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

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

The Kinks - Scattered



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iUPYCSKUS8

From their final album. A last gasp Kinks Klassic. One more for the road.

[daf]

Oh, you rotter! ;)

The Kinks – Scattered



Released in March 1993 - did not chart

"Scattered" was written by Ray Davies, and featured on the 1993 album Phobia, the twenty-fourth album by The Kinks. It was their final studio album before their disbandment three years later and stands as their most recent album to date. It is also the only studio album credited to the Kinks which does not feature drummer Mick Avory in any capacity; though he left the band in 1984, he still played on individual songs on both Think Visual and UK Jive.



"Scattered" was dedicated to Ray Davies' mother and his friend Carol Bryans - who had both died due to cancer. Davies claimed the song took ten years to write, and may have been initially inspired by his broken relationship with Pretenders leader Chrissie Hynde.

(I did consider changing this, but I think the video's worth a look - with Ray and Dave having fun pootling around in a flash car.)

[daf]

Sugar – Feeling Better



Featured on the 6-track mini-album 'Beaster' - released in April 1993

'Beaster' was recorded at the same time as the band's acclaimed first album, Copper Blue.

Bob Mould : "I'm sure some people are going to perceive this as some sort of step backwards from the previous album. Some people will say it's self-indulgent. Almost anything short of community service usually is. People who have seen the band live will know this is not the case. This is the other side of Sugar that some people haven't seen yet, a style that we really enjoy. The presentation of the material is very demanding, very open to extrapolation, very fresh to us. You can make whatever you want out of it, that's what music is supposed to be about. Sometimes the experience of making music, or listening to music, shouldn't be overanalyzed and dissected. To me, that's what this piece of work is about."

However, it has a much denser, heavier sound, closer in spirit to Hüsker Dü than Copper Blue.

Bob Mould : "Lyrically it's so unnerving for me to listen to it. Musically it's harder, it's a little looser. Lyrically, it's a lot wilder than Copper Blue... Copper Blue was such a great pop record that I just saw this as like the evil twin."



The loosely conceptual work is built around religious imagery.

Bob Mould : "I still don't know what it's all about. The Jesus thing everybody picks up on – those are words that are not used lightly. Just the notion of somebody who can do no wrong who eventually gets hung for doing no wrong. I think that everyone feels like a martyr sometimes."

Sometimes described as an EP, as mentioned previously, this is over half an hour, and is longer than 'Hard Days Night' and most of Elvis' 60's albums.

[The Culture Bunker]

I've said before that my big problem with Husker Du is that (on record, at least) they too often sound 'weedy', especially the rhythm section. Sugar, especially on 'Beaster', sound huge and I keep going back to this and 'Copper Blue'. The bit on this song where everything but the bass drops out is one of my favourite moments on anything Bob Mould has done.

[jamiefairlie]

I've said before that my big problem with Husker Du is that (on record, at least) they too often sound 'weedy', especially the rhythm section. Sugar, especially on 'Beaster', sound huge and I keep going back to this and 'Copper Blue'. The bit on this song where everything but the bass drops out is one of my favourite moments on anything Bob Mould has done.

Yeah, HD were a bit "trebly" weren't they? Enough to detract, for me.

[daf]

Ultramarine – Happy Land



Released in the US as a promo single - did not chart

Ian Harvey Cooper and Paul John Hammond first worked together in the band A Primary Industry during the mid-1980s. Following the split of that band, they formed Ultramarine and released their debut single 'Wyndham Lewis' in 1989, and their first album, 'Folk', in April 1990 on the Belgian label Les Disques du Crépuscule.

The duo's second long player, 'Every Man and Woman Is a Star' was initially released in 1991 by Brainiak Records and reissued as an expanded version by Rough Trade in 1992. It was described by music writer Simon Reynolds in his book Energy Flash as : "Perhaps the first and best stab at that seeming contradiction-in-terms, pastoral techno... all sun-ripened, meandering lassitude and undulant dub-sway tempos... like acid-house suffused with the folky-jazzy ambience of the Canterbury scene."



The song "Happy Land" from their second album, 'United Kingdoms', featured guest vocals from Robert Wyatt.



"Happy Land" uses a sample originating in "The Yellow Snake" by The Incredible String Band from their 1968 album 'Wee Tam and the Big Huge'.

[jamiefairlie]

Tindersticks - City Sickness

https://youtu.be/sP1P1dOtSnY



Third in a classic opening sequence of singles, it reached number 37 in the Festive Fifty.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Oh, you rotter! ;)

Soz!!

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Madder Rose - Swim



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaUNNGgWmI4

Madder Rose were a New York City-based alternative rock band who recorded in the 1990s. Their name came from the herb-based paint rose madder. Many of their songs, including Panic On and Car Song, were featured in John Peel's Festive Fifty, as well as in major feature films and television shows. The band released three albums on Atlantic Records, and one on Cooking Vinyl, before breaking up in 1999.

[Brundle-Fly]

We Are The Ruffest - The Prodigy.  Released on XL in 1993.





I don't think Keith would have coped very well with lockdown. Still miss the daft bugger.

The Prodigy were a British electronic group from Braintree in Essex, founded in 1990. Their first release was "What Evil Lurks" EP (1991). Their early music was mostly rave/breakbeat, but has become more mainstream mixing in rock guitars with the third album "The Fat Of The Land" (1997).

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

[daf]

Soz!!

Heh, no problem - Great minds, and all that!

[daf]

Big White Stairs – Memory Lane



Featured on their mini album, 'Big White Stairs' released in 1993

Big White Stairs were formed in Macclesfield in 1991 by Steven Young (vocals) and brother Andrew Young (guitar). Steven had been the drummer in heavy rock bands Cadmium and Rag Doll along with Andrew in the mid to late 80s and formed progressive rock band The Magic Otters. Other members of Big White Stairs included Alan Lee (bass), Stephen Malkin (keyboards), and Dayle Halman (drums).



In 1992 they released a four song EP, 'Big White Stairs', on cassette. The following year they released 'EP No 1' - this time on 10" vinyl, swiftly followed by the five track CD EP 'Black Spider',

[jamiefairlie]

Time to leave 1993, 1994 will start later on Wednesday. Last chance to get some late entries in.

[Brundle-Fly]

Before The Hurricane - Martin Newell Released on Humbug in 1993.



Beautiful piece of Baroque pop that references the great storm of 1987. One of his finest works off his finest album.

Martin Newell (born 4 March 1953) is an English singer-songwriter, poet, columnist, and author who leads the Cleaners from Venus, a guitar pop band with jangly, upbeat arrangements. He is also regarded as a significant figure in the history of cassette culture and DIY music. His most popular work is The Greatest Living Englishman (1993), produced by Andy Partridge of XTC.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln_rDBawWD0

[daf]

Jess – Dyfodol Mewn Du a Gwyn [Future in Black and White]



Recorded Live for the S4C music show Fideo 9 in 1993 . . . probably

Yes, details are sketchy for a song that wasn't recorded anywhere else, or released on a record. The lyrics describe their need to broaden their horizons by singing in English, and predicting the backlash this would cause. Unfortunately, the release of their sole English EP - the 7 track cassette 'Sextravaganja' - comprising of new versions of some of the high-spots of their 1992 album 'Paris Hotel', failed to make a break-though - and it all went tits up.



Uncertain of their future, they accepted an offer from ex-Alarm frontman Mike Peters to be his backing band, 'The Poets'. After a couple of years, Peters hired a new backing band, and the four members of Jess drifted apart, with lead singer Brychan Llyr moving to Italy.

[daf]

I thought that Fucker was dead! . . .

Animals That Swim – Roy



Released in February 1993 - did not chart

Animals That Swim were formed in London in 1989 by brothers Hugh Barker and Hank Starrs (born Jeffrey Barker), before adding a third brother to the line-up, Al Barker, along with Del Crabtree, initially on bass guitar, followed by the trumpet. Throughout their history, the group had numerous exploding bass players; Charlie Luciano (original line-up), then Crabtree, Dave Harris (1991), Lenie Mets (1991–93), Anthony Coote (1993-6) and Terry De Castro (2000–01).

They released their debut single, "King Beer", in May 1992 via their own Beachheads In Space record label.  It was a 7" vinyl-only release, limited to just 300 copies. Their second single, "Roy" (which took the form of an imaginary conversation with the ghost of Roy Orbison), was released the following year.



This, along with their third single, "50 Dresses" - a 10" vinyl-only EP - helped the band come to wider attention as the group won critical acclaim for their mixture of "slice of life" lyrics and magic realism, and their distinctive use of the trumpet as a lead instrument.

[Oz Oz Alice]

Bratmobile - Cool Schmool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQoP2_O8vkI

This is one of many great tracks on Bratmobile's debut album, but is my favourite as it is the first thing I ever heard by them. One of those singles that should've been that never was. Most of the album was recorded by Tim Green of Nation of Ulysses in July, 1992, at the Embassy in Washington, DC. He was paid with a slice of pizza and a bottle of black hair dye. Some places say it was released in 1992 but Discogs says 93 so I'm going with Discogs.

[Hooverbag Sherlocks]

Bhundu Boys - Foolish Harp/Waerera
From the album Friends On The Road, released on Cooking Vinyl

The Bhundu Boys were a Zimbabwean band that played a mixture of chimurenga music with American rock and roll, disco, country, and pop influences. Their style became known as jit, and is quite popular across Africa, with some international success, and has influenced later groups like Nehoreka and Mokoomba. British world music DJ Andy Kershaw said that at the height of their magical powers they were "...the single most natural, effortless, catchy pop band I've ever heard"; the BBC's John Peel famously broke down in tears the first time, when he saw the band perform live. The name came from bhundu (meaning "Bush" or "jungle"), in reference to the young boys who used to aid the nationalist guerrilla fighters in the 1970s war against the white minority government of what was then Rhodesia. Lead singer Biggie Tembo (Biggie Rodwell Tembo Marasha) was a Bhundu boy.

This is long after their highly prolific golden era (30 albums in the six years from 1982 to 1987) and subsequent to the departure of mainstay Biggie Tembo (RIP) but it's an absolute delight nonetheless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrkSdxGS31o

[Astronaut Omens]

Drexciya- Aqua Worm Hole
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMbK631xevU
Detroit techno duo James Stinson and Gerald Donald show off here their gift for the kind of wistful melancholy melodies that Aphex fans enjoy. Though their music is mostly instrumental, a complex and disturbing P-Funk style sci-fi mythology was slowly made apparent through their sleevenotes, label designs, track titles, and between song-skits, centred on the idea of undersea race of people living in the Atlantic descended from slaves.

"During the greatest Holocaust the world has ever known, pregnant America-bound African slaves were thrown overboard by the thousands during labour for being sick and disruptive cargo. Is it possible that they could have given birth at sea to babies that never needed air?" From The Quest CD sleevenotes, 1997.

More on their mythos here:
https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2017/06/drexciya-infinite-journey-to-inner-space

Scene from Hydra Decapita, a film inspired by the mythos by UK film artists The Otolith Group.

[Astronaut Omens]

Was Screamadelica Andrew Weatherall's album or the bands? A fair way into the question of where the talent lay might be through an comparison of Weatherall's two big 1993 releases with Primal Scream's Weatherall-less 1994 LP Give Out but Don't Give Up.
His own band, Sabres of Paradise's debut LP, Sabresonic conjours up a moody atmosphere but too often doesn't go anywhere with it, nevertheless I was taken with this hippyish bit of panpipes dub:
Sabres of Paradise-Red Stripe Dub
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diTEt3D_uJA

(Incidentally, the most famous track off this LP, Smokebelch II, is a quite shocking act of plagiarism- if you already know it, give 1989's The New Age of Faith by LB Bad a listen- it's the same song!)

Better than the Sabres LP was his production job on Glasgow band One Dove's only LP.

One Dove- White Love (Guitar Paradise Mix)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctxT_nBZIQ4

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

The Boo Radleys - Wish I Was Skinny



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0VAe1C6GAk

We've already heard a selection from the Boo's (as no one ever called them) poll-topping Giant Steps album, but I thought we should have another one more before 1993 comes to an end. This bittersweet beaut only reached #75 when it was released as a single.

[Astronaut Omens]

Dj Dextrous featuring Erin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZGxgGtoGy0
Dextrous is Errol Francis from Stoke Newington. On this lovely bit of soulful r'n'b tinged d'n'b he is joined by session singer Erin, whose own projects included a disco group called Bamboo.

[Astronaut Omens]

The Boo Radleys - Wish I Was Skinny



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0VAe1C6GAk

We've already heard a selection from the Boo's (as no one ever called them) poll-topping Giant Steps album, but I thought we should have another one more before 1993 comes to an end. This bittersweet beaut only reached #75 when it was released as a single.

Love it!

[daf]

Kinky Machine – Shockaholic



Released in as a 10" single on red vinyl - reached #70 in the UK chart in May 1993

Kinky Machine were formed in West London in late 1991 by Louis Eliot (vocals, guitar) and Julian Fenton (drums), plus Johnny Bull (guitar), and Malcolm Pardon (bass guitar). After signing to the Lemon label and releasing the single "Swivelhead" and the 4-track EP "Going Out With God", their third single "Supernatural Giver" was a minor hit, and they were signed to MCA Records offshoot Oxygen. 



Their next release, "Shockaholic", a 10" single on red vinyl, was followed by their eponymous debut album - by which time Pardon had been replaced by Nick Powell.



They toured with Ned's Atomic Dustbin and Manic Street Preachers, and drew comparisons with Pulp and Mott the Hoople. They moved on to East West Records for a final single, "London Crawling", before splitting up in 1995 after Fenton had joined The Lightning Seeds. They had become disillusioned with the Britpop sound, with several of the bands that had supported them in the past overtaking them and becoming prime movers in the scene

Louis Eliot : "When we started, we were delving into British pop music for influences, from the Kinks and the Jam and Clash to the Beatles. All that Britpop became very boring."

[Astronaut Omens]

A couple more tunes I have to put on by band we've already done:
First, a third Stereolab single from this year, the lovely Lo Boob Oscillator:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qIBX08gmVM

and the emotional centrepiece ofthe Tindersticks first LP, Jism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62WlMbVtUww

[Astronaut Omens]

We shouldn't leave the early nineties without making a nod towards the sterling work that's been done on this Hardcore/Rave thread through the years collecting up all kinds of goodness.
https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,34973.0.html

[Astronaut Omens]

St.Etienne- Avenue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAjgW-q-IeQ
Some of the time, they were aiming at being a perfect pop group, but this is probably their best attempt at heading somewhere proggy and weird

[Oz Oz Alice]

The Mountain Goats - Going To Malibu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBc0dcN2GTY

Chile de Árbol is a 7" single released by the Mountain Goats in 1993 on Ajax Records. It was released in its entirety on the Protein Source of the Future...Now! compilation. Going To Malibu is one of those songs on early Mountain Goats releases where he is singing over his Casio keyboard rather than his usual aggressive acoustic strumming.

[chveik]

Basic Channel - Phylyps Trak

you need to play it very loud

[Astronaut Omens]

Salt N' Pepa- Somebody's Gettin' On My Nerves
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhlNnFkgJF0

One of many, many bangers on their excellent LP Very Necessary.