Collectively we give our trust so foolishly

[venta]

On Fridays this year, we ask...

What's in the Box?

The Box in question is the glovebox of my car, home to my extremely motley tape collection. By the time I owned a car with a tape player tapes were on the way out and most of my music was in CD format. However, charity shops were practically giving tapes away, which meant that I bought rapaciously and eclectically. A half-remembered 80s band who once released a single I'd liked a little ? A band I'd vaguely heard of ? An unknown group with good cover art ? Bring them on.

Of course, the net result is that I've ended up with a tape collection which any music-lover would be slightly ashamed of. There was a relatively narrow window (late 70s to later 80s) when tapes were big news, and my horde represents that. However, in amongst the terrible pop I've found some gems and I reckon its time to come clean about my guilty musical secrets.

In the Box this week we have the fantastic Disgraceful, recorded by Dubstar in the mid 90s.

This is actually one of my tape purchases about which I'm prepared to hold up my head and say it's a damn good album. Melancholy, female-voiced pop which has actually stood the test of time pretty well. If you remember Not So Manic Now hanging around in the charts and airwaves for ever then that's actually a reasonably representative sample, although it is one of those songs I grew to hate through over-exposure.

The album has a wonderful, consistent feel to it throughout, and would make a fine addition to any record shelf. Go on, you can buy it secondhand on Amazon for 90p and add a slice of gentle, electronic dance-pop to your life.

The Day I See You Again is an album track; it's not one of the most cheerful songs on the album. I'm a big fan of it, though:

Dubstar - The Day I See You Again [link expired]

[Poll #1115578]

[Disclaimer: I'm only just working out this tape-to-mp3 lark, and I've got the recording levels all wrong and this mp3 seems very quiet. It's also a bit mono, possibly because the right channel of my amp seems a bit stuffed at present. Yes, I could have just posted the nice shiny mp3 I have from the CD I subsequently bought, but I feel that wouldn't be in the spirit of the thing.]

Late addition: Wikipedia would have me believe that there may be a new album in the offing. I'd be curious to hear that.

Comments

[battyblingtrash.livejournal.com]

I LOVE Dubstar!!!!

i started listening to them because their CD singles always had brilliant covers and I couldnt walk past them in woolies! ah, the folly of the child jaded teenager!!!

no more talk was my favourite (tho that vid is HORRIBLE quality!!), followed closely by stars, but most of their stuff was just such beautiful flawless pop.

Sarah is in Client now - also good, but not QUITE so.

I'll stop gushing now :)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Hooray, one of my favourite albums of all time. Although I'm not sure it would get in on the "good cover art" criterion. Which version is on the cassette box; slipper or pencil case?

[venta.livejournal.com]

My tape and both[*] my CDs are slipper. I didn't know there was a pencilcase variant available.

[*] Purchasing error.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

The original CD artwork was basically pretty similar but had a blue pencilcase instead of the slipper. It was withdrawn fairly swiftly because EMI thought it was obscene¹ (you can probably see why).

---

1 I originally wrote that as "EMI felt it to be obscene", but that conjures up quite the wrong image...

[brrm.livejournal.com]

I've made it a bit louder, and while it's still mono, it's two channels rather than one now (http://www.photonhunter.co.uk/~art/tmp/box2.mp3) :-)

[brrm.livejournal.com]

Great recommendation, btw. I'd not heard any Dubstar before, but I've just blown half my xmas iTunes voucher on Disgraceful. :-)

[venta.livejournal.com]

I'm intrigued... you're happier buying digital tracks than CDs ? I'm assuming your iTunes voucher was for more than £1.80 (or let's say more than £5, allowing for postage) so I'd have always gone for a CD and ripped it myself.

I don't really believe in digital tracks, I fear they'll cease to exist while I'm not looking.

[brrm.livejournal.com]

Normally, I tend not to favour them (I've only bought 1 or 2 tracks before this, on a whim). I'll probably burn a CD of it, to be sure. The voucher was for 15 quid, and I have to spend it /somehow/, don't I? ;)

[erming.livejournal.com]

I think you need a 4th option in your poll - Inaudible.

Fortunately your friend produced a boosted version and I quite liked it.

[venta.livejournal.com]

That's what the volume thingy's for :)

(serioiusly... although it was quiet, I could hear it fine on my laptop if I turned it up way over what I'd normally have.)