Real Time 7 (1983) C90

I posted a previous volume of this series back in January, and here's another picture (as found on Discogs) of Robert Cox, the handsome fellow who compiled these tapes and recorded as Rimarimba.

Everything I said about Real Time 5 seems to apply here, pretty much, particularly regarding stonewashed jeans bands; and yet like Real Time 5, this is nevertheless a mostly decent compilation with not much fast forwarding required. Robotghost was John Grimaldi, formerly of Argent whom older boys and girls will recall had a hit with God Gave Rock and Roll to You; Len Liggins you should recall from both Real Time 5 and International Sound Communication 10; Gambit of Shame and Mex should be known to you if you've been following these blogs, and No Bounds and 18 out of 20 seem to be variant mixes of those which appeared on their classic 7" - still one of my favourite singles from that era; I've posted about Adventures of Twizzle before as I put out a tape by them on my Do Easy label, although this track was originally on Hitler's Trousers after the Blast; I'm drawing blanks on Magnificent Everything, If All Else Fails, John Ralph, Terry Crocodile, Nine Dangerous Fish Inc., Personal Effect, Martin Barbour, and Three Damn Cheers, although for what it may be worth, If All Else Fails' Sand is probably my favourite track on this tape after the Gambit of Shame numbers; Stress you really should have heard of, being the vehicle of Alan who used to edit Adventures in Reality and Phil Clarke who produced (I think) Damn Latin zine and was (possibly) in the Stick Insects.; leaving just Rimarimba which was Robert Cox's own material, possibly occasionally involving either Smell or Quim of Smell & Quim, according to Discogs.

Dream Syndicate sounds a bit Chris Morris to me.

Download the twenty-five tracks, cover and info sheet by clicking on this link.

Tracks:
1 - Robotghost - Museum of Fakes
2 - Robotghost - Studio 54
3 - Len Liggins - Boxes (All I Want is a Womb with a View)
4 - Len Liggins - I Know You Know
5 - Gambit of Shame - To Hell with the Carnival
6 - Gambit of Shame - No Bounds
7 - Gambit of Shame - 18 out of 20
8 - Mex - Born to be Killed
9 - Adventures of Twizzle - On and On and On
10 - Magnificent Everything - Blue Sky North Street
11 - Magnificent Everything - Big Casino
12 - If All Else Fails - Sand
13 - If All Else Fails - Blood on Her Produce
14 - John Ralph - Star
15 - Terry Crocodile - Velvet
16 - Terry Crocodile - Dream Syndicate
17 - Nine Dangerous Fish Inc. - Shake
18 - Nine Dangerous Fish Inc. - Lobsters on the Boil
19 - Personal Effect - Tired and Emotional
20 - Martin Barbour - The Other Way
21 - Martin Barbour - Attarine Street
22 - Three Damn Cheers - Peur
23 - Stress - Nothing New
24 - Rimarimba - Steady State
25 - Rimarimba - The Melting
 
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v/a - Real Time 5 (1983) C90

This one was released by Unlikely Records in 1983, which was the organ of the above Robert Cox of Rimarimba, amongst others.

I seem to recall Real Time as a fairly regular series of compilation cassettes, and that Robert had a policy of including something by every hopeful who sent him material (although I could be wrong about that - it was a long time ago), which is why a few of these artists were a bit Alan Partridge, I suppose. Then again, musical history seems to have conveniently forgotten all those stonewashed jeans bands you used to see playing in regional pubs at Sunday lunchtime, usually with a cover of something by the Police in their set, and I suppose they deserve to be remembered as much as anyone.

Aside from the cod reggae, there's actually only really one band I disliked on here - MWAB who just sound a bit of a mess to me; but otherwise it's a surprisingly decent collection, plenty of variety and a few surprises. You may have come across UV Pøp, I'm Dead, and Sirius B - whom I'm sure I recall being the next big thing for a couple of days, at least according to Dave Henderson; you may even recall Len Liggins from this tape; and you'll possibly recognise the Attrition track from their Third Mind cassette. My personal faves would be by the Insane Picnic and the exceedingly proggy Trekellion Skyway, but not even Discogs seem to know anything about them, which is a shame.

Download the twenty-six tracks and cover by clicking on this link.

Tracks:
1 - UV Pøp - Superstition
2 - UV Pøp - Some Win This
3 - Faction - Realisation
4 - I-Jog & the Tracksuits - Optimism
5 - Chapter 29 - Before
6 - Chapter 29 - Silence Hammers Down
7 - Death Pop - Antichrist
8 - Death Pop - Walk With Me
9 - Kix - Close Encounters
10 - Len Liggins - Sandwiches
11 - Len Liggins - Lead
12 - Party Day - Party Day
13 - Sirius B - Is This the End?
14 - Sirius B - Chain of Thought
15 - Attrition - Onslaught
16 - Still Screaming DC - Holy Wars
17 - Innerpropriates - Bryn to Drym
18 - The Insane Picnic - Chaos Control
19 - Trekellion Skyway - Black Brook
20 - MWAB - Dirt
21 - MWAB - Mik Bum
22 - MWAB - Ooee Ooee Oo Song
23 - I'm Dead - Whispers
24 - I'm Dead - After Life
25 - Jonathan Rush - Horizons
26 - Jonathan Rush - Show Tonight

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v/a - International Sound Communication 10 (1986) C90

I don't have a vast wealth of knowledge regarding this one, one of a regular series done by Andi Xport who also recorded his own stuff under the name Man's Hate and which was pretty good as it happens. I had more volumes of this at some point, and certainly the first one, but it's no longer anywhere to be found, so I probably gave it to Jim MacDougall back in the nineties when I was having a clear out. I guess I kept this one because I'm on it.

A Split Second and Stress were both quite big, relatively speaking, so you should know of them; I believe Crawling With Tarts had some sort of following too, although I think this is the only thing I ever heard; Ajnynytyv once sent me a tape with a red cover but it was pretty noisy and I don't remember liking it much, so I think that went to Jim McDougall too, probably ending its existence flung off the top of an east London tower block for air rifle target practice or something; Len Liggins also contributed a (slightly better) track to an Unlikely Records compilation which I'll get around to digitising at some point; and I vaguely recall Modern Art, WeR7 and Mystery Plane from fanzines and Color Disc flyers of the time. I never bothered sending for any of their stuff, but I sort of wish I had now. Anything else you want to know, you might be able to find out from the Discogs page, although it's patchy where some of the more obscure artists are concerned.

Weirdly, I've a feeling this may only be the second or third time I've bothered listening to this one, which is a pity as I realise it's pretty decent, with a good variety and some interesting stuff on there. I really wish I still had the other volumes, but never mind.

Download the twenty-eight tracks and cover by clicking on this link.

Tracks:
1 - A Split Second - Resignation
2 - Twilight Ritual - A Perfect Memory in Here
3 - Syndrome - Night Talk
4 - Linear Movement - Wired to the Machines
5 - Photodrama - Dan Dare, Where Are You?
6 - Ideas Beyond Filth - Rollercoaster
7 - Agencement - Kazbuz
8 - Crawling With Tarts - Smak
9 - Ajynytyv - Integration (live excerpt)
10 - Die Schlaffen Affen - Back to Rock 'n' Roll
11 - Do Easy - Knife in My Side
12 - Rudolf's Rache - Sommersprossensesicht
13 - LD50 - Your Country Needs You
14 - Los Paranos - Life On the Floor
15 - Katharsis - Content Discontent
16 - Mystery Plane - Find Somebody
17 - WeR7 - I Was Not a Jew
18 - Modern Art - Monochrome Dance
19 - La Créme de la Crime - Lipstick
20 - 10T - Pandra Music
21 - Det Wiehl - Himalaya
22 - The Marvelous Roofs - Them Scarecrows
23 - Len Liggins - Leningrad
24 - Len Liggins - All the Dead Men
25 - Solomonoff, von Hoffmanstahl & Hoffman - Serenade in the Night
26 - Terry Gray - Faith
27 - Stress - Fist Comes Down
28 - F/i - Echo River (excerpt)

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pssst... more here.