Julian Cope

Moving into what he later described as the second part of a trilogy of albums, Jehovahkill sees Julian Cope's focus shift from environmental collapse to raging against the destructiveness of mainstream religion and an attendant celebration of earlier, heathen impulses.

"The 6th instalment of Cope's Notes delves deep into the Archdrude's most notorious album: JEHOVAHKILL. "Recorded immediately after the highly successful Peggy Suicide double LP and long world tour, Cope and his musicians entered the studio eager to replicate their new live sound. During that tour, they had shed their obsession with on-the-one funk in favour of the stentorian motorbeats of Krautrock. Find out how it all went down in Cope's 6000-plus-word essay, scrutinise the enchanting 4-page pull-out of JEHOVAHKILL'S heroes, then grab your headphones for the CD's 40-plus minutes of rare demos, versions and unreleased music.

Exhilarating! Dynamic! 1982 music from the Death Throes of Liverpool’s maddest band. 42 minutes of it, and nearly all previously unreleased. Instrumentals, mostly, plus fragile earworms from a very distant time. Also check out Side 2’s tumbling musical collage taken from the same 1982 recording sessions – this time, however, they are overladen with Cope’s earliest autobiographical attempts. Yes, herein are contained 1989’s Head-On reflections: spoken word delivered over a mysterious and distinctively Teardrop Explodes Post-Punk sound. Clad in appropriately intriguing packaging? U-Betcha! ‘Doesn’t feature Reward-type hits anywhere herein’!!

25 years ago in the autumn of ’98, The Modern Antiquarian was unleashed. A book of rocks? A book of remote heaps? Yes, for some perhaps – but for many it was a life-changer. Cope’s Notes 5 explains the precise impulses that sent the Archdrude off life’s urban highways into the nether regions of Ye Olde UK, and how he extricated himself from the Music Biz long enough to bring forth this monster tome. Devour the 6,000-word memoir and rare photos of the 48-page booklet while you spin the accompanying 40-minute CD: a dozen all-new songs and enchanting theatre pieces – catchy bastards every one of them. A garage song about the Ridgeway? You betcha. A snotty NY strut about Neolithic bull castration? Never off my turntable. Score this special 25th-anniversary package – Re-Live that feeling of wonder and discovery right here upon our own jaded islands!