GETTIN' NICE WITH.... NEPTUNES RECORDS

Vertigo recently got lumbered with several boxes of distro wares for the Neptune label from Belfast and Hedonist Productions from Bedford to look after. Not knowing much about either label nor many of the bands involved this seemed an ideal opportunity to listen to, tape and review the whole lot! The two labels work quite closely, releasing records together and putting out similar artists and the like. Hedonist Productions started in 1993 as a label dedicated to the flexi disc and home cake baking. Each flexi came with a new recipe and listeners were encouraged to send in their home-baked cakes to the Hedonists HQ in Bedford! Boyracer did the first flexi, kind of bass heavy grindcore, pretty noisy in places with some neat vocal effects. Hood came next in 1994 with a neat soundscape in an ambient techno vein, reminiscent of Seefeel from about the same time. God Is My Co-Pilot are the third release, upmarket this time with a red-ink sleeve print-job. This song is called ‘More Pretty Girls Than One’, a jazzy concoction featuring a harmonica player who sounds like a freeform Mungo Jerry, lots of inane guitar noodling and upbeat percussion. Hedonist Productions wound down in late 1996 with an album release titled Beats Against The Current. "The worst mistake I made was basing the label’s philosophy within that of the lo-fidelity recording boom. Now, in late 1996 the ideas which sprang from this genre look increasingly redundant and haphazard, so it’s time to move on." So go the sleevenotes! Not sure about all this "lo-fidelity recording boom" stuff really. Home recording is vital to every style of music and it seems that in indie music the lo-fi thing has been absorbed into the mainstream, the idea being that a poorly recorded song lends some dodgy indie band some much needed indie cred or something. Most of Neptunes output is bedroom recorded but sounds bloody great! Issue 1 of Peerpee fanzine (reprinted in Vertigo freezine issue 5 and a half) details technical info on how to make your bedroom recordings sound really good and is recommended reading for anyone considering such action.

Back to the album, it features Coping Saw, The Neptunes Allstars, Dominic Waxing Lyrical, Hiccup, Life With Nixon and Union Wireless. Each has three or four songs, Dominic Waxing Lyrical stealing the show as usual with some really heartfelt folk/punk. Hiccup continue in a folk/singer songwriter vein and Coping Saw do their underground indie thing, quite ambient sounding, experimental and very good. Union Wireless round it all off perfectly with a Y,G and B mix of I Never Dream, a hypnotic breakbeat track, quite ambient/abstract in a headnodding way building up to Mercury Rev-like finale of swirling noise guitar, followed by a dark and fucked up jungle track that never really makes it off the ground but is nice to listen to all the same.

First up on Neptunes is Andrew Beaujon with his recent ‘Morning’ ep, a solo singer on a weird type of perky pop tip that reminds me of Eggs, which isn’t at all surprising seeing as he is/was the main Egg, past or present I don’t know. More electronic and done on a four track if the snap on the back is anything to go by, quite orchestral sounding in a bubblegum pop kind of way and lovelorn lyrics, poetic and touching, sad yet reassuring, touching all the right chords in the way that all great songs do. This man singlehandedly rivals Kasenatz and Katz for names to look for on cool bubblegum records. His single Across My Bow is resplendent with high pitched vocals, noisy guitar, groovy drumbeat and is dead catchy. Parts actually sound like an Eggs Teanbeat 96 outtake. The other side is Andrew’s Theme, a very slow, ballad-like guitar track, a string melody to melt to, well laid back and good loud smoking music.

Previous to the Andrew Beaujon records is an excellent album by Dominic Waxing Lyrical. Think protest and folk music, punk attitude and transvestite sensibilities all performed in a whirl of poetry, emotion and tragi-comedy. Live, they are simply mesmerizing and on record are really concentrated and focussed, compelling you to sit up and take notice, to listen to Dominic’s lyrics/poetry and the accompanying music, folk guitar based melodies with searing cello and jumping mandolins, merging theatrical lyrics and instrumentation that compliment each other perfectly. It’s like listening to a musical theatre show. There are standout songs on here but its more of a full album experience, the most compelling punk album in years and music at it strongest and finest.

The Neptunes compilation album Looking At The Earth From Neptune, And It Was Good is well worth tracking down. It features pretty much all their artists’ best songs, too many to mention really. The whole thing is very indie pop, much of it taking props from eighties indie, C86, whatever, like Bis, Delgadoes and Accessory Girl, though it breaks through to the late nineties with shitloads of DiY ethic and modern attitude. Standout tracks include Tunic’s scratchadelic Between The Lies, Dominic Waxing Lyrical’s Piss Staines and The Desert Hearts’ Coochie Coo. It’s on red vinyl and comes sandwiched between two separate slices of photocopied card with a multicoloured A6 zine thrown in with one page for each band featured on the record. Time delays meant that each record’s label could not be handstamped so they’ve also thrown in a piece of paper with centre label cutouts so you can actually involve yourself in the production process too!

Just two singles left after this, the first a Tunic/Pinner split single. Tunic we know by now and on this older outing they do Chandelier and Just Keep Away, the former a pavementy noise and the second harder, punkier and one of those stop start affairs. Pinner are more flowery indie mixed with bursts of detuned noise making quite nice pop songs. It’s a really good single basically,with a nicely photocopied black and white sleeve and rubber stamped record centres. The second single is a split release by Hedonist Productions and Neptunes in 1996 featuring the weird and wonderful indie punk sound of Coping Saw. The glitter coated pink sleeve is particularly fetching and titled ‘Gettin’ Nice With....EP’. At some point it seems they got cardboard fully printed and glued sleeves as there are two versions of this single here. Four songs, some slow, pleasant, relaxed and reminiscent of an Eggs/Free Kitten crossover, though that’s probably just my mind playing tricks on me, one fast tune that rocks like hell and finally a horn blowing jazz song, pretty mellow with interesting guitar/bass/drums instrumental stuff on top.

That’s everything here covered then. Judging by the catalogue numbers of these we’ve only touched the surface of both labels’ full output, but it’s gotta be a good starting point anyway. The catalogue numbers are listed at the end just in case you want to order some. Everything reviewed here I can definitely recommend; we don’t know these people or anything like that either so there’s no funny business going on and we gave them all back! Here are the numbers:

Gettin’ Nice With... Coping Saw 7" ep (Neptunes & Cake 011V)

Tunic/Pinner split 7" (Neptunes 7PIE 014)

Boats Against The Current lp (Cake 012CD) Boyracer flexi 7" (Cake 001F)

Hood flexi 7" (Cake 002F)

God Is My Co-Pilot flexi 7" (Cake 003F)

Looking at the Earth from Neptune... lp (Neptunes LPPIE 016)

Dominic Waxing Lyrical lp (Neptunes LPPIE 020)

Andrew Beaujon 7" (Neptunes 7PIE 021)

Andrew Beaujon (Neptunes 12PIE 023)