Scorched Earth Policy Xpressway cassette Flying Nun NZ
$
25
$ 25
Sold For
Feb 1, 2011
Sold Date
Jan 25, 2011
Start Date
$ 20
Start price
4
Number Of Bids
USA
Country Of Seller
eBay
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Description
Scorched Earth Policy- Foaming Out cassette (Xpressway 20)
Very rare Xpessway cassette from 1991 including tracks from the band's 2 Flying Nun EP's plus a load of live material.A goodly amount of this reappeared on the now out of print "Keep Away From The Wires" CD but not all of it.
This has been well maintained and plays well, though these were mostly Lo-Fi recordings. All copies of the cassette cut off at the end of side 2, I've had three pass through my hands and this is the same with all, clearly Bruce Russell squeezed as much on and did not regard the time limits of the tape which really fits in with the chaotic nature of Scorched Earth Policy. Bruce's write up from my Popwatch article (see below) may seem like a little bit of a diss but the tape and the band had some real power and intensity. Bruce is right, they were no Terminals, The Pin Group or The Victor Dimisch Band but really those bands are among New Zealand's most powerful combos. SEP are a fine Xpressway addition.
From my Xpressway retrospective in Popwatch # 9 (first comments are from Xpressway cheif and The Dead C. guitarist Bruce Russell, the second are mine)
Bruce Russell: "Continuing the archival recovery programme which focused quite a bit on Christchurch, I see now looking back. I would have done a Pin Group one as well if Roy Montgomery hadn't been in self-imposed exile from music throughout the period the label operated. Nice to see the Siltbreeze CD out now anyway. What's more, Medication plans to substantially reissue this effort now also. Still worthwhile. While I didn't see The Victor Dimisich Band or The Pin Group live, I used to see Scorched Earth Policy whenever I could, and they were bloody good on a good night, but nowhere near as reliably good as say The Terminals. That's why a cassette like this is so good, you can edit out the dodgy bits."
Comprising both a studio side (consisting of 10 of the 14 songs from their two Flying Nun EP's) and a live side from several 1985-86 performances, this tape documents the career of this Christchurch combo pretty thoroughly (an extremely muddy cassette of their final performance was released on the Passage label in 1990, one year prior to this release). Scorched Earth Policy were another of Xpressway's archival releases. With a line-up infested with members of The Terminals, The Pin Group and The Victor Dimisch Band (S.E.P. included Peter Stapleton, Mary Heney, Brian Crook and Ross Humphries) and having covered VDB's "Mekong Delta Blues" both on this tape and on their 'Dust To Dust' EP, they tended to be a much rougher sounding outfit than their counterparts. S.E.P. were fit with a sometimes jarring raspiness that could manifest itself in the anthemic blasting of Ross Humphries' sax and Mary Heney's voice ("Green Cigar") while still settling down to a Velvet Underground-inspired groove ("Turn Your Eyes Away"). They weren't as fully realized as many of the bands in their bloodline but they were indeed loaded with charm.
Tracks are:
Studio side
1. Green Cigar 1:47
2. Too Far Gone 2:34
3. Salivating 3:09
4. Arson 2:58
5. Sunset On The Loading Zone 3:20
6. Paralysed 1:34
7. Turn Your Eyes Away 2:58
8. Johnny Frog 3:09
9. Maniacs 2:27
10. Since The Accident 3:18
Live side
1. Maniacs 2:22
2. Johnny Frog 4:03
3. Tse Tse Fly 2:56
4. Lolita 2:18
5. Sunbaked 2:14
6. Batwing 1:46
7. It Came In A Can 3:05
8. I'm Not Like Everybody Else 2:43
9. Mekong Delta Blues 5:12 (Victor Dimisich Band cover)
10. Foaming Out 2:59
Doldrums Bl o g says of Scorched Earth Policy :
Never has a name been so apt. A cauldron of prairie fire and brimstone, the sweltering beauty of Peter Stapleton's Scorched Earth Policy lies in their ability to conjure visions of austere desolation, sun-drenched despair, and loves lost and buried with a raucous, tumbling fury not found in the subdued murmurings of the Victor Dimisich Band. While those were delivered in the hushed tones of quiet desperation, these are the tortured cries of a soul slowly succumbing to the hypnotizing lull of insanity. It is the creeping, lingering shadow of the mid-afternoon sun as it tantalizes and mocks, an intangible harbinger of the darkness to come. Rising from the ashes of Victor Dimisich, Scorched Earth Policy was active from 1982 to 1986; during that time they released two EPs on Flying Nun, 1984's 'Dust to Dust' and 1985's 'Going thru' a Hole in the Back of Your Head.' Two live cassettes followed, one a posthumous Xpressway release. 'Keep Away from the Wires,' a collection released on Stapleton's Medication label in 2000, compiles the two EPs in their entirety along with outtakes and live selections. The main separating factor between Victor Dimisich and Scorched Earth--aside from Stephen Cogle's imitable baritone--was undoubtedly the contributions of guitarist Brian Crook to the latter. A spine-tingling blend of poetic menace and bite defines Crook's playing; it is impossible to imagine either Scorched Earth Policy or the Renderers without it. Enjoy this one. - Ariel
Noise dot as says of Scorched Earth Policy:
For the F. Nun EP the Victor Dimisich Band had one extra member, Mary Heney. A while later she and Stapleton and Brian Crook (later in the Terminals and the Renderers, see below) turned up as part of Scorched Earth Policy. Also involved here were Mick Elborado (again in the Terminals) Andre Dawson and Andrea Cocks. They were scary, musically and otherwise, perhaps the best "punk" group to ever come out of ChCh. Raw and intense and wonderful. Two EPs came out on Flying Nun-Dust to Dust and Going Through a Hole in the Back of Your Head-later reissued on the Xpressway cassette Foaming Out along with a bunch of live recordings. Not suprisingly they approximate a rougher version of the Terminals even down to a few of the songs (the Xpressway release has yet another version of the epochal "Mekong Delta Blues," though perhaps not one of the best.) The F. Nun and Xpressway releases are no more but they have been compiled on the Medication release Keep Away From the Wires.
Cassette is VG+ to MINT- (plays as it did when I got it back when it was released)/Cover is MINT to MINT-.
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