RhoDeo 1914 Aetix

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Today's artists are one for 23 Skidoo fans. Formed out of the remains of Nottingham trance-punk band Medium Medium and boasting the sort of percussive interplay that used to be called 'ethnic' (this means you could hear the sticks being wielded), these three albums from the mid-80s show a pleasing Middle Eastern influence and ... wait. You really haven't heard of Medium Medium? .  ......N-Joy

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After leaving Medium Medium, Rees Lewis formed C Cat Trance with original Medium Medium drummer Nigel Kingston Stone. While similar in some respects to Medium Medium, C Cat Trance produced avant-gardish wave/dance/funk sounds ahead of their time, they incorporated desert music elements, releasing a self-titled debut mini-LP in 1983 on the Red Flame label. Subsequent releases were on the Red Flame sub-label Ink, starting with the "Dreams of Leaving" 12-inch single. They released Khamu, Zouave and Play Masenka Combo between 1985 and 1987 and compilation 'Les Invisibles' in 1992 before splitting up. Their greatest artefact being ‘Shake The Mind’ (1986), a true New-Wave club classic, which still can be heard in today’s alternative clubs around the globe.

Inspired by a Cherry Red retrospective CD release in 2001 and the subsequent dance-punk revival, John Rees Lewis returned to a reformed Medium Medium in late 2004 for several live shows, including a showcase at the CMJ Music Marathon in New York. No longer a full-time venture, the band has stated plans to continue to write, record and perform. In 2010, Medium Medium released a split-LP with Kommissar Hjuler on the German label Der Schoene-Hjuler-Memorial-Fond, containing tracks from their concert at Part Time Punks Festival USA, followed by a second split-LP in 2011.

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C Cat Trance extended the avant dance forms of Medium Medium in a more art-pop-world direction, diminishing guitar noise, using anxious synth layers, dark pop atmospheres, traditional instruments, middle eastern influences. They were ahead of their time , albums like Khamu (1985) and Zouave (1986) presage the ethno/dance/electronic styles that was to dominate the music planet late 80`s & beyond. C Cat Trance songs though, have no ephemeral glance, they express a nocturnal evocation, an anxiety proceeding from the different, the unexplored. The saxophone in the front cover is laying down the desert like a snake, and with snakelike ways this post punk exotism is seeking for trance.

C Cat Trance - Khamu (She Sleep Walks)   ( flac  218mb)

01 Puritanes 2:39
02 Barefoot Doctor 5:09
03 The New Hassan 6:20
04 (Screaming) To Be With You 5:00
05 Rattling Ghosts 4:40
06 The Old Man 4:35
07 Simple Helen 3:46
08 Miss Manners 6:10

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C-Cat Trance produced world and dance sounds ahead of their time and, with a floating membership varying between two and eight, they played infrequent gigs, beginning at Pandora's Musicbox in Rotterdam in September 1984, and more often in Europe (Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Holland) than the UK. They released a series of records through the late eighties, and received consistent acclaim. Lewis' sax playing was described in the press as "lung emptying sax", "striking sax", "sax breaks that wail like a maitresse in nipple clamps", "and many more creative descrptions.  it expresses a nocturnal evocation, an anxiety proceeding from the different, the unexplored. Including the singles Ishta Bil Habul plus a Remix of Shake The Mind.

C Cat Trance - Zouave ( flac  230mb)

01 Wind Howl 3:39
02 Betty 2:59
03 He's Crazy 4:25
04 Taksim 4:53
05 Ishta Bil Habul 4:04
06 If You Steal 3:43
07 Take Me To The Beach 3:48
08 You've Lost That Loving Feeling 4:07
09 Shake The Mind 5:26

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Following his departure from punk-funk outfit Medium Medium, singer Rees Lewis formed C Cat Trance. Noticeably different from Medium Medium in its instrumentation, the group still retained some of the density and intensity of Rees' former group, but went in a different direction. C Cat Trance relied heavily on world-music instrumentation, scales and time signatures to develop their sound. The results are dark and moody, with a little bit of pop sensibility thrown in for good measure. This Cherry Red collection samples songs from their first EP and the four subsequent full-lengths that followed. Also included are five tracks that were designated for another album, but due to the Red Flame imprint folding, they were never issued. For casual fans of Medium Medium and Lewis' canon, it's well worth the price in picking this up and getting C Cat Trance's finest moments on one disc, and for die-hard fans it's worth the price alone for the unreleased tracks that signal a bold new direction the group was to take.

C Cat Trance - Karadara ( 504mb)

01 Some Day Soon (Burn Mix) 4:18
02 Dreams Of Leaving 5:07
03 Shake The Mind 5:33
04 Wind Howl 3:43
05 Theme From The Film The Hawkline Monster 5:56
06 Orange Clawhammer 4:20
07 Cold 3:25
08 Clawhammer Stomp 4:21
09 Let Me Sleep 4:56
10 Two Worlds 5:38
11 The Old Man 4:39
12 Miss Manners 5:54
13 He's Crazy 3:59
14 If You Steal 3:45
15 Screaming To Be With You 5:49
16 7/8. 3:33

C Cat Trance - Karadara (ogg  184mb)

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These 15 songs actually comprise all but a handful of the songs that Medium Medium released during their lifetime, taken from their LP The Glitterhouse and a handful of singles. It's anxious punk funk, suitable music for cruising around industrial sites in the English midlands. Aside from "Hungry, So Angry," though, these songs lack the hooks -- irritating as the chorus of "Hungry, So Angry" might be -- that would make them stick in the memory. Andy Lewis' occasional sax distinguishes this a little from some other music in the genre, and the constant finger-popping bass and eerie reverb the scores of cinder block kicks, thumps and thuds found throughout. Most impressive, perhaps, is the stylistic and aesthetic variety-- something Medium Medium's more "important" contemporaries neither achieved nor, frankly, cared about-- seen in the album's descent from hard boxy funk to glittering atmospheric jams. Tracks 5, 7, 10, 11 and 13 are previously unreleased.

Medium Medium - Hungry, So Angry ( 385mb)

01 Hungry, So Angry 3:59
02 Nadsat Dream 3:31
03 7th Floor 4:09
04 Serbian Village 5:43
05 Hidden Fears 4:26
06 Further Than Funk Dream 5:54
07 Splendid Isolation 4:20
08 (You've Got Me) Dangling On A String 3:09
09 Stir Me Up 2:14
10 Full Of Secrecy 4:19
11 Praying 5:48
12 Them Or Me 3:54
13 Frightened Child 4:38
14 Guru Maharaji 7:09
15 The Glitterhouse 2:17

Medium Medium - Hungry, So Angry (ogg  161mb)

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