Rough Trade Singles Part Three

Swell Maps and Prag VEC posters in the arch window, 1979

Volume 4 begins with "Messthetics" and the rest of Scritti Politti's second Peel Session (RT 033). It ends with Cabaret Voltaire's epic Three Mantras (RT 038).

Sandwiched in between are Swell Maps' classic "Let's Build A Car" and Spizzenergi's "Where's Captain Kirk?" The latter (RTSO 4) spent almost a year atop the indie charts.

Richard H. Kirk has released new music this month under the Cabaret Voltaire moniker. His former CV partner Chris Watson is now an award winning sound recordist. Watson's current interests are evident in the "Eastern Mantra". I favored the "Western Mantra" side back in my teenage daze. Four decades later, it retains its hypnotic power. I still wonder: what's the third Mantra? Is it like the fifth head of Cerberus?

RT Singles Vol. 5 is bookended by Robert Wyatt (RT 037 and RT 046), plus the Slits/Pop Group split single (co-released with Y Records and the Finnish label Arletty). Included are The Prefects, Edinburgh's Prats, Leeds' Delta 5, and Cardiff's Young Marble Giants with the quietly devastating Final Day; plus Rough Trade's earliest venture into harmolodics, courtesy of James Blood Ulmer (backed by Olu Dara, David Murray and Ronald Shannon Jackson, among others). 1979 was a hell of a year!