Colin Potter - Two Nights (1982)

For the second of my Colin Potter posts I've chosen 'Two Nights', which is another of my all-time favourite electronic albums. In June 1982 Potter recorded two extended pieces of music based on the same theme. The music was played live in the studio using synthesisers, sequencer, drum machine, guitars and various effects, and was the last music that he recorded at Sutton-On-The-Forest. It's another great example of why Colin Potter is one of the UK's best, but least-known electronic musicians of the 80's.

Track listing

01 09 June 1982
02 08 June 1982

Colin Potter - Potter's Wheel (1989)

Following my last post from Colin Potter someone pointed me in the direction of the ICR website, where an extended vinyl edition of 'Here' had just been issued, including three previously unissued or hard to find tracks. I've just received my copy of that, plus another vinyl issue of a more recent release, 'The Abominable Slowman' from 2017. Both albums are brilliant stuff, with the new one having a much harder edge than I would have expected. Coincidentally, while I was retrieving some of my old cassettes for future posts I found a three track compilation tape called 'Chainsaw', which featured one long Potter track alongside two from Monoplane. I hadn't heard it in ages so gave it a listen and found that it was just too good to languish away on this obscure cassette, so it got me thinking if there were any other tracks that had been given away for inclusion on compilation tapes back in the 80's, and was surprised to find that there were actually over an hour's worth scattered around. They range from very early work from 1980, when he was in his vocal synth-pop mode, through to the longer instrumental pieces that he started to compose around the time of 'Here' a year or so later. It also includes some shorter instrumentals from 'The Scythe', 'A Gain', and 'The Where House' era, right up to a couple of pieces that he gave to cassette compilations in 1989. For fans of Colin Potter this is a fascinating journey through his career, as you can hear the progression from the early Cabaret Voltaire-style pieces, becoming more confident in what he is doing with 'Here' and 'Two Nights', and bringing it right up to date, where he can produce an album as good as 'The Abominable Slowman' some 35 years after some of those early cassettes made their first appearance. 

Track listing

01 Is It You, Is It Me ('Angst In My Pants' EP 1980)
02 I Am Your Shadow ('Angst In My Pants' EP 1980)
03 Quick One ('Angst In My Pants' EP 1980)
04 Bogey Man ('Deleted Funtime' 1980)
05 One Million Blades Of Grass ('Visions' 1983)
06 Behind You ('Couldn't Agree On A Title' 1981)
07 We Are So Glad ('Couldn't Agree On A Title' 1981)
08 Soul Train ('Sudden Departure' 1982)
09 Hills ('Integration' 1983)
10 The State ('Three Minute Symphony' 1983)
11 For All You Know ('Insane Music For Insane People Vol 2' 1983)
12 Night Shift ('Chainsaw' 1984)
13 Potter's Wheel ('A Cage Went In Search Of A Bird' 1985) 
14 Marsh Fog ('Journey To The End Of Night' 1986)
15 The Burrowing Machine ('Directions Two' 1989)
16 Malton ('Remote Viewing Vol. 2' 1989)

Colin Potter - Here (1981)

When punk died down in the early 80's and people realised that you didn't have to be a musical genius to make music, there was a huge surge in self-recorded cassettes being sold through underground magazines and word of mouth, and I was buying as many as I could get my hands on. Not every one was an undiscovered gem, and a lot of them were quite frankly rubbish, but a few names shone out, most notably Martin Newell and The Cleaners From Venus on the pop music side, via his Man At The Off Licence label, and Colin Potter with his synth-based recordings, released through his own Integrated Circuit Records label. As it was relatively easy to get hold of a synthesizer and record yourself at the keys, there was a lot off unstructured noodling released on tape, so it was good to hear that Potter also made use of sequencers, and even added in the odd burst of guitar, making his tapes stand out among the others in the same genre. He was actually an engineer, recording some of the biggest names in the underground scene, such as  Nurse With Wound, and Current 93, and he was also a musician himself, so having his own studio and the expertise of his day job, his tapes are expertly produced. I still have all of the original cassettes that I bought from him, and it was seeing another one online recently that I'd never seen before that prompted me to dig out a couple of them and play them again. 'Here' has always been a favourite, mainly for including the entrancing 29-minute 'Gas' on side two, but the other three tracks are all as good in their own way. As an original tape is nigh-on impossible to find, as although some of his cassettes were re-issued for Record Store Day in 2014, they were only in a limited edition of 60 copies, I thought I'd post it here to see if there are any fans of Tangerine Dream/Klaus Shultz/Mark Shreeve/Ian Boddy etc who hadn't heard of him, and are interested in hearing one of the best underground artists of the early 80's DIY cassette boom. If there's a positive response to this then I might post some more later, and try to get Potter's name more well known in the electronica community. 

Track listing

01 Two Feet On The Ground
02 Hear
03 Shallow Water
04 Gas