RELEASES

To keep a vinyl album on catalogue and steadily selling for five years, is something of an achievement and we are rightly proud that “The Bristol Reggae Explosion 1978-1983” and it’s slightly newer follow-up “The Bristol Reggae Explosion 2 – The 1980s”, both continue to find new fans. Unfortunately five years, is also a long time when it comes to licensing agreements and with the expiration of some licences, we needed to update both compilations and swap some tracks for alternatives. Since 2010, our approach to compilations has also evolved, so both updated volumes will be getting a release on CD and digital download. When it comes to vinyl, we’ve borrowed an idea from our hugely successful Midlands Roots Explosion series and created a brand new exclusive vinyl compilation, “The Bristol Roots Explosion”.

The new LP naturally draws heavily on the first two Bristol Reggae Explosions, featuring firm favourites such as Joshua Moses’ all time classic “Africa (Is Our Land)” produced by the great Dennis Bovell, Bunny Marrett’s rare and almost impossible to find on the original 12” “Times Are Getting Harder” and Ron Green’s 3D Productions “Riot”, another track that’s very difficult to find on its original 7” format.

Local legends Talisman contribute the 7” mix of their excellent “Dole Age” single and make a second appearance, in their earlier Revelation Rockers guise with “Culture”. Having reformed around the time our first Bristol Reggae Explosion was released, it’s good to see that Talisman are also still going strong and making regular live appearances throughout Europe. With the core members of Restriction also being members of Zion Band, we have another double with “Calling For Mercy” and “Twelve Tribes”. It’s been a long time coming, but Restriction fans can rest assured their planned compilation album is still on its way.

The remaining two tracks mark the debut appearances for Big Roy and the Rhythmites. Roy ‘Big Roy’ Bailey has been involved in reggae music for decades and is still active to this day; he was also one of the first Bristol reggae artists to document his talents in the studio with this track “Ethiopia Revelation” dating from the mid-seventies. It’s great to welcome Roy to the fold. Bath band The Rhythmites saw a welcome reissue of their “Integration” album earlier this year, it’s excellent to add them to our compilation series and also to give the excellent “Nation Integration” a vinyl outing.

Compiling this album along with recompiling the first two volumes of “The Bristol Reggae Explosion”, we also looked at updating the sleeves and tweaking our approach to graphics. The vintage cover shot we chose was provided by the ever supportive Popsy Curious and shows him on his bike outside what were the remains of Bristol’s famous Bamboo Club. It was with great sadness that we recently learned that Popsy had passed away. He was a true friend and supporter who will be greatly missed and it’s somehow a fitting tribute that he adorns the cover of this release.

“The Bristol Roots Explosion” is exactly what the title says, a record that documents the West Country take on roots reggae from the second half of the 1970s until the end of the 1980s. The album will be released on vinyl LP and digital download on 4^th March 2016, distributed by Shellshock/SRD Distribution and available from all good retailers worldwide.

Side A

1. Big Roy – “Ethiopia Revelation”  (R Bailey 1976) (p) Copyright Control  

2. Revelation Rockers – “Culture” (D Taylor 1979) (p) Archive Publishing Ltd

3. Joshua Moses “Africa (Is Our Land)”  (S Bailey / D Bovell 1978)   (p) Archive Publishing Ltd / Copyright Control

4. Bunny Marrett – “Times Are Getting Harder” (B Marrett 1980) (p) Archive Publishing Ltd

5. 3D Productions – “Riot”   (J Carley 1980) (p) Archive Publishing Ltd

Side B

1. Rhythmites – “Nation Integration” (Rhythmites 1989) (p) Archive Publishing Ltd

2. Restriction – “Calling For Mercy”  (Restriction 1983) (p) Astar Artes Publishing

3. Zion Band – “Twelve Tribes”   (R Duncan 1982) (p) Unitone Publishing

4. Talisman – “Dole Age” (7″ Mix)   (D Joseph / Talisman 1981) (p) Recreational Music

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Whereas Bristol is all too often associated with the ‘’Bristol Sound’’ of Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky, the city has produced musicians and bands who’s work goes way past that stereotype. With the release finally of Apartment’s ‘House of Secrets’ album, music lovers will hear a classic example of this for themselves. It is set ‘in’ the city, but is also very much ‘(a) part’ of it, because those on the outside of any charmed circle in a given place have to fight to get heard.

In the mid to late 1970’s the raucous and angry meets chorus strewn ‘new wave’ sounds of New York and punk driven London were also finding fertile soil in the west of England.

Part of that surge of the blast of youthful energy that shifted eardrums came from the more affluent Clifton west side area of the city, and to national attention, in the shape of The Cortinas and The Pop Group. But many others were writing, rehearsing and playing based in all 4 corners of Bristol. These included Glaxo Babies, Vice Squad and Essential Bop. All of these bands went on to achieve a respectable level of national recognition.

Hidden away right out in the suburbs of the eastern fringes of the metropolis, 3 young lads called APARTMENT were forging a truly international, post-punk variation of the classic guitar band trio. Guitarist / singer / songwriter, Alan Griffiths, drummer Emil, and bassist Richard White had a vision that was driven by their talent and ambition, and a burning desire to shatter the complacency of what was going on musically in Bristol and beyond.

Griffiths and Emil were inspired by seeing Television and Blondie on the same bill, utilising the artful angularity, chiarascuro guitar blendings and existential angst of the Verlaine / Lloyd axis, and the melodic twists and pop sensibility of La Harry’s quintet in their own soulful, sonic mayhem.

The spirit of CBGB’s had infused this band, like no other from the city of Bristol’s environs. In spite of the inevitable technical limitations of these home-recorded songs, enough of their power and passion shines from them and into the wonderful variety of songs.

The music sound-tracks a travelogue of themes, seasons and places, providing a perfect backdrop for the plentiful stories which were cascading from Alan’s imagination. The settings dramatically come over as often relentlessly urban, rammed full of atmosphere, self-doubt, pain, questioning and clarity.

Apartment’s star burned brightly for a relatively short period, but the band packed a lot into their time together. They did a session for national radio in the UK, played shows in London at the legendary original site of the Marquee club, and along with releasing just the one single were also included on one of the seminal compilations of music from a city in the UK, ‘Avon Calling’, released on arguably the most important label at that time, Heartbeat Records.

One of the key people in developing Apartment’s early career was the label owner, Simon Edwards. His initial contact with the band’s music was, for him, highly memorable.

“I distinctly remember receiving the Apartments’ original demo cassette – which I still have – and remember being immediately impressed by the songs and how well they were presented. They were almost good enough to use as they were.  This wasn’t because of any amazing studio quality – I was later to learn they were recorded in Alan’s bedroom – but because they were delivered with such energy, innocence & a sense of urgency. They were SO alive. In fact, one of Apartments most endearing qualities to me was always their “on the edge” delivery – both in recorded work and live performance, the latter often being quite shambolic and in danger of literally falling apart. ‘’

Edwards’ own direct involvement came with the recording and release of a double-A side single, both tracks being included on ‘House of Secrets, along with a home recording on ‘Avon Calling’.

‘’Perhaps it was this single that told the bands story in one – front man Alan Griffiths with the ability to write really great yet very diverse songs and deliver them like it was the first and only time he would ever get to sing them.  Was it all this emotion and angst that just became too much to control?”

‘House of Secrets’ collects that blend of organised chaos in all of its glory from a heady time in Bristol music, and all over the UK at the time. Open the door and walk on in.

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Formed as a collective in the mid-eighties, Fresh 4′s roots were firmly south of the river Avon with members Flynn and Krust coming from Knowle West. Suv was from Ashton and joined by fourth member Judge from Totterdown. The band  stayed close to their South Bristol roots and based themselves in a warehouse on nearby St. Lukes Road. They represented the south of the City in a scene that was more often orientated somewhere north of the city centre.

Although “Wishing on a Star” cracked the Top Ten, the two follow up singles were less successful and due to disagreements with their label, a planned album never materialised and the group members went their separate ways. In the following decade Suv, Krust and Flynn would all go on to find greater success as pioneers and mainstays of Bristol’s hugely successful Drum and Bass scene, writing new chapters that overshadowed their earlier success.

Who can say what might have happened if a Fresh 4 album had been released on a major label at the start of the 1990s, perhaps they would now be discussed alongside Massive Attack and Portishead or maybe Bristol’s Drum and Bass scene would have felt the loss and not been as successful as it was. We can’t give you that lost album, but we have tracked down some long forgotten demo tapes and twenty five years later, assembled them into an album. It’s not THE Fresh 4 LP, but it is filling in a gap in their story and the story of Bristol music, therefore at Bristol Archive Records we thought the music deserved a wider audience.

The seven tracks plus an alternative edit, lead off in a familiar style with “Take Control”, the closest match to the “Wishing on a Star” blueprint recorded at Fresh 4 and Smith & Mighty’s studio and also featuring that song’s vocalist Liz E. The rest of side A sees some early authentic British Hip Hop with that unique Bristol twist, whilst side B, aims for a then contemporary dance sound.

These tracks are definitely works in progress rather than polished finished tracks, they show the band working on a variety of musical ideas and exploring various directions. The sound is rough, these tracks were never expected to be shared at such an early stage yet they give us an insight into the thought process of the group.

They were pioneers, not confined by rigid rules; they could try anything and often did. These are musical sketches, a peak behind the scenes that listeners rarely get and also a reminder, that Fresh 4 have more to their claim of a place in Bristol’s musical history than those three singles.

Fresh 4′s “The Lost Tapes” is released by Bristol Archive Records on vinyl and digital download on 23^rd Oct and is available from all usual retailers and all digital platforms

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Rhythmites split up in the year 2000 but in 2007, they picked up where they’d left off and once more began spreading the roots reggae message at live shows as well as recording new material. With all the renewed activity, many fans both old and new have been asking about “Integration”, an album released only on vinyl more than twenty five years ago, long deleted and not readily available on the used market.

As chance would have it, Rhythmites and their music were already on the Bristol Archive Records radar so; when they mentioned the possibility of reissuing “Integration” we were very happy to be of assistance. We discovered that the band had never been entirely happy with the original mix and wanted to remix the album with the benefit of twenty first century facilities. Remixes can be a bad thing but as someone who saw the band perform many times and bought “Integration” on release, I was blown away by the new mix. Not only have they remained totally faithful to the original with no badly judged attempts to update the sound, but engineer Ben Findley has totally nailed it with the new mix; it takes the original to another level, improving it whilst maintaining the spirit of the vinyl pressing.

For those that aren’t familiar with the band this is a roots album, the songs deal with living one’s life in a better way. The sound is authentic and not in any way contrived, in no small part due to Angus’ excellent and distinctive vocals which really fit both the music and the lyrics. Anyone who has seen them perform live will know about Stuart’s didgeridoo and that makes an appearance right from the start in “No Guns”, a song that suggests it doesn’t take weapons and violence to be a freedom fighter. 

Other stand out tracks includes “Nation Integration” with its call for unity, and “Pain and Suffering” which shines a light on some of the ills of the world. The rest of the tracks all deal with serious issues although, “A True” and “Hold On” drift into what was, when recorded, a more contemporary almost dancehall style. As a bonus we’ve included brand new exclusive dub versions for “Heed No Dream” and “A True”.

It’s great that one of the best live reggae bands of the late eighties and nineties are back on the road, as is the fact that their first album is getting a long overdue reissue, the fact that it’s sounding better than ever is the real bonus. “Integration” by Rhythmites is released on CD and digital download by Bristol Archive Records on the 18^th September 2015, available from all usual outlets.

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