A native of Toronto, Tess Parks moved to London, England at the age of seventeen where she briefly studied photography before deciding to focus on music.

Tess made an impression on industry legend Alan McGee, founder of Creation Records, albeit the timing of their meeting could hardly have been less ideal; McGee was no longer involved in music and Tess was due to move back to Toronto. After moving back to her hometown in 2012, Tess formed a band on the advice of McGee and less than a year after their meeting, he returned to music with his new label, 359 Music.

Tess became one of his first signings and released her debut record ‘Blood Hot’ in November 2013 to excellent reviews. One reviewer described her as “Patti Smith on Quaaludes”. Others have mentioned her “gauzy psychedelic sound” and“smouldering voice”.

Alan McGee himself said: “She’s only 24 and is already an amazing songwriter... she just doesn’t quite know she is yet ... her most beautiful quality is her lack of ego. Tess is an amazing lady”.

‘Blood Hot’ is inimitably confident. It’s slow and psychedelic at times, while being loud and ready to fill a stadium at others. There isn’t a moment on the album that isn’t relatable or that doesn’t ring to the tune of a timeless classic to be talked about for years to come (the same way people discuss The Velvet Underground or My Bloody Valentine records today).

Her cult-like following has turned into a movement. And Tess is gladly leading us all back into that space within ourselves, both deeply personal and entirely universal. Incredibly relevant yet timeless.Cool and anti-cool. An enigma that doesn’t need solving. Tess Parks is as she’s always been. Her best work is already out there. And her best yet is still to come.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1:
Somedays
Gates Of Broadway
When I Am Young
Refugee Camp
Stick Around
Open Your Mind
Side 2:
Walk Behind Your House
Goodnight Love
This Time Next Year
Life Is But A Dream
Love Around.

Brand New Remastered Versions.

The June Brides debut single originally released in 1984 on The Pink Label.

Both tracks are from fresh transfers from the master tapes which were then remastered by Jason Mitchell at LOUD Mastering in Taunton in early 2021.

The June Brides are true innovators, hailing from the first wave of British indie, with fans that include Manic Street Preachers (who covered their song “The Instrumental” as a tribute) , Morrissey and Belle and Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch.

They have always been regarded as pioneers, and one of the most beloved of the bands that formed the original UK independent music scene, which has since been tagged as C86.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
In The Rain
Side B
Sunday To Saturday

The Primitives' second single was originally released in 1986 on Lazy Records.

This issue contains all three tracks from the 12” . (None of which were included on their debut album), with a slightly different sleeve design that is a mixture of the original 12” and 7” release.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Really Stupid
Side B
We Found A Way To The Sun
Where The Wind Blows

Previously issued as a 12” only single on Creation records. It appears here for the first time on 7” and includes all three tracks from the original .

‘Ushered in by deceptively innocent vocal trilligs and sha-las. The House of Love suddenly rip off the mask of Doctor Jekyll to become Mr. Hyde and burst out of the speakers like shrapnel”
NME

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Real Animal
Side B
Plastic
Nothing To Me

David Westlake’s first album finally gets a new day in the sun in the wake of his brilliant current LP ‘My Beautiful England’. 36 years after it first appeared in 1987 on Creation Records.

David Westlake formed The Servants in 1985, who released 2 excellent singles and appeared on the NME compiled C86 LP.

Searching for a stable Servants line-up to release an album he recruited Luke Haines (The Auteurs/Black Box Recorder) via an NME advert , who came on board, and stayed for five years. After failing to find a committed rhythm section, he enlisted the help of Martyn Casey (The Triffids/Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds ) & Alsy Macdonald (The Triffids) and recorded the 1987 ‘Westlake’ album for Creation. Overlooked at the time, the record was later described as a minor classic by Luke Haines himself. It is included here on Side One of the album, available on vinyl for the first time in 36 years. and CD for the first time in 30 years.

Side Two contains the previously unreleased Janice Long BBC session recorded in the summer of 1987 featuring Go Betweens members Robert Forster, Amanda Brown & Robert Vickers.

As chronicled in an interview in US music magazine The Big Takeover (issue 53, 2004), Belle and Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch was a huge Westlake fan and tried to locate him in the early 1990s in hope of forming a band with him, before launching Belle and Sebastian in his school class instead.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1:
1. The Word Around Town
2. She Grew And She Grew
3. Rings On Her Fingers
4. Talk Like That
5. Dream Come True
6. Everlasting
Side 2:
7. Faithful To 3 Lovers (BBC Session)
8. Everlasting (BBC Session)
9. The Word Around Town (BBC Session)
10. Dream Come True (BBC Session)
11. Take Me To Your Heart (demo)
12. Never Grow Up (demo)

‘Mellifluous’... is a word you won’t hear much when conversation turns to early Pooh Sticks records. But ‘noise pollution’, sure: that comes up. I’ve even used it myself. So look away now if you must: ‘Straight Up: Noise Pollution C88-90’ is a selection of some of the most loved/despised/ignored tracks released by The Pooh Sticks on however many records it was before it all went wilfully ‘American’ sometime around dotted-lining for BMG mega-corp in 1991.

The record has highlights and lowlights. You and me, we’d probably agree on most of them. We chose a reasonable cross-section, I think (although there could’ve been more tambourine), including:

- “On Tape” - zeitgeist-nailin’ strum and strangle.

- “I Know Someone Who Knows Someone Who Knows Alan McGee Quite Well” - long title

- “Teenage High” - breathy sweetness sneaked onto the depraved Sympathy For The Record Industry label.

- “Dying For It” - the Vaselines cover which beat Nirvana by a full two years (though theirs sold better).

... and more! It’s like Christmas (no, blocking up the chimney won’t help: we’ve cut spare keys). And all of this in a nice gatefold sleeve, and on Steve McQueen’s- eyes blue vinyl. And there’s even a repro poster for the March ’89 Pastels/Pooh Sticks/Vaselines gig up London way (“I swear I was there”, people say).

On behalf of the group, I hope you enjoy it. No, really. It was all a long time ago but I remember we had fun. Maybe you were even there having fun with us.
Trudi xx

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. On Tape
2. Time To Time
3. Heroes And Villains
4. Just Another Minute
5. Teenage High
6. 123 Red Light
7. When The Night Falls
Side 2
8. Dying For It
9. I Know Someone Who Knows Someone Who Knows Alan McGee Quite Well
10. Sex Head
11. Foxy Boy
12. Dare True Kiss Promise
13. Do It Again (A Little Bit Slower)
14. Indiepop Aint Noise Pollution

In 1989, while the musical world was fêting serial-killer worshipping noise bands, white boys with dreadlocks and the first glimmers of techno, one band – The Wolfhounds – was describing the times and the country exactly as they were. Or at least as they saw it.

Well, not exactly. The privations of finding enough money to live on, a semi-permanent roof over your head and perhaps the hope of real change were all there in the lyrics along with the multitudinous shards of ideas in the music, both raging and reflective – but there was also a sense of magical realism and authentic personal circumstance imbued in it all.

Formed as a frantic noisy fusion of sixties garage and independent post-punk in Romford in 1984, by 1986 it was the band’s misfortunate to be corralled with the jangly and quirky bands of the era-defining C86 tape, given away free with the NME that year. The frustration of being lumped with the lumpen was already spilling over into a heightened creativity that would see the band release three LPs in 18 months, the first and perhaps most fully realised of which was Bright & Guilty.
The band’s sense of melody saw three singles taken off it, and all received plentiful radio play that resulted in enthusiastic audience responses when the band toured with My Bloody Valentine and the House of Love shortly after the LP came out. This renewed attention also saw them being threatened with legal action by the food company satirically targeted by one of the singles – Happy Shopper.

The band’s magpie listening habits also saw the first glimmers of an interest in sampling with the track Cottonmouth, hip hop in the drum rhythms of Invisible People and Son of Nothing, discordant post- hardcore in Non-specific Song and even percussive hints of Tom Waits’ Rain Dogs in Charterhouse.
The album’s lyrical themes have sustained the relevance of these 30-something year-old songs. The dictatorship of the class system over the economy is touched on in Charterhouse, the unfairness of housing policy in Rent Act and Red Tape Red Light, the desperation of not having enough money to even seek employment in Useless Second Cousin. But there is contemplation and mystery, too: Rope Swing’s nostalgia for pre-teen childhood, Invisible People’s detailing of intangible weaknesses.

Of all their peers, The Wolfhounds post-C86 output stands up straight and proud, and you’ll find echoes of their sound in Fontaines DC, Idles and many others – but not performed with the brashness, vigour and uniqueness of the originals.

TRACK LISTING

Non- Specific Song
Charterhouse
Happy Shopper
Useless Second Cousin
Ex- Cable Street Tomorrow Attacking
Son Of Nothing
Ropeswing
Rent Act
Invisible Peopl
A Mess Of Paradise
No Soap In A Dirty War
Red Tape Red Light
Natural Disasters
Cottonmouth
Torture
Died The Small Death
A Mess Of Paradise (scarf Demo)
I’m Not Like Everybody Else
Set Me Free
Second Son
Everybody
Recycle

Originally released on the Sub Aqua label in 1988. It appears here on 7” for the first time. This is a previously unreleased version of Back Between Places. The band were never really happy with the original single release and having discovered the master tape of a superior version, it is to be mixed and released here for the very first time.
From East Village

Both tracks were recorded at Greenhouse Studios at the same one day session in August 88 and are technically unreleased.

‘Back Between Places’ is an alternate mix made at the time and better than the one we chose to release.

‘Violin’ is a completely unreleased recording. It was planned as the original B-side but ended up being replaced by two early recordings ‘Her Fathers Son’ and ‘Precious Diamond Tears’ on the actual 12” release.

We rerecorded ‘Violin’ at few months later at Scruttocks along with ‘Freeze Out’, ‘Vibrato’ and a couple of others that have appeared on the ‘Hotrod Hotel’ LP.

TRACK LISTING

Side A Back Between Places (alternate Mix From August 1988)
Side B Violin (original Unreleased Version From August 1988)

The Wake formed in Glasgow (Scotland) in April 1981, after singer/ guitarist Caesar teamed up with drummer Steven Allen and a bassist, Joe Donnelly. Previously Caesar had played guitar in Altered Images, writing first single Dead Pop Stars and appearing on the first two John Peel sessions, but left the group shortly before they crashed into the mainstream pop charts with Happy Birthday.

With few opportunities to play large live shows the new group financed a single on their own Scan 45 label, coupling upbeat indiepop number On Our Honeymoon with Give Up, a darker song featuring a keyboard line picked out by band friend Robert ‘Bobby’ Gillespie.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
On Our Honeymoon
Side B
Give Up

Colin Vearncombe may be forever associated with the worldwide hit ‘Wonderful Life’ but 6 years earlier Black released this incredible single.

Evocative of The Smiths (although this was released years earlier) it contains all the elements of a classic indie single.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Human Features
Side B
Electric Church

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)

Article 58, named after the Soviet classification for counter-revolutionaries, were formed in Scotland by Gerri McLaughlin (vocals), Douglas MacIntyre (guitars) and Ewan MacLennan (bass), with Stephen Lironi (drums) on these recordings. The group existed for a short period of time, burning brightly before burning out.

A single, ‘Event To Come’, was produced by Postcard Records’ Alan Horne and Malcolm Ross and released on Josef K manager Allan Campbell’s Rational label.

Article 58 were the opening group on many bills in Scotland, including support slots circa 1981 with A Certain Ratio, Scars, Josef K, Delmontes, Bauhaus, Restricted Code, among others.

Josef K invited Article 58 to support them on some dates in England to promote their only album, ’The Only Fun In Town’, after which Article 58 recorded tracks for an as-yet unreleased album. One track, ‘Reflection’, did surface on a cassette/ zine product (‘Irrational’) released by Rational Records. However the teenage tension and strain of all that accompanies being in a group proved too much and Article 58 split up at the end of 1981.

‘Event To Come’ was to be the only single released by Article 58. The B side, ‘Icon’, is a previously unreleased recording. Both tracks are presented in a brand new sleeve designed by The Creeping Bent Organisation for release on the Optic Nerve label. 

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Event To Come
Side B
Icon

The Bluebells have dug deep into their archive to give us the earliest recordings of these tracks, which have never been released before and are exclusive to this 7”

‘Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool’ is longer and more vibrant containing an extra verse and guitar solo which are not on previous versions. This is the closest recording to the one that was originally intended to be released on Postcard in 1981. The sleeve, designed by Bobby Bluebell features 2 of the earliest photos of the band.

THE BLUEBELLS were formed by songwriter / guitarist Robert Hodgens aka Bobby Bluebell in 1980. When deciding to form a group to start performing his songs, Hodgens remembered two punk musicians from Bothwell (brothers Ken and David McCluskey) he had interviewed for his fanzine, 10 Commandments. David (drums/ backing vocals) and Ken (vocals / harmonica) joined Robert and The Bluebells started performing live in and around Glasgow.

The Bluebells were soon involved in the burgeoning scene coalescing around Postcard Records in Glasgow (Orange Juice, Josef K, Go Betweens, Aztec Camera, Jazzateers), and it wasn’t long before The Bluebells were sharing stages throughout the UK with some of the Postcard groups. A single (Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool) was scheduled for release on Postcard, however after appearing on the front page on Melody Maker and in NME / Sounds etc, major record companies started making serious offers to sign the group. The Bluebells appeared on BBC music program The Old Grey Whistle Test, the first unsigned group to do so, and it wasn’t long after this television appearance that the group signed a major record contract with London Records.

The Bluebells were soon in the studio working on songs for their debut album, with Elvis Costello producing. They were invited to open on UK tours for Haircut 100 and Elvis Costello & The Attractions, and started releasing singles to critical acclaim (Forevermore, Cath, Sugar Bridge). However it was their fourth single I’m Falling (co-written by Robert and Ken) that finally resulted in commercial success, chart success, and appearances on Top of the Pops.

The Bluebells released their debut album, Sisters, in 1984 to further commercial chart success, which was continued when their next single, Young At Heart, gave the group their second big hit single. However, when Young At Heart was reissued in 1993, it reached number 1 in the chart for a month, making The Bluebells regular fixtures on Top Of The Pops.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Everybody's Somebody's Fool

Side B
Some Sweet Day

The 3-track “Forever” E.P. on Transluscent Red 10” Vinyl is limited to 250 copies and features two new compositions, the title track “Forever” and “My Slum Soul”, plus an incendiary new version of an old live favourite “Ink Runs Dry”. FOLK DEVILS, the London group that took their name from a well-known academic text on social scapegoating, and who blazed a trail across the UK’s independent music scene of the mid-80s with their unique brand of post-punk energy, have returned with their first new music in 35 years.

Recorded at London’s famous Konk Studios in North London and mixed and co- produced by Grammy Award-winning engineer Rik Simpson, the re-born Folk Devils drew inspiration from the release of their 2016 career retrospective “Beautiful Monsters” and the reactions at subsequent live shows around the UK with kindred spirits Membranes, Inca Babies and The Cravats. Founder members, guitarist Kris Jozajtis and bassist Mark Whiteley, reformed the group by recruiting members of a short-lived 1987 version of Folk Devils; guitarist Nick Clift and drummer John Hamilton. Together with singer Dave Hodgson they soon discovered they had created a well-oiled twin-guitar juggernaut that brimmed with the same restless, twisted blues that characterized the first and second iterations of the band from 1983-87 when they were fronted by the highly underrated and now sadlydeparted singer/songwriter Ian Lowery.

Hodgson, a fellow transplant from the North-East, had known Lowery in the early 80s prior to Folk Devils, when the two were in their respective post-punk bands Ski Patrol and Parting Shots. On the re-recording of “Ink Runs Dry” Kris Jozajtis notes...”It’s a classic Folk Devils song with a brilliant lyric by Ian. So it’s an acknowledgment of the debt we owe him, a nod of respect to one of the great unsung talents of rock’n’roll. It always felt like a ‘BIG’ tune to us; Yet despite there being two pretty decent radio session versions of it available, there’s always been a sense of unfinished business because “Ink” had never received the full studio treatment the song deserved.

I think the new, turbo-charged twin guitar version puts that right.” ”the songs will hopefully still speak to malcontents like ourselves, who are both fascinated and appalled by what we might encapsulate as ‘the human condition’. The dark humour and mordant wit that characterized Lowery’s lyrics is still intact I think, and despite the inevitable encroachments of age we haven’t really lost the dissatisfaction and anger that we tried to articulate in words and music back in the ‘80s. So we’re likely to continue making a mighty and righteous racket, both live and on record, as long as anyone cares to listen.”

The album is accompanied by a selection of some of the band’s favourite demo recordings made between 1988 and 1994.

The long awaited and eagerly anticipated new album by BOB captures the band at their peak and includes some of their best material ever committed to vinyl and CD. A 12-track vinyl record is available in coloured and black vinyl and includes digital download of all 28 tracks contained on the double CD version. ‘You Can Stop That For A Start’ is an exclusive album of previously unheard material written and recorded by BOB over a five day period in 1992. The almost legendary archive of unreleased professional and demo recordings by BOB is a rich one, and this release showcases some of the band’s best work.

All the recordings in the set have been newly mixed by songwriters Simon Armstrong and Richard Blackborow, and come packaged in artwork conceived by the band and accompanied by period images and new sleeve notes. 

Potted BOB History:
BOB’s initial line-up was Richard Blackborow (vocals, keyboards, guitar), Simon Armstrong (guitar, vocals).
Jem Morris (bass guitar), joined the duo in 1986 and, augmented with a drum machine, they recorded the band’s first release, a flexi disc, released in 1986 on their own House Of Teeth label, and containing three short songs: “Prune (Your Tree)”, “Groove” and “Brian Wilson’s Bed”. The band gave a copy to John Peel in a fortuitous encounter in the Rough Trade record shop, and he played it many times.
The drum machine was replaced by drummer Gary Connors in 1987, and this line-up recorded 1987’s What a Performance single and the first of three John Peel sessions. The band were now able to take to the UK’s motorway network in their newly acquired ‘vintage’ Transit van, and begin a series of tours that eventually saw them play hundreds of gigs the length of the country and beyond.

Early in 1988, Gary Connors was replaced by former Jamie Wednesday drummer Dean Leggett, and the band recorded their second single, Kirsty, a session for BBC Radio One’s Simon Mayo, and their second John Peel session. Both singles received heavy play by John Peel. The two singles were brought together with the earlier flexi disc as the compilation LP Swag Sack, which was their final release on the Sombrero label. All later records were on their own House Of Teeth label.

In 1989, the band released a single Convenience, which charted well in the NME and Melody Maker indie charts and, more importantly, reached no.31 in John Peel’s Festive Fifty at the end of the year. This was followed by a limited edition/fan club release containing three songs: “Esmerelda Brooklyn”, “I Don’t Know” and “Sink”. After their third and final John Peel session, Morris was replaced by ex-Caretaker Race bassist Stephen ‘Henry’ Hersom, and this final line-up recorded the Stride Up EP in 1990, an LP Leave The Straight Life Behind, the single Tired in 1991, and one last 12”, the Nothing For Something EP in 1992.
BOB became one of the victims of the demise of Rough Trade’s distribution arm, which limited sales of the album and forced the band to tour for an extended period to recoup the album’s costs. A feeling of disillusionment with the ‘business’ side of the music caused a drop in morale, and despite having produced a large body of unreleased work, they disbanded early in 1995.

In February 2014, “Leave the Straight Life Behind” was re-released by British independent label 3 Loop Music as a 2CD expanded edition which included the remastered album plus a bonus CD of all the John Peel and BBC sessions, as well as extra tracks.

In 2015, “The Singles and EPs” was released by 3 Loop Music as a 2CD compilation of remastered tracks from Swag Sack and all vinyl Sombrero and House of Teeth releases.

In 2019, the band announced six final concerts in England and Germany featuring Blackborow, Armstrong, and Leggett with newly recruited old friend Arthur Tapp on bass. A limited edition 7” of Convenience with an unreleased B-side from 1992 was released on Optic Nerve. The single reached number 18 on the official UK vinyl sales chart.

BOB on the new album You Can Stop That For A Start:
“The tracks that make up You Can Stop That For A Start were recorded over a five day period in our final years, as the hectic touring schedule that had kept us financially viable began to tail off. What funds the band could glean from occasional publishing deals were spent on studio time, with the hope of creating work that would eventually attract more substantial financial investment. As this never materialised, the songs have largely remained unheard since the early nineties. 

TRACK LISTING

TRACKLIST LP
SIDE ONE
01 Telepathy
02 Say You’re Alone
03 That’s What Tomorrow Brings
04 Round
05 Now
06 Sundown

SIDE TWO
01 Plastic
02 She’s Something Like Me
03 Green Pepper Feast
04 Queen Of Sheba
05 Plastered In Paris
06 Don’t Kid

TRACKLIST 2CD
CD1
01 Telepathy
02 Say You’re Alone
03 That’s What Tomorrow Brings
04 Round
05 Now
06 Sundown
07 Plastic
08 She’s Something Like Me
09 Green Pepper Feast
10 Queen Of Sheba
11 Plastered In Paris
12 Don’t Kid
13 I Must Need Some Sleep

CD2
01 Long May We Increase
02 Too Far Down
03 STP
04 When The Saints
05 Helvetia
06 On Your Side
07 Buy Me A Barstool
08 There She Was
09 Shoot
10 207
11 Jehovah
12 Hanging On
13 Thunderfeet
14 Turn That Racket Down
15 Before A Fall

Before The Bachelor Pad, there was The Wee Cherubs.
A collection of lost recordings made in Glasgow between 1982 & 1985. Restored and remastered especially for this release.

Formed in 1982 by Martin Cotter, Christine Gibson and Graham Adam & part of the Glasgow indie scene of the early 80’s.

The Wee Cherubs only released one single. The recently reissued Dreaming, (which is included in this set) before calling it a day in 1985. Their range of influences are on show here, and although some tracks are redolent of Orange Juice and Aztec Camera there is no definitive Wee Cherubs sound, which makes this collection an exciting and rewarding discovery

Cotter went on to The Bachelor Pad a psyche fuelled head on collision between The Buzzcocks & Syd Barrett. 

TRACK LISTING

Side 1 
1. Dreaming
2. Pastures New
3. Waiting
4. Two Things At One Time
5.Flame

Side 2
6 Poor Little Lost Soul
7 Painless
8 Goodbye
9 Theme
10 Waiting For My Man 

Part of The Optic Sevens Reissue Series. 
Limited to 500 copies on splatter vinyl Includes Poster & Postcard.

Originally released on Factory Records in 1987 on a 4 track 12” EP entitled “Something That No One Else Could Bring” These 2 tracks make their first appearance as a 7” single. 

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
PALE SPECTRE

Side 2
PLASTIC FLOWERS

“Dub Sex’s music is a stark but galvanising post-punk surge – reverberant drums and cheese-wire guitar plus a what-it-says-on-the-tin dub-edge to the bass. But it’s Hoyle’s voice that dominates the recordings – a hugely expressive thing without obvious parallel” - Roy Wilkinson, Mojo ‘Buried Treasures’ 2014. 

Dub Sex release ‘Search For The Right Words’ – a complete 23 track compilation of their studio works brought together for the first time. CD digipack with 24 page booklet.

Originally released on a series of EPs and mini-albums between 1987-89, most of these recordings are long-deleted and several have never previously been made available in a digital format. The package also includes unreleased John Peel session tracks and an Edward Barton cover recorded for a compilation tribute album.

The band reformed in 2014 playing a handful of festival dates and low-key headline shows in Manchester and London. With core members Mark Hoyle (vocals/guitar), Cathy Brooks (bass) and former guitarist Chris Bridgett (guitar), Dub Sex will be playing more dates in 2019.

“Dub Sex are one of the great lost Manchester bands; they made an unsettling yet hypnotic grinding music with these great loping bass lines, and were fronted by the charismatically awkward Mark Hoyle whose twitching presence, unique hollering and impassioned vocal style de ned the band” John Robb, Louder Than War 2014.

“What makes you really want to take the next train to Manchester is the way (they) assimilate two music’s that always left you feeling dwarfed and abandoned; one is Joy Division’s black marble, the other white pop’s meeting with dub (PIL etc.).” Paul Oldfield, Melody Maker 1989. 

“Dub Sex are a great raging awkward intensity ... (they) come from right inside the skull. Guitar and drums latch onto an idea and dive deep, ever more knotted and resonant as Hoyle howls pained words. This compilation - dark, devious and deviant - is genuinely capable of taking my breath away.” Ian Gittins, Melody Maker ‘Splintered Faith’ review 1989. 

“Dub Sex, one of my very favourites” John Peel BBC Radio 1 1988.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: If you know anything about Manchester music, you already know Dub Sex, but for those of you that don't, one of John Peel's favourite bands are a shadowy, rawkous, simmering burst of chaos and fire, and thoroughly essential listening.

TRACK LISTING

1. Then And Now
2. Tripwire!
3. The Underneath
4. Swerve
5. Push!
6. Caved In
7. North By North-East
8. Instead Of Flowers
9. Kicking The Corpse Around
10. Man On The Inside
11. Splintered
12. I Am Not Afraid
13. Green
14. Time Of Life
15. Kumina
16. Kritallnacht
17. The Big Freeze
18. Play Street
19. Every Secret (That I Ever Had)
20. Snapper
21. Voice Of Reason
22. Believe
23. Barber Barber

First time ever on CD. Digitally restored audio. The complete Folk Devils singles collection plus bonus unreleased demo recordings. Limited edition 180 gram double vinyl. 

Initially managed by Ray Gange, star of The Clash's film Rude Boy, the Folk Devils first single "Hank Turns Blue" recorded for £180 (allegedly the bands combined dole money) and released on the label Ganges Records and distributed through Rough Trade resided at number three in the indie charts for six weeks being kept off the top spot only by New Order and Depeche Mode.

Luminaries such as Jason Pierce of Spiritualized still regard the Folk Devils as a highly influential musical force.

Named after Stanley Cohen’s book on youth subcultures “Folk Devils and Moral Panics”, this highly underrated British band was as far as one could get from ‘folk music’ at the time. They were formed by Co. Durham native Ian Lowery (formerly of The Wall and Ski Patrol) in late 1983 with a line up that consisted of Whiteley (Bass), Kris Jozajtis (Guitar) and Alan Cole (Drums). Throughout their short lifespan, the band released several acclaimed independent singles including “Hank Turns Blue”, “Beautiful Monster”, 1985’s intense “Fire And Chrome” EP, and recorded three sessions for BBC Radio’s John Peel Show.

By early 1984, their heady brew of swampy rock on a bed of bastardized blues had created a vehicle for Lowery’s increasingly misanthropic worldview. A well-honed gutter poet since the early days of punk, Ian developed an idiosyncratic style, fusing a natural gift for sly wordplay and a well-turned snarky phrase with his often vitriolic and poignant lyrics channeled through an explosive onstage persona.

By 1985, their sound was becoming sharp, ominous, brooding and urgent, and had taken shape with the help of producer Richard Mazda, with whom they collaborated several times. The band moved label and management duties to Nick Jones’ KARBON operation, gigging constantly, most memorably opening for the likes of The Fall, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Gun Club and Spacemen 3. They also toured extensively throughout Europe and were featured prominently in the UK music press. Sadly, by early 1986 frustration within their ranks had created a point of no return, and the band imploded.

These newly digitally re-mastered recordings have been painstakingly restored from the original master tapes, which had spent 30 years languishing in Nick Jones’ archives Never before released on CD, the re-mastered sound captures the ragged fury and adrenalized energy that uniquely characterized the Folk Devils oeuvre. Also included here are eight demo recordings that feature some of their best unreleased material, both musically and lyrically.

Listening again to the ferocious sonic snarl of Whiteley’s Rickenbacker, Kris Joz’s rhythmic wall of sound and sparse, blues-inflected guitar figures, Al’s crisp, metronomic drumming, and Ian’s artful, grimy tales of love, loss, loathing and libation, one can’t help but think it was becoming a sound unto itself, an insatiable and yes, beautiful, monster. We hope you enjoy these resurrected gems, and in doing so, join us in honouring the band’s legacy and paying tribute to the twisted genius of Ian Lowery, who died in 2001, age 45.

TRACK LISTING

01. Hank Turns Blue
02. Chewing The Flesh
03. Beautiful Monster
04. Art Ghetto
05. Brian Jones’ Bastard Son
06. Nice People
07. English Disease
08. Where The Buffalo Roam
09. Wail
10. Evil Eye
11. Illiterati
12. Tight Sleep
13. Broken Head
14. Albino
15. Nicotine Tan
16. It Drags On
17. Belly Up
18. Happy Face