In last weeks ‘Found in Sounds’ the PIL riot in New York is covered first hand with a great cover quote and photo of Lydon. Irmin Schmidt is quizzed about working with Bruno Spoerri and witnessing Cage’s ‘4’33″‘ for the first time. There are vintage film listings from London’s Leicester Square cinemas, Garry Bushell declares his love of Adam Ant‘s music (finally) and The Sweet talk about touring with ‘monster dicks’.
Fantastic Mod cover design from a 1979 issue of Sounds. Below, Soft Cell reveal that they’re doing ‘a Northern Soul number’ in their live set, Savage Pencil then and now (check out the Battle of the Eyes exhibition at Orbital Comics at the moment), Tommy Vance on John Lydon, an advert for the Boy store, a Blondie gig has some very cool guests and reviews of Prince live in NYC and at his first gig in the UK at the Lyceum in 1981.
This is the best slice of acid-techno I’ve heard in a long while with beats bordering on the industrial. It’s by New Yorker-in-Berlin, Doug Lee under the alias An-i and is out now on Cititrax on luminous yellow vinyl, some with large newsprint poster. In a lot of ways it reminds me of things like Stakker ‘Humanoid’ but is way more relentless and noisy.
Last year I purchased a huge pile of Sounds newspapers from a seller on eBay covering the years 1980-1983. I’m slowly going through them day by day and either scanning or snapping things that I find interesting. This can be news items, adverts, interview snippets, comics, covers or other trivia that has become more interesting with the passing of time. Sounds was a weekly music paper along the lines of the NME and Melody Maker in the UK, all three published on a Wednesday and all now defunct except for the NME, which is recognisable in name only from its 80’s heyday.
Sounds was always known for favouring Rock, Heavy Metal and Punk, with a straighter, less arty bias to groups. They didn’t have the Paul Morleys, Ian Penmans, Nick Kents or Simon Reynolds‘ writing for them, instead they had Garry Bushell who championed the Oi movement with its dodgy skinhead bootboy overtones. During the period that these issues cover, the ‘Futurist’ movement is emerging, what’s now known as ‘Post Punk’ or ‘Synth Pop’ but back then was a product of digital technology becoming more affordable mixed with the Blitz-era nightlife and the ‘New Romantic’ scenes.
I’ve been posting images daily on my Facebook account but will do weekly round ups here if I can as the material can be illuminating with the benefit of 30+ years of hindsight. What smacks most is that nothing really changes much, bands are still built up and lauded only to be ridiculed and knocked down once they’re successful. You can spot the hype from the hope and certain names crop up again and again, week on week, clearly getting the preferential treatment afforded by friendships with certain journalists regardless of their merits. The industry is always on a downturn with profits threatened by some new format, this time it’s the cassette that’s killing music with just the first hints of the CD revolution to come. Albums and singles, now considered bonafide classics, are savaged in the review columns and information on forgotten or lost bands is ripe for rediscovery via the all-knowing web.
All in all I find it a fascinating weekly soap opera and I’ll be sharing the highlights here.
First up, a ‘Futurist’ chart followed by photos from a Futurist ‘summit’ interview where members of The Human League, Throbbing Gristle, Non, Nurse With Wound and Lemon Kittens largely argued against being labeled with the term.
Next, ‘Cassettes: Is this the Future of Rock’n’Roll?’ with Island Records‘ 1+1 tapes causing a stir because they feature an album on one side and a blank side for recording your own sounds on the other. Then, as the ‘tape war’ hots up, labels are too busy scrambling to notice a certain ‘laser disc’ quietly arriving on the scene.
The cassette hoo-ha was one that was largely antagonised by Malcolm McLaren, who was an open advocate of home taping and used it as a gimmick to sell the band he was managing, Bow Wow Wow. It was a lucky coincidence that the fashion of the day was a swashbuckling pirate look and the combination of that and the term ‘pirate’ being someone who made bootleg items was too good to resist.
Record prices rise shock! Vinyl goes up from 99p to £1.20 and labels want the shops to bear the brunt. In other news, heavy band get banned from working mens clubs for being too loud and not packing away fast enough. Rock n Roll. Lastly, as he’s been in the news this week for playing live in London, Prince’s first gig in the UK, advertised at the back of the paper amongst all the other concerts that week, only £3.00 on the door.
The second volume of Ed Piskor‘s ‘Hip Hop Family Tree‘ – a history of rap music in comic book form – is out this summer. It features another round of guest artist pin ups and a few of these have leaked on the web in the past week or so. There will also be a free issue, drawing from both volumes and sporting a new cover, out for Free Comic Book Day this May.
I edited this little promo together for Soundsci‘s forthcoming EP, ‘Expo 2014’, from Darrell Krum‘s excellent artwork files last week. It’s a 10″ sampler of 4 tracks + Bonus Beats for 2014’s releases on their World Expo label. For those who don’t know, Soundsci are a UK/US Hip Hop super group consisting of Jonny Cuba (ex-Dynamic Syncopation) and Ollie Teeba (The Herbaliser) who form the production team The Process from the UK.
From the US comes Audessey (ex-Mass Influence), U George and Oxygen (Sputnik Brown, Spox PHD). They have a busy year ahead with Soundsci releases, Ollie Teeba’s solo album and a U George solo LP and the 10″ showcases a track from each. Available on Feb 21st, go here for more info.
Now available – a new release by Sculpture on a 7″ picture disc with zoetropic tendancies – BUY HERE NOW – View with strobe 25 flashes per second or video camera 25fps, very high shutter speed, progressive.
Includes immediate download of 2-track album in the high-quality format of your choice (MP3, FLAC, and more), plus unlimited mobile access using the free Bandcamp listening app. It’s their best yet and the video below shows just how detailed and beautiful the disc can be when filmed spinning.
This has been doing the rounds and I always have time for Noel’s interviews so I gave it a look. It’s a refreshingly honest and self-deprecating look back at his old band with plenty of barbed comments that border on exasperation by the end, you’ll laugh, I promise.
On January 11st, 1984, Radio 1 DJ, Mike Read took Frankie Goes To Hollywood‘s debut single, ‘Relax’, off the deck, mid-song whilst live on air, reportedly calling it ‘obscene’ and stating that he wasn’t going to play it anymore. Despite the BBC having played it over 100 times, the band appearing in two sessions, having played Top Of The Pops the previous week and the single then residing at no.6 in the charts, the corporation officially ‘banned’ it from their playlist two days later.
This had the effect of generating enough publicity to push it up to the No.1 spot less than two weeks later on 22nd January and the band and their record company, Zang Tuum Tumb, claimed their first hit single. With a video that was already not deemed fit for TV broadcast, promo photos of the group in S&M gear and two of the band being were openly gay, it was all the press needed to have a field day.
In a stroke of good luck, the band’s producer, Trevor Horn, had remixed the song for a 3rd 12″ that was released just before it hit the No.1 spot. Multiple mixes being a novelty at the time, this version replaced the original ‘Sex Mix’ with a more club-friendly ‘New York Night Mix’, inspiration for which was taken when Horn visited the Paradise Garage club the previous Autumn. ZTT were quick to fan the flames of the ‘ban’ (it was only banned on BBC channels but freely played by other commercial stations) and adverts and posters appeared, flaunting the band’s outlaw status. I vividly remember seeing a huge fly poster proclaiming ‘Big, Banned & Beautiful!’ pasted up in the little town of Reigate where I grew up. In fact, I tried several times, unsuccessfully, to steal it but posters being what they are I just ended up ripping it.
I was fortunate enough to track down the original photographer of the poster’s image – Steve Rumney – for my Art of ZTT blog last year and he’s promised me access to a whole raft of exclusive, unseen/unpublished images that he took back stage at the band’s Camden Palace performance the previous November.
Stephen Rumney: “I used to take photos at the Camden Palace in the mid 80s and I was there the night that Frankie did their first ever performance of ‘Relax’… I think it was the actual release party and as far as I remember I was the only photographer to have back stage and dressing room access. …the pics are pretty wild as they were all drinking champagne and very high spirited as you can imagine… I was right in the thick of it and clicking away madly… there was something in the air that night and you could really tell this was the start of something big…
The photo was not posed … I just caught them before they went on stage… or just after… I may have asked them for a group shot but it was not ‘staged’ as in ‘let’s do a photo shoot’… its why it has that edgy spontaneity… Holly already the gun as he was carrying it around for his performance.
The story is that shortly after the gig I dropped a print off with the Island press office thinking they may like to use it for press… They had commissioned me to do a couple of photo shoots when I was still at college as they had seen my portfolio featured in ‘Blitz’ magazine so I dropped the Frankie photo off with them when I delivered prints for the other photo shoot they commissioned… a week or so later I saw my photo being used all round town on the giant street posters!!!”
‘Relax’ was a pretty big deal for me personally, one of those records that connected on first listen and had to have repeat plays, much to my parents’ annoyance. A song I never tire of and that, with the follow-up, ‘Two Tribes’, probably ranks as one of my top 10 singles of all time. I didn’t hear the ban as we rarely listened to Radio 1 in our house, instead hearing it on Capital Radio who didn’t hold quite such draconian ideals as the BBC. I taped it and would have to play it at least four times in succession after school for weeks on end.
In fact, some of my first pause button tape ‘remixes’ were of the song, made from the various different mixes floating around. It was this too that was one my first exposures to ‘the Remix’ on multiple formats and, coupled with the cryptic sleeve notes and images, it made for a very exciting package to a 13 year old. It was the beginning of a love affair with both the band’s music and their label, ZTT, that has stayed with me to this day. Nothing was more exciting to me in 1984 that Frankie and the other artists on ZTT’s roster – Art of Noise and Propaganda.
‘Big, Banned & Beautiful’ poster design: XLZTT photography: © Stephen Rumney 1983 The photo was taken 24th November ’83 by Steve Romney backstage at a promo gig for the single at the Camden Palace in London. The ‘girls’ in the photo were Ange and Juicy Lucy (the latter actually a man in drag), friends of the band who featured in the original video for ‘Relax’.
You can also read my interview with Anne Yvonne Gilbert – the illustrator of the iconic image on the cover of ‘Relax’ – on ArtofZTT.com
February 14th sees the release of yet another 12″ of the single for the 30th anniversary, this time with a recently discovered remix from ’84 which was lost in the vaults. More info HERE.
The artist Black Swan has (re)posted a tribute album he made based on The KLF‘s ‘Chill Out’ album back in 2001 when we went under the moniker, Apparition. It’s downloadable for free from his site and is a dark, ambient nod to the KLF meisterwerk rather than a straight cover. Here’s the suitably sedate cover art to go with it.
Out on Feb 14th, 2014 – 30 years after the record was banned by the BBC and still sitting at No.1 in the charts – yet another version of Frankie Goes To Hollywood‘s notorious ‘Relax’.
This time it’s ‘The Sex Mix’ (Edition 3) – formerly known as ‘Sex Mix Edit’, a hitherto undiscovered mix that first surfaced on a Japanese compilation called ‘Return To The Pleasuredome’ a few years ago. The original ‘Sex Mix Edit’ (or Edition 2) is a little known 8 minute odd edit of the original 16 minute ‘Sex Mix’ that came and went (pun intended) in late ’83 before being replaced by a 7.20 minute ‘US Remix / New York Night mix’ which many consider as the definitive 12″ of ‘Relax’.
This new mix (Edition 3) had been created by Trevor Horn session man and renown percussionist Luis Jardim in December ’84 – who knows what for? It was then filed away, forgotten, later mislabeled and then extracted over 25 years later to end up on a compilation on the other side of the world. Hardcore fans from The Alternate ZTT Board soon spotted the difference and this sent the reissue curator, Ian Peel, back into the ZTT archives to search for more info and tapes that would lead to this previously unheard remix being given a proper vinyl release nearly 30 years after it was created.
Confused? This isn’t even half the ‘Relax’ mix story but I’ll save that for another time. Here, the original XLZTT artwork and Anne Yvonne Gilbert illustration have been tweaked by Element Series designer Philip Marshall to mirror the colour scheme for the 2012 Frankie rarities compilation, ‘Sex Mix’. The tracklist is: A. Relax ‘Sex Mix’ (Edition 3) B1. Ferry Cross the Mersey B2. Relax ‘The Instrumental’. You can pre-order it from Amazon here
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 …
Moon Wiring Club does it again with another package – this time on CD and Cassette only – no vinyl. I’m not quite sure what the difference in names means between the two formats but I’m assured they are different in sound as well as shape. Order here, there are three new prints too…
We’ve all done it – made cassette tape ‘covers’ for our taped compilations of yesteryear. I first got a tape recorder around the 1980 mark and here are some of my designs from the following decade. Note the attention to detail with the backwards ‘D’ on the ‘Adam’ 
This Frankie compilation was supposed to reflect the different singles left to right: Relax, Two Tribes, Power of Love, Welcome to the Pleasuredome.
You can see how much I was into the design work of XL back then and, subsequently Accident (the same team under a different name) for 808 State later.
I loved Sigue Sigue Sputnik‘s info-overload graphics, the Hockney-esque polaroids and the futuristic sense of it all, something The Designers Republic took to another level later.
Love this oversize clam shell cassette packaging and design from Andy Votel‘s Cache Cache label. The artist is Clone – aka Gary Sloane of last years ‘Harmonitalk’ and this is 26 minutes of electronic jam sessions from 1976 supposedly. Inside each box is a bonus plastic skeleton to keep with the Halloween theme. Still in stock over at Finders Keepers but limited to only 100 copies.
Available now via their FSOLDigital site is the next installment of The Amorphous Androgynous‘ Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble project. Instead of a compilation of others’ music they’ve made their own in the form of 2 CDs worth of freaked-out Blacksploitation cop soundtracks called ‘The Cartel’ vol. 1&2.
You can download it now or pre-order CDs from HERE and there will be a third volume next year with remixes, one of which I have been very excited to contribute. There’s also the rumour of a mix forthcoming on a certain radio show in the not too distant future too…
Posthuman and Balkan Vinyl have put together a new charity compilation of electronic music, raising money & awareness for Médecins Sans Frontières. If you like high quality techno and electronica then this is your bag, barely a duff track on it, which is rare for comps like this where artists are giving work for free. This is no collection of off-cuts with stand out tracks by Shadow Dancer, Posthuman, B12, Jokers of the Scene and Radioactive Man.
Médecins Sans Frontières – also known as ‘Doctors Without Borders’ – is an impartial, independent, and neutral organisation that provide medical and humanitarian aid wherever needed, across the globe. With the current civil war in Syria, much of the media focus has been on the political aspects, often forgetting the tens of thousands of victims and refugees. Médecins Sans Frontières, and their volunteers, are still on the ground in the region providing aid.
It’s available on a ‘pay what you choose’ basis – you can download for free or any amount you decide at the balkanvinyl bandcamp page and they will donate here (and claim gift aid) on your behalf or you can go to Just Giving.com and donate directly. All profits go directly to MSF. All of the artists have contributed their music for free. It is entirely digital to ensure as much money as possible goes to charity
Artists on the 18 track compilation include: Posthuman, Hrdvsion, Echaskech, Trackman, Global Goon, B12, Plaid, Milanese, Radioactive Man
Beautiful new sleeves for a slew of releases on Finders Keepers and associated sub-labels like Cacophonic and Cache Cache. Explore for more here.
