Great Lost Songs - The Revolting Cocks - 'Beers, Steers and Queers'

YEEEHAWWWW

What a way to start a track.

At Leeds University there existed a sub culture (remember those) of ex goths whose tastes had turned towards hardcore. Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, Foetus, Big Black were their heroes and I hated them. All their music seemed so bereft of joy, listening to Nine Inch Nails was for me akin to a night in  with Heathcliff post Cathy's death. I just didn't get it. Why so glum? I'd had goth friends and they weren't this miserable, there was always some humour under the black.....

Then this.

Undoubtedly an unrecognised pointer to big beat, just listen to that rhythm pattern, funky, clever, sarcastic, political, it was everything that all the rest of the scene were not. It took me some time to accept that this was made by those glum types from Ministry and Front 242 (pre internet you couldn't just find something in seconds) yet it had the secondary affect of making me go back to those bands and reassees which is never a bad thing.

it also was a handy way out as a DJ when some black leather jacketed, parabooted, Lard T-shirt wearing type approached me on a Friday night demanding less Roses and more industrial. A rare track that could keep the serious music types happy but let the party kids carry on dancing. For that alone it derserves to be remembered and revered.

Great Lost Songs - ANDREAS DORAU - Girls In Love (Grungerman Mix I) 1996

Credit where its due, this would never have crossed my path were it not for Herb Legowitz of Gus Gus. This track, a minimalist tweaking of a more standard disco house track, was a mainstay of his DJ sets and a piece of music that blew my mind when I heard it.

Is it that rise and fall clipped drum track, the breakthrough of the original as a pseudo chorus, the control of the whole, always feeling like its about to explode, teasing for over 5 minutes without climaxing or the little hint of 70's disco style? I dunno but it was a major staging post on my final acceptance of disco having spent my indie 80s and some of my 90's being totally, impaccably opposed to any music that dared to flirt with that lost decade's dance craze.

A couple of years ago Martin Aston's 4AD book came out and I read Ivo referring to me as a soul boy. At the time I laughed out loud, this Smiths indie kid reborn as a London casual but maybe he had a point. Maybe this track was a major factor in me adding that cloak to my others.

Great Lost Album – Cardinal – ‘Cardinal’

I was going to choose one track from Cardinal's 1994 debut (and only until 2012's 'Hymns') release but the whole album is on Youtube and, to be honest, the whole works better than the parts. An album that will be forever associated in my mind with the summer of that year (it was released in March despite all the Christmas references and I recall getting it a month or so pre release) the entire record is an understated, baroque flecked masterpiece. Sure, it owes debts to early 70's Bowie, a host of mid 80's Fire Records and Shimmy Disc types, early Scott Walker and fits neatly alongside the likes of The Auteurs in that acoustically designed rock mode but its an album that is full formed, completely realised and so sure of itself that it never needs to reach for production dynamics to make its point.

At the time I recall it being one of those album, those of us in the know in the music biz, a seemingly more social, close knit and connected world than today's email driven 'business' would find kinship over a shared love of the record. It became the soundtrack to the post gig / club nights when we would all end up at someone's house until dawn broke. It's a perfect record to watch the sun rise to.
It felt like an album that was destined for the Best Of lists for time in memoriam but it seems to have slipped from collective memory.

Great Lost Songs - Asian Dub Foundation - 'Naxalite'

I seem to recall various badly thought out political covers of Melody Maker and NME over the years. Despite no doubt good intentions, something never quite fit with the way the bands involved were being presented or, in the case of a particularly ill fated Manics / Blaggers ITA front page, some of the participants turned out to be not quite as ethical as the copy suggested as Dave Simpson of the Maker could testify.

ADF always seemed, alongside Fun-Da-Mental to give the music press a particularly severe headache. Much like the first emergence of UK Asian footballers, now thankfully in no way an exception, the idea of an Asian band operating in the alternative music scene left them treading a line between pushing the novelty button and trying to engage seriously with the issues behind the music. To a degree not much has really changed, journalists outside their comfort zones have always had presentation problems in such circumstances but what is clear is that ADF were viewed as much as being Asian as being an exhilerating, thoughtful and provocative group. As with everything I am posting I genuinely can't remember when I last heard them on a radio or read anything about them which, given that the issues they were talking about are, if anything, more prevalent now than ever, seems a damn shame.

Great Lost Songs - Pop Will Eat Itself - 'Wise Up Sucker'

Now we all think that Clint Mansell is a genius don't we? Soundtrack king and all that but he's not always been critical flavour of the month.

For a good year or so at Leeds University in the late 80's a cultural battle raged between the music writers of Leeds Student and various members of the Ents organisation as to the value (or not) of the likes of PWEI, Carter and Neds Atomic Dustbin. In retrospect, the writers may have had a point on Neds but I remain steadfast in my defence of the former two. Leaving aside Carter (who I will come to at some point, was ever a clever band so underated?), PWEI now look like far sighted harbingers of the music world to come, even their name makes a valid point.

I could have picked anything really, 'Ich Bin Ein Auslander' rebuffs the 'stupid music' tag, 'Can U Dig It' still has a dancefloor punch, but this one is here because it's my favourite. a track that does heavy and rock and hip hop all in perfect balance. It stands for everything post 'Beaver Patrol' (possibly the reason alongisde the early stuff that they were so reviled by the critical mass, that whiff of sexism was purdah in the late 80's even if the defence of humour was deployed) a run of tunes that are clever and inventive and thoroughly modern -

Compare PWEI with The Beastie Boys without prejudice and the similarities are myriad. Unfortunately for the Poppies, being from the USA always gave you a free pass with UK critics, the Beasties deservedly remain icons of cool, the Poppies are all but forgotten.....

Great Lost Songs - King Of The Slums - 'Bear With Me'

To some extent a companion to A Witness, both bands being from Greater Manchester and demonstrating that love of dance syncpation minus the beads and jangles that is my memory of the city pre 1989, this is almost the sound of the original Afflacks Palace, that ragbag of goths, indie kids and hip hop heads that populated the second hand stalls and hairdressers over three floors before fire and Identity clothing corporatised the city's soul.

As with many of these tracks, its a head scratcher why KOTS aren't talked about more. Given that their music straddled the dancefloor and the mind, avoided the strict white jacket that strangled much of the indie scene in the mid 80s and, more importantly, that they could create music like this; the sound of the last party on earth as we all get blown to pieces by a Reagan / Thatcher axis, you would have thought that some critics may have revisited them and done one of those re-introduction jobs that seem to be all the rage at the moment.

Then again, there are Phil Collins Q & A's to arrange. Some things never change ;-)

Great Lost Songs - The Fatima Mansions - 'Blues For Ceauşescu'

I hate to come over all 'old git' here but why is no one making angry music like this anymore? This makes Slaves look and sound like Westworld (sonic boom boy, remember?) and knocks most 'angry, political music' into a cocked hat. That it isn't a repeated play on alternative stations leave me scratching my head.

Kicking against everyone, esp fond of the verse about Mountbatten, Cathal Coughlan took his chances to offend very seriously. Alongside this, arguably the best ever piece of political rock committed to audio, he used a support slot with U2 in Italy to stick a statue of the Madonna up his arse, nearly provoking a riot.

Can't see that happening now can you?

A Witness - 'Smelt Like A Pedestrian'

Once upon a time, Manchester's musis scene was not dominated by happy go lucky day glo baggies nor strident rock stars but itchy post punks with a nice line in social commentary and impeccable left wing politics. A Witness were a revelation when, age 15, I heard their debut Peel session and I was straight out to buy their first Ep and then their debut album, 'I am John's Pancreas'.

To my ears a UK answer to the machine anger of Big Black, tempered by a nice line in surrealism, their jaggedy sound owed a fair amount to Gang Of Four for sure but provided a perfect backdrop to a period of intense pessimism over the dog days of Thatcherism and the continued threat of both social collapse and nuclear violence. It also provided a nice balance to the other side of my record collection which went jingle jangle and refused to engage with the adult world.

Great Lost Songs - Birdland - 'Hollow Heart'

Yeah, if you remember, stupid hair, from the Midlands, Birdland didn't really stand a chance did they? Yet one listen to this in a modern context and you can't help but be taken aback by the power of it all. That sneery punk thing underpinned by a driving guitar melody, it's still got that raw excitement of youth somewhere in it. And somewhere underneath it all a feeling of soul, as far removed from Motown as you get but nonetheless with a heart at the centre.

At the time (1989) it was a big indie hit, the video sat in The Chart Show's indie chart for ages, we all owned a copy of the white 12" with the grafitti writing. Live they were chaotic and mesmerising, a tangle of Mary Chain black and attitude and pre grunge slackerdom, smashing instruments and giving out bad vibes from the stage, a potential UK riposte to the gathering tide starting to blow in from Seattle. They also did a mean cover of 'Rock n Roll Nigger' which hinted that the cartoon press version of the band may not be the whole story.

But it didn't happen that way....and now you'd be hard pushed to hear this on 6 Music....

Great Lost Songs - BOB 'Convenience'

There was a time when this track was a sign of indie knowledge, around my first year at Leeds in 1989 owning a copy of the 7" elevated you above the indie masses that were gathering around the Manchester scene and marked you out as an original indie kid as much as a stripey T-shirt or an anorak. These days I rarely meet anyone in the industry who knows what the fuck I am going on about if it comes up in conversation.

Indie snobbery aside this remains a fascinating track, echoes of which I hear now and again when the idea of senstive young men with guitars come back into vogue. Straddling that point between the jangles of The Byrds and the white soul of Aztec Camera, the chorus still has the power to make my heart sing. Being in love, likely unrequieted, never sounded so good.