''Take Away'' and ''The Lure of Salvage'' are sides one and two, respectively, of the debut record by English musician

Andy Partridge Andrew John Partridge (born 11 November 1953) is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and record producer who founded the rock music, rock band XTC. He and Colin Moulding each acted as a songwriter and frontman for XTC, with Partridge writi ...

(credited as "Mr. Partridge"). Co-produced with

John Leckie John William Leckie (born 23 October 1949) is an English record producer and recording engineer. His production credits include Magazine's ''Real Life'' (1978), XTC's ''White Music'' (1978) and Dukes of Stratosphear's '' 25 O'Clock'' (1985), t ...

, the LP was released in February 1980 by

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldwid ...

and consists of dub remixes of tracks originally recorded by Partridge's band

XTC XTC were an English rock band formed in Swindon in 1972. Fronted by songwriters Andy Partridge (guitars, vocals) and Colin Moulding (bass, vocals), the band gained popularity during the rise of punk and new wave in the 1970s, later playing in ...

Background

Each track on ''Take Away / The Lure of Salvage'' is derived from a song released on the band's first three albums and related B-sides, except "Commerciality (Signal Ad)", which is a remix of the ''

White Music ''White Music'' is the first studio album by the English band XTC, released on 20 January 1978. It was the follow-up to their debut, '' 3D EP'', released three months earlier. ''White Music'' reached No. 38 in the UK Albums Chart and spawned the ...

'' outtake "Refrigeration Blues". The back cover reads: Partridge recruited Leckie after feeling guilty that the band had not re-hired him to produce their third album, ''

Drums and Wires ''Drums and Wires'' is the third studio album by the English rock band XTC, released in 1979 on Virgin Records. It is a more pop-orientated affair than the band's previous, ''Go 2'' (1978), and was named for its emphasis on guitars ("wires") a ...

'' (1979). The pair worked on the remixes for a week while enjoying and deriving inspiration from late night horror films being shown in

London's West End The West End of London (commonly referred to as the West End) is a district of Central London, west of the City of London and north of the River Thames, in which many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buil ...

, including ''

Alien Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, intelligent extrater ...

'' (1979). Partridge's wife Marianne was recruited for handclaps and other noises. Even though no other XTC member was involved in the album's making, Partridge does not personally consider it a solo effort. Virgin rejected his request to issue it under the XTC banner, as it would have counted toward their record contract.

Artwork

The cover pictures on the album's back and front are taken from a post card of

Jayne Mansfield Jayne Mansfield (born Vera Jayne Palmer; April 19, 1933 – June 29, 1967) was an American actress, singer, nightclub entertainer, and ''Playboy'' Playmate. A sex symbol of the 1950s and early 1960s while under contract at 20th Century Fox, Man ...

in a swimming pool. The figures floating on the water are hot water bottles shaped like her, on the back cover some of which Partridge scribbled out, in order to represent the "holes" in dub music. He made the LP totally royalty-free for a cost of £2000, and asked Virgin to set the price low. Virgin sold the album with the maximum price of £3.99 (equivalent to £ in ).

Reception

Reviews of ''Take Away / The Lure of Salvage'' were generally unfavourable. However, in Japan, the record was hailed as a work of "electronic genius" and outsold all other XTC albums.

Keiichi Suzuki is a Japanese musician, singer, and record producer who co-founded the Moonriders, a group that became one of Japan's most innovative rock bands. He is known to audiences outside Japan for his musical contributions to the video games ''Mother'' ...

of Moonriders cited the album as an influence, particularly on the tracks he composed for the ''

Mother ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given childbirth, birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the cas ...

'' video game series. In 1990, ''Take Away'' and ''The Lure of Salvage'' were included on the compilation '' Explode Together: The Dub Experiments 78-80'', along with the EP ''Go+''.

Track listing

Track notes adapted from ''XTC: Song Stories'' (1998), by

and

Neville Farmer Neville MacKenzie Farmer (born 17 January 1960) is a British music, television and film producer, composer, performer and music industry commentator. His plethora of published materials include articles, scripts, books, films, plays, songs, event ...

Personnel

and

– remixers, producers * Alan Jakoby – tape operator

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Take Away The Lure Of Salvage 1980 remix albums XTC albums Dub albums Albums produced by John Leckie Virgin Records remix albums