Bill Nelson - Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam/Sounding The Ritual Echo

After Nelson broke up Be Bop Deluxe in 1978, following their extraordinary techno swan song "Drastic Plastic", he formed Red Noise, a New Wave five-piece that produced one album, "Sound on Sound," which would eventually function as the template for the first two or three XTC albums. "Quit Dreaming," which began life as the second Red Noise album, eventually transformed into Nelson's first full-blown post Be Bop Deluxe solo album, producing a couple of UK (very minor) hit singles ("Banal," "Do You Dream In Colour?") and climbing to number 7 on the British charts. The record sounds as current as it did 25 years ago. "Living in my Limousine" predates Flock of Seagulls (whom Nelson would later produce), "A Kind of Loving" taps into early 80s ska, "Youth of Nation on Fire" and "Life Runs out Like Sand" boast an exotic Asian air, and ""Banal" has the marks of a classic piece of postmodern new wave.

I like this album a lot better than the Red Noise outing, although it lacks the killer double whammy of "Furniture Music" and "Revolt Into Style".

As an album though, it's a much more solid affair, with a heap of great songs which reveal themselves over a couple of listens and still sound fantastically inventive today. I'm pretty much in awe of Bill Nelson and the bravery of his journey from glam guitar hero to post-kraut electronicshe frontman to new wave warrior to solo herky-jerky bedroom tunesmith to ambient pioneer. What a hero.

The initial copies of this album came with Bill's initial proto-clockwork-ambient experiments in the form of an additional album called "Sounding The Ritual Echo". It's wonderful stuff, which I have ripped as a single side one/side two, as it seemed wrong to divide these pieces up into the single tracks they have been listed as. I think that they are definitely best listened to as an entity. As vinyl intended.

Stay tuned for the follow up double album, which again was pioneering in setting the the template for a lot of early Eighties pop.

Vinyl rips at 320 Kbps.

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Wreckless Eric - Whole Wide World 7"

The original Stiff Records 7" with full artwork.

If you ever manage to get hold of this, I would recommend that you do so. It's a fascinating insight, not only about the early days of Stiff, but also about growing up in Fifties/Sixties England. A fantastic book.

And who would not fall in love with this song having heard it just once? Ian Dury plays drums on the b side, and Eric goes into the whole story in the book.

This is another one I never get tired of.

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The Festive Fifty Number Ones: An Illustrated Memoir by Lee Thacker.

I'm so stoked that Lee has allowed me to pre-publish some extracts from his wonderful book. This is a must for everyone who visits here, surely? And Lee, I want mine autographed, please. You are amazing.

Over to Lee to explain the book:

I started drawing portraits of some of my favourite musical artists in January of this year and continued to do so until the end of February. Then I decided I wanted to make them into a book which is when the idea struck me for an Illustrated Festive Fifty. I sent emails out to as many bands as I could who'd been voted to the number one spot in the Festive Fifty, asking for quotes on their feelings about this coveted result or just on John Peel and the Festive Fifty in general. I even heard back from a few!



David Gedge (The Wedding Present/Cinerama) has agreed to write the introduction and there will be contributions from a number of artists who have appeared in John Peel's Festive 50 over the years, including Credit To The Nation, Jello Biafra, Cuban Boys, Neko Case and The Only Ones.



The book will have two sides (like a record!) - side A will be all about the Festive 50 Number Ones (from 1978-2004) drawing on my own personal recollections of the songs and how they've affected my life. The B side will focus on the all time Festive 50 from 2000, again including my personal memories of the songs and some analysis and information on each song. I'm keeping a blog http://festivefiftyillustrated.blogspot.com/ on the progress of the book. The first part is now complete (50 pages) and I've just completed the writing for the second part (100 pages)



I have, ironically enough, fifty more pictures to draw. The plan is to release the book at the beginning of December or maybe on John Peel Day. The book will be paperback, 150+ pages, black and white with colour covers (in different coloured 'vinyl') and will be available from www.lulu.com/leethacker and should retail at around £10.

Thanks for your support!

Lee

The file contains not only the images featured here, but also a few PDFs of some pages from the book. Stamped with a huge Castles In Space seal of approval, this is testament not only to Lee's talent, but to the enduring power of music and the enduring legacy of Peel and alternative radio. This stuff changes lives.

Save BBC 6 Music.

Vini Reilly - The Together Mix 12"

This wonderful record is credited to Vini Reilly rather than The Durutti Column but comes from one of my favourite periods in the Reilly catalogue. Fac 284.

Vinyl rip at 320 Kbps.

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The Durutti Column - Tomorrow 7"

Rare 1985 Factory Benelux seven feturing two versions of the classic Durutti track "Tomorrow". The B side is a live take recorded in Japan.

More rare Durutti incoming...

Vinyl rip at 320 Kbps.

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Bjork - Breezeblock

For the first time ever on Castles in Space, I present to you a guest post. Robjn is a musician and artist who runs a netlabel, Fruit Tree Records and can be contacted via Twitter.

On April 1st 1998 Bjork entertained the BBC Radio 1 audience with a mixset for The Breezeblock. For me, this DJ set is very interesting for the reason that you can see the ideas forming for her albums "Homogenic" and "Vespertine" as she takes inspiration from these other artists. I think it's fair to say that she is undoubtedly a genius but in many ways she uses the same formula as that for which Madonna is hated - she seeks out a producer with a desired 'sound' and works with them to get that sound, then moves on to the next big thing.

This is where I feel mean, I feel like I am pulling apart a work of art. Naturally (in her defence) if you can afford a producer with the sound you desire, you should be allowed to do that rather than knocking it off yourself; but as you will hear, she has subsequently "borrowed" a few ideas that appear in this mixset.

The first example is – 'Oval – Shop In Store', it's nothing more than the intro to 'Hidden Place', you would have to be insane not to hear it in there (though Marcus Pop of Oval gets no credit on the album as I'm sure it was only an inspiration). Cocoon features beats as in Sähko – Track 7. Matmos were the last moment producers of Vespentine so they too affected the album. As already stated, this is a better move than mimicry. Why not go for authenticity? It takes the ideas of micro-beats used on Homogenic and gives it to the masters of sampling this laptop music leaving them to make one of the best albums of modern times in my opinion (if only for the song Unison).

Also featured are Black Dog who remixed tracks from "Début" with such perfection and Aphex Twin who under the name DJ Smojphace opened for Bjork at her Hammersmith Apollo show, and was 'booed' off for playing non stop feedback / needle-on-the-record-player-with-no-record-on-it style music.

Needless to say of my opinions on the motivations of Bjork this is a very good mixset. It's obviously heartfelt and you would be hard pressed to hear something of similar adventurousness on BBC Radio 1 these days. Or anywhere else for that matter.

Intro
Nico - Le Petit Chevalier
Aphex Twin – Come To Daddy
Nico – My Only Child
Black Dog – Chesh
Aphex Twin – Afx 6/B
Amar - Tu Hai Mera Sanam / I Will Always Love You
Oval – Shop In Store
Matmos - Three Guitar Lessons
Meredith Monk – Gotham Lullaby
Adham Shaikh – Tail
Aphex Twin – Alberto Balsalm
Oval – Do While
Track 7 – Sähko
Michael Jackson – We're Almost There
Aphex Twin – Afx 6/B
Space Age Pop – Track 11
Aphex Twin – Logan Rock Witch
Arvo Pärt – Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten
Public Enemy – Don't Believe the Hype

192 Kbps.

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John Cooper Clarke - Innocents E.P.

This fantastic single was released on Rabid Records in 1977. Wonderfully produced by Martin "Zero" Hannett in typically brilliant fashion, this is one of the best JCC records that there ever was.

Vinyl rip at 320 Kbps.

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