Well, here’s an old one. Old enough that I hadn’t heard it for over a decade and over time the memory of the track had morphed it into something quite different in my mind. “The Connection” was an outtake from the recording sessions of Radio Berlin‘s first album, Sibling. The album was recorded in the spring and summer of 1999 with this particular track being saved for a split 7″ with Sweden’s Kid Commando on the then fledgeling Radio One label out Australia, who were responsible for records by Black Cat #13 (pre-Death From Above 1979) and Roland S. Howard‘s vinyl release of Teenage Snuff Film.
After that record was pressed I likely got a number of personal copies of it but then I found myself without a copy, having given them all to friends who had requested them — it was a bit of a hard one to find in the stores back in Canada. There was no MP3 recording of this anywhere and the only reference I had of it for years was a few mixes on a DAT tape for which I wasn’t really bothered to peruse the graveyards and classifieds posts of antiquated equipment where studios would be selling their old, clunky and battered DAT machines in favour of new digital technologies or sought after classic analogue equipment.
In recent years I’ve been more involved with Discogs, at first to correct some incorrect information on old releases but it was also a good place to buy some rare or missing pieces of vinyl. This is where after 10 years I nabbed a copy of that split 7″. Upon first listen after all that time I’m actually surprised at how fast the tempo was, mainly as I don’t think I would be writing a song in that style at that sort of speed these days. I prefer things with more slower-paced stomp nowadays where this is more on a Devo Whip It! sort of tempo. Chris’s bass line when the track kicks in invokes a similar gallop of the bass playing of Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris a la “Run To The Hills”… Anyway, here’s the preview and download link for your listening (dis)pleasure.
Radio Berlin
“The Connection”
DOWNLOAD
There are some cracks and pops on this track as it was ripped off my newly acquired vinyl copy.
