79.5
Club Level

These tracks were recorded by Kevin Low and Fiona Carlin in Kevin’s bedroom in Gayfield Square, Edinburgh, in 1986. Me and my dad, Kevin, dug out a huge bunch of his tapes over the lockdown (about 80 of the them at first). Some were…better than others, however, the Gayfield Square demos were the pick of the lot. Previously Kevin and Fiona were part of the Post Punk / indie band ‘Wild Indians’, whose first release “Stolen Courage” had come out in 1983 – released on Flexi Disc via the Edinburgh fanzine Deadbeat. Throughout the mid-1980s they performed across Edinburgh’s clubs, including at the Hoochie Coochie Club (name checked on track 7), where they played alongside bands and close friends Pop Wallpaper and Visitors. The band went on to release two 12” singles, “Love of My Life” in 1984 and “Penniless” in 1986.After the band broke up Kevin sold his guitar amp and 7inch collection, Fiona her saxophone and they went out and got themselves a Yamaha RX-5 drum machine, Yamaha QX7 sequencer and a Yamaha DX-100. These bedroom tracks are the fruits of their first venture with this hardware, combining their experimentation with synthetic sounds (mostly the DX-100’s famous pre-sets) with a post-punk vocal style.These eight tracks are also, in part, the fruit of the “Enterprise Allowance scheme” - a policy venture of Margaret Thatcher’s UK government that gave unemployment claimants access to an extra £40 to top up the basic dole money. Following Thatcher’s election victories in 1979 and 1983, the policy sought to reduce the figures of mass unemployment which hung over Britain well into the 1980s. This policy, according to Kevin, helped to keep up the credit payments. He notes that, “when Fiona and I turned up at the DHSS office with the sure-fire money-making plan of making a business as a ‘song-writing’ duo they signed us up. However, I still think they thought we said, sign writing as they were filling out the form.”Kevin and Fiona stopped making music together shortly after these tracks were recorded so unfortunately, they never saw the light of day…until now!Fiona went on to work in Film and Television sound. Kevin became a photographer, working mostly in theatre. He is now an artist/painter working in Glasgow.

Penya's self-titled, wild and untamed sophomore album reimagines the global music landscape.A genre melting exploration of ancestral rhythms, “Penya” asks the question : How deep do our roots reach into the unseen places that keep us anchored to the real world? The answers revealed themselves through an intuitive creative process guided by feeling. The word “Penya” arrived as a nod to the Spanish word “Peña” which describes a meeting place of celebration for musicians and artists.

Given the sprawl and epic that was the recent Principe Del Norte album from Prins Thomas, it is no surprise Smalltown Supersound have opted to think big for this subsequent remix 12" series. The Orb, Sun Araw, Young Marco, I:Cube, Ricardo Villalobos and Hieroglyphic Being are all on board to remix the Scandolearic pioneer for a short-lived series spread across two vinyl releases. Hieroglyphic Being kicks matters off with a pair of remixes of "D", whose original 14 minutes made for one of the highlights of the album. In the hands of Jamal Moss, the track doesn't transform into the corrosive monster you might expect though little of the original remains intact. The accompanying Beat Rework buries PT's original krauty melodics deep below a killer barrage of drums and is our favourite of the two HB versions.

Straight out Montpellier France, comes this double vinyl feast of deep, organic electronic sound. Becoming is James S. Taylor (SWAYZAK UK) and Cedrick Eymenier (FR). This is their debut release exploring their interest in long tracks that change almost imperceptibly - subtle earworms for domestic and public enjoyment. Slacker House is thus defined by this Anglo French duo.

ELISHA / REUBEN ADDISJudgement DayRoots Youths