Dass die Vergangenheit ein fremdes Land ist, in welches wir niemals zurück können, da unser Andenken uns nur eine recht ungenaue Landkarte ist, weiß niemand besser als die Go-Betweens. Zwischen Vergangenheit und Erinnerung, aber auch zwischen Patti Smith und den Monkees, zwischen Melodie und Zerstörung, zwischen Robert Forster und Grant McLennan - in diesen Räumen spielen die Songs dieser wundervollen Band aus Brisbane.

Auf ihrem äußerst eigenwilligen Debüt "Send Me A Lullaby" hatten die Go-Betweens noch einige Schwierigkeiten, sich mit der unüblichen Dreierbesetzung - Gitarre, Bass, Schlagzeug - zu arrangieren. Doch schon auf dem Nachfolger "Before Hollywood" brachte vor allem die erwachte Musikalität Grant McLennans - den Robert Forster sich nicht aufgrund seiner musikalischen Fähigkeiten, sondern aufgrund seiner guten Plattensammlung und seiner Filmleidenschaft zum Partner erkoren hatte - den musikalischen Durchbruch.

Während Gitarrist Forsters verquere Rhythmik die Erinnerungssplitter in die Songs treibt, versuchen sich McLennans melodische Basslinien an der großen Erzählung, die jedoch scheitern muss, als er im Schlüsselsong "Cattle and Cane" die bruchstückhafte, ja rhapsodische Struktur seiner Gedanken erkennt: "From time to time/ The waste memory-wastes". Auf "Spring Hill Fair" stellt Forster einen noch viel radikaleren Befund: "All that's left of me, of me that was/ Is a former shadow", singt er in "You've Never Lived". Und ein paar Zeilen später: "And right here's for me/ Right here and nowhere else." Auf keinem anderen Album ringen die Go-Betweens so sehr mit den Schatten der Vergangenheit und sind dabei so gegenwärtig.

Mit dem Neuzugang von Robert Vickers am Bass wechselte Grant McLennan zur Leadgitarre - wieder veränderten sich die Kräfteverhältnisse innerhalb der Band. Plötzlich spielten die Go-Betweens in einer klassischen Vierer-Besetzung. And then there were four. "Spring Hill Fair" war eine Suche nach der vergangenen Originalität. Das Ergebnis: eine nervöses, zerfahrenes, ja brillantes Album, das die Qualitäten dieser Band treffender auf den Punkt brachte als jedes andere. McLennans Melodien, Forsters spröde Zickigkeit, Lindy Morrisons simples, aber extrem wirkungsvolles Schlagwerk und Robert Vickers Bass, der sofort den richtigen Platz findet. Dabei verstoßen sie gegen alle Regeln, spielen verschwenderisch mit Melodien - aber vor allem gegen sie. So beginnt der Opener "Bachelor Kisses" noch lieblich, doch dann der Bruch: "The arcade lights are hanging down/ The rain surrenders to the town."

Grant McLennan versucht sich in "River Of Money" wieder am großen Epos. In Cinemascope. Muss aber bald erkennen, dass auch diese Anstrengung wieder im Privaten endet. Der Wind lässt die Vorhänge gegen die Gitarrensaiten schlagen, und er weiß, sie kommt niemals zurück. Auch Robert Forster sucht Trost im Erhabenen - der See, den Bergen - und landet doch immer wieder nur bei sich selbst. "The old way out is now the new way in." Seelenlandschaften. Klopstock! Doch während McLennan sich weiter am großen Lebensentwurf festhält - "It starts with a birthstone/ It ends with a tombstone" -, steckt er im Detail: in der Handschrift der scheidenden Geliebten, ihren Briefen, in einer feinen Tränenspur. Kämpft gegen das Vergessen der Liebe, die einst war: "Remembered your name/ Evidently you've forgotten mine". Sie muss zurückkommen: "You're the one, the one I need, need in times/ Times like these."

Auf dem Cover von "Spring Hill Fair" sieht man die vier Go-Betweens in einer Theaterloge sitzen. Sind sie wirklich nur Beobachter oder doch auch selbst Akteure, die aus der Mode gekommene Schauspielertruppe in Shakespeares "Hamlet" vielleicht, die dem Prinzen von Dänemark helfen soll, die Vergangenheit zu beschwören und so den Geist seines des ermordeten Vaters zu rächen? Die Wahrheit liegt vermutlich irgendwo dazwischen.

(MAIK BRÜGGEMEYER, Rolling Stone)

With Robert Vickers and his more straightforward style of bass introduced to the band, McLennan switched fully over to guitar and the quartet entered the studio with producer John Brand for Spring Hill Fair. A slightly more conventional but no less entrancing collection of songs in comparison to Before Hollywood, Spring Hill Fair contains its fair share of Go-Betweens classics, with the rough, barbed emotional edge of many lyrics getting almost gentle arrangements. There's more appearances from guest musicians than ever before, with contributions running from string arrangements to trumpet and saxophone. It's all still the Go-Betweens' own style of chiming guitar rock, able to switch between restraint and a hard-swinging (definite credit again to Morrison -- check out her glammy stomp on "The Old Way Out") but not hard-riffing punch. Leadoff track "Bachelor Kisses," with its subtly intense mid-song break, McLennan's suddenly nervous singing matched by a quiet intensity in the music, is easily matched at the end with Forster's "Man O' Sand to Girl O' Sea," its pounding chorus one of the band's best captured moments of desperation. If McLennan had ultimate pride of place on Before Hollywood with "Cattle and Cane," Forster comes to the fore here with the just tense enough "Draining the Pool for You." It's a blackly humorous portrait of a maintenance worker and the faded superstar who hired him that also succeeds as a perfect kiss-off, with a memorable chorus to boot. Other Forster-sung standouts include "Part Company," an almost-Smiths-like all-around performance on the verses spiked with an at once inspirational and regret-laden chorus. Throughout the album one can not only hear the expanded lineup testing things out, but individual players adding their own particular flair -- the brush-and-shuffle percussion from Morrison on "Five Words," McLennan's great lead guitar solo on "You've Never Lived," Vickers' ability with crisp funk on "Slow Slow Music."

(by Ned Raggett, All Music Guide)

Walker's only album of the 1980s was both a blow for artistic credibility, and a blow against most of his old fans. The voice of the balladeer was still intact, and still even crooned sometimes. But the arrangements backed brow-furrowing, obtuse lyrics with '80s-oriented rock that incorporated some quasi-classical structures. Walker was seemingly more interested in painting abstracts in which the textures counted more than the content. This made for an album which may have been a hell of a lot more interesting than '80s efforts by other '60s pop stars, but at the same time it was rather impenetrable, and one's attention tended to drift off over the course of the set. Yet it was not half as radical as the avant-garde direction he would stake out with his next album ten years later, Tilt.

(by Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide)

'Climate of Hunter' was Scott Walker's sole-release in the 1980s, continuing the directions suggested by Scott's contributions to the final Walker Brothers LP 'Nite Flights' (1978). 'Nite Flights' saw Walker compose again for the first time since flop 'Til the Band Comes In' - the interim seeing inept cover versions ('Many Rivers to Cross' anyone???), flop solo albums, and the reformation of the Walker Brothers - who went from truimphic return with 'No Regrets' to off the register with follow-ups 'Lines' and 'Nite Flights'. Walker's writer's block ended with the four songs on 'Nite Flights', whichmore… were probably closer to Bowie than Walker of old ; the terrifying composition 'The Electrician' spelt out the future, Walker making avant-pop with sinister themes (the torture apparent in that song is continued to 'Dealer' here, and features on 1995's masterpiece 'Tilt'). A listen to 'Nite Flights' or 'The Electrician' is the ideal preperation for 'Climate of Hunter' - which is an overlooked album that might even make 'Tilt' make sense to those otherwise confounded. After reportedly turning down offers to work with Bowie, Eno and David Sylvian (there is a rumour that Walker began to record with Eno, but halted proceedings over Daniel Lanois' hair!!!!) Walker recorded his sole album for Virgin. As 'Tilt' it is produced by Peter Walsh (previously known for Simple Minds' pop-classic 'New Gold Dream, 81, 82, 83, 84') and features a collaboration with Brian Gascoigne who would contribute heavily towards 'Tilt.''Climate of Hunter' itself fitted right in with a lot of great music in the 1980s, its sound not far from the Blue Nile, Roxy Music's 'Avalon', Peter Gabriel's '4',Magazine's 'The Correct Use of Soap' & David Sylvian (both Mark Isham and Phil Palmer would work with the latter). Opener 'Rawhide' finds Walker in oblique mode, the song bursting into life with the suitably odd, "Cro-magnon herders will stand in the wind..." which makes as much sense as "The insomniac gnaws in the On-Offs..." - lyrically comparisons to the meticulous nonsense practiced by late period Joyce work (though the feeling of Walker's work here and subsequently seems closer to Samuel Beckett). 'Dealer' is gorgeous, creepy stuff which was once memorably described as "like David Sylvian after being hit by lightning", with lyrics that appear to be related to 'The Electrician': "The windows are ringing...move a circuit on the white and he can't feel a thing..."Four of the tracks here show that Walker wasn't in the mood for playing the game, plumping for titles such as 'Track Three', 'Track Five', 'Track Six' & 'Track Seven' - Three, Five, and Seven even resemble each other. Walker appears to have come to the end of any pop-formula - 'Track Three (Delayed)' is a catchy chant with a harmony vocal from Billy Ocean (????), while 'Track Five (It's a Starving)' opens with an ambient-guitar piece before the band come in. 'Track Seven (Stump of a Drowner)' like 'Five' opens with a guitar-sequence worthy of 'Gone to Earth' before a similar rhythm comes in - the feeling of these tracks are that Walker is essentially rewriting and exhausting the style of the song 'Nite Flights.''Climate of Hunter' is varied in part - 'Sleepwalkers Woman' would fit on one of the Scott-albums with Walker accompanied by strings (...though his voice is beginning to change to a more operatic style apparent on 'Tilt')in territory not that far from solo-classic 'Boy Child.' 'Track Six (Say It)' is much odder, avant fretless bass from John Giblin (Kate Bush, Simple Minds)set to a gothic metronome before the sounds of horses braying and sinister 'Psycho'-strings are employed - the kind of thing Bowie tried on '1.Outside' and that Radiohead faked a lot on 'Kid A/Amnesiac' (it can also be argued that the atmosphere of 'Climate of Hunter' found its way onto U2's 'The Joshua Tree' on such tracks as 'With or Without You' & 'Mothers of the Disappeared'). The most surprising track is the closing cover of Tennessee Williams' 'Blanket Roll Blues' - which was originally sung by Marlon Brando in 'The Fugitive Kind.' This finds Walker accompanied by Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler on his trademark guitar that strikes horror into people like me who thought 'Love Over Gold' & 'Brothers in Arms' were the work of Satan. Instead it's a gorgeously minimal piece that reminds me of David Sylvian's acoustic collaborations with Bill Frissell & the late Derek Bailey. The album concludes with Walker's wonderful delivery of Williams' lyrics, "When I crossed the river/with a heavy blanket roll/I took nobody with me/Not a soul/I took a few provisions/Some for comfort, some for cold/But I took nobody with me/Not a soul." Great stuff...and even better now it's been remastered. The time is right to rediscover this lost classic from the decade many wrote off - though the better news is that Scott's new album 'The Drift' is to be released by 4AD later this year. Ah, the Godlike Genius of Scott Walker...

Channeling the lessons of the experimental Porcupine into more conventional and simple structural parameters, Ocean Rain emerges as Echo & the Bunnymen's most beautiful and memorable effort. Ornamenting Ian McCulloch's most consistently strong collection of songs to date with subdued guitar textures, sweeping string arrangements, and hauntingly evocative production, the album is dramatic and majestic; "The Killing Moon," Ocean Rain's emotional centerpiece, remains the group's unrivalled pinnacle.

(by Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide)

In 1982, the Dream Syndicate seemed to come out of nowhere (actually Davis, CA, but close enough) to become the most talked about band in underground rock with their debut album The Days of Wine and Roses, recorded for the tiny but prestigious Ruby Records label when the group was all of nine months old. After waves of positive press, A&M Records signed the Dream Syndicate and they went into the studio with producer Sandy Pearlman, who spent five months in the studio guiding the band through their second LP. Given their sudden rise to success, the Dream Syndicate probably would have dealt with a certain amount of critical backlash no matter how their sophomore effort turned out, but Medicine Show was greeted with openly hostile reviews, largely because it sounded practically nothing like the album that sent tongues wagging two years earlier. Where The Days of Wine and Roses was a raw but passionate fusion of Highway 61-era Bob Dylan and the Velvet Underground at their most primal, Medicine Show sounded big and polished, but also dusty and weathered, with the terse, nose-thumbing lyrics of the debut replaced with dark, complex narratives full of bad luck and bad blood backed with booming drums and roaring guitars that were significantly more rockist than what Steve Wynn and Karl Precoda brought to their earlier recordings. Viewed in the context of Wynn's career, Medicine Show marks the spot where the lyrical themes and musical approach of his later work would first come into focus, but it still doesn't bear much resemblance to what the Dream Syndicate would create on their subsequent albums in its grand, doomy tone and obsessive but curiously unobtrusive production style. Medicine Show isn't a grand failure as its initial detractors claimed, but it isn't the triumph some revisionist fans imagine it to be, either; there are a few great songs scattered throughout (especially "Merrittville" and "Armed with an Empty Gun"), and once it works its way in, the 8:48 of "John Coltrane Stereo Blues" is as potent a guitar workout as anything this band would ever release. But in most respects, this finds Wynn and his bandmates reaching for something they couldn't quite grasp, and Tom Zvoncheck's keyboards, for all their drama, never really find their way into the music. Lots of bands let loose with a major-label budget for the first time have made lavish records that didn't quite work, but unlike most of them, Medicine Show doesn't sound like a grandiose waste of money. Instead, it's a widescreen guitar spectacle with the soul of a Jim Thompson paperback, and if it doesn't always work, enough of it does to make it worthy of serious reappraisal.

(by Mark Deming, All Music Guide)

Hitchcock was so shaken by the entire Groovy Decay disaster that he retired from recording for two years. When he returned in 1984 with I Often Dream of Trains, it was clear that the time off had affected his music. A collection of spare, acoustic-based pop-folk songs, I Often Dream of Trains is one of Hitchcock's most introspective and charming records. Instead of creating an impenetrably personal album, the stripped-down instrumentation actually opens up the songwriter's world, allowing the ballads ("Trams of Old London," "Cathedral," "Flavour of Night") to sit comfortably next to the jokes ("Uncorrected Personality Traits"). Alternating between acoustic guitars and solo piano, the music is never fragile, adding a strong support to Hitchcock's eccentric lyrics.

(by Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide)

After the debacle that was the making of 1982's Groovy Decay, Robyn Hitchcock briefly retired from music, and when he returned it was with an album that offered a thoroughly uncompromised vision of Hitchcock's imagination. Released in 1984, I Often Dream of Trains was a primarily acoustic set with Hitchcock handling nearly all the instruments and vocals by himself; the tone is spare compared to the full-on rock & roll of his recordings with the Soft Boys or his solo debut, Black Snake Diamond Role, but the curious beauty of Hitchcock's melodies is every bit as striking in these stripped-down sessions, and the surreal imagery of "Flavour of Night," "Trams of Old London," and the title song comes to vivid and enchanting life. Hitchcock's off-kilter wit has rarely been as effective as it is on this album; the jaunty harmonies of "Uncorrected Personality Traits" are the ideal complement for the song's psychobabble, "Sounds Great When You're Dead" manages to be funny and a bit disturbing at once, and the drunken campfire singalong of "Ye Sleeping Knights of Jesus" was joyously sloppy enough to inspire a cover by the Replacements. There's a slightly ramshackle quality to these recordings, but Hitchcock was rarely in more uniformly fine form as a songwriter, and there is a consistency of tone to the disc that makes it all the more effective, drawing listeners into a curious world of its own and allowing them to explore the surroundings and their quiet splendor. And Hitchcock has rarely recorded a song as luminously gorgeous as "Autumn Is Your Last Chance." Hitchcock would pick up his electric guitar and reunite with his band the Egyptians in 1985, releasing two fine albums in one year, but I Often Dream of Trains was a simple and marvelously effective return to action that's all the more winning for its subdued, tentative tone.

(by Mark Deming, All Music Guide)

Nachdem sich der Bassist Will Heggie von Liz Fraser (Gesang) und Robin Guthrie (Gitarre, Bass, Schlagzeug) getrennt hatte, veröffentlichten die Cocteau Twins 1983 mit »Head Over Heels« ihr zweites Album. Es blieb das einzige als Duo eingespielte Werk, bei den Aufnahmen für »Treasure« wirkte Simon Raymonde (Bass, Gitarre, Klavier) mit, welcher der 1980 in Grangemouth, Schottland, gegründeten Formation bis zur Auflösung 1998 erhalten blieb.

Zu Raymonde bestanden bereits länger gute Kontakte, der Plattenverkäufer und ehemalige Mitmusiker von Drowning Craze hatte die Cocteau Twins einst an Ivo Watts- Russell vermittelt, den Besitzer des 1980 gegründeten Independent-Labels 4AD. Die 1984 veröffentlichte LP »Treasure« wurde von dem Soundtüftler Guthrie selbst produziert. Sie enthält mit den Stücken »Lorelei«, »Ivo« und »Persephone« drei Klassiker, die in keiner CT-Sammlung fehlen.

»Treasure« bedeutete den endgültigen Durchbruch für die Band. »Pitchfork« nahm die Platte in die »Top 100 Alben der 80er« auf und begründete die Entscheidung mit den Worten: »›Treasure‹ was titled simply enough. An adjective for the endlessly inventive melodic lines you'd find buried in these songs, and a verb for what you'd do with them for years to come.«

Rainy Day was an album released in 1984 on the now-defunct indie label Enigma. It consisted of cover songs performed by various musicians from California's so-called "Paisley Underground" scene. This loose collective was assembled by David Roback, who was then a member of Rain Parade and later of Opal and Mazzy Star. Other participants included Roback's Rain Parade mates (brother Stephen Roback, Matthew Piucci, Will Glenn) and members of the then-little-known Bangles (Susanna Hoffs and Vicki Peterson), the Dream Syndicate (Kendra Smith, Dennis Duck, Karl Precoda), and the Three O'Clock (Michael Quercio).

The songs that were chosen indicated the influences that were generally shared by bands from that scene; not only is a Velvet Underground song covered, but also one by Big Star, and two by the Buffalo Springfield which both happen to be Neil Young compositions. Some other selections are old folk songs which are best remembered as Byrds and Beach Boys recordings. Hendrix and the Who also made the list.

Rainy Day has not been commercially available for many years; it seems like every indie label that has distributed the album has gone out of business. But there is always hope that it may resurface.

Rainy Day opens with an utterly likable version of Dylan's "I'll Keep It With Mine", sung by Hoffs. Hoffs brings a similar accessibility to the Velvet Underground's "I'll Be Your Mirror"; the sweetness of her vocals provides a nice contrast to Nico's vocals on the original recordings of both songs. Kendra Smith also does well with her two vocal turns: she lends just the right amount of emotion to the Buffalo Springfield's lovely "Flying on the Ground is Wrong", and her nearly emotionless reading of Big Star's "Holocaust" is appropriately chilling. The respectable cover of the folk classic "John Riley" is clearly based on the Byrds' version; the vocals (by Michael Quercio) and the guitar both echo Roger McGuinn. If you've ever wondered (as I have) what the Buffalo Springfield's "On the Way Home" would have sounded like as a Neil Young solo track, Roback's solo acoustic-strummed rendition is probably a close approximation. Although there are no guitar heroes in this bunch, it is nonetheless cool to hear these musicians apply their own quirky styles to the Who’s “Soon Be Home” and to an eleven-minute rendition of Jimi Hendrix’s jazz fusion jam “Rainy Day, Dream Away”.

It should be noted that less care was taken with the recording of the vocals on this album than with the instrumentation. Roback did not hold himself to high standards in this department, and "Sloop John B." suffers from a particularly underwhelming turn by Quercio. Even this type of casual indie project can be unnecessarily marred by such a flaw. Regardless, Rainy Day succeeds where countless other covers albums have failed. Its participants show genuine love for the material and manage to present it in their own distinctive way. It's a unique collaboration by like-minded musicians from a specific time and place. And it’s a fine record to listen to on a rainy day.

This album is a good companion piece to Under the Covers, Vol. 1, a 2006 collaboration between Hoffs and Matthew Sweet. That CD contained covers of songs by some of the same artists covered on Rainy Day.

(RAREBIRD'S ROCK AND ROLL RARITY REVIEWS)

Recording with a stable backup band, the Jazz Butcher here puts together a top-shelf diamond of a record that is filled with excellent, memorable songs. Diverse styles are deftly referenced here and the lyrics are focused, wry, and often killer clever. The sound quality is a big improvement over that of his prior release, In Bath of Bacon. The drivingly tuneful "Southern Mark Smith" and "Girlfriend" are in a ringing folk-pop style. "I Need Meat" is a jumpy, neo-rockabilly number. "Marnie" deftly mixes funk and ethnic influences. "My Desert" is essentially a sea chantey or campfire singalong with ironically downbeat lyrics. "Caroline Wheeler's Birthday Present" is a fuzzed-out hard rock parody with irreverently Dylan-esque "I Shall Be Free" style lyrics. "Just like Betty Page" is an uptempo, acoustic guitar based, top-tapping delight. And the wonderfully inventive "Real Men" utilizes a bizarre accompaniment of thudding drums, rumbling bass, and sparkling glockenspiel surrounding hilarious lyrics that attack macho attitudes. Don't pass up this album if you can find it.

(by David Cleary, All Music Guide)