we listen so fast: forgotten/unkown/unloved 80s we are listening to.

breaking out this one again - julian marshall's project after marshall-hain split up (M-H had a hit with 'dancing in the city' if you remember that). some big name steely dan-related session guys playing on it (rick derringer on guitar iirc?), songs are sharp art pop with great vocals. think that any lurking laura groves fans here would love it. might have been moderately successful in the US but it didn't do shit here and it took me ages to find a copy in the wild:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEHn7Tw-AD8
Eye To Eye - Progress Ahead (1982)

oh man eye to eye are pretty common here and i must confess i don't listen to them but now i will! i don't know why i had it in my head that i didn't need to listen to them. brains are funny that way. i know i have some vinyl at the store.

Man i am listening to The Passage for the first time in a long time and they are just as weird as ever! For All And None. what a record. they totally made art rock. they could have been called Art Bears. they liked art. i remember first hearing them and thinking i was gonna get something completely different. i don't know what. more Cherry Red cute or jangly or something? I have no idea. but The Passage aren't cute. I feel like close listening is rewarded. They really go places.

https://i.discogs.com/7-6hlv3P91x5wXOauyV0oVxir6LUrXrLsgQqngvdAX4/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:590/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTg0NDcz/MS0xMTY0Njc5OTg0/LmpwZWc.jpeg

Def a range of sound. Never quite cherry red twee but an evolution from the fall diy post punk poppier new wave through some minimal art rock post punk stuff. XOYO prob the hit?

The Passage always seemed like a band (was it just 1 dude at first?) who had read a lot about music but had never actually heard any music, so were just guessing what it actually sounded like

hip rebels is my favourite passage tune atm, its very fad gadgety:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaWqlT14e1g

huh i don't recall em but i def hear the fall postpunk minimal artrock named above. it's pretty nice imo.

The Fall connection is direct, they were founded by Tony Friel who formed the Fall but left after the first single and appeared on the first two Passage singles, which were on Object Music, one of Manchesters other indie labels. But this belongs in the forgotten 70s thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvVLPhEiFPM

I think after Friel left it was Dick Witts vehicle. Interesting history with the Manchester Musicians Collective and Object Music connections, as well as the Fall.

they can be confounding. and not afraid to be unlikable. which i respect. they could have just thrown off some hot post-punk basslines and disaffected mumble rants and called it a day but the later records are weirder than that and i think that's why they sometimes (inadvertently? or on purpose? i'd have to read some retrospective interview with one of the members) remind of of some Rock in Opposition people. i think this is especially true of the Degenerates album.

"Witts had trained as a classical percussionist and briefly played with the prestigious Hallé Orchestra; he was also a founder member of the Manchester Musicians' Collective."

seems like it would be an interesting history to write about. maybe someone already has. at the very least i should check and see if there is a good interview with dick witts.

really long interview as a google doc if you scroll down his page:

https://richardwitts.com/selected-papers-and-talks/

Object Music is an awesome label and scene and a discussion for a different thread.

!!!!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo5bY7CM-YY

making the best of a bad situation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkZGw_9xcRo

for all your Roland needs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EIxNXsiuXw

Stepping back to the Passage, nearly all the members posted on the thread on here at one point, and I still think all my old AMG reviews are up...

why do some albums repel me? like the cactus world news album. urban beaches. maybe i've just seen it too much in too many dollar bins. i should just put it on. what's the worst that could happen?

this isn't so bad! they were no bolshoi but its better than listening to the alarm. (you can put that blurb on any cactus world news reissue...)

I taped that one off a friend when I was 16. It's decent for what it is, there were far worse bands that got signed in the hope they were gonna be the next U2

And talking of U2, I *think* I'm right in saying that they were one of the bands that got released on Bono's label, Mother Records. Most of the stuff on that label was garbage, but if you ever see this one, grab it cos its an absolute treasure:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9GnqZ3JkKE
Operating Theatre - Spring Is Coming

new fave band!!!

https://i.discogs.com/rIwochCjhgGiB53wNhxJ6VUaaQDAck8zvV0uau7FZO4/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:579/w:567/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTE4Nzc0/MS0xMTQ5MjczNTM4/LmpwZWc.jpeg

this single rules! wow. there is an Isolation Ward CD compilation but i don't see a copy for sale in the U.S. just one more reason why this country sucks. Thanks, Trump!

i will make a note of Operating Theatre.

i'm at my store now and we are closed so i can really blast stuff on the turntable and blasting stuff is what i am really good at. Isolation Ward. Who knew? other than Dan Selzer. he probably knew.

and one more thing: as someone who still occasionally plays the first Easterhouse album for enjoyment, i would never throw stones at a Cactus World News fan. or a Screaming Blue Messiahs fan either.

i think i did buy that IRS Records Alarm EP when it came out for "The Stand" which they drummed into my head on college radio. and then i did buy that debut album but by then...yeah...no.

holy shit exactly my track on alarm too

i can't believe how much promo money Geffen spent on Peter Case and that album. what the hell did they think would happen with it? omg, the guy from the Plimsouls has a new album out!! the amount of money probably pales in comparison to how much Columbia later spent to make Pete Yorn a huge huge star. sooooo much money spent on Pete Yorn. its a wild world we live in. Peters haven't paid since Frampton came alive.

https://i.discogs.com/R29L7lXkKK7IqxX4GbZXLX5l7PUsF6lbPUxSus-8988/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:576/w:583/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTMyODE2/MjQtMTMyMzc4NzQ3/MC5qcGVn.jpeg

My next door neighbor sang the Alarm's "Strength" at the high school talent show when i was a freshman... I'm going to have to listen to that now, because there's no way the actual track can be as colossal as it is my memory.

I also owned the Alarm EP because of a good Rolling Stone review, but immediately lost interest after that

Update: "Strength" is still massive.

this album is cool! i don't think i have a favorite record on the Mammoth Records label. now i do.

https://i.discogs.com/c2OKdOlUCTFBjh2cKgxHmqP8r2bemRHzs9wzMrgEBqs/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:592/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTI4ODQ1/MzEtMTU0ODI4NTEw/My00NTIxLmpwZWc.jpeg

I always get Pete Yorn and Pete Droge confused when I think of them, which is almost never. Both Petes with odd last names.

Oh and Pete Krebs too.

Downsiders is one of Cole Marquis's bands, he from 28th Day. Everything he did is worth hearing.

oh man i was listening to this excellent album by What? Noise but it turns out its from 1990. it sounds very very 80s. i like it a lot. not familiar with the group. the cover even has a faux-80s 23 envelope/grafica industria cover. not on 4ad but it should have been. kind of a more industrial wolfgang press? though wolfgang press could be pretty industrial...anyway, it doesn't matter cuz its from 1990. i'm keeping it. please disregard this post.

https://i.discogs.com/-2P8qFhO4r5Lx2JiwZHvDFizquoLnlqyb_vcsLim8Yc/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:597/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTM0MDk3/OC0xMjI2MTc3ODY0/LmpwZWc.jpeg

new beat 4 life. i definitely have some sort of self-imposed cut-off when it comes to benelux battiness. 1991/1992. somewhere in there. roundabout when all the stuff i never listened to in the 90s got hot. lords of acid. thrill kill kult. latter-day wax trax type stuff. more ebm/goth/vampire/stripper pole. NOT that there aren't probably a zillion things i would like if i listened to them from the 90s in a post-front 242 world. plus, all those 80s people were still making tons of music. a lot of them probably went on to acid or euro house in the 90s. that's my guess. when it comes to the early 90s i'm still a new yorker at heart with tribal house and long-in-the-tooth freestyle. can't help myself. miami. trains going down tracks that lead to mountains made out of gigantic asses and spaceships buzzing around. i am not a rave kid. i like detroit. chicago. berlin. in the 90s. the birth of minimal. house in my tech. tech in my house. and whores. whores in my house.

this single is from 1988. there is nothing special about it. i could listen to it all day.

https://i.discogs.com/eRhfhA49MmCbdGSoAwrnI6chHS9LlBFbUpnS2jW9zZM/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:581/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTM1NzEx/Mi0xMTc0MjU4NTMy/LmpwZWc.jpeg

i'm on to Fini Tribe and their salute to Can! i dig it.

https://i.discogs.com/mDj2AgP0jM1La1a7_wwaCreuJMIAYL5M9Kv0TdoPL_I/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTI1NDUy/LTEzMjgyMjMwMjku/anBlZw.jpeg

classic.

i was listening to Outlaw Posse. i always feel a little bad when i listen to british rap. i'm glad that people over there finally came up with grime and didn't have to worry about rhyming anymore. i like the richie rich mix on the single i listened to. from 1989. overall not great though.

This thread has turned into a parade of bands I saw playing support slots in London in the late 80s/early 90s. Have you done Mute Drivers yet?

Mute Drivers were on the same label as What? Noise iirc. Saw the former supporting Loop, never saw the latter but do have that record somewhere...

Need Headcleaner next plz

i take them as they come!

which is out of a box.

I dont know how good this band is exactly — though I enjoyed exploring it to 'figure it out' — but their sound is such a particular strain of '80s aesthetics I enjoyed digging into it as a kind of singular texture you cant imagine existing before or since

only mentions on ilx are of them being massively hyped / failed spectacularly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqJvL3RSE5k
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/BEwAAOSw2NJkr1L3/s-l1600.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et4kiBZBxhA

I feel like they would do well if someone made some edits out of their stuff

https://www.muzines.co.uk/images_mag/articles/emm/EMM_86_03_up_and_runni_large.jpg

the fits

you can imagine them being the guys who do the soundtrack for a fern gully knockoff or something ... I enjoy it as a surface texture

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnnlN_DG0es

Speaking of the box, out of one or from one, I just learned about this not too bad canadian band that likely belongs here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDrKOjaY5oE

Only because I was looking for a video about this Sheffield UK band who are killer and don't get much attention:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUek3AhGnEw

This The Box is basically Clock DVA after they split off with Adi Newton. What they did together, especially the Clock DVA album Thirst, is better than the parts, even though the Box's 80s albums like this are great angsty post-punk and the Box-less Clock DVA followed up with an even more accessible 80s classic that deserves more recognition (Advantage) before becomming Adi Newton's solo electronica project.

I'm thinking Clock DVA though aren't as forgotten as The Box, so I'm not going to post the video for Beautiful Losers but suggest you go watch it. Then watch the Futurama performance of 4 Hours.