Happy Friday!
We'd like to draw your attention to a couple of releases we have lined up for next month. A double vinyl by The Chefs featuring previous compilation Records & Tea, along with the band's previously unreleased "lost" second album!
We also have a brand new studio LP by The Guy Hamper Trio feat. James Taylor. Dog Jaw Woman is the band's third album and mighty fine it is too!
Both of these titles are out on October 18th. More info below and as always click on the cover art to pre-order!
The Chefs - Records & Tea: The Best of The Chefs and Lost Second Album (2LP)
From the ashes of the thriving underground punk scene in Brighton in 1979, a band of songwriters called The Smartees emerged. They never made any records but after their demise one of the guitarists, Carl Evans, approached bass player Helen McCookerybook to ask her if she’d like to write some songs with him. He’d already set one of her poems, Food, to music, and they played their first gig with just three songs, each of which lasted just over two minutes: you can hear Food, Sweetie and Boasting on this compilation. The Chefs original drummer, Rod Bloor, contributed the seeds of the song Records and Tea before returning to his native Manchester. Soon, augmented by James McCallum on additional guitar and Russell Greenwood on drums, the songwriting duo started recording for local label Attrix records, firstly two tracks on their Vaultage 79 album, followed by the Sweetie EP and then 24Hours which was championed by BBC Radio 1’s John Peel, who invited them to do a session. A residency at The Moonlight Club in West Hampstead, London, tempted them all to relocate to the big city, and a move to Graduate Records saw the re-release of 24 Hours. Graduate also commissioned the album tracks included here, which were languishing in the band attic and have not been released until now. The band split up in 1982, heading in different musical directions: Helen switched to guitar and formed Helen and the Horns, Carl formed Yip Yip Coyote, Russell joined John Hegley’s Popticians, and James left the music industry. In our short three years we’d spent hundreds of hours writing and rehearsing our songs, recorded three sessions for the BBC, appeared on two compilations, piqued the interest of top pop producer Pete Waterman, and played countless gigs around the UK.
We thought we’d been together for thousands of years!
We hope you enjoy our music.
The Guy Hamper Trio feat. James Taylor - Dog Jaw Woman (LP)
Here we have the third LP by the excellent Guy Hamper Trio, featuring James Taylor on Hammond organ, and Guy Hamper on guitar (sometimes called Childish) and what a first-class LP this is! 'Instrument of Evil' in particular has a very eerie vibe. We asked the man himself what was the inspiration for it?
G.H. The track is the sequel to ‘7% Solution’, which featured on the last Guy Hamper Trio LP (with Thee Headcoats standing in as rhythm section). A 7% Solution being the amount of morphine Dr Watson administered to Sherlock Holmes. For ‘Instrument of Evil’ I took Sherlock Holmes’ later designation of his syringe as “an Instrument of Evil”. This is originally a quote from the bible-
"Wicked men do at times reject God's purpose for the state, transforming the good of civil government into an instrument of evil."
Point of interest: Morphine addiction happens to tie in with another aspect of the song. In the section that nods to Elmer Bernstein’s main title theme to the film of the book The Man With the Golden Arm, in which the main character is also a morphine addict. Another ingredient - we added six-string bass to that section in tribute to Jet Harris - he formerly of top group The Shadows, who recorded a great version of Bernstein’s classic. To top it all off the record sleeve references the fine graphics of the great Saul Bass. The track also features contributions from Tom Morley (trumpet) and Anna Jordanous (sax) . Both Were a pleasure to work with. My job at the wheel is to basically make a playground and let Jamie, Anna and Tom loose in it with very little direction, apart from pointing out the swings and location of the roundabout. I told Tom “you’re a Spanish trumpeter stood on a hill in Spain.” For Anna, I think we said “go low and nasty.” Other titles are taken from early poetry chapbooks I made in my youth. 'The First Creature is Jealousy' and 'Dog Jaw Woman' being examples. The title 'Incense Rising From a Censer’ comes from
Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, a book I really recommend. Prayer rises to God on the smoke of the incense burning in the censer. I imagine this track being some kind of antidote to ‘Instrument of Evil’.
They are all excellent tracks. I imagine film companies will be queuing up to use many of them.
TRACKLISTING