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MONOCHROME SET

The Monochrome Set

Radio Sessions: Marc Riley BBC6 Music 2011-2022

    With 'The Monochrome Set – Radio Sessions (Marc Riley BBC 6 Music 2011-2022)' we revive the great tradition of releasing radio sessions of great (independent) acts. And what could be more natural than starting our series with a band that represents the indie ethos like few others in following their own unique artistic vision without compromise.

    The most unique thing about the radio session recordings is that they encompass a mixture of concert and studio. The bands are freer than in studio recordings at the same time more focused than in live performances - gems from the bands repertoire which might not have been played live are often preserved only in the radio sessions.

    The Monochrome Set - Radio Sessions contains all the BBC 6 sessions recorded for and hosted by the great Marc Riley from the years 2011-2022. 32 songs in total including well-known hits like "Eine Symphonie des Grauens", "Jet Set Junta" and "Alphaville" as well as fantastic versions of seldom heard or not so well-known songs like "Rain Check" or "Hip Kitten Spinning Chrome". With the kind support of the BBC, we are now able to release these recordings of the most demonstrably intelligent, dark, witty and British of all guitar pop bands on record for the first time. Radio Sessions" by THE TELESCOPES and COMET GAIN are planned for the near future. Stay tuned!

    TRACK LISTING

    LP1/CD1
    A1) Eine Symphonie Des Grauens
    A2) The Mouse Trap
    A3) Alphaville
    A4) Jet Set Junta
    A5) Hip Kitten Spinning Chrome
    A6) Streams
    A7) They Call Me Silence
    A8) Cauchemar
    B1) Super Plastic City
    B2) The Time I've Spent Doing Nothing
    B3) Lefty
    B4) Strange Young Alien
    B5) The Z Train
    B6) Iceman
    B7) Fantasy Creatures
    B8) Rain Check

    LP2/CD2
    C1) Cosmonaut
    C2) Reach For Your Gun
    C3) Stick Your Hand Up If You’re Louche
    C4) Fele
    C5) I Feel Fine
    C6) Maisieworld
    C7) Mrs Robot
    C8) Oh Yes I'm Going To Be In Your Dreams Tonight
    D1) Rest, Unquiet Spirit
    D2) Summer Of The Demon
    D3) I Can't Sleep
    D4) La Chanson De La Pucelle
    D5) Allhallowtide
    D6) Hello, Save Me
    D7) Really In The Wrong Town
    D8) Resplendent In A Darkness

    The Monochrome Set

    Volume, Contrast, Brilliance Vol.1

      Originally released in 1983 this hugely rewarding record acted as a round up of the group’s career to date and was of immeasurable value to fans. It’s aged well, too.

      Comprising of A and B sides from their Rough Trade released singles plus extracts from sessions for Radio 1, Capital Radio and EMI Records, this LP contains unique versions of such classic tracks as “The Jet Set Junta” and “He’s Frank (Slight Return)”.

      Oddities, and jocular moments run through the album, including John Peel introducing “Fat Fun” and thinking aloud that those Monochrome boys might be having a pop at him. The fact that it includes a wish list of the band’s best songs to this point in their career is another reason to recommend it.

      Previously they may have made a handful of slightly-off-target albums, but this 1983 compilation is a front-to-back joy, fast, restless and perfectly sequenced. It plays like a cohesive album.

      Includes 2 bonus tracks from the February 1979 Peel Session ‘Love Goes Down The Drain’ & ‘Noise (Eine Kleine Symphonie)’.


      TRACK LISTING

      Side 1:
      Eine Symphonie Des Grauens 
      The Jet Set Junta
      Love Zombies
      Silicon Carne
      The Ruling Class
      Viva Death Row
      The Man With The Black Moustache

      Side 2:
      He’s Frank (Slight Return)
      Fun For All Of The Family
      Lester Leaps In
      ICI Les Enfants
      Fat Run
      Alphaville
      Avanti (Ten Don’ts For Honeymooners) Love Goes Down The Drain
      Noise (Eine Kleine Symphonie)

      The Monochrome Set

      Allhallowtide

        Having amassed a formidable catalogue of releases on a number of key labels over 5 decades, including Rough Trade, Dindisc and Cherry Red, The Monochrome Set are ready to release their new studio album on Tapete Records - the bands home for the last eight years and five albums.

        The indie pop veterans have been hard to pin down over this time. Their instantly recognisable sound and darkly hilarious lyrics have always set them apart. Bid's cerebral Brit wit spikiness and debonair tones melded to infectious melodies and deft songcraft of a cinematic and literary quality has been quietly influential over a diverse set of artists since their inception and throughout different stages of their career so they can count the likes of Graham Coxon, Iggy Pop, Alex Kapranos, Neil Hannon, Johnny Marr and Jarvis Cocker as fans.

        Bid is joined in The Monochrome Set by fellow original Andy Warren on bass, Mike Urban on drums and newest recruit Athen Ayren on keyboards. For the album recording Alice Healey brovides backing vocals with Karen Yarnell on percussion and Jon Clayton, additional instrumentation. The album was recorded at OneCat Studio in London, engineered by Jon Clayton and produced by Jon Clayton and Bid.

        After an aeon spent in infinitely old cities of the body and mind, a magical creature glides back into its bedroom.It has been changed forever - what once was human is now a higher being, an unnatural force, the new perfect.

        It can still feel the exulting gaze of The Eye upon its back- thousands of years of brooding, planning, in deep, dark, secret places, waiting for the stars to align, the ideal body to infuse.

        The air around it spits ferociously; the whines of the weak still sing in its ears, like the pathetic squeaks of old curtains as they are closed forever.

        It stands before the full length mirror, its reflection now clouded with dust. A lifetime of waiting; my poor mirror, here I am, I will clean you!
        It picks up a cloth and wipes across the glass triumphantly!
        Strange.
        It looks the same as before it left, all that time ago.
        A naked old man.
        ...and from a hidden door comes the strains of The Monochrome Set's 16th and latest album, "Allhallowtide", with its elegantly crafted pop songs, ornate melodies, sumptuous lyrics, all performed superbly by a rare and legendary band.

        TRACK LISTING

        1) Allhallowtide
        2) Ballad Of The Flaming Man
        3) My Deep Shoreline
        4) Moon Garden
        5) Really In The Wrong Town
        6) Box Of Sorrows
        7) I, Servant
        8) In A Chapel Of A Personal Design
        9) Hello, Save Me
        10) Resplendent In A Darkness
        11) Parapluie

        The Monochrome Set

        Strange Boutique

          The casual prose of pop history is full of backhanded compliments, and The Monochrome Set have received a few, ranging from "should have been massive" to "influential", numbering the likes of Morrissey and Marr, Blur's Graham Coxon and Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos among their celebrity admirers. . Released in February 1980, their first album Strange Boutique, featuring the band's percussion-heavy theme song (predating Adam & The Ants's "Kings of the Wild Frontier" by months) and the Johnny Marr-anticipating "Love Goes Down The Drain", caught the Monochrome Set in full flight, quickly followed by the equally taut, funny and adventurously dynamic Love Zombies. 

          TRACK LISTING

          1. The Monochrome Set (I Presume)
          2. The Lighter Side Of Dating
          3. Expresso
          4. The Puerto Rican Fence Climber
          5. Tomorrow Will Be Too Long
          6. Martians Go Home
          7. Love Goes Down The Drain
          8. Ici Les Enfants
          9. The Etcetera Stroll
          10. Goodbye Joe
          11. The Strange Boutique

          The Monochrome Set

          Love Zombies

            Released in February 1980, their first album Strange Boutique, featuring the band's percussion-heavy theme song (predating Adam & The Ants's "Kings of the Wild Frontier" by months) and the Johnny Marr-anticipating "Love Goes Down The Drain", caught the Monochrome Set in full flight, quickly followed by the equally taut, funny and adventurously dynamic Love Zombies. 

            TRACK LISTING

            1. Love Zombies
            2. Adeste Fideles
            3. 405 Lines
            4. B-I-D Spells Bid
            5. R.S.V.P.
            6. Apocalypso
            7. Karma Suture
            8. The Man With The Black Moustache
            9. The Weird, Wild And Wonderful World Of Tony Potts
            10. "In Love, Cancer?"

            The Monochrome Set

            Fabula Mendax

              At the end of the 70s, The Monochrome Set were part of the first wave of 'post punk' bands. Right from the beginning, the band earned a solid reputation as purveyors of fine pop, gaining praise from 80s contemporaries such as Morrissey and Edwyn Collins. The Monochrome Set sound has often been described as 'timeless', and that alone explains why, over the years, the band has continued gaining admirers. As with all TMS albums, "Fabula Mendax" is at once accessible and arcane, upbeat and dark, lush and spare, and with lyrics that as ever remain tantalisingly opaque.

              Monochrome Set

              Eligible Bachelors - 3CD Expanded Edition

                London post-punk band the monochrome set’s third album “eligible bachelors” re-issued, complete with a huge amount of bonus tracks and additional hard to find material. Contains the original “eligible bachelors” album, the live album “fin” (aka the good life), singles and b-sides, rarities and bbc sessions, plus a number of lead singer and songwriter bid’s solo tracks. 3cds packed with some of the monochrome set’s finest music. All material digitally remastered for this new re-issue. The monochrome set were widely recognised as one of the best post-punk bands of the late ‘70s and ‘80s, with the album “eligible bachelors” regarded as one of their finest pieces of work. Allmusic named it as “one of the classic undiscovered albums of the early ‘80s. Eligible bachelors is a tour de force of wit and musical imagination” as well as “an age-defining record”, with trouser press praising the band for their “witty intelligence” and declaring that ‘eligible bachelors’ “strips the music down to essential elements”. Cherry red have paid “eligible bachelors” the respect it deserves by carefully packaging the album alongside the monochrome set’s fine live album “fin” (aka the good life), and a whole host of singles, b-sides and rarities. All this has been remastered and beautifully packaged for the album’s re-issue.

                TRACK LISTING

                Disc: 1
                1. The Jet Set Junta
                2. I'll Cry Instead
                3. On The 13th Day
                4. Cloud 10
                5. The Mating Game
                6. March Of The Eligible Bachelors
                7. The Devil Rides Out
                8. Fun For All The Family
                9. The Midas Touch
                10. The Ruling Class
                11. The Great Barrier Riff
                12. He's Frank
                13. Alphaville
                14. Eine Symphonie Des Grauens
                15. Lester Leaps In
                16. The Monochrome Set
                17. Mr. Bizarro
                18. He's Frank (Slight Return)
                19. Silicon Carne
                20. Fallout
                21. Ten Don'ts For Honeymooners
                22. Straits Of Malacca
                23. J.D.H.A.N.E.Y.
                24. Cast A Long Shadow
                25. The Bridge
                26. The Jet Set Junta

                Disc: 2
                1. Love Goes Down The Drain
                2. Noise (Eine Kleine Symphonie)
                3. Espresso
                4. Fat Fun
                5. Ici Les Enfants
                6. Martians Go Home
                7. Fallout
                8. Goodbye Joe
                9. Strange Boutique
                10. Viva Death Row
                11. 405 Lines
                12. Love Zombies
                13. The Man With The Black Moustache
                14. Fun For All The Family
                15. The Ruling Class
                16. Avanti
                17. Yo, Ho, Ho And Three Bottles Of Wine
                18. Andiamo
                19. Cowboy Country
                20. Jacob’s Ladder
                21. Inside Your Heart
                22. White Noise
                23. We Are Zarbie
                24. I Don't Know
                25. Flesh/Trash/Heat
                26. Private Dick
                27. It's More Than Just Love

                Disc: 3
                1. He's Frank
                2. Martians Go Home
                3. Straits Of Malacca
                4. Sugar Plum
                5. B-I-D Spells Bid
                6. Alphaville
                7. Heaven Can Wait
                8. Goodbye Joe
                9. The Strange Boutique
                10. The Strange Boutique (Reprise)
                11. Jacob's Ladder
                12. Wallflower
                13. Apocalypso
                14. Mr. Bizarro
                15. I'll Scry Instead
                16. Espresso
                17. 405 Lines
                18. Eine Symphonie Des Grauens
                19. The Monochrome Set
                20. Up (1986 Demo)
                21. Reach For Your Gun
                22. Love
                23. Sweet Chariots




                The Monochrome Set

                Maisieworld

                  Maisieworld is the brand new studio album from The Monochrome Set. At the end of the 70s, The Monochrome Set were part of the first wave of 'post punk' bands. Right from the beginning, the band earned a solid reputation as purveyors of fine pop, gaining praise from 80s contemporaries such as Morrissey and Edwyn Collins. Importantly, in later years this praise has continued with artists such as Franz Ferdinand, The Divine Comedy and Graham Coxon, all citing the band as a key influence on their own work.

                  The Monochrome Set

                  Cosmonaut

                    At the end of the 70s, The Monochrome Set were part of the first wave of 'post punk' bands. Right from the beginning, the band earned a solid reputation as purveyors of fine pop, gaining praise from 80s contemporaries such as Morrissey and Edwyn Collins. Importantly, in later years this praise has continued with artists such as Franz Ferdinand, The Divine Comedy and Graham Coxon, all citing the band as a key influence on their own work. The Monochrome Set sound has often been described as 'timeless', and that alone explains why, over the years, the band has continued gaining admirers.

                    The Monochrome Set is black & white, at the same time, with no grey.

                    That's what the name always meant - delivering mirth and melancholy, pleasure and panic, delight and dread, wrapped up in tuneful pop songs with curious lyrics.

                    The band seem to occupy a parallel universe, with a rich panoply of sounds and words, all somehow evocative of something just beyond reach or remembrance - yet the songs have an immediate simplicity and power.

                    "Cosmonaut", the band's 13th album, is a perfect example of this exhilarating mix. The title track opens with a Theremin cyber fly buzzing towards your skull before the song hits, launching you into a mirror dimension that is both familiar and alien. The whole album is a trip that starts with a hallucinating cash-till lady, then travels through dream-sets involving cannibalism, disaffected squirrels, strange gods, dying sweethearts, sexual depravity, Alzheimer's, backward evolution, and ends in an operating theatre, amid a sea of medical tentacles.

                    In short, a camping holiday.

                    The trademark TMS guitar is ever-present, but this time complemented by delightfully busy keyboards, which give an added richness and spice to the album.

                    In just 30 minutes, "Cosmonaut" will catapult you into orbit and take you on a zany, hallucinogenic joyride - not in outer space as it turns out, but in and around the arcane and fantastical recesses of Bid's imagination. With minimal risk of explosion, persistent floatiness or disappointing space food.

                    The Monochrome Set

                    Spaces Everywhere

                    "On one hand, the music is very melodic and cheerful. The lyrics, however, deal with death, decay, change ... no wonder we are rather popular with the undead," says singer, guitarist and songwriter Bid of the new The Monochrome Set album "Spaces Everywhere". A very particular humor. And a very unique sound: Although this time banjos, Hammond organ, female backing vocals and even flutes can be heard on the new album, experts and laymen alike will recognize: This is The Monochrome Set. Undistorted, nervous guitars, like the soundtrack to a Nouvelle Vague film ... but one featuring Michael Caine, Louis de Funès and Belmondo (directed by Andy Warhol). Peculiarly timeless, it is a sound that can not be categorized. Although rooted in the 1950s and 60s (the guitar sound, for example, is a hybrid of Duane Eddy and Sterling Morrison), it still feels oddly modern. Then there is Bid's voice, which this time is more reminiscent of the great American crooners than of Lou Reed. Bid wrote most of the songs in May and June of 2014. Perhaps the band's popularity among the undead will diminish upon hearing the springtime air that can thus be detected in this music? Nevertheless - like virtually every album by The Monochrome Set - this album, which was recorded in Brixton in London, has the potential to become a classic, the potential to be a hit. While music historians and critics continue to grapple with the baffling reasons why this band has never attained major success, the in-crowd has always known what they have in The Monochrome Set. Time and again, the story is repeated of how Johnny Marr found a single by the band in Morrissey's record collection and decided it might not be a bad idea to start a band with the somewhat eccentric singer. The influence of The Monochrome Set on bands like Felt, Franz Ferdinand, Belle and Sebastian or the Strokes can hardly be ignored. With "Spaces Everywhere" The Monochrome Set present an album that will become a modern classic like "Eligible Bachelors" or "Strange Boutique".

                    And where is the best place to listen to the album? Bid: "In a deconsecrated church, without a mirror." There he goes again.


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