A welcome treat for 2022 is the release of Electribe 101's 'lost' second album, Electribal Soul, which was recorded circa 1991-1992 but remained unreleased for three decades. Despite a degree of success in the UK with debut album, Electribal Memories, and singles Tell Me When the Fever Ended and Talking With Myself, Electribe 101 were beset by problems. Tom Watkins had successfully managed Pet Shop Boys and Bros., but reportedly found Electribe 101 a more difficult proposition. Likewise, promotion of the band by record label Mercury/Phonogram never quite seemed to hit the mark and Electribe 101 were dropped in late 1991, part way through the album recording sessions. A few more tracks were recorded but Electribe 101 eventually split, Billie Ray Martin going solo and the rest of the band continuing as Groove Corporation.
Electribal Soul will be released on vinyl, CD & digital formats on 18th February. The vinyl contains 8 songs; the CD (& presumably digital) has 3 additional songs: Conquering Tomorrow, You And I (Keep Holding On) and an alternate version of Deadline For My Memories. Several of the tracks were re-recorded for Billie Ray Martin and Groove Corporation's respective debut albums, and Billie eventually released a re-recorded cover version of Throbbing Gristle's Persuasion with Spooky, which I featured in a previous post.
You can buy the physical formats Electribal Soul directly from Billie Ray Martin's website and digital from her Bandcamp page, although it wasn't available for pre-order at the time of this post. Rooting around on Biilie's YouTube page, I found this performance of Moving Downtown (a song dating from her previous mid-80s outfit Billie & The Deep) on BBC TV Show, What's That Noise? introduced by presenter Tony Gregory.
No comments:
Post a Comment