AaΔzhyd China Doll

Available from Bandcamp. Release notes taken verbatim from the site: AAZHYD CHINA DOLL 1987 Steve Stapleton planted the idea…."You simply have to make ACID China Doll…" Living in my tiny little room in an Amsterdam squat , living out of the local snack bar on Tuesdays and Thursdays ,living on crumbs of human kindness during the rest of the week, the challenge seemed huge.How to live up to a title like that. I'd spent the last of my money on an 8-track recorder ,a mixing desk and an Akai sampler.Getting from the door to the bed by the wall involved climbing very carefully. Engineering was done laying down as there was no room for a chair. Still Barry managed to set up his amp and play some inspired guitar parts on what was meant to become the ultimate album in the China Doll series. In the end I was proud of the uneven beast that emerged, but not proud enough to call it "Acid China doll". Consequently I changed the spelling. The record company didn't seem to like it and worse they released it in my absence (I was on tour).One whole channel dropped out on one of the tracks as no-one checked the test pressing. I broke down in their office ,pleading for a re-press. Somebody suggested that they released records by people like Edward Ka-Spel as an act of "charity."This was a relationship that seemed doomed from that moment although they DID put a lot of things right with a cd reissue a few years later- something I still appreciate. I love "Aazhyd China Doll"…just wish I'd made the record that didn't require a change in the spelling. Track by track liner notes: Track 1: Sampling was new and a bit shameless back in the mid-80s and yes, Barry iIS jamming with the great man....but the part was meant as a tribute to both. EK heroes are much in abundance on this album.... Track 2: The worst nightmare for a singer is the mental blank. That terrifying moment when the lyrics of the song jst aren't there.I had it once when performing this song...You may ask ,"which words escaped?" Embarassingly just 2- "Flesh" and "Parade". Track 8: Bonus track on the cd reissues of this album.