Sunday, April 27, 2008

Wah! - nah= poo, the art of bluff (1981)



Pete Wylie was unjustly neglected amidst the neo-psychedelic scene of Liverpool, where Ian McCulloch and Julian Cope stole the limelight. Nah=Poo is certainly a splendid album.

Check the dark-punk ritual "Wind Up" (similar to Modern Eon), the glacial mixture of power-pop and dark-wave "Otherboys" (with the Wagner-ian synths), the hysterical new-wave "Why D'You Imitate The Cutout" (akin to the XTC), or "Mission Impossible" (akin to a more gothic Teardrop Explodes), occasionally reaching paroxysm levels in it's wall of sound ("Seven Thousand Names"), and sabotaged by discordant sections ("Somesay").

Actually, this is a very creative record that surpasses both the debuts of Echo and the Bunnymen and the Teardrop Explodes. It's not often that someone can combine the melodic and the neurotic element so effortlessly.

EDIT: Dead link because of complaints to Rapidshare.

5 comments:

Anna said...

Thank you, THANK YOU very MUCH! For posting this album...I've taken ages trying to find this album in a good remasterd quaility (the music...isms version is too scracthy) but could it be possible that you posted the bonus tracks?
Like the single versions and mixes by Ian Broudie?

Anna said...

Please?

Jim Slip said...

I'll see what I can do. -)

Anna said...

Domo :)

The Disappeared said...

I'm not sure I'd agree with the idea that this album is better than the first Bunnymen album or the first Teardrop Explodes album.

Certainly The Teardrop album is very poppy compared to Wah's layers of guitars, and the Bunnymen's "Crocodiles" is definitely late 70s/early 80s New Wave and much more in the vein of Joy Division, The Sound, early Cure etc.

But Wylie was always a sharp cookie. His long-time love of The Clash helped him knock out some really great rock tunes. You mentioned "Somesay" and "Seven thousand names"; I'd add "Seven Minutes to Midnight" and "Better Scream" to that too.