BLOG BROWSING...

Marcello:
"I look at Reynolds’ “feeling/really feeling” lists on Blissblog and they just give me a headache – Christ, MORE stuff to take into account; can musicians be forcibly banned from making or recording music for five years to give the rest of us a chance to get our breath back? "

Yeah, ain't it a bitch? To free up more head-space, I'm actually trying to reduce the amount of 'old' music I listen to, so I can spend the time more profitably listening to the LATEST, Bang!-up-the-minute shit I can lay my hands on. Avoiding buying re-issues and anthologies where possible (apart from Cabs/RH Kirk, of course!). I went through a phase where I was buying and trading LOADS of old shit, but NO MORE! One new Golden Rule is to not bother checking out anything else Pre-Punk. I reckon I've got about as much '60s and early-mid '70s stuff as I'm ever gonna need. To hell with the rest; it's all OLD NEWS, baby. True, there are a few gaps to fill in my post-punk knowledge and I am looking forward to the Metal Urbain and Factrix CD-Rs that are coming my way shortly. A few ravey/jungley things from the early '90s that I wanna track down too. But generally speaking, it's about focusing on the present and future. It's the only way to keep on top of things, or at least keep one's head above water...

Re: Marcello and Matt's general feeling that blogging sucks. C'mon, guys - lighten up! Maybe I just got into this blog thing with less expectations (zero expectations, actually) but I just think this is a fun thing to do. I believe the technical definition of a blog is 'online diary' and I'm just documenting all the random stuff that excites, annoys and fascinates me. The fact that other people read, appreciate and sometimes empathise still amazes me. It's great! Maybe I just don't get enough people slagging me off?

Thanks to Diego in Spain for alerting me to this.

Happy 1st Birthday to K-Punk. I shall dust-off my old cassette copy of Whitehouse's "Dedicated To Peter Kurten - Mass Sadist And Slayer" and play it at intolerable volume in honour of that first post....

Random bitz...

Apparently, Hydrogen Dukebox artist Technova is actually David Harrow, who used to be On-U Sound's chief techno-boffin back in the day. The man responsible for the brilliant digi-dub backing track on "These Things Happen", one of my favourite Mark Stewart choons. His new album "Electrosexual" out anytime now.

Miss Kittin's first solo album proper, "I Com" is apparently very good, but early reports suggest that Felix Da Housecat's new album is a bit dodgy. More soon...

Although I haven't followed their work since "Snivilisation", Gutterbreakz would like to pay respect to the mighty Orbital, who have officially split-up. Seventh and final album the "Blue Album" out on 21st June. I met Paul Hartnoll once. Very nice man...

Another act who I haven't followed for years are The Orb. But I heard a track from their new album "Bicycles & Tricycles" on Peel's show this week which really impressed me. Maybe it's time to give Dr. Alex and his chums another chance...?

Another cool track heard on the radio was this funky lil' number with samples of Charlton Heston in "Planet Of The Apes" (still one of my favourite films). Turns out it was from the new Wagon Christ album. I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about Luke's recent 'disco-kitch' Kerrier District project, but I've got a really good feeling about this new one...

Also heard a cool Scisser Sisters dance mix that even K-Punk might like! Don't remember what it was called though. Sorry.

Ecstacy users (past and present) beware. Apparently there are long-term problems with 'disturbed sleep'. Source: DJ Mag.

As a footnote to my previous post, apparently Italo-Disco pioneer Alexander Robotnick has a mix CD released called "The Disco-Tech Of Alexander Robotnick". Although I haven't actually heard it yet, judging by what I've read I'm probably familiar with at least 50% anyway. Intrigingly, Robotnick has included early '80s tracks such as Visage's "Fade To Grey", John Foxx's "Underpass", OMD's "Enola Gay", mid-80's stuff like Yello's "I Love You" and New Order's "Bizarre Love Triangle", mixing them seamlessly with more recent electro tracks by the likes of Miss Kittin & The Hacker. By joining the dots in this way, Robotnick presents a distinctly Euro-centric perspective on Dance Culture evolution, which should serve to remind us of New Romantisism's crucial role in it's development. Watch out for it...

Anyone out there who still reads The Printed Word might find the latest issue of Record Collector worth a peek. If you can get past the cover photo of Bob Geldof, this "80's Special" has some quality entertainment value, on account of the heavy emphasis on the New Romantic era.

I sometimes wonder what it is that still attracts me to this essentially ludicrous genre. In his opening essay, Joel McIver suggests that the demograph for appreciation of New romanticism is "people aged between thirty and forty and with a vague interest in fashion and electronics". Well that's me bang-to-rights. My conscience is clear. Lots of stuff on Human League, Flock of Seagulls, Culture Club and even my old faves Blancmange (who I wouldn't consider to be New Romantic in the slightest - their earthy sound and straight image completely at odds with the genre in my view.)

Former Sounds writer Betty Page recounts her early encounters with Spandeau Ballet and Duran Duran. Betty (now known by her real name Beverley Glick) highlights the surprisingly visionary stance of the early Spandeau, who's manager Steve Dagger said at the time: "It's not your Marquees, not your polytechnic gigs, nothing is created there. It happens in the clubs. Left to it's own devices, rock music becomes very boring". extraordinary prescience there...still a valid standpoint even now, in my book. Present day, John Foxx chips in with talk of the era's "total technological takeover" and of "the scene unknowingly headed toward acid and house music". Even Kajagoogoo's Limahl gets in on the act, with his outlandish and slightly improbable claim that his group were "very avant-garde with influences like Robert Fripp and Devo". And then, when discussing their big hit "Too Shy", Limahl's tech-talk of "the warm synth pad with the oscillator envelope thing opening slowly was the whole foundation/basis of the song" had me rummaging through my wife's 'Hit's of The 80s" compilations in order to reassess this seemingly misunderstood masterpiece. The 8-bar intro was quite sexy actually, but I remain dubious about the rest. If there's anyone out there who could convince me of Kajagoogoo's greatness, I'll be very grateful.

However much emphasis you place on New romanticism's role in the history of Dance Culture, one thing is certain. They looked great. One of the few drawbacks of post-acid, post B-boy Culture is the crap, loose-fitting sporty fashion that it spawned. I know it makes sense to wear tracksuit bottoms and trainers when you're dancing all night at a sweaty rave, but the knock-on effect has been over ten years of the most boring-looking people ever. Fashion has only started recovering in the last couple of years, with a gradual return to some good ol' 80s trash-glam action. And I know I'm a total hypocrite, 'cause I'm Mr. Casual and am too fucking cowardly to express myself through my appearance. Perhaps that's why I admire those early-80's fops like Steve Strange so much. They had more balls than I ever will, dressing up like that.

SANDOZ - DIGITAL LIFEFORMS REDUX (objective views of a fanatic)

"I went to Haiti in 1991, which was a stupid thing to do. It was quite a scary experience because it was just before they had a revolution. Maybe I got possessed there or something but ever since then I started using a lot of African voices and rhythms. It was so uplifting, I wanted to graft some of that onto what I was doing."
Richard H. Kirk, The Wire, March 2000

Kirk had probably been harbouring fantasies of an African/European alliance through electronics for some time prior to that. Witness the spooked-out exotica of "Haiti", a brief instrumental on 1983's "The Crackdown" LP. Whatever, by 1992 (with the Cabs embarking on their final phase in the rarified orbit of Electronic Listening Muzik), Kirk's next bid for dancefloor acceptance appeared in the form of three 12 inch singles under a new guise, Sandoz (named after the Swiss acid lab.) Subsequently collected on CD by Touch as "Digital Lifeforms" and now re-issued by The Grey Area Of Mute with an additional CD of rare/unreleased cuts from the same period, these early Sandoz excursions remain some of the most accessible, funky, melodic and downright enjoyable tracks in the vast Kirk back-catalogue without resorting to the overtly Popist stance of the Cabs' EMI period. But it's difficult for me to put into words just why this collection is worthy of your time over ten years later. It's hard to find an angle on it. There's a politeness about this album that makes it, as Eno might say, "as ignorable as it is interesting". "Digital Lifeforms" occupies a zone of equal light and shade that neither repels nor excites. It simply exists...and makes a nice groovy noise.

Opening track "Armed Response" sets the tone perfectly, fusing tuff Techno drum programming (dig those snare rolls!), breakbeat shuffle, latin percussion, dub bass, breathy woodwind swoons and catchy keyboard hooks. "Human Spirit" overlays African voodoo chants against a serene Deep House backdrop. After a portentous intro of ambient synth sweeps, "Limbo" develops into an irresistible marriage of cold electro beats and mesmerising tribal percussion. "Zombie Astral" ups the tribal pressure levels further, giving a taste of mantra-induced frenzy without actually taking you to the point where your eyes start rolling back in your head; it's tasteful hints of African spirituality firmly grounded by European coffee-table chic.

Disc 2 provides the more interesting option for Kirk die-hards like myself, as it features much never-before-heard Sandoz offcuts, of surprisingly high quality. "Tribal Warfare", with it clunky electro beats and bulbous sinewave bassline isn't a million miles from Wiley's finest Eskidubs. One of only two tracks to have been previously released (on a New Electronica compilation), "Ocean Reflection" is a gorgeous, pulsating web of bleepy riffs and shimmering sustained timbres that predicts the oceanic vistas of "Closed Circuit" (Kirk's superb 1994 album as Electronic Eye). Overall, what we have here are the first blossoming foundations of Kirk's most seductive, user-friendly period that lasted roughly from 1992-95. The sort of material that you can play when you have guests in the house without upsetting anyone. No adrenalin-rush or dread paranoia here....more like a sustained plateaux of good vibes, infectious grooves and dreams of faraway places.

EARLIER/LATER

...gradually returning to reality after immersing myself in the musical garden of unearthly delights that is Richard H.Kirk's bumper crop of Mute releases. I knew I was in for a thrilling ride in the first few seconds of track 1, disc 1 of "Earlier/Later", which sounds uncannily similar to the intro to Model 500's "No UFO's", which wouldn't be so remarkable if not for the fact that this track, "Never Lose Your Shadow", was recorded a good two years prior to Juan Atkin's landmark Techno template. Created sometime around '82/'83, "Shadow" is a far more austere offering than the complex clatter of sensation usually associated with the Cab's output from this period. Held together by a simple metronomic kick/snare pattern, occasionally dubbed-up with that distinctive reverse-reverb effect used so effectively by 'Magic' Juan on "UFO's", augmented by crystalline sequencer and portentous clarinet calls. There's so much space in this groove - a perfect example of why some of the stiffest rhythms are the most funky. Perhaps most surprising is Kirk's vocal - though inflected by that typical European-industrial 'deadness' of the era - it sounds as sensual in it's blankness as Atkin's intonation, which was itself perhaps inspired by the European electronic new wave. It's hard to reconcile "Shadow"s obvious pioneering vision of future-funk with the fact that it has until recently only been heard by Kirk himself (and possibly a few close associates). Clearly, it's way ahead of the game, yet has had no direct influence on the course of electronic music. This feeling could be applied to much of disc 2's material. "Earlier" charts Kirk's solo experiments from '74/'75; splinters of sound-matter running adjacent to his Cabs work documented on last year's "Attic Tapes" box set. Literally 'home recordings', these pieces were not created at Chris Watson's loft, but at Kirk's parent's house in the Pittsmoor area of Sheffield. I find material like this utterly fascinating...like John Cale's New York demos from the '60's or Suicide's First Rehearsal Tapes from '75, these recordings exist in a creative bubble - private research that appears to have no direct ancestors nor any influence on future generations due to it's complete non-existence in the outside world. Out of time. Beyond time. Time-less. How the hell Kirk even thought to conceive tracks like "Hell In Here" at such a young age is beyond me. Whether or not he was already well-versed in Stockhausen, Reich, Cage, Riley et al is a moot point. As far as I know he was still listening to Roxy Music at that time and even Eno had barely begun to explore the boundaries of creative recording processes then. In just under six minutes "Hell In Here" single-handedly invents the distressed sound of Throbbing Gristle's "Second Annual Report" and, by association, the 'industrial' genre as a whole. Through a heat haze of tape hiss and mains hum, spectral waves of white noise interlock with fragments of half-heard dialogue and baleful clarinet squall, punctuated by savage pause-button edits, finishing with a fragment of what sounds like Ron Mael's opening keyboard arpeggio from Spark's "This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us". I shudder with awe at the primal attack of this piece which hits you in the guts far more effectively than the more academic tape music that was in existence at this time. Kirk was literally swimming through oceans of sound, limitless possibilities; conquering new frontiers without a map, in a way that would be impossible for any youngster today. The spiritual link with Cale's earlier demos is reinforced by "Concerto For Damaged Piano" on which Kirk hammers out a brief, spirited tune on a rotting piano in the family's shed, echoing Cale's "(Untitled) For Piano" on which the Welsh wizard also found sonic possibilities in the workings of an abandoned/damaged piano. Kirk returns to the piano for "Solar Defiance", using a single low sustained note (looped and augmented only by some muffled audio artifacts - like a hand brushing against the microphone) to create six minutes of zen-like spiritual contemplation. Even better, the final cut "Cosmic Overide 2" takes a loop of what sounds like run-out groove static, adds the merest hint of echo and let's it run for five minutes. The effect is bewitching. It's ominous-yet-gentle repetition is a balm for the soul, and is an unusual move for Kirk: to set up a process and let it run with minimum interference from the creator, similar in concept to that employed by Eno on "Discreet Music" a year later.

Of course, some of these early examples are somewhat meandering, directionless jams, but when Kirk hits the spot (sometimes midway through a track) you can almost feel the the sensation of revelation, as the ideas coalesce into sharp-focus. After several plodding drum machine warm-ups, "Lost rhythm Of Life" suddenly seduces with it's fragile surf-guitar melody (a sonic template for the intro to the Cabs' '81 single "Jazz The Glass") and haunted delay effects.

There are several tracks from the '81 period, which have strong similarities with the style employed on Kirk "Time High Fiction" collection. Indeed, part of the fun of this CD for serious Cab-heads like myself is spotting the sonic thumb-prints that carbon date each track. For instance, "On Fire" can immediately be identified as a '84/'85 track, as it sounds like an outtake from "Drinking Gasoline", all pile-driving machine beats, Loud As Fuck snare drum, and distinctive keyboard sounds that are so evocative of the era.

It's great to see the 12 inch mix of "Martyrs Of Palestine" included (the only track to have been previously released, in '86). Originally taken from "Black Jesus Voice", an album I love so much that one of it's track titles is now the subtitle of this blog. At the time, "BJV" was like an addendum to the Cabs' "The Covenant, the Sword And The Arm Of The Lord", full of similarly intense 'hit-you-over-the head' beats, dynamics so violent that they literally drained you, the most Exciting Sound On Earth as far as I was concerned around 1985/86. I can see why this track was considered worthy of re-appraisal. It's theme is totally bang-up-to-the minute in 2004 and the production is inspired, re-tooling the original album version's clumpy electro-punk-thrash with a wicked dancefloor undercurrent that should have set dancefloors alight at the time. Maybe it's time is now? The additional 12 inch-only "Detonate/reworks" EP sees Kirk remixing "Martyrs" in a 2004-stylee, but don't expect any kind of concessions to current club trends. That would be too easy. Instead, Kirk injects it with a new 909 drum pattern that only a masochist could groove to. "Detonate" is the buzz-word here. This beat doesn't inspire jacking, moshing or even frugging. The only possible physical response is a whip-lash inducing spasmodic jolt every time the kick drum hits on the first beat of the bar. Each of the three mixes becomes increasingly more 'difficult', as Kirk takes some wild chances (at one point in the third mix the rhythms seem to be going out of sync with each other, only adding to the deranged, Fatwa-like assassination of the original track). Obviously not interested in making any new friends, eh Richard? Of course, I LOVE it!

Okay, so Kirk & Co.'s legacy, pre-House, is pretty much beyond dispute. Yet although they switched-on to the fresh sounds emanating from Chicago and Detroit very early on, the initial results inspired by these new influences were curiously inconclusive. During Dance Culture's "Year Zero" (1988), the Cabs were taking a gap-year to work on solo projects. Mal had his short-lived Lovestreet collective (with Robert Gordon and Dave Ball) and Kirk almost released his most pop-orientated material ever, the aborted "Let's Get Down", as Wicky Wacky. Then in 1989, Cabaret Voltaire returned with their second and final EMI album "Groovy, Laidback and Nasty", a record that still polarises opinion among Cabs fans to this day. Part of the problem was perhaps the fact that they bought into the whole luvved-up, E-friendly vibe a little too thoroughly, adding a light, pop-flavoured positivity at the expense of those elements that had defined their approach for so long. Although tracks like "Hypnotised", with it's "Are You Afraid" samples, bore some of the trademark paranoia, most of "Groovy" simply sounded ordinary. As Simon Reynolds remarked at the time (when reviewing Mute's first batch of Rough Trade-era re-issues), without their "stilted strangeness", the Cabs had become "just another House combo".

It's from this troubled period that several solo Kirk tracks on "Earlier/Later" originate. One of the first of these, "Numero Uno Baby/Information", takes "Code"-era textures and harnesses them into a solid House groove, adding "found" voices, B-movie dialogue etc. A pleasant enough romp, yet strangely sterile. Although the dialogue samples are typical (patented?) Cabs-fare, the effect is more 'novelty dance tune' than synapse-stimulating cut-up theory. "Do As I Do" works on almost the same principles; film dialogue superimposed against workman-like House tempos with the addition of smooth keyboard textures that hint at "Groovy.."'s poptone-palette the following year. Perhaps part of the problem here is that much 'first-wave' House music sounds, in terms of texture and production, a little 'bland' by today's standards. The best stuff (like "Can You Feel It")is inspired and timeless, but many tracks simply sound dull in 2004. Perhaps the most successful of these late-80's Kirk tracks is "Digital Globe", where ethnic vocal samples are chopped-up to create a shimmering flutter of rhythmic crosstalk that most accurately predicts his future solo direction. "One Three Fourgasm" and "Latin/MYBM" are further respectable blueprints for the '90s, yet I find it curious that Kirk's earliest home recordings should resonate more powerfully in my psyche.

Post-"Groovy", post-EMI, Cabaret Voltaire slammed on the brakes, regrouped, went back underground, emerging with "Body And Soul", the most stark, un-produced Cabs album ever. Then heavy-duty Techno side-projects/collaborations Sweet Exorcist and Xon showed that Kirk was starting to find his feet again. But it was the Intelligent Techno/Artificial Intelligence explosion around '92/'93 that really created the right environment for Kirk to flourish once more. The turning point was the 1992 Cabs album "Plasticity". Mal's decision to abandon vocal duties was a sad though inevitable development: the wide-screen, multi-textured mood muzik that AI introduced rendered his voice unhip and redundant and provided the perfect environment for the Cabs to focus on the more abstract (dare I say 'ambient') elements of their muse. Free of all pop and dancefloor constraints, the album-orientated electronica of AI sustained the Cabs through their final phase that saw two further albums, "International Language" and "The Conversation", after which Mal headed into the sunset for a new life in Australia. But the precedents set by Cabaret Voltaire's final "Ambient Trilogy" provided the springboard for Kirk to develop his solo career...

Received a nice big package from Mute Records this morning, a full three weeks ahead of the release dates. Sometimes it pays to pre-order. Let the Richard H. Kirk feeding frenzy commence!!

Fave track on "Treddin' On Thin Ice" so far is "Special Girl". Love the FM-sheen, old skool 808 beats and those pitched-up diva sample loops that reveal a surprising (unintentional?) mind-meld with Kanye West's album. Lovin' the whole damn thing, actually. My only critisism at the moment being the fact that the 'defining' instrumental tracks like 'Eskimo' and 'Icerink' have been reduced to brief interludes. Shame, 'cause these tracks deserve a wider hearing in their full-length glory. A follow- up 'Instrumentalist' collection is sorely needed, in my view. Somethin' fer the chin-strokazzz...

Looks like there will be two Limited Edition remix 12 inchers to coincide with Mute's Richard H. Kirk albums:

Limited Edition 12"
'DETONATE/REWORKS EP' (12KIRK6)
4 exclusive 2004 remixes of Martyrs Of Palestine & Street Gang by
Richard H. Kirk, only available on this 12" and only for a limited
period.

Limited Edition 12"
'RETURN TO THE HEART OF DARKNESS/REWORKS EP' (12KIRK7)
4 exclusive 2004 remixes of Sandoz tracks by Richard H. Kirk, only
available on this 12" and only for a limited period.

This info from Mutebank, with details of special 'Multi-buy' offers:

Both double CD albums £12.99 each / Both EP 12" singles £3.99 each

Available to order from The Grey Area via Mute Bank 3 weeks ahead of
the UK release date (17th May)

-

Special MULTI-BUY Offer

KIRK-MULTI1 - Both CD's for £20.00 (saving £5.98)

KIRK-MULTI2 - Both 12"'s for £6.00 (saving £1.98)

KIRK-MULTI3 - Both CD's and 12"'s £25.00 (saving £8.96)

To order please click here:

"Gutterlectuals unite, down with middlebrow!"

Yeah! Great rallying cry from Blissblog, there. On the subject of Grime, I've never written anything about it and I don't think I've any right to write about it, as I've always been a fairweather Garage listener, merely dipping my toes in occasionally but never committing any allegiance. A lot of it leaves me cold, especially when it gets a bit too 'urban', but prior to the imminent release of Wiley's long-player I'd just like to say a few words on the subject of Eskibeat. I bought the new single "Wot Do U Call It", but other than that all I'd heard previously were various MP3's. I like the instrumentals best. Tracks like "Freeze","Blizzard" and especially "Icepole" are definitely on my wavelength. To me, Wiley should be viewed outside the confines of UKG/Grime, as the latest visionary in a long line of electronic innovators within dance music. I hear echoes of Richard H. Kirk's early-nineties electro experiments like "C.C.E.P." (as Sweet Exorcist, with Parrot) and "The Mood Set" (as Xon, with Robert Gordon). I would also put forward the idea that Wiley is Britain's answer to Juan Atkins. I always felt that Atkin's sound was colder than that of other Detroit artists; soulful but with a dagger of ice through it's heart. He developed a new sound, 'Techno', from the ruins of a previous genre, 'Electro', just as Wiley has created his Eski mutant from the ashes of Garage. And it took one of Juan's disciples, Derrick May, to 'break' his sound to a wider audience, much the same way that Wiley's protege Dizzie Rascal broke into the mainstream first. "Wot Do U Call It" is as potent a statement of intent as Model 500 classics like "Off To Battle" or "Techno Music". Whether or not you think that's just bollocks, I'm really looking forward to hearing "Treadin' On Thin Ice" next week. ....

Excellent piece on Rephlex Grime by K-Punk. I've really gotta hear this shit too!

More info from Mute on the new Richard H. Kirk retrospective here. Check Kirk's mullett on the cover photo!!

Also, info on the simultaniously re-issued Sandoz album here.

Been a bit tardy with the ol' music reviews recently. Apologies, but I need to tap into a certain zone to come up with anything worth saying. That's why I would never attempt to be a 'proper' music journalist - it's just too damn difficult. Anyway, here's three quick reviews of some shit I've been digging recently....

cLOUDDEAD - TEN

As intimated in my last post, I'm seriously under these guy's spell at the moment. Apparently it's their second (and final?) album, but my first exposure to the work of these Ohio-born HipHop astronauts. I connect with the ancient, grainy quality of their sound sources, which have distinct parallels with Boards Of Canada's sound (no surprise then that BOC were commissioned to remix one of cLOUDDEAD's tracks). Not ancient like the pyramids, more like the strange noises dimly remembered from '70s children's TV programmes: eerie, alien, yet warm and woody at the same time. Keyboard textures are unclassifiable soft-focus melodic tones that might have originally been church organs. Beats are smudged, crackly, lo-rez rhythmic apparitions that wheeze and cough in a (no doubt) spliff-induced fog cloud. Samples of English children reciting nursery rhymes turn into needle-jumping lock-grooves. This alone would guarantee a first-class trip-hop album, but then add in the totally unique 'rapping' style and bizarre observational lyrics and we're into a whole new territory. There's also the fact that all these tracks have structure, they work like classic songs. In places you can almost detect a Beach Boys flava - but not 'Pet Sounds' Beach Boys - more like the moment five seconds before Brian Wilson blew his mind and collapsed in a pool of his own piss (possibly) during the torturous 'Smile' sessions - that moment when talent and inspiration start misfiring, spitting out in unpredictable new directions. Another soundbite view would be that "Ten" is HipHop's "Meet The Residents". 'Nuff said.

HELL - N.Y. MUSCLE

Brilliantly reviewed by Tufluv ages ago, but I finally got around to checking out Hell's latest offering recently. Anything with a couple of Alan Vega guest appearances is always worth checking out (except for maybe that 'Sisterhood' album). My favourites are the tracks like "Control", where Hell fearlessly cooks up some retro '80s-electro minimalism. Nothing new about it, but if it ain't broke, don't fuck wid da flava, dig? Then there's "Follow You", with the most withered analogue synth tone I've heard for years. Sounds like Hell found a synth that was just on the verge of breaking down and coaxed one last gasp out of it. Best of all, "Let No Man Jack" makes me wanna jump up and kill stuff. We're talking Hard Acid House (not Acidic Techno - there's a big difference, baby), with a brilliantly twisted vocal that encourages us to 'mosh', 'slam' etc, whilst the title lyrics' word-play seem to forbid Jacking, despite the fact that the 303-saturated groove makes you wanna Jack till you have a heart attack!

Of course it's not all up to that standard. For me, the collaboration with Billy Ray Martin just ruins the vibe. Sounds like Hell's trying to do some sort of Portishead-type thing, but I expect at least some 'electro' and/or 'punk' from a Hell track, and here he gives me neither. Bah! "The Ambient MM" also takes an unexpected turn - this time into Ambient Techno chill-out mode, but I'll forgive him for that one, 'cos it reminds me of old Aphex Twin tracks like "Tha".

SQUAREPUSHER - ULTRAVISITOR

Again, Tufluv gave it the thumbs-up weeks ago, but I've been taking my time with this one. Even though it's not the focused perfection of "Go Plastic", I'm starting to believe that this might be my favourite Jenkinson effort yet. The unadorned cover portrait sums it up really: this is Squarepusher letting his guard down, allowing us to peer into his mind and see how all the different elements of his muse function. It's dysfunctional, it's egomaniacal, it's farcical, it's often brilliant and occasionally makes me wanna burst into tears 'cause it's so overwhelmingly beautiful.

The bass virtuoso shit is indeed back with a vengeance, but it's nowhere near as indulgent as one might think. I love the way he'll get a real fast, tricky bass run going, but then unexpectedly drown it with digitally processed junk-noise. It's like an artist deliberately defacing his work when he senses he's falling back on old habits. But he leaves it on display so the public can see the rough sketches that, when combined and sharpened-up, lead to a masterpiece, of which there's at least two on this collection. "Iambic 9 Poetry" is initially startling for it's naturalistic, acoustic-sounding drums (not one of TJ's usual moves), but it's the constantly evolving waves of keyboard melody that really grip the soul. For this is Soul music in it's purist form: an uplifting surge of emotion that seems to be reaching all the way to heaven. You can feel your spirit recharging it's batteries everytime you play it. The other gold-plated work of genius here is "Tetra-Sync", which over the course of nine minutes transports us through an undulating, constantly evolving Odyssey where all the disparate elements come together in one glorious euphoric celebration of Mr Jenkinson's skills. Seriously, when this guy's good, he's fucking amazing

RHKIRK UPDATE

Last year saw a revival of interest in Cabaret Voltaire, and this year, we should all be focusing on their central figure - the Cabs' heart of darkness - Richard H. Kirk. In the next couple of month's we're gonna see a slew of re-issues and unreleased material from the great man hitting the streets. Here's what's happening:

19th April
URP VOL. 2 (Intone CD)
The second installment of unreleased dance projects from the mid-late '90s. Expect more latin-tinged hi-octane electro/disco.

19th April ?
BCD/Biochemical Dread - False Kings Of The Earth/Indiana Cuba 7 (D-Pulse 12 inch)

Lifted from last year's "Bush Doctrine" album, this has taken a while to get completed, as explained by d-pulse's Dean:

"It's been a very long time coming, but the oft-delayed dPulse/Pulsolid release of the Biochemical Dread 12" 'False Kings of the Earth' b/w 'Indiana Cuba 7' has finally entered its final stages.

A good deal of the delay was stemmed from remastering the original Bush Doctrine version of 'Indiana Cuba 7', a process that took two mastering engineers to capture the essence of the track and translate it to vinyl.

The second (and final) master has now been approved by all involved and the record will hit the presses early in the week.

Of course, we are immensely proud to have the opportunity to release 'False Kings of the Earth' and 'Indiana Cuba 7' on vinyl and are looking forward to the release of this record...

This edited and mastered for vinyl version differs slightly from the album version of 'Indiana Cuba 7', most especially in the outtro...

For more information on the release:

http://www.dpulse-america.com/bcd.htm

Thanks for your continued support!"

17th May
Sandoz - Digital Lifeforms (CD)

A re-issue of one of Kirk's early-90's technofunk albums. This is one of my favourites. Apparently it'll be a two-disc release...not sure what's gonna be on the second disc yet. Can't wait to find out....


17th May
Richard H. Kirk - Earlier/Later Unreleased Projects Anthology 74/89 (Grey Area Of Mute CD)

This is the big one....Kirk's own 'Attic Tapes' - a two disc collection of never- before-heard audio experiments from the early days, although it will also include the excellent 12inch mix of "Martyrs Of Palestine" from '86. Mandatory listening for everybody, understand?

Kirk will also be playing at Throbbing Gristle's festival thingy in May.

More info/reviews to follow....

Although I hate jumping on other blogger's bandwagons, I must just add my support to Matt and Mark's exultant praise for the Kanye West album "College Dropout". I checked it out purely because of their enthusiasm and thank christ I did. Nothing else I can really add, Mark pretty much nailed it. Buy it. Download it. Whatever, just hear it....

Love that latest cLOUDDEAD album too. A completely different take on Hiphop's future. My mind was suitably fried.

THE STATE OF SYNTHPOP

...or electropop, or neo-futurism or whatever you wanna call it. Once again I'm left a little disappointed with a compilation that attempts to represent current trends in electronic pop music. I'm referring to Robopop Volume 1 from Lucky Pierre Records. So what's my problem? I put synthpop on a pedestal, revere it for years as the Great Lost Hope for pop, but when it finally makes a comeback I'm full of doubts. Maybe I care too much.

It just seems that there's a spectacular lack of imagination going on here and far too much emulation rather than innovation. How can so many acts make synthpop sound so damned ordinary? Too much 1983 and not enough 1981? And when groups like Baxendale or Spray incorporate post-'88 elements, it's just yer bog-standard House/Techno grooves that've already been done to death by the mainstream. It's like they're drawing out all the most anemic elements of electronica, but it's the black stuff - the spaces within the grooves - that I always responded to. That's why I really liked that Metro Area album, even when it occasionally veered into Shakatak land. But these Robopoppers tendency to fill their tracks with unnecessary MIDI-gravy just drowns whatever potential they might've had in a pool of over-production.

Macondo's 'Disappointed' is really awful, less interesting than a Pet Shop Boys b-side from 1989 with a doleful indie vocal telling it's tawdry kitchen sink drama and not an ounce of funk in it's bones.

Hearing the overtly Martin Gore-esque vocals on Wave In The Head's 'Progress' makes you realise that the boundary between genre-study and outright pastiche has been well and truly crossed. Several of these tracks, like Canadian Gary Flanagan's "Every Friday Night" sound like a fucking joke. Several groups are from across the pond, and they all sing in English accents which sound as crap as English people trying to sing in bluesy American accents.

Of course, there are some tracks that I actually do like. Jyoti Mishra aka White Town returns from one-hit-wonder oblivion with an interesting tune called "Panoptician" which features possibly the best chorus lyrics I've heard in years: "I Retreat From You" (repeat 7 times). His nicely paranoid world view is backed up by a tight groove that remembers to add a funky bassline. My ass was suitably moved. And I couldn't help but like Vic Twenty's cover of Lynsey De Paul's '70s pop-fluff classic "Suger Me", even if it is a bit clumsy. There's a certain clammy texture to the synths and a clunkiness in the beats that I find quite agreeable.

But generally, this new Conservative Synthpop Orthodoxy is as myopic and irritating as the C86 indie stuff was back in the '80s. Maybe the biggest problem is that, in this day and age, making 'synthesiser' music is as limiting and luddite in it's approach as The Wedding Present were back in 1986. With the sort of technology and sampling power available now, it seems kinda crazy to stick to such a limited palette of sound. There's an interesting, off-the-cuff comment made by Fridge/Four Tet mainman Keiren Hebden in this month's Wire magazine, where he states:"(electronic) music's not about synths and drum machines now, it's about process and editing". Having heard his latest Four Tet album "Rounds", I can see his point. The sound he creates on his computer has very little in the way of pure electronic sound. It's all digitally manipulated samples of 'real' instruments, lifted from countless old Folk albums (which has led to his music being described as 'folktronica'). Coming from a similar angle as Prefuse 23, Hebden mangles familiar acoustic sounds to quite startling effect, such as the shards of cut-up acoustic guitar that start skipping haphazardly across the beat on the track "She Moves She".

There's an 'ocean of sound' out there, and the future belongs to those who can soak it all up and channel it into something radical....and intelligible.

Having said all that, I still worship the original 'first wave' electropop artists and, for the sheer hell of it, here's a few examples of less-celebrated 'classics' that still thrill me....

THOMAS LEER & ROBERT RENTAL - Day Breaks, Night Heals (1979)
Ahhh, the 'Scottish tinge'. These purveyors of fine lo-fi electro angst-pop got together at the behest of Industrial Records to create "The Bridge" album, which is the official post-punk response to Bowie's "Low", being half experimental pop and half ambient soundscape. Interest in Leer is currently escalating, on account of the recent re-issues of his late-80's work with Claudia Brucken as Act. But it's Rental's ghostly vocals, coupled with the utterly Martian rhythm track that makes this the highlight for me.

JOHN FOXX - Touch And Go (1980)
The final track from the ultimate electrofuturist manifesto LP "Metamatic". After all the ice-cold Ballardesque alienation, "Touch & Go" is the big emotional release. Foxx almost breaks into a chuckle at one point. And it's such an irresistible groove...the best bit is the extended instrumental section at the end where he takes the track right down to the bare bones before bringing in those ethereal waves of synth texture. Interestingly, the main melody is exactly the same as that used on "Mr. X", a track on Ultravox's first post-Foxx album Vienna, which was released a few months later. I wonder what the story is there...did anyone get sued?

SILICON TEENS - State Of Shock Part 2 (1980)
Now I know that a lot of people were a little confused by Daniel Miller's decision to make an album of electronically performed hits of the '50s and '60s, but tucked away on side 2 is this little self-penned instrumental that is perhaps the nearest we have to a follow-up to his groundbreaking work as The Normal (along with "Cleanliness and Order", the track he did with Boyd Rice). Very sexy, very groovy and still sounds like the future. What the fuck ever happened to Part 1?! I call on Daniel to release a Silicon Teens rarities collection NOW!!

THE HUMAN LEAGUE - WXJL Tonight (1980)
Final track on the League's "Travelogue" album. There's so many of their tunes I could single out for recommendation, but this one sums up what was great about the Marsh/Oakey/Ware line-up perfectly. It's so clumsy, yet so ingenious. So daft, yet so heart-felt and soulful. And the arrangements are a delight. When the staccato synth arpeggio kicks in mid-way, it's like a wormhole just opened to 1990's euphoric techno.

FAD GADGET - Lady Shave (1981)
One day, I'll make a pilgrimage to Frank Tovey's grave. That's how highly I rate the man. Although I can't agree with the sentiments of the lyrics, 'cause I'm a chauvinist pig who always complains if the wife's legs aren't smooth enough, this is a wicked, intense, muscular slice of dark dance music. The bit near the end where Frank's shriek is shot through echo & distortion is very Suicide - the sort of thing I'm a total sucker for.

LANDSCAPE - Norman Bates (1981)
Okay, they weren't a very good group in general, but this track just fucking slays me. Over a minimal, ominous groove, a treated voice repeats the phrase "My name is Norman Bates, I'm just a normal guy" until another voice shrieks out "Mother! Oh, my God!" which leads into one of the coldest, eeriest synth lead solos of all time. Still gives me the shivers...and they performed it on TOTP!

YAZOO - Bring Your Love Down (Didn't I)
(1982)
Are Yazoo hip these days? I've no idea. But this Alison Moyet-penned slice of electro blues still rocks the floor here at Gutterbreakz HQ.

CYBOTRON - Alleys Of Your Mind (1981)
Over in Detroit Motor City something was stirring. This first release by the young Juan Atkins and his then partner 3630 pays heavy dues to it's European inspirations, but adds a big dollop of the black stuff to create one of the stiffest funk grooves of all time, displaying the sort of attributes that the current crop of American synthpoppers would do well to observe. No doubt Junior Boys will show them the way....

Coinciding nicely with the heated MP3 debate that's been raging in blogdom, International DJ magazine runs a cover story special report on the downloading phenomenon in the April issue, investigating the impact that the internet is having on the dance music industry. Definitely worth a read, for those who still read printed words, that is.

A few points of particular interest:

But for all the negativity, there are many who believe that digital downloads have actually helped boost sales of their singles by allowing people to "try before they buy". In a BPI study conducted in 2002 - at the height of the wars between the major labels and file sharing websites - 60% of respondents said that trying a track out before they bought it was one of the main reasons why they downloaded music illegally.

A nice thought, but deeply suspect in my view.


Just as music buyers have been given a choice, so too have dance labels. On the back of the success of iTunes, the majority have been scrambling to add their catalogues onto the numerous paid-for download services cropping up.....
.....one major factor in the popularity of download sales for labels is the ease with which they can turn a profit. Without the major overheads of a traditional release, you can swell your coffers - and those of your artists - fairly easily. Likewise, you can keep making money on back catalogue, without the need for expensive represses".

I find this very encouraging. The dance labels are getting stuck in and making it pay. Creativity can still be a bankable commodity, even in the MP3 age.

"To be honest, I haven't played off vinyl for over a year now," admits John '00' Fleming. "I'm fully CD and Final Scratch (a hardware/software interface that allows digital music files to be played, scratched and manipulated). I think the kids nowadays are used to looking at waveforms, at home on computers, and that's the format that they want to spin their music off"

John's almost certainly right about that. As the authors humourously suggest in their opening scenario: "..a world where vinyl is purely the stuff of fetishists' fantasies, CDs are our generation's Betamax tapes and Technics 1210s have been replaced by laptops, next generation MP3 decks and portable music storage devices no bigger than your hand." Us (slightly!) older consumers need to get on board now, before our CD collections become useless scrap and our belief-systems shatter into a thousand pieces....

"The problem is" Amon Tobin told us "so far the sound quality of MP3s or whatever is just not good enough. Any digital records I use in my set I make myself or just record from vinyl. This way I can play WAV files, which are better quality then MP3 - similar to CD quality, which is ample for club soundsystems."

I was worried about the sound quality issue too. But for my basic needs and hi-fi equipment, I really can't tell any noticeable difference between CD and MP3 quality. Maybe I've just got crap ears.

"If anything's going to die, it'll be the CD", Amon Tobin says. "I think downloads will replace CDs but not vinyl. My guess is that eventually we'll see all digital formats from CD to MP3 consolidated and streamlined, becoming more and more convenient to use until eventually we're all beaming files through our eyeballs and mapping them into our brains, or whatever. Vinyl, on the other hand, has never been about convenience and will continue to survive, appreciated by a minority for it's unique qualities."

Yeah, I can relate to that. I feel like CDs were just an intermediate holding pattern until something better came along. Even though I've been predominantly buying music on CD for the past 10 years or so, I don't really feel that much emotional attachment to the objects themselves, apart from some of the more lavish packages. But I still have a great deal of affection for certain vinyl treasures. Also, because it's now commonplace to burn your own CD-rs, it's taken all the magic out of the CD format. I remember being very excited the first time I got my own music onto CD, but now I master onto CD-r as a matter of course. Getting music onto vinyl on the other hand, still needs specialist knowledge and equipment that requires a certain level of outlay, belief and commitment from the artist/label. To enshrine your work in wax is to truly immortalise it. That's why vinyl will always have a special appeal, beyond the convenience of digital formats.

By the way, for all you Grime/Eski heads out there, Wiley's "Treadin' On Thin Ice" got the album of the month. "Explosively original"...okay, I'm sold on the idea.

I'm still experimenting with iPod's shuffle play experience, but no new insights yet. But interestingly, the first track that iPod elected to play today was "Rise Up (vocal mix)" by fellow blogger Grievous Angel. Now when he finally gets his shit together, I think Mr Meme is gonna be one of the real pioneers of the MP3 age. An artist who communicates his thoughts and opinions freely and makes his work instantly accessible to anyone who wants it. I will be watching developments at his new blog closely, taking notes. Incidently, I agree with most points that Paul makes concerning download culture. In particular, the freedom to experience a wide range of music without the weight of ownership, particularly resonates with me.

But I much prefer the "Hard Dub" mix, Paul....

DOIN' THE iPOD SHUFFLE

..so anyway I was down with the Recognise crew last week (another great night, lads) showing-off my iPod to whoever would look. Reactions ranged from cautious approval to total envy to, in Will's case, outright hostility. "Those things are the death of music!" he exclaimed with barely concealed contempt. Will reckons iPod will lose him and all those other hardworking musicians loads of potential earnings. To which I respond: invest in a decent MP3 website and sell your band's music there instead of wasting money on elaborate vinyl packages. You can't un-invent the technology, so learn to work with it. And that goes for all those major labels out there who really are engaging in an exercise in futility by trying to combat the downloaders. But apart from that, respect to Will for playing Mankind's disco version of the Dr. Who theme.

One particular comment from another friend got me thinking. He works with an iPod owner who keeps his on permanent 'song-shuffle' mode. These means that tracks (or, if you prefer, albums) are played at random. Although I was aware of the shuffle function, it hadn't occurred to me that I might actually use it. You see I'm the sort of person who likes to be in control of his musical diet. The process of selection, of thinking "what shall I play today?" is intrinsic to my daily routine. That's why I rarely listen to the radio, other than when driving, 'cause I like to be my own DJ.

Yet I couldn't get the idea of song-shuffle play out of my head. iPod has already changed my perspective of my music collection. I'm starting to view it in a more modular way, rather than a collection of discreet blocks. By adding that random factor, I would be not only losing control of the sequence of events, but also wrenching individual tracks from their usual homes on albums and compilations; breaking everything up into an unpredictable flow of stimulation. It's strange that, even though I don't like it when other people are controlling the sounds, the idea of letting a machine make the decisions (based on parameters that I have set for it) seems quite attractive to me. It would be like listening to a radio that plays only music you like without any annoying chat between tracks.

Shuffle-play is nothing new. Many CD players have had them for years. But even the 5-disc changer systems seemed too limiting to be of any real use. I now have 1691 songs in my iPod, from over 260 different albums, compilations, EPs and singles from a similarly varied selection of artists (it's not even half-full yet - I try to rip at least 5 CDs a day). That feels like enough to make experimenting with shuffle-play an interesting project.

So I decided that, as I was spending most of today at home, I'd give it a go. I set iPod into song-shuffle mode, jacked it into my stereo system, pressed play and left it alone to do it's thing while I went about my business. I'd hoped to play at least a hundred tracks, but in the end only had time for half that. Here's what iPod decided to play today:

Prefuse 73 Altoid Addiction (interlude)/B12 Hall Of Mirrors/Boards Of Canada Basefree/Boards Of Canada You Could Feel The Sky/Aphex Twin Come To Daddy (Little Lord Faulteroy Mix)/Close,Up,Over Olivine/Phil(3)/Kraftwerk Techno Pop/Wagon Christ Rendleshack/Funky 4 Plus 1 That's The Joint/Eric B. & Rakim Put Your Hands Together/Suicide Harlem II/Universal Indicator 303/Aphex Twin Ventolin (Carharrack Mix)/Nobukazu Takemura Let My Fish Loose (Aphex Twin Mix)/Air Suicide Underground/DMX Krew Konnichi Wa!/Air Don't Be Light (Edit)/Audio Bullys Ego War+'Hidden' Track/Mark Stewart Shame/Philip Glass Heroes (Aphex Twin Mix)/Underworld Dirty Epic/U-Ziq Dance 2/A Certain Ratio Life's A Scream/Luke Vibert Rank Rink Ring/Radioactive Man Twistyboomklart/B12 Obsessed/Kid Koala Skanky Panky/UHF Everything/Boards Of Canada The Color Of The Fire/Luke Vibert Music Called Jazz/Steve Poindexter Computer Madness/Boards Of Canada Orange Romeda/Wagon Christ Workout/Amen Andrews London/Kinesthesia Triachus (Aphex Twin Mix)/Sampson 'Butch' Moore House Beat Box/Kraftwerk Tour De France (Francois K. Mix)/Kraftwerk Computer World 2/AFX CD Only #2/Luke Vibert Harmonic/AFX Isoprophlex/Wagon Christ Tomorrow Acid/Bush Tetras Can't Be Funky/Suicide Sweetheart/Squarepusher Tommib Help Buss/Boards Of Canada She Is P/RAC Detour/Kraftwerk Spacelab/Radioactive Man Fed-Ex To Munchen/Aphex Twin Beskhu3epnm/Plaid Cedar City/Prefuse 73 90% Of My Mind Is With You/U-Ziq Beatnik #2/James White & The Blacks Contort Yourself (Original Version)

Now I'm frankly embarrassed to publish this selection. In no way does it do justice to my varied music tastes. But the fact is that yes, the first CDs to get ripped into iPod were from Warp, Aphex and Vibert etc, so I guess that the view has been distorted because there are whole eras and genres that I haven't even begun to tackle yet. For instance, no reggae, jazz or anything pre-punk yet. But if this is a mirror of my obsessions than I guess I have to accept it. It just makes me look really one-dimensional. If I'd been in charge of today's music selection, I would've probably been playing some Remarc stuff, 'cause I'm really into that Amen-junglist zone at the mo'. iPod had other ideas.

As an experience, song-shuffle was surprisingly enjoyable. Initially it felt like driving a car with someone else steering, but once I'd acclimatised to the situation it actually became quite thrilling. Sure, not everything was what I wanted to hear at that particular time, but just as often it was exactly what I wanted. And some of the tracks that initially disappointed soon began to grow on me, transporting me into their zone as opposed to me trying to find something to soundtrack my zone. The constant mood-manipulating, in tandem with the anticipation of "what's gonna play next?!" was really jazzing my system. It also forced me to listen to some stuff that, even though important to me, I maybe hadn't listened to very often. In a couple of cases I wasn't even sure who or what I was listening to.

I'm resolved to continue with the shuffle-play mode, though not permanently yet. But I need to get more tracks and styles in there yet to get anything truly meaningful out of it. Maybe it'll help me to understand what's really important to me, to find the link that holds everything together. And maybe that's bullshit..

DOWNLOAD CULTURE Vs. OBJECTS OF DESIRE

Two items of opposing interest in this month's Record Collector mag:

1) The number of legal downloads undertaken in the UK during January passed the number of 12" singles sold for the first time. Over 150,000 downloads were recorded, a figure boosted by the arrival of new services such as MyCokeMusic and the Warp label's Bleep. The figures contrast with UK singles sales for 2003, which fell from over 52 million in the previous year to just over 36 million - a drop of a third - with a further 20% fall predicted for the first quarter of 2004. Singles sales have fallen by a half since 2001, and WH Smith is among those retailers withdrawing from the market.

Over-the-counter music sales overall only held up in 2003 due to albums purchases, up 6% thanks to a combination of falling prices and breakthrough acts such as The Darkness and a batch of new soul/jazz stars, including No.1 album makers Katie Melua and Jamie Callum, plus Joss Stone, Amy Winehouse, Hayley Westernra and Jane Monheit. Album sales hit 263 million, making £1.1 billion.

2) Following BMG's 36-song, 2-CD Ultimate Hall & Oates collection, a DVD-Video of that name appears on 17 May, accompanied by bonus-track-boosted, remastered versions of their Private Eyes and H2O sets. Revamps of Big Bam Boom and Voices follow on 26 July, with all the packages featuring bonus material, such as 12" mixes and unissued tracks.