Jesus Jones - Starting From Scratch (2004)

Jesus Jones were one of the leading purveyors of the early 1990's alternative dance scene, and were formed in late 1988, when while on holiday in Spain, Mike Edwards, Gen, and Al Doughty decided to leave the band they were in at the time, and form their own. The name of the band came about when they realised that they were three "Joneses" sitting on a beach in Spain surrounded by people called Jesus, and once they were back in London they advertised in the music press for a guitarist, and Jerry De Borg joined the band. Edwards had recently met Iain Baker in a pub in North London, and they had got talking as fellow skateboarders, and Edwards asked Baker to join as the keyboardist. This line-up recorded their first album 'Liquidizer', which was released on Food Records in 1989, and it was greeted with critical acclaim, in particular the single 'Info Freako', which featured buzzing rock guitars with samples and a hip-hop sensibility, which was relatively new at the time. In the spring of 1990, Jesus Jones recorded their second album, 'Doubt', but their record label was forced to delay its release until the beginning of 1991, but it sold well, helped by the success of the 'Right Here, Right Now' single, which reached No. 2 in the US and No. 31 in the UK. Other singles from Doubt included 'Real, Real, Real' and 'International Bright Young Thing', which became two of their biggest hit singles in the UK, reaching No. 19 and No. 7 respectively. The follow-up to 'Doubt' was 1993's 'Perverse', a darker and more industrial based album, which, though a big seller, did not reach the worldwide hit status of 'Doubt', although it was one of the first rock albums recorded entirely digitally. 

Possibly due to the poorer sales of the 'Perverse' album, the band took an extended hiatus and did not return to the recording studio until December 1996. After the recording of their fourth album, drummer Gen left the band before the album was released, and when 'Already' did appear in 1997, it signalled the end of their record deal with Food/EMI, and they parted company. The band broke up shortly afterwards, although the members remained in contact, and they came back with new drummer Tony Arthy in 2001, releasing the low-selling 'London' album on indie label Mi5 Recordings, while EMI issued the greatest hits compilation 'Never Enough: the Best of Jesus Jones' as a spoiler to their re-formation. Following the release of the 'Culture Vulture EP' in 2004, no new studio material from the band would appear until 2016, when they released 'How's This Even Going Down?' and 'Suck |It Up' from new album 'Passages', which eventually came out in 2018, followed shortly by a collection of demos titled 'Voyages' the same year. The single 'Right Here, Right Now' was resurrected in 2006 as an advertising jingle for the American retailer Kmart, in an image campaign for CBS News, in promotional advertisements for the now defunct television channel, TechTV, and by the Ford Motor Company in their 2010 televisual advertising campaign, all of which helped keep the band's name alive. During their 15 year career they released quite a few singles, nearly all of which had exclusive non-album tracks or significantly differing remixes on the b-sides, and so as a reminder of one of the founders of the indie/dance scene, they are all collected together here, along with a couple of their idiosyncratic covers gifted to compilation albums. 

Track listing

Disc I - 1989-1990
01 Broken Bones (b-side of 'Info Freako' 1989)
02 Info Sicko (b-side of 'Info Freako' 1989)
03 Enough - Never Enough (b-side of 'Never Enough' 1989)
04 It's The Winning That Counts (b-side of 'Never Enough' 1989)
05 Cut And Dried (b-side of 'Bring It On Down' 1989)
06 None Of The Answers (b-side of 'Bring It On Down' 1989)
07 Beat It Down (b-side of 'Bring It On Down' 1989)
09 Dead People's Lives (b-side of 'Real Real Real' 1990)
10 Barry D Next To Cleanliness (b-side of 'Real Real Real' 1990)
11 Move Me (b-side of 'Right Here Right Now' 1990) 
12 Damn Good At This (b-side of 'Right Here Right Now' 1990) 

Disc II - 1990-1993
01 Maryland (b-side of 'International Bright Young Thing' 1990)
02 Need To Know (b-side of 'International Bright Young Thing' 1990)
03 IBYT 12 (b-side of 'International Bright Young Thing' 1990)
04 Who? Where? Why? (The 7" Crisis Mix) (single 1991)
05 Caricature (b-side of 'Who? Where? Why?')
06 Kill Today (b-side of 'Who? Where? Why?')
07 Phoenix (b-side of 'The Devil You Know' 1992)
08 Want To Know (Knowledge Mix) (b-side of 'The Devil You Know' 1992)
09 Voodoo Chile (from the 'Ruby Trax' compilation 1992)
10 Starting From Scratch (b-side of 'The Right Decision' 1993)

Disc III - 1997-2004
01 Natural State Of Grey (b-side of 'Chemical #1' 1997)
02 Change Of Season (b-side of 'Chemical #1' 1997)
03 We Are So Fragile (from the Gary Numan tribute album 'Random' 1997)
04 Man On The Moon (b-side of 'The Next Big Thing' 1997)
05 Far Out In Nowhere (b-side of 'The Next Big Thing' 1997)
06 Together (b-side of 'The Next Big Thing' 1997)
07 Wired And Windburned (b-side of 'In The Face Of All This' 2002)
08 Come On Home (single 2002)
09 Culture Vulture (single 2004)
10 Find The Dial (b-side of 'Culture Vulture')
11 Head In The Sand (b-side of 'Culture Vulture')
12 Halfway House (b-side of 'Culture Vulture')