THE GHOST TRADE

When THIS HEAT broke up in 1982, Charles Hayward quickly put together another trio with a similar setup and sound. Charles is of course the drummer and singer, and I first heard of him with that QUIET SUN album called "Mainstream" from the mid seventies. THIS HEAT was certainly a different band than QUIET SUN, having that post punk attitude and sound. The boys all wearing cheap suits and having short hair, while playing experimental music. Apparently HENRY COW were big fans of them.

I love the album art on this one. Camberwell by the way is a working class district in the city of London, England that Hayward and THIS HEAT were from. Essentially like THIS HEAT we get drums and bass along with a guy who is a studio rat, using tapes and recordings to great affect. This is different. It's not as experimental or powerful as THIS HEAT, but I hesitate to call this THIS HEAT-light. The vocals seem to be even more abundant on here as Charles rants about the political climate in the UK at the time. He would regret going there lyrically much later in life, feeling that his political opinions affected sales, as most bands seemed to protest less in the eighties, as fans were tired of it.

I almost forgot, we get two female guest vocalists as well. There's two tracks I absolutely do not like in "Wheat Futures" which sounds like ART BEARS with the mono-toned vocals and lyrics about working people. Move to Russia then! Also "Speculative Fusion" which sounds like a bad space rock track, veering into dance music. I like the song "Sitcom" and the guest female vocals here. "Green Lantern" is really good, catchy with me waiting for someone to yell "Rock lobster!".

This is a pale version of THIS HEAT in my opinion but most feel they are close to being equals. My apologies to Lewian who ranks this as one of his all time favourites. I wish I felt the same, but 3 stars is all I got.