Anthony Moore has an extraordinary CV that brilliantly straddles the deeply experimental vs some of the most mainstream Pop musical imaginable (of it’s time). How about this – he was part of the collective around the serious-as-your-life avant-rockers Henry Cow and formed the offshoot Slapp Happy – a huge influence on groups like The Fall. He also followed that Rock in Opposition trajectory and produced records with the likes of This Heat – Art Rock royalty basically. So it may come as a surprise that he also wrote a song called ‘No Parlez’ the title track of the gazillion selling Paul Young album (that famously seems to replicate itself in charity shop shelves, such was its ubiquity). He’s a key part of the post-Roger Waters Pink Floyd, collaborating on songs such as ‘Learning to Fly’ but has also worked on countless experimental and exploratory works and art installations which I’m still discovering. His most recent solo release is called ‘Arithmetic in the Dark’ – enough said. He’s comparable to someone like John Cale, or latterly Jim O’Rourke – able to work in mixed media, high art but, as this compilation demonstrates he has an appealing voice and a way with words and song.

This very satisfying compilation collects lots of unheard material from his archives, mostly home recorded (hence the title and the cover – with Anthony unwinding a C90 with a pencil) but this is no scratchy lo-fi set – bar a few cheap sounding synth and drum machine patches, and you soon forget you’re listening to home demos and just enjoy a smart and intriguing set of would-be Pop hits. Floyd fans will home in on ‘Earthbound Misfit’ (which became ‘Learning to Fly’) but there’s lots more to enjoy. ‘Lucia Still Alive’ is a crunchy take on ‘Low’ era David Bowie, and ‘Coralie’ is a fab Velvet Underground/Roxy style strumfest. Best of the bunch is ‘Me and Neil Diamond’ featuring the unmistakable croon of Ian McCulloch recorded sometime in the mid-80s. It sounds like a song that 10 years later could have set Britpop era Radio 1 ablaze (and perhaps a counterpoint to ‘The Ballad of Tom Jones’) with it’s Easy Listening reference and ‘I can’t stop smoking and drinking and having a good time’ refrain – except that Moore uses a wrong-footing time signature that threatens to derail poor Ian but perhaps reflects the ‘all at sea’ motif in the lyrics.