Shotgun

Title: Shotgun EP
Artist: Colourbox
Purchased: Wazoo Records, Madison, WI, late 80s
Verdict: Boi-i-i-ing!

As you may have ascertained from the spelling of "colour," Colourbox are of British origin. Further, they are 1/2 of the studio project M/A/R/R/S, who did "Pump Up The Volume". I remember buying it because (DAMAGED HUMAN BEING ALERT) I was a) really into 4AD Records at the time (they put out Cocteau Twins and Bauhaus) and b) a big fan of their song "Hot Doggies" from the 4AD sampler Lonely Is An Eyesore. I didn't really get into Shotgun at the time, so I put it away, in alphabetical order, like I did with all my records, and went about buying more records to put around it.

I probably didn't like the soulful voice on it at the time. I was hoping for something, you know, a little more Elizabeth Fraser-y or Lisa Gerrard-esque, who, by the way, looks totally creepy these days. Going back and listening to it now, that thin soulfulness is pretty much sole redeeming quality. Musically, there are some periodic keyboard flourishes that touch on interesting ambience, but more than anything, it sounds like two guys in a studio going "No shit, what does THIS do? AWESOME! Check out this keyboard noise! Bloop bloop bloop blip! Ha ha ha! Now fire up that drum machine and put a beat to it."

The cover design of the negative image of two horses humping is pretty good, but everything Vaughan Oliver and Nigel Grierson (aka 23 Envelope) deisgned was pretty to look at. This reminds me of the time I wanted to do a little blurb about 23 Envelope for the Onion back in 1994 and I called 4AD to get some information and the publicist was a completely dismissive dick. Well, Mr. Publicist! Who has a blog NOW? Huh? Huh?