Seven Songs by 23 Skidoo

An expanded remaster of the seminal mini-album 'Seven Songs' by 23 Skidoo, whose unique industrial ethno-funk hybrid topped the British indie charts in 1982.

"23 Skidoo conceived of funk as a sinister energy, and Seven Songs still sounds blood-curdlingly intense." (Simon Reynolds, Rip It Up, 2005)

"Electrifying post-punk for the mind and body. The opening Kundalini, which sounds like Throbbing Gristle having a bash at early '70s Miles Davis, is dislocated dance at its best; and things get more funked up still on Vegas El Bandito. Just as you start to imagine The Pop Group in military fatigues, Skidoo hit the impressionist button with a series of sample-heavy soundscapes, such as the howling sonic hollow of Porno Base, a disturbing, Hitchcockian drills-and-bells drone piece set to a Mary Whitehouse-like 'nanny' railing against pop as a degenerate force. Seven bonus cuts flesh out the original mini-album magnificently. Four stars." (Mojo, 2009)

"The shockingly loud burst of machine feedback which introduces Kundalini is still startling a quarter of a century on, and its ensuing throb of congas, fuzz violin and urgent chanting represents a pinnacle of voodoo funk-noir. From this extraordinary opening track Skidoo veer ambitiously between brittle Miles-style funk, tape loop experimentation, found-sound reportage and Martin Denny-inspired exotica." (The Wire, 2009)

"One of the most exciting records I've heard since Unknown Pleasures. A variably energetic and stimulating addition to that collection of perceptions, hallucinations and associations brought into play by Joy Division, Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle and A Certain Ratio. It tears away deceptive dramatic or sentimental gloss and mixes a neutral type of documentary candour with thrilling regenerative abstraction. It's candid, obstinate, intimate, incomplete, uncommon... rather solitary. Very appropriate. Intoxicating" (NME (Paul Morley), 1982)

Tracklist

1.	Kundalini	5:09

2.	Vegas El Bandito	2:45

3.	Mary's Operation	4:13

4.	Lock Groove	0:32

5.	New Testament	3:36

6.	IY	6:06

7.	Porno Base	4:26

8.	Quiet Pillage	5:23

9.	Macaw Gungah	3:11

10.	View From Here	2:58

11.	Four Note Bass	7:24

12.	Retain Control	5:00

Credits

released March 11, 2024

Produced by Ken Thomas, Peter Christopherson and Genesis P-Orridge. Originally released on Fetish Records (FM 2008) in February 1982. Cover art by Neville Brody.

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