Recently, while snuggled up in bed with Lemsip and a cold, I decided to revisit Ian Brown's debut solo album,Unfinished Monkey Business, for the first time in ... a long time. I'd forgotten about its charmful lofi, D.I.Y vibe and soul. It certainly helped my cold!
Self financed and produced on an 8-track studio in Brown's flat, Unfinished Monkey Business was in complete contrast to the years and hundreds of thousands of pounds (possibly as much as £1 million) spent recording The Second Coming with The Stone Roses.
The Roses ended up a complete mess in the end. Brown and Squire, who formed the band and who had first met in a sandpit in nursery, fell out publicly and bitterly.
In a statement released on April Fools Day in 1996, there was nothing funny about Squire announcing his departure, saying it was; "the inevitable conclusion to the gradual social and musical separation that we have undergone in the past few years."
Undeterred, Brown and Main recruited, Aziz Ibrahim, a former Simply Red guitarist, to replace Squire and soldiered on for a further 6-months. Their Reading Festival performance saw long term fans leave the site in tears. What was left of The Roses was officially dissolved in October 96.
Squire was quick to move on, forming The Seahorses, an anagram for He Hates Roses (also The Roses Ashes) and beginning to rehearse with them as early as the summer of 96, while his former band were still going.
The Seahorses disintegrated after just one album and a stand alone single, with Squire later reflecting; "I thought 'This sounds shit, we don't deserve to be in this place.' The band sounded complacent. I don't suppose it was anyone's fault. Maybe it got far too much attention for very little effort in the early stages, because of what I'd done in the past."
It's a fair and accurate reflection.
Meanwhile, Brown's name would occasionally pop up in the NME or Melody Maker news pages with one rumour stating that he was going to work as a gardener.
However, after a short break, Brown was back writing and creating. And his material was much more interesting and inventive than Squire's post Roses work.
My Star was Brown's debut single to launch his solo career in January 1998, with lyrics about space exploration, NASA corrupters, military missions to Mars and the brilliant;
Never seeking new life, only planning war
Brown's voice is quite distorted, there has been no attempt to polish it up and the song gets better as it develops. Aziz Ibrahim on psychedelic guitar (also with a co-writing credit) is fizzing and fantastic and the I'll see you in my star hook is hammered home. I haven't listened to My Star in ages and I have to say that it has aged well, in a different way to Ian's work with The Roses. The lo-fi dreamy psychedelia charm, the lyrics, the hook ... there is just something about it.
The video was typically psychedelic, with Brown wandering round a futuristic home, eating pills and appearing in front of some Pollock artwork on a few occasions. Brown also appeared on Top of the Pops with a band including someone playing percussion on boxes of eggs. Later in the performance Ian threw some eggs at his own image.
On to the album, which opens with Intro Under The Paving Stones The Beach, all Ian's own work. Drum samples, toy guitar, the title spoken by Ian's son. It's essentially a sound collage; the beats, church bells chiming, some Indian sitar sounds, leading into the aforementioned My Star.
Brown calls upon his mate Mani for inspiration with Can't See Me. Brown found an old tape of a bass demo by Mani with a breakbeat sample (some reports indicated Reni played along with it) and asked him if he could use it. One of his old mates also inspired the lyrics, with Brown allegedly writing them after waving to Squire when he saw him across a street and John pretended he didn't see him.
Lyrics about Squire are sprinkled liberally through the album and Brown doesn't hold back. Over the cool bass groove (what other gems are hidden on old Second Coming rehearsal tapes?!) Brown sings;
The man used to fly, he used to fly easy
Now he can't see me
Earlier in the song there is the lyric he needs a dealer, as a healer, and that's not the only reference to Squire's (self admitted) fondness for cocaine at that time.
The Roses actually played Ice Cold Cube at their infamous last stand at the Reading Festival. This version is really brashy, Aziz's guitar is murky and blurred in the background, occasionally coming to the fore. It's a dark song, not (in my opinion) of Roses quality. I feel quite sad hearing it back.
I suggest you think again my friend, love is a circle with no end
A message given heaven sent, I've seen you cause your own descent
I always loved Sunshine and still think back fondly to seeing Ian singing it in a tent at T in the Park. Ian' voice was really on it that day. I think Sunshine is rather beautiful, on the album it's just Brown and his acoustic, beautifully and gloriously a little out of tune.
Then we have the near 7-minute rough gem of Lions and Ian singing with the late Denise Johnson. The drums are primitive, a bass kicks in at one point then drops out, a synth appears and is turned up loud, there is guitar, all kinds of effects, things pretty much fall apart and then Johnson repeatedly sing.
There are no lions in England, there are no lions in England
There are no lions in England, no, no, no
Corpses In Her Mouth was the second single lifted from the album, reaching a respectable 14 in the UK charts after the high placing My Star which got to the heady heights of number 5. For me, this is one of Ian's best solo singles and it kicks off the best run of songs on the album. The beats are cool, the guitar shimmers, there is plenty of space for the vocal melody and the lyrics are kinda beautifully weird.
What Happened To Ya Part 1 is deliciously ragged. Over an acoustic groove, Brown sounds confident and assured as he reflects on the Roses and Squire
You'll walk on water if they told you they like
There's just one problem, you just missed the tide
What happened to ya? Did you change your mind?
What happened to ya? We were one of a kind
Part 2 then kicks in and immediately veers off into a different full band groove, pure Roses territory - One Love mixed with a dash of The Second Coming, with Brown whispering menacingly at the start;
They got to ya, they got to ya, OK, OK, cocaine, cocaine
Aziz Ibrahim is in stunning form on guitar as Brown repeats the chorus of part 1 as his band groove on. This is as sublime a groove as King Monkey has ever been involved with.
Nah Nah is more Brown reflections, Ibrahim riffing gently over and acoustic groove. Deep Pile Dreams is pure Ian Brown, a slow stone groove. It's all Brown; playing bass over drum beats, a simple keyboard riff and a strong vocal melody.
The closing title track is Brown jamming on a keyboard over beats.
I enjoyed Unfinished Monkey Business when it came out and I've enjoyed revisiting it all these years down the line. It's honest and pure, lofi and
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