Another ARTERY release

[Barmy]

Hey Mark, thanks for posting. I bought your Pulp book just a few weeks ago!

[Abacab]

Funny, Amazon is listing this disc as coming out on Tuesday, the 26th.

Edward

[mark]

I've finally had chance to give this new(ish) Artery CD a good listen and it's a great package. Sonically it's very true to the original vinyl (right down to a couple of crackles and pops in Cars In Motion [:D] ), but, as you would hope, clearer and louder - without being compressed to death. The packaging, as well, is great - enjoyable and insightful sleevenotes from Martin Lilleker and Simon Hinkler (plus contributions from Mark Gouldthorpe and Garry Wilson, presumably taken from Lilleker's book), with very imaginative and fitting use of the artwork from the original releases. They've also managed to give it the yellowed, slightly blurry look of an edition of Sounds or Melody Maker circa 1980, which works brilliantly - a lot of CD reissues now (understandably) have very clean and crisp computer-designed artwork that doesn't really fit with the look and feel of the original releases, so it's great they've made the effort to work around this.

In terms of musical content, you couldn't hope for a better insight into the original Artery sound (unless you include a few of those missing tracks I mentioned above, heh heh). It's a chronological rundown of almost everything the 79-82 line-up recorded, and the first six or seven tracks in particular stand up as probably the best summary you could get of that initial deranged, raw, jerky sound they had. Some of the tracks towards the end, such as The Sailor Situation and The Ghost Of A Small Tour Boat Captain, are a bit more lush and sophisticated, but still with that same manic edge you'd recognise from the early stuff. Sort of like a mid-point between the first couple of singles and the One Afternoon album. If only they'd been able to keep it together for a little bit longer!

The previously unreleased Input demos are a bit of a mixed bag - it sounds like the session was an attempt to experiment with a few different things and maybe try and work out where they were going next. One Afternoon In A Hot Air Balloon, Weak Light and It's Good To Be Alone are very much in the style of the first 3 singles, and so different from the later album versions it's untrue (especially Good To Be Alone, which sounds absolutely crackers!). The other songs have a more conventional, poppy sound - again, Potential Silence is so different to the album version it really isn't the same song. The only one that doesn't work too well for me is Louise - it sounds a bit like Gouldthorpe trying to be Bryan Ferry, which doesn't sit too well. I wonder if the later Peel version is any different/more accomplished?

The only thing that niggles with me a bit is that there are a few tiny tiny errors in the sleevenotes - nothing important really, just things like the way it's subtitled 'Recordings From 1979-83' when the latest track there was recorded in January 1982, or that all the Peel tracks are listed as being from the July '81 session when a couple were actually from Jan '82, or the way it gives different recording details for the Mother Moon tracks to those cited on the Into The Garden CD (although who knows who's right on that one). Nothing major at all though - on the whole, a superb compilation that probably does more justice to this criminally overlooked band than most of the original releases do.

Oh, and in the intersts of balance I think the Into The Garden CD is great as well!