Random Hold - C/D

what a strange band

having recently decided that one of my favourite flavours of music is “prog veterans grapple with new wave” this (dollar bin purchase of first EP) is really hitting the spot

it is quite This Heat-y in parts? Bill MacCormick played with Charles Heyward in Quiet Sun so I guess they would have heard This Heat, quite surprised to hear a contemporary major label band with a TH vibe!

I wonder if they struggled to get noticed in 1980 precisely because they were hedging and keeping one foot in the seventies.

There used to be an insanely detailed bio of them available online that told the story of the band in little chapters (I think it was at one of the links above), but that seems to have disappeared.

I still only have the first album, but keep hoping I'll run into some of their other stuff in the wild... they might be my favorite dollar-bin discovery.

yeah it's on manzanera.com, you can find it if you plug the link above into archive dot org.

I'm a big Peter Hammill fan, especially of his late 70s period, but I've never heard The View From Here which he produced, I should rectify that. There seems to be a 2CD reissue which has the original LP plus bonus tracks.

That bio is uncomplimentary about Hammill's production work on the album, it seems to have been a fairly unhappy experience for all concerned.

thanks for the bio link tip, keen to read

yeah Peter Hammill's name on the EP got me interested - plus the very 1979 graphic design

agree about the weird blend of 70s proginess (big clomping riffs!) and forward-looking post-punkiness - you think, "who did they think was gonna like this music?" - which I suppose is the hallmark of the historically disregarded yet interesting band - they certainly had something unique going on.

feel there's some kind of loose continuum of sci fi inflected downer rock that starts (?) with pink floyd and the man who sold the world - encompasses Hawkwind and VDGG - and ends up spawning Joy Divison and the Cure of 17 Seconds

this stuff certainly feels like it fits into that lineage - if that makes sense to anyone but me I'm pretty up for any other recommendations in this vein!

"Systems of Romance" by Ultravox fits that description pretty well.

Fish from Marillion used to be a big evengelist for Random Hold (and for Peter Hammill too who supported Marillion in their early days).

I bought a couple of their records back then but have long since parted company with them, but have been getting curious again recently as they seem to be bubbling up in the collective consciousness once more (not just here).