An Alternative History of "Pop" Music: Part 2, 1982 -

[Brundle-Fly]

End Theme - Zero 7. Released on Ultimate Dilemma in 2001.





I'll always doff my hat to anybody who were the first to get The Peddlers back on the radar with their minor hit cover, I Have Seen. This album coda more than evokes the best funky orchestral 1971 soundtrack incidental music you ain't never heard before.

Zero 7 is a UK-based downtempo-styled musical duo founded in 1997 in London by Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGNWMxj3epQ

[jamiefairlie]

Half Man Half Biscuit - Lark Descending

https://youtu.be/0hCOUKisG60



The Wirral boys are back after a three year gap! This is from their "Editor's Recommendation" EP.

"I should have just got a job on the bins
The pay's better and I'd know some hard blokes
And I wouldn't have to pretend
That I know what "rhetorical" means

I could have been like Lou Barlow
But I'm more like Ken Barlow"

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

The Bees - Punchbag



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRrFMxKUfXk

A woozy listening highlight from their debut album Sunshine Hit Me, which was recorded in a garden-based home studio on the Isle of Wight.

[Brundle-Fly]

The Bees - Punchbag



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRrFMxKUfXk

A woozy listening highlight from their debut album Sunshine Hit Me, which was recorded in a garden-based home studio on the Isle of Wight.

I loved that track. It's a shame they sort of vanished in a puff of smoke about ten years ago. Even the spinoff band, 77:78 have been quiet for three years after the debut album.

[ElTwopo]

Phil A posted these playlists of the early years. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but they've never worked for me (I only get one video, and no others), but they might work on your computer.

Many thanks for this. I've been slowly working my way through the threads (which are great, btw) and enjoying the music and info posted by all involved. Some great stuff I would never have discovered otherwise.

Thanks everyone.

[jamiefairlie]

OK, let's wrap up 2001, we'll move onto 2002 later on Tuesday, so time to get those late entries in now.

[DrGreggles]

Ed Harcourt - God Protect Your Soul
[Harcourt] {Heavenly}
(Taken from the Here Be Monsters album)



2nd track on Here Be Monsters, the debut album by Ed Harcourt.
Co-produced by Tim Holmes of Death In Vegas, the album was nominated for the 2001 Mercury Music Prize, where it was beaten by PJ Harvey's Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea.
Four singles were released from Here Be Monsters, but God Protect Your Soul wasn't one of them - despite being the best song on it.

[Clatty McCutcheon]

Lift to Experience - Falling From Cloud 9

https://youtu.be/bWWzcgsutdk

Texan power trio who channeled a bit of shoegaze and Jeff Buckley. The band's lineup was vocalist and guitarist Josh T. Pearson, drummer Andy "The Boy" Young and bassist Josh "The Bear" Browning. Josh T Pearson has released a couple of solo albums, including 2011's critically acclaimed 'Last of the Country Gentlemen'

This song comes from LTE's sole album, 'The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads', released in 2001. The anachronisms in the video are because it was recorded to promote the album's remastering/reissue in 2017.

[DrGreggles]

The Proclaimers - There's a Touch
[Reid/Reid] {Persevere Records}
(UK single, did not chart)



Opening track on Persevere, their first album since Hit the Highway in 1994, There's a Touch was the only single released to promote the album.
Despite decent airplay, a few TV appearances and a bloody great video, the single failed to crack the Top 40.
Pete Thomas, formally of The Attractions and Squeeze, guests on drums.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Alasdair Roberts - Ye Banks and Braes O' Bonnie Doon



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D3GnrYtc0E

Rabbie Burns, baby, Burns.

Alasdair Roberts is a Scottish folk musician. He has released a number of albums under the name Appendix Out and, as of the 2001 album The Crook of My Arm, under his own name. Roberts is also known for his frequent collaborations with other musicians and writers, as well as for being a member of the folk supergroup The Furrow Collective.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

The Proclaimers - There's a Touch
[Reid/Reid] {Persevere Records}
(UK single, did not chart)

It's just nuts that it wasn't a hit.

[jamiefairlie]

Welcome to 2002!

[jamiefairlie]

The Polyphonic Spree - Hanging Around

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiNf3VVuwjc



Formed in Dallas in 2000 by Tim DeLaughter. This is their debut single and it's a great big joyous bundle of happiness. It makes me feel like a kid again.

[DrGreggles]

Julian Cope - Twilight of The Motherfuckers
[Cope] {Head Heritage}
(Taken from the Rite Now album)



Opening track on Rite Now, the eighteenth solo album by Julian Cope in the 19 years since The Teardrop Explodes split.
Described by Cope as a "meditational funk-a-thon", Twilight of The Motherfuckers is one of four lengthy, mostly instrumental, songs that made up the third album in his Rite series (after Rite in 1992 and 1997's Rite²).

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

The Datsuns - MF from Hell



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E1ptItaRR4

Hello, New Zealand! Hard rock like it used to be. Lemmy would be proud.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

The Polyphonic Spree - Hanging Around

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiNf3VVuwjc

Formed in Dallas in 2000 by Tim DeLaughter. This is their debut single and it's a great big joyous bundle of happiness. It makes me feel like a kid again.

I saw them live around the time of that album's release. It remains to this day one of the most joyous concerts I have ever seen.

[Astronaut Omens]

Lackluster- In Passing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj78o6gb2wo

This is a delicate, chiming bit of breakfast-friendly techno by Finnish electronic musician Esa Ruoho, from his seconld LP Wrapping.

[Astronaut Omens]

Mystic Tribe AI- Telepathic Seduction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xzUYxwP1qo

from Sunday Night Live at the Lifestyle Cafe EP (with The Other People Place)

More balmy and gentle techno stuff, this time from Detroit. Mystic Tribe AI is also known as Drexciya associate DJ Stingray, under which name he makes much harder material. (The other side of this record is one of the final tracks by Drexciya's James Stinson before his death in 2002)

[Brundle-Fly]

Um Dom Pra Salvador ( A Gift To Salvador) - Ed Motta.  Released on Universal in 2002.



Eduardo Motta is a Brazilian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, and producer. Born: 17 August 1971 in Rio de Janeiro. He is the nephew of late singer-songwriter Tim Maia.

Something a bit South American to match the glorious weather from this delightful album. Fans of Corduroy might enjoy this.

Um Dom Pra Salvador
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUxlQG76-sI&t=

Indulge me? I know this is against thread protocol but I must also include this album's madcap Disneyesque elegy to the different varieties of butter.

Valse Au Beurre Blanc (White Butter Waltz)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xjf9EX0LyeM

[DrGreggles]

[Astronaut Omens]

Common- Aquarius
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prlWoicCJsE

On his fifth LP, Chicago-born rapper Common took a detour into psychedelia-influenced hip-hop, with this track having a little of the hazy funk of Sly and the Family's Stone's There's A Riot Going On, but also a lot of 90s/2000s retro-future sounds. The album is one of a string of records by a loose association of acts and artists called the Soulquarians, (including J.Dilla, the Roots, Erykah Badu and Bilal, who sings the hook here) who all appeared on each others records around this time.

[jamiefairlie]

The Extra Glenns - Malevolent Seascape Y

https://youtu.be/MQRmaqg1RHo



Formed in 1992 by Franklin Bruno (of Nothing Painted Blue and The Human Hearts) and John Darnielle (of the Mountain Goats). They released debut single "Infidelity" in 1993. This track is from their debut album, "martial arts weekend" and it's a live version.

[Brundle-Fly]

Pitman Sez - Pitman.  Released on Son in 2002.





Before Sleaford Mods and Goldie Lookin' Chain, there was MC Pitman! Yer crusty tossers, kiss my arrrse.

Pitman AKA Paul Carlisle was the comedic alter-ego of Nottingham rapper Styly Cee. Pitman is a rapping miner fresh out of the pits. Many of his tracks are parodies of hip-hop classics such as 'Simon Says', 'It Takes Two' or 'Sucker MC's. He is well-known for his fondness of tea and biscuits.

NSFW lyrics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezhF7wbpR7I

[jamiefairlie]

Saloon - Girls are the New Boys

https://youtu.be/CXc-9dS0RMo



Formed in 1997 in Reading an active until 2004. This is from their debut album, "(This Is) What We Call Progress" and it reached number 1 in the Festive Fifty.

[DrGreggles]

Cornershop - Staging The Plaguing Of The Raised Platform
[Singh] {Wiiija}
(UK single, reached #80)



2nd single released from Handcream for a Generation, Cornershop's 4th album, following minor hit Lessons Learned from Rocky I to Rocky III.
Never got any higher than #80 in the UK chart, despite being Mark & Lard's Record of the Week.
The single was released under the name Staging, rather than its full title, which could easily confuse a stupid person.

[daf]

The Babe Team – Over There



Reached #45 in the UK chart in June 2002

The Babe Team were a girlband formed by tabloid newspaper The Sun to get a bit of publicity on the back of the FIFA World Cup - held that year in both South Korea and Japan. Group F was considered the 'group of death', as it brought together Argentina, England, Nigeria and Sweden. Sweden and England progressed to the knockout stage where our plucky lads lost 2-1 to Brazil - who went on to lift the golden bauble by beating Germany 2-0 in the final.

The Babe Team featured a bevvy of Page 3 lovelies, and included [from left to right; back row] : Kate West (vocals), Jules Wheeler (vocals), Catherine McQueen (vocals), Brooke Stevens (vocals), Ruth Harris (vocals), Jessica Dunn (vocals), Nickie Theobald (vocals); [front row] Elle Taylor (vocals), Leilani (vocals), Patricia Jones (vocals), Nicola Ulian  (vocals) and Lisa Moore (bagpipes).



The single was a dance reworking of the George M Cohan World War 1 tub-thumper. As well as top quality pop sounds, CD 2 featured a bonus treat for eager onanists in the form of a 'naughty video'!

[jamiefairlie]

The Prids - Glide Screamer

https://youtu.be/SZ3i23UgRxM



Formed in St. Joseph, Missouri in 1995 by David Frederickson (guitar, vocals) and Mistina La Fave (bass, vocals). This is the title track of their second EP.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

The Delgados - All You Need is Hate



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBteVWP3MLE

The Delgados were a Scottish indie rock band who named themselves after Tour De France-winning cyclist Pedro Delgado. And not, as I initially assumed, the first actor to play the Master in Doctor Who, Roger Delgado. Oh well.

Instead of signing to a record label, the band started their own, Chemikal Underground, on which they released their own records and also some from other local bands, among them Arab Strap, Bis and Mogwai.

All You Need is Hate is taken from their fourth album, Hate, which was produced by Dave Fridmann of Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev renown.

The band announced they were splitting up in April 2005 due to the departure of bassist Stewart Henderson, who found it difficult "to pour so much of my energy and time into something that never quite seemed to get the attention or respect I felt it deserved." The four members of the Delgados continue to run Chemikal Underground together.

[Brundle-Fly]

Street Of Life - Bias. Released on Canteen in 2002.



Bias was Toby Wynyard, UK producer. Not much more info on him than that, not even a profile pic, but I loved his 60s West Coast sunshine-soaked downtempo stuff at the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTVAIOf6Mvo

[jamiefairlie]

The Notwist - Pick Up the Phone

https://youtu.be/D0a8DreP2pI



Formed in Weilheim, Germany in 1989 by the Acher brothers, Markus and Micha.  This is taken from fifth album, "Neon Golden" and it was also released as a single.