Baissez Les Aveugles 

An export sampler, a birthday celebration, a religious experience

Cemental Health Records EEG26

For individual track credits see below.

This compilation mastered September 1986 (twice) by Ian Shuttleworth and Iain Walker 
at the Winter Headquarters, with the assistance of John Catherwood.
Digitally remastered December 2004.

This title (P) 1986, 2004 Cemental Health Records.

Cover: Anthony Quayle is Oedipus... 
Look, I’m just passing on what the Radio Times said.

NOTE ON THE TITLE: The translation intended is a literal one, the deliberate howler “pull down the blind”.  Baissez is not to be confused with the colloquial sense of baisez, nor do we mean to show any disrespect or cause any offence (implicit or explicit) for or to any sightless persons whatever.  We really dig blind people, honest.  We even have an old Stevie Wonder album somewhere.
That David Blunkett’s a bit of a berk, though.

Willkommen... bienvenu(e)(s)... welcome.  And if you buy that, you’ll buy anything.
Cemental Health Records was instituted, a cassette-only label, in January 1982 as a Shuttleworthian ego-trip, manifesting primarily as an astounding crock of shit entitled Lovemaking In Irish £200 Damages.  Thankfully, that year’s subsequent releases were sufficient to rectify this painfully crappy impression – by the indie tape standards of the time, strength of content took priority (and rightly so) over flawlessness of recording.  Although Shuttleworth has remained the label’s most annoyingly prolific artist, the roster has since filled out to cover a spectrum extending from avant-garde post-classicism via blatant and unashamed commercialism through to gleeful cussed-bastard anti-rockism.  A clutch of musicians has gradually congealed into an unofficial house band, mastering every genre demanded of them.  A corresponding refinement of recording and production techniques has led to a dazzling succession of consistently wondrous slabs of aural bliss and, as this compilation hits the streets to bounce awesomely into the stratosphere with artful complexity and rare finesse, CHealth boasts Northern Ireland’s largest independent music catalogue.
Charted herein are the first five years’ growth of this hit factory manqué. It includes our international artistes (This “Blue Piano” from Montréal and Estonian Endel), collaborations with the South Belfast Arts Co-Operative and the ontological guerrillas of the Rock Steady Lodge, and the sheer fucking perfection of the recently-established Condemned Angel studio set-up. this celebration compilation comes complete with hyper-meticulous info-pack and a guarantee of virginity-loss.
We think you’ll agree that it’s a little gem, mierda caliente and heiße Scheiße.

CEMENTAL HEALTH RECORDS: Tomorrow belongs to us. Or will once we’ve paid all the instalments.
 


TRACK LISTING

  • Ian S.: C1(ii) (4:29) (Shuttleworth) copyright control, Anal Memoranda, from EEG02: Ian Shuttleworth synth, vocals.  Recorded at Ghetto; produced by I.S.
  • Robert Ehrlich: Lest I Forget [edit] (6:29) (Ehrlich) © control P.I.S.S. Artists, edited from EEG03: Robert Ehrlich harpsichord, mutated vocals, tapes, tape feedback.  Recorded at home; produced by R.E.
  • Red Ellipsoid: Falling And Laughing (3:31) (E. Collins) Zomba Publishing Co./Orange Juice Music, from EEG04: Stephen Lamont guitar, vocals; Eoin Patterson drums; Ian Shuttleworth bass guitar, backing vocals.  Recorded on the Ghetto Mobile; produced by I.S. and S.L.
  • Roy Watson: Envelope [re-recording] (1:47) (Watson) © control Anal Memoranda, re-recorded from EEG05: Roy Watson synths; Steve Morris backing (from Joy Division flexidisc, FAC28).  Recorded at Ghetto; produced by R.W.
  • The Concrete Band: R.B.A.I. School Song (1:55) (trad., arr. Anderson/Lavery), from EEG07: Ian Anderson guitar; Andrew Benson bass guitar; David Bradley guitar; John Catherwood guitar; Kieran Lavery vocals; Joann Wilson critical acuity.  Recorded on the Winter HQ Mobile; produced by Ian Shuttleworth/Iain Walker.
  • Iain Walker: A Forest [edit] (5:03) (Gallup/Hartley/Smith/Tolhurst) APB Music Co. Ltd, edited from EEG08: Iain Walker synth, vocals; Ian Shuttleworth guitar, bass guitar.  Recorded at the Winter Headquarters; produced by I.W.
  • Ian S.: Shone [re-recording] (4:44) (Shuttleworth) © control Anal Memoranda, re-recorded from EEG09: Ian Shuttleworth synth, guitar, bass guitar, knitting, vocals.  Recorded at Ghetto; produced by I.S.
  • The Problem Of Pain: Taken Apart (3:31) (The Problem Of Pain) © control Mad Arab Music, originally intended for never-completed EEG20, released on expanded edition of EEG10: Eoin Patterson drums; Iain Walker synths; Roy Watson guitar.  Recorded on the Condemned Angel; produced by I.W.
  • This”Blue Piano”: Refuge In The Sun (3:20) (Lamont/Rapagna) © control through PRO-Canada, from EEG11/Waste Island Records WASTE 001: Ken Ashdown bass guitar; Colin Cahill drums; Stephen Lamont guitar, vocals.  Recorded at Duffy’s Tavern/Radio Free Botswana; produced by TBP for Waste Island Productions.
  • Ian S.: palinode from Key Zero (4:03) (Shuttleworth) © control Anal Memoranda, from EEG14: Ian Shuttleworth guitar, bass guitar, vocals; Eoin Patterson percussion.  Recorded at Ghetto and the Winter Headquarters; produced by I.S.
  • Roy Watson: Sympathy For The Devil (4:06) (Jagger/Richard) Essex Music International, from EEG15: Roy Watson synth, guitar, guitar outrage; Ian (inevitably) Shuttleworth vocals.  Recorded at Ghetto, tarted up on the Condemned Angel; produced by R.W.
  • Iain Walker: Turning [remix] (5:13) (Walker) © control Mad Arab Music, remixed from EEG16: Iain Walker synths, rhythm programming, mumbling.  Recorded on the Condemned Angel; produced by I.W.
  • Grandmaster Smyth And The Rock Steady Lodge: Grandmaster Smyth [Amazement mix] (0:12) (Smyth arr. Goldfarb) © control Derry’s Wallpaper Music, abstracted from CON17: The Rock Steady Lodge wish to remain anonymous, and thus biped.  Recorded at the Loyal Orange Leprosarium; produced by R.S.L., mixed & engineered by Dr al hajji Joel Goldfarb / Claude de Paysan, from an idea by Elgin Marbles.
  • Get Well Soon, Bobby Ewing: A Tribute To Davy Sims (3:26) (Sims et al., arr. Walker/Patterson/Shuttleworth) © control Mad Arab Music/South Belfast Arts Co-Operative, from SBAC(S)18: Davy Sims et al. vocals; Eoin Patterson drums; Ian Shuttleworth synths, guitar; Iain Walker synths, programming, tapes.  Recorded at the Winter Headquarters; produced by Iain Walker, mixed by Iain Walker/Patrick Young.
  • Ian S.: Lines & Dots [edited re-recording] (4:31) (Shuttleworth) © control Anal Memoranda, edited re-recording from EEG19: Ian Shuttleworth synth, guitar, bass guitar, drum tape, vocals.  Recorded on the Condemned Angel; produced by I.S.
  • This “Blue Piano”: Make You Smile (3:24) (Lamont) © control through PRO-Canada, from EEG22: Ken Ashdown bass guitar, backing vocals; Colin Cahill drums, backing vocals; Norman Mackay guitar, backing vocals; Stephen Lamont guitar, vocals.  Recorded at Silent Sounds; produced by TBP.
  • Endel Öpik: Save Me [alternative mix] (3:55) (Öpik) © control Lonesome Kitten Ditties, remixed from EEG23: Endel Öpik synths, vocals; Ian Shuttleworth guitar, backing vocals; Iain Walker rhythm programming.  Recorded on the Condemned Angel; produced by I.W., remixed by I.S.
  • Tom Charles: Steam (5:21) (Charles) © control, from the never-completed EEG28: Tom Charles guitar; Endel Öpik synth; Lance Trinzini embolism; Iain Walker percussion, child.  Recorded on the Condemned Angel; produced by I.W.
  • Ian S.: Clothing [1986 “guffaw” version] (3:55) (Shuttleworth) © control Anal Memoranda, re-recorded and remixed from EEG29: Ian Shuttleworth synth, guitar, bass guitar, vocals; Eoin Patterson drums.  Recorded on the Condemned Angel; produced by I.S.
  • A Birthday (4:03) (Shuttleworth) © Anal Memoranda, first released on this compilation and previously uncredited: Ian Shuttleworth synth.  Recorded on the Condemned Angel; produced by I.S.


Tracks excised from this re-release for reasons of space:

  • The Problem Of Pain: Run Like A Posnet, from EEG10.
  • Oaths In French: Anthropological Data, re-recorded from EEG13, this version now available on expanded edition of EEG16.
  • The Re-Animators: Reversing Into Jewelry, remixed from EEG27, this version now available on expanded edition of EEG29.