Family Fodder B-Sides

I just received some ebay-purchased Family Fodder 7", and they are the cutest little 7" ever. The singles are old favorites of mine, but the B-sides are new to me and are, like most of their stuff, totally great and fascinating.

Family Fodder - Savoir Faire (1980)
Family Fodder - Carnal Knowledge

Family Fodder - Film Music (1981)
Family Fodder - Room

Dalek I Love You

Dalek I Love You were a synth-pop band that formed in Liverpool in 1977. The name is the result of a band compromise, a combination of Dalek, the evil alien mutants from Dr. Who, and "Darling, I Love You." I'll butcher history by paraphrasing that in their few early years they shared and lost members to The Teardrop Explodes and OMD, and by the time they released their debut album Compass Kumpass (1980) they were a duo, Alan Gill and Dave Hughes.

For the release of the album, the sneaky petes at Phonogram shortened the band's name to Dalek i without even telling them. Compass did well in the UK, reaching #54 on the pop charts, but didn't receive a whif of attention elsewhere. NME writer Andy Gill reviewed the record upon its release:

"A prime example of living-room music construction, it features catchy,
interlinking little riffs over a plodding beat formed by combining
elements of both drums and drum-machines and Gill's calmly urgent
vocals. Ingeniously simple but infuriatingly infectious -- rather like
an adult Human League on speed -- "Freedom Fighters" is one of the
year's best singles so far, and from what I heard of their other
material, there's plenty more where that came from."

Dalek i - Destiny (Dalek I Love You)
Dalek i - Freedom Fighters
Dalek i - Mad
Dalek i - Good Times
Dalek i - Heat

And that was it for the initial period of the band. Get the exhaustive, unbutchered full story on Dalek I Love You here.

The Tapes on Vinyl

The Tapes were a dutch new wave band based out of Amsterdam, and that's all google wrote. In English at least. I did find some info on dutch-language sites, but it didn't lend itself nicely to translation in a crappy online translator. The one thing I garnered (and could have figured out by reading the album cover) is that their third and final album "On A Clear Day" (1981) was produced by John Leckie, who's production hand also grazed the likes of XTC, The Fall, PiL, Simple Minds, and Magazine.

I'm patting myself on the back - I finally checked my laziness for a second and figured out how to convert vinyl to MP3, so this here is fresh from vinyl. Still working out how to get a nice LOUD recording, and put an awful knick in "Good Riddance" (fuckfuckfuck) before I made some tweaks that resulted in a more tolerably pitched "Night After Night," so my apologies for the lowered volume. Anyhow, enjoy, and I'll be posting more rare-ish stuff that I only have on vinyl soon (with better volume hopefully).

The Tapes - Night After Night
The Tapes - Good Riddance

do the quango

Quando Quango was an early 80's electronic dance band formed by Hacienda DJ and Factory A&R man Mike Pickering and dutch siblings Hillegonda and Reinier Rietveld. Hillegonda does a better job than I could of describing the music:

"...Fela Kuti meets Kraftwerk somewhere between Manchester and Rotterdam, part of a new wave of post-punk electronica, with a whole lot of Mike Pickering's admirably broad knowledge of soul, disco, reggae and pop to stuff the gaps."

And Trouserpress says:

"Playing and production are uniformly sharp, but Quando Quango was best served by 12-inch dance mixes; an entire LP's worth becomes redundant and forgettable."

I totes agree. These two 12" singles rock, but some of their other stuff is a little chintsy.

Quando Quango - Love Tempo (12" mix) (1983)
Quando Quango - Atom Rock (12" mix) (1984)

For you winos

From the fertile valleys of Manchester, in some very pristine years for this locale, Dislocation Dance are a spritzy new wave outfit with a french pop bouquet and a post punk nose. Enjoyed best over a coastal drive or an upbeat cheese party, this spirited offering is free of harsh aftertastes and noisy elements. The flavors are clearly defined and in unique balance - crisp and tasty!

From mini-album Slip that Disc!, released by New Hormones in August 1981:

Dislocation Dance - Spare Concern
Dislocation Dance - We Can Work it Out (Beatles Cover)
Dislocation Dance - This Problem

From LP Music Music Music, released by New Hormones in October 1981:

Dislocation Dance - Meeting Mum and Dad
Dislocation Dance - Friendship
Dislocation Dance - Roof is Leaking

Taste it for yourself on the jam-packed LTM reissue of the above releases plus bonus singles, available for purchase from the fine folks over at Darla

New Year New Wave

Be Bop Deluxe get swept up in the New Wave and go electronic-ish on 1978's Drastic Plastic. I would like this more if it had less guitar solo, but frontman Bill Nelson was regarded as quite the guitarist at the time so I guess he's entitled to some soloing. Shit, I hate guitar solos, I can't believe I'm posting this as my first post of the New Year. Bah, just listen. "New Precision" sounds like talking heads, but Byrne and company would never have abided by all the soloing because they just get it.

Be Bop Deluxe - Electrical Language
Be Bop Deluxe - New Precision

P.S. that kind of sizzly fuzzy blown-out speaker sound that the drums and bass have is inherent in the actual recording, not due to a bady copy.