In some nightclubs in the mid nineties, the messy, druggy, decadent sound espoused by Tribal ruled the dance floors. Coming from New York, it had a certain depth and versatility about it which saw records on the label find their way into all sorts of DJ sets. ‘The Horn Ride’ was released as a double pack with a range of remixes, but I like this one the most, for its minimalistic darkness Tardis-like ability to invoke a sense of space.
One of the most memorable guitar riffs ever, which first appeared, if memory serves, on ‘Lipstick’ by Buzzcocks. That means of course that Pete Shelley gets a writing credit for this tune. It’s a monster, and this video, which I’ve posted on account of some great crowd expressions and Howard Devoto’s uncanny hairline (defo going through some sort of Roxy/Eno phase with it), is great. I don’t know it’s context though, so if anyone does feel free to let me know. I’ve a feeling it was filmed in Belgium or Holland not long after release. One of my all time most persistent eagworms, and I can’t believe this is the first time I’ve posted it.
Title: Exoframe
Artist: Shawescape Renegade
Label: Tresor
Cat Number: Tresor. 382
Genre: Electro/Techno
1: Light Years From Earth
2: Mechanise 9
3: Terraformers Warning
4: Terraformers Warning (Arpanet Terraformation Quanta Remodel)
5: Ignition One
Shawescape Renegade, aka Jeremiah Shaw is a new name to me, which just goes to show how out of the loop I am I suppose. Anyway, it’s an early Tuesday morning in Suffolk, the dog is being lazy and doesn’t want to go out, so I’ve started listening to ‘Exoframe’, his debut release on Tresor. And it’s stated well, apart, that is, from me typing “Shawshank” and having to go back and correct my mistakes. I guess a release like this represents a milestone of sorts in the evolution of electro as there aren’t that many new artists breaking through and coming from Detroit always carries extra kudos. However, no one gets a free pass so it had better be good. And, while it isn’t going to revolutionise the genre in one fell swoop, it’s everything that you want an electro funk excursion to be. The production is pleasingly heavy and crisp without being excessive. The bass is concave and economical filling a lot more space than might be apparent. And the emphasis is on the beats throughout, which are all strictly electro with the exception of ‘Mechanise 9’, where the steam hammers take over and the beat is ironed out. The Arpanet mix of ‘Terraformers Warning’ doesn’t differ that much from the original inasmuch as its trace elements are recognisable in a much more urgent, fidgety take which sounds like it’s been recorded inside a washing machine inside an echo chamber. The bookends, ‘Light Years From Earth’, and ‘Ignition One’, are the funkiest tracks on this release. Both of them coast through the twilit electro hinterland within the chassis of a metaphysical lowrider powered by their own beat flatulence, and who doesn’t like that?
This is one of a handful of releases I still have on Darren Emerson’s Underwater label from around the mid nineties. It’s the B side to ‘Prometheus’ and showcases a young Steve Rachmad effortlessly doing what he does best. This isn’t as complex as many of his releases from around that time, with his output on 100% Pure being particularly high quality, as well as that on Fragile. It is, though, as good as it gets for contemporary dance floor focussed techno that isn’t loop based. There are dubby, depth-endowing overtones to it, as well as good momentum (the two don’t always sit side-by-side). And, as you would expect from Steve Rachmad, great production and clarity. Lovely stuff.
I played this album own its entirety for the first time in ages today, and even though it’s pretty solid from start to finish, this track is the one that had me bopping around the kitchen more than any other. It’s also the one that, more than any other, evokes the album title. Listening to it puts me on a conveyor belt of slow, unfolding rave drives. Full up to the eye with beans while being taken on a tour of any city I happen to been. All control has been surrendered to the chauffeur. I’ve been on a few with perhaps the most surreal being one in New Jersey one hot and sticky Friday night. Literally on the wrong side of the tracks. Sliding silently past wooden houses with large porches, everyone put on them getting pissed in the middle of the night.
I don’t own any Pink Floyd records, but some tracks are so incredibly pervasive it’s impossible not to be affected by them in some way. And just seeing the cover of this album takes me back to the first floor of John Menzies in Liscard in the mid seventies. It was everywhere. I bought so many records there, but this wasn’t one of them. Having said that I wouldn’t have liked it at that age. My tastes weren’t more highly evolved than glam rock at the time. I think my proclivities were ok in that capacity though. Anyway this is a great piece of screaming. Never loses the focus and in doing so comes up with one of the most memorable pomp rock riffs. Probably.
‘Blue train’ has one of the most memorable and, consequently, whistled intros ever. During the eighties when I first started buying jazz Blue Note was obviously one of the places I started. And I think ‘Blue Train’ was the first album I bought by John Coltrane. The cover is amazing as well. Coltrane frozen in some sort of thinker pose. A friend of mine who has a talent for drawing sketched me this portrait and it hangs on the wall just outside my bedroom as the moment. The other thing about it is that John Coltrane looks like a young Frank Bruno. More in some photos than in others.
It’s been a while since I’ve posted a Cabs track. This is the opener from the last album, ‘Shadow Of Fear’ which came out own 2020 just under a year before its composer, Richard H. Kirk died. So it followed ‘The Conversation’ which had come out in 1993 as the two albums under his sole stewardship up to that time. And even though it was just him, it certainly doesn’t lose anything that make it unmistakably of its type. Many would say that its more genuine because of this. I’m a fan of the combo approach though and while I think RHK rarely put a foot wrong, a lot of my favourite Cabs offerings come from the Mallinder era. I don’t think anything they ever put out betters ‘The Conversation’. ‘Shadow Of Fear’ was a nice way to bow out, albeit unintentionally, and tracks like this embodies everything that CV came t be known for over the years. The funk, the sense of space and menace. The sample which ever so slightly dissonant. The undercurrent of middle eastern rhythm patterns, more pervasive than you might have realised.
I’ve had this in my head for the past few days and even though it’s the type of track that I wouldn’t have given much attention to when it came out, I can only hold up my hand and say that it was an age thing. The “Time keeps on slippin’’lyric is an ultimate ear worm and the track may not have been such a classic were it not for that. Anyway, it’s as funky as it gets, so when you’re shopping for chicken Kievs ion Tesco that’s all the matters. And is it Balearic?
I remember when I first heard this track. I bought the album on cd and also bought a portable cd player. A Philips. I took them both home, which was an ex-girlfriend’s flat in Palmers Green (had to move in after getting evicted from a squat). It was a Friday after work, knackered. Put it on and it did its job. There’s only one way to go once you start listening to this. It should be on the NHS for insomnia. Masterful. One of the most horizontal fitted minutes in music.
Although like ‘B-Movie’ very much of its time, ‘Adventures In Success’ couldn’t be more different. It’s tempting to call it a novelty record, but it’s really not. Sounding not too dissimilar to Tom Tom Club, it’s message may feel tongue in cheek, but it’s out there anyway and when it was released, even though the eighties were just underway, the self-centred message couldn’t be clearer. Not that there’s anything wrong with being successful if the ruthlessness that often goes with it can be sidestepped. Anyway, that’s enough gravitas. Tune!
One of those tracks that changed me a little bit forever. I first heard this on one of those NME giveaway cassettes. And at that time I hadn’t heard of Gil Scott Heron. However, this tune, produced at around the beginning of Reagan’s America introduced me to him and from then on I was hooked. As mentioned in a post I wrote when he died, I then went out and bought everything I could find by him from Reaction Records in New Brighton. I don’t have those records anymore but I wish I did. Anyway, the title refers to the type of film in which Ronald Reagan starred a lot and where someone often saved America at the last minute. A great track which summarises America in the 80s and continues the thread of conscious poetry/lyricism started with ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’.
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.
