Martin Hannett & Steve Hopkins
The Invisible Girls
So, wow. This is the first ever compendium of Martin Hannett's work with Steve Hopkins as The Invisible Girls. Comprising 22 rare and largely unheard gems from 1976 - 1987, including Nico's 'Procession' amidst stacks of haunting and jaw-dropping studio experiments and even their 1976 soundtrack for a short animation. Pinch yourself now. Doesn't it hurt?! As history tells us, the pair met at a Soft Machine gig in Manchester's science and technology university, UMIST, in 1976. Realising they had common interests - Hopkins, a hippie veteran of Manc psych band Gemini Zent and Mecca Tropicana's in-house band; Hannett as a committed audiophile and local ringleader - they were soon enough jamming and playing backing band/producers to a string of local notables - John Cooper Clarke, Jilted John, Durutti Column among them - all under the moniker, The Invisible Girls. These 22 tracks frame a remarkable and ambitious relationship between the pair, spanning their unreleased 'Moods' recorded at Strawberry Studios between 1980 and 1987, along with much farther out gear like 'Concorde Drone' (Köner fans: eat your heart out) and the skeletal creep, 'Collective Project', or Hannett's amazing solo gear ranging from shuddering rhythmic noise to windswept ambience and the jaw-dropping proto techno-disco sophistication of 'Space Music'. OK, maybe their soundtrack is missable, but the rest is utterly ace, plugging a fair gap in Manchester music history, especially for fans of Factory Records, post punk and electronic music.
View more
So, wow. This is the first ever compendium of Martin Hannett's work with Steve Hopkins as The Invisible Girls. Comprising 22 rare and largely unheard gems from 1976 - 1987, including Nico's 'Procession' amidst stacks of haunting and jaw-dropping studio experiments and even their 1976 soundtrack for a short animation. Pinch yourself now. Doesn't it hurt?! As history tells us, the pair met at a Soft Machine gig in Manchester's science and technology university, UMIST, in 1976. Realising they had common interests - Hopkins, a hippie veteran of Manc psych band Gemini Zent and Mecca Tropicana's in-house band; Hannett as a committed audiophile and local ringleader - they were soon enough jamming and playing backing band/producers to a string of local notables - John Cooper Clarke, Jilted John, Durutti Column among them - all under the moniker, The Invisible Girls. These 22 tracks frame a remarkable and ambitious relationship between the pair, spanning their unreleased 'Moods' recorded at Strawberry Studios between 1980 and 1987, along with much farther out gear like 'Concorde Drone' (Köner fans: eat your heart out) and the skeletal creep, 'Collective Project', or Hannett's amazing solo gear ranging from shuddering rhythmic noise to windswept ambience and the jaw-dropping proto techno-disco sophistication of 'Space Music'. OK, maybe their soundtrack is missable, but the rest is utterly ace, plugging a fair gap in Manchester music history, especially for fans of Factory Records, post punk and electronic music.
So, wow. This is the first ever compendium of Martin Hannett's work with Steve Hopkins as The Invisible Girls. Comprising 22 rare and largely unheard gems from 1976 - 1987, including Nico's 'Procession' amidst stacks of haunting and jaw-dropping studio experiments and even their 1976 soundtrack for a short animation. Pinch yourself now. Doesn't it hurt?! As history tells us, the pair met at a Soft Machine gig in Manchester's science and technology university, UMIST, in 1976. Realising they had common interests - Hopkins, a hippie veteran of Manc psych band Gemini Zent and Mecca Tropicana's in-house band; Hannett as a committed audiophile and local ringleader - they were soon enough jamming and playing backing band/producers to a string of local notables - John Cooper Clarke, Jilted John, Durutti Column among them - all under the moniker, The Invisible Girls. These 22 tracks frame a remarkable and ambitious relationship between the pair, spanning their unreleased 'Moods' recorded at Strawberry Studios between 1980 and 1987, along with much farther out gear like 'Concorde Drone' (Köner fans: eat your heart out) and the skeletal creep, 'Collective Project', or Hannett's amazing solo gear ranging from shuddering rhythmic noise to windswept ambience and the jaw-dropping proto techno-disco sophistication of 'Space Music'. OK, maybe their soundtrack is missable, but the rest is utterly ace, plugging a fair gap in Manchester music history, especially for fans of Factory Records, post punk and electronic music.
So, wow. This is the first ever compendium of Martin Hannett's work with Steve Hopkins as The Invisible Girls. Comprising 22 rare and largely unheard gems from 1976 - 1987, including Nico's 'Procession' amidst stacks of haunting and jaw-dropping studio experiments and even their 1976 soundtrack for a short animation. Pinch yourself now. Doesn't it hurt?! As history tells us, the pair met at a Soft Machine gig in Manchester's science and technology university, UMIST, in 1976. Realising they had common interests - Hopkins, a hippie veteran of Manc psych band Gemini Zent and Mecca Tropicana's in-house band; Hannett as a committed audiophile and local ringleader - they were soon enough jamming and playing backing band/producers to a string of local notables - John Cooper Clarke, Jilted John, Durutti Column among them - all under the moniker, The Invisible Girls. These 22 tracks frame a remarkable and ambitious relationship between the pair, spanning their unreleased 'Moods' recorded at Strawberry Studios between 1980 and 1987, along with much farther out gear like 'Concorde Drone' (Köner fans: eat your heart out) and the skeletal creep, 'Collective Project', or Hannett's amazing solo gear ranging from shuddering rhythmic noise to windswept ambience and the jaw-dropping proto techno-disco sophistication of 'Space Music'. OK, maybe their soundtrack is missable, but the rest is utterly ace, plugging a fair gap in Manchester music history, especially for fans of Factory Records, post punk and electronic music.