Aural Aggravation

Scotland’s iconic 1980s music mavericks Fini Tribe present ‘Me and My Shadow’, the latest offering from their loaded anthology The Sheer Action of Fini Tribe: 1982-1987, released via Shipwrecked Industries. Crackling with the sound of ideas arriving faster than they can be contained, this track emits youthful ingenuity and unorthodox tools, surging forward with hypnotic force.

The band members themselves barely out of their school uniforms, "Me and My Shadow" captures Fini Tribe at the instant their raw curiosity became something lean, propulsive, and unmistakably their own. A cool, searching vocal circles themes of selfhood while guitars slice with cinematic precision, locked to a driving, machine-like momentum that never lets up. Swirls of off-kilter electronics blur the edges, and the opening seconds—where the tape itself seems to wake up—drop the listener straight into motion.
Fini Tribe emerged in 1980 in post-punk Edinburgh, soon becoming a six-piece with Chris Connelly, Simon McGlynn, Andy McGregor, Davie Miller, Philip Pinsky and John Vick. Curated and designed by the band, this retrospective features archival photographs, essays by longtime friend Shirley Manson (Garbage, Angelfish, Goodbye Mr. MacKenzie), renowned author Alastair McKay, and original band member Andy McGregor, who also designed the album artwork.

Including the first legendary John Peel Session, produced by Dale Griffin and originally broadcast in May 1985, this colossal collection was previewed by the razor-edged singles ‘I Want More’ and ‘We’re Interested’. The original 12” singles (including ‘Detestimony’) and the WaxTrax! singles are also here, along with several unreleased live tracks – remastered and produced by the band’s members.

“’Me and My Shadow’ was taken from our second studio session in spring of 1982. We were all still in secondary school in Edinburgh. In fact, the lyrics were written during a library period in lieu of French studies or some tedious Thomas Hardy novel. This would be the first session with Davie Miller, who had previously been in the formidable band Explode Your Heart,” says Chris Connelly.

“The song addresses identity. Written by a 16-year-old, the lyrics float above a meticulous almost-spy-thriller guitar melody, which anchors the song to a fast-paced mechanical rhythm. At the time, we were swimming around in Can and French Noir, like every schoolboy should”.

The tracks on The Sheer Action of Fini Tribe were recorded in Edinburgh at Wilf’s Planet, Pier House, Niddry Street Rehearsal Rooms, Pleasance Theatre, and Calton Studios, and in London at Southern Studios and at BBC Studios, Maida Vale. Influenced by Throbbing Gristle, Wire, Can, Captain Beefheart, they also drew from modern film, writing, and the art that was abundant in the festival city.

“For me, ‘Me and My Shadow’’s may be the definitive 80s Fini Tribe recording: Chris words, John’s trippy keyboards, and the prescient motorik metal rhythm (played on a chrome clothes rail, as I recall),” says Andy McGregor.

“I’d say it’s also probably the best recorded example of me ‘at one’ with my RAPIER 44, a red sharkfin plectrum, and a matching kitchen stool. I used to sit down to play most of the time, and I can see why. I don’t know if it was a mistake, but there’s something in the way that the recording starts with the reel to reel getting ‘to speed’ — that is the perfect start to a song that feels like the audio equivalent to a fever-dream motorway timelapse.”

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