Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells A Story
Rod the Mod finds his solo footing, headed for stardom, with the Faces in his wake.
6:00 AM GMT 22/06/2011
Features Disc of the day
The Pop Group
Y
(Radar, 1979)
For connoisseurs of pop-as-rupture-in-the-space/time-continuum
Those lured by latterday post-punkers like The Rapture or Liars into a No Wave flashback, or currently throwing out the ol' sacroiliac to revived NY skronk kings The Contortions (they're at ATP - don't miss!) should check out their UK kin. Bristol's The Pop Group had connections with The Slits, but inhabited a paranoid noise-funk dimension of their own, assaulting conventional musical structures as if they were the pillars of capitalism itself. On this, their long-playing debut, the band circle ominously, unleashing flurries of antagonism, as "singer" Mark Stewart howls and squeals, a prison of civilisation's rubber room. Meanwhile, cut-up news announcements and random noise bursts butt in to enhance the mood of Burroughsian dislocation and disquiet. Snowgirl is a nastier Arthur Russell (much nastier): a song that approaches disco, jazz, even proto-deep house, before periodically shattering and moving on. We Are Time is Duane Eddy in hell-twang-assault mode, spiralling into a dub timeslip (reggae master Dennis Bovell produced, as he did The Slits' Cut). Even when flirting with prettiness - as Savage Sea's Satie piano intimates - we are never far from a descent into nightmare. Subsequent collaborations with free-cellist Tristan Honsinger (We Are All Prostitutes) and rap godparents The Last Poets (on the jovially titled follow-up album, For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder?) would confirm The Pop Group's eclectic impulses before the volatile bunch went their separate ways - guitarist Gareth Sager with frenetic Face mag pinups Rip, Rig & Panic and Mark Stewart on a perma-challenging solo mission with pioneering Brit dub label On-U. Latest "expanded" versions of Y include the catchy punk-funk debut single She Is Beyond Good And Evil, but a comprehensive compilation awaits. Another indie-archaeological project for the estimable Domino?
Danny Eccleston
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 11/03/2010
Further Listening
Gang Of Four – Entertainment! (EMI, 1979)
The Rapture – Mirror (Gravity, 1999)
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Earl Brutus - Larky
Last salvo of Ginsters Pasty-Warholism from Britpop ramraiders.
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Loudon Wainwright - T-Shirt
An overlooked small wonder from an unpredictable career.
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Landscape - From The Tea-rooms Of Mars… To The Hell-holes Of Uranus
Dry computer club Futurists, upon hitting implausible chart paydirt.
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Causa Sui - Summer Sessions Vol 1-3
Epic Danish jams, for when the neighbours get you down.
6:00 AM GMT 12/05/2011
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Love this album! wish the other album was still available and i think there was another album "We are Time"which was the live album.Yes a compliation by Domino or anyone else would be great to round up the singles/Peel sessions too.I think Radar had the "We are all Prostitutes "compilation out in 1998,but they are well over due some nice reissue work.
Posted by Colin Smith at 7:22 PM GMT 11/03/2010 Report Abuse
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A truly great record. Innovative in many ways.
Posted by M.A.Melo at 12:37 PM GMT 19/03/2010 Report Abuse
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