NORMAN RECORDS

“Hidden somewhere in mid ‘80s Manchester were Tools You Can Trust – a post-punk, post industrial band who barely used guitars but instead spent their time making fascinating politicised pop out of hitting sheets of metal. It’s the most unusual sound and listening to it with the benefit of history it stands out for sounding like absolutely no-one at all.

I suppose if anything it’s a cross between the harsh edges of ‘Flowers of Romance’ era PIL married to the danceable punk funk of A Certain Ratio and vocally there are hints at the dark crooning of of Suicide’s Alan Vega. In fact opener ‘Show Your Teeth features a kind of breathless barking where the vocals would normally go but this incendiary music is both unnerving and rather thrilling. With instruments such as metal cutter, pneumatic drill and metal drums listed on the sleeve, you can sort of see what they were up to but they used these things to make captivating rhythms rather than just a racket.

Not always an easy listen  – its extremely discomforting but also utterly fascinating.”

https://www.normanrecords.com/records/153273-tools-you-can-trust-working-and-shopping-

THE WIRE

The Spanish label Burka For Everybody has released a compilation of tracks by the obscure early 1980s Manchester industrial group Tools You Can Trust.

Active between 1982–88, TYCT mixed hard left polemic and Constructivist graphics with a minimal take on electronic body music and copious use of metal percussion. Like their more celebrated contemporaries Test Department, the group, which coalesced around the core duo of Ben Stedman and Rob Ward, interpreted industrial culture as a propaganda tool for combatting the draconian social and economic policies and political violence that marked the Thatcher era, especially with regard to the miners’ strike.

Titled Working And Shopping, the Burka For Everybody compilation includes the four singles the group released on their own Red Energy Dynamo label plus tracks recorded at three sessions for John Peel’s BBC Radio 1 show in 1983 and 1984. Before disbanding TYCT released two further albums as well as a video compilation on Factory’s Ikon imprint.

The release of the Burka For Everybody compilation, which is issued on limited edition vinyl and marks the first time any of the tracks have been available in 30 years, follows news that PC Press are about to publish a book about Test Department titled Total State Machine.

http://www.thewire.co.uk/news/36421/1980s-uk-industrial-unit-tools-you-can-trust-anthologised

FACT MAGAZINE
“May’s 10 must-hear reissues and retrospectives”

Sniffing for truffles across post-punk mp3 blogs a few years ago, I came across Manchester’s Tools You Can Trust, a Peel-approved two-piece making classic itch-you-can’t-scratch post-punk. Having tracked down their 1983 7” ‘Working And Shopping’, I hit a wall – so it’s a pleasure to see a proper archival reissue for the group, courtesy of the fabulously named Spanish label Burka For Everybody.

Made up of Rob Ward (vocals, tape manipulation) and Ben Stedman (bongos, tapes), Tools You Can Trust made music that’s taut, fraught and ready to blow. Working and Shopping is a grab-bag affair, pulling together material from four different mid-‘80s 7”s and assorted Peel sessions. The general tone is a sort of ghostly industrial rockabilly – think a Mancunian Cramps schooled on Hannett rather than Haley. It’s the manic percussion playing that gives these tracks their real character, though: ‘Blaze of Shame’ and ‘A Knock For The Young’ are full-on Stomp workouts, and ‘Messy Body Thrust’ lives up to the promise of its title. Invigorating stuff.

http://www.factmag.com/2015/05/27/reissues-and-retrospectives-may-2015-alice-coltrane/7/