The Monochrome Set:
Volume Contrast Brilliance Vol 2:
Tapete:
LP/CD/DD:
Out 25th March:
Perhaps one of the music business's biggest injustices is the misunderstanding of Bid. Charismatic, photogenic and above all talented, the singing-songwriting spearhead of the often-derided The Monochrome Set must have wondered what he had to do to lead his charges into chart battle. Even spells with major-label offshoots failed to swell the coffers with both Dindisc (part of Virgin) and Blanco y Negro (part of Warners) failing to sell the band to the students, let alone the indifferent mainstream.
Their loss.
Great singles like Jet Set Junta, The Strange Boutique, Jacob's Ladder and I Love Lambeth will forever be immersed in indie-pop legend as 'nearly-dids' and remain timeless, to this writer at least.
Last year's album Spaces Everywhere heralded something of a comeback, quality-wise - their new home Tapete now sees fit to revisit their earlier catalogue for more gems from the vaults with the follow-up to Cherry Red's successful singles compilation from some thirty years ago. Volume, Contrast, Brilliance Volume 2 rounds up a pick 'n' mix of unreleased demos and rare unheard bits and pieces from 1978 onwards. Paying particular attention to their prolific mid '80s period, VCB2 is one pop nugget after another.
With one foot in Carnaby Street, Ealing comedies and minis (both the car and the skirts) and the other in a hinterland of raincoats, C86 and mixed reviews in the weekly music press, The Monochrome Set's oeuvre was lo-fi jangle-pop with artful literary lyrical references, a sort of southern early Pulp if you like.
Tracks like The Greatest Performance in the World, Cilla Black (no relation to the late TV star) and Something About You brim with jollity and wit, while early versions of singles Reach For Your Gun and I Wanna Be Your Man canter along with all the confidence of a band achieving similar success to The Smiths. It's a tragedy that many of these songs never even made it to the released stage - maybe the c-word in Whoops! What a Palaver was a vernacular too far for some.
1990's Dante's Casino album provides the source for a handful of tracks, namely the perky Cud-like strumalong I Want Your Skin and the re-recorded Bella Morte, songs that never quite slotted into the hippy-dance Madchester era.
Perhaps The Monochrome Set were just too ahead of their time for comfort, too comical for serious analysis and too darned tuned-in for the rest of us. If anything, their '80s period deserves a revisit more than those hazy Dindisc days. Start here.
★★★★★★★★☆☆
Volume Contrast Brilliance Vol 2:
Tapete:
LP/CD/DD:
Out 25th March:
Their loss.
Great singles like Jet Set Junta, The Strange Boutique, Jacob's Ladder and I Love Lambeth will forever be immersed in indie-pop legend as 'nearly-dids' and remain timeless, to this writer at least.
Last year's album Spaces Everywhere heralded something of a comeback, quality-wise - their new home Tapete now sees fit to revisit their earlier catalogue for more gems from the vaults with the follow-up to Cherry Red's successful singles compilation from some thirty years ago. Volume, Contrast, Brilliance Volume 2 rounds up a pick 'n' mix of unreleased demos and rare unheard bits and pieces from 1978 onwards. Paying particular attention to their prolific mid '80s period, VCB2 is one pop nugget after another.
With one foot in Carnaby Street, Ealing comedies and minis (both the car and the skirts) and the other in a hinterland of raincoats, C86 and mixed reviews in the weekly music press, The Monochrome Set's oeuvre was lo-fi jangle-pop with artful literary lyrical references, a sort of southern early Pulp if you like.
Tracks like The Greatest Performance in the World, Cilla Black (no relation to the late TV star) and Something About You brim with jollity and wit, while early versions of singles Reach For Your Gun and I Wanna Be Your Man canter along with all the confidence of a band achieving similar success to The Smiths. It's a tragedy that many of these songs never even made it to the released stage - maybe the c-word in Whoops! What a Palaver was a vernacular too far for some.
1990's Dante's Casino album provides the source for a handful of tracks, namely the perky Cud-like strumalong I Want Your Skin and the re-recorded Bella Morte, songs that never quite slotted into the hippy-dance Madchester era.
Perhaps The Monochrome Set were just too ahead of their time for comfort, too comical for serious analysis and too darned tuned-in for the rest of us. If anything, their '80s period deserves a revisit more than those hazy Dindisc days. Start here.
★★★★★★★★☆☆