Techno From Unexpected Faces: Eric Clapton

My college radio days coincided with the American Electronica Revolution (aka 1997) which gave me access to new music in a way that today can only be parallelled by anyone who knows how to log on to the internet (congratulations). Having a front seat to a musical movement allowed me to hear some albums that slipped by the larger public such as T.D.F.'s Retail Therapy. In an effort to guide dj's to better tracks and ferret out language that is less than FCC friendly all the station's music had short reviews and I recall that one staff member wrote something along the lines of "this is really good chill out music but it has these really annoying Poison guitar solos all over it". In a day and age when Daft Punk hid behind dog masks T.D.F. were ahead of the curve wearing helmets in all of their publicity photos even going further in creating a mystique by listing the group's members Simon Climie and someone named x-sample in the liner notes. As one of the first major label "electronica" acts out of the gate what they weren't saying was that Climie was an established industry sideman and that x-sample was a bizarre alias for Eric Clapton. The album has gone out of print but I can assure you that the album was decidedly more smooth jazz than anything else with only a few tracks that were even remotely on par with electronica of the time. The album's highlight is "Rip Stop" an admirable attempt at drum 'n' bass that came only a year after the sub-genre's first credible artist album was released:



: The album garnered some rough reviews including All Music Guide's that calls Retail Therapy "a bland, colorless dead alley into electronic music from two musicians who don't comprehend its essence" which may explain why there has never been a followup. However it's worth noting that in the late 80s Simon Climie's duo Climie Fisher had a not bad non-hit "Love Changes (Everything)" underscore an important montage of Savage Steve Holland's How I Got Into College and that movie has a young Lara Flynn Boyle attempting to play a character with warmth. That's almost as strange as a 60s guitar icon attempting drum 'n' bass.

Late Review: Duran Duran Red Carpet Massacre

Today marks one year since Duran Duran launched their latest comeback album and to celebrate I bring you a late review that has been sitting in draft since February. Maybe I should have finished it:

Duran Duran's Red Carpet Massacre recently caught my attention again prompting me to finally gave it a proper listen. Their patchy self-titled wedding album was one of the first discs I bought back when I really started getting into music leaving me with doubt over their ability to fully bring the goods and it's reputation as one of their stronger efforts has put me off buying Duran Duran albums for ages. Sure there have been some strong moments over the years with "Electric Barbarella" and "Nice" coming to mind as relatively recent favorites, but I never seem to find much I want to revisit outside of the singles. When Red Carpet Massacre came out it simply slipped past me despite it being covered by many of my favorite blogs, talked up by some online friends and hearing some of it on the Bay Area's kinda top 40 radio station.

Without a doubt the defining buzz around the album was super producer Timbaland's involvement suggesting this is Duran Duran's hip hop album. The group have shown an interest in the genre before covering "White Lines" and bringing Missy Elliot on board for a track on their last album but Timbaland co-produces three tracks and his apprentice Danja, who the Wall Street Journal note "typically charges $50,000 to $100,000 per track", has his hands over the all but one of the remaining tracks demonstrating the group's willingness to jump into the deep end of a foreign genre. Well almost. After listening to the album I can now safely say that they didn't jettison all their new wave roots but rather polished them with a different production style. Opener "The Valley" is a great example coming on as strong as any of their recent material but far enough away from their usual mode of operation that my first listen had me checking my car stereo's EQ to see what happened to the missing mid-range. The title track pushes the band further into unexplored territory as the album's biggest lyrical statement, some sort of take down of vapid celebrity culture which must disgust the yachting members of Duran Duran, finds the common ground between punk and the sounds of top 40 hip hop. Timbaland makes his first appearance on "Nite-Runner", the album's biggest hip hop moment and the most obvious choice for a single, lending his signature beats to a song that sounds so little like anything Duran Duran have touched before that that Simon Le Bon's vocals are easily mistaken for those of the track's co-producer Justin Timberlake. The remaining Timbaland tracks allow more of the band to shine through but both don't hit the mark of radio friendly pop with the same force.
Elsewhere in the album the band primarily focus on their strength at crafting mid-tempo ballads. The first single "Falling Down" finds Timberlake alone in the producer's chair steering the band towards "Ordinary World" territory with enough to success to that it got the band back on US radio. Well at least for a few weeks. They strip down the production to simple strummed guitar on "Box Full O Honey" which is an earnest attempt to portray heartbreak that is a highlight despite sounding a bit overworked. "She's Too Much" also hits some sweets spots as LeBon demonstrates why he has such a way with the ladies as he bares his sensitive soul.
Those looking for some old school new wave jams won't be disappointed. "Zoom In" has it going on musically but lines like "I'm zooming in and out on you" seem like an odd pickup line for the new millennium. A bit of research reveals the song was premiered in the game Second Life which give the lyrics a quite literal twist but it's still odd to hear the band wooing a sexy lady by praising her "avatar". You really have to be at a certain stage in your career to have that the confidence to so boldly go where your lyrical muse takes you.
Over all the band really have it together on this out as even the instrumental "Tricked Out", which has a touch of a rocked out Halloween magic, seem essential to the album. It may have taken some time, but Duran Duran have finally found the right mix of new ideas and consistent songwriting to draw me into an album that I want to revisit. Hopefully their label will wake up realizing that they gave up way too early on this strong album and finally release a second single soon.

Television

It is thrilling to hear that the Pet Shop Boys are receiving the Outstanding Contribution to Music Award at the upcoming Brit Awards because it gives me hope that actual pop artists can be honored by institutions. While I hope that something like Popjustice's vision of the event takes place I already dread the way the award ceremony will be butchered on American tv never giving me a chance to see it outside of youtube. There is something fundamentally wrong with the way US television programmers treat Brit musical events. Maybe I'm just paranoid but New Order's lifetime achievement award was cut out of an awards show when it showed on VH1 a few years back and BBC America chopped PSB out of the An Audience with Elton John bar one shot of them in the crowd confirming that they were there. Why show Brit tv when you are just going to not show what makes it different from American music shows? Really BBC America, isn't the whole premise of your network that you cater to Anglophiles? Regardless here is the last time the Boys played the Brit Awards (notice that whoever dresses West End Girls might have seen this):

Flashback: Cranes "Shining Road" (1994)

Taking their name from the machines that transport cargo on the docks of their native Portsmouth the often experimental, occasionally pop but always unique Cranes got their start in the mid 80s. They opened for The Cure (who have a new album out this week) on the "Wish" tour and first came to my attention when the Robert Smith remix of "Jewel" got a modest amount of airplay on Live 105. That song didn't really grab me and I assumed that I had heard the band's best material since Live 105 even played The Cure's b-sides in heavy rotation at the time. A year later the first single from Cranes next album Loved got a couple of spins and proved just how wrong I was. "Shining Road" is an amazing song. Unexpected and effortless it harnesses the groove of the UK's second wave of rave revolution to the best parts of showgaze alt-rock. All discussions of Cranes inevitably lead to the merits of Alison Shaw's singular voice, which is often described as "childlike" even though otherworldly is perhaps more accurate, but there is no denying her voice is the perfect conduit for the wordless emotion conveyed here:



: After some time off in the late 90s Cranes have kept active releasing music on their own label with an album out earlier this year. If you watch American tv you almost certainly are familiar with some of their recent work that was featured in an oft-aired commercial. Keep up with the band at their label's website.

Video: The Killers "Human"

Brandon Flowers pitched "Human" to producer Stuart Price as "Johnny Cash meets the Pet Shop Boys". My endorsement will almost certainly be the death blow to The Killers domestic success but the perfect marriage of the band's (occasionally) brilliant songwriting to Stuart Price's precision tuned disco machine makes the song one of my musical highlights of the year. Love the unique take on the man/machine dynamic with the whole "human/dancer" lyric that has everyone in such a fuss although I can't help but think that Flowers could have avoided turning up on worst lyric lists by picking a less obscure quote to build a song around:




: Those who still doubt the song's brilliance should give this youtuber's piano version a listen.

Video: Sam Taylor-Wood "I'm In Love With A German Film Star"

Sam Taylor-Wood's new M.I.N.I.M.A.L. video:



: Read better posts here.

Video: The Chemical Brothers "Midnight Madness"

The biggest fault of last year's We Are The Night was it's lack of a tent pole dance track and while it is a bit late The Chemical Brothers have found it with the first single taken from the duo's second greatest hits album Brotherhood. "Midnight Madness" is an awesome track that restores my faith in the Brothers ability to move a dance floor. A cousin to Tom & Ed's definitive trance statement "Star Guitar" here the Brothers refine an aspect of their sound that has never really been fully explored to great effect. Shame it's not attached to a proper album.

Directed by long time visual collaborators Dom and Nic the video features a goblin that crawls out of a bin marked "commercial waste" (subtle commentary on Brotherhood?) and proceeds to do unreal parkour/free running/dancing on the streets before taking it into the club:



: The song also has a Google Earth project connected to it that involves people around the world sending in footage taken at midnight. View the official youtube video or stop by their site for more info.

Video: Underworld "Ring Road"

It has been nearly a year since Underworld unveiled their long anticipated comeback album Oblivion With Bells to a public that has proved itself largely indifferent. Perhaps it didn't quite fit in with current musical landscape or reach the heights of the band's best material but it is fair to expect more of an online buzz for a band with their following. I suspect the reason is that we have another mishandled album on our hands. The lead single "Crocodile" was not the greatest intro to the album because it never quite lifted off like you expected (suffering from too much of the same riff) and it seems like I have seen nothing else about the album since it's release. A quick browse through itunes offers an explanation: they didn't release any further singles to the general public. Personally I was waiting to write about the album until "Beautiful Burnout" got an edit and a single release but I never saw it. Apparently that happened ages ago but was only promoted to djs despite being the album's most likely breakout track. Given that Karl Hyde's voice anchors Oblivion With Bells like nothing Underworld has released since Underneath The Radar this approach of exclusively chasing the Beatport crowd seems entirely wrong. "Ring Road" is a decent single choice with Hyde's daft spoken poetry bringing everything together. It sounds quite like Beaucoup Fish's "Bruce Lee":



: A live album is due from the duo in November so stop by their site for all the info.

Shuffle Blog

Neon Neon "Trick For Treat"

The better of Stainless Style's hip hop tracks has a truly oddball rap from Spank Rock that has something to say about Oprah and her cable network Oxygen before going into a riff on the album's subject John DeLorean. Saved by the killer falsetto "she got me dreaming like a Michigan boy" hook which I've just learned is sung by Har Mar Superstar. Still one of those tracks that works better in the context of the album.

Chemical Brothers "Spring"

This b-side from "The Boxer" single is unusually melodic as the Brothers noodle about touching ever so lightly the edge of psychedelia. A fans only affair but not a track without rewards.

Ladytron "Tomorrow"

There is something very familiar about this Velocifero track. Probably something to do with the album all sounding very much the same. It works but not as well as the song where she sings about loving a computer.

The Whip "Trash"

Are these guys on Modular? Apparently they are signed to Norman Cook's Southern Fried Records which I suppose means that label has diversified quite a bit. It has a great build to it and that's not the sort of thing you get every day in a rock record.

Underworld "To Heal (And Restore Broken Bodies)"

This Oblivion with Bells interlude just got an expansion for the Songs for Tibet-The Art of Peace Music Project compilation that makes it sound even more dopey as it wallows in new age spiritualism. Of course it's the sort of track I would have written off as completely harmless a decade ago so maybe it's just me.

Greatest Album Title Ever!

Soulwax's reworking of The Chemical Brothers "Hey Boy Hey Girl" is too fresh to be included on last year's remix collection but Different Is Dangerous point toward where the track can be downloaded for the price of an fake email address. Check it out even if you already bought the version that amazon sells by itself for $1.94 individually, on a single that brings you two tracks for $1.42, to solve the mystery of the seven second time difference between the two versions.

Kinda I Want To

A rather complete blog entry pointed me towards this clip of a local news story from the 80s covering Trent Reznor's early band Exotic Birds. His new wave history is hardly secret, the demo that got him signed to record Pretty Hate Machine did feature a song that was pure pre-acid house New Order, but seeing Reznor before the dark fashion demands of the industrial scene took over his image is a bit of a surprise. The fun starts about one minute in:



: Makes you wonder what Reznor could do if he ever started making upbeat music. Hopefully it would be along the lines of "Discipline" from this year's free NIN album The Slip:

The Human Shopping Mall

Mike Huckabee was the last person I ever expected to hear talk about a musician whose work I appreciate but he was filling in for Paul Harvey this week when he announced the death of Robert Hazard. The brief mention on the radio segment said that you might not know his name but you knew Hazard's work because he had written Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun". Actually I do know the name and really love his cheeky take on materialism "Escalator Of Life" which used to get frequent spins on Live 105 back in the station's Steve Masters glory years. Let's give it a listen:



: Hazard slipped off my radar in recent years but continued to write and record changing up his style going singer/songwriter with occasional country leanings also finding time to work with the school of rock which resulted in this charming video last year.

Video: Cut Copy "Hearts On Fire"

Cut Copy may have created the hipsters "Where The Streets Have No Name" with their underground hit "Lights & Music" but in Eno terms In Ghost Colours has more in common with the atmosphere and rhythm experiments of Remain In Light than the expansive canvas for tightly written songs heard on The Joshua Tree. Naturally the album's second single does nothing to back up my argument instead attaching their standard modus operandi of refashioned post punk to a melancholic melody while a decidedly 90s Euro synth takes the song into territory only previously explored by Electronic circa Raise The Pressure. One itunes user notes there is "nothing that separates it from 80s electronic music" but that isn't a bad thing speaking instead to the strength of the songwriting.
Clearly aimed at the band's core sophisticated Modular adoring audience the video chronicles a day in life of a complete sop that is perpetually rained on:



: Cut Copy have a myspace and probably have a facebook account too if you are interesting in that sort of thing. The "Hearts On Fire" single is out now and includes remixes from Calvin Harris & Midnight Juggernauts.

Video: Goldfrapp "Caravan Girl"

Goldfrapp's latest single is out in the US today. Seventh Tree's last obvious single choice "Caravan Girl" was tipped as "the Song Of Summer" back in February by XO but the tracklisting for the single is so weak that even some of the bands strongest supporters are left to simply yawn. On the bright side the video is rather nice:



: Recently the band have recently done a highly praised session for NPR with Steve Lillywhite that can be streamed here and announced Fall tour dates that include a few stops in the US. Stop by their myspace for details and sample more of Seventh Tree.

Don't Go

The reunited Yaz play their first US dates this week which must be the driving force behind Alison Moyet's most recent album The Turn getting a belated stateside release today. Here is Alison performing the added to the album after the original release single "A Guy Like You" on The Graham Norton Show:



: Check out an interview from the same show which is quite nice and stop by Yaz's myspace for more from the legendary duo.

Video: Audio Bullys "Gimme That Punk"

Perhaps you remember the narrator in LCD Soundsystem's dissection of musical elitism "Losing My Edge" listing every influential and underground act as their personal discovery. Audio Bullys seem to be under the influence of that track on "Gimme That Punk" announcing their own list of punk acts they demand to hear. This could be a fun track that proves they don't sound like a direct echo of The Streets anymore but there are issues. The lyrics paint such a broad view of "punk" that it encompasses almost every genre of popular music over the past forty years which is liberating in concept but every act named is so mainstream there is no distinct thread to tie the acts together making it simply a list of popular artists. Could it be that they are indeed serious and are taking the opportunity to rebuke the elitism found in LCD Soundsystem's track? It seems more likely that they are simply attaching themselves to some of the most successful names in the music business, everyone from The Beatles to 50 Cent, than attempting any commentary. That is all the more unfortunate given the beats are the least arresting the Bullys have ever dropped in a single.

The video has more punk credibility than the song. The director Don Letts made his first punk rock documentary years before he co-founded Big Audio Dynamite and here he keeps the style direct intercutting a stage performance with archive footage and a Dylan-esque scene of the band record dropping to the lyrics:




: Audio Bullys are at work on their next album. Updates and more from the band are available at their myspace.

Shuffle Blog

Perhaps you have read blog entries where someone talks about the first five songs that come up on itunes shuffle. Sounds like fun...

Pet Shop Boys- Fugitive (Richard X Extended)
I haven't listened to this in some time and it really is fantastic. Really everything you would hope that Richard X would help bring out of the Boys as it is top form sleaze. What a lost opportunity that it didn't find a home on the proper Fundamental instead of being tossed off to bonus track land.

Scissor Sisters- Lovers In The Backseat
Since this song is in the middle of the album I never realized how long and odd the introduction is. Actually the whole song is rather odd but it does deal with voyeurism so what do you expect?

Clinton- People Power In The Disco Hour
Perhaps Cornershop had a bit of pre-millennial tension on the brain when they decided to go from an indie band to a disco outfit. Or maybe Fatboy Slim's hit remix of "Brimful of Asha" inspired the change in direction. While they were never going to be my cup of tea I did enjoy this song even if I couldn't sit through anything else from Clinton.

Cosmicity- Future Song
There are many songs on the underrated modern synthpop act Cosmicity's final album Escape Pod For Two that I like more than this closing track but it does set a mood nicely. It does remind me that I really should post something about Mark Nicholas' post Cosmicity project.

They Might Be Giants- Minimum Wage

This fourty-seven second oddball track really is random, even on TMBG's masterpiece Flood.

Flashback: Prodigy The Fat of the Land (1997)

A short 11 years ago this week Prodigy's The Fat of the Land was unleashed on the world where it unexpectedly debuted as the number one album on the US charts. Dropped by Elektra after Experience failed to live up to major label standards the band had been written off as "kiddie rave" in America before the two pre-release singles "Firestarter" and "Breathe", both of which topped the charts in the UK, started getting attention from alt rock radio and began a bidding war that ended with Prodigy signed to Maverick in the States. I got on board early on picking up "Firestarter" the week it came out as a Mute released 12" single (the song would later be re-released by Maverick on CD single) so it was exciting to see group pick up momentum and acceptance from the alternative scene that had been hijacked by grunge which had effectively silenced the synthesiser in the States.


The controversial opening track weighs heavily in the legacy of Prodigy and the album. The titular sample of a thrown off Kool Keith line taken from Ultramagnetic MC's "Give The Drummer Some" is a major sticking point and while Liam Howlett suggests it is not literal but rather means "doing anything intensely, like being on stage - going for extreme manic energy" using the offending phrase simply makes the song ugly. Following one of the most extreme build ups ever recorded with the suggestion of domestic violence as the payoff is truly foolish and irresponsible. In the years that have passed there have been several attempts to reclaim the song including the oddly controversial video (spoiler: it's not a dude behind all that misogyny) and the Charlie's Angels movies but both take on the basic violent premise of the song's sample rather than deal with "extreme manic energy". The song does have legs and despite limited exposure at the time of it's release it continues to get played on Live 105 and ended up as their top ranking electronica song on a recent listener voted countdown.

"Breathe" is the band's masterstroke as Keith Flint and Maxim Reality spark over an understated Howlett track that does amazing things with an all 16th note bass line. The second pre-release single for the album effectively raised the stakes from the genre bursting "Firestarter" suggesting that Prodigy were more than simple adrenaline junkies and in fact a thinking man's band as well. Time may have proven otherwise.

A decade on "Diesel Power" remains the best electronica/hip hop track ever. Is it the rap? Probably not although Kool Keith would enjoy a renaissance in the late 90s where he would record boasts about the amazing amount of money he was given to work on "Diesel Power". It is the beats that have me reaching to turn up the volume when this comes on time after time.

Howlett sampled the Beastie Boys on this "Funky" track that takes the album down the rave route. Not a favorite by any means but one that sold my former boss on the album after hearing it in a record store.

We reach the low point of the album with "Serial Thrilla" which is a stupid, stupid, stupid song with Keith "my first single went to #1" Flint on screaming vocals. This is what happens when musicians give in to the influence of too much testosterone.

"Mindfields" is the mysterious fourth single from the album that was only released as a "white label" that was one of the most professional and least disguised "unlabeled" pieces of vinyl I've ever encountered. It's a Maxim song in the mode of "Breathe" and while a review mocked the "this is dangerous" line for trying too hard to be scary this was just a decent edit away from being a hit. Also it helped introduce the action movie world to bullet time on the soundtrack to The Matrix.

The Indian influenced "Narayan" brought Kula Shaker's Crispian Mills in for vocals to create mystic synthpop that had run through the big beat blender. There are some great bits but the track's nine minute running time, which in part are a set up for the big hit that follows, helped make it one of the most complained about tracks on the album. Kula Shaker reprised the song as "Song of Love/Narayana" on last year's Strangefolk which doesn't do much to improve the song's reputation.

There was a time when I suggested that "Firestarter" was the new "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as it rocked alternative radio out of it's grunge haze. Perhaps I overstated my case but the song did truly breakdown barriers as it took samples from The Breeders' "S.O.S." and Art Of Noise's "Close (To The Edit)" as it introduced the world to the punk version of Keith Flint. Twisted indeed.

"Climbatize" delayed The Fat Of The Land's release by several months while it was being developed because Liam said it was amazing and told NME that it would be a single for sure. It never was but the instrumental is a highlight that steps back from the hyper masculinity that permeates much of the album.

The album comes to a close with the hard electro rock cover of L7's "Fuel My Fire". Keith handles the vocals on this one with Saffron from Republica adding a nice bit of color as the backup vocalist which make it sound like an angry love song. Interestingly the choice to end with a cover hint at Howlett's limitations as a songwriter which would go to be far more obvious years down the road when Prodigy finally released a new album.

Fat Of The Land was the commercial pinnacle of the Electronica Revolution of 1997 and while the album has it has faults it stands nearly alone in it's mainstream acceptance. One of the reasons "Firestarter" failed to make Prodigy the next Nirvana is that no one could duplicate their sound that combined songwriting with aggressive techno trash. Actually Junkie XL came close and CJ Bolland did a direct riff on the band's sound on a song that is probably better know for it's remix, but no one else could match what Prodigy had at that moment.

Sweet Frosti

Devo are taking legal action over this american idol happy meal toy:



: Gerald Casale, creator of the Energy Dome hats, had this to say

"They didn't ask us anything. Plus, we don't like McDonald's, and we don't like American Idol, so we're doubly offended."

Video: West End Girls "What Have I Done To Deserve This?"

While I'm sure that blogging Swedish fans of the Pet Shop Boys have know this for ages I must pass this along for the benefit for others that the girl group West End Girls are about to launch their second album Shoplifters. The first single finds the Girls, actually one of the original duo was replaced but who is paying close enough attention to notice, taking on "What Have I Done To Deserve This?" with Magnus Carlson of Weeping Willows (the 99'th most successful band in Sweden as if you didn't know) doing the Dusty Springfield bits. Perhaps because it sounds so awfully familiar the song has inspired a post with no words at PSB blog Very and one sentence of nonsense at Popjustice. Can't find too much to say about it myself:



: Stop by their myspace for more on West End Girls and the new album.