Music

DJ Food ‘Lo Editions’ Licensing album

Jon Tye‘s Lo Editions series of online licensing albums gets another entry with a DJ Food sampler this month. This is music for TV and film use, fully licensed and ready to use if you’re signed up to Universal Music’s production music service. The tracks span from early ‘Jazz Brakes’ LPs up to ‘The Search Engine’ but all songs have any vocals removed as well as names changed from the originals.

Some are exclusive edits, instrumentals, reworkings and even unreleased in some cases. You can listen online and play spot the original but there won’t be a physical release because this stuff is mainly in the digital domain these days. Above is the cover image and below is an outtake from the design session which wasn’t chosen but that I particularly like.

 

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ZTT turns 30

The great Zang Tuum Tumb Records turns 30 years old this month and to celebrate they have a compilation out called ‘The Organization of Pop’. I’ll be reactivating my dormant Art of ZTT site to post a host of updates later this month too featuring exclusive images from some of the people who were there at the beginning.

The label issued a short press release last week with the phrase, ‘Today is officially the end of the beginning.”


Looking down the track listing there aren’t too many surprises in the form of unreleased gems but the inclusion of both Grace Jones and Seal as the first two tracks hopefully means that some sort of legal agreement has at last been worked out and we can expect to see proper reissues of their work in the future. Also note that this is the New York Edition – further London and Tokyo Editions are planned for next year…

ZTT Records Presents The Organization of Pop (New York Edition)
Music From The First Thirty Years of ZTT Records

Disc 1: The Organisation of Pop (the Action Series, from ZTT)

• Grace Jones – Slave To The Rhythm
• Seal – Kiss From A Rose
• Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Relax (New York Mix)
• 808 State – Pacific (Justin Strauss 0101 Mix)
• Art of Noise – Beat Box
• Propaganda – Dr. Mabuse (Abuse)
• Tom Jones – If Only I Knew (Cold Stop Version)
• MC Tunes vs 808 State – Dance Yourself To Death (Dust Brothers Radio Edit)
• Propaganda – Sorry For Laughing (Unapologetic 12” Mix)
• 808 State – Cubik (Pan American Excursion)
• Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Two Tribes
• Shane MacGowan and Sinead O’Connor – Haunted
• The Frames – Star Star
• Art of Noise – Moments In Love (Beaten)

Disc 2: The Disorganisation of Pop (the Incidental Series, from Zang Tuum Tumb)

• The Buggles – We Can Fly From Here (Part One)
• The Frames – Say It To Me Now
• Shane MacGowan and Maire Brennan – You’ve The One
• Lee Griffiths – Sweet Baby James
• Das Psycho Rangers – Homage to the Blessed
• Art of Noise featuring Rakim – Metaforce
• Nasty Rox Inc. – Escape From New York (12” Mix)
• ACT – Snobbery & Decay (That’s Entertainment Mix)
• The Buggles – I Am A Camera (12” Mix)
• Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Welcome To The Pleasuredome (Fruitness Mix)
• Lisa Stansfield – The Moment
• The Buggles – We Can Fly From Here (Part Two)
• Andrew Poppy – Kink Konk Adagio

Posted in Design, Event, Music. | No Comments |

Equinox Records: 2002-2013

Genuinely saddened to hear of the demise of Berlin’s Equinox records, the label run by DJ Scientist who we featured with his ‘Soviet Solid Steel’ mix earlier in the year on the radio show. Not only has it produced some great music from the likes of Deckard, David Vangel, DJ Scientist himself and of course 2econd Class Citizen, whom I collaborated with on my last record. But it has consistently gone way above and beyond with the artwork, formats and packaging, creating an instantly recognisable look with heavy use of its signature brown card amongst the mainly black and white design work. I’m a sucker for circular designs and Equinox was the king of the design mandala with always inventive typography treading a perfect line between brand new and vintage.

Always pushing for new formats, they did everything from clear 7″s to etched 12″s, 5″ records and cassette box sets in sometimes miniscule runs. I remember Gunter – the label boss, aka DJ Scientist – being one of the first people to contact me when he learnt that I had found a place to press flexi discs after years of searching. He was also the first person I saw do a postcard record set and I was very proud to have my mix of 2econd Class Citizen’s second album appear as a limited release on the label last year.

I’ve featured several of the releases before on this blog but if you want a refresher of what’s been and gone then go here, here and here. The remaining stock is still for sale on the Equinox website and they recently posted the entire catalogue for free. Scientist has written a long piece about the label and both 2econd Class Citizen and David Vangel have shared reminisces and photos on their sites (Aaron’s  photo is one that I nicked above). David’s album ‘Breadth Control’ is up for free download for another day and all the prices in the Equinox shop have been lowered so grab those last pieces quick.

The final release – ‘Counter Future’, a 3 LP and flexi disc compilation of the label’s roster – is a beauty to behold and listen to with many of the artists presenting original tracks unavailable elsewhere.

Posted in Design, Music, Packaging, Records. | 2 Comments |

The Simonsound – ‘The Beam’ 10″ + live recording

At long last, after featuring it here months ago and then a pressing plant quality control issue meaning that the release was delayed, it’s finally here. The Simonsound‘s new single, ‘The Beam’ in all its 10″ clear vinyl, ‘Pilot Pack’ space age glory. After the wait it more than lives up to the expectation, this is one of the most amazingly packaged records I own, how much it must have cost is beyond me.

Designed by Emily Macaulay at Stanley James Press who has done all the artwork for the band so far, the photos here really don’t do it justice. Firstly – the material the sleeve is made of is a silver textured card with a silky smooth finish, I’ve never seen a record jacket like it. The cover is plain with a high quality sticker wrapped around it and reminds me of an instruction manual from the 60’s, which I’m sure is the intention.

Inside the gatefold you’re treated to several pockets, each holding a different item, before we even get to the vinyl: A NASA-styled Simonsound Transit Authority embroidered patch, a numbered, signed ticket to ride, a double-sided tour map of the Monorail route, a 20 page booklet about the Monorail and, last but not least, a unique tape loop from the project.

The attention to detail here is absolutely stunning and spot on for the subject matter, the blue, white and silver colour scheme is the perfect mix of transport design meets pilot of the future uniform. When we finally get to the 10″ record – extractable via a tasteful thumb cut in the back half of the sleeve – lo and behold, it’s on clear vinyl! A great final touch but one that delayed the original release date because of warped pressings from the original plant tasked with making them.

What about the music though? ‘The Beam’ is a modular trip through different worlds via the Monorail at a fantasy science park, taking in Outer Space, Robot World, Underwater World and more. The tour guide takes you through the different stages and the soundtrack changes to suit (the original idea was to get Ken Nordine to narrate but he wasn’t available). Simon has used the manufacturing delays to recut the vinyl with more material than the original pressing so we get a montage of various sounds and effects he’s generated on the reverse of the disc in addition to the second track.

The B-side is actually my favourite, ‘In The Shadow of the Skylon’, an ode to the iconic structure that was built for the 1951 Festival of Britain on London’s Southbank. This track has shades of Kraftwerk circa Man Machine with a definite feel of ‘Neon Lights’ about it, my only criticism is that it’s too short. It was commissioned for Musicity – a location specific music project featuring tracks inspired by buildings and structures around the World. The track itself is also accessible on the site where the Skylon used to stand, using the free Musicity web app.

You can read more about the release and score yourself a copy (sorry, the Pilot Packs are all gone) on The Simonsound blog and Bandcamp page.

I’d also recommend checking out the video for ‘The Beam’ below as it really fleshes out the concept of the whole thing being that it’s a soundtrack more than a club track.

and there’s more – The Simonsound live at Herstmonceux

 

A few weeks ago, I journeyed down to St. Leonards-on-Sea for an event called Kosmic Krash at the Herstmonceux Observatory where Simon was playing live inside one of the domes with his new Buchla modular synth. He has kindly put up a 45 minute excerpt of the set on his blog for us all to enjoy, it was the highlight of the evening for me, sitting inside one of the domes next to a giant telescope, listening to this electro musique concrete.

Posted in Design, Music, Packaging, Records. | 2 Comments |

(Mr) Chop ‘Illuminate’ LP


I’ve not even heard the whole album yet but I know I’m going to love it. As the description says: “Studio wizard Chop pulls out all of the analogue stops on the Motorik highway to Cybotron by way of a Tangerine Dream on his debut album for Now-Again. Album out NOW; download a free track at the link!”

Buy: Chop ‘Illuminate’ on iTunes
Download: Chop ‘Building Blocks’
Video By: MR.IMD
Chop website: here

 

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Nostalgia #2 : 90’s version

(disclaimer: I started writing this over a year ago and it’s sat on another machine for a while, I’ve slightly updated it but imagine it would have been published 18 months ago. Photos from my scrapbooks of flyers, cuttings and memorabilia)

90’s nostalgia

In recent months I’ve felt the first genuine pangs of nostalgia for the early 90’s, a time I generally think of as ‘the last decade’. Of course, it’s no longer the last decade, the beginning of the 90’s being 23 years ago. It’s a time I hold very dear as it shaped my life and career as it is today and the person I started out as in 1990 was very different to the one that saw in the new millennium fireworks over London in 1999.

For me, the 90’s was a decade of music, upon music, upon music. My teenage years in the 80’s were a diet of pop (80-85) and Hip Hop (85-90) – almost exclusively, aside from forays into more guitar-orientated material and the House /Acid /Dance explosion at the end of it all. The 90’s seemed to herald a new music style every year: 90: Rave, 91: Ambient, 92: Intelligent Techno, 93: Jungle, 94/95: Brit Pop, Trip Hop & Drum n Bass, 96: Turntablism & Indie Hip Hop, 97: Big Beat and the resurgence of Lounge and Easy Listening, 98: Post Rock and Krautrock’s reappraisal…

In between all this I was steadily helping build the house of Ninja and getting to travel the world for the first time, acquiring huge amounts of new music in the process. I practically bought my Jazz and Funk collections in the US and Canada in the 90’s, along with plenty of Soundtracks, Moog, Easy Listening and Spoken Word records. Europe yielded Music Concreté as well as yet more Jazz and Japan gave up it’s vintage Hip Hop treasures, at double the price they would have no doubt paid for them elsewhere. All the while back home labels like Mo Wax, Warp and of course, Ninja Tune were pumping out classic after classic alongside a revitalised US Hip Hop scene that had managed to extricate part of itself from gangster-ism with labels like Fondle ‘Em, Stones Throw, Def Jux and Sole Sides. The UK Rap scene was also getting itself together with Sound of Money, Bite It, Jazz Fudge and Big Dada.

Late last year (2011) I did an interview with Joe Muggs for Word magazine about the differences between the world and the music industry in 2000 (when ‘Kaleidoscope’ was released) and how it stands today, now that there’s finally a new album out. The contrasts were, of course, quite stark, being that the music business has gone through one of the most radical upheavals in memory in the last 10 years.

At one point in the conversation though, we went off on a tangent and discovered a mutual love for an early 90’s breed of music he’d christianed ‘Drug Dub’. Never a real scene at the time, more a hybrid existing in those transitional moments of fallout after one musical movement and the coalescing of another. In the music world nothing is ever cut and dried and many strands are working simultaneously in different areas, when these veer into each others paths, you usually find a new style emerging at the crossroads they’ve created.

If you had to bookend the schools that spawned this music you’d probably peg the resurgence of ambient after the acid house come down of the late 80’s at one end and Trip Hop in the early to mid 90’s at the other. Inject a heavy does of Dub into the mix via post-‘Screamadelica’-era Weatherall remixes and acts like The Orb and the On-U Sound stable but bypass the resurgence of Jazz and and Soul and any uptempo Rave tendencies you might have. This is electronic stoner music pure and simple, the big come down after the hedonism of the ecstacy-fulled 80’s all-nighters and the, then current, rave boom. This is B-side music, those odd, experimental tracks tucked away on the reverse side of the club bangers on a Rising High 12″ or on compilations by fledgling labels scraping together an ad hoc roster.

It was mostly faceless, save for the odd name artist like Depth Charge, Coil or Meat Beat Manifesto straying into the territory. Odd tracks here and there by John + Julie, Halftone, Aquamarine, Friends, Lovers & Family, Digidub or The Moody Boys. Whilst the KLF, The Orb and The Shamen were giving the charts a major kicking where dance music was concerned and the Rave tours of the Prodigy and 808 State were in full swing, an underbelly of post-club ‘chilling’ (always hated that word) was happening in the early hours. Coldcut were already mining some of this when I first joined them on their Solid Steel show and one of the first tracks I played was ‘Sexy Selector’ by Original Rockers – one of the tracks Joe had selected for a compilation he’d put together, called, you guessed it… ‘Drug Dub’.

A few weeks later (now 2012) we did a Stealth special on Solid Steel where we talked a bit about what went on back in the day at the Blue Note club in Hoxton, the place where it really kicked into gear for Ninja Tune in the mid 90’s. PC played a set entirely made of tracks we used to play at the time and the rush of nostalgia was almost too much, I found myself grinning from ear to ear for the whole hour as it came flooding back. I’d had to delve into this era two years previously for the Ninja Tune 20th anniversary book but that didn’t involve music, only imagery. The reason we did a Stealth special in the first place was to give listeners who were new to the show a bit of history, because, as one person at the station put it, “now that we are into a full-blown 90’s revival…”


It feels like we’re still at the early stages of the 90’s with The Stone Roses reforming, The Orb celebrating 25 years and Primal Scream having done ‘Screamadelica’ in full last year. Classic House and Rave sounds have been coming back into production and the resurgence of the Amen Break in the last year or so seems to indicate that we’re at roughly ’92-93 currently. Can the Trip Hop revival be far behind? Talking of which, I have an even older, longer post about that coming soon…

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Nostalgia

Looking back over the last few posts it all seems to be nostalgia here at the moment: Bambaataa, Duck Rock, Star Wars figures, Boards of Canada represses and old copies of Sounds magazine. I guess it’s pretty obvious where my tastes lie right now, although that’s not to say I’m not loving any current music. But, since I don’t do any current charts here any more I thought I should maybe put together a list of (new) things that I’m loving at the moment.

Sinoia Caves ‘The Enchanter Persuaded’ – this is actually from 2006 but I totally missed it at the time, discovered because Jeremy Schmidt (aka Sinoia Caves) did the soundtrack to ‘Beyond The Black Rainbow’ last year
Dharma Protocol feat. Boy George ‘Coming Home‘ (Psychemagik remix) – no one is more surprised than me that I like this, incredible slice of classic House
Black Moth Super Rainbow ‘Dandelion Gum’ LP – again, a few years old but new to me, beautiful summer analogue lo-fi on LSD
Melt Yourself Down ‘Melt Yourself Down‘ LP (Leaf) – Pigbag meets Fela Kuti meets Liquid Liquid with a drop of acid electronics, the most exciting new band this year.
Chop ‘Mutant’ EP (Now Again)  – Formally Mr Chop, also awaiting the ‘Illuminate’ LP to drop through the letterbox
Boards of Canada ‘Tomorrow’s Harvest’ (Warp) – still on rotation
The Simonsound – ‘The Beam’ / ‘In The Shadow of the Skylon’ 10″ (Project Blue Book) – new monorail-themed single from Brighton’s finest
Four Tet & Rocketnumbernine ‘Metropolis’ (Text)
Lone ‘Airglow Fires’ (R&S)
Mark Pritchard ‘Lock Off’ EP (Warp)
Ras G ‘Back To The Planet’ LP (Brainfeeder)
Dawn Day Night ‘Higher Plains’ (Astrophonica)
Yosi Howikawa ‘Vapor’ LP (First Word)

That’s some of it anyway, there’s more that I’m waiting on like the Dark Seed 12″, the ‘Cosmic Machine’ compilation and I’m going to need a new tape player before I can hear the ‘Diabolical Melodix’ Beat Tape that Andy Votel just put out. As far as my own output, the summer holidays have slowed things down somewhat with children to look after etc. but I just  remixed a track for a Playstation game and subsequently had it turned down so that was a waste of time. I’ve also just finished an epic Four Tet interview for the Dust & Grooves website, not sure when it will be published but it is HUGE and was a lot of fun to do.

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Kraftwerk and ‘The Cold Wave’ in Sounds 26.11.77

The now defunct weekly UK music paper, Sounds, had a reputation for championing Rock and Heavy Metal above everything else. Writers Garry Bushell and Jon Savage raved and wrote about Oi and Punk respectively but there was more to the paper. 1977: The Queen’s Jubilee and the height of Punk in the media, right? Not by late November in Sounds it wasn’t, this was also the year ‘Trans Europe Express’ was released.

A stark cover featured Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider photographed on the banks of the Rhine in their hometown of Dusseldorf by Caroline Coon, a two page interview leading the first part of a look at ‘New Musick: The Cold Wave’. Interviews or pieces on Eno, Throbbing Gristle, The Residents and Devo all appear by Savage, Jane Suck and Hal Synthetic (love these writing pseudonyms). Not very Rock or Punk.

Kraftwerk SOUNDS int. 26-11-77

The Kraftwerk interview is fascinating, with Florian almost adding as much as Hutter and the two finishing each other’s sentences. Hutter mentions the term ‘Electronic Body Music’ and they talk about putting together comics detailing the themes of their music, I wonder what happened to them? Karl Bartos and Wolfgang Flur aren’t even mentioned although they do appear in at least one of the photos in the piece. It’s interesting to note that Ralf and Florian picked the journalist up from the airport and showed him about the city before the interview was conducted inside their Kling Klang studios. That certainly wouldn’t happen today. See more photos from the shoot, including a smiling Ralf & Florian that were not featured in the article, here.

*After numerous requests, here’s the piece, hope you can read it*
KWSOUNDS261177pg1KWSOUNDS261177pg2The Eno piece is typical, well… Eno, he talks and talks about his ideas, just as he always does, with his sideways looks at subjects ranging from dub reggae to Eskimos engineering US Air Force jets in Alaska. There’s no attempt at cross examination and the ‘interview’ is distilled from five hours of chat into two Eno’s: the non-musician and the theorist. Along with Throbbing Gristle refusing to issue forth any kind of manifesto but the paper giving their ‘2nd Annual Report’ a 5 star review and a fairly scathing feature on The Residents, it’s an odd collection. The rest of the paper features things like ads for The Damned’s second album, Kiss’ ‘Kiss Alive II’ and the new Rick Wakeman LP, live reviews of The Jam, Richard Hell and Blondie sit with articles on Pub Rock and The Eaters (no, me neither) and a very early Savage Pencil episode of ‘Rock & Roll Zoo’.

Posted in Found in Sounds, Kraftwerk, Magazines, Music. | 4 Comments |

The Orb – A History of the Future boxset

Due on October 7th and spread across 3 CDs and 1 DVD:

Disc 1: The Singles Collection
01. A A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre of the Ultraworld: Loving You (Orbital Dance Mix)
02. Little Fluffy Clouds (Single Version)
03. Perpetual Dawn (Solar Youth Mix)
04. Blue Room (Seven-Inch Version)
05. Assassin (Seven-Inch Version)
06. Oxbow Lakes (Album Version)
07. Asylum (Album Version)
08. Toxygene (Album Version)
09. Once More (Album Version)
10. Ghost Dancing (Album Version)

Disc 2: Remixes and Rarities
01. A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre of the Ultraworld: Loving You (Aubrey Mix Mk II)
02. Little Fluffy Clouds (Coldcut Heavyweight Dub Mix)
03. Perpetual Dawn (Andrew Weatherall Ultrabass 1 Mix)
04. Blue Room (Excerpt 605)
05. Majestic (Heavy Mix – The Orb and Youth)
06. Close Encounters (Smile, You’re On Camera mix – The Orb and Slam)
07. Assassin (Another Live Mix)
08. Toxygene (Ganja Kru Mix)
09. Once More (Mark Pritchard Mix)

Disc 3: Live In Copenhagen & Woodstock
01. Towers of Dub (Live @ Trekkoner Sunset Gig)
02. Little Fluffy Clouds (Live @ Trekkoner Sunset Gig)
03. Blue Room (Live @ Trekkoner Sunset Gig)
04. Star 6 & 7 8 9 (Live @ Trekkoner Sunset Gig)
05. Valley (Live @ Trekkoner Sunset Gig)
06. Assassin (Live @ Woodstock 2)

Disc 4: DVD
01. Fluffy Little Clouds
02. Perpetual Dawn
03. Assassin
04. Oxbow Lakes
05. Pomme Fritz
06. Toxygene
07. DJ Asylum
08. Once More
09. Blue Room (Top Of The Pops ’92)
10. Toxygene (Top Of The Pops ’97)
11. Little Fluffy Clouds (T In The Park)
12. Perpetual Dawn (Ten-Inch TV Advert)

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More postcard records from Postmanlove

These two 5″ postcard records have been available for some time now but I missed them the first time round. The first is by 2econd Class Citizen (above) and the second by Glen Porter (below). Artwork on these is by Toobz and the music is exclusive.

They are the first in a new series by the Postmanslove label, from the people behind Vinyl Postcards in Austria. Now up to no.5, they come in an editon of 200 with 50 in an even more limited edition with a personalised stamp.

Grab one from their online shop.

Posted in Music, Records. | 1 Comment |

Sinoia Caves ‘The Enchanter Persuaded’ album

Really enjoying this at the moment, by Sinoia Caves aka Jeremy Schmidt, who was also responsible for the soundtrack to ‘Beyond The Black Rainbow’. Said film was flawed but visually and sonically gorgeous, due in no small part to Schmidt’s dark and terrifying electronic score.

This album is a lot lighter, much spacier and, with a couple of tracks over the 15 minute mark, much more of a cosmic trip. The 16 minute ‘Dwarf Reaching the Arch Wonder’ is the missing link between Tangerine Dream and Vangelis and wins title of the week by a mile.

I’m well behind on this as it was officially released in 2006 (after a self-release in 2002!). I can only hope that the constant fan rumblings for a proper release of the ‘…Black Rainbow’ soundtrack will be heard some day.

Posted in Music, Poster / flyer. | 2 Comments |

The Second coming of Sigue Sigue Sputnik

This post has very little to do with anything currently happening in the music world but it’s come about because I’ve had my head buried in a huge pile of Melody Maker papers from ’88 and ’89 recently. They’re a fascinating snapshot of particular music scenes as they happened, at a time when current political events were also included alongside the music features although this had largely been phased out by the late 80’s. Anyway, onto the subject matter in the title, the return of Sigue Sigue Sputnik for that difficult second album and what was, effectively, the death of the band’s original run even though they’ve resurrected themselves several times since in different forms.

The original hype had died down, they’d hit big with ‘Love Missile F1-11’ but the singles had seen diminishing returns. Their look was a love it or loathe it mix of cyberpunked-up futuristic sloganeering with band leader Tony James playing the media game as best he could with both sides winning and grabbing headlines until the first album dropped. With Giorgio Moroder‘s name firmly back on everyone’s lips these days, his finest moment (‘I Feel Love’ aside) is still the Sput’s debut album in my opinion. It dazzles as an example of a multi-layed, sample smogasboard, throwing everything AND the kitchen sink into the mix, dubbing the life out of it and to hell with the song arrangements.

But that was ’86 and now, as Acid House had bought us the second Summer of Love in ’88, we find the unthinkable on page 2 of the November 12th issue of the Melody Maker:

For me, this killed any anticipation or will to listen to the band in a single one page advert. Not that there were hoards of fans anticipating a come back, by this time the press had long since turned on them and James and lead singer Martin Degville were regularly ripped to pieces in the weeklies.

Firstly, the photo of the band. So wrong. This wasn’t ‘The 5th Generation of Rock n Roll’, nor was it ‘High-tech Sex and Rockets (baby)’. It certainly didn’t look like ‘T-Rex cuts Disco at the roots of Dub’ either. This was a bunch of pasty holiday makers jumping on the Acid bandwagon, laughing it up by the pool in Ibiza. To add insult to injury the words ‘Produced by Stock Aitken Waterman‘ rolled across the bottom of the ad. How could this have happened? The unthinkable. SAW stood for everything that was wrong with the latter half of the 80’s chart slide into cheese, chintz and manufactured, identikit Pop pap.

You almost have to admire the balls of a band who had any prior cred even dreaming of getting into bed with the trio, especially with Sputnik’s previous rep. Sex, Violence, Designer Drugs and Video Games were definitely not on SAW’s remit. Theirs was love, love, love all the way to the bank, dripping with a sugar sweet innocence that would barely even admit to intercourse before marriage. All thoughts of being taken seriously were out the window at the sight of this ad although they’d taken the precaution to pre-empt the backlash. ‘The group you hate to love’ is bigger than the single title and the multiple format ‘products’ are ‘flogged to death’. James knew exactly what he was doing and was launching some damage limitation before they were shot down.

And shot down they were, despite the Hit Factory’s incredible run of hits in the 80’s, the combination of SAW and SSS could only manage no.31 in the UK charts. It didn’t help that the song, ‘Success’, was an out and out stinker, an unashamed piece of commercial crap that screamed, ‘Love us!’ in a desperate attempt at attention seeking without a whiff of their previous danger. Coupled with the blatant Acid House iconography and mixes, at least six months too late (even Bros had Acid remixes by this time) – it just felt so wrong. The image said summer holidays and here we were nearly at Xmas, they were back but already four months too late. This unfortunate review appeared in the same issue of the Melody Maker as the ad above and it was custom on the weekly singles review page to place single of the week in the top left hand corner of the page.

They were following where they had previously led and let down their guard with their image, something James has even admitted to in his excellent breakdown of the group’s career on Sputnikworld.com. “What you see is as far removed from those original first photos of the band in the subway at midnight as you could possibly get. We had looked like no other band on the planet. Now when I look at the Brazilian footage, I see exactly what we had become – five blokes by the swimming pool in our swimming shorts having a laugh.”

The album followed six months later and – ‘Success’ aside – it’s actually pretty decent, if a pale imitation of their debut. Thankfully that was the only SAW production on the record and they largely mined the same vein of Suicide-meets-Eddy Cochran-plus-samples but lacked ‘the shock of the new’, rather ‘more of the same’ only minus Moroder this time. That’s a bit unfair actually, there were some changes; the singles, ‘Dancerama’ and ‘Albinoni vs Star Wars’ were different and the closing track, ‘Is This The Future’, a ballad that is probably Degville’s finest moment. The genius tagline of ‘…this time it’s music’ on the ad always makes me laugh.

From here though it’s a free fall of bad management, estrangement and apathy as the money and momentum runs out and so does the band’s interest. They had some success in Brazil and a final, fourth, single was pulled from the album in the form of ‘Rio Rocks’. ‘A slogan free advertisement’, reads the bottom of the advert – even James was admitting defeat here, the band split shortly afterwards, less than a year after the comeback.


Posted in Magazines, Music, Poster / flyer. | 14 Comments |

David Vangel ‘I Heard You Sing’

Check this new track out by Toronto’s David Vangel. It closed out the forthcoming ‘Counter Future’ compilation on Berlin’s Equinox label, the third in their series of Sound Exposure showcases. It’s called ‘I Heard you Sing’ and it’s beautiful, there is a video but I would recommend just listening in headphones with the lights down or eyes closed and imagining your own private visions.

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