When the New Wave boom ended in the mid 1980's and the British retreat began, XTC's releases didn't make much noise outside of critics praising them to the skies and die hard fans in North America. But back home they were still hard at it putting out records and perfecting their studio sound.
When their contract with Virgin records expired, front man Andy Partridge decided the time was ripe for them to start doing all their own recording and producing discs on their own label. Ape records was the result of years of labour on Andy's part to come to an understanding as how to make the best use of the technology available to the home recording artist.
Long before every kid had a recording studio on his or her laptop Andy was tinkering with the joys of the home studio. Over the years he has accumulated an archive of over 100 songs on tape that included alternative versions of XTC songs, songs that never made it onto albums, demos of songs for the band to hear and learn from, and even better songs that he's finally gone back and completed. Why did he go back to complete them? Well so they could be released as part of a nine disc box set called The Fuzzy Warbles Collectors Album.
Eight of the nine discs have been previously released as Fuzzy Warbles 1 through Fuzzy Warbles 8 while the ninth disc in the package is the nine track Hinges CD only available in this box set. They've also included booklets with each disc wherein Andy takes you through his personal history of home recording.
Now like a lot of us his home recording started with cheap tape decks recording his favourite songs from records and radio. But unlike you and me he didn't give up with that, but started to figure out how he could recreate different sounds and record them; generally exploring the whole range of potential that was available even then for interesting effects.
In later life of course he has machines out the wazoo, but he says he keeps a pair of knitting needles in front of him as a reminder of what his first and still favoured means of percussion was. He wonders about the effect on creativity when kids can just press a button and have an instant drum machine which they can talk over and then call that a song.
Article comments
1 - Triniman
I love XTC! A few years ago they came out with a brilliant "comeback" album, Apple Venus Vol. 1, and they did release one follow up, Vol. 2. While only a studio project and with only two members left in the band, I still look forward to new material from them, but I don't know if I'm going to shell out the money for this boxed set. I know they didn't tour much after Partridge had stage fright, or something like that, but I wish they could find some tapes of old concerts for release.
2 - SFC SKI
I bought a copy of "Black Sea" last year, and it it still as fresh, new, and brilliantly produced as I remember it being. No slam on bands like Kaiser Chiefs or Franz Ferdinand, but I hope they acknowledge XTC's obvious on their sound.
Personally, I liked the songs Colin Moulding sang more than Andy Partridge, but their is no deny Andy's songwriting ability.
3 - Elbee
To point out an innaccuracy, only FW 1 through 6 have been previously released. Vols. 7 and 8 plus the Hinges CD are brand new.
4 - tink
Huge XTC fan myself, I have all of their cd catalog already. Something like this though, definitely appeals to the collector in me...keep this mint "just because" and continue to listen to the 'regular' recordings as always.
5 - Patrick
Richard - Since you've had the chance to listen to all the disks, could you give us some insight into the best of the 9 to buy or maybe the top 10 songs (in your opinion) that would be worth getting when this all gets on iTunes (the Ape site says it's already up but I can't find it). That would be very helpful. Thanks.
6 - Richard Marcus
Patrick
I hate to disapoint you but that was a while ago and I only had time to go through the whole package once. I couldn't sit down and give you a list like you ask for without listening to the whole kit and kaboodle at least three more times.
Since the only way I can listen to them is on a tinny cdrom on my laptop - I received MP3s of the set not the actual set electronic media didn't rate getting the actual goods- I'm not really inclined to do that.
What I would suggest, especially since you have the options of downloading through I-Tunes for your I-pods is take the songs you know first of all, maybe a couple from each album, to get an idea of what it is exactly your getting.
I don't know if I-Tunes will differentiate between which are previously unreleased and which are demos etc (you can check the ape records web site for that sort of info if I-Tunes doesn't provide it) but check out the stuff you won't be able to find anywhere else as well -"Hinges" for example might be one to completly download because it won't ever be released alone.
I do reccomend going to the site and reading Andy's comments about home recording. His stories are great, and it will give you a lot of insight into how he developed the sound that XTC was and is still famous for.
Sorry I can't be anymore help Patrick, but good luck with it.
Richard