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Plan For Peace |
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My Song About My Head |
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OFFICER! Some Songs/Bandagen
Officer! was founded by Londoner Mick Hobbs. His roots were in the Rock In Opposition scene of the late 70s and early 80s. Initially he worked as guitarist in The Work, subsequently he became closely associated with This Heat and their Cold Storage Studio in Brixton, working with artists like Family Fodder, Catherine Jauniaux or Zeena Parkins. The band's first album "8 New Songs By Mick Hobbs" came out in 1982 on casette only. It was followed by the second album, "Ossification". The third album, "Cough" was recorded and released in France in 1985. It is often overlooked in the band's discography, a fate that many cassette releases share. "8 New Songs By Mick Hobbs" and "Cough" have been collected to form the CD "Earlier Music", which was also made available again by Klanggalerie. Bandagen was originally released as a cassette in 1989 by Swiss label No Records. Half of the music was written for a stage play called Bandagen by Grazia Pergoletti, the other half was originally released as music by Mick Hobbs. This first CD edition has been remastered by Martin Bowes. Full tracklist: 1. Good Cement 2. Plan For Peace 3. My Song About My Head 4. Hunter 5. I Did Something Wrong 6. Good Citizen's Car 7. Undovetailing 8. Heartwood 9. Kindliche Kleidung 10. Spewing 11. Jasminduft 12. Inflation 13. Ballacodep 14. Deflated 15. Happy Days, Lonely Nights 16. Arbeitstitel. Price: € 19,-/copy incl. worldwide shipping.
Perfect document telling about the existence of an interesting artistic coexistence between oblique songwriter and sonic avant-garde typical of a certain European season... Mick Hobbs, Londoner with borderline musical frequencies (in Opposition), hybridized with post-punk songwriting and Europop-parallel (Family Fodder) attitudes in the late eighties made several recordings in this musical territory so indie and escaping definitions at the same time.
(Alieno de Bootes, May 2023)
Officer! are a sort of art rock/new wave band and dont quite sound like anyone else. In some ways, some of these songs sound like normal New Wave from the early 1980s, but there is more going on here that meets the eye or ear. There is also some quaint or cute going on here which reminds me of Young Marble Giants at times. The instrumentation is mostly vocals, guitar, organ, vibes or marimba, bass and drums, yet there are unexpected charming moments going on. If you need a break from free or even composed jazz or more demanding progressive rock churning, this is just the right thing.
(Downtown Music Gallery, June 2023)
The music is a mixture of improvised and rock music, and the pieces for Bandagen are generally a bit more experimental, sparse and abstract, whereas Some Songs have a rock-like structure. (...) I immensely enjoyed the shorter pieces of Bandagen, which, at times, were a bit too short—strange acoustic music combining a more modern classical feel with spoken word and radiophonic drama.
(Vital Weekly, July 2023)
Some Songs/Bandagen is a CD reissue of a 1989 C60 cassette. It finds this Mick Hobbs (Half Japanese) fronted project dipping its sonic toes into the waters of wavering indie rock-pop, off-kilter singer-songwriter fare, wonky folk, & off-kilter easy listening/childrens music.
(Musique Machine, November 2023)
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