Active Denial (2018) C20

This was the other tape which came to me through some bloke taking a million years to post the record for which I had paid generous numismatic inducement - full story here if you can be bothered. When he suggested I pick a tape from the list he'd provided as compensation for his taking a million years to send me a Smell & Quim album, I went for this one by Active Denial, or possibly just called Active Denial, because I hadn't heard of any of them and the title sounded promising. 'A wise choice,' my contact remarked as though congratulating me on picking a particularly fine cigar from the available selection before again failing to get my fucking record in the mail for the millionth time.

Well, for what it's worth, it did indeed seem to be a wise choice. Excepting a few things by +DOG+ here and there, I don't really keep up with what's going on in power electronics and the like, so it's nice to hear something which, even if it does mostly what I expected it to do, still surprises me. This one is a single continuous assault comprising three tracks (my incrementation of which is mostly guesswork) with the sort of er... philosophical intensity I associate with the last years of Whitehouse; so I don't know what's going on here but it rewards repeat listening.

 

On the subject of things I don't know, we also have anything about the person or persons who recorded this - who were very cooperative and happy for me to share the tape, but asked that I refrain from linking their Bandcamp page, so I haven't; but Google is your friend, as smug internet pedants are wont to say, so I'm sure you can find out for yourself.

 

Download Active Denial by clicking on this link.

 

Tracks:

1 - Psalm
2 - Smoke
3 - Champagne

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Tarzanz Milkmen (1985) C30

Something of a change of tone this week given that this lot wouldn't have sounded out of place on the Stiff label around 1979 sitting, as they did, at a point somewhere between the Clash and er... True Colours era Split Enz. This may be a lazy musical comparison, but the vocals definitely remind me of Tim Finn. Anyway, I saw them live in either 1985 or possibly 1986 when they played at Maidstone Art College, and they were fucking terrific, inspiring me to purchase both their six-track studio demo and 7" single right there on the spot - all of which is included here in the download, with Hands and Common Girls being from the single.

By the way, it's taken all of my powers of self control to remain faithful to the band's annoying spelling of their own name, and the main thing which has kept me from correcting it to Tarzan's Milkmen is the thought that just possibly they were all milkmen who bonded over regular deliveries made to a nightclub (or summink) called Tarzanz. I don't know. Nor do I know anything else about them beyond what I've been able to glean from a two page interview in Acrylic Daze fanzine, whatever that was - scanned and included in the download so as to give you something to read and to distract from the Jim Davidson-esque lyrics of Down Down Down, one of those songs about how birds never fucking shut up, do they - always talking - yap yap yap. At this point it may have become obvious that if you've come here looking for Gerogerigegege outtakes, this one may not be for you. It's not the greatest thing I've ever heard, but it gets its hooks in after a few plays, and Use Me Dub is as good as any of the Ruts' efforts in that area.

 

Download the tape, single and associated imagery by clicking on this link.

Tracks: 

1 - Duran Duran
2 - All Talk
3 - Use Me Dub
4 - Use Me Up
5 - Africa
6 - Down Down Down
7 - Hands
8 - Common Girls

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Total Big - It's Enormous (1986) C46

If you've been following this blog, you'll probably at least be aware of Total Big as a group for which I attempted to play guitar back in my days as a younger man when everything was better than it is now. If not, or if you feel you need a refresher course, please refer to other tapes listed in the index. In brief, my friends Carl and Chris had just left - or possibly been forcibly removed from - a band called To the Max which had featured both Martin de Sey and Paul Mercer, who are both represented elsewhere on this blog - except for Martin, possibly. Can't remember. Anyway, the aforementioned Carl and Chris had found To the Max a bit more rigorously structured than they liked and were keen to form a band more in tune with their own tastes / sense of humour. They vaguely knew I had a guitar, had no idea whether or not I could play it (I can't), and decided that if the worst came to the worst, I could probably knock out one-string riffs because it had worked quite well for the Cramps. Thusly didst they turn up at my place one Saturday and inform me that I was in a band. I didn't like to disagree, so we set up, went ahead, and this noise is what came out. It's a bit of a racket, although for what it may be worth, my guitaration exceeded their expectations in so much as that I could cope with bar chords in pursuit of a vaguely punky New York Dolls impersonation.

We rehearsed a lot, although really it was more like mucking about to see what would happen, and the only jams I recognise are the fruit preserve, Paul Weller's group up to and including the Setting Sons album but no further, and what happens to traffic at rush hour, so this isn't fucking jamming, it's us mucking about. After four or five bewildering but massively entertaining rehearsals, Carl and Chris made up this compilation for me, picking out things which sounded like songs, or at least like we might chisel them into sounding like songs - apart from My Baby Left Me, which I really feel we nailed first time. Having been given the tape, I drew a cover because that was the sort of thing I did. It's not exactly a greatest hits or the best of, but it's probably a better introduction - should you even require one - than all the rehearsal tapes I've already shared, and it's better than - off the top of my head - the entire Primal Scream back catalogue.

You're welcome.

 

Download the twenty-one tracks, cover and vague sense of regret by clicking on this link.

Tracks: 

1 - Rock Sandwich
2 - Keep Your Dreams A'Burnin'
3 - Armchair Maniac
4 - I Believe
5 - Robot Fun
6 - Big Smile, Baby
7 - I'm Not Losing Sleep
8 - Write It in the Air
9 - Instrumental
10 - My Baby Left Me
11 - For You I Have Nothing
12 - Reggae
13 - Simon Says
14 - When It Comes to It
15 - Cold Sore Herpes B
16 - Sofa Maniac
17 - Louie Louie
18 - Sister Ray
19 - Last Christmas
20 - Try So Hard
21 - For You

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Sally Patience - No Fish (1984) C30

Welcome to the second week of our piscine collection. This one wasn't actually a tape either, being three tracks bequeathed unto myself by Larry Peterson for reasons explained last week, plus I've added their token 7" seeing as it's great and will presently set you back $75 on Discogs, or fifty-nine pounds and fifty-six English pence, if you like. As with the Peter North tracks, I've given it a title from one of the songs, and it's pure coincidence that it also refers to fish.

Down to business...

Sally Patience were Catherine O'Sullivan and Michael Jones. Michael Jones was a member of the Event Group who also had a solo tape available from Cause for Concern (which I should have bought but didn't) and who was half of the Mandible Rumpus. Mandible Rumpus recorded Laugh which possibly remains the greatest thing I've ever heard on a DIY cassette and which sends shivers down my spine to this day - and which is on Larry's excellent Sudden Surge of Power compilation in case you haven't already bagged it.

For the sake of argument you could probably call both Mandible Rumpus and Sally Patience - of which no member is named Sally, by the way - the same thing: early analogue synth duo with a faint touch of Banshees and probably what all the kids on the street now term cold wave. Actually, considering what some of the synth duos who made it big sounded like, it's a massive pisser that this lot didn't. I'm not sure I've even met anyone who owned an Erasure record.

Download these crucial jams by clicking on this link, kids.

Tracks:

1 - No Fish
2 - Susan
3 - Under Donahue's Church
4 - The Triangle Man
5 - Buried in My Boots

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Peter North - Singing Fish (1984) C30

Here's another tape that wasn't actually a tape (but which I've labelled C30 because that's probably what it would have been were it a tape). These were five tracks Larry Peterson sent to me in case I wanted to stick them on a Do Easy compilation, presumably because Peter North had sent them to him and he was winding down his tape label by then. I was also winding down my own tape label at the time so nothing came of it. Peter North sent me a few tapes and I seem to recall one of them being three C60s with hand-tailored artwork (possibly Laminated Studies), and there was another tape when he morphed into Nort BC, which was the name he used for the two of the cassettes which appear on the Discogs page. They featured hand tailored covers - photocopies with rubber stamps and felt-tip colour, - but all I can recall of them was that they mostly sounded like Fish at Liberty, which you have here - someone dropping marbles onto a glockenspiel through an echo box for a long time. So, although they sound kind of interesting in small doses, a little went a long way, which is probably why I no longer have the tapes he sent me although I sort of wish I did.

 

I know. I'll bet you can't wait to hear it.

 

I still don't really know what to make of this stuff and I have to admit it didn't get a lot of rewinds from me back in the day, but listening to this now in 2024 I'd say the man was ahead of the curve with the weirdy tape manipulation stuff. With hindsight, I'd guess three hours of this was just a bit too much to work as my introduction, but I'd still buy a vinyl reissue if there was one out there.

Word of warning - there's also, as I have just discovered, a significantly better known Peter North who worked in the adult entertainment industry, so Google may let you down in this respect if you wish to know more; and if you came here looking for more of the star of the North Pole series, I'm afraid you're very much in the wrong place. This Peter North lived in Clapton in east London and wrote nice letters.

 

Download the halibut, perch, tench and Nemo by clicking on this link.

Tracks:

1 - The Singing Fish
2 - Fish at Liberty
3 - Walking with Mr. and Mrs. Fish
4 - He Fish Here in Gaps
5 - She Fish Here in Gaps

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Man's Hate - President Botha Kills Children (1986) C30

 

I'm going to assume you're already familiar with Man's Hate, having downloaded this one, stuck it on a tape, then flogged it on eBay for a monkey after describing it as a rarity from my collection, you tosspot. I'm sort of cheating here because this was never an actual tape so much as five tracks on a cassette which Andi sent to me for my third Do Easy label compilation, the one which never happened because I'd run out of steam by that point - which was a shame because these Man's Hate tracks were, as you will hear, fucking gorgeous. Much as I often felt a great deal of sympathy with the anarchopunk cause, listening to those records often felt like being back at fucking school, so thankfully some people made the effort and gave you a reason to listen to their stuff, sweetening the message and thus - in my opinion - communicating it with more force than the increasingly traditional monochrome rants about Thatcher; and Andi Xport sweetened the message with killer tunes and a soulful voice. So enjoy.

More punky scrapings from somewhere beneath the barrel next week, readers! 

Download the righteous fury by clicking on this link.

Tracks:

1 - Men and Women on Horses with Dogs
2 - President Botha Kills Children I
2 - Dewhurst the Master Bastard
2 - A Dog's Tale
2 - President Botha Kills Children II

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Deadly Fish - First 1 (1985) C30

 

From the age of about fifteen to some point in my mid-twenties I made up a series of compilations which I anarchistically named The Illegal Tapes, and for which I drew covers and everything. It was shite I'd taped off the radio or borrowed from friends - anything which wouldn't fill a whole C60 because I didn't like loose ends. The series ran to 122 volumes before I could no longer be bothered, all of which I still have, you probably won't be surprised to learn. Anyway, having recently discovered that most of them still sound fine despite being forty years old - with the exception of anything recorded on a Sony CHF - I've been working my way through and digitising anything which seems like it should be preserved, notably demos or similar recordings sent to me while I was running my tape label, Do Easy - if someone sent me three tracks on a C90, well obviously I was going to fill it up and include it in the series. So that's what will be happening here for the next month of so...

I have no idea who the Deadly Fish were. I recall it as being one tape of many given to me when my friend Carl cleared out the office of Maidstone College of Art student union, notably including all the demo tapes he'd been sent by people who were after a gig. I assumed that Deadly Fish must have been one of them, except the cover mentions Yelverton, a village in Devon which is one hell of a distance from Maidstone meaning this tape probably came from somewhere else unless the Deadly Fish moved to Maidstone in search of fame and fortune - which seems a bit unlikely. Anyway, I taped over the worst of these demos, but not the Deadly Fish. They sounded sort of shambolic, and hardly the sort of thing which would have done well on an art college stage in 1984 given that we'd all just discovered James Brown and were pretending we'd always liked him, but - I don't know - once you get past the slightly self-conscious cover of Strychnine, I personally find it hard not to be swept along by the general enthusiasm and driving bass of their pissing around in a village hall. Maybe you will too.

 

Download all nine tracks plus artwork by clicking on this link.

1 - Strychnine
2 - Disillusion
3 - Wild Thang
4 - Live in the Living Room
5 - Thrones
6 - Dead Fish are Smelly
7 - (Wilder Than) Wild Thingy
8 - Untitled
9 - Week-End

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