Wavetrain, 4th wagon

Hello, my fourth wagon holds some obscure music Youth & Ben Watkins created 2 albums together and both are rare gems, same can be said for Second Layer top notch doom and gloom by the angry poet, Sound foreman Adrian Borland..a pity he didnt unleash more of this edge of him. Comsat Angels never made it to the big league when so easily they could have done, bad management, Pylon got plenty of cudo's even after they decided to quiet the music rat race, well with Gyrate they set off and for sure that was a good start, same can be said for B-Movie their first 1980 release of Nowhere Girl a 12"/ album mix EP for Deadwood got them some chart succes upon rerelease in 82 but it seems that was about all they had in them..

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Youth and Ben Watkins - The Empty Quarter and Delerium (83)
Second Layer - World Of Rubber (81)
Comsat Angels - ' Fiction '
Comsat Angels - ' Land '
Pylon - Gyrate (80)
B-Movie - Nowhere Girl EP (80 )

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Ben Watkins is a British electronic music artist and producer, best known as being the principal member of the band Juno Reactor. He started making music in 1982. In the early 1980s, Watkins started out as part of the London based New Wave band The Hitmen, featuring Alan Wilder who would end up in Depeche Mode and Recoil. He also played in Empty Quarter with Martin "Youth" Glover a founding member and bassist of Killing Joke.

Three years after opting out of Killing Joke, dreadlocked bassist Youth teamed up with former Hitmen vocalist Ben Watkins (now also versed in keyboards, drums and guitar) to record The Empty Quarter, the official soundtrack from the play 'Street Captives' by Jonathan Moore. Recorded on the 26th & 27th August 1983 at Wave Studio. Forceful and musically intelligent, with layers of disembodied sound lunging and pulsing in and out, it's a striking collection of dramatic, largely electronic instrumentals that bear some of Killing Joke's fury, mixed with subtlety and artsiness. Eighteen months later they followed up with Delerium, this time recorded in 5 days, more electronic, still instrumental . Alas it didnt get the credit it was due. Ben Watkins went on releasing techno till this date under the moniker Jumo Reactor. Martin "Youth" Glover is an influential record producer and rejoined Killing Joke in 2002.

These albums are very rare and not available digitally, compressed in ogg9



Youth and Ben Watkins - The Empty Quarter + Delerium (84 flac 389mb)

01 - Incompressible Megalasaurians (2:26)
02 - Wet Work (4:01)
03 - Three Go Down To Brighton (3:24)
04 - Repulsion (6:06)
05 - Gizzy Headed Buzzards (3:59)
06 - Basket Case (4:11)
07 - Sloeboe (4:16)
08 - Essence Of A Thousand Kisses (6:10)




11 - Bullshit (3:58)
12 - Glass Finger (4:40)
13 - Luscious Glory (3:30)
14 - Thunder Box (4:00)
15 - Heart Of Darkness (3:24)
16 - Black Sage (4:42)
17 - Delirium (4:04)
18 - Full Throttle (2:53)
19 - Res-Erect (3:24)

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Second Layer - World Of Rubber (81 flac 218mb)

Second Layer was an experimental project around the time of Adrian Borlands the formation of the Sound . The debut ep "Courts Or Wars" is minimalist punk with a drum machine whereas the later "State Of Emergency" ep was pure discordant noise. Followed by the album World Of Rubber one the grimmest albums Borland ever involved himself in. Heavy-metallish guitars, Suicide-style machine rhythm and ugly, grayish tones from an ARP synth sums up what you get here.

The opener is an incendiary anti-war song. "The definition of honor is that hole in the side of your head..."
"Underneath The Gloss", is enough to make your spine squirm and wonder if you're as sane as you think you are ! Closing the album with "Black Flowers" one of the most funereal closing tracks I've ever heard, with a simplistic drum pattern, detuned bass and dissonant washes of either synth or organ (I'm thinking the former...)

Second Layer was an electronic-based outlet for the Sound's Adrian Borland and Graham Bailey and it showed great potential, alas the Sound took up al the time and energy so Borland and Bailey never got around expanding their skills i think as a duo and with Borlands output they could have broken ground for an electro-industrial scene after all Borland's songwriting wasn't much less personal here than his writing for the Sound and a good contrast with the synths and drum machines .



01 - Definition Of Honor (4:18)
02 - In Bits (3:05)
03 - Fixation (4:03)
04 - Save Our Souls (3:26)
05 - Distortion (3:17)
06 - Underneath The Glass (6:47)
07 - Zero (4:15)
08 - Japanese Headset (1:59)
09 - Black Flowers (5:24)

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

They debuted with a self financed EP, released in 1979, named Red Planet. This release got them noted by John Peel and subsequently attracted Polydor , thus the band signed a three-album deal. These three LPs, Waiting for a Miracle (1980), which included the single 'Independence Day', probably their best known song, Sleep No More (1981) and Fiction (1982), are critically regarded as their best, but only sold modestly. Hardly surprising then that having failed to live up to Polydor's expectations (make us easy money), the record label let the band go. For their next album Land (83) Comsat angels signed to Jive Records expanding the path they set in with Fiction. Again the record company didnt know what to do with them, they pushed for a more commercial sound which resulted in "7 Day Weekend" (1985) . However, it also failed to sell, resulting in the band being dropped by a second record label.

Robert Palmer was instrumental in signing them to Island, he co produced their next album "Chasing Shadows" (1986). Not being pushed around enough yet an american Satellite Co. started legal troubles for using the name comsat, they had no money to fight of a law suit even when they named themselves after a J. G. Ballard short story The Comsat Angels, they tried CS Angels, then for their next album "Fire on the Moon (1990)" they renamed to Dream Command.. it made everybody unhappy and the next year a line up consistent since 78 broke up, Kevin Bacon left. In 92 their next label RPM Records released a Dutch radio sessions collection Unravelled before the final studio album The Glamour in 1995. The Glamour was the first studio album to feature new members Simon Anderson & Terry Todd, it was the Comsat Angels swan song
An example how pleasing others -- whether it be label heads or consumers -- is not a oad to success, they might have competed with the likes of U2 but in the end all that 'paper' got them (Stephen Fellows - vocals, songwriting, lead guitar, Kevin Bacon- bass, Mik Glaisher - drums and Andy Peake - keyboards) nowhere. Recently Renacent records finally released their albums on CD..link at the bottom

This is a 80 min compilation i made consisting mostly of tracks from my favourite Comsat albums Fiction (82) and Land (83) omitted were "Dont look now and What else" from Fiction and "Alicia" from (Land), added 1 track from their first EP and 2 from the Sleep No More album.



Comsat Angels - Fiction  (flac 433mb)

01 After The Rain 3:58
02 Zinger 3:30
03 Now I Know 3:58
04 Not A Word 3:44
05 Ju Ju Money 3:28
06 More 3:34
07 Pictures 4:27
08 Birdman 5:01
09 Don't Look Now 4:48
10 What Else!? 4:32
Bonus Tracks
11 (Do The) Empty House 3:31
12 Red Planet Revisited 3:31
13 It's History 3:41
14 Private Party 3:48
15 For Your Information 4:38
16 After The Rain (Remix) 4:00
17 (Do The) Empty House 3:28



Comsat Angels - Land (flac  427mb)

01 Will You Stay Tonight? 4:21
02 Alicia (Can You Hear Me) 3:54
03 A World Away 5:11
04 Independence Day 3:50
05 Nature Trails 4:55
06 Mister Memory 5:18
07 Island Heart 3:54
08 I Know That Feeling 5:20
09 As Above, So Below 5:39
Bonus tracks
10 A World Away (Dub) 4:57
11 Shining Hour 4:29
12 Island Heart (Dub) 6:00
13 Scissors And The Stone 4:31
14 Intelligence 4:32

Comsat Angels @ Orbit

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Pylon - Gyrate (now Plus)   (80 flac 402mb)

Pylon were from Athens Georgia, progeny of the same scene that gave us the B52s and R.E.M . All four members of Pylon were art students at the University of Georgia in Athens. Guitarist Randall Bewley and bass guitarist Michael Lachowski began playing music and attempting to form a band in 1978. Crowe soon joined the band as a drummer. In February 1979 the three held auditions for a singer. Vanessa Briscoe (now Vanessa Briscoe Hay) was chosen.

Pylon's debut single, "Cool,", earned strong critical notices and emerged as a major underground dance hit; that summer, they issued their debut LP Gyrate, also opening for the B-52's in New York's Central Park.
From 1980 to 1983 Pylon toured parts of the U.S., Canada, and the UK, the members of Pylon were beginning to feel that playing together was becoming less fun and more like a business. Their sophomore effort, 1983's Chomp, had them dissatisfied with the finished LP, and disheartened by an abortive tour in support of U2, the band dissolved in 1983.

With some help from the members of R.E.M., Pylon's reputation as one of the great underground bands of the new wave era was solidified in 1987. When Rolling Stone named R.E.M. "America's Best Band" in November 1987, R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry said, "We're not the best rock 'n' roll band in America." Pylon, he said, was the best. With the encouragement of R.E.M. and others, Pylon reunited in 1989 to open for the final leg of R.E.M.'s "Green" tour. They recorded another album "Chain" 1990, played several more shows



Cool / Dub
01 Cool 3:21
02 Dub 4:42
Gyrate
03 Volume 4:17
04 Feast On My Heart 3:34
05 Precaution 2:52
06 Weather Radio 2:15
07 Human Body 3:07
08 Read A Book 2:00
09 Driving School 3:54
10 Recent Title 2:27
11 Gravity 2:39
12 Danger 5:39
13 Working Is No Problem 3:32
14 Stop It 3:05
10" Inch 45 RPM
15 Danger!! 5:40
Pylon Studio Demos
16 Functionality 4:29

Pylon @ fan Base

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

B-Movie - Nowhere Girl (80  160mb)

One of England's best post-punk bands that bore a strong sonic resemblance to American new wave, B-Movie continues to be one of the early '80s most obscure groups as well. The futurist band from Mansfield were signed to the Some Bizarre record label and had a track "Moles" featured on the original Some Bizarre compilation album. In 1981 they had their biggest UK commercial success when their single "Remembrance Day" In 1982 they re released "Nowhere Girl" which made the Top 10 in many European countries and reached 68 in the United Kingdom, but there was no follow up and no sign of an album. That's quite a shame, as "Nowhere Girl" has somehow still managed to be regarded quite highly as an underrated ' 80s classic even though it was completely ignored in America This is one of the few British bands of this period to utilize guitars and keyboards relatively equally to forge a uniquely jagged if hauntingly electronic sound.

To my surprise Nowhere Girls really picked up on this as a matter of fact.B Movie 's Nowhere Girl inspired a webcomic by Justine Shaw. The Village Voice describes it as "a graphic novel that appeals to the clove-smoking, art student in all of us." In 2003, Justine Shaw's Nowhere Girl was nominated for "best new series." Also in 2003 Nowhere Girl was nominated for many Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards and won Outstanding Comic, Outstanding Website Design, Outstanding Dramatic Comic & . Outstanding Reality Comic Worth a visit !



01 - Nowhere Girl (4:43)
02 - This Still Life (4:24)
03 - Institution Walls (4:09)
04 - Airplanes & Mountains (4:19)
05 - Left Out In The Cold (3:18)
06 - Remembrance Day (4:53)

***** ***** ***** ***** *****