Jack - Pioneer Soundtracks- 10th Anniversary Edition

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release

5...according to our Phil on Thu 15 Mar, 2007.

JACK are a band I never really got at the time. I was pretty much a massive fan of everything on Too Pure back then aside from Jack. So it's with older ears I listen to Pioneer Soundtracks which has been reissued by Spinney (folk label who reissued the 1st Vashti Bunyan album). It's now a double CD and the 2nd disc features demos, live tracks and rare stuff like B sides and the ever elusive debut single Kid Stardust. I quite like it actually. In fact it sounds like pretty inventive and off kilter indie pop music. Biography Of A First Son is really doing it for me now. It's 90's orchestral indie pop which you could lump into the same category as My Life Story and The Divine Comedy but it sounds a bit more special than that. Am genuinely surprised by this and it just goes to prove that it's always worth going back to old records that you didn't like as tastes do change. It seemed an odd one for Spinney to do but it makes sense now. Excellent!

*Just over ten years after its original release, this album, named as one
of the albums of 1996 by much of the music press, has been augmented by
another disc of sixteen tracks incorporating single versions, b-sides, demos
and live material from a Paris concert recorded at the Cigale in November of
the same year. Together with revamped artwork and a sixteen page booklet, this
is a lovingly curated release.

*Jack were formed in Cardiff in 1992, based around the songwriting partnership
of Anthony Reynolds and guitarist Matthew Scott, both of whom had relocated to
London by the end of 1993. By the end of 1995, Jack was a six piece, signed to
Too Pure/Beggars Banquet Records.
*Jack's debut album, "Pioneer Soundtracks", produced by Peter Walsh (who had
previously worked with Scott Walker), was released to worldwide critical
acclaim (Ian Penman's Guardian CD of the week etc), in the summer of 1996.
There was some excellent press ('Bloody essential' - Alan Jones, Melody Maker)
and considerable successful touring both in Europe and the UK and four singles
were released from the album, 'Kid Stardust' (a tribute to Charles Bukowski),
'Wintercomessummer', 'White Jazz', and 'Biography Of A First Son'.
*In early 1997 Anthony formed a side project under the name of 'Jacques'.
Produced by Momus, the album "How To Make Love (Part One)" was released on
Setanta as a limited edition that March. The album "The Jazz Age" followed in
the late summer of 1998. More excellent reviews (CD of the week in the Guardian
, Album of the Month in UNCUT) magazine) and further European touring was
accompanied by the release of two singles from the album, 'Lolita Elle' and
'Steamin'''.

*A second Jacques album for Setanta was recorded at Twickenham's prestigious
September Sound studio (formerly Eel Pie Island). Produced by former U2
engineer Rob Kirwan, the expansive line up included Bryan Mills (The Divine
Comedy), Will Foster (Delicatessen), and Matthew Scott.
*PRESS: All major music magazines & broadsheets including (confirmed):
Mojo, Uncut, Word, Record Collecto, Rock sound, Plan B, Wire, Artrocker,
Pennyblack, Big Cheese andmore.

*Tracklisting Disc One: the original album: .of Lights Wintercomessummer
White Jazz Biography Of A First Son Filthy Names I Didn't Mean It Marie
F.U. Dress You In Morning Hope Is A Liar

*Disc Two: bsides, demos & live tracks Kid Stardust (single Aside) I Was
Drunk In The Underworld (single Bside) White Jazz (version)
Wintercomessummer (version) The Seventh Day (EP track) Biography Of A
First Son (demo) Hey! Josephine. (EP track) The Ballad Of Misery And
Heaven (single Bside) Ballad For A Beautiful Blonde Eye (EP track) Jose's
Dream (live studio outtake) F.U. (live at le Cigale, Paris November 1996)
.of Lights (live at le Cigale, Paris November 1996) White Jazz (live at le
Cigale, Paris November 1996) Saturday's Plan (live at le Cigale, Paris
November 1996) Nico's Children (live at le Cigale, Paris November 1996)
Steamin' (live at le Cigale, Paris November 1996)