on 6/28/03 7:00 PM, audities-owner@smoe.org at audities-owner@smoe.org
wrote:

> ***** Yeah, man! A friend turned me on to the entire catalogue back in
> 1987, just in time for "Running In The Family". I kept that one in
> constant "NP" rotation at our little record store at the Beach until it
> drove most of the staff completely nuts. :-) I bought a bunch of their
> albums and listened the heck out of 'em. I was listening to a lot of
> Scritti Politti at the time as well (what was available, anyway), so
> maybe those sequencers and other sonic trix are part of what attracted
> me at the time. Through most of the 90's, for whatever reason, I put
> that stuff away, for the most part, even traded some of the cd's (I
> still have all the vinyl though). Now, I'm hustling to get it all back.
> The Scritti vinyl has been just *outstanding* to hear again. I've got to
> decide which of the Level 42 discs to re-purchase. I had the "Level
> Best" collection for a while, and it just wasn't enough. Gonna have to
> splurge.

Most of the Level 42 catalog is available from Europe on 2-fer CDs, many
with bonus tracks.  I've thought about trading up.  "Running..." was a great
disc, and the followup "Staring At The Sun" is solid also.  And for the
musos it's truly a trip to hear Allan Holdsworth playing on the "Guaranteed"
album.  It's a shame they weren't as big in the U.S. as they were elsewhere,
but not surprising.  And yes, they were pretty damn poppy for being more of
a groove-oriented band.

Brioohs