The second half of 2017 saw further work from our partnership with Dave Hammond - Cambridge kept on calling. The variety of what we were putting out was at times breath-taking. There was old and new material and a broad spectrum of genres on offer. In hindsight I wonder if we were a little too eclectic. Regardless there were some outstanding pieces of work in this six-month period. We were also approaching our 200th release. We had 1200 followers on Facebook but we weren’t selling anywhere near that amount of product. Spotify etc was reasonably successful but at .03p for ten streams we were not exactly raking it in. We would not need to worry about being VAT registered.
Keri from Keltrix asked if we would put on their double album from 2015. The nineteen track double album demonstrated the transition between their band sound to the more electronic approach on “Bobby Says”. Whilst the band album features the expected soaring vocals, impressive bass and drum lines, guitar riffs and solos, and folk and classical tinged violin, the electronic second album is quite different. The acoustic parts of the songs are still very obviously Keltrix but the backing ranges from trip hop to old school rave, breakbeat to glitch.
There are a lot of great songs in this collection but the notable track at the time was the outrageous “Dick” which is a whole lot of fun and had a video to match. Perhaps there was a message when the tracks titles for 5 through 7 are read out in order - or am I over thinking that?
Issac Navaro returned with his delightful ambient electronica which has echoes of early Tangerine Dream and Brian Eno. Evocative and emotive music. All proceeds were aimed at the Coffee4Craig homeless charity.
Boz Hayward asked if we would take on release and distribution for his music and delivered an album we just couldn’t say no to. With elements of native American culture weaved into a tapestry of great tunes this is one of the finest albums we ever released. These songs were written during and around two visits to Eastern Tennessee with Boz and his mum in April-May 2014 and March 2015 to visit and care for her younger sister Kay who lived on her own with failing health, and who passed away (thankfully, at home in her sleep with her dogs by her side) near the end of their second visit.
“Tennessee Ten” was both melancholic and uplifting - a celebration of life. It has a huge American vibe but also has south Mancunian DNA at its heart. Another one that should have been huge.
We were on a roll of great releases and Moff was back. Of this album Andy said “For ten years now recordings have just spewed from my head. This album, however, did not spew. It hurt, like passing a solid after a hefty dose of iron supplements. I sweated a monsoon over it. I'm a bit worried I'm going to go the same way as my namesake Bertrand Russel, who sprained his head writing his last book and had to be dressed, fed and toileted by a uniformed nurse thereafter. Mind you, if it means moving to North Wales, then put me in a bib. Ian Moss feels it is a Blues album. Mandy, the lady from over the road says it's Country and Western with a hint of Hillbilly Boogie. Orrance Knorr, the Mayor of Leeds, is adamant that I have a piece of Renaissance church music on my hands. All I can say is it is the best Edoddi I could do for you, going forward. Take it or leave it, you better believe it!”
Danny Cusick wanted to release a series of singles by KIT-B - one a month until December. The first was Danny at his song-writing best. Monty’s signature bass sound locks with Pete Slater’s steady rhythm and Danny delivers a nice dollop of Manc Melancholy. Another one that should have been huge.
It was August and we had reached another milestone our 200th release. Now if you have been paying attention you will have noticed that I have not listed 200 releases up until this point - material from various artists was removed from the catalogue at the request of people who didn’t want to be our friends any more - never mind. Anyway sod them here was a 17 track collection which included Pearl Divers Prog Rock epic “Angel In New York” (it’s not Prog but I used to mercilessly rib the band about it being of that genre). A mix of old and new material from across the roster. All proceeds from the sales of this album again were donated to the Coffee4Craig homelessness charity. Great cover art by Moff.
I got a sense that something wasn’t quite right in the West Coast Sick Line camp and the title of the three track EP that emerged and was released in mid August confirmed that. This was the last offering from this line up of the band. After this release Dusty stripped it back down and would be back a year later with Stacey re-joining.
Back into the Moss archives for the next one. Following on from The DoDos Ian 's next band was The Bears From Belle Vue Zoo. Keeping very much in the spirit of The DoDos the band hovered between spiky angular nu wave guitar and r'n'b/funk bass from Jon Rowlinson. Ian was heavily into Northern Soul at the time the vocal style and musical direction was influenced by that experience, however there is a Manc pop element in these tunes. he band lasted less than a year and did not gig after these recordings were made. After the Bears Ian was briefly in a band called Oochikomis they played 2 gigs and he retired on stage at the 2nd "realising I was faking it" . That led to the band "Whipcrackaway" as Ian been playing their solo release ' The Horses Tale ' in Oochikomis. Ian then did nothing more musically until the previously released Stepbrothers album. The Bears recordings, which I attempted to remaster from MP3 files, are not the highest fidelity but they do capture the band in all their glory. The band was Ian - Vocals, Graham Ellis - Guitar, Jon Rowlinson - Bass, Mike Prendergast. Drums, and, Debbie.- Keyboards. The tracks were recorded by Adam at "Out of the Blue" studios on free time to test his equipment when he moved from Hulme to Ancoats in 1983.
The annual Glaston-Bury extravaganza returned on August 28th, in its tenth year this excellent event raises money for Bury Hospice and the Sophie Lancaster Foundation, and our very own Four Candles and The Junta played at the event.
The end of August saw the release of the second KIT-B single - again a very Manc sound. Danny muses on the changing landscape of his city.
I’ve mentioned them before but now it’s time to talk more about Pearl Divers. The band is the brain child of writer, singer and guitarist Carl Lingard who at the time lived at the western edge of Eccles. His initial work under the Pearl Divers brand was the impressive EP “The Boy Who Won The World” which was released in 2009 and which was a solo effort. Deciding to take his work live he formed a trio with Mike Leigh on drums and John “Monty” Montague on bass, following some early rehearsals the line-up was expanded with Tony Gilbody on keyboards and Jeff Black on guitar and MIDI instruments. High profile gigs at Night and Day in Manchester, the Salford Music Festival and supporting Martin Bramah’s Factory Star, were followed by the addition of Ben “Spilla” Doherty on vocals/rap, and a more urban/soul direction away from the initial indie feel of the material. Several attempts to record an initial album, and the addition of other vocalists, including Danielle “MzDee” Carter, lead to the creative differences emerging between band members regarding the change in musical direction. Leigh left to join The Blimp, and, Black. Montague and Carter formed Positronik. Lingard put Pearl Divers on hold for a few years. Roll onto to 2014 and Lingard decided to try again with the Pearl Divers project. He recruited Gareth Johnson on guitar and Paul Greenhow on drums and convinced Jeff Black to rejoin the band, this time on bass guitar. Lingard’s desire to work with a female vocalist was realised when Nathalie Haley joined. Lingard had been hard at work on new material which was not released but some tracks appeared on Charity Albums for German Shepherd Records and the band played live around Greater Manchester. This EP was the first official release by Pearl Divers and our only catalogue entry from them. Haley left and Debbie Allen and Aileen Waugh provided the vocals for this three track release. I’ve a copy of the early recordings of the band but sadly Carl said he did not want them released.
More Four Candles next. Captured raw and alive from The Witchwood Ashton U Lyne at Ians’s 60th Birthday Party and featuring tracks from the debut album plus some new as yet unreleased material this is a great example of the early days of the band.
At the same gig the aforementioned final Hamsters appearance was also captured on this release. Three of the original band were joined by Phil of Four Candles for four classic Hamsters tunes. The version of Lou Reed’s Supper Club with Patriq is included as an hors d'oeuvre.
Ian wanted to do some more spoken word releases. He said “For the period where I was unable to sing due to the pneumonia I'm now thankfully recovering from I instigated a series of collaborations with a cast of musician friends with the starting point being a spoken word piece I provided them. What they have produced has far exceeded my expectations I am releasing the fruits of their labours over the course of two volumes with all proceeds to be donated to UNICEF, please listen and purchase if possible I know what each of us regards as good or bad music is purely subjective but I think this is very good indeed and think a lot of people will agree. I need to thank everyone who has helped not least Bob Osborne and doff my cap towards JD Meatyard, CP Lee and Mike Kerins who have all encouraged me to proceed in this direction. This album and it's companion is dedicated to the memory of Alana Richards (Bondi)”.
The third KIT-B single was next….
And October kicked off with Ian’s second volume of spoken word…..
Dave Graney and Clare Moore were back in the country and we organised gigs for them at Fred’s Ale House in Levenshulme - Stu Thomas was replaced by Giorgio “The Dove” Valentino and Malcolm Ross was back - and through Dave Hammond’s contacts there was a further gig in Hull where they were supported by Loudhailer Electric Company (featuring Lou Duffy Howard from Red Guitars). The Levenshulme gig was a great success with one of our biggest crowds - Auster South came up from the rural heartlands and after Levenshulme we travelled over to Hull together to see the gig there. An excellent couple of days. Support in Manchester was from a reformed Poppycock which comprised - Paula Darwish -Guitar Vocals, Stuart Quinn-Harvie - Drums ,Matt Crawford -Bass , Jane Goetzee and Lucy Nyland - Vocals , Lucy Power - Flute/Guitar and Una Baines - keyboards/guitar. Lucy, Stuart and Una remained from the previous line-up, the rest of the band having been brought together over the last few months.
In anticipation of the release of new EP "Mind Trajectory" in November PrunX released a video for the track "Iron Dream" which appeared on their Vol. III release. With stunning and stark imagery the video captures the spirit of Norman Spinrad's alternative history novel which inspired the track.
Another great release from The Scissors was next - three fantastic tracks. Lead track Sjhake previously featured on the bands second album "Haunted Mirror", second track "Glossy Magazines" was featured on a German Shepherd compilation and the third track "Electric Line Terminus" was a new release.
The second in a series of compilations of emerging artists from Cambridge followed. There were already enough tracks donated for volume one for a further compilation. For volume 2, the charity was Cambridgeshire Alliance for Independent Living, this is a Disabled People’s User led Organisation (DPULO), which is an organisation run by people with disabilities for people with disabilities, their families and their carers who live in Cambridgeshire. Uniquely we didn’t end up releasing other material by any of the artists on this one - as we had done with Volume One.
Next Boz Hayward released a video to compliment the Tennessee Ten album. The wonderfully quirky "My Little Bubble" was shot in New York City and State, the 'lounge jazz' track from the Tennessee Ten features Rick Burrows on trumpet, and was described as a “diy lo-no-fi Bert Weill Productions video”. November 1st also saw a live performance of the whole of the Tennessee Ten album at The Eagle Inn, Salford.
More jangly guitar, lots of synths and machine gun bass for the fourth in the KIT-B single series - the best in this set of tunes I reckon.
The two components of Stereopod were back next , this time separately, with two individual tracks.
Busy, busy, busy - another release from PrunX complete with video
Whilst all this was going on I was continuing to digitise old Auster Boys material. A lot of the material on this collection covers Auster South’s journeying - hence the title. This would have originally been recorded in the mid-90s I think. A lot of early experimentation with sequencers and various types of software is in play.
At this point we were in a position to revisit and remix early material from The Junta and we re-released an album of tunes recorded between 2013-2014. We had previously released some of this but it got lost when one of the distribution companies went bust.
m.t. scott was next with a mini-album themed around the doomed passenger liner The Titanic. This is a wonderfully atmospheric set.
And number 5 of the KIT-B singles
December, nearly time to wind down for the holidays
Of all the bands we released the next one is I believe the one that is missed the most. They are/were Drink and Drive and they are/were from Oldham. A brief history/bio “Drink And Drive are a chaotic yet compelling combination of shouted word vocals and primal musicality. The songs are often repetitive in structure but veer wildly in subject matter from one verse to the next. There are no love songs in their repertoire. The lyrics can be brutal, belligerent and sometimes bizarre yet the songs carry a sardonic humour throughout. The music is reckless and naïve, sometimes a short, sharp post-punk shock and sometimes epic, brooding and oppressive. The band believe in music as being just part of a greater artistic gestalt. The band formed in 2008, and after hearing their prospective guitarist play, frontman Ben promptly put him on drums and, with no previous experience, bought a guitar himself. Seven weeks later Drink And Drive did their first gig. Since then they have remained faithful to the no-wave, DIY ethic and relentless gigging saw them bag support slots with Future Of The Left and The Fall, both big influences on the band’s sound. After a 4 year life interlude Drink And Drive are now gigging again, with a new drummer and new material including sections about Prague beggars, Theatre Workshop job applications and an adult pig suit, whatever that is, as well as all the old songs which travel from alternate theories of gravity, through Fritzl’s house, past the place where Lennon was shot before arriving at the gates of the recession, staring hopelessly into the abyss known only as ITV2. The new drummer is Jonny and he joins Ian (Bass), Chris (Guitar) and Ben (Vocals, Kazoo, Guitar) in this post-punk, post-rock, no-fi, krautrock sludge drone triangle known as Drink And Drive”.
The opening Itch-Scratch cycle grabs you by the throat and drags you through 12 tracks of monstrous wonderment. Ben is a master wordsmith and this album displays his talent effectively. Imagine latter day Fall on steroids and you are about half way there. We sold lots of CDs at gigs but I still have a handful somewhere. The Shend played it on his podcast. I’ve no doubt that if Peel had still been around he would have had them in for a session.
The process of collating the Ian Moss Words & Music/Music & Words albums resulted in a number of tracks that did not make the cut for the finalised albums. These four tracks were part of that set of pieces that did not fit on the two albums. Other tracks did exist with other collaborators but they were being held over for a third volume for 2018. All proceeds from the sale of this EP went to UNICEF. This release was dedicated to the memory of Paul Longshaw an ex-work colleague and latterly Salford Councillor who sadly passed away at too young an age this year. Paul accompanied me to many gigs and offered great support to the label.
Monty wanted more release in 2017 and supplied a set of remixes of Ergonomic to which I added my obligatory remix.
And there was a video
Positronik were back. Jeff’s association with Nathalie Haley in Pearl Divers and on the Captain Black album had resulted in a new line-up and they provided a Christmas Single.
Inferior Complex - a post punk trio from Southampton featuring the Missons brothers and Paul Jenman - we would go on to release more of their material. A sound with clear Mancunian influences.
House Mouse and Space Museum had run it’s course - we needed a new vehicle. We settled on the name The Parasite and that remains our project to this date. This two track offering covered Nick Drake and a modern day horror story.
Cannonball Statman offered us his latest album - a concept piece - “traumatized by the sudden disappearance of her mother, and following the sage advice of her pet pigeon, Courier, a talking cow named Clare attempts to hitchhike to India from her farm in Kentucky”. A great piece of work.
The second release about Laika on the label following Ian and Johann’s tune came from The Screaming Love Collective. It was our final release of the year and we took a two week break.
31 releases - four of six KIT B singles - another busy six months. Gigs were getting some traction as we spread our net to South Manchester.
Next 2018 - January to June.