Some albums are released and are immediately lauded and taken to the hearts of the public at large. Other records are released and gain a word of mouth buzz after a couple of months before going on to capture people's imaginations and becoming one of those records that people seem to claim as 'theirs', even though by now, six million people in Britain own the same album.

 

Then there are records that garner little or no attention on release, don't pick up much in the way of a word of mouth following and disappear. These records, if they're any good, are loved by the few people that own a copy. These fans then tend to announce to anyone who'll listen that the newest crop of hip young things "are just ripping off" said band. These bands probably don't know that they're "ripping off" a band that they have little prior knowledge of but it doesn't stop the hardcore fans of their now obscure predecessors from claiming so.

 

These bands have probably influenced one, more successful band somewhere along the way and then, this more successful band have in turn influenced a whole crop of bright young things. You following me so far? If not, I'll try and put it a little clearer. A very good band comes and goes, with little fanfare. That band influences another band who have considerably more success than their influences did. This band then go on to influence a new wave of bands.

 

Now, the fans of the obscure vanguards cut out the middleman and say that 'their' band are being ripped off wholesale by the bright young things. Most of the time this is pure bullshit (much like everything I've written up to this point, but stay with me, it's going somewhere), but there is the occasional case where this is, if not completely true, but undeniably plausible.

 

New Fast Automatic Daffodils are one of the great unsung bands of the early 90s. They were considered a peripheral part of the media conceit that was the Madchester scene, but never one of the leading lights. Of all the bands to come out of that scene, New FADs were one of the best. Their debut album, Pigeonhole is one of the best albums that was created in that late-80s/early-90s halcyon period and easily stands up to the likes of The Stone Roses, Pills 'N' Thrills And Bellyaches and Screamadelica. It is definitely better than anything that Inspiral Carpets, The Charlatans, Northside or The Mock Turtles put out around this time. The only problem is that no-one knows how good it is.

 

Now, back to the influence thing. It took a while to realise New FADs' influence on anyone at all, really, because their sound was similar, yet quite different, to that of Happy Mondays. While they were seemingly cut from the same cloth, there was something a little darker and more musically competent about New FADs, while being just as danceable. When the whole punk-funk thing took off a couple of years back with bands like Radio 4, The Rapture and !!!, journalists pointed to Happy Mondays as a precursor. A lot of the bands had more in common with New FADs however, it's just that very few people recognise.

 

You can look further back to the roots of dance-punk and see the massive influence exerted by the likes of Liquid Liquid, ESG and, of course, Talking Heads, but most of the bands that came out in this new wave of boys with guitars making music to dance to weren't even alive when those bands were around, so it's more sensible to list the Madchester scene as a big influence. Long story short: The Rapture, !!!, LCD Soundsystem, Radio 4 etc. are soooo ripping off New Fast Automatic Daffodils.

 

Let's examine the evidence. New FADs effortlessly fused the rhythms of dance music to the energy and spirit of punk in a way that is heavily prevalent today. When James Murphy deadpanned all those band names at the end of 'Losing My Edge', he missed out New FADs, but one listen to Pigeonhole shows that LCD Soundsystem have a hell of a lot in common with them. New FADs vocalist, Andy Spearpoint shares the same Mark E. Smith fetish as Murphy, but where Murphy basically channels Smith, Spearpoint's vocals have more texture, dexterity and uplift about them than either of those two.

 

Take opening track, 'Get Better' for example. It roars out of the blocks in a similar, yet way more polyrhythmic manner to 'Daft Punk Is Playing At My House', but is, arguably, a better opener. Whereas 'Daft Punk...' is a wired, yet laconic groover, 'Get Better' is all nervous energy and unpredictability, with Dolan Hewison's hectic, energetic guitarwork underpinned by Perry Saunders' 5/4 drumbeat and Justin Crawford's fluid bass. Oh, and there's the small matter of the cowbell. You can never have too much cowbell, as Christopher Walken taught us, and the primitive, yet effective instrument is all over Pigeonhole, much like it is on pretty much every DFA production.

 

Now I'm not slagging off James Murphy and the DFA. Anyone who knows me will know that I've got nothing but love for the DFA. I'm merely pointing out that New FADs deserve their due. The dubbed-out 'Fishes Eyes' has a spooky vibe to it that can be found today in the work of Radio 4 and Out Hud, althought I can't remember anything by those guys featuring a melodica solo. The corset-tight guitar riff on 'Working For Him' brings to mind 'Out Of The Races And Onto The Tracks' by The Rapture. The loose, lazy groove of 'Big' is echoed through !!!'s cover of The Magnetic Fields' 'Take Ecstasy With Me'. Will someone please recognise the genius of this band?!

 

Well, they're starting to. I've got this album on original vinyl from 1990 (inherited from my brother, actually) and I've lived with them getting absolutely no props whatsoever for well over ten years. Things are starting to turn in their favour though; Ladytron put 'Big' on their Softcore Jukebox compilation album a couple of years ago, as did Headman on his Dance Modern mix from 2004. Ever the obscuritan and tastemaker, Erol Alkan saw fit to put an accapella of Goldfrapp's 'Strict Machine' on the top of rare New FADs b-side 'Hexagon Spring' on the mix he did for Bugged Out! last year and has been known to play them out.

 

While the once-obscure groups of the no-wave era get their due, however, bands like The Contortions, The Pop Group and everything that was once on the Ze Records roster, New FADs are left pretty much languishing. One major reason for this is that, great record though it is, Pigeonhole is very fucking hard to get hold of. So, if this feature achieves anything, I would like it to have some sort of knock-on effect on getting Pigeonhole remastered, reissued and reappraised.

 

As for where they are now, Andy Spearpoint is a music teacher based in Bradford, Dolan Hewison is the director of the Greater Manchester Music Action Zone, ace percussionist, Icarus Wilson-Wright works as a percussionist for hire for the likes of Groove Armada, Homelife and Basement Jaxx (he also did the visuals on their Kish Kash tour), Justin Crawford is one half of Manchester DJ legends, The Unabombers, who put on the world-renowned Electric Chair night at the Music Box, and Perry Saunders is nowhere to be found, at least not on the internet.

 

I'd like to give credit to One Louder whose Where Have All The Baggy's Gone? feature planted the seed for this article.

 

Here's some mp3s and links for y'all. Vive la New FADs! 

 

New Fast Automatic Daffodils - Get Better (mp3) 

 

New Fast Automatic Daffodils - Big (mp3) 

 

New Fast Automatic Daffodils - You Were Lying When You Said You Loved Me (mp3) 

 

New FADs discography and lyrics 

 

The only New FADs fansite on the web