Thursday, October 21, 2010

Massive Stereo Sellout - By Now (1988)

The only recording by duo Ben Hayman and Steve Roach, 'By Now' by Massive Stereo Sellout is colder and simpler than Fetus Productions, less aggressive than the Skeptics, and without the pop sensibilities of the Headless Chickens.

Hope, their 'hit', sounds like what Jack Nance might've danced to in an Eraserhead  nightclub.

Some of the sounds on here actually remind me of early Aphex Twin/AFX -- at his least self-indulgent -- as performed by Nigel Bunn.

'By Now' is an excellent and unexpected example of an underdocumented scene in eighties EnZed. Get some more info from BiFiM Magazine, October 1988, over at Club Bizzare.

Brain Dump

Mole Männe - Mole Männe (1983)



Can't really find out much about this album, so I'll just have to tell you what I reckon. Recorded in 1983 for Jayrem, Mole Männe's self-titled EP is caught somewhere between punk and post-punk: linear monotone vocals, minimalist superfuzz licking, big rumbling stereo-separated Gang of Four/PIL drumming, and "production values"; paired with teen-angst poetics.

It's dreary and adolescent, and feels like small-town-rock-band to me, and that's a recommendation.

And We Won't Live Long