Little Milton - She put a spell on me (1963)
18/02/2022
Welcome Soundheads
The UK is currently under storm conditions, so this storming slab of righteousness will keep you safe and warm.
A fiery blast of brass and a fantastic upbeat rhythm drives Little Milton to growl and purr for his love…what a voice!
He is enraptured for sure.
Then that fucking sax solo just takes it up to another level. All neatly wrapped up in a dynamite 2 minute explosion.
Absolute shimmy shake, maximum overdrive get yo’self up on your feet barnstormer.
No mistakin’!
Pour yer self a fire in the hole bourbon and bring it on home motherfuckers!
Keep safe, keep well and have the kind of weekend you’ll remember.
Outtasight
RH X
Cabaret Voltaire - Nag Nag Nag (1979)
11/02/2022
Welcome Soundheads
From the second this magnificent barrage starts, you get drawn into the world of the Cabs and you don’t want to leave.
Always my absolute favourite of the noise terrorists that ran the gamut of those heady days where everything was essential.
Industrial or Post Punk don’t even fit the bill on this fried delight of audio gold.
Whatever it is, it couldn’t have been a more perfect introduction, their first single from 1979, even tho’ they had been around for a good few years beforehand.
It’s often remarked on how Sheffield made its mark on the bands and labels that formed from there, but none captured the actual smelt steel of the city better than CV.
A surge of insistent feedback opens the storm, a two note riff cuts across it and the preset pulse of a Korg drum machine scatters in from some distant planet and we’re off, relentless in its pursuit.
It’s almost Pop, but then again, it isn’t.
It’s catchy, but it isn’t.
It could be The Seeds taking a wrong turn and ending up in a David Lynch film, where everything isn’t nice and there’s no LA cosmic energy that’ll ever save you from whatever acid horror confronts you.
Indeed, the Cabs would later cover No Escape, shredding Sky Saxon’s plaintive pleas to a snarl of minimalist angst.
Truly a landmark single of the time and truly nothing else sounded like it either.
Only France’s Metal Urbain ( more on them in the near future ) came close or TG – but they’re a different kettle of fish altogether.
Embrace the noise.
And yes… you can dance to it!
Until our paths yet again converge…
With Love,
RH xxx
Tintern Abbey - Vacuum Cleaner (1967)
04/02/2022
Far Out Soundheads, Far Out!
Get yer paisley out for this absolute freakbeat stonker.
Pretty much a one-off from London’s Tintern Abbey, which did absolutely nothing on its release in 1967.
So much so, that many copies were trashed by Decca, along with other failed 7”s, and is now so hideously rare, you won’t get any change out of splashing out £1k for an original.
And beware!
If you “find” one, like many of those freakbeat Deram and Decca classics, it’s probably a bootleg.
So, to the matter at hand.
How much more fucking psych can you get?
And it’s yet another B-Side that absolutely shits over the A!
Everything you want to hear is in there somewhere and that acid guitar solo really is one of the best there is.
Up there with Caleb’s Baby Your Phrasing Is Bad as just an all-out assault of trippy goodness.
Can’t work out if David MacTavish was one of the first exponents of a male actually helping with the housework, or he’d found himself lost in an acid dream of his own making and fell in love with said Vacuum Cleaner.
Who knows?
That was pretty much it for The Abbey, they split before a debut album was finished and can only now consider that this is regarded in certain circles as a classic.
Shame, but as Les McQueen states…
“It’s a shit business”
Until next time my lovelies.
RH XXX
Captain Beefheart - Who Do You Think You're Fooling (1966)
28/01/2022
Greetings oh sweet Soundheads!
May this find you well and fit for the weekend.
It’s 1966 and here we find the seed of what is to become the legend of Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band.
He’s locked in a studio with David Gates as “producer”of all people.
For those unfamiliar with Gates, he was signed to A&M as a singer songwriter and he was only a couple of years away from inflicting great pain on the world, the appalling lift music of BREAD.
Let’s say, he was also way way way out of his depth with a certain Mr. Don Van Vliet.
But for two singles, he somehow got something out of the band, whether Don liked it or not.
Legal wrangles and a general disdain for said singles continued for years.
Even the original A&M sessions mini album featuring the two singles and an outtake was swiftly withdrawn in 1984, literally only available for a few days.
It’s obviously come out again in calmer waters I might add.
Anyhoo, let’s get down to the nitty gritty here.
The swinging angular blues of this really does point the way which Don wanted to go with the near future of Safe As Milk.
It’s another B-Side daddy-oh and far superior to the A side of Doo Wah Diddy, which obviously had a certain charm to the heads at the label, but compared to this baby, one can only say “shurely thish ish schome mishtake?”
Sure, it doesn’t have the avante-guarde boogie down of what came just a little bit later, but the template is being drawn up by the architect.
The blue prints are in the mail.
It’s swaggertastic, and if you don’t swing yer loons to this and point a pointy boot toe upwards and step on it, then you might have no soul.
Perfect with something lethal like a top shelf feel no pain Margarita.
Stack em high Brothers and Sisters!
Until we meet again
Love
RH X
Fire Engines - Big Gold Dream (1981)
21/01/2022
Howdy Soundheads!
Welcome to the world of Fire Engines (like Ramones and Buzzcocks, no The).
It’s 1981 and a surge of activity of a mini-album Lubricate Your Living Room and two singles Candyskin and this magnificent beast, Big Gold Dream.
As a band, all over the shop.
From agit Beefheart scratches and situationist art terrorism, to clear pop and the skittering funkish splat of said beast.
Then they just fucked off.
Henderson and Burns then did WIN, but sadly never caught the sheer energy of the previous records and shows, which never lasted more than 20mins… take that JAMC!
Henderson decried literally in the song that he was tired of this song, but I never do.
Agit pop at its finest.
They couldn’t be pinned down and weren’t particularly liked at the time, but they resurfaced briefly due to worship by the likes of Franz Ferdinand.
Then they fucked off again.
My new flesh is fur material.
Over n out
Til next time
Much Love
RH XX