JAB - Pretty Polly/ Easy Action

 

Sweetly sung beast of a mystery indie rock single

Label: JAB

Year of Release: 1988

Another bunch of mystery performers, I'm afraid. There was a brief period in the late eighties and early nineties where bands who were keen to prove they were serious and going places shelled out for limited run pressings of singles to sell at gigs. A nice slab of vinyl felt like much more of a statement than a mere demo cassette, after all, and vinyl pressing plants were starting to feel the CD market pinching into their profits; this led to some good deals for aspiring bands. 

What it didn't leave was a neat audit trail. A white label 7" single with some hand-stamped details and inked scribble on it doesn't offer many clues to the poor mp3 blogger. If the band were also never signed to a proper label - and the vast majority of them weren't - these brief moments were usually their only recorded message to the world. They are their era's equivalent of the unidentifiable crackly sixties acetate. 

The net result is I've had this record in my collection for nine months and still been completely unable to work out who the band JAB are. It's an interesting effort, though; the "Pretty Polly" side has clattering train-track rhythms, chiming guitar lines and buttery, folky female vocals. It's the kind of indie rock confection the music press at the time would have been sympathetic towards, but if JAB got a mention at the time, I certainly can't remember it (but what am I, a walking IPC encyclopaedia?) 

The flip "Easy Action" has a groovier swagger which points slightly towards the forthcoming baggy movement, but those careful, pretty vocals clearly date it in the mid-to-late 80s period. It might make your feet twitch slightly, but it isn't funky. 

If a major criticism can be levelled at either side, it's that it doesn't leave a sharp enough impression to make you think that JAB were capable of great things. There are demos from the 80s and 90s I heard only a few times whose lead tracks I can still remember now - neither "Pretty Polly" or "Easy Action" are forceful enough to make me think I'll suddenly recall them unexpectedly one teatime in the year 2042. What they are, though, are solid stabs at alternative rock which reveal a group who may have been going through a period of growth, and might have eventually been capable of a lot more.  

If anyone knows who the band were, please let me know. 

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