Messthetics #106: The Manchester Musicians Collective 1977-1982

Hell yeah! You guessed it: classic no wave punk by a number of bands that we have never heard of before, thanks to Chuck Warner of Hyped 2 Death records. This time the collection focuses on the Manchester area, home of such big names in post-punk scene as the Fall, Joy Division, and the Buzzcocks. This cd focuses on a loosely based artist collective known as the Manchester Musicians Collective. A number of uncut gems are in here, so anybody who has even a mild appreciation for punk and the diy aesthetic, should take a good look at this. I recommend checking out all the other H2D cds in the library: messthetics, homework, animals and men, the homosexuals. Definitely for fans of the Fall, the Slits, Wire, Gang of Four, the Raincoats, Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, Joy Division or any of the other major leftfield acts of the era.

Picks: 10, 6, 1, 4, 7, 12, 15, 16, 19 *** FCCs: 5, 17, 21 ***

*1. nice! upbeat sunny day guitars, screaming vocals and this weird electronic background spaceship effect... nice rhythm change at -2:15... great way to start!
2. slightly wire-esque, pretty minimal arrangement, bass-dominated, strummy guitars, new-wavey sax, frantic vocals
3. straight up punk, buzzcocks style, very garagey
*4. more on the disco-punk style, think of the slits, layered male-female vocals
5. FCC bullshitters, female vocals, industrial style, prevalent synth sound, kind of sounds like delta 5
**6. nice one! disturbingly discordant noisy guitars, menacing rhythm, senseless vocals: "this is a bad thing... there is no shower!" , note: band members were a bunch of hairy ex-grad students... sounds familiar...
*7. fuzzy sound, driving rhythm, spoken vocals a la mark e. smith, think of the fall
8. pretty lo-fi, casio synth sounds, female vocals, downtempo
9. ominous intro, keyboard sound prevails, becomes more upbeat in the second half, drummer was with the fall, and it shows
***10. nice! starts wayyy slow with a couple guitar chords... then this hynotic keyboard sound kicks in... beautiful... arrangement is simple, but guitar work is great. behold the origins of modern indie rock!
**11. wow, totally out there sax sound... minimal disco punk, like a striped down gang of four, pretty jazzy, painkiller lyrics (Brick and YIF, take note!)
*12. melody reminds me of james bond theme, nice twangy guitar solo, female vocs, reminds me of the au pairs, very nice!
13. upbeat, almost poppy, circus style keyboards (or vibraphone?) and a very diy happy go lucky attitude...
14. abruptly gets into this very energetic bass driven mode... pretty much sums up what diy post-punk is all about...
*15. nice lo-fi fuzziness... almost has a loungey swing about it... tropical punk maybe?
*16. fuzzy and rough all around the edges... discordant vocals, hella noisy... think of VUs white light/white heat great
17. FCC fuck. keyboards remind of magazine. dual male/female vocals are way out there... on the experimental side of things...
18. again this weirdly menacing sound by the grad school dorks... this time the subject matter is dinner... weird stuff...
*19. abrasive. highly energetic rhythm section, angular guitars, tribal vocalizations... nice!
20. hey this is track 10! bad cd cut? no idea...
21. possible FCC (bullshit @-2:19) wow so lo-fi! sounds like this was recorded in some shabby basement... weirdly playful and hypnotic... way out there lyrics about the catholic church...