When kites flew high

In the early 1980s, English band the Modern Art were one of the pioneering D.I.Y. cassette bands, a psychedelic rock group formed by Gary Ramon, later that decade in the "almost famous" Sun Dial outfit. They recorded several releases for their independent record label Color Record as well as regularly appearing in many fanzines and they were also often featured in the mainstream music papers with favourable reviews in Melody Maker, Sounds and NME. Modern Art had a loose lineup that never played gigs but did see the release of a pair of posthumous collection studio albums and a number of very interesting self-produced cassettes. Ramon disbanded the group out of a desire "to make a more live-sounding group that could go out and play". Many Modern Art members subsequently joined Ramon in various incarnations of his new band, Sun Dial but I've always loved their first works, a mixture of post punk, psychedelia and even C86 influences. In their brief history, The Modern Art produced a lot of cassette material, most of which has never been heard. A good example is their beautiful 1982 self released cassette Underwater Kites (Color Records, October 1982).