GOD BLESS THE RED KRAYOLA AND ALL WHO SAIL WITH IT @ 55

 

Released 55 years ago this month is the sophomore LP from Red Krayola, God Bless The Red Krayola And All Who Sail With It, which was issued in May of 1968. Shifting their sound radically from their debut, the band inadvertently predicted post-punk atonality and minimalism a good decade before it would become trendy.

After the psychedelic hippy freakout that was The Parable of Arable Land, which inter-cut wildly effected songs by the band with improvised mayhem from the collective, The Familiar Ugly, a group of some 50 hangers on and friends, things got paired down significantly for the followup. The group were down to a trio with a scant few guests to join in. The production also took a radical shift away from what had been done before, with the band opting for a completely stripped down and flat production sound. No effects, reverberation or delays were used at all, save for the last track on the album. Only the natural acoustics of the studio room were used with even the EQ on the tracks was deliberately kept flat to avoid adding any color that was not inherent in the natural sound. Combined with the disjointed, angular and obtuse performances on their instruments, the band created a sound not dissimilar to what would come out of New York ten years later with the “No Wave” scene, which incorporated many of the same stylistic cues of free jazz improvisation, atonal musical structures and stark minimalism.

At the time of its release, it was completely misunderstood by fans and critics and it sold exceptionally poorly compared to their previous record. Yet in the ensuing years since its release, it has become recognized as a critical touchstone for bands which would become cutting edge with a decade of musical evolution behind them to provide context. For this album, when it hit the record shops in 1968, there was literally ZERO context for anyone to relate it to and try to understand what was going on. It was simply unprecedented. 

FUNKADELIC - COSMIC SLOP @ 50

 

Marking half a century of funkin’ it up is the fifth studio LP from Funkadelic, Cosmic Slop, which was released in May of 1973. After staring their career as a fusion of psychedelic rock & R&B, the “Funketeers” were starting to refine their sound into something which would soon define ‘70s funk, landing the accent firmly on the ONE and building the foundation stones for the hip-hop revolution which would inherit their grooves in future decades.

The shift away from the heavier rock sound of their early albums into the smoother grooves of what would become classic P-funk had begun in earnest on their previous, sprawling double LP, America Eats Its Young, an uneven album, but one which put some key elements into place. The evolution of the band’s lineup had stabilized somewhat by this point with the addition of key players like Bootsy Collins and singer-guitarist Garry Shider. These changes fueled the collective for the remainder of the decade. Such a significant revamp, however, initially left their fan base and critics out of sync with the band at first, with the results being poor sales for Cosmic Slop, which failed to produce any hit singles. Since its release, however, it has been significantly re-evaluated and recognized for its virtues, which become clearly evident when the album is contextualized by the rest of the group’s output. Cosmic Slop clearly shows the band finding their creative feet and stomping them with conviction and confidence. The rest of the world simply needed to catch up to where they were headed.

This was also the first Funkadelic LP to feature the graphic art genius and liner notes of Pedro Bell, who assumed responsibility for the band's gate-fold album covers and liner notes until their collapse after 1981's The Electric Spanking of War Babies. This is where the mythology of P-Funk truly starts to take flight and flex its muscles, creating an identity and presence which outstripped any other funk outfit roaming the American landscape during this golden age of the groove. Cosmic Slop simply set the standard and the P-Funk gang kept upping the ante throughout the rest of their career, maintaining both Funkadelic and soon Parliament, as well as a number of other side-projects, in an ever expanding universe of funk dominance.

NURSE WITH WOUND - SOLILOQUY FOR LILITH @35

 

Celebrating its 35th anniversary this month is Nurse With Wound’s triple LP slab of droning ambience, Soliloquy For Lilith, which was released in May of 1988. After nearly a decade of warping minds with a series of surreal and jarring excursions into sonic malfeasance, Steven Stapleton charted an abrupt change of course for this album, into a world of serene solemnity, forcing his fans to reconsider what was possible for the project while creating one of the most enduring and admired titles in it’s vast catalogue.

From its inception, Nurse With Wound had established itself as a true eclectic outlier within the experimental music community, creating a series of idiosyncratic releases which generally involved extensive use of disorienting editing and audio cutup techniques. Soliloquy, however, would rely on a very different approach, with Stapleton and wife, Diana Rogerson, claiming to have used no instruments of any kind in the album’s production. Instead, the sounds originated from a series of effects devices and pedals which were wired together in sequence to form a closed feedback loop, with no original source instrument or microphone to generate the sound. The noises that emanated from this configuration were believed to have resulted from an electrical wiring fault in the studio which caused a “hum” to be picked up in the wiring. This noise was then morphed and amplified by the feedback loop of effects pedals. Changes to the tone and texture of the sound were triggered by Stapleton’s physical proximity to different devices in the chain. Moving & gesturing near them, like one would do with a Theremin, caused oscillations and other modulations. A series of six recordings of this setup were captured, each lasting no less than 17-18 uninterrupted minutes in length.

Nurse With Wound releases are often packaged in limited editions, occasionally with one of a kind cover art for the extremely rarefied items. For this release, Stapleton & Rogerson created a new, though short-lived, independent label imprint, Idle Hole, and assigned the album a catalogue number of Mirror One. Funding for the project was aided by a government Enterprise Allowance Scheme grant. The album was packaged as three LPs enclosed in a glossy black lidded box, embossed with a gold foil radiating disc graphic & title texts. An insert included with the set depicted the Burney Relief (also known as the Queen of the Night), a Mesopotamian terracotta plaque in high relief of the Old-Babylonian period. It depicts a winged, nude, goddess-like figure with bird's talons, flanked by owls, and perched upon two lions. The figure is often associated with the biblical figure of Lilith, a female in Mesopotamian and Judaic mythology, theorized to be the first wife of Adam and supposedly the primordial she-demon. The title of the album, while being archaic and occult in nature, also referred to the couple’s daughter, Lilith, who was born earlier in 1988.

Although a limited edition, the album quickly sold out, even at the exorbitant price necessitated by the elaborate packaging. I recall paying $60 CAN for mine in the local import record shop, a steep price in 1988. In fact, it quickly became Nurse With Wound’s most popular release, with funds generated by its sales contributing to the Stapleton family being able to finance the purchase of farm property at Cooloorta in County Clare, Ireland in 1989, where they maintain a homestead to this day. The album was reissued on CD, first in 1993 in a standard jewel case 2CD set, and then again in 2003, this time in an expanded 3CD edition with packaging emulating the original LP embossed box. The third disc, added to further emulate the original LP configuration, adds two remixes to the set, bringing the total to eight movements. The reissues continued to sell better than nearly any other Nurse With Wound title and the album remains in print. It easily stands as one of my all-time favorite releases from Nurse With Wound, as well as one of its most listenable.

JAH WOBBLE’S BEDROOM ALBUM @ 40

 

Marking its 40th anniversary this month is Jah Wobble’s second full length solo LP, Jah Wobble’s Bedroom Album, which was released in May of 1983. After the former Public Image Ltd bassist cobbled together his debut solo releases mostly from unauthorized remixes & augmentations of Metal Box outtakes, which allegedly hastened his departure from the band, Wobble was back with an intimate collection of material recorded in his home using a modest private recording setup.

Although it had been nearly 3 years since his debut solo LP, Wobble hadn’t been exactly dormant during that time. He’d released a collaborative LP/EP with CAN rhythm section, Holger Czukay & Jaki Liebezeit, two live cassettes albums with his band The Human Condition, a single with Ben Mandleson and a couple of solo 12” singles with A-side tracks that would later appear on the Bedroom Album. However, by the time he stared working on the Bedroom Album, he no longer had major label support from Virgin Records. As a result, Wobble set up his first independent imprint, Lago Records (aka WOB Records), which released a series of singles, EPs and LPs between 1981 and 1986, before Wobble temporarily retired from music in the late 1980s to work on the London subway system and deal with his substance abuse issues.

Fundamentally, the music created for the Bedroom Album contains the seeds for what would become Wobble’s trademark “world music” style, incorporating elements of Middle Eastern and Asian influences into his post-punk, dub-wise & reggae tinged style. Certain tracks even hinted at a slightly industrial kind of “musique concrète” approach. Whereas his debut LP & EP in 1980 were characterized by a kind of puerile & mischievous humor, the mood throughout this LP is far more somber, subdued and warm, reinforcing the sense of intimacy that was consistent with the concept of recording in his bedroom. The only outside musical contributions for the album came from “Animal”, Dave Maltby, who played guitar on and co-wrote several of the songs. He was also a member of the power trio, The Human Condition, along with Wobble and original PiL drummer, Jim Walker (1981-1982).

The album’s impact is hard to assess as no reviews or charting info could be found at the time of writing this. It has never been reissued since its initial vinyl release, though it does appear in its entirety on the two CD box set, The Early Years, released in 2001 on Wobble’s 2nd indie label, 30 Hertz Records, which continues to function as his primary musical outlet to this day. That compilation even features the same cover graphic as the Bedroom Album, created by Margaux Tomlinson. Unfortunately, it seems that the master tapes for the original LP, along with several singles included on that collection, are no longer extant as the audio included on the CD is clearly derived from vinyl sources. This makes the LP something of an outlier in Wobble’s canon of recorded work, which has become vast over the course of the past four decades as he has maintained an unprecedented level of productivity. With the aura of a lost musical relic, it captures a most enigmatic time in Wobble’s early career.

ZOVIET FRANCE - SHOUTING AT THE GROUND @ 35

 

Turning 35 years old this month is Zoviet France’s monolithic double LP masterpiece, Shouting at the Ground, which was released in May of 1988. The album marked a stylistic shift for the group compared to previous releases. Most notably, they began working with digital signal processing devices. Previous releases had all been created using basic analogue instruments and effects like tape loops & delays, spring reverb tanks, acoustic instruments and, occasional analogue synths. With the adoption of digital effects processors & sampling, the sound took on a much more drone-centered compositional style, taking advantage of the potential to extend digital reverb and delays into sustained, near infinite soundscapes. The packaging for the album was also surprisingly conventional, incorporating a standard LP cover with printed color inner sleeve inserts. Previous LPs had made use of exotic materials like rubber, foil, burlap and roofing tiles, often with hand painted or screen printed accents and graphics. Though the album represented a technological evolution and a slight move towards more mainstream accessibility, it retained the band’s sense of mystery and atmosphere, creating sonic landscapes of vast expanse and depth, placing them at the forefront for the development of dark ambient music.

NEW ORDER - POWER CORRUPTION & LIES @ 40

 

Marking its 40th anniversary today is the sophomore LP from New Order, Power, Corruption & Lies, which was released by Factory Records on May 2nd, 1983. After a tentative step out from under of the shadows of Joy Division and the suicide of Ian Curtis with their debut LP in 1981, New Order were clearly letting the world know they were freed of the shackles of their past and ready to move forward as a reconstituted creative force. Backed by the unprecedented success of the Blue Monday single released in March that same year, this double-barrelled assault on the underground proved to be irresistible for fans and critics alike.

Building on the foundations set by Blue Monday, which was not included on the album, New Order set their sights on a distinctly more electronic sound, incorporating more sequencers, drum machines and synths into their arsenal than their first album & singles. This helped give the group a more distinct sound than their debut album which still bore many sonic trademarks established by Joy Division. It wasn’t a complete stylistic departure and there were still hints of past ghosts in the themes. The brighter, tighter sound still had their essential post-punk DNA in it, but the greys and monotones of previous recordings were blushing with more color and intricacy. The mood was decidedly less introverted, with guitarist Bernard Sumner stepping up to assume the brunt of lead vocals, performing with more confidence while being less hidden in the mix.

The distinctive cover of the album was designed by Peter Saville and followed on from the Blue Monday graphics with their use of the color coded key on the sleeve’s edge, but this time featuring the painting "A Basket of Roses" by French artist Henri Fantin-Latour, which is part of the National Gallery's permanent collection in London. Saville had originally planned to use a Renaissance portrait of a dark prince to tie in with the Machiavellian theme of the title, but could not find a suitable portrait. At the gallery Saville picked up a postcard with Fantin-Latour's painting, and his girlfriend mockingly asked him if he was going to use it for the cover. Saville then realized it was a great idea because the flowers "suggested the means by which power, corruption and lies infiltrate our lives. They're seductive." The owner of the painting (The National Heritage Trust) first refused the label access to it, but Tony Wilson called up the gallery director to ask who actually owned the painting and was given the answer that the Trust belonged to the people of Britain. Wilson then replied, "I believe the people want it." The director then replied, "If you put it like that, Mr Wilson, I'm sure we can make an exception in this case." The cover was later among the ten chosen by the Royal Mail for a set of "Classic Album Cover" postage stamps issued in January 2010.

Upon it’s release, the album became an immediate critical sensation and has since gone on to achieve legendary status, regularly referenced as one of the best albums of the era and even of all times. In 1989, Power, Corruption & Lies was ranked number 94 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s, with the magazine citing it as "a landmark album of danceable, post-punk music". Rolling Stone also placed the album at number 262 on the 2020 edition of its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time (it was not included on the original 2003 and 2012 lists).

FM - DIRECT TO DISC / HEAD ROOM @ 45

 

Marking its 45th anniversary this month is the sophomore LP from Canada’s OTHER progressive rock trio, FM, with Direct to Disc (aka Head Room) being released in May of 1978. Recorded shortly after the departure of co-founder, Nash the Slash, this would mark the premier of Ben Mink on mandolin & violin and highlight an idiosyncratic use of a short lived, but fascinating recording process.

For the recording of this album, FM employed an experimental technique which bypassed the use of recording tape and, instead, captured the sound directly to the master acetate disc. To utilize this process, the band had to perform live in studio, with no overdubbing capability, and mix the LP as it was being captured by the transcription mechanism to the master disc. The process for doing this was extremely sensitive as any flaw would ruin the master, so over-saturation, clipping and distortion were essential to avoid. This also meant that the band had to be prepared to get it right with only one or two takes allowed as it was extremely expensive to be burning through master discs for throwaway takes.

Despite the limitations of this process, FM opted to record two side-long, heavily improvisational and predominately instrumental compositions. It was a risky proposition to be flying by the seat of your pants when you are trying to work within such strict technical parameters. Yet the band managed to deliver the goods with two 15 minute excursions into jazz-rock infused experimentalism - incorporating their traditional electric violin & mandolin from Ben Mink, Cameron Hawkins’ battery of synthesizers & bass guitar and drums & percussion from Martin Deller. This also included a bizarre configuration which used an alpha wave brain monitor plugged into a synthesizer, translating Deller's live brainwaves into a throbbing hum. All in all, a pretty bold experiment for a young band to undertake.

The sessions reportedly produced two sets of master plates with one set used for the finished LP, which was pressed in a run of 20,000 copies, all of which sold out. There are rumors that the unused plates were later used for an unauthorized second pressing, titled Head Room, which because of the different plates, contained different performances of the tracks. The existence of this alternate version remains somewhat questionable as the band have not been able to confirm that the Head Room release actually contains different performances from the initial Direct To Disc release. Because of the nature of this “direct to disc” process, all records which were manufactured using it were, by necessity, limited editions. The master disc simply wasn’t usable past a certain number of copies. This also meant that any future reissues would have to be remastered from the vinyl pressings as there would be no master tape available.

For the initial authorized release, regular FM artist, Paul Till, provided the cover painting and the album was issued by independent label, Labyrinth Records, as their first and apparently only release. Critically, it was a well received album, but it is mostly neglected because of its limited availability and the more experimental nature of the music it contains. A reissue on CD was finally released in 2013.