Various Artists - Survival Sampler SR-1A (1984)

"Warner Bros. Records' Survival Sampler SR-1A is a portable compendium of the best of British and Australian new music. The complete version, commercially available only on cassette, is 56 minutes in length and features twelve artists from eight different labels. Designed to enhance and perhaps extend human life, the Survival Sampler comes in a can."

this came our way via one BobAvocado:

Guys of ForestRoxx,

I thought you night be interested in an almost all digital source copy of the 1984 Warner Music Survival Sampler SR-1A Sound Rations - I get the sense from your blog that you are approximately my age and might recall this sampler that came in a cold war appropriate army drab can.

I cobbled this together from my CD's except for The Assembly song which seems never to have been released in North America digitally - so its an audio rip from a You Tube video. I do have a vinyl version of the song on a 6 track radio station promotional EP for said sampler (no ability to rip from the vinyl at the moment).

Regards,
BobAvocado



Track List:
01. The Smiths - What Difference Does It Make
02. The Church - Electric Lash
03. China Crisis - Wishful Thinking
04. Scritti Politti - Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)
05. Carmel - More More More
06. King Crimson - Sleepless
07. Aztec Camera - Pillar To Post
08. The Cure - The Caterpillar
09. The Bluebells - I'm Falling
10. Modern English - Rainbows End
11. The Assembly - Never Never
12. Depeche Mode - Everything Counts

HEAR

(password: survival)

[link removed per DMCA complaint 10/10/10]

Carmel - The Drum Is Everything

Thorn and Watt got me thinking. In '84 another jazzy pop piece showed up and made the rounds of hipsters. Carmel's debut was bombastic, kind of messy and doesn't hold up as well as Everything But the Girl. Carmel sings (hollers?) like Peggy Lee on speed (which isn't as bad as it sounds, to be honest) and the band sits in some tight grooves. The swinging numbers would carry the torch til the Big Band revival in the '90s, and the trancey cuts would inform the acid jazz that followed.

While it doesn't sound dated, it does come across as unfocused and as such it can be a love it or hate it proposition. As an artifact of the time however, it's a joyful little record and has its memorable moments. Long out of print, it deserves some space on the web.

Check out More, More, More, the title track, Stormy Weather, and the marvelously moody cover of Tracks of My Tears (Portishead's debut owes a lot to this track).

Note: The image is the LP cover. The CD had a different (read: crappier) cover altogether.

Hear