The The – Soul Mining
By Mark Dohmann
| Label: | Epic – EPC 25525, Some Bizzare – EPC 25525 |
|---|---|
| Format: | Vinyl, LP, Album, |
| Country: | UK |
| Released: | 1983 |
| Genre: | Rock, Pop |
| Style: | New Wave, Synth-pop, Indie Rock |
Sometimes it takes a decade or more to discover an artist. It wasn’t until 2007 that I finally got Matt Johnson and The The. Not that the music was inaccessible, it’s just that I had been mining a bunch of other genres and whilst I thought I had a pretty good 80’s collection of the serious UK bands like John Foxx, New Order, Joy Division, Human League, Talk Talk, OMD, Depeche Mode, Ultravox, Simple Minds, Cure, Eurythmics, Blue Nile, The Fixx, and other like-minded artists (Note: Flock of Seagulls is deliberately missing from this collection as is anything Stock Aitken Waterman).
In 2007 I was sitting in a sound room of a good buddy of mine in LA Eddie Yansick who also shared a similar passion for 80’s bands. Eddie was nursing a knee rebuild from a recent Hollywood movie shoot. He’s a well-respected stuntman and body double who takes the fall for a number of well-known actors and coordinates complex non-CGI stunts and bust ups. I had just finished up a CES show and were enjoying a bit of down time at Ed’s home before heading back to Oz.
During the night Ed decided to play The The – Mind Bomb album in its entirety. A stunning recording and mix of synthpop with dark lyrics and social and political commentary. I had heard one or two tracks on radio in the years and decades prior but had never gone and searched them out. I can blame Miles Davis for that as his 1985 Afrofunk tour in Melbourne kind of blew my mind and got me hooked on his entire catalogue of jazz and electrofunk. There’s enough there for a lifetime!
So back to Matt Johnson the driving force behind The The. This late night LA listening session “got under my skin” (sorry for the The The pun) and I went and picked up the album. I managed to locate the earlier albums including the debut Soul Mining afterwards.
The The is a British post-punk/synth-pop band fronted by the supremely talented Matt Johnson. He was assisted by some more famous musicians including Jools Holland who played an extended piano solo on the Uncertain Smile track form this album.
That solo is enough reason to own this album! Hunt down the extended dance mixes on 12” and they will be great tracks to drop during an extended listening session.
Two years later I was back at CES and as was the custom a late night listening session was held after the days schedule was complete. This was a “nudge nudge wink wink” invite only arrangement (only those with a real passion for music get invited). Picture an amazing collection of equipment and everything run in and warm. Curtains open to reveal the night lights of Vegas and room completely pitch black. 3AM Vegas time Ed who was visiting the show decides to drop The The Mind Bomb and 12” Extended Uncertain Smile. Later he would play INXS Decadance 12” extended mix (a drummer’s favourite). To say this floored everyone there is an understatement. Great mix, great recording and fun music which really pushed the system hard.
The assembled hardcore audiophiles ended up finishing the session around 4am. Somehow, we all managed to show up bright eyed at 0900 ready for another day of Norah Jones. It’s these sessions that make the blood sweat and tears of shows worthwhile. The Munich High End Show is now the premier global show but it doesn’t allow for after hours listening (ze rules must be obeyed and your papers are not in order oberleutnant ;-). Axpona in USA does have options for after hours sessions. Tokyo… forget about it! (more fun being in a Jazz or Punk venue where the real action happens).
Soul Mining caused a bidding war between major record labels which resulted in the group signing with CBS Records, Johnson began recording the album in New York City, but the initial recording sessions were aborted after the album’s first two singles and Johnson returned to London where he wrote and recorded the rest of the record.
Soul Mining was released in the United Kingdom on 21 October 1983 on Some Bizzare Records/Epic Records and included versions of the singles “Uncertain Smile”, “Perfect”, and “This Is the Day”. Although the album received positive reviews, it initially sold modestly, reaching number 27 in the UK and charting in a number of other countries, but in 2019 the album was certified gold in the UK. Soul Mining was reissued in June 2014 as a 30th anniversary deluxe version on vinyl, attracting retrospective reviews which universally praised the record, with several critics considering it to be both Johnson’s defining work and one of the best albums of the 1980s.
The album was well received on its release. Don Watson of NME said, “In days when the pop song has been reduced to the reiteration of catch-phrases, Matt Johnson flexes a rare literary flair. More importantly he has the command of music’s immense possibilities to carry them through without self-indulgence. Ignore this LP if you must, but you’ll be ignoring one of the year’s rare heart-stopping moments.”
In Melody Maker Steve Sutherland said, “As you return to Soul Mining again and again, there will be times when you discover it was the last thing you really wanted to do. It will sound mawkish, almost absurd, like a voice crying wolf over and over … Then again, there’ll be times when it will sound obscenely close to the bone, as if [Johnson] were invading and defiling your most private thoughts and emotions … In other words, you’ll use Soul Mining as a barometer to your day and if that’s the principal function of great pop, then surely Soul Mining is great pop.”
In the US, Kurt Loder of Rolling Stone praised Johnson’s “sense of structure and his unerring ear for sonic definition” and highlighted “Uncertain Smile” and the “entirely gorgeous piano solo by the exceptionally talented Holland”, but had reservations about the “obsessively self-absorbed lyrics… Youthful angst and anomie are fine in their place, but not all over the place.” However, Loder concluded, “Johnson creates pop music with an agreeably individual stamp: In the current sea of synth-pop sludge, Soul Mining stands out”.
The album was also included in the books 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die and Fear of Music: The Greatest 261 Albums Since Punk and Disco by journalist Garry Mulholland, described it as “a hidden masterpiece”.
It is a great thing about this hobby that friends will introduce to great music and if you’re open to the influences sometimes make you change the vein of rock you’ve been mining for another genre. Soul Mining might be the album that makes you break with convention and hit the 80’s artists to find out why they were a lot better in hindsight than we may have realised at the time.
Soul Mining – It’s a good un!
Track listing
Side one
“I’ve Been Waitin’ for Tomorrow (All of My Life)” – 5:45
“This Is the Day” – 5:01
“The Sinking Feeling” – 3:44
“Uncertain Smile” – 6:52
“Fruit of the Heart” (Australia and New Zealand releases only) – 1:57
Side two
“The Twilight Hour” – 5:58
“Soul Mining” – 4:50
“Giant” – 9:36
“Perfect” (Australia, New Zealand, Canada and US releases) – 5:36