Juli@n C0pe- Citizen Cain'd (2005) MP3 & FLAC -For dj-

Head Heritage ~ 2005

Tracklist/Info

Citizen Cain'd  in FLAC:  Grab, Try, Then Buy!

MP3 (320kbps)

The T3@rdrop Expl0des- Kilim@nj@ro (1980) Deluxe Edition (3 Discs) MP3 & FLAC

"You wandered into my dreams last night, and you stood them all up in a row. You trampled all over them with stones in your shoes, and you said, 'Oh yeah, I thought that you'd know.'"

Julian Cope on the transitory nature of The Teardrop Explodes: "The band was never built to last [....] it was like building a house on scaffolding on top of a tank moving at three miles an hour. The higher you build it, the further removed you are from the reality that it's actually moving and going to fall." Before forming The Teardrop Explodes, Cope had experienced several false starts in his effort to jump-start a music career in late-seventies Liverpool, including a band called A Shallow Madness, which also featured Ian McCulloch, who, after being ejected from the band due to ego clashes with Cope, would later become one of the pivotal figures of the Post-Punk movement as a member of Echo & The Bunnymen. After a few additional personnel changes, Cope renamed the band The Teardrop Explodes (inspired by a panel caption in a Marvel comic strip) and began to explore a sound that would, in many ways, run counter to the prevailing  trends embraced by the Post-Punk movement. By integrating neo-psychedelia into the band's sonic palette and indulging in his love of Kraut-Rock, Cope showed signs, very early on, of the eccentricity and iconoclastic nature that would later come to define his career. As the quote above suggests, The Teardrop Explodes seemed to function creatively through internal strife and dissension, which resulted in a very unstable lineup throughout the life of the band and Cope's growing reputation, thanks in part to McCulloch's constant personal attacks in the music press, as being something of a tyrant to work with. In truth, Cope was a workaholic who had little patience for what he perceived as a lack of motivation on the part of band-mates. After releasing a couple of singles, The Teardrop Explodes recorded their debut LP, Kilimanjaro, which was, true to the band's nature, a process riddled with conflict and change. A prime example was the sacking of the band's lead guitarist for "complacency" and replacing him with Alan Gill, who soon introduced Cope to the use of psychotropic drugs, something that quickly became a heavy influence on his work. Musically, Kilimanjaro was one of the most distinctive albums to emerge from the early Post-Punk movement, as it clearly demonstrates the moody neo-psych sound that characterized the Liverpool scene of that time but also exhibits then-unconventional tendencies such as poppy melodies and some very un-Post-Punk song arrangements that occasionally include trumpets reminiscent of the brass flourishes employed by late-sixties psych bands such as Love and The Doors. And then there's Cope's distinctive voice, which, on songs such as the opener, "Ha Ha I'm Drowning," traverses the same emotive territory as that of his arch-rival McCulloch, except that Cope's voice has a sweet resonance that recalls Scott Walker at times. Vocals aside, Kilimanjaro is also full of quirky melodic twists and turns that lend it its singular sound. A perfect example is "When I Dream," an impossibly catchy song built around Cope's tongue-twisting chorus, while musically, the keyboard washes and percussion that characterize the song recall middle-period Japan with their vague World-Beat references married to a New-Wave aesthetic; however, the results are far more pop-oriented than Japan's mannered experimentalism. Julian Cope during his tenure in The Teardrop Explodes: "I think we're very poppy. To me pop is something you hum. What I'm trying to do is strike a balance between triteness and greatness." In the case of Kilimanjaro, it would seem Cope & co. erred on the side of greatness.

Juli@n Cop3- Sk3LLingt0n (1989) / Sk3LLingt0n 2 (1993) MP3 & FLAC

"Rattle my chains, shoot my brains, if I can't have you."

Skellington was born out of the frustration and disappointment Julian Cope had experienced throughout the process of recording My Nation Underground, his second LP for Island records, an album the record execs apparently hoped would raise Cope's commercial prospects. The sessions were expensive and badly over-produced,  leading Cope to reportedly express his hatred for the project before it was even finished. Toward the end of these recording sessions, Cope and a group of musicians who had been working with him on the album spent a weekend on the sly in the same studio using Island's money to record another album, which Cope felt better represented his artistic intentions. In reaction to the sonic bluster of the "official" album, Cope set about recording a minimalist, primarily acoustic set of demos that, while sounding under-developed and even fragmentary in places, is extremely listenable and far more worthy of his singular genius. The lead track, "Doomed," is a perfect example; it features Cope repetitively plucking a bass-note lick on a rickety-sounding acoustic guitar while keeping his vocals in the lower range. However, what pulls the song together is a simple electric organ melody that repeats throughout, lending the song both a psychedelic ambiance and touch of Syd Barrett-style whimsy. Another song indicative of the strange pleasures this improvised recording session produced is the acoustic ditty "Robert Mitchum." Originally penned in the late seventies with then-band-mate Ian McCulloch, the song finds Cope in fine, slightly ironic voice as he sings his ode of admiration to the movie star. The session ends with the brilliant "Commin' Soon," which might have been a wistful ballad had Cope not chosen to sing it as a distorted, high-pitched confessional that sounds reminiscent of any number of rock star casualties. Needless to say, Island was less than thrilled about the session and refused to release it, especially as the label still had big plans for My Nation Underground. Despite Island's accusation that he was breaching the contract he had signed with them, Cope decided to release the session, now titled Skellington, on a tiny indie label. Four years later, he revisited the Skellington concept by recording another set of songs under similar conditions, which yielded Skellington 2. While not nearly as essential as Cope's best work, the Skellington albums are deserving of their comparison to other legendary pieces of rock eccentricity such as Syd Barrett's The Madcap Laughs and Skip Spence's Oar, both of which were clearly inspirations for the Skellington sessions.

The Teardrop Explodes- "When I Dream" Video (1980)

Anyone ready for some more Julian?

The Te@rdrop Explod3s- P33L Sessions Plus (2007) MP3 & FLAC

"If you have a daughter bounce her on your knee. If you have a son send the blighter off to sea."

One of the more mercurial Post-Punk bands of the late seventies and early eighties, The Teardrop Explodes' all-too-brief career spanned only two studio albums, yet is no less legendary for that. Lead by the brilliantly eccentric Julian Cope, The Teardrop Explodes combined an angular Post-Punk foundation embellished with psychedelic and Kraut-Rock elements and was not even averse to employing brass on occasion. Given the brevity of their discography, the re-issue of the band's 1979-1982 sessions for the BBC are both a godsend and a revelation (although Peel Sessions Plus is far from being a comprehensive compilation, as there are supposedly more than a dozen different BBC sessions in the can somewhere). The October 1979 session, recorded while the band was still, more or less, unknown, is a perfect example of their unique sound, often combining atonal guitar work with neo-psychedelic overtones, which simply doesn't sound like any other band of that era. Peel Sessions Plus also serves as yet another reminder that Julian Cope is one of the most underrated vocalists of the "alt" rock-era.

Juli@n Cop3- fR13d (1984) MP3 & FLAC -For sradams777-

"I'm fried, fried, ticking in the side. Body twitched from side to side."

While Fried was released the same year as  World Shut Your Mouth, they differ significantly in tone. If Julian Cope's solo debut was full of shimmering English guitar-pop, Fried, in many ways, re-introduces some of the Post-Punk grit of his earlier work with The Teardrop Explodes. However, this doesn't mean that the album is bereft of melodic stunners; in fact, it is full of them, from driving rockers such as "Reynard the Fox" (a song about the bloody ritual of a fox hunt from the perspective of the fox) to the giddy psychedelia of "Sunspots," which almost sounds like XTC. In the years since its release, Fried has garnered a reputation as a retreat into obscurity by an infamously eccentric recluse, but it actually bests its fine predecessor by offering another slew of fantastic songs while sounding far less fussed over in the studio. Long out of print, Fried is a beautiful piece of eighties psychedelia that practically defines the term "cult-classic."

Juli@n Cop3- Be@utiful Lov3 EP (1991) MP3 & FLAC

"Caught by the knob by the sickening mob, laid on a raft left for dead."

Many of Julian Cope's best songs can be found on his EPs, and there is no better example of this than "Port of Saints" from his Peggy Suicide-era EP Beautiful Love. Here Cope mixes up a brew of Brel, Scott Walker and psychedelia to create his own refracted approximation of  "Port of Amsterdam," and then somehow leaves this diamond off the album. If that isn't enough, the song, to the best of my knowledge, has never been anthologized, so this EP is the only place to find it.

Juli@n Cop3- W0rld Shut Y0ur M0uth (1984) MP3 & FLAC

"Oh, my stars that fall like ashen memories amidst the trees, then burst like leper sunsets on the shore."

With World Shut Your Mouth, Julian Cope set in motion a long and circuitous solo career that would produce more masterpieces than most of his peers, while somehow never earning him anything more than a cult following. Cope is, indeed, a quirky songwriter, but he also happens to be an extremely talented one who is graced with one of the most distinctive voices to come out of the Post-Punk era. On his debut, he introduces the psychedelia-laced pop that he would continue to refine throughout the eighties and early nineties, and does so to brilliant effect. The opener, "Bandy's First Jump," is a perfect example of Cope's unique ability to marry obscure/strange lyrics to tight pop perfection, and on the classic "Elegant Chaos," Cope sounds something like an acid-drenched Billy Bragg singing an ode to existential resignation. World Shut Your Mouth  is truly a forgotten gem, but then again, one could say the same thing about any number of Cope's albums.