Allchival Indierock | Alternative 5 Items

Following on from our 2018 repress of his debut album “Content to Write in I Dine Weathercraft “ we’re delighted to present an Anthology of Stano’s productions spanning the start of his solo career in 1982 to his 1994 “Wreckage” LP. Featuring 18 tracks from the five LPs he released in that time span on double vinyl with extensive liner notes, it is a comprehensive look at one of Ireland’s more enigmatic musical characters. A member of the legendary punk / post-punk group The Threat which disbanded after lead singer Maurice Foley disappeared to join the Hare Krishnas, he had set up his outsider stall early on. The Threat had Stano on synths, one of the first female bassists in Deirdre Creed and their debut single was produced by progressive trad musician Donal Lunny of Planxty. Stano’s solo career of improvised electronic music continued in this vein of the unexpected – sitting outside both the country’s mainstream and alternative rock scenes. An indigenous musical industry with few resources even at the top level – studios, labels and venues being scarce – and with few of the cross water big independent acts venturing over the Irish sea to play Dublin in the early 80s, it was an isolated place where due to its intimate size the more traditional rock bands nestled in close proximity to the few electronic acts. News travelled through a small scene via fanzines such as the influential Vox, which was associated with Stano publishing his poetry and releasing his debut 45 « Room », the Peel & Fanning shows of course and the newly established Freebird records. Eschewing both live performance and the spotlight for studio collaborations he worked with a number of Irish musicians - Roger Doyle, Michael O Shea, Daniel Figgis, My Bloody Valentine - and following the debut on local rock label Scoff records he signed to German experimental label Dossier where a further two LPs – 1986’s The Protagonist 28 Nein and Daphne Will Be Born Again the following year - were released. Signing to U2’s Mother records, he released their first Long player “Only” on the label which garnered praise from the UK music press including LP of the week in The Guardian. The final LP of this anthology featuring collaborations with Colm O'Coisoig of My Bloody Valentine "Wreckage" was released on Independent label Hue Records in 1994.

Former member of Dublin punk band The Threat, Stano released his debut LP on Scoff Records in 1983. Recorded in Alto Studios, the Irish artist eschewed live performances in favour of fusing collaborative, improvised, experimental music with spoken word-poetry. The LP featured contributions from fellow Irish musicians and artists such as Michael O'Shea, Roger Doyle, Donald Teskey, Vinnie Murphy, Detroit born Jerome Rimson and is a seminal document of Irish postpunk

Legendary Dublin punk band formed in November 1978 by Maurice Foley (guitar/vocals), which had a number of iterations before disbanding in 1981. The Threat built up a following in Dublin and maintained a heavy reputation through the 1979 and 1980. Playing the legendary Dandelion on a couple of occasions towards the end of 1979 and became friendly with members of the Virgin Prunes and U2. Stano, another friend of the band, bought a synthesizer, purely as a sound generator, and joined them. As a nonmusician, his synth added noise and texture to the band's sound and brought out their experimental side.

This "Lullaby in C" / "High Cost of Living" - their sole single - recorded in 1980 with Irish traditional musician Donal Lunny producing, providing his services for free. Lunny went on tour with Planxty before the recordings were completed. Impatient to get the single out, the band completed the work themselves with cover art from Dave Clifford of Vox fanzine. Self-financed, self-released and distributed by the band around Dublin with a few making it over the sea to Rough Trade. A second single was recorded in 1981 with the Virgin Prunes Danny Figgis producing but the mastertapes are lost to the midst of time. We've added a demo from Stano recorded in 1979.

Legendary Dublin punk band formed in November 1978 by Maurice Foley (guitar/vocals), which had a number of iterations before disbanding in 1981. The Threat built up a following in Dublin and maintained a heavy reputation through the 1979 and 1980. Playing the legendary Dandelion on a couple of occasions towards the end of 1979 and became friendly with members of the Virgin Prunes and U2. Stano, another friend of the band, bought a synthesizer, purely as a sound generator, and joined them. As a nonmusician, his synth added noise and texture to the band's sound and brought out their experimental side.

This tape of the band's April 1981 gig in Limerick came to us a few years ago from one of the band members drummer Stephen O' Brien and it's been remastered for the perfect cassette experience.

This is the second time out for the Wormholes on AllChival following on from their You Never See the Stars When it Rains anthology release. This one is a previously unreleased album recorded in a concise burst of seven nights in Dublin’s Sun Studios in the spring of 1996. It was originally envisaged as being The Wormholes’ second album, the follow up to their 1994 debut Chicks Dig Scars. Unfortunately the end result of the sessions - Parijuana - would not only be ignored by their label of the time (Roadrunner Records) - but would also just as quickly be dismissed by the band themselves.

Eamonn Crudden, the manager of the band, had manged to extract some money from Roadrunner to record demos of new tracks as soon as the release cycle for their debut was over. The budget was so tight that it covered studio time but was not even enough to buy the master tapes. With things going south with the label – a classic 90’s tale of the A&R man who championed their cause heading off elsewhere the minute they signed - the intention was to go in and aim to record an album rather than demos - with the intention of releasing it on another independent label to keep the momentum around the band going.

However by this stage the Wormholes were totally wrapped up in listening to Can, Faust and generally exploring music based on casual recording, improvisations and extemporization. For them the album was too ‘rock’ and – having been dropped by Roadrunner - they no longer felt under any obligation to release it. To them it was time for a fresh start. Their next recordings would not be ‘for’ anyone but themselves. Today bassist Anto Carroll admits that “at times we were our own worst enemies” and with the benefit of hindsight both he and guitarist Graham Blackmore wish they had gone ahead and released this album at the time. However, back then, they thought they could do better and they did go on to make inventive and unique sounding versions of some of these songs with Stan Erraught producing just a short time later. These recordings were eventually released by Dead Elvis in 1999 - along with a couple of ‘adjusted’ tracks from the Sun Studios sessions - on Parijuana: 4 Years in Captivity.

It’s highly unlikely that listeners today will share the band’s view that the abum was too ‘clean’. This version of Parijuana is dirty, raw, messy with plenty of experimentation and extemporisation. The songwriting is as strong as that on their Chicks Dig Scars debut. The music is played with a new confidence and swagger, very much the sound of a band rooted in a wave of US ‘lo-fi’ finding their own sound. It’s the missing link between their conventional Pavement/Sebadoh influenced debut to the more drawn out, free roaming and extemporised second album proper Scorpio The Album.