You gotta be f***ing KIDDING me!

I believe this speaks for itself.

Don't say we never give you nuthin'

Not content with finishing off my Eno series with style, verve, moxie, chutzpah and aplomb, I have also taken it upon myself to give you good good people a couple of small christmas gifts. Call it a token of our esteem from us here at the IllCon compound for it is, after all, the season of goodwill and so forth.




















I did sneakily foreshadow this post in my last one, mentioning, as I did,'writing bollocks about massively overlooked bands from New Zealand' and my enthusiasm for the TV cartoon 'Adventure Time WIth Finn & Jake', so that may well give you a clue as to at least some of the content herein.




















So, my first gift here- just a small one really - is an alternate version of the theme tune to 'Adventure Time'. I find the main theme to be the weakest thing about the show - far too indie and twee for my sensitive ears - so coming across this version that borders on Fancy Metal was pretty darned algebraic for me...



Now, I'm sure there'll be the usual naysayers out there slinging the 'H' word around and blah blah blah, but to those people I say 'SHUT THE FUCK UP'. You soulless cunts, you probably don't like the goddamn Muppets either, and I don't fucking trust people who don't like the goddamn Muppets.


















...aaaaaand relax.

My main present is something that I'm pretty damn sure isn't currently to be found anywhere else on t'internet. That's right people, we got us an EXCLUSIVE. First, though, I gotta ask, does the name 'Shihad' mean anything to anyone?




















If your answer is 'yes', then you probably already know just how damn good their first few records were and you may well already have a copy of the recording(s) that I'm about post.
However, if your answer is a no then I think you're in for a treat. Here's a wee taster to whet your whistle...



Pretty damn rockin' huh? Kinda 'Helmet-y' y'think? Hell, have another...



Yup. I dig 'em.

Both tracks come from 'Killjoy', Shihad's second LP, which was released back in 1995 and is one of my all-time favourite records.
Their debut EP 'Devolve' and their first LP, and first international release, 'Churn' (produced by Killing Joke's Jaz Coleman, fact fans!) were pretty decent, but 'Killjoy' is just a BEAST. Blessed with a rhythm section that pumps like the engine on an exceptionally fine ship-of-the-line and some right noisy guitars, 'Killjoy' totally rocks my world. Hell, those guitars that crash back in at 3.24 during 'Bitter' sound less like guitars and more like heavy steel cables lashing against one another. KILLER.

I was lucky enough to see them live on their European tour in support of 'Killjoy'- although not, alas, in their Faith No More support slot - and can wholeheartedly say that they were a fucking fantastic live band too.




















As I said earlier, I haven't been able to find this posted ANYWHERE else on the internet, so consider yourselves very lucky boys and girls. I've even added the two B-sides from the 'You Again' CD Single - one of which is a cover of Bowie's 'Boys Keep Swinging' - AND the two Shihad tracks from their 'Happy Families' Split CD with fellow Kiwi lunatics Head Like A Hole. These are all from my own personal, deeply cherished, CDs so you'd damn well better appreciate 'em!


















Get 'Killjoy' by Shihad Here.



















Now, just before I leave you to slip further into your Turkey/Tofurkey-with-all-the-trimmings induced comas, I'd just like to add that Shihad still exist - their website can be found here - but they have done nothing of worth since their highly divisive 1996 self-titled LP, so if you decide to go digging around online after getting all fired up by 'Killjoy', don't say I didn't warn you.

ENO

...and so it is that we reach the end of this series of Brian Eno posts, culminating with his 1977 album 'Before And After Science'.
It's been an epic trek, mostly uphill, but this is IT. No more. I can move on to writing bollocks about massively overlooked bands from New Zealand and how much I fucking LOVE Adventure Time With Finn And Jake. Or something.

Ironically this record also had as prolonged a gestation period as my posts, as Eno had begun moving into new musical territory after 'Another Green World' and had a great deal of difficulty in assembling the songs that would end up here. 'Before And After Science' would end up being the last overtly song-based record that Eno produced under his own name for quite some time.

1977 was also the year that Eno worked with Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius, aka Cluster - begatting the superb 'Eno & Cluster' LP - and worked with David Bowie again, on the second album in his 'Berlin trilogy'- 'Heroes' - as well as making repeated overtures to Talking Heads, a band whom he had fallen in love with during their UK tour with The Ramones.

Exactly how much he wanted to work with Talking Heads is made quite clear on one album track here, entitled Kings Lead Hat, a fairly bloody obvious anagram of the bands name...



...something that worked out nicely for Eno, as he ended up producing their next three records and making a rather splendid li'l record with Heads mainman David Byrne entitled 'My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts', all four of which are amongst some of my favourite records of all time ('Fear Of Music' in particular)














The usual array of guests helped Eno to finally realise his vision here, after several false starts - the previously mentioned Roedelius and Moebius, Henry Cow guitarist Fred Frith, Can drummer and Krautrock legend Jaki Liebezeit, bassist Bill MacCormick of Matching Mole and his Quiet Sun bandmate Phil Manzanera, the ubiquitous Robert Fripp, Free drummer Andy Fraser, the ever-execrable Phil Collins and Brand X buddy Percy Jones, again, and the disembodied voice of deceased Dadaist Kurt Schwitters (on the track 'Schwitters Rejoinder' natch).



Musically, the album is split between the more upbeat, jagged sounds of the first half and the more intimate, pastoral tones of the latter, yet still manages to remain coherent and, to me, utterly gripping. I also appreciate the inherent Englishness of the line "Ooh what to do, not a sausage to do" in the bouncy 'Backwater'. Yes, we really DO say things like that. Well, I do, anyway.

Now, for MY money, the centrepiece of 'Before And After Science' is the achingly beautiful 'Julie With...', as languid and lunar a song as any you could hope to hear.



...isn't that just gorgeous?

This really is a beautiful album, tonally, and one of my favourite Eno records. I hope those of you who haven't heard it before give it a listen and enjoy it as much as I do. So, get it here and dig in.




















...also, as a special treat because I've kept you waiting for so long, I've put together a package of Eno's non-album tracks - including a couple of singles and a BBC session featuring re-interpretations of tracks from 'Here Come The Warm Jets', an embryonic version of 'I'll Come Running' from 'Another Green World' and a Peggy Lee cover - which you can get here.








I've also decided to throw in a copy of The Winkies self-titled 1975 album in which they re-use the musical backing track to their version of 'The Paw-Paw Negro Blowtorch' and re-title it 'Trust In Dick', with rockin' power-pop results, just....because.
















Shame about the cover though. Mind you, it does give you an idea where they got their name from....