Deborah Kant, Terminal Rail/Route (2014)

Where bought?: I was in Toulouse in 2017 and some guy came up to me and said 'you left this here last time you played and I looked after it'. I don't think I did leave it - I'd considered buying it but not done. But I did want it, so fate sped it into my arms.

Also - we were meant to play with this band in Lyon in 2014 on our second French tour but they split up the week of the show. This is how their name came known to me and it stayed with me (is it a reference? A joke? I don't get it) and I went away and had a listen and liked what I heard.

Deerhunter, Cryptograms/Fluorescent Grey (2007)

Where bought?: I can't remember where I bought this exact copy - probably Piccadilly in Manchester. My original copy was off the band at their merch table. Why did I have two? Read on!

 
I've never been one of those people with terrible vices that ruin their lives. I've gambled a bit but quit after a heavy loss that left me up a tiny bit across the course of a life, avoided smoking, and never really been a prodigious user of drugs or drink. Salt is probably as bad as it gets now.

That said, if you're buying only trivial amounts of things you can't really afford or justify then it counts as a problem, even if what you are buying amounts to a fraction that others are. In this case I'm talking about records, which I used to buy at expense of eating, travelling, or in some tragic cases personal hygiene products. I'm not proud.

In about 2009 I had a total financial collapse where I could not afford any of the basics, let alone records. My parents didn't help me financially, and even though I worked between classes I just couldn't keep it together. I hit the wall and sold my bass and then loads of my treasured records for absolutely peanuts.

One guy who took advantage of my predicament took about 20 records off me including this. I'm not bothered about buying everything else back - some of it represented a fair parting of ways - but losing this record hurt the most and I vowed to get it back when I could next realistically afford it. Which wasn't for about 10 more years, but hey: I got it.

In 2007 I chipped in to put Deerhunter on in Manchester. The gig about broke even (would have been a profit had the band realised they didn't need a hotel at all) and they were decent guys so the record was a nice memento of me managing to be part of something ahead of the general curve for once (I am NOT cool! At all!). I like the music on it too, but the knife twist was more from handing over memories than a slab of music which I probably had on MP3 too.

Anyway: Cryptograms is still my favourite Deerhunter full-length record and yet their least popular on Spotify (though I note that Turn It Up Faggot/Deerhunter isn't there). They shimmer between ambient/shoegaze sound experiments and songs that sound like a slightly narcotised Quickspace in an appealing way. The inward turn on the back third where they emerge into melancholy is what brings the whole thing together in a way I find irresistible.

Side four in this issue is the EP Fluorescent Grey. In the past I have said this EP is the equal to the great EPs of yore: 4 A-Sides, Slates, Watery Domestic, Admonishing the Bishops, In A Beautiful Place out in the Country, etc. Four great little songs that work together, that could have been the spine of a great album, but here it is as this perfect moment in time.

Hopefully hanging onto this forever now.

Dead for a Minute, Diégèse (2002)

Where bought?: Given to me by my friend Florian in Metz. It is his band from his youth.

 
A single-sided 12" and reissued in 2015 is the band's only 'album' though there is a cassette of the Vitry-sur-Orne band's entire discography (30 songs) out there somewhere. At a certain point of abrasive hardcore I don't really know which bands to compare it to: sure they're named after a Botch song but I feel that this is drawing more from more obscure stuff on Gravity and ThreeOneG.

Deafheaven, New Bermuda (2015)

Where bought?: I kept asking if they were going to get it in Rise in Worcester when I lived there but nobody took the bloody hint so I got it in Bristol, probably from Fopp.

 

Conceived of as 'the more metal' follow-up to Sunbather which is partly true in that there is a greater quotient of tugboat-pulling muted chugging and strident wind-smeared rifferama. But there's also some other colours in there too, which is why it doesn't feel like a defensive 'no we're metal actually' record at all.

Deafheaven, Sunbather (2013)

Where bought? Oh there is actually a definitive story to this. In 2017 my band played a festival in the French Alps and after we performed I roamed around the site in a daze and stumbled across a record stall. I'd tried to buy the album at home but couldn't find it anywhere, but as soon as I saw it I had to have it. In an excited rush, I borrowed 20 euro from my pal/deputy guitarist Thom and thrust it into the stall holder's hand and ran off with it. Apparently the stall holder rolled his eyes and got another one out from under the rack and re-stocked the shelf as if to say "why so excited, this shit isn't exactly 'You Left The Water Running'?" but this dude obviously didn't live in Worcester.

Now the dust has settled on the real black metal or fake black metal debate (me: probably fake actually but I don't really care for authenticity) I still see Sunbather as a strange and brilliant achievement. 

Autotelia, i (2020)

Where bought? Norman Records, online. They had a sale announcement that dropped into my inbox and I scrolled through to see what was on offer - and this, a record from my Best of 2020, was. It arrived the next day. Can't beat it.

Quite a sad story behind this, but let's get to the facts. Autotelia are a duo formed of Demian Castellanos of kosmiche-indie rock group The Oscillation (very good! I put them on once) and Tom Relleen of percussive experimental group Tomaga (also very good!). This is their only album, I would expect, as Tom passed away recently. He was young and wonderful and talented and also a friend of some friends of mine, all of whom mourn his passing long after his death.

The Dead Milkmen, Beelzebubba (1988)

Where bought? I mean it must have been Action in Preston. Where else could I have got this? Completely baffled here.

Two years on from Eat Your Paisley! is the same essentially humorous punk-centred group, but they're far more proficient at writing songs in different genres. The humour hits a little more squarely (though I wonder if it is a bit of a dig at the rural south) than the bratty stuff from the previous records, and there's a pre-occupation with death and futility that wasn't really there before except as jokes.

The Dead Milkmen, Eat Your Paisley! (1986)

Where bought? I have no idea. I can't even countenance the idea that I came across a Dead Milkmen record in the UK (I haven't seen any since picking up the two I have). I remember playing at my old house in Preston back in 2006, so I've had this one a long old time.

The sunny uplands where hardcore becomes college rock is probably more of a complex story than 'people sold out and the intensity died out': sometimes misfits have smiles on their faces too. The Dead Milkmen wrote ostensibly 'nice' songs that are melodic and approachable - like REM being covered by Meat Puppets or something? - but you'd not mistake them for a commercial band.

Dazzling Killmen, Face of Collapse (1994)

Where bought? From the Alans Records pop-up in 2012 for about £4. It's worth about £40 now (slightly down from 2015 highs before the re-issue).

I saw the words 'Skin Graft Records' on the side and picked this up without really knowing what it was. Put it on in 2012 and clearly didn't think much of it, as it has gone entirely unplayed ever since. 

Dawn of Midi, Dysnomia (2013)

Where bought? Sound Records in Stroud. I feel sad that I discovered Stroud so late in my journey through Middle England, as it has two very good record shops and a lot of nice things about the town to recommend it. If I could have my time again I'd probably have moved there! Anyway, yeah, definitely from Sound in Stroud.

On a forum I have posted on for 22 years now, which was ostensibly once about music but has become a social spot with high premium on obscure in-jokes, there is a 'Now Listening' thread where about once a week someone will drop something in. Most of the time I'll know it or not like it, but that's cool because we've all grown into certain avenues and tastes.

SINGLES A-C

Here are all the singles I own from A-C in the alphabet and a few words on each.

ABBA, 'The Name of the Game' b/w 'I Wonder (Departure)'
ABBA, 'Dancing Queen' b/w 'That's Me'
ABBA, 'I Have A Dream' b/w 'Take A Chance On Me'
ABBA, 'Knowing Me, Knowing You' b/w 'Happy Hawaii'
ABBA, 'Take A Chance on Me' b/w 'I'm A Marionette'
ABBA, 'SOS' b/w 'Man In The Middle'

My mum owned a lot of ABBA singles (I suspect these are not all the ones she had) and passed them on to me when CDs came to our home town (mid-2000s). At the time I kind of hated the group in all their Eurokitsch and simply thought I might be able to turn a profit on them one day. Now I just like them and they remind me that my mum had a life prior to motherhood. 

 

Cut, Annihilation Road (2013)

Where bought? Undoubtedly off the band at one of their numerous UK shows this century.

Cut, from Bologna, used to hit up our towns every year, sometimes twice a year, nearly every year in the 21st century. They're absolute lifers in the punk world, giving and loving and they don't care if there's 20 or 2000 people to play in front of - they'll give you the same high-energy rock and roll show no matter what.

The Cure, Standing on a Beach: The Singles (1986)

Where bought? Still got the £5 sticker on which indicates a second (maybe third, given its age) hand purchase, but not sure. Could be anywhere really. Proper record shops would have jacked this up to a tenner because it's a name band, which makes me think probably off some market stall or something.

One of the more confusing releases - there's Staring at the Sea and Standing on a Beach (both lyrics from 'Killing an Arab') - as they are both compilations of early Cure singles. I think ...Beach is the name given to the LP version, which has a few songs missing owing to considerations of space. So if you're a big fan of '10.15 Saturday Night', 'Play for Today' (I quite like this one actually), 'Other Voices', or 'A Night Like This' then you should probably go to the CD or digital or just buy the singles themselves.

Crystal Antlers, Tentacles (2009)

Where bought? I think about 2 months elapsed between picking up the EP and the debut album dropping. I was living in Manchester, so I am going to guess that I went back to Piccadilly Records to get it on or around the day it dropped.

One year after that raucous and joyous debut show, Crystal Antlers returned with a new album and played the larger Sound Control venue near Oxford Rd. station (now not a venue, and not particularly missed by me). The crowd was about the same size but in a much larger room. Some of the faces were definitely at the previous show. But the hype hadn't translated into growing success: the psych-punk train had stopped.

Crystal Antlers, EP (2008)

Where bought? I feel I can say with near certainty that this was picked up in Piccadilly Records not long after it came out. I'd been on the hunt for it and copies that existed were getting snapped up pretty sharp. In fact my copy is the re-release on Touch & Go rather than their self-pressed 12". This is weird to think about for reasons this blog (and the next) will go into. My copy has the image below much smaller, and basically looks like a blank cardboard sleeve with a backprint.

There was, very briefly, Crystal Antlers fever. This EP got great reviews, a totally authentic word-of-mouth (and probably blog) phenomenon and the first CA show in Manchester was absolutely raucous and rammed in a tiny piss-smelling bar I've played at before (the soundman went AWOL for our set and we did it ourself).

Creedence Clearwater Revival, Willy and Poor Boys (1969)

Where bought? Rise in Worcester. £10. I now realise this low price for a new record is all part and parcel of John Fogerty's lack of control over his own back catalogue, and Fantasy Records' ongoing exploitation of it. So I am a bit sorry about owning this, on some level.

'America's Beatles' claimed Tom Scharpling of Creedence Clearwater Revival and if that comparison is made because both groups established a solid back catalogue of clear-eyed transcendent pop songs that sounded as if they had always existed then I agree wholeheartedly. In truth, I simply think John Fogerty is the best songwriter of the 60s, and I am not exactly unsold on the music he has produced since.

Helios Creed, Boxing the Clown (1990)

Where bought? I can't really tell you on that count. Maybe from the Alans Records pop-up for a very low price. I can tell you why I bought it, but that might eat up some of the word count downpage.

Helios Creed was the guitarist - and essentially one half of the creative unit - of Chrome, who I reviewed earlier in this project. When Damon (the other half) took off for France, he took the name with him. Creed soldiered on under his own name (and also a version of Chrome called Helios Creed's Chrome, after a lawsuit) and never quite made the same impact. Separating out Damon's nihilism and Creed's psychedelic exploration seemed to kill the dialectic, maybe?

The Cramps, Smell of Female (1983)

Where bought? Not sure. Really not sure. This feels like a record I have never not owned. It seems to have followed me around for over 20 years. Geographically that would put me in my home town, but I can't think of anywhere that might have stocked this. Also, I think I bought it because a pal had it and I liked it a lot, so I might even have got my ownership of it confused with his having it while we'd get stoned at his house.

Cougar Discipline, Âme soeur (2016)

Where bought? I'm fairly sure I bought this off David, one of the band's label owners, at his flat in Rennes. He tried to give it to me (he is a very generous man) but I insisted on paying the man for once. Like I scrunched fifteen euro into his hands and made him keep it and not secrete it back into my belongings or buy something in kind.

Cougar Discipline are (were?) a trio from Lyon comprised of a drummer, a singer/speaker, and a guitarist. I sort of know the guitarist, Alex, and he's probably one of the best musicians I've ever met.

Elvis Costello and the Attractions, Armed Forces (1979)

Where bought? I think my pal Jude was having a clear-out and he gave me this and a few others.

A perennial of British music magazines Best Albums of All Time mayhem that seemed to arise every year from the late 90s to the late 00s (the internet sort of killed it, though Rolling Stone just resurrected it and remembered that black people have made music in the past). It's probably this hype and the general wild positivity toward one Declan McManus that has gotten me off on the wrong foot.

The Chameleons, Strange Times (1986)

Where bought? I think this was X Records in Bolton. It's in such a shabby state that I can't think why I picked it up. It's also an American copy (credited to The Chameleons UK).

The Chameleons are generally considered one of those UK 80s guitar indie bands that didn't get their due; three solid records with no major mis-steps, clearly an influence on later artists like Interpol, and generally took some of the poses of post-punk into interesting places.

Berline 0.33, Planned Obsolescence (2011)

Where bought? Got this from one of the band, presumably in Lille.

A disclaimer inasmuch as two of the band members are good friends and there's absolutely no way on earth I would be 'fair' about this record. Did you come here for fair? 

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Odditties Sodomies Vol. 2 (2019)

Where bought? The most recent purchase and I bought it from some guy in Glasgow off Discogs. I think it was from his record shop, but I dunno what it is called.

A quick jump backward to catch A-C releases I missed out on. I'd imagine this represents the end of my Ariel Pink purchasing frenzy of the last year or so: the other two Odditties Sodomies volumes don't quite tickle me as much, and while I could find room for Underground, Scared Famous, Loverboy, and pom-pom, they'd probably have to be knockdown prices.

momentary interlude

I usually start out quite "hot" with a project and tail off. I don't think this is happening here, but I am moving flat and as such lugging my records around and having to re-arrange them, set up my stereo equipment, etc. etc.

I also found a couple of records in the B and C letters that I missed out owing to them being either filed incorrectly or so thinly-spined that they escaped notice. 

Also decided that I will do the 7" records in round-ups after every 4th letter, so expect A-D fairly soon.

Coil, Horse Rotorvator (1986)

Where bought? La Face Cachee in Metz. The version I have (German copy on Recordvox) now goes for about £40 minimum, making it one of the few records I own that has actually appreciated in value.

Throbbing Gristle and associated projects for me are hit and miss, though I do like the unashamed provocation of most of it. Ultimately provocation and being on the right side only gets you so far: I'm a tunes man to the end of time, and so it shall be. Coil are really only nephews of TG, anyway, a side-project of Psychic TV gone in their own bizarre and pointed tangent.

Cocteau Twins, Treasure (1984)

Where bought? I've been lugging this one around for years, well over a decade, and as such I can't remember where I would have acquired it. I can't even remember what kind of mindset I'd have been in to think "ooh, Cocteau Twins, I'll have some of that!", which makes me think I came into owning it by accident or something. 

I've know a few people to like Cocteau Twins - historically, the kind of women that I liked in my late teens and early twenties tended to like them, whatever that means I do not know - but the spell of their enchanted tundra indie-goth never quite rubbed off on me at the time. One of them was a superfan, had Robin Guthrie's email, went to Cocteau Twins fancons, the works. Wonder what she's up to now.

Cluster, Cluster II (1972)

Where bought? I have a distinct memory of picking this up in Liverpool, so probably Probe, who have always been a bit better than anywhere in Manchester with kosmiche and European progressive music.

 
I do miss the days of picking music up only half aware of what it might contain. Had I been in the market for a Cluster record now (I suppose I am) I'd have gravitated toward their late 70s work, or maybe one of their Eno collaborations, or the Michael Rother collaborations under the name Harmonia (in fact, a shop in town has Deluxe for 17 smackers, might get it). But back then, idiot fool me went for this because I preferred the cover to the slightly cheesy font used on Zuckerzeit or the inscrutable drawing on Grosses Wasser.

Clikatat Ikatowi, River of Souls (1998)

Where bought? From a friend of a friend who was having a bit of a fire sale. I can't remember his name but he lived around the corner from said pal in about 2006/2007 and he said 'come and knock on my door about 7.30pm' so we did. He only answered the door at about 8.05pm having forgotten about the arrangement and was so deep into a one-man noise jam that he lost track of time.

Hey that cover looks familiar!

Chrome, 3rd From The Sun (1982)

Where bought? Mod Lang in Ludlow, which is a great record shop for a quiet market town in rural England. The shop actually began in Berkeley, CA, but the owner moved (back?) to England and brought the name and ethos with him.

Sometimes I think that Chrome are my favourite 'post-punk' group, particular their late 70s to early 80s run of records before Damon fell in love with a French girl, moved to Europe, and became a bit of a tragic case. There's no direct antecedent what they did (Pere Ubu, maybe, but not really) and yet traces of their sound can be found in a lot of places in the 21st century. They're also completely non po-faced and decidedly not boring ever.

Cheer-Accident, Introducing Lemon (2003)

Where bought? I feel like I've been lugging this mf around for years but the only place it makes sense for me to have bought it is the Alans overstock sale pop-up in 2012. No idea really.

Here's another opportunity for experential music reviewing as the best you will get out of me in a Proustian sense is "listened to this once and hated it and wonder why I still have the bastard following me around all my life." That was quite some time ago now, and my mind and mood change on lots of things. My recollection of it was that it was a bit wacky and turning on a dime faster than I could establish that what my ears had heard was indeed a dime. So to speak.

La Chasse, Noir Plus Noir Que Le Noir (2017)

Where bought? La Face Cachee in Metz.

I am one of those suckers who is influenced by hearing something good in a record shop, and ownership of this record is testament. Then again, this record is a lot of fun, so who is the sucker?

Johnny Cash, At San Quentin (1969)

Where bought? I've had this a really long time but its provenance escapes me. It was very cheap and in poor condition when I got it and the years have seen it suffer several moves. There's surface noise galore, scratches, and the grooves barely take the needle. But it is still going, and in some respects, perfect.

This record has soundtracked several things that I am sure Mr. Cash didn't hope for, such as getting stoned with friends or playing Crazy Taxi on the Dreamcast, and much of it is braintape including the between-song patter.

Can, Ege Bamyasi (1972)

Where bought? Crocodile Records, in the Manchester University student union, in approximately 2002.

 
Whilst I suppose it is not impossible to overstate things, this record is an incredibly important milestone in my own listening and confidence in self-discovery. For one, it was the first record I actually bought on vinyl, and for quite a while would be played through and the loop back to the beginning to enjoy it all again.

The Can, Monster Movie (1969)

Where bought? This feels like a rare appearance for Probe in Liverpool, a record shop that disappoints more than it should. I wish them all the best, and their psych selections have always been ahead of the curve, but feels like they could be doing more in a city like that.

Music criticism used to be so powerful to me that it would affect entire narratives of how I would approach certain groups, eras, albums, etc. This album is a strong case-in-point. In the late 90s Can were still not quite at the point of critical reappraisal they would reach a few years later, and what writing in English could be gotten hold of would often say that the Damo Suzuki years were great, while Malcolm Mooney was a 'poor' singer who said things that made no sense.

Kate Bush, The Whole Story (1986)

Where bought? I think I got this off the market in Worcester for a fiver. Don't usually go in for hits collections but I made an exception here.

This is fairly unimpeachable stuff really. 11 hits and one new composition (the worst thing on here, but it's fine). 'Wuthering Heights' has a newly-recorded vocal that I don't think beats the original, but it isn't wildly different in any fundamental sense ie. she phrases it much the same, adds a little bit of improv in the lovely string outro.

Burial, Untrue (2007)

Where bought? Struggling to remember this. What I can remember is that it didn't cost very much (under ten pounds) and that I wondered if the person selling it me knew what it was, but for the life of me I struggle to recall where I'd have picked it up from. 

 
The emergence of Burial is probably the last time that I bought into critical hype and also think it was completely worthwhile (there have been later flirtations that have slowly diminished the influence critics have on my purchases). The whole 'this is the sound of the London night bus, going past all the chicken shops and out through the edgelands' and the whole interlacing of theory and Mark Fisher and Iain Sinclair and all that, yep, this makes sense to me and in some respects I can't move past that critical lens.

Jean-Louis Bucchi, Reportages (1986)

Where bought? From the estimable La Face Cachee (The Hidden Face) in Metz, France. Undoubtedly a makeweight 3 euro purchase in a quite a large haul that I picked out of a rack marked 'weird'. I reckon he probably gave this to me for free after rounding down the price.

Confession: I have never given this a listen. This review, therefore, constitutes a largely experiential exercise in which I try to describe what is happening before my very ears. A bit of background first, though.

Bronski Beat, The Age of Consent (1984)

Where bought? Got it really cheap from Kaleidoscope in St. Helens. I went up for a particular 7" (Three Wise Men EP by Trout) but couldn't resist. 

I've always felt reasonably confident that I am a heterosexual man (or at least, if I have any other tendencies, I am happy enough in my self-repression!) but I have always found a huge inspiration in the resistance of uplifting, positive, angry, hi-NRG gay pop music. It seems lost on generations now how ridiculously hard it was just to exist back when this was made, with a Conservative government that were literally making legislation that forbade teaching about your existence and experience.

Broken Social Scene, Feel Good Lost (2001)

Where bought? Feels like Piccadilly Records in Manchester or Action Records in Preston. More likely the former, I'd say.

You may not like the Toronto-based turn of the century indie-rockers Broken Social Scene and that is fine - I saw them in December 2004 in Berlin and they were pretty brilliant, actually, with such an incredible live sound for a band with FIVE guitarists - but unless you're also familiar with this album too, please throw all of your conceptions of the band out of the window before approaching this record.

Broadcast, Extended Play Two (2000)

Where bought? I have to come clean and say that I stole this from an old housemate. Well. Borrowed from his room and never gave back. I didn't intend to keep it but it was in my possession when he moved out in a hurry to start up a business with his partner.

My former housemate literally never contacted me again, nor did I know a way to get back in touch and haven't seen him since then (2006-ish?). I've been in his places of business and never seen him in there, either. Life does not want him to have his copy of Extended Play Two back, and frankly, he can afford to replace it if he does.

David Bowie, Let's Dance (1983)

Where bought? I think this might have been out of a cut-out bin in the big sale at Alans when it re-opened for a week to get rid of stock. This might have been from the Static Records pile, but I'm pretty sure I got it from my home town. £3. 

In my esteemed opinion Let's Dance is the fourth best David Bowie solo LP; ahead of Low, ahead of "Heroes", ahead of Scary Monsters, Hunky Dory, or Lodger. I'm not a big hot takes monster but I believe this at least until faced with new evidence.

David Bowie, Station to Station (1976)

Where bought? Without meaning to sound like a stuck record I am fairly sure this was Rise in Worcester. I'd seen it in there for a while and meant to get it, and then discounted it after going way too hard in the post-death rush.

After David Bowie died, a forum I used decided to listen to all of his studio albums one-by-one and post thoughts about them. I'd been relatively Bowie agnostic for most of my life: his singles were good and there were lots of them, so who needed deep cuts? Especially when there's so many of them, in different styles, and of wildly varying quality?

Bowery Electric, Beat (1996)

Where bought? Purchased the reissue brand new, likely from Rise in Worcester. 

Those early days in Worcester were reasonably exciting for me. I was earning a nice wage to research something I was interested in, I had begun to lecture and develop confidence in public speaking, I had colleagues for the first time that I liked and was happy to socialise with, and I had started a romantic relationship not long after ending one (normally I would go years).

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Master and Everyone (2003)

Where bought? This was a present for my 20th birthday, and it had come out the week before. It was given to me by my friends Jude and Angie, who had just become a couple (and still are). I am going to assume they got it from Crocodile Records in the SU of University of Manchester, but I thought better than to ask.

Though I was hoping for more of a blend of electric and acoustic music as on I See A Darkness, I liked Master and Everyone from day one and still like it to this day. It is confident in its sparseness, and probably the least irony-laced of his lengthy back catalogue. My favourite one is the Hermann Hesse reflecting 'Wolf Among Wolves'.

James Blackshaw, The Cloud of Unknowing (2007)

Where bought? 99.9% sure this is Piccadilly Records in Manchester. I was living there then, it is where I met James, it is where the people who got me into his stuff lived, and it is entirely braintape from those days.

The recent years have been quiet on the James Blackshaw front - no new album since 2015, and only one single on Adult Swim, which seems slightly misleading given the music he makes - which I mention as odd because having met and interviewed Blackshaw, seen him play, and heard a few of his records, he seems eminently the kind of lifer artist who will just knock new variants of his basic style out year on year to a devoted following. For a while that was the case, but there was a hiatus that seemed to end a year prior to the lockdown. I hope it hasn't scuppered his desires.

Big Black, Pigpile (1992)

Where bought? Crocodile Records, that used to be in the Student Union at the University of Manchester. Disappeared in the 00s.

 

 

On the day I bought this I needed to own a Big Black record, I had decided. All the places near where I lived didn't have Atomizer or Songs About Fucking so I just grabbed the nearest thing from the nearest place. I had no idea Pigpile was a live record, or really what the band sounded like. The internet existed but not in my student house at the time, so this was very much a hit and hope purchase. Maybe I even forced myself to like it at the time.

Big Black, Atomizer (1986)

Where bought? If I had to guess I'd say Piccadilly Records in Manchester. I associate 'acquiring loud records that have something to do with Steve Albini' with living in Manchester, and remember buying At Action Park by Shellac from the same place (subsequently sold).

Haven't heard this in quite a while and was ready to possibly accept that the days where I wanted to listen to a monolithic combination of skinny whiteboy rage over cheese-wire strung guitar and pounding drum machine beats were long behind me.

The B-52's, The B-52's (1979)

Where bought? I am really not sure. Had it for a while. Feels like I could have grabbed this from anywhere between 2008 and 2014. Manchester? A record I forgot that I owned, as I went and picked up the 'Rock Lobster' 7" later on.

Well this brings back a particular time and place. In 2004 and 2005 I was, essentially, a tour manager for a local band with big ideas of making it in the world. They didn't, and that's a shame because they were good and better than a lot of their peers. The singer is now low-level indie famous and the rest are in normal jobs.

La Bergerie, Transhumance (2018)

Where bought? Should say "where acquired" - this was posted to me gratis by the label owner Florian. I must declare interest here as my own band is on the same label, though I think I can be honest without ruffling too many feathers. 

I own quite a lot of reasonably obscure French records; I'm no extra-giddy Francophile but I've travelled there quite a bit and made friends along the way, so things tickle my ear and people want to give me things in the spirit of generosity. There'll be a few more like this along the way.

Bee Gees, Spirits Having Flown (1979)

Where bought? Good Time Records in Walton, north Liverpool. Went for a lockdown walk there when record shops were allowed to open and bought this and a couple of other cheap things. 

12 years on from First is almost a completely different band with two whole careers worth of drama, success, and change under their belts. This is post-Saturday Night Fever, a band of global megastars responding to the task of producing something that exists in the world that punk was about to change.

Bee Gees, Bee Gees' 1st (1967)

Where bought? Not sure. I owned it in Worcester, but quite late in my stay there (2015-2020). That means I couldn't have got it from Rise as it closed, and I never bothered much with the overpriced guy upstairs in the market. Doesn't feel like I got it from the outdoor market guy either. This narrows things down to Sound in Stroud, Mod Lang in Ludlow, or Carnival in Great Malvern. But it doesn't ring any bells with visits there either. Hmmmmmmmm.

In later years I've definitely latched onto the Bee Gees. They defy theorisation and are so much more than their disco years and the major hits. In the early days they were a proper band and not just the 'Brothers Gibb' - the Aussies Colin and Vince are definitely a part of their sound, and I feel losing them was quite a blow.