Needle Time

The Beat - Hands Off... She's Mine [FEET 121 UK 1980 24-Bit FLAC] Pork pie hats at the ready folks, here are The Beat. Penguinflight 's twelve inch copy of this classic single was a joy to rip. The vinyl was in spotless condition considering its age. Enjoy! A1  Hands Off... She's Mine B1  Twist And Crawl

Sp!in - Scratches (In The Sand) [TFL 7T UK 1990 24-Bit FLAC] Before the more successful Gene, Steve Mason and Matt James were part of the early brit-pop collective Sp!n ...also known as the simpler Spin who managed one album and three singles before giving up for pastures new. Scratches (In The Sand) was released just a year after The Stone Roses gave us their important debut album, and you can hear elements of the Manchester four piece throughout - especially from around the four minute mark! A1 Scratches (In The Sand) B1 Shafted B2 East Thanks again to penguinflight .

The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary [BEG 135T UK 1985 24-Bit FLAC] Talking about The Cult.... here is a new rip of their biggest track. Nobody can deny the importance of their middle period as they transformed from indie(ian) obscurity as the original Southern Death Cult through the confused and dark directionless of Death Cult, finally into the line-up which would find fame & fortune in hair rock & roll. I have ripped and posted all their better singles in the past, but I thought I would just focus on this one for now.... She Sells Sanctuary (here in it's original full length mix) bounces and throbs from your speakers, so much so that I thought the needle would jump from the vinyl at any moment during the rip process - in fact you could almost believe it was mastered in the last decade as all the levels are slid to their max - it's not clipped (it's from a 35 year old record) - if you don't believe me, have a look at the waveform! All across the world thi...

Christian Death - What's The Verdict [JUNG 45T UK 1988 24-Bit FLAC] From the penguinflight archive comes this cheery little number from prolific LA goths, Christian Death who were clearly out to shock and blaspheme. The Virgin Prunes and Sex Gang Children had already ploughed this furrow in years previously as the goth genre went further underground to escape the commercial aspirations of The Mission and The Cult etc.  A difficult listen, unless of course this is your sort of thing. A1 What's The Verdict (Blasphemy In The U.K.) B1 This Is Not Blasphemy B2 This Is Heresy

Care - My Boyish Days (Drink To Me) [KBIRD 121 UK 1983 24-Bit FLAC] Care were from Liverpool ( watch yer wheels,sir ) and comprised The Wild Swans frontman, Paul Simpson and Ian Broudie, the latter musician having an ear for a seriously good tune. They managed just three great pop singles before splitting over musical differences and My Boyish Days was their debut released on Arista back in 1983. An album had been demoed but was never completed before they went their seperate ways, Simpson rejoining The Wild Swans and Broudie becoming the successful Lightning Seeds. We should have cared more. A1 My Boyish Days (Drink To Me) B1 An Evening In The Ray B2 A Sad Day For England

Camper Van Beethoven - Take The Skinheads Bowling [RTT 161 UK 1986 24-Bit FLAC] They weren't really cowboys, I don't think they were skinheads -  but they did come from Hollywood, well San Bernardino really. Take The Skinheads Bowling will need no introduction to most, so here is  two and a half minutes of indie Americana. Nobody ever did it better. Here is the original Rough Trade twelve inch pressing of this indie classic, complete will all the b-sides. A1 Take The Skinheads Bowling B1 Epigram B2 Cowboys From Hollywood B3 Atkuda B4 Epigram B5 Colonel Enrique Adolfo Bermudez

Prefab Sprout - The Devil Has All The Best Tunes [SK 7 UK 1983 24-Bit FLAC] Another quick peek into the seven inch singles box uncovers the second single by Prefab Sprout - which is another of those which I have never ripped properly - until now. The creative genius of Paddy McAloon should always be celebrated, back in 1983 he had gotten over his girlfriend disappearing off to Limoges and turned to the devil for one his finest tunes. The flipside Walk On , remains a personal favourite to this day. A1 The Devil Has All The Best Tunes B1 Walk On

The Stars Of Heaven - Rain On The Sea [ROUGH 113 UK 1987 24-Bit FLAC] Following on from my recent Blue In Heaven posts, here is another of my favourite Irish bands, The Stars Of Heaven. Rain On The Sea compiles their Holyhead EP and parts of the mini album, Sacred Heart Hotel with a few extra tracks. They deserved as much success as Microdisney - the stars, with their folk tinged edges to Irish indie pop were better than the micros - but it was never going to happen. Following 1988's Speak Slowly album, The Stars Of Heaven had sadly burnt out. Enjoy! A1 Sacred Heart Hotel A2 Talk About It Now A3 Moonstruck A4 So You Know A5 Never Saw You B1 Widow's Walk B2 You Only Say What Anyone Could Say B3 Folksong B4 Song Without A Shadow B5 Before Holyhead B6 Someone's Getting Tired Of You

Twilight Ritual - The Ritual [OS 27 BEL 2015 24-Bit FLAC] Originally released as a very rare cassette album on Micrart in 1982, The Ritual  represented the very first recordings by Belgian sythwave band, Twilight Ritual. If you enjoyed their first album proper, previewed here a few months back, then this will be just for you.  The label used the original masters rather than a copy of the cassette album for this vinyl edition ....and it sounds great! If you didn't hear that album and you enjoy quality synth-dark-wave then you need to hear this as well. The Ritual is much less pop than Rituals, and needs to be heard wider, if not for the thirteen minutes of Up To Now , which is much unlike anything of its era. A1 Splintered Images Of Oz A2 Surrounded A3 Webb-Men A4 They Are We A5 Ever Changes A6 Fading Me B1 A Chrome Entrance B2 Elegy B3 Up To Now B4 Filters Of Density

Coil - The Unreleased Themes For Hellraiser [COIL 001 UK 1987 24-Bit FLAC] Here is a bit of a ten inch rarity that I posted to ESWA during January 2017. I've taken those original files and cleaned things up a bit then re-balanced the channels. There was a little bit of fuzzy crackle on the original, most of than has been removed too (where possible) using iZotope.  The first three tracks were recorded as submissions for the theme and incidental music for Clive Barker's Hellraiser movie by post-PTV gut-churners Coil, however the producers eventually decided on another composer, Christopher Young who was responsible for many other horror soundtracks. The b-side features more instrumentals suggested as soundtracks for potential TV commercials. Thanks again to penguinflight for sending over his vinyl archives from which this was taken. This particular EP has been overlooked in the recent uplift of demand for library music, it last appeared on a release schedule on...

Normil Hawiians - What's Going On? [UTR 121 UK 2019 24-Bit FLAC] You may have read me lamenting the failurings of modern vinyl pressings on other threads, you may have also read my post of More Wealth Than Money where I congratulated Chris Tipson's tiny London label Upset! The Rhythm on their quality remastered re-pressing of the first album by crusty post-punksters Normil Hawiians. The follow-up reissue of What's Going On? is just as fine with very little vinyl noise on good quality vinyl and well packaged with posters and other general paraphernalia. The original Illuminated pressings were not great, these fix all that! The difficult second album was made more awkward on the listener as Guy Smith moved into a more psychedelic, free-form improvised sound. Martin still has the post-punk leanings of earlier singles but everything else is very different, at times challenging as the music meanders off into a cloudy confused haze. I dunno what was being smoked. S...

The Durutti Column - Tomorrow [FBN 51 BEL 1986 24-Bit FLAC] I recall reading, I think in the Shadowplayers book, that Tony Wilson did his very best to stop Vini Reilly singing on The Durutti Column records, and on the other hand make Simon Topping sing more for A Certain Ratio. Thankfully, Vini occasionally got it right and wrote a suitable song for his more dreary vocal style. This Factory Benelux twelve inch come backed with a live version recorded in Japan (where Vini's voice is a little more exposed) and the gentle instrumental, All That Love And Maths Can Do . A1 Tomorrow B1 Tomorrow (Live In Japan) B2 All That Love And Maths Can Do