I don’t exactly remember when and where, but I do recall listening to the radio (KROQ in Los Angeles) and discovered Baby Chaos’ “Buzz.” They were a Scottish band hailing from Glasgow and have released 2 albums in the late 90s but broke up. However, they reunited in 2013 and have released 2 studio albums and 1 live album. This band was a quartet until they added a 3rd guitarist to their line up. The 1st 2 albums are fantastic and I’ve been listening to them since hearing “Buzz” on the radio around 1994. What’s interesting is that this song is on both “Safe Sex Designer Drugs & the Death of Rock ‘N’ Roll” and their sophomore release, “Love your self abuse.” They re-recorded “Buzz” on the 2nd album.
Much later to my dismay, I found out that “Love your self abuse” had a UK release. I think I found mp3s of it on Soulseek or a torrent site back in the 00s. It was a late find, but rediscovering the album with a different tracklisting was a pleasant surprise. There were songs from the US release on the UK version, however a few songs were omitted and replaced by other tunes. One of my faves is the closing track, “Loud and Clear,” which clocks in over 10 minutes long. Other stalwarts on both the US & UK release are “Try hard to be psychic” and “Mental bruising for beginners.” The previously aforementioned tracks are listed back-to-back while the former visits Helmet-like heaviness, the latter is a heart-wrenching ballad. I can listen to both versions from start to finish any given time and day of the week, they’re fantastic records.
Oh, so the original UK version on CD wasn’t mastered or doesn’t list anyone or entity for mastering. The mp3s that I originally downloaded were soft in volume, so last year (2023) I decided I would remaster it for loudness compared to their other albums. I found a sealed copy of this album and got to work, yeah it was low in depth but I proudly boosted this under appreciated record. What is currently in the jukebox is the remaster and I checked the levels via headphones for maximum quality. I believe their 1st album also needs a remaster, which I have to see if I still have the CD or not. Might be my next project.
The band kept going on in 1998 but legally had to change their name to Deckard and disbanded in 2004. They released 2 EPs & 2 albums, honestly I need to revisit them since it’s been awhile that I’ve heard these songs. These tunes may also need some TLC as well so be on the look out for that here.
Unfortunately I’ve never seen Baby Chaos live, I’m not even sure if they ever toured the states back then.
