John Peel Archive: I includes In Dust, Incredible String Band and I, Ludicrous

The letter 'I' is never going to make up a large chunk of anyone's alphabetical record collection, and it's no different for the John Peel Archive. I was scratching my head thinking who would be included this week and I guessed a few correctly. I, Ludicrous are probably the first band that spring to mind for fan's of the Peel show, and they are represented here by two albums - It's Like Everything Else and A Warning To The Curious - the first of which I know mainly for 'A Pop Fan's Dream'; a story song about having Sunday lunch at Bob Geldof's house. Worth it for the line "Bob carves marvellously" and the description of his "hedonistic hairstyle."



I guessed that Ice Cube, Ice-T and Icehouse would be in there, and indeed they are, as well as the Icicle Works. There are a great deal of obscure releases here though. I've never heard If, but they have the second largest presence (5 albums) after the old RnB soul group The Impressions (8 albums). The only other guess I got right was the Idle Race, who had also featured in John Peel's Record Box.

The inclusion which I am most pleased about is that of 'Nosebleed' by In Dust, a band who did edgy stuff with industrial music in the early 90s in Northern Ireland to hardly any acclaim other than getting to record a Peel session in 1993. Somewhere between Mute records and the Wax Trax label in terms of sound, they played around Belfast a lot back then. By coincidence it seems that 'Nosebleed' has just been remastered this month, so maybe this will help that get to a wider audience.



Finally, the other obvious 'I' would be the Incredible String Band, although I didn't expect them in this list as I thought they might run out of alphabet by the time it was their turn. The three classic albums are on the shelves - the self titled debut, The 500 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion, and the Hangman's Beautiful Daughter - all landmarks in the evolution of alternative, psychedelic folk. If you have 13 minutes to spare then click play below, it's a classic.