Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
At The Height, 7 Aug 2006
I remember being devasted when the original Human League split up. Then, I cheered up a bit when I realised that I'd have twice the product to buy. Philip and Adrian quickly released the brilliant "Boys and Girls" and Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware roped in Glenn Gregory (who was first choice to be original HL vocalist) formed Heaven 17 and released the mighty "Groove Thang", which upset the BBC due to it's anti-Reagan stance.
This first album for me was the height of Heaven 17's powers, though I continued to soldier on with their releases, none matched Penthouse for energy or quality.
The original singles in extended form from this album were amazing, the extended version of the title track (shame it's not on here) was brilliant and showed that Martyn and Ian could programme a Linn just as well as Martin Rushent could!
There are two tracks that make this release for me. Firstly the excellent and haunting instrumental Decline Of The West, which is still one of my favourite tracks to this day...beautiful. The second is the cover of Pete Shelley's "Are Everything" which was recorded not too long after the Buzzcocks' original. It's nice to get this on CD. I seem to remember at the time, that this track started off their fetish for cover versions, which culminated in the two "Music Of Quality & Distinction" albums. Not sure why this track never appeared on those though.
Still, in conclusion, this is a really fine album, which still sounds fresh and vibrant.
Say goodbye to the penthouse and hello to your soul.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A definitive piece of electronics.....even today , 2 Sep 2006
Virgin's reissues, approved by the band, are long overdue, and priced to attract casual listeners as well as die-hard fans. "Penthouse and Pavement" was BEF's first official pop album, after the Human League split (post the brilliant "Travelogue") and it's sparse sound, juxtaposed with political lyrics or convoluted love-songs, was an immediate critical success. Glen still sounds a bit like Phil Oakey here (less so on the warmer follow-up album)and some of the percussive tracks remind me of "Reproduction", but the whole thing works far better than the League's first album. The remaster is beefed up a bit on the lower end (not a bad thing) but retains the spikiness of the original release. Highlights - well there isn't really a bad track here! From the opening "Fascist Groove Thang" to the 'looped' outro of "We're Going To Live..." we are taken through a whole range of lyrical subject matter and rhythms. Some may sound a bit dated now, but that's not the point, this album is a classic of it's type.
The bonus tracks are also interesting, as most are either vinyl only or from the BEF import CD of "Music For Listening To", but all remastered. Some of the bleeps on "I'm Your Money" 12" seem to sound a little harsh in places, but that's probably exactly how they were meant to sound. As per another reviewer, it would've been even better if they'd added the 12" original mix(or instrumental) of "Penthouse", as it is different from the album version - and there is space here - but other than that this reissue is great. It's nice to see references to track titles on "Before After" in sleeve-notes too, just to remind fans they are still very much around!
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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
(We Need This) Heaven 17 Groove Thang, 21 Aug 2006
Listening to the remastered 'Fascist Groove Thang' a quarter of a century on and you wouldn't think that it was recorded within a week. Nor would you believe that that H17 took random lines from their favorite US soul records and mixed in a few heart felt socialist observations deep from the heart of Sheffield concerning the early warning signs about our 'special relationship' with the US.
Things were bad back then, but Reagen (President elect) and Thatcher are nothing but quaint figures of comedic proportions when compared to the current nightmare scenario of Bush and the UK leader whom he addresses as 'Yo Blair!'.
As a 14 year old listening to this track for the first time, I couldn't quite understand H17's American stance in this song. The Russians were the ones pointing the missiles at us (although we later learn that the Red's nuclear arsenal was in fact a joke reinforced by alien agencies that included the CIA).
It is a delight to report that the remastered opening track has an added vibrancy that should serve to remind most listeners how H17 were simply light years ahead of the Visage and Duran crowd who were content back then to use the nearest pre-set synth option.
NME were wrong about a lot of things over the years but during this time, even they understood the genius that combined the production talents of Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh - the founders of The Human League and two individuals who would mess around with unstable analogue synths regardless of current fashion to create just for us, brand new sounds that you would hear no where else.
The remastered version brings out many layers lost on the old 80's CD transfer including the brilliant soul infected female vocals of Josie James on title track 'Penthouse & Pavement' (no one was doing this at the time and it took a while for other acts to catch on to the power of such an exotic mix of musical styles).
'Penthouse & Pavement' is a rare gem of an album of epic 'Dare' proportions (which is apt as both shared the same genesis in a run down recording studio during alternative shifts in Sheffield). Every track is a melodic stomper with infectious choruses, and one ultimately has to wonder why H17 aren't universally adored and appreciated for that they achieved. Forget the ground breaking production techniques of BEF and those bizarre electro sounds that current acts would strive to sample today, H17 should also be remembered for their killer vocal hooks superbly delivered by Glenn Gregory.
'Geisha Boys & Temple Girls' is a perfect example of H17's talent in knocking out a tunes that you simply have to whistle along to whilst clapping in time to it's complex drum pattern.
Curious chord changes (that no doubt set alight the creative mind of a very young Martin Gore back in 1981) are attributed to the track that has an almost impossible task of following 'Ghesha Boys'. 'Let's All Make A Bomb' is no mid-album filler (infact there is no filler on this H17 debut) and whilst it's central CND message may have subsided in recent years, the song is simply adorable containing everything you want from an album track.
The first H17 track I ever heard was 'The Height of The Fighting' (though the 12" version my brother bought was different to the album version and it's a shame that it wasn't included as a bonus track), it's one of those tracks that instantly grabbed me as coming from somewhere completely different.
It was released as a single in 1982 but never dented the charts but looking back, it really should have done with it's innovative synth bassline (Arthur Baker would copy it a few years later with Freeze and their massive 1983 hit 'IOU').
'Song With No Name' is a curious number with some rather spooky electro backing that oddly sounds very current. The track appears to tell the story about an artist struggling to come up with creative ideas expected of him but things seem to take a sinister twist. Curious chord changes too that evokes memories of Travelogue's 'WXJL Tonight', chord changes that few bands could get away with in today's musical climate (except Depeche Mode and Hot Chip).
H17 always knew a thing or two about album finales and their debut is rounded off by an 'attack' on organised religion.
It's a ridiculously catchy track sung from the perspective of happy-clappy Christians who think the rest of us are damned, a song about religious fundamentalism 25 years ahead of it's time.
The remastered P&P comes with one or two welcome extra tracks most notably the extended version of H17's second single 'I'm Your Money' (a track that should have made the final tracklisting for the original album but was neglected which is odd considering that it is a definitive H17 stomper). Containing some very clever wordplay, the track pays mock homage to capitalism with terms such as 'the overnight treasury' and other city buzzwords that you're unlikely to ever hear on any other pop track, and the amusing line 'I'm offering you the post of wife' always makes me smile.
'I'm Your Money' is one of the few H17 tracks in which the lads proudly display their musical heritage for it is a track that Kraftwerk would have been proud of and it also provides a blueprint for the current crop of electro acts that includes Mute's Client (their 2004 single 'In It For The Money' even used a H17 rift) and The Modern who were recently agonizingly close to scoring a UK chart hit with 'Industry'.
'Are Everything' is presented here for the first time on CD in it's original 12" mix, a superb electro cover of a Buzzcocks track and (an edited version first appeared on the B-side of 'I'm Your Money'). Most people will be new to this ancient H17 cover and I can assure you that it's worth purchasing the remastered P&P just for this rarely heard track (though the whole album is worth so much more).
Also worth checking out is the BEF instrumental 'Decline of The West', a haunting and distictively beautiful analogue instrumental that would have fitted in perfectly with the Vangelis Bladerunner film score a few years later in 1982 and it begs the question, why didn't H17 do film scores?
The instrumental also evokes memories of Wendy Carlos and her soundtrack for Kubrick's 'A Clockwork Orange' (pictured opposite) that introduced us to the name 'Heaven 17'.
Together with the BBC's now defunct Radiophonic Workshop, both would go on and influence many of the major players in the UK analogue movement during the late 70's/early 80s.
A huge round of applause should be directed to Donal Whelan of Hafod Mastering who has done such a fantastic job in cleaning up these archive recordings.
This is one of the best digital remasters I've ever heard.
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