HIT THE NORTH! Wasn't this the video where the band were driving around Blackpool on the back of a truck. This was also the single of the 6 remixes - I only cover three of these and in a moment of guilt I bought the box set which contains the missing ones and will catch up. Promise. And weirdly the flip side of the single contains the studio Australians in Europe, which is surely one of their best songs. And the wonderfully Fall Dub version: Northerns in Europ. In a Neu! style this is the previous song played on a tape recorder whilst Brix and Mark chat over the top.
I'd never heard the part 1 Hit The North before with it's Kraftwerk intro. Part 2 is pretty much the same minus the intro, and part 4 is all techno. Some outtakes from one of the receiver comps reveals nothing especially outstanding.
Then Victoria with the daft single cover, never really liked this single, something pretty naff about it the whole affair. Guest Informant is one of Brix's best moments - she really gives it some but Tuff Life Boogie and Twister are a little weak.
Then they cover Day In The Life fairly faithfully (at least musically), the production is all Beatles and Mark is doing that thing where he tries to sing. It's good but then it ends with this backwards weird thing.
The Frenz Experiment was a fairly mature album in some ways - there's less mucking about and more good songs. And it all hangs together as an album. And songs that make a little sense - I can well imagine Mark leaving carrier bags around. Skip over Get a Hotel and Victoria and go straight into Athlete Cured - surely the best song about a investigation into conspiracy among athletes? Then the stand out: In These Times, all bass, jangle and Brix. Bremen Nacht is them doing Krautrock repetition. There was a free 45 with the album of Bremen Nacht and Mark'll Sink Us on. I like the latter even though it's quite slow.
Live in Cambridge of all places. Shoulder Pads with a stupid keyboard? Yes please. It's a pretty good show if not especially outstanding. They do songs like Frenz live, which is always a little weird - it's so slow it's got to be pretty boring for the audience. The throwback song they do is Pay Your Rates, it's great - super garagey and frantic. They end on Lucifer over Lancashire, but for some reason they've mucked up the tape and so you miss the intro. It's great, a really solid closer.
Anyway, onwards and upwards.
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