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Digging Your Scene: New Pop & All That Jazz 1982-87 (Cherry Red)
Further proof of the Cherry Red label’s acumen in the field of cleverly-themed, reasonably-priced and well-designed box sets comes with a four-discfollowup to 2024 collection Heaven Sent: The Rise Of New Pop 1979-1983. You’re near enough always guaranteed to find things variously familiar, obscure and new to listen to with one of these comps, and Digging Your Scene is no exception to that rule.
It hones in on a 1980s era when the influence of classic American soul and jazz was seeping into the British pop and indie landscape. Borrowing its title from The Blow Monkeys’ first hit single, which is tucked away in the depths of disc three here, it’s Everything But The Girl’s emotive debut single – a cover of Cole Porter’s Night And Day – which opens disc one and smoothly starts the party.
Other artists to flirt with jazzy, soulful or funky leanings might come as a surprise: Soft Cell with L’Esqualita, or Madness’ One Better Day. Blue Rondo A La Turk are present and correct, likewise Carmel, Matt Bianco and Working Week, and a real find here is the hypnotic, hit-the-repeat-button gem Snakecharmer, by a one-off assembly of Jah Wobble, Holger Czukay and The Edge.
Equally cool are Brilliant – comprising Youth, who’d left Killing Joke a few years prior, and Jimmy Cauty, soon to become one half of KLF – with their take on James Brown’s It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World. Little known 2-Tone band The Friday Club also make an appearance, as do lesser-known gems by Night Trains or Marden Hill.
words DAVID NOBAKHT
