Strange Passion – Various Artists (early irish punk)
Strange Passion – Various Artists
Released 13th July 2012 on Cache Cache (Finders Keepers)
The first ever compendium of Irish post punk and new wave - featuring extensive liner notes, rare photos with the full participation of the featured artists and bands.
Released on Cache Cache a new post-punk record label set up by Finders Keepers dedicated to seeking out shyly excitable electric pop music from the not too distant past.
Ireland in the late 1970s and early 1980s was an island in the grip of unrest, with civil and political strife in the north, and a tardy economy and religious hegemony in the south. To be young in Ireland at this time was extremely tough with many choosing to follow the well worn path of emigration. A significant number of those that stayed had little choice but to join the dole as employment opportunities were scant. However, the increasing influence of those windows to the wider world such as TV, radio and print were combining to fuel imaginations and plant seeds of disaffection amongst an increasingly sophisticated and pop literate youth desperate for change. Needless to say when punk entered the mainstream the cultural and social conditions were such in Ireland that a new generation of kids were perfectly primed to tap into its energies and values.
Focusing on a three year period from 1980 to 1983, Strange Passion is a compilation of rare, unheralded and unreleased Irish music that emerged after the first wave of punk and new wave bands. A time when the raw primitive sounds of punk began to absorb new ideas and technologies and emerging acts were reaching audiences on an unprecedented scale thanks to new magazines such as Hot Press and Heat, RTE Radio 2 and it’s Fanning Sessions, as well as new youth magazine programmes on national TV like Anything Goes. Access to UK’s broadcasting and magazine cultural behemoths (Peel, NME, Morley etc.) as well as touring bands such as The Clash and PIL also played their part in creating an appetite for this thrilling new subculture and soon venues such as The Magnet, Dandelion and Project Arts Centre in Dublin and Kampus in Cork became significant live music
hubs.
This was catalysed by new youth scenes which sprung up particularly in the main urban centres of Belfast, Derry, Dublin and Cork. Fuelled by boredom, antipathy towards society and inspired by the developing DIY scene in the UK, new bands, independent labels fanzines and creative art provocateurs began to emerge. Such was the rapid growth and creative freedom of this new culture that for a couple of years there seemed a constant stream of emerging acts producing work that was both original in content and presentation.
Undoubtedly U2 were the breakthrough act from this new generation of acts. However, others such as Virgin Prunes with their Dadist inspired blend of performance art and punk offered a darker vision tapping into the latent energy of their environments which resulted in extraordinary live events and the odd incendiary TV performance. Live legends, The Threat and Chant! Chant! Chant! were gone almost as soon as they arrived but so fully formed were they already that recordings they did leave behind stand as prime examples of post punk music.
The 14 rare and seldom-travelled Irish post-punk, DIY and electro oddities were compiled from limited privately pressed vinyl and home made cassette by resident B-Music Dublin DJ Darren McCreesh for Cache Cache Records, a new label set up by international crate diggers Finders Keepers:
"Cache Cache!" The phrase that the French use for the game Hide And Seek and a fitting title for a new European record and cassette label dedicated to seeking out shyly excitable electric pop music from the not too distant past. Designed as a new home for elusive would-be dance-floor classics and misplaced kosmic-pop from the late 19070s, 80s and 90s. Cache Cache explores the outer-reaches of modernist pops global legacy - celebrating the skewed influence of Electro, Disco, Post Punk, Hip-Hop and antique Acid and sneaks new-old music into good record shops near you. Find Us, Keep Us!
1. Dogmatic element- just friends
2. The threat -high cost of living
3. Chant! Chant! Chant!- play safe
4. Virgin prunes- twenty tens (i’ve been smoking all night long)
5. Operating theatre -austrian
6. Stano- town
7. The peridots -no water
8. Choice always- in danger
9. Ph -last days
10. Major thinkers-avenue b
11. Sm corporation- accentuate
12. Sm corporation- fire from above
13. Tripper humane -discoland
14. Operating theatre -eighties rampwalk
There's great stuff on this. Highlights for me are Dogmatic Element - Just Friends and SM Corporation - Fire From Above. The liner notes are a very interesting read too.
Nun Attax and Microdisney aren't on it, but they get a mention in the notes.
Strange Passion – Various Artists (early irish punk)
Linear Mode
