Associates - Fourth Drawer Down

Friday, July 22, 2022. Dedicated to Tommy Cherry

I discovered Billy Mackenzie and Alan Rankine, or Associates, on their compilation Fourth Drawer Down. With the assistance of Cure musician Michael Dempsey, they made aural magic. Post-punk to the maximum, but with magnificent vocals from Mackenzie and Rankine's overdubbed instrumentation made Associates a unique musical adventure. Controlled musique concrete sounds with a touch of John Barry melody, but also a Looney Toons intensity of mayhem. There are guitar riffs that sound like a symphony, with all sorts of percussion instruments, both electronic and acoustic, thrown into the mix. Their first album is more straightforward (but beautiful), and the third, Sulk, is maximum pop but seen through their sensibility. Fourth Drawer Down is a compilation of 12” and 7” singles that they released between the first and third albums. More experimental, with no concern for the pop market or the charts, yet still pop.

Being a fan of literature and the twisted song title, how could I avoid titles such as A Girl Named Property, Kitchen Person, White Car in Germany, and the dub version An Even Whiter Car? If I like the title, as if it is poetry, I’ll listen and buy that record. Q Quarters is beautiful but has consistent coughing in the mix and serves as a rhythmic instrument/sound to the song. It’s Joe Meek, but with a better grasp of sound and vision. The music is dynamic, over-the-top, and Wagnerian in approach; it is like nothing else is of great significance except Associates.

Alan Rankine is a very important presence in Associates. Billy kept the name of the band when Alan left, but in a manner like Eno working with Roxy Music, the Ferry-led Roxy, although significant, is a different beast. Rankine added danger, and density to the overall sound, while Mackenzie’s voice floats and stabs the textural layers in the early Associates sound.

It dawned on me recently that my book of poems, The Plum in Mr. Blum’s Pudding, was very much inspired by Mackenzie’s lyrics. Not everything, because there was Cole Porter and the New York School of Poetry, but Billy’s phrases were definitely stuck in my brain. I was once a kitchen person myself (kitchen person myself) /
Until you got to me with another shelf, the language is playful, and it seems I’m only attracted to those who play with their wordings as if they were chefs in a well-stocked kitchen. I love all Associates and solo Billy recordings, but I have a unique and intense love for the Mackenzie/Rankine work.