Day 588
The Sensitive: a new single by this superb Indonesian indiepop band! A new single with two songs, “Labor of Only You” and “Anoa Records is my Shepherd”, are out now on Let’s Kiss a Secret. Both songs are classic sounded guitar pop tunes. Really nice.
The Moment of Nightfall: a new Japanese super group formed by members of bands like Pervenche, H-Shallows and Red Go-Cart, released a tape EP titled “Light is Beyond the Nostalgia” last month on the always reliable Galaxy Train Records. The EP has 4 songs of mellow, lo-fi, dreamy popsongs. The tape is now sold out, but can listen to the songs online.
The Happy Somethings: “Our TV Times” is a new song by this lovely Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire band! The trio, two guys and a girl, according to the drawing on theeir Bandcamp, make lovely popsongs! For some reason this song’s melody reminds me of The Would-Be-Goods. And yes, that is a good thing in my book!
Softsurf: I have recommended this terrific 5-piece from Nagoya in the past, when they released their debut EP in 2017. Well, the band is back now, with a second EP titled “Returning Wave” on Dreamwaves Records. Clearly influenced by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, the band knows how to craft catchy popsongs. 5 good songs… and it seems only digital for now.
Crushed by an Elephant: just discovered this project from Stockholm that is not very new. M. Forssman is who is behind this project of lo-fi pop and who has published many fine tracks to his Soundcloud. I have to thank my friend David from Barcelona for this find!
—————————————————————–
Another band I wanted to write about was Langfield Crane. I noticed I had left a Youtube link and a Discogs link saved. The Discogs link works, of course, and there we find 4 records, but the Youtube link is down. Doesn’t exist anymore. I wonder what song it was…
The band hailed from Todmorden.
Todmorden is a market town and civil parish in the Upper Calder Valley in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England. It is 17 miles (27 kilometres) north-east of Manchester, 8 miles (13 km) south-east of Burnley and 9 miles (14 km) west of Halifax. In 2011 had a population of 15,481. The name Todmorden first appears in 1641. The town had earlier been called Tottemerden, Totmardene, Totmereden or Totmerden. The generally accepted meaning of the name is Totta’s boundary-valley, probably a reference to the valley running north-west from the town.
Being close to Manchester it seems the band was part of the early 90s music scene there, of the so-called Manchester. I believe the band’s first release was a flexi I’ve written about in the past. A compilation flexi released by Spike’s Label (LYN 19817/18) that had their song “Kiss Me Stephenson”. I had written about this flexi before when writing about Roberta Junk and Chinese Gangster Element.
The band was formed by Deborah Szumowski on guitar and vocals, David Brogan on bass and vocals, Richard Moran on drums and Robert Duffy on guitar and vocals. From what I have gathered the band split in 1991.
It seems the band had their own label called Astragarda Records. In 1990 the band releases their first record, a self-titled mini-album. “Langfield Crane” (ASTRAG 01) had 6 songs. Three on each side. The A side had “Steam From Country Heaven”, “River Water Eyes” and “Very Name” while the B side had “Plectrumhead”, “Run Down the Avenue” and “Glide and Spin”. On the credits we can see that the songs were recorded at Underground in Wakefield. Engineered by Neville, mixed by Jerusalem in Manchester and produced by Bobby B. Also on the labels we see that the songs lyrics were written by Robert Duffy.
The second release on Astragarda Records was “Stevenson EP” (ASTRAG 002). This 12″ had three songs, “Kiss me Stevenson”, “Oh Softhead” and “Sweet Wire”. The producer and engineer were Anthony Behrendt and Bobby B. Additional engineering by Neville Barker and Pete Livingston. The record was recorded at Jerusalem and Underground Studios.
Now I am not sure which record came next. I’ll go with Astragarda third release just for the sake of it. “Invitation” (ASTRAG 003) was a four song EP that included “Plectrumhead”, “Gin”, “I’ll Have You” and “Triangle”. The first two songs were produced and engineered by Robin Blake and Chris Shaw. They were recorded at Studio Studios and mixed at StarTrack. Someone called Royston is credited for additional engineering. The last two songs on the other hand were produced and engineered by Anthony Behrendt and Robin Blake, recorded and mixed at Jerusalem with extra engineering by Pete Livingston and James Flowers. The front cover artwork was created by Catherine Mechan, the graphics by Jerome Dineen and the photos by Jim Moran.
Also on this record we find the musician Steve Marsden, who played electric mandola on “Plectrumhead” and slide guitar on “Gin”.
The record we are missing is the self-titled album “Langfield Crane”. This record wasn’t released in the UK but in Italy by Gala Records (GLLP 91038). The record included just 9 songs. On the A side we find “Steam From County Heaven”, “River Water Eyes”, “Very Name” and “Sweet Wire”. The B side has “Kiss Me Stevenson”, “Oh Softhead”, “Plectrumhead”, “Run Down the Avenue” and “Glide the Spin”. I wonder if this was a proper album or more of a compilation for the Italian audience. All songs were engineered and produced by Anthony Behrendt.
We hear about the band many years after. There is a very limited CDR compilation called “Suburbia Psychedelicised Volume 1: Shoegaze, Madchester and Neo-Psychedelia 1990-93” (SPS 004). This is an unofficial release that the Secret Psychedelic Society put together and given away to their members. The song they incldued by Langfied Crane was “I’ll Have You”.
On Youtube there’s something worth mentioning. So it seems the band played in Spain in 1991. There is TV footage on Telemadrid, where the presenters introduce the band and then show the band’s promo video “Kiss Me Stevenson”! Sadly the video is not complete. Would be good if someone could upload it in its entirety.
We also know that Langfield Crane supported the New Automatic Daffodils in London. They also supported Pulp at Piece Hall in Halifax on August 31, 1991. That day the other bands in the bill were Bob, Levellers 5 and Anderson. Other gigs I found is them playing on June 21st 1990 with the Protagonists as well as a November 1990 gig at The Rathole in Tamworth with them and Jain Faith.
And that’s it. All I could find looking around in the web. What happened to them? Which cities in Spain did they play? Did they play there? Did they play Italy? Are there more songs? What happened to the band members? Many questions, not many answers. Who remembers them!?
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
