The Fatima Mansions
 

I did a search for this wonderful band and a pathetic 3 posts came up.

First a bit of history.

In 1980 Cathal Coughlan and Sean O'Hagan formed the glorious Microdisney.

Microdisney wrote your typical 80s jangly indie pop , but their saving graces were O'Hagen's talent at writing great pop songs and Coughlan sometimes humorous sometimes abrasive lyrics & his expressive delivery , falling somewhere in between a Morrissey & a Mark E Smith. Making them stand out above the usual 80s dross around at that time.

In 1988 Microdisney split and O'Hagen went on to form and write some wonderful mellow bouncy pop albums with The High Llamas.
But i've already written loads about them and this thread is about The Fatima Mansions.

Coughlan formed The Fatima Mansions and took his ranting to a whole new level. There still a little of the jangly indie pop of his previous band but there's also folk , punk , pop , techno , even country and loads of other influences.

Although it has to be said the aggressive angry songs are the first you
notice and these wouldn't sound out of place on a Ministry album. Heavy riffs with tortured synths and Coughlan screaming out his vocals.

Anyway i've prattled on long enough , hear a few songs....

Oh man, I haven't thought about these guys in forever. I've had Viva Dead Ponies on cassette for years. I've always found them pretty hit-or-miss but when they were on, they were really on. "Only Losers Take the Bus" is one of my favorites by them, good call on posting it. Have you ever heard their cover of Leonard Cohen's "A Singer Must Die"? That's really, really good too.

And I learned something new today. Apparently I have been living under misconception that they were from Poland when they are actually from Ireland. Whoops. Way off on that one.

Wasn't it on that 'I'm Your Fan' tribute album?

I never got around to hearing that , I should too there's tons of great bands on that album.

Yep, that's the album. Honestly, it's a lot of great bands doing pretty shitty versions of the Cohen songs but there are a couple gems on there. The Fatima Mansions song is definitely one of them.

Wow, this band is spectacular.
"Only Losers take the bus" is an uncanny No-wave anthem.

Having listened to Viva Dead Ponies for the first time in ages i'm convinced i've heard someone sample the song Chemical Cosh sometime over the past couple of years.

Can't quite put my finger on it though.

In the process of looking for that answer I stumpled upon a cd Fatima released that has a "scream mix" of Chemical Cosh that apparently samples The Elephant Man at the end.....perhaps.

Yeah it was probably that on an UNKLE mix album or something.

Sounds intriguing as ever. Any ups ?

This is rather bombastic but still pretty good. It sounds like, well, everything else that came out of the '80s. Not sure if I'm digging the production though. Some of the percussion sounds so obviously inorganic it's damn hard not to cringe.