In 1985, one of the worst years in pop music, Stress and Adventures In Reality goes plastic with a mini album. The title of which seems to mimic the atrocious Heaven 17's soul-synth atrocity "Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry". Stress obviously had chart ambitions, which is never a force for good in any medium.
They had also invested in better equipment, used a proper recording studio,which results in a harder EBM influenced sound, and do I sense a sampler? Thankfully there's no Orchestral Stabs,or any "Oh Yeah!"'s;but a few Reagan samples and the 'Bagpuss wakes up' harp glissando. Anyone one who samples from "Bagpuss" deserves a medal in my book. I never listened to anything Reagan had to say at the time,and on the evidence of these samples the bloke was a complete prick! They (the USA) would have done a lot better having Bagpuss as president, a puppet with a heart who could tell a mean yarn.(Also 'Bagpuss' had a soundtrack that rivals 'The Wicker Man' for weird dark folkiness.)
On the subject of 1985 being one of thee worst years in pop music;......we now know this not to be true.At the time it was,but little did we realise that every year from 1989 to 2016 would be worse. 1973 used to be cited as the worst, but this is total crap; it was jam packed with prime prog rock (not including Yes or ELP of course), 1974-76 were markedly worse; even Can were shite then!
This album is very 1985 sounding,with sophisticated sequencing, car skidding and speech samples, thudding drum machine kick drums, and an amusing attempt to sing like the bloke from Front 242.
As a francophone, the tune "Slaves To Beat" never fails to amuse me, and the French in general, because in French the word 'Beat' refers to a male sexual appendage; written 'Bite' its pronounced phonetically as 'Beet', aka Beat (titter titter)......how amusing eh kids?
Tracklist:
A1 The Big Wheel
A2 Elizabeth Selwyn
A3 Get The Most
B1 Slaves To Beat
B2 No Sane Alternative
B3 The Price You Pay
DOWNLOAD and go down on the beat HERE!
Stress's next tape after their incredibly watery debut,was 'Restraint'.Which is ironic,because their sound before 1984 showed considerable restraint; especially vocally. There is a marked inprovement on this one.The vocals are marginally more confident,and the music marginally harder. Moving more towards the Belgian end of the minimal synth world rather than the camp English androgyny set. You could probably dance to some of this?
Tracklist:
A1 Engrave The Name
A2 Nothing New
A3 Raga
A4 Hide From View
A5 I Go To Pieces
A6 Semi-D Prison
B1 Down Through The Years
B2 Freespeak
B3 Enigma
B4 Rule Of Force
B5 The Pulse Thickens
B6 4th Dimension
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Stress,is appropriate,especially if you are a Manchester City fan today......losing 3-1 to low-budget rivals, the mighty Leicester.Just gotta dick Arsenal next week and its all over bar the shouting.
Of course Leicester is about 20 minutes down the M69 from Coventry,home of Adventures In Reality,but also guilty of Two Tone;the first in a long line of forcing white men to dance fad's!
Luckily, Adventures In reality never tried to do that to us.
One in a long tradition of 'synth duo's',Stress, was Alan Rider's, head honcho of Adventures In Reality fanzine/Label, foray into the pop world. I assume he is one of those shadowy figures on the insert.
If anyone's ever been to Coventry,they will know what a despondency inducing,concrete clad, architectural atrocity it is.....post WW2.Once a medieval treasure ,second only to York,it was bombed flat by the Luftwaffe;and then finished off by British modernist architecture of the 1950's.
This would explain this alienated and despondent synth pop outing.
Its kinda like Soft Cell with even wimpier vocals; a Softer Cell if you prefer?
Its fairly anemic stuff,which is all part of its charm; Front 242 it is not,and very English.
Tracklist
A1 Help Comes Too Late
A2 Work Ethic
A3 Love Mafia
A4 I Stand Alone
A5 Saving Graces
A6 Perfection
A7 Distortion
B1 Hiroshima Blues
B2 Crying In The Wilderness
B3 Tribal Rite
B4 Tin Soldiers
B5 Glacial
B6 Help Comes Too Late Too
DOWNLOAD without stress HERE!
