VA - "The Zoo", Uncaged 1978-1982 / VA - To The Shores Of Lake Placid

British punk burned out quickly, but out of those ashes came something else. These two compilations capture the moment the phoenix hatched amidst those embers, before that bird was primped and preened and prettied. In the late '70's young Brits turned their ears to Liverpool. The sounds they heard were gleaned and glossed and gussied up to later become Tears for Fears, Depeche Mode, Human League, and a host of others. Others stayed truer to what they heard - Bauhaus, Jesus and Mary Chain, The Chameleons UK, and Jazz Butcher to name a few.

The perfect, but short-lived little British label, Zoo, happened by accident. The great post-punk band, Big in Japan (not to be confused with the album, Big in Japan by the ghastly Alphaville) had a short but stunning life from 77 to 78 and then split up. To retire some debt they decided to create a label and put out some singles - their own as well as those of other Liverpudlian bands (many of which members of Big in Japan were in some way a part of). They had but one A&R rule: they would sign a band based on nothing but its name. Thus, Zoo was formed.

In the beginning their objective was to release a single a week. Though their output never reached that, during their four year run they did produce some of the best that Britain could offer. They released the first Echo and the Bunnymen recordings, the first Teardrop Explodes recordings, their own EP and a host of other more obscure, but no less interesting bands. Bunnymen and Teardrop used the singles as a springboard to bigger and better things (read: labels), but the records they made with Zoo were some of their best work.

In 1982, they shut the label down. Times had changed in four years and the money was always short. Their big plans had eroded and they had only produced one album (a Scott Walker compilation put together by Julian Cope). At the end they produced one more album as a send-off, To The Shores Of Lake Placid, a compilation of their best singles that quickly went out of print. The vinyl copy I got in '83 is on its last legs.

In 1990 another compilation, The Zoo Uncaged 1978 -1982 was released on disc, though rights were tangled and it wasn't as wide-ranging as a result.

They are both worthy, but of the two, Placid is slightly better. Its diversity better captures the post-punk milieu in all its glory.

There are so many reasons to listen to these records:

• the early Bunnymen (especially their cover of Julian Cope's, Read it in Books) and the Teardrop stuff is rough and raw and works.



• the eerie industrial soundscape by Whopper in Kwalo Klobinsky's Lullaby lays groundwork for so much that would come shortly after.

• the synthetic doomer by Dalek, I Love You is a template for Depeche Mode.

• The Naughty Lumps' fast and furious Iggy Pop's Jacket gives the Psychedelic Furs a push.
  
  
• The comparison of the competing versions of Books by Bunnymen and by Teardrop especially in the light of the cat-fight twixt Cope and McCulloch over who actually wrote the song.

But the best reason to have these is Big in Japan. They only recorded 7 singles (excluding their Peel sessions in 79) and 5 of them are here. The last of British punk melding with what that punk would become is exemplified by the wicked Suicide a Go Go and the riveting tip of the hat to Valerie Solanas, Society For Cutting Up Men.

Furiously cerebral.

To The Shores Of Lake Placid

01 - Society For Cutting Up Men (Big In Japan)
02 - Iggy Pop's Jacket (Those Naughty Lumps)
03 - When I Dream (The Teardrop Explodes)
04 - Pictures On My Wall (Echo And The Bunnymen)
05 - Read It In Books (Echo And The Bunnymen)
06 - Lonely Spy (Lori And The Chameleons)
07 - The Winds (The Turquoise Swimming Pools)
08 - Kwalo Klobinsky's Lullaby (Whopper)
09 - A Suicide (Dalek I Love You)
10 - Burst Balloons (The Turquoise Swimming Pools)
11 - Lonely Spy reprise (Lori And The Chameleons)
12 - Camera Camera (The Teardrop Explodes)
13 - Suicide A Go Go (Big In Japan)
14 - Villiers Terrace (Echo And The Bunnymen)
15 - Take A Chance (The Teardrop Explodes)

Hear

Zoo Uncaged 1978-1982

1. Suicide a Go Go - Big in Japan
2. Nothing Special - Big in Japan
3. Iggy Pop's Jacket - Those Naughty Lumps
4. Pure and Innocent - Those Naughty Lumps
5. Sleeping Gas - The Teardrop Explodes,
6. Camera Camera - The Teardrop Explodes,
7. Pictures on My Wall - Echo & the Bunnymen
8. Bouncing Babies - The Teardrop Explodes
9. Touch - Lori & the Chameleons
10. Love on the Ganges - Lori & the Chameleons
11. To See You - Expelaires
12. Frequency - Expelaires
13. Treason - The Teardrop Explodes
14. Books - The Teardrop Explodes
15. Revolutionary Spirit - Wild Swans
16. God Forbid - Wild Swans
17. Society for Cutting up Young Men - Big in Japan
18. Taxi - Big in Japan
19. Cindy and the Barbi Dolls - Big in Japan

Hear