Presages(s): (1980/BAD 11)

             Not a suprise that a year that saw the beginning of 4AD, would field material of questionable quality along with some classics. Here we have an experiment by Ivo and Peter and releasing an EP of some demo tracks by mostly unsigned bands as some type of compilation. Overall all the bands here, except Modern English, aren't very good really, and some of the songs are just plain terrible. 

The Tracklisting is:

1. CVO: Sargaso Sea

2. Psychotic Tanks: Let's Have a Party

3. Psychotic Tanks: Security Idiots

4. Modern English: Home

5. The Last Dance: Malignant Love
6. Spasmodic Caress: Hit the Dead

7. Red Atkins: Hunk of a Punk

CVO's Sargaso Sea is a strange, electronic track featuring rather primitive keyboard tones, bad singing and a simple drum machine pattern. The track itself is ok, building on itself musically as the song goes, swaying along like a body of water. Psychotic Tanks' Let's Have a Party sounds like a half-hearted attempt at doing indie-funk, with some noise guitar, monotone vocals and some synth sound effects. Security Idiots is far more punkier and resembles an actual song, but is less interesting then Let's Have a Party. Modern English's Home is similar in many ways to their track Incident in it involves someone being killed lyrically, this time it's even goofier, bordering hammy. The music however is better with it largely being a textural  piece with no one really playing any chords, just strumming notes in a key to a continuous cymbal pitter-patter behind the singer. Last Dance's Malignant Love is just a mess of a piece, trying to do more than the band is capable. The production is weak (well it is a demo recording) but the keyboard tones are bad, the bass is murky, the drums soaked with to much reverb, and the singer sounding out of place with ever thing else. If it had better production it possibly could have sounded like a Siouxsie and the Banshees track but here its just not good. The most new wave track on Presage(s) would be Hit the Dead by Spasmodic Caress which besides Sargaso Sea is probably the best track. It's short, features a good delivery and a catchy melody/chorus. It also has a cool echo thing on the vocals in the chorus. Not bad. Sounds vaguely like Wire too, or at least Colin Newman. The last track is a joke track by Peter, at Ivo's chugrin. Red Atkins himself isn't a singer or an artist, and his track Hunk of a Punk is more like a surreal sing-a-long than an actual song. Overall Presage(s) is probably the worst thing the 4AD ever put out, things only got better from here.

Rating: 1/5

                             

The The: Controversial Subject (1980/AD 10)

The The is for most part the musical alias of one Matt Johnson, and here is the debut release by him. Released in the August of 1980, the music here is quite different of what he would be doing in a few years such as his most well known song Uncertain Smile. Controversial subject is much more electronic, featuring a constant drum machine part with some prominent synth passages. It also has an interesting neo-psychedelic sound with multiple vocal overdubs as well some panning fun. The lyrics itself are rather good and one of the main hold overs that he took when changed labels. The production is probably the weakest part of the release with the guitar being very trebily, and the balance being very odd.
       The b-side, Black and White has an even worse time with balance between instruments with a really obnoxious melody featuring over very simple and maudlin keyboard lines, and a more percussive back beat. I would not be surprised if Matt was the only performer on the second track considering how simple all the music is. So overall, while I would say the a-side is catchy and lyrically good, this release overall is nothing special.

Rating: 2.5/5

Cupol: Like This for Ages (1980/BAD 9)

        2 members of Wire, Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis, start recording under the moniker Dome in 1980 after Wire went on hiatus. Cupol here is the same members and that name only exists for this release, of which afterwords their releases on 4AD would be under their own names. While not too radically different from their music under Dome, I would say the duo's 4AD work is more drone based. Like This for Ages was released in July 1980. The A-side is an odd sampler based percussive track, that along with the slightly oriental feel and the drone, makes a very strange track overall. The lyrics claim "I've been eating trees; it's been like this for ages". It's a little mesmerizing when listening to, but forgettable afterwerds.
       The B-side is a 20-minute long track called Kluba Cupol, played at 33 rpm, that begins with bell like drone and slowly builds adding percussion until around 12 minutes in some industrial synths are added in, and after that point some percussion instruments are removed and the focus begins on the industrial sounds which caries the cacophony  until the end of the track. It's an ok mood piece but doesn't really put the listener in a trance which I'm guess was the purpose of the track.

Rating: 2/5

In Camera: Final Achievement (1980/AD 8)

      Released in June 1980, In Camera's debut single, Final Achievement bears some similarity to Public Image Ltd, circa Metal Box. In Camera, along with Dance Chapter, for the most part represented the lesser faction of early 4ad, not very interesting for the most part live or on recording (with the excpetion of the EP Fin for In Camera). With the A-side Final Achievement, the song development itself is very minimalist with two chords in total and the same guitar and bass line throughout. That wouldn't be a problem if they weren't so repetitious and in the case of the guitar line a unconvincing descending single note line. The disco drums top of the Pil similarities, and towards the end of the song there is some noise guitar overdubs but it overall doesn't do much to make it better.
                    The B-side is slightly better. Die Laughing features a munch more frenzied pace that sounds like the band is about to lose tempo throughout. It's painfully obvious that the drummer is the most talented member here with the rest of the band knowing how to play probably a total 10 notes. The guitar this time does some trashing reverberated chords, which is a little more interesting, however the vocalist is much more prominent here and in some places his singing becomes obnoxious. Towards the last 30 seconds however the song hits its final stride with the band actually channeling some real emotion and the guitar, bass, drums and vocals succeeding in creating a claustrophobic dynamic ending.

Rating: 2/5

Bauhaus: Terror Couple Kill Colonel (1980/AD7)

      Released in June 1980, Terror Couple Kill Colonel would be the 2nd release by Bauhaus on 4AD. This release here features the title track and a b-side called scopes. The dub element that was somewhat there on 'Bela Lugosi's Dead' is much more apparent here with the thicker bass and a more spaced-out production. Out of the 4AD singles, this is my least favorite of the three by the band. The A-side is decent enough with the panned percussion part being cool. The lyrics tell of a military man regretting his decision to not become a doctor moments before his demise (turns out the song is indeed about the death of Paul Bloomquist by a Red Army Faction bomb).  It's not too melodic of a song and really while features some cool effects throughout the song, it isn't as memorable as their other singles.
       The b-side here though continues the tradition of Dark Entries by being entirely silly and non-essential. The track is called Scopes and guess what? It's all about scopes. The lyrics consists of various types of said devices, such as stethoscope and kaleidoscope, and features a repeated angular riff as its backing. Once again it is short, but it runs the risk of being annoying.

Modern English: Swans on Glass (1980/AD6)

     One of the first bands to be signed to 4AD, Modern English began very much in the vein of groups like Joy Division and Wire, favoring simple chord progressions with interesting textures. They also were the one of the first, if not the first, band to approach Ivo and Peter with a demo and were in consideration for signing to Beggars until 4AD was established. Their first proper single, not counting '79's self-released "Drowning Man" is "Swans on Glass"(released in May 1980) which is a fairly good textural post-punk song. It features icy guitars, throbbing bass and tribal drums, and has a very effective build up to the guitar driven chorus. The keyboards here, while not overly complex, help maintain the atmosphere and are fitting addition.

    The B-side is a sub par track called "Incident" which is about an old man being killed by some nameless thug. Lyrically it's presented in a way to suggest disdain for the needless violence of the late 70's of some youth culture, but it comes off a sort of silly. The music isn't particularly interesting sounding like a less-inspired version of the a-side.

Rema Rema: Wheel in the Roses (1980/BAD 5)

       The first official release under the 4AD moniker, Wheel in the Roses by Rema Rema is itself a hard to classify release genre-wise. Rema Rema, the band, had ceased to exist by the point of this EP release in April 1980. Guitarist Marco Pirroni (formally of the first incarnation of Siouxsie and the banshees) was on his way to join the new Adam and the Ants. The band beforehand approached the Beggars Banquet store to release their sole output, this EP, and after talking Ivo, succeeded in releasing the first proper 4AD release. Ivo, himself, saw Rema Rema's EP as an excellent collection of songs that justifies the beginning of the new label.
       Wheel in the Roses begins off with the aptly titled Feedback Song, a track that features a bouncing bass line, cut-time snare hits, and layers of guitar feedback. It's probably the weakest song here, but is successful at establishing the manic atmosphere that would continue throughout the EP. The second song, Rema Rema, is an excellent example of a noise rock romp. The vocals here are mostly composed of the bands name shouted gleefully followed by laughing. Its a swirling piece of dance-punk that features subtle industrial influences and was even later covered by Big Black. The second half are live recordings from a concert and are arguably the best songs on the EP. The first is Instrumental which is a fantastic synth-driven track that doubles the industrial influence and feedback, and is also not instrumental. And finally is the majestic Fond Affections, that features a crawling industrial rhythm section a forlorn descending base line and lyrics that straddle the line between melodrama and sarcasm. This is one of the few releases of early 4AD that had a no wave/space rock influence and along with an atmosphere that is not necessarily bleak or dark but more intense and relentless. 3/5ths of Rema would form the group Mass and would have a few releases on 4AD as well.