Aztec Camera were formed in East Kilbride in 1980 by Roddy Frame and drummer David Mulholland after they had left the punk-inspired band Neutral Blue. Eclectic, intelligent, and well-crafted pop from Scotland featuring Roddy Frame and a rotating band of accompanists. Aztec Camera first appeared on a Glasgow cassette-only compilation of local unsigned bands on the Pungent
Records label, affiliated with the Fumes fanzine run by Danny Easson and John Gilhooly. The band's first United Kingdom (UK) single release was sold in a 7" format by Postcard Records—a Glasgow-based independent record label cofounded by Edwyn Collins and Alan Horne—in 1981. The single featured the song "Just Like Gold" and a B-side entitled "We Could Send Letters"; an acoustic version of the latter song appeared on a compilation album, entitled C81, that was released on cassette in 1981 through a partnership between NME magazine and Rough Trade Records. Frame, aged 16 years, met Collins for the first time during the Postcard period when the latter was 21 years old.
At different times in their career the Scottish pop group Aztec Camera were indie darlings, high-charting pop stars, and skilled crafters of sophisticated modern sounds. Guided by Roddy Frame's deft guitar playing, nifty way with a melody, and a warm and inviting vocals style, the band debuted with a legendary
single, 1981's "Just Like Gold" and instant classic album, 1983's High Land, Hard Rain. No matter the setting, Frame's songwriting could be counted on to cut through the stylistic shifts deliver the kind of adult listening experience the band's fans desired. After High Land Hard Rain, Bernie Clarke left the band, and was replaced by Malcolm Ross on second guitar and backing vocals. Aztec Camera changed record labels once again for the release of their second album, Knife, which was released through WEA (Warner Music Group).
Aztec Camera were primarily a pop group centred on Frame's acoustic guitar work, which featured prominently on their first album High Land, High Rain. Their folk- and jazz-inflected style of pop became
more polished on their second album, Knife, with the introduction of electronic synthesizers and R&B elements. R&B grew more prominent on the third album, Love, a dance-pop outing that proved less popular. This development was throttled back for the group's fourth album Stray, which featured more streamlined rock singles and was described by AllMusic as a "loosely connected cycle mingling folk, soul, and pop in varying proportions". Over the group's career, their music has been described as new wave, sophisti-pop, jangle pop, indie pop and post-punk.
AZTEC CAMERA - HIGH LAND, HARD RAIN 1983
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Some performers never make a bigger splash than with their first record, a situation that the Ramones and De La Soul know all too well.Some performers never make a bigger splash than with their first
record, a situation that the Ramones and De La Soul know all too well. Very much the contemporaries of
such well-scrubbed Scottish guitar pop confectionaries as Orange Juice, but with the best gumption and star quality of them all, Aztec Camera led off the album with "Oblivious," a mini-masterpiece of acoustic guitar hooks, lightly funky rhythms, and swooning backing vocals. If nothing tops that on High Land, Hard Rain, most of the remaining songs come very close, while they also carefully avoid coming across like a series of general sound-alikes. Whether listeners want to investigate further from here is up to them, but High Land, Hard Rain itself is a flat-out must-have.
Aztec Camera – 1983 - High Land, Hard Rain
Label: Edsel Records – EDSA 5011
Format: CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Expanded Edition
Country: UK & Europe
Released: Sep 3, 2012
Genre: Rock, Pop
Style: Alternative Rock, Indie Rock, Pop Rock, Acoustic
TRACKS
01. Oblivious 3:05
02. The Boy Wonders 3:14
03. Walk Out To Winter 3:23
04. The Bugle Sounds Again 2:57
05. We Could Send Letters 5:46
06. Pillar To Post 4:00
07. Release 3:41
08. Lost Outside The Tunnel 3:41
09. Back On Board 4:52
10. Down The Dip 2:22
BONUS TRACKS
11. Queen's Tattoos 2:09
12. Haywire 3:56
13. Orchid Girl 2:32
14. Set The Killing Free 3:45
15. Oblivious (12" Mix) 3:49
16. Walk Out To Winter (12" Extended Version) 7:46
17. Oblivious (12" Extended Remix) 4:36
LINE - UP
Vocals, Guitar, Harmonica, Written-By, Arranged By – Roddy Frame
Bass – Campbell Owens
Drums, Percussion – David Ruffy
Organ, Piano, Producer – Bernie Clarke
NOTES
An alternate version of track 16 exists that runs 9:12, but the one here is the original 12" mix.
