The Scientists- We Had Love (1983)

29/04/2022

G’day Soundheads,

A swampy fuzz blues courtesy of one of THEE most underrated Australian bands pretty much ever. They sludge their way out of whatever love drained and heart dried hellhole Mr Kim Salmon could think of and slammed it on vinyl again and again, pretty much to the general indifference of anywhere where they slept in the streets.
Well, fuck that shit because when you dig deep in the drains, there is a goldmine of absolutely stonkers.

This one ‘ere is perhaps everything that was so great about them, all wrapped up in this slow burn love disintegration.

A wealth of Aussie bands sought solace in the UK due to not getting much love outside their own townships, following The Saints and The Birthday Party to hopeful greener pastures.
Salmon did the same and dragged the band to London.
Sadly, it never really did catch fire for them the way it did for others but they made some converts to this day who’ll get misty eyed of shows at The Clarendon and Dingwalls et al.
And I’m happily one of them.

Crawling Heart, off the Collision single was my very own love letter to The Scientists, I make no bones about that.

Anyway, if this is your first taste, dig deeper.
If you’re one of the misty eyed, time to cry.
No Fosters for this baby, get deep into the Martinis and sob yer heart out

Back Soon

RH x

Sun Ra - Nuclear War (1982)

22/04/2022

Greetings Soundheads,

So, those that know, know I have a bit of a thang for the mysterious Mr Ra
OR
Mr. Re ( say it out loud and it’ll click )

This curio, and it is because you can’t actually say there were a great deal of Ra singles – many small prints on his own label El Saturn or Saturn that were sold off and on at shows when the Arkestra took to towns and cities.
Rare as fucking rare can be as well.
I had a few back in the day (before I sold my entire vinyl collection) that I’d found in old vinyl emporiums or at said shows, but nowhere as many as the albums I had…
I was a little bit obsessive.
Which now fucking hurts because those are now worth a mint.
The guy who bought my entire collection didn’t even know who Ra was! Dolt!
He only wanted my Nirvana rarities.
But that’s another story in itself.

So…
This was strangely exclusive to the UK and released on Y records, home of Pigbag no less (hello Ollie!), and one also has to get used to the great man himself saying Motherfucker quite a lot, which was nice.

This was highly precedent at the time of the nuclear threat and M.A.D, and what d’ya know, it looks like someone might have an itchy trigger finger again.
Fuck Putin btw.

It’s pretty laid back all told, minimalist and no great atonal blasts of energy from the likes of Marshall Allen or John Gilmore, but it’s a nice call and response from Ra to the Arkestra and back.
Certainly no rug runner or hip shaker.

That’s about it really.
As said, it’s strangely topical again and who can ever pass up on a chance for the great Ra?
Not me fer sure!

Have splendid weekends you lot
See ya next week!

It’ll kiss yo ass… goodbye, goodbye

RH X.

23 Skidoo - Tearing Up The Plans (1982)

15/04/2022

Greetings Soundheads

So, as promised a few weeks ago, I’d probably have this in on single of the week.
And here it is!

Now…
I owe my friend Thom Heslop a bit of an apology.
I mistakenly stated that this was made by the crew of Fritz Catlin and The Turnball Bros.
He actually corrected me on my schoolboy error and said that the Brothers had gone off to the Far East travelling and this was made by Fritz, Thom and Sam Mills.

Then the split happened!

He freely admits that the reduced personnel moniker on the label has caused confusion in many and I’m not the first to make that mistake.

Apologies to Messrs Heslop, Catlin and Mills for my slip there, it was honestly done in all innocence and no offence was meant.

So here we have it… minimal in line-up and the barrage of Seven Songs has been erased to this beautiful effortless streamline.
Haunting is the word I shall use.
The slow coil jazz lilt perfectly unwinds under some fantastic drumming which draws you in… and then it’s gone!
Atmosphere replaces the drums and you’re in the place that is so evocatively present in the sleeve artwork. A perfect match of image and sound.

I cannot tell you how many times this was played by me at some godforsaken time in the morning, it became such a staple of late night for me, I often felt lost if I didn’t play it.
Many years later, it also was a staple of my DJIng sets when I wanted to switch tact and gather either Miles or Alice Coltrane straight on its tail.

I’ll say it again, Skidoo still need a bigger place in the great scheme of post punk, they made records that are timeless and this one is right there with the best.

It’s a long weekend here in the UK, this is perfect for a couple of late nights when one can hope that summer is approaching.

Take Care peeps

Same time same bat channel next week!

Space is the place brothers and sisters
RH
X

The Saints - (I'm) Stranded (1977)

13/04/2022

Soundheads,

Fuck it

We gotta kick em out

Chris Bailey motherfuckers

RH X

The Pop Group - We Are All Prostitutes (1979)

08/04/2022

Heads of Sound

Yes, it was inevitable, you knew it was incoming.
I was torn between She Is Beyond Good and Evil and this tasty nasty.

The bastard form of pretty much everything and Mr. Stewart’s speaker wrecking primal howl combine with a bit of a disco clap for 3m:10s of bedlam.

Another bullet in an excellent arsenal of the label Rough Trade’s earlyish singles after the band part company with Radar.

After the masterpiece of the album Y and said spoilt for choice single She Is Beyond… things take an even more interesting left turn of what I like to affectionately call – the harsh.
It all becomes more brittle and sharped edged, more finely focused but erratic at the same time.

When singles still meant singles – alright, I’m fucking old… I get it – and they could spit fire in troubled climates, The Pop Group were as important to political awareness in people like me as The Clash were.
They made us think and made us challenge.

And fuck me, this is as relevant right now as it was back then.

I don’t really have to say much more.

Cleanse your souls
Repent!

Fight The Power!
RH XX