Showing posts with label new wave. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new wave. Show all posts

Jun 23, 2013

The Room Behind The Clock

One more set of selections out of the bottomless 80's underground deposit.

01What To Wear The robbery (1980)
02 Sub  Verse Science of fear (1981)
03 Yeah Jazz Julie and the sealions (1984)
04 Hellfire Club phases (1982)
05 Proof Of Utah Betty's pleasure (1984)
06 Bamboo Zoo Submarine (1981)
07 Eton Crop He didn't say anything (1984)
08 Observers This age (1980)
09 Matthew Young Objects in mirror (1986)
10 Nick Haeffner Breaths (1987)
11 Essential Bop Cenotaph (1985)
12 Brotherhood Of Lizards Clockwork train (1989)
13 Protege Protection (1980)
14 Gardez Darkx Bliss (1979)
15 Turquoise Swimming Pools Burst Balloons (1982)
16 22 Beaches Dust (1984)
17 41 Degrees White flowers (1982)
18 Front Lawn I 'll never have anything more (1989)

compiled by LaFolieDuJour

Listen Here

May 19, 2013

STEVE LAKE "Running Away" 12'' single, (UK, 1987)


"Life Of Riley" is probably the best song he wrote in his solo period after the split of his legendary Zounds. It passed nearly unnoticed though, as Steve Lake didn't included it in any of his two solo albums ("Murder Violence Sex Divorce" and "So Cruel"), like he did with his other single-tracks, but he prefered to hide it on the b-side of this 12'' single. The gems sometimes choose to travel subtly..

Running Away 12''

  

Nov 6, 2012

Repost: NYAM NYAM "Hope of Heaven" (UK, 1984)


Perhaps they are mostly remembered nowadays for the single "Fate/Hate" they cut for the famous Factory (Benelux) label in 1984, Nyam Nyam`s though best argument against oblivion is the great LP "Hope of heaven" they released in same year on Beggars Banquet indie branch Situation Two.
Nyam Nyam`s melodic post punk knows here some fine piano driven acoustic moments, others tracks though have an experimental approach, especially the closing song "The Resolution" which moves, unexpectedly, their new wave romantism toward a haunted folkish land.

Nyam Nyam had one more Situation Two release: the EP "The Architect "(1985). After that they probably disappeared.

Update 2012: "Hope Of Heaven" (+ singles) has been reissued! 

May 24, 2012

Red Flame - Ink Records


Activated quite ambitiously in the field of 80's indie music, Red Flame and Ink Records, the two associated London based labels, presented an eclectic gamut of works (ranging from new wave and synth pop to post punk, industrial, experimental...) created mainly by british and australian artists. A sampler with representative selections from Red Flame / Ink Records catalogues you can listen here:


Red Flame - Ink Records
01 Dif Juz roy's tray
(from "Who Says So?", ep, RFM24, 1983)
02 Shiny Two Shiny grey
("Halfway Across The Rainbow", lp, RFM16, 1982)
03 Artery afterwards
("Oceans", ep, RFM4, 1982)
04 Decorators absent friends
("Tablets", lp, RF1, 1982)
05 Blurt arthur
("Blurt", lp, RF6, 1982)
06 The Nightingales insurance
("Hysterics", lp, INK001, 1983)
07 Philip Boa don't pull my whole life away
("Aristocracie", lp, RF52, 1986)
08 Camberwell Now green lantern
("The Ghost Trade", lp, INK19, 1986)
09 Moodists she cackles
("The Disciples Know", single, RF721, 1983)
10 Tactics hard hat nine iron
("Blue &White Future Whale", lp, RF58, 1988)
11 The Room Naive
("Jackpot Jack E.P.", ep, RF1242, 1985)
12 Severed Heads army
("Come Visit The Big Bigot", lp, INK22, 1986)
13 Pinkie Maclure different world
("Unman", lp, MINK21, 1986)
14 Patrik Fitzgerald domestication
("Drifting Towards Violence", lp, 1983)
15 Ruby Blue wintery day
("Glances Askances", lp, RF53, 1987)
16 Carmel track of my tears
("Carmel", mlp, RFM9, 1982)
17 C Cat Trance miss manners
("Khamu", lp, INK006, 1985)

compiled by LaFolieDuJour

link   

Aug 13, 2011

"Realisations", The Discreet Pop Signals of Mark Beer


Released on Belgium's Double Dose label in late 1980 and related to the starting days of the famous belgian Les Disques Du Crepuscule, Mark Beer's single "Realisations" offers a couple of tracks made of just the necessaries: a voice, a vanished guitar, an erased bass, a laconic synth...  These quiet, ultra-minimal pop signals rather than songs compete in tranquil simplicity the compositions of the contemporaries Young Marble Giants, and express the best way the short and  discreet passage of their own creator from music.

a. Love Dances Warm
Jean-Marc Lederman, electronique invisible
Frank Corneli, vanished guitar
Clive Pierce, percussion
Mark Beer, voice, erased bass

b. The Small Death
Thomas Dolbi, polyphonic synth
Jean-Marc Lederman, electronique
Mark Beer, funeral drum, vocals

cover by B. Hennebert (the great cover designer of Disques Crepuscule)

Realisations

Jun 3, 2011

Tongue Wrestling, The poet LYDIA TOMKIW


American poet Lydia Tomkiw was born in Chicago in 1959 and died in Arizona, aged only 48. Although her literature work was acclaimed in underground and even overground circles (one of her poems was included in the first edition of Best American Poetry 1988), a wider fame and recognition came via ALGEBRA SUICIDE, the band she formed along with her husband, Don Hedeker, circa 1982.  
The fruit of couple's artistic collaboration was several albums, ep's, compilation tracks, and live audio-visual performances where Tomkiw's recitations and the new wavish guitar-synth  sounds of Hedeker (who played, with few exceptions, all the instruments), created a unique combination of direct, daily-life poetry and minimalistic pop music.

Jealous
Jealous of the human heart, so ugly yet exhalted;
Jealous of the blood it keeps.
Jealous of fast cars and hot colours,
Of monks with their vows of silence,
Of  leather wrapped around the skin of silly boys.
Jealous of sex and all its power,
Of romance and how it makes you swoon,
Of men who can grow beards or not,
Of women who can play the cello,
Jealous of love and how much it's desired.
Jealous of hair that comes and goes as it pleases,
Of weather, which no one can control,
Of infants who can sleep all day,
Of lacewings that don't sleep at all,
Of houseflies and their zillion eyes,
The windows to a zillion souls,
Jealous of saints and their tickets to heaven,
Jealous of birds and their simple brains,
Jealous of people who are naturally prompt,
Of those who have too much money,
Of those who are younger and more famous than I,
I am jealous of those are older and wiser,
Jealous of good liars and lotto winners,
Jealous of the vast sky above me,
Of the threat of hell below me,
I am jealous of the world and the beauty it holds.
Jealous of the color green, so fresh, so moldy,
So much the gorgeous God of envy.
 (from "Swoon")    


Algebra Suicide's adventures lasted up to mid-90's. Their final work, "Tongue Wrestling", was made in 1994 (Widely Distributed Records), when Tomkiw and Hedeker had been already divorced.  
The following year Tomkiw collaborated with artists as Edward Ka-Spell and Legendary Pink Dots and presented her solo album, "Incorporated", but in spite of her further artistic plans, she gradually went obscure...
Tomkiw spent the last period of her life next to her family in Phoenix, Arizona. She passed away in September 2007.

Algebra Suicide albums: "Secret Like Crazy" (compil. 1987), "Alpha Cue" (1990), "Swoon" (1991), "Tongue Wrestling" (1994)... plus "Real Numbers" (live, 1988) and "Summer Virus Night - Live in Germany in 1990" (2009).

"Look there, when I leave,  for
A trace of a glimmer,
A soft, lucid shimmer, too lofty to see;
It will be what's left of me after i'm gone"
Lydia Tomkiw

Dec 24, 2010

COLIN LLOYD TUCKER: The Man Behind The Tide


Colin Lloyd Tucker performs and writes music since late seventies. He is not unknown in music industry, although his art is odd enough to keep him in a distant sight. Initially singer/composer of the new-wavers Plain Characters, and The Gadgets, he participates to the first three albums of the lattest, and in the meanwhile forms, along with Simon Turner, the french girls (!!) duo of Deux Filles. Deux Filles make two avant-ambient-instrumental albums before their transformation to the also short-lived Jeremy's Secret.
When, in mid-eighties, Colin goes solo, his music reveals clearer its love for the pop-rock of seventies and a relation with artists such as David Bowie and Peter Hammill.  These  years his output includes releases as "Toybox" (1984, lp made much earlier), "Mind Box" (12'', 1986) and "Head" (mini lp, 1987).

First half of nineties is a quite creative period. Colin finishes and releases on Humbug Records the full album "Remarkable" (1990) and extends his collaboration with Paddy Bush (brother of Kate Bush) to the Bushtucker project.
Fruit  of this collaboration is the album "Skyscraping"(1993), a combination of songwriting, texture and sampling, an ambitious but positive world-art -rock attempt.
Next solo release is "Songs Of Life, Love And Liquid"(1995), more ordinary than previous efforts, marked by Colin's moving to an island off the coast, in the North Sea. The album is out on Humbug again and it is followed by a long "silent" period with some unrealised recording plans and very rare public performances.
"Fear Of  Flying" album breaks finally the silence in 2004 and since then, up to his new pre-announced  work "Inner Nutshell", some more stuff discreetly comes  out. Constantly unpredictable and off the publicity radar Colin Lloyd Tucker continues making new music.

Colin (left) and Paddy Bush during the making of Skyscraping album
[photo taken by Tucker's site]

The LaFolieDuJour introduction to Colin Lloyd Tucker music.

01 Bodorgan (1980)
(from The Gadgets "Love Curiosity Freckles And Doubt")
02 Not For Resale (1981)
(from Plain Characters "Invisible Yearnings")
03 Long Empty Train (1983)
(from The Gadgets "Blue Album")
04 She Slides (1982)
(from Deux Filles "Silence and Wisdom")
05 Our English Friends ( 1983)
(from Deux Filles "Double Hapiness")
06 The Ultimate Act Of Love (1986)
(from C Lloyd Tucker "Mind Box")
07 Use It (1986)
(from C Lloyd Tucker "Mind Box")
08 Don't Crack My Dreams (1987)
(from C Lloyd Tucker "Head")
09 A Remarkable Girl (1990)
(from C Lloyd Tucker "Remarkable")
10 Big Brass Band (1990)
(from C Lloyd Tucker "Remarkable")
11 House On The Hill (1990)
(from C Lloyd Tucker "Remarkable")
12 Remarkable Reprise (1990)
(from C Lloyd Tucker "Remarkable")
13 Love Bombs (1990)
(from C Lloyd Tucker "Remarkable")
14 Transmission Moon (1994)
(from Bushtucker "Skyscraping")

Colin Lloyd Tucker

Aug 16, 2009

ART & TECHNIQUE "Alea Jacta Est" , EP, (FRA, 1983)


Compared to the very interesting exploratory, minimal-electronic-industrial ambience of their debut (and best) LP "CLIMA X" (1981), the 1983 three track EP "ALEA JACTA EST" finds ART & TECHIQUE been more interested in cold synth-wave dance structures, while b-side track "Another Day An Other Life" is a more atmospheric song.

works:
CLIMA X (LP, Hi-Tec, 1981) reissued from SPALAX in 1998
PUTSCH IN MEMORIAM (7'', Hi-Tec, 1981)
DIABOLUS IN MECANICA (LP, Hi-Tec, 1982)
ALEA JACTA EST (12'' EP, Hi-Tec, 1983)

ALEA JACTA EST
a1 - Radio City Deutschland
a2 - Psychic Dance Floor
b1 - Another Day An Other Life


ART & TECHNIQUE noel tombe un jeudi (track from "Clima X")

Apr 8, 2009

MACHINATIONS " Average Inadequacy / Arabia " , 7'', (AUS, 1980)


One of the earliest releases of later well known Sydney pop band.
"Average Inadequacy" can be found in many compilations. Another single version accompanied by the track "Machinations of Dance" released in 1982 from White Label Records. This one released from Phantom Records with b-side track "Arabia".


Average Inadequacy

SARDINE V " Sabotage / Sudan", 7'', (AUS, 1982)


Sydney new wave/pop outfit consisted of musicians having played with more famous bands. Core of the band were Ian Rilen (X, Rose Tattoo), Phil Hall (Dropbears, Lime Spiders) and keyboard player and singer Stephanie Rilen. Active the period 1980-83. They also made the mini LP "I Hate You" (1983). Songs of theirs covered by Hunters & Collectors and The Deadly Hume.


Mar 5, 2009

SOMBRE SEPTEMBRE "Une Lune En Hiver", 7'', (FRA, 1990)


SOMBRE SEPTEMBRE
Eric Walter - keyboard, vocals
Thierry Jungblut - bass
Faymeria - keyboards, programming

7'' single by french cold wave outfit of Eric Walter, recorded in summer of 1990 and came out from Seagulls Screaming Productions. One more Sombre Septembre single ("Le Nez Rouge"), recorded with different line up, had released the year before from the same label.

Tracks
a.
Une lune En Hiver (3:24)
b. Passee la nuit (5:14)

Feb 16, 2009

Not a single day...



NORMIL HAWAIANS - Still Obedient /  Should you forget?
( 7'', Illuminated Rec, 1
981)

the art of postpunk-diy-experimental-alternative culture at one of its apogees!





WORLD SERVICE - Celebration Town / Turn out the lights
(7'', Rough Trade, 1983)


WORLD SERVICE and THE RELATIVES were the two STEVE LAKE's outfits acted for a short time after ZOUNDS disbandment. THE RELATIVES made an LP called "Jim Morrison", while STEVE continued with some solo works.



JESUS COULDN'T DRUM - Autumn Leaves / Evening In July / Rain
(7'', Lost Moment Rec, 1985)


Homemade funny/melancholic synth-new wave by duo of pop humourists influenced by the "kindergarden" aeshtetics of Cordelia Records, Alan Jenkins, and the likes.
Also released as a 12'' EP with two bonus tracks.



Feb 4, 2009

THE GENTRY "Solitary" (NED, 1986)

provided by Koroviov

Second LP from romantic, atmospheric and slightly dark Dutch new wavers. Released from Enclosure Productions label alike their first LP"Fragments of Truth". Posted here by request.

For listening to more GENTRY music...+ lyrics and infos go to :
http://www.thegentry.nl


SOLITARY
(11 tracks, approx time 44min)

Sep 26, 2008

BILL NELSON "The Love That Whirls [diary of a thinking heart]" (UK,1982)

Bill Nelson is a british musician (significant guitarist, multi-instrumentalist) quite well known for his 70`s albums with the art-rockers BEBOP DELUXE, his avant-post punk project RED NOISE and the plethora of solo works (ambient, new wave, electronic, experimental...) he has released since early 80`s. It would take pages to analyze the complicated, diverse, at times earthed, at times spaced out universe of this gifted personality. Certainly he has his own way to be "different" whatever genre he deals with.
THE LOVE THAT WHIRLS
belongs to his electro new wave works and is one of the best. It is perfect,romantic, sofisticated pop music, with witty lyrics and atmospherically treated soundscapes that predate his future ambient efforts. Quite close to the sound of Japan, Simple Minds....
CD edition (Cocteau records, 1986) has two additional tracks and 2005 reissue three more extras.