well today i got lucky. very very lucky.
whenever i scour the racks i always am on the lookout for certain titles, one of which is the cd copy of dance rock collective nasty rox inc cash album.
now i have the album on cassette and vinyl, but ever since i saw the cd in our price in leeds many many years ago, i have had nightmares about not picking it up, as i know it once existed, something that many ztt collectors dont believe, but i most certainly have the memory, and the ongoing trauma.
another such holy grail is the second skylab album.
in the early mid 90’s i went through a massive ambient/instrumental hip hop phase.
obviously this meant i ended up buying mowax stuff, irresistible force, and far far too many pete namlook/fax albums.
anyway, during this period i happened to pick up a rather wonderful album by mowax associated collective – skylab. called simply #1 with a beautiful simple cover, the album kept teasing me from the racks until i decided to take the risk despite not having heard anything by the band.
consisting of mat ducasse, the mainstay of the band and various folks like kudos from major force west, the music was like a spaced out update of the art of noise album. parts of it were sublime and full of laid back beats, melody and harmony, yet there were chunks were things went off on one with little other a few space echo noises.
i suspect a lot of herbs were used in the making of the album. however for all the freakiness, when the band hit a spaced out groove there wasn’t anything like it.
naturally i wanted more, and shortly after the album was released, an ep came out with a remix by dubbed up master (at that time), andrew weatherall.
and then nothing.
i recall seeing a seething review for a second album many years later, but i never saw the album.
until last year i never saw anything else by the band, but then i happened upon a cardboard sleeve for an ep, my heart skipped a beat and i rushed to the counter to collect my hidden prize, but it was not to be as the sales assistant with indie shop attitude (which is out of business now .. ) dug into the dusty drawers for over 20 minutes before telling me, ‘it’s lost mate’. grrrrrr.
today though, my patience paid off.
i happened to spot on the top of an unloved £2 pile in a trade in shop, skylab #2 cd.
clear cd case with skylab embossed on the plastic, a plain but dashing pink inner cardboard sleeve with the tracklisting on the reverse, and the cd itself. no more detail other than hidden in a corner : eyeukcd018pro
this time i got lucky, the cd was in the shop assistanrs drawer, and now it’s on my desk.
discogs and amazon tell all manner of weird stories about the bands output, as this is supposedly what i have, but the cover and tracklisting is very different.
tracklisting : mothra/cashmere, bunny castle, mothers milk, crocodile 2, ghost, breakfast girl, ? pt.3, ? pt 2, magenta, hypnotika, ‘please’
but less of the smallprint, what of the actual contents.
well as is to be expected, the music is more of the same, spaced out ambience, beautifully tripped out psychedlic production, with much of the album having a stronger presence of guitar solos in a 70s prog fashion, making the results a not too distant relative of amorphous androgynous the classic prog rock alter ego of future sound of london. there are passages where little happens other than a few noises and effects, much like #1, and like the classic debut, when the band settle down and craft proper songs the results are fantastic, with the final 3 tracks with added uncredited female vocals, as have many of the albums tracks, are very special indeed.
having now experienced the album twice on headphones, i can safely say the long hunt and patience, has all been worth it.
a classic that very few people will have heard, so keep your eyes peeled, there must be other copies out there hidden away.
more detail (!!) : here