Cat No:
MM018
Release Date: 04 October 2019
Label: Zirka Records
Packaging Type: Slip Sleeve (CD or Vinyl)
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 0702669860536
Genres: Electronic Experimental
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Description
In the early 1980s Len Liggins lived in Leeds, in Margaret Thatcher's Britain. He couldn't find a job, so he bought a very simple drum machine and a cheap electric guitar and started to write songs. He then borrowed an Electronic Dream Plant 'WASP' synthesizer, a bass guitar that was allegedly played on Fleetwood Mac's 'Albatross', and a 4-track cassette recorder - and began to make his own recordings at home.Len's songs reflect this grim, monochrome time, with its real fear of nuclear war 'The War Game', the worry of being poisoned by lead from car exhausts 'Lead' and of having nothing to eat 'Basil Purdy's Fridge'.
And so, from 1980 to 1985 Len created tracks of lo-fi, minimalist, post-punk experimental synth pop, submitting them to fanzines and underground cassette labels such as International Sound Communication, Real Time, Nuclear Terra. Len discovered from fanzines that there were other people also making lo-fi synth-based music in their bedrooms. It was a new movement!
This genre of music later became known as "minimal wave". It was underground and cool, and a stark contrast to the glamorous and over-produced Duran Duran / Human League style of plastic pop that filled the charts. People were more aware of it in industrial cities like Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester where unemployment and poverty were common while an emerging class of rich young businesspeople in London made huge profits on money markets and lived cocaine lifestyles.
After making the recordings on this album, Len went on to play with 1980s northern English indie guitar bands The Sinister Cleaners and The Wedding Present (briefly) and in 1991 he co-founded folk-punk world music group The Ukrainians.
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Tracklisting
- 1. The Telephone Box
- 2. Lead
- 3. Basil Purdy's Fridge
- 4. Nightmare
- 5. Womb With A View
- 6. The Children
- 1. Jealous
- 2. Strange Kind Of Romantic
- 3. All The Dead Men
- 4. The War Game
- 5. Sandwiches
Disc 1
Side 1
Side 2
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Paint It Yellow
The Legendary Len Liggins
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Together For Ukraine
Various Artists
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Len Liggins 1982-1985
Len Liggins
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Songs About Love Dreams & Domestic Appliances
The Legendary Len Liggins
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Thurgoland EP
The Sinister Cleaners
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Going Through A Bad Patch EP
The Legendary Len Liggins
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The Darwen Dancehall EP
Follow The Moths
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A History Of Rock Music
The Ukrainians
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Shchedryk (Carol Of The Bells)
The Ukrainians
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