9/03/2006

World Of Twist - Quality Street

(Click on the picture to download.)

I have to admit that I had never heard of World Of Twist prior to the news of ormer frontman Tony Ogden's death about a month ago. But these three post on Simon Reynold's blog peaked my interest and I decided to try and track down the band's only album from 1991. Not only is Mr. Reynolds one of my favourite music writers whose recommandations are usually at least worth checking out. Also, a self-consciously stylized and artificial band with a post-acid house sensibility taking its cues from the baroque end of sixties-psychedelia, Joe Meek, Hawkwind, early Roxy Music, Motown stompers and krautrock - well, sir, that sounds like it's right up my alley!

It would be stretching things a bit to say that Quality Street is a lost masterpiece. Some songs sound rather like a slightly more sophisticated and artsier version of the baggy dance rock of their Manchester contemporaries and that's hardly something to write home about. There really is the occasional dash of greatness to be found here though, most notably on the amazing singles The Storm, Sons Of The Stage and Sweets and their fabulous version of Sly Stone's Life And Death. When they lived up to their promise of a groovy, plastic fantastic glam psychedelia, World Of Twist really were unique. It's a shame that they never released another record and remain so obscure. A second album for Creation Records was never finished as the band fell apart, not least because of massive substance abuse (those were the pill-popping days of rave after all). The details of World Of Twist's short and convoluted band history can be found on their official homepage.

(This is not my rip, by the way, it comes from a friendly slsk user. Sorry, can't remember the name, but thanks a lot!)

5 comments:

zhao said...

it is true that guys like Reynolds recommend lots of interesting and good stuff but at the same time I don't entirely trust them... for instance, there was a slight craze about Gavin and Dalia or whatever their name is - hailed as some kind of kraut-psych-post-Morroder-acid-epic-minimalist-motorik-melt-down - I bought it and it sounded like pigeon shit on your car wind-shield -- doesn't exactly ruin your day because it's ignorable, but still annoying.

let's hope this is not like that.

square dancer said...

Are they this synth-rock duo on the DFA label? From what I remember they sounded a bit like a (not so good) Tangerine Dream-rip off. I guess sometimes critics just can't resist bigging up music that offers them a lot of possibilites for clever theorizing, but doesn't really sound that great. And Reynolds is surely not immune to that.

I enjoy Quality Streer, although, like I said, it's far from being a work of genius. Would have been interesting how they would have developed. But I guess it's probably a bit too "indie" for your taste...

zhao said...

tried it out... can NOT deal with this mate... barely kept me lunch inside me after hearing the first 2 songs... haha! :D

square dancer said...

He! See, I thought something like that would happen...

:-))

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