THE STRANGLERS - AURAL SCULPTURE @ 40

 

Released on November 5th, 1984, The Stranglers' eighth studio album, Aural Sculpture, turns 40 years old today. It's an album that saw the group reassessing their approach after going for an icy Euro-techno sound on their previous album, Feline (1983). For Aural Sculpture, the group opted to bring back a bit of warmth to their sound, though the emphasis on the beat was still prominent, albeit augmented with horn sections, female backing vocals, and an increased use of acoustic guitar.

Initial recordings for the album were self produced by the band, but the results from those sessions were somehow lacking, with the band feeling unconvinced by the results, and the record label insisting they bring in a producer to help them get their house in order. They'd originally considered hiring Marvin Gaye, but that couldn't happen when he was killed on April 1st. Eddie Grant was also in the running, but it was ultimately Laurie Latham who got the job. It was Latham who suggested the horn section and backup singers to flesh out the arrangements. The result was that a lot of material from the initial sessions was scrapped and a bunch more new songs were added during the second round of recording. The album was mostly a passion project between Cornwell and Latham, with J.J. Burnel being somewhat distracted by his ailing father requiring care before he finally passed while the album was being produced.

The album's release was a commercial success for the group, with three singles coming from it, including Skin Deep, No Mercy and Let Me Down Easy. Critically, the album was also well received, with most finding the album's nuances more welcoming than the detached austerity of Feline.

PSYCHIC TV - HACIENDA @ 40

 

Forty years ago today, on November 5th, 1984, Psychic TV played at the Haçienda nightclub in Manchester. Run by Factory Records main man, Tony Wilson, the club was notorious as one of the most pivotal venues in the UK during the late 1980s and early 1990s, becoming a key venue for the Acid House & techno music scenes. But before it really started to click as a place for DJs and Ecstasy fuelled dancers, it was initially opened as a financially struggling alternative music club, partially funded by the profits from New Order's Blue Monday single.

Psychic TV's appearance there in 1984 captured the band as it was undergoing the first of its major stylistic transmutations of its career. The group's live performances during its first few years were predominantly noisy, tribal-industrial happenings, often taking on the disposition of rallies, veiled in pseudo militaristic occult symbolic trappings. But by 1984, the group were starting to develop a kind of psychedelic rock that Genesis P-Orridge dubbed "Hyperdelic" music. The group on stage became more conventional, incorporating a regular drummer and bass guitar along with Alex Fergusson's guitar, in order to perform more conventional rock music. This particular performance is notable for being the gig where Godstar was first performed. This song would become the group's most successful single once it was fully developed in the studio and released in 1985.

The group membership for this gig included founding members, Genesis P-Orridge & Alex Fergusson, Paula P-Orridge (uncredited on the reissues of the recording), John Gosling and Paul A Reeson. In addition to Godstar, the set included versions of Roman P., Southern Comfort, Thee Starlit Mire, Unclean and I Like You. The performance was recorded and initially released on cassette in an unofficial Temple Ov Psychick Youth edition in 1984. It would be remastered and reissued on CD for the first time in 2013 by Cold Spring Records. A double LP red vinyl edition was also issued by Let Them Eat Vinyl in 2014.