Not much news today, but some great finds!
Pelopincho: this Argentinean band has already been part of our reviews with their exciting jangly pop songs. Now they are releasing their album “Zona Surf” that sounds AMAZING. I really hope it gets released physically. I would love to have this on CD and play it all the time. There are just 8 songs, all kind of short, but as I said before, they are all great! It leaves you wanting more!
Dim Vanilla: my friend Cris shared this track called “Shady Shady” with me the other day. I loved it instantly. I thought it has the Cloudberry sound and I don’t think of that too often. This song will be the first single of the band’s new EP that will be released on Breakfast Records from the UK. It will be reelased on cassette and it will include four songs, “Shady Shady”, “Fun Machine”, “Mayo” and “Unfold”. I hope to hear the rest of the songs soon!
Ease: the 2nd single by this Jakarta, Indonesia, dreampop band is called “MK7” and it is pretty pretty good. The vocals are dreamy. The guitars are dreamy. The melody and the atmosphere is dreamy. I don’t know much about them, but I do know that this is good!
La Otra Cara de la Nada: this band from Misiones, Argentina, released their latest song “Nada Que Ver” last August. Only now I’m finding about it. It does remind me a bit of El Último Vecino from Barcelona, and that is a good thing of course. The band is formed by Germán Vázquez, Ariel Duce, Bruno Gross and Nicolas Peña. I look forward to any release they might put out in the near future.
RAYS: lastly I must say I’m really enjoying this album by this Oakland, California, band. It is called “You Can Get There From Here” and it comes with 12 guitar driven pop songs! The record is available on 12″ vinyl through Trouble In My Mind records.
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If you see this video, which I’m sharing it with a time start of 1:39:15, you’ll listen a cool sounding song. What is it? Who are they? This video called The Height of Goth: 1984 – A Night at the Xclusiv Nightclub in Batley, West Yorkshire, was even covered in the Guardian by Alexis Petridis some time ago. This video was originally commissioned by the couple who ran the club, Annie and Pete Swallow, and was given away to friends and regulars for 2 pounds. I could find the tracklist for all the songs the people are singing along and dancing too, and you see The Smiths, New Order, The Monkees, Buzzcocks, The Undertones and more. And The Freedom Suite’s “Dry Spell”, which is the song that sounded so mysterious, that I have pinpointed you all.
The band only put out a single that year, 1984. A 7″ that included the song “Log Cabin” on the A side and “Dry Spell” on the B side. It was released by the Nain Recording Company with the catalog number NAIN 22. Discogs doesn’t list any other records for this label. I wonder if this was the sole release by the label. Maybe it was even a self-release?
The information about the band is scarce. We do know that the songs were produced by Neil Ferguson of The Donkeys and later of Chumbawamba. It is safe to assume that they were English. Someone on a forum seems to be convinced they hailed from Leeds. But I couldn’t confirm this.
But I continue looking for information of course. And I was to stumble upon a gold mine. A soundcloud with a bunch of songs by the band. Here I find “Melanie Day”, “Take Me To Glory”, “Playing the White Man”, “Log Cabin”, “Dry Spell” and “Back in the Fields”. Somethin interesting is that all of these songs share the same artwork, what looks like an album art. It even has a title, “Back in the Fields”. Was this released in any way as an album? I couldn’t confirm that either.
45cat gives me some interesting details. It lists three last names as composers. Forrest, Boyce and Howes. Someone has done some detective work and comments that it may be that they might be Andrew Howes and Mark Boyce who would later be in the band The Parachute Men. If that was the case, then the Leeds connection, as The Parachute Men hailed from there, would be confirmed. Could it be?!
There’s as you’d expect not more information about the band. I think we just need confirmations. Also would be great to get in touch with Andrew Howes and Mark Boyce, even if it not for The Freedom Suite but for The Parachute Men, an interview would be fantastic. I wonder who remembers them? They must have had some following if the people on the Height of Goth were singing along! And no, it is not Goth music! It is lovely jangly guitar pop!
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Listen
Freedom Suite – Dry Spell
