Bristol Archive Records Blog

Archive for November, 2009

The Best of Fried Egg Records – Album Review Number 2

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Best of Fried Egg Records[Bristol 1979-1980]

Bristol Archive Records


Eggs, bacon, sausages and all the trimmings on this brilliant compilation.


Given the fact that this record spans little over a year of output from a small Bristol independent label with a snigger-worthy name, coupled with an irrational scepticism of compilations at the best of times, I consequently wasn’t holding out much hope for The Best of Fried Egg Records. Imagine my surprise then when this turned out to be a wonderful little eye-opener to what sounds like a vivacious, talented and eclectic late 1970s scene.

With too many great tracks to itemise, a few highlights should set the scene. Honourable mention for best lyric goes to the wonderfully sardonic ‘Invasion of the French Boyfriends’ by Shoes for Industry, featuring hilarious, borderline xenophobia such as “smelly cigarettes were hanging limply from their Gallic lips”, whilst the award for most faithful Police and Jam impressions go to The Fans (on ‘Following You’) and The Wild Beasts (chortle) respectively. Meanwhile, the influence on today’s music is virtually omnipresent – for Art Objects’ ‘Hard Objects’ read Art Brut, for The Stingrays’ ‘Exceptions’ read The Drums. Final mention goes to the peerless jangle-pop of best track ‘The Original Mixed Up Kid’ by The Various Artists. And there’s plenty more worth hearing besides. Perhaps most vital to the success of this comp is that the bands seem exude a freshness and naivety often bereft of today’s media and promotion-sanitised output; they just don’t ‘em like this these days. Essential listening.


http://www.bristolarchiverecords.com/archiveRecordLabels/fried_egg_records.html#

4.5/5

Gang of Four, The Jam, The Smiths, Duran Duran, Wire

James Lachno

Taken from Subba Cultcha

White Hotel 1987-1990

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

After returning back to Bristol in early 86 I started putting together a new recording set-up, which included a few bits of the then new cutting edge ‘midi’ gear. Linn sequencer, Drum machine, DX7 keyboard & a Mirage sampler.

After having gone on a tangent working for other people now felt like the right time to try out some writing.

I remember from the Stonehouse days another fine Bristol band called TVI’s, I had been impressed by their singer & main writer John Kelly. I had briefly played one show with TVI’s back in Oct ’80 at the Berkley Rooms, so I called him up to see if he would be at all interested in a collaboration.

He was and we started working together in early 87.

John handled most of the vocals, I had always enjoyed his voice & he was also a superb lyricist/poet. I was more than happy with this as I was now getting deeper into the production side of things. We wrote quite a number of tracks together, they all started sounded much more cinematic & cerebral with various keyboards & piano featured quite a bit.

We decided to call ourselves ‘White Hotel’ after the infamous D M Thomas book.

Trouble was we took rather a long time getting the ‘right’ demo tape finished & out to people. In-fact we never even got to play one gig together.

When we finally did get the demo tape out we got very good interest from Atlantic Records in NY.

But as with so many record companies they were a bit unsure of jumping straight into a deal.

They decided to fund us for some additional demo tracks to try & convince them.

In the end Atlantic decided not to go for it.

Disappointed we decided to call it a day & move on after having come so close.

Alan Griffiths 2008

White Hotel 1987-1990
John Kelly – Vocals / Keyboard
Alan Griffiths – Vocals / Keys / Vox

Six stunning tracks have been added to www.myspace.com/bristolarchiverecordsuk for your listening pleasure.

You can buy the album from itunes NOW!

The Best of Fried Egg Records Album Review

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Review: ‘VARIOUS ARTISTS’
‘THE BEST OF FRIED EGG RECORDS 1979-1980′   

-  Label: ‘BRISTOL ARCHIVES (www.bristolarchiverecords.com)’
-  Genre: ‘Indie’ –  Release Date: ’1st February 2010′-  Catalogue No: ‘ARC119CD’

Our Rating: 9/10

 

Bristol has generated enough seismic music to resonate for several lifetimes still to come. Off the top of my head, I’m thinking of the quick body blow it landed thanks to The Cortinas during the Punk era, or the way it turned Art-Pop inside out with crazed Marxist militants The Pop Group, or inveigled its’ way into the charts with Pigbag. And, on a bigger scale, the way it defined the Trip-Hop genre thanks to the combined efforts of Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky.

As with all such fascinating scenes, though, it’s often when you move away from the headline-makers and into the smaller print that the most intriguing characters begin to surface. I’ve no idea whether Fried Egg’s mysterious head honcho Andy Leighton (who has allegedly disappeared since inheriting a Caribbean island) would care to be mentioned in the same breath as the likes of Factory’s Tony Wilson or Rough Trade’s Geoff Travis, but the 11 tunes (plus a further clutch of magical additional tracks) can only make this reviewer wonder how on earth Fried Egg’s coterie of wonderfully individualistic releases never came to bother the scorers on a wider scale.

Possibly it was Leighton’s diversity that sank him. Three decades on, of course, words like ‘eclectic’ are welcomed in like long lost friends, but back in 1979 his ability to cherry pick the best of whatever floated his boat may have confused a lot of people. However, ‘The Best of Fried Egg Records’ proves he was right all along. It’s a glorious selection of single-minded talents doing their thang with scant regard for career or fortune and most of it sounds fantastic today.

If (like me) you’re long enough in the tooth, you might remember a few of Fried Egg’s movers and shakers. SHOES FOR INDUSTRY and Gerard Langley’s pre-Blue Aeroplanes outfit ART OBJECTS I recall from many an hour in the company of John Peel’s show, while the long-lost (and brilliant) ELECTRIC GUITARS almost cracked it with the serrated genius of their single ‘Work (included here in fully-furnished demo mode), but it turns out a whole load more great gear was lurking within Fried Egg’s long-dormant archive all the time.

Like Manchester, Bristol has always appreciated the importance of the dance floor. This is a tenet both SHOES FOR INDUSTRY and PETE BRANDT’S METHOD clearly understood. SFI weigh in with one of the album’s major stand-outs courtesy of ‘Jerusalem.’ It may be influenced by William Blake’s hymn of the same name, but SFI’S ‘Jerusalem’ is a pock-marked state of the nation address (“your goose is cooked, your coffin booked/ no detail has been overlooked”) which may relate to the early days of the Thatcher regime, but sounds equally relevant today. It’s not quite as out-there as The Pop Group or as taut as the Gang of Four, but it’s no less memorable for that. PETE BRANDT’S METHOD follow up with ‘Positive Thinking’ is another one whose spine is the bassline, though its’ Roxy Music-style cool is a seduction of a more sophisticated kind.


Elsewhere, Leighton clearly had an ear for cool New Wave pop. To this end, witness THE WILD BEASTS (not to be confused with Leeds’ theatrical Glamsters) whose charming ‘Minimum Maximum’ reminds me of the equally long-lost Freshies. Arguably even better are both THE FANS, whose fine Stalker anthem ‘Following You’ has bags of tuneful charisma and THE VARIOUS ARTISTS, whose ‘Original Mixed Up Kid’ certainly should have gone Top 20 in a world which took The Jags’ ‘Back of my Hand’ to its’ heart. That it didn’t is truly mystifying.

Elsewhere, I assume Gerard Langley may well be referring to his own ART OBJECTS project when he mentions “a performance poet backed by college rockers who were also Bristol’s premier pop band”, and certainly their track ‘Hard Objects’ is blissfully off-kilter and swings gloriously into the bargain. THE STINGRAYS, meanwhile, treat us to their genius, low-watt Eddy Cochrane and heroic courtesy of ‘Exceptions’ (love it!); THE UNTOUCHABLES strut their Dr. Feelgood-meets-Stones R’n’B raunch on ‘Keep on Walking’ and the immortally-named EXPLODING SEAGULLS deconstruct Dylan’s ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ and concoct itchy suburban Pop of the first water with the madcap ‘Johnny Runs for Paregoric.’ Squawk!

Whether Fried Egg could have survived in a world ruled by the mainstream and hard-headed business decisions is doubtful, especially if Gerard Langley’s informed press release is to be taken at face value. However, their fearless eclecticism and devil may care attitude is gloriously represented with this ‘Best of’ collection and suggests Andy Leighton’s singular vision has been neglected for far too long.

Taken from: http://www.whisperinandhollerin.com/reviews/review.asp?id=6574

Fussing and Fighting album review

Monday, November 16th, 2009
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THE X-CERTS
FUSSING & FIGHTING
Bristol Archive Records

Good Gawd, first I review Europeans, once home of Specimen’s Jon Klein, on this Bristol re-release goldmine label and now it’s X-certs who included Kev Mills. So here we have a band formed in 1978 who lasted three years and regard their highlight ass supporting The Clash in Cardiff. They certainly liked The Clash because opening track ‘Together’ is their positively weedy take on ‘White Man In Hammersmith Palais’ with an anti-authority spine. It jingles and burbles away quite harmlessly, but back then maybe it sounded dead exciting. Now it sounds punky but relaxed and almost cute. I’m surprised they never wrote ‘Guns Of Bristol.’ ‘Queen And Country’ is a chirpy call to no-arms, ‘Visions Of Fate’ more generally life-affirming with hope and determination, like the bubbliness The Cortinas came to provide. ‘Secrets’ gets a bit wishy-washy rocknrolly, but it’s jolly and the loping dub of ‘Stop The Fussing And Fighting’ is equally sweet. This is Punk your gran wouldn’t have minded.

‘Slow Down’ goes more spiky r’n’b than poonk rawk, and is ‘Let’s Dance’ twisted around really. ‘No One Gives’ is a perky bit of fury over society’s lack of caring, and apparently recorded live, which certainly suggests they were pretty classy live even though the lyrics are pretty banal. ‘Youth Is Calling’ is more reggae, like a bloodless Ruts but hey, give them a chance. Oh hang on, it’s pretty much the same through ‘Frustration’, dribbling happily away with choppy guitar and a smooth rhythm, and the singer isn’t bad, just curiously undemonstrative in his style, as though he’s perfectly content while railing against something or other. ‘Together’, still live, did eventually emerge as a single, and we’ve already been there. Ditto ‘Visions Of Fate’, grittier live, with some echo, then we draw the curtains and bemoan the passing of our youth as ‘Untogether’ does a falling downstairs in the tardis dub.

Not a demanding or energising record in any way but you can’t help liking it, it’s just so bloody cheerful, even when supposedly downcast

http://www.xcerts.co.uk
http://www.bristolarchiverecords.com/bands/x-certs.html

Taken from www.mickmercer.com

The Cortinas Ep Demo Review

Saturday, November 7th, 2009
THE CORTINAS
“GBH Demos 1977″ (Digital Release)
(Bristol Archive Records / BristolArchiveRecords.com, Release Date: August 31, 2009)
This publication irritates me a little. Is it in yet this is exactly the same first six songs from the release, “Please Do not Hit Me”, with the difference that these photographs were taken here in 1977 and the other in January ’78. Great musical differences, I unfortunately can not really say. The Cortinas are anyway quite a strange career in her short time of being together had developed. First they took in March 1977, their smash-killer single with the song “Fascist Dictator” and “Families on Television.” Then there were a few months later, at around the holiday season, a damn good successor with “Defiant Pose” and the B-side “Independence”. Also said to have been received this year from a very appealing John Peel Sessions. Yes, and you think that this young snot-band 1978 as well as stunningly good weitermacht as before. But Pustekuchen. With the shift from “Step Forward” to “CBS” made a disappointing u-turn when she first tried as a rhythm & blues cover band. But I’ve got it all written down at length in the meeting on “Please Do not Hit Me” release in January Update 2009th
(* * * +)

The Numbers Album Review

Saturday, November 7th, 2009
THE NUMBERS
Alternative Suicide “(Digital Release)
(Bristol Archive Records / BristolArchiveRecords.com, Release Date: August 31, 2009)
I have just for my internet search found a fat surprise! For 30 years I was firmly of the opinion that the EP “coming rock stars” and the contributions to the ‘Avon Calling’ compilation and the “4 Alternatives” EP from one and the same band. That’s why I was also pleased HELLAUF been when Bristol Archive “announced that one would suit demnaechst thirteen tracks strong digital publishing. Although sounded “Cross-Slide” (from the Avon Calling ‘compilation) and “Alternative Suicide” (from “4 Alternatives”-EP) are not as overwhelming as the five songs on the EP “Rock Stars”, but never I was on the thought came that it might be here for two completely different bands. But just as it is! The numbers from the “Rock Stars” EP came from the vicinity of Sussex. They brought out in June 1979 and only this one single, in a 1000-edition on their own label “Blasto Records. Especially the great mod-punk song “Leather Jacket” was played one time or another when John Peel. And is now one of the remaining four songs to a much sought after “KBD” punk rock single. Numbers in Bristol, however, the fall in direct opposition but from very strong. The two above mentioned songs belong namely the best songs on this release. The rest of the songs from falling into the bottomless. In what information is of “Bowie influnced New Wave”, and that’s clearly true. Only then this is very lame and uninspired played.
(* * *)
Taken from http://www.3rdgenerationnation.de/ReviewsOktober2009.htm  

Social Security Album Review

Saturday, November 7th, 2009

SOCIAL SECURITY
“Arley Hill” (Digital Release)
(Bristol Archive Records / BristolArchiveRecords.com, Release Date: August 31, 2009)
And once again, the “Bristol Archive label” another great moment on “iTunes” immortalized. This is for demo tracks that were removed in 1977 in the ‘GBH Studios “by Steve Street, and Simon Edwards. Social Security should be on Simon Edwards label Heartbeat Records in ’78, the first volume, which published a single. This was added in 2005 to the bonus CD for “Avon Calling ‘compilation release on Cherry Red Records Singles Collection with the rest of the years 1978 to 1981. On the two songs the band plays the very typical and at the time widely Schrammel-punk rock sound, which is now under the name “Killed By Death” familiar. John Peel had the single on the course in the program, which had escaped me, but at that time. In memory I have spontaneously left 48 HOURS, THE NUMBERS and APARTMENT. Social Security have a similarly tough approach to their songs like the CORTINAS, meanwhile, the CORTINAS, however, have received in their early days but the better songs about. As Stolperfallen punk you can, give what the total of 13 songs certainly be described. So, a little wobbly but holds for the season one but very brave. Some songs I would have wished happy times in a better studio production. The faster songs such as “User” and “Stella” who have it done to me particularly. Because that go directly to the trained ear, punk rock! True schoen snotty argued sounded so punk rock in 1977 in Bristol. But, as was customary at that time dozens of bands that made only a single, and received maybe with a little luck, some good demos in an acceptable quality, it was only a matter of time before they would go their separate ways. Social Security because, unfortunately, were no exception!
(* * * *)
Taken from http://www.3rdgenerationnation.de/ReviewsOktober2009.htm  
 

NOVEMBER BRISTOL ARCHIVE RECORDS UPDATES

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

 

Sorry we didn’t have an update in October but we are just starting to catch up with the backlog of wonderful music we are preparing for your listening pleasure

We are always on the look out for great pics of great bands from 1977 to 1985 so please don’t sit on them at home – share them with the outside world. Please email mike@bristolarchiverecords.com

All the updates below should be live on the site by Sunday 8th Nov – please keep checking back – www.bristolarchiverecords.com

NEW RELEASES:   World Wide on all digital platforms now…

ARC116 THE SIDNEYS  - ‘Wave Bye Bye’

 

All recorded pretty much live by Steve Street at SAM Studios, Bristol … Autumn of 1984.

Joanna Swan, Wendy Partridge, Sarah Partridge  … Vocals, Bill Stair …. Bass, Nick Pullin … Guitar, Thomas Brooman …. Drums, Kenny Lacey … (Kenny Bongo Man)

Mastered by Steve Street July 2009

Childhood friends Joanna Swan and Wendy & Sarah Partridge first trod the boards as the Spicettes, backing vocalists for Bristol’s egregiously named neo-soul combo The Spics.  When that group fell apart, the three reinvented themselves as an acappella trio, and The Sidneys burst onto the scene – or at least the space outside the Pompidou Centre, where they learned that busking in Paris was more financially rewarding than gigging in Bristol.

Despite this, they decided to expand The Sidneys into a full band, eventually arriving at a lineup of: guitarist/philosopher Angelo Bruschini, percussive genius/raconteur Kenny Lacey, drummer/business supremo Thos Brooman and bassist/future mandolinist Bill Stair.…………

ARC118 THE INANE – ‘The Only Fun In Frampton Cotterell’

 

Tim Rippington   - Vocals, Guitar, Rob Pursey          - Bass, Vocals, Dave Squire         - Keyboards, Vocals, Melodica, Phil Cox               - Drums

What did your first band sound like? Not the first proper band you had, where everyone had learned to play their instruments and write songs, but your first ever band. Well, this was ours. We called it The Inane, because frankly we couldn’t think of anything else. People thought we must be a hard-core punk band until they met us. Our band started in the early 80‘s, an amazingly inspirational time for people who just wanted to get up and play music. Our heroes were the Clash, Joy Division/New Order, the Postcard scene, the Fall and their off-shoot the Blue Orchids. It all shows.  We were all 17 except for our drummer Phil, who was a mere 14 years old when we first started rehearsing.  We grew up fast, playing our first gig at the legendary Stonehouse before it was demolished, and recording our first demo with producer Steve Street not long after.………… 

This LP was entirely compiled from old cassette tapes, so the quality is somewhat variable. The studio recordings were all made at the original SAM studio in Backfields Lane.  From memory, tracks 1 and 2 were recorded on 16 track, the rest were recorded on 8 track. Tracks 4-6 were recorded first, in 1982, tracks 7-11 recorded in 1983 and tracks 1-2 in 1984. No one knows when or where the live recordings were made, probably it was the Bristol Bridge some time in 1983.

The 4-track recording of Bad Education was an attempt to capture a song that was first learnt for the Battle of the Bands Competition at Trinity Hall. The organisers insisted that every band did a cover version, so true to our ambitions we learnt this little-known song by Blue Orchids.

THE PRIMATES ARC115 – ‘Live at Barton Hill Youth Club 1977’

 

Recorded live by Simon Edwards in 1977 at Barton Hill Youth Club, Bristol

Mastered by Steve Street July 2009

Line up:

Johnny Britton – Guitar, Voice, John Shennan – Bass, Voice, JJ – Drums

The Untouchables ARC117- ‘Walk The Dog’

The album we believe was recorded live in SAM Studios by Steve Street in 1978 or 1979.

Mastered by Steve Street 2009

WHITE HOTEL ARC120 – ‘WHITE HOTEL’

After returning back to Bristol in early 86 I started putting together a new recording set-up, which included a few bits of the then new cutting edge ‘midi’ gear. Linn sequencer, Drum machine, DX7 keyboard & a Mirage sampler.

After having gone on a tangent working for other people now felt like the right time to try out some writing.

I remember from the Stonehouse days another fine Bristol band called TVI’s, I had been impressed by their singer & main writer John Kelly. I had briefly played one show with TVI’s back in Oct ’80 at the Berkley Rooms, so I called him up to see if he would be at all interested in a collaboration.

He was and we started working together in early 87.

John handled most of the vocals, I had always enjoyed his voice & he was also a superb lyricist/poet. I was more than happy with this as I was now getting deeper into the production side of things. We wrote quite a number of tracks together, they all started sounded much more cinematic & cerebral with various keyboards & piano featured quite a bit.

We decided to call ourselves ‘White Hotel’ after the infamous D M Thomas book.

Trouble was we took rather a long time getting the ‘right’ demo tape finished & out to people. In-fact we never even got to play one gig together.

When we finally did get the demo tape out we got very good interest from Atlantic Records in NY.

But as with so many record companies they were a bit unsure of jumping straight into a deal.

They decided to fund us for some additional demo tracks to try & convince them.

In the end Atlantic decided not to go for it.

Disappointed we decided to call it a day & move on after having come so close.

Alan Griffiths

 

VIDEOS:

We have added the The Pigs video shot at the reunion gig at The Thunderbolt earlier this year

PICTURES:

Many new pictures added to the individual releases but we always looking for more – please get in touch – we are still working on a book on the scene 1977 – 1984 but we need more fab pics and the input of some of the top photographers in Bristol during that era.

Please get in touch mike@bristolarchiverecords.com

Next Batch of Releases:

OUR VIOLENT HOUR

ROYAL ASSASSINS LIVE

GARDEZ DARKX LIVE

STARGAZER LIVE

CREATURE BEAT LIVE

CREATURE BEAT ALBUM

STEREO MODELS

NEWS:

The Stingrays to support The Fall at the Metropolis Bristol

Its just been confirmed that we will be supporting The Fall on November 23rd at the Metropolis on Gloucester Road in Bristol. Looks like a good venue, should be a great night.

 

The Best of Fried Egg Records (Bristol 1979-1981) will be released on cd first week of Feb 2010. Its hould start to appear for presale on Amazon, Play.com, HMV etc in the next few weeks.

 

Thomas Brooman CBE has agreed to write the sleeve notes for another cd release of his favourite tracks and bands from the Bristol Recorder, Wavelength Records era – can’t wait!

 

Avon Calling 2 is currently being compiled by Simon Edwards (Heartbeat Records) for cd release in the spring 2010 with sleeve notes from the great man him self….

 

The track listing looks like being as follows subject to the bands approval:

 

1              SOCIAL SECURITY             STELLAS GOT A FELLA/CIDER

2              SOCIAL SECURITY             SELF CONFESSION

3              EUROPEANS                       TO BE AGREED WITH STEVE

4              GLAXO BABIES                  BECAUSE OF YOU

5              GLAXO BABIES                  STAY AWAKE

6              APARTMENT                      BROKEN GLASS

7              APARTMENT                      RETROSPECT

8              PRIVATE DICKS                  YOU GOT IT

9              PRIVATE DICKS                  WANT SOME FUN

10           SNEAK PREVIEW               MR MAGOO

11           SNEAK PREVIEW               I CANT GET OUT

12           JOE PUBLIC                         LETTERS IN MY DESK

13           JOE PUBLIC                         FASTER

14           ART OBJECTS                      WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO

15           X – CERTS                            PEOPLE OF TODAY

16           48 HOURS                            TRAIN TO BRIGHTON

17           TVI’S                                      DANCER

18           VITUS DANCE                    ANY TAKERS

19           DIRECTORS                         EMPTY PROMISES

20           DIRECTORS                         SHOWCASE

21           SEAN RYAN                         SUICIDE MAN

22           STEREO MODELS              SO LONG

23           UNKNOWN                        MIGHT AS WELL ENJOY YOURSELF

And finally we have another compilation cd being compiled with sleeve notes by Shane Baldwin (Vice Squad) called ‘Bristol – The Punk Explosion’ – more news on the release date later this year.

FUTURE PLANNED RELEASES:

EITHER / OR
ANIMAL MAGIC
RESTRICTION
THE STARTLED INSECTS
STATIK SOUND SYSTEM
NECROMANCY
THE GAS TAPS
FIVE YEAR PLAN
TEMPLE
ANANDA MAYA
THE DIRECTORS
THE POSERS

CLAYTOWN TROUPE

That’s all folks.

Mike and the team.

www.bristolarchiverecords.com

Royal Assassins Album Review

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

ROYAL ASSASSINS
FLUX
Bristol Archive Records
This has apparently never been made available before, and is the earlier incarnation of the band before they really got going live, and they’re another one of those Bristol alt-funk outfits who blow mainly hot, but occasionally chillily cold, artily intense and somehow time-stamped. For those interested in history the man man Chris Scott was joined for this by Dave Hares and Sean Henneberry with Jerry Underwood on sax, but the band people saw was missing Hares and Henneberry (I have no idea what they do), as they’d been replaced by Ben Wilby and Keith Campbell. I have no idea who any of them are, or what happened to them, but this is an intriguing record for those who collect such records, but far more than just a curio for others.

 

‘Open Up The Rivers’ is gorgeous, the vocals slipping sideways over the oily surface of the sound, percussion, guitars and sax joined by elastic, but keeping to a central idea. It starts, moves away, empties out, comes rolling back and keeps that going, so you’re getting little waves of inventive sound lapping at your scalded, scolded feet. ‘Gutless Day’ is a lugubrious blend of sax tendrils, cocky leering vocals over a watchful rhythm, but it drifts in and out of focus, strangely like an orthodox Captain Beefheart. ‘Hypnotism’ keeps the drums just ticking, the bass on repeat, and vocals are delivered in a steady manner, fitting the title. ‘Ju Ju Man’ goes the other way, a raw cacophony, with indecent decorum at its heart so the body of the tune hangs together while its head falls off.

There’s angst aplenty wrung out during ‘River Of Tears’ while the sax is oddly modest,
‘Quiet Sun’ clip-clops into life which amused me because today I think I convinced Lynda to sing ‘Don’t Fear The Reaper’ on Second Life on Halloween, demanding “more cowbell” throughout it. People who don’t get the reference will be thrown. ‘Song Of A Bullet’ saunters crisply along, with some brilliantly trudging drums, the bass going for the austere control, guitar little more than a memory although when it does appear it has a cool gentility too. Mooching into the gracefully rusted ‘Here Forever’ I think that’s the oddest thing for me about this bunch. There’s no angular arty farting about, and nor is there is much clenched throat rantiness, which often went hand in hand with the fucked funk brigade. These are simply deft but devious songs with a full-on pulse and semi-oblique lyrics brought to life with some offhand but quality vocals. ‘Here Forever’ wouldn’t sound out of place now, like Phoenix & The Oracle, brass infiltrating atmospheric murk. The consumptive ‘Big Wheel Hit’ is almost like a jazzy version of Ausgang in that it has gruff peaks of vocal repetition, as if he’s vomiting Kerouac, and grandly glowing guitar, but coming from a different direction

Cool, daddio. (Was there ever a Mummio that we know of?)

http://www.bristolarchiverecords.com/bands/The_Royal_Assassins.html
http://www.myspace.com/bristolarchiverecordsuk

Taken from www.mickmercer.com