The Kitchen Tapes, released by ROIR in 1983, is the only live album by the Raincoats. It is a recording of a December 1982 performance at The Kitchen in New York City.Graham Flashner, Douglas Wolk, & Ira Robbins "Raincoats", Trouser Press It was originally released on cassette only, but was reissued in 1995 and 1998 on CD.Strong, Martin C. (2003) "Raincoats", in The Great Indie Discography, Canongate,
Reception Graham Flashner, Douglas Wolk, and Ira Robbins of Trouser Press find in the performance and recording on one hand "a shimmery curtain of lovely sound" with "fascinating vocal arrangements" but also a "potential for cacophony". The AllMusic review calls it "Rough, loose-limbed, warm, and exciting". Greil Marcus called the performance "the process of punk: the move from enormous feeling combined with very limited technique—more to the point, enormous feeling unleashed by the first stirrings of very limited technique—to much more advanced technique in search of subject matter suited to it", expanding that "It’s this move that the Raincoats’ music has captured, perhaps more fully than that of any other band".
Track listing All tracks composed by The Raincoats, except where indicated
Personnel Vicki Aspinall - vocals, piano, violin Gina Birch - vocals, bass, guitar Ana da Silva - vocals, guitar, percussion Richard Dudanski - drums, percussion Paddy O'Connell - bass, guitar, saxophone Derek Goddard - drums, percussion Technical Michael Whittaker - live mix/recording sound engineer Greil Marcus - liner notes
References