NEW YORK NIGHT TRAIN:KID CONGO POWERS

Kid Congo Powers compiled Solo Cholo to highlight his work as both a singer and a songwriter over the years. This highly personal document includes Kid’s most proud moments from 1985 to the present – most of which are nearly impossible to find.

The earliest material is a Clint Ruin (AKA Jim Thirwell, Foetus, etc.)-produced track from Kid’s London group The Fur Bible - featuring The Gun Club’s Patricia Morrison (also of The Bags, Sisters of Mercy, and The Damned) and Desperate in addition to Siouxsie and the Banshee’s Murray Mitchell. This is Kid’s first attempt at singing – and is a bit more dark, heavy, and violent than one would expect. “La Historia De Un Amour” is from Kid’s 1989 solo EP In the Heat of the Night. Like Kid and Khan the project attempted to marry rock and dance music. Barry Adamson (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Magazine), Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins), Marcia Schofield (The Fall), and Steve Young (Colourbox, M/A/R/R/S) all contribute their significant talents to this track. “Parts Unknown” is a noisy unreleased number featuring Lydia Lunch and Die Haut - recorded a live show in Kiev. “The Last Word” is a bitter Kid-penned Congo Norvell concoction. “Virginia Avenue” and “Sophisticated Boom Boom” are both by NYC “no wave country” supergroup Knoxville Girls - and, as you may have already guessed, are covers of Tom Waits and The Shangri-Las respectively. “Why Hurt Flesh” and “Vaseline” are both electronic collaborations with Khan. And my two favorite tracks on the record, “Power” and “You Hang the Moon for Me,” are the most recent. This time we find Paul Wallfisch (Firewater, Botanica, etc), Jim Sclavunous (Teenage Jesus, Bad Seeds, Sonic Youth, The Cramps, etc.), and Abby Travis (Beck, Elastica, etc.) collaborating on two of Kid’s deepest and best-written songs. Between the four of them, they’ve probably played in every band there is.

Since the original label that was to put this out unceremoniously fell apart, during the process of creating this oral history, New York Night Train got together with Kid in yet another attempt to bring Solo Cholo to the public. So now you can find copies of it at our online store and soon in physical record stores.

Buy It!

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