The story of UK DIY: 131 experimental underground classics 1977-1985

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71. MOSCOVITE FIVE
‘Untitled’
(In Phaze, 1982)

Okay, a confession – this is the only song I’ve heard from Moscovite Five. Attempts to turn up their music have amounted to almost nada. So I’m hoping and praying that the sudden appearance of one song on YouTube will lead to more, maybe the catalogue being uncovered – Captured Tracks, are you listening? – and then we can all hear what is rumoured to be some of the finest, subliminal pop-non-pop from this whole crew. Moscovite Five were one of Georgina Hartman’s post-Marine Girls projects, with Mark Flunder of Television Personalities: in Moscovite Five they were joined by Andy Wilson of The Passage; subsequently, they’d lose Wilson and record as Sindy Arthur, releasing a cassette on Bi-Joopiter, the label that, more than any, feels like the torch-holder for the UK DIY aesthetic. I’ve tried to contact Hartman about this music, but to no avail. Any leads?


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72. MUD HUTTERS
‘National Interest’
(Defensive, 1980)

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Mud Hutters released a few 7”s, and an album, Factory Farming, but some of their best songs were squirreled away on a four-band LP, Four Ways Out, where they sat alongside Dislocation Dance, Rire: To Laugh and Vision On. It’s a cool compilation, but the Mud Hutters songs are the stand-outs – urgent, buzzing, with Seeds-y organ stabs repeatedly speared with electric jolts of guitar, while the rhythm section get their heads down and push the song somewhere close to the brittle physicality of Joy Division, a name I’d never usually invoke when it comes to this music. They were a good wee band, this lot, who eventually shared a member with the Diagram Brothers – this song, and Factory Farming, are pre-Diagram, though.


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73. THE MURPHY FEDERATION (AKA LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS)
‘The Fed-Up Skank’
(London Madras, 1981)

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“Why am I such a misery? I’m just getting over this vast depression.” If reggae is read as righteous ire, The Murphy Federation’s ‘Fed-Up Skank’ feels like a particularly British response – don’t bother shouting down Babylon, just pull the covers over your head and avoid all discussion of the world outside. Here, Bing Selfish (see earlier in the list) and Robert Storey, the majordomo behind the Murphy operation, connect with an arm of Milk From Cheltenham and make a surprisingly coherent, slippery dubbed-out skank. Many of these groups had their dalliance with reggae – The Homosexuals gave it a few tries, too – this is probably the best of the bunch, outside of The Slits, of course.


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74. NAFFI SANDWICH
‘Uranium Geranium’
(Naffi Productions, 1980)

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…which leads quite nicely into Naffi Sandwich, and the Naffi / Naafi collective, who are perhaps best known now for gifting the world with the genius of Brenda Ray. You should check out her ‘Starlight’ single as an example of breathlessly beautiful, ghostly dub-pop, but also stick around for her involvement in the Naffi collective, who released some singles and tapes, many of which have recently been compiled by Japanese nutters EM Records on a series of CD reissues. ‘Uranium Geranium’ is a pretty good indicator of what you’ll find on their early cassettes – pattering beats skipping through a dub chamber, while dislocated voices, and brass and wind from the Don Cherry organic music society wind through an echoplex Escher tessellation.


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75. NARKY BRILLANS
‘Falling Hole Into’
(It’s War Boys!, 1981)

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You might disagree, but the sole Narky Brillans tape, Goes Into Orbo…, is one of the lasting moments of genius of the whole DIY caper, the kind of record that reveals new surprises at every left turn, that continually shocks while it charms the pants off you with its wit and wiliness. Sadly, there’s no representation on YouTube of some of my absolute favourite songs on the tape, but ‘Falling Hole Into’ is as representative as you’re going to get – worth it just to hear Jim Welton aka Amos aka L Voag warbling into the mic like he’s channelling tongues. Goes Into Orbo… was reissued a few years back by Alga Marghen, though by then he’s lost a y, added another i, become Narki Brillans, and messed with the tape a bit; you still need (at least downloads of) both. Not that I’d encourage you to break the law. No way.


76. NORMIL HAWAIIANS
‘British Warm’
(Illuminated, 1982)

I was going to include Normil Hawaiians’ debut single, ‘The Beat Goes On’ here, because it’s more archetypal and was released on Dining Out in 1981, the label that gave you Disco Zombies, etc. etc. But to be honest, it’s not very good: Normil Hawaiians took some time to find their way, but they really nailed it on their two albums for Illuminated Records, What’s Going On? and More Wealth Than Money. On these albums – particularly the latter, an expansive double album – they’d started to experiment, discovered the space they needed to do what they really set out to do, and the result is a weird, agrarian kind of post-punk art song, which at times almost reminds of groups like Savage Republic. I’m surprised one of these Brooklyn hipster labels hasn’t lost their shit over the Hawaiians and reissued their back catalogue. Surely it’s only a matter of time.


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77. O LEVEL
‘East Sheen’
(Psycho, 1978)

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Ed Ball, who would eventually end up as one of the cheerleaders and recording stars on Creation Records, started out alongside Television Personalities trying to square punk’s ethos with mod’s style. ‘East Sheen’ has the same uncertain playing and pure conviction as the Television Personalities’ first single, ‘Part-Time Punks’, though it feels like it cribs more moves from Subway Sect’s ‘Ambition’. Which is a pretty cool thing to do, when you think about it. Listening to this plucky teenage ramble, it’s sometimes hard to think that Ball would end up a pioneer of British acid house with Love Corporation, while making MBV knock-offs in his resurrected Teenage Filmstars guise in the ‘90s.


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78. OFFICER!
‘Anagrams’
(Ayaa, 1984)

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The ongoing project of Mick Hobbs, perhaps best known as one of the names behind The Work. With Officer!, Hobbs made true on the weirdo pastoral vibe that was always implicit with the RIO groups he was loosely connected with. Maybe it’s the bassoons. ‘Anagrams’ comes from the first Officer! album, Ossification, and is a classic example of what Hobbs does best – songs that spark off at different angles, drums that are about to play their way out of the room, strangely folkish, chanted vocals, all coated with the languorously delicious sigh of Judy Carter. Quite a line-up on this album, actually, with free vocalist Catherine Jauniaux, Georgie Born of Henry Cow, and Zeena Parkins (then of News From Babel, since Björk’s harpist of choice) all joining in the gleeful madness. Ossification was reissued by Megaphone earlier this year, and a previously unreleased ‘90s album, Dead Unique, came out recently on Blackest Ever Black. Maybe the time has finally come for Officer!.


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79. ORANGE JUICE
‘Falling & Laughing’
(Postcard, 1980)

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Wasn’t entirely convinced this should appear here, but let’s face it, ‘Falling & Laughing’ was the spark for so much Scottish underground / DIY musical endeavour, it would seem churlish to keep it out of the running. Plus it’s such a great song – even at this early stage, Orange Juice seem fully formed, somehow divining the similarities between the Velvets, Chic, and lingala, with Edwyn Collins’ winded, campy voice giving one of the most joyously fruity vocal performances of its times. If some DIY and post-punk falls prey to its own seriousness, Orange Juice injected a whole heap of joy into the equation, a most necessary corrective.


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80. ORCHESTRE MURPHY
‘Hiding In The Forest’
(Noise Method, 1983)

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From the peerless 12 Minutes At The Hot Club Murphy 12”, reissued a few years back on 7” by the good folks at Messthetics (Chuck Warner) and Milk & Alcohol (Stewart Anderson aka Steward aka that legend from Boyracer). Yet again, Robert Storey is at the controls here, but unlike the dub wildness of The Murphy Federation’s ‘The Fed-Up Skank’, here Storey and co. crawl, slink and slide unexpectedly across the floor, oozing from the four-track tape (or across the studio floor) like a particularly British take on The Residents circa their contributions to Subterranean Modern. By this stage, Orchestre Murphy was a loose conglomeration of Homosexuals, Milk From Cheltenham, Mick Hobbs, and Janey Haggar (aka Nancy Sesay, more of which soon), making Orchestre Murphy a kind of DIY super-group, of sorts. Very particular sorts.