pre order due 10/1/25

VERY THINGS, THE
MR ARC-EYE (UNDER A CELLOPHANE SKY) [VINYL]
Vinyl LP

Item no. :FOAD2403 Barcode :0749350314664 Artist :VERY THINGS, THE Product type :Vinyl LP Label :CADIZ - FOAD MUSICK Release Date :10 January 2025
 
DESCRIPTION TRACK LIST
The Very Things (TVT) were originally formed in 1983 by RR Dallaway and The Shend (who had in 1977 been founder members of punk/post-punk Crass Records legends and John Peel favourites, The Cravats). Their mission was to create a 'flexible container' for a variety of personnel, music and ideas. Their art-pop projects were infused with the band's distinct brand of surreal, black humour. 

In 1984, TVT's debut album The Bushes Scream While My Daddy Prunes scored an indie hit with the well-loved title track, with its themes of neurosis and control, based on a newspaper report of a man who had accidentally set fire to his house trying to remove moles from his garden. The cult black and white video for 'The Bushes Scream…' made for Channel 4's 'The Tube', a much-loved homage to vintage sci-fi films, was reputedly the most expensive film ever made by Tyne Tees TV for the revered music programme and still clocks up thousands of views online.

Motortown, the band's second album released in 1987, included the BBC Radio 1 play-listed indie hits 'This Is Motortown' and 'Let's Go Out'. 'In a blaze of supercharged funk rhythms and twanging guitars arrives the sound of Motortown, UK... The Very Things have forged an essential slice of indie funk' said Music Week.

Having initially parted ways in 1988, The Very Things have now returned, with added GXL*, to release their first new recordings in 35 years, with the welcome release of Mr. Arc-Eye (Under A Cellophane Sky), bringing TVT's firmly back into the contemporary music scene. With principle songwriter, vocalist and instrumentalist RR Dallaway leading the project, the line-up includes original members Steven Burrows (bass), Disney Time (drums), new recruit Tony Sherrard (bass) and special guest, The Cravats’ Svor Naan (saxophones and clarinet).

It is all new, but the DNA is familiar. It's been made using the same idiosyncratic processes as earlier TVT recordings; multiple cassette recorders, lucid dreaming, chance occurrences and found sounds have all been employed, coupled here with new (but distinctly TVT) soundscapes. A combination of vintage analogue equipment and digital technology has been used to create a rich sonic texture. It contains ‘ghosts, radiation, an electrician, rivers of sand, a toga, Samantha Stephens, an antique suit, space walks and a scrap iron man’. Album themes include: illusion and truth, belief and reality.

• 'GXL' denotes a new phase for the band and is a tongue-in-cheek reference to trim levels offered by Ford Motors UK for its 1970s Mark III Cortina: Base L (Luxury), XL (Xtra Luxury) and top of the range GXL (Grand Xtra Luxury). 

Side A:
1. We're Working On It
2. Driver
3. I Don't Know About You
4. Mr Arc Eye

Side B:
1. Titanic Suit
2. I Said Year
3. Ghost Pool
4. This Is Not My Side
5. 76 Trombone Street