Music Reissues Weekly: Chelsea - The Step-Forward Years

CHELSEA - THE STEP-FORWARD YEARS Fundamental to the birth of British punk rock

How Gene October’s perennial vehicle was fundamental to the birth of British punk rock

On 21 June 1977, listeners to John Peel’s radio show heard a song titled “Pretty Vacant.” It wasn’t a preview of the forthcoming Sex Pistols single of the same name, which would be in shops on 2 July, but a different song. The band lifting the title was Chelsea, a UK punk outfit whose first single, “Right to Work,” had been released on 3 June.

Music Reissues Weekly: Myriam Gendron - Not So Deep As A Well

The surprise reappearance of the Canadian stylist’s interpretations of Dorothy Parker’s poems

Myriam Gendron's debut album Not So Deep As A Well was originally released in 2014 by Feeding Tube, a US label run by the prominent music writer Byron Coley. When it came out, he wrote that she was a “wonderful if spectral guitarist and singer, whose signature sound was as light as it was intoxicating. This album glows with holism and is one of the most beautiful evocations of times past and present and future you will hear this year.”

Music Reissues Weekly: Soft Cell - Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret

SOFT CELL - NON-STOP EROTIC CABARET Marc Almond & Dave Ball’s landmark 1981 debut

Head-spinning box-set makeover of Marc Almond and Dave Ball’s landmark 1981 debut album

"Both of us have always enjoyed listening to dance music, and we wanted to interpret disco in our own way. We wanted to make good quality soulful electronic dance music, more biting than the usual bland disco stuff. We wanted to make records that would stand out in a disco and that you could listen to in your own bedroom."

Music Reissues Weekly: High Tide - The Complete Liberty Recordings

HIGH TIDE - THE COMPLETE LIBERTY RECORDINGS Heavy, dark and relentless

Heavy, dark and relentless music from the London underground of 1969 and 1970

High Tide were one of many late Sixties and early Seventies British bands unearthed in the early Eighties by record collectors digging into what came after psychedelia. The bands didn’t have similar musical styles but were united by their obscurity and having sold barely any copies of their albums. All were largely forgotten until their rediscovery. Ben, Gracious!, Pussy, Red Dirt, T2, more. Who were these bands? Who were High Tide?

Music Reissues Weekly: Incident at a Free Festival

INCIDENT AT A FREE FESTIVAL Saint Etienne-compiled salute to early 70s rock festivals

Saint Etienne-compiled salute to early Seventies rock festivals

“We got to play Stonehenge Festival when it was like just a field, a generator and stage. No rip-off burger joints. No packaged new age culture. Just good British hippiedom. A bunch of scruffy, dirty, bean-burger-eating, spliff-making hippies, and in the middle, a bunch of Hell’s Angels.”

Music Reissues Weekly: When the Alarm Clock Rings - A Compendium of British Psychedelia 1966-1969

WHEN THE ALARM CLOCK RINGS A Compendium of British Psychedelia 1966-1969

Fine double-album entry point into the world of fiendish noises and freak-outs

“How psychedelic is your pop? This is the demanding question posed to many groups today, struggling for acceptance. It's no longer any good to say: ‘Well, mate, we can play Wilson Pickett, James Brown and all that gear,’ to anybody contemplating booking a band. One has to explain whether one is likely to set fire to the auditorium, or batter the audience’s senses with flame, light and fiendish noises.”

Music Reissues Weekly: Osmo Lindeman - Electronic Works

OSMO LINDEMAN - ELECTRONIC WORKS Finnish composer who embraced electronic music

Tribute to the Finnish composer and musician who embraced electronic music

For Finnish composer Osmo Lindeman, the decision to pursue electronic music was made in 1968 during a visit to Poland. He had recently started using graphical notation for the scores of his compositions and was having problems getting conductors and orchestras to follow what he wanted.

Music Reissues Weekly: Serge Gainsbourg - L'Homme à tête de chou

Perplexing new edition of the Gallic provocateur’s 1976 concept album

Marilou lies on the ground. She’s been bludgeoned to death by a fire extinguisher. Its foam covers her body. Her murderer is a forty-something man who has become obsessed with her. She shampoos hair in a barbers, where he first comes across her. Their affair turns sour after he finds her in bed with two other men. After the murder, her killer ends up in a mental hospital.

Music Reissues Weekly: Ibrahim Hesnawi - The Father of Libyan Reggae

The musical pioneer who flourished under the rule of Colonel Gaddafi

Initially, it doesn’t sound so unusual. The collection’s first song is titled “Never Understand.” Sung in English, it’s poppy reggae with a light feel, twinkling keyboard lines and a lengthy, rock-oriented guitar solo. The singer appears to be a fan of Bob Marley. Originally, it was the last track on Side One of Hesnawi and Peace, the 1980, Italy-recorded debut album by Ibrahim Hesnawi.

Music Reissues Weekly: Pale Saints - In Ribbons

Open-minded Leeds band’s second album catches them at their peak

In an interview following the release of Pale Saints’ March 1992 second album In Ribbons, the band’s Ian Masters expressed his admiration for Eyeless in Gaza, Laura Nyro and Television. He told Option magazine “I find it incredible how much I am moved by Laura Nyro’s songs and how much of the emotional input that she has translates. I find it quite disturbing – it’s uplifting and depressing and really has the full spectrum of feelings.”