Day 495
Den Baron: what great news! Our friend Den Baron from Germany is releasing a CD album called “From Now On” on the very good Blue-Very label! Wow! Limited to 200 copies the new album will have 13 songs and you can preview four of them on the label’s Bandcamp. As usual, as you could see in the 7″ we released, this is classic jangle pop of the highest quality!
The Summer Triangle: I recommended a vinyl release for the self-titled mini-album back in April. Now this record will be re-released by Greece’s Melotron Recordings on CD. The edition is very limited, there are 25 copies of the limited art edition and 45 of the standard one. A true boutique label you would say. But yeah, it seems it is the way forward for bands and labels, fewer and fewer copies. One not to miss.
Always You: Discos de Kirlian and Shelflife Records have released the album “Bloom Off the Rose” by the ex-Pains of Being Pure at Heart Anton and Christoph Hochheim. The 11 song album can be previewed in its entirety on Bandcamp and it seems very few copies are available now. Sadly for CD fans like me the album is only available on vinyl.
Harriet Records: fantastic news! Tim Alborn has put together a Bandcamp for his 90s label! Wow! Not all of the releases are up there yet, but I can count 11 so far. In total the label released 45 singles and 10 CDs. Tim has promised to also add actual records to be on sale on the Bandcamp in the near future so keep an eye here!
Gabriel’s Dawn: and lastly a new song from this Midlands band that features Gudg, Fran Feely, Leon Jones and Stuart Gray. Their new track is titled “I Don’t Believe (in the Summer of Love)” and it is a superb bright jangly track.
—————————————————————–
The Reinheitsgebot, literally “purity order”, is a series of regulations limiting the ingredients in beer in Germany and the states of the former Holy Roman Empire. The best known version of the law was adopted in Bavaria in 1516, but similar regulations predate the Bavarian order, and modern regulations also significantly differ from the 1516 Bavarian version.
We head to Bangor, Wales today. That’s where the band Reinheitsgebot was from!
I discovered the band last year thanks to the blog Janglepophub. In November they reviewed the band’s recordings that had popped up on Bandcamp.
Two sets of recordings are available there, “The Complete R.S.C. Recordings – Volume 1: December 1984” and “The Complete R.S.C. Recordings – Volume 2: May 1985“.
The band only lasted 9 months. The 27 songs in these two sessions are their legacy. I wonder if they recorded any other songs or this is it. The R.S.C. on the releases on Bandcamp is actually the name of the music studios in Bath. The producer was Rob Craven.
The first volume was recorded between the 17th-20th December of 1984 for the first 5 songs, while the rest were recorded live on the 21st of that same months. The songs on this volume were: “Winter’s Warmth”, “Sunday Sunday”, “One Apart”, “Linda Says”, “Words Don’t Know”, “Autumn”, “Help Eleanor Come Home”, “Waiting for Daybreak”, “Summer”, “Sunset Sky”, “Cry Again”, “In the Morning”, “Quicksand”, “Still not There”, “Cheer Up”, “It’s Only Fortune’, “Splendid View” and “Sad Angel”.
The 2nd volume was recorded on May 17, 18, 20 and 21st of 1985. 9 songs were recorded this time, “Waiting for Daybreak”, “Winter”, “Linda Says”, “Wrong Side of the River”, ” “In the Morning”, “One Apart”, “Winter’s Warmth”, “1000 Different Things” and “Still Not There”. So many songs. One wonders how come they didn’t release anything. Not even compilation appearances.
The band was formed by Ian McMillan on vocals and harmonica, Maeyc Hewitt on bass, Scott Saunders on guitar, Alan Holmes on guitar and Mark Thomas on drums. This lineup played a live mostly around North Wales, including a support of The Blow Monkeys.
The band’s last gig was on June 15, 1985, in Treborth playing fields in their home, Bangor. After this gig Mark Thomas left the band. The remaining members went to form Third Spain.
But they were actually involved in more bands. Alan Holmes, who is the one running Turquoise Coal Records which has published these songs on Bandcamp, had been in Boreas y Gogledd, Ectogram, Fflaps, Normal Shed Uses, Parking Non-Stop, Spectralate, The Groceries, The Lungs and The Serpents. He was also on The Insects while he was just a kid and then in The Zuggs, The Pinecones and A Silly Tree. So many bands. He also was a session musician on the debut album of Melys and produced records fro Gorky’s Zigotic Mynci.
Maeyc sadly passed away on October 1st, 2015. He had been in Ectogram, Nixon & Jarvis, Radio 23, The Lungs and The Serepents. Scott Saunders was on Normal Shed Uses. And yes, all three of them on Third Spain.
I wish these recordings had been released on CD or vinyl. Would be fantastic. I now need to check the other bands they were on. This has been a great discovery for sure, there was some info, but not enough… I want to know more details about them!
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
