Careless Hands - Looking For A Secret

[1982]

Dreamy drumless Durutti damaged psych pop with a secluded windswept feel.

A fascinating one and done single that pre-empts a lot of what was to to come in British music like things on the fringes of dream pop/shoegaze, lost generation UK post-rock, hauntology etc. Looking For A Secret puts me in mind of Vini Reilly, Papa Sprain and maybe even Postion Normal. 

A lost classic to be sure.

Here's a quote from Careless Hands' Brian Keaney taken from bandcamp:

What we were really interested in was musical exploration. Jim built a studio in his back garden, bought some multi-track recording equipment, and began experimenting. We wanted to produce something that was just for ourselves. We were undoubtedly very naïve but naivety and innocence were hallmarks of that time.

In my childhood, I'd been fascinated with the story of Aladdin. Now that fascination began to be reflected in the music we were making. Here was a story about a boy who transforms his world and enters the magical realm. That seemed to be exactly what was happening to me. For all sorts of reasons, I hadn't particularly enjoyed my childhood but now I had managed to step out of the everyday reality, to find a place where I belonged and where I had a kind of power.

The name we used for the band came from a song recorded in 1949 by a singer called Mel Torme. There's a line in that song that goes, "Careless Hands don't care when dreams slip through." That seemed appropriate since dreams were part of the territory we were exploring.

I had got married immediately after leaving college and by now I had a daughter who was afraid to go to sleep at night. She wanted me to be present in her dreams with her. That became the inspiration for a period during which Jim and I tried to recreate the shifting landscape of the night-time imagination.