mercoledì 8 gennaio 2014

Sending letters from East Kilbride

Aztec Camera, from East Kilbride, it seems yesterday that they were the next Postcard stars ready to shine, but it was more or less 35 years ago.... Main man, Roddy Frame at the time was still a very young whippersnapper with an enourmous talent for writing songs, even more than his friend Edwyn, He was quite a flashy guitarist also, not in a Jimi Hendrix way, but it showed through in his choice of chords and his solo runs and he was a great player anyway. Quite sophisticated for bright & breezy pop songs. I mean, goodness knows how many chord changes there are in their songs if you ever tried to play them in years. Anyway, it was the sound of Young Scotland (?!) or was it only bunch of upbeat sparkly tunes for people tired of post punk gothic anthems... I don't know. No need to say how important the've been in "our" music and in my life... I  bought anything of theirs I could find including live tapes and badges for years... High Land Hard Rain definitely ranks among the very greatest debut albums of all times. Years after came the C86 bands, the new folk heroes etc... What I know for sure is that these early songs (recorded live in 1982 at the Astor Univ.) certainly show an incredible emotional depth and tug at the heart strings here and there... Sadly, this was the 80's,and progress, unfortunately,meant getting in big name producers and spending weeks/months achieving big drum sounds! Quality and the special touches get blown away by the sheer gloss and polish of the production...A crying shame,but it has its moments...