(aka the ‘its my birthday and i’ll dance if i want to’ post.)
if you have been following this blog for a while then you will have realised that the bloke behind the keyboard has been upon this planet longer than he ever expected to have been.
so, its without any shame that i reveal today i reached a personal milestone.
subsequently, this week ireallylovemusic hq has been rocking to the nostalgia grooves a little more than usual.
the week started with a drawn out session of old school electronic body music in the form of front 242 making me realise that even in 2008 their brand of aggression still get the blood rushing, then the industrial revival was continued when clint ruin/jim thirlwell/jim foetus decided to make a long awaited reappearance on the playlist.
i never quite got flow upon its release, but damn this week it felt good to hear a man older than me still sounding really really pissed off surrounded by some of the most fascinating productions.
perhaps it just required headphones.
then yesterday it was all about the guitars.
being a student in the late 80s the guitar scene wasn’t too funky it has to be said, it was all post c86 crap, and basically not worthy of my time as my obsession with age of chance and public enemy was in full effect.
yet despite this, two bands stood out and made their mark on my inner psyche which was to have an effect for a long time thereafter.
one such band was the almighty godfathers as mentioned elsewhere in the archives, but the other band that i don’t think i have every given space for was the fucking brilliant that petrol emotion.
while the press were split between utter devotion and repulsion for this undertones spin off, i happened to pick up a cassette copy of the bands debut, manic pop thrill, and instantly fell in love.
the passion was then cemented to a lifelong friendship when upon the release of the bands difficult second album, babble (produced by foetus co-hort, roli mossiman – making the circle even more complete), the band arrived in leeds and let rip with their political heavy indie guitar funk. in short, they were a stunning live act.
duelling guitars ripping the soundsytem to pieces, while dayglo, surf rock cooler than jesus front man, steve mack epitomised everything i ever wanted out of a rock and roll band.
quite simply how on earth could this band not become the biggest band since the beatles was something that kept me awake for many a night.
of course, all these years later, the reason is painfully obvious. babble was, and still is, a monster of an album, despite the inclusion of one of the best collisions of guitars and dance beats in big decision.
hard and aggressive sonically, and being totally unforgiving to the casual listener, meant that it wasn’t long before the band were off and moving to pastures new having legendarily pocketed a nice couple of hundred grand in the process due to them cannily spotting an misplaced loophole in their polydor record contract.
unfortunately, the band debuts for virgin records, the awkwardly named the end of the millennium psychosis blues, failed to light the fires as a sense of broken spirits permeated the grooves, and a complete lack of a hit single meant that the faithful were having to hold firm, especially as the live show of the period proved the band were still a kilo of sonic funked up dynamite on stage.
so how come the records didn’t match the bands obvious way with a groove ?
amazingly, the label kept onside (not something that would happen in 2008 i suspect), and the faith was repaid in bucket loads when the band next album, chemicrazy, arrived.
45 minutes of perfection.
not an ounce of flab.
and to cap it all, steve mack wearing a foetus t-shirt on the sleeve.
the bastard.
this band were destined to become my all time favourite guitar based band ever.
so, back to to 2008.
to be honest, i could post any track and be overflowing with, as i genuinely gush with human emotion whenever i end up playing an album by this band as memories of more carefree times flood back
oh fuck it, here’s the track.
a sample heavy indie dance remix of the hey venus track off the perfect chemicrazy.
apologies its only the edit version, but that’s what was on the cd single, so thats all you are getting !
dated it may be with its loops and heavy handed samples, but within its 4 muinutes the results show that the collision of the thriving acid house scene and guitar bands was felt beyond the district of manchester, and in many cases, the results were a lot more interesting.