THOMAS LEER AND ROBERT RENTAL – “ The Bridge” (Industrial Records IR0007) 1979

What made electronic music from 1978 to 1983 so great was the restrictions. It was minimal out of necessity, monophonic because only Tangerine Dream and other Germans could afford polyphonic synthesisers. This fit in with the ethics of the time, and especially with Industrial Records, no chords, no Rock’n’Roll. Once technology became more affordable, we got crap like Howard Jones, Pet Shop Boys and Thomas Leers “Contradictions” album. Robert Rental (R.I.P.!)had the foresight to disappear after this album, doing what many artists fail to do on so many occasions , that is, ‘Going out on a high’.(except when enforced by unavoidable interventions like choking on ones own vomit or suchlike!) Recorded on the infamous Industrial Records eight track recorder (no, not those tape players which became the truckers weapon of choice in the early 70’s, but the reel to reel variety), which was kindly lent to our intrepid duo by the lovely Genesis P. Orridge. The result was a minimal wave classic, up there with Gary Numan’s “Pleasure Principle” and John Foxx’s “Metamatic”, but maybe a little more left field, and lacking an obvious hit single. The nearest being the opening track, “Attack Decay” (mp3 sample-click here!).The majority of side two is very much a homage to the enviably great Eno, with some creepy ambient numbers, nailing the coffin firmly shut from the evil clutches of commerciality, Forever!...... Let’s not sell-out to the ‘man’ boys.....very good.

Tracklist

1. "Attack Decay" - 3:45
2. "Monochrome Day" - 4:02
3. "Day Breaks, Night Heals" - 4:03
4. "Connotations" - 4:05
5. "Fade Away" - 6:25
6. "Interferon" - 7:58
7. "Six A.M." - 3:12
8. "The Hard Way In & The Easy Way Out" - 4:44
9. "Perpetual" - 5:05

DOWNLOAD THE BRIDGE HERE!

ROBERT RENTAL AND THE NORMAL – “ Live at West Runton Pavillion 6-3-1979 “ (Rough Trade ROUGH 17) 1980

The Normal , aka Daniel Miller, Mute Records impresario, and the genius behind the “Warm Leatherette/TVOD” single mentioned earlier in this blog; teams up with Robert Rental, aka Robert Rental, genius behind the great “Paralysis” single also mentioned earlier in this blog. Wait, it gets weirder, as they played and recorded a live performance in the West Runton Pavillion???? Where the Hell is West Runton? I’m not sure I want to know, it may ruin my fantasy of Robert Rental and The Normal playing avant garde electronic music to the West Runton Octanegerian Knitting and Glee club in some broken down pier theatre in a forgotten seaside town in Kent.

And the icing on this very special cake is completed by its release on one-sided vinyl; side two was smooth and grooveless.....a bit like Brian Ferry.

What were guaranteed to bring out the contempt of the beer swilling status quo loving general public were less than three persons on a stage with no guitars or drums in sight. Suicide had made brave advances into no-mans land with their support slot for the Clash European tour in 1978. Frequently being bottled off stage after ten minutes, usually half way through “Frankie Teardrop” (they don’t like being confronted with the truth don’t the ‘Rock’ audience!), an occurrence documented on the great bootleg “23 minutes over Brussels”, supporting Elvis (Costello).

Though one doubts Robert and Daniel were anywhere near as confrontational as Alan Vega, the music alone could make the average ‘Punk’ implode with rage! I’ve never understood this reaction, having pigeon-holed myself as a ‘Punk’ at the time. I think I may have grabbed the wrong end of the stick or something, ‘cus I thought that the attitude of records like this WAS ‘Punk’. Stuff I thought were ‘Punk Rock’ are now labelled things like Post-Punk, Minimal Wave, Cold Wave, Industrial etc..etc. And Punk rock is something very Stupid, in a Leather jacket, with UK Subs spelled out in studs on the rear, and topped off with a Mo-fucking-hican (or if you’re American Mo-fucking-hawk!).

Back to the record!..... Minimal electronics, doubtlessly backed up by pre-prepared tapes played in full view on a Revox B-77 (how honest is that?). There are even some slightly unhinged vocals from, I assume, Robert Rental. This is the golden age of electronic music, before everything became possible, and as a result too many choices leads to shit music; by 1984 it was all over, and electric guitars began to regain lost ground again. But we do still have the recorded proof that synthesisers were once exciting and creative instruments; see “The Pleasure Principle”, “Metamatic”, “ The Bridge” and this one-sided slice of history.

Download it HERE! (mediafire) - soon to be re-upped
Download it HERE! (cramit.in) - re-upped 25:09:2012

Metabolist - " Goatmanaut " (Drömm Records Cassette ) 1979 + " Hansten Klork " (Drömm Records Drö 2) 1980

METABOLIST – “ GOATMANAUT “

Sort of a mini-album/cassette filled with the trademark Metabolised Zeuhl Industrial Prog that Metabolist isn’t famous for. But given time, lots of it, they will be........won’t they?

METABOLIST – “ HANSTEN KLORK “

This is Metabolist’s “tubular bells” side 2 as produced by conny plank. Almost has accessible moments, with “Curly Wall”(click here for mp3 sample) being the ‘greatest hit’ in its sort of No Wave Krautrock funk kind of a way. And “Alien on Sunday” is a Neu-esque motorik sub-anthem for disaffected youth.

“Quack” is a sparse, Magma meets This Heat’s Horizontal Hold, repetitive ‘tour de force’, that ends too quickly; mainly due to the restrictions of vinyl in the pre-CD age. (Should have released this on cassette.....they are longer and they sound better).

A buried classic of what was basically nu-prog, which was labelled post-punk by the muzak media. A progressive music that was enriched by the lack of the public school/future leaders influence (Peter Hammill is excused from this harsh bracket and Joe Strummer is most definitely IN-cluded). Punk Rock made this all possible, problem was it made Duran Duran possible too, but you can’t win them all, a bird in the hand etc.....blah blah blah! Ah Fuck off!

DOWNLOAD HANSTEN KLORK HERE!

DOWNLOAD GOATMANAUT HERE! reupped

Metabolist – “ Stagmanaut ” (Cassette King CK2) 1981

The criminally overlooked Metabolist existed at the end of the seventies, occupying the harsh hinterland between prog and punk. A no-mans land where only the very bravest groups/ non-musicians had the courage to inhabit.

The exhumed ghost of French Zeuhl proggers Magma haunts this cassette; but the clinical intellectual sterility of Christian Vander’s outfit is replaced with a non-musicality and an earthy honesty or soul. This is brain music that is channelled from the realms of natural law. Their nearest peers can only be This Heat or Pere Ubu, and that is by far no insult, but a compliment of the highest order.

I assume that they sing, not in an invented language, a la their Zeuhl influence, but in an incomprehensible nonsense that had to be improvised, not thought about, a stream of consciousness that makes sense only to those open minded enough to accept it; which of course there were very few in 1979 where Sham 69 ruled the realm of the lumpen masses, with an iron major chord. (For the record I love Sham 69....that too is another form of soul music).

“Stagmanaut” is their debut cassette release on the Dromm label, and opens with the repetitive industrial grind of “Cranes/Ymuzgo”. A bleak industrial electronic intro has one thinking Throbbing Gristle’s “2^nd Annual Report” (I presume that’s the “Cranes” of the piece?!); which is then transformed into a space echoed Indian rain dance on lsd25, with accompanying cheapo synth and Clanging percussion.

“Pigface” follows with more extra-terrestrial Red Indian style chanting, guitar played by someone with claws, and somebody else beating relentlessly on a floor tom. I didn’t hear a chorus, or a middle eight, and No chords!.....so much for the “Here’s three chords, now go and start a band” quote from some punkzine in 1977. Real punkers should say “There’s NO chords, now make a record ”.

Basically, this cassette carries on in this very unique and strange way, nodding only once towards vague rock riffage on track 4, Glory, where a Drum Kit and some pop pastiche lyrics make an appearance. There’s even a hint of a stilted guitar solo!

Track Listing:

Cranes
Ymuzgo
Pigface
Johnny Loves You
Glory mp3 (click her for sample track)
Quack Backwards

Download Stagmanaut Here! (re-upped)

The Human Condition - “Live at Collegiate, London, 13.09.81” (self-released cassette THC1) 1981 & “Live in Europe, November 1981” (THC1) 1982

Ok, Whats the greatest pop group of all time?.....Correct......Public Image Limited mk1 & 2. So that leads us neatly to: Who were the greatest rhythm section in all eternity?.......Correct again.......Jaki Liebezeit and Holgar Czukay; but a close second is Wobble and Walker from Pil mk.1 . (Feel free kids to supply your own nominations in the comments section below; although Wobble and Liebezeit won’t be accepted due to the only one entry per candidate rule).

The unequalled Supernova of “Out There” creativity that emanated from the constellation of PiL, inevitably burnt itself out, leaving a Black Hole (Lydon) from which no light so escapes; a black dwarf (Levine), and an expanding debris field that is the eclectic creative force of Wobble. A musical gravitational force that attracts any passing melodious asteroid shard, eventually forming an over populous planet with a distinct Wobble in its orbital ellipse. Eclecticism is NOT my cup of herbal tea! It takes the “better” bits of all the dodgiest musical genres, and squeezes them into something not quite as good, or bad, as the original.

John Wardle has been incredibly culpable in this heinous crime against good taste!....but, in the earliest days after departing the sinking ship of PiL, the celebrated mark one rhythm section of “First Issue” reunited for some live improvisational gigs around Europe. Walker showing off his Jazzy roots, accompanied by someone called Dave Animal on exploratory guitar, anchored by Wobbles’ repetitious, dub funk bass. This was ‘The Human Condition’.

‘Twas a brave stab at exploring and testing the boundaries of a post-punk audience, akin to the similar New York Mutant Jazz stuff that Bill Laswells’ various combos and chums were churning out at the same time.

“Live in Europe” being the superior set, with a more interesting direction, more funky with some decent Sax fleshing out the sound. Moving it towards the unstable ground of Jazz Fusion, but thankfully its Red Shift is more towards the Miles Davis end of the light spectrum, a la “On the Corner”.

What is relevant to these blog pages is that Wobble rushed out the recordings of these gigs, days after, on self-released cassettes.(Incidently for some reason both of these cassettes have the same serial number!?)

THC's recordings were only issued on cassette ("I like small, contained things - they're more refreshing"), recorded on a tight budget & knocked out so swiftly that Live In Europe, their second & final tape, was apparently on sale by the end of the gig(!)

"To my delight, I found that I could record an album in my bedroom for virtually zilch... spend another £100 cutting it before ordering 2,000 pressings at around 35p a shot. I'd pick up the records from the manufacturers & wholesalers & deliver them to various distributors, exporters & wholesalers, as well as specialist shops. I found that I'd come out of it with a good few quid". (J.Wobble)

These are the last vestiges of the great PiL line-up, preserved in all its hissy posterity on 4mm analogue tape. One can only yearn for the great Lydon caterwaul to finish these improv’s off. Rotten, we miss you.

DOWNLOAD Live in London and Europe HERE!

Brian Brain – “Unexpected Noises “ (Secret Records BRAIN 1) 1980

Brian Brain is/was the amusing ‘nom de plume’ of one Martin Atkins (aided and abetted by Pete Jones, another ex- PiL bass player),the much abused drummer for PiL from ‘Bad Baby’ on ‘Metal Box’, to holding ‘Flowers of Romance’ together.(the password for the pil links is : http://phenagen.blogspot.com/)

Having been sacked from Pil after the U.S. tour of 1980 to save paying his wages, Brian...er....Martin had to fill his spare time. The results were the first two Brian Brain singles, ‘They got me in the Bottle’ and ‘Another Million Miles’, and the album ‘Unexpected Noises’ (which incidentally contains both the singles),released on the 1^st of August 1980;before being summoned back by Lydon for the ‘Flowers of Romance’ album.

As it turns out, it’s a archetypical example of the DIY sound of 1980. Plenty of analogue monosynth, eccentric vocalising and tinny drum sounds. Everything including the kitchen sink has been thrown into each track, the only difference between this release and a cassette band is that the overdubs were obviously done on an 8/16 track recorder, but nevertheless an essential 80s DIY record. One can only wonder what conversation would ensue if Brian Brain ever met moronic label mates The Exploited at Secret Records offices? The mind boggles!

Altogether now........”Punks not Dead”........thanks to people like Martin Atkins, most definitely NOT the fucking Exploited!!!!

Tracklisting:
Another million miles
Our man in Hong Kong
Theyve got me in the bottle (mp3)
The hots for you
The asthma game
brainstorm
Unexpected noises
i gET pAIN
Dirty dealing in the lone star state
Turn it into noise
I'm suffocating
Jet boats up the ganges

DOWNLOAD THIS POST PiL CLASSIC HERE!

Controls - " Don't Adjust the Controls " - (Stupid Rabbit Tapes SRT002) 1980

Released on a high quality "Clyde Audio Products" C-60 cassette in july 1980, this is Controls first album. Recorded live to a "Pro" two track Cassette, by a slim line three piece version of the band (sans Jon Monks....was it musical similarities that caused the split?),some say it is inferior to the first ep!...I have to say one prefers it marginally,there's more space,and the songs are, for want of a better word,.....better? There's even a slow number that includes ,what sounds like ,bass chords, "Metropolis".This, I am told, is a sign of maturity. It happens to us all,it depends how you cope with it I suppose? then it takes one an entire lifetime to rediscover the art of the naive,then you die.

















Afterall, most of the appeal of this music and the scene from whence it sprung, is experiencing that fleeting moment when innocence is in its final bloom. The youthful ideals that one lived by,slowly crushed by "the Man", and other dream crushing oppressors like the Popular Media, Soul boys, Hip Hop culture, and government sanctioned cheap Heroin. This music is the voice of hope, a distant memory in the minds of modern youth; inebriated on sexualisation and cheap credit, they are the most apathetic bunch of sheep since the victorian era. It matters not that the UK/US (same thing by the way) government is fighting foreign wars for no other reason than to keep us fearful of an enemy that hardly exists, as long as they've got a iPhone 4, and enough money to get pissed to factory manufactured R'n'B .
Controls is the opposite of that pile of horseshit. Are you listening Youth? And don't forget, Hip Hop started around 1980, when i was 16, so don't say I'm to old to understand (c)rap culture.
Ahhhh,that felt good.
So do yourself a favour and download this cassette, and retrain your brains.

For track listing click on the picture below:

























Read the entire Controls story on the previous post for "Sock it to 'em Dave"
(and don't forget to press PAUSE on the Die or DIY mixtape player on your right before playing the video,or you will get two tunes playing at once...don't say I didn't warn y'all!)


DOWNLOAD CONTROLS DIFFICULT SECOND ALBUM HERE

Controls - " Sock it to 'em, Dave." (Stupid Rabbit Tapes SRT001) 1980

Controls' debut cassette ep from 1980,as advertised in Sounds' DIY corner.......












.......is a briskly played rendition of classic garage rehearsed,(or in this case Sports Hall rehearsed) post punk pop from 1979. Controls give us four slabs of Joy Division on whizz, with the bass prominant (curtosy of Tim Naylor) in a style that is a melange of Peter Hook and Captain Hook. Quite infectious with its youthful exhuberance and enthusiasm, and the added charm of the toilet block acoustics provided by 1970's low budget,functional architecture.Why can't you find that reverb setting on yer digital effects units?
Such was the power of Sounds and the cassette swapping underground in 1980, that they sold 500 copies of this!!!......that's 500 Quid!!!!...a kings ransom in 1980,and probably more than many chart acts today come away with after the corporate theives that are "record Companies" have finished "recouping" their advances.Its a terrible pity that these contemptable multinational cess-pits are gonna be bankrupt very soon.
















What follows is the "COMPLETE" history of Controls, provided by the mighty pen of Tim Naylor. This is what REAL life was like for us "punks" back in the 70's,pretty much the same as what the pioneers in the wild west had to go through.
Anyway,I'm surprised he's got any fingers to write with left after playing bass for Controls, but here goes:

"Controls were formed in 1978 from the remnants of three bands - the Grunties (the areas first punk band to play a gig), Keine Namen (Fleet-based one gig wonders) and The Fastnets (local Grammar school kids).

Ex-Grunties Melvyn Crawford (gtr) and Kerry Kirk (drums) originally wanted to audition Keine Namen’s Tim Naylor as a replacement singer when original vocalist - Tim Freeman (later of Frazier Chorus) - left due to ‘musical’ differences. Various hybrids of the Grunties and Keine Namen rehearsed over a few weeks around Xmas ’78 with the lineout stabilising around Melvyn who also took on vocal duties, Kerry on drums and Tim on bass and a bit of shouting. Keine Namen drummer Dave took on the manager’s mantle. Meanwhile, The Fastnets guitarist Jon Monks took on duties engineering the band’s sound and documenting various recordings, eventually joining the band as second guitarist.

Following a party debut at Ewshot Village Hall, a couple of private gigs and some endless self-promotion, Controls went public at the Prince of Wales pub in December 79 followed by a gig supporting LonesomeNoMore at the Tumbledown Dick in Farnborough.

Various school, college, club and pub gigs followed, including arguably Controls finest performance at what became known as the Crondall Village Hall Riot. A selection of notable events follows;

May 79 – Ewshott Village Hall (3 piece + 1)

Then playing under their original name of ‘Bright Young Things’ this was a private party attended by circa 200 people. The whole gig is taped for posterity and includes an interlude mid-set where manager Dave plays drums for one number (Videosville). It is also the source of the ‘Sock it to ‘em Dave’ heckle that became the name of Controls first musical endeavour (see below)

Set list: BYT/Funny Bunny/She’s so Dirty/ Videosville/Biggest Bomb-Marriage/Pipes/Commuter/Pricktease. Encore - Funny Bunny / BYT

June 79 – Private party Aldershot (3 piece)

Set list: similar to Ewshott and again played as Bright Young Things.

A party for trainee journalists at an expensive property in Aldershot (Arthur English was a neighbour). Set included a lengthy 12-bar blues jam (a different version posted as video ‘wastin’ on Tim’s YouTube account. Again gig was taped which documents the band’s increasingly pointed displeasure at being ignored by the small throng of punters. It’s not often you hear a band heckle the audience…

Dec 5th ‘79 - Prince of Wales, Fleet (4 piece). Short matinee pub gig

Set list - ‘Nobody’s daughter’, ‘Mars Baby’, ‘So Soon I Forget’, ‘Invited Few’, ‘Bright Young Things’.

A brief warm-up gig for the Tumbledown gig the following week….

Dec 11th 79 – Tumbledown Dick (4 piece)

Set list - Included ‘Nobody’s daughter’, ‘Mars Baby’, ‘So Soon I Forget’, ‘Invited Few’, ‘Now Metal’, ‘Bright Young Things’, ‘Posing Down the Dik’, ‘Caffeinated Housewives’.

The band that played the Prince and the Tumbledown was far removed from the original Bright Young Things (which really had been The Grunties Mk 2, using mainly Melvyn’s material and a couple of Tim’s earliest efforts).

For a start the band was a proper four piece with the addition of Jon on rhythm guitar and had written an entire new set of material and adopted the name Controls at Tim’s behest. While Melvyn continued to be the lyricist, the songwriting axis had started to move away from Melvyn and Tim to Jon and Tim (and would continue to do so even when Jon was not playing fully with the band), and the band was tightly drilled and rehearsed. Which makes the complete cock-up of the Tumbledown gig even harder to understand. No sound engineer, no fold-back, usual story. Near-comatose from alcohol rhythm guitarist barely coaxed onto stage didn’t help either.

The Tumbledown Dick

The Tumbledown Dick had a long tradition as a live venue going back to the sixties and early seventies – the Jam played there many times in 1975. In late 79 the venue staged a small season (approximately half a dozen gigs) featuring named punk/new wave acts -Angelic Upstarts, Purple Hearts, The Wall, The Nips, Classix Nouveaux - with established local acts as support (The Mode, Thieves, Impulse, Virginia Doesn’t,). Then repeated the trick using the established local acts as headliners with ‘new’ local bands supporting (Between Pictures, Controls, Lopez).

Jan 80 - ‘Sock it to ‘em Dave’ released. Controls unwitting pioneering approach to releasing indie cassettes of their material got the band noticed. A short mention in Sounds resulted in around 500 sales of this 4 track cassette featuring ‘So Soon I Forget’, ‘Secrets’, ‘Nobodies Daughter’ and ‘Invited Few’, as well as numerous fanzine pieces and distribution offers.

July 80 – Albert St Social Club, Fleet (4 piece – power pulled after four numbers as band were disturbing the regulars in the Snug)

Set List ‘Nobody’s daughter’, ‘Mars Baby’, ‘So Soon I Forget’, ‘Invited Few’, A night of insurrection as Controls bassist Tim started a fight in the club with local hard cases. Ended up with the band walking home followed by a group of around 20 youths threatening them….

June 21 1980 – Don’t Adjust the Controls recording session

The bands second cassette was a ten track ‘LP’ recorded live to a pro- two-track cassette on June 21st 1980. Around 14 tracks were recorded but several were dropped – Caffeinated Housewives, Welcome to Sunday, Nobodies daughter and the full version of Invited Few. June 1980 – Court Moor School Main Hall (3 piece).

Jon had stepped down from playing duties by this stage so the band continued as a three piece. A number of slower Joy Division/Cure influenced numbers had crept into the set – ‘Observers’ and ‘Metropolis’ in particular. Band were watched by around 200 youngsters and played a storming set.

Around this time, Controls used to let a young thrash punk band borrow their equipment after rehearsals every Saturday – this band included Richard Jennings (who would later join Tim and Jon in Beating Hearts), Shaun Burt who became lead singer of anarcho-punk band Black Easter and – bizarrely – Mick Delahunty who went on to minor fame and fortune with one-hit boy band Breathe (Hands to Heaven)


June 80 – Crondall Village Hall (3 piece) (aka the Crondall Riot)

A landmark event in local punk folklore. This was a private party staged by Jon Monks and Bill Tootle who used to play in an early punk band as The Fastnets. Controls provided the PA and backline and co-headlined with Basingstoke punks ‘The Mental’. The Mental had lots of connections with the south-west anarcho punk scene and invited all their mates and told them it was a free festival. Bands started turning up expecting to play, drum kits were being set up in the corner of the hall and everything was getting out of hand.

A quick conference was staged between the headliners and it was agreed that Bill Tootle’s band (Anonymous Sisters) would open, then Controls would play with the Mental headlining…then everyone would sneak out the back door and let the crowd – now around 200 people, most of whom claimed to be in band - get on with it.

A large number of Fleet hooligans had also turned up, who were recruited by Tim as security – an uneasy truce that was never going to last long…

Anonymous Sisters played a short set of quirky pop songs, then Controls got on the small stage. The band had intended playing some of the slower new material, but Melvyn took one look at the by now seething crowd of punks and very deliberately picked up the set list and slowly ripped it in half… ‘We’ll play some old numbers…’ he said and proceeded to shout out titles to Tim and Kerry and the band played on the fly at about 100 miles an hour – Marriage, Vices, She’s so dirty, Commuter, Proximity, Bright Young Things. The crowd went batshit, with scraps breaking out all over and missiles being launched.

One memory seared on the band forever was the sight of around 20 punks trying to force their way on stage, while just one member of the Fleet goon squad holding the door shut – luckily it was a well known local trouble maker who weighed about 20 stone.

The Controls tore through a truncated set then stayed put with the gear as the Mental got on stage. They were equally brief playing around ten short sharp fuzz guitar punk songs… more stage invasions took place and in a moment of balletic chaos one punter was kicked squarely in the chest by Tim because he got too close to the bass amp and sailed gracefully back into the melee… another ventured near to Kerry’s drum kit and was rewarded with a cigarette flicked in his face.

As the Mental finished and sloped off backstage, Controls mobilised themselves and quickly lifted the backline and drumkit out of a sidedoor, stashing everything in the cars and returned to the throng. The crowd in the hall by now realised that everything had gone from the stage and proceeded to wreck the place, before spilling out into Crondall itself – a small rural idyll populated by harrumphing Majors and blue-rinse Tories - and started to destroy the village green. Some of the Mental’s gear also went missing. Jon’s car was stolen and was wrapped around the as yet incomplete Crondall by-pass.

Four days later the local Aldershot News group reported a front page story of the ‘Crondall Village Hall Riot’… A bit of a do all told….


July 80 – Aldershot Lido (café roof gig) (started as 3 piece, ended as a rhythm section)

As Aldershot Lido celebrated its 50th Anniversary someone thought it would be a good idea if Controls played a short set on the roof of the Lido cafeteria. It was a bad idea. Out of the 5,000 people present around 100 watched while the rest studiously avoided the area. The band got all arsy, both with the crowd and each other. Melvyn turned up late, nearly fell off the roof then fell in the pool. The band split up.

Meanwhile a local guitarist had heard all the commotion and was playing in his garage opposite the Lido. Tim – by now in a state of high stress – marched across to where he was playing and told the guitarist (Mick Pendleton) that if he was any good he better get his backside over to Fleet for an audition the next Saturday. He did and a few weeks later following some singer auditions at which Jim Rump was installed, Controls Mk 2 was born. This band was one of the X-Cassettes house bands and appeared on three releases on the label – ‘Anything Could Happen in the Next Half Hour’, ‘Bits’ and ‘Dance’ as well as a Stupid Rabbit Release ‘Late Night Love Songs’."














DOWNLOAD IT WITHOUT PAYING £1:25 HERE!

" Bits " - Various Artists ( X-Cassettes X005) 1981

Another Compilation from the reading area of the lovely UK. This time one called "Bits", which was issued with an accompanying Fanzine of the same name in a clear zip top bag. Like "Anything Could Happen in the Next Half Hour" from the previous post, we have Chris Green and Richard Griffin's X-Cassettes to thank for this C-60 of forgotten fav's from the Berk's area.(that's Berk as in Berkshire,not Burk as in.....Burk....or if you're French,not Berk as in Beurk!).....but no...wait...there are groups from all over the country on this one! Even a punk rock group from Gateshead!
Basically it's more of the same, scratchy post punk, bedroom poetry, and angular lo-fidelity,that will tickle your damaged ear drums until they heal themselves from within.
The fantastic Dig! Dig! Dig! appear once more, with another classic exploration of the sawtooth wave, via the valve-less printed circuit boards of late seventies guitar combo amp's. These chaps make dance music for white's who can't, and DON'T, want to dance. (#note from the Political department of Die or DIY?......"Remember that Dance music is a form of cultural fascism boys and girls.")
English Subtitles sound like a missing Ron Johnson Records band, but five years too early! They released several records on Glass records around this time,so therfore they are probably the most sucessfull band on this tape.(Check 'em out here! and their singles here!)
The Customer Service track is classic cheap synth noodling, with the waveform selector set to random. The hushed vocals is usually a sign that a track was recorded at home, so as not to annoy mum and dad,who were downstairs enjoying another edition of the Generation Game.Also there appears a saxophone (recorded when mum and dad were out at bingo), that sounds suspiciously like the saxophone from the Oxford Dictionaries tracks on "Anything Could Happen in the Next Half Hour"! Can anyone confirm if this is true,or just a beautiful Dream? And,as it states in the fanzine,did they really open for the Gang Of Four in....Seattle?...or was that Settle,just down the railway from Carlisle?(They also shared members with Tiny Holes).
The Electrablips go for the portamento setting option on their Teisco synth, as they charmingly try to Depeche Mode-ize the famed John Lennon sound bite and trivial pursuit question; "Life is what happens to you while you are making other plans".
Dogma Cats, are also too famous, due to their inclusion on a Hyped2Death compilation; so 'nuff said about them cats.(ed-we apologise for shite quip)
Controls treat us to a very live sounding(at the Fox and Hounds apparently) "Late Night Love in a Lauderette". Imagine you have placed a large tin can over one's head,and inserted a cassette player on full volume,with the bass turned to minus eleven. Then played an enthusiastically performed New wave tune until your ears bleed. This would not adequately convey the no-fi joy that our pals in Controls chuck indescriminatly towards our fried synapses. A Joyfull racket indeed.
Between Pictures(?) give us some very enjoyable spaceous post-punk stylings,driven by a drummer who could obviously play his instrument to a high standard.Although very admirable, one does not condone such behaviour on this website, although i'm not saying that it shouldn't happen!
The Influence,thrash out a very entertaining post-punk ditty called "Killing Time",that can't be faulted.
Attrition whip out the mono-synth again, replacing the much maligned electric guitar.(Blame halfwits like Jimmy "Turn the" Page and Eric "Slowhand" Clap).Backed up by the standard high tempo drums and dub disco bassline,and monotone lady vocals.Good stuff indeed.
Classic cassette DIY is Laurence Shorthouse, very Instant Automatons. Unsynchronised Fifth generation cassette tape loops whirl out of syncopation behind Laurence's sixth form miserablist poetry. Homemade claustrophobia,for people who like putting cotton wool in their ears.
The Lines must have listened to too many Pig Bag out-takes for their own good.
I didn't like Judy Nylon at all!
The Sleepers sound very dated,very 1981 production values, very Classix Noveaux,very syn-drum on whip setting.
The Stills were obviously a very good contempory alternative pop group,who should have had an indie hit. very dated,and could not exist out of their time.
Sub-Active and Total Chaos represent the groups who still thought the Sex Pistols were still touring in 1981,and 'Flogging a Dead Horse' was a new album.
Whereas Tiny Holes and 3-Way Dance represented the groups who thought the Pistols were the final Rock band,and retained very little of that popular music format in their sparce but inventive compositions. A brave attempt at substance over ability, and that is what DIY is all about.
And finally this brings us to bedroom poet, Sonderkommando. Listening to this is like hearing the final testament of a suicide bomber, or some depressed teenage rambo wannabe who was too nervous to slaughter his neighbours or fellow six form students. He recites his semi-literate school boy poem ,"Movement", as if through a full face balaclava, just before he grabs his AK-47 and exits his mum and dad's house to 'off' those who have shunned him in society.You can read his actual scribblings on the last page of the Bits fanzine as scanned below. Almost disturbing.

Dig! Dig! Dig! - "5.4" (mp3)
Customer Service - "Call me Dynamic" (mp3)
The Influence - "Killing Time" (mp3)

To Download the tape Click Here or below!

For Track listing double click on the picture below:














Download Bits Here

Below are the scans of the Bits fanzine,which came with the cassette.Click on the pix for more info about the bands mentioned above.
Once again many thanks to Tim Naylor of Controls for his valuable assistence in preparing this post. But more about him in the forthcoming Controls post(s).

" Anything Could Happen in the Next Half Hour." - VARIOUS ARTISTS ( X- Cassettes X002 ) 1981

Of course you have read the post about the Reading compilation LP "Beyond the River" and downloaded and thoroughly enjoyed the Bands contained there-on? WOT?.......NO!!!...Well,firstly click the link, then check out this even better compilation from the Reading area, released on that wonderful medium that is, the cassette. The wonders of Chrom-dioxide,or even better,Ferric Oxide, gives anything that almost mystical aroma of an archeological dig; which is funny, 'cus the best band on here are called DiG! dig! DiG!.
Reading based X-Cassettes, were the spiritual predecessors of "Beyond the River", and was established by Chris Green and Richard Griffin (the latter of "No Cure" fanzine fame) to deliver a platform for local bands. And in turn,provided a valuable historical document of an ignored era that would have long disappeared into the aethyr (pronounced Ether).
The label eventually morphed into,consequentially, Open Door Records, then the more famed, Criminal Damge Records,home to such luminaries as ,gulp!, the Membranes, the Leather Nun and Ausgang!





















This marvellous cassette, kicks off in parallel universe top 75 mode,with the Original Vampires' and their terminally catchy proto-indie "Hit" , "Johnny Clarke"; I could play this one three times in a row, and maybe even sing-a-along!?
Next we get to trad-DIY with Attack Control and "Half Life". Classic muffled vocals, bedroom guitaring, small room drum sounds, and 16 rpm bass twanging. I love it!
Then, Quality Drivel .....thats the band, but could also be a very adequate dual-adjective for their sound.
This brings us to the best track on the tape, by DiG! dig! DiG!, and their eponymously titled tune. Feel the solid state majesty of the guitar amp circuits frying under the influence of the Andy Gill/Wilko Johnson/Mick Green triumvirate of six string heaven! The approximately tuned bass,and flat drums, accompany this tune in a way only white boy punk/funksters can master; and this should be celebrated.
Savage Vinyl, local rock groop with a following makes live recording type stuff.This was their three minutes...and why not?
The Civi's, lightweight proto indie pop, but enjoyable.
Milkshake Melons are the real deal though. With their Dick Dale on Tamazapan instrumental, "Theme de Melon". Its the sound of a tape being chewed up in the pinchers....genius. Equally great is their Doomsday song..."21C HB"....no, its not about soft leaded pencils either!
Controls, not 'The' Controls, give us some Joy Division tunes played with a Warsaw level of competence, recorded with the audio fidelity of sound boucing off breeze blocks. A sound quality I have always admired, but find it hard to reproduce. "Apprehension" , has an interesting bass,guitar counterpoint,that catches the minds ear, topped off with an X-Factor Ian Curtis singing style, that has no peers in DIY world. (See later in this Blog for a Controls post)
The Funboy Five, are now the most famous band on this cassette.Thanks to being included on one of Chuck Warners "Messthetics" compilations. So 'nuff said about them.
And last, a band that comes a close second to manchesters Bathroom Renovations for having the best band name in DIY land......the Oxford Dictionaries!?.......they're almost as good as Bathroom Renovations too! Listen to the wow and Flutter of this awful recording, and be in awe! They also have a honking sax player too, and NO drummer, which most groups should do without.

Dig! Dig! Dig! (Mp3 sample)
Original Vampires "Johnny Clarke" (Mp3 Sample)
Download the rest of this classic tape below....you know you want to!















DOWNLOAD this forgotten relic from southern UK Here!!!!!!!

Many thanks to Tim Naylor ,of Controls ,The Beating Hearts,and head honcho of Stupid Rabbit Tapes; without whom none of this would have been possible!
Here he is ,with Controls, showing Bowie how to play his compositions properly!



DOWNLOAD this forgotten relic from southern UK Here!!!!!!!