Fini Tribe – The Sheer Action Of The Fini Tribe 1982-1987: Album Review

Live4ever 7 October, 2025

Artwork for The Sheer Action Of The Fini Tribe

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Compiled by the group, The Sheer Action Of The Fini Tribe is a meticulous cataloguing of their first incarnation.

Edinburgh is one of those places that has always suffered a little for its biscuit tin image.

Even now, you’ll get lots of people who think the annual Military Tattoo is the most notable musical thing associated with Scotland’s capital city.

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Peel the modern tourist trap skin back however, and there’s a fascinating history you won’t learn by watching that or Trainspotting.

Out of the dingy pre-gentrified vaults came post punk mavericks Scars and The Fire Engines, both of which released material on the short lived but mega cool Fast Product label.

They were succeeded by outfits like Jesse Garon and The Desperadoes and The Shop Assistants, both of whom thrilled the C86 scene.

Whilst latterly they’ve all been given due recognition, an altogether less straightforward troupe has remained largely out of print.

Initially a three-piece which eventually swelled to six, they first chose the named Gallery Macabre, toted DIY instruments and were influenced by Throbbing Gristle, Talking Heads and Can.

They were difficult. They favoured art over commerce, and they were hard to access, making up their home in Old Reekie’s subterranean catacombs.

Led by Chris Connelly, early work mashed together a sound that borrowed from art rock, raincoated funk and jumbled alt pop, one showcased for a bemused and it has to be said less than huge audience on their 1984 debut EP Curling and Stretching.

By this point they were now known as Fini Tribe, a handle derived from ‘Finny Tribe’, a name given to a type of fish by Irish religious sect the Rosicrucians.

Then something happened. You have to understand; at this point the idea of expensive equipment or setting up residence in faraway London was an economic impossibility, yet a year later Fini Tribe were invited by the avuncular John Peel to record a session, one which showed how much farther they’d travelled even in relative isolation.

Here, the likes of Splash Care, Goose Duplicates and We’re Interested revealed a band straining at their creative leashes, exploring synth pop textures and heading in a twisted way for the dancefloor.

If that was a leap forward from the past, Fini Tribe’s Let the Tribes Grow EP that followed was a laser powered jump to somewhere completely alien.

Using primitive samplers and guitars, it contained the bell pealing, proto rave classic Detestimony, the industrial blast of Adults Absolved and Monimail’s Cabaret Voltaire-esque drone.

Not the only Scottish band to go through this sort of journey – The Shamen’s in Gorbachev We Trust offered a similar glimpse of the future – the more orthodox I Want You followed, at that point an anthem waiting for the party to catch up with it.

Compiled by the group, The Sheer Action Of The Fini Tribe is a meticulous cataloguing of their first incarnation.

In this way back machine, the curious are able to enjoy a chunk of previously vinyl only material, a large dollop of session and demo works plus, for the dedicated, there’s a slug of tracks culled from live performance that give a tantalising aural sketch of their capacity to overload the senses.

To underline Fini Tribe’s underground appeal, it also includes liner notes from amongst others Triber fan girl Shirley Manson.

There is a postscript to all this, in which a slimmed down Fini tangles with first McDonalds and then the charts, but that will have to wait.

For now though you can add another chapter to the book of musical Edinburghers who conformed only to themselves, and listen to minds and ears being progressively opened as a result.

Andy Peterson

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