playgroup - ist tom insane?

Roddy Frame disappointed me with his contribution. He's been doing that for more than fifteen years. Will I never learn? Will he?

too smooth, but fun. marred perhaps only by the completely superfluous and annoying fatboy slim remix at the end.

Okay, so it's 8 years later and I just dug this album out for re-evaluation as I put together my decade's-end list and LIKE WHOA... pretty much every song on here foreshadows something that would later become faddish for a while in various corners of pop music. Not saying Trevor Jackson has a crystal ball or anything, but it was fortuitous of him to get there first.

Also, not sure why "4th Sex Baby" wasn't included on the album proper, because it certainly deserves to be heard.

I like how Jess comes on all jaded about Playgroup, disco-not-disco etc. back in 2001. Little did he know.

'4th sex baby' did end up getting added to the reissue that had all the remixes on the second disc.

i still give this a listen now and then - some of the songs are a bit wispy but i'm willing to cut them a bit of slack due to the sound of the thing being pretty excellent.

'4th sex baby' did end up getting added to the reissue that had all the remixes on the second disc.

still >:( at this

I've been thinking about digging this out recently too. A friend of mine who worked in recording studios around that time tells me that the reason it sounds excellent is due to the recording assistant. Trevor had the tunes, but this guy really polished everything.

haha tim i WAS jaded about it back then!

coming up through college steeped in american hardcore (punk) made me totally prematurely jaded about the post-punk revival. one minute dudes were vomiting over "slip it in" riffs in rorschach and the next minute they're bigging up gang of four and the fire engines.

In 2001, I was still pretty dumb and typically unwilling to embrace anything that wasn't all-guitars-all-the-time (not really, but also not too far off). Anyway, it was the double shot of this and The Avalanches' album that really opened me up to appreciating a lot more stuff throughout this decade. I still keep The Avalanches in pretty regular rotation, but for some reason this album kind of fell by the wayside.

Aside from its obvious throwbacks to the '80s, it really doesn't sound dated at all in a contemporary sense. It could've come out last Tuesday and nobody would've known otherwise.

Jess I wasn't laughing at you so much as the 00s in general. I agree that at the time it seemed right to be a bit sceptical of the overt-obviousness and "logical conclusion"-ness of Playgroup's revivalism. But in retrospect this was probably one of the most prescient albums of the decade, to the extent that predicting the next big revival culture can be described as "prescient".

oh yeah, jackson was robbed in that sense. though if he had waited 6 to 18 months he might have been deemed a carpetbagger. such was the window of prescience in this decade, i suppose.

also not to be all ex-crit, I bought this at the time fairly unaware of the general presence of it and actually song for song it's one of the better dance albums of the decade...v strong as far as that's not a poisoned chalice.

http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/classic-album-trevor-jackson-on-playgroup-604093

Had been thinking about this album & the Partymix with recent discussion of shifting memories/conceptions of the 80s over on the Pfork thread; chatty track-by-track breakdown.

I really love the cover of "Behind the Wheel" although maybe I heard the original after the cover. Still, it doesn't touch it. Awesome cover IMO. The best thing he ever made under the playgroup name.

The intro to that music radar piece is horribly condescending and presumptuous and it feels very dated although it was only written a year ago. The album feels pretty dated too though, sadly. I listened to it a few nights ago. There are really good things in it tho - Luca's vocal and Edwin Collins are good.

"Behind The Wheel" cover is amazing and basically when I think of the original now I'm actually thinking of the Playgroup version.

ta for this pointer.

had no idea re the story of this album as I came to it many years after its release.
amazed as to the sheer level of sonic detail that clearly went into it.
I have never scoured the credits, so, the involvement of edwyn Collins came as a bit of surprise to me.
I just assumed playgroup was trevor and some of his output label mates in a studio having fun.
more fool me.
thankfully I picked up the 2cd version with all the remixes, so, tonight I am going to soak it all up.
I don't think it has aged at all.

in other news : anyone tried the recent 'format' album ?
not seen anything written about it, and heard that its probably a bunch of home-demos brushed up for release, and so, not that special.

ok, relistening.
its shameful that I did not realise re ECs involvement in the medicine man track.
so obvious now.

loving the 50 ways.. cover with shinehead ..
damn.
had forgotten re the highs of this album.

next up, reproduction...

(mainly for the DM cover version as mentioned and the brilliant nylon pylon 12" mix .. the rest I don't recall to much of to be honest)

The album and his DJ Kicks came along at just the right moment in my life for sure. Tied a whole bunch a strings together for me, and for him too, obviously. Cool Q&A.