NIC DALTON
Last Seen Near Trafalgar 87-89
Half A Cow CD
www.halfacow.com.au
Nic Dalton is the head honcho of the Half A Cow label from down under, and to a more devoted aficionado, also the bass player from the Lemonheads’ early ’90s glory-days. The real nerdy types, might even know about his indie pop outfits Love Positions and Plunderers.
Contained herewith, is what he refers to as “bringing back the Me Generation”, as heard through 17 unreleased DIY 4-track recordings. The opening ‘Anniversary Song’ might’ve been offered to Dando back in days, but the overall mood mostly falls in-between the early VU and JAMC, complete with the obligatory baritone vocal delivery. With an extra jangly quality provided with the 12-string acoustic, ‘Numbered Days’ and ‘Ring On Every Finger’ stand out as catchier-than-usual, and the cool r’n’b-flavoured guitar riff makes ‘She’s Really Lying Now’ another fave of my own, along with the Syd-fronted Floyd-like quirk of ‘2000 Weeks’.
In case you’re interested, there’s another “half of the cow” called Romolo, covering ’86-88.
Goran Obradovic
THE PRISONERS
Rare And Unissued
Big Beat CD
www.acerecords.com
Self-explanatory warts ’n’ all set of demos and live recordings expanded and reconfigured. For those of us still mourning the September ’86 passing of The Prisoners, the 1988 release of Rare And Unissued on Billy Childish’s flagging Hangman label – DIY cover and hand-typed liner notes and all – was a dream come true. The band’s hard-rockin’ swan songs, ‘Happyness For Once’ (sic) and ‘Pop Star’s Party’ were familiar from those last few live shows and sat naturally alongside hiss-heavy audience recordings of old favourites like ‘Coming Home’ and ‘Come To The Mushroom’.
This new edition adds the full-length ‘Go Go’ that opened and closed ’83’s Thewisermiserdemelza, studio takes of ‘The Joe 90 Theme’, The Small Faces’ ‘Don’t Burst My Bubble’ and live favourite ‘Hush’ from long out-of-print comps, further In From The Cold demos, radio sessions and more.
Non-die hards may wince at the lo-fi sound quality and repeated tracks but the rest of us will lap this stuff up like spoiled puppies. This is as close as it gets to an accurate portrayal of The Prisoners’ incendiary live sound and pretty much indispensable for fans and curious onlookers alike.
Andy Morten
THE STAIRS
Who Is This Is?
Viper CD
www.the-viper-label.co.uk
Viper’s Right In The Back Of Your Mind from 2006 was considered to be as close as it will ever get to The Stairs’ second album. Well it ain’t, because this is what IS!
With just an occasional peep towards the usual garage punk ’n’ jangle (by way of The Seeds in ‘Saw Her Today’ and freakbeatin’ Pretty Things in ‘Talkin’ To You’, or the ’65-Beatles fronted by Dave Aguilar in ‘She’s So Fine’), Edgar Summertyme was already getting Jones-like soulful. ‘Set Me Free’ is pure Impressions, with the obligatory Jaggeresque snarl replacing Curtis, while ‘It Was Alright’ and ‘When She Walks Down My Street’ are full-blown blue-eyed soul that was to follow with The Big Kids, with a touch of Bacharach heard as well, in the jazzy ballad ‘Gotta Reason’.
However, it’s the Cream-y heavy acid blues pair of ‘Skin Up’ and ‘Stop Messin’’ that explains the warning in the booklet – “be careful not to melt your speakers”!
Goran Obradovic
THE SUMMER SUNS
Greatest
House of Wax CD
www.myspace.com/thesummersuns
The Summer Suns’ Kim Williams has always possessed a knack for melodic tunes that blend wistful folk-rock and power-pop. Most of the Perth based band’s releases from the late ’80s and ’90s are presented here. I always enjoyed the great tunes, strummed acoustics and tasteful electrics (played by Dom Mariani on the earlier releases).
This collection is highly recommended for the sheer pop quality and heavenly Rickenbacker jangle of tunes like ‘Waiting For My Love’ and ‘Girl In The Mexican Restaurant’, to name but two of many. There are so many fine songs it is a pop fan’s delight, but I can’t help but think that an opportunity has been missed. Kim has a quiet voice that sounds fine on the quieter, folkier moments (such as ‘Why I Fell’) and the better produced songs, but on a handful of tracks he is so low in the mix that he is barely audible. A partial remix would have presented some fine songs (‘Samantha’ or ‘Angel Angeline’) in an even better light.
Phil Suggitt
THE TIMES
Pop Goes Art!
Enjoy/Up Against It
Art Pop! CDs
www.cherryred.co.uk
For a beginner (absolute or not), these Times can get quite confusing. Same song titles on different releases, same band members in different bands’ line-ups, along with Art Pop’s concept of shuffle re-releasing, all make you think twice. Nevertheless, once you get to used to it, each album seems like a gallery of snapshots, as seen through the lenses of the all-round modernist Ed Ball, the only constant throughout.
Of the ones not yet captured on any of the previous related re-releases, I’d pick the Davies-meets-Marriott cockernee pop of ‘A New Arrangement’, and the pair of ‘The Sun Never Sets’ and ‘Easy As Pie’, attaining a Who-like pop-art-ish quirk through The Jam-like mod-cons. Except for an odd Beatles tribute, most of the Enjoy/Up Against It material fits the conventional ’80s sound that I wouldn’t regard too highly on the all-Times list. However, more than worth a mention are Ed’s continuous diary-like liners, a form of pop-art in themselves.
Goran Obradovic |
