Barry Reynolds - Outsiders Point Of View/ Hold Me Down

Strange analogue synth infested minimal pop from Marianne Faithfull and Grace Jones collaborator

Label: RAK
Year of Release: 1974

While his name probably isn't on the tip of everyone's tongue, Barry Reynolds was actually a big background player in the developments of seventies and eighties pop. He was the author of Marianne Faithfull's "Broken English" and the first person to record "I Scare Myself" (ahead of Thomas Dolby) and a session musician on numerous Island Records projects, most prominent among them Grace Jones's work. He has an enviable track record of involvement in projects which were either alarmingly hip or prescient.

Less discussed is his own solo career, which is somewhat surprising under the circumstances. His 1974 debut single "Outsiders Point Of View" still sounds a little bit unusual even from this vantage point. Starting with a sinister, wailing, despairing analogue synth, a rumble of acoustic bass, then building into wailing, soulful, falsetto vocals, it continually sounds on the brink of collapse before tipping itself right side up again. Those eccentric bended synth notes continually hint at the track's demise, making the single sound as if it's been left in the sun for too long. It's almost like Reynolds had heard "Ball of Confusion", "Rock On" and "Popcorn" and somehow meshed and melded those unlikely influences into the song's construction, then pre-empted My Bloody Valentine and Board of Canada's wobbling sound experiments too. Almost.

Naturally, the song isn't as challenging as that, and relies on a more traditional song structure and a confident swagger to pull it through to the finish line. As eccentric pop 45s go, though, this has been somewhat neglected since its release and deserves more hearings.

It was also to be his only single for RAK before moving on to Epic, then eventually Island where he really came into his own as a background writer, manipulator and player.