Last night was quite something. I headed to the Southbank to meet up with Mark Nicholson aka Osymyso for the 19 Eighties gig that was part of The Rest Is Noise festival. Mark is my usual companion in most things electronic and 80’s-related, the last time we were here it was to see Alan Howarth perform selections of his scores for the films of John Carpenter and we have a similar appreciation of all things synthesized.

So, a free talk by Martyn Ware (The Human League / B.E.F. / Heaven 17) and Peter Howell (Radiophonic Workshop) beforehand in the foyer was right up our street. They talked about vintage synths, drum machines, samplers and the like for an hour and the highlight was when Martin got up to recreate the intro to ‘Being Boiled’ on the original mini Korg 700 and Roland System 100 machines that they made it on – (see video clip at the bottom). We were in hog heaven and even had a little play with it afterwards before heading into the concert hall for the main event – passing Trevor Horn on the way in (as you do).

The main event was something quite unique: two pieces by composer Andrew Poppy, one by Michael Nyman, a new piece by Anne Dudley and Paul Morley centered on the music of the 80’s and the thing we had most come to hear – the world premier of Art of Noise‘s ‘Into Battle’ scored for orchestra! How this last piece was going to work we had no idea but the chance to hear a full orchestra playing ‘Moments In Love’ or ‘Beatbox’ was too good an opportunity to miss.

Andrew Poppy – resplendent with long white hair these days – was first up as the orchestra started with a version of his ’32 Frames for Orchestra’ piece from his ‘The Beating of Wings’ LP on ZTT and it was damned near a perfect reproduction. Next, Poppy – who had been sitting center stage behind the mixing desk for this – then took to the stage and played piano in an incredible composition called ‘Almost The Same Shame’ which was new to me but became one of the highlights of the night.

Next was a John Tavener piece called ‘The Lamb’ which was short but beautiful and then we were into battle. Except it wasn’t exactly ‘Into Battle’, it was more ‘Who’s Afraid’ as the orchestra opened with ‘Bright Noise’ and then segued into ‘A Time For Fear (Who’s Afraid)’ which was more than a pleasant surprise as it opens their debut LP rather than the EP advertised. Pushing through elements of ‘Beatbox’ and ‘Moments In Love’ the medley made you realise that this was a sort of logical conclusion seeing as Art of Noise had originally sampled so many orchestral sounds on their records. The transition to the concert hall environment was almost invisible with the horns, harps and strings of the originals deftly recreated, the only slight failing being the somewhat stilted drum beats. This is something that I find happens a lot when orchestras are trying to approximate contemporary beat-based music, they seem stiff, almost too regimented because you can’t approximate the subtleties of a groove on the written page. Even a drum machine can be made to swing and next to the power of a gated, over compressed Oberheim DMX very few rhythm sections are going to cut it.

‘Rhythm’ was the recurring element of Paul Morley‘s narrative during his and Anne Dudley‘s ode to the 80’s which was a fun hit and miss jaunt through the much derided decade, flitting between classics of the age of opportunism interspersed with a ‘Losing My Edge’-esque stream of conscious from Paul. At one point I expected him to break into the ‘Rhythm is the song’s manacle…’ speech from Grace Jones‘ ‘Slave To The Rhythm’ and this was about the only glaring omission in the piece as he proceeded to cram as many people, events, lyrics and memes from the eighties into the ’19 minutes and 80 seconds’ allotted. Sometimes his voice was lost in the sonic landscape but it didn’t matter as your attention was constantly being diverted elsewhere as snatches of recognisable pop hits came into focus.

With Anne Dudley on stage behind the piano, starting out with the intro to ‘Two Tribes’ was a no-brainer but surprises came in the form of John Foxx‘s ‘Underpass’, Soul II Soul‘s ‘Keep On Moving’ and 808 State‘s ‘Pacific State’, beautifully transposed for orchestra. Some were less successful as, again, the drum machine rhythm of ‘Blue Monday’ was a pale imitation and parts of it came off as a little bit ‘mega-mixy’ next to the subtleties of the Art of Noise performance. Morley, his usual playful self during the concert interludes, was obviously nervous during the last performance, his continual agitated movement back and forth from his notes a dead giveaway. But he added the much needed humour and context to the event, without which is may have ended a little po-faced and dry, as in the Art of Noise, his presence actually added another dimension.

But make up your own mind as, if you’re in the UK, you can hear the concert on the BBC iPlayer for the next week. Overall I felt the whole concept and execution was excellent, daring and an unqualified success with everyone playing incredibly. But the night didn’t end there, repairing to the bar we were surprised to see the missing two Art of Noise members, Gary Langan and JJ Jeczalik joining Anne Dudley for a chat and seemingly in good spirits. So all five original members had been in the same building that night? For the first time in how long we wondered? Meeting up with ZTT reissue curator Ian Peel and designer Philip Marshall we decided to follow the pack to a nearby bar where Paul Morley joined the AON table with only Trevor Horn sadly absent (he’d gone for dinner shortly after the concert). There where photos taken with all four in attendance with Morley in high spirits, mugging for the camera much to Dudley’s delight. Meanwhile Philip and Mark were bonding over obscure Pet Shop Boys remixes to the exclusion of all others, and Ian revealed plans for a ZTT release next year which I may have a part to play in the creation of. It was some night, roll on Xmas and 2014 …

(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…