In Praise Of...Shriekback's "Oil and Gold"

In high school, my history class was looking for short instrumentals to use as credits music for a film project we were doing. I made my group use "Coelocanth".

(Martian, I know you're a human database but are you sure you don't have the A and B sides of that tape confused?)

this is one of my favorite lyrics of the whole damn decade

agreed. a girlfriend of mine once made me a beautiful post-breakup card with those words on it.

I'm using a friend's cassette-only car while house-sitting and found Oil & Gold for $1.99 at a record store. It sounds better than my 20+-year-old CD version. What a great fucking record. The background singing is strange, and I love all the anthropologist-gone-native lyrics (see also P. Gabriel's "The Rhythm of the Heat" and most of Remain in Light).

Anyway, this is fantastic. This is what other people must hear when they listen to Radiohead but that I never reached with them.

Oh, wait, I guess this thread is more up to date.

we had some good machines
but they don't work no more
I loved you once
don't love you any more

and you know
this is nothing special
just one slit
and we could lose ourselves forever

my feelings for this record are, like, blood-deep. being nineteen and desperate and alive and futureless on a dance floor in Portland dancing to "Nemesis" was a huge early glimpse of the possibilities of music for me, the depth of community possible on the dance floor, the intensity of the bond among people responding to the same beat, the same words. finding out about "Malaria" was just icing on the cake. I always forget this album when people ask me for my all-time list, but I shouldn't, because it made a huge impact on me.

Shriekback is one of my most favorite bands, they really hit something primal inside. Their funk-post-punk fusion still works for me, especially on the first few albums but everything they've done has something to offer. "Oil & Gold" was my introduction and one of my main summer 1985 jams. And it's getting a deluxe reissue any day now. Here's the contents of the bonus disc:

CD 2: Bonus Disc
1. “Suck” - Live Hatfield Poly (Shrk3)
2. “Mothloop” – Live Hatfield Poly (Shrk3)
3. “Feelers” - Live Hatfield Poly (Shrk3)
4. “Nemesis” - Extended
5. “Nemesis” - Arch Deviant Mix
6. “Fish Below the Ice” – Single Edit
7. “All Lined Up” - B-Side “Fish Below the Ice”
8. “My Spine (Is The Bassline)” - B-Side “Fish Below the Ice”
9. “Fish Below the Ice” - The Plankton Enriched Mix
10. “Fish Below the Ice” – Dance Mix

Those are decent bonus tracks but the real thing that will have me forking out the dough is the prospect of hearing this thing remastered. I had no idea it was finally coming out! Link, Gerald?

Like aero and Gerald and Dan, Shriekback struck a deep chord with me when their shit was coming out. That blend of esoterica and body music and eels. I tried so hard to imitate them on my Tascam in 1986, thinking I was clever...

I'm living in a neon house

It came out today in the UK, apparently. Using the original UK cover too:

http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2011/08/08/shriekback-oil-and-gold-reissue-remaster-tracklist/

yall can add me to the shreikback army.

do i abuse mod powers to spell that right, prob not

We know what you mean, private.

I've never read a single interview with these guys, but I'm curious what inspired this way of writing lyrics. Again, it's kinda like Remain in Light and Peter Gabriel, but so dense and so much its own thing, so primal and contemporary at once.

otm! there was nobody really quite in this poetry-meets-the-dance-floor groove - so immediately apprehendable but so dense & rich. "this is the splendor of our achievement/caught in the airstrike/with a poison kiss" - there's talking heads in there ok but "this is the splendor of our achievement" is up on its own level

"call in the airstrike"

love this record so much

as soon as i saw that oil and gold was getting reissued, i knew it was going to be one of the cherry red labels !

still, i aint complaining

will be interesting to hear this reissue against the semi-legit remastered edition that barry released via the bands website years back ..

Why is it bad that it's Cherry Red? Do their reissues tend toward the sonically lackluster?

Don't know how much of the live stuff and alt mixes from that bonus disc might be from "The Dancing Years," but that's a Shriekback album I own and NEVER play.

The Hatfield live stuff is good, they released a whole disc of it through their website which I have. Dates from around Jam Science IIRC.

"Fish Below The Ice" B sides also important and i don't think those were on Dancing Years (which I, too, practically never played).

Why is it bad that it's Cherry Red?

not bad at all. just seems that all the 80s reissue stuff (and 60s, 70s etc) that i want is on one of the many cherry red sub-labels ..
they are clearly on a roll and getting access to stuff that the original labels just cant be arsed with.

Please let them do Jam Science...

yeah. i agree. thats one album that hits all the right spots.
prefer that over oil & gold, depending on my mood (and hour of the day), its my fave shriekback album.

You gotta watch out with Cherry Red - they've been known to press poor vinyl transfers and even fade tracks early in order to make more fit.

It certainly features some of the best heavily-processed lead guitar sounds ever and amazing songwriting.

But it contains 'Suck' which gives an advantage to Oil & Gold.

xpost

Can I just -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bMM61Y5CEU

You have no idea how much I love this song and video. Both rule so damn hard.

I think those of us on this thread may have some idea

:)

You've heard the whole album, right? "Fish Below The Ice", "This Big Hush", "The Only Thing That Shines", "Faded Flowers", "Malaria" and "Everything That Rises Must Converge" are all as good as "Nemesis" (a few of them are BETTER :-0)

djp dropping the truth bomb.

Dan I feel like we've had this conversation before and I listened to some but not all. I will change that and report back.

well I just sent you all the tracks on the album via Spotify so

http://open.spotify.com/album/3iwEAHs9FeqHAivVxxfrf0 btw

YAY!!!!!

omg

I still have no idea how to use spotify properly. Not that I've really tried but . . . OK, brb.

My first thought is that there may be a little too much slap bass for my liking in some of the other songs. I will push on.

Or maybe that's not what it is but there's something. Hmmm.

wait until you hit "This Big Hush"

These guys are allowed to use slap bass. There was a meeting about it.

CONVERGE CONVERGE CONVERGE

The backing vocals/shrieks on Nemesis are possessed. Redonk. Incredible song.

I really liked Big Night Music too -- no big reissue of that yet eh?

BNM : a perfect album.
i love it.
very different to the earlier material, yet still, very much in line with the shriekback story.
would like to think if there is a reissue, then this could be a digitally sourced remaster/reissue.

They never really put a foot wrong until go bang and even then they made up for it in short order with the v underrated Sacred City

There is nothing I love more than the shriek vibe

They never really put a foot wrong until go bang

this. otm.

The extended version of "Nemesis", the one with the "Apocalypse Now" sample,

This makes so much sense that they would sample this, since Oil & Gold pretty much feels like sailing up the river to find Col. Kurtz.

Good essay on "Nemesis" here:

http://marchvladness.com/#/round2-siouxsievsshriekback/

Huh, thanks for the link, that was an interesting read.

that was unexpectedly excellent! also i can confirm that in minnesota too, c.1985, i never heard the term 'goth' and 'batcaver' was the closest equivalent i heard at the time

"Death rock" was what I heard in Massachusetts, but with "goth" spreading around 1986.

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