Midnight Cleaners is a 2025 release of The Cleaners From Venus' third tape, recorded on 4-track in a bedroom between July and November 1982. The setup is homemade but firmly pop-minded, with Martin Newell handling guitars, bass, keyboards, glockenspiel, voices and assorted machines. Lol adds drums and ideas, while Mick Brannan brings saxophones and Celia adds extra vocals to “Only A Shadow.” That gives the songs a broader palette than a basic guitar-and-drum cassette, even if the recording remains rooted in the limits of the room and the machine.
The tracklist moves between jangling indie pop and rougher, more inward-looking material. “This Rainy Decade,” “Time In Vain” and “Only A Shadow” carry the directness suggested by the group’s DIY, anti-fashion pop approach, while “Wivenhoe Bells II” gives the set a strong local marker. “Factory Boy,” “A Wretched Street” and the title track sound like the kind of plainspoken song titles that suit Newell’s handmade world, though the music itself is where the character lies. Fans of cassette-era indie, melodic bedroom pop and unpolished jangle rock will find plenty to investigate, especially in a release that arrives decades after its original recording rather than pretending it was made yesterday.
