One Of You

One Of You (Scarab Records. Canada. 1981 - 1983)

Listen to an extract from: "One Of You - Life Is So Hard"

One Of You released just three 7" singles on their own label Scarab Records, the last single being recorded and released under the name The Trifids. This was the first single with picture sleeve as shown. One of you is basically one Czechoslovakian woman who managed to create a sound and feel so dark and yearning that even i find it hard to listen. She left Czechoslovakia during the 1968 uprising, finally settling in Toronto. All the talk in Prague was of how wonderful the west was. However, when she arrived she remembers being totally crushed. She saw a society where people seemed to be strangers to each other.

Listen to an extract from: "One Of You - Don't Be Desperate"

This second single was released in just a photocopied sleeve, although the colour of the paper does vary. As she could not write music she started writing songs in a code she created. The songs were about feelings of sadness and alienation. Some years later she and her husband recorded these songs and created Scarab Records to release them

Listen to an extract from: "The Trifids - Invincible"

Her last single came without a picture sleeve and is credited to The Trifids with writing credit to One Of You. Both tracks are instrumentals, but Invincible still conveys the same feelings of sadness and alienation. I'd like to thank the collector "Wornhill" who first brought these amazingly dark singles to my attention.

Sounds of Salvation - An exploration in worship

SOUNDS OF SALVATION - An exploration in worship LP (Reflection RL 310)

Listen to: "Love III"

This is the album that has inspired this blog (obvious from the title really!). What they call a blind punt, quite literally picked up off the floor of a local flea market where someone had unceremoniously dropped it.
This is one difficult album to explain.

Released in 1974 by a Christian group from Cambridge University, it ranges from a long introduction of sound collages depicting everyday life (strangely akin to the KLF's Chill out album), through a very dark Psychedelic track "Overseers", then through prayers, acid folk & twisted rock.

It really does need to be listened to in it's entirity as it does flow despite the strange marrying of styles.

Listen to: "What is it like Lord?"

The female voices are particulary strong, along with some superb guitar work, especially in the more acid moments. What manages to really make this work for me are the arrangements, they are very different from traditional arrangements, and that makes for a refreshing listen.

I don't feel that the soundfiles i've uploaded are representative of the album as a whole, but they are an introduction to a strange world; a world where people ask the Lord what it is like to burn & where peoples eyes are scratched out so we can see through them.

As a foot note, the stamps on my copy show that it once belonged to a hospital radio station. Now there's a thought!

Although inactive for many years the group behind Refection records have now come back together & are releasing the albums on CD.

I hope i have inspired at least one or two of you to buy the CD.

If anyone connected with this album is reading, we would love to hear your recollections.

Listen to: "Overseers"