Rainsongs and Painsongs - pt.2

Rainsongs and Painsongs is the new edition of YHO which can be downloaded as a pdf here, free for all. It is at heart a celebration of Julie Tippetts' work, very much inspired by her collaboration with Martin Archer on Tales of FiNiN which is undoubtedly the most rewarding record of recent times.

Among those contributing to the remarkable Tales of FiNiN is the percussionist Charlie Collins. I have made the not particularly bold assumption that this is the same CC that played with Clock DVA and The Box. In those days, however, he was playing saxophone predominantly. I say predominantly because I have a particular fondness for his flute playing on Impressions of African Winter, the closing track on the group's incredible Thirst LP.

I think Thirst is one of the enduringly great records of the post-punk boom. It is also one of the most under-rated. Aesthetically, it is also spot-on, being on Fetish and coming in a great Neville Brody sleeve. Charlie's sax playing is a vital ingredient of what made that incarnation of Clock DVA so great. His playing on that LP is surprisingly restrained, and this adds to the overall sense of tension and barely-constrained paranoia.

The 'hit' single from the LP was 4 Hours, a perfect example of pop noir. There is on YouTube footage of the group performing the number live at the Futurama festival, but for me that kind of event is so against what the era's adventurous music should be about. Nevertheless it does capture something of the song's anxiety ...