Superior dark, sinister electro that I heard for the first time today. There’s so much scope and room to roam within this track. Everything hits perfectly. The beat is heavy, but skips off the firmament with more of a bounce than a thud. It’s the pervasive flange which is this tune’s calling card though. It sounds like a goth helicopter staring through a night sky full of freaks. Great sound design on this track.
If I could go back in time one of the first things I would do would be to go and see Talking Heads live. It is to my eternal regret that this didn’t happen when it was possible. Anyway, this is one of their best and I’ve posted the live version because, along with The Eurythmics’ ‘1984’, this album was on display everywhere when I last visited Berlin, in 1984. I say last because I’m going back there next month. I guess things may have changed a little. For the better or worse? When I went it was pretty raw, I went to the Dschungel, which was, I believe, a hang out of David Bowie and Iggy Pop a few years earlier. When I went ‘You Spin Me Round’ was on the wheels of steel and it was very hi nrg.
The second track from an album that I haven’t listened to from start to finish for a very long time. Most of the tracks are very well-known, but not all, and listening to this, then opening track, takes me back to a place when even though I had nothing, I was very happy. I guess getting stoned most days of the year for years played a part, and when I used to listen to this that was the order of the day. More because of the crowd I was hanging out with who liked this record more than anything else. Other friend groups weren’t quite so enthusiastic. Lou Reed was, in the early-mid 80s prime stoned scal fare. As was Bowie, Pink Floyd and Marillion. Loads of others of course. Anything went,
Part two of a great double header on the now long defunct LAN. Donato Dozzy gets together with Exercise One who, at the time, had similar sonic leanings, to produce a piece of minimal trance. The other side, ‘United Elements’ is much more typical of Dozzy’s general outlook and that of Exercise One at the time, which is more than twenty years ago. This is an interesting piece of work though, sort of channeling Dozzy and Dan Bell into a jerky, minimal masterpiece. This is the B side from a very overlooked release that isn’t much at all on Discogs. Yet.
Described as deep house, at least that’s what some of the comments say underneath it on YouTube. Not that it isn’t, but break beats, yelps and a very garage/murk style bass combine to upset the applecart in a variety of ways. This is a great track, once finished, never bettered. So simple. The closest comparison I can come up with is ‘Total Confusion’ by A Homeboy, A Hippie & A Funky Dread, which is more in your face and rave-tinged. Difficult to find a track as elemental and as complex as this though. One for the podium dancers.
Along with ‘I Travel’ my favourite Simple Minds track and, although I was never a big fan, in spite of seeing them in Liverpool at The Royal Court on the ‘Big Gold Dream’ tour, they’ve more than made their mark. Anyway, this track has always been amazing, but it really came into it’s own when it became a staple at Wiggle in the last nineties due to someone editing it to make it even more warehouse party friendly. It’s one of those tracks which can suit any transcendental experience, regardless of bps. So I’ve defo heard a chug version, which bookends both ends of the credible dance music spectrum nicely.
