shriekback - jam science, oil and gold
these releases formed a major part of my formation years, and now after many years of being lost in the ether and thanks to the net i have got my hand on lovely shiny cd versions.
both of these releases prove that the 80's was not a complete waste of time for musical progression.
shriekback were a strange beast, at times too much funk for their own good and at others they creaated an ambience that could make melt bassbins.
'jam science' is the most consistent release and is filled with classic tracks from start to finish, in fact there isn't a single dud track on its short 40 mins, a lifetime favourite.
'oil and gold' was a bit different, to say the least. the band experimented with broken disjointed song structures and weird words a lot and stretched the limits of the bands record label to breaking point - literally. having said that its still excellent stuff, with the noisy mad 'nemesis' matched against the sheer beauty of 'the big hush', an album of sheer brilliance - but too demanding on the masses of the day, any day !
(note : the clues are all here if you too want to rediscover these lost classics)