LTM | UK | CD | 2012 | LTMCD 2575

Nyam Nyam: Hope Of Heaven + DLX RM UK CD [2012]

1. The Illuminated Ones
2. Fate
3. The Meeting
4. This Is The Place
5. You Need More
6. The House
7. Hope Of Heaven
8. And To Hold
9. The Resolution
10. The Architect
11. The Last Place [Hope Of Heaven]
12. Mining Different Seams
13. And To Hold [Version 2]
14. Untitled
15. Fate / Hate
16. When We Can’t Make Laughter Stay
17. Knowledge [Chapter II]
18. Doubt

Let this be a lesson to all you teenagers and a warning to all you adults. Don’t sit on records without playing them! Listen to my sorry tale and learn. In 1984 I read a review of the album “Hope Of Heaven” in an issue of In the City fanzine. It was a positive review so i noted the name and kept watch. Within a few years, I came across the band’s “Fate/Hate” 12″ on Factory/Benelux so I picked it up. It was every inch a Factory release in the way we wished that they all were. Not that it sounded terribly much like New Order [in spite of it being a Be Music production], but it was a sound that was fully informed by Post-Punk values. It sure wasn’t going to be mistaken for Culture Club!

I liked the record and kept my eyes out for more. <INSERT 20 YEAR GAP>  Then, with the internet available, I learned of their “Hope Of Heaven” album and their EP called “The Architect.” Having really enjoyed the “Fate/Hate” single, I set about finding and buying these. They weren’t terribly cheap; the two of them probably cost me under $20 plus shipping. That was sometime in 2008 when I bought those, and I had hoped that I could fit all three records on a single CD, but have never digitized them. I’ve still only listened to the “Fate/Hate” 12″ to this day!

It was some time last year that I caught wind of some label [Cherry Red, I thought] finally reissuing “Hope Of Heaven” on CD, so I haunted the Cherry Red website only to discover last week, that it was LTM Recordings instead. That makes sense. They are intimately linked to the Factory empire, even though the band only had one release on that label. Their album and EP were issued on Situation Two. But in the last year or two, new evidence appeared on Discogs.com. The band had also self-released a 7″ in 1981 called “When We Can’t Make Laughter Stay.” Worse, by this point in time it was a sought after example of “minimal synth” music and priced accordingly. There was no way I could afford the asking price at this point in time, but The Monk is compelled, as you may have seen. I am driven to attain perfection with most of my projects. I was a little bummed at spending upwards of $30 over the years in buying three records that I wanted to ultimately remaster for a personal CD, only to have the item appear in the commercial marketplace before I could get around to doing the long-planned job.

On the other hand, the new CD [which will cost me $10-20 to buy, depending on how and where I buy it] has the 9 track album, the five track “Architect” EP, the self-released 7″ from 1981, and finally one new track that the band have reconvened for. It’s called “Doubt” and wraps up the LTM release. What’s missing? Just the two B-sides from the “Fate/Hate” 12″ single. The B-side, “So Long Ago” and “Fate/Hate [dub].” Other than that, the LTM release is all I’ve been waiting [and waiting] for. I guess I’ll have to throw those two loose tracks on a Premaster volume.

When the group split up in 1986, leader Paul Trynka pulled a full reverse Neil Tennant and became a very successful rock journalist after being a cult musician with a lower case “C.” He’s edited Mojo and Q and was a founding editor of Guitar Magazine. I’ve had the pleasure of reading his electric biography of Iggy Pop [“Open Up + Bleed”] when it was released several years ago and I need to read his well regarded Bowie bio, “Starman.” But I have to admit that I’m more curious about the new music appended to the LTM CD.

– 30 –