No Commotion

The Box - Muscle In

Ripped from a 12" vinyl single released on Doublevision Records (DVR P1) in 1984 to high resolution 24-bit flac audio. I realised that I had posted all The Box releases in high resolution, except this so I will just squeeze it in here. Enjoy!

A1 Crow Bar (Muscle Mix)
B1 Low Commotion (Muscle Mix)

Unknown Industrial Fatality

Peter Hope & The Jonathan Podmore Method - Dry Hip Rotation

Ripped from a vinyl album released on Native Records (NTVLP 14) in 1986 to high resolution 24-bit flac. I promised this a few months back when I ripped the Kitchenette single. If you consider that was one of the more accessible tracks on what is very much a post-industrial soap opera of an album, then you know what to expect. You certainly don't hear records like this these days.

A1 Kitchenette
A2 Canal
A3 217
A4 Dry Bone
A5 Haulage
B1 Dog Eared Pictures Of Birdwing Cars
B2 Needleheat
B3 Hypnosis
B4 Knife
B5 Scurry Bug
B6 The Unknown Industrial Fatality

Low Commotion

The Box - Muscle In

Ripped from a 12" vinyl EP released on Doublevision Records (DVR 10) in 1984 to high resolution 24-bit flac. The final release proper from Sheffield's quirky popsters The Box. I was just flicking through some old blog posts and realised that I had never ripped this to a lossless format.

A1 Low Commotion
A2 Curfew
B1 Crow Bar
B2 Spade Work

Slam!

The Box - Great Moments In Big Slam

A quick and easy 24-bit re-rip of a well worn vinyl album released On Go! Discs (VFM 5) in 1984 to high resolution flac. It seems apt to round off the recent round of Hope posts with this jerky punk-funk artifact. Who would have though that the second generation of Clock DVA would enjoy themselves so much without Adi?

A1 Walls Come Down
A2 The Flatstone
A3 Big Slam
A4 Stop
B1 Low Line
B2 Breaking Strain
B3 Small Blue Car
B4 Still In The Woodwork

Too Hot

Peter Hope And David Harrow - Sufferhead

Ripped from a 12" vinyl EP released on Ink Records (RTD-INK 1) in 1985 to high resolution 24-bit flac audio. This superb slab of hard industrial funk is a tad more accessible than the previous post.

A1 Too Hot
B1 Buckle Down
B2 (Excerpt From) Bright Boys
B3 Snakes Washed In

Flushed!

Peter Hope & The Jonathan S.Podmore Method - Kitchenette

Ripped from a 12" vinyl single released on Native Records (12NTV 13) to high resolution 24-bits of flac. Kindly donated in a box of vinyl from an important blog follower. I have the Dry Hip Rotation album somewhere in my collection, and will get around to ripping it eventually. Expect something unexpected. Pour him another whiskey....

A1 Kitchenette
A2 Toilet
B1 The Unknown Industrial Fatality

Old Style Drop Downs

The Box - Live Muscle Out

Ripped from a vinyl album released on Doublevision Records (DVR P3) in 1985 to high resolution 24-bit flac audio. ClockDVA (mark two) cast offs hook up with Peter Hope to unleash their own unique brand of jerky alternative funk on a live Sheffield Leadmill audience. Superb!

A1 Bottle Drips Dry
A2 Big Slam
A3 Jaw Clamp Sunshine
A4 Pawn Walk
A5 Rose High
B1 The Hub
B2 Breaking Strain
B3 Deeper Blue
B4 Stop
B5 Momentum
B6 Old Style Drop Down
B7 No Time For Talk

Hoodoo Voodoos

Peter Hope and Richard H. Kirk - Hoodoo Talk

Originally released on Native Records (NTVCD 28) in 1987, ripped here from an overly limited reissue cd to high quality lossless flac. Sheffield trivia time. Peter Hope was not the original vocalist in ClockDVA splinter group The Box. Cabs front man Stephen Mallinder assumed vocals on early Box gigs. I have this on an original vinyl too but it is just a tad too crackly for a decent high res rip.

1 Intro
2 Numb Skull
3 N.O.
4 Cop Out
5 Surgeons
6 50 Tears
7 Leather Hands
8 50 Tears (Reprise)

Something Beginning With 'L'

The Box - Secrets Out

You may be aware, if you keep up to date with happenings on this blog, of my love of the early work of Sheffield's Clock DVA and by early I mean pre-1983. There have been several incarnations of Adi Newton's experimental visions but the most important and innovative was the era which spawned the classic album, Thirst.

The Thirst incarnation disintegrated when three fifths of the band parted company with Newton. Forming a new outfit The Box, they first recruited Cabs front man Stephen Mallinder as vocalist, but then settled on the energetic Peter Hope. Their debut album Secrets Out is the natural successor to Thirst (after all it is essentially the same musicians) but the songs were more compact, funky, jerky with a manic sense of purpose.

Hope dressed onstage like Sheffield's answer to Rob Halford, but his vocal style was much more akin to that of David Thomas. In fact, it easy to imagine that the influence of Pere Ubu contributed much to the overall sound of The Box.

Secrets Out is a manic collection of twelve 3 minute wonders, each of them contorts itself around you, then turns you inside-out with a weird jazz funk pop, crazy chopped guitars, flutes & clarinets toy with Hope's crazed lyrical prose & verse.

You need to listen to this album as a whole unit, it is the only way it can make sense. Each track almost bleeds into the next, not in the way of a prog concept album, but that you just to hear more after each piece, and that very next track satisfies that need and so on. It is such a disappointment when it all comes to an end.

Highlights have to be Something Beginning With 'L' (with Mal on lead vocals), the superb Strike (so blatantly ripped off by Sheffield devil children Arctic Monkeys - you always knew you'd heard that riff somewhere), the laid back flute-filled mellowness that is The Hub is like a pause for breathe until all hell breaks loose again, No Sly Moon is the tune Jarvis Cocker always wishes he'd written and the single Old Style Drop Down is a long lost indie disco classic. But it's far for me to tell you what the best tracks are, as you should all have your own favourites.

Lovingly ripped from a vinyl album released on Go! Discs Records (VFM4) in 1983 to high resolution and high quality lossless 24-bit FLAC audio.

A1. Water Grows Teeth

A2. Skin, Sweat And Rain

A3. Something Beginning With 'L'

A4. Strike

A5. The Hub

A6. Hang You Hat On That!

B1. I Give Protection

B2. No Sly Moon

B3. Slip And Slant

B4. Old Style Drop Down

B5. Swing

B6. Out

The Box - EP

On the subject of Clock DVA, I have begun to re-rip The Box catelogue to lossless Flac with the aim of replacing my ancient mp3 soaked discography post from a few years back. For those who were unaware, The Box were formed by three-fifths of Clock DVA, who all decided they'd had enough and jumped ship. They roped in nutty local Sheffield frontman Peter Hope and turfed out some fantastic post-Beefheart inspired industrial jazz-punk.

The Box EP : ripped from a 12" vnyl EP released on Go Discs (VFM 1) to high quality lossless FLAC audio.

A1. No Time For Talk

A2. Burn Down That Village

B1. Unstable

B2. Hazard

B3. Limpopo

Not Available

Peter Hope & Richard H. Kirk - Hoodoo Talk and Singles

Leather Hands : From a 12" vinyl single released on Doublevision (DVR 15) in 1985
A. Leather Hands (Master Mix)
B1. Leather Hands (Radio Mix)
B2. Leather Hands (Crash Mix)

Hoodoo Talk : Ripped from a 12" vinyl album released on Native Records (NTVLP 28) in 1987 A1. Intro
A2. Numb Skull
A3. N.O.
A4. Cop Out
B1. Surgeons
B2. 50 Tears
B3. Leather Hands
B4. 50 Tears (Reprise)

Surgeons / N.O. : from a 12" vinyl single released on Native Records (12NTV 36) in 1988
A1. Surgeons (12" Mixxx)
A2. Surgeons (Beats)
A3. Surgeons (Resurgency)
B1. N.O. (12" Mixxx)
B2. N.O. (Giant Dub)
B3. N.O. (Dub Beats)

Extra tracks finally released on reissue version of Hoodoo Talk

1. Sugar, Can You Feel The Drums?

2. Upbeat

Enjoy!

The Box - Discography

I received a good few requests after the Clock DVA rarities, to post some The Box vinyl, so here's the entire back catelogue and the only Peel session they recorded AFAIK.

After the seminal Clock DVA Thirst album, Adi Newton literally sacked the remaining band members. Paul Widger, Charlie Collins and Roger Quail linked up with bassman Terry Todd and singer Peter Hope. The Box were the first group to sign for Go! Discs for whom they released 2 LPs and several singles. The band split in 1985 and their final output was a live recording of their final gig mastered by Richard H. Kirk.The Box "sound" carries on from where Thirst left off, with with a twisted mix of art-funk-jazz-rock. Hope's vocal style is much more quirky than Newton's gravelly drone.

This is classic stuff from a long lost, long forgotten band. I have some of Peter Hope's other stuff which I'll post soon as well as the balance of the DVA output.

The Box EP : ripped from a 12" vinyl EP released on Go! Discs (VFM 1) in 1983
A1. No Time For Talk
A2. Burn Down That Village
B1. Unstable
B2. Hazard
B3. Limpopo

Old Style Drop Down : ripped from a 12" single released on Go! Discs (VFM 3) in 1983
A1. Old Style Drop Down (Extended Remix)
B1. Old Style Drop Down
B2. Momentum

Secrets Out : ripped from a 12" vinyl album released on Go! Discs (VFM 4) in 1983
A1. Water Grows Teeth
A2. Skin, Sweat And Rain
A3. Something Beginning With 'L'
A4. Strike
A5. The Hub
A6. Hang Your Hat On That!
B1. I Give Protection
B2. No Sly Moon
B3. Slip And Slant
B4. Old Style Drop Down
B5. Swing
B6. Out

Great Moments In Big Slam : ripped from a 12" vinyl album released on Go! Discs (VFM 5) in 1984
A1. Walls Come Down
A2. The Flatstone
A3. Big Slam
A4. Stop
B1. Low Line
B2. Breaking Strain
B3. Small Blue Car
B4. Still In The Woodwork

Muscle In EP : ripped from a 12" vinyl EP released on Doublevision (DVR 10) in 1984
A1. Low Commotion
A2. Curfew
B1. Crow Bar
B2. Spade Work

Muscle Mix : ripped from a 12" vinyl single released on Doublevision (DVR P1) in 1984
A. Crow Bar (Muscle Mix)
B. Low Commotion (Muscle Mix)

Live - Muscle Out : ripped from a 12" vinyl album released on Doublevision (DVR P3) in 1985
A1. Bottle Drips Dry
A2. Big Slam
A3. Jaw Clamp Sunshine
A4. Pawn Walk
A5. Rose High
B1. The Hub
B2. Breaking Strain
B3. Deeper Blue
B4. Stop
B5. Momentum
B6. Old Style Drop Down
B7. No Time For Talk



The Box : First John Peel Session

Recorded 24th Jan 1983
First broadcast 3rd Feb 1983

1. Out
2. Strike
3. The Hub
4. Water grows teeth

Paul Widger - guitar
Charlie Collins - saxophone, flute
Roger Quail - drums
Peter Hope - vocals
Terry Todd - bass

BBC Producer - Dale griffin
Engineer - Martin Colley

Part One : Part Two : Part Three

You must download all three RAR files, then extract as one folder