XTC: The Complete Works

We'll start with some words from Andy Partridge, talking to Artrocker the other day:

“Artrocker – that’s a fantastic name – I really love it because it was one of the insults that was flung at us when we first started. It’s like being called a cunt all your life and then someone brings out a magazine called Cunt. I’ll have to start a rival magazine called Quirky.”

“Punk used to think it was a Year Zero but it was just a sweeping up, very little good music, it was like mid sixties garage bands just turned up to eleven.”

“All my favourite bands let humour through, they didn’t stop it at the door. Just as you can let sadness in, or jollity or seriousness or mundane or whatever emotion you’re going for but so many bands just rule out – ‘No! We won’t have anything to do with fun because we won’t be taken seriously unless our music’s seen as serious at all times. I think that’s a big mistake”.

“I’m pretty much of the opinion we’re not going to make any more records under the name XTC. I shall continue to make records either with my name or various other names but Colin seems to have written himself off the planet and I don’t think he’s interested in music any more. I don’t like the idea of the band dying off so I’m going to leave it in the fridge and who knows what’ll happen in the future. I usually detest bands that get back together because invariably they don’t record anything of any worth – I don’t mind bands getting back together if they’re going to be better than they were when they broke up but that’s almost scientifically atomically impossible.”

“Just saw me down the middle and you’ll just see undiluted compressed essence of Artrock, which is a bit like Gyprock, for putting in walls, it’s a cross between Artex and Gyprock. I’m made of it so densely that if I fall over I fall through the planet. Gravity catches me the other side and then I keep going until I erode the entire planet. So I daren’t fall over. Yes I’m made of solid undiluted – just add quirky.”

“I’m a bit of an artschool reject – I rejected myself – I went to Swindon College of Art thinking I’d be a graphic designer but jesus was it all dull and was my imagination better than the shit they were shovelling on me and I kind of got more and more into music as I was doing it and I thought ‘hmm, ain’t going to get the girls with a pencil, I need a guitar’, so it was a tossup between a pencil and a guitar and the guitar won.”

“My favourite member of the Velvet Underground? Mo. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more inept musician making albums that sold by the million, I guess eventually, and I kind of like that. I’d love to hear a drumoff between her and the woman that drummed for the Shaggs – that would be a battle of the bands. I’m not a huge fan of the Velvets, I preferred Can – I just thought all the drug stuff was – oh please – I must be one of the few people on the planet that didn’t like them that much.”



Self-proclaimed ‘pop’ band XTC might not be an obvious choice for an Artrocker reappraisal but prompted by the release of a 10 x CD boxset of prime-mover Andy Partridge’s demos and home recordings (see elsewhere in this issue) we set out to rediscover the excitement of the angular urban angst of the early releases by the swinging Swindon-ites of yore. The band, Andy Partridge (guitar,vox), Colin Moulding (bas, vox), Barry Andrews (keyboards) and Terry Chambers (drums) were snapped up by punky reggae hippy label Virgin in the roundup in the punk chaparral of 1977, mainly because they had short hair. They held on to them for ten albums despite Partridge (and therefore the band) refusing to play live from 1982. The group finally got themselves dropped in 1998 after a six-year art strike prompted by the label pulping a single instead of releasing it (note to aspiring musos: the essential relationship between record label and group must always be one of unremitting war, this aids the creative process and engenders mutual success – commerce and art can only sit side-by-side in opposition). Two further albums were released by Cooking Vinyl but now the band seems to be on hiatus, probably because they have their own label and no one to fight against.
Although each release has its own special moments we know what you like so here’s a round up of where to find the artrock in XTC.



WHITE MUSIC (1978)
When in doubt, go for the debut. Recorded with John Leckie, probably because he worked on George Harrison’s epic ‘All Things Must Pass’ (XTC know their roots) the group, who had been together under various silly names since 1972, did what everybody else does for their first recording and laid down their live set. Cleverly opening with a jumpy nonsense song about the radio with shoutouts around the world in a clear anticipation of the global village, Partridge’s glottal vocals and simple lyrics (to combat crappy PAs) bounce against dark guitar chords which float on bubblegum backing vocals and jump into a sharp pointy chorus. This repeats back into the ‘Radios In Motion’ chorus and a steaming Nugget keyboard solo, Partridge gets yet more glottal, more guttural, more Steve Harley and a touch of Wire and we return to a repeated chorus chungalunga axe riff c/w piano powerchords to final downbeat. All this is carried along by an uncontrollable undertow of bass and drum, slightly faster than is comfortable yet entirely singalongable. Not a bad start. Crashing immediately into mad racetrack collision of ‘Crossed Wires’, with cartoon keyboards, the flea circus antics of Moulding’s bass, key-down-yer-jumper vox and frantic tubthumping we get a glimpse into the wider vision of the band’s influences (from Beefheart to Devo). Cross the road (carefully) to agenda-setting, attitude-defining powerpop choon ‘This Is Pop’, punctuated by the occasional ‘Hard Day’s Night’ chang, trademark repetitive chorus and self-referential lyric. ‘Do What You Do’ replicates Buzzcocks punkpop bouncy lurve song style which leads nicely into Partridge-penned ‘Statue of Liberty’, famously banned by the guardians of our morals at the Beeb (yawn) who objected to the idea of ‘sailing beneath your skirt’. A song about how American music influences the great minds of British pop, rather than a porno wet dream, it heavily features Adamsons fairground kybds that significantly contributed to the sound of the band in their early days. And to reinforce this love with the USA we get the unforgettable cover of Dylan/Hendrix classic ‘All Along The Watchtower’ which follows all the rules (budding musos remember – do covers better or different than the originals or don’t do them at all). (Check out the bass line: http://chalkhills.org/reelbyreal/s_Watchtower.html). End of side one.
Flip the disc. The pace continues with ‘Atom Age’, a new wave future shock diatribe, followed by the sound of Colin Moulding setting himself on fire, all jerky bouncy guitars, jerky bouncy kybds and jerky bouncy vocals punctuated by upstroke guitar chords and oowweeeooowwweeeooo backing vocals. Like cousins across the water, Talking Heads, if they’d been produced by Joe Meek. Most amusing. Up to this point a pattern has been established. The bouncy weird atonal post-punk songs of Colin Moulding clash and alternate with the more melodic and accessible pop choons of Partridge. The tension created by this dialectic makes this album exciting and unique, worthy of frequent revisits. Finally we have a stretch of Partridge numbers that combine his pop leaning with elements of Mouldings anxious madness, a vision of the future direction of the band. ‘I’m Bugged’ (hectic paranoia), ‘New Town Animal In A Furnished Cage’ (nervous stopstart jive with perfect pop chorus), jazz funk spoof ‘Spinning Top’ and edgy ‘Neon Shuffle’ (featuring references to 60s vintage guitar and keyboard style and more oowweeoowweeoo and suddenly changing rhythms and extraordinary key changes) set the agenda for future XTC soundscapes. On this album alone you may consider XTC sorted for Artrock credibility.



GO 2 (1978)
Continuing immediately from ‘White Music’, ‘Go 2’ was released in the same year. Jerky bouncy ‘Meccanik Dancing (Oh We Go!)’ successfully reminds us of the XTC imprint before the listener is sent a curveball with ‘Battery Brides (Andy Paints Brian)’, a gentle psychedelic tribute to Eno which combines ambient keyboard textures with melodic vocals intoning lyrics about life as a drone on the factory floor. This segues nicely back into Moulding XTC-land, all mad kybds, hiccupped vocals interspersed with a grounded middle eight in case you think of jumping to the next track, another wired diatribe about the ups and downs of drinking and clubbing. Partridge takes the baton and runs with it, going all frantic and hiccupy and artpunk on us (baby) while throwing in occasional pretty melodies – refugees from the mayhem. Elements of dub (‘Life Is Good In The Greenhouse’), reggae (‘Super Tuff’) and bouncy ska (‘Jumping in Gomorrah’) get thrown in (the original album came with a free dub platter, an area of obsession the group regularly explored, surprisingly successfully) as well as a bit of funk (‘My Weapon’) but coming so quickly after the mind-blowing debut ‘Go 2’ isn’t quite such a resounding success. Worth picking up though.



DRUMS AND WIRES (1979)
By summer ‘79 Barry Andrews had left the band to pursue a career making soundtracks for films of the imagination and was replaced by Dave Gregory. The album is more reflective than the previous bouncy jumpy jerky and is considered by many to be a highlight of the bands career, featuring classic single ‘Making Plans For Nigel’ (Moulding wrote this one). The album is a blistering take on tuneful pop clashing with (slightly) discordant nervousness. Like Talking Heads straighter British counterparts this is their ‘More Songs About Buildings and Food’ – the style is more concretely XTC than previous efforts and there’s enough noise and wiry discord for the fans and tunage for radio (‘Nigel’ was a big hit as you know). The Partridge/Moulding seesaw continues, their songwriting styles countering each other, yet significantly they start to converge stylistically leading to this more concrete feel which gave the band their unique sound. Key tracks apart from the smash: ‘Helicopter’, ‘Reel By Reel’ and ‘When You’re Near Me’ (bouncy jerky oowweeoowweeoo type things), ‘Ten Feet Tall’ (impeccable melancholic love song) and ‘Millions’ which is a complex epic hinting at strange directions of later recordings. Top of the list however from Artrock POV is the dark and scary ‘Complicated Game’ – a terrifying paranoid guttural vox journey into the heart of Partridge’s darkness which is the crowning point of an album which balances successfully between mainstream pop (they’d call it indie nowadays) and postpunk jerky bouncy noisy thing. The trick XTC were perfecting.



BLACK SEA (1980)
Almost exclusively Partridge’s material, ‘Black Sea’ is a powerful driving collection of rawk (XTC-stylee) songs performed to seas of bouncing fans across the UK and the USA. The album that broke the band in America, ‘Black Sea’ successfully combines the XTC sound with a more mainstream production and melodic songwriting than any previous release, making it the Artpop protest album it’s ok to like. English obsessions with power, the military, other people’s opinions, and social comment on exploitation of the workers, money and the church… and Sergeant Bilko all make appearances. However the angular nature of the earlier work is filed off and the more rounded material starts to become an unrelenting blur at times. The beginning of a swerve by the band into a cult-de-sac of peculiarity which is absolutely worth investigating but moves in ever increasing circles outside the scope of Artrocker’s ideal soundscapes towards luscious crafted songwriting arrangements.



ENGLISH SETTLEMENT (1982)
By 1982 the band had dumped producer of ‘Drums and Wires’ and ‘Black Sea’, Steve Lillywhite, in favour of his engineer Hugh Padgham (backed up by Partridge’s knowledge built up by his long-term obsession with recording techniques) and carefully constructed a double album, a collision of rock and folk and anthemic pop. You may have guessed that this is where Artrocker duly takes its leave. You’d be right. Although this album is cited everywhere as the band’s most successful (got to number five) and most popular and realised, for artrockers everywhere it’s just too far over the edge into mainstream pop in comparison to, say, Drums and Wires and White Music for a full recommendation. However, if you want to get into the full XTC investigation mode or want to experience something a bit more – ahem – accessible – then this is the one for you.
Although subsequent recordings are worth tracking down we recommend you focus on the earlier stuff before heading down that wandering path. But in case you wanna go there, here’s a brief guide:

MUMMER (1983) – completely lost, with world music influences, YAWN
THE BIG EXPRESS (1984) – the old spark is still there but the Police (yes – Sting) influences are a major turnoff. That 80s production – bleargh.
SKYLARKING (1986) – more cohesive, thanks to Yank Todd Rundgren producing it and telling Partridge where to get off. What’d I say about conflict makes the heart grow fonder?
ORANGES AND LEMONS (1989) – appealing mainstream pop with dark lyrics.
NONSUCH (1992) – opens with fantastic English psychpop anthem ‘Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead’ and rocks throughout. Get it.
APPLE VENUS VOLUME 1 (1999) – conceptual orchestral folkie Artclass, the most avant-garde of the catalogue and therefore extremely interesting.
WASP STAR APPLE VENUS VOLUME 2 (2000) – the rock followup to the previous one, like chalk and cheese.
XTC EXPLODE TOGETHER – The Dub Experiments – gets an honourable mention, compilation of weird soundclashes from late 70s, kid in a candy store.

If you really need to know more you should look at:

chalkhills.org
xtcidearecords.co.uk
ape.uk.net
club.kingsnake.com/mp3/andypartridge_0902006.mp3

Look as I said at the beginning of the piece this band have made some stupendous recordings. Out of all the bands I’ve written about this year I’ve found some of the most relevant enduring jumped up fucking exciting stuff coming off the grooves off XTC albums. Dig in, be selective, don’t expect it all to be good. And don’t forget – ‘This is Pop’.