Hard-Fi: Stars Of CCTV - 2005

In 2005, what did young groups do? BritPop was long gone, dance was too, well dance, punk was the music of their parents, or even their grandparents, roots reggae was definitely retro too. So, a band like Hard-Fi donned hoodies, looked like teenage drug dealers off the estate and mixed myriad influences from punk, roots, dub and indie guitar bands into a reasonably acceptable whole. The Clash and The Ruts met Oasis here to go to Notting Hill Carnival. They attracted a bit of undeserved derision due to leaning on their influences too heavily, but I don't give a fuck myself. I like the album in the same way that I liked a couple of albums from the sort of similar Dead 60s. It remains one of those albums I find pretty impossible to categorise, however.

Here is a bit of background information to the album. I don't normally do this but it is interesting and relevant. I could write it out myself but what's the point, I'd be saying the same thing -

The majority of Stars Of CCTV was recorded in a variety of unusual acoustic environments – bedrooms, pubs, and played back in Hard-Fi producer Wolsey White's BMW. 1,000 copies of this record were pressed with only 500 going on public sale, and the initial plan was to sell 1,000 each time. However it quickly sold out, receiving critical acclaim and radio play, proving a lot more successful than the band had imagined. Most of the album was recorded in a disused mini cab office, which cost them about £300, and it is known to this day as the "Cherry Lips" Studio (due to the colour of the paint on the walls). The band tried to make their music sound more environmental by putting a microphone in the corridor, which added echo, but background noises caused by people walking past or planes flying overhead could be heard while the band recorded. These background noises can still be heard on the record. The band used the TL Audio Fatman compressor for the album, main man Richard Archer said "It's alright, it's cheap, you don't have to know what you're doing...".

It was originally released as a mini album, a very limited release which sold out very quickly. A few months after, the album had been going on sale on websites such as eBay for £25. Talking about the situation, Archer said -

"We had no money but time was a luxury that we did have. So we spent a year planning, then recording it ourselves, and we did all the artwork ourselves too. Even our website was designed by us. We got a book out of the library so we could learn how to do it. Then we had to do it again cos it was a right palaver. So after all that, things took off really quickly and went crazy in the space of two months, which was quite surprising".

Anyway, enough of that - what do I think of it?

The dubby sounds of a melodica herald the beginning of the album, on Cash Machine, before some crashing guitars and a BritPop-ish chorus kick in, along with a Joe Strummer-style barked-out vocal. Sure this is all very derivative, but the track has a certain oomph and attack to it that make me prick up my ears. 

Middle Eastern Holiday is a good one, with rootsy verses, Ruts sounding parts and big Oasis choruses. If you know your BritPop onions, though, you will utilise a few strings here and there too, and that is what we get on the appealing and nineties-sounding Tied Up Too Tight. Also present are some seriously heavy rock riffs. There are hints of The Specials in there too. Gotta Reason is quite early Clash-ish, in places, with a sort of slightly updated veneer. It still crashes and burns, however, big time. There is a lot of youthful energy and unbridled aggression present on this record. I would have loved it in my early twenties. I can still appreciate it now. It's got a good groove to it.

A distant "1-2-3-4" introduces The Clash-esque riffs of Head To Beat, together with some Oasis-influenced vocals and some laddish BritPop vocals about getting off with a girl. The late seventies have met the nineties here. Unnecessary Trouble finds a dubby Specials beat taking us right back to the early eighties. Check out the mid-song bass-drum backing grind. I love it. 

All groups from BritPop onwards had to do a mournful, melancholy piano-backed ballad too, didn't they? It was written into the contract. Move On Now is this album's contribution to the list. It's pretty plaintive and goes on way too long, but it does provide a respite from the bombast and punch of most of the album. A bit of that is back, though, on the late seventies white reggae meets grunge rock of Better Do Better. The verses are very early Joe Jackson-ish. 

Feltham Is Singing Out presumably refers to the Feltham Young Offender's Institute, the band trying to give themselves some dubious credibility, no doubt. It does criticise its subject, however. Living For The Weekend, an update on The Jam's Here Comes The Weekend, has a powerful, punky muscularity, although, for me, long gone are the days when the weekend meant what it always does to the young. Revelling in "going out tonight" seems such a long time away! The album ends with Archer singing in a higher pitch on the title track, a number that really puts me in mind of something from the late seventies on its chorus. I can't immediately bring it to mind, though. 

Whatever, this album has been a bit of a nostalgia trip, due to its sound. Yes, it is probably too retro to be 100% credible, but that doesn't mean it's not any good. Often retro can be good. I like it. 

** The band do a really good, dubby cover of The White Stripes' Seven Nation Army too.