The Biting Tongues 'Live It' Review (2019)

Review done for the Cerysmatic blog in December 2019..

https://cerysmatic.factoryrecords.org/2019/12/the-biting-tongues-live-it-review-by.html

Former Factory artist Biting Tongues have just had their 1981 limited cassette-only lost release 'Live It' reissued by Andy Votel's Finders Keepers Records.

Originally released on New Hormones, Biting Tongues' 2nd album was one of a series of three limited edition releases of just 500 cassettes (others by Ludus and CP Lee) that came with a booklet, badge, stickers and a sweatshirt offer. The 6-track release has now been expanded to 10 with the additional 4 tracks coming from rare cassette magazines released at the time.

The idea of releasing it on tape only appears to have been a financial one by the label despite them being in vogue (the Walkman being relatively new and cassette sales actually being equal to, if not greater than vinyl at the time). In his notes, Graham Massey explains, "New Hormones didn't have enough money to press it up on vinyl and so it became a cassette-only release, which felt like a bit of a disappointment. I always felt it buried some of our best work, compounded by the fact that we actually left off some of the best tracks from the session. These tracks lived on a cassette I've carried around for forty years, the tape slowly getting dull and wearing thin. In recent years I've been digitising Colin Seddon's cassette collection of Biting Tongues material and rediscovered a first-generation recording of the sessions on TDK SA tape."

Prior to listening to this reissue of 'Live It' I'd only previously only heard a handful tracks released on various Factory compilations and only had a very rough idea of the history of the band from their formation to provide a soundtrack to the saxophonist Howard Walmsley's film 'Biting Tongues' through to the initially unreleased 'Recharge' album so it was fascinating listening to this as a something new in 2019 and also trying to imagine how it would have fit in during those heady days of post-punk and New Romantics.

My thoughts on the first couple of listens were that it was very angular and abstract, not very easy listening, and improvised. Through Graham's notes which accompany this release it would appear my final thought especially was wide of the mark, with several mentions of demos being recorded and sent down to London for vocalist Ken Hollings to refine his lyrics before travelling up to Manchester to record them.

So improvised may be the wrong word; with repeated listens there is clearly a depth and structure to the tracks despite it occasionally sounding like band members are going off and playing at tangents with vocals being improvised. As Ken explained in an interview in 2008 there is a difference to how the band would record which gives it a unique sound and one was that odds with how many things would have been produced at the time, "We'd record a whole side of an album in one session with no breaks between the tracks and do a mix afterwards – nothing was ever re-recorded – we'd even leave in any slips of the tongue or mispronounced words I might have struggled with in the session, any stray pieces of sound that the microphone picked up, or we'd simply record straight onto two-channel tape, recording through the studio desk with the producer mixing and adding effects while we were performing in the studio – we wouldn't know what it sounded like until the playback – and because it was two-channel you couldn't correct it: you'd have to do the whole thing again, which we pretty much refused to do'.

I can hear some influences on this release from Talking Heads' 1980 release 'Remain In Light' but, for those listening in 1981, tracks such as 'Libreville' would have easily complemented releases such as 'To Each...' by A Certain Ratio where tracks such as 'Back To The Start' mix a variety of instruments, not always conventional over driving rhythms to create a danceable beat, but very different to the polished chart music at the time which was dominated by the likes of Adam and The Ants, Madness and Soft Cell.

In 2019 each listen brings something new, there is so much going on across the 10 tracks there's a sense of opening Pandora's Box that it begs for repeated listening, and although it maybe a little challenging at, first patience is paid off.

It's not often that something that's nearly 40 years old can sound as contemporary, interesting and challenging as this release does.

Praxis XL - A Factory Anniversary Exhibition Review (2019)

Exhibition Review done for Cerysmatic

https://cerysmatic.factoryrecords.org/2019/11/praxis-xl-factory-anniversary.html

Recently opened at The Modernist Society's premises on Port Street, Manchester, Praxis XL is an understated exhibition to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Factory's first release.

Whilst Jon Savage and Mat Bancroft's recent display at Chelsea Space (coming to Manchester in 2020) focused on the first 50 Fac numbers and the ephemera linked to the early days, Praxis XL showcases the whole legacy of Factory.



It's been curated and designed by Trevor Johnson (a stalwart of Factory's design team) and his brother Craig. On display are 40 of the label's most familiar and sometimes interesting items from the likes of Peter Saville, Central Station, 8vo, Ben Kelly as well as Trevor himself.

The Modernist Society is tucked away in the Northern Quarter, close to where the Buzzcocks' New Hormones office and the Roadhouse once stood, slightly off the beaten track, just a short trip up Newton Street from Piccadilly. The Society, until a few months ago had only held pop-up events and exhibitions before renting this unassuming building.



It's quite small and as you may imagine quite minimalist but perfectly formed, with the items on display allowed to breathe and not cramped.

My son and I went along on the morning of Saturday 9th November and we were surprised that we were the only 2 visitors upon arrival. However, this meant we had plenty of time to peruse and study the 40 items on display on the ground floor as well as read the accompanying notes.



For Factory fans and aficionados there are plenty of heart-warming familiar items on display, such as the original Factory Club poster, A Factory Sample, Unknown Pleasures, Blue Monday, etc.

Where this exhibition comes into its own, in my opinion at least, are the more unusual, and seldom seen items, the original rough layout for the Leigh Festival Poster, the 'Say No To London' T-Shirt design and of course Fac 191, the Haçienda Cat (a picture, not a real living cat).



Personally, the one item I would have liked to see included, but isn't is FAC 268, Northside's 'Shall We Take A Trip' - not only for people to realise that "the one with the apple on the cover" actually has a plum, but to remind people that Happy Mondays weren't the only successful band in the final years of the label.

After exhausting the items downstairs we moved upstairs to the smaller space on the first floor (greeted on the way up by a classic cheeky image of Rob Gretton with his tongue out) where there are selected photographic works of Kevin Cummins. Most will be familiar to fans but they really come to life when blown up from the A4 size people will most be familiar with. My personal favourite is the distance shot of the Factory Club alongside one of the infamous Hulme crescents.



Whilst we were watching part of the loop of Factory-related videos, the musical pioneer that is Graham Massey arrived with a small entourage who were out on a walking tour around key locations of the city, with Graham recollecting his personal experiences and involvement in Manchester's music heritage.



I can't guarantee that you will bump into a bona fide Manchester music legend if you visit Praxis XL but I can guarantee you'll be met with a warm welcome and an exhibition that will reinforce Factory's legacy of being a key cultural force which is recognised worldwide, and not just as a record label.

- Iain Key for Cerysmatic Factory