The Room - Motion / The Waiting Room (7'', 1980)

The Room were a cult Liverpool band who released three albums and a slew of singles between 1980 and 1986. Formed by songwriter Dave Jackson and bassist Becky Stringer in 1979, The Room reaped critical acclaim with singles such as In Sickness And In Health and Things Have Learnt To Walk That Ought To Crawl, as well as the album Indoor Fireworks (1982) and several John Peel BBC sessions. In 1983-84 the band had a shot a chart success on a major label, with the excellent album In Evil Hour produced by John Porter (Smiths) and mercurial Television personality Tom Verlaine. In 1988 the core of the band morphed into Benny Profane, and later still became Dead Cowboys.

Tracklisting

A1 Motion
B1 The Waiting Room

Box Records BOX 001A

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Manicured Noise - Faith/Free Time (7'', 1979)

Manchester, England's Manicured Noise formed in 1978, but the very early days of the band remain a mystery. Given their name by prime Manchester scenester Linder, the group peddled a form of spiky and angular jazz/punk. Jeff Noon, acclaimed sci-fi, cyberpunk writer ("Vurt", "Nymphomation") was an early member of the group, adding to the group's retro-futurist edge. Inspired by Television, Talking Heads, August Darnell's Machine, French Soundtracks and Disco Chic along with a nod to Northern Soul and Moroder, the band cut a singular groove. Early hours inspiration from 70’s cop and Kung-Fu soundtracks were incorporated, a good 10 years or more before Massive Attack and Portishead did the same. In doing so, Manicured Noise created a sound that’s still difficult to pin down.

Guitarist and later period frontman Steven Walsh was an ex member of the Flowers of Romance, pre-Pistols vehicle for Sid Vicious, and various members of the Slits and Banshees. Steven brought an experimental and funky ethos to the band.

"Faith" (Pre/Charisma, 1980) was acclaimed on release, its Northern backbeat acknowledging the Manchester debt. A BBC session followed. Then, nothing. As Steven Walsh suggests: “Had we stayed together that little bit longer, who knows what might have been?"

"Northern Stories 1978/80", a Manicured Noise retrospective, will be released October 30th on Caroline True Records. The album collects for the first time almost all of their recordings including their two singles for Pre/Charisma Records, a BBC session and unreleased material.

Manicured Noise was:
Steve Walsh - Vocals and Guitar
Stephanie Nuttall - Drums
Jodie Taylor - Bass
Peter Bannister - Clarinet/Sax
Owen Gavin - Vocalist
Jeff Noon - Guitar

Tracklisting

A1 Faith
B1 Free Time

PRE 006

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Officine Schwartz - Fräulein (7'', 1986)

One of the very first industrial bands in Italy, Officine Schwartz distinguished themselves as a multimedial project, fusing music with performance, theatre, dancing, and lots of other art disciplines. Their music creates a unique melt of heavy industrial rhythms (generated by found metal percussions), electronics, traditional popular songs, workers' striking choirs, and a lot more.

Tracklisting

A1 Fräulein
B1 Rambo

U.T. Comunicazioni UT 002

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Eric Random - Dow Chemical Company (7'' 1981)

Experimental multi-instrumentalist Eric Random released three albums and a slew of singles between 1980 and 1987, tracing a fascinating post-punk arc from art-bruit to esoteric jazz and funk inflections, and later exploring non-Western idioms with his group The Bedlamites. Hailing from Manchester, Random struck up enduring associations with Buzzcock Pete Shelley, Velvets femme fatale Nico and (most notably) with Sheffield avant gardists Cabaret Voltaire, with whom much of his early material bears comparison.

In April 1981 Random took part in a brief New Hormones package tour with Ludus around Belgium and Holland, and this connection lead to the release of a third single via chic Brussels-based independent, Les Disques du Crepuscule. Released in July 1981, again on 7" only, TWI 029 coupled Subliminal with 23 Skidoo, and explores similarly ominous sonic surrounds to the debut ep. May also saw the release of another 7" single on New Hormones, (ORG 11), combining Dow Chemical Company with Skin Deep. Less austere than the debut ep recorded a year before, both tracks offered bubbling, rhythmic sound patterns, and were the first to feature other musicians, with Lynn Walton contributing vocals to DCC.

Tracklisting

A1 Dow Chemical Company
B1 Skin Deep

New Hormones ORG 11

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Schleimer K / Die Partei - The Stag / Strahlsund (7'' FLEXI 1982)

One of the most interesting flexi split coming from the dutch Vinyl Magazine serie. In A side we have the great minimal synth Schleimer K from U.K. with a killin track (dont miss the 12'' Fugitive Kind and the s/t LP, still ripped on mutantsounds blog), in the B a very synth-experimental german band, Die Partei (check also their LP 'La Freiheit Des Geistes'). It finish for cheap often on Ebay, so simply take a look and buy.

Tracklisting

A1 Schleimer K - The Stag
B1 Die Partei - Strahlsund

Vinyl Magazine SHOL 3258

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Dark Day - Trapped (12'', 1981)

Dark Day's first album "Exterminating Angel" followed in 1980. The band consisted of Robin, Phil Kline, and Barry Friar, but the lineup remained fluid, and at various times included Steven Brown and Peter Principle (Tuxedomoon), filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, Nina Canal and David Rosenbloom (Glenn Branca). The album's release was followed with a promotional 12 inch "Trapped" whose b-side "The Exterminations 1-6", six hyper-reverse mixes, remains Robin's favorite of his early work. During this time Dark Day played live concerts in New York City at The Mudd Club, TR3, CBGB's, Max's Kansas City, Hurrah's, and Trax as well as M-80, the New No Now Wave Festival in Minneapolis. A mini-tour of Europe included gigs at Leuven, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam.

After a brief shift in aesthetics, Robin reformed Dark Day as a synthetic keyboard duo with Bill Sack and recorded a second album "Window".

Tracklisting

A1 Trapped
B1 The Exterminations 1 To 6

Lust/Unlust Music JMB 238

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Dark Day - Hands In The Dark (7'', 1979)

In the mid-1970s, Robin Crutchfield moved to New York to participate in the growing conceptual and performance art movement. After several performances in galleries and alternative spaces which received critical acclaim, he broke away from the scene to pursue music.

In 1979, after having formed the infamous no wave band DNA with Arto Lindsay and Ikue Mori, and recorded a single for Lust/Unlust and four tracks for the Eno-produced "No New York" album, and having gigged with DNA for nearly a year, Robin determined the band was moving in a direction counter to his own interests and left to form his own project, Dark Day.

With the aid of Nancy Arlen (Mars) and Nina Canal (The Gynecologists and Ut), he released an initial single "Hands In The Dark" b/w "Invisible Man" on Lust/Unlust, Charles Ball's fledgling label which had already released the historic debut recordings of Lydia Lunch's groundbreaking Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, as well as the aforementioned DNA single.

Tracklisting

A1 Hands In The Dark
B1 Invisible Man

Lust/Unlust Music NML

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