Let There Be Music

Prefab Sprout will indeed release a new album in early september! "Let´s change the world with music" (not more not less) will be the first PS-album in eight years.


From what I gather the album was actually planned to be the follow-up to "Jordan: The Comeback" from 1990, titled "Earth: The story so far". Apparently the record company was bored by the spiritual tone of the material and shelved it.

Listening to the album opener "Let there be music" it appears that the whole record could have been put into the vaults, waiting for it´s release 20 years later. "Let there be music" is bonafide Prefab Sprout radio-pop (where it will never be played, of course). I am listening to it on endless repeat right now.
So are these actually only demos recorded roughly 20 years ago? It doesn´t really matter! It´s Prefab Sprout, it´s timeless (regardless of a gated snare and Paddy´s Vadder Abraham-beard).



I think the heroes of back in the day should do remixes for this: Frankie Knuckles, Mashall Jefferson, Justin Robertson... oh, I forgot: they were actually giving remix jobs to the Future Sound of London back then.

Ming & Ping

Ming & Ping are identical twin(k)s from Hong Kong and their full on 80´s electro-pop is damned catchy.

Their second album "Causeway Army" was already released in 2007 but it seems they are trying to go for the international market now with a new video clip for "Legends of Nothing". With the right amount of exposure in all the relevant beach-clubs and sangria bars this could become a huge summer-hit.

The Vyrotonin Decision

The Vyrotonin Decision by Matt McCormick is a post modern disaster epic featuring thirty-six appropriated television commercials from 1971. using a hole punch, junk store splicer, and lots of tape and glue, the vyrotonin decision is a hand-made film constructed from the images and sounds of dumpster-rescued television studio discards from the days before video replaced 16mm production. the vyrotonin decision mocks the formula of current hollywood blockbusters while re-inventing some of televisions most embarrassing moments.

Decapitate your Mate!

"He´s behind you, he´s got swine flu!" Funny, clever and sexy Mike Skinner aka The Streets launched a great and biting viral comment on the swine flu paranoia. If you consider a mix of cleverly edited gory scenes from various horror films set to Mike´s rap as NSFW, you should probably watch it at home.

Dreamlando

As far as I can think back, I was always fascinated with Japan, amusement parks and tacky, mass-produced kitsch.

All of these obsessions seem to have met at "Nara Dreamland", or "Nara Dorīmurando" as the Japanese would say it.


clicking on pics increases the magic!

"Nara Dreamland" opened in 1961, near the city of Nara. It is always said that the Japanese like to copy things, while making them better in the process. "Dreamland" on the other hand just copied "Disneyland", there was nothing better about it.


Some parts of "Dreamland", like the entrance and train-station look like a carbon copy of its Californian inspiration. The whole layout of the park, the castle and most of the rides are also copied.


The fact that the park opened just six years after Disneyland shows what an impact Disney´s ideas must have had worldwide. Upon closer inspection "Dreamland" might have taken the ideas but certainly not the imagination and devotion that made Disney parks such a lasting success.


Where Disney´s imagineers went all the way to create convincing and immersive worlds, "Dreamland" used cardboard, concrete and plastic. This makes it so much more interesting for me.


Through the years, the park must have lost it´s artificial magic as the owners jusr added random rides and coasters without integrating them into the faux-Disney-look. With the opening of the immensely popular Tokyo Disneyland in 1983 the naive 20 year old forerunner in Nara must have appeared like an embryonic version from a parallel universe.


Neglect and dwindling visitor numbers took its toll on "Dreamland". Throughout the late nineties and early 00s the park was almost looking abandoned. By the end of august 2006 the "Dreamland" closed its doors forever.


Here you can witness "Nara Dreamland" on opening day in 1961. The resemblance the park had to Disneyland in this early phase is uncanny and amazing. The second video is even longer and shows more of original rides like the "Jungle Cruise".


The last video shows bits of Dreamland in its later days, when the crowds have gone and only a handful of school-children are stumbling across the cracked concrete.


A bizarre photo-trip to Dreamland, shortly before it was closed can be enjoyed here.

Counterpoint

Not much is known about Delphic, apart from the fact that they are from Manchester.

Their first single "Counterpoint" is released on Belgian R&S records (go figure) and it sounds like the inevitable "crosspoint" of recent indie-dance productions like Cut Copy, Friendly Fires, more upbeat Junior Boys and fellow Manchester legends New Order and Section 25.


The Sequencer is back in poppy dance rock and "Counterpoint" hits straight on the twelve. The video, on the other hand, is a bit shitty.

Rip Up My Passion Pit

Inspired by the urban chiffre of finger thick layered, half ripped-off posters and flyers, Passion Pit´s new video "The Reeling" tries to create this decayed and frayed look. According to the production company Humble, the process of destroying and re-creating the footage took about a month.
Looking cheap was never easy!

NYC 1961vs. 2009

An interesting collection of New York City photos taken in 1961 placed next to shots from this year. Nice to see that apart from new neon lights, many places still look relatively unchanged after 48 years.



See them all: New York City 1961 vs. 2009

Video Vexations

The Black Dog have put up a short movie with visualisations for musical excerpts from their upcoming "Further Vexations" album. It´s not especially spectacular, but it fits the very nice music.


As a friend of mine used to say: "Nothing new but normal".

What Use?!

"Give me new noise! Give me new affection! Strange new toys from another world. I need to see more than just three dimensions. Stranger than fiction. Faster than light."

Listen: Tuxedomoon: What Use (1980)

Simon Reynolds did a very interesting interview with Steven Brown from legendary art-collective Tuxedomoon.

What A Pousseur!

Henri Pousseur, Belgian composer was one of the first to compose electronic music in the mid 1950s. He worked extensively in the first electronic studios in Milan and Cologne before he founded his own studio in Brussels. Back then, these studios were mostly financed by broadcast organisations and large companies.
Pousseur´s compositions are complex and dense, often using the 12-tone technique and tape manipulations. He also composed many pieces for clarinet and full orchestra.

Henri Pousseur died on March 6 in Brussels, shortly before his 80th birthday.

Here is a short excerpt of one of his electronic compositions, "Paraboles-Mix" from 1972, set to some fractal graphics. The original lasts more than 40 minutes:

Von Braun

We had loads of Braun products. My father was really into them during their heyday. Sadly many things were lost or broken and so they vanished with the years. I still have and use a wonderful Braun Super-8 projector and when I have to buy now consumer products I make sure to check out what Braun has to offer. Since Braun stopped offering entertainment products, the only consistent and typical Braun design can now only be found in their kitchen products.
I wonder if Apple has already seen the new Braun Pocket Shaver, which is a refreshing step forward back to classic Braun. New stuff to rip-off.

The pictures are from various sources I saved over the years. Most can be found in the Dieter Rahm Pool.

Northern Electronic Soul

A message from Black Dog Towers:

Further Vexations is our artistic response to 21st century rat on your neighbour smokefree britain. It is an attempt to capture and express our emotional frustrations, and the trials and tribulations of living in an un-democratic surveillance society.

The seeds of nihilist despair and apathy are well and truly sown amongst the citizens of Airstrip One. We've helplessly watched with mounting horror, while the government trashed the country, signed away it's sovereignty to Brussels (with a flourish of a specially minted silver pen), sold off precious national industries and assets at next to bargain basement prices, and indulged itself with two utterly pointless wars which it couldn't afford. We were promised a vote. A referendum. A chance to change things but an unelected politician chancellor man decided not to bother. To say we are pissed off about it, would be an understatement.

Only one year after their "Radio Scarecrow" release, The Black Dog bites back with new album "Further Vexations" on April 27.

Filled with rage and desperation of the current state of society and politics whose apathy resembles Plato´s allegory of the cave and Orwell rolled into a delicious pill that we are all too happy to swallow repeatedly.

"Further Vexations" is said to be a bit more aggressive and upbeat in its dark cynicism. There is more of a club vibe throughout the tracks, which can be streamed here or here.

Automatic Everything

In 2009 everything is coming up robots, but is there still anything romantic about the man-machine?

"Terminator: Salvation" and "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" will both have giant robots smashing things up this year. The former will also have it´s own roller-coaster: "Terminator Salvation: The Coaster" will open at Six Flags Magic Mountain in California. But -strange marketing ahoy- it will be a wooden coaster. So robotic!


Then there is the news that the re-make of "Tron" will have a soundtrack provided by Daft Punk. On a smaller level, Röyksopp´s next single -a duet with Robyn- will be called "The Girl and the Robot" and most recently every politician is eager to have a photo taken on which they generously reach out their hand to shake the mechanical extremities of some robot. Say hello to our new overlords.


Robots and art are always a good combination and now someone wrote the first robo-drama for humans and robots. The machines were supplied by Mitsubishi and judging from this still-shot, the whole thing looks very serious.


All this robo-love brings a few metallic words to my head: "I am your automatic lover. beep." Let´s have a few looks and listen to Dee D. Jacksons notorious, cheesy but groovy eurobo-hit "Automatic Lover". Any song that opens with the words "Love in space in time, there´s no more feeling" and goes on with immortal lines such as "He´s programmed to receive automatic satisfaction" is a classic in my book.



Dee D is/was a clever British girl who used to produce sci-fi short films and comissioned the fabled Giorgio Moroder and members of his Munich Machine to do some soundtrack work. From there she took the idea to produce a record which turned out to be the brilliantly titled "Cosmic Curves". "Automatic Lover" and the follow-up "Meteor Man", produced with Gary Unwin and Keith Forsey in Munich became world wide mega hits.


Today, Dee D Jackson lives in Italy and runs her own record label where she reportedly releases hip-hop and trance records. I was secretly hoping that she became a robotics scientist, but running a record label in sunny Turin is certainly not a bad career choice. It goes without saying that she has a superbly awful website, complete with badly scanned photos. Must visit!

Kuts Thru You

Since yesterday the series of Youtube mash-ups of Israeli musician and artist Kutiman are spreading like wildfire through the net. The original Thru-You-site, where the videos are hosted is currently down, but some people have captured the clips and put them up on Youtube.

Kutiman takes small parts out of Youtube videos of amateur musicians and instrument presentations. He loops them and creates new songs out of the bits and pieces. It´s audio-visual sampling in its purest form and the results are simply amazing! The idea is not new but the artful and musical expertise with which it is done is stunning and very impressive.

"Babylon Band" gives a good impression on how the music and the video works.


"This is what it became", on a reggae tip


"Just a Lady" is just beautiful!


You can watch all seven videos and a short "how-it-was-done"-clip by Kutiman here.

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

Soul Searching - Raphael Saadiq

Recently I was searching for some vintage Northern Soul on the tube when I came across Raphael Saadiq, a name I remembered vaguely from the very early 1990s. Saadiq was co-founder of the immensely entertaining r&b-hip-pop band Tony! Toni! Toné!.

Nowadays, after changing his name, Saadiq is a successful producer and has a solo career which saw the release of his third album late last year. "The Way I See It" left his modern r&b sound behind for a full on 60s soul retro-fest.


It is no Whinehouse-ish neo retro and it has nothing of the irony of so many 80s revivalists. From the very first note of "Sure hope you mean it" you think to hear an unnaturally crisp recording from Marvin Gaye or The Delfonics. The sound, the voice, the instrumentation, the backing vocals and of course the composition are a perfect mimicry, almost blurring the line between sampling, plagiarism, inspiration, adoration or just love for the sound of "Deep"-, "Northern"-, "Philly"-, "Motown"-Soul. Even the fade-outs sound like they were done on a vintage mixing-desk. But if you listen closely you´ll find some unexpected twists and variations in the background that subtly try to break the retro-haze.

However, the whole album sounds absolutely fantastic! The compositions are good, the vocals and the arrangements are impeccable. Even Stevie Wonder played Harmonica on one track. Listening to the album threw me back 20 years when I would buy all those KENT-compilations. Digging through hit after hit of obscure material that used to lie dormant in the vaults for decades. "The Way I See It" sounds exactly like this.

Love That Girl


Staying in Love


Oh Girl


100 Yard Dash