Cranes , sheer magic or utter garbage?

I heard a tidbit from a strange group while a youth and decided to investigate this "Cranes" sound. I was always an Cocteau Twins fan and thought this would be the next step. Alison Shaw without a doubt had a voice that was unclassified at the time. I spend money I didn't have to burn on this album at an import store I knew in Atlanta (in the "little five points" area called "Wax N Facts" or something close to that)...

Wax N Facts record store was a great place to browse back in it day up till about 1993, they always seemed to have the imports that locals never heard of... unfortunately they were a 2 hour drive for me... but I made an attempt to go there 4 or 5 times a year. The last time I went I agreed would be my last time unfortunately, the druggies and such had taken over the area. I got out of the record store with my usual armful of gold vinyl rarities and had left my car window cracked, someone had filled my car up with mase spray. I got in my car to leave and started crying, drooling, and snotting, but I was not about to let them know they got me but good... I just drove with window down for a few blocks before I just had to stop to compose myself. Mad as hell to this day about the jerks that did this, I vowed I would leave them to their own demise. I never went back.

Anyhoo, back to the Cranes... for the longest time I called them "The Cranes" but according to the album I got, it is just "Cranes"... I have a love hate relationship with this album (Wings of Joy with the bonus 12" bundled with it), at times I love the vocals and music, but it never seemed to pull an complete song into complete bliss for me. I just couldn't get into this group like I did other groups of the 80's. I soon put them on the backburner with a sigh and moved on. But according to youtube, this group still has a loyal following and most of them missed out on getting this album (especially with the bonus 12").. so I figured I would post a few tracks from that bonus album. I figured the extended play of starblood was probable already posted pretty much everywhere, so I will post the lesser two songs)... "Fuse" and "Self Non Self" both were recorded in 1986 according to the album cover... and unfortunately my record has pops and hisses.

Now came the hard part.. how to get these dang songs I really didn't like to mp3 format? I have never really faced this challenge before and it smacked my hard for a while. I had to get rca cables to connect my old home pioneer system to my computer.. then I had to find a dang rca sterio plug adaptor thing (thank you radio shack)... then I had to get a program to record it (thank you polderbits) and then I had to put it all together to make it work... good grief folks, I see great bloggers put up these records like nothing was to it, well I now have great respect for them (and you should thank them for that little mp3 you so causally snap up without even leaving a thank you comment). My record had so many dang pops and hisses it wasn't even funny, so I googled and found that my Nero recorded had a little sound remover program in it.. that program took me another hour to master.. good grief... lol... please don't gripe about the sound quality you get... cause I don't know how to do better...

Cranes ~~ Fuse & Self Non Self

Both songs are in this one download... seperate them with your own software if needed, cause I was too lazy to figure it out today... maybe later I will figure this software out more.. until then take the Cranes advice ... "and I cry and I cry and I cry"