2003 - The Swell Maps Collection
2003
- The Swell Maps Collection
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So much on the Topplers Record label seems to centre around the Swell Maps. It wasn't planned that way... We started out as a real DIY label - a CD burner and a colour printer and we were off making records by friends and imaginary bands... "Reverborator", "The Slosh", The Deciders", "Sounds of Revolution", "Jimmy Wolfe" and let's not even mention "The Joy Boys!" In 2003 we used the Topplers website to try and find out how many records Steve Treatment had made... before long we were in touch with him... then Gary Jones from Cult Figures, then Jowe Head, then Nikki Sudden, then Phones Sportsmen... The NoMen had already covered Steve Treatment, the Cult Figures and Jowe Head so they HAD to do the Swell Maps! International Rescue was done almost exactly like the original version... Cake Shop Girl had been done for our Jowe Head album so it was remixed and new vocals were done by George NoMan... Full Moon was given the full 6 minute jam treatment (and then reprised for a further 2 minutes!) Midget Submarine has layers of ovedubbed hoovers, toilets flushing, water gurgling and even hads Jowe Head himself adding a bit of vocal down the phone from Hackney... "It's the Cheap Rate, we appreciate!" Harmony in Your Bathroom gets the Boris Picket and the Cryptkickers treatment in a slow acoustic version that explodes into an electric climax! Stephen Does is Allan NoMan and a drum machine at the wrong speed!!! The NoMen involved on this recording were many... Lewis NoMan did some vocals, Brian NoMan lead guitar, George NoMan most of the vocals and rythm guitar, Cal NoMan made his debut on guitar which sounded more like a bass, Allan NoMan did most of the bass, some guitar and some vocals.
By the
time the Swell Maps recorded their first single in 1977 they had already
been playing together for about 5 years! You might think that a band
who'd played together for that length of time would make a super-slick,
musically perfect recording, but not the Maps. Their single, and all
their subsequent recordings, sounded like hyper-active kids picking
up their instruments for the first time and going wild! Swell Maps split up in 1980 leaving only two albums and four singles, but they influenced a whole new generation of experimental rock bands. All the individual members of the band carried on with Solo careers; Jowe Head still releases interesting music to this day. Sadly both Nikki Sudden and his brother Epic Soundtracks died too young.
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