The Man From Delmonte - My Love Is Like A Gift You Can't Return (Bop Cassettes, 1989)

Sprightly indie pop wordsmithery.

Manchester's The Man From Delmonte shoulda been moderately successful, dealing in cute, wordy, melodic indiepop.

Excellently long-titled 'My Love Is Like A Gift You Can't Return' was their shot at cross-over hit, busting some 'Love Me Do' harmonica, rattling along, sounding like a twee version of The Smiths had they stuck with their skiffle influences.

Download The Man From Delmonte 'My Love Is Like A Gift You Can't Return' (indie pop, mp3) (Divshare)

New Order - Round And Round (Detroit Mix) (Factory, 1989)

Prime New Order given Techno body kit.

Listening to some classic Inner City reminded me of this gleaming but fluttering makeover of New Order's 'Round And Round'.

Inner City's Kevin Saunderson stretches the track out adding flickering sequencer and percussion lines to extrapolate the dance side of the New Order equation.

Download New Order 'Round & Round (Detroit Mix)' (Factory, 1989) (Divshare)

Cud - Only (A Prawn In Whitby) (Imaginary, 1989)

Hysterical indie-opera giddiness.

What an oddity Cud were. Starting out with a lumpy and awkward sound but striving for something more cerebral and uplifting.

'Only (A Prawn In Whitby)' was a single extracted from the side-long indie-opera that graced their 'When In Rome, Kill Me' album.

It's reputedly about chancing upon uber-Vegetarian Morrissey enjoying the seafood on the Yorkshire coast (though it turns out to "have been a lookalike" sadly).

The song lurches and jerks at a dizzying pace, Wedding Present-esque guitar jangle fighting with cello, breakneck drumming and Carl Puttnam's earnest croon.

Download Cud - Only (A Prawn In Whitby) (Imaginary, 1989) (Divshare)

Electronic - Lucky Bag (Miami Edit) (Factory, 1989)

Cute instrumental from Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr.

Delightful instrumental business hidden away on the back of a remix 12" of 'Getting Away With It'.

Very much in the US Crime Series Incidental Music genre - lots of big room piano and puttering percussion. It's what The Smiths could have become if Johnny Marr had been let loose... And Morrissey could stand dance music.

Download Electronic - Lucky Bag (Miami Edit) (mp3, Factory, 1989) (Box)

The Wedding Present - Bewitched (Live, 1989)

Recorded live for John Peel's 50th.

'Bewitched' is one of the key tracks on the 'Bizarro' album, signalling The Wedding Present's shift from wrist-wrecking jangle to guitar-twisting squall.

It lopes along on a circular riff, breaking down to a gentle strum before kicking back in with a crunch that Mogwai would be proud of.

This live version for John Peel's 50th birthday also possesses some of the most reverb-heavy drums I can remember hearing.

Download The Wedding Present 'Bewitched (Live for John Peel's 50th birthday) ' (indie mp3, Wedding Present mp3) (Rapidshare)

Prefab Sprout - Pearly Gates (Kitchenware, 1989)

Paddy McAloon ponders The End.

454 posts into the blog and no Prefab Sprout - until now.

Another graduate of the Academy of the Underrated, Paddy McAloon, is a songwriter of no little genius, capable of breathtaking beauty both lyrically and musically.

'Pearly Gates' is from their 'Protest Songs' album which was a quickly recorded follow-up to 'Steve McQueen' that wasn't released until after the chart-bothering 'From Langley Park To Memphis'. It is perhaps the most gentle and thoughtful set of protest songs ever, ending with this rumination on death.

Happy Sunday.

Download Prefab Sprout 'Pearly Gates' (songwriting genius, Prefab Sprout mp3) (Rapidshare)

Ride - Chelsea Girl (Demo) (1989)

Sweeter, Buffalo Springfield-meets-The Field Mice version of the Ride classic.

Whither the blizzard of distortion and the maelstrom of drums? And vocals?

This demo version of Ride's 'Chelsea Girl' sounds like The Field Mice have just necked a bag of sherbet and washed it down with two litres of Sunny Delight.

Set against a polite drum machine beat, the song and melodies are present and correct. It's a sun-doused stroll, gentle and more plaintive where the single version is almost desperate.

All in all, very much in thrall to Sarah Records but the bent-strings and layers of guitars and arpeggios - to me, anyway - also suggest a degree of West Coast/Byrds/Buffalo Springfield about them.

Sweet.

Download Ride 'Chelsea Girl (Demo)' (indie Shoegaze mp3) (Mediafire)

The Sundays 'Skin & Bones (Peel Session 1989)' (Parlophone, 1997)

Muddier but still magical session version of the 'Reading, Writing and Arithmetic' cut.

Thrumming bass and solid drums provide an earthy counterpoint to the pealing guitar and vocals on this Peel Session track dating back to before their debut album came out.

Will we ever hear anything new from The Sundays to add to their immaculate catalogue?

Download The Sundays 'Skin & Bones (Peel Session 1989)' (indie pop mp3 download) (Mediafire)

New Order 'The Happy One' (Factory, 1989)

Cheeky instrumental out-take from the 'True Faith' era. Used as a link between tracks on the Substance VHS.

I'm having something of a New Order renaissance at the moment (Renaissance - maybe that'll be the name of their next compilation...)

'The Happy One' was used a link between the videos on the VHS version of 'Substance'. If memory serves, there was a video snippet reminiscent of the 'True Faith' single cover and then it was used over the credits at the end.

It's barely a song, more of a sketch with no vocal and coming in just shy of three minutes. However, it's quite irresistible and Hooky gets all soppy with a chirpy bass melody (hence, 'The Happy One') over one of Stephen and Gillian's 'Making Out' type incidentals.

Top.

Download New Order 'The Happy One' (indie alternative mp3 download) (Box.net)

Momus 'The Hairstyle Of The Devil (12" Version)' (Creation Records, 1989)

Outsider artist goes to the disco in the company of New Order and the Pet Shop Boys.

Momus has had a long, distinguished career, veering from Old Testament folk singer to Casio keyboard pervert-diarist to electronische balladeer and beyond.

His run of albums on el and Creation in the late 1980s and early 1990s are great, though I have to confess that I haven't kept up to speed with him more recently.

This minor-key indie disco classic managed to break the proper Top 100 and even received airplay on Steve Wright's afternoon show on Radio 1. That doesn't sound like much of an achievement nowadays but at the time it was almost unheard of. It was possibly one of the first Creation Records to do so.

'The Hairstyle Of The Devil' marries the spoken word observationalism of the Pet Shop Boys with the Chic-filtered dark disco style of New Order's 'The Perfect Kiss'. Momus, naturally, makes it more seedy and desperate than either of those bands could/would, this 12" Version unleashing seven minutes of dank magic and ending with some backwards-masked whispering - "Beelzebub's my master..."

Should've been massive. Maybe Cher Lloyd will cover it one day.

Download Momus 'The Hairstyle Of The Devil (12" Version)' (indie, disco, pop, CRE063T, mp3) (Box.net)

Kiss AMC 'A Bit Of U2 (The Dancefloor Side)' (Syncopate, 1989) (mp3)

I don't just throw this together you know. Following on from the last post about Ruthless Rap Assassins is another example of the North Hulme Sound from the female duo Kiss AMC.

Indeed both acts' debut releases were either side of a Murdertone 12" in 1987 and Kiss AMC's self-titled track featured the Ruthless Rap Assassins.

'A Bit Of U2' is - as you might guess - based around a sample from a U2 track. It's the piano-line from 'New Year's Day' and they turn it into a vibrant celebration of everything they think is "top". The two sisters rap incessantly in parallel and spit out rhymes like the amazing "We listen to all kinds of music - we're not ashamed, We like indie pop - and bands with weird names".

The track is vibrant and fizzes with energy but allows enough space to let the lyrics take the limelight. This remix rolls along with a slightly 'Papua New Guinea' beat and array of nice production touches and samples.

It should have been a massive hit. But it wasn't.

Download Kiss AMC 'A Bit Of U2 (Dancefloor Side)' (mp3) (Mediafire)

Check out this site with info on the Ruthless Rap Assassins and sections and mp3s for Kiss AMC too.

Frazier Chorus 'Storm' (Virgin, 1989) (mp3 download)

Bitter/sweet pop from the sadly under-appreciated Frazier Chorus.

'Storm' was one of the tracks on their debut 12" on 4AD (not an obvious A&R selection for 4AD, one of Ivo's poppier signings). This version from their debut album maintains a more atmospheric feel than the rest of the album.

With Frazier Chorus, the melodies were sugar-sweet but there was usually a darker edge in the lyrics. In 'Storm' though, you can feel the pent-up, atmospheric pressure of the lyrics about to break in the music.

Frazier Chorus' debut album - 'Sue' - is stuffed with songs that tell of twisted domesticity and too much time spent alone in your flat. In that vein, 'Storm' is paranoid pop of the highest order. It builds from gentle, breathy synths in the verses to thunder-clap drum machine and some massive sawing cellos in the chorus and as the track builds to a crescendo.

All that's left for Tim Freeman to do is to leave you with image of a pigeon shitting on a car in the street outside his window.

Nice.

Download Frazier Chorus 'Storm' (mp3) (Mediafire)

The Sundays 'Don't Tell Your Mother' (Rough Trade, 1989) (mp3)

Sprightly, Smiths-y b-side action from The Sundays, showing another side to their sound to balance the ethereal longing of 'Joy'.

'Don't Tell Your Mother' is a strident piece of pop, assertive and intricate with an 'Is It Really So Strange?' rockabilly twang to it.

It comes freshly ripped from a recently-acquired 12" copy of their debut single 'Can't Be Sure' and shows that they toned down the Johnny Marr guitar chops from their sound early on. Wise move as it only detracts from the sweet beauty of their sound.

Download The Sundays 'Don't Tell Your Mother' (mp3) (Mediafire)