Recently Added Vinyl
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It was four years into the swim ~ label’s history before Bastard arrived. Like my previous albums, it was another collaboration – although this time only with my partner in life and crime, Malka Spigel.Visit product page →
There was a point in the ’90s when British music journalists basically didn’t get dance music and would refer to it as “faceless techno bollocks”. It was that very attribute that Malka and I felt most attracted to. In instrumental music, you could be anyone from anywhere. The only thing that mattered was how good your tunes were. In fact, for the first Immersion album, we pretended to be from Germany and were photographed in wigs and masks. This had the unexpected result of the album selling more copies in Germany than anywhere else!
With Bastard, it took a while to get to the concept, which was essentially this: What if we subverted the whole ‘bloke from Wire’thing and had a Colin Newman album without any actual songs on it? These days, this is not such a big thing, but it was hugelytransgressive at the time. The language of Bastard is house, techno, breakbeat, drum and bass, and doubtless post-rock. The only singing is a one-line Malka sample on ‘Turn’.
Not only did the album not play by the rules of what would these days be called musicby a ‘heritage’ artist, but it didn’t play by the rules of dance music either. Back then, dance music artists didn’t mix up styles as theydo today. This is one of the reasons the album’s called Bastard.
Upon release, Bastard was modestly successful in comparison to the label’s other releases, although widely misunderstood. Thetitle is intentionally multifaceted, referring to several ways in which the album is a misfit – a cuckoo in the nest. But it never meant ‘Colin Newman is a bastard’ – even if Malka’s toy finger gesture on the cover tempted fate on that!
Malka and I have done more work together on swim ~ – and, of course, there has been plenty of Wire activity after its second hiatus during the 1990s – but I never felt the need to do another solo album. I don’t crave attention and certainly don’t feel I lack ways to express myself. In many ways, it’s more creative to collaborate with others.
There is joy and beauty in collaboration. And collaborating with Malka has become so effortless that we almost don’t know whodoes what in the work we create. This has led us to throwing open our partnership via Nanocluster events and albums where webuild musical bridges and make partnerships that transcend the art. Maybe that’s the point? Surely, art should be about human connection and diversity of expression?
Colin Newman, Brighton, 2023 (edited from album sleeve notes)
Tracklisting:
Vinyl LP & CD 1
1. Sticky
2. May
3. Slowfast (falling down the stairs with a drumkit)
4. Without
5. g-deep
6. Spaced In
7. Spiked
8. The Orange House & the Blue House
9. Turn
CD 2
1. Automation
2. Faq
3. Voice
4. Output
5. The Narrativ (with Corrado Izzo)
6. Blank Canvas
7. Time Will Allow
8. Tsunami
9. Cut The Slack (2001)
10. Found & Bound (2001)
11. Unbroken (2001)
12. Flight Mode (2008)
CD2 info:
Tracks 1–4 taken from 1995 EP Voice.
Tracks 5–8 originally appeared on swim team #1 and swim team #2.
Tracks 9–12 previously unreleased and exclusive to this edition. -
Not To (disc 2) tracks 1 - 4 were recorded solo in West Norwood and are obvious precursors of their album counterparts. Tracks 14 - 21 were also recorded solo in West Norwood and supplied material for a concert at the Venue, while 5 - 13 were recorded solo in Gloucestershire, on Robert's borrowed 4-track and were part of an attempt to write a follow-up to Not To.Visit product page →
The final recording was made at Scorpio Sound (where all 3 orginal albums were recorded) and was the second A-side'to the single 'We Means We Starts'/'Not To' and featured Simon, Charles Arthur & Linn drum programming by Scritti Politti's Tom Morley.
Colin Newman's 3 classic early 80's solo albums A-Z, provisionally entitled the singing fish & Not To originally released on Beggars Banquet / 4AD re-released on his own new imprint Sentient Sonics.
VINYL - unavailable for many years'remastered original albums on single vinyls.
CD - the 3 remastered original albums each accompanied by a companion CD of extra tracks, b-sides & demos - quite a lot of which have never been released - released as 3 double digipacks.
The Original 3 albums:
These albums were recorded and released between 1980 & 1982 in a 'post 154' rush of activity. While all the albums bear the name Colin Newman they differ in that A-Z & Not To were recorded as 'band' albums with Colin being joined by Wire's Robert Grey, Mike Thorne (who also produced, as he had the first 3 Wire albums) & Desmond Simmons on A-Z and Robert, Desmond & Simon Gillham on Not To. provisionally entitled the singing fish was more an 'actual' solo album in that everything was played by himself. Colin produced the latter 2 albums with Steve Parker engineering.
The 2nd discs (included only with the CD versions)
Tracklisting:
Not To (Disc 1):
1. Lorries
2. Don't Bring Reminders
3. You, Me and Happy
4. We Meet Under Tables
5. Safe
6. Truculent Yet
7. 5/10
8. 1, 2, 3, Beep, Beep
9. Not To
10. Indians!
11. Remove for Improvement
12. Blue Jay Way
Not To (Disc 2) CD ONLY!:
Home Studio Demos
1. Truculent Yet
2. Remove for Improvement
3. You, Me and Happy
4. 1, 2, 3, Beep, Beep
5. I'm Still Here
6. It's Just My Heart
7. If Time Had Been
8. Hello Mr. Sandman
9. Greensleeves
10. This Time
11. Keeping It to Myself
12. You Must Decide
13. Don't You Disagree?
14. Lunaris
15. At Rest
16. A Word in Your Ear
17. Where Was I?
18. Wo Hoe
19. But Either Way
20. We Means We Starts
21. Ye Rama Dabble Am
Studio Recordings
22. We Means We Starts -
provisionally entitled the singing fish (disc 2), tracks 1 - 4 were fish with vocals,'originally included on a free disc called CN1 that came with the CD re-release of provi-sionally entitled the singing fish / Not To. The vocals were added retrospectively (in 1984) and recorded by John Fryer in Blackwing.Visit product page →
Track 5 prefaced the recording of provisionally entitled the singing fish and was recorded solo'in the same way as the album; it was the B-side to the single 'Inventory'. The remaining tracks, with the excep-tion of track 10, were recorded solo in Colin's flat in West Norwood.
Track 11 features a drum loop of Robert. We have no idea what the circumstance was for the recording of track 10, but it has been titled for what it is: a rare example of Soft Option (the band that played on Not To) just playing.
Colin Newman's 3 classic early 80's solo albums A-Z, provisionally entitled the singing fish & Not To originally released on Beggars Banquet / 4AD re-released on his own new imprint Sentient Sonics.
VINYL - unavailable for many years'remastered original albums on single vinyls.
CD - the 3 remastered original albums each accompanied by a companion CD of extra tracks, b-sides & demos - quite a lot of which have never been released - released as 3 double digipacks.
The Original 3 albums:
These albums were recorded and released between 1980 & 1982 in a 'post 154' rush of activity. While all the albums bear the name Colin Newman they differ in that A-Z & Not To were recorded as 'band' albums with Colin being joined by Wire's Robert Grey, Mike Thorne (who also produced, as he had the first 3 Wire albums) & Desmond Simmons on A-Z and Robert, Desmond & Simon Gillham on Not To. provisionally entitled the singing fish was more an 'actual' solo album in that everything was played by himself. Colin produced the latter 2 albums with Steve Parker engineering.
The 2nd discs (included only with the CD versions)
Tracklisting:
provisionally entitled
the singing fish (Disc 1):
1. fish 1
2. fish 2
3. fish 3
4. fish 4
5. fish 5
6. fish 6
7. fish 7
8. fish 8
9. fish 9
10. fish 10
11. fish 11
12. fish 12
provisionally entitled
the singing fish (Disc 2):
Studio Recordings:
1. You and Your Dog
2. Here Come the Fleeing Rabbits
3. No Doubt
4. The Grace You Know
5. This Picture
Home Studio Demos
6. fish 9
7. fish 11
8. Crystal Clear
9. A Passing Parade
10. Soft Option
11. Original Suicide
12. You and Your Dog
13. Is It Worth Repeating?
14. It Isn't Quite Enough
15. I Can Feel It
16. Atmos 1
17. Atmos 2
18. Now You Know
19. Kiora Kora
20. Vox Pop -
A - Z (disc 2), tracks 1 - 9 were recorded at Riverside Recordings, Chiswick, by Robert, Desmond and Colin on the same sessions as Robert and Colin's contributions to the additional 7' given away with Wire's 154.Visit product page →
Track 10 is Mike and Colin playing the studio piano at the studio where A - Z was mixed, and 11 was recorded on the A - Z sessions. Both were on the flip side of the single 'B'. Tracks 12 - 17 were recorded solo in Colin's flat in West Norwood.
Colin Newman's 3 classic early 80's solo albums A-Z, provisionally entitled the singing fish & Not To originally released on Beggars Banquet / 4AD re-released on his own new imprint Sentient Sonics.
VINYL - unavailable for many years'remastered original albums on single vinyls.
CD - the 3 remastered original albums each accompanied by a companion CD of extra tracks, b-sides & demos - quite a lot of which have never been released - released as 3 double digipacks.
The Original 3 albums:
These albums were recorded and released between 1980 & 1982 in a 'post 154' rush of activity. While all the albums bear the name Colin Newman they differ in that A-Z & Not To were recorded as 'band' albums with Colin being joined by Wire's Robert Grey, Mike Thorne (who also produced, as he had the first 3 Wire albums) & Desmond Simmons on A-Z and Robert, Desmond & Simon Gillham on Not To. provisionally entitled the singing fish was more an 'actual' solo album in that everything was played by himself. Colin produced the latter 2 albums with Steve Parker engineering.
The 2nd discs (included only with the CD versions)
Tracklisting:
A - Z (Disc 1):
1. I've Waited Ages
2. & Jury
3. Alone
4. Order for Order
5. Image
6. Life on Deck
7. Troisième
8. S-S-S-Star Eyes
9. Seconds to Last
10. Inventory
11. But No
12. B
A - Z (Disc 2) CD ONLY!
Riverside Demos:
1. Life on Deck
2. The Classic Remains
3. Don't Bring Reminders
4. Image
5. Not Me
6. But No
7. Troisième
8. I've Waited Ages
9. Order for Order
Studio Recordings
10. Alone on Piano
11. The Classic Remains
Home Studio Demos
12. Order for Order
13. Not Me
14. The Classic Remains
15. Troisième
16. Standard Practice
17. Part of Our History