VA - Auteur Labels: New Hormones 1977-1982 (2008)

Part of a set of albums designed to showcase the labels LTM is so often associated with due to numerous reissues, Auteur Labels: New Hormones is useful in that it takes a solid look at one of the most influential but ultimately obscure D.I.Y. outfits in the U.K. in the late '70s and early '80s. If releasing the Buzzcocks' Spiral Scratch was almost all Richard Boon and company had to initially do to gain lasting fame -- little surprise that the band's "Boredom" starts the compilation -- then everything else was much more of a wayward and often fascinating exploration of local sounds and styles that took a much different route altogether. That the Buzzcocks' classic anthem is immediately followed by one of Pete Shelley's most outre efforts -- the rambling ghost-of-Krautrock instrumental jam "Big Noise from the Jungle," a Tiller Boys single from 1980 -- says it far more effectively than anything else, and from there the snapshots ranging from the somewhat well-known (Diagram Brothers, Ludus) to the utterly obscure (the Decorators, whose one single for the label, "Twilight View," is a pleasant enough bit of romantic pop/rock) provide an aural portrait of ferment and dissatisfaction with a cohesive label sound -- much to New Hormones' credit. As Boon himself describes it, he didn't want to have an "overarching ideology," and hearing everything from the frenetic stop-start arrangements of Ludus' "My Cherry Is in Sherry" to the smoother horn-driven funk of Dislocation Dance's "Stand Me Up" and Eric Random's various audio experiments helps show this clearly. Liner notes, drawing upon extensive quotes from Boon and many compatriots and bandmembers, gives a pretty sharp idea of the wayward and sometimes skin-of-its-teeth existence of the label -- Boon's story about having to pass on the Smiths is one of those in-retrospect heartbreakers, though his suggestion they talk to Rough Trade is one of those details that shows how things are rarely inevitable in music -- while the inclusion of five songs recorded over the past decade from various label veterans gives a taste about how their differing but still strong passions have continued into a new century.