Mopping Up

Blah Blah Blah
Scritti Politti again

The Sweetest Girl (1981)

Ok, the politics is gone. We're making pop songs about girls now. 

Who cares when it's as lovely at this.

Especially one that has a contribution by Robert Wyatt in the recording.

This concludes the lesson on Scritti Politti as far as I will currently go.

You're welcome.

My Cherry is in Sherry (1980)

Ludus were from  Manchester and this 3rd single was released on the label that the Buzzcocks manager's label New Hormones.

I can never resist a good song about sex.

They're All A-sides to Me

We continue with yet more early Scritti Politti

Work in Progress: 2nd Peel Session (1979)

The released product of their 2nd Peel Session in June of 1979.

More of the same.

A lot more political bent on this one.

"Messthetics" 

Yes. 

4 A-Sides (1979)

A lifetime ago in my first band the bass player who was a few years older than the rest of us wanted to do a cover of "Confidence" from this. Never quite got that or the band off the ground, but I had possession of this for a brief period.

Listened to it a lot, but it was a few years before I could locate my own copy.

It would take a lot to pry it from my hands now.

Every song a gem. 

Posting this makes me happy because I have an excuse to play it a few extra times while I type about it.

Wait, Is It Supposed to Sound Like That?

This is one of two posts.

It's the initial recorded output of Scritti Politti.

Shut up.

You're dead fucking wrong.

No, really.

First Peel Session (1978)

For the general public Scritti Politti was a mid-80s synth-pop/dance group that had a couple of top ten hits with "Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)" and "Perfect Way" which are as perfect an encapsulation of terrible 80s production as you could ever find.

It's the sound of pastel colors, baggy tshirt and an ozone depleting amount of hairspray.

This is about as far from that as you can get.

This is a boot of their first Peel Session from May 12,1978.

It's a very disjointed sound. It's the sound of Art School kids living in squats. 

For me that's a big "Fuck Yeah!"

It's like they're all playing different songs at the same time.

(This is also not my rip or anything like that. A well connected friend passed it on to me. I return the favor and pay it forward as it should be.)

Skank Bloc Bologna (1978)

Their first proper seven inch. 

A lot more coherent than the Peel Session and something that I can listen to over and over again and have over many years.

 

(It's unfortunate that I don't seem to have done my own scans for these. When I ripped them a while back I didn't have a scanner. Perhaps if I feel like it in the next few months, I'll fix that.)

The cheaply printed sleeves have a very strict accounting for all the money spent in order to make the record like the good Leftists they were.

 

It's on their own St. Pancras label and a precious 2500 were all that were pressed.

I couldn't really say which song I love more. "Skank Bloc Bologna" or "Is & Ought the Western World" though the third track is less essential being some instrumental music over a bit of BBC Radio.

This is absolutely my jam.

Unrelated Seven Inches

I swear I'd posted this first one before...

Log-a-Rhythms (1981)

I think I had intended to post this along with the Painterband single that I haven't quite gotten to or maybe I already did post it. I remember stuff that I had written or wanted to write. But it doesn't appear in my site search. So, maybe I dreamed it.

Log-a-Rhythms is the work of Katherine Hughes, violinist. But strangely enough the bio on her page does not mention this single. An obvious omission on her part. Perhaps you could book her for your corporate event and request it.

I like it, myself. The world needs more songs about coffee.

You Did It (1983)

Liliput were from Zurich in Switzerland. This trio was originally named Kleenex until the Kimberly-Clark people asked them politely to call themselves something else. And such is how the legal world of names evolve in a corporate space.

It's on Rough Trade and occupies the same musical space as the Slits, Raincoats and the like of the post-punk sphere.

There was a double disc reissue of their complete recordings that Kill Rock Stars released in 2001 that I briefly considered for posting. You can consider this a sample. If there's interest perhaps I'll put it up. (Which is really just my thinly veiled plea for comments and attention. It gets lonely here when the cat's ignoring me.)

sPrinG is finally Here

Just because I can.

It's officially the Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere which means I've only got another three or four big snowstorms before Summer hits.

sPrinG (2000)

This handmade Cdr disc by sPrinG has been sitting by my desk for years gathering dust and had reached a point of familiarity that it barely registered in my vision any longer.

It was just a thing that was there.

 I'm not even precisely sure I ever actually listened to it in its entirety.

Maybe.

It might have just been set down at one point and gotten moved around a few times before settling into the space it occupied until I picked it up and decided to look at it again just recently.

I am pretty sure that I may have received it from a member of the band probably at Sursumcorda in Minneapolis a couple of decades back. But that's hazy. Did they play? Were they just traveling through? I don't remember at all.

But I do think somebody handed it to me as occasionally happened when we played and they seemed to like what we were doing for some reason. But it's difficult to remember a short 30 second exchange from 20 years ago.

So it will remain somewhat a mystery. But I can't actually think of any other possible way it might have made it into my possession. For all I actually know it may have just suddenly materialized next to my desk without my noticing.

The gist of this rambling is:

I acquired this disc.
It existed in the periphery for a long time and at some point reasserted itself into my consciousness.
Now here it is.

And it's some nice dark lo-fi psychedelic weirdness just like you might have read about in the backpages of Ptolemaic Terrascope back in the day and a concept album.

I'm kind of puzzled as to why I never did check it out more than possibly once.

But we'll both be glad I did because it's something that ought not be consigned to oblivion.

Rescue it. Be aware of it. Enjoy it.