Artist: Assembly Line People Program
Title: Noise Vision 80
Format: 7" single
Label: Transcopic
Catalogue Number: TRAN001
Year of Release: 1998
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Below are the fruits of my extensive research for this review, first up Rolling Stone Magazine:
"(LONDON) - Blur guitarist Graham
Coxon is launching Transcopic, a label to
be based in the offices of the band's London-based management
company, CMO.|
First signing is U.S. band Assembly Line People Program. A double-A-sided limited-edition 7-inch single, "Noise Vision 80"/"Who's Outline (live)," is due March 9. CMO's Niamh Byrne will have day-to-day responsibility for the label.
"We're not expecting to release great, polished music," says Byrne, explaining that Transcopic will be an outlet for new acts and "lo-fi" music. U.K. distribution is via SRD; no international deals are in place. Blur's fifth album, Blur, is on EMI imprint Food in the U.K., Virgin in the U.S., and EMI internationally."
And then this from http://www.diskant.net/nopics/green/singles9.htm :
"This is actually tops. Hyped because of its label, or rather who runs it, thankfully the music rules for me. Assembly Line People Program actually are an interesting band. The first side sounds like the mighty Devo with the singer from the Knack wheeled out of retirement or interrupted from his 37th Japanese reunion tour. A factory full of energy and spastic jerk."
They hailed from Chicago, and were loud.
You can still buy this single for a frankly rather silly £6.99 here.
The lyrics were by M. Guarrine, and all the other members of the band had the same surname - Danyluk (initials D., C. and T.). M. Guarrine has a new band, with Ted Danyluk on drums, - info and songs and stuff on that myspace thing, or their own site. This makes me wonder where the other brothers Danyluk are. They may be in a band called Lucid. They may not.
Cripes, that was more than I thought. To the review!
I may not know much about Devo, but I know early Talking Heads - and both tracks on here sound very much like all the material on 77 that isn't Psycho Killer. There's driving bass, rhythmic drumming, angular guitar riffs, and short sharp occasionally shouty lyrics. In the first track the lyrics appear to mostly be about chemicals (unspecified).
In the second track, it's harder to tell what the lyrics are, although this is not down to poor live quality, as the live recording is of very similar quality to the studio recording. At the very least this shows the label was living up to its own expectations regarding the quality of the output.
It's not bad, I just think it's a shame they were putting this stuff out about 6 years before it became popular again - a shame for them that is, not really for me. I'm of the opinion that having 10 songs that sound like they were from 77 and aren't Psycho Killer is sufficient, I don't really need any more. (This is an argument I apply almost exclusively to newer bands, it doesn't seem to work in reverse [might have a think about why that is]).
The sleeve has a nicely embossed Transcopic logo on the front. It was a limited edition of 1000, and was produced by Graham Coxon, which must be the reason I bought it, having quite liked Blur's fifth album.
