Archive for August, 2018

Ride on That Freeway Of Love

Thursday, August 30th, 2018

Aretha Franklin
Freeway Of Love (Rock Mix)
Freeway Of Love (Radio Mix)
Freeway Of Love (Extended Remix)
Like most anyone who grew up in the 80s, my first exposure to Aretha Franklin was in The Blues Brothers, quickly followed by this massive hit single from 1985. In the days after her death, I saw a few “best of” Aretha lists on various publications, but not many people mentioned this song. I assume they think it hasn’t aged well? I’m no Aretha expert, I own a single album of hers and a greatest hits. But this has always been one of my favorite songs of the era, it’s the type of fun, bouncy track that could’ve only been produced in the 80s.

It’s 80s synth funk-pop is the best. When you toss out that phrase most people (of course) think of Prince and Michael, but they were far from the only people in the 80s who successfully fused 70s disco and funk with 80s dance and synthpop. There’s Aretha here, and let’s not forget Tina Turner, who scored the biggest hits of her career when she melded her classic sound with uber-sleek 80s production. And what about The Pointer Sisters? Break Out, their synthesizer-fueled magnum opus, is one of the greatest dance albums of all-time, I stand by that.

This sound died quick once the 90s hit, and I feel like it only recently made even the slightest comeback. “Uptown Funk” tapped into it, but it was kind of a false start. Not much came in the wake of that, save for Bruno trying to replicate it with his solo work (which is alright I guess). I blame Trump. Yes. For real. We were on our way to a full-on dance-pop revolution and then that orange piece of rotten smegma got elected and pop music got horribly depressed (and hey…ditto). I guess most people don’t want to boogie when the world is on fire.

Well, I do! I need to boogie! I get that everything is shit and it feels like nothing is ever going to be good ever again. And in times like this, more emotional, downbeat music is of course going to be more popular. And protest or angry music is going to have a place too (I wish it had more of a place, to be honest). But let’s not forget to have fun, people! Pop music is so dour right now, hip-hop is emo as fuck, indie rock is tweeing itself to death, and mainstream rock is still stuck in a 2000s post-grunge slump that I think it’ll never get out of.

Fun music still has a place in today’s decidedly unfun world. You can fight the power, campaign for social justice, be aware of how shitty the world is and listen to fun music now and then. The 80s wasn’t all sunshine and lollipops y’know, but we still kicked it to dope jams like this.

Crank this tune. Listen to Aretha sing about men in tight pants. Take in that dope sax solo by Clarence Clemens, as well as the vocal harmonies of Sylvester and Jeanie Tracy, and remember that it’s okay to have fun once and a while, even if the music of today doesn’t always let you.

Posted in Aretha Franklin, remixes | 3 Comments »

The Psychedelic Electronics of the Japanese Electric Foundation

Friday, August 24th, 2018

Japanese Electric Foundation
Open Your Eyes
Don’t You Care
Green Tambourine
The Japanese Electric Foundation was a one-off project comprised of several Japanese musicians, the most notable of them being Hiroshi Matsuda and Hideyuki Nozawa, who are both in the Japanese megagroup Southern All-Stars.

Southern All-Stars are a ridiculously big deal here in Japan, probably the biggest rock band of all-time. Bigger than YMO, bigger than Mr. Children, bigger than X Japan. They’ve been around for 40 years and have more hit singles than any band ever.

I don’t like them. I think they’re kind of boring. But hey what do I know?

Anyways, I didn’t know that this was a SAS side-project when I bought it, I just gave it a quick listen at the record store because of the name (I misread it as “electronic” and assumed technopop or new wave). It’s actually reminiscent of the Madchester scene of the late-80s, which is really incredible considering this came out in 1986, well before most notable Madchester releases by acts like The Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses dropped.

I think the sonic similarities are just a coincidence. Madchester is psychedelic electronic rock music. This is electronic-influenced covers of psychedelic pop music from the 60s and 70s, so the commonalities make sense.

There are non-covers on this album, but to be honest they’re the weaker tracks, sounding much more like generic Japanese rock music of the era. I prefer these covers by far. As far the original versions go, you probably know “Green Tambourine,” the psych-classic by The Lemon Pipers. You also most likely know “Don’t You Care,” which was originally performed by The Buckinghams (trust me, you know it). Finally, there’s “Open My Eyes” which was originally a Nazz song, Nazz being the psychedelic group fronted by Todd Rundgren. I vaguely recognize the original, but for me it’s the most obscure of the three, it’s also the best of the bunch, really good arrangement.

The psychedelic pop music of America and the UK was hugely influential for Japanese musicians, even leading the way for an entire genre of music in Japan that was known as “group sounds,” which was Western style rock music meshed with Japanese pop music from the 60s. Go to YouTube and check out The Spiders if you want to hear some of that. The Southern All-Stars were never a “group sounds” band, but they were no doubt influenced by them, and I have to imagine that played a big part in this side-project of theirs choosing the cover songs that directly led to that genre. Also Todd Rundgren is fucking huge in Japan so there’s that.

I wish they would’ve kept this group up for a bit. The original tunes aren’t great, but who cares? The covers are so original and fun that they more than make up for it. And who knows? With a bit more influence from the burgeoning Madchester scene, this group really could’ve been something.

Or they could’ve just given us an entire LP of Rundgren covers, who’s to say.

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A Gay Disco Deep Cut by Beckie Bell

Sunday, August 19th, 2018

Sorry for the lack of posts for the past two weeks. I place blame on a variety of factors, including a heavy work load, heat-induced malaise, and various other minor health annoyances. Although I guess most of those would be bullshit reasons next to my recent obsessive playing of Dead Cells. I could’ve written a novel with the time I sunk into that game last week. I guess I’m saying that recommend it if you want a really good excuse to procrastinate and accomplish literally nothing with your life.

But I thought I would take a back from the procedurally-generated nonsense and give you some gay disco.

Beckie Bell
Super Queen
Johnnie’s Home
Saw this 12″ single in a record store a few weeks back and was about to pass it up when I noticed that “PATRICK COWLEY” was written on the label in all caps, followed by a bunch of kanji I couldn’t even begin to read.

From what I found online, “Super Queen” features synthesizer work by the Hi-NRG master, although with the caveat of it being uncredited. I’m liable to believe it, why would someone make that up after all, but how do we know it was him? Anyone out there care to present corroboration to back up this claim?

The b-side is “Johnnie’s Home,” which is a radically different tune to “Super Queen.” While the A-side is a marvel of Hi-ENRG sequences and beats, “Johnie’s Home” is just weird. It’s part doo-wop and part reggae almost, with a strong synthesizer bent. It’s like if The Shrielles, The Ronettes, and UB40 did a mash-up. Does that make it sound bad? Because it’s not, it’s just a little out there.

I bought this track because of Cowley, but the songs are by Beckie Bell, who released her first album back in 1980, and put out a follow-up some 14 years later. That original album must have a following, as vinyl copies can seemingly go for over $100. CDs are much cheaper, if you’re interested. I’ve never heard of Bell before I bought this single, but it turns out that I have heard her voice since she worked as a session player throughout a good chunk of the 80s and 90s. She’s one Duran Duran’s Big Thing, The One by Elton John, and even shows up on a few records by Celine Dion. The career paths of incredibly talented sessions players will never cease to amaze me.

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Pan-European Krautrock

Friday, August 3rd, 2018

I put up a new blog post over on Mostly-Retro where I talk about walking around Tokyo at 6:00 am and listening to Yes (two of my favorite things). It’s a bit different, but if you read it and like it let me know, I plan on writing more things like it in the future.

Also a quick request. Anyone out there have any experience with app development for the Android? I recently upgraded to the new Samsung Galaxy. I love it, but Samsung removed a few key features from their photo editor that I really like, mostly just some simple filters/effects. If anyone out there would know how to put new filters into the Samsung Photo Editor, I would make it worth their while (i.e. I would pay actual money). Let me know.

Now three very long songs.

 

Adelbert Von Deyen
Iceland
There are a lot of holes in my musical knowledge. For example, I still have never listened to a My Bloody Valentine album (I know I know, leave me alone). Another big gap, especially for someone with musical tastes like mine, is that I’ve never taken a deep dive in the more well-known krautrock acts. I love Harmonia and have most of their albums, and I’ve spoken in length about Tangerine Dream in the past, but I still don’t own much Amon Duul (I or II), Neu!, Cluster, Moebius, and so on.

That’s probably why I had never heard of Sky Records until recently. Sky was one of the major labels of the Krautrock/Berlin School movement, most notably putting out the Cluster/Eno collaborations of the late-70s. I’m becoming a fan of the label now, having realized that a lot of the old Germn prog/electronic music I’ve been buying lately (mainly reissues by Harald Grosskopf and Tyndall) was originally put out by them back in the 70s and 80s.

Even among Sky Records artists, I think that Adelbert Von Deyen is relatively obscure, if prolific. He pumped out nine albums between 1978 and 1987, but most of those remain unreleased digitally or on CD.

I’ve only managed to stumble upon Nordborg, his 1978 sophomore effort. Very much in the Klaus Schulze style, it is just two longform pieces, one on each side. The first track, “Moonrise,” is super avant-garde and ambient, with nary a melody, rhythm or motif to be found. It’s purely soundscapes and sonic experimentation. It’s not for everyone. This track, however, is a tad more digestible, complete with a steady beat and beautiful piano sections. I love this stuff.

 

Mick Clarke
Spectro
Mick Clarke strikes me as a guy who rolls with the punches. A Brit, Games, his first album was recorded in Germany in the krautrock style on the minor German label Blubber Lips. Since then, he’s seemingly dipped his hands in nearly every electronic music style I can think of, from new wave and synthpop to hardcore techno and house music, releasing music with various groups and under a number of aliases. I’m not familiar with his work at all, but it does appear that his new wave group Naked Lunch, has some degree of notoriety among the more die-hard synth enthusiasts out there.

This is the first track from Games, clocking in at over 17 minutes and taking up the entirety of the album’s first side. It’s split into two distinct parts. The first half is very ambient, with an emphasis on textures and effects instead of strong melodies. The second part shifts focus to sequencer patterns, with a slightly dark edge to them. It’s like Tangerine Dream but a little menacing.

Of these three songs I’m sharing today, this is the most noisy. The LP had some dust and other damage I couldn’t remove physically or digitally. It gets better after the first minute or so though. Sorry about that.

 

Sangiuliano
Take Off
I don’t know if it’s accurate to call Sangiuliano the “weirdest” of this bunch. All three of these guys are quite out there, but I feel it’s safe to say that, of these three artists, his music is the least typical. Instead of following in the Berlin School/krautrock styles of Amon Duul, Tangerine Dream or Cluster, Sangiuliano seemed far more content to combine his electronic musical leanings with classical influences. His pieces sounds like concertos from space. Everything about his music seems to be intent on copying classical orchestrations entirely with synthetic instrumentation. A symphony with a choir could perform this piece and it wouldn’t sound that out of the ordinary from other classical pieces, until it goes full synth at the end with an explosion of sequencers.

Sangiuliano never released another album, although he allegedly recorded one that ended up shelved by his record company. According to his Discogs page, he’s now a radio personality in his native Italy. Wonder if he kept the hair.

 

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