1919 : Earth song (EP)
(Abstract - 1984)
Category: overlooked

Formed in 1980 this band from Bradford was concidered part of the early Goth scene. There's indeed a Goth feel to the dance tracks of side two of this EP. 'Giant' especially has that cold and bare sounding 80's dance beat one can imagine the youngsters doing their minimalistic dances to in underground basements, dressed in black and seemingly carrying the burden of a bleak vision of the future on their thin shoulders. I'm no specialist on Goth music, but I don't think it doesn't sound very Gothic by today's standards. I feel their sound (at least on this EP, the only thing I have ever heard of them) has just as much in common with artistic Punk bands à la The Ex and False Prophets for example, even though 1919's music is more straight forward. The use of the saxophone gives it a touch of Morphine as well. And the vocalist, with his thick English accent, has that atonal singing style that's a bit reminiscent of latter day Johnny Rotten, which works really well in these four songs.

But whatever genre they play or whatever other artists they might vaguely sound like, in the end I don't care, because this EP is simply good. It's a very fine slab of Dance Rock music, with choruses you can still remember the next day. The title track and 'Midas Touch' especially are pop songs in disguise.

This EP can still be found as part of a CD that has everything the band recorded in the eighties on it (you can get it from Cherry Red Records), before they disbanded. But as of 2005 they are active again. As I write this short opinion there's even a CD available with new material. I can't give you much details about it, except that the sound snippets on their website reveal a sound that's a lot more Goth in the contemporary sense of the word and certainly much heavier.

Website: http://www.19-19.com