| Years before the arrival of My Bloody Valentine and Teenage Fanclub – and, latterly, Oasis – raised its critical and commercial stock, Creation Records was a loose collective of misfits, perpetually teetering at the edge of bankruptcy while releasing music that compensated for shoestring budgets with wild imagination.
Appointed the role of Creation in-house producer, Joe Foster inadvertently formulated the template sound of ’80s British indie music: a rough, treble-heavy alloy of psychedelic and punk influences that was diametrically opposed to the decade’s heavily processed pop. Fresh from having overseen the Jesus and Mary Chain’s infamous debut, "Upside Down," Foster created his own feedback-damaged alter-ego, Slaughter Joe. Zé Do Caixão collects, for the first time, Joe’s brief discography. "I’ll Follow You Down" almost rivals the Mary Chain in terms of menacing noise, "Positively Something Wild" imagines a late-’60s summit meeting between the Stooges and Dylan, and "The Lonesome Death of Thurston Moore" fulfills everything such a magnificent title promises.
The first band signed to Creation and one of Foster’s earliest regular clients, the Jasmine Minks initially recalled early Jam in terms of velocity and impassioned delivery, but they quickly evolved into a superlative, multifaceted pop group. "Cold Heart" and "Where the Traffic Goes" are among the best indie singles of the ’80s.
SLAUGHTER JOE 4/5
THE JASMINE MINKS 4/5
MICHAEL WHITE
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