Parts Of The Process is a new 11CD Box Set that celebrates Kevin Godley and Lol Creme’s recordings between 1977 and 1988. The set includes all of the Godley & Creme studio albums released during this period, with an additional two discs containing single edits, alternative mixes/versions and non-album tracks.
Running to an impressive 105 tracks, the set features the albums Consequences (1977 – split over 3 discs), L (1978), Freeze Frame (1979), Ismism (1981), Birds Of Prey (1983), History Mix Vol.1 (1985) and Goodbye Blue Sky (1988), along with a disc of non-album tracks & 7” versions plus a disc containing extended versions.
Parts Of The Process also includes a 10,000 word essay by biographer Liam Newton, plus an intro from Kevin Godley.
The first three discs in the collection contain 1977’s Consequences album. The album came together after Godkey & Creme left 10cc, and featured their invention, the Gizmo, an effects device for the electric guitar and bass guitar. The album features a narrative, performed by English comedian / actor Peter Cook, and features often experimental music, some instrumental, some with vocals.
Consequences was built to be played as a whole piece, and whilst it is a challenging listen, you will either love it or loathe it. It contains the seeds of what was to come from the duo, and is a wonderful album to experience on headphones.
It was out of time and out of favour on release in 1977, as the full force of the musical revolution that was punk hit the world, but it deserves a re-evaluation and I personally think the album is built for now, with the emergence of Dolby Atmos as a viable new listening medium. Let’s hope someone has access to the original multi-track tapes and the phone number for Steven Wilson (who I know is a fan of the album), as this would make a wonderful Bluray disc in Dolby Atmos.
Whilst I have pointed out that it works best as a whole listening experience, there are a handful of stand-out tracks that I still return to regularly. The 10 minute plus The Flood is like an audio movie, propelled by stunningly treated vocals, and once you are through the flood sequence, the water adds the rhythm to a wonderful passage of music that sees the song to its watery end. Don’t listen to this track if you are desperate for the loo.
Five O’Clock In the Morning remains one of my favourite Godley & Creme songs. Sounds of the outside world sneak into the piano and massed choral voices gem of a song about the early hours before the new day is born.
“And when the one you’re holding
Runs her fingers through your hair
You’re on”
Lost Weekend still holds up particularly well, and features a stunning vocal performance from Sarah Vaughan. It’s Cool, Cool, Cool In The Morning takes me back to the vocal arrangements of early 10cc.
Sailor is one of the more laid-back, traditional arrangements on the album. Phased guitar, and aching vocals, underpinned by waves of backing vocals make this a timeless sea-shanty.
Disc four in this collection provides us with the duo’s second studio album, L from 1978. A much tighter and more focused affair than the triple disc Consequences, but it is still a wildly experimental collection. Whilst L was produced by Kevin Godley & Lol Creme, with Kevin and Lol providing the majority of the performances, the duo did have some help with engineering by Chris Gray & Nigel Gray, plus musical guests Andy Mackay (Roxy Music) and Jonathan Handelsman (saxophone) along with a spoken appearance from DJ / broadcaster Paul Gambaccini.
The Sporting Life has a feel of the 50s with the vocal arrangements, and some warm Rhodes piano, as discordant bass and acoustic piano creeps into the rapidly mutating arrangement – keeping the edgy feel to the song as it turns into an almost post-punk end section.
Sandwiches of You has such an interesting soundscape – a nagging beat and fuzzy guitars, undercut by frantic marimbas and kick drum to keep you perpetually surprised. Art School Canteen dials back the weirdness and features one of the duos finest lyrical journeys to date, that sits perfectly with the classic mid-70s feel of the track.
“Does getting into Zappa
Mean getting out of Zen
Sex has reared its ugly head at last
But it didn’t look ugly then”
I feel that musically, with L, Godley & Creme were out of time again. This album feels like it was from the early to mid-80s, so was in fact ahead of its time. Punchbag is a case in point, it would not have sounded out of place a couple of years later. Shifting from messed up piano led edgy pop, to an new wave infused conclusion. As confusing as that sounds written down, the arrangement works beautifully. L closes with a scathing takedown of the music industry with Hit Factory / Business Is Business.
“Keep it simple
Keep it neat
Aim your hook
At the man in the street”
The song sweeps in and out of genres, with an almost dream-like soundtrack, whilst the duo fire sharpened lyrical arrows at those who churn out formulaic nonsense from their (s)hit factories.
“Only the numb survive…”
1979’s Freeze Frame is my favourite Godley & Creme album. It features the duo at their experimental peak, taking chances that many others at this time would have been afraid to take. It is a very brave album. Freeze Frame saw a continuation of their relationship with Nigel Gray, as it was recorded at his Surrey Sound Studios in Leatherhead.
Straight out of the blocks, with An Englishman In New York, their intentions were clear. Godley & Crème deliver intelligent pop created with cutting edge technology, in the pre-Sampler era.
“Strange apparatus, even stranger theme”
The doubled lyric lines are slightly out of time with the main lead vocal, using the Eventide Harmoniser, an early multi-effects processor, used by David Bowie and Frank Zappa that “Fucks with the Fabric of Time”. Its an effective treatment that adds value to the song. Random Brainwave alternates between the hazy verse and a straight up disco section that appears just the once, apropos of nothing.
I Pity Inanimate Objects is an absolute delight. Also using the Harmoniser, the lyrics have never been more prescient. The lead lines screech in and out of the verses, and for a track dealing with the lifeless, the song hits hard.
“The frustrations of being inanimate
Maybe its better that way
The fewer the moving parts
The less there is to go wrong
I wonder about these things”
The title track should have been released as a single, though I suppose the Manchester Utd line put paid to that as a possibility. Clues is so beautifully produced. The chorused guitar lines mixed with the lead lines and the (ahead of its time) tribal drums make this one of the strongest songs on the album.
Mugshots is so catchy it melts my brain. Blending classic Brill Building songwriting techniques on top of quirky production experiments, leading to a wonderful song that feels the closest to classic 10cc that Godley & Creme dared venture.
Freeze Frame closes with the delicious Get Well Soon, an ode to ill-health and the late night soundtrack that can accompany insomnia.
“I’ve never liked the taste of Lucozade
Another sip of hospital champagne
Charge your glasses Radio Luxembourg”
It must have been very tempting to play this “straight”, but thankfully they didn’t, and Godley & Creme’s imagination runs riot, both lyrically and musically, on Get Well Soon, one of the highlights in their impressive catalogue.
Paul McCartney adds backing vocals to Get Well Soon, whilst other guests on the album include Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera on guitar on 4 tracks and Rico Rodriguez (ska and reggae musician) on trumpet and tuba on An Englishman in New York.
Ismism was released in October 1981, and was titled Snack Attack in the USA. Ismism peaked at No. 29 on the UK Albums Chart and was Godley & Creme’s best-selling studio album. Two of the album’s three singles were top 10 hits in the UK – Under Your Thumb hit no3 in the singles charts & Wedding Bells peaked at no7.
Ismism was very much a duo affair, with the only guest performer being Bimbo Acock on saxophone. To me, Ismism was perfectly in tune with the times. Album opener Snack Attack sums up the sound of the era – funky, with sharp guitars, twisted percussion and a trebly funk bassline. Under Your Thumb is one of Godley & Creme’s best singles. The story of a train journey, a mysterious haunting and hints of domestic abuse has a minimal musical backing, and a quite straight-forward (for Godley & Creme!) arrangement making this a classic 80s song. Although sleigh bells adorn the end section, the subject matter meant that this was never going to be considered as a Christmas staple.
The pitch-shifting vocals of The Problem continue G & C’s playful experimentation, continuing the tune into the next track, Ready For Ralph. The room was eventually ready for Ralph. And Roy, and Rose and Rob.
Wedding Bells no doubt became a staple of 80s wedding parties, hopefully the bride & groom didn’t pay attention to the lyrics. Sale Of The Century, like the preceding track, drew from the past, laying on the nostalgia heavy and thick.
The closing track The Party builds on the Snack Attack bassline (what a bassline!) and is a story of a party in full swing and is build around the snatches of disjointed conversations heard as the high-class and decadent event progresses. By the end of the track, Godley & Creme are throwing Tom Tom Club and Heaven 17 shades in every direction with the funky musical backing.
1983’s Birds Of Prey was the least successful Godley & Creme album, which was surprising after the success of Ismism. I think the absence of hit singles from the album was the main contributing factor. I was a huge fan, buying all albums up to Ismism but I wasn’t aware of the last few Godley & Creme albums until long after their release. Had I known about Birds Of Prey, I would have bought it at the time.
My Body The Car is a mostly acapella performance and Worm and the Rattlesnake introduces the styling for the rest of the album, with a virtually fully electronic album. Worm and the Rattlesnake shows that Godley & Creme’s knack for delivering addictive songs with clever lyrics was still very much intact at this point, while they continued to draw inspiration from the past (the vocal styling of Viva Las Vegas in this case).
Samson is a reggae-infused single, and is extremely catchy, so I am surprised that it didn’t get more airplay on release. Madame Guillotine wears its influences on its sleeve, with a seemingly Ball of Confusion inspired bassline during the verse and top and tailing the track with an earworm of a chorus. Godley & Creme were always good at drawing on music from the 50s / 60s and adding their own, unique sonic flavouring to give the recipe a unique taste.
I wonder whether Rupert Hine’s Waving Not Drowning from the previous year was an influence on Birds Of Prey as there do seem to be some similarities in some of the percussion and synth treatments.
Woodwork has a rare appearance of guitars (heavily processed in this case) but the electronics are pushed very much to the foreground. Out In The Cold closes the album. Vocoder heavy lead vocals sit atop an icy backing, that is temporarily lifted by saxophones. I get real The Shining vibes from this song.
“And now you’re gone I’m like a broken piano
That no one wants to play”
1985 saw the release of History Mix Vol.1 (there was no Vol.2). History Mix Vol.1 was a remix of songs featuring the music of Godley & Creme as well as dipping into 10cc and Hotlegs material. Interviewed in 1985, Lol Creme said that the album contained demos and master recordings thrown into the Fairlight sampler, with J. J. Jeczalik (Art of Noise) and Trevor Horn assisting with production work in the album.
Wet Rubber Soup is very Art of Noise influenced, with snatches of Rubber Bullets, Life Is a Minestrone, I’m Not in Love and snippets from the Consequences album. It must be said that History Mix Vol.1 is very much of its time, but if you love your 80s mash-ups, this may appeal to you.
Cry is by far my favourite from History Mix Vol.1. Cry was a top 20 hit in the UK and the duos only chart hit in the USA. Produced by Godley, Creme and Trevor Horn, this six minute plus version still sounds amazing. The raw simplicity of the lyrics (a rarity for Godley & Creme) makes this song work so well.
Expanding The Business is another Fairlight mashup, with an effect like tuning in and out of radio stations on an old FM radio, featuring Business Is Business, How Dare You, Neanderthal Man, This Sporting Life, One Night in Paris, The Dean and I, Sand in My Face and Umbopo.
As the 80s headed to an end, it seemed that the quality of music in the last year or two of the decade sometimes dropped, as Godley & Creme released Goodbye Blue Sky, their seventh and final studio album.
The quirk on 1988’s Goodbye Blue Sky is the extensive use of harmonicas, including performances from Nine Below Zero’s Mark Feltham and a shift away from the electronic sounds offered up on Birds of Prey. The album also features vocals from Jimmy Chambers, George Chandler and Jimmy Helms (Paul Young / Londonbeat).
Goodbye Blue Sky is an outlier in the Godley & Creme catalogue. The sounds and arrangements are more traditional than on previous albums, with virtually no sign of the experimentation (lyrically or musically) that was displayed in abundance on previous releases, which really dulls the quality of the release for me.
My personal highlights from the album includes the single 10,000 Angels, one of the few pacier tracks on the album, and Sweet Memory, a song that revisits the feel of Wedding Bells. Overall, I’m sad that Godley & Creme’s catalogue ended with their weakest release.
Disc 10 of the set features non-album tracks & 7” versions, and serves up a reminder of some of Godley & Creme’s highlights. Wide Boy is a joyful piece of new wave / powerpop, that was released as a single with Submarine in 1980. Submarine is a dub influenced instrumental, with a superb dragging bassline and Hank Marvin-like guitar. A perfect example of how Godley & Creme could turn their gaze towards virtually any style of music and make it their own.
Power Behind The Throne (the b-side to Under Your Thumb) recycles the music from Submarine, with vocals added. Babies (the b-side to Wedding Bells) is a disturbing piece of twisted synth-pop.
Welcome To Breakfast Television (the b-side to Save A Mountain For Me) is a withering look at the new phenomenon on 80s breakfast tv, TV-am and its ilk.
“We’ll send you on your way to work
In a happy frame of mind
Seein’ all of breakfast telly
Between half past eight and nine”
There are two versions of the non-album single Golden Boy, a 7″ edit from 1984 and the 1985 remix. The b-side Light Me Up is a welcome addition, and has some interesting twists and turns. Love Bombs (the Cry b-side) is a heavily percussive studio experiment, with vocal samples and sparse lyrics.
Up next are some Goodbye Blue Sky era b-sides, that follow the same template as the album, so not really offering anything different.
An interesting 7″ edit of Sandwiches Of You brings us back to the Godley & Creme that I love. Silent Running (the b-side of An Englishman In New York) in other hands would be a standard blues song, but at this point, Godley & Creme were able to put a fresh slant on whatever genre they touched.
Cry [Single Edit] is the most familiar take on this wonderful slice of perfectly baked pop. The final two tracks on this disc are ones I skip – a dated (very much of its time) acid house sprayed Snack Attack [1987 7” Remix] and the rather ordinary A Little Piece Of Heaven [7” Single Version], which is somewhat redeemed by the mighty Mark Feltham’s playing on the end section of the song.
The final disc contains a series of extended versions. Snack Attack [Extended Version] is actually shorter than the album version, work that one out! A slightly less frantic take, the lyrics never fail to raise a smile.
“Cold turkey’s what I’m going through
Cold turkey’s what I need
But they hung a sign on my appetite
Saying “Danger Do Not Feed”
I can’t eat no more
I got to use a straw”
Samson [Dance Mix] places the drums in a more prominent position, and adds elements of dub to the mix. Golden Boy [Long Version 1984] is my favourite version of the song, with a lovely distortion on the main keyboard line and a Righteous Brothers production feel to the vocals in the verse.
Jack Attack Dub is very much of its time, and has sadly dated. I’d rather not jack, if you don’t mind…
Cry [Extended Remix] is a welcome inclusion here, and thankfully not a “jack” remix! The final two tracks are ones that I find myself skipping – Snack Attack [1987 Extended Remix], yep, its a damned “jack” remix, along with A Little Piece Of Heaven [Extended Mix], a slightly remixed take on the song from Godley & Creme’s final album.
So in summary, this is the most comprehensive, best sounding collection of Godley & Creme’s music by far. Its only let down a little by a few out-dated remixes and their sadly quite ordinary final album, but that’s just my personal taste. You might disagree.
The music up until 1986 is pretty much flawless, and deserves to be in everyone’s musical library.
Parts Of The Process – The Complete Godley & Creme was mastered by Phil Kinrade at Alchemy Mastering at AIR, and the music has never sounded so good.
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CD1: CONSEQUENCES Part One (1977)
- Seascape
- Wind
- Fireworks
- Stampede
- Burial Scene
- Sleeping Earth
- Honolulu Lulu
- The Flood
CD2: CONSEQUENCES Part Two
- Five O’Clock In the Morning
- Dialogue
- When Things Go Wrong
- Dialogue
- A Lost Weekend
- Dialogue (1)
- Rosie
- Dialogue (2)
- Office Chase
- Dialogue (3)
- It’s Cool, Cool, Cool In The Morning
- Dialogue (4)
CD3: CONSEQUENCES Part Three
- Cool, Cool, Cool [reprise]
- Dialogue (5)
- Sailor
- Dialogue (6)
- Mobilization
- Dialogue (7)
- Please, Please, Please
- Dialogue (8)
- Blint’s Tune (Movements 1 – 17)
CD4: L (1978)
- The Sporting Life
- Sandwiches Of You
- Art School Canteen
- Group Life
- Punchbag
- Foreign Accents
- Hit Factory / Business Is Business
CD5: FREEZE FRAME (1979)
- An Englishman In New York
- Random Brainwave
- I Pity Inanimate Objects
- Freeze Frame
- Clues
- Brazilia (Wish You Were Here)
- Mugshots
- Get Well Soon
CD6: ISMISM (1981)
- Snack Attack
- Under Your Thumb
- Joey’s Camel
- The Problem
- Ready For Ralph
- Wedding Bells
- Lonnie
- Sale Of The Century
- The Party
CD7: BIRDS OF PREY (1983)
- My Body The Car
- Worm And The Rattlesnake
- Cats Eyes
- Samson
- Save A Mountain For Me
- Madame Guillotine
- Woodwork
- Twisted Nerve
- Out In The Cold
CD8: THE HISTORY MIX VOL.1 (1985)
- Wet Rubber Soup
- Cry
- Expanding The Business / The ‘Dare You’ Man / Hum Drum Boys In Paris / Mountain Tension
CD9: GOODBYE BLUE SKY (1988)
- H.E.A.V.E.N. / A Little Piece Of Heaven
- Don’t Set Fire (To The One I Love)
- Golden Rings
- Crime & Punishment
- The Big Bang
- 10,000 Angels
- Sweet Memory
- Airforce One
- The Last Page Of History
- Desperate Times
CD10: NON-ALBUM TRACKS & 7” VERSIONS
- Wide Boy
- Submarine
- Marciano
- Power Behind The Throne
- Babies
- Welcome To Breakfast Television
- Golden Boy [7” 1984]
- Light Me Up
- Love Bombs
- Golden Boy [1985 Remix]
- Bits Of Blue Sky
- Rhino Rhino
- Hidden Heartbeat
- Can’t Sleep
- Sandwiches Of You [7” Edit]
- An Englishman In New York [Single Edit]
- Silent Running
- Cry [Single Edit]
- Wet Rubber Soup [Edit]
- Snack Attack [1987 7” Remix]
- A Little Piece Of Heaven [7” Single Version]
CD11: EXTENDED MIXES
- Snack Attack [Extended Version]
- Strange Apparatus (An Englishman In New York)[12” Version]
- Samson [Dance Mix]
- Golden Boy [Long Version 1984]
- Jack Attack Dub
- Cry [Extended Remix]
- Golden Boy [1985 Full Length 12” Mix]
- Snack Attack [1987 Extended Remix]
- A Little Piece Of Heaven [Extended Mix]
Mr Kinski's Music Shack 