Saturday, July 23, 2011

VA: The Simple Approach To Newtown Products 7" (1980, Newtown Products)


Sought-after Scottish compilation recorded in 1979, and released in 1980. This one is also known for being in Johan Kugelberg's Top 100 DIY records (link here), who reviewed:
"My approach was to pay the inflated price the dealer was asking and happily walk home with this great record. 4 songs, four bands: Crimedesk are toilet-recorded DIY-slop, Basic Unit must be the most amateuristic goth band I've ever heard, Beat Necessity showcase only the finest in tuneless death-dirge with off-key howling and Story So Far is an awesome Joy Division/Factory Records attempt, but with no discernable musical talent. Needless to say, the whole EP is as charming as the day is long."
Besides Beat Necessity, I've never ran into any of these other bands anywhere else. Beat Necessity put out a spectacular 1981 Split 7" with Veldt in the coldwave vein and followed in 1982 with the "These Nights" 7" that overall had a funkier new wave/post-punk sound. These tracks were also reissued on the unofficial 3xCDR compilation "Kilt By Death: The Sound of Old Scotland" (also including bands like The Flowers, Simple Minds, Visitors, Noise Annoys, Neon Barbs, Significant Zeros, The Wake, Twisted Nerve, Jesus & Mary Chain, Metropak, Battery Boys, Josef K., etc.), which apparently quotes (based from Newtown Product's website):
”Basic Unit come to us from perhaps the scarcest of Scottish new wave artifacts, the Simple Approach to Newtown Products comp 7" (NTP 1), which served up four Glenrothes bands, including also Crimedesk, practitioners of a ragged punk heard nowhere else north of Hadrian's Wall, and Story So Far, from whose stumbles all Factory Records could be induced. Rounding out the Simple Approach to Newtown Products comp were Beat Necessity, the most ambitious of the lot, whose wandering dirges here would soon be tamed into an Echo and the Bunnymen goth pop for NTP 2 (a 7" split with the Veldt in 1981) and NTP 3 (their "These Nights" single a year later).“
The label Newtown Products has had their own website for the past couple years, which includes more downloads and information. http://www.newtownproducts.com.

 Tracklist:

01. Crimedesk - Arms Race
02. Basic Unit - Ladder
03. Beat Necessity - 'Just Fine
04. Story So Far - Radiated

http://netkups.com/?d=8839509ff0276
pass: kentuckyfriedwave

2 comments:

  1. Hello There

    Really enjoyed the comments. I am the guy who recorded the four bands back in 1979 in Glenrothes, Scotland. Great guys and we had fun. Really enjoyed producing / recording the four tracks and I still have an original copy of "The Simple Approach E.P. - Number 337. Cheers, Ian Sloan.

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