Archive for the ‘30 Years Come Back’ Category

30 Years Come Back (Repost Part 3)

Just to get back up to speed this post collects the remaining entries from the blogspot which is being discarded as I will post future entries here.

20080219
Frankie Knuckles & Jamie Principle – Your Love

‘86 is a tough one as I seem to have less tracks from this year than those around it. I was going to put up ‘The Rain’ by Oran Juice Jones but am dissatisfied with how quickly my copy fades out as Oran continues his vengeful tirade against his cheating lover with an increasingly disturbing glee. Shame! Hopefully there’s a longer version out there but in the meantime have the original source material for The Source’s anthemic 1991 hit – wonder how much money Frankie and Jamie made from it themselves (including it’s customary re-mix every five or six years since). You’ll notice the original was slightly higher-pitched than ‘You Got The Love’ and perhaps sounds ‘flatter’ but it’s obviously glorious in it’s own right.

20080220
M/A/R/R/S – Anitina (The First Time I She See Dance)

One of the best AA sides ever. ‘Anitina’s raucous intro is seismic as if aware of what it’s following up. The thud and clatter of the Colourbox drums with AR Kane’s lupine guitars and crooning combine in a divine style, coming off like a black J&MC. How do I shot more cosmic dubgaze?

20080225
Rhythim Is Rhythim – Beyond The Dance (Cult Mix)

My favourite bit of work by Derrick May, alongside R-Tyme’s ‘R Theme’. Monolithic orchestral stabs building and arching over a stream of frosty hi-hats, looping for so long that the beat drop is almost an anticlimax – but still an amazing example of what dance music could be at the time (with May introducing a more lucid and psychedelic warmth to the newly-established Techno genre) and it’s unconventional percussion sounds prescient 20 years later with everyone bored of more traditional snares and claps in techno for so long.

20080303
Jeff Wayne – Eve Of The War (Ben Liebrand Remix) / London Boys – Requiem

Sorry it’s been a week or so since the last post, and with only one year of the 80s left too. Hopefully I can put up a couple of early 90s tracks before this week is out. Before that here’s some FUN in the form of Ben Liebrand’s’Eve Of The War’ remix. The boisterous borrowing of Inner City’s ‘Big Fun’ bass hook and the bleepy middle eights really win it for me.

BONUS FUN: Hadn’t heard it for many years but the London Boys ‘Requiem’ also rools – grandiose and joyous Euro Disco – and derivative as it may be from Cerrone and their own work for Divine and even Hazell Dean, a very enjoyable SAW production at a time when they were running on empty re the likes of Sonia and Jason Donovan.

20080307
Bocca Juniors – Raise (63 Steps To Heaven)

Between Balearic and Big Beat lied Boys Own Recordings and this, their first release in 1990. Named after an Argentinian football club and comprised of House legends Andy Weatherall, Terry Farley and Pete Heller plus Hugo Nicholson, the Bocca Juniors was a short lived project which is a shame even though greater success was achieved by Weatherall and Farley & Heller elsewhere. ‘Raise’ is a marvellous breakbeat piano house stomp shuffle, a mission statement for a hedonistic yoof with a on living without fear and taking opportunities rather than being overtly selfish. Possibly.

20080312
TC 1991 – Berry / Danse City – Melba

Aargh so many tracks from ‘91 I want to put up but rules is rules, bendy as they may be. Yet I’ve managed to wittle it down to these two marvels…

‘Berry’ is a tough tune to categorise but this is from the same Italians (the title is a play on co-producer Luciano Bericchia’s surname) who recorded under the FPI Project (you may be familiar with the fab ‘Rich In Paradise/Back To My Roots’ hit from ‘89). So it has that Eurohouse flavour but no cheesy vocals or rap (shame really, would be a nice option), an excellent warbley bassline verging on the New Beat sound big in the Netherlands and Belgium and a hint of the Progressive House sound emerging throughout the continent that would become big in the UK the following Summer with anthems like Gat Decor’s ‘Passion’. Very of it’s time I suppose but can’t resist those ‘night drive thru the neon city during carnival’ overtones. Must’ve been a monster at Ku that Summer.

BONUS: ‘Melba’ actually takes that theme and ramps it up threefold. Faster, harder and closer to the emerging hardcore sound in the UK. I remember hearing it on one of the first Pete Tong Essential Selection shows I ever listened to, if not the first – by chance I’d switched on Radio 1 unware that Tong had only recently launched his Friday evening show and apparently keen to bring the sounds of Reachin’, Vinyl Solution, Reinforced and other relatively underground labels to the masses alongside his own representation for ‘full frequency range recordings’. The vocal sample is from Todd Terry’s ‘Weekend’. Sorry the vinyl rip is a little bit scratchy and there’s at least one minor jump but if you like your rave rare then this is the real deal.

30 Years Come Back (Repost Part 2)

20080211
Severed Heads – Lambougini

Appearing only* on an interestingly looking compilation from 1982, this is a fantastic and startlingly ahead of it’s time track that seems to pre-empt a distinct dance music trend 20 years in advance. By that I just mean the ‘micro’ element of the production generally. Everything sounds (unintentionally?) strained and concentrated but in a way that evokes a summer haze with an hallucinogenic tinge.

As a result this track, for me, eclipses ‘Dead Eyes Opened’ which would follow a couple of years later and itself establish a reputation for striking prescience two decades on, or at least just highlighting how much the dudes at Kompakt and other German house labels were (presumably) influenced by SH.

Severed Heads – Lambougini

*track later listed as Lambourgini on this comp from last year and a reworked version called ‘Petrol’ is more widely available.

20080212
Cabaret Voltaire – Just Fascination

Stark basslines and skeletal beats from an industrial city in decay. I love CV’s dancier moments and their resolute, hypnotic effect. About a year before this release Blancmange’s ‘Feel Me’ took a similar approach, building around a harsher and slightly more powerful electronic bassline. But ‘Feel Me’ runs out of steam somewhat halfway through with Neil Arthur’s repeated invitation to “feel the pain!” and the accompanying diva yelps amounting to little but an urge to move on. ‘Just Fascination’ avoids this trap by concentrating more on ambience, recurring synth and guitar flourishes strained and warped to create an equally exotic and intense picture but with Steve Mallinder’s vocals more reserved and driven.

20080213
Greg Phillinganes – Behind The Mask

I was quite interested in the story behind this song when I finally discovered that the impressive original was from Yellow Magic Orchestra’s ‘Solid State Survivor’ LP. The version I knew was the more succesful cover by Eric Clapton in 1986. The link between the two is Phllinganes who, as I understand it, did some session work on the track for YMO before then working with Michael Jackson on his next two albums. Phillinganes thought the track would be ideal for Jackson and you can hear why – it would fit very well on ‘Thriller’ had it only been an original composition. Undeterred, Phillinganes re-recorded it himself with Jacko supposedly supplying backing vocals – if these are the vocoded parts then kudos (the “hee-heees” are surely Greg’s own). Clapton took the song on himself when Phillinganes sessioned for him soon after.

While the YMO original is great I find the vocoder voice obscures the lyrics too much. Not a problem here, with Phillinganes belting it out quite admirably. The music itself is, shall we say, ‘faithful’ to the original but that’s also a plus. The song went on to be covered a few more times including by The Human League but I think Greg’s version is the best so here it is.

20080214
Model 500 – Night Drive (Thru Babylon)

Still surprised this is from ‘85 and had always assumed it was from 2-3 years later than that despite knowing ‘Clear’ and ‘The Chase’ before this one. ‘Night Drive’ is a clear link between the two really in terms of how Atkins seemed to be getting to grips with the technology at his disposal and flirting with the emerging acid sound, building on his Kraftwerk-influenced electro template.

Interesting how much Atkins used (his own) vocals in comparison to his peers. Although murky and shrouded there’s elements of humour here (”Excuse me but isn’t a black leather micro-miniskirt a bit much?!” or something like it at 3:20) within the general menacing air.

30 Years Come Back (Repost Part 1)

INTRODUCTION

This blog enables me to share great music from the last 30 years of my life. Many of the tracks selected I won’t have known at the time they were first released (at least not for the first 10-15 years) so it can be a voyage of discovery for all although I will mainly be browsing my MediaMonkey library for songs I already have copies of.

Every weekday a song will be linked to. The first song will be from the first year of life or more specifically from between May 1978 and May 1979. The day after that this blog will feature a song from the equivlent ‘79-’80 period and so on until we reach the present (’07-’08) and then it’s back to the start to begin the cycle again.

A fairly broad range of genres and styles will be included although the empthasis will probably be on European and American electronic and/or pop music – hopefully not well known hits you’ve heard already but some singles that have been somewhat overlooked as well as album tracks, b-sides and EP cuts, remixes and perhaps even some of my own re-edits. The quality should be consistent although some tracks featured may be vinyl rips (nothing under 192kbps though).

Have fun!

20080206
The Rah Band – Woogie Boogie / Pyrolator – Struktur 22

I didn’t really want to kick off with an instrumental but most of the tracks I currently have from 1978/79 are a little tooo famous for starters.

Rah Band are fairly well known thanks to two great top ten hits some eight years apart but it’s interesting how much of their debut album lacks vocals. Regardless, it’s mostly a diverse and lively affair worth a listen.

From it here’s ‘Woogie Boogie’, the sound of Duane Eddy and Giorgio Moroder jamming in an elevator…or just something of a warped take on elevator muzak itself, with the chances of tickling or irritating your judging ears around 50/50 I reckon.

Rah Band – Woogie Boogie

BONUS: If a selected track is an instrumental or a short number (or both) you can expect an additional track that day.

So here’s a short cut from Pyrolator’s 1979 electronic oddity ‘Inland’ – although this particular recording was not made available until the CD re-issue of ‘Inland’ in 2002 so I’m not entirely sure of it’s exact date.

Much of this album instantly reminded me of Boards Of Canada when I first heard it – not necessarily always in sonic terms but more the themes and ideas the music addresses, explores and aligns itself with. But it seems a lot more stark and radical (ala much of Delia Derbyshire’s output) than other largely ambient electronic works even nearly 30 years later.

As with a lot of my favourite BOC moments the track has a punctuative quality within the work it’s part of – and does not seem integral to it given it’s omission from the original release. But like BOC’s ‘Olsen’ it’s evocative sequence of analogue tones and frequencies have a remarkable resonance…the difference being that Kurt Dhalke’s work is actually FROM the time, not harking back to it. Not that authenticity is particulaly important to me.

Pyrolator – Struktur 22

I’d be inclined to use both of these tracks in a mix or compilation as punctuation, interludes or breathers.

20080207
Frankie Smith – Double Dutch Bus / Lio – You Go To My Head

“Gimme a hoooo, if ya got your funky bus fare…”

Frankie Smith’s vocal performance on ‘Double Dutch Bus’ is roughly as entertaining as what you hear (not being a test) on ‘Rapper’s Delight’ but it’s not until the “izz” infix lingo is introduced after 2 minutes that the track really hits the spot. Much sampled over the years since including on Bomb The Bass ‘Beat Dis’ and Missy Elliott’s ‘Gossip Folks’. Without this vocal gimmick Smith and Bloom’s disco backtrack is fairly ordinary and even feels overlong after only 5 minutes but in it’s rightful context kicking off lengthy disco sessions you can appreciate it’s feelgood factor a lot more. Too bad they didn’t make more use of that steel drum clang at the very beginning, repeating it later on or even incorporating a melodic sequence based on it to ice the cake.

Frankie Smith – Double Dutch Bus

BONUS: Lio sounds Japanese to me but this enigmatic Belgian-Portugese girl fronts a rather good disco/pop album in the form of her eponymous 1980 debut. I have yet to investigate beyond this but ‘You Go To My Head’ is a brief but enchanting number – OMD synths quivering underneath her pleasant if vague romantic tribute while Debussyian strings lap forth occasionally. Short and sweet.

Lio – You Go To My Head

20080208
Kiki Dee – Star

It seems widely acknowledged that 1981 was a particuarly fine year for pop music and I had at least six great tracks I wanted to put up here for the inaugural ‘81 entry, from Family Fodder to Dollar to The Associates and more.

But somehow Bradford’s finest, Kiki Dee, with her last top 40 hit ever on her own gets the nod. I think it came from my recent acquisition of a 100 80s Hits compilation spanning five CDs and only already having around a third to a quarter of the songs was actually good odds.

By chance it was cued up just after Kylie’s ‘Wow’ (which I like far more than I probably should do given it’s generic approach and yet it’s feelgood quality and production actually seem better balanced than many of her other hits, and I’d deny it’s any more ‘bloodless’ than them either) and the cheery piano intros are strikingly similar.

With Disco v1.0 supposedly in it’s death throes ‘Star’ may have felt like a throwback at the time but on the sinking crest of the mainstream wave and sandwiching Fame’s film and subsequent TV series it fits like a glove. The production is both spangly and solid. Dee’s vocals are cool, confident and carefree but with the chorus, layers of voice conspire to reach a pitch difficult for anyone to hit on their own. And if that wasn’t fiendish (or maybe foolish – think of the missed karaoke opportunities) enough there’s a marvellous key change towards the end – I guess it was (still) the style at the time. By which point cutesy horns tootle in time to the euphoric affirmation…we’re halfway to French House. Perhaps one day some buffoon will get their hands on this for a glitzy 00s chart-smashing revamp but they have and you could do a lot worse.

Kiki Dee – Star

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