MARRS: Pump Up The Volume (12″, 4AD BAD…
This may be the first 4AD release I've mentioned on here, and I'm pleased it's come about, as 4AD is a label with almost invariably good artwork. As the spine of this 12" proudly states:…
SONIC YOUTH: Helen Lundeberg (7″, SY-0001)
This is the first 7" record that my random number generator – the website I use to decide which record from my collection to write about – has pointed me towards. That's a little intentional, as until…
VERVE: She’s A Superstar (12″, Hut HUTT 16,…
That's Verve, of course, not The Verve, as they became, slightly later in their career. I can't quite remember why they changed their name, but it may have been to do with potential mixups with the Verve…
THE SMITHS: I Started Something I Couldn’t Finish…
The Smiths are, for me, an odd band. I've got a few of their records, but I'd never really describe myself as a fan. Whenever I hear any of the vast majority of their songs,…
UNCLE WIGGLY: Non-Stuff (LP, Hemiola HEM 7, ?)
The lot of a small-time reviewer is an odd one. I reached merely moderate levels of coverage and/or influence with a series of fanzines – and an associated cassette tape label – back in the early/mid…
HOOD: Silent ’88 (LP, Slumberland SLR 59, 1996)
Hood always felt very much like an English band – specifically, Northern English. Their songs had a gritty, blurred, romantic, hopeful and bleak combination of things going on. For a while, it seemed like they…
VARIOUS: Impact: The Breakthrough To The Exciting World…
I have quite a number of these 'demonstration'-type records, no end of them were released through the 1960s and 1970s to show off the worlds/galaxies/spectra/etc of new stereophonic (or, in some cases quadraphonic) capabilities of,…
CHARLES HAYWARD: Anonymous Bash (LP, Samarbeta SBR001, 2014)
Charles Hayward was a founding member of This Heat, who released some of the best and most inventive records of the late 1970s and early 1980s – which is saying something, as there was a lot of…
THURSTON MOORE AND MARGARIDA GARCIA: The Rust Within…
Thurston Moore isn't backwards in coming forwards when it comes to releasing records. As a die-hard Sonic Youth fan, I do what I can to keep up with the ever-expanding circle of music that surrounds…
EARTHLING SOCIETY: England Have My Bones (LP, Riot…
"Good old Riot Season…", to paraphrase an old Yellow Pages television advert. "They're not just there for the bad things in life". They are there, though, as a relatively frequent, always reliable source of all things noisy,…