Creation-21

Creation Records

Albums 201-210

Rating Key

••••••

CRE 201
Eggman - First Fruits

1) Purple Patches
2) Tomas
3) That's That Then (For Now)
4) Not Bad Enough
5) The Funeral Song
6) Replace All Your Lies With Truth
7) Out Of My Window
8) Look Up
9) I'll Watch Your Back
10) First Fruits Fall

•••

June 1996 saw the release of the only solo album from Simon Rowbottom, universally known as Sice, whose vocals had long graced the Boo Radleys albums. Rowbottom chose to put out First Fruits under the pseudonym 'Eggman', presumably a play on the combination of his baldness and the lyrics from the Beatles' 'I Am The Walrus', a song from the fellow Liverpudlians' most psychedelic period. And there are some psychoactive touches here, though on the whole the album comes across as a bit of a tame affair, at its best sounding like The Boo Radleys before they had been given their jabs, and at its worst sounding a little thin and lacking in ideas. With all of his bandmates making an appearance, and drummer Rob Cieka featuring virtually throughout, some similarities with the day job are not surprising, but it is when the Eggman ventures into virgin territory that the album really begins to lose its bite. 'Purple Patches' with its church organ, groovy beat, wah-wah guitars and Oasis-like anthemic vocals is quite a decent opener and the first side of the record is impressive. 'That's That Then (For Now)' jumps from mild verses into a huge chorus with a nicely confused middle section, 'Not Bad Enough' is carried along by a brilliant out-of-key guitar riff provided by Sean Jackson of 18 Wheeler, and 'The Funeral Song' is a harmonious triumph. The album, however, begins to tail off towards the end, losing its harder edge with a series of light, inconsequential songs that really leave you wanting more, and as the whole barely stretches over half an hour, this represents quite a hole. The lack of a really dominating lead guitarist is a negative throughout, but Rowbottom does a decent enough job on the haunting closer 'First Fruits Fall' which at leasts ends the record on a relative high. Ed Ball is another contributor, providing bass, organ and harpsichord, and the label released 'Not Bad Enough' (single 225) to promote the album, but with little impact. However, First Fruits definitely has its moments, and it would be a shame to disregard it completely

CRE 202
BMX Bandits - 'Theme Park'

1) We're Gonna Shake You Down
2) Girl Nextdoor
3) Nuclear Summertime
4) Teenage Slaughtertime
5) This Lonely Guy
6) I Wanna Fall In Love
7) One Big Heart
8) Opel Mantra
9) Milky Way
10) Motorboat
11) Love Makes The World Go Round
12) Before The Blue Moon
13) Lonely Love

••••

14) Evel Knievel
15) Ride The Iron Horse
16) In The Afterglow
17) Sparkle Finish
18) Our Time Has Come

After two fairly straightforward albums for Creation, the final offering on the label from the BMX Bandits has a more experimental feel with two of the eighteen tracks coming in at under one minute, and a further three at under two minutes. On first listening these snippets seem a pointless waste of space, but on repeated plays they become part of a coherent, if eclectic, whole with songs ranging from classic indie-pop tunes, to Ramonesesque chugs, instrumental breaks and general bouts of silliness. The album is certainly well named, Theme Park treating us to a whole range of experiences: a rollercoaster ride of exhilarating highs, terrible lows, whispered conversations and hours spent in queues. There are some truly gorgeous tracks here, 'I Wanna Fall In Love' bursts gloriously from the maudlin 'This Lonely Guy' and is the undoubted highlight, though 'In The Afterglow' rattles along nicely, 'Love Makes The World Go Round' is a well polished jangle, and the one track lifted from the album by Creation, 'We're Gonna Shake You Down' (single 237) stomps about rudely, embellished by a suitably crusty guitar solo. Theme Park is not necessarily an easy listen, but with a bit of work you will find this album to be a cleverly crafted thing that needs to be enjoyed as a whole and not picked apart piecemeal. "Isolation is the only place I know," declares Duglas T. Stewart on 'Ride The Iron Horse' amidst some storming guitars and we can wholeheartedly agree with him. Give it a go and ultimately you won't be disappointed.

CRE 203
Offworld - Another Planet

1) Untitled
2) Net
3) Orinoco
4) Deeseven
5) Chromatic
6) Offliner
7) Sidespiral
8) Venus
9) Cosmosis
10) Androgen
11) Organo
12) Santamira

•••

OK, don't know a lot about this one. Apparently the work of Christian Groothuizen, presumably not of the House of Love, this originally saw release in 1995 as Offcomm1 by Offworld Communication Systems. There was one additional track on that release and the running order was completely different, being 7,10,9,11,12,3,1, 'Computer Sheep', 2,4,5,6,13. How this came to be reissued by Creation the following year and why the track listing was changed I have no idea (please tell). What we have, however, is an album of dance music, just on the solid side of ambient, nothing too hasty or laborious, and often quite pleasant to the ear. Certainly there's not much wrong with the gently insistent bass lines, sparkling keyboards and occasionally sampled vocal noises. 'Untitled' is simply pleasant, 'Net' almost sounds like a chilled, fatter theme tune to Starsky & Hutch, 'Chromatic' is atmospheric in a future-scary way, and 'Offliner' beeps and bumps in all the right places. Occasionally it all gets a bit droney and in your face, but all in all it appears a pretty competent fifty-two-and-a-half minutes. There's probably little chance of it getting played here more than once every five years, but if you like to chill on the dancefloor in the early hours, you could do an awful lot worse than this. Can't really say much more than that.

CRE 204
Sumosonic - This Is Sumo

1) Come, Friendly Spacemen (Lords Of Sumo Mix)
2) God's Green Earth
3) Fern, Schnell, Gut
4) Cat's Life
5) Everything Is Wonderful
6) Stupid
7) Destroy All Monsters
8) Radio Saigon
9) Business And Work
10) Monks Of Kung Fu
11) Sputnik
12) Come, Friendly Spacemen (Sushi Remix)

•••

Having decided to do away with the Jazz Butcher, Pat Fish re-emerged with a new band under the name of Sumosonic, with only Gabriel Turner remaining from the last Butcher line-up. Sumosonic were to release only one album and single before being dropped by Creation, with 'Come Friendly Spaceman' (single 242) seeing the light of day in December 1996 and This Is Sumo following in January 1998. The band's music was described on their own website as being a "keyboard-heavy attack of quasi-techno rhythms", with the further warning, "Never quite dance music, the tight compositions and good-natured feistiness are a bit too mischievous for outright club-fare." So, the punter is being offered techno music to which you can't dance, which seems a little odd to say the least. Of course, the description is not entirely accurate with the opener certainly a groover with the verses rapped out and a big choral refrain which is all quite appealling in a silly sort of way. The original single b-side 'Monks Of Kung Fu' is also pure dance music, with plenty of Oriental samples filling it out. At the other end of the spectrum, songs such as the sparse, atmospheric 'God's Green Earth', the guitar-driven 'Fern, Schnell, Gut' and dubby, slow-moving 'Radio Saigon' are more typical Butcher offerings barely touched by the techno-bug, while others lay in between the two. 'Cat's Life' is a dreamy ballad draped in keyboard blipping with more rapping, the livelier 'Stupid' follows a similar pattern, and 'Sputnik' is a gentle pop tune to an electro-beat and backing. Being Fish, of course, everything is done immaculately and the record sounds fantastic, but as with 18 Wheeler's Year Zero, This Is Sumo appears to be caught with a foot in two camps, fully satisfying neither. Yes, there are good moments, but at other times this comes across as muddled and lacking direction. A strange one.

CRE 205
Slaughter Joe - Album
Unreleased

CRE 206
Hurricane #1 - Hurricane #1

1) Just Another Illusion
2) Faces In A Dream
3) Step Into My World
4) Mother Superior
5) Let Go Of The Dream
6) Chain Reaction
7) Lucky Man
8) Strange Meeting
9) Monday Afternoon
10) Stand In Line

••••

With Ride having fallen apart during the recording and mixing of Tarantula in early 1996, Mark Gardener and Laurence Colbert went on to form The Animalhouse, while Andy Bell teamed up with vocalist Alex Lowe, bassist Will Pepper and drummer Gareth Farmer to form Hurricane #1, with Creation taking up the option of releasing the band's recordings. The debut album saw the light of day in September 1997, at the very height of Britpop, this being the year Blur, Oasis and The Verve all topped both the singles and album charts. It would later be seen to be the high watermark of the movement and the emergence of bands such as Radiohead had already marked the beginning of a move into more introspective sounds; nevertheless it was a good time for Bell's new band to emerge, especially as they were producing a far more coherent and effective sound than Ride had managed for some years. With Bell writing all the tracks and co-producing with Stephen Harris, there is no doubt this was very much his band, and the album is dominated by guitar-driven, relatively straightforward rock songs, though it is lifted immensely by Lowe's excellent, aggressive vocals. Creation were obviously impressed and released the album in a limited edition, multi-fold, digipak CD version and promoted it with four single releases. 'Step Into My World' (single 253), a thoughtful and surprisingly subtle love song, made it to No.29 in the charts, a remix EP later following (single 276) which did even better, just breaking into the top twenty. This was followed by 'Just Another Illusion' (single 264), a slow-grower built on a splendid bass line, rattling drums and cleverly submerged guitars, which hit No.35, and the bristling 'Chain Reaction' (single 271) which made No.30. This really is the highlight of the whole album, a guitar tour-de-force, with Bell on fire. The six strings dance and scream as Lowe spits out the lyrics in what must surely be the one of the best rock tracks the label ever produced. And as if to demonstrate there was more than one side to this band, the album concludes with the disturbing 'Stand In Line' with its threatening guitars and nasty, psychedelic edge. As debut albums go, this was a mighty fine one, burying the rotten corpse of Ride and striding confidently into the future.

CRE 207
Teenage Filmstars - Bring Back The Cartel

1) Richard Scott Was OK
2) Whatever Happened To Richard Boon
3) Debbie Sazer Don't Erase Her
4) We're In A Meeting
5) Ballad Of Claude Bessy
6) Did Geoff Travis Really Look Like Art Garfunkel
7) Don't Blink ... It's Mike Hine
8) Scott Piering Wears An Earring
9) The Unpublishable Pete Walmsley
10) How Pink Was Pinko Fowler
11) We're Useless But We Mean It
12) Sorry But We Seem To Have Misplaced 50,000 Of Your Records

••

Bring Back The Cartel from 1999 was the fourth album from Ed Ball under his Teenage Filmstars pseudonym and it showed a very different approach compared to the three earlier albums, largely abandoning the incomprehensible cutting and pasting and replacing it with a collection of loose, freeform jazz numbers combining with some ambient dance tunes. This does have the advantage of making the record listenable which is a first for Teenage Filmstars, though again the title of the album and the names of the tracks have nothing to do with the music. The Cartel was a "co-operative record distribution organisation set up by a number of small independent labels to handle their distribution to record shops. Pooling their resources in this way allowed them to compete with the larger distribution operations of the major record labels, and also to gain access to the larger shop chains." (Well put by Wiki.) The Cartel began to fall apart in the late 1980s and early 1990s as gradually its different elements went into liquidation, and Creation always appeared to be at some odds with Geoff Travis of Rough Trade, one of the main figures in its running, who is namechecked, along with others who worked for the organisation. Such in-jokey naming of the songs, of course, only demonstrates there was no real focus behind this collection of tunes, just another bout of experimentation laid down and thrown out to the public. Musically, it could almost have gone out under the Love Corporation banner with numbers such as the closing 'Sorry ...' tying in quite nicely with the style of music released under that name, though it may have been the jazz element that prevented this. It's the best of the four Teenage Filmstars albums, which isn't saying an awful lot, but it lacks the feeling that this actually means anything to anybody.

CRE 208
3 Colours Red - Pure

1) Pure
2) This Is My Hollywood
3) Nerve Gas
4) Nuclear Holiday
5) Copper Girl
6) Sixty Minute Smile
7) Sunny In England
8) Alright Ma
9) Mutual Blocks
10) Fit Boy And Faint Girl
11) Halfway Up The Downs
12) Hateslick
13) Love's Cradle

•••

14) Aniseed

3 Colours Red were possibly Creation's last great project. Randomly named after the final part of Polish film director Krsysztof Kieslowski's Three Colors trilogy, the band was really a marriage of convenience between bassist/singer Peter Vuckovic and guitarist Chris McCormack. The pair were introduced by a mutual friend, recorded some demos in Birmingham, and then set off to London to put a band together. Having their first single released by Fierce Panda in 1996, 3 Colours Red were then snapped up by Creation who kept them busy throughout the following year, releasing five singles and the debut album Pure. Musically, the band played fast, attacking rock music, bordering on punk, and occasionally even hardcore punk. With nine of the songs composed jointly by Vuckovic and McCormack and the other four solely by Vuckovic, there is not a lot of variety here; the guitar assaults are relentless and the rhythm section has little chance to do anything other than pound away. The best moments certainly come when the band is able to draw breath, in the nicely paced 'Fit Boy And Faint Girl' and the more adventurous 'Copper Girl', though you have to tip a hat to the insane 'Halfway Up The Downs'. With guitar bands in vogue, the album met with considerable success, charging up to No.15 in the album chart and the five singles taken from it all made an impact, 'Nuclear Holiday' (single 250) reaching No.22, 'Sixty Mile Smile' (single 254) reaching No.20, 'Pure' (single 265) reaching No.28, 'Copper Girl' (single 270) reaching No.30, and 'This Is Hollywood' (single 277) struggling up to No.48. Apart from the first of these, each single was released in two CD formats, a promotional trick Creation had never really embraced before with much enthusiasm. The CD version of the album was packaged with a 16-page booklet, while the vinyl version was released in a gatefold sleeve. Not a lot wrong with this; though it possibly lacks a bit of ambition and musicality.

CRE 209
Grantby - Album
Unreleased

CRE 210
Nick Heyward - The Apple Bed

1) Stars In Her Eyes
2) In Every Place
3) My Heavy Head
4) The Chelsea Sky
5) Just Like Sorrow
6) Closer
7) The Goodbye Man
8) Reach Out For The Sun
9) Today
10) I Don't Really Know You
11) Dear Miss Finland
12) The Man You Used To Be

•••••

Stephen Duffy, The Creation, Glen Matlock ... it should have been no surprise when Creation announced they were working with yet another musician with a well-known past in former Haircut 100 main man, Nick Heyward, whom Alan McGee had apparently noticed at an Ed Ball concert and signed up for a one album deal. Heyward's former band had scored four top ten singles in the early 1980s and a number two album in Pelican Brief, and after leaving the band, Heyward had dented the charts intermittently from 1983 until as late as 1996 when 'Rollerblade' went top forty. Consequently, The Apple Bed saw the light of day in 1998 and was a revelation to fans of independent music in being a bit of a stormer. Unsurprisingly melodic, well crafted and well produced (by the man himself), these songs also have a biting edge and meld into a mightily impressive collection. Heyward utilises strings, pianos and horns as well as crushing guitars with apparent ease and presents a damn near-perfect series of songs with no incongruity, clumsiness or even a heaviness of touch. Indeed, in the fantastic 'My Heavy Head' he could have thrown in the kitchen sink and it would have still sounded great, the number building from its orchestral opening through uplifting harmonies and a languid guitar solo to a big climax with accompanying celebratory horns. Great stuff. Creation surely missed a trick in not releasing that one as a single, but they were evidently confident in the strength of the material by promoting three other tracks, none of which charted, but all of which should have done. 'Today' (single 262) is an out and out indie rocker with a fabulous wah-wah solo, 'The Man I Used To Be' (single 267) is the collection's most accomplished ballad, echoing the rather downbeat mood of the album's lyrics in proclaiming, "They put you on a pedestal / They put you on TV / And everybody's telling you / Why can't you be the man you used to be?" Heyward's last outing for Creation followed, 'Stars In Her Eyes' (single 291) driven with fierce indie guitars, and graced with nice tempo changes and harmonies. It's not overly difficult to identify the music influencing the artist here. The latter single throws similar shapes to the Beatles' 'She's Leaving Home', the second has some effective Sgt. Pepper organ, and 'Closer' ends with a little dash of George Harrison's eastern promise. And the sixties' influences continue as 'The Goodbye Man' moves straight from a huge, reverberating Oasis solo into Beach Boys harmonies, and it all works so magically you cannot see the joins. Lastly, a mention for 'Just Like Sorrow', so ironically uplifting with its huge horns it defies any interpretation of the lyrics. Bloody hell, this is a good record and Creation should have moved heaven and earth to have kept hold of this man.

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