^ I've had Gyrate and Chomp for a while, but I grabbed a sealed copy of Chain and the Beep/Attitude 12" single the other day for cheap at a local shop. Both worth checking out.

Marlin Greene - Tiptoe Past The Dragon

Elektra - 1972 US

Marlin Greene was a producer, writer and session musician, among other things (he played guitar on Percy Sledge's When A Man Loves A Woman). This is his only LP - recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio with a few of the Swampers, it's a soulful country/folk rock disc. So soulful that I'm willing to forgive the rampant hippie shit that infects most of the lyrics (Who's The Captain Of Your Ship Of Dreams). Plus it has one of my favorite inserts ever:



Painted by Greene - I love it!

^That record looks wild. Will have to check out later.

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Sad Lovers and Giants - The Mirror Test (original mix)



Sad Lovers and Giants - Les Annees Vertes




Two OOP albums from one of my favorite 80s UK post-punk groups. While not the ideal starting place for anyone new to this group, these are both worth checking out once you have their first two albums. When Cherry Red did a reissue campaign on CD for these albums a few years back, neither of these were included. Luckily, both are available as reasonably priced FLAC downloads from the Pono Store.

Instead of reissuing the original mix of The Mirror Test, they did a "redux" version which was newly remixed by the band and had a different track order. I have not heard that version. This album is good and was actually the first SLAG album I heard many years ago. At the time I didn't really like it for some reason, but I enjoy it a lot more now. The sound is a bit more gauzy and more keyboard-oriented than the first two records by the band. It makes sense because the lineup had dramatically shifted by this time.

Les Annees Vertes is an odds and ends comp. from the first phase of the band when Tristan Garel-Funk was still on guitar. Despite the fact that it contains a mix of demos, alternate mixes, live tracks, radio sessions, etc. it is a remarkably consistent listen.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/2015 05:38PM by LionsMouth.

Ultravox: Systems of Romance CD



Ultravox's third album and the final one with John Foxx on vocals. After this Foxx would move onto a solo career and Midge Ure would replace Foxx in Ultravox and take the band in a more commercial direction. Although this album was produced by Conny Plank and you'd think it would be very synthetic sounding, there is quite a bit of guitar here. Oddly enough the title track to the album isn't even included here. John Foxx would record that on his second solo LP. Great album, but I don't think it quite tops HA! HA! HA! or John Foxx's first two solo albums.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/2015 05:45PM by LionsMouth.