Month: April 2025

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The Tracksuit Trilogy, The Experimental Pop Band

A person clad in black running up a ramp made of sand. The text, the experiemental pop band is written in red in the top right-hand corner. Under this is the title of the album, the tracksuit trilogy.

What do you remember of the turn of the century? Y2K. Dotcoms. New media. Free and easy money. The dawn of the computer age and, perhaps, the tech bro, maybe? A hopeful and optimistic era, still, even as the shine of Britpop faded along with that of New Labour. A new century, though. A time to reset and start again anew. Different. To do things unexpected.

Could the same be said of pop music?

Pop tends to be formulaic. It always has. A conforming style of music in many respects, although not always. I’ve said before that I consider The Cure to be a pop band, yet they conform in ways that are not mainstream. Few, though, take the pop sensibilities and throw out the rule book. Yet, in 2000, perhaps the most non-pop of pop albums was released. The band that did it weren’t shy of showing their workings either, as they called themselves The Experimental Pop Band (TEPB).

For their third album, The Tracksuit Trilogy – which is finally out on vinyl through Unspun Heroes – the experimental was turned up to 11. This is a truly eclectic album, and yet it has all the hallmarks of the same band even as it hurtles from disco-tronic beats to art rock guitars, sometimes within the same song.

In the original City Slang press release, the album was described as “Adamantly refusing to stick to one style, THE TRACKSUIT TRILOGY embraces a wild variety of influences, but somehow offers a unified collection of songs that are as innovative as they are entertaining.”

On first listen it sounds, to the unaccustomed ears, like a compilation. The second listen brings a coalescence that wasn’t as discernible on that first run through; by the fifth listen and beyond, you begin to understand how it all hangs together. The fact that Davey Woodward and his bandmates resolutely refuse to conform to the standards many people apply to the ‘pop’ moniker, while making what is undeniably pop music, could well be the turning point where genre fluidity really hooked itself into the public psyche. Or maybe, as someone said to me recently, it’s all just prog?

That ‘prog’ label is as helpful here as Yacht Rock is to anyone attempting to understand Steely Dan. A chocolate teapot in an album review: fucking useless. And it doesn’t do the album justice, particularly in the extended digital version available for the first time ever after previously unreleased and – quite probably – unheard tracks were unearthed in the process of bringing it all together for its vinyl debut.

Of course, the band had a pedigree for those ‘in the know’ thanks to cult band The Brilliant Corners. Chris Galvin joined Davey Woodward in forming TEPB before succumbing to that shitty disease that is cancer after second album Homesick, making The Tracksuit Trilogy the first album written and released after his untimely death – accompanying song notes reference this sad event, as they provided grist to Davey’s songwriting mill on certain songs.

I saw The Brilliant Corners at the tail-end of their run, in the early 1990s, gracing the stage at Reading Festival. While I was sad that I’d missed out on the previous decade – and many of their sought after singles which now command a decent price on the secondhand market – like others I didn’t have long to wait for TEPB to arrive.

From the get-go they proved difficult to pin down when it came to genres and peers. Weirder than Beck, as easy and fun to dance to as Prince, yet as abrasive as The Fall and as oddball as The Velvet Underground, they still made music that you could sing along to. They made the Pop so obvious there in the band name and yet so obviously overlooked by many. This is the musical equivalent of Ronseal before they came up with their advertising tagline then.

Besides that knack for a catchy melody, the thread that clearly runs through every track on this eccentric and quintessentially English record is Davey’s wry, sardonic observations of life on this planet. And while some lyrics snap you back to that pre-century fervour, much of it remains relatable to 2025. Certainly musically. It sounds fresh and new, almost as if the rest of the world has finally caught on and caught up.

The album debuts on vinyl on 25 July, 2025. A little over a quarter of a century from when it first came out, it’s a different beast in many ways – more on that later – and yet it remains as experimental as it ever was. Wayward but focused, serious yet playful, it’s as wild a ride now as it was 25 years ago. And like all mavericks, the distance between its original release means it should finally be recognised for the genius it is.

And with just 222 copies of the vinyl available, it might be the rarest of gems for some time.

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So Many Prophets, Fetish

Album cover for So Many Prophets by Fetish.

Female-fronted alternative bands in the late 90s. Garbage had set the template and, whether unfair or not, others were judged against them. So it was with Fetish, and unfairly I think.

Hailing from South Africa, this is a band that mixed the ‘goth’ of bands like Evanescence and, yes, mixed in those melodic moments Shirley Manson and her band of merry men did so well, but there’s something else that takes this album beyond a Garbage soundalike.

For one thing, there’s a yearning, tinged with a subtle anger. I’m partly reminded of Julianne Regan’s performance from All About Eve’s third album mixed with elements of bands such as Cocteau Twins and The Mission. They certainly stood out in the musical landscape of London back in 2000 when I was first introduced to them by a colleague from Cape Town. Part nostalgia, perhaps, but they had more than enough interesting aspects to their sound and composition to break through.

Take Leah, for example. The jazz-inspired bass notes break through the acoustic guitar strum to catch the ear, while Michelle Breeze’s ethereal vocals add a melancholic air to proceedings. And that melancholy and, in places, malevolent vibe, carry through many of the tracks. Yet they are not bleak or depressing. And they are also not full of clichéd gothic stories.

The band also makes liberal use of electronic music in their final sound, merging it with slide guitar or finger-picked arpeggios to create atmospheric soundscapes that suck the listener in. On opening tracks, If and Permanent, these electronic elements really bring a different perspective and depth to their brand of alternative pop-rock music that other bands of their ilk never had. On Mind In Two, they recorded a song that could sit alongside Teardrops from Massive Attack’s Mezzanine and it wouldn’t sound inferior, yet was out a full year before.

The band clearly enjoyed bringing different genres and sounds to their music. A cleverly integrated rap midway through A Reels Romance is just one of many examples. It’s hard to imagine the song without this moment, which serves to strengthen the song rather than feel like it’s been shoe-horned in because it was ‘on trend’ for the era.

The sign of a great album is when a song drops in the last third and lifts it up higher than you thought it would. This is exactly what Ground Below does. A lesser band with fewer solid songs would have put this track in fourth spot, but on So Many Prophets it’s perfectly placed at number nine. A deceptively slow number, with a scratchy fuzz guitars over a picked acoustic with its elegant slides, and a wistful piano accompaniment as it draws to a close, it’s a real highlight among many.

The album ends as it started with an introspective and moody piece, although Fear Of Hurting washes over you with bright guitar phrases and pop ballad sensibilities, yet retaining the brooding atmosphere that kicked off the album. And Breeze’s vocals continue to mesmerise right to her final soaring notes and breathy sighs.

Originally released by Virgin/EMI on CD only, one can only hope that there are enough people who would line up for a vinyl release – especially if it were the special edition that also contained the four-track Shade Of A Ghost EP. You could count on me to be there, maybe even leading the way.

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Year Two: A Retrospective

24 months. Sounds grand, almost impressive. Certainly for someone who hasn’t held a full-time job, ever, that exceeds this time frame or – if I’m honest – even comes close to getting there. I’m congratulating myself on still being here and doing this two years on. Yep, it’s another annual self-indulgent post. You can read the first year’s post if you fancy it.

This year has been quite different. What started as one thing quickly dissolved and resolved to become another. What began as a bit of a winding road has crystallised into a focused beam. Only two things remain that began as that idea back in March 2023. Me, and the brand.

The first year was all empty promises. Talk and no obvious action. It was all happening behind the scenes, but also in plain sight, which meant a lot of people didn’t see it. I was learning the hard way, in public, though. Releasing records on vinyl for the first time isn’t as easy as I thought it might be. I have support in terms of cheerleaders, but it’s just me here working to make this happen. And this shit takes time if you want to do it properly.

And what does properly even mean? In the context of Unspun Heroes I always wanted it to be rooted in experience. The listening to a vinyl album you’d probably never heard before. To read words full of emotion that connected you to that album, that belonged to that listening experience, therefore making it hard to separate the two. To be about the anticipation before you played and read, and to be the longing after it was done for the first time. To attempt, in some small way, to stick two fingers up at the law of diminishing returns by producing something that got better the more you listened and the more you read.

I had a mission for the label and I wasn’t going to waver.

A quick recap
The end of Year one was an obvious highlight. James Varda’s Chance And Time was always going to deliver. The story, which is tragic on its own, is made more so when accompanied by his tender voice and heart-wrenching songs. And yet it is an album that lifts, that points to the light at the darkest of hours.

At the time of writing it is almost sold out in its singular album format, although anyone wanting even more of an experience can snag a copy of the deluxe version with James’s handwritten lyrics and a handmade outer sleeve created by an artisan bookbinder who plays guitar for the Jasmine Minks.

That release cemented the shift in Unspun Heroes. It made me realise that the experience really was everything. From ensuring mastering was properly taken care of through to understanding how it would be ‘un-sleeved’. Mostly it was a shift away from being ‘just’ a reissue label. It became about finding albums that had never been on vinyl, that deserved to be put on that format because the music would sound glorious.

It was about introductions. Like a vinyl dating agency, perhaps? No, that sounds too facile. I found myself talking about the idea of cherishing the album and the music it contained. In that word, cherish – which has its roots in the meaning to “treat with affection” – I worked out what Unspun Heroes was all about.

Sowing the seeds of the follow-up release
The second release was always going to happen. It was the first to be agreed but took the longest time to bring out. These things cannot, and should not, be rushed. Friendship Is Deep became an obsession for me. I’d loved the album for almost 20 years and so I wanted to make sure it was as close to perfect as it could be – and to make its 20th anniversary an occasion.

This meant working closely with the pressing plant to create something extra special and unique. It meant a lot of trust being given by Adam Kline from Golden Shoulders who, I fear, at some points wondered what the actual fuck he’d said yes to, on a whim, to some idiot British bloke who had no idea about vinyl production but had tagged him on social media. I like to think that I did okay on my promise, and the album has sold well and continues to bring me joy every time I play it. Which is often. Copies – both the signed and standard variants – are still available.

The third release was the opposite. From listening to it for the first time ever to having a copy in my hand took under six months. Stephen Simmons has become a good friend in that period of time. We talked for hours on video calls, exchanged many texts and emails. I don’t have favourite releases because Unspun Heroes is not genre-specific and so each release is different. However, Drink Ring Jesus has opened me up to music I would otherwise not consider listening to. My life would have been poorer had I dismissed Stephen’s 2006 album and I am so pleased I pressed play. It’s an album that has changed me as a person – although that may also be Stephen’s influence.

I went hard on making sure that Stephen would be happy when he received his album over in Nashville. I knew he had experienced the cutting of corners in previous moments and I think I sourced about 20 different cardboard sleeves and created a number of different options before we settled on a simple Kraft sleeve and inner. But we went full-on for the insert. All those decisions we made together paid off.

That’s the second year of Unspun Heroes in two distinct records. Both different, yet all the releases are united by the fact they made their vinyl debut – and proved that it’s a medium they always deserved to be on. Each one has its own personality. They do not compete in that sense, although it’s clear they are all from the same label.

All have received rave reviews, too.

The blog that almost never happens but somehow does – and the future
I haven’t been able to write as much as I’d have liked about music that deserves to be given wider attention. Now it is me on my own (although ably helped by designer extraordinaire, Anthony Oram) and I have to deal with the fairly shitty things that most people don’t know I deal with on a regular basis due to my health, so the time and effort has meant a slowing down. That’s unlikely to change any time soon – and asking people to write for free doesn’t sit well with me, although I’d happily accept submissions if you want to write something that sits well with the Unspun Heroes ethos.

However, let’s not ponder the blog. Instead, let’s look to the year ahead.

Two releases upcoming. The first is like some art project that’s full of mistakes and twists and turns and mad decisions that somehow seem to pay off. It’s cost me more than it should. Much more. Not just financially, but in terms of pulling it off and putting it all together. But the experience that anyone buying it will have will be rich and deep and quite odd (in a good way). And the first Unspun Heroes release on bio vinyl, more of which shortly.

After that, something no less brilliant, but definitely more likely to be subdued in its physical presentation. Scottish indiepop with a musical jangle reminiscent of The Smiths and Teenage Fanclub, but with a twist. Oh, and the chance to get your hands on something special from Sean, better known as Hey Kids! Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Both will be on bio vinyl, which is something I’ve wanted to commit to for some time but it comes with constraints. Colour being one. It’s in black only and I always wanted to do a colour option at least once (Golden Shoulders delivered on that wish twice). This decision can also be vetoed by the artist, but it’s the starting point for every release.

Both will be a run of around 200 (The Tracksuit Trilogy will actually be 222 copies) rather than the grander 300 and 500 of previous releases. Partly this is because of the audience numbers for these albums. Partly this is because it’s damn hard to sell these things. Convincing people to spend money on vinyl is hard enough, but to add in the fact that it’s an album and/or band they don’t know makes it even harder. Plus, costs have skyrocketed for print and pressing (Thanks Liz.) And the spectre of not being in a customs arrangement with our nearest trading neighbours makes selling outside the UK harder. In some cases, impossible. Oh, and then there’s packing and postage cost increases.

That’s why I made some t-shirts. The margin is healthier (in most cases, my margin is lower single digit percentages) and I can use any profit to offset the cost of a more expensive, shorter run. That’s the idea. Unspun Heroes was always meant to be about putting my profits back in. When I make some.

Time for a bit of honesty
Right now, if I’m honest, I have very little belief that this project will extend beyond Year Three. I have some records I’m negotiating but the short term financial pain I personally feel makes it harder for me to be able to commit. Yes, this is my own money. Sales have been good, but not really good enough to go mad. Longer term it’ll all be fine, I’m certain. I may just be slowing down to speed up, as they say. Also, I’m really wanting to do a 7-inch single that keeps to the Unspun ethos, and that’s proving to be a tough ask.

I don’t to end on that note, though. So, I will briefly talk about the absolutely best thing Unspun Heroes has given me, the experience that I feel it’s worth stumping up a few thousand pounds to have happen each time.

It’s meeting and chatting to people like James Varda’s widow and his friends and hearing how much a release has brightened their world, or laughing raucously with Adam on a Zoom call about the music business or British accents, or WhatsApp chats and calls with Stephen while I walk my dog and he’s preparing to go record his latest album. Because we don’t talk about the releases much, we chat about each other, our lives, what’s happening in our worlds. Anything. It’s a connection that only Unspun Heroes could have given me.

Then there is the time spent working with Anthony on design, working closely with the Electric Mastering and Press On Vinyl to ensure the final product is as amazing as it can be. The journalists and authors and music people who have kindly provided words for liner notes and obi strips.

The fact that a few hundred or so other people have agreed to come on a small part of that journey with me, as customers, is the icing on that cake. And the cherry is when I get a great review, or a customer emails me (or shares on social media) that they love the record they’ve just bought. Or I see the same names pop up on Bandcamp sales. Never gets old hearing from you all.

It’s an experience. One that goes far beyond the music, or the liner notes, or the arguments about whether or not an obi strip is worthwhile. And it’s worth every penny.

Thank you.