“FAST PRODUCT” / CRASH COURSE IN SCIENCE / MASKULL / SOCRATES DRANK THE CONIUM / BRUCE MCCULLOUGH
VARIOUS ARTISTS - “FAST PRODUCT: MUTANT POP 78/79″ (1980)
This compilation of late ’70s singles on the Scottish record label Fast Product, put together for the U.S. market by the PVC label, is notable not just because it features a handful of early Gang of Four recordings, but because it simply is a great record all the way through. Here, The Human League’s “Being Boiled” is much more subdued and pleasantly not as bombastic as the version that appears on their “Travelogue” LP, The Flowers are a great girl band on par with the Au Pairs, Scars have some great basslines, 2.3’s jangly jangles are crisp, and the Mekons’ single “Where Were You” never gets old, even after a dozen consecutive listens.
Regarding the “mutant pop” concept,
Wikipedia sez:
“
Fast Product also produced ’subversive commodities’ that problematised pop music (hence their early monikkers - ‘difficult fun’ and ‘mutant pop’) and politicised their youthful buyers into a consciousness of taking control of the means of expression, getting confident and reappropriating the means of production. Often packaging their ‘products’ with a caustic yet subtle sideswipe at consumerism (the image of a wall of gold disks on the cover of the Mekons first single etc), Fast Product showed how all aspects of the record business, from musicianship to design to distribution, could be taken out of the hands of the major labels.”
Various Artists - “Fast Product: Mutant Pop 78/79″ LP (ZIP file)
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