Mad Turks From Istanbul - Café Istanbul (1987, Greasy Pop)

Damn. Where has this album been my whole life? A couple months ago when I posted the Bad Timing Perth, Australia retrospective compilation, I name dropped a band that I could have sworn hailed from Perth, but actually didn't. The group in question was the Spliffs, an '80s jangle outfit in the mold of the Someloves that I unfortunately discovered way too after the fact. I did some poking around on Google to satisfy my Spliffs jones, and in the process learned of one of their contemporaries, The Mad Turks From Istanbul, or more commonly referred to as simply the Mad Turks. Originally based in Adelaide, and eventually migrating to Melbourne, the Turks would parley themselves into the Ice Cream Hands by the early '90s, though neither achieved mainstream notoriety.

Their debut, Café Istanbul is something of a revelation, though it doesn't sound far removed from such period acts as the Smithereens, Close Lobsters, and their own countrymen the Hoodoo Gurus and the Ups and Downs. Monstrous, gargantuan hooks, hard strummed Rickenbacker chords, and brisk tempos eminently define the dozen aces ensconced within this powerhouse of a record. "Under Review," "Chances Lane," and "Honestly Rita" all brandish an utterly timeless power-pop panache that parallel the work of any of the aforementioned. A second album, Toast was issued in 1990, and though I have not had the privilege of hearing it, one needs no further convincing of the Turks talent than Café Istanbul. The online "branch" of the South Australia State Library (linked above) provides further biographical info, a full discography, plus 30 second samples of this LP and some of the Turks singles. A great article on the group and their segue into the Ice Cream Hands can be read over at the venerable Noise for Heroes website.

01. Chances Lane
02. Lolene
03. Honestly Rita
04. Forbidden Fruit
05. Ten Words
06. Purdy Baby
07. Looking Forward to Destroy
08. Under Review
09. Holding My Breath
10. Suicide Style
11. The Crescent Moon

12. Café Istanbul
 

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The Mad Turks - Toast (1990, Festival)

This is a followup to my recent share of the Mad Turks From Istanbul's phenomenal debut LP, Café Istanbul. There was a three year layover between that album and this sophomore successor, and in the intervening years, the group truncated their name to simply, The Mad Turks, and lost original guitarist Hank M. Turk (actual moniker Matthias Eckhardt - thank you Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop). The aforementioned Café possessed a walloping, visceral urgency that this album is somewhat deficient in, but the band's progression is at the very least logical, if not a bit too straight laced for their own good. Nevertheless, Toast succeeds with a handful of poignantly sprite moments, namely "Bloodmoney," "Left the Right," and "Tempers Fire" that adequately rekindle some of the Turks early fervor. After the band itself was "toast," various members evolved into an equally respectable power pop troupe, The Icecream Hands, noted in the comments to this post, as well as in a thorough and must read article on Noise For Heroes. Big thanks to Kouzie for furnishing me with the artwork.

01. Walking Disaster
02. Tempers Flare
03. Not So Long Ago
04. The Last Mile
05. Nothing Will Have Changed
06. You In Mind
07. Bloodmoney
08. 1,001
09. Our Little Rumour
10. Somebody Said
11. Goodnight
12. Left the Right

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VA - An Oasis in a Sea of Noise (1985, Greasy Pop)

How about another compilation to follow up last week's Laughtour?  Only this one was considerably more aggravating in the respect that no less than four songs exhibited jumps/skips. The vinyl itself looked absolutely pristine, so I'm not sure what the culprit was.  Maybe I didn't set the weight of the tone arm correctly?  Since I didn't have an adequate and immediate fix, I was able to find alternate sources for two of the faulty tracks, and will denote the (slightly) flawed ones with an *.  If I'm able to eventually straighten this out I'll supply an amended link.

An Oasis in a Sea of Noise was am immediate must-buy when I eyed it in the racks at the Record Collector in Bordentown, NJ a few years ago. Greasy Pop record's reputation for quality control is almost in a class by itself, but the concept of this local-specific disk is to shine a light on the somewhat neglected scene bubbling up in the South Australian town of Adelaide.  With the inclusion of the Mad Turks (From Istanbul) and Exploding White Mice Oasis... was a no brainer.  And while these were the names that brought me to the table, I gladly stayed for plenty of others.  The Verge's "Here With No Fear" deserves it's rightful spot on a hypothetical '80s Nuggets collection, with Dust Collection follow in similar fashion, but Primitive Painters proved to be the most enlightening winner in the obscuro sweepstakes.  Their "Undertow" jangles and pulses with the fresh urgency of some of their due-southeast Kiwi contemporaries on Flying Nun, seemingly informed by the likes of Mitch Easter/Let's Active as well.  The slightly more established Garden Path also tap into the Rickenbacker aesthetic, and the aforementioned Mad Turks dazzle with an exclusive cut, "Yet You Wonder Why," while the Exploding White Mice cap this affair off with a raucous rendering of the Stooges "Down on the Street."

01. The Verge - Here With No Fear

02. The Verge - Outside Eden

03. Dust Collection - Ingrid

04. Ded Nats - How to Keep Your Husband Happy

05. Primitive Painters - Undertow

06. The Garden Path - This Place

07. The Spikes - Spy in My House*

08. The Mad Turks - Yet You Wonder Why

09. On Heat - Headlines

10. The Plague - Axeman

11. The Primevils - Mosquito Soup*

12. The Primevils - Wasting Away

13. Exploding White Mice - Down on the Street

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July 14th - Till We Meet Again (1988, Greasy Pop)

Naturally, I'm featuring this one today to coincide with the band's moniker (indeed, I've been anxiously waiting all year for this moment).  I'm a sucker for any record gracing the Greasy Pop Records imprint, given my overwhelming satisfaction with the likes of Mad Turks From Istanbul, Exploding White Mice and Lizard Train among others, and I was happy to give this one a shot knowing virtually nothing about July 14th.  Nonetheless I went into this one hoping/expecting this Adelaide, Aussie quartet would cast some sort of a jangly spell on me, but I was in for a surprise.  Little did I know July 14th, were a relatively conventional bunch wielding a penchant for diversity, with Till We Meet Again often resembling a compilation record, rather than an album with a monochromatic agenda.  Aided and abetted by no less than ten guest musicians (not simultaneously mind you) July 14 exude no shortage of genre wanderlust, hopscotching from textured pastoral pop ("Take My Hand") to rambunctious blues forays ("Bubble") and even brass-laced ballroom jazz ("Foolin").  The taut, "Only One" is the album's most straightforward assertive rock venture, and should have been a shoo-in for a single.  Till We Meet... is occasionally rewarding, but is so scattershot that you walk away without an adequate sense of what kind of impression the band strives to present.  I have to wonder if their first full length, Australian Bite, yields a more consistent set of tunes.  The cassette version of this one is padded with six additional tracks.

Technical note: The forlorn ballad, "To Be One" has a skip towards the end that I was unable to remedy, but if possible will try to correct at a later date.

01. Take My Hand

02. Love Vietnam

03. Lonely Planet

04. Souls on Fire

05. To Be One

06. Bubble

07. Sun

08. Only One

09. Foolin'

10. I'm Gonna Die

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VA - Lessons From Little Hits, Part 1

It was more than a simple appreciation of subrosa sounds that served as the foundation for going public with Wilfully Obscure in 2007.  The other part of the equation was a number of other music "sharity" blogs which came before mine that I deeply admired, and first and foremost was a shining beacon called Little Hits.  Curated by Jon Harrison, it was a true music blog in the respect that his original goal was to stick to a song-a-day format (which he succeeded in doing during the mid '00s).  It wasn't the prolific nature of LH, so much as what he was making available through his site - impossibly scarce singles from '80s indie and post-punk acts.  I'm not talking about the likes of the Connells and the Godfathers, or for that matter most of what populated 120 Minutes' playlists, rather overlooked gems from bands whose releases were relegated to local, micro-indie imprints, and private pressings.  Accompanying each glorious blast wave on the Little Hits servers was a depiction of the record sleeve and a brief but informative essay about the music in question.  Gee, I wonder where I got that idea from... 

Theoretically, I never intended for Wilfully Obscure to be modeled after Little Hits, yet so many of the enlightening discoveries I made on there led me to search out the actual records for myself, many of which I've passed on to you in their entirety, as opposed to LH's less legally susceptible "one song" per record policy.  How's that for a run on sentence?  Anyway, those daily revelations really stimulated a record buying habit that continues unabated to this day...and the results have been unveiled here ever since. During LH's 2005-09 run, I managed to purloin 300+ tracks from his Mr. Harrison's hallowed servers.  Many of which were from artists I had never encountered previously, and have yet to feature on these pages.  Today is the first of three collections of left-of-the-dial Nuggets that Little Hits brought to my attention.  The Little Hits website is still intact, but hardly browsable, and furthermore all the MP3 links have been removed.  If you're curious about any of the music in this setlist, my best advice would be to do a Google query with "Little Hits" and the band name in quotes, and you should promptly reach the page you so desire.  To read a little more about the closure of LH, may I point you to The Pitch.

Alter Boys - Piles
Bored Games - Bridesmaid
Circles - Opening Up
Cowboy Mouth - Long Hot Ride
Downy Mildew - Purple Parlor
Idiot Savant - Throw It Away
Mad Turks From Istanbul -  Looking Forward To Destroy
Monkey 101 – French Feelings
The Moss Poles - One Summer
NNB - Slack
The Pencils - Watching The Tears
Snips - 9 O'clock
Speed The Plough - River Street
The Jean-Paul Sartre Experience - Shadows
The Pearly Gatecrashers - Age Of Innocence

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Repaired links.

Thirty links or so revived from the dead.  Some of these were requests, others were items that may have been neglected or passed over when I initially posted them.  As usual, click on the artist to refer back to the original entry, while the titles will steer you directly to the download link.

Straitjacket Fits - Down in Splendour ep 
Incomplete Monday - I Am
Billy James - Sixes and Sevens
Pavement - Black Out 7"
Dambuilders - God Dambuilders Bless America  
Mad Turks of Istanbul - Toast and Cafe Istanbul
Mood Paint (pre-Pond) - demo
Playground - singles
The Fumes - singles
Touchables - More Than a Glimpse ep
Delusions of Grandeur - Picture Perfect Martyr
Chris Sievey (Freshies) - Big Record
Stiffs, Inc. - Nix Naught Nothing
Numbers - Add Up
Hot Tip - Stop All Motion
Classic Ruins - Ruins Cafe
Ups and Downs - singles & Rash ep
Naomi's Hair - Tara
Field Trip - Beautiful
Downsiders - s/t LP & All My Friends Are Fish
Jo Broadbery and the Standouts - s/t LP & House of Love
Local Operator - singles
Green on Red - Rev. Luther ep
Popular Front - This is the Rubicon
Mod Lang - Where Your Heart ep
Those French Girls - s/t LP
3 1/2 Minutes - Peep ep and Bleed Me Dry ep