from the LP With Sympathy, Arista Records, 1983
Even though Al Jourgensen has consistently disavowed his contributions to the official release of this, his debut album under the alias ‘Ministry’, it’s hard to hate any exercise in post-Depeche Mode synthtastic lack of inhibition, particularly when the songs are as catchy as this; come on Al, editing quirks notwithstanding, this is the fucking schnizzle! Juvenile sex metaphors about “working overtime” aside, everything about this song pleases me: choice beats, creep-tastic synths, angular guitars, even Al’s faux-British accent does the job. Short of the dark ambiance, there aren’t really any indicators of the brash direction his music would take in the coming years, but that sharply removed distance only adds to the appeal of these primitive musical excursions, for me anyways.
from the 12” single, The Summer Records, 1986
GUILTY PLEASURE ALERT Seriously people, I recognize that some of the stuff I post on here must give you pause… like, “is this cat for real?!” Yup, he sure is. I can’t help it that a lot of the music which filled South Florida airwaves in the 1980s would have been considered heresy in many other parts of the country, as that was all I knew at the time, embossing itself upon some of my happiest memories; this upbeat number is precisely one of those cuts! Not your average freestyle track, thanks largely to that pulsing 4x4 beat underneath all those luscious synths and synth-claps, this song was recorded in Hialeah (right outside Miami, ghetto) by producer Ish Ledesma; having become such a sensation at clubs & on local radio, it wound up getting national distribution through Atlantic records and became a #1 hit on Billboard’s Dance chart the year after its release.
from the 12” single, Streetwise Records, 1983
If you grew up in the ‘80s and aspired to be cool, the cult classic film Beat Street was a definite must-watch: not as fresh as Wild Style but not quite as hokey as Breakin’, all genuine efforts to get the word out about then-new underground cultures which had arisen on the coasts. Sex kitten and daughter of stoner guru Tommy, Rae Dawn Chong had all of us captivated by her exotic looks and sassy flair, but like the other two above mentioned films, the dank music was the real star here. The only reason British electro jazz-funk crew Freeez had a song in there was due to this number’s producer, one Arthur Baker (of Afrika Bambaataa fame), who gave this slinky cut just the right amount of edge to be enjoyed by both mainstream clubbers and hardcore pop&lock-ers alike; thanks to a remixed re-release in ’87, this track was somewhat ubiquitous on urban radio throughout the entire decade, and appreciatively so.
from the 12” single, Crash Records, 1983
Casiotone keyboards and CZ-101 synthesizers seemed to come out of nowhere in the ‘80s, given that the Japanese electronics brand had formerly only been well known for their compact calculators, and the old school heavyweights like Roland, Korg & Moog got taken very much by surprise when their high-end audiophile equipment was suddenly receiving competition from Casio’s budget set ups; I had the tiny PT-1 as a kid, and every last one of those programmed beats (i.e. rhumba, waltz, bossa nova, rock 2, etc…) are still imprinted onto my long term memory banks. Not everyone had access to 808s when they were first released (particularly in Italy, excepting for the mind-bending shit that Rago & Farina were dropping), and many italo producers were quick to adopt the more user friendly, low-end gear, leaving us an inexorably thorough documentation of all the potential that Casio machines offered. This track was cut by the little-known production team of Daniele Francesconi & Mauro Pilato, uplifting but just edgy enough to avoid deep cheese, and yet another ‘80s kitsch-centric cover for all you design whores.
from the LP Passion Factory, Hansa Records, 1981
Although they later went on to follow a similar musical direction as the Pet Shop Boys and Erasure (see: Europop cheese at its finest), at this stage in their career the German duo of Sven Dohrow & Ronny Schreinzer, known simply as the Twins, still sounded very much like a Tubeway Army tribute band---that’s not an insult in the least, as Gary Numan fucking rocks, and so does a good portion of this debut album. Granted, the lyrics aren’t nearly as haunted or delicious as Numan’s are, but the music itself comes quite close, and there is a hint of the Cars’ influence to be found here as well, both inspirations fashioning a very melodic sound indeed. You just have to love the iconic cover photo, so fucking ‘80s man!
from the LP Visage, Polydor Records, 1980
If you study the etiologies of various musical subcultures over the last 50 years or so, you find that many genres initially found their footing within the confines of a single club (sometimes merely a club night), insular underground scenes developing the fulcrum of a full-fledged trend, often without realizing the extent of the exposure which was to come. The short-lived New Romantic movement of the early ‘80s, essentially a fashion-obsessed tributary of the New Wave, is a textbook example of this phenomenon, and the club promoters responsible for creating all that fuss (Steve Strange & Rusty Egan) just happened to also be (good at hiring…) musicians, calling themselves Visage---a name well chosen, given the scene’s propensity for androgyny, excessive use of makeup, and foppish period clothing (see: fancy tranny pirates). This song, Visage’s biggest and most enduring hit, is suitably over-the-top with that lone oscillating monosynth and high-drama lyrics, particularly the nonchalant delivery of some French spoken word. It was all a bit cheeky, and any unabashed celebration of the ersatz in music is usually doomed to a brief shelf-life, but having spawned such polarizing and famous figures as Boy George & Duran Duran, the impact was both real and wide-reaching. Go figure.
from the CD Disaro, Disaro Records, 2010
Distance often impacts the vibrations of music, regardless of if one is speaking about a dissociated emotional ambiance or the literal void between sound waves and your ears, fashioning an emotional response in humans that people typically either take a lot of pleasure in or dislike intensely; I’ll bet you can guess what camp I fall into. A running theme in many “witch house” tracks is a severe sense of detachment, found in both the minimalist beats and, if included, the blasé vocals; to my surprise (a hipster I am not), a chunk of this scene comes from right here in the Denver area, including the band for which the genre gets its name, Modern Witch. This track is the easy highlight for me on their somewhat uneven debut album: pummeling beats, stabby synths, evil effects-laden keys, and the singing, which shows up just enough to hit the correct notes, and not an iota more. Everything about this song resonates for me, perhaps most of all their decision to skew the equalizers in such a way as to give the impression of being recorded in a tunnel, propelling us alongside their dark, neon-lit nightmare party.
from the LP Promise, Portrait Records, 1985
Damn yo, does it get any smoother than Sade? If this shit was much mellower it would need to come with a prescription & a fucking warning to not operate heavy machinery while under its influence (perhaps not a good idea anyways…)! This track was everywhere upon its release, and for years after as well, but it wasn’t exactly the kind of music you copped to liking if you were young & rebellious--- that said, it seems like everyone between the ages of 30 and 50 now openly proclaim this band’s brilliance, so we were all obviously loving their songs in secret back then. Hell, it even feels good to pronounce their name: Shah-day!!! Fronted by the exotic & beautiful Helen Folasade Adu, this London-based crew was undoubtedly the biggest adult contemporary band going, even if most people only remember Ms. Adu; interestingly, I recall there being rumours about her having been a model who was only asked to front the group for her looks, when in actuality she was already singing in a soul band before Sade, as well as being the lyricist for most of this band’s songs. “…there's a quiet storm, and it never felt like this before, there's a quiet storm that is you; there's a quiet storm, and it never felt this hot before, giving me something that's taboo…” Being in love never sounded so kinky before---well, okay, yes it has, but this one is pretty damn sultry…I’m guessing many of the students I teach today may very well have been conceived to the grooves of Sade, and that’s a legacy worth bragging about.
from the LP Faith, Columbia Records, 1987
Hindsight is always 20/20 isn’t it---I mean, this track seemed typical enough back when it got dropped as a single, especially given the sexy music video (part of which was shot in black & white) which starred Mr. Michael as a furry taxi driver who is smoking cigarettes in every scene and pursuing some stunning brunette, high-fashion model. Granted, the sexual nuances inherent to lyrics like, “…that's all I wanted, but sometimes love can be mistaken for a crime…I will be your father figure, put your tiny hand in mine; I will be your preacher, teacher, anything you have in mind… I'll be your daddy, whoa, I will be the one who loves you, ‘til the end of time…” can be construed to fit both gay & straight relationship templates, but given the entire circus of fun that was Wham, maybe we shouldn’t have been so surprised. At any rate, this song is the definition of ethereal sensuality, from the finger-snaps to the breathy vocal delivery to the moody piano---it all screams sweaty fucking on the floor & blow jobs by candlelight.
from the 12” single, Factory Records, 1984
The musical cross-pollinations that were part & parcel to the British post-punk scene never paid much mind to any rules or regulations, sometimes resulting in overly stuffed pieces that fell flat to even the most experimental of ears, but often achieving the kind of far-reaching, genre-defying pastiches which made you both groove and question your allegiance to any one scene or sound. Manchester, for all it’s talent, was still a fairly small town, particularly for those that were “alternative”, so I guess it shouldn’t be too surprising that Factory Records would wind up signing a boogie jazz-funk crew like 52nd Street (the drummer from A Certain Ratio is the brother of these guys’ bassist); in all honesty, a grip of post-punk cuts from all over England belie an obvious affinity for disco and electronic post-disco music, so this wasn’t even a stretch I suppose. This particular single was produced by Stephen Morris, drummer for Factory’s biggest selling group New Order, and his fingerprints are all over the place (namely those synth-drum rolls), but it’s the vocal stylings of one Diane Chalemagne that pushes this number from standard banger to being an all-out funktastic classic; notably, she later became the voice of Goldie’s early hits, including his renowned “Inner City Life”.
from the 12” single, Beggars Banquet Records, 1982
Even though this sizzling hot 12” skillfully straddles a number of musical genres, none of them are particularly known for having notable (or even memorable) lyrics, and I can honestly confess that I probably listened to this track 20 or 30 times before something about the first verse caught my attention---is he saying what I think he’s saying?! “I know where I am, I now understand just who I really am; shy, oh not no more, I’ve felt that before, but now I’m a grown-up man...joy, yes I live joy, not being a boy, I’ll be a woman…life is gonna be magic, magic from now on…” Wow, not every day somebody writes a song about being transgender, major props to Side On, a British trio that shared two members with boogie-funk crew Freeez; to be honest, even the GLBT community has a long way to go in accepting, more fully, the trans- population. This isn’t exactly the type of music that Beggar’s Banquet was known for either, so I wonder if there’s a deeper story to all this…? In any case, it’s funky as hell, being open-minded and getting down, I dig it.
from the LP Causers of This, Carpark Records, 2010
Ever wondered what house music would sound like if you slowed it down by about half? There’s no way to be sure, but I’m guessing that query may have been a part of the catalyst which resulted in many of the gauzy musical wonders loosed upon the world over the last couple years; either that, or Chazwick ‘Toro y Moi’ Bundick and fellow South Carolinian beach buddy Earnest ‘Washed Out’ Greene got mad baked one hazy afternoon and dropped the tempo (accidentally or purposefully) on the turntable. Whatever forces served as the impetus for their sonic experiments, we can all rejoice in the resulting synth-gasms they gave birth to; Greene’s dazzling Life of Leisure made numerous year-end lists in 2009, and I have no doubt that Bundick will follow along this year, as his album here ably carries that mellow torch forward a few more steps (nice Cybotron-esque cover art as well). Having also grown up at the beach, I immediately connected to these waste-y sounding vibes, like waking up on a soft flannel blanket to the sound of crashing waves after an all-night bonfire. Indeed, now we can all party a little harder on Saturdays, knowing that we have sublime music like this to help ease us back down to Earth the morning after…
from the CD Walking On A Dream, Astralwerks Records, 2009
Yes, this is absolutely some major peak-time, mid-summer, hands in the air type of shit, but I forgot to post it last summer, and then again this summer (d’oh); no worries though, because this remix, care of the incredible Atlanta-based Treasure Fingers, bumps like a motherfucker, so we can enjoy this groove all year round. Banging four-to-the-floor beats, windchimes, handclaps, and that bouncing Madonna-esque synthline all make for an awfully habit-forming song. Admittedly, the art on Empire of the Sun’s full length LP looks like Adam & the Ants meets Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon in Never-Never Land, and the lyrics are total cheese (i.e. “…all we got is tonight, that is right, ‘til first light…is it real now, when two people become one; I can feel it, when two people become one…”), but no worries, these guys are just having fun---check out the music video for the original version of this track on youtube for more proof of that (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMJjF4LHOkY&ob=av2n). I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the Aussie music scene is clearly one of the healthiest in the world right now, and there seems to be no stop in sight.
from the EP oOoOO, Disaro Records, 2010
To quote Beck, a true master of the headiest steez, “…I'm just talking about a chorus like, 'Can you feel my bass drum?' That's potent, you can't even mess with that. There's things embedded in that that you can't communicate in any other way…” Can you FEEL my motherfucking bass drum?!?!! This is a ridiculously sultry cover/re-edit of a late ‘80s freestyle track by Nocera called “Summertime Summertime”, and although the original is fresh as well, this redux is some serious panty-droppin’, bottle service-havin’, slo-mo-slangin’ moistness, on the real. Having one of the more cryptic (and difficult to know how to pronounce) names in modern music, oOoOO is actually Chris Greenspan of San Francisco; this newer style of eerie electronics, essentially a mashup of hip-hop beats and coldwave synth-pop, is being called “drag” and “witch house” in the press---both of which suck as names. How about calling it “Ouija beats”? Just kidding. Whatever you want to dub this, it’s hard to deny those macabre & detached, yet strikingly bucolic & melodic, beats! His new EP drops in a week, so don’t sleep… I realize that summer is now officially come and gone for another year, but come on, “…take me, take me to the par-ty, summer time, summer time…” That’s a vibe I can get behind all year!
from the LP Songs from the Big Chair, Mercury Records, 1985
Regular readers of this blog know that I don’t often wade into the slurry pit of bullshit that is American politics, so please forgive me this one instance to share a couple of thoughts I’ve had after learning more about some of the fucktarded nutbags who won a few of our nation’s primary elections last night and over the past couple months: (ahem…) okay, um, REALLY??!!? Given the statistics we’ve recently heard regarding how one fifth of our population actually believes that our president is a foreign-born muslim, it must be those same lurching imbeciles who are turning out to vote, which is fucking scary people. I’m not a cheerleader for the Dems either---as I’ve previously stated, I think virtually ALL politicians at the federal (and increasingly, the state) level are crazy douchebags and narcissists of the highest order; that said, the alternatives on the other side appear to be far more harrowingly stupid and out of touch, which is what makes a GOP sweep in November such a sincerely frightening & horrifying probability. Not to mention the fact that our Supreme Court is now heavy with young social conservatives… The deeper, and more petrifying, reality this wave symbolizes is the failure of our educational system, en masse; poor people voting against their own interests out of some delusional resolve that we need to go backwards instead of forwards…I won’t even venture into the sickeningly elevated levels of religious zealotry that is linked to that crowd. In order for a democracy to work correctly, the people have to be well educated--- otherwise, we become held captive to the reactionary perils of emotional idiots. (deep sigh) Okay, ‘nuff said.
from the 12” single, Astralwerks Records, 1999
Progenitors of a sound that became widely known as “La French Touch”, the duo of Philippe Zdar & Hubert “Boom Bass” Blanc-Francart, known to most ravers as Cassius, actually have roots that reach back over a decade and are planted in hip-hop, as La Funk Mob long before their later rise to fame alongside crews like Daft Punk and Air; frankly, their LP 1999 was far more diverse in sound and beats than their contemporaries’ albums were around the same time, perhaps pointing to the widely varying influences at play in their minds. This track, which samples Gwen McCrae’s “All This Love That I’m Givin” both generously & successfully, teems with creative energy and easily established the fact that, indeed, “…Cassius in the house…” The French are often ahead of the curve with trends, and it was no different in electronic music, as Parisians found themselves toward the end of the ‘90s unwilling to wait another decade for that ‘80s synthtastic sound to come back, a vibe which the rest of us have only embraced in the last few years over here. Good lookin out guys, merci!
from the LP Information Society, Tommy Boy Records, 1988
Sometimes you gotta know when to cut your losses, a truth which is rarely easy to swallow, but is nonetheless vital for a human’s ability to genuinely relax. One of the more valuable lessons given to me by my folks is: pick your battles in life carefully, because a mêlée in the mind (or of the body) can be a deeply draining and debilitating endeavor, so it should be worth it; they also implied that those battles will likely change over time, so don’t get too comfortable hanging on to one fight or another. This song is about a girl, presumably, but the lyrics are broad enough to enable the listener to imagine anything from their past/present which required walking away; the group, Minneapolis’ own Information Society, were one of the more investigational synth crews in the ‘80s, giving their pop-friendly tunes healthy doses of techno, industrial, & freestyle elements. To be perfectly honest, I always thought these guys were from Florida as a kid, because (I believed) that would be the only place where white people could get away with making music that drew inspiration from freestyle beats the way this song does.
from the EP Bright City Lights, Tuff Em Up! Records, 2010
I realize this song made the rounds on a grip of blogs a while back, but it’s so fucking silky smooth that it deserves to stay in rotation all damn year in my opinion! With a thundering bassline that would make Patrick Cowley proud & and synthesizers tastefully mangled slop-chop style, this burner is a rather ambitious and all around epic affair for someone’s debut release--- and goddamn right too, because it’s clear that Chilean artist Barretso isn’t fucking around with any foreplay, he’s going directly for the money shot. Not only does he serve as the composer & producer of the tracks on this EP, he’s the one singing as well, doing a bangup job at channeling that coke-fueled anthemic ‘80s vibe which lays at the root of this entire ‘chill-wave’ explosion. There is a forthcoming full length slated for release later in the year, and gauging by the tracks he has posted on his myspace page, it’s not going to let up on the velocity at all; buckle up and pump this one on the highway for full effect...
from the LP With Sympathy, Arista Records, 1983
