Song Of the Day: March 6, 2006
Brooding big UK guitars from 1981, part three. By the time they had a US release, they were but a shadow of their former gloomy greatness, their name changed to C. S. Angels to avoid getting sued by a satellite communications company. So most folks who stumbled across them at that point never knew about the Comsat Angels earlier achievements. Guitarist/vocalist Stephen Fellows had one of those hauty bitter tenor voices that seemed to accompany so much of this kind of drama king music. He was great at moping with gritted teeth about psychic breakdown, failed relationships, and general English bleakness – the perfect vocal counterpoint to some often interesting and quite melodic songs and arrangements. The Comsats were especially good with very ingenious liquid bass lines; straight-forward, well-thought out effects-heavy guitar riffs, unusual drum parts, tasteful synths with incredibly low-cheese quotient, and knew how to use negative space to make the whole sound gel. Their first two albums were mostly too bleak and not hook-filled enough for my taste, excepting their excellent track “Independence Day” off the first album and “Eye Dance” off the second. They also had some catchy singles between the two, “Eye of the Lens” and “Do the Empty House”. , But they really hit their peak with the third album, “Fiction”. The gloom somehow lifted a little bit to reveal an excellent collection of colorful gem stones glinting in the dark ethers. It’s an amazingly pretty sounding and well-crafted example of the genre. I’m pretty sure the single “It’s History” (which does not appear on the album) was released right before the album. I’ll embarrass myself and say that this song gives me chills. Let’s all marvel at the economy and cleverness of its construction. The lyrics, of course, are total high school angst, and I can understand how some folks can’t get beyond all the vocal histrionics (somewhat related to the oft-cited conundrum of liking Johnny Marr and Smith’s music but wincing when Morrissey sings), but you need to grow and move beyond that, people!
- Andrew Chalfen
9 Comments:
Beautiful stuff and something I haven't heard in a long while, excellent post!
both silkworm and joel rl phelps have covered comsat angel songs. i highly recommend listening to the covers.
I love the album "Waiting for a Miracle"! It's like a soundtrack to a fevered, half-remembered dream.
IMHO, sounds much better than this. With lyrics like these from Total War:
"We walk the streets together
with smiles on our faces
we talk nice to each other
and we listen when we have to
Maybe it's just overrated
maybe i'm just isolated
we walk the streets togther
You don't like my friends (nah, nah, nah)
you don't like my clothes (nah, nah, nah)
you say that i'm crazy (nah, nah, nah)
any other girl would just pass over
This is total war girl!"
If you like this you should also check out The Chameleons a Manchester band with a similar rain soaked sound. Editors are a new Brit band doing something very early 80's with keening guitars.
I'd been thinking of posting a Chameleons tune, but they're so widely known that I thought that their lack of obscurity negated their need to appear on the Little Hits site. But mabye sometime in the future.
ac
this is a pretty near perfect snapshot of 80's UK, if that meant long raincoats, the NME on a Wednesday, John Peel, and moaning about the crap wine bars and awful music charts. Sigh! Some things never change!!
I keep planning out my show each week thinking "ah, here's an obscure gem nobody's picked up lately" only to find you've featured it.
Well, not this time, boy. This time I chose "Independence Day". Hah!
(Seriously: good work here. This is a wonderfully haunting song.)
Comsat Angels, The Sound, Fischer-Z ... All these bands suffered from the British 'Hype and Drop' system. They wanted recognition back home in the UK, not in bloody Europe! The sad part is that Comsat Angels tried everything to make it big, labels, hair, you name it, but to no avail. But as Kevin Coyne said: 'that doesn't make them bad people'. Just eager, hungry, and incapable to see that their moment was gone before they knew it...
Roger Grund (undermythumbz@yahoo.com)
it looks like they're getting the reissue treatment (again...):
http://tinyurl.com/j3yuf
I'd vote for "our secret" as their best song. (the one silkworm covered).
Geoff
p.s. chameleons ="too well known"? Only in a perfect world.
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