LaTour “Allen’s Got A New Hi-Fi” from s/t promo CD single.

When the video for LaTour’s first single “People Are Still Having Sex” arrived, it already felt pushed by the new Mainstream Industrial Dance Zeitgeist.  The single was terrible — aloof and confrontational to no result.

However, thanks to college radio and — in southern California to the arrival of MARS FM — the second single “Allen’s Got A New Hi-Fi” was much better suited for airplay and the clubs.

I disagree with the claims on LaTour’s author of its/his Wikipedia page that the former was a hit, and the second was a failure.  Neither are particularly remembered, but the former certainly wasn’t a hit, and never a one-hit wonder. But I still occasionally hear the latter on occasion, for good reason.

Sure, “Allen’s Got A New Hi-Fi” is New Beat/Nitzer Ebb Lite, but it’s a great song! The church organ in the middle gives the song a vital layer. The vocals are dumb but at least catchy.

Art of Noise “How To Kill” from 1984’s Who’s Afraid Of The Art Of Noise?

The Art of Noise (the band) were born out of a group of engineers working on Yes’s 90125 who got frustrated with the perfection demanded by said group. J.J. Jeczalik, Gary Langan, and Anne Dudley started messing around with the, then, brand new sampling synthesizer called the Fairlight. They made a lot of weird loops, sounds, and song snippets in between work. ZTT records’ Paul Morley became interested in this idea of marketing such an anti-group, as did producer (and former Yes frontman) Trevor Horn. A year later, this debut album appeared. Every track was different, ranging from novelty pop to odd and harrowing soundscapes.

For every “Close (To The Edit)” or “Moments In Love”, there was a darker counterpart. “A Time For Fear” was one. And this track, “How To Kill”, was another.

As part of the final trio of short tracks, “How To Kill” was sandwiched in between. In regards to IDM, it was the most accidentally ahead-of-its-time track on the album, especially in regards to the ambient chords and industrial sounding samples.

The samples may sound absurd and funny to most, especially today, but there’s a layer of sadness in this track that’s really hard to crack.

When I was 12, I made the mistake of listening to this track right after my family’s dog had to be put to sleep. “How To Kill” clarified too well what “putting to sleep” was like, and I started freaking out and bawling — the first time I ever cried over a dead pet. I’ll never forget it.

Mouse On Mars “Distroia” slowed to 33rpm + 6.8%.

This single blew me away when I first got it summer of 1999. It was more caustic and dry than their previous material, as much as I liked it. I was DJing IDM sets then.. “Distroia” fit in very well alongside Meat Beat Manifesto, Aphex Twin, Herbert, Phoenecia, and others.

I discovered later in the year, upon listening to the longer album version on Niun Niggung, that I was supposed to play the track at 45rpm, not 33rpm. This changed the track for me completely. I wasn’t into jungle as much as weird glitchy breaks dance music, so I never wanted to leave the slower “version” behind.

So I decided to bend “Distroia“‘s pitch down so that it simulated a 33rpm play, plus 6.8%, which is where I often pitched it when DJ’ing.

Enjoy!

Cabaret Voltaire - Micro-Phonies (1984): Top #15 Industrial Album Art

“DIE U RIVETHEAD! CAB V STOPPED BEING RELEVANT ONCE WATSON LEFT, LEAVING US WITH SYNTH NEWAVE SHIT”

This is an exaggerated albeit not uncommon dismissal of most of Cabaret Voltaire’s output since they signed to Some Bizzare/Virgin — which is understandable.

Cabaret Voltaire had no equal from the 70s until the early 80s.  They were one of the few groups in the world creating home-built synthesizer music that had any assemblence to a rock or punk band in the late 70s. Suicide, Throbbing Gristle, The Screamers, and SPK were among their peers. And each of these groups left a unique influential stamp, to give credit.

While Cabaret Voltaire weren’t as personally confrontational in their earliest live performances as any of the above, their design was highly confrontational.  Instead of exhibiting human rage, they infiltrated people and the media — sampling news media through tapes (and later via sampler.)  In the 2002 music documentary Made In Sheffield, there is footage of Cabaret Voltaire performing live in the back of a moving van, an example of their D.I.Y. aesthetic that — paraphrasing the documentary — was initially inspired by punk, or the spirit thereof.

For experimental electronic music, be it Industrial or other genres, they were like the Velvet Underground (whom they covered then, coincidentally.) While not wildly popular in their earliest days on Rough Trade, many fans went on to become inspired by their earliest work and make their own, especially other musicians in their home base of Sheffield, England — ranging from future members of The Human League, Heaven 17, and ABC.  Mark E. Smith of The Fall champions this period of Cabaret Voltaire to this day.

Their key release and best, however, was the transitional 2X45, released in 1982. Christopher Watson had just left the group. Richard H. Kirk and Stephen Mallinder decided to “funk” it up, literally — stressing the quotes.

Without the piercing raw synthesizer textures of Watson (and instead, organ and tapes on half of the tracks), Kirk and Mallinder produced six tracks of extended dark funk-influenced rock. The vocals were heavily echoed growls from hell - with less classic industrial effect treatment. This wasn’t funk-rock as much as one amazing artifact of what’s now called post-punk and Industrial.  If one wanted to purchase the gateway to the roots of the early Ministry, Revolting Cocks, and Skinny Puppy, 2X45 is the one.

Their next phase into droney electronic dance music, i.e. The Virgin Years, should be primarily credited to American dance producer John Robie, who approached Cabaret Voltaire with a dance remix of “Yashar” (originally on 2 X 45.) According to the Ken Hollings article and interview in the 2002 Futurist issue of The Wire, Kirk and Mallinder initially weren’t keen on the idea, instead sending Robie two new tracks. Robie rejected them back, and insisted on showing Cabaret Voltaire how to properly do “Yashar.” — “properly” according to John Robie, anyway.

Robie’s remix must have won Cabaret Voltaire over, because they would essentially take inspiration from John Robie and Arthur Baker’s trick book for the next few years, signing onto a deal with Some Bizzare Records via Virgin Records, with Some Bizzare’s Stevo being an early fan of the group. The Virgin Years, in fairness, should be called the Some Bizzare years.

One of the elements in their major label deal that didn’t change was employing record designer Neville Brody.  Brody had first worked with Cabaret Voltaire on their 3 Crépuscle Tracks single from 1981.

Brody’s first commercially successful sleeve work is most certainly Depeche Mode’s “Just Can’t Get Enough” single.  However, he had worked with Cabaret Voltaire more than any other group. Brody’s aesthetic of randomly placed shapes, limited color palette, high saturation, grainy swarthy background figures, and sharp-edge fonts could be co-opted by other designers of future Industrial/electronic music releases, perhaps Sheffield’s The Designers Republic — whose Ian Anderson stated in the liner notes to Cabaret Voltaire’s Conform To Deform collection, paraphrasing, “without Cabaret Voltaire, there would be no Designers Republic!”

Brody’s best work was certainly 1984’s Micro-Phonies. The cover design both set it firmly in the 80’s, while remaining iconic for far longer.

(Credit is due to the music design blog Hard Format whose entry on this album was invaluable to this post, and sourced the Micro-Phonies images.)

Since their earliest work, Cabaret Voltaire were sampling American evangelists. Religion is a topic covered throughout the group’s music. Micro-Phonies’ art exhibited this most directly. The font used for the band’s name makes heavy use of Gothic arches.  The elongated arches throughout the artwork in combination with the plus-signs hint at ancient architecture more subtlely, inferring religious architecture since churches in Western society typically are the oldest buildings.

The giant juxtaposition in the front cover is the person with a mummified face in the background, with some sort of device on a string dangling from his or her mouth (presumably a microphone?)  Original artwork is credited to London artist Phil Barnes — no relation to the celebrity sportsman of a similar name.  While unclear, the human on the album cover is perhaps a photograph by Barnes. Its grainy quality immediately brings to mind footage of hostages on TV.

Micro-Phonies produced two great singles, “Sensoria” and “James Brown.” However, it’s the weakest album in their Some Bizzare years, and the weakest until 1990’s Groovy Laidback And Nasty. “Do Right” is downright annoying as an opening track, overusing The Sampler — which unfortunately poisons the 12” version of “Sensoria” throughout. With the exception of “The Operative”, the remaining tracks don’t leave a lasting impression compared to the singles and their B-sides.

Cabaret Voltaire’s best albums of this phase were actually what followed: the trebly and downright regressive The Covenant, The Sword, And The Arm Of The Lord from 1985, and their definitive Adrian Sherwood-produced pop album Code from 1987 — all of whose art was designed by Neville Brody.

However, Brody’s (and Barnes’s) work on Micro-Phonies stands the test of time. The primary image has been reused by future Cabaret Voltaire compilations, albeit removing most of Brody’s original design touches.

…

P.S. You would think I would forget that poster in 1987’s Ferris Bueller’s Day Off?  You’re nuts!  I even remember the short-lived TV series of the same name! The only thing I remember from that pilot episode was the Micro-Phonies poster, which remained as prominent as in the original flick — perhaps the only thing that remained intact.

#16 <— #15 —> #14?

Cabaret Voltaire - “Sensoria (12” mix)” (1984 - original on Micro-Phonies)

While there are many styles Cabaret Voltaire were incorporating in their mid 80s period on Virgin Records, they were creating just as many subtle styles.  (More on that in a bit…)

New Order - “Are You Ready Are You Ready Are Your Ready For This (Western Works Demo, September 7, 1980)”.

This very fine post by the Power Of Independent Trucking blog explains it all.  In a nutshell, these are the earliest demos of New Order, from early September, 1980. 

A few months earlier, while they were still Joy Division, they were friends and admirers of Cabaret Voltaire. Apparently, they had booked this time to do some demos for the followup to Closer.  After Ian’s death, the context of the demos had completely changed. New Order, a resultant 3-piece, had to figure out what they were going to do next.  The six song demo reel that came from these sessions shows all three members of New Order taking lead on vocals on these late Joy Division and now earliest New Order tracks.

Presented here is the one track that never made it to any future New Order in any version in any way, for good reason. It was New Order doing their take on Cabaret Voltaire at the time — quite accurately. Vocals were done by then New Order manager Rob Gretton, according to the recollection of a member of New Order.

“Are You Ready Are You Ready Are You Ready For This” is not a significant track on its own, but it does show a grossly underrated aesthetic crossing of paths between New Order and Cabaret Voltaire.

Years later, it would be New Order that would have the biggest influence on subsequent Cabaret Voltaire circa 2 X 45, “Yashar”, and the Virgin years — notably Stephen Mallinder’s bass playing being quite similar to Peter Hook’s.

New Order took away something from Cabaret Voltaire as well, as witnessed on their earliest studio material, such as Movement’s “I.C.B.” featuring many punctuated bleeps and bloops. New Order would release their first electronic pop single, “Everything’s Gone Green”, shortly after, paving the way for The New Order Sound, for lack of a better term.  Without those Western Works demos, however, it’s safe to say no one would have clue which direction New Order would go.

Mi Sex “Computer Games” (1979) - It’s highly possible the excellent tumblr newwavetimewarp may have already blogged this one, but the video is certainly worth repeating. This would have been a big MTV hit, had it been only a couple of years late.

Osymyso’s “Pat n Peg” from 1999, jamming it East Enders style.

Two things:

1) American soap operas must be the most boring thing ever. Having seen Mexican soap operas, and having only seen this snippet of East Enders from this video, now I know why American housewives turned to the rifle range. (OK, kidding, sorta.)

2) While Osymyso’s “Intro-Introspection” is his most famous work and deservedly so, there’s a lot more to Osymyso than found-sound collages. The late 90’s Leopard To Lizard 10” is his best release to date, biting a style that would give Mouse On Mars are run for their quirky mon(k)ey. And, ironically, the intro to “Pat ‘n’ Peg” is a more ambitious introduction than any of the ones sampled in “Intro-Introspection.”

Art of Noise’s “Hoops and Mallets”, the B-side of their 1985 single “Legs”, later from the 1986 album In Visible Silence.

It makes sense to split discussion of the Art of Noise’s history between The ZTT era (1983-1985) and The China/Polydor era (1985-1989) 

The former was a reactionary, anonymous experimental troupe borne from frustration on part of the production team Trevor Horn hired to work on Yes’s 90125 album.  The latter was a settled production team that had achieved greater pop success under the shadows of celebrity frontmen, fictional or not — from Duane Eddy to Max Headroom (played by Matt Frewer) to Tom Jones.

However, the transition was arguably the most interesting period, which had the leftover humor, anger and causticity of the former era (“Legs”, “Slip of the Tongue”, “Instruments of Darkness”) side to side with the more coctail bar / jazzier side of the group hatching out more (“Eye of a Needle”, “Chameleon’s Dish”, “Paranoimia”)

“Legs” is the Art of Noise’s oddest single (not counting the screwed, more demonic sounding followup “Legacy.”), backed by “Hoops and Mallets”, an even stranger song that coincidentally foreshadowed the types of patterns, fragile sample sources, and stuttering rhythms that in the late 90s and early 00s would be classified as “IDM.”  The metronomic, break-filled clopping back by a literally monstrous bass sample gives way to 8-bit sounding ambient jazz synth chords. 

Tomoe Shinohara (篠原ともえ) makes Bjork look like Patti Smith. Never mind riding a nuclear bomb waving an axe around with an insane jaw-bending expression of joy. It’s either extreme pleasure or extreme pain with the classic hyper-kawaii J-Pop stylings of The Shinorer.  The track here is the 1997 single “Ultra Relax.”

Shinohara may have very well helped kill “kawaii” purposely as a dominant aesthetic of J-Pop during her brief reign on Japanese TV & Music in the late 90s. She entered a more mature phase in the early 2000s before coming back in the mid 2000s with her trademark electronic J-squeak under the guise of her producer & partner, with whom she formed the electronic duo Tokyo Flash!.

Coincidence or not, J-Pop was never really the same after she confused the Japanese masses in the mid 90s, especially armed early on with Denki Groove as her producers.

“Don Quichotte” was a novelty Latin synth pop hit by the French group Magazine 60.  While the group are classified as italodisco, “Don Quichotte” doesn’t showcase any such traits. If anything, it’s a humorous extension of the subtle clave rhythms present throughout Kraftwerk’s Trans Europe Express album (hat tip to Jeff Chang for that observation), but adding some strange characters and sounds over it, making this track more akin to Yello, if anybody else. The version here is the extended remix done by Martin Rodriguez for the U.S. 12” release on Baja Records.

“Don Quichotte” arrived at a puzzled crossroads for electronic dance pop. The forefathers of synth pop were waning - Giorgio Moroder and Kraftwerk both. There were more novelty hits than longevity hits that year. This track seems like an odd crossroads/rest stop for future late 80s dance styles such as freestyle (called “latin dance pop” then) and elektroclash.  Either way, this song dropped like a bomb on Los Angeles dance radio stations and dance floors when it came out.

None of the above will change the fact that the song is batshit insane, especially when you climax with the words “Marijuana, wha…what’s going on? You’ve got a whole new brain, I feel crazy!” “¡NO SEÑOR, DON QUIXOTE Y SANCHO PANZA NO ESTAN AQUI!” (Bless you, crazy French Latin synth-popsters.)

daily-operation:

Shabazz Palaces “Chuch”
(more at Pacific Standard)

Transformations as wild as Digable Planets’ Butterfly becoming Shabazz Palaces’ Ish are pretty rare in relatively high profile pop music — even rarer are they successful.  While Shabazz Palaces haven’t reached success outside the Pacific Northwest yet, the strong tracks on both their(?) first two 2009 EPs, Shabazz Palaces and Of Light, are certainly ready for prime time.  2010 will hopefully be the year for Ish.