Shriekback S & D

i have no memory of that album despite playing the cassette version about 3 times in a row to make sure i wasn't going mad.

is it as bad as its suposed to be .. are there no Big Night Music stylings ? (new stuff supposedly revisits that type of atmospheric groove !)

as is the custom - Malicious Damage have done a lovely job with the packaging (cardboard case, with inserts providing lyrics and details).

i feel good.

album out soon on malicious damage ..

This is maybe the best news I've heard all week.

I love that I called Radiohead a fatuous sacred cow back in 2001.

Malicious Damage Uber Alles.

have you heard the album, upthread you mention re liking oil and gold.

think there are chunks of similarity on this new stuff ?

Okay, so there's now a newer one on Malicious Damage, Glory Bumps. And it's pretty good so far.

it's funny what 6yrs difference can make in musical tastes and knowledge.

somebody named Keith LeBlanc = haha

prototype of the horrible '80s version of king crimson = wtf?

wasn't 2001 the height of postpunk resurfacing? these guys were ex gang of four dudes. so much hate. confusing.

So there've been TWO new albums since Naked Apes & Pond Life? Dang. I'll have to get those. I have a special fondness for the Shrieks and their green feathers and their eels.

A few years ago I bought the website-only CDR remaster of Jam Science. For the most part it sounds good, except for a couple of tracks which are obviously from not-great vinyl.

Andrews without Allen and Marsh... it's very sad, those three were the perfect triad for this band.

I'm really enjoying the Veils album, and when I found out they're lead by Andrews' son, it got me to look up the old man, and some of the newer stuff is quite good. "Bonehead" is right up there with Nemesis for the Talking Heads-in-S&M-gear vibe.

Feel your way around, feel your way around!!

haha I was about to bitch about "Shark Walk" but scrolled up first to make sure I hadn't done so already

The early odds and sods are rounded up on "The Y Records Years", search that.

I'd opt for the 'Natural History' 2CD rather than 'Y Records Years' for an odds-and-sods.

WE GET IT RIGHT SOMETIMES, WE FEEL THE FRIGHT SOMETIMES
WE SEE THE FISH BELOW THE ICE SOMETIMES

one of the few records that can cheer me just by thinking about it

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

I loved these guys from the instant I heard "Nemesis" but it was revelatory buying Oil and Gold hearing the 1-2-3 punch of "Malaria"/"Everything That Rises Must Converge"/"Fish Below The Ice" for the first time. That is easily one of my favorite albums.

Also, eels + green feathers on that album cover, so awesome.

The high points of Jam Science are a little higher, but Oil & Gold is better front to back.

I loved these guys from the instant I heard "Nemesis" but it was revelatory buying Oil and Gold hearing the 1-2-3 punch of "Malaria"/"Everything That Rises Must Converge"/"Fish Below The Ice" for the first time. That is easily one of my favorite albums.

when it was new-ish I would routinely listen to it and wonder: like, why isn't this huge? me & my friend Allyson thought it was pretty much the best album in the world, and they played "Nemesis" in the Portland club where I danced, but it seemed like it never really got a head of steam under it.

I'm living in a neon house
I'm living on avalanche row
I'm living in hangover city

AND ALL THESE UNFORESEEN THINGS TUMBLE DOWN

WE HAD SOME GOOD MACHINES. BUT THEY DON'T WORK NO MORE.

2 B THE DALEKS OF GOD.

I used to bawl like an emo to that jam Jon L, fuck yeah

also much love to these guys for introducing me to the word "parthenogenesis"

Yeah, Oil & Gold and Big Night Music were both languish-in-bedroom soundtracks for me too. Also i had just got my first four track and I tried so mawkishly to imitate their 'tiny bells' and 'clicking sticks' trip...

I do think 'Nemesis' achieved a pretty good saturation level. Most people I know who were awake in the 80s know that song.

But the albums, and the Shrieks in general, there was just no way to sell megaunits of that kind of wry perversion.

Here's where I opine that about half of Sacred City is brilliant and it's well worth the $0.99 for a used Amazon copy...

man I'm listening to "Faded Flowers" now & it's clear to me the debt I owe these cats for some of how I write, not sayin I'm as good as some of these jams (if yr mileage varies bless you, just clarifying) but I can hear the moves I copped from some of the jump-disjuncture points

We used "Coelocanth" as intro music for one of our school projects in high school ^_^

It was a v v heady liquor for a few Shriek albums there. I guess Barry Andrews kind of tried to 'patent' it a bit after that, to mixed results, but I still cut the later stuff a lotta slack.

J0hn my best friend t0m h4rt is a huge longtime stan of yrs and yr music writing is super fab, so I really hope to catch up on yr oeuvre sometime soon. Just gotta remember that when my eMu credits next refresh...

oh man tom h is the fuckin best! I always assume he is mad at me, we fell out of touch & I am neurotic

mainly just sitting here stanning out to shriekback on youtube now tbh

Naw he still <3's you dude. He's abt to have his 1st kid and he's got a new strip he's serializing on the Act-i-vate comix site.

He reviewed yr Sab book for C0mic5 J0urn4l but I don't think it's been printed yet...

Does video for nemesis have eels y/n

I never gave these guys a shot, in part because the combination of pedigrees didn't do much for me (love GO4 though). Thanks, J0hn and Dan -- "Faded Flowers" is pretty great.

Alfred if you get to wanting to backtrack a bit, track down 'Hand On My Heart' and 'Party Line' off the previous alb.

1st three albums are so good, Oil & Gold is a best-of-the-80's for me. I recently got a German pressing with a different cover, I should listen to that soon.

The odd post-punk-funk of the debut, "Care", seems really unique to me. Dave Allen's the master at the unfunky funk bass. I think it's all on "The Y Record Years" which is why I recommend that comp.

No blood, no guts, no brains at all!!

hi these guys own

so much so much

New album, "Life In The Loading Bay" coming soon!

<3

Have heard. I think I preferred Glory Bumps, but this band's current output is totally slept on. Like an industrial Nick Cave at a devil's banquet, menacing yet decadent.

Loading Bay is pretty damn good. Dare I say their best since Big Night Music. Carl marsh back in the fold.

Yeah, Carl's two vocal tracks are brilliant and insidiously catchy! I still have a great fondness for "Naked Apes And Pond Life", which appeared literally out of nowhere in 2000.

The upcoming album, "Without Real String Or Fish", is due in March. It got me thinking that there hasn't been a Shriekback compilation covering their last 29 years (!!). Towards that end, here's my proposal for a Barry Andrews/Shriekback anthology:

Exquisite Corpse, the music of Barry Andrews and Shriekback

Disc 1:
Super-Tuff - XTC
Rossmore Road (NW1) - Barry Andrews
Sexthinkone (from Tench)
Accretions (from Tench)
My Spine Is The Bassline (non LP)
Lined Up (from Care)
Cleartrails (from Care)
Working On The Ground (non LP)
Hand On My Heart (from Jam Science)
Partyline (from Jam Science)
Mercy Dash (from Jam Science)
Nemesis (from Oil & Gold)
Fish Below The Ice (from Oil & Gold)
Faded Flowers (from Oil & Gold)
Black Light Trap (from Big Night Music)
Gunning For The Buddha (from Big Night Music)
Sticky Jazz (from Big Night Music)
Shark Walk (from Go Bang!)
White Out (non LP)

Disc 2:
Signs (from Sacred City)
Exquisite Corpse (from Sacred City)
Beatles Zebra Crossing (from Sacred City)
Pond Life (from Naked Apes And Pond Life)
Invisible Rays (from Naked Apes And Pond Life)
Berlin (from Naked Apes And Pond Life)
Captain Cook (non LP)
More Heat Than Light (from Having A Moment)
God's Gardenias (from Having A Moment)
Sea Theory (from Cormorant)
Reason With The Beast (from Cormorant)
Voiled Karletus (from Cormorant)
Hooray For Everything (from Glory Bumps)
Mahalia (from Glory Bumps)
Squanderer (from Glory Bumps)
Semidelicious (from Life In The Loading Bay)
Running With The Mothmen (from Life In The Loading Bay)
The Flowers Of Angst (from Life In The Loading Bay)
No Fool Boletus - Anaxaton6

Your antho is rather short on tiny-sticks mode shriekback I dunno if I can trust you!

Just trying to get a good sampling across their entire body of work. By all means, suggest improvements!

Mainly I'd exchange running on the rocks and sticky jazz for reptiles & I and underwaterboys. Otherwise a pretty good playlist!

Thanks, I took your advice and removed the 3 non-Shriekback tracks and one of the Glory Bumps tracks. I replaced the Big Night Music tracks with the two you mentioned, added "Sway", "A King Of Fascination", "Everything That Rises Must Converge" and "My Vast Behavior", a track from the last albums bonus disc. Definitely stronger for it! I do enjoy making these sort of compilations.

I am strongly of the opinion that "Sticky Jazz" should be there over "Reptiles & I" and slightly less strongly of the opinion that "Running on the Rocks" belongs regardless of what other BNM tracks are selected.

"Big Night Music" is a tough one to pick highlights from, frankly, as it's very consistent. I could make an argument for "Cradle Song" and "The Shining Path", too. But for me it's got to have "Black Light Trap" and "Underwaterboys", plus one more. I always felt that "Running On The Rocks" was a retread of stuff on "Oil & Gold".

My "Reptiles" advocacy is slightly personal (I adore everything about the arrangement & production of that track) but also a bit objective I hope -- it was the first appearance of that smaller-frame semi-acoustic-but-still-with-wacky-noises mode of theirs. I feel like the "big" tracks on BNM are family enough that only one of them needs to be on an overview comp.

(however, by choosing "Reptiles" over "Pretty Little Things" for the small-shriek slot, we still don't have an example of the important "tiny sticks" technique do we? Which track on Oil & Gold had tiny sticks on it? I can't remember)

"Faded Flowers"

oh right! We're good then.

this is an impossible task.
there are some albums that are complete and cannot be broken up.
jam science/oil and gold/big night music are examples of this.

^^^ and, I have to say based on my first full listen to it in over a decade, Sacred City!

It's true, those albums are all fantastic pieces unto themselves. But it's great to have a cross-section of an artists entire work, that's why I love well-chosen anthologies and singles comps. And there's been NOTHING covering these lads over most of their career. And I like the challenge of picking a limited-but-excellent number of tracks, it makes you really consider an artists best work.

I don't know what I'd take out to get "Malaria" in, but "Malaria" is one of my favorite songs of all time so I want that one. Maybe "Gunning for the Buddha" which has a nice sound but never really did the job for me

I'd lose "Shark Walk". In fact, I like to pretend that Go Bang! never happened.

I considered that, but that's always the question when compiling - to ignore an artists nadir or not. Even the latest Killing Joke singles comp included stuff from "Outside The Gate"!

Ok, I took a bunch of your suggestions and also remembered the excellent closing track on "Go Bang" - "Dust And A Shadow". Here's my revised anthology - I just gave it a listen and it's 2.5 hours of smiles!

Disc 1:
Sexthinkone (from Tench)
A Kind Of Fascination (from Tench)
Accretions (from Tench)
My Spine Is The Bassline (non LP)
Lined Up (from Care)
Cleartrails (from Care)
Sway (from Care)
Working On The Ground (non LP)
Hand On My Heart (from Jam Science)
Partyline (from Jam Science)
Mercy Dash (from Jam Science)
Everything That Rises Must Converge (from Oil & Gold)
Fish Below The Ice (from Oil & Gold)
Faded Flowers (from Oil & Gold)
Nemesis (from Oil & Gold)
Black Light Trap (from Big Night Music)
Underwaterboys (from Big Night Music)
The Reptiles And I (from Big Night Music)
Dust And A Shadow (from Go Bang!)

Disc 2:
White Out (non LP)
Signs (from Sacred City)
Exquisite Corpse (from Sacred City)
Beatles Zebra Crossing (from Sacred City)
Pond Life (from Naked Apes And Pond Life)
Invisible Rays (from Naked Apes And Pond Life)
Berlin (from Naked Apes And Pond Life)
Captain Cook (non LP)
More Heat Than Light (from Having A Moment)
God's Gardenias (from Having A Moment)
Sea Theory (from Cormorant)
Reason With The Beast (from Cormorant)
Voiled Karletus (from Cormorant)
Hooray For Everything (from Glory Bumps)
Mahalia (from Glory Bumps)
Semidelicious (from Life In The Loading Bay)
Running With The Mothmen (from Life In The Loading Bay)
The Flowers Of Angst (from Life In The Loading Bay)
My Vast Behaviour (from Life In The Loading Bay bonus disc)

jam science is a fucking brilliant album.

It sure as shit is. Some good stuff on the shriek tumblr about the making of, btw.

Anyone get the outtakes and demos comp they just put out? (very limited run. I wish I could afford a cd right now)

The new album, "Without Real String Or Fish", is another fine entry in their catalog. Carl's back full force this time around. Fun video for "Now Those Days Are Gone".

String...Fish is great yeah. Totally recommend.

Warning: Utter pedantry ahead.

The Shriek lads have been really busy releasing limited reissues of their early back catalog. Unfortunately, these have been a bit shoddy with obvious vinyl transfers and incorrect versions. The new release, "Peel Sessions And Singularities", caused me to take a closer look at the recent releases. Here's what I found:

Care remaster:
"Feelers" is the Can't Speak Mix, quite crackly though.
Note that I didn't buy this and haven't done a thorough review, I just noticed this in my investigation into "Feelers".

Tench remaster:
"Sexthinkone" is the 7" version (3:39), not the original EP version (4:23).
"Accretions" is the Infinite remix (4:28), not the original EP version (4:16).
"So Hard So Hard" clips the first few seconds from the CDr version I have.
"Accretions (remix)" is the same as the Infinite remix, thus a duplicate of the previous version.

Peel Sessions And Singularities:
6 Peel sessions tracks appeared on the "Vicissitudes" CDr; new are "Faded Flowers", "Feelers" and "Fish Below The Ice".
The Peel version of "Newhome" on Vicissitudes sounds like a radio recording with a crossfade at the beginning whereas this new version is clean. Everything else has similar sound quality.
The Peel version of "Feelers" (5:07) sounds identical to the single version (5:01). I have a 3:54 MP3 alleging to be the Peel version which sounds different from every other mix I've got.
"Sexthinkone (exotic mix)" is the same as the 12" mix.
"Accretions (original)" is the missing Tench version, albeit crackly.
"Lined Up (instrumental)" is 4:17 whereas the 12" version is 5:00, it's a MUCH earlier fade.
Everything else is solid and crackle-free.

Oh, and the "Secrets Of The City" reissue compared to the CDr changes a bunch of track titles and excludes the brief 'Interlude 2'.

Would you say the new peel disc is worth getting

I gather it will sell out soon

It's nice to have it all in one place, and it supports them, so - yeah.

Shriekback have a kickstarter going to fund the logistics of a world tour with the roster to include Barry, Carl, Martyn, Mike Cozzi, the Partridge sisters and a bassist who isn't dave allen. Basically the same lineup that toured Oil and Gold except for dave. I don't have the link handy but they are past the halfway mark.

here it is

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1283576192/shriekback-live

while i will always love this band, their recent money grab groove feels weird.
if you want to play a few gigs then play a few gigs.
fans who can sort things out will sort the rest out ..

It's East European, West European, it's moving so fast!

they met their goal and tickets for london glasgow and manchester go on sale tomorrow already. i would assume/hope more tba

Shriekback business:

Just out, new studio album "Why Anything? Why This?" First listen indicates it's solid but it needs more listens. Some tracks sounds like retreads of previous material, others are quite excellent like "And The Rain" led by Carl. No matter what, Martyn Barker is one of his generations best drummers.

Last year they put out "The Elated World", a compilation of fan-funded tracks. Some great bits, some instrumentals, worth hearing but not a critical addition to their canon.

In 2015 they released "The Island Of The Hopeful Monsters (Lost Demos From The 80's & The 90's)", which is what it says on the tin. Pretty inconsequential.

They've also put out a new live album from their 2017 tour and an old live album from 1987 but I didn't get those.

I wish they had a download store. I’m not quite at the level of wanting a physical copy of the new one and it’s not on bandcamp emusic etc.