP because I was first drawn to the album after hearing an excerpt of the Georgia Rodgers’ track. Also, there’s a Huddersfield connection.

#georgiarodgers #chriswatson

Line of Parts is a piece made up of field recordings, sine tones and voices. The field recordings sound like rain on a tin roof. The whole piece is lush and very meditative.

The flip side, Notes from the Forest Floor, is by Chris Watson, once of Cabaret Voltaire, now known for his wildlife recording. This is a curated, developing field recording from Costa Rica. It had the cat confused.

A new week, a new letter. I have a lot of stuff under S. I’ll start with a favourite band and my two favourite albums of theirs. Section 25’s Always Now and From The Hip.

#section25 #factoryrecords

Always Now has the most beautiful cover ever made, probably costly too. Brilliant typography, envelope sleeve, marbled inside. It is so lush!

From The Hip carries over the colour codes from New Order’s contemporaneous records, Blue Monday and PCL. This time on poles. I managed to wangle another badge of of Factory on the back of this!

And musically these two albums mirror New Order’s Movement and PCL, a band developing from a more dour Joy Division style to electronic dance, certainly with the Megamix of the single Looking From a Hilltop.

Slightly oddly, Kanye West sampled Hit from Always Now in just song FML. How on Earth did he come across it?

Sadly two members of the band died far too young.

More Factory typography, this time from The Stockholm Monsters, a sadly underrated band at the time. They produced just the one album, Alma Mater and a handful of great singles.

#stockholmmonsters #factoryrecords

The 12” single here is perhaps the most misguidedly angry song of the time. How Corrupt is Rough Trade? was a tirade against the record label and distributor over a perceived wrong. But it’s bloody brilliant. The b-side Kan Kill! is about four songs mashed together somehow.

Today’s S is Shelley, Pete, founding member of Buzzcocks and writer of some of the greatest pop songs ever (fallen in love with…). This was his first post-Buzzcocks solo LP and is a cracker!

#peteshelley #buzzcocks #homosapien

It’s very much an electronic album and features a Commodore Pet computer on the cover.

The single, also called Homosapien, was banned by the BBC at the time. It’s a great song and as ever, at that time, Martin Rushent helped produce some great extended mixes.

His second album, XL1, which I don’t have on vinyl, sadly, included ZX Spectrum code for displaying the lyrics in a locked groove. How bloody fantastic is that! A locked groove on vinyl!!

Something a bit darker today, SPK. These three records were at the noisier, industrial end of the band’s releases. A little after this they would have a minor hit with the more electronic Metal Dance.

#spk

SPK was really just Graeme Revell at heart. The letters SPK meant different things over time. The band were part of the found-instrument genre, roughly. Revell went on to become a successful composer of film scores.

Three more noisy Ss this morning: Mark Stewart, Sonic Youth, Severed Heads.

#markstewartandthemaffia #markstewart #sonicyouth #severedheads

Stewart was a member of The Pop Group. Here he teams up with some amazing musicians (the Maffia) to produce an angry, political, tuneful album with a typical Sherwood dub edge.

Sonic Youth from NYC with another episode in their obsession with celebrity. Madonna and Penn get an explicit mention, I’m sure Karen Carpenter is in there somewhere, she usually is.

Severed Heads is a more electronic noise outfit from Australia, mainly Tom Ellard.

After noise, pop! Scritti Politti started out noisy but developed their lush pop sound on Songs to Remember with its classic single, The Sweetest Girl. Always a bit clever, what other band would pen a song about Jacques Derrida. Bought for the track Slow Soul.

#scrittipolitti

Shiny Two Shiny were a couple from Liverpool who produced some lovely, synthy, twee pop with a little bit of edge. I think I bought this for The Boy from Ipanema.

#shinytwoshiny

Sudden Sway. Their double album Spacemate™️ comes in a 2” deep box with all sorts of inserts. It’s more of a dimensional expansion program than a album.

#suddensway #spacemate

The single, Sing Song, was issued in 8 different styles to suit every taste. The 12” Media single was a promotional disc for radio stations to explain everything. Perplexing!

Two final quick double-esses before I move on to tomorrow’s Ts. Scala with Secret Ceremony is another Bill Nelson vehicle, this time for a C4 TV series about removal men (really??).

#scala #billnelson #SecretSociety #lemnsissay

Secret Society with Soul Trader is a white label penned by Lemn Sissay, but here because of a percussionist friend.

Time for T. And since I’m watching a lot of it tonight here’s Television with Marquee Moon. It’s a classic. Everyone should hear it.

#television #marqueemoon

The Tomboys! with Here We Come! This was a random gift from an online record shop I buy a lot of stuff from. Japanese power punk-pop, produced perfectly by Glen Matlock.

#thetomboys

Thick Pigeon. A slightly weird Factory band comprising Stanton Miranda & Carter Burwell. An odd stripped back art-pop, with an excellent cover of Moon River. Burwell went on to pen 60+ film scores including all the Coen Brothers’ films

#thickpigeon #stantonmiranda #carterburwell

Test Dept. Politics and found instruments, a perfect mix. While my favourite track is Kick to Kill from the beautiful double disc box Beating the Retreat, this album exemplifies the band’s politics and collaborations.

#testdept #testdepartment

Shoulder to Shoulder with South Wales Striking Miners' Choir is a mix of industrial noise and male voice choral music.

30 years after this I was bobbing around in a boat on the Tyne witnessing their event, DS30, commemorating 30 years since the miners’ strike. The band used a mix of music and projections onto Dunston Staiths, an amazing industrial structure on the river.

GET DOWN! It’s 23 Skidoo with Coup. The band, 2/3 of whom are William Turnbull’s sons, produced experimental, rhythm-driven music inspired by gamelan and using samples. Coup is just great!

#23skidoo #coup

The Three Johns. Only one of them is called John. Another is called Jon. The third’s name does not start with J.

#thethreejohns

In the 80s, in Manchester there was a great magazine, Debris. It looked at all aspects of culture but covered a lot of local music. Some issues included a flexidisc with a couple of tracks by local bands.
#twothievesandaliar #toomuchtexas #thatted #twang #debris #debrismagazine

I give you, Twang, That Ted, Too Much Texas and Two Thieves and a Liar. I have no idea what happened to the first three, but Two Thieves and a Liar I do know about.

I shared a flat with a couple of them, I lived just along the crescent from another two or three. I carried kit for them, helped stick up posters for them and tried to sell tickets to their gigs to slightly more famous local musicians.

Shackles and Chains is a great track! I have the dub version somewhere on a cassette. They never quite got played on Peel (he played the Dub Sex track) though Steve Barker gave them some air play.

Today should be my first U, but I don’t have many. So here’s one more T, Throbbing Gristle with 20 Jazz Funk Greats. They don’t play jazz funk. It’s not all an easy listen, but Hot on the Heels of Love is sublime and hints at future work by Chris & Cosey.

#throbbinggristle

As I said, I don’t have many Us, so two days late here is the U.S. Girls. I can’t remember why I bought Half Free but it may have been the cover. The band is a vehicle for Meghan Remy, the musical style is varied, file under art-pop?

#usgirls #meghanremy

After a barren week of Us, now a barren week of real Vs. These are the only two artists I have, Caterina Valente and Vessels!

#caterinavalente #vessels

The first is a charity shop find, bought mainly for the cover of Misirlou. Caterina is a French-Italian singer, she sings in 11 languages! Vessels is a Leeds based electronic band.

That’s it for real Vs, I do though have many Various Artists and so will follow up with a few.

My first two Various Artists are both fabulous samplers from record labels. Pillows & Prayers from Cherry Red and Pay it all Back, Vol 1 from On-U Sound.

#cherryred #onusound

Tracey Thorn puts in 3 appearances on the Cherry Red album, it must have been her year. Both albums are full of cracking tunes, both are excellent value at 99p and £1.49 respectively!

Two more various artists. One from Germany, one from Greece. Both are “new wave” though the Greeks and Germans differ in what that means. The first has that song, Da Da Da by Trio. #dadada

These magazine compilations were great. These are a couple of issues of Abstract Magazine. They clearly mapped with my tastes, six of these bands have already been pictured and a couple will appear. I also have issue 4, no idea about 1, 2 and 3.
#abstractmagazine

Final VA, Short Circuit - Live at the Electric Circus. The Electric Circus was a club in North Manchester. lasted barely a year from late ‘76. It started as a rock club but became a hub for the burgeoning punk scene.

#electriccircus #shortcircuit

This 10” album captures some of the performances of the acts playing on its closing weekend: Joy Division, The Fall, Buzzcocks, The Drones, Steel Pulse and John Cooper Clarke.

I have more Ws than I thought! Here’s The Wake. I first saw them at Futurama 4 in a freezing cold ice rink in North Wales. At the time they came across as a lower league Factory band with promotion potential.

#thewake #factoryrecords

Their first single On Our Honeymoon is not exactly a happy song. The album Harmony, on Factory, is excellent, if not exactly uplifting. It featured Bobby Gillespie on drums, before he left to join the Jesus and Marychain.

The main songwriter, Caesar, came from an early incarnation of Altered Images. Later releases on Factory and Sarah were a little brighter.

The overlap between The Wake and the Jesus and Marychain means I have seen Bobby Gillespie live a couple of times without ever seeing Primal Scream!

Wire, A Bell is a Cup… Until it is Struck. This album is from their second stage, more poppy than their first three classic post-punk albums. Kidney Bingos is the standout track for me.

#wire

Warm Digits, a duo putting out fabulous Motorik beats with a penchant for Op Art covers, great collaborators and brilliant videos. From the north east. Say no more.

#warmdigits

Watt with Wyatt, double-double-you. Ben Watt is one half of Everything but the Girl. He and Tracy Thorn were recording both separately and together around this time. This EP features the distinctive voice of Robert Wyatt.

#benwatt #robertwyatt

Andrew Wasylyk. This beautiful, pastoral album is about a place I know so well. I used to run and walk in Balgay Park, Dundee most weeks for nine years. The cover picture is quite lovely too.

#andrewwasylyk

Wolfgang Press. I went all the way to some weird venue in Tameside to see this lot. One of the trio was from In Camera, quite a change!

#wolfgangpress #4adrecords

Their three early 12” EPs are, Scarecrow, Water and Sweatbox. The first disc of these proves the Universal Law of Music: that any recording, no matter how good, will sound even better with Elizabeth Fraser’s vocals. I give you their cover of Respect!

Final W of the week, it’s Robert Wyatt again, this time in a starring role with Old Rottenhat. There’s a lot of politics in Wyatt’s songwriting. Good politics. A great voice too!

#robertwyatt

I have 1.5 Xs on vinyl. Here’s the 1, and one of my favourite 80s’ bands, Xmal Deutschland. I saw them live at a terrific gig at the Gallery in Manchester. They originated from Hamburg, though one of them was a Scot.

#xmaldeutschland

I have the first couple of albums, Fetische and Tocsin on vinyl as well as a handful of 12” EPs. Qual is an absolutely brilliant unrelenting single.

Here’s my 0.5 X, Clan of Xymox. They later dropped the “Clan of” and so I’m claiming a bit of them here. Very 4AD, a bit goth. I only have The XX on CD and The Ex where files under E. So that’s it for the week!

#xymox #clanofxymox #4adrecords

The penultimate week of my six month trawl through my vinyl, and it is Y. I only have two Ys on vinyl. So forget Yeah Yeah Yeahs, I give you Yeah Yeah Noh! Leicester’s finest.

#yeahyeahnoh

This single, Prick up your Ears, came with the Bumper Book of Yeah Yeah Noh, as well as the superb b-side, Bias Binding.

The Bumper Book had interviews, articles, photos and band profiles. Amazing value for money!

And, almost 40 years (yeahs?) later I have just noticed that Yeah Yeah Noh upside down in You Yeah Yeah!

Second and final Y, Young Marble Giants. The album Colossal Youth and the two EPs, Final Day and Testcard E.P. comprises pretty much everything they ever recorded.

#youngmarblegiants #colossalyouth

No band or musician is unique, but if I was going to use that term then Young Marble Giants would be a pretty close fit. Short, sparse, spiky, just listen to Final Day. It’s the end of the world as they know it but they don’t feel fine!

Final week, final letter, Z. I only have one Z. No Zappa or Zorn on vinyl, just Zoviet France, or more usually :zoviet*france:

#zovietfrance

Mohnomishe is the first album of theirs I bought. I heard a track on Peel that sounded like the inside of a mill. I was hooked. My go-to shop for all vaguely remembered tracks heard on Peel, Record Peddler, managed to get me a copy.

Mohnomishe is a double album housed in a sleeve made from two screen-printed, painted squares of hardboard, tied together with red string. The sound is built from industrial field recordings, it’s immersive.

After Mohnomishe I tried to find out whether :zoviet*france: had recorded other material. This was pre-Internet. But scouring Manchester’s record shops I found their first two vinyl releases, and their very first release but on cassette only back then.

#zovietfrance

These two discs - EPs? - are untitled and Norsch. The first is in a printed hessian sleeve, the second is in folded, embossed, painted foil with a printed card.

More :zoviet*france: with their double album, Eostre. This one is housed in folded, printed PVC and then wrapped in printed tissue paper. The paper is now getting a bit fragile.

#zovietfrance

Today from :zoviet*france: it’s «GRIS». This is a 10” with a roofing felt sleeve. The felt is painted and folded, thankfully there’s an inner sleeve to protect the vinyl from the inevitable «GRIT»

#zovietfrance

After «GRIS» I didn’t see or buy any :zoviet*france: vinyl until this one, 7.10.12, released on 7.10.12 and as three discs, 7”, 10” and 12”!

#zovietfrance

The sleeve may look a little dull compared to what’s gone before, but this is the 2nd edition. The original release was in a box with the discs mounted on a central spindle and some interesting inclusions.

A slight swerve from pure :zoviet*france: today with a collaboration and a solo project. The first is with the Fossil Aerosol Mining Project (see under F.) the second is by Atom Earth Mother.

#zovietfrance

The ZF&FAMP album, Patina Pooling, is housed in a folded, weathered steel sleeve. There’s a fragment of burnt fabric from a burned out warehouse somewhere in the US stapled to a bit of cardboard.

The Atom Earth Mother album, Ancient Faith, is housed in a wooden slipcase branded with a cup and ring design taken from Northumberland.

My final :zoviet*france:, my final Z and my final post in this six month series! These three wooden box sets bring together pretty much everything ZF recorded, cassettes, vinyl and CDs, into a triple collection of vinyl as Châsse, Châsse 2 and Châsse 3.

#zovietfrance

As well as the vinyl, each beautifully finished box with a printed lid contains a booklet and something collected from somewhere in Northumberland: sea coal, tuff, hawthorn berries.

@threadreaderapp unroll please