Resurrection

Clamor of Time

Spinning Fury (Part 1)

Car Crash Baby

Stream/Download

Endless

Always With Me

Ascent

In Darkness

Rekt

Start Again

I had high hopes for this very Sputty-titled track and the riff felt like a good groove too. It had all the classic Sputnik ideas, but with more space to breathe. One thing I’m certain of is that it was recorded at SSS Experiment camp studios.  I can see us there, recording it under the neon glow of the “Twenty First Century Boy" sign which was a prop from the video of the same, and the sign crackled and popped above the recording desk. like some future city advert out of Blade Runner 

Again, listening to the song today its potential is hampered by a somewhat-lifeless vocal from Degville. Often an average song can be lifted by a spirited vocal which adds a real joy and excitement to a recording. Then again, the opposite is also true, that a tired-sounding vocal can bring the whole thing down. I know I’ve talked before in these track notes about us having trouble with the lead vocals, but listening to these songs again after so long just reminds me of the feel and vibe of the recording back then. 

We had been hard at work for months, writing songs for the classic difficult second album, and that starts to take its toll on everyones spirits. After all the excitement of the first album -- the hit singles and the massive positive press -- you suddenly find yourselves staring at a blank page with the feeling that everyone out there is looking at you with very judgemental eyes, waiting to see what you are going to do next. There is also so much pressure to deliver "hits" that the songwriting becomes something you have to do rather than the spontaneous moments of inspiration that just came while writing all those earlier songs, with a lifetime of stored-up ideas to channel. All groups go through this on the second album. I wonder too if I'd boxed us into a corner with the very narrow brief we were writing in, that it had to “sound like Sputnik”. All those glorious early songs on the 192 beat with their super-simple grooves had mined a golden seam of rock and roll. Now it was like trying to write "Whole Lotta Love" over and over again... It became more and more impossible and frustrating. You keep playing over the old classics in your head wishing you could come up with another one just like them. I’m sure that Suicide must have wanted to write more Ghost Riders....

All those original Sputnik tracks worked so well with the dub effects and they seemed to have so much space with their simple arrangements, which meant you could just jam on the groove forever.

It really took a while to get the formula to work with the newer songs and open our minds to fresh arrangements. When I watch videos of the Brazilian gigs now I can see we had really started to get the balance right, playing songs like Sci Fi Lover alongside Jayne Mansfield.

I’m not laying the blame totally on Degville’s vocal ability during these lacklustre times. We were all suffering a severe dose of fame lag. But as I’ve said before, frustratingly -- when we reformed to work together again in 2001 -- suddenly Degville had found his voice and was at last able to sing with strength and passion. It would have just made things that bit easier if he had mastered that great voice that I knew was lurking somewhere back in 1987. 

So we laid ourselves open to criticism and the accusations of having no real passion in the songs. Did everyone get carried away with the fame and forget to work on their craft, which was ultimately the foundation of everything? I know the last thing I was doing was sitting at home practicing guitar -- I was out having dinner with Charles Saatchi and thinking up ever more grandiose and audacious schemes. Understandably everyone in the band had dreamed and hoped for success, so when it came -- and on the scale that it did in that moment -- it’s not surprising that the focus got lost for a while.

Oh well, you cannot change the past. And ultimately this song did not quite reach its pop hit ambitions.  Sounds good on the chorus though and maybe with more work it could really have been something special.

DiscoMania

Sigue Sigue Sputnik - The Band, The Myth! - Electronic Rock 'n Roll.

DiscoMania

Sputnikworld

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