Drop Out: 30th Anniversary Edition
9/10 Life-affirming jangle pop reissued with singles and rarities
DROP Out was a lost classic before it was even released. The album was initially recorded in 1990 but didn’t appear until 1993, two years a¡er East Village’s abrupt split. Drenched in C86 jangle with nods to Big Star, Teardrop Explodes and The Byrds, Drop Out was akin to Teenage Fanclub or The La’s in the way the band cheerfully embraced classic melodies but executed them with an independent spirit. The band were also integral – inseparable even – to the genesis of Heavenly Records, a relationship maintained to this day through brothers Paul and Martin Kelly.
The Kellys – Paul on guitar and Martin on bass – formed the band in London in the mid-1980s with guitarist John Wood and Spencer Smith on drums. Initially called Episode Four, they released a couple of singles on Sub Aqua, a label formed by a pre-heavenly Je Barrett. Barrett then signed the band to Heavenly in 1990, by which time they had already started to record Drop Out – part funded by Bob Stanley of St Etienne. The album would eventually feature stunning material like the opener “Silver Train”, surely an inuence on Primal Scream, or the yearning “When I Wake Tomorrow”. That’s a song that summarises their ability to combine the sweetest melody with a slightly gnarly undertow, like a curious mix of the Stone Roses and Hüsker Dü. It’s a sound that predates bands like Sugar and the Boo Radleys, who would explore similar styles in dierent ways, as well as the countless bands that would deliver increasingly pale imitations in the latter years of Britpop when such a classic approach dissolved into parody.
Unfortunately, East Village imploded before the album was even nished, but in 1993 were persuaded to go back and mix Drop Out, adding a closing track, “Everybody Knows”, with vocals by Debsey Wykes. The Kellys would remain part of the wider Heavenly family – Martin working alongside Barrett at the label, while Paul moved into directing, notably with a series of fantastic lms for Heavenly agbearers St Etienne in the form of Finisterre, What Have You Done Today, Mervyn Day? and This Is Tomorrow.
This 30th-anniversary reissue follows Hot Rod Hotel, a 2019 update of their 1994 singles and rarities compilation, and comes as a single LP or double CD. The latter has a second disc collecting early singles – basically Hot Rod Hotel, but with two additional tracks, “Meet The Wife” and “Barrel Dog”. It includes the two essential Sub Aqua singles, “Cubans In The Blue Fields” and “Back Between Places” with their equally gorgeous B-sides. Both LP and CD have new liner notes from Jon Savage. East Village weren’t around for long, but their music has a sparkling beauty that continues to endure. PETER WATTS
FELA KUTI Box Set 6
PARTISAN 8/10 Seven-vinyl set from Afrobeat’s founding father
Fresh on the heels of Fela boxes curated by the likes of Erykah Badu and Chris Martin comes this new set, pieced together by the actor and DJ Idris Elba. Any concerns that the celebrity connection might distract from the music quickly come undone. Even Fela veterans should see the appeal of a new way into a catalogue that is intimidating in its size, while Elba’s sleevenotes – which reect on his father’s passionate Fela fandom – lend a powerful context. The musical picks tend towards the mellow, but not at the expense of message, which rings through on tracks like “Why Black Man Dey Suer” (from the Ginger Baker-produced 1971 LP of the same name). Also included is 1980’s Music Of Many Colors, an overlooked collab with vibes master Roy Ayers; and 1984’s Live In Amsterdam, a show that saw Fela backed by new band Egypt 80, featuring son Femi on alto sax. Extras 8/10 Liner notes, poster. LOUIS PATTISON
BILL LASWELL & PETER NAMLOOK Outland
COLD SPRING 8/10 Producers’ ambient-industrial motherlode reissued
Outland was the sprawling dark ambient project of US producer and bass guru Bill Laswell and Frankfurt techno linchpin Peter Namlook. It spanned ve long-form albums between 1994 to 2007, when both producers were at the peak of their powers. Namlook’s Fax imprint minted a kind of ghostly dub techno across numerous releases in the 1990s until his death in 2012, while Laswell had worked with the likes of Brian Eno, Ginger Baker and Chris Blackwell through his band Material and as a label owner before he joined forces with Namlook, bringing a more worldly, exotic and o¡en funky shape to their collaboration, which also gave rise to the equally engrossing Psychonavigation series. This 6CD set collects the ve albums, best of which, perhaps, is Outland
2’s hour-long, six-part “African Virus (Electronic Sonata With A Cold Loved By Nature)” where they embrace polyrhythmic chaos.
Extras 8/10 Blackland, a disc of space drone by Laswell. PIERS MARTIN
COLIN NEWMAN Bastard (reissue, 1997) SWIM 7/10 First vinyl pressing for remastered deluxe edition
Despite the solo moniker, this is the work of Newman and his creative and life partner Malka Spigel.