Post by Ras Berry on Nov 2, 2010 22:40:01 GMT
Just found this nice piece:
www.artrocker.com/node/2442
"In 1981, the debut, self-titled album from New Age Steppers was released.
I wasn’t aware of it, far as I can recall. This was odd, as it featured members of several of my favourite groups (The Pop Group, The Slits, The Raincoats, The Flying Lizards), plus musicians from Creation Rebel and Aswad – and it pretty much sounded as good as all that implies. Maybe there was too much else going on (The Birthday Party, Blurt, Crass) for me to pay attention, but it was some miss. It wilfully straddled the fertile ground between The Slits’ two studio albums (it appeared halfway between them): patchy, sure – but also heady, dope-addled, spacious, dub-heavy, adventurous, produced by Adrian Sherwood, with spiralling, high-pitched vocals from Ari Up and assertive, distorted vocals from The Pop Group’s Mark Stewart, plus a few genial instrumental tracks.
New Age Steppers contained a Slits track (‘Animal Space’, stretched way out of shape), a future cult single B-side (music journalist Vivien Goldman’s awesome, paranoid ‘Private Armies’, recorded amid PiL’s Flowers Of Romance sessions), bicycle bells, the sound of kettles boiling, a track that would, 20 years later, become a mainstay of my DJ set (the melodious, mellifluous ‘Fade Away’) and enough experimental excellence to keep the tapes running for 43 minutes. It was clearly inspired by the good-natured dub madness of Studio One and Lee ’Scratch’ Perry, and, in time, served as a welcome introduction to same.
But in 1981, I was sadly bereft of my dub fix: reggae was still mostly alien to ears sullied by 10cc (‘Dreadlock Holiday’) and too many Police TOTP appearances. Although I did love Linton Kwesi Johnson’s rants…but who didn’t? And, of course, The Slits’ Cut was a mainstay even then – but I was coming at it more from a Raincoats’ angle, than producer Dennis Bovell’s…you have to understand The Clash championed reggae, and their combat fatigues were enough to turn anyone off.
I eventually ceded defeat in ’82, and bought the debut New Age Steppers seven-inch (first release on On-U), quickly followed by the Crucial 90 Statik cassette for £5.99 from future Foetus singer Jim Thirwell’s underground tape counter in Virgin Oxford Walk, packaged in lurid yellow and with a free poster. One side of the cassette, marked with a yellow dot, was New Age Steppers. And that was fucking great. The other (marked by pink) was its slightly more conventional follow-up, Action Battlefield, which featured the indelible single ‘My Love’, and Neneh Cherry on backing vocals. And that was even better. Songs so loose and free and elastic and sensual they buggered my musical perceptions for years afterwards: songs that spun and slithered and slurped and slid unheeding on their way to a new musical perception. It’s an album that sounds way contemporary now, as fans such as Chicks On Speed, DFA Records and Disco Not Disco can attest.
I never did get to see New Age Steppers play live. But man, they sure helped turn my musical education around"
www.artrocker.com/node/2442
"In 1981, the debut, self-titled album from New Age Steppers was released.
I wasn’t aware of it, far as I can recall. This was odd, as it featured members of several of my favourite groups (The Pop Group, The Slits, The Raincoats, The Flying Lizards), plus musicians from Creation Rebel and Aswad – and it pretty much sounded as good as all that implies. Maybe there was too much else going on (The Birthday Party, Blurt, Crass) for me to pay attention, but it was some miss. It wilfully straddled the fertile ground between The Slits’ two studio albums (it appeared halfway between them): patchy, sure – but also heady, dope-addled, spacious, dub-heavy, adventurous, produced by Adrian Sherwood, with spiralling, high-pitched vocals from Ari Up and assertive, distorted vocals from The Pop Group’s Mark Stewart, plus a few genial instrumental tracks.
New Age Steppers contained a Slits track (‘Animal Space’, stretched way out of shape), a future cult single B-side (music journalist Vivien Goldman’s awesome, paranoid ‘Private Armies’, recorded amid PiL’s Flowers Of Romance sessions), bicycle bells, the sound of kettles boiling, a track that would, 20 years later, become a mainstay of my DJ set (the melodious, mellifluous ‘Fade Away’) and enough experimental excellence to keep the tapes running for 43 minutes. It was clearly inspired by the good-natured dub madness of Studio One and Lee ’Scratch’ Perry, and, in time, served as a welcome introduction to same.
But in 1981, I was sadly bereft of my dub fix: reggae was still mostly alien to ears sullied by 10cc (‘Dreadlock Holiday’) and too many Police TOTP appearances. Although I did love Linton Kwesi Johnson’s rants…but who didn’t? And, of course, The Slits’ Cut was a mainstay even then – but I was coming at it more from a Raincoats’ angle, than producer Dennis Bovell’s…you have to understand The Clash championed reggae, and their combat fatigues were enough to turn anyone off.
I eventually ceded defeat in ’82, and bought the debut New Age Steppers seven-inch (first release on On-U), quickly followed by the Crucial 90 Statik cassette for £5.99 from future Foetus singer Jim Thirwell’s underground tape counter in Virgin Oxford Walk, packaged in lurid yellow and with a free poster. One side of the cassette, marked with a yellow dot, was New Age Steppers. And that was fucking great. The other (marked by pink) was its slightly more conventional follow-up, Action Battlefield, which featured the indelible single ‘My Love’, and Neneh Cherry on backing vocals. And that was even better. Songs so loose and free and elastic and sensual they buggered my musical perceptions for years afterwards: songs that spun and slithered and slurped and slid unheeding on their way to a new musical perception. It’s an album that sounds way contemporary now, as fans such as Chicks On Speed, DFA Records and Disco Not Disco can attest.
I never did get to see New Age Steppers play live. But man, they sure helped turn my musical education around"
