Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Jagged Rocks On The Perimeter - The Soldier And The Painter (1986)

Sometimes MP3s just aren't enough.  I met up with Jagged Rocks On The Perimeter several years ago via another music blog and was so impressed I sought out my own copy of their record, presented here today.

This might set a record for the briefest write up for one of our Chanukah posts, simply because these Arizona kids never garnered much of reputation, webwise anyway.  Mid-paced jangle pop was their fixation, with a keen emphasis on the Anglophile genus.  The Soldier And The Painter leans on the heft of more visible practitioners like the Smiths and Dream Academy, falling well short of any wholesale plagiarism.  Jagged Rocks... tamp the pretension level to a hair north of non-existent, which is precisely where it should be. Selections like the crisp title track and the lilting "Sunday at Dusk" gently foreshadow the endeavors of near-future US colleagues the Ocean Blue and Springhouse.  And I'd bet my bottom dollar this quartet was a shoo-in on collegiate AM/FM frequencies.

Even though I've harbored a personal copy of Soldier... for a good three or four years now, I've opted to forgo sharing a personal rip, as the pitch appears be acting up on my turntable.  In short, a FLAC version may follow within the next month or so once I get my act together, but for now, here's a pristine MP3 rip.

01. The Soldier And The Painter
02. Compression
03. Lana
04. untitled fragment
05. Woods
06. Sunday at Dusk
07. In a City South
08. Likes and Truth
09. New Country
10. Dream Station

Hear

7 comments:

ELXOSE80 said...

"Dream Station" and "Lies and Truth" are out of this world.
Thanks for sharing this outstanding álbum.

Anonymous said...

Thanks piece of disk

Hank Sixtyfour said...

Thank you so much. I feel compelled to say that Kitchens of Distinction are a must for anyone who digs this!

Scott Wilkinson said...

As I remember it correctly, we recorded the album in basically two evenings. We basically play all the songs live together without vocals and then added some secondary parts (keyboards etc.). Then we did the vocals. We did not have the money to spend for studio time to really polish it. In fact, we were so rushed that we neglected tuning up guitars for some tracks... and you can really hear it.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment with the whole thing was the mastering. I think we received a draft master before they printed the disks and we listened to it at Tim Ferguson's house (bass player) on a tiny record player. At the time Jim and Tim knew that the bass had been completely lost in mastering. I couldn't tell. When we got the final records, sure enough, the bass was terrible. That is really regrettable because I think Tim Ferguson is one of the greatest bass players. He writes wonderfully creative bass parts. And when we laid the tracks in the studio, Tim had a really great deep rich tone. Anyway, I have a terrible memory, but that is what I recall.

spavid said...

Wow, thanks Scott! That's a fast recording session. Sorry to hear so much of it was regrettable for you. Did Jagged Rocks record/release anything else?

Scott Wilkinson said...

I have recently recorded some stuff with Tim Ferguson. Currently, I am basically doing my own stuff which really sounds Jagged Rocks-ish because I can't seem to break away from my root style established in the early 80s.

I hope to redo a version of Dream Station some day, and another song that I really liked called "Color Me Pastel."

Anyway, if you care to listen to any of my newer stuff you can find it here:
https://soundcloud.com/scott-wilkinson-534853213

As you can tell, I became a Christian (back in 1989) and that is what led me out of the original JROTP.

fanciz said...

Hi,would it be possible to reissue the album. It's so difficult to get a copy. Who owns the rights?
Fanciz