69 (album)
69 is the debut album by British band A.R. Kane, released in 1988 on Rough Trade Records and produced by the band with additional co-production from Ray Shulman. Following the release of their acclaimed Lollita and Up Home! EPs, 69 developed the experimental "dream pop" style pioneered by the duo, blending elements of dub, acid rock, jazz, noise, and pop.
Not to be confused with *69, a 2018 album by Emily Blue.69
69 reached number 1 on the UK Independent Albums Chart and was released to critical praise from the UK music press, garnering it comparisons to the work of disparate artists such as Miles Davis, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Arthur Russell, and Cocteau Twins. Writing for Melody Maker, critic Simon Reynolds described it as "the outstanding record of '88."[4] Music historian Martin C. Strong described the album's sound as "hard to pigeonhole yet seminal nevertheless."[3]
The album has been recognized as an influential precursor to genres such as shoegaze, post-rock and trip hop. In a retrospective review, Ned Raggett called it "an unfairly long-lost classic."[5] In 2007, The Guardian included it in their list of "1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die."[6]
Release[edit]
69 was released on 1 July 1988[19] by Rough Trade Records on CD, LP and cassette in the United Kingdom, Europe, Australasia and the United States.[20] The 1989 LP released in Australia and New Zealand also credits Festival Records as a record label.[21] Commercially successful for an independent album, 69 peaked at number 1 on the UK Independent Albums Chart.[22] Geoff Halpin is credited with packaging "design", with John Geary drawing the "69" illustration on the album cover and Paul Khera for the "sleeve."[9] The alternative title Sixty Nine is also used in the packaging.[9] In the UK, 69 was reissued on CD in 1999 by Rough Trade Records and in 2000 by One Little Indian,[23] who also remastered and re-released the album in the US in 2004 alongside i (1989) as part of their "Crossing the Pond" series of remastered editions of British albums that were never released domestically in the United States.[24] Pitchfork considered the remasters of the two albums to be "the jewels in the crown of One Little Indian's Crossing the Pond reissue campaign" alongside Disco Inferno's D. I. Go Pop (1994) and Technicolour (1996).[25]
Simon Reynolds presumed the perceived references to oral sex in some of the band's lyrics continued to the album title, 69 (as in the sex position) and the "weird sea creatures in suggestive positions" on the album cover. Tambala denied any intention, saying the album cover shows "crustacean people from the planet Zarg... But they weren't having sex... They didn't have sex organs, for a start."[12] Ayuli said "it's an angle. To be honest, most of the song titles we don't think about. The title seems to connect at the time, and it's not until later that we think: 'oh dear, we mentioned sperm again'. And then it's too late, it's printed on the record.... But I like the idea of people inputting stuff into the music. I mean, there's only so many things that can happen, right, and if you leave enough room, then they all happen."[12] Geiger said that "the title's reference to the sexual position is obvious, but the figure symbolizes also opposed the connectedness, the circle organic ran from one to the other. The plate cover is emerging as also on white background a dark circle in the middle of which we can faintly make out the number 69, which is shaped like two dark, undulating spirals. Inner-case's intricate shading shows the blue background and more clearly six-figure as a pregnant woman and nine-figure as a man, both swimming, in harmonious movements."[18]