various | neon signs in a dralon sky

the first release from fisheye, the label from paul wild, who ran the distro of the same name. for a while there fisheye was the best source of decent underground tapes, records and zines in the uk. and the label released some quality stuff too.

unsurprising then that this cassette represents a pretty decent snapshot of that scene, with sounds both noisy and tuneful from the uk, us and down under.

it features: children at play, paste, tea culture, prick decay, brown tower, omit, the shadow ring, hood, scaredy cat, calvin party, goosewind, wizard ho ho, moist, refrigerator, polyp, 70 gwen party, derv, lichtenstein girl, superfluous, bucknalls, jack geek, my deviant daughter, earl + osram, the golden mile and w.o.r.m.

for a full tracklisting view the discogs page.

tape released by fisheye in 1994.

get.

various | does your dog moult?

first and only release from the label and possibly a case of putting all your eggs in one basket, given the quality of bands featured, featuring as it does paste, refrigerator, the keatons and kennedy, plus snog 6 - who were never heard of again.

7" released by happy dog rekordz in 1993.

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various | breaking the plastic hymen, vinyl virgins & lo-fi whores

originally conceived as a compilation of bands who had yet to release anything on vinyl (hence the title), it took a while to come together, by which time i suspect quite a few had already achieved that feat. however, this compilation still serves as a perfect document of many of the bands that were doing the rounds of the tape trading underground at the time, some of whom went on to something bordering mainstream indie success (well hood anyway).

released as two double 7" sets artworked by graham lambkin on the fisheye distro label, sadly the long-promised boxes never materialised. but there was an edition of all 4 records that came with instructions on how to make your own. very d.i.y.

::: rake - bring me the head of wingtip sloat
::: wingtip sloat - rake/sicle
::: v-neck - towerblock
::: hood - a piano as an object
::: delphium - where the drifts get deeper
::: small things - glow in the dark prisoner
::: geiger counter - two
::: paste - abuse of celebrity
::: scaredy cat - ice cream cone
::: richard youngs and simon wickham-smith - walking the mongoose
::: sone - f.s.f. pt a (2600 to the top)
::: the negative kite - i'm on a streak of dumb luck y' wouldn't believe
::: the shadow ring - back-combed lines
::: tea culture - better than socks
::: refrigerator - new complaints
::: noggin - he gets really bad allergies and symmetries and a lot of peanuts
::: prick decay - 3 variations of chronic delirium
::: bügsküll - our dwarvish nightmare
::: starstruck - cilla bull
::: mother tongue - see you next wednesday
::: i'm being good - three:ten
::: glands of external secretion - a total plate of shrimp

4 x 7" released by fisheye in 1997.

get.

various | our salvation is in hand

following on from abridged perversion is this gem of a compilation, stuffed to the gills with lo-fi 4-track songs from the days when people still had 4-tracks. makes me nostalgic for the days of cutting out tape inlays and gluing labels and stuffing jiffy bags full of flyers. in other words the days before the internet came along and stole our innocence.

features my favourite mountain goats song ever, alpha omega. theme park was a great label too.

released in 1995 on theme park.

::: paul nini - down to the floor
::: the bruces - beginning to see the red light fade
::: father - teach us
::: the mountain goats - alpha omega
::: bucknalls - travelsick
::: simon joyner - sorrow floats
::: neil mcclury - untitled
::: national heroes - untitled
::: the losers - she never promised
::: paste - 68x8
::: matthew hattie hein & wham o - new house basement
::: franklin bruno - cat scratch fever
::: steve lindstrom - me and the weatherman
::: m-ways - the last deep mine
::: fungoboat - radio city
::: spacehopper - spoken for
::: mark s - stephen
::: the post - the joy of spring
::: brown tower - bacterial home
::: nick jackman - fucked up & free
::: trewavas - who needs me?
::: yak & - my own fiefdom
::: party of one - hit the north 3
::: the mountain goats - hand ball
::: john davis - waiting for my wife
::: hood - art without precedent or tradition

hit me up. *re-upped at 320mbps*

various | abridged perversion

who remembers shrimper? the tape label that ruled them all? the tape label that put out vinyl and cds? some of them by lou barlow? do you?

why does no one ever stop me in the street and ask me these questions? because with compilations like this one, they should.

released in 1993

::: colonial awards of 1984
::: the extra glens - badger song
::: the buxx - holiday
::: nothing painted blue - big pink heart
::: sentridoh - certain dance - circumstance
::: goosewind - manny's mote
::: shoeface - future shock
::: will simmons - 50 miles
::: insect feelings - zisk
::: mountain goats - the window song
::: junket - tiresome
::: massengil - premature cheese
::: joey burns - do it all the time
::: wckr spgt - fluffy cat
::: punk rock - happiness is a warm gun
::: diskothi-q - pork chop
::: franklin bruno - clean needle
::: halo - fever pitch
::: paste - hips
::: primordial undermind - delerium insomnia cal
::: guffey - creepy
::: refrigerator - map to the stars
::: simon wickham smith - finnish but not finnished (with bill + karl)
::: john davis - i had a dream i was down by the ocean
::: ah bus - fisherman's friend
::: buzzsaw - die rote luft
::: bügsküll - you don't know
::: the jim bishop guitar army - (instigation)
::: carne-a - canker town
::: satnam puppets - guitar in room p.7
::: jive - old family box
::: party of one - throwaway
::: lil' johhny h - incomplete #1
::: lou barlow - revolution #37

i remember dennis callaci.