The Blue Orchids - The Sleeper - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

January 2003 sees the first of two important milestones in the history of the feted Manchester band The Blue Orchids. The first is this their superb yet previously unreleased 1993 studio album the Sleeper Formed by creative lynchpin Martin Bramah & Una Baines after the pair left the Fall in 1979 The Blue Orchids released a string of classic singles on the Rough Trade tag including Disney Boys Work & the Agents of Change ep as well as their classic album the Greatest Hit i. Album Tracks 1. Weird World 2. Dream Boat 3. Lover of Nothing 4. Blue Grey Boy 5. Diamond Age 6. Butterfly Effect 7. NY Gargoyles 8. The Gun Is a Coward's Weapon 9. Dark Matter Kid 10. Love Fiend 11. Out of Sight 12. Ny Gargoyles 13. NY Gargoyles (Subway Mix) 14. Moth 15. Sleepy Town 16. Thirst 17. Diamond Age (12' Version) 18. Sleepy Town (12' Version)

Album Tracks 1. Work 2. The House That Faded Out 3. Low Profile 4. No Looking Back 5. Bad Education 6. A Year with No Head 7. Sun Connection 8. The Unknown 9. Crystal Kiss 10. Let Go 11. Riding the Times 12. Tighten My Belt [Live] 13. The Flood [Live] 14. Sun Connection [Live] 15. Hanging Man [Live] 16. Disney Boys [Live] 17. Work [Live] 18. Underground Breakfast [Live]

Martin Bramah, lead guitarist in The Fall, was the final original musician to leave the band and inarguably the most important factor in the band's original sound. His hazy psychedelic vision featured which so readily on The Fall's debut, Live At The Witch Trials, continued through his work with Blue Orchids with fellow Fall castaways Una Baines and Rick Goldstraw). Initial releases rose to notoriety with two caustic and intense 7Inch singles, The Flood and Work, along with their more varied, indie chart-topping debut LP, The Greatest Hit (Money Mountain). Personal issues within the band made progress difficult. The EP Agents Of Change, introduced changes to their sound (in part due to their work with Nico). But after it's , Bramah sightings were elusive - a solo on an album by Una's band The Fates, a 12Inch single with mesmerising songs performed, oddly, in a sort of reggae style. A short second stint in The Fall. A series of archival and new releases started up in 2015 a new studio album, followed by another new album nearly every year thereafter. This year's debut by HOUSE Of ALL, a 'side project' featuring four other former members of The Fall, was a hit within days of it's announcement, in no small part to it's immediacy - recorded in three days - and a healthy dollop of scandal... The spectre of retrospective threat to MES's hegemonic rule of The Fall. Magpie Heights is an unexpected addition to Bramah's canon. The Face Of Time harkens back to the psych-garage of The Magical Record Of Blue Orchids, As My Vision Cleared makes a case for Bramah's unique stylistic sense within the realm of lysergic folk balladry, a kind of dark glam in Tableau Vivant... and seven other wonders.1. The Face Of Time 2. Dark Dame 3. Need Woke Her 4. As My Vision Cleared 5. High Horse 6. She Had Practically No Money 7. Tableau Vivant 8. Replica Of Me 9. On Your Honour Then 10. Rocke