Famous Rays: Ending Beginning LP

The first time I saw this LP, I knew it had to be by a New York band. Anyone who has been to NYC can be easily confused by the similarly-named-but-not-at-all related pizza places called "Famous Ray's" "Original Ray's", "Famous Original Ray's", or (as Kramer discovered), simply "Ray's Pizza". As it turns out, the band was from the UK originally, but moved to NYC in the late 80s to seek better opportunities.
Famous Rays released this record in 1990, and from what I can find, this is the only thing they ever released.
By most standards, 1990 is a rather late year for a DIY post punk album to be released. You probably know the kind of record I mean - the kind that combines relentless experimentation, amateurishness, and variety of non-punk instruments (synths and sax being especially common). Bands as diverse as 48 Chairs, Beyond the Impload, Vice Versa, Androids of Mu, Desperate Bicycles, and countless thousands others all fell into this "genre". Well, Famous Rays can be counted as a VERY late addition to that DIY group (and indeed, an earlier incarnation of the band, Romford Stompers, was part of the fertile UK DIY scene). Famous Rays carried the lo-fi, avant-garde, synthpop-meets-post-punk-meets-jazzy-noise-meets-goth of their forebears into the neon years of the early 90s.
As with pretty much all of these records, there's a combination of strong and weak tracks. After a brief spoken-word intro the songs start off with the lyrics "I am looking through a synthesizer" on Hard Times. With a somewhat bouncy beat, it's a nice 100% minimal synth track that sounds 10 years too late. The next couple songs on the syn-drums and throw a wall of cascading, noisy guitars into the mix. Then there's a slow dark ambient synth interlude before delving into No Recognition, probably the most poppy song on the album. The song is musically similar to early Cure, but with the keyboards and arty weirdness of early Modern English (it's not as good as either of those bands, of course, but had it been released in 1980 I can guarantee it would have been on many "UK DIY Top Ten" lists.)
The following songs range from sax-and-synth skronk (Deception Island) to dark synth noise with spoken word (Wealthy Not Healthy) to almost deathrock sounding (Move By Dance), which combines syn-drums, heavy and noisy guitars, and sax similar to Ipso Facto. Overall, it's a highly unique album that (at the moment) is readily available very cheaply online. Perhaps others will like what they hear here and decide to pick up a copy. Or perhaps the late release date of this record will turn off people and the album will toil in the cheap bargain bins of obscurity, relegated to a few crackly mp3s that forever float in the aether of the Internet.

Famous Rays: Ending Beginning LP
1990, Blue Dot Records

1 The Sky Belongs To The Sun
2 Hard Times
3 Agents Of Change
4 Absolute Zero
5 Uphill
6 No Recognition
7 Deception Island
8 Black Dress
9 Wealthy Not Healthy
10 Release - For Bitten
11 Blue World
12 Move By Dance
13 The Great Discovery

Note: Many of these songs are only a few seconds long, or blend indistinguishably into one another, so I've combined several songs together in the rip.

Click here to listen!

Crashblack Big Orange: Naked Man LP

     Sometimes you have to redefine your idea of a “prime” era of good music in order to find music you love. For the longest time I was extremely wary of records from the late 80s and early 90s. There was so much CRAP issued around that time, as hair metal extended its Aqua Net-doused tentacles and electronic music traded in its experimentalism for digitalized rhythms and its vocals for the sound of a thousand  ravers sucking on pacifiers in an ecstacy-induced fury.

     But I have been occasionally finding records from this forsaken era. It was, after all, a great time for shoegaze. And the French coldwave/touching pop bands of the time were quite good.. The Juju mini LP from 1989 is a masterpiece, and both records by Intelligence Unit from 1989 and 1991 are excellent and unique. Well, Chicago band (and Intelligence Unit labelmates) Crashblack Big Orange can certainly be added to the category of great post-punk from this time. In fact, I'd say they were one of the best dark post-punk bands of not just their era, but ANY era. Here's a sample:

 
     Crashblack Big Orange (don’t worry, their name literally does not mean anything) was a husband and wife duo that rose from the ashes of a couple other bands, The Hail Marys and Unknown Pleasures. I found an interview in which they cited Killing Joke and Xmal Deutschland as their biggest influences and, well, it shows (and that alone should get you to download this post haste). I’d also add Skeletal Family to that list; Crashblack’s guitars are often quite remisncent of them. Both members share drum program duties, and both sing as well. He sounds a bit like an early UK goth-punk singer (think Twisted Nerve or UK Decay) and she sounds a bit Siouxsie-ish. The combination of male and female vocals (both of whom are actually good) is one of the things that sets this band apart from so many others. And the extended guitar intros, outros, bridges, and solos could sound a bit jammy if they didn’t completely kick ass, weren’t chock-full of distortion, or did not have that perfect darkwave tone to them. Even the basslines are memorable (and is it just me, or does the bassline of the lead track “Trust” sound like the bass from Secession’s classic “Betrayal”?) Here's another song of theirs:

 
   The band released at least 3 demo tapes before this LP. Most of those songs were released on this LP, although I would love to hear them if they’re demo versions. And at least one Iain Burgess –produced tape has some exclusive songs on it. The band later shortened their name to Crashblack, although I have not heard anything from that incarnation. If anyone out there has anything else from them – or demo tapes from  Unknown Pleasures or The Hail Marys, I’d be interested in hearing them!

Crashblack Big Orange

Naked Man LP

1990, Cold Grey Matter Records

Listen here!

Between Two Fires: two 12"s

Between Two Fires was an obscure New Jersey band that released two records that were completely different from each other. Originally a four-piece, the band self-released a 12” in 1987 in very limited quantities. In true DIY fashion, it came in a plain die-cut sleeve with the band’s name stickered on the front. The second 12” came out a few years later and was also self-released, in a plain sleeve with a very well-done silkscreened front and band sleeve (shades of Eleven Pond, perhaps?)

The songs on the band’s debut are midtempo synthpop tracks with female vocals. The songs sound a bit influenced by the poppier aspects of groups like the Human League and Berlin, with layers of synthesizers and female vocals. While the songs sometimes betray their age with the glittering polished sound of a lot of bands from that era (well, at least as polished as a low-budget DIY band can get), it’s quite an enjoyable record."No Reason" is a solid song, with airy synth lines anchored by deep bass playing that echoes the Cure or New Order. The mellow “In Your Arms” is my favorite, with its layers of tribal drumming and percussion, subdued but effective bass and guitars, and vocals that are melancholy and entirely hypnotic.

After the debut was released, the band suffered from internal strife and two of the four members left - the bassist and the vocalist & chief songwriter. Such a change would undo virtually all other bands, but the two remaining members soldiered on, with the lead guitarist assuming the songwriting duties. The duo expanded threefold, and as a sextet they recorded one final record, the confusingly titled Dirk and the Mercenaries (confusing, because that seems more apt as a band name, and the front cover even seems to indicate that).

The band’s second 12” was self-released in 1990 and aside from a similar style of bass playing, it sounds virtually nothing like the first release. Both tracks are six-to-seven minute opuses, and they looked toward Europe - especially France and the UK - for a pretty big stylistic deviation. Along with fellow New Jersey band Screaming for Emily the B-side of this record is some of the best “touching pop” style coldwave released in the USA. It’s as if the band locked themselves in a room for a year with nothing but the Lively Art catalogue to keep them company.

The track “Ghost Dance” starts off with a Native American war dance yell sampled from an obscure 70s Western film before kicking into a midtempo coldwave song that combines the repetitive drum machines and rhythms of Shadow-era Iron Curtain with melodic but noisy guitars almost completely isolated on the right speaker channel and perfectly dark vocals with a slightly British affectation. While this song does go on a bit longer than necessary without deveoping too much, the B-side “Sand” is the band’s true masterpiece and even at seven-plus minutes it feels like it’s over too soon. Everything about this song is absolutely wonderful – from the atmospheric synths to the quick-paced drums and drum machines to the guitar riffs and the perfectly melancholy vocals.

A quick Internet search turns up absolutely nothing about the band’s debut record (aside from the songs posted on youtube by the band’s original bassist - a huge thanks to him for kindly providing the songs for me to post, and the background info about the band). And there are one or two copies of the Dirk and the Mercenaries record for sale, but no other mention anywhere else… This truly seems to be one of those completely lost bands. Hopefully with this post they will belatedly find a little bit of much-deserved recognition.

Between Two Fires:

Selftitled EP, 1987, Chapperal Music

A1 In Your Arms

A2 Tomorrow

B1 No Reason (sagebrush mix)

B2 For Your Love

Dirk and the Mercenaries 12”, 1990, no label

A1 White Eyes (Ghost Dance)

B1 Sand

Click here to listen to both!

Here's a brand new rip of the band's second 12" from a SEALED copy, courtesy of Frankie at System of Romance!