Tag Archives: XTC

220. my spine is the bassline

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“I remember getting into a rather intense argument with a fellow DJ at the end of 1983 who insisted that Shriekback’s Care was the album of the year. It wasn’t then, still isn’t now. Shriekback (even with their XTC / Gang of Four lineage) just weren’t that important, the notion of white guys committing full-on to the groove hardly being earth shattering by 1983. Which doesn’t mean Care wasn’t (and still isn’t) a damned fine album, underrated, overlooked, and heavy with all manner of dark and compelling moods and regions, because get the mix right (and perhaps the drugs) and sometimes one’s spine really does become the bassline.” (Philip Random)

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017. The Final Countdown*

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Installment #17. of the Final Countdown aired in September 2018 (c/o CiTR.FM.101.9).

Selections available on this Youtube playlist (somewhat inaccurate).

The Final Countdown* is Randophonic’s longest and, if we’re doing it right, most relevant countdown yet – the end of result of a rather convoluted process that’s still evolving such is the existential nature of the project question: the 1297 Greatest Records of All Time right now right here. Whatever that means. What it means is dozens of radio programs if all goes to plan, and when has that ever happened?

TFC-017

Installment #17 of The Final Countdown* went like this.

971. Frank Zappa – peaches in regalia
970. Cake – you turn the screws
969. Talking Heads – houses in motion
968. XTC – snowman
967. Badfinger – perfection
966. Police – voices inside my head
965. K-os – crabbuckit
964. Neil Young – human highway
963. Mary Clayton – Southern Man
962. J-Live – Satisfied
961. Primal Scream – stuka [ju-87]
960. Critical Point & Vikter Duplaix – messages
959. Lee Perry + Dub Syndicate – blinkers
958. Jun Togawa[戸川純] – Because the Night
957. Twilight Singers – Verti-Mart
956. Camel – song within a song
955. Klaatu – across the universe in eighty days
954. Autechre – Autriche
953. George Harrison – deep blue

Randophonic airs pretty much every Saturday night, starting 11 pm (Pacific time) c/o CiTR.FM.101.9, with streaming and/or download options usually available within twenty-four hours via our Facebook  page.

 

532. snowman

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Second of two in a row from XTC‘s double treasure, 1982’s English Settlement, the album where they pulled a sort of Beatles move: stopped worrying about how they might reproduce the material live and instead just dove into the studio and its possibilities. And special nod to engineer and co-producer Hugh Padgham, best known for inventing the gated drum sound that so drove the 1980s (for better and worse). But his tricks on English Settlement are more subtle, working an often rich acoustic sensibility which, as the story goes, was driven not by any great conceptual intent, but rather main man Andy Partridge‘s purchase of a new acoustic guitar after giving the old one away as a contest prize.

XTC-1982-vid

533. Jason + the Argonauts

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Five albums into their career and XTC were simultaneously sick to death (literally) of the obligatory punk-pop-new-wave bullshit and ready for something big. And big was definitely the word for English Settlement, a double album at a time when bands just didn’t do that anymore. And an album it was. Yes, a few singles were released, but the songs worked best together, all in a rich, sumptuous flow, with Jason and the Argonauts stretching things out almost progressively – whatever that word even meant anymore come 1982.

551. My Love Explodes

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The Dukes of Stratosphear being XTC in psychedelic disguise, their first EP 25 O’Clock being one of those sublime moments wherein parody transcends itself, becomes its own wonderful thing. And from 1985 no less, which was about as far from the giddy light of the original psychedelic age as the culture ever got. In fact, go ahead and call 25 O’Clock the turning point, its 25 minutes of wild and weird technicolor pop invention being precisely the kind of superlative noise that could cause a shift in a planet’s orbit.

882. this is pop?

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Note the question mark in the title. This is XTC telling it like it was in early 1978 – everybody confused about the new wild sound that was tumbling out of the punk eruptions and eviscerations of the previous year. But what was it? New Wave, claimed the marketing types, but that didn’t mean anything. That was just a way of selling stuff that wasn’t disco or metal or prog or just boring old rock. What it was, was pop, bullshit free, for the moment and all time.

xtc-1978

1068. ball and chain

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XTC were never quite punk; they were too pop savvy for that. Though they were there from the beginning, tearing up facades with the best of them. So maybe just call them a damned good band who, by 1982’s double-vinyl English Settlement, were taking off in a pile of different directions uniquely their own, with Ball and Chain reminding us that they still had the pop.

1069. U.S. Forces

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Midnight Oil’s politics have gotten most of the attention over the years, which makes sense. It’s not as if they weren’t wearing them on their sleeves, with U.S. Forces as good an example as any. But the music should also be noted, because here was an outfit that could rock every bit as hard as the Clash, while also working the sort of pop precision you’d expect from an XTC. And with lyrics like, “Everyone too stoned to start a mission, People too scared to go to Prison,” you had a pretty rich and relevant package with 1982’s 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 as good a place to start as any.