★Spittle
Brain Flakes
After achieving some decent notoriety, and not only in Italy, as an electro-pop duo (thanks mainly to the single 'Short Wave, a small 'classic' in the early years of that decade), between January 1982 and March 1983 Ruins morphed into a new five members line-up. With this fresh option, Ruins restructured the previous repertoire and produced entirely new material. The original 4 track recording had remained largely unpublished at the time and seemed irretrievably lost. However, thanks to persist…
Fred Ventura Presents Milano Undiscovered 1988-1992 - Unreleased
Third chapter of the "Milano Undiscovered" series, curated by Fred Ventura, takes us on a journey through the vibrant Milanese techno and house scene of 1988-1992. This latest installment unveils a treasure of unreleased demos, showcasing the productions that emerged from the city's flourishing underground during this era. Inspired by the pioneering sounds emanating from Chicago, Detroit, London and Sheffield, a wave of Milanese producers embarked on a creative odyssey, crafting their own unique…
391 | Selezione 2
With the 391 project, Spittle shed light on the most recondite and peculiar realities of the italian underground. The Belpaese illustrated in imaginative regional postcards, with all the legacies of off culture: the do-it yourself ethos and the local gestation of phenomena from across the Channel - above all - such as new wave, post-punk and electronic nouvelle vague. Phenomenal little contributions collected on the periphery of the New World, with future stars of the alternative scene to come a…
Italia No! Contaminazioni No Wave Italiane 1980-1985
2023 Reissue. Taking up the gauntlet thrown down by New York's no wave scene, many Italian bands of the early '80s, playing far from the footlights of the world's stage, began creating compelling, and often cutting edge, hybrid sounds. This kind of experimenting soon went viral along the entire peninsula: from Southern Italy to the Alps, creating a brave new Italian take on post-punk. From the nervous white funk of Neopolitans Bisca, to the instrumental explorations of Confusional Quartet, to th…
391 | Selezione 1
A natural compendium to the 391 series, with a strong selection straight to vinyl. Spittle CDs series "391" is filling a void screaming out for revenge. We’re not actually talking about hard to find material, but properly unreleased songs and compositions locked for several decades in some virtual memory lane. A proper distillate from the ongoing series, which showed the hidden roots of the Italian new-wave (with all the possible links to art-rock, goth, post-punk and industrial). Creativity has…
The Mirror Test
One of the most respected British bands in the mid-80s post punk era. Sad Lovers and Giants played highly atmospheric music made of melancholic melodies and epic guitar riffs. An overtly romantic attitude that slowly developed towards an even more open (pop) sound approach. Originally released on Midnight Records, The Mirror Test, the band's third studio effort, arrived as the fruit of an updated line-up and a clear step in such direction. A very harmonious collection of songs, some of which are…
Feeding The Flame
Sad Lovers and Giants second album, a brilliant atmospheric post punk record with several elements akin to Joy Division and The Chameleons. We can definitely apply the term’ ethereal’ to these composition, certainly the sound is very oceanic and otherwordly melancholic, typical trademarks of the new wave renaissance. Recorded in 1983 – and released on their own label Midnight Music - Feeding the Flame showcases the original line up at its very best.
Heaven Is Waiting
“The waiting is hell but heaven is waiting...it seeemed like an age to complete this record, we had demo’d it in a couple of days in swanyard studios and it sounded fresh and powerful, just like we wanted. Signing to Arista had given us the means and funds to take us to the next level and we were itching to get started. We had new equipment, the status of being a ‘signed band’ and we hoped the backing & Finances of a record company that believed as we did, that we could be big. Not ‘pop star big…
Killing Time
*2023 Repress * Spittle Records present an expanded reissue of Massacre's Killing Time, originally released in 1981. Following the breakup of Cambridge's avant-rock legends, Henry Cow, guitarist Fred Frith moved to NYC in 1979, and soon found himself deep in the heart of the city's robust post-punk and free-jazz scenes. He performed with Bill Laswell and Fred Maher, from the group Material, as a power trio of sorts under the moniker of Massacre. The group quickly garnered a reputation around tow…
Italia Synthetica 1981-1985
Brand new version on white vinyl ! No CD available this time ! Italia Synthetica 1981-1985 represents the musical mutation that occurred after the post-punk hangover gave way to more frigid emotional shores, in-line with the synth-wave moment that was sweeping Europe and the white cliffs of Albion. This scene flourished in Italy between 1981-1985, and the musicians that came out of it are still revered today (particularly in the US). Robotic rhythms and intuitions that, besides sharing common gr…
Tears In My Eyes (1983-1985)
Spittle Records present a compilation titled Tears In My Eyes (1983-1985) focusing on the Italian band The End. "The name was simple and maybe not so original, but very appropriate for a band active in provincial Italy of the early '80s. A band playing British post-punk inspired songs with English lyrics and a focus on man's existential crisis. Nothing to do with gothic or dark as we used to call it in Italy, in fact even if the boys (all under 20 at the time they got together in 1983) liked dre…
Obsessions
Obsessions' is clearly a cult single of the era and one of their personal highlights. The band recorded the 4 track live in April 1982 and then reprocessed the take at Kindergarten Studio. The twelve inch was then released on the highly influential indie label Materiali Sonori. Neon is still considered as a legend of the Italian new-wave scene, one of the leading figure of the Florence underground movement that spread between the late '70s and the early' 80s.
Photographs As Memories
Photographs As Memories was the British cult band Eyeless In Gaza's debut album. A truly kaleidoscopic picture dominated by Martyn Bates's highly expressive vocals and Pete Becker's peculiar analog synth lines in a jungle of electric guitars, plastic organs, soprano saxophones, percussion, violin, stylophone, and tapes. An album which comes as a vivid snapshot from the very dawn of the '80s. Originally released in 1981.
One Afternoon In A Hot Air Balloon
Brilliant second album from the wholly original cult Sheffield post punk band, Artery. Released in 1983 on Red Flame, One Afternoon In A Hot Air Balloon is an adventure on its own. Artery somehow replaced the somber post-punk of the debut with a stream of melancholic pop paeans influenced by British folk and certain ballroom dances, with a spectral keyboard sound worth killing for. The secret weapon -- when compared to the rest of their discography -- is largely explained by the presence of keyb…
Tantra
Originally recorded for a radio broadcast in Holland in 1983 in front of a very selected audience (ten in all), Total Sound represents a great snapshot of Sad Lovers and Giants live on stage. Here the band, caught just before the split, delivers an outstanding performance based on a fine selection of songs from their first two now classic albums.Sad Lovers & Giants fell apart at the end of the year, but they have now reformed and new recordings will be available early in 1987.
Total Sound
Originally recorded for a radio broadcast in Holland in 1983 in front of a very selected audience (ten in all), Total Sound represents a great snapshot of Sad Lovers and Giants live on stage. Here the band, caught just before the split, delivers an outstanding performance based on a fine selection of songs from their first two now classic albums.Sad Lovers & Giants fell apart at the end of the year, but they have now reformed and new recordings will be available early in 1987.
391 | Vol.10 Friuli - Venezia Giulia - Voyage Through The Deep 80s Underground In Italy
Friuli and Venezia Giulia, have often been judged by some reviewers as some strange, exotic places, almost hidden in the upper right side of Italy's map. In fact, if compared to the average Italian habits, we got used to feeling marginal and eccentric. Yet, in the Eighties, Udine, being one of the main military service stations in the country, was a destination place for youngsters from all over Italy. Around six in the evening, the city center was literally invaded by an army of young people fr…
Canzoni Dada, 1981-1985
"If this band from Vicenza found a place in Italian rock history, it is mainly because of their [1983] debut [self-titled] mini-LP... duly presented here at the beginning of the tracklist. I hope the frontman Sergio Volpato will forgive me if I say that, despite the quality of the following releases, their mythical status (small as it may be) is owed to that first piece of vinyl originally released by LM Records and coproduced by Discotape, a record store in Marostica. An enigmatic cover, a made…
391 | Vol.9 Lombardia - Voyage Through The Deep 80s Underground In Italy
The nintth episode of the Voyage Through The Deep '80s Underground In Italy, dive and then a deep immersion into the New Wave phenomena developed in the Lombardia region between the second half of the '70s and the whole of the '80s. From the heart of Milano towards the geographical limits of the region, here is a whole legion of bands as representatives of a new subculture perfectly in step with the various music revolutions started in London and New York as in other centers of the Anglophone mu…