Scritti Politti: Classic Or Dud

If anyway would burn the early stuff onto CD for me I'd be forever grateful.

Thanks, but I discovered I still have them on my iPod so don't bother. What I really need is Soulseek, but I have a mac and limited hard drive space soI'll just have to wait a while.

great news though. RT still has to pay him royalties, right?

can someone email me the first peel session? i accidently deleted them and can't use slsk right now.

According to Green's own sleeve notes, "the masters are long lost".

Tracklisting:

1. Skank Bloc Bologna
2. Is and Ought the Western World
3. 28/8/78
4. Scritlocks Door
5. OPEC - IMMAC
6. Messthetics
7. Hegemony
8. Bibbly-o-Tek
9. Doubt Beat
10. Confidence
11. P.A.S
12. The “Sweetest Girl”
13. Lions After Slumber

Rough Trade, RTRADCD188

According to Green's own sleeve notes, "the masters are long lost".

And for all that this is a pretty good remastering job, sounds just fine -- I'd draw a general comparison to, say, the proper Cog Sinister rerelease of Fall in a Hole + in terms of a vinyl remastering sounding very well. The quieter spaces and minimal touches of the earlier work come through nicely.

and what are the odds that versions on soulseek were digitised by me? see the desperate bicycles thread...

Heh, the Desperate Bicycles are indeed specifically credited by Green in the liner notes as having 'galvanized (the original band) into action,' so there ya go. (Not that this was any shock, I'm sure.)

maybe his paymaster record co. just ain't "commie" these days ?

I think I have only EVER seen this on vinyl and have it on cassette somewhere not available to me at the moment. Wait. Let me think...no I don't think I have this one with me! And guilt will eat my insides like bugs all night. Until I have it again.

Thanks for your help!

I'm pretty sure "Lions After Slumber" is re-recorded, by the sound of it. "The Sweetest Girl" is harder to tell, although it sounds tons better on my remastered Songs to Remember CD. Both versions were recorded by the same engineer in the same studio, though.

Green was one of the rudest, begrudging, non-responsive wankers I ever tried to interview (1985). But then, maybe he was hungover or having a bad day. Of course I can be an asshole at times, too.

In any case, the version of "The 'Sweetest Girl'" heard here is different from the more familiar version heard on 1982's Songs To Remember album, with which every child should be issued at birth. There is a different vocal, though gliding with equal ease from the personal to the political and back again ("She left because she understood the value of defiance") and Robert Wyatt's keyboards are much more in evidence, with greater deployment of dub echo. The rather dry album mix now turns into a hymn whose tender grandeur allows us to forget the persuasive poison in its heart, though it's a shame that the track is faded before Wyatt reaches his dissonant keyboard coda (and how appropriate that Robert Wyatt should now enter the Scritti story in the environment of a song which arguably could not have been possible without the precedent of "Oh Caroline," not to mention "Sea Song").

The original B-side, "Lions After Slumber," is similarly far spikier and far more sheerly danceable than its album version, with slap bass and entertainingly discursive Chris McGregor-ish piano both played by the mysterious "Mike" (does anyone out there know exactly who this was?) backing a far more voluptuous vocal itemising by Green of everything he owns and which defines him, tangible and intangible.

And Love of a Lifetime was a great fit for Chaka!

Wood Beez is as fresh today as it ever was. I bought Cupid & Psyche three times as a soulstruck 13 year old (WH Smith was always the master of duff tape copies, so I switched to LP in the end), and picked it up again on CD last year. A couple of years later, Provision was my most anticipated album, and it doesn't disappoint. Anomie & Bonomie is another perfectly produced gem, but maybe a notch or two below the rest. Didn't pick up Songs To Remember until a couple of years back, but it's right up there too- probably the most-played band on my trusty iRiver.

I bought Early the other day, and played it directly after Bloc Party. I don't think bands should bother competing with the original early 80s set.

"It's been a long, long time since i heard this stuff. It sounds like an anti-produced labour of negativity, kind of structurally unsound and exposed, by design and default, If you felt generous you might say it was music with the questions built in and the assurances left out - otherwise you could just judge it gauche and technically unaccomplished. Whatever.

These are the first songs i wrote, recorded by the first Scritti Politti line up of Tom Morely (drums and drum machines) Nial Jinks (bass) and me, Green Gartside (vocals and guitar). We were living in a tiny squat in Camden Town at the time. Tom and I had just left School where the 'conceptual art' thing had led to a deeper interest in philiosophy. Nial and I had been together since schooldays, his marxist background was where our critical thinking began. We were united by our love of pop music (all terms used advisedly here). Inspired by seeing the Clash, Pistols, Damned and the Heartbreakers on night and Galvinised into action by d.i.y. pioneers "The Desperate Bicyles - we formed a group and started to play.

Although this music doesn't seem equal to conveying the ides and influences that informed it, perhaps a gereral drift and shifting of Musical Passions and theoretical passions is discernable, I think in the final minutes i can definately hear one place, one voice, one life being left and another being entered - blimey!

It's murky and frail stuff cut from old vinyl (the masters are long lost) i found it evocative of extraordinary times and a bit wiceworthy. Hopefully you'd find it at least - um - interesting. There's some nice bits especially the drumming and bass playingand Robet Wyatt's keyboards on "The Sweetest Girl" alone are worth your attention.

see you later.

Green Gartside"

i have never seen or heard of him since

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https://scrittipolitti.ffm.to/reissues

vinyl reissues of cupid & psyche and anomie and bonhomie

yes i bought both immediately

https://pocketmags.com/mojo-magazine/jun-22/articles/1133453/he-s-back-after-16-years-green-gartside-readies-scritti-politti-lp-six

just stumbled over this - didn't read the actual article but it sure sounds promising!
fingers crossed...

Still can't get over the name Green Gartside, I love it

There's a great recent episode of the Martyn Ware podcast with David Gamson as the guest. Some funny stories about the recording of Oh Patti and a surprising citing of 'We Don't Talk Any More' by Cliff Richard as a big musical influence. And it's led me to Hannah Diamond's music (Gamson is producing her new LP) and made me wish Green would make a hyperpop record - something that pushes 21st century sound design possibilities like C&P did back in '85.