Magic Roundabout

Lost tape of ’80s Manchester hopefuls finally released.

Earlier this year, Third Man released a ‘lost’ 7-inch 45 from an ’80s Manchester band missing from history. While the track, Sneaky Feelin’, sounded like a Sarah Records obscurity – tom-tom drums, jangling guitar, charmingly off-key female vocals – the group’s ‘discography’ was so tiny (one track on a 1987 fanzine cassette compiled by Pulp’s Mark Webber) you might think you were party to a spoof. Now, an albumlength 1987 demo recording – previously in the possession of Pale Saints’ Ian Masters – has been remastered and provenance takes a back seat to quality. Audibly influenced by The Velvet Underground and JAMC, the group are adept at two sounds, the rough-edged razor-pop of the Shop Assistants and the extemporised post-punk DIY of PragVec and the Mo-Dettes. The shift from melancholy Warhol eulogy Up to their discordo-nihilist 20-minute prayer to The Blue Aeroplanes’ Gerard Langley is utterly wonderful and unique.