Mathématiques Modernes

Mathématiques Modernes was a French synth-pop duo that was only active between 1980 and 1981. Edwige Braun-Belmore and Claude Arto hit the new-wave dancefloors with the amazing "Disco Rough", a nervous, angular synth-stomper that was just right for the time. Slightly chaotic and full of atonal bleeps, Edwige has full control over her detached and half-spoken lyrics. It sounds like The Normal with a super snotty attitude and/or French charm.

Their only full lengths album "Les Visiteurs du Soir", which shows them gazing over a post-apocalyptic Paris like they auditioned for a French re-make of "Village of the Damned" after they killed their Au-Pair, is full of short, hectic pop songs with titles like "Boy be my toy", "A+B+C" or "Athletical Mystery". I picked this up for small money many years ago and it seems to be a collectors item now.

Alor clicques le tiny arrow and get Disco Rough!

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.

You Make My House Shine

Gee Mr. Tracy was a strange duo from Norwich, UK who had their very own idea of pop-music in the mid of the 1980s.
By 1985, the classic synth/vocal duo was on its way out. Soft Cell, D.A.F., Suicide, Sparks, OMD, had either disbanded, were on indefinite hiatus or were at low-points if their career.
Shortly before the Pet Shop Boys would seal this band model into a lasting time-capsule, Brick Smith and Vince Rogers took no prisoners with their minimal, electro-pop-punk.

At times Gee Mr. Tracy sounded like a parody of Suicide, with their monotonous, skeletal and very cheap sound. "Jet Girl" on their debut (and only) album was like a total piss-take on the Vega/Rev-sound and it could be seen as the missing link between Suicide and Sigue Sigue Sputnik (without the futuristic gadgets, the hi-tech production, the make-up and the hype).
The vocals were often shouted and apparently both band members liked to drink and singing about it.


In their short career as Gee Mr. Tracy (name refers to the "Tracy"-family of "The Thunderbirds") they actually wrote two fine pop-gems: "Permanent Swoon" and "Gee Mr. Tracy - You Make My House Shine", which I always wanted to hear in an updated house-remix.
What´s not to like in a song that has lines such as: "The doorbell plays Miles Davis, The biscuit tins are never empty, the milkman leaves us vodka (we drink it!)" and that starts with a dog barking in Japanese?!

BLIP On My Radar

I am currently fiddling around with Blip.FM. Since I never bothered to follow anyone on Twitter, this new social music site passed me by. After playing around with it a bit, I must say that it is a much easier way to find music than on the deceased Muxtape.

I signed up this afternoon and I am now collecting a track list that is deemed to become very eclectic.
Make sure to drop by at StellaVista´s Outer Base. Slip into something comfy and pour yourself a drink.


The server seems to be quite slow and overpowered at times. You also have to wonder about the legal aspect of the whole thing. As soon as you upload anything you are practically committing a crime. I am expecting Blip.fm to be shut down in Germany pretty soon (now, that I have found it...)

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)

Thank You For The MUZAK

I was always fascinated by the bogus scientific stories about MUZAKs ability to turn potential shoppers into mindless consumer-robots. Never underestimate the power of subliminal easy-listening.


Originally invented in the 1930s to silence the creaking noises of elevators with soothing, nerve-calming music, Muzak Inc. soon applied the magic of pseudo-science to sell their background music. Make people stay longer and spend more, heighten the productivity of your work-drones, clear your train-stations of junkies: Muzak promised all this and now, in their 75th year of existence, they had to file for bankruptcy. The day the Muzak died!


To celebrate the company that would have loved to make us believe that they shaped the 20th century more than they actually did, have another listen to one of the only pop-songs that is about muzak:
Moonlight and Muzak by M.
And remember: Muzak mixed the bourgeoisie and the rebel!

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."

Saint Etienne - Method of Modern Love

Saint Etienne, the best pop-band in the known universe, have a new single! This one is really new, not like the strangely ineffective remix of "Burnt Out Car" from last year.

Click here for your listening pleasure!

"Method of Modern Love" (not a cover of the Hall & Oats song from 1984, although I wouldn´t have minded if it was) is a very, and I mean VERY poppy song, bursting at the seams with Richard X´s great production skills.
It´s sparkling, upbeat and extremely catchy. There is still that certain touch of melancholy sprinkled over the production which is so typical for Saint Etienne and which will probably prevent it from becoming a big hit.

Despite some very prominent DX-7 bells, "Method of Modern Love" is NOT another 80s pastiche, which is very nice for a change. The amazing multi-tracking of Sara´s voice is definitely the highlight here. It´s also nearly a minute too long for being a perfect pop-single, but the wonderful vocal trickery at the end finishes the song on a very exuberant note.


It seems that Saint Etienne are really trying to break into the charts with this track. So much though, that it lead them to a very confusing release strategy. Apparently the new British chart rules are demanding a single to be domestically released only before the rest of the world is allowed to buy the physical single.
This in the age of the download! Go figure! At least there are plans for an international release later on.


The single will probably promote the release of "London Conversations", which is at least the third or fourth Best-of-Saint-Etienne compilation in their 19-year carrier. Pitchfork just did a great and interesting Interview with the groups Bob Stanley.

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.

International Heaven

What an international mix: American Michael Arias (aka Maikeru Ariasu), a SFX specialist who would become the first foreign director of a major anime-movie in Japan ("Tekkon Kinkreet") has now finished his first live-action movie: A remake of a German tragic-comedy.

Arias´"Heaven´s Door" is a take on "Knocking on Heaven´s Door" by German taxi-driver-turned-director-turned-hack Thomas Jahn. The soundtrack is once more delivered by British electronica duo Plaid. The original movie is set in Germany, the remake is relocated to Tokyo.


Plaid also did the very impressive music for Arias´ "Tekkon Kinkreet" which was released as a regular soundtrack and as a remix album.

Plaid, who were once part of The Black Dog, have specialised their music as a mix of pseudo-oriental, fractal melodies with lots of exotic, polyrhythmic percussion.
On "Tekkon..." Plaid were the perfect match to the fantastic, overwhelming vision of a clattered, futuristic metropolis. Especially the fist and last tracks ("This City" and "White´s Dream") are some of their best compositions.


It could be said that that the music for "Heaven´s Door" is a bit Plaid-by-numbers, but that would be unfair without having seen the movie. Have a listen to Hydrosphere (click the arrow for embedded stream) which has those trademark fragile, fluttering melodies that sound like ice-crystals melting away in the sun. It´s clearly one of the highlights of the album.


"Knocking on Heaven´s Door" is the story of two people who meet at a hospital, discovering that they are both terminally ill. When one of them claims that he has never seen the ocean, they decide to run away, fulfilling this last wish. The German original is a classic buddy-movie with two guys as the protagonists. The Japanese remake changes the setting to a boy/girl scenario, which surely adds some romantic possibilities to the drama.

Sonik Omi

While on my way to Rome in 1990 I visited a musician friend in Zürich for a stop over. He is one of those guys you can completely trust with his musical taste and he enjoyed showing off his obscurest vinyl possessions.
After we had listened to some super rare northern soul sides he pulled out a thrift store find which jumped right in my face: It was a soundtrack to a 1978 Bollywood film called "Teen Eekay" by Sonik Omi! Has there ever been a better title and a greater name than Sonik Omi?! (consider that "Omi" means "granny" in German). Although I have later found out that Sonik Omi are actually two people, uncle Sonik and nephew Omi!



It was a few years before the Bollywood phenomenon was slowly discovered in Europe, so I had no idea what kind of music was hidden behind the incredibly tacky sleeve.

There is a great joke in "The Simpsons" in which Apu puts on an Indian record which plays a totally wild cacophony of tabla, sitar and flute. Apu then notices that the record plays at wrong speed, switches it to 33rpm and the music changes to a Sinatra-style crooning.

Even played at 33 "Teen Eekay" is a wild mix of Indian musical pop, disco and the wildest exotica. I loved every second of it and tried to find this record for ages. I even considered contacting EMI India, and thought about borrowing "Teen Eekay" as the name for a band or even this blog.


The internet isn´t of great help at least not in a language I can read and you can only find one still-shot clip on youtube. To get a rough idea of what to expect from the record I only heard once 19 years ago and which I have never forgotten, here is Ree Baba Ree Baba. Get ready for a blast of Teen Eekay-madness. Take it away, Sonik Omi!

So great, you have to listen to it twice: Ree Baba Ree Baba

If I VRETaHAMMAR

Enjoy this classic Portuguese 70´s groover in a super mellow version by Swedish singer Sylvia Vrethammar Vo Bate Pa Tu

(Click the arrow in front of the title, the song will then stream in the embedded player on the bottom of this page. Meanwhile get hypnotized by the beauty of these trousers! Click for larger size!)

Craft Work

It is reported that Kraftwerk-founder Florian Schneider has finally left his band. This leaves Ralf Hütter as the only original member of the influential electronic pop-band.

Schneider, who never liked touring, was already missing on the current tour and was substituted by a long-time "Kling Klang"-Studio technician. Wouldn´t it have been fantastic if they finally went all the way to use the Schneider-Robot as a stand-in?


After all, Kraftwerk always tried to disappear behind their machines and their plans to have their robots perform a whole concert never came to fruition.


Since Kraftwerk have become their own cover band a long time ago I don´t even know if this will have any effect on any possible future releases (as if!). I find the news that the current line-up of the band will soon open for Radiohead on a South-American tour much more shocking!


While we´re at the subject of cover versions: This is one of my favourite Kraftwerk covers, which I already posted here.
Kernkraftwerk: Autobahn by Kernkraftwerk (nuclear power station).


Years ago I was talking with a British friend of mine and I was surprised that he (and apparently many others) always thought that Kraftwerk was German for craft work! It shows the true genius of the band and their concept: Even the phonetic misunderstanding of their name has its merits and some truth.

Dream Leif

When I was made for dancing (Super Maxi Disco Version) was a big, global hit I was still too young to see a disco from the inside. So I had to keep on dreaming of Saturday nights filled with dry-ice fog, glowing plexi-glass dance-floors and percussion breakdowns.


Major teen heartthrob Leif Garrett would later rely on disco versions of rock ´n roll standards and after the disco backlash his life was spinning out of control.

He has actually released a new album recently, probably trying to cash in on the shocking mugshots that brought him back into the public eye two years ago.

But who wants to see that when you can marvel at all these pseudo-pedo-california-white-trash-pics at the height of his fame?!