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Vivien Goldman

Resolutionary (Songs 1979-1982)

Staubgold • 2016

Tape of the Year 2023

Some music critics change their position after a while and prefer to make music themselves. Quite successfully now and then, look at Elvis Costello, Neil Tennant or Phillip Sollmann. Others do simply both, without one of the two positions becoming seriously jeopardised. The British music journalist Vivien Goldman can claim for herself that on the one side she is a journalistic and academic authority for Punk, Post-Punk and Reggae and the other side she has issued songs to bands like Massive Attack or Coldcut. Her own songs in their own interpretations can be found on »Resolutionary«, which the label Staubgold has now compiled for the first-time. As proven by her single »Launderette« or the recordings with the Flying Lizards, who she initially sung for, Goldman is not only a writer but also a singer. Her musical preferences express themselves in the shape of Post-Punk, and in elements of Reggae and Afrobeat. The anti-violence song »Private Armies«, presented with a marvellous British understatement, even offers a completely bass accented dub-version – like most of the songs produced by Adrian Sherwood – and with a practical recommendation to impotent men: “If you can’t get a hard-on, get a gun!« You can hear the time of their creation in the productions, but this is not a disadvantage. It was a good time. Open, eager. Like Vivien Goldman herself.

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