Genesis – Wind and Wuthering
Genesis represents safety and childhood; a school to go to, a home to go back to and when I got there this was the first thing on the turntable. I can’t get too excited about Eleventh Earl of Mar nowadays but One for the Vine automatically transports me to that time. Together with 10cc, Genesis formed a backbone to an enduring love of music and to some extent travel – Vine in particular is an astonishing run of stages, twists and turns.
ICEHOUSE - Primitive Man
Primitive Man came at the end of my youth in New Zealand. The singles Great Southern Land and Hey Little Girl were already known to me and these are the songs - along with Love in Motion - that really got me hooked on ICEHOUSE. The album is dated now (due largely to the LINN drum machine) but at the time it was a revelation!
The beginning of Great Southern Land sounds almost identical to Paul McCartney’s My Love before those synthetic shakers appear and the LINN revs into gear. The video with Iva in the arid heat of the Australian outback and the night for the chorus illustrated the song perfectly. Trojan Blue conjured up images of medieval Europe and Mysterious Thing flirted with funk.
Primitive Man is important as a parting shot to NZ and the welcome mat to life in the UK. It was proof you could operate under a band name (as it was effectively a solo album for Iva Davies) and perfectly timed for the romantic early eighties; Rio, Avalon and New Gold Dream came out the same year.
Hall and Oates - Rock N’ Soul Part 1
At £5.49 this was an expensive (at the time) edition to my collection. A cheap looking white RCA cassette, which more importantly contained all their big hits of the day from Private Eyes to Kiss On My List. Hits everywhere but the UK save for Maneater and I Can’t Go For That. The newbies were Say It Isn’t So and Adult Education but equally new to my ears was the mid-seventies Philly soul of Sara Smile.
Scritti Politti - Cupid and Psyche ‘85
Housed in the most splendid cover art by Keith Breeden and Green, Cupid and Psyche ’85 was and still is essentially a summer album. On the back the track list appears in a different order to the actual album and a rather perplexing image of a slab of meat wrapped in a shirt and a broach not unlike Silence of the Lambs. According to Green himself this was to show that the work had substance (that there was meat in the material).
Cupid is a nine track album, common at the time with the more arty or bohemian bands (Duran, Arcadia, even Hall and Oates Big Bam Boom and Cock Robin’s first two albums ran to nine songs - perhaps a reaction to the more cumbersome 10). I wouldn’t say C+P saved or changed my life but it is still one I come back to fairly regularly and with a great deal of affection.
JAPAN - Tin Drum
After my nomadic youth, the eighties were a wash out for travel. I am missing it but at the same time hungry to discover more music. One day in the local Woolies I’m faced with a deliciously shrink-wrapped vinyl copy of Tin Drum in the racks before me. It’s almost slapping me in the face telling me I AM THE FUTURE!
I pick up the JAPAN album and peruse it for a bit; African Flute, well that sounds exotic, what the hell is a Dida? Nonetheless if there was a time to buy this bloody thing this was it. So, I walk it to the counter and then home.
Inside my box room I (technically speaking) undress the album by peeling off its shrink-wrapping. No inner sleeve, just a plain white bag housing the record inside - standard green Virgin label cat number OVED 158. Onto the turntable it goes and I kneel in front of my stereo - literally a shrine to sound!
The Art of Parties and Talking Drum are a bit repetitive but I’m enthralled by the nostalgia of it all having not been resident in the UK during the early eighties. The first side finishes. At this point it’s ok. So, I flip it over like a sonic burger and slap on Side Two.
Still Life in Mobile Homes enters the air, my ears, my cranium. A-ha (for once I don’t mean the band), now we’re getting somewhere. Neither Visions of China or Ghosts seem as good as I remember from hearing/seeing them on New Zealand’s Radio with Pictures show.
Next comes Sons of Pioneers. Its exotic soundscapes are everything that I am missing in terms of travel. It combines the heat of Asia approached from a western perspective. Together with Still Life they would be the two songs that drove me to continue with JAPAN and open the door to Sylvian’s solo work. At £3.99 it was cheaper than a flight to Tokyo. If this really was cultural tourism, then it was fine by me.
Brian Eno/David Byrne – My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
My introduction to Brian Eno, having been aware of the name for many years, was also my intro to ambient and world music, polyrhythmic swirls dressed up in African clothing. It came at a time when I was listening to Toni Childs' Union, Wally Badarou’s Words of a Mountain, and Gentlemen Without Weapons’ Transmissions. The late eighties were ripe for ambience and experimentation but, as always, Eno was already there with this 1981 masterclass.
Peter Kingsbery - A Different Man
On my way back from Paris in January 1992 I chanced upon the debut of Cock Robin singer Peter Kingsbery in a hypermarket in Calais.
How could he have come up with a solo record so quickly? And where would I possibly find it in the UK? It took over a year to locate in, of all places, Cardiff HMV which possessed two copies. At almost £14 it was the most expensive CD I had purchased at the time and looked very dapper on French label Barclay.
Returning home, I slammed the disc into my player and was amazed at its content, it was every bit as good as the previous Cock Robin album First Love, Last Rites. He was on a roll! Different Man marks the beginning of a love affair with continental Europe, and the return of travel to my life.
No-Man - Flowermouth
The nineties were a wash out for music in the same way the eighties were for travel. One band that caught and held my attention was No-Man. 1994’s Flowermouth passed me by initially, I'm put off by the reviews which say something like 'it's a lot heavier than their first outing’. In reality it's nothing of the sort. If anything, it's more cinematic.
It must be 1996 by the time I purchase it. Immediately, I'm smitten, an audiophile's love affair ensues. *At the time of writing my review is still on All Music as is my band biography and reviews of Loveblows and Together We're Stranger.
Bio
I am a creative and educator born in Wales and raised in both New Zealand and the UK. Educated in the visual arts I turned to writing in the nineties, composing books and contributing to print and online media mainly in the field of travel and music (All Music Guide among others).
In addition, I’ve run a parallel career in education and taught Inter-Cultural Communications at university level in China. I have visited over 50 countries and 100 cities on 5 continents over 20 years travelling. I like the idea of being a world citizen and live and work globally.
You can buy my books here gumroad.com/kulturekiosk
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