Cranes – Fuse (Dadaphonic) – This sounds fresh, this sounds new, now, this sounds like it (still) matters. Cranes did always matter though, they always had something a little deeper, a little more left field. This is a re-reissue of Cranes “über rare debut album” Fuse.
“The second in a series of archive releases by Cranes, Fuse was recorded in Portsmouth, their home town, by siblings Alison and Jim Shaw. It originally appeared as a cassette album in 1986 on the Bite Back! label. With an initial run of only 200 copies, over the years this album, with its distinctive purple cover has been highly sought after amongst fans, often exchanging hands for more than £100″ (Pretty sure there’s a copy of that tape over in the boxes of Organ history over there, yep, we’ve been around a long as those always beautiful Cranes have)
Fuse is a sparser Cranes, a darker more (almost) industrial post punk sound, primitive, deliciously so. These early recordings have all the hypnotic allure and rhythmic intensity of later more familiar Cranes work, the songs are just as mesmerising as Cranes later critically acclaimed releases. Fuse very much sounds like Cranes, the evidence of things to come is all here however, if you don’t know their earlier material and you’re only familiar with their more floaty feel then this might almost be (slightly) shocking – “really? This is Cranes? Are you sure?” said one passing voice, although it so obviously is . Fuse is a powerful album, , an experimental art rock album, an album as relevant now as it ever was and if you don’t know the Portsmouth band, it might be just as good a starting point as any? Well no maybe not, you probably need to go start with their less adrenaline pumping moments, later pieces of beauty like 1991’s Wings of Joy or 1993’s Forever to really get why Cranes were so highly regarded back there, this, as excellent as it is, probably isn’t typical enough to be a first taste.
“Recorded in a garage on a 4 track porta-studio, the band spent many months experimenting and became obsessed with the recording process. Jim Shaw used a very early sampling pedal to create the drum sounds, which were all individually triggered. The only and first ‘industry’ person to hear anything by Cranes at this time was Martin Hannett (legendary producer of Joy Division and New Order). He was looking for unsigned bands to appear on a new music TV show in Manchester and so Ian Binnington from Biteback! sent him a compilation tape of many Portsmouth bands. Hannett picked out ‘Fuse – original version” by Cranes and told Ian that the track was ‘fucking great’.”
This new version of Fuse has been remastered at Abbey Road in 2023, and will be released as a Dinked limited edition on pink vinyl as well as on black vinyl, CD and digital download. The album includes an extra unheard track from the period called New Liberty. Artwork is by Chris Bigg of V23, and photography by guitarist Mark Francombe.
This is a fine fine album, it sound like now, indeed if this was something new, something from a just emerging band we’d be shouting about it way way more that we are here, don’t treat it as some re-issue, treat it as a right here right now thing, go explore Cranes or go revisit cranes if you already know, go be slightly surprised by how they sounded in their very early days. Excellent album.
Following their sold out gigs in October 2023 in London and Portsmouth, Cranes will be playing the following shows in May, supported by deary :
Thu 9th May LEEDS, Brudenell Social Club
Sat 11th May London, Islington Assembly Hall
THE ORGAN 