Cowboys International: Original Sin (Revisited) (Again)

This piece was  written in 2003 when Original Sin was released for the first time on CD by the label CD Baby. The disc was titled Revisited and it featured the full original album plus five additional tracks. However, it failed to preserve the original programming order of the album tracks, opting instead for a random presentation. Revisited is still available on the resale market, however the original album is now available for streaming and MP3 download at both Spotify and Amazon

Cowboys Internationals’ album Original Sin is the kind of obscure, seminal, out of print recording that rock critics love to champion because it clearly provides some type of missing link whose absence may have rendered certain developments in rock music as mysterious, unforeseen events. In this case, Original Sin presented a group that featured musicians who had played or would play with such important bands as The Clash, P.I.L., Original Mirrors, Dominatrix, and Billy Idol.

Just as important are the direct antecedents that served as influences here: Bowie, as usual, is present, but in this case two of his incarnations are fused. There is the early popster Bowie, ever ready with the grand gesture and the romantic sentiment, and the Berlin-era studio monster, Electro-Europa Express Bowie. Both figure prominently in singer Ken Lockie’s mythology, as do Kraftwerk, Bill Nelson, and some other, less-well defined influences.

But the influence that this album has wielded, directly or indirectly, on later performers is the real story. Cowboys International are often credited with creating the blueprint for the New Romantic sound, and I suppose that is true, but it’s difficult to think of one New Romantic band whose music exhibited so much depth that it could be listened to seriously rather than as clubbing background noise. None of them could have pulled off the soulful groove of “Future Noise,” a song that could have fit perfectly onto side one of Bowie’s Low album. It also reminds me somewhat of the style Bill Nelson achieved on his Sound On Sound album.

Take “Fixation.” It begins with a blast of industrial noise before morphing into a song that presages Bowie’s ‘90s sound (which is a neat trick, but remember that Bowie is the master of the fusion of influences). The chorus is wonderfully melodic, with the pentatonic melody that also featured prominently in the work of many New Romantic bands. “Memories” features a lengthy introduction that gives no hint of what the song will eventually become. What is amazing is that every song on Revisited, which is the Original Sin album with five additional tracks, is completely perfect, yet generally very different from the song that immediately precedes or follows it.

Another influence that isn’t usually mentioned in conjunction with Cowboys International is that of Roxy Music, and by that I mean not just lead singer Bryan Ferry, but the entire group in its various incarnations. The prog-rock instrumental interludes that were present in the Eddie Jobson-era group gave way to the meditative soul groove of the Manifesto, Flesh + Blood, and Avalon years. But the band always interjected an element of musical surprise into their best work, little twists and turns that underlined the mercurial moodiness of Bryan Ferry’s lyrics. Cowboys International do that too, and it is what rescues this album from obscurity and makes its reissue on CD a joyous occasion for anyone who is obsessed with the development of British pop music.

The only reasons I can see that this album fell into obscurity are that first, it is the only album that the band managed to release before its members scattered to the winds, and second, it refuses to be any one thing, instead reveling in a romp through British rock and pop musical styles of the previous decade that consigns many groups to the also-ran bin. As a marketer once told me, if you have a product that does one thing and does it well, you have a product that is very easy to sell. If the product combines a number of elements and is open to a variety of uses, then it becomes much harder to sell.

Fortunately for listeners with open imaginations and sharp ears, Original Sin is one seminal rock critic-fave that delivers on its promise.

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