Now look here

>How do we know it ISN'T techno?

It IS
No, REALLY, it is though.

>Why not use the name Pat Fish?

The name Pat Fish will not even appear on the sleeve. The whole point of killing the Butcher was that it had a load of expectations attached for the punters AND the players, which were becoming a bloody pest. The whole point of the new project is the liberation therefrom. You only have to look at... oooh... Frank Black, Mark Eitzel, Robert Forster, Grant McLennan, Paul Westerberg etc. etc. etc. to see that just "going solo" does not accomplish this. All you get is the die-hard core of fans from your band that was actually any good. On the other hand, if you look at your faves and mine, Babylon Zoo, you can see that no-one gives a fuck about their being The Sandkings, indeed, I would imagine that 95% of people who own their records wouldn't even recognise the name. Perhaps more importantly, they've forgotten themselves, as well (I know some of you really dislike BZ, but you have to admit, they're better than the toileting Sandkings). The best recent example would have to be the switch from Camper Van Beethoven to Cracker. If David had just gone solo, do you really think he would be finally getting his dues now? I don't want to undervalue the number of free lunches we've had off JBC fans, but the fact is that if we only retain your support with this new project, then we will consider it an enormous disappointment. Similarly, if you ALL end up hating us and getting replaced by hordes of screaming teenagers, then it will be positive. This isn't to say that we're setting out to alienate, just that, for the first time in fourteen years, Pat isn't running scared of alienation. Fortunately, I think the end result is good enough to transcend this - Okay, some of you are going to hate it (I think I can tell who from recent communication), but then you'll have TEN albums full of what you really wanted to turn back to. Anyone who can cope with a bit of a shake-up will probably love this record and, crucially, unless someone fucks the release up (and it sure hasn't been us) you will have many, many new pals. I've only seen Pat make one JBC record and one post-JBC one, but the difference between the two is astounding... we've just made it our own way, and if anyone else likes it, it'll be completely fucking inevitable.

Sorry, this has turned into a bit of a rant, but I just get cross when people suggest that we don't think about shit. We do. Obvifuckingously (tmesis).

Illuminate will be released in the USA in 1997. There's gonna be a new compilation first.

Survive and thrive,

Gabriel (N.R.C.U.V.)
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It really is techno.   Received on Wed May 15 14:05:25 1996