X-Ray Spex ‘Conscious Consumer’ to be released on vinyl for the first-time ever

Written By Nick Lee

X-Ray Spex | Conscious Consumer Album artwork

Today, DYI Records have announced the reissue of X-Ray Spex’s 1995 lost classic ‘Conscious Consumer’. The highly sought after album originally received a very limited CD only release in 1995 on Receiver Records in the UK and has been officially unavailable for the past 27 years. Now it has been remastered from the original master tape and will land on vinyl for the first-time ever with unpublished lyrics and original sleeve notes from the iconic vocalist Poly Styrene.

The reissue follows the recently re-release of ‘Germ Free Adolescents’ on day-glo pink vinyl and CD on 29th September via Secret Records, which was put out via Poly Styrene’s estate.

Notable for reuniting Poly Styrene with the original X-Ray Spex saxophonist Lora Logic and bassist Paul Dean, as well as featuring guitar from Crispian Mills and drums from Paul Winterhart (under their respective pseudonyms Red Spectre and Pauli OhAirt) of the band Kula Shaker. ‘Conscious Consumer’ was tragically overlooked due to Poly Styrene being unwell at the time of release, and the album was only released to digital platforms earlier this year following the success of her daughter - Celeste Bell’s - book ‘Dayglo: The Poly Styrene Story’ and award-winning documentary film ‘Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché’.

‘Conscious Consumer’ will be released on ‘Crystal Clear’ vinyl (indie Stores Exclusive), ‘Eco-Mix’ vinyl and CD on 15th December via DYI Records / Cargo Records and will also be available as a Dinked Archive release. This limited-edition release will include an ‘X-Ray Effect’ frosted & blue vinyl, a fold-out poster, with obi-strip & gold foil sticker. The Dinked release is limited to just 500 numbered copies and sold-out in the first day of pre-orders

‘Conscious Consumer’ is out 15th December via DYI Records / Cargo Records – Pre-order here

Pop culture is full of classic albums that slip between the cracks. In recent years the late Poly Styrene and X-Ray Spex have achieved iconic status with their 1978 debut ‘Germfree Adolescents’ album but the group’s follow up album 'Conscious Consumer’ released 17 years later has been lost to the sands of time.

Often the greatest moments in pop culture are quicksilver. They don’t follow tried and trusted career paths. X-Ray Spex seemed to appear out of the ether in punk rock, releasing a clutch of perfect singles that dealt with modern life with some of the greatest lyrics of the period sang with a startling voice. Ramped up over a chiseled chugging guitar and idiosyncratic fluid Lora Logic’s sax lines played by her successor in the band, the debut was a raucous and witty rush of perfection. The band had somehow stumbled onto a sound that was all their own and Poly Styrene seemed to be on a fast forward to iconic status with her idiosyncratic DIY style and charismatic presence.

Like most people though, the rough and tumble of the music world didn't sit well on her shoulders and burned-out Poly seemed to disappear into the ether. Her apparent breakdown saw her slip away from the limelight and she saved herself in the rigours of the Hare Krishna movement where she reconnected with Lora Logic who she had kicked out of the band just when it had broken through. They even played together again with other Krishna's in a low-key reggae-tinged band called Juggernaut who played a few gigs at the 1983 Glastonbury Festival.

These days most people don’t even realise that X-Ray Spex had a follow up to what is now embraced as one of the classics of the punk rock period. This lovingly compiled revisit puts the spotlight on a lost gem that has many of the hallmarks of the debut but is sieved through a different lens. ‘Conscious Consumer’ was an upgrade of the classic debut with a same punk rock urgency and themes of consumerism but with a poppier edge and a more considered wisdom gleamed from the ups and downs of life from the perspective of an older, wiser, Krishna devotee.

Or as Poly herself said at the time: “London. West End. Browsing in the record stores. I-Spy the Spex. Serious disbelief. How many times can they re-package one album? Crazy or what? So many unrecorded songs I've got, because I haven't stopped writing since Spex disbanded, you know. So I phone Receiver Records to inform them of the Pop Art Moving Diary I'm compiling right now. It includes original X-Ray Spex songs and future material. At the same time I ask them “Would you like me to do some shelf filling?” and Frank Lea replies “Yes. We'd love it Poly!” I like enthusiasm.

I get together with Paul, Lora and friends. Six weeks later Receiver is in receipt of Conscious Consumer, our zillion-selling CD to fill all the shelves of all the record shops between here and the edge of the galaxy.

Love to spend more time with you, but I have to pop out for a byte of Audio Lunch.”

In 1995 the album was an unexpected comeback. It was the first new material recorded by the band for years despite many of the songs being written a decade before. On release, though, the album disappeared into a void being out of sync with the times and before Poly got her deserved iconic status.

Bassist Paul Dean was equally shocked at the out of the blue recording: “I was very surprised, this was the mid 1990’s and 17 years since Germfree. It was the time of Britpop; Punk was now old news. Poly had 12 new songs and she said the album was going to be called Conscious Consumer and she wanted me on bass. I thought about and said yes of course”

Sax legend Lora Logic was equally surprised by the return of the band: “I was ensconced in mummyhood with a 3-year-old and hadn't connected with Poly for a long time. She rang me out of the blue, and without any small talk, suggested I come and stay with her in her small London flat to record a brand-new X-Ray Spex album. Excited and without considering any repercussions, I found myself on the train with my tenor sax, (childcare sorted) which had been sleeping in it's case for years, and a soprano sax which I had not played since recording ‘Pedigree Charm’ in 1981.”

The band who also re-formed in 1991, 1995 and 2008 are now revered worldwide for sparking a new kind of attitude in music. The late Poly is now a pop culture pin-up for an originality and feminism that barely existed at the time. Her acerbic, witty, and brilliant lyrics and distinctive voice have stood the test of time, and along with the band’s original sax player Lora Logic, she has become part of the punk rock narrative. The fuzzy snapshots of the brief early lineup see the sassy and sharp dressed teenager core oozing talent, originality, and style in a freeze frame of pop culture punk rock perfection.

The X-Ray Spex story has been told over and over in books, films and online and yet the band’s second album seems to have slipped from view. Finally lovingly restored it’s getting its moment in the sun and its punky pop/noise songs that drip a punky sass with an added bubble-gum melody with Poly’s sassy lyrical genius. There is not a dud on the album that updates the debut’s kooky Day-Glo genius with a song cycle that are snapshots of the then contemporary culture. The tunes come wrapped up with Poly’s distinctive voice and, finally, Lora Logic who is unleashed on a whole album playing her exquisite sax on each track with her distinctive standout style that is her trademark. There is something magical about the way the voice and the sax slip around each other in their own individual perfection. Poly’s instinctive pop nous and Lora’s bleating sax give the songs their distinctive twists and turns.

Paul Dean remembers the recording: “It was Poly, Lora and me from the original band and we recruited Crispian Mills on guitar and Paul Winterhart on drums who were both brilliant and had a lot of input. Some of the songs I was already aware of and had been around for years e.g. ‘Prayer For Peace’. We had a few rehearsals, there were 12 songs to work out. Poly had the lyrics and melody and the band worked out the chords, riffs, and song arrangements into a recordable structure, it was a lot of work in a short time. 

Sound wise it was the classic X-Ray Spex set up with Poly’s unique vocals and raps and Lora’s trademark saxophone melodies swinging it along on top of the guitar, bass, and drums. If I remember correctly, it was all done in a few weeks.”

For Lora Logic, it was initially an exciting experience: “My first studio memory was being struck by Crispian Mill's (or Red Spectre, his album pseudonym) impressive guitar presence and how tightly he played with drummer Paul Winterhart (or Pauli OhAirt, his album pseudonym), strengthened by a musical bond from years of gigging together. I had seen Crispian play in his first band in his early teens before Kula Shaker. Having previously made friends with his mum, Hayley Mills, from her Krishna Temple visits. It was awesome to find myself bumping into him again on an X-Ray Spex album!

Meeting up with original Spex bassist Paul Dean again, after nearly 20 years, was also wonderful. I very much enjoyed pulling sax flurries out of the ether after Crispian had arranged guitar to Poly's contagious new tunes.

However, it was not easy to finish. Poly began suggesting that most of the sax should be taken out. Fortunately, the producer convinced her otherwise and the sax parts were subtly mixed in. Sadly, her emotional and mental decline became increasingly apparent as we went along. Completing Poly’s vocal over-dubs became a priority.”

Finally recorded, the album is full of lost classics like ‘Crystal Clear’ that revisits the tension and release of the debut album whilst ‘Cigarettes’ and ‘Junk Food Junkie’ are closest to classic Spex style with an added pop touch and see Poly still examining the crassness of consumer culture. There is the amusing nod to Iggy Pop in ‘Dog In Sweden’, which is an urgent punk rock missive just like the band had staked their reputation on years before. There is the nod to T. Rex on ‘Prayer for Peace’ that featured on both this album and the recent Essential Logic Album ‘Land Of Kali’. or the hypnotic mantra like ‘Sophia’ that has the mystery of a Kate Bush in its exquisite grooves. ‘India’ is a paean to the holy nation of Poly’s dreams that embraces a spiritual serenity far away from the urgent rush of the debut album whilst ‘Hi Chaperone’ has the cheeky twist of Lora Logic’s own acclaimed post Spex band Essential Logic given the X-Ray treatment. Lora recalls the album fondly:

“I am honoured to have been creatively involved with this unique collaboration of musicians and sound engineers and to have contributed to Poly’s extraordinary songwriting and performance.”

Listening to the album again after a long break, Paul Dean is surprised: “Conscious Consumer now sounds so much better than I remember. It wasn’t properly released at the time and so no one knows about it. If you love Germfree Adolescents, you will love Conscious Consumer they are linked together. X-Ray Spex didn’t have just one great album it was two!”

The album rewrites the X-Ray Spex story. No longer can they be seen as a moment freeze framed in time back in the punk wars but a potentially longer-term project that never lost their creative soul power. No mere flash in the pan, in many ways the album is even more frustrating and full of ‘what ifs’. Of course, Poly made her own great solo records and Lora Logic was also on her own creative high with Essential Logic but the pair of them working in tandem was potentially one of the great sounds of UK pop culture. They had a rare magic that is the heart and soul of all great music, and the album is finally a reminder of just how much potential there was whilst also being a document of their innate brilliance.

Tracklisting:
1. Cigarettes
2. Junk Food Junkie
3. Crystal Clear
4. India
5. Dog In Sweden
6. Hi Chaperone
7. Good Time Girl
8. Melancholy
9. Sophia
10. Peace Meal
11. Prayer For Peace
12. Party

Nick Lee
Previous

Sløtface team up with breakout Australian indie stars The Buoys for new single 'Fight Back Time'
Next

Mary Middlefield shares ‘Sexless’ single