Took delivery of an astonishing package yesterday from Chuck Warner's Hyped2Death organisation, all 8 of the Messthetics series. I say all, but the series is organised alphabetically and there is a HUGE gap between "E" and "R", and I understand that Chuck is having to go legit and therefore this may never be plugged. If I were you I'd get thee hence before that point and secure these volumes (and the Homework series) sharp-ish.
"Messthetics" is an astonishing body of work, you'd never imagine how many D.I.Y. punk and post-punk singles got made by gangs of losers from Dundee, Coventry, Birmingham etc etc. It makes a very strong case for viewing that era within the same frame as American psych-punk and UK Ardkore, such is the overwhelming fecundity and "can-do-up-and-at-em" spirit. Surely to do with abandoning the major labels. There was no need for this lot to require the authentification that a 5 year deal with Sony bestows. Parrallels with the Nuggetts, Pebbles, Back to the Grave and Rubble are inevitable, strengthened in part by the rockist slant that characterises the music. That might sound disparaging coming from me, though I'll admit I'm scraping the surface at the moment, and actually what I've heard today has been distinctly un-rock, current fave being The Rest's "Raga" London 1980, which is the split of the early Beta Band. Also with such a quantity of music any broad impression becomes like a tint through which one sees more individual currents.
The only other comps which can even begin to hold a candle to Messthetics are the "Instant Pop Classics" series of two, which chronicled the same era lovingly, all one-shot-DIY-losers, but which were limited to 500 and disappeared quickly through the cracks. I know other rock pals of mine Jay Strongman and Dan Setzer snaffled copies in San Francisco and New York, and actually I got mine shipped from Japan so they must have been spread (albeit thinly) across the globe. See if you can find 'em, they've got awesome cover art and lovingly collated rears, little snapshots of all the 7"s sleeves. My own Launderette effort is definitely pitched on a less obscure terrain than these comps, but it's more tightly focussed. I stand by it, it was through the gate pretty early. Mention must be made of the recent Rough Trade round-up, personally I don't know why they bothered slinging in all the new stuff, all this linking of the two scenes is, I think, over-stressing the equation. It's lazy and boring. Why does a music which draws on the past for influence suddenly get packaged so tightly with it. You never heard compilations with Jesus and the Mary Chain and The Velvet Underground on them. While I'm not a huge fan of the new stuff, I believe it should be allowed to stand on it's own merits. A similar charge could be levelled at Gomma's (excellent) Anti-NY comp, you didn't need the modern remixes there fellers!
All this has made me wonder why there has yet to be a solid compilation of the Ardkore era. Yeah I know about the millions of comps of this era, but they're all bucket-shop cheap nasty efforts, with little respect for the material. Crazy innit, I'm like the saddest git in the world, I mean "lovingly-packaged-ardkore" have you ever considered such a wholly contradictory thing.
Posted by Woebot at August 6, 2003 08:09 AM