An '80s Obscurity

     
     

Leisure Process were a duo comprised of sax player Gary Barnacle and singer Ross Middleton. If you own any eighties albums that have sax on them, it's most likely Gary Barnacle playing - Visage, Pet Shop Boys, The Ruts, Paul McCartney, Phil Collins and PIL are among the many bands he tootled for. He was also an official member of jazz funkers Level 42 for a while. Ross Middleton came out of the Scottish indie pop act Positive Noise. They recorded a couple of singles, but I don't think they ever made an album - I never saw one, and googling gave me zilch. The singles were produced Martin Rushent, who over the years had become "the man" in British music, having produced Altered Images, the Stranglers, Buzzcocks and the Human League among others. Leisure Process' sound was typically Rushent - tight, synthetic funk tracks with Ross' vocals delivered in a manic, new wave style. I dug the singles alot, and thought they had chart potential but of course they were largely ignored. I especially dig this 12" version of A Way You'll Never Be - it has such enormously pounding drums and some super poppin' bass, courtesy of Level 42's Phil Gould and Mark King. You may not like what these guys did in their own band, but there's no denying their musical skills. The tune also features a cool James Bond like xylophone riff that gets me every time, and since Gary is in the band it has a big sax solo. You can definitely hear a bit of the Human League's synth action going on too, and that makes it doubly tasty to me. Nothing classic, but a fun little '80s obscurity nonetheless.