Creation-08

Creation Records

Albums 071-080

Rating Key

••••••

CRE 071
Biff Bang Pow! - Me

1) My First Friend
2) Miss You
3) I'm Burned
4) Song For A Nail
5) She Saved Me
6) You Just Can't Buy Satisfaction
7) Sad Eyes In Velvet
8) Guilt Ridden
9) Lovers
10) Baby You Just Make Me Strong

••

Subtitled 'More Songs For The Sad Eyed Girl', Biff Bang Pow!'s sixth and final proper album for Creation follows on where that album laid off with a series of acoustic numbers, with no bassist again involved and little for drummer Ken Popple to do. It states on the sleeve the album was recorded "in six days in December 1990", but this is not really a surprise as there doesn't appear to have been that much to record. Compared to their earlier output, Me is a disappointment; the songs offer few new ideas, little variation and little sparkle. 'Song For A Nail' is the best track, thoughtfully constructed with electric accompaniment to an acoustic backing, though it has no real ending. 'Baby You Just Make Me Strong' probably comes in second, but the remainder are a pretty poor bunch. Many of them are repetitive, others are straightforward acoustic ballads with little charm that fail to impose themselves. Consequently, listening soon becomes a chore. Whether the drugs had taken their toll on the band's creative processes, or whether the label's never-ending financial crises were weighing heavily upon Alan McGee and Dick Green, this album is a poor finale from a band that had shown enormous promise in their electric glory days.

CRE 072
Fluke - The Techno Rose Of Blighty

1) Philly
2) Glorious
3) Cool Hand Fluke
4) Joni
5) Easy Peasy
6) Phin

••••

Formed in the late 1980s by Mike Bryant, Jon Fugler and Mike Tournier, the former punks had a mutual admiration for Cabaret Voltaire and an increasing interest in the burgeoning acid house scene. Following the release of three, self-financed, white label singles, one of which was the track 'Joni' featured here, the group was snapped up by Creation and The Techno Rose Of Blighty became the fourth dance album to be released by the label. From the start it is clear that this is a cool record. Nothing is overcrowded, nothing is fighting to get heard; it has been made by musicians first and foremost and retains a comfortable, relaxed air throughout. The lead track 'Philly' (single 90) is unflustered and classical with the occasional vocal overlaying a light beat with orchestral tones, and 'Cool Hand Fluke' features pipes and sax with jazzy rhythms. 'Joni' is another high, a terrific dance interpretation of Joni Mitchell's 'Big Yellow Taxi' – full of classical guitar, subtly used samples from the song in question and some fine melodies, this is a very clever recording indeed. 'Glorious' adds a male vocal to a bassy boom with some pleasantly light keyboard riffs, and the delicate 'Easy Peasy' has some relaxing sax breaks thrown amidst scattered rhythms. This was to be the band's only release for the label as they took advantage of Creation's lack of contracts to move quickly to the Virgin-owned Circa label for their next release.

CRE 073
The Times - Pink Ball, Brown Ball, Ed Ball

1) Manchester
2) Septième Ciel
3) How To Start Your Own Country
4) Snow
5) Confiance
6) Catherine Wheel
7) Heaven Sent Me An Angel
8) Extase
9) A Girl Called Mersey
10) Five Thirty
11) I've Got All This And Heaven Too
12) Lundi Bleu (NAM New Age Mod Mix)

•••

Having obviously thought Ed Ball had not released enough records, Creation decided the time was right to produce a retrospective from The Times. This belies its catalogue number by being put out after The Times' Pure album release (album 91) and contains two tracks from Beat Torture, three from E For Edward ('Snow' is an edit or remix but not listed as such), three from Et Dieu Créa La Femme, and one from Pure (as well as the 'New Age Mod Mix' of 'Lundi Bleu' which was also from that album.) 'Five Thirty' is another version of 'Manchester' with a gentle New Order edge to it, and 'I've Got All This And Heaven Too (Astral Projection Mix)' is a near ten minute dance number in the manner of Love Corporation. Pick and mix.

CRE 074
Ride - Nowhere

1) Seagull
2) Kaleidoscope
3) In A Different Place
4) Polar Bear
5) Dreams Burn Down
6) Decay
7) Paralysed
8) Vapour Trail

•••••

Extra tracks on CD release
9) Taste
10) Here And Now
11) Nowhere

Just what the doctor ordered. After a year of putting out some pretty diverse material of varying quality and more than dipping their toes into the dance daze of acid house, Creation finally returned to what they knew best and uncovered their first meaningful guitar band since The House of Love. Having released three successful EPs, the first of which became Creation’s first Top 75 hit whilst the other two both hit the top 40, Oxford band Ride’s Nowhere instantly became the label’s most successful album, debuting at number 11 despite the obstinate insistence in putting out yet another release with no band name or title on the cover. And what a return to form it was. Nowhere is a beautiful mess of guitars parading in front of a decent rhythm section and 1960s-inspired vocal harmonies from the band’s two singer-guitarists Mark Gardener and Andy Bell. At its best it is mesmerising. ‘Seagull’ is a six-minute guitar tour de force, whilst the dominant ‘Dreams Burn Down’ also impresses, a slower number with intermittent electric explosions. The CD version came with three extra tracks from the 'Fall' EP (single 87). ‘Taste’ is dreamy, building up nicely with crashing drums and singing guitars, whilst 'Nowhere' is heavy and slow with plenty of distortion. It’s not perfect. The vocals are not always great and there are signs of immaturity in some of the songs, but these are minor niggles in a record that heralded the rebirth of a label.

CRE 075
Something Pretty Beautiful - Something Pretty Beautiful

1) Freak Outburst
2) I Want To Watch
3) Amnesia
4) Expect A Miracle
5) Landmine
6) Free Fall

••••

This, again, is more of a typical Creation release, featuring 1960s-influenced guitar pop with a mild, psychedelic edge. This six-tracker was not so much of an album, but a bringing together of tracks recorded for two EPs, the first ‘Freefall’ (single 66) being partnered with ‘I Want To Watch’ and ‘Expect A Miracle’ and the second, ‘Freak Outburst’ being scheduled for release as single No.74 but never seeing light of day. This made it the second Creation catalogue number not to be issued following on from single No.47, set aside for Edwyn Collins’ ‘Don’t Shilly Shally’ which eventually came out on Elevation. The band was put together by Joss Cope, who had already featured on quite a few Creation releases, and former Crash guitarist Bill Carey. The album came out with a decidedly difficult to read cover which perhaps does not reflect the content which is quite accessible and rolls along pleasantly with some worthy guitar lines, decent rhythm tracks and gentle backing harmonies that complement the tidy lead vocals. ‘Freak Outburst’ is a high with good Bunnymen guitar and a mild psychedelic flavour, whilst ‘Freefall’ is also good, melodic and uptempo. Contrary to its title, ‘Landmine’ is light and attractive, though short, and you will be hard pushed to find anything really that will bring a frown. A very decent beginning, sadly never built upon.

CRE 076
Primal Scream - Screamadelica

1) Movin' On Up
2) Slip Inside This House
3) Don't Fight It, Feel It
4) Higher Than The Sun
5) Inner Flight
6) Come Together
7) Loaded
8) Damaged
9) I'm Comin' Down
10) Higher Than The Sun
11) Shine Like Stars

•••••

There is no record that sums up a movement as well as Primal Scream’s Screamadelica represents acid house’s intrusion into the indie psyche in the early 1990s. A 65-minute double disc offering that included four single releases, and one of those twice, Screamadelica is a melting pot of rock music, house, pyschedelia, gospel and dub that succeeds in emerging as a whole rather than a mess of different threads. Largely produced by Andrew Weatherall, this is a record not restricted by the usual band dynamics, yet when it harnesses them becomes even more impressive. ‘Movin’ On Up’ is a straightforward rock ‘n’ roll track produced by legendary Rolling Stones producer Jimmy Miller and it would not be out of place on any album from that band’s glory years in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Likewise, ‘Damaged’ also receives the Miller touch, a ballad of different class in production, quality and arrangement from anything found on Primal Scream. Hypnotone take the controls for the shuffling ‘Slip Inside This House’ and The Orb for the dubby ‘Higher Than The Sun’ (single 96) but otherwise Weatherall dominates with ‘Loaded’ (single 70), his radical remix of ‘I’m Losing More Than I’ll Ever Have’, taking the honours. From the Peter Fonda sample onwards this is a sure-fire winner and unsurprisingly it gave Creation their first Top 20 hit. Screamadelica itself shot to No.8 in the charts, eventually going platinum, and picking up every ‘Record Of The Year’ award. It remains remarkable.

CRE 077
The Sneetches - Lights Out! With The Sneetches

1) I Need Someone
2) In My Car
3) Loreli
4) 54 Hours
5) I Don't Expect Her For You
6) Home Again
7) No One Knows
8) Only For A Moment

••

Creation’s next foray into overseas music saw them release the second offering from Californian three-piece The Sneetches, this time not licensing the record, but giving it its first airing. In many ways this is a very different record from the previous Sometimes That’s All We Have. Departed are the myriad of instruments on parade and the over-slick production; indeed the whole release sounds much simpler and far more low budget and it does none the worse for that. However, where it joins its predecessor is in being completely unexciting, showing very little originality or sharpness. ‘I Need Someone’ is a decent enough start with early Beatles’ guitar and vocal harmonies, but ‘In My Car’ is too repetitive and ‘Loreli’ goes on a minute too long despite some pretty, light, psychedelic touches. ‘54 Hours’ is dull and ploddy, ‘I Don’t Expect Her For You’ is an uninspired 1960s rehash with a clichéd solo, and ‘Home Again’ is again Beatley, but fails to make any meaningful impression on the listener. ‘No One Knows’ is a downbeat and dreary four minutes and though ‘Only For A Moment’ starts nicely, it stays in the same place throughout. Though more listenable than their first offering, you really don’t need this record in your life.

CRE 078
The Jazz Butcher - Edward's Closet

1) Mr Odd
2) The Best Way
3) Spooky
4) Pineapple Tuesday
5) Keeping The Curtains Closed
6) She's On Drugs
7) Line Of Death
8) Girl Go
9) Susie
10) The Good Ones

••••

Anything went in 1991 as Creation chucked out thirty-nine albums in a desperate attempt to keep some money coming in to pay for My Bloody Valentine’s ever mounting studio bills. As a collectable name label, everything released on Creation would automatically sell a few thousand copies, so demand was not the be-all and end-all when it came to scheduling, and that was probably just as well for Edward’s Closet as the public were certainly not battering down the doors for a Jazz Butcher retrospective. Given that, this is a pretty decent stab at the job and probably a better all-round package than any of the band’s previous releases for the label. The two best tracks from Fishcotheque are included, along with three of the best from Cult Of The Basement and a decent number from Big Planet, Scarey Planet. Additionally, the band’s version of the American soul number ‘Spooky’ (single 59), previously covered by Dusty Springfield, was added, though sadly there was no room for the ‘New Invention’ single. Of the others, band favourite ‘Mr Odd’ (from Cult Of The Basement) was also included, along with ‘The Good Ones’ (from Big Planet, Scarey Planet) and, for some inexplicable reason, ‘The Best Way’, an intensely annoying number from Fishcotheque. Could have been better, but not much.

CRE 079
The Telescopes - The Telescope

1) Splashdown
2) High On Fire
3) You Set My Soul
4) Spaceships
5) The Presence Of Your Grace
6) And
7) Flying
8) Yeah
9) Ocean Drive
10) Please Tell Mother
11) To The Shore

••••

Having created their reputation as guitar terrorists on the excellent Cheree label, it took The Telescopes a long time to release an album on Creation, this not seeing the light of day until 1992, far out of sequence in the label’s cataloguing system. By that time the band had released four singles for Creation of quite remarkable quality so when The Telescopes finally saw the light of day expectations were high. The label foresaw a winner, releasing the CD in not just their first digipak packaging, but also including a lyric booklet that additionally contained the appropriate guitar chords. Uncharacteristically, there were to be few opportunities to use those chords as the guitars are very much kept in the background in what is a very subdued whisper of a record. Side one is very quiet indeed, a series of gentle songs with piano and percussion having as much say as the guitars. 'You Set My Soul' is even jazzy with a big double bass sound, and the vocals are all but inaudible on the last track of side one, 'And', with its distortion making it reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine. Side two is more like the old band. 'Flying' (single 108) has lively guitars and a psychedelic chorus and was one of the few tracks that could have been picked as a single. The other choice could have been 'Ocean Drive', another of the harder, more fulfilling numbers. The double vocal on 'Yeah' is another high point. Certainly hard work, but after a few listens it all seems to work.

CRE 080
Hypnotone - Ai

1) SBXII
2) QIX
3) Electraphonic
4) God CPU
5) Dreambeam
6) Quasar
7) Love
8) Yu-Yu
9) Air Walk
10) God CPU (Ambient)

••

Following the departure from the ranks of Martin Mittler, Tony Martin was left largely in charge as Hypnotone released their second album for Creation, this time a beefier, hour-long, 10-track offering, simply titled A1. As acid house/dance releases went this was not a manic offering, with plenty of tracks coming in at around the 100bpm mark; however, it also offered fewer ideas than Hypnotone and is ultimately less satisfying. The information on the cover, of course, is strewn with errors. Track four, credited as 7.35 minutes runs for 5 minutes, whilst track five comes in at 6 minutes and not the credited 4.30 minutes. Credits are given for the rap on 'Hypnotonic' though that track does not even appear on the album. The music itself is linked nicely with sound effects between numbers, but is often high-pitched, whiny and repetitive, charges that could never have been made at its predecessor. 'Quasar' is the best number, containing some nice guitar work, over a keyboard riff and vocals courtesy of Fiona Campbell. Carlos Manning's rap also gives flesh to 'Love', a slower number with an electro beat, and Campbell again features on the Twin Peaks-inspired 'Air Walk' which is fairly decent. Overall, though, somewhat of a disappointment.

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