My Other Voice

Confession: I love The Sparks in theory only!

I adore their style and image, the humour, the irony, their fantastic album covers (esp. "Propaganda" and "Indiscreet") and the influence they had on everything that was good in pop-music during the last (almost) 40 years!
But with the exception of a few songs I can´t really bring myself to listen to them. It bugs me, because I really want to like them, not only because of their hilarious, epic song-titles ("Rock n Roll people in a Disco world", "I thought I told you to wait in the car", "Angst in my pants", "Lighten up Morrissey) but the fact that they are most likely the coolest, most perfect R/Pop band ever!


But then there is "No. 1 in Heaven", the album that fused pop, rock and electronic disco like nothing that was ever done before. An epic in only six songs that explodes with the last song, the title track. My favourite song on the album, and probably my favourite Sparks song is the morbid and experimental "My other voice". This strange, slow and delirious song is placed between the hectic "Beat the clock" and "The No. 1 song in Heaven". It could be considered a bit of a downer and it is probably the strangest song on an already strange album.


I always saw "My other voice" as a sort of Overture for "The No 1 song in heaven". If the latter was the one you´d hear all over in paradise, "My other voice" was the sound you´d hear while dying on the dancefloor, going through a quick purgatory and presto: angel choirs!

Now listen to My Other Voice


There is a backwards hi-hat sequence running throughout the whole song, it dazzles the mind and plays with the listeners perception of time. Elements are added one after another: A clumsy bassline, fluttering, slowed down disco percussion, ethereal voices that grow into an otherworldly crescendo that aims to go higher and higher. Shortly before the voices evaporate into thin air there is something like a demented surf guitar which soon turns out to be a vocoderized voice "humming" a half-conscious melody.


At this point in this experimental flow of ascending sounds and descending melodies the humming voice, as if coming from far away instructs us to "Listen to my other voice". Only then does the relative darkness of the track open up to Russel Maels most angelic voice. But his sweet, yearning voice says words that are more of a threat than a consolation: "You´re so independent but that´s gonna change real soon. With my other voice I can destroy this room. I´ll wrap my voice around you and I drag you everywhere. My other voice."


He then yanks the vocoder back on and gets even more sinister and demonic: You think you´re romantic. Well, I´ll whisper in your ear. I´ll be all you hear for years and years and years. You may be deaf to everything, you wont be deaf to me: My other voice..
The last syllables are pitched so high that the voice drifts off into the atmosphere. Slowly, all instruments fade away until only the backwards hi-hat is all that is left.

I can only imagine the effect this must have had on a crowd of drugged up dancers in Studio 54...

Dream On

What a fantastic ANTHEM!
"Dream On", sung by great, Swedish pop-star Robyn and The Ark member Ola Salo first appeared in 2006 on Christian Falk´s solo album "People Say". This is the original video for the single that was only released in Sweden:



Thugs and badmen
punks and lifers
locked up interns
pigs and snitches

Rest your weary heads, all is well

You won't be strip-searched, torn up tonight
you won't be cut up, bleeding tonight
you won't be strung out, cold, shaking to your bones
wishing you were anywhere else but right here
So dream on

Thieves and muggers
tricks and hustlers
cheats and traitors
scum and low-lives

Rest your weary heads, all is well

You won't be sad or broken tonight
you won't be squealed on, ripped off tonight
you won't be back-stabbed, double crossed, face down
teeth knocked out, lying in a gutter somewhere
So dream on

So dream on

Freaks and junkies
fakes and phonies
drunks and cowards
manic preachers

Rest your weary heads, all is well

You won't be pushed or messed with tonight
you won't be lied to, ruffed up tonight
You won't be insane, paranoid, obsessed
aimlessly wandering through the dark night
So dream on

So dream on

You won't be insane, paranoid, obsessed
aimlessly wandering through the dark night

So dream on

Late last year, the single got remixed and re-released, dropping Ola´s vocals while focussing on Robyn. I think the new video is a bit crap. But still: ANTHEM!

Suicide! Horror! Shadazz!

Much confusion about Alan Vega´s alleged 70th birthday last year. Many sources claim that he was born in 1948, but since the release of a series of 10" singles celebrating 70 years of Alan Vega this question seems to be finally answered. Or is it?

I now managed to get my hand on the "The Horrors/Suicide" EP which features an amazing cover of Suicide´s "Shadazz" by Garage Rock band The Horrors.


Quite contrary to their usual sound they manage to perform the futuristic rockabilly rhumba original as if Suicide could sound today. The beat is full of clanging, cheap echo effects that turn the steady beat into a quite intricate polyrhythmic groove. The typical, minimal bass is also present, but it occasionally morphs into a sub-bass growl that nods to Jungle and Dubstep. There is even a half-speed, live drum break all the while lonely guitar chords are wailing away in the background. On top of all this we have the vocalist who sounds exactly like Vega. On first thought I actually thought it was a clever remix.
Click the arrow to listen to one of my favourite songs at the moment: The Horrors - Shadazz

The EP also contains another, very fine cover of "Rocket USA" by Nic Void and a re-mastered live recording of "Radiation" from 1984.

Here is the original for you to compare: Suicide - Shadazz.


Suicide´s second album from 1980, which contains "Shadazz", always stood in the shadow of their monumental debut. It was often called a sell-out because of it´s attempt at being a proper pop-album. Well, after they had atomised rock´n roll with "Rocket USA", "Ghostrider" and "Frankie Teardrop" they emerged from the fall-out with "Cheree", a song that paved the way to the future by looking back. In this regard, the second album was a logical progression from the first. "Diamonds, Fur coat, Champagne" and "Fast Money Music" are actually more influential and visionary than anything from their debut.

Go here for a dose of Diamonds, Fur coat, Champagne

On the 80th Floor

Funky, yet haunting music for a dark, cold Sunday afternoon:
Im 80. Stockwerk (On the 80th Floor - hit the arrow for embedded play!) by the inimitable Hildegard Knef

It´s a classic "lost girl in the city"-story with a surreal, eerie twist, and the music is just fantastic. I dig that superb bass, the spooky guitar and of course the "greatest singer without a voice" with her incredible style.



"On the 80th floor
in the house that doesn´t exist
in the city that doesn´t exist
there will be a girl.
she will be waiting for the man
she will be asking: when will he finally be here?

On the 80th floor
in the house that doesn´t exist
in the city that doesn´t exist
she will be sad.
She will be waiting for the man
She will be asking: when will he be here."

Out in the Streets of Shangri-La

He don´t hang around with the gang no more
He don´t do the wild things that he did before

Mary Weiss, the last surviving Shangri-La, doesn´t like the tag "girl-group" for her old band and all the other...erm, trios-with-girls-singing-songs-of-others.

Listening again and again to my favourite Shangri-La-song "Out in the streets" (after reading the great Interview with Mary Weiss I now know, it is her fave too) I understand what she meant.


"Out in the streets" is not just a perfect teenage-drama like so many others of their sad songs. It is much more a full-blown tragedy of love-gone-wrong for all the wrong reasons.
From "Out in the streets" to "deep in the suburbs", the singer laments that her once proud "leader of the pack" has turned into a lifeless couch-potato. Like a glimpse into an alternative future, she sees what would have happened if all the sad-ending Shangri-La songs ("Leader of the Pack", "Past, Present and Future", "Remember (Walking in the sand)", "I can never go home anymore") would - for once - have had a happy-ending.

The Shangri La´s - Out in the streets (1965)


In "Out in the streets" Mary finally got the "bad, but not evil"-boy with the wild spirit for herself. She soon finds out that she has domesticated a wild animal. The "dirty boots", the passionate kiss, and even his cute smile have gone, because "his heart is out in the streets". Because she loves him, she decides that she has to "set him free" and even wishes she had never met him.
Of course this is all too late!
Would he still find his way around the streets after he was domesticated? It´s the magic of "Out in the streets" that it also tells a story about things that are not even mentioned in the lyrics.
Writers Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry really knew what they were doing here!


The backing vocals of the late Ganser-twins were a perfect match for Mary, the good-girl-about-to-go-bad-siren.
The twins were not only providing a backing choir, they would give depths and gravitas to the drama Mary had to endure. Clearly not as beautiful as the singer, they were the voice of millions of girls who would also stand in the second row, because they were not pretty or fierce enough to hang out with the leader of the pack.

"Tell me more", they would plead constantly. Always hoping to live their lives through Mary, who -in return- would have all the thrill but also all the pain.

In "Out in the streets" the choir is playing a more complex role. Part gossiping neighbours, part mourning friends, they howl and wail like professional mourners or wolfs in the streets. Then - like a Greek choir - they foreshadow the sentiment of the heroine.


It´s simply heartbreaking and amazing in its simplicity. Although the beginning of the song is almost gothic in it´s slow pace, the following bridge comes crashing in like a burst of sun light and makes "Out in the streets" a memorable classic. The music changes from its funeral-tempo to a rolling be-bop number.
"He grew up on the sidewalks, he grew up running free, he grew up and then he met me!"
BANG!
There we have it: It is always HER fault that he turned into a limp couch potato!

After this short outbreak of life, the music returns to the slow march of the first verse, but this time all registers are pulled, doors to echo-champers are pushed open and a pizzicato string orchestra rips away at the strings for the final part of the song.


The fun with melodrama is the fact that there is banal truth behind it. The great triumph of "Out in the streets" is that it tells us truth we don´t want to hear. It tells a story of failed communication, unspoken desires and the inability to break out of gender expectations. "Out in the streets" also tells the story of the packaging and selling of myths! A society that shuts their venetian blinds to focus on a half-lit vision of themselves, while the wallflowers of suburbia continue their wailing.

Watch the wonderful, haunting clip of the Shangs performing on "Shindig". This version is recorded live for the show (and then lip-synched in the studio) so it sounds different from the record. As an extra, the stark b/w lighting makes the outfits of the girls look like latex.

Deathbed Tracks

Get Physical Records have asked several well known DJs to think about the last song to be played on their deathbed or at their funeral. The tracklist of "Final Song #1" is certainly more interesting to read than to listen to.

There is everything from Eric Satie to the Beach Boys, Radiohead, Eno, the Stranglers to Drum n´Bass and someone even wants to hear a self penned piece (royalties!).

Here is the full tracklist:
01. Erik Satie - 1. Gymnopédie (Selected by DJ T.)
02. Rob Gallagher - Little One (Selected by Gilles Peterson)
03. Photek - Modus Operandi (Selected by Storm)
04. The Stranglers - Golden Brown (Selected by DJ Hell)
05. Cerrone - Supernature (Selected by Kevin Saunderson)
06. Radiohead - Sit Down Stand Up (Selected by Laurent Garnier)
07. Chloé - Paradise (Selected by Chloé)
08. The Beach Boys - 'Til I Die (Selected by David Holmes)
09. Peggy Lee - Is That All There Is? (Selected by Ewan Pearson)
10. Inti Illimani - Caramba, Yo Soy Dueno del Baron (Selected by Ricardo Villalobos)
11. Link - Amenity (Selected by Richie Hawtin)
12. Pharoah Sanders - Astral Travelling (Selected by Francois K)
13. Brian Eno - An Ending (Ascent) (Selected by Coldcut)

Read the full article at Resident Advisor and check the Comments for some more ideas (It doesn´t take long until someone brings up Burial but apparently nobody wants to listen to "Bela Lugosi is dead").

My choice is not included. After some brief consideration I´d go with Chic´s "Good Times". I think this song is a good answer for everything!

"...it isn´t a noise, it´s my language!"

That´s how Miriam Makeba explained the phonetic characteristics of her language to a 1970s Dutch studio audience. Smiling and gentle she would make sure that there was a trace of anger and sadness in her face when she mentioned the colonial madness that descended on South Africa.


Forced into exile for 31 years, Miriam Makeba went to the USA with the help of Harry Belafonte, who also introduced her to a world wide audience. Dressed in a leopard fur dress, she was welcomed as another purveyor of exotica, but she also made her voice heard before the UN, pleading against apartheid and promoting a global boycott against South Africa.

In 1967 "Mama Africa" became a global sensation with the amazing "Pata Pata", which is the song she is remembered for until today.

"Pata Pata" is one of my earliest and happiest musical childhood memories. There is something truly primal and gripping about the song that transcends time and place. It doesn´t matter where and when you put it on, people will instantly react to it.

The ebb and flow of the melody and the constant interplay of the lead and backing vocals is absolutely magical. The guttural "click", which could be mistaken for a percussion accent adds the icing on this groovy cake.
"And everybody starts to move, as soon as Pata Pata starts to play", truer lyrics have never been written!

Pata Pata


Since "Pata Pata" became such a surprising and phenomenal hit, which could never be repeated, Makeba was often seen as a novelty act and one-hit-wonder and she was later labelled as "World Music". Of course there was much more to her.


Before she became a pop-star of "Muppet Show"-dimensions, Makeba toured the planet to send shivers down the spine of audiences everywhere. Something in her voice can really bring tears to my eyes.

Thanks to a big fan of hers, Youtube features an amazing number of songs taken from a concert Miriam gave in Sweden in 1966.
Here she shows her incredible vocal talent with interpretations of African songs as well as Gospel and Bossa Nova. Truly magnificent and beautiful. Watch and listen to her rendition of "Chove Chuva" and be floored by her power, her incredible style and mesmerizing performance.

Chove Chuva


Kilimanjaro


Ask the Rising Sun


Mayibuye


Oxgam


You have to see this one: "Amampondo" starts out with Miriam introducing her fantastic band (American bassist, Brazilian guitarist, Caribbean drummer) while sexily grooving herself into a song that is pure sex and seduction and vocal artistry. Too Hot!

Amampondo


Miriam Makeba, always a strong voice against racism and hatred officially ended her career earlier this year with a farewell tour. She did however take to the stage at various occasions. Yesterday she gave a free concert in Italy in honour of anti-Mafia activist Roberto Saviano. As she left the stage she suffered a stroke and she died soon after in a hospital.


Make sure to watch this last clip! "When I´ve passed on" will ruin your Monday for a few minutes, but it will also make you happy that you have heard it.

When I´ve passed on

Sexy Synthesizers: 808 State Luxury Re-Issues

808 State are responsible for a number of spinetingling WOW-moments in my life. From the obvious early-morning-club-bliss to some unexpected encounters with a random track at dubious places.

Listening to the then brand new "Ex:El" in its entirety, front-row, top-floor on a public bus speeding through Hong Kong at dusk will always remain etched in the hard-disc of my mind. The sights, the smells, the exitement, the sounds. It´s still there and to this day, the first meandering keyboard sounds of "San Francisco" throw me back into a treasured playback of this memory.
"Here we go! You must follow!"



It is impossible for me to decide if 808 State is still relevant today, or if their work does sound dated or not. The next two albums "Gorgeous" and "Don Solaris" were a bit patchy at times and they never found an anchor in my mind like "90" and "Ex:El". Maybe this was due to the fact that I never heard them in such an exiting environment. Maybe the amazing 808-sound became a bit of a formula, while electronic music exploded in many directions.

The mash-up of "1 in 10" left me cold and by the time they released the excellent "Lopez" off of "Don Solaris" 808 State somehow merged into trip-hop. I always hoped that 808 State would collaborate with Billy MacKenzie, it might have changed the future. Their last album "Outpost Transmission" from 2002 was more or less released without any interest from the record buying public.



Now its the time to re-visit the legacy of one of the best british electronic bands with the "luxury" re-release of all four albums they recorded for ZTT. In time to celebrate the 20th birthday of the band and the 25th year of ZTT´s existence . Also re-released will be "The North at its Heights" the album they produced with MC Tunes.



Every album is re-mastered and comes with a second disc full of bonus material (mixes, live- and unreleased tracks.)

Check the obi-scans for full tracklisting. As for the MC Tunes album: I am waiting for an instrumental version of this otherwise dated rap-album since it was released back in 1990. Sadly the bonus CD is not bound to fulfill this wish to provide this "lost" 808 State album.

The UK-release is scheduled for the last week of september/first week of october. The Japanese Fans, however have been treated to an early release date on 08.08.08


The official website Global State is worth repeated visits for its generous amount of free mp3´s of demos and live tracks. They even offer cover designs for your self-toasted Cds!

Ike Moods

It really caught me off-guard when I heard that Isaac Hayes had died on sunday. He is really one of my all-time favourite musicians, crooners, arrangers and all around SEX GOD!

My absolute favourite, close-to-tears-Isaac-moment is the 18 minute version of "By the time I get to Phoenix". That 10 minute intro is the closest you can come to an aural seduction of pleasure and pain.
A simple stroke on a closed hi-hat underlined by a monotone organ sound, it´s consoling and threatening at the same time. I soon found out that Isaac can pretty much say anything with his deep, soothing voice – even pamphlets for obscure religious cults- I don´t care. Here, he tells the story of a man who is cheated on by his selfish wife only to return to her time and time again.

By the time this hypnotic intro has lulled you into submission and/or a hypnotic state the song begins with one of the most amazing transitions and soul-releasing moments in music. Let´s just say it´s flat out breathtaking.

Suddenly the steady organ sound is transposed by a half-tone and the closed hi-hat opens up into a slow rhythm. Isaac, who was preaching his intro in a detached but pleading way just oozes into a slow singing style in the very same moment. Although it is musically not exactly a revelation, and you can certainly feel manipulated by the quasi-religious trickery of this tension-release-spiel, it always forces me to sit down.

But that´s not all. The tension that was built up during the long intro was only transposed onto another level. The pressure is still lingering in the air and it is here that Isaac Hayes really put his arranging skills to full effect. When the strings finally come in they arrive with such a subdued force that wipes away the dark clouds that were hovering over the prior 11 minutes. It´s sonic sex, aural torture, rapture and tent-preacher-trickery rolled into a symphonic soul opera.

Sadly, later in his life Hayes would suscribe to the tent-preacher mentality himself by joyining Scientology. I was more than a bit disappointed when I became aware of this.


Over the weekend I have had two "Ike Moods" which were both strangely triggered by his absence.
I entered a store and heard a really great reggae/rocksteady version of "Shaft"! I immediately asked the girl behind the counter what it was but she was unable to locate the file on the computer and considering the speed with which she was packing my purchase, "asking the chef" would have outlasted my holiday. Remember the days when clerks brought their own tapes to work?!

Thanks to the wonderful blog Versions Galore I found it along with more great versions to shake a SHAFT at! Highly recommended! From the infamous Cabaret Voltaire version to Bert Kaempfert and more...it´s all there. Here it is in a version by the Jamaica Groove Band.

On sunday we were cruising down Marine Drive in West Vancouver, enjoying the "Southern France" ambience of the place while listening to Bachararch´s "Look of Love" in the Dusty Springfield version. Since I don´t particularly like that version (actually, many of Dusty´s songs leave me a bit underwhelmed) I nagged that I didn´t have the ultimate Isaac Hayes version handy, although I have to admit that the original probably suited the place much better.

At only 65 one of the most influential musicians of the past 40 years has died. He should be remembered for more than being “Chef”; scoring “Shaft” and driving around with candelabras on his hood as “the Duke”. Although, these are gigantic moments in their own right.

Hotter Than a Pepper Sprout!

It´s all a bit "Scooby Do", isn´t it?

I was listening to "Sundown" on my way back from work, which is one of my favourite songs ever. I was stuck in a bit of traffic with a bright, low sun blinding me and I cranked up the volume to windshield-cracking dimensions. The light and the sound bathed Hamburg´s notorious "sinful mile", the Reeperbahn, in a soothing, yet overexposed light. All traffic jams should be like this.

"Sundown" is just sonic perfection. Yes, Lee´s voice is crooning along, ridiculously low , almost laughable. When those strings, the Flügelhorn and the backing singers come in, its goosebump-city. But then Nancy takes this mental, slightly ascending orchestral break over the top with her effortless, nearly detached delivery of "Come on, come on, come on back to me". It MELTS me!


Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra: Sundown

I heard cover versions with great musicians and singers, but no-one could hold a spark to the way Nancy Sinatra delivers her part. By not doing anything in particular she owns those 2:40 minutes of pop-bliss for ever.

Lee wrote better, more accomplished and deeper songs, and "Sundown" feels more like a sketch, a basic rudiment of a song that was fleshed out in the studio. You can almost sense that they didn´t know what to do with it, so they coated it in a criminal overload of orchestral sugar.

Maybe that´s part of its magic! It´s just there. Like a sonic reflection of the sun in an oddly angled window adjacent to yours. You can only hear/see it, when everything falls into place for a few fleeting moments.

It seems that "Sundown" is not regarded as the masterpiece that I see in it. It rarely appears on the countless Nancy Sinatra compilations. As proof, there is only a very, very low-quality version on Youtube with a still of the "Jackson" Video. To be honest: I am actually glad about this. "Sundown" needs no visualisation. It´s my vision of the ultimate pop nirvana.