Published on
October 2, 2014
Category
Features
51. KEVIN HARRISON & STEVEN PARKER
‘In My Eyes’
(Illusion, 1982)
Sad, churchy songs from more folks associated with the Eyeless In Gaza/Ambivalent Scale camp – Parker was also a member of Bron Area, mentioned earlier in this list. This is an outtake from their only cassette, 1982’s Against The Light. This music, though its architectures can seem elliptical, works with a hushed intimacy not often encountered within the world of UK DIY. It’s also worth checking out another version of ‘In My Eyes’, where Harrison’s channelling more of Eyeless In Gaza’s Martyn Bates’ emotionally quavering vocals. He’s also singing with Linda Novak, about whom I know nothing – anyone can fill the gaps? Their songs on Illusion’s Sensationnel No. 3 & No. 4 cassettes are quite astonishing.
52. THE HAWKS
‘Words Of Hope’
(Five Believers, 1980)
Or The Subterranean Hawks, aka one of the earliest appearances on vinyl for both Dave Kusworth, better known for his ongoing collaboration with the late Nikki Sudden as The Jacobites, and Steven Duffy, ‘80s pop star turned ‘90s folk singer turned ‘00s song writer for Robbie Williams. Emerging from the Birmingham scene that also gave you Duran Duran, for its various sins, The Hawks were originally known as Obviously Five Believers – someone here obviously had a serious Dylan fixation – and you can hear so much in these grooves that would find full expression in both Kusworth’s and Duffy’s future music: gentle melodicism, quiet despair, a spear through the heart. I’ve heard a rumour that the demos recorded by The Hawks, or The Subterranean Hawks as they were sometimes called, will emerge sooner or later. Can’t wait.
53. JOWE HEAD
‘Cake Shop Girl’
(Hedonics, 1981)
Resurrecting his contribution to the Swell Maps’ second and final album, Jane From Occupied Europe, ‘Cake Shop Girl’ is one of the many highlights of Jowe Head’s first and best solo album, Pincer Movement. Always one of the weirder, more deviant members of Swell Maps – the funny man to Epic Soundtracks’ heart-on-sleeve balladeer – Pincer Movement was recorded during the final months of the Swell Maps’ tenure, and suggests a bunch of other directions the group could have headed in, had Head helmed the gang for a while. Great songs, unexpected arrangements. Now if only he’d reconstruct Daga Daga Daga, his abandoned/unreleased collaborative album with Epic Soundtracks…
54. THE HOMOSEXUALS
‘Soft South Africans’
(Lorelei, 1978)
Okay, the A-side, ‘Hearts In Exile’, is The Homosexuals’ most sublime moment, full stop – a regal chant of a song placed under serious dub distress. But ‘Soft South Africans’ has also got it going on, guitars chipping away at your eardrums before an acoustic guitar stumbles into view, string-bean single-note noise buzzing in your ear while someone in another room potters away on bongos and bass. “Let the big shots howl” – well, if there are any ‘big shots’ in the world of UK DIY, then The Homosexuals are very much it; their body of work possesses so much uncommon beauty and transcendence it can sometimes be too much to get through that Astral Glamour set in one sitting. It’s a staggering body of music that equally aces and excels so much of the accepted post-punk canon. And ridiculous fun, too.
55. HORNSEY AT WAR
‘Hornsey At War’
(War, 1979)
What a great, sloppy racket this is. Hornsey At War get it absolutely right: shaky, uncertain playing, fuzzy, distended guitar, drums that are about to fall off a metaphoric cliff. Johan Kugelberg gets it absolutely spot on when talking about this record, when discussing the “charming blend of hubris and [defeatism] that seems to pervade the psyches of most people involved in underground music”, something perfectly exemplified on Hornsey At War’s Dead Beat Revival EP. Hubris and defeatism? You got it.
56. INSTANT AUTOMATONS
‘People Laugh At Me (Coz I Like Weird Music)’
(Deleted, 1980)
That’s a title most readers can relate to. Instant Automatons pretty much nailed the weird allure of UK DIY on this song from their first EP, Peter Paints His Fence. What a great song to use to justify your ‘ascendancy’ from the cassette culture hordes. They were the kings of the ‘Bad Music’ movement, and quite possibly the best musical outfit to leak out from Scunthorpe and Grimsby, in South Humberside. Deleted Records, their label, self-described as ‘the world’s most unprofitable record company’ – given the current, parlous state of the music industry, hindsight seems a fabulous thing, doesn’t it?
57. THE JANET & JOHNS
‘Let Bygones Be Bygones’
(Vindaloo, 1980)
Who were The Janet & Johns? One of the earliest releases on Vindaloo, the label run by Robert Lloyd of The Prefects and The Nightingales, “Let Bygones Be Bygones” is music reduced to its core – a one-note drone rumbling through the entire song, a simplistic, thudding rhythm clapped out on a few dull woodblocks (or maybe just tapping the mic itself), and a droll rant over the top. Representing South Wales, The Janet & Johns appear only to have released this single; they were loosely connected with the extended Scritti Politti family, apparently, much like Methodishca Tune. They needed to release a face-flatteningly loud 12” single to capture the full force of their strident minimalism.
58. JOSEF K
‘Romance’
(Absolute, 1979)
The sound of young Scotland near its finest. Josef K hooked themselves to Alan Horne’s bumpy Postcard wagon after this self-released debut single on Absolute. ‘Chance Meeting’ was the A-side, but ‘Romance’ has more rough DIY kick – that guitar is fantastically warped, slack-strung notes fighting their way out of the brisk sting of feedback. Of all the groups playing around in Scotland at the time, Josef K were the most archly modernist, such that even their debut, DIY 7” has plenty of haughty poise. It’s just a shame they never really nailed a great album. Also look out for the pre-Josef K, TV Art take on ‘Chance Meeting’, which is floating around on YouTube.
59. THE JUST MEASURERS
‘Calling All Teenagers’
(It’s War Boys!, 1983)
The Just Measurers have only one album to their name, Flagellation, but what a record it is. Yet another rictus gurning, tricksily, from the It’s War Boys! multi-headed hydra, The Just Measurers had a fantastic grasp of how to make pop work in the most un-pop of scenarios. ‘Calling All Teenagers’, one of the album’s many highlights, plays like Family Fodder’s rhythm section are in one room, Alterations are in another, in some alternative reality London Musicians Collective where The Homosexuals call all the shots. A dazzingly weird, yet unashamedly pop blast from a label and gang who weren’t short on such revelations.
60. KONTAKT MIKROFOON ORKEST
‘Do The Residue’
(MCCB, 1981)
Somewhere out there, someone’s building a shrine to Geoff Leigh, who is, along with Mick Hobbs, one of the most underrated musicians from that British RIO/Recommended Records axis. While people like Leigh came at it from a different angle, you could argue that these records are as representative of the multiplicity of the DIY aesthetic as, say, Royston or Beyond The Implode. Leigh spent some time with Henry Cow, and in the mid-‘70s was in Radar Favourites with This Heat’s Charles Hayward. ‘Do The Residue’ is not a million miles removed from the vernacular surrealism of the It’s War Boys! team, it’s just played a little more straight, and has a squeaky, vertiginous sense of unease that seemingly threatens to topple the song at any time, a slave to its own structures.
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