Welcome to a “safer at home” edition of Vinyl Cave. First off: Yes, I know the turntable shouldn’t be that close to the speakers. Not everything can be safety first, even in our current times.
With the ability to go on crate-digging expeditions verboten for the past month, I am making progress on getting through the backlog of records I bought at some point that have been lurking in the “play pile.” I am sure I am not alone in this situation, but anecdotal reports of a surge in online buying may be keeping some collectors’ unplayed record stack at normal levels.
In any case...according to the price sticker it appears I picked this up at least a couple years ago, and it has just been hanging around ever since. But this week The Ultraviolet has hit the table twice, as their (presumably) lone LP is an excellent slice of 1980s pop.
There’s not much info out there to be found online about this album or band. The Ultraviolet do have a few more single and EP releases on Discogs, which also lists quite a few subsequent production and engineering credits for guitarist/singer Bob Pucci. The label/management, DKP Productions, was in St. Charles, Illinois, for this record; a later tape-only release from a glam band called O’Dette places the company in the Chicago ’burbs.
Another Victim was recorded at Royal Recorders in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, which was the mid-1980s-’90s incarnation of the former Shade Tree Recording Studio, a name that turns up on a lot of regional releases. (An interesting studio history can be found here, which also includes some comments by none other than Bob Pucci.) It was a top notch studio, so the record sounds really good. That was partly aided by the one familiar name on the record: longtime King Crimson guitarist/singer Adrian Belew, who produced and plays on two tracks.
Now you may be thinking, does it sound like King Crimson? Of course not. But it is also somewhat atypical for an obscure Midwest ’80s rock record, which by 1986 (the date of Another Victim) are most likely to sound like REO Speedwagon, John Mellencamp or an awkward blend of faux Springsteen and hair metal. If I heard The Ultraviolet and had to guess where they were from, I think the U.K. would be my answer. The first band that springs to mind hearing this album is Simple Minds, though thankfully, The Ultraviolet isn’t quite that slick.
Another Victim is nine tracks of well-written and played, medium- to uptempo synthpop, an up-to-the-minute sound for when it came out. This one is well worth picking up by fans of ’80s pop music if you encounter it in the bins. (DKP Productions, no catalog number, 1986)
