The Selecter being one of one of a rash of party strong 2-Tone ska revival bands to hit the UK scene in the late 1970s. James Bond being a killer cover of the famous movie theme – sort of. Steal the riff and run with it is more like it.
You had to love the cover of Tupelo Chain Sex’s Spot the Difference. Little punk kid sporting a Ronald Reagan Adolph Hitler t-shirt, getting pulled two ways at once. But the real treasure was the music. Not just another hardcore band from LA, these guys had former Frank Zappa alumni Sugarcane Harris in their midst (not to mention a guy named Stumuk blowing a monster sax) and thus were brilliantly all over the place. Reggae, dub, ska, jazz, rockabilly, hardcore – everything, with lead off track The Dream (an extrapolation on an old Cab Calloway hit) serving as a whip smart intro to what remains one of the great (mostly) forgotten albums of any era.
“Two songs joined as one side long epic c/o Triumvirat, Germany’s answer to Emerson Lake + Palmer, the key point being that Triumvirat ended up being at least as good as ELP, probably even better to the degree that they could contain their various egos and actually deliver cohesive suites of music every now and then. Not that there still wasn’t some wanking, but we needed their kind of wanking back in the mid 70s. What else were you going to air-keyboard to after the girls had all split the party? And seriously, the whole Illusions on a Double Dimple album is worth your time. Passion and finesse, even groovy in places.” (Philip Random)
“Avant jazz terrorist Copernicus unleashes a rant that comes across like a Catholic mass on bad acid. Or more to the point, he’s riffing on that knife’s edge of impenetrable physics which seems to argue that nothing exists anyway, so go ahead, humanity, blow yourself the f*** away. Nothing gets lost if it never even was in the first place. As with many an apocalyptic, I’m impressed with his enthusiasm, skeptical of his conclusions. ” (Philip Random)
Danielle Dax (pre-teen opera star turned pop experimentalist) was supposed to be the next Kate Bush, but for whatever reason, her textured approach to all things rhythmic, melodic, strange never quite caught on. Dark Adapted Eye, a compilation of some of her earlier releases, is well worth a listen with Brimstone in a Barren Land a standout for its overall feeling of impending doom crossed with cool, possibly hopeful light. 1987 in a nutshell.
John Miles‘ timing sucked. Because he really did seem to have it all on his debut album Rebel. Solid songs, kickass band, world class production c/o Alan Parsons (who had his own big deal project going by then). Except it was 1976, which meant Punk was breaking out across town. Even cutting your hair redneck short and posing with a shotgun wasn’t going to slow that storm down.
Randophonic 
