Hard to over-estimate how exciting Huggy Bear were when they first came out. From manifestos to tapes to the charts in the blink of an eye - so many ideas, so much going on. We didn’t know what they were exactly and that’s what made them. Keep your secrets close, explain but don’t explain. ‘Basic Strategies for Going Out’ shares the their two Peel Sessions recorded in 1992 and 1993. Eight tracks total, two previously unreleased songs, a revelatory early version of “Her Jazz” and a fanatical gaiety throughout. For a band that so wholeheartedly invested in opposition, the chance to go up against the stifled decorum of the BBC pushed Huggy Bear to a nitroglycerin blaze. From the outraged to the rousing to the coy to the hell-bent, ‘Basic Strategies for Going Out’ reveals the extremes reachable by a band at ferocious work. Released by arrangement with the BBC, ‘Basic Strategies’ was mastered by Fred Thomas from the original session recordings. It is the first Huggy Bear recording issued since 1994, and at present their only commercially available release. We’re so happy to be a chosen partner in this very necessary document of their brilliant short-lived existence.
