Twice Bitten

 

Biting Tongues - Libreville [VIRTUE 1 UK 1983 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC]

Originally slated for release on New Hormones (ORG 26), the iconic Manchester label having folded by the time the Tongues had cut the final tracks in September 1982, consequently small timers Paragon Records eventually snuck Libreville out in 1983 - its limited pressing run means that copies fetch decent money from knowledgeable and appreciative listeners.

It amazes me today why this hasn't had a proper re-release - somebody must still have the tapes? A few excerpts have appeared on the After The Click compilation, but everybody should get to hear this album as a whole. 

The ten minute opening highlight, First Use All The G's is a brooding monster opened by screeching horns, then driven by a growing pulsating funk bass line (imho one of the very best basslines you will every likely hear) and multi-layered percussion. 23 Skidoo & A Certain Ratio could only have dreamed of producing something this epic during their formative years. Forty Four just feeds off the opener with distant effects and the spoken word. The progressively titled Smash The Strategic Hamlets builds to a crescendo of noise before funk breaks out, and it eventually twists itself into a blaze of disturbed jazz-noise. Somebody else needs to explain what Live It is all about?

The industrial noise-funk of The Toucanostra just f*cks with your head before we move a little more to the centre ground on the punk-funk bass workout (and just as bizarrely titled) Doctor Restore He Sight. I always imagine that Biting Tongues tracks begin as poems, and the musicians in the band just add interpretations over the words. This is no more evident than on Aair Care where Pere Ubu meets The Pop Group head on. 

Biting Tongues would eventually find themselves on Factory Records, churning out more twisted industrial jazz-funk and one very complex film soundtrack. Multi-instrumentalist, Graham Massey would eventually move on to form 808 State.

A1 First Use All The G's

A2 Forty Four

A3 Smash The Strategic Hamlets

A4 Live It

B1 The Toucanostra

B2 Doctor Restore He Sight

B3 Dirt For 485

B4 Aair Care