Hello, looks like chances are Scotland becoming an independent nation once again, as London, on orders of their hinterland, prepare to jump of a cliff and limit the damage that will incur. Now is the EU prepared to pay them a bonus for breaking up the UK with possibly N Ireland and even Wales following the money and leave those English basket-cases behind.
Today's artists were a Scottish post-punk band, active between 1979 and 1982, who released singles on the Postcard Records label. The band was named after the protagonist of Franz Kafka's novel The Trial. Although they released just one album while together and achieved only moderate success, they have since proved influential on many bands that followed. .. ......N'Joy
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Inspired by the artsy side of the '70s New York scene and the anti-careerist stance of punk, Edinburgh natives Paul Haig (vocals, guitar), Malcolm Ross (guitar), and Ronnie Torrance (drums) formed a band with an apparently unmentionable name. Future Exploited member Gary McCormack came and went as the bassist, with the trio eventually renaming itself TV Art. David Weddell eventually filled the gap, with the band frequently playing in and around their town. By the end of 1979's summer, they had recorded a demo and changed their name to Josef K.
November of that year saw the release of the nervy Chance Meeting single on the one-off Absolute label. Alan Horne and Orange Juice member Edwyn Collins struck a verbal deal with the band for their Postcard imprint, which released a series of the band's singles. The first was a double pack with the funk-/soul-influenced Orange Juice gracing one half, which helped break ground on the press-derived "Scottish Sound." In late 1980 the band recorded an LP's worth of material in less than two weeks. The somewhat slickly produced Sorry for Laughing was canned by Horne and the band for tilting the sound toward the rhythm section, rather than highlighting the guitars and sounding live. A few months later, the band recorded another album, entitled The Only Fun in Town. Committed in less than a week, this one was released officially, hitting the top position of the U.K. indie chart. Notably, it was the only full-length released by the band, as well as the Postcard label. Having released a record and playing a number of successful shows, Haig determined that the band needn't accomplish anything more and disbanded his group. Ross went off to join Orange Juice, and also spent time with fellow Scots Aztec Camera. Haig began a solo career, eventually working with such talents as Alan Rankine, Billy Mackenzie, Cabaret Voltaire, and Mantronix. Weddell and Torrance were part of the Happy Family with Nick Currie (better known as Momus).
Musically, they resembled their label mates Orange Juice in fusing post-punk guitars with funk and disco rhythms. They were influenced by American bands such as Pere Ubu, Television, Talking Heads, and The Voidoids, and British bands such as Subway Sect. However, in terms of their lyrics and image Josef K were always far more downbeat and austere than Orange Juice, and were never to match Orange Juice's commercial success. They were also described as sounding similar to Joy Division but "less doomy". Haig was a fan of Joy Division and "It's Kinda Funny" was inspired by the death of Ian Curtis. Haig's lyrics were also inspired by the works of Franz Kafka, Albert Camus, Hermann Hesse, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Knut Hamsun.
The band adopted what was described as an "anti-rock stance", most members eschewing drink and (most) drugs, and the band never doing encores, which Ross considered "patronizing".
A number of posthumous releases followed shortly after the band's departure. Young and Stupid was issued by Supreme International Recordings in 1987, compiling singles, a session for the BBC, and stray tracks from the shelved first album (it has been reissued twice since then with varying content). Les Temps Modernes coupled Sorry for Laughing with The Only Fun in Town on CD in 1990 (since the original release, it has been reissued by Rev-Ola and LTM once again). Marina issued a compilation of the band's finer moments in 1998, entitled Endless Soul. Domino did the same in 2006, with the excellent Entomology. Despite the recurring levels of interest in the band and their work, unlike many of their peers, they have to date resisted the urge to re-form.
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It would be easy to say that Josef K had better days ahead of them when leader Paul Haig decided to close that chapter in his life, because there's simply no telling. Despite that train of thought and despite the reservations of bandmembers and critics over the way the Scottish quartet's limited studio output was recorded, and despite the fact that the bandmembers thought they did their best work on-stage, there is still no denying that there is some brilliance apparent in their lone studio album and this compilation, Young and Stupid. Three versions of it are floating around, with each successive edition improving on the one that preceded it. It was originally released on vinyl by Supreme in 1987 with 12 songs that mined their singles; though the tracks were selected by the band and the LP was released by their former manager, it didn't exactly fulfill its duty or exhaust the vaults -- vaults that contained substantial recordings that had been out of print for some time. When the label issued the title on CD three years later, it was significantly bolstered with the addition of several tracks: a session recorded for John Peel's BBC program in 1981, another smattering from 7" releases, and some previously unreleased material that included a demo version of "Radio Drill Time." This thankfully brought a full close to the CD issuing of Josef K's studio legacy, as it completed the unfinished job done by the original pressing. (So the CD version of Young and Stupid and the Only Fun in Town/Sorry for Laughing pairing rounds up everything the band made in a studio.)
It's also probably worth explaining that a number of songs from the original version are not included on the two versions that followed; those songs -- which could be found on the CD release of The Only Fun in Town/Sorry for Laughing anyway -- were extracted to make room for all the goodies mentioned above. And when LTM reissued the disc in 2002, they remastered the sound to great effect and added a superfluous live rendition of "Adoration" to the end of the second version's running order -- so that's the one to own. The fantastic BBC session is a key inclusion, not only for the fact that it was the last material recorded by the band prior to its breakup. "The Missionary," which was laid down for the session and would later be released as the A-side to a posthumous single (with vocal and instrumental takes on "The Angle" -- a hot tune in its own right that displays their Talking Heads influence more than anything else they released -- as B-sides), is proof positive that Josef K didn't pack it in because they were running on fumes. A speedy, dexterous number that showcases each member's locked-in precision, it's easily one of the best songs they committed to tape, right up there with the classic "Sorry for Laughing," which is also found here in its single version. They were smart, stylish, and jerky, but they were in every sense a pop band -- and an excellent one at that.
Josef K - Young And Stupid (flac 460mb)
01 Romance 2:54
02 Chance Meeting 2:58
03 Radio Drill Time 4:06
04 Crazy To Exist (Live) 3:01
05 It's Kinda Funny 3:40
06 Final Request 2:18
07 Sorry For Laughing 3:01
08 Revelation 4:16
09 Chance Meeting 3:07
10 Pictures (Of Cindy) 2:19
11 The Angle (One Angle) 2:42
12 The Angle (Second Angle) 2:36
13 The Missionary 3:49
14 Heart Of Song 3:20
15 Applebush 2:20
16 Heaven Sent 3:35
17 Endless Soul 2:25
18 Radio Drill Time (Demo) 4:18
19 Torn Mentor 5:13
20 Night Ritual 2:45
21 Adoration [Live] 4:43
Today's artists were a Scottish post-punk band, active between 1979 and 1982, who released singles on the Postcard Records label. The band was named after the protagonist of Franz Kafka's novel The Trial. Although they released just one album while together and achieved only moderate success, they have since proved influential on many bands that followed. .. ......N'Joy
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Inspired by the artsy side of the '70s New York scene and the anti-careerist stance of punk, Edinburgh natives Paul Haig (vocals, guitar), Malcolm Ross (guitar), and Ronnie Torrance (drums) formed a band with an apparently unmentionable name. Future Exploited member Gary McCormack came and went as the bassist, with the trio eventually renaming itself TV Art. David Weddell eventually filled the gap, with the band frequently playing in and around their town. By the end of 1979's summer, they had recorded a demo and changed their name to Josef K.
November of that year saw the release of the nervy Chance Meeting single on the one-off Absolute label. Alan Horne and Orange Juice member Edwyn Collins struck a verbal deal with the band for their Postcard imprint, which released a series of the band's singles. The first was a double pack with the funk-/soul-influenced Orange Juice gracing one half, which helped break ground on the press-derived "Scottish Sound." In late 1980 the band recorded an LP's worth of material in less than two weeks. The somewhat slickly produced Sorry for Laughing was canned by Horne and the band for tilting the sound toward the rhythm section, rather than highlighting the guitars and sounding live. A few months later, the band recorded another album, entitled The Only Fun in Town. Committed in less than a week, this one was released officially, hitting the top position of the U.K. indie chart. Notably, it was the only full-length released by the band, as well as the Postcard label. Having released a record and playing a number of successful shows, Haig determined that the band needn't accomplish anything more and disbanded his group. Ross went off to join Orange Juice, and also spent time with fellow Scots Aztec Camera. Haig began a solo career, eventually working with such talents as Alan Rankine, Billy Mackenzie, Cabaret Voltaire, and Mantronix. Weddell and Torrance were part of the Happy Family with Nick Currie (better known as Momus).
Musically, they resembled their label mates Orange Juice in fusing post-punk guitars with funk and disco rhythms. They were influenced by American bands such as Pere Ubu, Television, Talking Heads, and The Voidoids, and British bands such as Subway Sect. However, in terms of their lyrics and image Josef K were always far more downbeat and austere than Orange Juice, and were never to match Orange Juice's commercial success. They were also described as sounding similar to Joy Division but "less doomy". Haig was a fan of Joy Division and "It's Kinda Funny" was inspired by the death of Ian Curtis. Haig's lyrics were also inspired by the works of Franz Kafka, Albert Camus, Hermann Hesse, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Knut Hamsun.
The band adopted what was described as an "anti-rock stance", most members eschewing drink and (most) drugs, and the band never doing encores, which Ross considered "patronizing".
A number of posthumous releases followed shortly after the band's departure. Young and Stupid was issued by Supreme International Recordings in 1987, compiling singles, a session for the BBC, and stray tracks from the shelved first album (it has been reissued twice since then with varying content). Les Temps Modernes coupled Sorry for Laughing with The Only Fun in Town on CD in 1990 (since the original release, it has been reissued by Rev-Ola and LTM once again). Marina issued a compilation of the band's finer moments in 1998, entitled Endless Soul. Domino did the same in 2006, with the excellent Entomology. Despite the recurring levels of interest in the band and their work, unlike many of their peers, they have to date resisted the urge to re-form.
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
It would be easy to say that Josef K had better days ahead of them when leader Paul Haig decided to close that chapter in his life, because there's simply no telling. Despite that train of thought and despite the reservations of bandmembers and critics over the way the Scottish quartet's limited studio output was recorded, and despite the fact that the bandmembers thought they did their best work on-stage, there is still no denying that there is some brilliance apparent in their lone studio album and this compilation, Young and Stupid. Three versions of it are floating around, with each successive edition improving on the one that preceded it. It was originally released on vinyl by Supreme in 1987 with 12 songs that mined their singles; though the tracks were selected by the band and the LP was released by their former manager, it didn't exactly fulfill its duty or exhaust the vaults -- vaults that contained substantial recordings that had been out of print for some time. When the label issued the title on CD three years later, it was significantly bolstered with the addition of several tracks: a session recorded for John Peel's BBC program in 1981, another smattering from 7" releases, and some previously unreleased material that included a demo version of "Radio Drill Time." This thankfully brought a full close to the CD issuing of Josef K's studio legacy, as it completed the unfinished job done by the original pressing. (So the CD version of Young and Stupid and the Only Fun in Town/Sorry for Laughing pairing rounds up everything the band made in a studio.)
It's also probably worth explaining that a number of songs from the original version are not included on the two versions that followed; those songs -- which could be found on the CD release of The Only Fun in Town/Sorry for Laughing anyway -- were extracted to make room for all the goodies mentioned above. And when LTM reissued the disc in 2002, they remastered the sound to great effect and added a superfluous live rendition of "Adoration" to the end of the second version's running order -- so that's the one to own. The fantastic BBC session is a key inclusion, not only for the fact that it was the last material recorded by the band prior to its breakup. "The Missionary," which was laid down for the session and would later be released as the A-side to a posthumous single (with vocal and instrumental takes on "The Angle" -- a hot tune in its own right that displays their Talking Heads influence more than anything else they released -- as B-sides), is proof positive that Josef K didn't pack it in because they were running on fumes. A speedy, dexterous number that showcases each member's locked-in precision, it's easily one of the best songs they committed to tape, right up there with the classic "Sorry for Laughing," which is also found here in its single version. They were smart, stylish, and jerky, but they were in every sense a pop band -- and an excellent one at that.
Josef K - Young And Stupid (flac 460mb)
01 Romance 2:54
02 Chance Meeting 2:58
03 Radio Drill Time 4:06
04 Crazy To Exist (Live) 3:01
05 It's Kinda Funny 3:40
06 Final Request 2:18
07 Sorry For Laughing 3:01
08 Revelation 4:16
09 Chance Meeting 3:07
10 Pictures (Of Cindy) 2:19
11 The Angle (One Angle) 2:42
12 The Angle (Second Angle) 2:36
13 The Missionary 3:49
14 Heart Of Song 3:20
15 Applebush 2:20
16 Heaven Sent 3:35
17 Endless Soul 2:25
18 Radio Drill Time (Demo) 4:18
19 Torn Mentor 5:13
20 Night Ritual 2:45
21 Adoration [Live] 4:43
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Released by the Marina label in 1998, Endless Soul is a serviceable overview of Josef K's brief career, taking the best songs from the band's lone album and several singles into consideration. There isn't exactly a great need for its existence, as there isn't much of a point in distilling such a limited output that can be swept up in whole. “From here I see another plan, and hearing voice can't understand. A thousand times for all to see; questioning the right to be.” Josef K play hurricane jangle pop and their songs are full of punk spirit. “It took ten years to realize why the angels start to cry when you roll on down the lane – your happy smile, your funny name. I'm not being mean, so don't take it hard when I ask you to run round the yard.” The hectic beats and very emphatic bass seem to be the band’s trademark. “There’s so many pathways that lead to the heart. The records were letters, the wrong place to start so devoid of expression I can tell at a glance stripped at face value we can glide into trance. On the freeway so dark in the heat of this night we can tune in on them if the frequency’s right.” And of course their guitars are always wailing and yelping.
Josef K - Endless Soul (flac 389mb)
01 The Missionary 3:47
02 Endless Soul 2:28
03 It's Kinda Funny 3:43
04 Sorry For Laughing 2:59
05 Heart Of Song 3:18
06 Heads Watch 2:05
07 Chance Meeting 3:04
08 The Angle 2:39
09 Drone 3:07
10 Variation Of Scene 3:29
11 Final Request 2:21
12 16 Years 2:31
13 Heaven Sent 3:37
14 Revelation 4:14
15 Radio Drill Time 4:04
16 Adoration 4:41
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Boots for Dancing are a post-punk band from Edinburgh, Scotland, active between 1979 and 1982. They reformed in 2015.
The band was formed in late 1979 by Dave Carson (vocals), Graeme High (guitar), Dougie Barrie (bass), and Stuart Wright (drums).[1] Showing influences from the likes of Gang of Four and The Pop Group, they signed to the Pop Aural label for their eponymous debut single, receiving airplay from John Peel.[1] In the next two years, the band had more line-up changes than releases, first with ex-Shake and Rezillos drummer Angel Paterson replacing Wright, to be replaced himself by Jamo Stewart and Dickie Fusco.[1] Former Thursdays guitarist Mike Barclay then replaced High, who joined Delta 5. The band also added ex-Shake/Rezillos guitarist Jo Callis for second single "Rain Song", issued in March 1981.[1] Callis then left to join The Human League, with no further line-up changes before third single "Ooh Bop Sh'Bam" was released in early 1982.[1] Barrie then departed, his replacement being ex-Flowers/Shake/Rezillos bassist Simon Templar (b. Bloomfield), and ex-Josef K drummer Ronnie Torrance replaced the departing Fusco and Stewart (the latter forming The Syndicate).[1] The band split up later in 1982.
Keep trawling back through the annals of pop north of the border, tracing that lineage, and you will eventually encounter the legend that is Boots for Dancing, the punk-funk combo that began life in the capital as a post-pub piece of bravado and rolled through no more that three years of existence with a constantly changing line-up around frontman, vocalist, proto-rapper and mean mover Dave Carson. They left a recorded legacy of just three singles and a trio of sessions for the John Peel radio show. The legendary DJ's crucial support hardly sets Boots for Dancing apart from many other bands in what is now termed the post-punk era of 1979 to 1982, but his assertion that they were one of the few bands whose music was liable to persuade him on to the dancefloor is worth noting.
Now, some decades later, there is a Boots for Dancing album, newly released on the Athens of the North label run by Euan Fryer and the culmination of three years work by Fryer and Carson. Entitled The Undisco Kidds - a title that pays studied homage to the sound of George Clinton's seminal American band Funkadelic who inspired the less musically literate Edinburgh teenagers back in the day - the 14-track disc includes the entirety of two of those Peel sessions and one song from the third, together with four tracks recorded in 1981 at Tony Pilley's equally legendary Barclay Towers studios in Edinburgh. That visit to the studio produced the band's third, self-released, single, Ooh Bop Sh'Bam, but it is the only song on the whole project that has previously been commercially available, which makes the album much more than an exercise in vault-raiding nostalgia.
Particularly curious at first sight is the omission of both the previous singles, released on Bob Last's Pop:Aural label, The Rain Song, and the twelve-inch floor-filling anthem that kick-started the whole story, the song Boots for Dancing itself. As Carson explains, there are both musical and legal reasons for their absence.
"The work in putting together a Boots album - and it was Euan driving it - was in tracking down high quality recordings. The sound on the Pop:Aural recordings was much more compressed and not at all like the rest of the music we could find. And there is still some questions about the status of them in terms of what we signed at the time.
"It was simpler to licence the Peel sessions from the BBC and we were lucky to track down Tony Pilley. We wanted to make it sound like an album as an entity rather than the product of different sessions. The recordings were made over two years but they are not too disparate. I am totally amazed by it."
"It is not about revisiting the past and past relationships, but about finding something and putting it out for people to enjoy."
In that endeavour, Carson found the perfect partner in Fryer's Athens of the North operation, whose main business previously has been tracking down rare soul and disco 45s and reissuing them in high quality - and not inexpensive - seven inch pressings. Naturally, although the first release of The Undisco Kidds is on CD, there will be a vinyl version.
The story that Boots for Dancing is part of is one of a very vibrant Edinburgh scene, which is very fondly recalled by those who were there. Its alumni included Jo Callis, the guitarist and songwriter who passed influentially through the ranks of Boots on his journey between the Rezillos and The Human League. The manager of Boots for Dancing, and later the equally before-the-wave So You Think You're A Cowboy?, Alan "Pinhead" Proudfoot, would occasionally employ this writer to drive his bands to and from gigs. It is an era that is beautifully evoked, and meticulously recorded, by The Herald's Neil Cooper in a lengthy essay in the new disc's booklet.
"The coherence in the story is all Neil's," says Carson. "He interviewed me for two-and-a-half hours and then sent me a first draft with all the cross-references he had found through drawing me out and triggering my memory. He really opens up the story. There was no such thing as post-punk back then - that was invented in retrospect - but it was a development of the ideas of 1976 and 77 in that we were all about challenging things."
The Boots for Dancing album has - eventually and coincidentally - arrived at a time when the story of Scottish music-making of the period, particularly in Edinburgh as well as better-documented Postcard-label Glasgow, is being rediscovered, due in no small part to Grant McPhee's acclaimed documentary film Big Gold Dream. Gideon Coe airing an old Boots for Dancing Peel session on BBC Radio 6Music also gave Carson and Fryer's efforts "a bit of a boost", as Carson puts it.
What is clear is that The Undisco Kidds is an album that Boots never stood still long enough to make at the time. The variety in the music is terrific, ranging from the foot-stomping chants of Get Up and Ooh Bop Sh'Bam that grew straight from that eponymous punk-disco debut, to the lounge supper club jazz aesthetic of Style in Full Swing and South Pacific and culminating in the uncategorisable Bend and Elbow, Lend an Ear. While the skill of the young musicians develops in provocative directions, the common thread is Carson's way with an ear-catching lyric, cheerfully plundering a hinterland of showtunes, gospel and r'n'b for memorable phrases to repurpose.
"My main regret is that we didn't get into the studio more," says Carson, "because the other great instrument is the mixing desk. Most of these tracks were recorded with very few overdubs, and I'm very happy that people can now understand the range and variation Boots were capable of."
Boots for Dancing - Undisco Kidds (flac 369mb)
01 Salt in the Ocean 3:44
02 The Pleasure Chant 4:18
03 (Let's All) Hesitate 3:56
04 Get Up 3:26
05 Style in Full Swing 3:23
06 Timeless Tonight 3:30
07 (Somewhere in The) South Pacific 6:50
08 Just the Ticket 4:01
09 Wild Jazz Summers 5:06
10 Shadows on Stone 3:37
11 Oh' Bop Sh Bam 2:55
12 Money (Is Thin on the Ground) 3:28
13 Stand 3:21
14 Bend an Elbow, Lend an Ear 3:32
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1 comment:
Could we please have a re-up of "Young & Stupid"?
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