
The The
SOME BIZZARE 1982
A-side: ‘Uncertain Smile’
Soul searching of a deeply experimental bent.
East Londoner Matt Johnson finally nailed The The’s studio identity with this single. An initially fluid affair, that morphed from duo to quartet, Johnson boiled The The down to a singular entity, using a rotating cast of musicians to realise his vision. If the A-side found the former DeWolfe studio tea boy adding a toy xylimba to the tinny affirmations of previous single ‘Cold Spell Ahead’, boosted by Soft Cell producer Mike Hedges’ big sheen production, it would prove an itch he couldn’t quite scratch, revisiting it a third time for 1983’s Soul Mining (with that Jools Holland piano solo). B-side ‘Three Orange Kisses From Kazan’ seemed to fall between stools, bridging the post-punk psychedelia of 1981’s Burning Blue Soul (issued as Matt Johnson) with the newfound confidence of his emerging pseudonym. As Middle Eastern-styled melodica motifs played out over hardscrabble percussion, prodding free jazz sax and Johnson’s long echoing guitar lines, he seemed to find his voice, swarming over the surface like an anguished bee. Angsty personal musings, generational numbness and testy teenage truths continued to dominate Johnson’s early work, before it took an outward, openly political turn on 1985’s Infected.