The Catburgers, a band formed in Edinburgh in 1985, were inspired by a Television Personalities concert and nearly made a record for TVP genius Dan Treacy's label. That didn't happen, and now decades later, the group's album has been put together by Slumberland Records.
It's fair to call this jangle-pop, certainly so when you play "I've Got a Friend", the lead single here and album opener. But there's more complexity in pieces like "Holiday House", a drone-y gem. The crunch of "Summer of Love", a highlight here, echoes the early stuff from fellow Scots Close Lobsters. Of course, you could take any of these nine songs and compare them favorably to those of many contemporaries in the British indie world of the era, especially those groups who'd end up on the C86 cassette the year after these recordings were made.
Mixed by Archie Moore (Black Tambourine, Velocity Girl, The Saturday People, etc.), Galashiels rings with promise. This lost Catburgers album is cohesive, and it bristles with the same kind of rough charms that early releases on Slumberland Records did. Who's to say where The Catburgers would have ended up? And while it's a shame that this wasn't released until now, it's here now to remind us of an era when there were so many bands making music like this, and lots of it excellent. The Catburgers deserve some attention now as it's not too late to be swept up by the pleasures of this jangle-pop gem.
Galashiels by The Catburgers is out now via Slumberland Records.
[Photo: Slumberland]