Artist: Associates
Genre(s):
Pop
Discography:
The Singles Collection
Year: 1990
Tracks: 17
Formed in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1979, the Associates comprised vocaliser Billy Mackenzie and multi-instrumentalist Alan Rankine. Built on an eclecticist mix of influences and interests ranging from art rock to glam and discotheque, the radical debuted with a frenzied cover of David Bowie's "Boys Keep Swinging," which earned them a foreshorten with Fiction Records. Their 1980 debut LP, The Affectionate Punch, was a critically acclaimed work which expanded the duo's level-headed into both crude reductivism and melodramatic ballads, earning Mackenzie's powerful voice favourable comparisons to Scott Walker.
After jumping to the Situation Two label, the Associates released a series of singles which explored a continually various array of styles and textures. With 1982's "Party Fears Two," issued below their possess Associates label embossment, the group at last make the U.K. Top Ten, and the review singles "Society Country" and "18 Carat Love Affair" both reached the Top 30. 1982's Sulkiness was the group's determinate statement, a enthralling blending of lush, New Romantic popcraft and dark, surreal club stylings.
Next the LP's succeeder, however, dealings 'tween Mackenzie and Rankine soured, and the latter left the group for a solo calling, cathartic the albums The Day the World Became Her Age (1986), She Loves Me Not (1987), and The Big Picture Sucks (1989). Undaunted, Mackenzie maintained the Associates advert and teamed with Martin Rushent to record an album which went unreleased, although a few of the tracks later emerged on 1985's Perchance, fleshed out by keyboardist Howard Hughes and guitar player Steve Reid.
A long layoff followed, with some other album, The Glamour Chase, recorded just jilted by label chiefs. In 1990, the Euro-disco-flavored Groundless and Lonely emerged, and its deficiency of winner effectively over the Associates' tarradiddle. In early 1997, piece in the thick of preparing for a protruding comeback, Mackenzie committed felo-de-se.
