In the Bastille Mixtape that I posted on Monday, I included tracks from late 70s/early 80s underground French synth-wave acts Ruth and Marie Möör. Following up, I wanted to mention two excellent compilations from that time period, which do a great job of capturing the French electro/no-wave/synth-pop/punk movement and at the same time are easily obtained (unlike some of the artists they contain). As synth-based post punk was on the rise on the other side of the English Channel, with Human League’s single “Don’t You Want Me” beaming over the airwaves, a similar movement of futuristic robot eroticism took hold in France. This movement of synth-based cold-wave acts had prompted punk-musical journalist, Yves Adrien, to write a lengthy essay in 1980 titled, NovöVision, that conjured up a Zamyatin-type of dystopian society focused on drugs, robots, sex, and even robotic sex.
So Young But So Cold: Underground French Music (1977-1983) begins with the steady spacey synth pulses, atmospheric organs, and ethereal French-sung/spoken female vocals of Nini Raviolette’s “Suis-Je Normale.” Forgive me for the comparison, because the movie is fresh in my mind, but the track would have made the perfect accompaniment for a less “Hello Dolly” opening of Wall-E. A lonely robot rolls around a lifeless, abandoned, and eerily unfamiliar Earth set against the stark tone and icy synths of the somber song, while, in almost a robotic tone, female vocals ask “suis-je, suis-je normale? (am I, am I normal?)” The track pretty much sets the cold-wave tone for the rest of the comp which includes the austere robotic grooves of Ruth’s “Polaroid/Roman/Photo,” The Druids rare illustrated concept of “The Force,” and the cyberpunk of Artefact on “Mae.”
If So Young But So Cold was the first-course that aroused your appetite, then BIPPP: French Synth Wave (1979-85) is the gluttonous main course of obscure French synth-wave singles. Initially released by Parisian-imprint Born Bad in 2006, BIPPP was released in the States earlier this year via Everloving Records. Like their European counterparts, The Human League, Depeche Mode, Gary Newman, Soft Cell, and Kraftwerk, the artists compiled on BIPPP share the love of the analog synthesizer. A brief blurb on the album jacket gives an outline of the birth of French synth-wave, which gives credit to the rise of the genre to ex-Stinky Toy member Dennis Quillard (aka Janco) and singer Elli Mederios and their instrumental Kraftwerk-worshipping single “Rectangle.” Like So Young, BIPPP paints an icy-synth laden landscape that covers a six year span. Unlike the perfect pop that some UK artists were churning out, BIPP shows that the synth sounds remained more stripped in France at the time.
The Verlaines made their recorded debut on Side 2, EP 2 of New Zealand’s seminal Dunedin Double EP in 1982. The compilation featured three other Dunedin, NZ groups including The Chills, The Stones, and Sneaky Feelings, each getting their own side of a 12”. Dunedin Double marked the first compilation released by the burgeoning Flying Nun, the record label that championed “The Dunedin Sound,” a phrase coined by The Clean’s David Kilgour. Since Flying Nun had minimal funds and many of the musicians were unemployed, the EP was recorded on a portable four-track, lending it a lo-fi sound quality.
Originally forming as a five-piece in 1980 and later stripping down to a trio, The Verlaines took their name after French poet Paul Verlaine (as did Television’s Tom Verlaine). Fronted by classical music student Graeme Downes, the band combined jangly guitars, stark basslines, and a pop mentality with precise classical compositions and instrumental arrangements. Like early Bunnymen, The Verlaines music was manic, angular, and energetic – cleverly shifting, twisting and turning in an unconventional shell of classical structure. Frantic up-tempo playing offset Downes’ mournful, sometimes downbeat vocals, while tracks like the epic “Slow Sad Love Song” from the group’s sophomore effort, Bird Dog, capture melancholy in the most beautiful, moving, and personal ways.
On the heels of Dunedin Double, an EP and a couple of singles, the band dropped their debut LP, Hallelujah All the Way Home, in 1985 on Flying Nun (and later on Homestead). Downes submitted the album as a part of a composition paper for his Honors Degree in Music, which garnered him an “A.” Hallelujah built upon the scholarly sound of The Verlaines early singles and brought Downes’ disturbed stories of isolation, betrayal, and disillusionment to life with lilting melodies tinged with classical strings and horns. Bird Dog followed in 1987 and it’s probably the record I listen to the most from the group, with two of my personal favorites of all The Verlaine’s songs being “Cd Jimmy Jazz and Me” and the aforementioned “Slow Sad Love Song.” Downes croon sounds eerily similar to Ian McCulloch’s, while the composition and swirling orchestration stacks up to anything on Ocean Rain.
The Verlaines released two more records on Flying Nun/Homestead, Juvenilia (an early singles and EP comp) and Some Disenchanted Evening in 1987 and 1989, respectively. The 90s saw the band jumping to Slash and Sony for three releases, until they went on hiatus 1996, reappearing last year with Potboiler.
Washington, D.C. area indie rock act, Unrest, were a band I first heard about in my teenage years from the inevitable source that most teens in my situation discovered interesting music, MTV’s 120 minutes. Today, that station holds about as much worth as the steamy pile of warm shit I pick up off the sidewalk every morning after my dog generously leaves it there for me. But, back then, it played a significant part in what I listened to, kinda like how everyone gets a big veiny hard-on every time a Pitchfork staffer graces a record with a number greater than eight. I’m not sure if it was during Matt Pinfield’s or Lewis Largent’s reign on 120 Minutes in the early 90s when I first saw the video for Unrest’s catchy pop song “Make Out Club” (I’m assuming it’s the latter).
Like most of my favorites from that time, I caught onto the group while they were on their way out, but perhaps at their best. Although “Make Out Club” was a minor MTV hit in 1993, I didn’t pick up their Simon Le Bon (don’t even say it Theo) produced album Perfect Teeth until some years down the road. Started by Teenbeat main man Mark Robinson and drummer Phil Krauth, Unrest began in 1985 as a noisy-punk improv band while they were still in high-school in Arlington, Virginia. During recording and practice the group had agreed to never play the same thing twice. Always experimentalists, Unrest’s released a slew of avant-garde (sometimes barely listenable) albums from 1985-90 including 1990’s Kustom Karnal Blaxploitation (say that fast three times), which was highlighted by their interpretation of the anthemic “Teenage Suicide” from the 80s favorite flick Heathers.
A few of Kustom’s soft and shimmering tracks hinted at the direction the band would take on its next two records, Imperial f.f.r.r. and Perfect Teeth, which also marked the arrival of bassist Bridget Cross (Velocity Girl). Imperial, the trio’s debut LP with Cross as a permanent member, mixed Unrest’s pop and experimental sensibilities into an infectious indie pop gem. Perfect Teeth, released in 1993 with its lushly crafted pop songs, light dosage of experimental tinkering, Cross’ bright and throbbing Peter Hook-inspired bass, and beautiful packaging brought the band’s sound and Robinson’s regard for British imprint Factory Records full circle.
Unrest split in 1994, but re-formed in 2005 for a one off performance at Washington, D.C.’s Black Cat for Teenbeat’s 20th Anniversary Showcase. Bridget Cross, now living in Alaska has a self-titled record out on Teenbeat under the moniker Maybe It’s Reno. Both Krauth and Robinson make appearances on the release, as well as significant other George Kuhar.
Grab “Light Command” and check out the video of “Make Out Club” (both from Perfect Teeth) below.
In the mid-70s Brian Eno reportedly dubbed Harmonia “the world’s most important rock band,” later joining the Krautrock supergroup for several sessions in 1976. The group was founded by three of Germany’s experimental heavyweights, including Michael Rother of Neu! (and early Kraftwerk), along with ambient experimentalists Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedeliu of Cluster. The trio lasted just two years and has a slim back-catalog, but have been highly influential on ambient and electronic music.
On their debut album, Harmonia brought together chugging motorik rhythms of Rother’s Neu! with the ambient music of Moebius’ and Roedeliu’s Cluster. The result was the euphoric, Musik Von Harmonia which appeared in 1974. While staying true to the motorik model, Musik tended to be more smooth and strung out than say, Kraftwerk’s clean frozen soundscapes or Can’s abrasive experimental art rock. The trio’s sophomore effort, Deluxe followed in 1975 and saw the band moving toward more song structure with a pop mentality. The warmth of Musik that spilled over to Deluxe was greatly multiplied as soft pulsating motorik rhythms are perfectly balanced with Harmonia’s chugging electronic drums, droning keyboard melodies, and hypnotic guitar work. After championing the band and being influenced by their first two efforts, Brian Eno joined recording sessions for the third album, Tracks and Traces in 1976. However, the band split up that same year as Rother embarked on a solo career, leading to Tracks and Traces to be shelved until it was finally released in 1997.
Coinciding with the release of the live album Live 1974, Harmonia reunited in 2007, performing live in Berlin for the first time since 1976. The band also recently performed at ATP vs Pitchfork and will be playing live at the stacked My Bloody Valentine-curated ATP New York on September 22nd in Monticello, NY.
At a time when punk was the way to go and in a city where most bands were taking heavy influences from the mid-80’s hardcore scene, Washington, DC’s Black Tambourine was conceived primarily as an indie-pop group. One of the first bands to be signed to the Slumberland imprint, Black Tambourine’s sound provides a snapshot of the early American indie-pop scene in the late 80s/early 90s.
The seminal quartet of Archie Moore and Brian Nelson (later of Velocity Girl), along with vocalist Pam Berry (later of Glo-Worms, The Shapiros, and Castaway Stones) and drummer guitarist Mike Schulman (Slumberland founder) went against the grain of what was happening in their city and looked across the Atlantic to British twee and C86 groups like The Pastels, along with noisemakers Jesus and Mary Chain for inspiration. Like many shoegaze bands that followed, Black Tambourine were influenced by Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound production, predating the sounds that later caught on rather largely in the States.
Black Tambourine’s short, instrumental only “Pam’s Tan” was the band’s debut and first release on Slumberland in 1990. The group’s first official single, “Throw Aggi from the Bridge,” a track about a crush on The Pastel’s Stephen Pastel dropped in 1991. Its tracks like “Aggi” and “Can’t Explain” that really make you fall in love with Black Tambourine. Berry’s ethereal vocals wash over bouncing layers of guitar and bass lines soaked in fuzzy layers of distortion and feedback. Sweet irresistable numbers about unrequited love, crushes, and broken hearts makes for perfect rainy day listening. You’ll find yourself happily singing along “just throw her off the bridge, we both know it’s gotta be done.” Other favorites include the more downtempo/shoegaze-oriented “For Ex Lovers Only” and “Black Car,” along with the 60s pop influenced “Drown.”
After just two years together, the group called it quits in 1991. In that time span, Black Tambourine released nine singles and played only a handful of live shows. The nine released tracks along with the previously unreleased “I Was Wrong” were amassed on 1999s stellar Complete Recordings: Black Tambourine. For fans of bittersweet charming pop combined with gorgeous walls of distortion, this one’s not to be missed.
The Scene Is Now was a post no-wave jug band comprised of a loose collection of downtown New York City musicians. Throughout their half-decade career, the band had a revolving door policy with the only two permanent members being Chris Nelson and Philip Dray formerly of the avant-rock band Mofungo. Like many of their no-wave colleagues, the band avoided technicality, but unlike them TSIN had an affinity toward melodies and pop. The group is hard to pin down sonically, ranging from erratic and angular to smooth (even elegant) and melodic. Their sound could be (and has been) described as quirky off-kilter pop music with a rootsy slant. In a 2001 interview with Perfect Sound Forever, Dray explained that is wife referred to their music as “Swerve Music,” meaning that’s it’s like regular pop music but slightly off-kilter.
TSIN’s debut record, Burn All Your Records (Lost, 1985) sees the quartet dabbling with over half-a-dozen “instruments” including pots, pans, bicycle wheels, along with conventional guitars and keyboards. On first listen, the album can be somewhat inaccessible with a jamming brass section competing against smooth guitar lines and Chris Nelson’s oblique broken vocals. At times it sounds as if multiple bands are playing at the same time. However inaccessible Burn may be intitially, repeated satisfying listens draw forth catchy melodies and pop hooks from the volatile weirdness, while each sound finds its unique place within the compositions. The 20-track long player includes “Yellow Sarong” best known for being covered by Yo La Tengo on Fakebook and who have shared the stage with the ever-changing group. The liner notes on the LP’s back cover hint at Marxist art criticism and a borrowed lyric from Mao Tse-Tung, while the quartet stresses “Don’t buy fur.”
Two proper LP’s followed Burn, including 1986s Total Jive (Lost, Twin\Tone), which moved away from the avant-garde of the group’s previous recordings to more melodious and less complex pastures. In 1988, Pere Ubu bassist and ex-dB Will Rigby signed on for The Scene Is Now’s final official LP titled Tonight We Ride (Lost, Twin\Tone) in 1988. A cassette only release in 1990 (Shotgun Wedding) marked the final recorded material until 2005 when a re-united lineup dropped Songbirds Lie (Tongue Master). In 1995 Hoboken, NJ imprint Bar-None put together an extensive collection of TSIN material on the compilation The Oily Years (1983-1993).
As of February 2008, the re-united TSIN have been playing shows around New York City venues, including Cake Shop and Southpaw, as documented here by Bryan Bruchman. No word on if the band will be releasing new material, but rumors are that the three hard to find original albums will be re-issued later this year.
LTM has announced the release of the first ever “Best Of” compilation from Section 25. The comp is titled Dirty Disco (1978-2008) and set to be released on March 31st. The cult group that was initially mentored by Joy Division went on to release four albums on the Factory Records imprint between 1980 and 1986. The albums received production from Factory alums like Martin Hannett and Bernard Sumner, along with Ian Curtis/Rob Gretton produced singles.
Much like labelmates the Durutti Column, A Certain Ratio, and New Order, Section 25 started as a post-punk group in the late 70s but by the mid 80s the group’s sound had become primarily electronic-based new wave, primed for the dance club explosion in the late 80s.
Taking their name from a provision of the Mental Health Act, Section 25 was formed by brothers Larry and Vincent Cassidy in Blackpool, Lancashire in 1978 and by the time they made their live debut they had added guitarist Paul Wiggin. The Ian Curtis and Rob Gretton produced debut single “Girls Don’t Count” was released via Factory in July 1980. The single also included the Curtins/Gretton produced songs “Knew Noise” and “Up to You.” The Martin Hannett produced debut full-length, Always Now, followed in 1981, much known for its packaging as its music. The LP was beautifully housed in a bright yellow heavy cover with stylish black type unfettered by punctuation and word spacing. Lifting the flap from the tabbed slot yielded swirling colorful marbled paper with printed with yellow boxes containing the band’s name and tracklisting.
After a few line-up changes in 1984, the group’s sound moved in a more electronic-dance direction as heard on the single “Looking From A Hilltop” that featured new additions Angela Flowers and Jenny Ross on vocals and keyboards. The single broke as a hit in the U.S. club scene along with reworked versions “Restructure” and “Megamix,” later appearing on the group’s third LP, From The Hip. The Bernard Sumner produced From The Hip was also the band’s first album that received an American release via Factory U.S. in 1984. After a North American tour in 1985, the band split in 1986, leaving then husband and wife Larry Cassidy and Jenny Ross to finish the fourth album, Love and Hate, which was eventually released in 1988.
The band saw their entire catalog re-released by LTM in the 90s and like a lot of other post-punk acts, the band reunited in 2001 and began work on new material. Although it’s not the original line-up, they put out a record titled Post-Primitiv last year, but I haven’t heard it yet. The comp, Dirty Disco celebrates 30 years of Section 25, featuring eight of the band’s album tracks and the singles “Knew Noise,” “Dirty Disco,” “Haunted,” “Beating Heart,” “Looking From A Hilltop,” “Crazy Wistdom,” and “Bad News Week.” Keep an eye out for it in March.
