Having delivered us a sterling studio reunion record that ranks as one of their best (last year’s renascent I Wonder When They’re Going To Destroy Your Face) and reassuringly sustaining a reputation for molten brilliance in the live arena, it’s arguable that Prolapse’s creative stock has never been higher. Which makes another dive into the group’s historically healthy working relationship with BBC radio producers and DJs suitably enticing.
Documenting the half-forgotten “managed decline” phase of the band’s original existence, as described by drummer Tim Pattinson in his accompanying sleeve notes, between the near-crossover of 1997’s The Italian Flag and the half-planned swansong of 1999’s Ghosts Of Dead Aeroplanes, the eight gathered tracks pack in a few heavy hitters, seldom-performed pieces and a pair of undocumented-elsewhere deeper cuts, which collectively continue to uphold Prolapse’s aura of murky magic.
The side-one selection from the 1997 visit to Maida Vale opens proceedings with two reliable fusions of grittiness and hidden nuance. This provides us with a propellent “Government Of Spain”, featuring one of Mick Derrick’s most delirious vocal mantras, and chugging yet snaking take on “Tungaska”, with more space for Linda Steelyard’s co-ed coolness. Perhaps of more interest, are two less direct manoeuvres. One is a terrifically rubbery Tortoise-meets-The Fall reading of “Return Of Shoes” that is far less spaced-out and synth-smeared than the also-compelling version found on The Italian Flag. This is followed by the majestic made-up-on-the-spot moodiness of “Golfer’s Elbow”, which gives full room to roam for Pattinson’s prowling drums, Mick Harrison’s wandering bass lines and Donald Ross Skinner’s atmospheric keyboards, as well as David Jeffreys and Pat Marsden’s Gang Of Four-ish guitars.The flipside suite from 1998, caught in the Golders Green Hippodrome no less, has a similar sequencing approach. Consequently, along comes a virtual-medley of two familiar manic-pop episodes from the Prolapse canon – “T.C.R.” and “Killing The Bland” – to melodically assault us with Derrick and Steelyard in full alchemical flow. Straight after materialises the marvellous improvised sprawl of the otherwise unrecorded “XA14 1997”, to imagine a mash-up between The Birthday Party’s Mutiny! EP, Suicide’s eponymous debut and Misson Of Burma’s Vs. LP.
The finale lands with the tumultuously searing “One Illness, 74 Tablets”, which reverberates like an extract from The Stooges’ Funhouse being fed through a kosmische blender, which is significantly different to its dreamier shorter-titled take found on Ghosts Of Dead Aeroplanes. Riveting and revealing in equal measures, Mary Anne Hobbs Sessions 17.12.97 – 24.03.98 feels like a de facto lost cut-and-shut Prolapse album, fresher and wilder than anyone could have expected from an enterprise entering then the end of its salad days. An essential aural archaeological find, in short.-Adrian-
