Dancing With the Devil

Rip It Up, Issue 121, 1 August 1987, Page 8

Dancing With the Devil

'Shakedown' Breakdown

Compilation albums by new bands are not a new concept — from Class of 81 and Propellor’s Furtive Three-Pack in the early 80s to last year’s Outnumbered by Sheep and Weird Culture, Weird Custom — but with the demise of the 7” single, albums like Pagan ; Shakedown could become the most feasible way for new acts to “go vinyl.”

“It’s no secret that the 7” single is a dying format,” says Pagan Records.’ Trevor Reekie. ’’That makes it a problem for independent companies who concentrate on new artists. There's a futility about a debut band doing a 7”, both forthose that play live and those that don’t. If they don’t play live, it’s suicide, if they do, a 7” is justified, but it’s still a risk. “There’s a consumer change away from the 7” to 12” or tape. Tape singles are really a factor now on the charts, especially for black music. Three-quarters of the singles chart is now 12” —7” singles work only for the really established bands. “But we’ve got to keep encouraging new bands, and that’s what catalysed this format. I rang round the

artists to see if they would share vinyl space with others. It's better for the punters, with six bands for the price of two singles, and good for the bands —fans of one band will buy the record, or one band might be featured on TV, and the other bands will receive a spinoff benefit. Obviously the music has to be of equal quality.” Pagan Shakedown features recordings from six newish acts: The Lonesome Cowboys emerged from Chinese Eyes, who had a song on the compilation All Dressed Up and No Place to Play. Their song ‘Tonight’ was picked from a demo they sent to Pagan and other record companies, and re-recorded at Harlequin.

The Morlochs used to be the Buckets (or Bucketsful), whose EP Buckets Full received good reviews. ‘Psychedelic Dream’ was recorded at the Lab with Terry Moore. Like the Lonesome Cowboys, they’ll be playing live again soon. Rhythm Cage have been playing around Auckland for some time now and recently won much praise for their Crowded House support gigs. Formerly Humdrum, their song ‘Freeze City’ is sung and composed by David Parker, and recorded at the Lab.

War Brides features ex-Soul on Ice vocalist Liz Diamond, and two synthesists, Daniel Barnes and Martin O'Neil. Their ‘Total War' was done at Harlequin. Dark Star recorded ‘Fighting’ in London. It was written by exNewmatic and Miltown Stowaway Kelly Rogers, who was in a saxophone quartet there, and also features ex-Freudian Slips Nikki Lancaster and Kathleen Anderson.Dean Heazelwoods Cat and Mouse 1 instrumental concludes Pagan Shakedown. In the Mockers for two years during the ‘Swear It’s True’ period, Heazelwood recorded the song at Mandrill with Gordon Joll providing the drum programs.

Chris Bourke