If you like post-punk where naive-sounding whimsy obscures darker truths and neurotic drum tracks skip alongside angular guitar figures and throbbing bass, this one is for you. A brief but brilliant and blinding D.I.Y group from Coventry in the UK, Skeet was initially formed by Gary and Nigel Meffen as a duo in 1981. After making their debut as a duo who paired Roland CR-8000 computer rhythms, guitars and bass with projector visuals, the Meffens came to the attention of a record store clerk/singer named Kay Booth, who chanced upon a cassette recording for their first performance and added her own vocals to it.
In Booth's subject matter, tone and demeanour, they found a perfect creative foil, and Skeet was fully born. After playing ten shows and making a home studio recording with a borrowed reel-to-reel from Toby Lyons (The Colourfield) and a mixer from Jerry Dammers (The Specials), the three went their separate ways. Decades later, their chuggy/dubby technopunk song 'Brief Call' popped up on the Coventry Music Museum compendium "Alternative Sounds Volume 1", followed by "Park Road", a micro vinyl pressing of six of their unheard recordings on Chris Long’s Almost Unknown imprint in 2023.
Released through Michael Kucyk's Melbourne-based Efficient Space label, "Simple Reality" pairs five of the recordings showcased on "Park Road" with a reworked version of "Left On The Shelf" and three previously unheard tracks. Mastered the the engineer/digger extraordinaire Mikey Young, this collection is a mixture of newly discovered, lovingly-restored instrumental multi-tracks and clips from a live recording of their final live performance. Sitting comfortably within the same zones as Antena, Young Marble Giants, and Maximum Joy, these tracks do a lot with a little as they evoke the feeling of daydreaming during mundane times and losing yourself in music as a way to escape from pain, hurt and loss.
Aside from 'Brief Call' and the agitated breakbeat machine pop of 'Left On The Shelf', some of the other highlights across "Simple Reality" include the poignant bounce and glare of 'Alone Tonight', the wistful winter sun indie-pop of 'I Was Never Told" and the dub lounge shuffle of 'Song Of Love'. There's even a New York no-wave / disco-not-disco detour on 'Avril In The Alps'. All up, it's not hard to imagine that with one or two more of the right people hearing their music at the time, things could have gone very differently for Skeet. Regardless, forty-three years later, the daydreamy quality they captured on their recordings has aged as well as anyone could hope for. To listen to it is to tap into the energy of an era that has long passed us by and a portal back into a special time in musical history.
"Simple Reality" is out now in vinyl and digital formats (order here)
