The Psychedelic Pirates, by Skinbat Scramble

The Psychedelic Pirates

by Skinbat Scramble

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8 track 2 x 12" housed in specially designed Reverse Card Board outer, with black paper inners.

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shipping out on or around August 21, 2024

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Full Digital Discography

140

releases

Get all 140 Emotional Rescue releases available on Bandcamp and save 90%.

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Tomorrow Never Knows, Spin, Keep On Dancing, Batman, The Psychedelic Pirates, Big Mood, Music In My Mind, Censorship Is Killing Music (Gross National Products 1981 - 1989), and 132 more. , and , .

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1.	Submit 04:29	buy track
2.	Submit Dub 03:36	buy track
3.	North By Northwest 05:53	buy track
4.	North By Dub 08:19	buy track
5.	Skidaddle 05:22	buy track
6.	Skidaddle Dub 05:37	buy track
7.	Basement Voltaire 09:30	buy track
8.	Pixie Boot Dub 05:26	buy track
9.	DIGITAL BONUS : Lonesome No More 04:36	buy track
10.	DIGITAL BONUS : Skeleton Crows 04:59	buy track
11.	DIGITAL BONUS : Asleep In The Bath 00:39	buy track

about

Emotional Rescue dives back into one of its specialties, the formative years of Post Punk and Dub influenced music, presenting the, to date, unheralded Skinbat Scramble. The rarity of the unknown, the discovery of rich, lost music, it is a delight to release a compilation of the band’s previously unreleased recordings. A snapshot of time, a journey that covers several decades of friendship but is concentrated here on the fertile 80’s scene.

Forged around the friendship of Mark Eason and Fergus Crockford, but with ever changing line-ups, flowing in and out during misspent youths, self-taught playing, falling in and out of bands, travelling that well-worn journey from Home Counties boredom to the excitement of a rough edged London, taking in as music as possible, from Motown on to the The Velvet Underground, The Rolling Stones, Bowie, Pink Floyd, Gong and Fripp & Eno, before Dr Feelgood, Eddie & The Hotrods and a dose of John Peel led to discovering Dub and Punk and witnessing that short-lived burst of creativity at the Roxy Club, Marquee or Vortex and exploring back to early Rock’n’Roll, Rockabilly and old Surf’n’Soul, alongside the likes of Wire and Suicide.

As the Post-Punk sounds mixed simultaneously with Two-Tone, local Art College gave way to university and the early struggles of finding a way in the late 70s / early 80s of Thatcher’s Britain. Music was central, Skinbat Scramble finally appearing, morphing from numerous teen bands, early studio excursions of tape loops and effects leading to the first recording sessions in 1981.

The slower tempos, introspection, open structures, and shimmering experimentation of Post Punk were pivotal. John Foxx’s early Ultravox, Siouxsies’ “Lord’s Prayer” period and The Electric Chairs seminal “So Many Ways”, influenced to a freer future. PIL, ACR, Section 25 and Pink Military let imaginations briefly roam.

‘Far out and weird’, those first recordings made at Leeds Uni’s Fine Arts Dept utilized Revoxes, Tandberg, MiniMoog and even a borrowed drummer. This was followed up with completed sessions at Elephant Studios in London, forming the basis of this compilation.

The tight scattergun rhythms on opener Submit, in both Vocal and short Dub mix, bely an unreleased band. Taught and crisp, it’s like a song you’ve heard propelling open-minded, leftfield dancefloors for years.

The writing, musicianship and studio mastery displayed on North By Northwest and Skiddadle should not be music unreleased for almost 40 years. In North Dub and closer, Pixie Boot Dub their understanding of the opportunities of dub Reggae are clearly apparent, ethereal music wormholes for late night smokers.

However, it is in Basement Voltaire that the band step out time. Recorded in 1986 this is a 9-minute proto-techno wonder that mixes all their psychedelic meets punk youth in a crescendo of crashing claps and rolling toms that is of a time and so far ahead of its time.

And that was that, after 6 gigs, including a couple at the infamous St Martins, to an audience total you can fit on one hand, the band’s first incantation closed and the master tapes were stored for several decades, waiting for “The Psychedelic Pirates” to finally surface.

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released October 31, 2023

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Emotional Rescue UK

Reissue label for lost or forgotten tracks, remastered and pressed on vinyl with love.

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