Old Squeals, A New Day

Unsane - John Peel Session 1991

Unsane

This is essentially up so people who’re interested can grab it for the memories, especially around Keeping It Peel Day (Oct 25th). I’ve no doubt however that the unremitting gloriousness of this will attract those who know the name, but don’t know the release; or as it was first: broadcast.

The 1991 session for the John Peel Show by the Unsane was briefly released commercially. In 1993 on Strange Fruit in the UK and a year later on Matador in their native US. It contained two of their sessions. It’s no longer available and looking at Amazon, the US version is fetching silly dealer prices. This is the first of those they did, is free, and more importantly - *much* more importantly - includes John Peel’s intros/outros, which you won’t get on the commercial releases of his sessions ( as I mentioned recently when posting the 1991 Tar session elsewhere ). Five tracks, but what makes this more viable than most as a single upload is that the last four were a medley, eleven and a half minutes of no-nonsense, heads-down, hardcore guitar rock. One after the other each born from the fading feedback of the former. Pretty much banged down ‘live’ in the studio (not live on-air, those types of sessions came much later in Peel’s history) with an absolute minimum of fiddling from Ted DeBono, the BBC producer present. This is the Unsane the way they were meant to be presented.

Taken from the second FM broadcast and transferred from two old but sturdy and well-looked-after cassettes via Audacity. Nominally cleaned up during the process. Tracks are, Bath, then Organ Donor/Street Sweeper/Jungle Music/Exterminator.

Recorded 21st May 1991, first broadcast 14th July 1991. The BBC Radio 1, John Peel Show.

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