Can we reassess Shriekback?

which one of you fuckers tricked me into THAT

I liked Oil and Gold more after I saw Manhunter.

Jam Science = worst album title since Ass.

...as is "Malaria", "This Big Hush," "Fish Below the Ice", "Faded Flowers" and "Everything that Rises Must Converge."

;)

favorite: "lines from a library"

(probably the anti-shriekback shriekback song.)
m.

When I was a kid two things impressed me about Shriekback: their bass player (eg Gang of Four) and his simple, super funky basslines; and their tribal drum programming, which was much more energised and kicking than was the norm back then.

thnx, looking forward.

Gaz, I would love some Dizzee in return. Thanks mate! Or are you pulling my leg?

sure, i'll send some dizzee. addy off line pls.

That said, "Nemesis" *is* an awesome song.
...as is "Malaria", "This Big Hush," "Fish Below the Ice", "Faded Flowers" and "Everything that Rises Must Converge."

I really like all the weird anthropological imagery on Oil and Gold. Very much the same thing Peter Gabriel was doing on "Rhythm of the Heat" -- "primitive"/ritualistic imagery, the guy in darkest Africa on a grant who takes some peyote and goes native.

I have been rocking all of my old Shriekback records lately. The first three albums and all attendant singles and EPs still sound classic to me. Somehow they manage to transcend their extremely shortsighted 80's style production choices. Having a bunch of great songs really helps.

"Care" is good. C'mon.

It is. And so is Tench, the ep which preceded it. And the single 'Working on the Ground'. After that - not so good.

I'm thinking that most people who say Shriekback are cheesy haven't heard Care, Tench or Accretions. After that it was all a bit more conventional, though it still had its moments. Then they lost Carl Marsh, and the magic triangle of Allen-Andrews_Marsh was broken.

The Y Records Years comp is ace.

cant believe the lack of love for Jam Science on this thread!
i think its their most cohesive album with a fantastic combination of weird songs and interesting production.
still the shriekback album i visit the most.

Everything through _Oil & Gold_ is genius, production and all. There was definitely a drop in quality after Carl Marsh left (anyone heard his solo album? Talk about bad production!). Of these albums:

Big Night Music - very solid but exchanges some of the strangeness for more production tricks.

Go Bang - dire. Completely worthless, the record company must've threatened them or something.

Sacred City - I dismissed this at the time but it's aged well. The dance rhythms that I initially disliked add a nice change.

Naked Apes And Pond Life - Return to form with huge tribal rhythms and bizarre lyrics.

Cormorant and Glory Bumps came out in the past few years and are kind of a delayed double album. Both build on Barry's body of work as he continues to create great grooves with intruiging lyrical images.

The other Shriekback thread is better but I'm waking this one up instead in light of their December 2022 album Bowlahoola, which I hadn't heard of until today but am listening to right now. Generally speaking I think Care & Oil + Gold are great records, esp. Oil, and that returns diminished after that. This new one opens on a pretty unpromising note -- Shriekback is best when they're not mugging quite so hard -- but the second song, "Baby Floods the Zone," goes motorik and is better. Thereafter that's things you'll like if you liked Shriekback and probably not much if you didn't. The album, anyway, is all Barry Andrews. Andrews is best when he has foils to temper his style a little imo. The more exciting news from team Shriekback is that there's an album by Andrews's pre-Shriekback band Restaurant for Dogs -- avail through the Shriekback site in ltd quantities they say. No clips anywhere, curious how it might be.

(If you're a subscriber to Shriekback's mailing list it turns out there's a track from the RfD album for free download -- I assume my dl code is generated specifically for me but if you're a UK post-punk fan in any way I'd get on the mailing list just to grab this track, it will knock you flat for real.)

Intrigued! I haven't kept up at all with Andrews but I'm glad he's still doing his thing.

I haven’t checked in since Without Real Strings or Fish, I’ll listen to the new one sometime soon though. I like what reunion shriekback are doing musically/lyrically but the synths have a tendency to sound vaporous and thinly workstationy.

I’ll always have a lot of time for care, jam science, oil and gold, most of bnm, and almost all of sacred city