The Housemartins - Think For A Minute (Session Version)' (Go! Discs, 1986)

Strident, indie version.

Nice, guitar-bass-drum band version of The Housemartins in their prime.

Download The Housemartins 'Think For A Minute (Saturday Live Version)' (indie mp3) (Divshare)

Elvis Costello and The Attractions - I Want You (Single Version) (Imp Records, 1986)

Unsettling, sinister, spartan.

Strikingly creepy and vitriolic single from Elvis Costello. The vocal is close and breathy, sounding like he's in the undergrowth outside her house. The backing is restrained and edgy with some nice tremolo guitar flourishes and a simmering organ. Reminiscent, in fact, of Talk Talk's 'Spirit Of Eden'. (Less uplifting, admittedly. And not an instrumental.)

Download Elvis Costello and The Attractions - I Want You (Single Version) (mp3) (Divshare)

David Sylvian - Home (Virgin, 1986)

Loop-y instrumental moodscaping.

The 'Gone To Earth' album - a double album, no less - saw David Sylvian really cut loose with the instrumental moodscaping. Most of the second record leaves songs and lyrics behind to play with space, ambience and what sounds like the work of a loop pedal. Not sure if they had those in 1986.

Tracks like the lugubrious, gorgeous 'Home' are drenched in reverb and atmosphere and allow you to get lost in them.

Download David Sylvian 'Home' (ambient, post-rock, mp3) (Divshare)

New Order - Sub-Culture (Record Mirror Version) (1986)

Peerless, baroque, electronic.

Posting the work of Chic led me back to New Order and this tune which always reminds of Sheila B. Devotion's 'Spacer' (written and produced by Chic).

This exclusive version of 'Sub-Culture' came as a 7" with Record Mirror magazine (don't look for it, it's not there anymore...) which was quite a treat for a freebie. The other EP in the series had Pet Shop Boys and Depeche Mode exclusives on it. How lucky we were back then...

Download New Order 'Sub-Culture (Record Mirror Version)' (Alternative, Indie, genius, mp3) (Divshare)

More great New Order stuff over on the Recycle Project.

Shop Assistants - Train From Kansas City (Live at ULU, 1986)

Storming Shangri-Las cover.

Buzzing, stomp-a-long cover of the Shangri-Las' 'Train From Kansas City' by C86 heroes, The Shop Assistants. Great vocal, nice bass/drum stomp and a buzzing guitar. Ace.

Download The Shop Assistants 'Train From Kansas City (Live at ULU)' (C86, Indie, ULU) (Divshare)

It's Immaterial - Driving Away From Home (Wicked Weather For Walking) (Siren, 1986)

Somehow a Balearic classic. Works in-car, rainy bedroom or sun-kissed beach bar apparently.

Having never been down the Cafe Del Mar on a Sunday evening (or any other day of the week for that matter) I can't vouch for the fact that this record works as a Balearic classic. However, its presence on any number of compilation attests to the fact. It must be the Flamenco-ish bit about half way through.

To me, it's the sound of rainy Saturday afternoons spent staring at rain through glass. We had to make our own entertainment back then, y'know.

Download It's Immaterial - Driving Away From Home (Wicked Weather For Walking) (Balearic mp3)

Billy Bragg 'Levi Stubbs' Tears' (Go! Discs, 1986)

Heartbreakingly beauty wrought from six strings and a voice*. Incredible.

One of the endlessly fascinating things about music is how, using the same tools, some people can create magic and some create dross.

Whenever I go back and listen to Billy Bragg I'm taken aback at how he created tension, passion and heartbreak using the simplest of palettes. Totally at odds with the prevailing production values of the time.

Maybe it's the storytelling or the intensity - who knows, but this is a magical record.

* Okay, there's a bit of tambourine towards the end and some bongo and flute on the outro.

Download Billy Bragg 'Levi Stubbs' Tears' (indie mp3) (Mediafire)

Big Black 'Kerosene' (Touch & Go, 1986)

Irresistable force. Classic Albini.

You know what you're getting with Steve Albini. Shellac, his current band, are awe-inspiring. His 'production' work just lets the natural energy of a band ring true. His words are caustic and unpleasant.

And this slice of prime Big Black is caustic and driving and features one of his imaginative tales told from the point of view of some backwoods, pig-fucking idiot.

What's not to like.

Download Big Black 'Kerosene' (alternative rock mp3) (via Touch & Go)

New Order 'Thieves Like Us (Instrumental)' (Factory, 1986)

Just staggering stuff. New Order at their majestic, silvery finest.

I bought this New Order 7" in the bargain bin in WH Smith way back when. That's hard to believe for a number of reasons, not least because I can hardly believe it could have been 25 years ago.

Mind you, the idea of a piece such monumental poise and indie alternative beauty being available in the bargain bin also smacks of unreality. I guess it was only because the size of their ultra-hardcore fanbase was enough to launch them into the upper reaches of the charts for a week before they fell rapidly the next. Probably because they'd played the song shambolically live on Top Of The Pops.

Anyway, WH Smith's loss of margin was my gain as this seven-inch had 'Shellshock' on one side and an edited instrumental of 'Thieves Like Us' on the other.

'Thieves Like Us' glides, serenely on cushion of stately synths, sequencers burbling away and Hooky's bass picking out a trademark melody. The overall effect is of an uplifting rush, airborne, looking down over the harsh beauty of the city below. Like you're flying over Hackney in a Learjet.

It's called love. And it belongs to us. Indeed.

Download New Order 'Thieves Like Us (Instrumental)' (indie alternative mp3, Factory Records, FAC143) (Mediafire)

Primal Scream 'Velocity Girl' (NME/Rough Trade, 1986)

The Scream in fey, Byrds-ian jangle mode.

You have to hand it to them - 'Velocity Girl' is 82 seconds of sweet, catchy, direct indie pop beauty.

Reverb-drenched drum simplicity, spiralling melody from the plectrum of Jim Beattie, fey vocals in praise of a girl "with vodka in her veins".

Perfection - though not a perfection that even hinted at the dub-dance-jazz-madness that they would eventually unleash with 'Screamadelica'.

Download Primal Scream 'Velocity Girl' (indie pop, mp3) (Mediafire)

Download the full NME C86 compilation over on the Archive:Live+Rare blog

Stump 'Down On The Kitchen Table (Peel Session)' (Strange Fruit, 1987)

Bendy, indie experimentalism from the unique minds of Stump.

'Down On The Kitchen Table' from Stump's debut Peel Session in 1986 comes over like a rush, a stream of consciousness in terms of both its lyrics and its music. That certainly seemed like a unique combination to me and pushed the envelope when compared to likes of 'Buffalo' and 'Charlton Heston' (with its Tim Pope-directed video) which only displayed three or four dimensions of musical imagination.

This particular track requires a little more processing in order to enter Stump's very particular, peculiar sound world.

Angular experimental indie funk hurtles along while adroit lyrics about cats, tap rooms, Young Conservatives and patio evenings spin out of the maelstrom. Time signatures shift and lurch and the closing section spins and burps to a crazy close.

Pretty much unique twenty-five years ago, certainly not matched in the years since.

Download Stump 'Down On The Kitchen Table' (mp3) (Mediafire)

Download the whole Peel Session over at Archive: Live + Rare (mp3) (Mediafire)

The Woodentops 'Love Train' (Rough Trade, 1986)

Clattering, insistent stuff from one of the great under-rated bands.

Sadly, I didn't pay much attention to The Woodentops at the time, despite being introduced to this wonderful track by a freebie 7" with (long-defunct) music weekly Sounds at the time. I was young, I didn't know any better. That's my excuse.

How could I have been so stupid and not built up a collection of the band's incredible fusion of rock and dance influences? It's hard to fathom.

However, The Woodentops are still knocking around today, supporting Belle and Sebastian at the Roundhouse back in May, and still releasing music.

The consequence of my ignorance is that I have only recently picked up a (vinyl) copy of their excellent 'Giant' album and reacquainted myself with 'Love Train'.

Opening with surf-y, twanging guitar, it settles into a breakneck rockabilly groove, Rolo singing with passion and soul, invoking us to make like The O'Jays and get in rhythm with the Love Train and frug along to the cowbell-enhanced groove.

Download The Woodentops 'Love Train' (mp3) (Mediafire)

McCarthy 'Red Sleeping Beauty' (The Pink Label, 1986)

I have to confess to having only recently encountered this song and then only via a Mojo magazine cover CD (the indie shame!). However, I have fallen for it's spiraling guitar charms and can see what a pivotal record it was (or should have been).

My awareness of McCarthy is more for the likes of 'Should The Bible Be Banned' (a more straightforward song with a provocative lyrical theme), the fact that Stereolab's Tim Gane was in them (and also Laetitia Sadier on a later album), and that this record was produced by The Wolfhounds' Dave Callaghan who went on to form the amazing Moonshake band.

'Red Sleeping Beauty' has a more ambitious sound that the polemical rockabilly of 'Should The Bible Be Banned', encompassing swirls of guitar, urgent drums and a gorgeous melodic sweep. The choppy guitar chords it opens with bring to mind the wonder of Sebadoh's 'Soul and Fire' (will have to blog that one day). The cascading guitar lines that overlay it bring the rolling rhythm to life so that the vocals can sound a yearning tale of the waking dream/nightmare of (presumably) Thatcher's Britain.

Splendid stuff.

Download McCarthy 'Red Sleeping Beauty' (mp3) (Mediafire)