REMA REMA - FOND REFLECTIONS - 4AD
Following on from 4AD's laudible In Camera compilation a few years ago, the label has chosen the short-lived Rema-Rema for their next retrospective revisit with this career-spanning double-disc compilation.
I use the 'career' loosely - Rema-Rema were a relatively short-lived concept that was borne out of London's heady rehearsal scene of the late '70s when bands had big ideals but little financial input (and output). All you need to know about RR's history is covered in the informative insightful sleevenotes provided by Rema's last new member Dorothy Max Prior - Marco Pirroni joined Adam and the Ants, Messrs Cox and Allen formed Mass then Wolfgang Press etc etc..
Musically and lyrically, Rema-Rema were an enigma. Brutal, uncompromising, unrelenting and fucking noisy, the shape-shifting quintet must have terrified audiences at a time when music was still crossing boundaries and clawing around for airplay and attention. Sort of Stooges, sort of MC5, sort of Cluster and not dissimilar to 4AD label-mates In Camera, Modern English and Bauhaus, RR sounded like little else during their short tenure and one listen to these discs strengthens this.
Disc one comprises various rehearsals captured in dank London basements, while disc two covers off studio recordings and live captures from a rare Albany Empire show, some of which appeared as the highly-sought Wheel In the Roses EP issued in 1980. The band's explosive signature title-track and the austere metronomic Fond Affections rank as the band's go-to signature tunes - the latter having been covered by This Mortal Coil on the album It'll End In Tears - but it's Entry that emerges as something of a talking point. Building into something of a funereal mid-paced stomper, there's the immortal lyrical extract "And you fucked just like Jesus Christ" that baulked established label Charisma's plans to fund future releases. Such is life.
All tracks are present on Fond Reflections, an enticing and engrossing double-disc set that ties up the loose ends and the previously untold story of damp cellars, cigs, beer, hopes and fears in the seventies with some considerable aplomb. Terrific.
9/10
I use the 'career' loosely - Rema-Rema were a relatively short-lived concept that was borne out of London's heady rehearsal scene of the late '70s when bands had big ideals but little financial input (and output). All you need to know about RR's history is covered in the informative insightful sleevenotes provided by Rema's last new member Dorothy Max Prior - Marco Pirroni joined Adam and the Ants, Messrs Cox and Allen formed Mass then Wolfgang Press etc etc..
Musically and lyrically, Rema-Rema were an enigma. Brutal, uncompromising, unrelenting and fucking noisy, the shape-shifting quintet must have terrified audiences at a time when music was still crossing boundaries and clawing around for airplay and attention. Sort of Stooges, sort of MC5, sort of Cluster and not dissimilar to 4AD label-mates In Camera, Modern English and Bauhaus, RR sounded like little else during their short tenure and one listen to these discs strengthens this.
Disc one comprises various rehearsals captured in dank London basements, while disc two covers off studio recordings and live captures from a rare Albany Empire show, some of which appeared as the highly-sought Wheel In the Roses EP issued in 1980. The band's explosive signature title-track and the austere metronomic Fond Affections rank as the band's go-to signature tunes - the latter having been covered by This Mortal Coil on the album It'll End In Tears - but it's Entry that emerges as something of a talking point. Building into something of a funereal mid-paced stomper, there's the immortal lyrical extract "And you fucked just like Jesus Christ" that baulked established label Charisma's plans to fund future releases. Such is life.
All tracks are present on Fond Reflections, an enticing and engrossing double-disc set that ties up the loose ends and the previously untold story of damp cellars, cigs, beer, hopes and fears in the seventies with some considerable aplomb. Terrific.
9/10