Field Set assessment
Cabaret Voltaire – Nag Nag Nag is 12 months zero for electronics and distortion made to out-do guitar-noise. I swear they incorporate a dentist drill within the sound. It’s basic/seminal however I’ve heard it too many occasions, nonetheless a dancefloor filler – however the b-side is moody would-be soundtrack music. The one level on this entire set the place the music does sound ‘dated’.
Younger Marble Giants – Last Day is completely with out query one of the vital definitive / seminal / influential singles ever. The less-is-more, quiet minimalism retains it’s pure magnificence. A quiet affect on a thousand bands since.
Swell Maps – Learn About Seymour Once more a massively consultant file – of the Provinces, the outsider, the unusual, and people catalysed by punk however doing it their very own method.. (The Prefects, Spizz and the Cravats had been from the Midlands too, however someway it was Swell Maps who received nice opinions in Smash Hits. They had been the primary band a bunch of faculty mates and I attempted to ‘cowl’ in our lunch-hour in school due to a kindly music instructor. ) Blur took their authentic band identify from the track title.
We use no perception within the pre-existing faculty
The Raincoats – Fairytale In The Grocery store With no shadow of a doubt one of the vital good, authentic and fascinating songs from the entire punk period and past.
Existential concepts, uncooked expression, untutored music, held collectively by phenomenal drumming and topped with ear-piercing violin, feminine by itself phrases . Poetry nearly in a one other language and sounds and rhythms so alien and new, intriguing and distinctive it stays the one of the vital inspiring items of music I’ve ever heard.
Even once I didn’t know what the lyrics had been precisely, I knew what the track meant from the texture of it, the decipherable phrases, these rolling drums and violin screech. The very fact this was an all-female band that includes Palm Olive from the Slits… Nobody tells you how-to-live. Nonetheless sends a shiver down my backbone to today.
The track was written by Ana da Silva, after watching (BBC2 documentary) Who’s Poly Styrene. ‘I bear in mind distinctly pondering that her music sounded a bit like fairytales, however in a consumerist society,. Instantly it got here to me. This is sort of a fairytale within the grocery store.’ (Supply)
Fairytale has by no means been devalued over the a long time. Each time reformed line-ups of the Raincoats have performed it, it nonetheless looks like it’s going to disintegrate below its personal wayward momentum – which is strictly the way it needs to be.
Nice to see that Gina Birch continues to be bringing out idiosyncratic and good music to today. Audrey Goldens guide Shouting Out Load – Lives of The Raincoats – is printed 31 July 2025
Subway Sect – Ambition / Completely different Story That is two of few recordings that exists in completed kind from Subway Sects ‘misplaced’ debut album (Parallel Traces was on the NME C81 tape and Exit No Return on the 20 Odd Years comp) – an album that hypothetically would’ve modified the course of punk within the UK. It could have been smarter, extra Postcard, extra Speaking Heads. Extra Vic.
While Ambition is nice, it’s the b-side which truly deserves extra consideration. A track that was rewritten/retitled as Subway Sect progressed. We Oppose All Rock and Roll – turned Completely different Story (Rock and Roll Even) and on the 1978 Now album, each are included to open and shut the album. Similar lyric, completely different music.
It’s the obtuse manifesto of the lyric which fascinates me -the headings on this assessment are culled from it. However the music is irresistible too. Which is ironic, as a result of the ‘outdated Johanna’ makes it sound just like the rock’n’roll it’s in opposition to.
Tough Commerce 45’s Quantity 1 is a treasure trove and a historical past lesson. Music which predicted the longer term and stand as a testomony to Geoff Travis (& Lee’s) imaginative and prescient and style. I can’t wait to see what’s in Quantity 2.
That is the total tracklisting.
Augustus Pablo – Pablo Meets Mr Bassie
B-side Mr Bassie Particular! RT002 1978
Stiff Little Fingers – Various Ulster
B-side 78 Revolutions A Minute (78RPM) RT004 1978
Subway Sect – Ambition
B-side Completely different Story RT007 1978
Swell Maps – Learn About Seymour
B-sides Ripped & Torn and Black Velvet RT010 1978
The Raincoats – Fairytale In The Grocery store
B-sides In Love & Adventures Shut To House RT013 1979
Cabaret Voltaire Nag Nag Nag
B-side Is That Me (Discovering Somebody At The Door Once more?) RT018 1979
The Pop Group – We Are All Prostitutes
B-side Amnesty Worldwide Report On British Military Torture Of Irish Prisoners RT023 1979
Younger Marble Giants – Last Day
Second observe on A aspect Radio Silents B-side Cakewalking RT043 1980
Purchase direct from Tough Commerce
All words Ged Babey
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