during their October 1988 tour, and had cost £12,000 to finance. It featured two previously unavailable songs, "Stutter" and "Burned", the latter making reference to the events with Sire. The band promoted its release with a short UK tour, with support from the Inspiral Carpets; it marked their first stint with new drummer David Baynton-Power and guitarist/violinist Saul Davies. "What For" and "Ya Ho" were included on the band's fourth compilation album Fresh as a Daisy – The Singles (2007). The music video for "What For" was included on the career-spanning box set The Gathering Sound (2012). Strip-mine was reissued on CD in 2017 as part of the Justhipper (The Complete Sire & Blanco Y Negro Recordings 1986 – 1988) compilation, with the single version of "Ya Ho", "Mosquito", "Left Out of Her Will", "New Nature", "Island Swing" and the climax remix of "What For" as bonus tracks, and in 2019 through the record label Music on CD. Reception Altricia Gethers and Ira Robbins of Trouser Press called the Strip-mine "frequently delightful," with Jones' "crystalline production ... mak[ing] the most of the band’s alluring and intelligent folk-pop." Q writer Mat Snow said James wrote "11 tightly worked but airily evocative songs which should intrigue any connoisseur of a particularly English way of doing things." He added that while "clearly rustic in mood, their tunes are incisively played-tangy, almost high-life guitars beautifully playing off crisply driven rhythms." City Life Jacqueline Harte noted "What For" as being the most memorable track on the album, with the remainder "bounc[ing] along with only mildly varying levels of accessibility." She added that the "simple, almost naïve, nature of both lyrics and music" provide the perfect backdrop for Booth's vocals. Sounds reviewer Peter Kane said the album "finally emerges on two shy feet with a crisp new production and a batch of songs full of brittle melodies and suitably traumatised vocals." He mentioned that the band's "strongest suit" might be the "modern folksy quality ... that the traditional drums and guitars do little to conceal." The staff at Melody Maker found the guitarwork to be "frequently insipid and undeveloped, only occasionally ringing true, with lush, lust and an exaggerated love." They referred to the album as being "padd[ed] out, but this is a tentative step forward." AllMusic reviewer Tom Demalon witnessed the band to be "still struggling for their own identity as the overall sound of