It is a busy week on the blog. I don’t know how will it be later on as there are some changes at work, and in the transition I might be quite busier, with less time in my hands to discover new music. But let’s see how it pans out. In the mean time, while there’s still chance, why not keep doing what we love most, discovering and listening to new sounds!
Vacations: this Newcastle, Australia, band has a new album called “Changes” that is available on their Bandcamp. It looks like it is only available digitally which is a shame. I don’t know much about them, but I’m enjoying their songs, which are 10 in total in the album. My favourite my be so far “Steady”, which is a cool jangly upbeat track. The band is formed by Campbell Burns, Jake Johnson, Nate Delizzotti and Joseph Van Lier. Hope the record gets released properly, meaning, physically.
Pastel Ruins: last post I discovered the Belgian band Poppel and so I have been looking at other releases by their label Gazer Tapes from Turnhout in Belgium. So I found this 4 song EP titled “Static Dreams” by Pastel Ruins. The songs on it are “Oceans of Time”, “Unseen”, “Ambergris” and “Candy Bullet”. There’s not much info on the band or the release on the Bandcamp but you can buy a limited edition tape of the EP if that’s your thing. Nice introspective bedroom guitar pop. The best track for me is “Oceans of Time”.
Varsity: I discovered this Chicago band through their song “Smash” which is superb but it is now sold out in its cassingle version. That one was released long time ago, in June 2016. Their latest is quite recent though, April this year. It is an album titled “Parallel Person” and it is available on vinyl now and they have a bunch of merch too to promote it. The album has ten songs and I’m only having my first listen now. The band formed by Stef, Dylan, Pat, Paul and Jacob, is an interesting mix of classic indiepop with an added quirkiness, you’ll understand what I’m saying when you listen to them. And even though I wasn’t convinced by the opening track, the second one, “Settle Down”, is a delicious slice of poptasticness, with boy/girl vocals and hook after hook.
Frisbee Club: there is 1 cassette remaining of their limited edition tape for “Ride Forever / Delphic”. The two song cassingle by this Nijmegen, Netherlands, band released by Coaster Records from Rotterdam. It is the first time I listen to a band from that city, or hear of a label from that other city. So this is interesting. The band is formed by Dennis Denissen, Yoni Vereijken and Jeroen Popelier. Two sunny songs and I look forward to what they do next (even though this is not too new, it is from 2016!)
Echo Ladies: it seems once again I arrived late to the party. The vinyl LP “Pink Noise” by this Malmö, Sweden, band is now sold out. I will have to wait for June 8th for the CD version to be released. I’m not that excited about it as it feels a bit of an afterthought (for me any CD release that comes in a cardboard sleeve is an afterthought). But it is better than nothing, right? There is only one song available to stream on the band’s Bandcamp: “Bedroom”. It is a superb shoegaze/dreampop track! The album will be released on the classic label Hybris. The band is formed by Matilda Bogren, Joar Andersen and Mattis Andersson.
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Burnham-on-Sea is a large seaside town in Somerset, England, at the mouth of the River Parrett, upon Bridgwater Bay. Burnham was a small fishing village until the late 18th century, when it began to grow because of its popularity as a seaside resort. It forms part of the parish of Burnham-on-Sea and Highbridge and shares a town council with its neighbouring market town of Highbridge.
This will be the first time I am writing about a band from Burnham-on-Sea. It may also be the only band I know that hail from this town. According to Discogs not much remains to document the existence of this enigmatic early ’90s U.K. indiepop group, except for a small collection of truly great tunes. Their sunny uptempo tunes delight with full, energetic rhythms, wistfully jangling guitars occasionally made just a bit dreamier with a hint of reverb, and high, just-a-bit-angsty male vocals. Disbanded in 1993 and some of their members reassembled as Luminous.
But why not find out more ourselves?
My first encounter with them was through a bunch of songs Jigsaw Records put on their Bandcamp some time ago. Yes, Jigsaw Records, the one from Chris McFarlane, in Seattle. He had uploaded the “Happen to Lull” (PZL002) tape in its entirety when he reissued it for Cassette Day 2015 in a limited quantity of 12. It seems 5 are remaining at the time of me writing the article. If only Chris would release it on CD, then I would buy it. The songs are ace. Anyhow, Chris tells us that this tape was originally released on February 1st, 1996 and that he obtained the rights to this cassette after the label that originally released it ceased to exist, and kept it in print for another year or so, until the master tape started to wear out. Under better circumstances, this band (with a sound that mixed the jangle of mid-’80s UK pop and the power of late-’80s UK shoegaze) could’ve been much, much bigger, but for now they remain woefully obscure…
The songs on this tape were on the A side, “Happen”, “Different”, “Between Two Fires”, “Horizontal”, “Landmark”, “Only Reason I Pray” and “Fiona”. The B side had “Turning”, “Avalanches”, “Tidal”, “Book I Borrowed” and “Way She Died”. 75 copies were pressed originally and it seems it actually was a reissue of another tape called “Eternity Beckons” that was released by the Traumatone label, which is also some sort of a reissue of two tapes the band had put out: “Happen” in 1990 and “Lull” from 1991. Interesting. There are some credits on the tape too, Paul Stradling played bass, Kevin ‘Gonzo’ Webber and Richard Luck played drums , Phil Cornell played guitar and Jefferson Bird sang and played guitar.
“Eternity Beckons” is actually listed on Discogs. It was released in 1992 by Traumatone (TT10) as mentioned before. The A side is the same as the Jigsaw release but with the addition of “Turning”. That A side is the “Happen” tape from 1990. The B side, of only four songs, is the same as the B side of the Jigsaw release but without “Turning”. That was the “Lull” tape too then.
The “Happen” tape is not listed, but the “Lull” is. It was self-released and as mentioned included just the four songs, “Avalanches”, “Tidal”, “A Book I Borrowed” and “The Way She Died”. It was engineered and recorded by Trevor Curwen, who had worked with Portishead and also son the fine Somewhere Over England.
But that is not all. It seems another tape album was made by the band and was released by Traumatone in 1993. “Highbridge Dreams” (TT12) is a big mystery to me. One of the big mysteries in indiepop. I’ve never heard any of the songs and I am very curious about them. This tape came packed in a fold around postcard from Burnham-on-Sea and now only credits Paul, Kevin and Jefferson. No drummer. Odd. And there are 13 songs in total. The A side had “Titania”, “Wish It Was Pretend”, “Shaded”, “Nocturnal”, “Sea Air” and “See Through”. The B side had “Through The Stills”, “Safely to the Ground”, “The Seventh is There”, “Hideaway”, “Georgina III”, “Glide” and “Statue (1 Track)”.
Only one compilation appearance is listed and it is a recent one. On the compilation album “Puzzle Pieces” released by Jigsaw (PZL05), where the label was celebrating their 50 releases, having bands from all of their previous releases, they included “Different” by Charms.
So I look for the band members, see what else they had been involved with. I see Jefferson Bird had been in a band called Bluejean Morrocan Hipsters and Luminous. Both released on the Traumatone label. I start to suspect this label was their own label. Could that be the case?
Paul Stradling had been involved with other bands on Traumatone like Poo & Wee, Brown Tower, Wizard Ho Ho, Bluejean Morrocan Hipsters, Luminous and Fulcrum. There’s also another band that he seems had been involved with, Gravity. That would be the only band that wasn’t released by Traumatone, but by MTM Music.
Kevin ‘Gonzo’ Webber also was involved with Luminous.
Interesting enough Traumatone has its own Bandcamp page with many uploads, but not one with the Charms.
Another interesting find is that the Traumatone released a tape called “Am I So Different? – A Tribute to the Charms” (TT14) in 1994. Many bands related to the label made covers of Charms songs. The bands that appear on said tape are Bucknalls with “Avalanches”, Wizard Ho Ho with “Different”, Brown Tower with “Georgina”, “Wckr Spgt with “Tidal”, Rescue Puppy Team with “See Through”, Naxxar with “Tribute”, Obscene Men with “Only Reason I Pray”, Paste with “Book I Borrowed”, Spacehopper with “Horizontal”, Will Simmons-Joe Sowers with “Fiona”, Fulcrum with “Tidal” and Brendan Shite with “Book I Borrowed”.
I keep digging, until I find a Bandcamp for the label Box Perfect Records. Interesting. Here are both tapes by the Charms, “Happen” and “Lull“. There are some details about each of the tapes. For example “Happen” was recorded on March 14th and May 30th of 1990 at The White House Studio in Weston-Super-Mare. Then “Lull” was recorded at the House on the Hill Studio in Bath on February 13th and 14th of 1991.
There’s not much on the web as you can imagine. One of course wonders why they didn’t release any of their records on vinyl or CD. Or whatever happened to the band members after being in the numerous projects on Traumatone Records. Especially as their other projects are not proper indiepop as the Charms. The Charms are indeed unique, they sound GREAT, like many of the obscure bands that appear on classic compilation tapes from the 80s and 90s with the difference that they did records many, many, songs!
Does anyone remember them? And does anyone can hook me up and let me listen their second tape album “Highbridge Dreams”?
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Listen
Charms – Different
