| $30.83
new to stock as of
january 30th, 2012
threads:
1980s-electronic
analogue-synth
beat-research
electro-acoustic-composition
free-improvisation
live-electronic
lo-fi
machine-music
nww-list
psych-prog
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| | drag city (usa) #dc 507 cd
groovy (uk) #stp 7 cdfree agents / pete shelley / sally smitt / her musicians / strange men in sheds with spanners “the total groovy” quadruple compact disc boxed set - free agents - untitled (side a track 1) (17:49)
- free agents - untitled (side b track 1) (4:14)
- free agents - untitled (side b track 2) (8:38)
- free agents - untitled (side b track 3) (6:00)
- pete shelley - sky yen part one (20:45)
- pete shelley - sky yen part two (20:43)
- sally smmit & her musicians - hangahar 1. (17:42)
- sally smmit & her musicians - hangahar2. (16:08)
- strange men in sheds with spanners - 1 (0:41)
- strange men in sheds with spanners - 2 (2:03)
- strange men in sheds with spanners - 3 (2:50)
- strange men in sheds with spanners - 4 (4:06)
- strange men in sheds with spanners - 5 (3:27)
- strange men in sheds with spanners - 6 (1:20)
- strange men in sheds with spanners - 7 (2:43)
- strange men in sheds with spanners - 8 (2:38)
- strange men in sheds with spanners - 9 (2:00)
- strange men in sheds with spanners - 10 (5:02)
- strange men in sheds with spanners - 11 (9:15)
- strange men in sheds with spanners - 12 (3:11)
- strange men in sheds with spanners - 13 (1:35)
| january 2012 release ; ... lovely, cd-box version of all four groovy-label (well, the three groovy-label lp’s & the posthumous “strange men” collection) releases, done to exacting spec (the free agents one even has alittle cd-sleeve paste-on !!! how cute) along with an 8-page booklet containing a contemporary interview with pete shelley ...
i’ve written about these extensively already ; i’ll just copy that here ... first, free agents’ “£3.33” ::
... the first groovy release, free agents’ (aka pete shelley, eric random, francis cookson, and barry adamson) “£3.33” (recorded in the late 70’s, released in 1980) sets the tone for the onslaught to come, with it’s art-damaged hedging of “minimal synth” tropes (due to the involvement of both former “electronic music society” chair pete shelley & manc synth-legend eric random) & straight-up reckless free-improv abandon ...
... in many ways this musical formation is the true heir to such forward-thinking freakout troops as the sperm (there really is a lot in common ; irreverence, ineptitude, but a certain formal & technical dexterity that moves things along), taj mahal travelers, seeselberg, the futura crowd, etc ... there’s really no wonder that this appeared on the (later, revised) “nurse with wound” list ... |
... then pete shelley’s “sky yen” ::
... the second groovy release, recorded by the buzzcocks’ co-founder pete shelley whilst he was an undergrad at the bolton institute of technology in 1974 ...
... two long takes of raw, pulse-width modulated oscillator that draw a direct line between the heavily effects-laden mist of kluster / schnitzler et.al & the paranoid ballardian “industrial” electronics of throbbing gristle, cabaret voltaire, etc ... it’s a direct antecedent to panasonic’s pure-wave hypnotism(s) & should be treated with due reverence ... |
... then sally smitt (aka timms) & her musicians’ “soundtrack to hangahar” ::
... the third & final groovy release, and one of the more mysterious entrants to the storied “nurse with wound list” ...
... recorded as an imagined “soundtrack,” this one pits the vocal stylings of later mekons member sally timms & cousin lindsey lee against a wall of free-jazz drumming, errant synth glorp, and all kinds of effects & “kitchen-sink” sound-sources ... it’s a hell of a wallop, a rarely heard obscurity (i’ve literally never seen a copy of the original, despite being on the lookout for the past 15 years) from the golden days of uk diy ... |
... and finally the “strange men in sheds with spanners” set ::
| ... while this one collects previously un-issued materials by the core of musicians involved (shelley, cookson, also eric random, barry adamson) after the demise of the label (odds & ends, sure, but some really nice bits of gonked drum machine & synthesizer riffing that are the brutiste karel appel to “homosapien” ‘s elegant matisse) the core trilogy of £3.33 • sky yen • hangahar literally cannot be fucked with as the blueprint of the electronic / punk / noise nexus ; their reissue(s) here (sensibly inexpensive, yet exceeding the production values of the originals by a landslide) are a real cause célèbre around here, landing in 2011’s 11th hour (far too late to be on anyone’s media watch-list, yet trumping most of what i’d been excited about this past calendar-flip) ... |
... i’ve put up an extra-long excerpt of the first track on the free agents album (kinda my favorite of the three, despite declaring an early allegiance to the solo shelley moog-blurst) to whet your appetite(s) ; highly recommended !!! |
| | drag city press release... |
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the total groovy
4xcd box dc507/stp 7
containing:
free agents £3.33
pete shelley sky yen
sally smmit and her musicians hangahar
strange men in sheds with spanners
a little bit of history is a dangerous thing. how then would a present-day acolyte of punk rock’s strict regimen explain how pete shelley launched an avant-garde diy label while riding high on the british charts and touring internationally back in 1979 and ’80? today, buzzcocks’ sound is recognized as a template for the punk-pop sound, but the atmosphere in which they and their contemporaries gestated was markedly different than today’s pop-punkers might expect: a cultural free-zone where anything went, not just the fast and loud. early-wave british punks were looking for something different: outsider prog sounds, electronic “music”, primal screaming, free-jazz—anything, as long as it was interesting and set apart from the blandness of mainstream product.
loving the art of records and their wayward appeal, it was only natural for shelley and francis cookson to conceive groovy records as a way to make some truly freaky (and decidedly un-punk rock) records, and do as much of the work of making the records themselves as they could. these releases represent some of the farthest-out sessions on the wild-to-begin-with late-70s manchester scene. that three of these four albums were released in the space of one big year, 1980 the one real year of groovy’s existence, is further testament to the swirl of passions in swiftly morphing times.
free agents was the first of the lot, with an album named after its price, £3.33. cookson took live performance tapes from a tiller boys show (a conceptual band featuring himself, eric random, and, when available, shelley) and added some additional recordings using tape loops, feedback and anything else he could get on there. it ranged around from post–“revolution 9” collage to wack beats that one might associate with the emergent krautrock to stark industrial moments, flowing into each other with an organic, freely improvised quality. packaged in 12” sleeves with photocopies of cookson scribbles pasted on the front and back, free agents was diy all the way.
the second of the groovys was actually the first to be recorded, back in 1974. sky yen dated back to pete shelley’s college days, where he chaired an electronic music society, playing records over the intercom during lunch hour. after he’d made the recordings that became sky yen six years later, he added them to his playlist—and his schoolmates’ consternation. the material wasn’t exactly easy listening / ambient style—it was raw waves of oscillator tones, wildly leaping up and down and stretching out into a pair of twenty-minute pieces. thirty years of electronics-saturated music culture lends perspective to the appeal of sky yen—the album’s edges are still jagged and sharp.
surrealism raised its willfully mutated head on the third groovy release, hangahar, credited to sally smmit and her musicians, special guest lindsay lee. claiming to be the soundtrack of the film hangahar, the album was inspired by a casual demonstration of a made-up sung language. a full-blown recording session captured this previously unheard quantity, the better to wake the world to its allure. the groovy gang broke out the oscillator and any other synth devices they had on hand (along with a kitchen cabinet full of impromptu percussives) to back up the operatic overtones of the mysterious eponymous chantueses via drones, riffs, chanting and, with reverb pots fully open, loads of ominous atmosphere throughout. despite the deep feeling of synchronous accord throughout this recording, it has proved to be something of a path not followed for the once and future ms. timms — sally, that is, of eventual mekons fame.
this was the last the world heard of groovy — until now. their house of ideas wasn’t spent by any means—as of 1981, another session was planned under the general description “a man sprays a ford fiesta brown” but that never came to pass. a sea-change was signaled with the buzzcocks’ break-up, pete shelley’s subsequent solo career and energy going to other projects. however, even as these events were unfolding, recordings were made on a porta-studio at pete’s place that further realized the groovy direction. after the pubs closed, pete brought back a motley crew of usual suspects and special guests, broke out the synths, drums and what-have-yer attitude, resulting in a wealth of additional material that provided private listening pleasure for the groovy alumni over the years. culled from francis cookson tapes, these pieces make a fourth groovy installment entitled strange men in sheds with spanners that features a bent towards more disciplined rhythm pieces scored with a very purposeful array of synthetic sounds — truly the lost next new wave of groovy, finally crashing on our ready shores in 2012.
the lps came out last month, but now for the first time ever, these four aural tomes are collected together for cd release with all original packaging included in miniature (plus an exclusive shelley interview!) — so what are you waiting for? it’s been over thirty years’ now — you can finally get groovy on digital! |
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