FST 018
The Desert Wolves - Pontification
01
- Mexico
02 - Love Scattered Lives
03 - Stopped In My Tracks
04 - Desolation Sunday Morning
05 - Passion In The Afternoon
06 - Speak To Me Rochelle
07 - Besotted
08 - November
09 - The Gunmetal Jaguar
Who are the Desert Wolves ? That is what a lot of people have
asked us lately. We can explain it very simple: The Desert Wolves
were one of the best groups from Manchester in the late 80ties. In 1987/88 the
band put out two great singles on the Ugly Man label, where Black
released his first single, Man From Delmonte one 7" and
two 12"s (now rereleased on Vinyl Japan) and Too Much Texas,
while being fronted by Tom Hingley, later singer of The Inspiral Carpets,
had a great 12". The Desert Wolves play melodic guitar
pop. As the critic said that there are a lot of indie bands producing music like
this, but few reach the purity of sound the Wolves have evolves, or the clarity
of emotion, you can find in the songs. Just listen to the song
"Mexico". As one of our all-time favourites ever this song reflects
perfectly what this band stands for: Chiming guitars, melodic trumpets, a
thumbing rhythm section and a voice, so lovely, so sweet, so heartfelt and as
soft as peanut butter. "We could go driving/down Mexico way/The wind in
your hair/You look lovely beside me" Surely, nothing is as perfect as you
want it to be and "the line between friendship and what could have been in
thin" but how would life be like if there wouldn't be any struggle left ?
But let us begin with the begin. "Gunmental Jaguar" is one of the
unreleased gems from this album. Although Manchester is not Liverpool, in this
song you find musical references to the other huge music metropol in the north
of England. Here i would mention Ian Broudie (now mastermind of The
Lightning Seeds) and the bands he produced in the 80ties: Wild
Swans, Care or even Echo & The Bunnymen.
And traces of another group can hear in here: The La's, a band
who never rised above cult status but later turned into Cast
(well two of them actuelly) who had some reasonable success. You go on listening
to this album and you will feel the freshness and the youth in every song. But
even when you are young you are "Yearning for all that yesterdays"
(from "Stopped in my tracks" which was produced by now famous radio DJ
Mark Radcliffe). When something ends another thing will start but will it be as
good as before ? "I catch the falling rhythm of the soft summer rain/sad
again" (Desolation Sunday Morning"). And isn't the trumpet a gift of
heaven ? Then you have "Passions in the afternoon": "He made her
love/he made her cry/ he gave her everything" but "now he is
alone/walking the streets/loving her forever". Hear Martin's great voice on
this one singing a great falsetto after the fantastic guitar solo: "She
said goodbye-hi, goodbye, goodbye-hi". Isn't it sad ? In 2 1/2 minutes you
can say a lot of things. "How happy i would be/If only you would speak to
me, Rochelle" ("Speak to me Rochelle"). Just listen to the
begining of this song: You hear the half- acoustic guitar, a bit distorted, then
some smooth piano chords come along the way and the song starts. Please i have
just one wish: Speak to me, Rochelle - you would save my life ! After
aforementioned "Mexico" we will come near the end. Two steps before it
there is "Besotted". How it starts, do i have to say more ? Anyone who
has ever fallen in love with chiming, brilliant plink-plonk guitars will
immidiatly feel a warmth around his/her heart. There it is, the perfect sound of
a guitar, promesing the fullfilment of all your dreams and more. "I don't
really care if i never see you again/ just as long as i see you tomorrow".
Live for the moment, it's the only time you'll have for sure!
"November" is far away and it was recorded in the same session as
"Besotted". You can hear it in the guitars. Until today this song has
been a lost masterpiece. It is short and terse. In a around two and a half
minutes a fantastic melody is developed from nothing to something beautiful like
a spring lawn in the early morning aftzer a humid night. "Just close your
eyes - be near to me" - this is what we dream of in cold, frosty November
nights. "There's a wonder in the sky..." On this compilation you will
find two unreleased tracks ("November" & "The Gunmetal
Jaguar", one song ("Passion in thze afternoon") that was out of a
football compilation from the follow-up label to Ugly Man and six songs from
their two 12"s on Ugly Man leaving out one song from the second single, a
short accoustic version of "Speak to me, Rochelle" named "Le
Petite Rochelle". Nowadays Martin King and David Platten play in the The
Vermont Sugar House. This band has released one 7" on our label at
the beginning of this year (which might see the daylight in the UK through the
re-started Ugly Man label) and are planing to release another 7" later this
year. If everything is goin ist way there might follow a full lenght album at
the end of this year or at the beginning of the next year.
Discography:
Love
scattered lives/Stopped in my tracks/Desolation Sunday morning 12" 1987
(Ugly Man)
Speak to me Rochelle/Mexico/Besotted/La petite Rochelle 7"/12" 1988
(Ugly Man)
Passion in the afternoon on Bananas compilation LP 1989 (Rodney Rodney)
Pontification LP/CD 2000 (Firestation Tower Records)
One of the most finest things
in pop is the discovery of small labels. It's very funny, a single got released
on 500 copies and if you're living outside London you can be sure that the
change of finding the damn lovely thing will be rather small unless you'll find
it at a recordfair as it's been sold by someone who's wondering why he bought it
in the first place. The Ugly Man label from the UK is such a label that released
the first single by Black, Man From Delmonte, Too Much Texas (fronted by Tom
Hingley who later would become the singer of The Inspiral Carpets) and this
Manchester-band The Desert Wolves from the mid 80's and now the German
Firestation Tower records is re-releasing all this stuff, at least this
mini-compilation from The Desert Wolves." Pontification" can easily
been seen as a sort of forgotten pearl from British musichistory as not only
this band featured two members who are now in the splendid The Vermont Sugar
House (as far as I know they only released one single on Firestation Tower) but
on this album you can also hear the famous DJ Mark Radcliffe who once played in
The Fall too. For me this is the sort of typical British pop that was famous in
the 80`s (if you`re a fan from the Zoo label you can`t help but falling in
love with a track like ,,Speak to me, Rochelle") or something as ultrapoppy
as the Housemartins. Splendid pop.
Original Sin