Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas

There is a time in your life when you want to recede, want to hide from the world, but still wish to view and vicariously participate with all the colour and exuberance of the night, the wonder of the unknown and the joy of the formidable. This kind of thing is what I like to call a romantic's paradox. I probably suffer from this more often than not. In any case, Heaven or Las Vegas works as a soundtrack to my mindscapes and provides me with the company of someone magical. What is certain is that there's a very fine line between the glitz, glamour and brightness of Las Vegas and the ethereal beauty of what you perceive as heaven. And somehow this album captures that moment so well. Are these the comforts of madness people speak of? Sure, whatever floats your boat.

i wear your ring

Spacemen 3 - Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs to

Legendary fuzzy space rock/neo psych pioneers Spacemen 3 formed in Warwickshire in 1984. This is a bootleg compilation of their demos, featuring tracks that would end up on their first 2 records. Essential and raw document of one of Britain's finest acts. Also, best album title of all time?

come down easy

V/A - Xpressway Pile-Up

Xpressway Records was a short lived New Zealand music label that lasted a few years in the late 80's and dissolved after releasing 23 records on its catalog. I'd like to call them Flying Nun's twisted little sister though, they nurtured and established the more experimental NZ acts of the late 80's, whose influence over independent music over the 90's cannot be understated. Here's a compilation of whacked out tunes compiled after Xpressway disintegrated.

Chronicles the best of the short lived Xpressway label from NZ. Despite having only 23 releases to its catalog, Xpressway lived to be immensely influential to the local scene and housed the more experimental acts in its roster; and as such that is what you get on this compilation. Ranging from aural assaults to mumbled drones, from gloomy introspective balladry to exercises in improvisation and noise, it features some of New Zealand's best musicians (Peter Jefferies, Dead C, The Terminals, Plagal Grind, Alastair Galbraith and the like) and is fairly essential for anyone reaping the rewards of the NZ music scene and looking to dig a bit deeper.


you and me, walking on the wire

Pram - Gash

Pram are an experimental band based in Birmingham. Originally from Yorkshire, Rosie Cuckston and Matt Eaton went to school together. Along with drummer Andy Weir, the three then moved to Birmingham in the late 80's. A chance meeting between Rosie Cuckston and Sam Owen at a local supermarkets Singles Night started off the unique band. They began gigging under the name Hole in 1988. The only sounds included her eerie vocals and a home-made theremin. Matt Eaton later joined the band playing multiple instruments. Keyboard player/sampler Max Simpson also joined, with Sam playing bass and Andy Weir on the drums. The band's first album "Gash" was self-released and sold by mail order and at gigs, and is now completely out of print (sells for about $500 on Ebay). 

This as a debut marked Pram as one of the most innovative bands in the UK in the 90's. Filled to the brim with mind bending experiments in deconstruction, Gash has a near psychedelic nature in its delivery but never flirts with pomposity or wank. It's a very intriguing world of sound that Pram have conjured in Gash, one could say the chaos within is meticulously detailed, and once a while it's possible to witness the myriad of musical cornerstones that Pram use to decorate their tunes; ranging all from free jazz, ambience, usage of toys and toy-like instruments (that well compliment the child-nightmare themes that the songs portray) and the part-controlled/part frenzied krautrock drumming that gives the songs a really cool, rough edge, like a yacht getting rocked by the mighty ocean in the dead of the night (we would in fact be lost at sea if it wasn't for Rosie Cuckton's sweet, soothing voice that adds a semblance of 'normalcy' to the whole affair). 

All in all, a bizarre barrage of sounds on this one, every song is unique, from the industrial mutant pop of 'I'm a War' which climaxes into a serious funk workout, the calm solitude of 'Pram', the grotesque 'Flesh' which possesses a frantic punk spirit and some violent, noisy guitar lines that show that these guys were good at just about everything. I'm not sure how analogies work in reviews, but at this point in time I think it's fair to say that Pram were the heirs to the kind of thing This Heat and Can were doing decades before them - pushing the boundaries of sound in ways not thought entirely possible without sacrificing any of it in quality. Sorry if I'm gushing, I fucking love this record.

Nightmares and dreamscapes