a blog without qualities III: New Fast Automatic Daffodils III

To date the PoIT has featured the New Fast Automatic Daffodils twice: here and here. Must be an amazing band to get three featured entries, right? Absolutely.



Today we feature the collected (mostly) output surrounding (and including) this mostly-unclassifiable band's second LP Body Exit Mind, released in 1992. This time the New FADs retreated to Brussels and recorded with producer Craig Leon, and emerged with a much more involved, dense, abstract and energetic collection of songs than the debut record.

Featuring perhaps the catchiest New FADs track known to mankind in "Stockholm" ("where our travels take us further north, where there's fish in the sea and food on the shelves"), this LP bristles with oddly-scathing social commentary and ruminations on the state of society (how's that for indie rock lyrical analysis?).

Whatever. I just love lyrics that ask the listener to consider the plight of the Stasi and their ilk, the secret police forces suddenly finding themselves without work after the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe - and how the allure of the almighty dollar rides roughshod over the basic needs of society. Take the track "American Money":

He was sick and tired of always being the odd one out,
in a place where the mean street cars were littered with fallout
of the American Money, coupled with native misgivings,
of the future of cities, where he was inclined to agree with.

Millions of unemployed policemen, all over the eastern world
will lose their powers of persuasion, and it seems such a waste,
and no amount of retraining in the socially-useful will make up
for that killer instinct new nations value so greatly.

And I want to thank you, I want to thank you, for letting me be yourself again.
There's few things you can't buy without American Money here.
Just give me one good reason, please give me one good reason, why I shouldn't be myself again.
There's some things you can't buy without American Money here.
It shits on your dreams daily, barely makes up for the handouts.

So there you go. At least this LP won't shit on your dreams - rather, while I've owned this since release in 1992, it's only recently I've discovered the allure of this record and it's among my all-time favorites. Nevermind the brief between-song pastiches (though I'm particularly enamored of the pseudo-shoegaze "What Kind Of Hell Is This?", I wish they'd actually developed it into a full-on song!), the tracks themselves are flawless.

Tacked onto the end of the LP proper are the various B-sides (and, in "Stockholm"'s case, the single remix) released in association with this record's singles and EPs. From the Bong EP we have "Head On" and "Beautiful", and from the "Stockholm" CD single the aformentioned "Stockholm" remix and the B-side "Cannes" I would have loved to have included the tracks from the limited-edition "Stockholm" 10" vinyl single, demo versions of "Stockholm" / "It's Not What You Know" and the B-side "Hexagon Spring", but the version I've been able to source on the internets is too heavily noise-reduced and not good enough-sounding for my persnickety ears. So dear readers, if you have this 10" or can locate a nice, clean, unadulterated transfer, please let me know!


NEW FAST AUTOMATIC DAFFODILS
Body Exit Mind - and collateral material



01 Bong
02 It's Not What You Know
03 Stockholm
04 I Take You To Sleep
05 Bruises
06 How Much Longer Must We Tolerate Mass Culture?
07 Kyphos
08 Teenage Combo
09 Beatlemania
10 What Kind Of Hell Is This?
11 American Money
12 Missing Parts Of Famous People
13 Patchwork Lives
14 Music
15 Exit Body, Exit Mind

- - end LP tracklisting here - -

16 Head On
17 Beautiful
18 Stockholm (radio mix)
19 Cannes

Two RAR files for your pleasure!

Part I / Part II

enjoy!

***** NEWS FLASH *****

In researching this post I've come across some potentially fantastic news - it appears the New FADs may be reforming! Nothing on the mentioned Facebook page since Andy's post mentioned in the link, but hope springs eternal! After all, I could get a real job if I tried, but what's the point...