Section 25 - The Key of Dreams

Discog.

Nope. Nor The Wake, nor Crispy Ambulance (except in Tony Wilson's commentary, where he says something semi-nice about them before he dismisses them).

i love "key of dreams" (and am going to take some of the credit for getting bimble into it, heheheh) but i still don't think it's a patch on "from the hip", which is transcendent hypnopop made all the more exquisite by the fact its creators are palpably unaware of the sheer wonder of what they're doing. and SXXV's finest moment remains the "looking from a hilltop" megamix ... the way the road-crash guitar cataclysm somehow transforms itself into a single, pure synthesiser note in the first 30 seconds or so is one of my favourite moments in recorded sound.

as for "love and hate" ... the LTM re-issue, which re-orders the tracks and includes "crazy wisdom" and "the guitar waltz", transforms an underproduced curiosity into a gracious collection of wistful pop vignettes. factory really, really fucked them over with that album, which is a terrible shame.

But, Key Of Dreams..... Side 1 is great - I like the description 'depressed motorik'. I think 'foggy' too, also *sea* Very Northern - music this determined could never have been made south of Sheffield. Side 2 (hey, I love my vinyl!) - I'm not sure if it works quite as well after the fantastic brakes-off 'Wretch'. 'There Was A Time' has never been a favourite and I'm on the fence about 'Sutra' - it's an impressive attempt at....something, though. I remember Dave McCulloch's 5-star review in Sounds and being desperate to find a copy for weeks until Factory got their arses in gear and actually got some in the shops for people to buy!

I am maybe coming round to your way of thinking on Love and Hate, grimly. I have enjoyed the reissue more than I thought I would, but after From The Hip it should have been so much better. Not all their fault, I guess.

It occurs to me: they didn't mention Section 25 during the entirety of 24 Hour Party People, did they?

he's right you know. bastards. at least they got the starring role in shadowplayers

I recently got hold of something by them called "Sessions & Demos '81-'83" and can't recommend it highly enough.

LP, CD, MP3? on the internets? hi, help a brother out.

It has been up on Dimeadozen since the 29th.

Section 25 : Radio Sessions & Demos 1981-1983
----------------------------------------------------

A nice little collection of BBC Radio One seesions and studio demo tracks by Blackpool's finest. I don't think these have been seeded here before and are a great indication of the band's progression from post-punk doom & gloom to groundbreaking & uplifting electronic pop. SXXV are still playing live and releasing great music today, so make sure you buy their releases and attend their gigs!

Lineage: M? tapes > CDR > WAV > FLAC

BBC Radio 1 - John Peel Session 20th Jan 1981
1. Hit
2. One True Path
3. Babies in the Bardo

1982 Demo tape
4. Unknown Instrumental
5. Back to Wonder (instrumental)
6. Beating Heart (original demo)

BBC Radio 1 - David Jensen Session June 1983
7. Warhead
8. Reflection
9. Looking From a Hilltop

Can we talk about this release some more?

The version of "Babies In The Bardo"...see now that's what I mean when I say "goth". A lot of people don't understand what I mean when I say that word and I don't think Section 25 are/were goths but that version of that song is absolutley what I mean when I say "goth" in its purest and most beautiful form. Hell, it could almost be an early instrumental demo by Dead Can Dance or something.

I would also like to note that Crispy Ambulance ALSO have a song called "Bardo Plane". I never noticed the significance of this until now.

Oh shit. I think I'm going to want to post a lot more about this Section 25 thing. I'm going to keep quiet as best I can and write an essay about it so I don't post a billion times and use capital letters etc. LOL

I absolutely love a Key of Dreams. I get what you're saying about these guys being the forerunner of goth. I also hear drone antecedents and a re-shaping of psych music into something more grim and I guess for lack of a better word industrial. Maybe because they're Buddhists it's all about dissolution of the self etc., etc. Whatever the case, some NME writer summed it up best when he said Blackpool was a great place to take drugs. A perfect example of a critic being completely dismissive, but unwittingly nailing it.

SIMON ARE YOU OUT THERE??? Blackpool is being mentioned!

And what is this about them being Buddhists? Is that really true? Where did you read that?

Eh, I can't remember specifically where I read that, but it was in some magazine. I could be completely wrong now that I think about it. But, anyway they certainly were familiar with a lot of Buddhist concepts. All you need to do is check out some of the early song titles. Funnily enough, I just checked the Section 25 website and it's been hacked. Weird.

There's a mention of a 'long-standing interest' in Buddhism in the 'long' biog on their site. I dug out Key of Dreams, which is the only record of theirs I own, and it is extraordinary - so 'of its time' and yet not......

"A reply to Richard Behrens about the presence of Buddhist philosophy in the first two albums. Paul Wiggin and myself were already quite deeply immersed in Buddhism and Eastern thinking before we ever took up music. I was very interested in Tibetan Buddhism and Paul was into Zen Buddhism. To actually say that we were Buddhists could be going a bit too far. My interest in it has lapsed over the last 15 years, as for Paul, I don't know if he still studies it because I rarely see him and when I do we don't really talk about that."

Aha, I found it. From the Section 25 website...

Nice work, leavethecapital!