The Wild Flowers – Melt Like Ice [7''] (1983, Future Records)

 

Like Del Amitri, Wolverhampton’s The Wild Flowers became tired of a disinterested UK pop scene and looked to America for inspiration and appreciation. After two singles, ‘Melt Like Ice’ and ‘Things Have Changed’, and an album, 'The Joy Of It All', on Reflex in 1984, the fledgling outfit were dealt a blow when original guitarist Dave Newton left to form The Mighty Lemon Drops. The remaining members, Neal Cook (guitar, vocals), Mark Alexander (bass) and Dave Fisher (drums), eventually found a replacement in Dave Atherton, and the band duly signed to aspiring local label Chapter 22. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]

 

 

Label: Future Records – FS 11 

Format: Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM 

Country: UK 

Released: 1983 

Style: New Wave, Jangle Pop, Post-Punk

 

Tracklist:

A Melt Like Ice 

B The Chosen Proof 

 

DOWNLOAD HERE

Visible – Essor Assuré [7''] (1981, Hawai)

Visible was a synth-pop and minimal wave duo formed in Troyes, France, by Pascal Tritsch (Guitar, Bass, Vocals) and Yves Thibord (Keyboards), that released two 7", 'Essor Assuré' (1981) and 'Indicible Fréquence' (1982) and a 12'', 'A Fine Aim In Life' (1983) all on the Hawai label. In 1982, Yves Thibord produced the EP 'Shangaï Express' by the French band of the same name, and in 1989 he collaborated by adding effects and samplers to the rai album 'Hana Hana' by Chaba Fadela and Cheb Sahraoui. They have appeared on compilations such as 'BIPPP: French Synth-Wave 1979/85' (2006) and 'Des Jeunes Gens Modernes' (2008).

 

 

Label: Hawai – HA 01 

Format: Vinyl, 7" 

Country: France 

Released: 1981 

Style: New Wave, Synth-pop, Minimal, Minimal Wave

 

Tracklist: 

A Essor Assuré 3:18 

B Et Sort Assuré 3:15 

 

DOWNLOAD HERE

The Underlings – That Little Girl [12''] (1986, Midnight Music)

Who are The Underlings? No one else but The S-Haters. After a change of drummer, the band decided to change the name as well as they felt it wasn't appropriate for the music they made. But the sound is not quite different as The S-Haters records on Midnight Music, it tangles between goth rock & post punk music. 'Fatal Purpose' is the sole full length of The Underlings. Before this one, there's the 'That Little Girl' 12". The band split up for good after the album but a 12" called 'Centurion' was released as the epitaph of the band. [SOURCE: LAST.FM]

 

Label: Midnight Music – DONG 23 

Format: Vinyl, 12" 

Country: UK 

Released: 1986 

Style: New Wave, Indie Rock, Post-Punk

 

Tracklist:

A1 That Little Girl 3:46 

A2 Lemon Drops 3:55 

B1 King Leech 5:06 

B2 Resolutions Crack 3:09 

 

DOWNLOAD HERE

Twelve Cubic Feet – Demo Tape [Cass] (1983, Not On Label)

 

After Exhibit A and a handful of interim projects Paul Platypus, Andrew and Matthew joined Fred, Sally and Glenna to form Twelve Cubic Feet, who recorded the bands second 10″ LP ‘Straight Out The Fridge’ on Namedrop Records. Included on this mini LP was the popular track "Evercare"; also credited on the sleeve artwork was Mark Flunder, an ex Television Personalities member associated with bands such The McTells, Hertford punk band Onslaught, as well as The Marine Girls. 

 

After this Twelve Cubic Feet 10″ and a cassette release they fell in with Alan McGee’s Creation / Communication Club crowd, and met Dave Evans (Biff Bang Pow) who replaced Matthew on bass. The late Duncan Jack (What is Oil?) replaced Glenna on guitar, Dave Morgan (Take It, The Loft) came in on drums shortly Twelve Cubic Feet cut a final Joe Foster-produced demo. Plans for a new band foundered, and Paul checked into a commune (temporarily); Fred went to university, Dave Morgan got famous, Dave Evans became a roadie for The Jesus & Mary Chain, Shop Assistants and later, Belly; Sally sang in Khmer Rouge, and Matthew and Dan formed Solid Space. [SOURCE: NTS] 

 

Label: Not On Label (Twelve Cubic Feet Self-released) – none 

Format: Cassette 

Country: UK 

Released: 1983 

Style: Punk, Post-Punk, New Wave

 

Tracklist:

1 Tiptoes 

2 Discord 

3 Jaywalking 

4 Second Ending 

 

DOWNLOAD HERE

Slab! – Death's Head Soup [12''] (1989, Ink Records)

Slab! are an industrial music / alternative rock band initially active between the mid-1980s and early 1990s. They reformed in 2009. The band's first release was the 'Mars on Ice' 12-inch single in 1986 on Dave Kitson's Ink Records (an offshoot of his Red Flame label). This received airplay from John Peel who invited them to record a session for his BBC Radio 1 show the same year. They followed this with 'Parallax Avenue' in 1987 which saw them in the lower reaches of the UK Independent Chart, and in May that year their debut mini-LP 'Music From The Iron Lung' was issued, reaching number 21 on the Independent Albums chart. 'Smoke Rings' gave them their highest charting single, reaching number 31 on the indie chart in July 1987, and towards the end of the year the band's first long-playing album, 'Descension' was issued. Second full-length LP album 'Sanity Allergy' was issued in 1988, and that year they recorded their third and final Peel session. The band split up in 1991, with a 'best of' compilation, 'Ship of Fools', released the same year. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA] 

 

 

Label: Ink Records – INK 1240 

Format: Vinyl, 12", Single 

Country: UK 

Released: 1989 

Style: Alternative Rock, Industrial Rock, Noise Rock, Funk Metal, Industrial Metal

 

Tracklist:

A Death's Head Soup 

B1 Death's Head Soup (Club Mix) 

B2 Switchback Ride 

 

DOWNLOAD HERE

The Raw Herbs – Old Joe / That’s How It Is [7''] (1986, Medium Cool)

 

The Raw Herbs were an English indie pop band signed to Medium Cool Records, who had a number 19 hit on the UK Indie Chart in 1987 with "Don't Bury Me Yet". The band comprised Derek Parker (vocals, guitar), Kevin Bache (guitar), Steven Archibald (bass), and Brian Alexis (drums). The band recorded a session for Janice Long's BBC Radio 1 show in 1987. Brian Alexis, who had taken up teaching after receiving a degree in psychology at UEL, died on 17 May 2011 after suffering a deep vein thrombosis. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]

 

 

Label: Medium Cool – MC002 

Format: Vinyl, 7", 33 ⅓ RPM, Single Sided, Stereo, Flexi

Country: UK 

Released: 1986 

Style: Indie Rock, Twee Pop, C86, Jangle Pop, Neo-Psychedelia

 

Tracklist:

A1 Old Joe 

A2 That’s How It Is 

 

DOWNLOAD HERE

Philip Johnson – Radio City [Cass] (1981, HR Cassettes)

 

The absolute epitome of early DIY, 'Radio City' provided a fantastic step by step to guide to non-musicianship for the uninitiated. Releasing around 20 cassettes between 1979 and 1981 alone, Philip Johnson seems to have been forgotten in the most recent wave of interest, but given how his seemingly random soundscapes tended to operate far beyond even the outer limits of experimentation, it's not a surprise. [SOURCE: GREENINC]

 

 

Label: HR Cassettes – No. 3 

Format: Cassette, Album, C45 

Country: UK 

Released: 1980 

Style: Experimental, Industrial, Sound Collage, Musique Concrète

 
Tracklist: 

A1 Radio City 4:33 

A2 'My Friends' 3:23 

A3 American Intelligence 1:44 

A4 Johnson' Opera Part 1 0:36 

A5 'At The Old Bailey' 2:40 

A6 Johnson' Opera Part 2 1:47 

A7 Johnson' Opera Part 3 3:12 

A8 Johnson' Opera Part 4 2:57 

B1 Ritual 2:42 

B2 Nothing 3:46 

B3 Holiday Train 1:42 

B4 'More Than Just' 7:16 

B5 'Not So Much' 1:27 

B6 My Line 1 1:17 

B7 My Line 2 1:07 

B8 'There's Been Some Tough Talking' 1:56 

 
Notes: 

Recorded by P.J., first May 1979 on cassette, then (except "Opera Pt.I") again on reel, Oct. 29th, 31st, Nov. 2nd. Some tracks re-recorded Sept. 1980, but it's a 1979 production. 

 
DOWNLOAD HERE

Orfeon Gagarin – Gift Of Fire [Cass] (1991, Linea Alternativa)

Orfeón Gagarin is one of the first project of the veteran electronic musician from Madrid Miguel Angel Ruiz since the mid eighties. Ruiz's music is one of the best kept secret of the Spanish underground electronic music since the early eighties, as he is not as well known internationally as other musicians from Spain who started in those years, such as Esplendor Geométrico, Francisco López, or Diseño Corbusier, to name a few. 

 

In 1986 he released his first work on cassette as Orfeón Gagarin on his own legendary label Toracic Tapes, and since then he has been very active in the international cassette label movement and has collaborated with musicians from different countries such as Cisfinitum (Codachrom), Dieter Mauson, Francisco López, Siegmar Fricke (Efficient Refineries, Ambulatorio Segreto), Stephano Barban, etc. As a solo artist, besides Orfeón Gagarin, he has released dozens of works in all formats, mostly on cassette, under different names: Funeral Souvenir, Exhaustor, Michel Des Airlines or Ventral Metaphor. [SOURCE: MORADA SÓNICA]

 

 

Label: Linea Alternativa – none 

Format: Cassette 

Country: Spain 

Released: 1991 

Style: Experimental 

Tracklist: 

A1 Jevanese Forms Of Life 

A2 Opening: Across The Night 

A3 Death Of The Starring 

A4 Eastern Lights 

A5 Delang Shadows 

A6 News Form Europe 

A7 The Mussels' Dance 

A8 An Island For Adults 

A9 Sudden Blindness 

A10 Le Méthode Crocodile 

A11 The Spell Of Watch 

B1 The Warning 

B2 A Snake Feeling 

B3 The Head, He, She, We, It 

B4 The Student's Wound 

B5 The Harbour, The Farewell 

B6 Threat Form The West 

B7 The Secret School 

B8 Pansori Play 

B9 Goodbye, Edo 

B10 Closing Title
 

DOWNLOAD HERE

No Man Is An Island – The Girl From Missouri [12''] (1989, Plastic Head Records Limited)

No-Man are an English art pop duo, formed in 1987 as No Man Is an Island (Except the Isle of Man) by singer Tim Bowness and multi-instrumentalist Steven Wilson. The band has so far produced seven studio albums and a number of singles/outtakes collections (most notably, 2006's career retrospective, 'All the Blue Changes'). The band was once lauded as "conceivably the most important English group since The Smiths" by Melody Maker music newspaper, and a 2017 article of Drowned in Sound described them as "probably the most underrated band of the last 25 years". Originally creating a sample-based proto-trip hop/ambient/electropop-styled music, No-Man has pursued a more organic, diverse and band-oriented sound in subsequent years. Drawing from a diverse mix of singer-songwriter, post rock, minimalist, progressive rock, jazz and contemporary ambient sources for inspiration, No-Man's musical style is distinctive yet difficult to categorise. 

 
Steven Wilson originally launched the band in 1986 as a solo project, recording an instrumental track called "From a Toyshop Window", which blended progressive rock with synth pop. In 1987, he linked up with singer, lyricist and occasional guitarist and keyboard player Tim Bowness, who at the time was singing with Liverpool-based art-pop band, Plenty. Bowness and Wilson continued working together on recording sessions for the next two years. Violinist Ben Coleman joined the project after becoming involved with recording sessions in late 1988. The band established a four-piece live line-up in 1989 by adding guitarist Stuart Blagden (who had previously played with Bowness in the Manchester-based band, Still). No Man Is An Island released their debut single, a waltz time ballad called "The Girl From Missouri", on Plastic Head Records in mid-1989. The band was disappointed with the single and soon disowned it. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]

 

 

Label: Plastic Head Records Limited – PLAS S 012 

Format: Vinyl, 12", 45 RPM 

Country: UK 

Released: 1989 

Style: Indie Rock, Art Rock, Art Pop, Chamber Pop, Progressive Rock

 
Tracklist: 

A1 The Girl From Missouri 

A2 Forest Almost Burning 

B1 Night Sky, Sweet Earth 

B2 The Ballet Beast
 

DOWNLOAD HERE

Modern Jazz – Bubble Head Breakdown [Cass] (1983, Not On Label)

Modern Jazz was an electro-based live performance group assembled and co-ordinated by Ash Wednesday. Not a conventional group by any means, Modern Jazz was carefully designed to constantly evolve and change form, to include various configurations of numerous and diverse select musicians and artists. It was to exist, therefore, as a vehicle for creative input from a varied extent of sources. This input was often directed towards the idea of mating computer generated sound and vision to human spontanaiety (perhaps stange bedfellows to the uninitiated). When viewed from this angle, the name 'Modern Jazz', however ironic, was specifically descriptive. [SOURCE: ASH-WEDNESDAY.COM]

 

 

Label: Not On Label (Modern Jazz Self-released) – none 

Format: Cassette, Album, C60 

Country: Australia 

Released: 1983 

Style: Synth-pop, Synthwave, Minimal Synth

 
Tracklist: 

A1 Bubble Head Breakdown 

A2 Sodium 

A3 Engine Noise 

A4 Life In Paris 

B1 Colour Me 

B2 Jesse James' Turd 

B3 Nothing Grows In Texas 

B4 Airstrike 

B5 Cut My Hair 

B6 Boom De Boom Boom Baby 

B7 H2O Mod 

 
DOWNLOAD HERE