DALEK I "Compass kum'pus"

I picked this up knowing nothing about Dalek I. It was in the 49 cent bin at Reckless, but the things that popped out at me were, the year (1980), the names involved (Hugh Jones, Chris Hughes), and the strangely phallic artwork.

If you pop back to the posting about Graduate, you'll see I had a little thing for Tears For Fears' The Hurting elpee. It was produced by Chris Hughes. Oh! Now I remember, see, Tears For Fears handpicked him to produce that based on the Dalek I elpee. Yay. I get it now. Hugh Jones later produced every great record ever. Start with Dumptruck's For The Country and cruise to the Colourfield's Virgins & Philistines and you'll see what I mean. Dave Balfe ended up in Teardrop Explodes. This Dalek I elpee was a little crossroads for everyone maybe?

I still knew next to nothing about Dalek I when I spun Compass kum'pus for the first time. I did fall pretty hard for the cascade of synthesizers and decidedly long-division lyrics. I always love when bands dress up love songs by peppering them with bizarre lyrics about inanimate objects or science or architecture or something. Maybe that's why I'm a sucker for Britpop. I could imagine being the only kid on my block knowing about this record when it came out. Maybe it's not too late, maybe I still could be.

So, Tears For Fears were fans, and I assume others were (the album hit the UK charts in 1980). I was working on a project with Stephin Merritt of Magnetic Fields a few years back and remember him bending my ear for an hour about Dalek I. If you ever want to crack Stephin, bring up obscure synthpop bands like Flying Lizards. He knows tons. You better know your shit though or suffer the consequences (children).

I love little discoveries like this and if you dig new wave, your interest is sure to be piqued. Here's two tracks from side A. You can definitely hear parts of that TFF sound in the soft verses of Destiny (Dalek I Love You). I'm off to see if there's some sort of collection on CD or iTunes now. Oh, here's a great link for some history on this: http://www.execulink.com/~robin1/mu_dalek-i.txt
For some reason it won't let me hyperlink a txt URL.

DESTINY (DALEK I LOVE YOU)
8 TRACK