The ilwtt.org Archive Series: Trilemma

Trilemma. Midwinter 2003.

“Isn't everything about seduction these days ?"

the gentlecore trio trilemma have seeped forth from stoke- on- trent in the past couple of years and gently plied their way to our ears via a four-track ep, "crowded wilderness", on the possibly eclectic kitchen records of bolton. a glance at trilemma's website told us that they're not shy of a bit of verbiage, so we thought we'd test the limits by throwing a few open questions at Rob Trilemma and seeing what bounced back. given rob's expansive replies, we decided to set out the exchange out at some length so as to shed as much light as possible on the deep detail behind their deceptively simple murmurings... so if you want to know how Francis Fukuyama, Guy Debord and that stage-school jeremy Robbie Williams fit into Trilemma's worldview, prepare to be sated. trilemma also have many words on our own passion for d.i.y. (music, not bricolage - in love with these times in spite of tthese times towers are a mess of wonky shelving) which will hopefully inspire more and more of you to c-r-e-a-t-e... indeed, parts of this interview are as close as we've ever come to rockschool. except if rockschool was good. anyway, on to our first incisive, original question...

* * * * *

who are trilemma ?

At present there're 3 of us - Pete, Rob, Mark. But others are welcome to feed ideas and stuff into the fray.

and when and how did you come together ?

Well, I've sort of lost track. Probably 3 or 4 years ago now. Quite possibly more. I approached Pete with the idea of recording some sounds and music. I knew he had home-recording equipment that was sort of gathering dust, plus I'd known him from the local Stoke scene since 1845. We had dabbled in indie-schmindie, punky row pop projects for years before the Trilemma thing. Mark was a drummer we had both known, also through the intricate, meandering and infinitely complex network of Stoke's underground music scene. But Mark is something of an enigma - and hasn't been seen for months now. Of course, this doesn't stop Trilemma from working. Me and Pete just use old fashioned beat-boxes or biscuit tins if we need a groovy rhythm track to accompany our paeans of urban demise.

your name is a comment on what ? the nature of choice and consumerism ? or is that too simplistic ?

No that's not too simplistic. But it gets a bit complex quite quickly. Our notion of the trilemma relates to the idea of the end of the dialectic. I.e. the impasse that appears to have emerged in relation to the primary source of historical development - namely class struggle. The main antagonism, between the owners of the means of production and those who must live by selling their labour power, seems to have been resolved. As Frank Fukayama would say, it is the end of history. The west has won. But FF would, being an apologist for the US, affirm this situation as inherently positive. It is posited as the victory of western democracy and the 'free' market. As you might expect, Trilemma's position is somewhat opposed to this view. Drawing from Debord's idea of the spectacle, we would probably want to argue that all key forms of resistance have been 'recuperated by the spectacle' - i.e. any means of challenging authority in meaningful and effective ways have now been colonised by the market. From the dialectic resolving itself in some Utopian state, the dialectic seems to have been limping along on its negative side. Whenever the coin of history lands, it is face down. Humanity's face, ground into the dust. Hahaha. Bear with my stentorian tones, I'm warming to this. We are sold Nike trainers and wear them as a badge of gangsterism, a symbol that the dominant liberal values are to be rejected, etc. - whatever - with little or no acknowledgement that thhe process of production involves the exploitation of children, etc. etc. In other words, all means of making a statement against the current arrangements seem to be neutralised at a higher level. This higher level is the Trilemma.

Or another possible example is this; I remember when I was little (must have been about 1979) I was watching Top of the Pops when Lennon's 'Imagine' was at number one. Sitting there watching the video for the song, I was just horrified that something so hideously crap was selling so many copies. I wanted the Buzzcocks or X-Ray Spex, etc. Now, in retrospect if you listen to Imagine, it's actually got some quite radical (though also idealist and Utopian) messages - like the blanket critique of religion, etc. I can't believe that most of the people who bought that record also bought into the message of the lyrics. Rather, because it appeared on their TVs - a nice white room, a man, a woman, a piano etc. - they thought it was safe, polite, 'good'. In other words, the process of presenting the message through mass media somehow served to negate and neutralise any radical content. Something like that anyway.

To be brutally honest though, the meaning of the name Trilemma tends to change every time we think about it. Somedays it gets so abstract that it begins to signify a desire to affirm the ontological value of change, rather than stasis or inertia, but always having to rely upon a stable system (i.e. language) to do that. Other days it starts to evolve as a way to explain the death of the city in which we live. There is a triangular shape marking out 3 locations in our locality at which key events tend to occur. For instance, Stoke has the only recorded case of death by vampire. That's actually what the coroner's report said. But there are other places within the triangle that are sites of other more sick and grisly affairs. The vampire thing sounds a bit Carry On, but the plot sickens quite quickly. So that's another mode of the Trilemma. Gosh - there're so many!!! Heh.

is the concept of home recording something you hold particularly dear, as an anti-"industry" principle, say (the detail on the website seems like an attempt to demystify the whole recording process) or is it more just the fact that recording at home suits you as a group ? given the sound and song quality that you've managed to produce without a "traditional" studio, do you think that more people should be doing the same thing ?

I love the fact that you use the term 'demystify'. That is exactly what I've been trying to get at over the last few years or so. We really do believe that a lot of the recording processes needed to realise and convey ideas in sound and music can be controlled by those who are creating and making them. The traditional divisions of labour that used to define pop music have all but dissolved. Key here is that between band and engineer (or producer). This seems to be largely due to the appearance of digital technology, and its increasing availability to mere mortals. In turn, this has made "obsolete" analog equipment even more affordable. Hence a 4-track to cassette multi-tracker can now be bought new for about £60. It's worth mentioning here that single recorded by White Town called 'Your Woman' - it was recorded on a Tascam 488 I think. Anyway, it went to No.1 in about 20 territories or something insane. So there really is no excuse for not recording your own stuff anymore.

Of course, it can be objected that you need 'expertise'. However, it's easily possible to dabble for a few days until you get the basic hang of it. Pretty soon you can be recording a full band. You really don't need to spend that much on (e.g.) mics at all. An old fashioned PZM (£20 2nd hand) and a Shure SM57 are all that 's needed. Admittedly, it probably won't sound like Buch Vig or Albini have been at the controls - but then, if you went into your local demo studio the same will apply. Most small town pro-sound engineers seem to be Marillion or Genesis freaks, sporting horrendous pony tails or, worse, mullets. And then you wonder why your stuff comes out sounding like utter plop. The only way forward is to get going with a humble 4 track, or even 8 track to cassette, if you can manage to find one. If you want proof that this works, simply listen to Grandaddy's first Lp, or Sparklehorse's 1st, or even Elliott Smith's 'Either/Or' or 'X-O'.

Is there any reason to want more of a sound than this? If you feel like a 4 track recording has not done justice to your songs, it may well be that your songs are crap. Go back, write some more - keep recording until you do good stuff. See, you can't do that if you go down the traditional 'book into a studio for 2 days and pray everything turns out great' route. It's too expensive. Much better to get stuck in on the old home-fi front. I know loads of people reading this will probably say 'we know, we know!!!!' But I'd put good money on the fact that there will be many more who are sceptical and think unless you've got a 1/2" machine or a 2" Studer there's no way you can come up with the goods. This is utter shite, and serves to relieve bands of cash they could otherwise pool and buy some little set-up of their own.

Obviously we wouldn't want to hold up any of our own recordings as the best advert for DIY multi-tracking, though!! There are all sorts of errors (over enthusiastic mastering levels, poor use of compression during tracking, etc. etc.). However, we get close enough for our purposes - and despite the rough edges it seems to us that we've achieved a certain atmosphere in the stuff we've done so far. One way or another I've had a fair bit of experience of recording in professional studios and I honestly think they can very easily detract from the creation of feelings, of meaningful performances (whatever that may mean!!) and of a general sort of ambience that is the band's own personal thang. I liked it when Jason whatsisname from Grandaddy described pro studios as 'hospitals' (in TapeOp magazine) - if he means that they are clinical and slightly morbid then I get that.

But on the subject of why Trilemma do it the DIY-fi way, I'd have to say it's a combination of design and default. The latter in that we are both too mean to shell out on 'proper' recordings, and the former in that we like to lounge around and take our time. Which is difficult when you're paying by the hour, of course. I'd better just qualify this thing of taking our time. We're not painstaking about our recordings - that will be obvious. Most stuff is first or second take. And we don't spend too long over choosing sounds either. If it seems to be in the right sort of area, well that's fine. Let's press record and bloody well waste some ferrous oxide or whatever. We prefer to record far more stuff than we 'need' and then to come back to it at a later date when we can hear it with something like a third party's pair of ears. So what I meant about taking time was more about loafing through ideas - and abandoning them quickly if they aren't working. It's usually apparent pretty soon if something's working or not.

Another point that might be worth mentioning is that DIY-fi suits us because our sound is quite devoutly not RAWK orientated. In other words, we don't make a big racket - this means that we can record our stuff and be as quiet as church mice. We can carry on late at night, despite that Pete's house is an end terrace and his neighbour is a wife-beating psychopath who would rip a person's face clean off at the slightest provocation. This isn't to suggest that the home-fi route isn't for you if you're into creating RAWK sounds - just that to do that genre's sounds justice you'll probably have to record much of it at a local practice studio. Playing big rock drum sounds in your house probably isn't going to pacify the spouse killing lunatic looking for an excuse to bite someone's nose off.

are the four songs on "crowded wilderness" fairly representative of your musical manifesto ? (i don't suppose you have any views on the recent press fad / mantra that "quiet is the new loud" ?)

Basically, yes. However, there're no instrumentals on the 7", and we do like to get into that side of things - where the atmosphere is the key, rather than the melody or tune. Having said that, our main focus tends to fall on straightforward 'songs' - verse/chorus, hummable harmonies etc etc. In some ways, these are the most difficult kinds of things to write and record. We really do want to write a, ahem, 'classic'. We honestly try to create songs that are as good as anything that's commonly regarded as the best songs ever written. We're not embarrassed by this aspiration. And we think we're getting closer to this goal - we have quite a large number of songs waiting to be recorded, some of which promise to be as good as anything that's out there at the moment. In our wilder moments, we sometimes think we can better the best ever - and if you want some idea of what we regard as the best I'll just toss in 'May I' by Kevin Ayers. Yes, yes!!! It's got Mike Oldfield playing bass on it, but even so. If that song doesn't melt you alive then you are beyond help. [umm... ed.]

But what is our 'music manifesto'? Heh, erm. Like I said, we really are primarily concerned with trying to write and record songs that only the most hard-hearted of nay-sayers could possibly turn their nose up at. How do we know when we've achieved this? Ha! Dunno. Our only test, really, is to come back to stuff after a while, and see how it catches us. This is difficult, because obviously you get quite involved with an idea during the process of recording it, but this is partly why we try to work so quickly. The faster you can move from the moment you have the idea, to the point where a final mix is going down, the more likely you are to be able to tell if the thing is any good later. Basically, you don't let the idea become too familiar and you are still in a position where you can begin to hear it as a totally unfamiliar listener might do. This, in turn, links to our wider objective - which is basically to make music that we can enjoy in the same way, and to the same extent, that we enjoy other people's music. Some people I talk to (who're also involved in making music) regard this as a futile goal, or as a mad and strange sort of aim. But what other purpose could there be to making music? I suppose these types would say it's all about communicating or something - that the reall objective should be to convey feelings or meanings to others, not yourself!!! I'd argue that unless you can be convinced that what you've recorded is enjoyable (or 'effective', if you prefer that), then what chance - or what RIGHT - have you got to expect anyone else to regard it in that way? Our aims are really not as narcissistic as they might seem.

But back to the 7" and the question of whether the songs are representative. In some ways, they're just not the whole story. A better picture can be gleaned from the full length cd we've recently done for the paper-based zine Robots and Electronic Brains. We did a 100 run of cds for REBs subscribers. It's a 12 track fiasco and covers more ground than the ep (incidentally it's called 'Push What is Collapsing' - some Nietzsche quote or other, if memory serves). We do get into a kind of punky or new-wavey feel in places, and some pieces are quite influenced by Can too. In other words, we only go so far with this notion of 'Quiet is the new loud.' As I said above, our sound is partly dictated by the environment in which we record - we couldn't do RAWK sounds even if we wanted to. However, we do like to piss about with dynamics, and sometimes loud is necessary. I use the term in a relative sense - we never get absolutely LOUD. But we do use a full drum kit and Mark does lash out occasionally - if we require a bit of drama!! But I think loud is probably the new loud right now. The whole garage punk stylee seemed to nip the quiet thing in the bud.

Speaking personally though, Trilemma are generally more concerned with warping the listener's mind through a process of seduction, rather than aggression. I think aggression is kind of a spent force - certainly for me. But also in a Baudrillardian sense too. Isn't everything about seduction these days? We're no longer kept in line with rifle butts and truncheons! It seems to be more a case of quietly appealing to the senses, to desire and to the flesh. That's how the system is working these days. We're pacified by nice images, by the promise of luxury, by the lush scenery of Utopia. So we want to get into that whole seduction thing, and try and fuck it up somehow. We're not sure if it's possible - but that's where we're heading. Keeping things soft, sweet and incredibly sexy. Haha. As if. But you know what I mean. We want to slip quietly into the listener's consciousness and then plant a seed of dispair. That, hopefully, will grow into a massive tree of behavioural disorder. No, no. I'm fibbing! Well, partly. Trilemma are softly, softly though. And sometimes our intentions are wholesome (we genuinely do want to provide soundtracks for snogging and prolonged frottage sessions), other times we want to unsettle and distress. That's DISTRESS not DE-STRESS, NB.

as you may have gathered, "satellite town" is our favourite song on the ep - i grew up in a satellite town in essex and the song very much pricked many of those memories... we think its atmosphere far better conjures up the real, stilting frustration you feel at times in that situation than a loud, shouty song could ever do... is it very much a song written from personal experience ?

I'm really glad you like Satellite Town - it was my favourite too. It's stupidly ambitious though, and I think an earlier version may have been better. The version on the ep has a bass guitar added, whereas the first recording didn't bother trying to anchor the sound with a big bottom end. We just let the Wurlitzer piano soundalike do that job. But in the second attempt I have a nasty feeling we muddied the sound up. It's a horrible feeling to think that we plumped for the wrong version!

Anyway, shouty songs only get you so far. They do a great job of exploring a certain spectrum of feelings and frustrations, but ultimately, the loud, punky kind of approach only takes you so far. Then you have to get off and walk. Unless, of course, the Trilemma taxi is passing. In which case we will pick you up and take you right into the heart of darkness.

I also think that S-Town's words are the best on the ep, certainly they're the most 'lyrical'. All that shit about 'pylons spitting through the fog' - I like that bit. You see, our home town (which, with well over 1/4 million population, is actually a city) is very much a Town. It's sandwiched between 2 much larger cities - Brum and Manc are both 45 miles away. Noone comes into our town, and noone leaves. It's quite colloquial, inward looking and - let's be honest - backwards. Almost all our songs are about escape, and leaving this place. Sometimes we address this literally as in S-Town, sometimes it's more metaphorical. But what gets confusing is that this idea of escape becomes another kind of metaphor, which ties in with the meaning of the Trilemma. Wasn't there a key Situationist text called 'Leaving the 20th Century'? Guy Debord, again - I think. So leaving the Satellite Town starts to become some sort of metaphor for a much wider idea of moving on - of not being stranded in the old ways of tradition, of conserving, of bolstering what is teetering on the brink of death. Push What is Collapsing! But I think S-Town is in some ways too adventurous for its own good - in terms of its instrumentation, I mean. Haha - you know that Soft Cell song 'Say Hello, Wave Goodbye'? Well, that's the kind of sound we were toying with. We love our draggy '80s electro-fops, we really do. Despite that we're very unglamorous ourselves. I'm ruining it for you aren't I? I'll move on swiftly!

do you think the main role of music should lie more as art, self-expression or entertainment (we appreciate they're hardly exclusive) ? the impression conjured up by the lyrics to the ep and the writing on the website is almost that you're looking to introduce something else - music as philosophy too, maybe...

Well, I certainly loathe the almost book-burning attitude of certain celeb-thugs. Remember when Noel Gallagher bragged that he'd never read a book? What are we meant to conclude? That reading is stupid? That those of us who sit down in our draughty rooms and plough through Das Capital are reprehensible losers and terminally unfashionable? It's not the admission of ignorance that bothers me - rather, the apparent pride. Another proud fool is Robbie Williams. Stupid wanker - and we're now invited to believe that he has impeccable rock credentials or something. Please. I shouldn't get worked up, I know. On one level I suppose the attitude of these dicks is inevitable. You pass through a shitty state school system that endows reading and study with all the allure of turd counting or naval picking, so its no wonder we reject anything resembling learning and study, etc. But I'm afraid there really is ultimately no excuse. You have to punch through that shit and realise that the system would love to believe it's managed to convince you you're stupid and that all you're fit for is communicating garbage and less than worthless aphorisms. I know that the whole Gallagher / Williams attitude is about saying "Ha - we're not worthless, we're rich and people love us."' Well, people don't love them. People just buy the shit and forget about it. As for the rich thing, are we honestly meant to think that we too can do it ? That all we have to do is have some kind of self-belief and we too can become celeb millionaires? [and this is what eminem seems to be saying at the moment, too... ed] Utter cack. This is just Thatcherism in the context of popular musical culture. It's another take on the very individualism that serves to negate the possibility of any far reaching resistance born of collective struggle.

So it perhaps goes without saying that Trilemma are trying to do something other than entertain. But the rub is that there's something quite appalling in having a message pushed into your face. Politics and music are difficult to put together without the preaching thing doing your head in. So in so far as we try to communicate something we do it in camouflage, and surreptitiously. Oh, I don't know. Basically though, we are very much into mucking around with philosophical ideas and trying to convey this stuff in songs and sound. Yes, we fail. Yes, we try too hard sometimes. Yes, we believe music can be more than entertainment.

does the "internet age" make it easier for you to find / communicate with others (whether bands, labels etc) who share your artistic vision ? are there others around at the moment, whether writers or musicians, who you do see as kindred spirits ?

I was a luddite for years but recently I made the heroic effort to resolve this. Going to college introduced me to PCs and the internet. I'd still be trying to work out how to change the battery in my digital watch were it not for a series of accidents (girlfriends having PCs and lap-tops etc etc, and me drifting back into F/T education after years of casual employment). I still love paper based zines, but it's great to google stuff and find new ezines that would otherwise have remained unknown to you. Where Trilemma lag behind is with regard to up-loading mp3 stuff. We still haven't sussed that really. Which is a bit sad. But, yes, I'm completely convinced by ICT. I wouldn't be without internet access now at all. It's changed everything for me. I've downloaded WAV files and written songs around them - some of which I think are the best thingss I've ever done. I've logged onto message boards and had hideously vicious and protracted arguments with people (typical here is a series of spats on the TapeOp message board - Christ I really went to town on those wankers, with their hatred of lo-fi approaches and such like).

what other musicians, historically, do you respectively like and / or feel influenced by ?

In some ways I think The Smiths were the last great band - because they really did do it independently. Yes, they sold out to EMI in the end but before that they were perfect. I never realised this at the time and used to gently ridicule a close friend who was besotted by them. I also look back on the Velvet Underground as somehow perfect too. But for years I would just say it was punk that influenced me. From buying Buzzcocks and Stranglers records when I was 10 (in '78), right through to the rise of Husker Du in the early mid '80s. Punk was where I was really. But slightly more recently I don't think there're aspects of any genre I don't like and/or respect. Apart from ambient World Music and New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Well, apart from [Iron] Maiden with Dianno. I'm joking!!! I much prefer Bruce Dickinson [ex-olympic fencer and now charter airline pilot - ! - who also happened to spend many years as iron maiden's lead vocalist]...

when can we expect to hear more from the trilemma camp ? are there planned future releases on the way ?

Uhm, well we're working on stuff constantly. I think we managed to get quite a lot done in 2002, but that was a bit of a fluke because for 2 or 3 years before that nothing much happened. I think we'll be ploughing similarly diverse and varied song styles in '03 and trying to release stuff via cdr and fanzine freebies. That suits us - it's good because it works for us and zines. It's just a matter of finding paper based zines that like us enough to include cdrs in their mail outs and such like. Obviously we'd like to do vinyl releases but it's getting harder and harder and we really don't have much truck with the 'record a demo, send it out' mentality.

a trite question, we know, but what are trilemma reading at the moment ?

I just finished Donna Tart's The Secret History. That was ok, silly in places and a bit long but quite compelling I suppose. I also read Clockwork Orange for the Nth time this year. It gets better, believe it or not. Also Notes From Underground (Dostoievsky) - hilarious. Really very funny. Dunno if that was ol' Fire Door's intention, but the main character is a pisser. I love that Russian novel convention of having the distraught and alienated low-ranking civil servant office drone as the main man. I always think of Mark E. Smith for some reason. Also Raoul Vaneigem's The Revolution of Everyday Life - he's a much more lucid writer than Debord. The chapter called Down Quantity Street was ringing Big Ben-like bells. Also I bought a copy of Bataille's Bule of Noon - you can do it in an afternoon. Or a long bath, providing you have enough hot water.

and we always have to know... trilemma football allegiances (if any, of course) ?

Well, Pete's a Stoke City boy really - even if he becomes gradually more ashamed to admit it. Me, I probably go for Port Vale, even though Pete will sink a Stanley knife into my thigh for even thinking such a thing.

finally, for those who haven't yet heard trilemma, how would you recommend the experience to them ?

Imagine being immersed in a sensory deprivation tank filled not with water but lysergic acid. You have been enclosed in this vessel for 48 hours and urine and fecal matter have contaminated the liquid. The sounds you begin to hear are actually images of darkness twisted into hallucinations via a process of synaesthesia. Luckily for humanity, Trilemma have recorded these psychic artefacts and used them to accompany nice sing-along ditties for the delectation of the listening public. Mmm-mmmm - tasty snacklets for the ears and brain!!!

* * * * *

i'm sure it was daylight outside when we started reading ?.. anyway, agreed with (big ben-like) bells on, especially about recording studio snobs and the smiths... despite rob's protestations, "satellite town" still shimmers with of all the nervous energy and scary potential of the young hood, distilled into a handful of grooves, and it can be found with three shy but inspired companions on "crowded wilderness", which is available for a two pound coin via Kitchen Records (bother them at [note: no doubt long-out of date address excised]....) and we would like to thank rob and pete trilemma (and in his absence mark trilemma) once more. ILWTTISOTT

The ilwtt.org Archive Series: Pinkie

Pinkie. "Summer" 2002.

“Yes, I've been writing this kind of thing for ever..."

ANYONE ELSE OUT there who had a spring put into their step by that little groovy bassline in Brighter's magnificent "Killjoy" ? Who wore a indelible smile from the moment that the multi-layered melodies of Hal's "Election day" oozed gloriously into their ears ? Who dared to move out of the shadows and dance to the likes of Fosca's "All I Know" ? Yes ? First, thank this man. Second, get in touch with us. We will buy you many drinks.

Worthing's own Alex Sharkey released his first solo work as Pinkie on Planting Seeds Records of Virginia, USA last year. The excellent "My little experiment" mini-LP incorporates seven songs, including the two that we gabbled about here. It's an album of careful mood and tone, relatively sparse in the instrumentation when it has to be, but allowing Alex to develop a "solo" personality with his gentle vocal. It mixes those early Sarah guitars with sweeps of keyboard and some softly mournful, but far from suicidal, lyrics. We guess it's one of those records that's just an antidote to the corporate suffocation, the capitalist consumerism, of the professional balladeers. When you're crammed against the doors of the 8.37 to Waterloo, lamenting the lack of staying power of modern deodrant, and have tired of craning your neck in a vain attempt to read the morning papers over people's shoulders, the likes of "Two angels" or "You Shouldn't Have" are manna from heaven, transporting you outside and to a time when your thought processes involved your friends, your hapless attempts at relationships and your aspirations, rather than the constant nagging of work commitments... maybe those cramped around you can even see how you're being transported away, feeling serene, and how suddenly the heat of the carriage and the droning of the bloke next to you into his Nokia aren't bothering you at all...

Um, anyway. With becoming promptness, Alex answered "a few" questions that had been carefully composed for him one overcast Sunday in Bermondsey...

* * * * *

first there was brighter, where we first came across you, shyly plucking bass in unjustifiably small venues... were you a member from the start, or did you get roped in as worldwide fame began to beckon ?

back in our school days myself and keris [howard, 50% of harper lee] used to form bands all the time... though always with just the two of us in them... we didn't really like other people... but I used to write the more poppy stuff and he would knock out the morose numbers... eventually we decided that musically we'd try going our separate ways and shortly after he became involved with Sarah Records and I became involved with a dodgy record mogul from Barrow-in-Furness. Needless to say his venture proved more fruitful and after the second ep/single ("Noah's Ark") I became a full time member of Brighter (along with Alison).

how do you look back on those "brighter" years ?

I do look back on the brighter years with happy memories... excitement... total naïvety... and seeming to believe I was some kind of alternative indie Keith Moon... without the constitution... well maybe I was...

then with Hal (we've always felt "election day" to be cruelly underrated, not to mention underexposed) it sounds like you perhaps took a more prominent role in arranging / programming the songs ?

even if I say so myself... (and probably no-one's going to say it for me) "election day" did form some kind of pop perfection... unfortunately (at the time at least) no-one else agreed. I did all the arranging and programming in my little bedroom in Worthing... with some samples added by our engineer friend Mike Roberts in the studio... so put simply, in answer to your question... yes...

and after hal, you didn't resurface until the start of this century, in the "mk.2" fosca. so what had you been doing with yourself in the meantime ? were there any musical projects going on ?

um... kind of... Hal took a great deal out of me emotionally... myself and keris believed Hal should inherit the earth by right... and when we didn't... we thought the next best alternative was to play playstation games... and I suppose at the same time... whether I knew it or not... I was working on the future Pinkie back catalogue...

how did it feel to be involved in the writing process again (and a collaborative process at that) for the first fosca album ["on earth to make the numbers up"] ? were you happy with the results ?

it was kind of strange... I was ready to get back into circulation... and Dickon [Edwards. Fosca. You know] asked if I'd like to collaborate in Fosca... except... although I had already made a start on Pinkie... and was committed to the 'stripped down' jangling guitar stylee I've come to make my own... he was after a style similar to that successfully created for Hal... does irony work via email... probably not without the smiley face things... so it was back to the programming and arranging and trying to layer tunes and musical flourishes to make things as musically interesting and pleasant as possible... as to how did it feel?... well it felt like really hard work... that's not meant as any criticism of Dickon... it's just that trying to work on a large number of songs in a really short period of time... and produce something you're happy with is hard work... but what kept me going was the assumption of being a springboard to the next step... ie global fame... with Dickon's professional personality brand and my musical genius it was surely a passport to immortality?! What could possibly go wrong??!!

dickon implied in a recent interview that ultimately there wasn't room for both of you in fosca, perhaps because it was always "his" band. but i thought perhaps the reason you left might have been more to do with the impracticality of being a "writing" but not a "playing live" member of a band... could you shed any light on this ?

I suppose if I was anyone else I'd keep a dignified silence on this... but unfortunately I'm not.... I have to admit that the puny male one playing the guitar was me... yes I did play live with Fosca right up until my departure... [bad research. sackcloth and ashes all ours] I haven't actually seen any interviews with Dickon... but I'm sure he was a gentleman as always... I suppose basically that was true... we are both control freaks... and no band can survive with two control freaks in it...

anyway (overdue), on to pinkie proper! was pinkie "born" as an alternative to the more electronic work you were doing with fosca, or had you always been writing your own sort of guitar-based things on the side ?

Pinkie was born a long time before fosca... but while fosca was going on Pinkie took a back seat because fosca was so exhausting... my songs are mostly piano based believe it or not (yes... grade 8 piano... music A level... read it and weep music lovers everywhere) and then I reinterpret them to suit my underdeveloped raw and basic guitar technique... I think it works... and yes I've been writing this kind of thing for ever...

not least given the sleeve of the cd, we don't have to look far to see where the "pinkie" alias comes from. "brighton rock" is one of our favourite books and (apart from the cop-out ending!) films... also, we're sure there are some parallels with your music - beautiful yet sad - and pinkie brown himself, the angelic baby face with a darker side. is that something you identified with in choosing the name, or was it just because the character is a bit of a local (anti)hero ?

Yes I probably was a little too literal with the cover of the cd, it may have been wiser to keep everyone guessing... it makes the whole thing more intriguing... I like to think that as in all great artistic concepts (!) it works on a number of levels... the book is important to me because I love the fact that even though written in the first half of the last century, it paints pictures about places I know and wander around in... i think it's wonderful how it mentions Worthing... [as does Alex on "I Can See", fact fans] but you've more or less summed it up... Graham Greene wanted to write a novel about the absolute epitome of evil... i think he acknowledged that it changed somewhat from this during the writing process... but i was inspired by a character that although vulnerable and childish looking (i'm not sure about the angelic bit) and in some ways quite feeble, basically wanted to be feared and hated... however if I think anyone hates me i do tend to feel quite crushed... but i also like the ambiguity of the name... the colour pink... an ambiguous colour...

planting seeds records are not a label that everyone reading this might know that much about. so how did you hook up with them to release the cd ?

I was looking for someone who might be interested in releasing the songs and came across planting seeds because their website mentioned some common themes and so sent the songs and then forgot doing it... it was only when fosca was in full swing that they contacted me and said they'd like to release them... they're a great label and i advise anyone to investigate them further... they have a band called astropop 3 that make guitar pop to die for...

as for the title, "my little experiment", we thought either it was a reference to the way gandhi always used to talk about his "experiments" - or perhaps it was just a self-deprecating way of acknowledging that the album was an "experiment" in terms of allowing you for the first time to release songs that were all your own work, your lyrics and your vocals ?

unfortunately it doesn't have anything to do with Gandhi... though maybe i should start pretending it did... again there's an element of truth in your theory... but it is also partly to do with a picture i have from an old 1950s New Scientist magazine of an elegant lady in a white coat staring at a white mouse in a bell jar... (but only partly).... what I was really alluding to was.... in life when you feel very much under the control and influence of other people's decisions and external pressures... if you believe that it is all part of your own 'little experiment' suddenly you are the one in control... when people are letting you down or being cruel... they don't realise... it is all part of your own plan... it's all part of the experiment...

normally we hear that an artist we like is to release something new, and then we come to it with preconceived ideas, but with "pantomime" i was just listening to my new mobstar comp, as you do, and i just got waylaid by this wonderful song. i actually remember scrabbling for the sleeve to see what i could find out about this new band!

anyway. you then also recorded "she's dead" [brilliant corners tune] for the mobstar "hoppin' on the west coast" compilation. how did you and mobstar come to each other's attention ?

you know i'm not really sure... i think i may have sent something to andy (mobstar) because he's based in bristol and therefore may have heard of Sarah Records... so you see it was cynical marketing from my point of view... but again i do love this label... (aaah so much love)... they did offer to put a single out some time ago but it went a bit quiet... i'm not sure if they're waiting for something from me... or hoping that i've forgotten... but i was pleased with the "she's dead" track... it's the way i record... it can be a little hit and miss...

is there any sense in which the alex sharkey on "my little experiment" is the "real" musical you, given that hal or fosca were much more obviously collaborative affairs ?

obviously Pinkie is nearer the real me as there is no-one else to please or appease... but i'm afraid the electronic / lo-fi dance influences in fosca and hal were all my own doing... and i am thinking of working on another dance/sample based project... but pinkie is certainly a large part of the real me... (is that the title of a country and western song?) [er, wasn't it the who - aged sub-editor]

"my little experiment" is such a fresh record, it doesn't seem reined in by anything, it just floats, with you adding extra instrumentation quite sparingly, so every introduction of second guitar, or keyboards, really works. the lightness of touch also means it seems a lot less "clinical" than many might have expected when they heard there was an alex sharkey "solo project" in the offing. was it deliberate to keep things relatively stripped down ?

Thanks for the compliments... and yes absolutely... with the restrictions of my method of recording i thought the simpler i could make everything the better it would sound... i really didn't want anything programmed or over arranged... as i'd done far too much of that... i just wanted everything to sound as fragile as it really was...

there's a great review of the cd in "popmatters" which really hits the nail on the head... "expressing longing and emptiness without making people want to slap you". it's what brighter managed to do, and we think songs like "i'm afraid you're just like me" pick up a touch of brighter at their best. but our favourite track is probably still... just... "pantomime"... which song or lyric means the most to you personally?

yes... it's never big or clever to hit someone... no matter how much they deserve it... but personally I suppose "pantomime" and "two angels" mean the most...

which came first - "you shouldn't have" on the cd or "my body isn't me" [sharkey-penned track from fosca's "supine" cdep] ?

"You shouldn't have" which was originally a Hal song called "Thorn"... you see i am just a musical slut...

we understand that what's coming next is a new album - also on planting seeds. should we expect it to evidence any change of direction, or is it more your chance, now that the "little experiment" has definitely worked, of refining the essence of "MLE" into a "proper", full record ?

um... yes... I really just want to develop the theme... recording something for the first time (at least as Pinkie) with the intention of a release has inspired me to want to get it right... I know it will never be quite right... but hopefully this will be closer... the thing I want to maintain is keeping things as simple as possible. I would also like there to be a continuous theme... something that sounds like a soundtrack to a film with snippets of instrumentals...but whether I can be this organised is another thing...

have you considered playing live (please!) - and if so, would you be solo and "unplugged", or try and surround yourself with a band ?

yes i have... and in both the formats you suggest... rachel fosca has offered to help out in a band but it's really down to being offered an opportunity...

we'd be interested to know what music you're listening to at the moment...

I've become obsessed by going into charity shops (of which we are blessed by many in Worthing) and finding odd easy listening records to sample... initially for my alternative dance project... but some of it may slip onto the Pinkie album... I suppose this may hint at some sort of change of direction... but it will be subtle, honest... anyway some things you end up becoming a true fan of... even if you think you're being ironic... you end up genuinely liking it and i suppose that's why i've been listening to some of the following... anyway here's a random selection of songs/cds i've been listening to...

Trembling Blue Stars - "Alive to Every Smile", the latest TBS album, and in my opinion the best yet. In a perfect world this would sell millions. Granddaddy - "He's Simple He's Dumb, He's the Pilot" ... yes, used in Trigger Happy TV... but it's a funny show... and a gorgeous song. Osmonds - "Our Best to You"... they could really write good tunes... "Let Me In"... I would love to do a version of this song.... Françoise Hardy - "Françoise Hardy"... Peters and Lee - "We can Make it"... easy listening at its best... and anything by Badly Drawn Boy is never far from my cd player... i suppose that's what's inspired my craving for instrumental snippets.... mmm... reading through that it doesn't look very cutting edge... but then i think the cutting edge is rather rusty and blunt these days...

developing a theme from elsewhere... where would you go, and what would you do, for the perfect "day in the life of alex from pinkie" ?

well it certainly wouldn't be doing the things i did in the "day in the life of alex from pinkie" you're referring to... that's far too tiring... i'm not sure... it would probably be in the highlands of scotland... with a guitar and a bottle of whisky... there... that doesn't sound too tiring...

and to finish, to come full-circle to the literary muse that was part of yr inspiration. what are your favourite novels of all time ?

it's funny... i practically never revisit novels... and as much as i may become drawn into one and believe it's the best thing i've ever read... the next i read could quite possibly do the same... i relate reading a book in much the same way i do listening to music... the state of mind and situation you were in at the time will affect how you remember the book... so with that in mind... i'd say "The Catcher in the Rye" - J.D. Salinger - "A Tale of Two Cities" Charles Dickens - "Nineteen Eighty Four" - George Orwell and of course "Brighton Rock" Graham Greene...

well - of course! 

* * * * *

Pausing only to note that playing playstation games is a noble alternative to making music.... indeed, there are a lot of bands we would recommend it for as a full time diversion... can we just say thank you to Alex... these dots are catching... we're afraid we're just like him... ILWTTISOTT

The ilwtt.org Archive Series: The Free French

The Free French. Summer 2002.

“You should be able to bottle that feeling that you got, the excitement of a new Big Flame record when you were about 16..."

THE FREE FRENCH ARE the latest musical nomenclature of the multi-faceted Rhodri Marsden. Perhaps still best known for his role in the marvellous Keatons, who attempted gamely (but vainly) to bounce the spirit of the Fall, the Shrubs and similarly glorious alt-others into the moribund 1990s ("Resividistish" being the should-have-been singalong hit of every summer), Rhodri has been playing in "Peel darlings" Gag for ten years, as well as playing guitar and bass in the now defunct Zuno Men (Walthamstow genii who even more gamely, and even more vainly, tried to find a way in for post-Ron Johnson pop in the mid-to-late 90s). After writing choons for the short-lived Kopek - see below - Rhodri has eventually turned into a solo artiste, the Free French, a five piece on stage but all his own work in the studio (South London, as we now feel compelled to point out to some of you). Rather, though, than being the kind of "tricky" stuff that you might expect from the above c.v., "their" first album "Running on Batteries" is actually a travel through pop history, trying (and mostly succeeding) to play off the tension of yer Guided Missile types with the sophisticated singalong skillz of many a more traditional songwriting talent. Rhodri is also known to random websurfers across the globe as the curator of "timewasting.net" and, more specifically, the bestest Ron Johnson web site in the history of Ron Johnson websites.

In the tradition of Trembling Blue Stars' "Her handwriting" or Steward's "Horselaugh on my ex", the whole record owes much to documenting in passing the breakdown of a relationship, albeit with some green shoots of hope (as to the next one) in perhaps the poppiest song, the jaunty first 45 "Do you come here often ?" Whilst most songs revolve around the balancing of harmonic keyboard laden guitar pop and a quirkier, er, "angular" (sorry) post-Keatons "sound", the album is also not afraid to deviate from the power pop thing altogether, hence the extremely mellow vibe of "Let's stay up forever", or the much more jarring, feral guitar buzz of the closing "Trial separations" (that was the second single). The storming title track would appear to have every conceivable ingredient for a single too, its insistent guitar reminding us (and only us, it seems) of the Buzzcocks' "Sixteen".... Other highlights include "From the seashores", "Cotton buds" ("can we divide 2,000 days / in calm and scientific ways / leave without a parting gaze") and the throwaway but tune-crammed "Unconditional". The album throughout showcases some surprisingly and occasionally unfeasibly high pitched vocals, where tasteful ("My next album for dogs only").

After witnessing the Free French five at the Water Rats, where the smartly dressed band on the stage in the back thrilled most of the punters and so prevailed over the noise levels of the ever crowded front bar, we decided to track down Rhodri in what has become the latest example of us bothering a musician with better things to do - but as ever, he was ineffably polite, articulate and entertaining.

* * * * *

i wanted to talk about the keatons first. not least because the word "resividistish" can still make grown men glow... is that where your musical journey started ?

i lived in dunstable, which was just a cultural fucking backwater, the sort of place good things gravitate away from. i remember seeing stump on "the tube", going out and buying a ron johnson compilation lp, just being blown away by that it didn't seem to give a hoot for protocol at all, and then doing "glottal stop" fanzine and through that meeting a lot of people, and then me and steve [of the keatons] got really matey and i moved to london in 1989 and it just happened. the keatons ended up being a band that if you went to see them often enough, you ended up being in the band...

i suppose the keatons weren't really part of any scene at the time, because all the ron johnson stuff had already happened...

the ron johnson thing had died about '87, and the keatons got their first single out in 1989. we'd kind of reached that level where we decided what bands were on the bill with us. i remember the first gig we did in 1990, with pregnant neck and headbirth, a kind of death by milkfloat from stockwell, and it did feel like - new decade, this is it, a new quirky pop scene... but of course no one liked it at all, it was all very much shoegazing, slowdive, that was the way it was going, so it wasn't part of a scene. we were more akin to the glaswegians, really - dawson and the stretch heads.

having said that, i remember one amazing gig at the lady owen arms [sadly missed islington venue], we had the keatons, shrug, dawson, dandelion adventure, archbishop kebab... and the boo radleys - and we put the boo radleys on at 7 p.m. because it was their first london gig!

thrilled skinny [utterly irrepressible and at one point almost unavoidable luton power punksters who managed brilliantly to get oi-influenced songs on to a slew of otherwise rather precious indie pop compilation tapes in the late 80s] are the other band to mention - the band who got us touring england. it seems unbelievable to think that in 1990 the keatons did a hundred gigs, whereas the free french have done, like, 8.

but we had a horrible tour of germany in about may 1995 where no one was enjoying it any more. there were lots of arguments about money and shit, because there wasn't any. so i left the keatons, and got married that year and enjoyed being domesticated for a bit.

meanwhile there was gag, and the zuno men ...

i'd started with gag in about 1992. the zuno men were haemorrhaging members rapidly, so i did guitar and bass and i seem to remember keyboards for them.

... and then kopek...

me and kev [burrows, also of the keatons, gag etc] were looking for something to do that wasn't gag, and i was kind of writing songs towards the end of the keatons that were never used. so i thought "let's use some of these" and formed a band called kopek, it was kind of dual guitars, more intricate, less straightforward than the free french ended up being. but it was just one of those things, it never took off. "no one phoned".

...and the free french, eventually.

i never liked writing lyrics, so that was always the barrier. but throughout the late 90s i was accumulating recording gear and still looking for a singer and a lyricist. so eventually i just got on with it, and i did "from the seashores". people have said to me that song, that chorus "believe this little lie", it's so simple, but so kind of evocative, and that's when i realised if you have confidence in what you're writing... on the first mixes of every song the vocals were just subliminal, because i didn't want anyone to hear the words, but over the months they got louder as people said "actually, the lyrics are quite good". everything i do now, the vocals are much more in the forefront.

and some of the lyrics are pretty painful to listen to.

there's only a couple that get me still. i probably struck quite a good balance at that stage between the lyrics being suggestive and not overt, but since i got more confident i've started getting less and less oblique and more writing kind of stories.

the album is a soundtrack to...

a crisis...

...a period of someone's life, and it is quite affecting.

i was doing the album and i finished it about 6 to 8 weeks later, by which time my wife had moved out...

the end result was that you've made this record which sits really well as a self-contained pop album. was there any temptation to say "that happened, that was part of my [musical] life", and now on to the next project ?

it's great that it comes across as a cohesive unit of 12 songs, but as always with these things, they're long and slow births, the nature of putting a record out is that it always takes ages. but it's not a contrived, "this is a song about rhodri getting divorced"... yes, it is tempting to say, i've done that, now i'll do something different. but people really liked it, and i'm getting so much encouragement from people, and i think the songs for the next album are much better. so obviously people won't like it as much...

was there any part of you that was intending to, or conscious of, doing an album that mixes lots of different things - sixties, post-punk, new acoustic, mid 80s indie...

so many of the songs are just based around people. i started getting really matey with kev hopper [bass player from c86ers stump, and now musical saw virtuoso extraordinaire] about the beginning of last year, and "let's stay up forever" was really because he's into such a beach boys / high llamas type thing, and that's the most overt attempt by me to actually go out on a limb and try something. but i still think it sits quite nicely. it's not desperately contrived, but it was certainly an effort i made, and i just thought the sentiment of enjoying someone's company so much that you don't want to go to sleep, i just think that's a really kind of nice idea.

a lot of the songs have this tension between the vaguely keatons-esque, faster paced, music, and the much more melodic "slow burn..."

with "running on batteries", the way it was done i'd always wanted it to appeal to keatons people and gag people. when i was in kopek, i knew that by doing songs with kev [burrows] they'd end up being fucked up, just by him being involved. he has an extraordinary slant on putting music together that's just breathtaking. so when it was apparent that kev wasn't gong to be involved in the free french, i still thought, i want to try and fuck it up a bit, so there was always me trying to make that effort not to make it too slick, so i think that's the only driving force behind what it sounds like, it's just a contrast between me writing a very sweet song and then trying to record it so it doesn't sound like... david soul.

and you did everything ?

it's all done at home on a mac, yeah. no-one else was around to do it with me. i was just thrown back on my own, and getting loads of encouragement from friends of mine...

what's your favourite song on the album?

"cotton buds". i just can't believe it's me, that i came up with it. if i'm feeling a bit shaky about a gig, that song always sounds great and it's the only song that's actually about my wife leaving. i get shivers whenever i hear it, i really do, and it's no one else's favourite, either...

what about when it came to choosing the singles?

as far as the singles, i was vehement that "do you come here often ?" was a single, even though no one else really thought it was right. and someone said that "trial separations" was the best thing on the record and it was an astonishing song, and i just think it's ok, but i was pushing for "cotton buds". "unconditional" was the other one that people liked. but i think that "unconditional"'s the most straightforward thing on the record, it's a bit of a joke as i was listening to this finnish band called ultra bra who are one of my favourite bands, a 15-piece eurovision pastiche, every song sounds like a eurovision winner. astonishingly crafted songs, and i sat down and said i want to do a song that ultra bra would be proud of. it's not quite there, but that was what i was thinking...

apart from ultra bra (!) what other influences ? people are reading all sorts of things into the album: buzzcocks, jam, scritti politti, prefab sprout, xtc...

yeah, xtc - what is that about ?... i don't have any xtc records...

this was what we've got at in the past, by saying that we like the free french more than bands that many see you as influenced by - to us, xtc are a part of pop that time forgot, and you assume there must be a reason for that.

they have some wonderful moments, but people say his [andy partridge's] voice is like my voice and i just can't hear that at all. he's got a really annoying voice! i've heard some really great things by them but i don't listen to them. prefab sprout, i do listen to immensely. you can probably hear that, and i've started listening to steely dan a lot and when people say "you can actually hear steely dan in your music", i'm just like, fucking hell, this is really terrifying, i'm supposed to be continuing the lineage of ferocious ramshackle indie pop and here i am sounding like fucking "aja"... [editor's note - do not worry - the free french sound NOTHING like steely dan].

we know you're really into quite a few current bands, though we missed HOST when they supported you the other week. i do like your description of them as the gang of four with "more smiling and less funk"...

they're astonishing, they've got boundless enthusiasm, they're effortlessly great, they have a thing and i don't know what it is, and i don't know whether anyone else can see it, but i can see it, shirley [shirley lee, singer outta spearmint] can see it and we're putting out a record on hitBACK [up until the free french, hitBACK was spearmint's label] by them.

i just wonder if there's any parallels with the early 90s when you see a band, you want that band on your bill...

totally, of course...

you've also obviously had a lot of encouragement from toby slater.

toby, i really like him, he's very intelligent, he's been through the music business stuff, he was in catch [sort of a britpop hanson, though you might have missed them if you blinked in 1997] and they had a top 20 record, and then got spat out the other end, he decided to put on interesting evenings of stuff ["special school"] and the free french don't fit particularly well into that because we don't adapt well to an acoustic or stripped down set-up, but i support everything that toby does, although he does sometimes go a bit nearer the middle of the road than i would...

and your other current favourites ?

kev hopper, when we can get him out of the house, keith john adams (former zuno man), [tooting's] montana pete...

what about the mainstream press ? even though the nme really liked your first single, your album won't get looked at, but they decide they can justify six pages on the vines...

i'm not at a stage where anyone is going to offer paragraphs of critique on what i've done, and the most i can expect is a review will say something which will prompt someone to go and investigate. in that way the reviews are kind of redundant, but i'm not really getting any anyway. jim who does our press just has a really tough time.

but the fanzine, e/zine scene at least provides a second layer beneath the magazines and papers who are likely to ignore 98% of stuff....

anyone showing any enthusiasm or making an effort is clearly a good thing. it's a slow process and it's very small scale, but then again the keatons always operated in a fanzine environment anyway - it doesn't offend me that i don't get 200 hits a day on the site.

it just must get to you when there are labels which will put out some fairly derivative guitar pop, say, and it will sell several thousand and it will get reviews in all the right places, just because there seems to be a network in place for that.

it was great that hitBACK put the record out, and at first that was all i wanted, but having said that, like you say, people have been so positive about it that i did imagine in my heart of hearts that "do you come here often ?" would do something - the zuno men had a mark radcliffe single of the week, for christ's sake - but i don't know what it takes to make people sit up and take notice. obviously a great deal of luck, i don't think the fact that i was in the keatons and the zuno men and gag is going to help, i dont think the fact that i'm on spearmint's label helps... spearmint are absolutely ignored despite having just put out one of the finest albums about lost love ["a different lifetime"] that you will ever hear...

yeah, "sweeping the nation" must have been years ago now...there was a lot of buzz then...

shirley's an inspiration. when you see someone that's 10 years older than you who's just as enthusiastic about stuff and still writing great music and putting it out to not much acclaim but seems undaunted by that. it's just a shame. spearmint had that time, about '97, yes, when "sweeping the nation" came out and "a trip into space" a few months later, and that was when XFM were playing stuff that was good or interesting or you might not have heard, and i would have really benefited from that, had the stuff i was doing been 3 or 4 years earlier. it's easy to say that - if i was around in 1979, like scritti politti putting their own photocopied sleeves together and selling 20,000 records - people were shifting enormous amounts back then, and now if you get a sales return from pinnacle that says you've shifted 500, you go out and have a party. basically i'm dependent on hitBACK to put money up for another record... it costs little to record because i do it all at home. it would be great to be in the position of someone like momus who can just sling something out...

before we go, we can't not mention your ron johnson site, which is legendary...

i got asked to do it by some fanzine, my love for ron johnson, and i actually managed to get all 34 records on ron johnson, and then it was like, what shall i do now ? take photos of all the fucking sleeves, scan them and write about each one, and then i can just put it to bed.

it was a very rich time... you should be able to bottle that feeling that you get, the excitement of a new big flame record when you're about 16, i can't even remember what it feels like... and the last bogshed peel session, i was almost crying; "they're going to play four songs i've never heard before"; it seems so obvious that bogshed were fantastic.

* * * * *

And because we know we're not the only ones who agree, we (as opposed to you lot) can't think of a better note to end on. Thanks very much to Rhodri ... ILWTTISOTT

The ilwtt.org Archive Series: The Liberty Ship

The Liberty Ship. Spring into Summer, 2002.

“Holding on's not easy / But that's another story" 

we may have mentioned bulldozer crash on these pages before - stephen maughan (creator of this almighty pop!) and marc elston's early 90s pop combo who shimmered brightly for sunday records of illinois with singles from "sarah said" to the mini-lp "imperfection": the latter, as its title suggests, though not without flaws, was a very human, quietly rewarding and dramatically undervalued creation. now, it's 2 for the price of 1: while stephen and new co-conspirator geoff suggett have resurfaced as kosmonaut with a hook-filled, spacey single on firestation tower and apparently one to come on matinée, marc has set sail in the liberty ship, a bold and beautiful aggregation of indie sensibilities with elements of alt country, west coast americana, lush sixties velvet(s), even (whisper it softly) folk stylings. songs like "i guess you didn't see her" (first previewed on the firestation tower compilation "i tried a thousand times a thousand times to change your mind") and "don't react", as we may have noted, are pretty instant: musically there's nothing hidden, just in-yer-face harmonies. right about now, things are starting to happen for the liberty ship: "i guess" being the new 7" on matinée, while in a few weeks their old friend albert at sunday will be putting out a six-tracker called, according to the label site, "small lives". as is our wont, we made a nuisance of ourselves and marc duly obliged to answer our garbled, but well-meaning, enquiries. starting with the most dully prosaic of all.

* * * * *

why the name ?

Real liberty ships were famous for splitting up mid-voyage. On a more earnest level a few years ago I gave myself permission to write melodic, simple and guitar based songs again (twee ? fuck off!) The Liberty Ship is a vehicle for creative honesty... so there!

when you started writing songs for the 'ship, was it always your intention to get a full band together, or were you thinking purely in terms of a solo / studio project ?

I always wanted to get a full band together but I thought I was doomed to bedroom noodlings. The band fell together with uncanny ease.

so you're now a fully fledged 3 - or even 4 - piece ?

We are a four piece now. Tim [bass] is an old friend, Rachel [guitar] we got through an ad in a music shop (a risky strategy that paid off!) Steve [drums] works with Rachel. Steve is that rare thing, a drummer into songs rather than drumming!

i think it's fair to say that the new songs have a very different character to bulldozer crash - there are many more influences than just the traditional "indie" sound, and some of your recent demos are very rustic - a world away from the feedback of "changing"... is this just the way your songwriting has developed, or did you consciously want to move away from those recordings ?

I wasn’t consciously trying to get away from the Bulldozer sound (if you glue the Ship and Stephen’s new band Kosmonaut together [maximum soundclash!! excited editor] I guess you would get the v. 2002 Bulldozer Crash). My influences in B. Crash were typical of anyone who spent the late 80’s and early 90’s in various Indie Discos. My tastes are wider now (curiosity, more money and re-issue CDs). Some things I listen to now would get me shot by the Indie Taste Police…but endear me to my Dad!

how did the slot on the firestation tower comp come about ?

It is fair to say I was a bit…erm …out of the loop when it came to small labels. My brother Graeme [Love Parade, Eva Luna, Slipslide] gave me a list of labels to send demos to. Firestation made positive noises. I’d love to play one of their club nights if they’d have us. [memo to FST: you know what to do].

are you a big admirer of gene clark then ? [the b-side of the new single is a fine rendition of clark's "she don't care about time"]:

Gene Clark is great, under-rated, especially by the other Byrds.

and other favourite songwriters of now and yesteryear ?

There are loads of writers I admire. Lennon and McCartney - obviously, Andy Partridge - witty and original, Edwyn Collins - wordplay and Michael Head - simplicity and melody.

tell us about the songs on the forthcoming mini-lp, which reunites you with sunday records.

Sunday took an interest early on. Cabin Fever is on the mini LP as it is too long to cut as a 45, it is just about my favourite song as it achieves the kind of sound I have been chasing since I started. The other songs were recorded before Steve joined so there are some which we probably will never play live. I thought it would be cool to give Sunday a new version of What Happens Now… a coming full circle type thang. On an Indie trivia tip, Albert, the Sunday supremo sends THE shortest e-mails!

what other bands should we be looking out for in the east midlands at the moment ?

Difficult this. Things have reversed since the 80’s, it is easier to record and get music out than it is to get a gig in Nottingham (witness our pitiful gig tally). Johnny Domino keep coming up trumps, I’m an unashamed fan. Derby’s Frankie Machine sound great as long as you’re not looking for a good laugh. Apart from that it’s the usual grim procession of Nu-metal and tribute bands.

what if you're looking for a romantic meal ?

Bees Make Honey on Alfreton Road.

... a big night out with the, um, "crew" ?

I went for a so-called lads' night out last Friday, my advice to anyone visiting Nottingham is to take the civilising influence of female companions as without them you don't stand a cat in hell's chance of gaining entry into Nottingham's premier night spots.

... a sunny sunday stroll ?

I don't usually get much further than Spar for the newspaper. The Embankment by the lazy River Trent.

and to finish the ilwttisott questionnaire, we're focusing on alcoholic afternoons, celluloid and a leading champion of both... what are your favourite tipples, all-time movies and (naturally) smiths songs ?

Marc: Marston's pedigree bitter, Brighton Rock [a particularly brilliant choice, if we may say so], and "Unloveable" - today!

Tim: Jamesons, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, "There is a light..."

Rachel: Gin, Rita Sue and Bob too, "What she said".

Steve: Rolling Rock, Mad Max, "This Charming Man".

before you go, any world cup predictions ?

No predictions, potentially painful, all I have to say is... Danny Mills - why ? 

* * * * *

Why indeed. We should point out that Marc's comment on Danny Mills was made prior to the England v Sweden game, which makes him (Marc, not Mr Mills) one of the more prescient pop stars on the block... Anyway, rather than dwell on it, we suggest you check out these guys - the band whose tastes range from everything from Brighton Rock to Rolling Rock... ILWTTISOTT

The ilwtt.org Archive Series: Harper Lee

Harper Lee. Spring 2002.

“I just sit around listening to Joy Division. I’d forgotten they really are the only band that’s ever mattered.”

BRIGHTON'S OWN HARPER LEE take their name from the authoress of the classic tale of deep south alienation (and GCSE Eng-Lit staple) "To Kill A Mockingbird". Their component parts are multi-instrumentalist Laura Bridge, who also steps out for Kicker, and former Brighter and Hal vocalist Keris Howard, whose guitar lines lit up student bedsits across the land, back in the days when the passing of time was just a journey from SARAHs 1 to 100. We need to stress though that Harper Lee should be judged in their own right as what they are, i.e. the classic wolf in sheep's clothing. For beneath the orderly, melodic melancholy is a lyrical cutting edge that creeps up unannounced and just GETS you. Every time.

"when you need her, but she loves him, so hard it burns, there's no answer that can't hurt" (No Happy Ending)

They popped up for the first time with 2000's "Dry Land" single on the er, superfine Matinée imprint, a brilliant evocation of a windswept and desolate shore, which panicked us into quite justified paroxysms of eulogy after we'd sped back on the tube from Selectadisc (q.v) after picking it up. Pausing only to issue a second forty-five, "Bug", which knocked us so heavily sideways that our respective ribcages still shudder from the bruising, they then gave the world "Go Back To Bed", a début album that shimmered its way through 10 outwardly pristine tracks, though with the feeling beneath the surface never far away: as well as the hidden razor's edge of those first two A sides, it harboured criminally touching songs like "Only connect" (imagine emerging into the outside to be buffeted by invigorating breeze), "Deep dark ocean" (back out on the plains, a measure of sadness, an acre of regret) and the to-be anthemic "Seems to be"...

"tired and yet tongue-tied; excuses and white lies; a waste of fucking energy" (Brooklyn Bridge)

Last autumn, their most recent work, the 3-track CD "Train Not Stopping" cemented their reputation, in our eyes at least. In the same way that Brighter's "Killjoy" suddenly saw them step up an echelon from what we thought was already a pretty lofty vantage point, "Train", with its effortlessly regret-filled lyrics and smooth indie pop swirl, just seemed to switch Harper Lee up another gear, into the UEFA places of all-time alt-pop (don't worry, we are licenced to mix metaphors). It's often the last song I listen to before I get into work in the morning, its honeyed keyboard / guitar mélange soundtracking the walk from the Moorgate escalator and through the raised towers of the Barbican estate. As a tonic for the day it can seem perfect - that last breath of air before plunging your head back down into the yes, deep, dark waters of the world of work.

Anyway. Determined to make sure that our first ever interview was with our very first choice artist, we bothered Keris sufficiently for him to agree to give us an insight into their current landscape. (We guess his fight had just gone.)

* * * * *

so how are you feeling today ?

Fine for a change – still warm from the rosy glow of Brighton being crowned Nationwide League Division 2 Champions at the weekend. Amazing stuff, especially as we also remained the reigning Champions of Division 3 until Plymouth claimed the title on Monday and, as I’m sure you remember, we’ve continued to be the Champions of the 3rd Division South since 1958, having won it in its last year.

Now this may sound a little bit sad and indulgent but trust me, you could not believe what the last 10 years of supporting the Albion have been like.

and what's the weather like ?

The weather is … well, it’s night time and it just looks dark from my window. But it’s not raining. I can say that much.

Only a British fanzine interview would open with a question about the weather.

i read somewhere that you adopted "Harper Lee" as a name because of the way she never wrote another novel … is that true - or is there anything you identify with in "to kill a mockingbird" itself ?

Well I do love the book. I guess I’ve always liked its uncomplicated morality and faith in “good people” - Atticus Finch and Boo Radley are surely two of the greatest heroes of 20th century literature.

That said, the name was chosen simply because I thought it was a great name. We were a little anxious that it might not be a particularly bright idea to name one’s band after a famously litigious writer but it’d be pretty cool to get sued by Harper Lee would it not.

Anyway, Brighter managed to get away with releasing an EP called “Disney” that was fronted by a picture of Winona Ryder. We have a history of these things. 

It is true that I do love the idea of creating one definitive work of absolute genius then just throwing the towel in. And, yes I did think “Dry land” should have put us in that category – first single and last single, goodnight. Nobody else thought it, unfortunately. 

how did the hook-up with matinée come about... was the initiative yours or theirs ?

Erm … it was via Keith Blueboy and Dick Lovejoy … I was looking to put some new stuff out after taking a break for a good many years and I bumped into Keith and Dick at a Sleater Kinney gig (if I remember right) - they suggested Matinée.

I’m not that familiar with the rest of the label’s output – I don’t really know where we fit in amongst the other bands – the ones I’ve heard seem kind of quirky and Harper Lee, in my head at least, aren’t.

I guess it’s kind of odd when your only experience of a label has been a set-up like Sarah where, in the early days at least, there was a real gang mentality, a real shared ethos and sound. I could never see Harper Lee being defined by their label in the same way as Brighter. And I guess that is a good thing.

you're part of a wave of english bands now that are releasing records on united states-based labels. do you ever resent the fact that UK promoters and labels alike still seem to have a huge blind spot for (unhyped) homegrown talent - especially melodic pop talent ?

I’m not necessarily convinced they have a blind spot – Kicker, for example, don’t seem to have any trouble finding UK based labels to release their stuff (or gigs for that matter).

I think the UK may be a little more style/credibility conscious and that may count against some of the more “mature” talents that continue to hawk their wares over in the States. I fear there may be an element of deference that eclipses any worries about the thinning hair, paunches and flaccid old C86 ramblings.

And yes, before you say it, I know my last line could to some extent be turned on me but hey, I’ve agonised many times as to whether I’m too old for doing this stuff now and as to whether my stuff is actually any good … I didn’t release anything for 5 years because I realised I was writing crap and I’m still terrified that if we were to play live people would just look on me as a sad ugly old wanker who’s deluded in the belief that any one actually gives a fuck.

Bands should look like Ash. If Harper Lee ever take the stage it’ll be Laura up front and me under a blanket in the shadows.

on that note, there any plans to play live ? are the reasons that you haven't down to logistics or just not really wanting to ? 

Playing live is hard work isn’t it – undoubtedly it means tiresome journeys up to (inevitably) London in rush hour traffic, means sound-checks, and engineers, and waiting around, and not having a proper meal, the smell of stale beer, other bands, loud music all night, not being able to think or talk, nerves, a late night, no audience, or an audience who just chats all the way through your set, and somebody inevitably will say play a Brighter song (no doubt one of the really awful ones) and you’ll just think why do I bloody bother. Oh, and then there’s the bit about looking a “sad ugly old wanker”.

Saying that, I’m not counting out a Harper Lee live performance in 2002. 

brighter were one of about 3 bands ever that have made me cry - it was "tinsel heart" that did it. we think harper lee tread a similar um, furrow… are you conscious when you record that people might derive so much from your songs, or have you learned to be quite emotionally detached from them by now ?

I’m always genuinely touched when lyrics connect in that way. Some of my songs admittedly mean more to me than others, a few are very personal, others a bit more tenuous, but it’s always special when someone else finds something there that strikes a chord. I’ve always sought solace in other’s music so I’m extremely flattered if one or two people find some kind of consolation in my own.

I guess I’m a pretty reflective individual and my own stuff has always been cathartic. However, I could never ever pretend to be in anyway a decent lyricist so I have to keep the sentiments simple. That’s all I can do – I’m too dumb for poetry or clever symbolism. Maybe that’s why people connect easier – there are few hidden meanings, you don’t have to work anything out. If my songs were a jigsaw puzzle they’d just have 4 very chunky pieces.

I do find it very hard to write lyrics and have to say I’m not always that proud of the end result. I do think I’ve written some dreadful stuff in my time and have to admit, where Brighter are concerned, if I ever had the time and the means for doing so, I’d track down every copy of “Laurel” and scratch out “Maybe”. I don’t know what I was thinking of when I wrote that song. Awful.

[The “Maybe” fan club, which we seem to remember included Melody Maker, will be having screaming fits here. And we're not letting him anywhere near our copy of "Laurel"...]

what about politics ? after the subtexts in your former bands' songs ("hope springs eternal", "election day"), do you still derive lyrical inspiration for writing from the big bad world outside ?

I’ve never been able to do political stuff in the way that say, McCarthy used to. I’d love to be that articulate but I’m not. Both myself and Laura are political - an evening with the two of us and a few beers would soon change any preconceptions of us being a couple of fey flower arranging bed-wetters. However, I’m just not very good at squeezing overt politics into songs – that’s not what I do.

I do think the personal stuff can be more than just introspection – I’d like to think “Dry land” is a political song as it's about personal honesty, about disappointment, about being able to say you’re lost and you just don’t get it (or don’t want to get it) – I think that’s quite a brave thing to say in these times. But I wouldn’t want to overstate it. I’d like to say Harper Lee are quietly subversive – but I think I may be pushing it.

where did that brilliant graffiti on the "go back to bed" sleeve come from ? 

It’s a photo taken by the lovely Cassie (who’s also done a lot of the Kicker sleeve artwork). No idea if the graffitti’s still there - if you want to check you’ll need to visit Wentworth Street in London.

are you really "bored with being ignored" ?

A little, yes, but I guess, as a band, we only have ourselves to blame. I do blow hot and cold on the enthusiasm front - sometimes I listen to our stuff and think “shit, we are SO good, what is wrong with everybody, why aren’t we huge”, and other days its just crippling self-doubt.

Whatever, we’ve never really been into “self-promotion” - I’ve always thought that a mite vulgar. We must be a little frustrating from a record company point of view.

is Harper Lee something you concentrate on more when kicker are "quiet" (or in your case, something that got sidelined to an extent when you were touring with trembling blue stars) or are you writing songs all the time ?

Um … there’s no real plan. My own writing comes in fits and starts, which can be a little alarming sometimes as I have dried up for years, not just months, in the past.

Kicker is very much Laura’s main band I guess but I wouldn’t want Harper Lee to be seen as any sort of side project. As we are essentially “studio-based”, it’s not too much of a drain on either of our time. Saying that, TBS [Keris guested manfully for Bobby Wratten’s elegant independent pop quintet by playing bass, and (we thought) bringing a welcome soupçon of “does love last forever ?” stylings to songs like "st pauls cathedral at night"] did start to become more of a distraction than was originally intended and I had to make some sort of choice as I also have a day job and some semblance of a life to weave in each week.

what's next on the release schedule… is there a second album in the pipeline ? (if there is can we suggest "bobby zamora" for a title ?)

We’re going into the studio at the end of this week to start recording a new LP of undecided length - it’ll hopefully be ready by the mid/late summer. “Bobby Zamora” would be a great title if we could guarantee he’d still be on the Albion’s books by the time the LP’s released. If he wasn’t it’d be a bit of a sore point.

The current working title for the new record is “Everything’s going to be OK”. No question mark you see – wanted to be a bit optimistic, show that we could be a bit upbeat.

what artistes do you find yourselves listening to, this spring 2002 ?

Ever since seeing 24 Hour Party People I just sit around listening to Joy Division. I’d forgotten they really are the only band that’s ever mattered.

Laura’s probably been listening to something very cool and happening. She tends to have her ear close to the ground, not only due to alcoholic collapse or because she can hear “the approach of horses” but also because she gets out more than me (which I guess is why she’s never around to answer fanzine questions).

what are your recommended venues in Brighton (btw for "venues" we mean bars, parks, caffs - just anywhere you like to hang out) ?

Once again, a question that would be better put to Laura but as she’s “unavailable for comment” I’d say, best venue (since the sad demise of The Lift) has got to be the Free Butt … best pub has got to be my local The Engineer in Argyle Road, best park, Preston Park (with its own best café, The Rotunda).

Actually, I really don’t get out that much - you know what Brighton’s like – you live in fear that you’ll walk into the wrong bar wearing the wrong trainers and everybody will laugh and point. And I’m always going to be doing things like that because I’ll never be able to get away from the fact that although I may live in one of Europe’s coolest cities, actually I come from Worthing.

...oh, and lastly, are you doing anything special for the <> ?

In an ideal world I’d like to say we’d be dancing through the streets of London gaily playing catch with the freshly severed heads of the Royal family and all their verminous hangers on. This probably remains a possibility for Laura but it’s more likely that I’ll be subversively in denial about any right royal celebrations and will be carrying out my own form of protest by having a couple of days off, having a few beers and putting my feet up in front of the World Cup. And when England play I won’t be standing for the National Anthem. Up the revolution!

Amen to that. And many, many thanks to Keris. So I was wearing Winona Ryder on my Brighter t-shirt all that time...

* * * * *

Anyway, let’s tidy up now. As you’ll see, Keris seems strangely self-deprecating, particularly about his skill at writing lyrics – but the simplicity, as I think he hints, is part of the value… we very genuinely rate him as a top quality lyricist. The point he makes about "Dry land" is interesting - yes, it is a superb song - but at least Harper Lee having, for want of a better word, persevered, means more people will be hearing about their work and in doing so getting to listen to the song and its exploration of well, the disenfranchisement that a lot of us are feeling as we age and suddenly panic about quite what our place is after all. As for the "wham bam thank you ma'am" of releasing one landmark single and splitting up, well effectively that's what Hal (Keris, ably supported by Alex Sharkey's synth stylings) did with the sublime "Election day", which slipped out unannounced on Vinyl Japan in 1994.

Awwww, we wish they'd reconsider on the Bobby Zamora thing... When the Wedding Present released “George Best” he’d, after all, played for an arsenal of clubs apart from Gedge's beloved m********* u***** (though, fortuitously enough, not Arsenal) and spent much of the intervening time propping up bars. Given that Brighton nicked Zamora off the once-great BRFC (1883), and we wouldn't think any less of Harper Lee if they appropriated him too, we think that’s still probably a pretty cool title for an LP, wherever he might go next (ilwttisott is bombarding the Lazio and Inter Milan bulletin boards to take him for a big-euro sum – given that Rovers get 40% of any sell-on). Just think - surely if Harper Lee get in now, he'll have to sue them for image rights once he's playing for England.

Anyway, we're off to find Wentworth Street before it becomes a proper shrine. If it's full of pop tourists clicking camera shutters by the time we get there, we'll know we were too late. ILWTTISOTT

A Penny Change From Two Pound Coins: Emily and Pacific

Ah, I well remember buying Creation’s “Doing It For The Kids” compilation LP: and the fact that as a schoolboy, the £1.99 price tag (as the sticker says, "for the price of a 7” single”) was absolutely crucial, as I could only sate my appetite for new records by sticking strictly to discounts.

For me and a few of my mates the record opened a door into the label roster (this was Creation phase two, post-Pastels though with a few other fanzine favourites, like the Jasmine Minks and Primal Scream, still hanging on for dear life). But while my friends clustered around the heavy hitters of the House of Love or My Bloody Valentine, I couldn't help but be intrigued by some of the other artists then on board Alan McGee’s good ship. These included the ‘house band’, Biff Bang Pow! - whose “She Paints” here began a slow burning journey of discovering their (somewhat patchy, but at their best incredibly under-rated) discography - and of course the Razorcuts, a band we've always loved, and who scenesters oft forget managed two-long players for the self-styled “President” after being poached from the Subway Organization. The irascible Ron Rom, when reviewing this comp for Sounds, spent much of his word count rubbishing the Razors’ contribution (the admittedly uber-effete “Brighter Now”), which could perhaps have been better deployed bigging up other bands who needed attention.

I seemed to be the only boy in town who liked Emily’s contribution, “Reflect On Rye”. The vocal was moody and lugubrious, almost comically so, although joining the dots I realised this was the same band whose “The Old Stone Bridge” flexi I’d once borrowed from a classmate and committed to C90. But this time, I felt I detected first glimmerings of magic; this two minutes & ten seconds of sheer yearning, underpinned by a breezy, organic guitar strum, fitted perfectly with my teenage sense of outsiderness.

In the months that followed, when we should probably have been revising or something, we discovered a little more about Emily (remember, these were pre-internet days). The LP only gave the songwriting credit to one Oliver Jackson. We found out they were Welsh, and had once been called See Emily Play. It also transpired that the song was taken from a 12” EP on Creation called “Irony”, which also included a re-recorded version of “Old Stone Bridge”. But once we tracked down “Irony” the standout song for me was “Mad Dogs” which, unlike those, was uptempo and bright, a song that I think indie kids would have gone ga-ga for had Guy Chadwick penned it; and that deep, sonorous voice worked wonders for me again. I read now that “Mad Dogs” is seen as badly produced, and not optimally played (the drummer gets particular stick in this regard), but to this day I can’t find any fault with it.

By the time we’d completed these researches, it seemed that Emily had apparently been dropped by Creation. But, happily, there would be more to discover. We stumbled across their next outing, “Stumble”, a 7” on the fairly legendary Esurient label. On any level, it was a step up: beginning as low, almost eavesdropped rumblings of vocal and folksy strum, it gradually flowered into a darkly jangling pop song, gaining momentum and instrumentation: drums, piano, flute, then a sudden and dizzying saxophone, the effect of which on us was not so far from the way that Sarah Curtis’ violin used to take King Of The Slums to the next level. Yet somehow Emily remained subtle and enigmatic, as well as urgent and primal. On the B-side were two more accomplished numbers, the knowing post-Smiths dreamabout “Rachel” and “Boxing Day Blues”, a gorgeous, laidback, classically-tinged ballad that now brings to mind two of the truly great bands that would follow them, Blueboy and Hood. This time the songs are credited simply to Emily, although the ‘guest’ musicians (Gian, Anna and Steve) get shout-outs too.

At this point the opposite happened of what should have happened. Instead of being hailed and feted, Emily simply fell off the radar. And that seemed to be all, as was the wont for so many bands who had skirted with the plugholes of indie obscurity. But then, a year or so later again, we found ourselves reading a ravishing fanzine review (I think in Far Out and Fishy ‘zine) of what was apparently a whole, utterly-out-of-the-blue new Emily release. It was a terrifically written piece, as always, describing an avant-garde and sprawling sounding LP called “Rub Al Khali” issued by a fledgling and super-obscure imprint called Everlasting and it made the record sound strange, exotic, deeply flawed and yet unmissable. Trouble was, it may as well only have been released on the Moon. No record shop had it, no friends owned it, and as years and then decades passed, nobody ever re-issued it. I remained grimly determined, but realistically was prepared to accept that *hearing* the damn blighter just might never happen.

25 years on, and not for the first time, Firestation Records of Berlin came to my rescue. Not only does their double-CD “A Retrospective” deliver a first digital outing for this lost gem of an album but it packages it up with a host of unreleased Emily demos and outtakes (plus, by way of no small bonus, the tracks from the Esurient EP).

And ‘tis a sign of Chris Fish’s talents that “Rub Al Khali” is everything we expected it to be from his write-up a cool quarter of a century ago. Seven tracks ranged louchely over an hour of unhurriedly unfolding indie / folk / rock / jazz / soul, “Rub” is the proverbial lighthouse in the desert, an expansive, ambitious and at times impossibly fabulous suite of semi-improvised torch songs. On highlights “Foxy” (which we could easily imagine as part of the late, great Guru’s “Jazzmatazz” series) and the soulful, white hot “48 Today” an out-of-this-world female vocal adds yet another layer of atmosphere; on “Americana” the amplifiers throb to ‘60s-nodding paroxysms of electrified riffs and guitar bliss; on the closing, 13½-minute “Allah”, all senses converge to be tingled as Emily’s new age stylings positively encircle, *captivate* the listener. Those that decry this as ‘prog’ miss every point in the book: long songs alone do not a prog record make, and artists from Misty In Roots to Amayenge over the years have amply proved how a ten-minute song can feel as light as a feather if the attitude and quality are right. As many of their contemporaries limped on, adopting shufflebeats and insisting there'd always been a dance element to their music, Emily were free and clear, in a field of their own. And with the benefit of hindsight, it feels right that they couldn’t, didn’t try to follow what is probably their masterpiece.

In contrast, the rest of “A Retrospective” is inconsistent, to say the least: copyright matters having presumably done for the inclusion of “Irony” (although the four tracks from that do appear on Creation Soup volume five) the other high points (and, to be fair, they are very high) are provided by the jazzy showmanship of the delectable “Waiting For A Letter” and the single that should have been, “Merri-Go-Round” (which, incidentally, features some amazing drumming – our love for “Mad Dogs” notwithstanding, they had long dispensed with the original drummer by now). What remain are largely lo-fi acoustic demos, and though a few (“New One”) scream with unrealised potential, most are inchoate offcuts, perhaps left to fester in the attic for good reason.

There is, however, no excuse for any of us missing out on “Stumble” or “Rub Al Khali” for a second time, so please don’t sleep on this one.

* * * * *

Also appearing on side two of “Doing It For The Kids” were an unheralded outfit from Brighton called Pacific, who doled up a ditty called “Jetstream”. This was a rather genteel affair, all ocean spray and xylophone, yet the use of a sample from a House of Commons debate on the sinking of the Belgrano hinted at darker textures. “Jetstream” felt harder to love than “Reflect On Rye”, but yet the plaintive vocal and crystalline beauty of the thing compelled us to investigate further (again, the lone credit to “Pacific” on the centre label didn’t get us off to a flyer with our research).

Eventually we learned that the track was culled from a 12” EP called “Sea Of Sand”, which kicked off with a brace of great, if grown-up songs called “Barnoon Hill” and “I Wonder” that, like Emily in their later incarnations, were unafraid to co-opt strings and brass; although Pacific sounded much more controlled and clinical than Emily, especially when they added spoken word and sequencer into the mix. And there was a sense of almost permanent wistfulness: it sounded like the vocal was ever on the point of breaking into tears, whilst many of the lyrical themes didn’t feel far off “Reflect On Rye”. Again, all this was manna to me then (er, and now). And you can relive my teenage years (sort of) by downloading “Barnoon Hill” for free, here.

“Sea Of Sand” was followed by another 12” single called “Shrift”, which came in a gorgeous sleeve and saw Pacific up the gears with a sequencer-led, almost New Orderish number and for our money, minor classic which - over eight minutes - mingled bubbling synth lines with touches of brass, strings and woodwind and a desperate, naked, Orchids-style vocal; yet on the flip Pacific went for two ambient, lowkey, neoclassical instrumental pieces. The sleeve credited a name this time – “DENNISS” – which also appeared on the sleeve when Creation bundled the two EPs onto a single CD (also adding the shorter 7” version of “Shrift”) and called it “Inference”. This time the spoken-word artist and guest violin player got namechecked too, but there the trail ran cold.

Again, we were left in the dark for more than 20 years, until the indefatigable Roque decided to do an interview online with the singer from a mega-unknown south coast 80s indiepop combo called the Doris Days. That man, one Dennis Wheatley, confirmed that the Doris Days’ disappearance coincided with the birth of Pacific, the band’s reincarnation when they signed to Creation. And that far from disappearing from view after “Inference”, Pacific’s singer/songwriter remained very active in the music industry (albeit that we would not really hear his rather touching vocals again). This was not before Pacific had been paid to do some recordings for EMI which, it seems, came to naught.

As part of a duo called Atlas with Tony Newland, Dennis released a couple of 12”s on Pandephonium in the early ‘90s, “Noontide” and “Compass Error”. The former even featured a ‘Pacific’ remix. The latter, later remixed by Menace and Fluke amongst others, is a quite brilliant slab of acid house-influenced techno that, ironically, Alan McGee would probably love to have courted around the time Creation released its blissed-out “Keeping The Faith - A Creation Dance Compilation". (Plus, the sampled intro to "Compass Error (East)" reminds us of the Michael Heseltine 'vocal' used all the way back on "Jetstream"...) A later single, “Beauty”, would emerge on the Jackpot label, a version of which would later appear on a John Digweed album.

In the 2000s, working with Nina Miranda, Dennis released a clutch of records as – appropriately – Shrift, with an album, “Lost In A Moment” and a remix EP. This duo were marginally closer to the coffee table – downtempo/electronica with ghostly vocals, but the songs still shuffle around pristinely, and there are some insanely pretty strings that flutter around the mix.

And in 2004, Dennis contributed a remix in his own name to Paul Haig and Billy Mackenzie’s “Give Me Time”, which came out on One Little Indian and even features guest MCing from Buzz B. The original “Give Me Time” is beautiful , soulful and harrowing: the remix is sparse, atmospheric and spacey, with the late Mackenzie’s voice taking on a new plaintiveness. We’re rather pleased, given that it’s a collaboration between at least four different artists that we’d admired over the years, even if we would probably never discovered its existence had Roque not decided to chase down the remaining Doris Days.

* * * * *

All of which goes to show that there was quite a lot to discover under the surface, however unassuming our first encounter with these bands. Surely David Cavanagh’s (unfairly maligned) magnum opus on Creation Records might have mentioned either band, at least in passing, in its 584 pages? No, not even a footnote. 

in love with these times, in spite of these times top 10 Emily tunes: Stumble. Mad Dogs. Foxy. Merri-Go-Round. Reflect On Rye. 48 Today. Boxing Day Blues. Allah. Waiting For A Letter. Americana.

in love with these times, in spite of these times top 10 Pacific / Dennis Wheatley tunes: Shrift. Barnoon Hill. Give Me Time.  I Wonder. Another Day (the Doris Days). Jetstream. Plus any 3 of the several hundred million mixes of "Compass Error"!

We also contemplate the legacy of Creation Records (and a few of its other unsung heroes) here.