Pete Wylie was unjustly neglected amidst the neo-psychedelic scene of Liverpool, where Ian McCulloch and Julian Cope stole the limelight. Nah=Poo is certainly a splendid album.Check the dark-punk ritual "Wind Up" (similar to Modern Eon), the glacial mixture of power-pop and dark-wave "Otherboys" (with the Wagner-ian synths), the hysterical new-wave "Why D'You Imitate The Cutout" (akin to the XTC), or "Mission Impossible" (akin to a more gothic Teardrop Explodes), occasionally reaching paroxysm levels in it's wall of sound ("Seven Thousand Names"), and sabotaged by discordant sections ("Somesay").Actually, this is a very creative record that surpasses both the debuts of Echo and the Bunnymen and the Teardrop Explodes. It's not often that someone can combine the melodic and the neurotic element so effortlessly.
EDIT: Dead link because of complaints to Rapidshare.
Anne Clark was never really a singer, more of a reciter, albeit a powerful one. That's the case with this 1982 EP, though the music is quite exceptional.We get recitations over synthscapes that are kosmische, symphonic and dreamy ("The Sitting Room"). Actually, this particular formula predates dream-techno by about a decade.Also, there's tormented musique concrete ("Swimming", "The Power Game") which then transforms to moody and robotic ambient-oramas ("An Ordinary Life") and then to transparent requiems ("Shades"). Finally, there's fragile synth-folk ("Short Story"), and futuristic adaptations of traditional dirge-music ("All We Have To Be Thankful For").An excellent EP that languishes in obscurity. Get it here.
Back in the day, the Mission Of Burma's VS had few equals."Secrets" is a post-punk blazing star, which steals the manic energy from hardcore. The bouncy "Train" betrays the influence of the Gang Of Four, but the structure borrows from progressive-rock as well. The phosphorescent march "Trem Two" shows that they've listened to Martin Hannett's productions (think Joy Division's "New Dawn Fades"), while the discordant guitar-patterns in "New Nails" owe a lot to the MX-80 Sound. "Dead Pool" reinterpretes the Velvet Underground's "Venus In Furs" through the elaborate structures of progressive-rock, and the neurosis of the post-punk climate.Like an avalanche, "Learn How" bulldozes everything in it's way, while the guitar displays pure mania in it's staccato noise fabric. "Mica" adds an anthemic progression, and "Weatherbox" adds vibrant concrete electronics. The catastrophic intensity of "Ballad Of Johnny Burma" is also increased by a spastic middle-section. Nevertheless, the geometric structure of these spasms proves just how influential the Burma were to the math-rock movement. The elegant "Einstein's Day" bridges the most dream-like acid-rock, post-punk and hardcore. Ditto for the guitar-solo in "Fun World" (whose basis is an industrial boogie) which is mesmerizing.Simply put, a masterpiece. Get it here.
Tuxedomoon pushed their sound to the limits with Desire, a colossal work that contained sinister electronic waltzes ("East/Jinx"), syncopated dances for androids ("Victims Of The Dance"), musique concrete fantasias ("Music#1"), noir synth-punk with string arrangements ("Incubus"), pantomime psychodramas ("Desire"), synth-jazz collages with passionate crooning ("Again"), out-of-tune demonic ballets ("In The Name Of Talent"), etc.And all drenched in a decadent existential tone, played with the austerity of a chamber orchestra, and arranged by post-modern futurists.This is a new language for music, the fusion is monumental. Get it here.
Amidst the disco-punk fad of the early 00's, El Guapo's Super/System actually offered more than just new-wave revisited."My Bird Sings" is a Devo-esque hiccup, while "Elguapolis" a spastic electronic vignette. "Inevitability" takes a basic anthemic rock motif and adds quirky electronics, not to mention some samba percussion in the end. The obsessive bassline in "Rumbledream" reminds of Faust's "Jennifer", and the hammering beat in the end pays tribute to Neu, yet the basis is a psychedelic blues number a la Syd Barrett's "Rats". Another vignette, "Time Crisis II", goes for suspenseful ambience and finishes in a free-jazz tinged coda.Minimalism prevails in "Rhyme Scene", which could be 80's synth-pop if it wasn't for the enigmatic horn section and the dub-drenched production values. "As In" is one of the most elaborate tracks here (breakbeats, spooky ambience, chant-like vocals, accordions). The paranoid grooves of "Buildables" again hark back to 80's wave (think Eyeless In Gaza), but the digital production is pure 00's. The catchy melody in "Scientific Instruments" is grossly disfigured by a barrage of industrial sound-effects and weird instrumentation.Yet another vignette, "Faith-Based Music", sounds actually like derranged robots playing circus music. "Disappointment Spelled With V" presents the usual menacing synth-pop, this time sabotaged by brass which is half free-jazz and half bucolic Balcan ethnic. "Laser Eyes" (part disco and part electro chant) soon turns to musique concrete mayhem, but then turns again to distorted disco, only to turn again to abstract avant-garde noise. In "Clock", doo-wop vocals counter a cranky lullaby as played by a progressive-rock band. Finally, "Being Boulevards" is a free-jazz band covering The Fall (or the opposite), but then midway through transforms to sinister kosmische ambient.What really stands out amidst these very creative tracks is not the dadaist spirit, the cubist arrangements, or even the post-modern production values, but rather the demented grooves.Get it here.
Michael Krassner assembled yet another version of the Boxhead Ensemble to record the amazing Two Brothers."From This Point Onward" (11 minutes) is an abstract chamber-requiem as performed by a fusion band. The instrumental interplay often gets discordant within the track, but is then covered up by the resigned melancholia of Jessica Billey's violin in particular. The sleepy pace recalls slowcore, the tight improvisation recalls jazz, while the austere nature recalls chamber music.The most epic is "Two Brothers" (18 minutes) which starts as a Slavic folk-theme adapted to the slowcore sensibility, over which further guitar is deployed in Fahey-ian landscapes and dissonant picking. To add to the intensity, electronic effects cast further dejection and disharmony to the lonely and ghostly scenery of the track."Requiem" (10 minutes) features a prominent melody which the band exploits at will, covering an extensive range of moods as the track progresses, from majestic, to mournful, to romantic, to tragic, to playful, to introspective etc. "Come Again No More" is perhaps the most impressive, with the strings radiating their unearthly energy in what at times appears to be a cacophonous sea of sound, and at times a soaring ultraviolet hymn.Yet despite the epic length of these tracks, one shouldn't neglect the humble 3 minutes of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (a sad winter meditation, with the radiant strings giving it an almost demonic tone in the end), the suspenseful 4 minutes of "The Half-Light" (a desolate jam with tense horns, metallic percussion and haunted electronic effects), and the 3 minutes of "Sba" (echoes of a faint contemplation amidst a cursed landscape).
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Eyeless In Gaza created one of the best ambient albums of the time with Pale Hands I Loved So Well, though it wouldn't do it justice to call it just an ambient album. Their instrumental vignettes were plunged in a spiritual fervour, and had the quality of fragile bitterwseet contemplations or of metaphysical longing."Tall And White Nettles" combines gentle guitar strumming, found sounds and eerie female vocals to great effect. The chamber music of "Blue Distance" is built around mysterious organ-drones, piano ripples, and imperceptible chanting. The mystical dance "Sheer Cliffs", which is half-gypsy and half-Indian, is truly a magical moment. "Falling Leaf/ Fading Flower" is a concerto for brass wails and gentle tones, part free-jazz and part electronic-experiment. "Lies Of Love" is another numinous dance, eventually expanding in a mist of metallic percussion, longing voices and Middle-Eastern brass. Beautiful."To Ellen" is possibly the most transcendental moment here; a spectral hymn of haunted organs and sublime vocals by a siren. "Pale Saints" is a fusion of free-jazz and musique concrete. "Letters To She" is an ecclesiastical chant combined with subsonic drones and unsettling electronic effects, culminating in hysterical celestial voices and orchestral ultrasonic frequencies, before finally settling for a pensive tone. This is the soundtrack to man's reincarnation as pure energy in outer space.In comparison, "Light Sliding" sounds timid and shy, though still deployed like a philosophical reminiscence. Then "Big Clipper Ship" is yet another stunning eclectic moment, partly kosmische, partly European-folk, partly chamber, partly ethereal, partly exotica perscussion, partly militant march, and played in their usual recondite way. A fantastic ending to a fantastic album.
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