Biting Tongues - Recharge
UK 2003 CD; LTM: LTMCD 2376

4:55 Double Gold St. Paul
6:46 Recharge
4:58 Love Out
8:24 Neckwork
5:25 Increase
6:23 Take The Back Right Off
6:02 One Angel
8:12 Surrender
7:14 Love Out (Brainwash Mix Instrumental)

Release date:

8th September 2003

Credits:

Graham Massey
Atari St running Hybrid Arts software, Roland TR 909, R8, Casio RZ1,
Pearl Syncusion drum Machines, Casio FZ1 sampler, Roland D50, Juno 106, SH 101, Mini Moog, Pro One Synthesisers, Fender Rhodes, Guitars and Vocals

Howard Walmsley
Tenor and Soprano Sax, Casio FZ1, Roland D50, Vibraphone and Mini Moog

Tom Barnish
Trombone

Guest vocals on 'Love Out' by Denise Johnson
Baritone Sax on 'One Angel' by Stalwart
Produced by Biting Tongues

Recorded and Mixed by Graham Massey at Square one studios Bury, Spirit Studios Manchester and Strawberry Studios Stockport. November 1988 to May 1989. All tracks Copyright Control.

All tracks written by Massey, Walmsley and Barnish. Except 1 4 &6 written by Massey and Walmsley. Copyright control 1989.

All material licensed from Biting Tongues.

Artworked by John Walsh at The Diamante Press. Cover image by Graham Massey.

Thanks to Frank Brinkhuis, Alan Hempsall, Ken Hollings, Graham Massey, James Nice, Pierre Vale, Howard Walmsley & John Walsh.

Also available:
After the Click (Retrospective 1980-89) (LTMCD 2371) Compressed (LTMCD 2373)

LTM Publishing:
Tel: 44 (0)1362 667764 jnice@ltmpub.freeserve.co.uk
http://www.ltmrecordings.com/btonguescat.html www.bitingtongues.com

Press Release:

BITING TONGUES
Artist: Biting Tongues
Title: "Recharge"
Cat No: LTMCD 2376 (10 tracks)
Released: 8 September 2003
Barcode: 502 4545 2466 29
Price:

LTM are pleased to announce a comprehensive programme of CD reissues by Biting Tongues, the avant-funkers from Manchester who recorded for cult labels including Factory, New Hormones and Cut Deep.

One of Manchester's more adventurous post-punk groups, the band combined angular funk rhythms with musique concrete, backing live performance with films and slides. The Tongues went on to record five albums, including Don't Heal (1981), Live ft (1981), Libreville (1982), Feverhouse (1985) and Recharge (1989).

Recharge (LTMCD 2376) is the Tongue's legendary last, lost album recorded in late 1988, by which time the band had been reduced to a duo of Graham Massey and Howard Walmsley. At the same time and place, Massey was also recording the second 808 State album Quadrastate, resulting in a degree of overlap occurred. Yet whereas Pacific State went on to conquer the charts, the adventurous dance and electronica cut for Recharge found itself out of step with early club culture, while having all the DNA of a future about to be unravelled.

Sadly in 1989 ran into the sand at the test pressing stage when label Cut Deep ceased trading. Massey: "A few white labels of Recharge have circulated for years as the holy grail of fans of early 808, due to the fact that it was recorded in the same sessions as Quadrastate. If it wasn't for Howard leaving his soprano sax in the studio overnight, Pacific State might have been another story..."

Stand-out tracks on Recharge include the single Love Out, Double Gold St Paul and Surrender. In addition to the eight original album tracks, two single mixes of Love Out and Surrender are included as bonus cuts.

The full reissue programme comprises the following CDs:

After the Click (Retrospective 1980-89) (LTMCD 2371)
Compressed (LTMCD 2373)
Recharge (LTMCD 2376)

Comments:

The legendary Tongues electronica album from 1988 recorded by Graham Massey and Howard Walmsley in tandem with 808 State's epochal Quadrastate. Booklet includes full recording information, images and detailed historical notes.

Massey:

"From the start the Tongues had a workshop feel about it, we would always treat a studio session as a chance to create rather than recreate, We built up an almost telepathic ability to make music on the spot, We had a lot of time on our hands in the 80s, music was not really a career option, it's what we did socially we made tape...we taped everything, Our hungry recordable walkmans taped films, TV, we made field recordings and fed it into the music, then we played for hours and taped that, then played over that and taped that, we probably only did gigs so we could tape them.

In 86 I enrolled on an audio engineering coarse at Spirit Studios MCR, Which was at a point when the 1st midi synths and computer sequencing had arrived, we were familiar with what this stuff could do from other 80s music, it was all around before the big club explosion of 1988, it was in a wide variety of music from soul, hip-hop, Prince to leftfield stuff like throbbing gristle, daf, cabaret voltaire and of course local stuff like New Order. However it was always financially out of reach, but the price of older electronic technology dropped and we could pick up analogue synths for £30, We had been dabbling with Roland equipment for a few years.

The big Revolution came with the Sampler, and the Atari computer sequencers they widened our scope tremendously, especially for audiophiles like us.

Manchester began to buzz musically in 1988; there was suddenly open atmosphere of the clean white page, It was with this new energy that we entered into the Recharge project, forget the past lets take the technology for a spin, and now in retrospect visited a lot of spaces yet to be probed and labelled.
It was unfortunate that recharge was unreleased due to the record company going under, but the test pressing has remained in DJ boxes over the years and has exchanged hands for top dollar.

Around about this time my other project 808 state gained momentum and kept me busy for sometime, but always informed by my 10-year experience of being a Tongue."