Dreams of Saturday Night: Rhodes to Freedom

Not much to see in all these drum ´n bass clips, but who needs visuals for music that is so lush and beautiful?! Ambient D´nB really was the music of the future, when it emerged out of dark jungle and hardcore. Of course, much derided by the true innovators who saw this evolution of new-agey, middle-of-the-road-fluff as a dead end street, it was also the instant soundtrack for millions of boutiques and trendy cafés around the world, which might be a reason why the 90s are so undervalued. Most tracks here hail from 1995 when this music suddenly exploded everywhere.

Everything by LTJ Bukem is great and he, along with Omni Trio, was probably the kickstarter of this new sound. Bukem´s music does really stand the test of time as he is a fantastic musician who managed to combine great musicianship with amazing sound and production techniques.

LTJ Bukem: Rhodes to Freedom


LTJ Bukem: Watercolours



PFM (Progressive Future Music) did a couple of 12" and a bunch of remixes with one very impressive sound set-up. Their epic tracks slide along the edge of ambient kitsch but who cares as long as they sound like sonic waves sweeping over you. "Hypnotising" with the often used, but always wonderful "music is hypnotising"-sample was the b-side of their second single. PFM also did a great 9 minute version of Saint Etienne´s "(Down by) The Sea".

PFM: Hypnotising



Goldie had proven that jungle/drum and bass could as well be seen as a new form of soul music when he released the phenomenal "Inner City Life" in 1994. The use of sung vocals was relatively rare in the genre but some of the attempts were outstanding and often became moderate hits.

Saxophonist Courtney Pine and vocal diva Cassandra Wilson teamed up for the beautiful "I´ve known Rivers" which got the d´nb treatment by the slightly overhyped 4 Hero. I wish they would have always been as good as this.

Courtney Pine with Cassandra Wilson: I´ve known Rivers (4 Hero remix)



Another great d´nb vcal track and almost hit came from Soundman & Don Lloydie with Elisabeth Troy. "Greater Love" is amazing in the way it merges the sweet vocals of Mrs. Troy with the abstract and de-constructed beats. Later in 95 the three released an equally good follow-up on the great SOUR-label with "Let me be".

Soundman and Don Llyodie with Elisabeth Troy: Greater Love



Things get a bit rougher with this masterpiece of sonic energy. "Amazon Amenity (Chameleon Dub) by Link is a product of the fruitful partnership of Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton.
In 1992 they released a fantastic EP of Detroit techno, which also included "Amenity". Later they reworked that track into the lush balearic anthem "Links" by Chameleon, which then evolved into "Amazon Amenity". The drum programming towards the end of this epic is simply breathtaking.
"...Life moves pretty fast. If you don´t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

Link: Amazon Amenity



Recovering from the hectic d´nb with this wonderfully relaxing abstract re-construction of Japanese outfit Soft Ballet. Once more, Middleton and Pritchard (as Global Communication) show their superiority.

Soft Ballet: Ride (Global Communication Remix)


Check out LTJ Bukem´s label Good Looking for recent d´n b.

Design 8 Itself

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The Designers Republic announced last week that they have been forced to shut down due to several unlucky occurrences that all involve money.

Well, during the last years tDR has grown into a very large enterprise that had to run after corporate money in order to keep itself alive. It might have looked strange to their early followers that they were designing the international look of Coca Cola since 2006. According to founder Ian Anderson, he was also aware of this break in ethics and he plans to bring tDR back, probably on a much smaller scale. Design ate itself!

But anyway, If you look through some of their record sleeves (and other works in public spaces from the last 20+ years, it is safe to say that no other company (or single designer) has had such an enormous and lasting impact on graphic design as tDR.
There was Hipgnosis in the seventies, followed by heroes Neville Brody, Peter Saville, Russell Mills and 23 Envelope in the eighties. Designers Republic took all this, wrapped it up and ran with it. You can still spot a good tDR sleeve from one of the countless imitators that followed them.

Of course, thanks to tDR we now have loads of annoying graphic designers who like to have their photographs taken while holding up a fresh din a0-print, most likely sporting a stupid calendar-wisdom in a wacky type face.

Hee hee hee, yes! Wipeout!

Kindertrauma

I came across this strange video of a Japanese artist/entertainer Maywa Denki who builds all these primitive, mechanical, noise making gadgets.
Well, the first part of this video is quite bizarre - even for a kiddie program. I immediately thought about what effect some of this would have had on me if I had watched it as a child. I would have been traumatized! There is something really eerie about those twitching "Geisha"-girls and let´s not even talk about the singing.



Thinking about this, I remembered some things that frightened me as a child. Things that nobody else would find memorable scared the shit out of me.
I remember listening to the radio while being home alone one evening. I was a single child and even up to the age of 10 I didn´t like being alone in the dark. It must have been around 1977 and the DJ enthusiastically announced a track from Kraftwerk´s new album. I heard "Autobahn" before, so I was looking forward to it. The track was "Schaufensterpuppen" (Showroom Dummies) and I remember to this day that I found it horribly disturbing.

The clanging beat, the spooky "choir" and the lifeless but threatening words worked up fear in my mind. The idea of creepy Showroom Dummies coming to life, breaking the glass and crawling the streets was really frightening me. Back then the irony of "going to the club and starting to dance" was totally lost on me. Instead I looked down the street through my window because I knew that only three houses down, there were real showroom dummies waiting...

I actually wanted to post the German version because its lyrics and sounds are much more intimidating than the English and French translations, but when I found this video-clip of "Showroom Dummies" I just had to post it. If you watch it to the end you will see Kraftwerk dancing! This will scare you too, no matter how old you are!



Thinking about this I remembered a website called Kindertrauma ("Your happy childhood ends here) which recollects and re-visits scenes and moments of cheesy horror flicks which scared you as a toddler.

Kindertrauma is of course dealing with the horrors American TV was inflicting on kids. It is full of retro-stuff you might not know if you haven´t watched US channels in the seventies or eighties.
Interestingly there are also contributions by younger readers who share their traumatizing Tv-moments. A Pepsi-Ad from 1995 was seen by some as nightmare inducing as a Busta Rhymes Video.

Ahh, that Busta Rhymes clip for "Gimme some mo`"! While I was 30 when this was on the air, I can totally understand the effect this could have on kids. The Bernhard Herrman -sample from Psycho alone makes the song creepy and there is something about the whole look of this thing that is very unsettling. This was directed by Hype Williams who did some of the most memorable videos during the last half of the nineties (and one of the best ever with "She´s a Bitch"). I wonder why he never moved into feature films.

Dreams of Saturday Night: Meat Beat Manifesto

I really think that 1988 was indeed a musical year that tore down many barriers. The explosion (and implosion) of Hip Hop and Acid House brought new and radical sounds and the public was more than ready to listen while dancing their asses off.

Mark Stewart and the Mafia, Public Enemy and Meat Beat Manifesto were working at the edges of music with their brutal methods of decomposing sound and rhythm.


Give Your Body It´s Freedom! is the most radical version of Meat Beat Manifesto´s third single "Strap Down".

Everything in this track is designed to jump in your face: the stupendous bassline, the insane whistles, adventurous drum-programming and a harsh mix make this an adrenaline rushing disco-destroyer that sounds like a work-out program for malfunctioning robots. After listening to this at maximum volume you feel exhausted.

I was eagerly awaiting MBFs first album which was then lost in a studio fire. The re-recorded album was actually a double-12" with four songs in four versions. While "Storm the Studio" was very good, it lacked the energy and boldness of tracks like this one.

As true forefathers of Prodigy and Chemical Brothers, the band released a new album in 2008.

I.O.U. Confusion (and some Revolution)

Five months after they dropped the bomb with "Blue Monday", New Order released their follow up single "Confusion". In between their second album "Power, Corruption and Lies" had hit the shops. While the sleeves for all three releases follow the same theme (Titles and Band-name are encoded in an obscure colour-code), none of the singles appear on the album.

For the production of "Confusion" the band went to New York to collaborate with Arthur Baker, the hottest producer of the moment.
I actually prefer "Confusion" to "Blue Monday", maybe because I heard the latter far too often. I can still listen to all four mixes of the original 12" back to back without getting bored. I love the clarity of the sound (especially the instrumentals).

The video shows the band performing on stage, posing for photos and later on their way to the legendary Funhouse Club (or is it Danceteria?). I always wonder if this is a subtle hint that the band had not that much to do during the session with Baker, who is seen working in the studio without the band and who was clearly attempting to get some of the fame as the producer for himself.
Intercut we see a young girl working in a Pizzeria and getting ready to go out to the same club.
This harks back to Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever, and also works as a future echo for Daft Punks amazing clip for "Revolution 909", which also adds a italo-american touch to it´s story.

While The band is getting frisked to get into the club, Arthur Baker (who looks like a twin-brother of Rick Rubin) hands a Reel-tape with the rough-mix of "Confusion" to resident DJ Jean "Jellybean" Benitez who puts it on immediately. Everybody´s dancing.

New Order: Confusion (1983)


Daft Punk: Revolution 909 (1997)


Only a month later another British band went to Baker for a production job. "I.O.U." by Freeez is actually a far more poppy and polished take on Baker´s sound and it became one of the biggest hits of 1983 and the electro era. While "Looking for the perfect beat" and "Planet Rock" were also massive, it was the crossover appeal of Freeez that made "I.O.U." a true classic.


The video also shows the strategy that was behind Freeez: Originally a five-piece band, they are now presented as a duo. Maybe the airfare for the video-shot was too tight or management decided to chose only the two most Wham-ish looking members?!

However, one can´t help noticing that the breakdancing in the video is handed over to the white kids. The much better and talented black dancers are actually pushed into the background. "I.O.U." ends with the band entering a club, 7" white-label single in hand. They throw the single to the DJ who puts it on immediately. Everydody´s dancing.

Freeez: I.O.U. (1983)


While the New Order video works as a time-capsule offering a mostly accurate look at an existing scene, the Freeez video is already coming across as a cynic exploitation of a marketable fad.
The white kids have taken on black music and culture once more and are now literally throwing it back at them.
Interesting to see that "I.O.U." was done only one or two months after "Confusion".

"Why are the nicer people not as successful as the shitty people?"

I always liked "Star Test" because of the "Dark Star"-sci-fi voice and the ridiculous concept. Here is the chance to watch a complete edition of the show with the great, undervalued and misunderstood Danielle Dax.

She might look a bit like Sandra here, but she is lovable, intelligent, witty, reads Tama Jamowitz, adores J.G. Ballard and hates Televangelists. What more do you want from a perfect pop-star?


Watch part two and three.

Dax recorded a string of incredibly strange records on her own "Awesome Records Label" in the mid eighties pre-dating trip-hop by ten years. I always think that she was wrongly labelled as "Goth", although she did come across as a one-woman Siouxsie Sioux at times, her music lives in its own universe of banghra-country-disco-folk with a heavy pop appeal.


After an attempt to break out of the underground she seemed to have retired from the music-biz with the release of a best-of album, aptly titled "Comatose Non-Reaction - The thwarted pop career of Danielle Dax".
She does have a sloppily maintained MySpace site, and her
Wikipedia claims that she recently suffered from ill health. So here is hope that this StellaVista Ultramodel will get better soon.

Meanwhile listen to the hauntingly minimalistic The Spoil Factor from the "Jesus Egg That Wept"-EP.

Kodak Ghosts Run Amok

An ear piercing, alarm-clock-sound makes you listen up. There is no chance to avoid it. Beep, beep, beep, beep! The sound goes on relentlessly. Meanwhile a deep, riddim-like bassline brings some focus and a rhythm-guitar tries to carve out the music that waits to shine through the mayhem.
And then the voice comes in: Like a demented choir-boy, torn between poetic purity and furious anger, it shouts, sings and wails against this wall of sound with manic energy. Kodak Ghosts Run Amok!

Eyeless In Gaza were at the forefront of a new wave of british "post-punk"-bands who were still in school when punk happened. Their first single "Kodak Ghosts Run Amok" was an unconventional wake-up call and a big "fuck-you" against punk, which mostly turned into stale rock by the early 1980s.

With their 1982 release of "Drumming the beating heart", the duo of Martyn Bates and Peter Becker had formed their sound to a minimal, pastoral, quasi-folk with an experimental attitude.

Bates´ voice and his delivery is at times quite close to Billie MacKenzie, but EIG never intended to go all out with polished and sparkling pop-productions.
Their sound, despite all the melodic richness and overflowing emotions, was always sparse, raw and overwhelmingly powerful. It is no secret that Björk was clearly influenced by the EIG-Sound.


Often seen as the "perfect 4-AD band" (they never released anything on the label), Eyeless in Gaza managed to create a sound that was totally their own. At times annoying and too obscure, they should be applauded for their vision and talent. Posing in churches, playing church organ and exploring religious influences, led to filing the band in the gothic-drawer. A drawer which is bursting at the seems with bands that don´t belong there.

After 1987, Becker and Bates put the band on hold and released several solo albums and took part in multiple collaborations. Since reforming in the 90s they kept on recording and releasing albums on a sporadic scale.

In 2006 they released "Summer Salt and Subway Sun", which is easily one of their best efforts since "Drumming the beating heart" and the fan-favourite "Pale hands I loved so well". Exploring the "idea of cities as new, blank texts – contrasted with the kind of sense of alienation and loss evoked in such works as J.G. Ballard’s Concrete Island.” (Martyn Bates)


There was always a strong ballardian sub-context in the work of Eyeless in Gaza and I think it is great that they are further exploring these ideas and that they are still capable of creating exciting and fresh music.

The completed "Summer Salt & Subway Sun" works as a kind of survival or synthesis of these ideas – and also as an illustration of Eyeless In Gaza as ‘studio animal’, contrasted with their (newly re-discovered) life as a regularly gigging band.

EIG will perform in Berlin on the first of November and I could kick myself that I am out of town on this day.

Meanwhile their former label "Cherry Red" finally released the EIG back-catalogue on remastered CDs.

In July, the band re-visited the "Summer Salt and Subway Sun"- album with the release of a limited 3-CD box, which contains 2 new Cds.

Right now, the Cds are also available via their
website, which is highly recommended.

Glimmering Through All These Years

One of my all time heroes, the amazing John Foxx is going to release "Glimmer" a "Best of" double CD in late september.

After leaving Ultravox in 1979, Foxx recorded "Metamatic" one of the most amazing and era defining albums of 1980.

Fed on an a healthy diet of J.G. Ballard and "dressed in european grey", Foxx wanted "to make a kind of music which might have happened if America had never existed. A sort of minimalist European urban electronic folk music. I had a picture of a future jukebox in some lost European motorway service station. I just listened to it play what became 'Metamatic.'"


His sparse electronic arrangements paired with his passionate but equally detached voice are a perfect backing for Foxx´ fantastic lyrical talents. He was the herald of a new romantic world view, which embraced the all surrounding brutal architecture and found new meanings and equations in human interaction with machines.

Technically "Metamatic" is certainly not a quantum-leap in electronic music. Only one year later Kraftwerk would set new standards with "Computerwelt" and The Human League`s "Dare" re-defined electronic pop. By this time the Foxx debut sounded like it came from another era.

During his next three albums, Foxx would move towards a more conventional take on romanticism. He was asked by Michelangelo Antonioni to provide the soundtrack for "Identificazion di una donna" and went into musical hiatus after his Beatle-esque "In Mysterious Ways" in 1985.


Foxx returned to music with lots of collaborations and different projects in 1990 and is currently busier than ever.

The Best-of compilation "Glimmer" tries to give a vast overview over his influential oevre. Included are some of his collaborations (i am missing the amazing "Remember" from his Nation 12 period)

CD1:
Glimmer
Plaza
No-One Driving
Underpass
Quiet City
Dislocation
030
Twilight's Last Gleaming
Sunset Rising
Cities Of Light 5
Europe After The Rain
Hiroshima Mon Amour
The Garden

CD2:
Through My Sleeping
Endlessly
My Sex
He's A Liquid
Carcrash Flashback V2
Dancing Like A Gun
Just For A Moment
Dislocated (with Jori Hulkkonen)
Burning Car
Miles Away
Stepping Sideways (with Harold Budd)
Free Robot (with Metamatics)
No-One Driving (early version)
Plaza (extended version)
Burning Car (Dub Terror/Karborn 2008 mix)

More on John Foxx on the official Metamatic and the fansite
Quiet City

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!

Let ´em Bleep!

When the madness of Acid-House died down a bit by the end of the eighties, it was time for a breather. But we were not ready for ambient and wall-paper-chill yet. Around the time the British house scene found their own sound by channeling Detroit, Electro, Jamaica and the BBC Radio Workshop.


New labels like "WARP", "Shut up and Dance", "Outer Rhythm" and "Network" were pioneering the sound that was fittingly called "Bleep", or "Bleep & Bass", or "Bleep & Clonk". Actually, "Clonk" was a mini-genre in it´s own right, and I always found it very interesting that the words "bleep" and "clonk" are appearing on the same page in William Burroughs novel "Nova Express" from 1964! Yes, I am sad, I know...

"Bleep" came at the right time for me. The German Techno sound that was developing at the time was never my cup of tea. Far too unfunky and boring for my taste.

The "Warp"-sound however had the right mixture of futurism, rhythmic invention and a nerdy infatuation with sound. Instead of cooking up the same, tired Front 242 formula with "Blade Runner" images, the new "sound of Sheffield" was forward looking, micro-funky and -on the right soundsystem- absolutely earth shattering.

Then of course there was the iconography of the emerging Designers Republic, who helped to carve an image for this futuristic sound.


The scene was a bit incestuous and orbited around studio wizard Mark "Moloko" Brydon and the Fon Studio in Sheffield. Other recurring figures were Richard H. Kirk from Cabaret Voltaire, the late Lee Newman and Michael Wells and - of course - the co-founder of WARP Records and seminal producer Robert Gordon.

In fact, this "Tricky Disco" was clearly music for boys. A new form of bachelor-pad music, which had guys racking up their subwoofers while dreaming up chat-up lines like: "Why don´t you come up to my place and I show you my BASS!"


It didn´t make a big impact on the German club-scene and for the most part it was mostly listened to in an environment that drove your neighbours or parents nuts.

I have written several unfinished "Bleep"-posts, but I recently found out that others have written about the subject much better and with far more authority than I ever could.

Looking back, what was considered to be "state-of-the-art"-music was actually pretty low-tech. Even by the standards of 1989. Acid used "dated" instruments, which were for the most part out of production by the time people started to dig the squelchy sound of the 303.


The "Bleep"-scene used similar instruments. Instead of the expensive Fairlight or Emulator, they utilised older gear and the cheaper samplers which began to appear on the market.

Especially Rob Gordon went further in his attempt to deconstruct the prefabricated sounds by programming them in slower, unusual rhythm patterns. The studio and its effect-boards became another crucial instrument to experiment with sounds.

The subsonic bass and the overall polished production was a product of people who knew their way around a studio. Gordons´ rhythms were syncopated, minimal and often folded in on itself. In all it´s abstract glory and "machinespeak" aesthetic, his productions were often very soulful and heralded a new form of pop-music.


Maybe "Bleep" will never have a real "revival" because it never went away for the people who were into it in the first place. I also believe that the kids of 1989, who are now well in their 30s and beyond, are for the most part interested in looking forward by transporting their "baggage" with them.

I see the current interest in the eerily titled "hauntology" as a result of trying to refrain from wallowing in nostalgia by re-constructing the lost emotions and echoing sounds of the past into a relevant and up-to-date framework. "Meta nostalgia", if you will.

In this regard I see the brilliant net-label Bleepfiend which was born out of an idea by Gutterbreakz.


Bleepfiend is bound to collect unreleased home-recordings from the electronic scene before fully digital home-recording became available. A time when people were still working with minimal equipment, cheap samplers with a sampling time of one second, 4-track tape machines and so on.

As Bleepfind explains: The music on offer was recorded in a time before the Internet made it possible to upload, share and promote work to a wider audience. This is music that never had a chance to be heard by anyone outside the artist's immediate circle of friends. But still it exists...it's forgotten potential locked in the ferric particles of dusty cassette tapes.

At the time of writing there are two releases available for download, which once more show the heavy influence the BBC Radio Workshop must have had on British kids.

Their "Dr. Who" was my "Kraftwerk".

The sound range of a Youtube clip (and laptop speakers) is of course unable to give a good example of what I am talking about. Anyway, here is a Rob Gordon Remix of "Yeah You" by The Step. It´s magic!