#the monochrome set

[bandcampsnoop]

8/6/23.

I've had this tab open for several days. Everytime I listen to it, I hear different sounds and influences.

Amor Indio were a Buenos Aires, Argentina band active in the mid to late 1980s. You can definitely hear some new wave influences. But really, at the heart this has a punk/post-punk feel. It appears the band dressed as if they were a psychedelic band, but I don't really hear that. Imagine if Orange Juice or The Monochrome Set were raised in Argentina. There is a definite garage rock sound on a few of these songs as well. I think Charlie Megira would have liked Amor Indio.

This is a compilation of unreleased music and is a co-release by Twistin' Bones (Costa Rica) and Rastrillo Records (Argentina).

#Amor Indio #Buenos Aires #Argentina #Orange Juice #The Monochrome Set #Charlie Megira #Twistin' Bones #Costa Rica #Rastrillo Records #Bandcamp

[guessimdumb]

The Monochrome Set - Clouds 10 (1982)

No Cloud 9 for Monochrome Set - a critique of Christianity?  Maybe.

I've preened the feathers on my wings

#The Monochrome Set #Clouds 10 #Eligible Bachelors

[shethesilhouette]

The Monochrome Set • Eine Syphonie Des Grauens

#post punk #punk #the monochrome set #music #youtube

[slowdrives]

#the monochrome set #peter saville

[kvltklvb]

the monochrome set perform he’s frank m80 ‘79 live

#the monochrome set #he’s frank #m80 #1979 #live #post punk #new wave #Youtube

[weaversweek]

Uncool 50 - my kind of pop

#Uncool50? My favourite 50 singles (since 1976), effectively a mini-autobiography. Here’s the series index.

I heard a lot of early 80s pop music by osmosis, filtered by my sister. Adam Ant, Madness, Culture Club, the Thompson Twins. (All in the Uncool 100, not the 50.) For some reason, my sister never quite got into Nik Kershaw. So when I liked "Won't let the sun go down on me", here was a star of my own! Someone I didn't have to share! Catchy hooks, an earworm of a song - and it's not even the best he wrote (but "The one and only" isn't in the 50 – probably makes the 100). 

And when I fell for pop, I fell hard. Strawberry Switchblade, Rose and Jill, the cool girls with bags of attitude and a look to die for.

They were on the cover of Smash Hits magazine, inside was a gripping feature on Band Aid, and some serious writing about trivial subjects. Writers like Sylvia Patterson, Mark Ellen, Linda Duff, Dave Rimmer, and the masterful work of Tom Hibbert. Black Type remains an inspiration, the mixture of breezy chat and intense knowledge is something I try to replicate in the Week. 

Pop music changes lives. Random chance changes lives. I wouldn't be using this blog name without "Since yesterday", and that's why it gets the lot - token, teatowel, and my DOUZE POINTS.

The local radio station round me was Beacon Radio. Peter Craig was the friendly voice - he did the pop magazine programme on Sunday morning, and the afternoon show. One of his features was "Kid's Clues", try and work out what the children are describing. Peter recorded some clues with the year group below, and was guest of honour at the school's Easter Fayre. "Jacob's ladder" from The Monochrome Set reminds me of him, and the days we had proper local radio. Sadly, Peter died in 1989, leaving a young widow and child.

"Lean on me (ah-li-ayo)" from Red Box. Are they sneaking communist agitprop into the top ten, emphasising the common humanity? Yep. Is it more catchy and toe-tappy and accessible than everything Paul Weller ever did? Again, yep. I've always reckoned that you'll convert more minds through positive alternatives than through moaning, and this is a shining example.

A trio of classic videos in the next part.

#uncool50 #nik kershaw #strawberry switchblade #the monochrome set #red box #family #sister #finding my own musical taste #smash hits #the genius of #tom hibbert #black type #token 'n' teatowel #peter craig #beacon radio #communism #political pop #this is uncool #personal #memory tape #1984 #1985 #pop music #autobiography

[spilladabalia]

The Monochrome Set - Cowboy Country (Live on The Tube 22nd Feb 1985).

#the monochrome set #cowboy country #bid #andy warren #foz #carrie booth #nick weslowski #new wave #art pop #jangle pop #progressive pop #live 1985 #the tube #Youtube

[steelycunt]

#music #the monochrome set #have you guys heard jet set junta by the monochrome set. because you shouldve

[mywifeleftme]

238: Would-Be-Goods // The Camera Loves Me

The Camera Loves Me Would-Be-Goods 1988, él

A tip of the cap to friend of the podcast and occasional French language correspondent Mea for recommending Would-Be-Goods’ The Camera Love Me, a music album that is also a ribboned box of perfectly primped macarons. I’ve listened to it at least thirty times over the past few months. Would-Be-Goods is the indie pop project of Londoner Jessica Griffin, whose posh, girlish voice and Continental lyrical fascinations give her songs the vibe of a clever teenage novel about a young Anglophone woman buying amazing clothes and courting a variety of suitors in Paris. On The Camera Loves Me, Griffin is backed by dapper jangle poppers the Monochrome Set (who were otherwise in the midst of a hiatus), and they help dress her dainty tunes in arrangements that are as elegant as they are twee. “The Camera Loves Me” gives pride of place to the humble recorder; “Marvellous Boy” pulls what sounds like a vintage Farfisa organ out of mothballs. Like a lot of the more fashionably effete members of the Cherry Red roster, Griffin makes a fetish of the styles and sounds of ‘50s and ‘60s France and Italy, even as she gently sends up the lifestyles her characters aspire to. She doesn’t have the Luciferian sarcasm of sometime-labelmate Momus by any means, but she’s self-aware enough to know what clothes she’s putting on. For a charming woman, presenting a cute, superficial affect can be a form of armour—it shifts the terms of engagement with the world such that strengths of wit, taste, and softness become decisive, and allows the inner self to hold its privacy. I never fully have the sense that I’m hearing anything like Griffin’s soul on The Camera Loves Me—but what a chic surface!

238/365

#would-be-goods #cherry red #indie pop #twee pop #the monochrome set #jessica griffin #'80s music #'80s indie #female musicians #female singer #music review #vinyl record

[musicwithoutborders]

The Monochrome Set, Resplendent in a Darkness I Radio Sessions. Marc Riley BBC6 Music, 2022

#The Monochrome Set #voice

[bandcampsnoop]

9/8/22.

The Deep Freeze Mice (Leicester, UK) were active from 1979 to 1988. From the sound of this double album "I Love You Little BoBo With Your Delicate Golden Lions" (1984, Cordelia Records) this was a band an amazing combination of pop and experimental tendencies. This album captures the sound of a vibrant and original band.

The pop sounds like it must have influenced bands like The Monochrome Set, Josef K, and Close Lobsters. There are a couple of songs where the vocals recall David Gedge. Sometimes the pop collides with experimental sounds; in this way it reminds me of the feel of some music from Swell Maps. Finally, the band apparently "adored" Sun Ra.

All of this is to say that you need to clear some headspace to take in everything there is on these 21 tracks.

Thanks to Plastic Response Records (Greenville, South Carolina) for reissuing this. It's been out since 2017...I can't believe it's not sold out.

#The Deep Freeze Mice #Leicester #UK #Plastic Response Records #Greenville #South Carolina #Cordelia Records #The Monochrome Set #Josef K #Close Lobsters #David Gedge #Swell Maps #Sun Ra #Bandcamp

[dustedmagazine]

The Monochrome Set — Marc Riley BBC 6 Music 2011-2022 (Tapete)

Photo by Steve Brummell

Tapete revives the grand tradition of releasing live BBC sessions and what better band to choose for the inaugural set than The Monochrome Set. In many ways the archetype of independent bands championed by the late John Peel and more recently BBC 6 DJ and former Fall guitarist Marc Riley, The Monochrome Set have held to their eccentric course through multiple incarnations and styles. Ever hovering on the fringes of fashion and fame over his five-decade career, Indian born Bid is a unique lyricist with an ear for melody that mixes spiky power pop, skiffle, noir soundtracks, Joe Meek esoterica, Essex cowboy twang and more into a unique brew of skewed indie jangle. This 32-track collection concentrates on the band’s third phase albums from the 2010s but includes energetic versions of a trio of their early singles.  

“Eine Symphonie Des Grauens” from 1979 is updated here with a whirling keyboard background. “Alphaville” is lighter, the original guitar churn replaced by with a sci-fi Wurlitzer. In both cases, the Bid’s lyrics straddle the line between metaphor and the literal, rotting lust-ridden corpses transposed with religious fervor in the former, self-harm and mental illness in the latter. He is also a dab hand at sarcastic political satire, the jaunty Falklands War era “Jet Set Junta”, is just as penetrating and singalong-able now as it was then (replace the Argentine generals with Russian oligarchs for added effect). The band broke up in 1985 after releasing four albums. Reforming in 1990, Bid, founding guitarist Lester Square and long-term bassist Andy Warren recorded five more albums before disbanding again in 1998.

Since their third reformation in 2010, punctuated by Bid’s recovery from a brain aneurism, The Monochrome Set have recorded a further six albums, selections from which the BBC 6 Sessions showcase. Bid’s lyrical concerns have widened to include robots, aliens, mysticism and mortality albeit expressed with his customary wit and wordplay. The music ranges through the big beat of “Hip Kitten Spinning Chrome” and “Super Plastic City”, the Merseyside flavored “Lefty”, the organ driven “Iceman” and “Cosmonaut”, the cosmic country feel of the wonderfully titled “Stick your Hand up if you’re Louche” and the noirish “Really in the Wrong Town” with the band in excellent form and Bid occasionally pushing his voice to the edge but caressing his words with elegant conviction. These sessions are a wonderful introduction to The Monochrome Set’s later albums. The inclusion of the early singles a bonus that will hopefully encourage people to dive back into the band’s complete discography.

Andrew Forell

#the monochrome set #mark riley #bbc 6 #2011-2022 #tapete #andrew forell #albumreview #dusted magazine #post-punk #power pop

[maquina-semiotica]

The Monochrome Set, "He's Frank (Slight Return)"

#The Monochrome Set #Spotify

[manysundays]

#the monochrome set

[julio-viernes]

"O Mi Amore" en versión instrumental. La canción casi crea un cisma en el seno de Television en 1975 cuando Tom Verlaine se decidió por "Little Johnny Jewel" (Parts One and Two) como primer single del grupo para Ork Records, sello de su mánager, Terry Ork. Al parecer el problema vino de Richard Lloyd, que no quería publicarla en favor de "O Mi Amore" (con letra) hasta el punto que consideró seriamente abandonar la banda. Se dice que Peter Laughner de Pere Ubu llegó a audicionar para ocupar su puesto en Television. Fue un poco su particular lucha "Triad"- "Moog Raga", pero la sangre no llegó al rio. "O Mi Amore" es un tema vivo y juguetón que puede recordar a lo que hicieron un tiempo más tarde The Monochrome Set.

#television #richard lloyd #peter laughner #pere ubu #terry ork #the monochrome set #the byrds

[slowdrives]

Inside Your Heart

Perfection.

#the monochrome set #cherry red