MOSKOW
CRESCENT STUDIOS DEMOS
Bristol Archive Records

Here’s a weird one, and it is odd, when you check the biog details and somewhere Dave Luckhurst seems to have vanished, who I know was in the band and should still have been there when these demos were recorded, during November 1978. Also in this picture you will see Trevor Tanner (then Trevor Flynn) and Jan Kalicki, both bound for The Bolshoi.

‘Man From UNCLE’ was always one of my favourites of the perkier post-punk no hit wonders – I still have it somewhere – but here it’s a curiously joyless exercise, brash drums, droll bass and bunged up vocals with a few subdued guitar sprays. ‘Where’s Daddy’ has some very unusual, cheeky lyrics between spells of nimble guitar and certainly keeps you guessing.
“And again fatty…” introduces ‘Dining Is An Emotion’, which does appear weight-related as the constipated song lolls quietly. ‘Name, Rank And Number’ is a drab spot of anti-militaristic tonguery-pokery, and that’s it

Weird.

Taken from www.mickmercer.com

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

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

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

ROYAL ASSASSINS
FLUX
Bristol Archive RecordsThis 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

ELECTRIC GUITARS
JOLTS
Bristol Archive

‘Eternal Youth’ is an unusual opener for an unusual indie band who shimmer with intelligent energy, keeping the songs restrained but bulbous ideas-wise. The backing vocals irritate through being overplayed and merely repeating the title 4endlessly. It’s just got a nicely dark melodic flow. The jabbering vocal stance used early in ‘Genghis Khan’ is very David Byrne, which must still have appeared new at the time, because there’s nothing copyist about the band elsewhere, and indeed the song develops to an enthralling close, with witty keyboards and winsome guitar. The gentle sing-song capering of ‘Cloud 9’ is equally interesting, fractured and oddly filmic.

This band ran ’79-’83 and, coincidentally, I saw the Dancing Did play with them, with Electric Guitars were also unfortunate enough to be on Stiff Records. It was that era, where people just started becoming wholly individual and wilfully perverse. Cheekily wispy keyboards lift ‘Voice of Sound’ well and then off it wiggles, incorporating a brief train and shivery vocals, the whole song appear to flicker.

‘Scrap That Car’ happened to be recorded when the singer had his balls trapped in a vice, but he carries on regardless and they go loopily funk, which is a happy habit of theirs. Like Gang Of 4 without the academia. ‘Stamp Out The Termites’ has a ditsy, plinky pop thing going for it, but the keyboards add a queasier feel to it, and the individual instruments do tend to have a tweak and twinge here to always just shake up the jittery silliness, and threaten to take the song somewhere weirder. ‘Start Up The New Life’ has some gorgeously Star Trek style keyboards going for it, as well as a snakey rhythm but ‘Food’ is pretty annoying, bordering on ‘quirky’ pop, and nobody needs that, yet once again the fantastic keyboards make it something memorable. Richard Truscott, take a bow!

‘Ja Ja Lunar Commander’ has a bit of Star Wars no doubt, so we’ll pass over that on principle, into the squeaky madness of ‘Interference’ that could even be a demented cuckoo clock. ‘Fat Man’ glides around like a headless XTC, and wit the watery guitar ‘Language Problems’ faffs around a bit too pretend-dippy for its own good, trying hard to be interesting and negaging pop, but not quite getting there, like early Wham! With a toothache. Although there are voices off, ‘Don’t Wake The Baby’ is essentially a reggae instrumental and makes for another strange twist on this corkscrewed record.

I gather they only released some singles apart from this and so, like the mighty Dids, they were snuffed out too early. Interesting band, if slightly maddening.

http://www.bristolarchiverecords.com/bands/Electric_Guitars.html
http://bristolarchiverecords.com/blog/
http://www.myspace.com/bristolarchiverecordsuk