Chromatics vs. Cybotron: Clear For Love (Kill For Love/Clear)

All You Can Eat

"I´m the pack-man, eat everything I can"! This harsh electro-funk track exploited the "Pac Man"-fever of the early eighties and became a classic of the emerging breakdance/electro scene of that time.
Produced by Bobby Robinson, who is in the music business since the mid-fifties, "I´m the pack man" was chosen as the opening track for the seminal compilation series "Street Sounds Electro 1" which rocked the world with the freshest electro and fantastic live-mixing.

Techno City

New photos of abandoned future-ruins in Dubai? Tilt-shift photos of Brazilia? You guessed it, it´s just the real silicon valley inside your motherboard. Not a new idea as can be seen in the b/w pictures below, but these are nicely photographed and found here.

Enjoy some classic, proto-techno from Juan Atkins´Cybotron - Techno City (click arrow for embedded play)

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".

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!

You hurt me but now your flesh lies rotting in hell.

Berlin based Die Unbekannten (The Unknown) changed their name to Shark Vegas when they had the chance to play a string of gigs supporting New Order in 1984. Between the concerts they got New Order front man Bernard Sumner to produce their first (and only) single "You hurt me" at Conny Planck Studio.


The single was released in Germany on Totenkopf Records in 1984 (label owned by funpunk band Die Toten Hosen) and two years later on legendary Factory Records, with some uncredited remixes by Bernard Sumner. The sleeves and logo was designed by Marc Farrow who began his design career with this minimalistic work.


"You hurt me" is classic underground, electro disco, somewhere between New Order, Section 25 and Cabaret Voltaire. Very much the sound of 1984, it was no surprise that its 1986 re-release almost sounded a bit dated and failed to make any impact in the UK.


Shark Vegas disbanded the same year. The single (either in its blue Totenkopf sleeve or the cut-out Factory-cover) was a well known guest in many bargain bins and is now a much sought-after artefact by Factory-completionists. Its Fac. 111.

Gnarls Barkley: Run, dance, twitch, collapse, foam, etc.

So this is the new Gnarls Barkley video "Run"! The one that is currently banned from broadcasting because the crazy op-art-trickery in the second half can alledgedly trigger epileptic seizures!

Oh, PLEASE! Who tested this and who actually collapsed?


Twenty years ago, when promo-clips were actually still being shown on TV, there were bans because of simulated orgies or a male navel in a Marc Almond video. But this is either a lame attempt at causing a stir (in which I am a useful toy right now) or people really foamed at the mouth because of yet another unnecessary appearance of Justin Timberlake.
Or maybe it was the sight of a Kid´n Play hairdo or the sheer impact of the song, which is actually a real stomper.

So, again: Will anybody comment on the song?
With all the white-girl-retro-soul happening at the moment, "Run" takes the dirty back road, kicks ass, and takes names. Its far from the gospel coziness of "Crazy" and its even more supercharged than some of the faster tracks on their debut album.

So lets play along with this helpless seizure-inducing-hype! But first a WARNING: Test yourself before you watch it! Stare at this picture for five seconds. If you see something weird: Call a doctor, hide under your desk or RUN!

Gnarls Barkley: Run!

Still here? Want more?
Thanks to cryptic hint from Malorama I learned that the "Run"-Video is a spoof of the "Graffiti Rock"-show that was only shown once in 1984. Read more at the New Yorker and see a op-art-free excerpt here.

Jam on it! The beat that won´t be beaten!

"The Face", May 1984, designed by Neville Brody.
Newcleus "Jam on it". The clarity and sharpness of the sounds rock me everytime.