You may think of Herbie Hancock as the keyboard guy who created the 80s hit Rockit, a memorable video of breakdancing robots and early forms of scratching. But Hancock is actually one of jazz music’s most important pianists. He was trained on classical music, but in the early sixties he was discovered by Miles Davis and Blue Note and produced some of the most influential jazz LPs of the time.
His two most notable albums early in his career were the contemporary jazz standards, Empyrean Isles and Maiden Voyage. But it wasn’t until the early 70s when he produced his most creative work, my personal favorite ablum, Head Hunters. The masterpiece really defined Hancock’s creativity and experimentation with rhythm and sound. The opening song Cameleon does just what the the name implies, changes from one form to another and back. And at 15 minutes and 41 seconds, it’s not to be taken lightly. Sly is another heavily synthed jam that’s 10 minutes of pure funk, dedicated to the pioneering funk musician Sly Stone. If you haven’t discovered this album, do yourself a favor and pick it up and understand why it’s an inspiration not only for jazz musicians, but also to funk, soul, and hip hop artists.
Sure, the French have Ed Banger now, but turn back the clock to the 1960′s and 70′s and you’ll find one of the most innovative labels specialized in music libraries, L’Illustration Musicale or “IM” for short. Self-described as a “label of modern rhythms,” IM released 26 records in the genre’s of electronic, jazz, latin, and rock during its existence. The album art for pretty much all of the label’s releases looked the same, designed around the IM logo. The only real difference was the color of the album sleeves. One album cover that’s a little different is Bernard Fevre‘s The Strange World of Bernard Fevre which lays concentric circles over the label logo, resembling ripples of water.
Fevre’s world is indeed quite strange, otherworldly to put it best. Released as an “all electronic” record in 1975, The Strange World of Bernard Fevre is part science fiction and part Universal Horror. The 14-tracks that make up the record are a pleasant galactic experience, but at the same time really really creepy, especially “Monster Laboratory” which sounds exactly as the title would lead you to believe. Spacey synths and trippy bleeps lend the album it’s cosmic feel, conjuring up images of celestial journeys to distant galaxies and planets.
Fevre released two other solo works, Cosmos 2043 and Suspense before teaming up with Jackie Giordano to form Black Devil. Under the pseudonyms Joachim Sherylee and Junior Claristidge, the duo recorded the once rare disco masterpiece Disco Club in 1978, which was highly influential to the rise of acid house and still sounds fresh today. Rephlex expanded Black Devil’s audience with a much wider release of Disco Club in 2004, which contained two bonus tracks (“Timing Forget Timing”, “We Never Fly Away Again”) and a remix of “Timing Forget Timing” by Kerrier District.
After 28 years, Bernard Fevre returned last year with 28 After under the moniker Black Devil Disco Club. The title is in reference to the amount of years that passed since the first release of Disco Club and it’s been debated if the new songs are actually from the 70′s. In March of this year, Fevre released the 3-song Black Sunshine 12″ in which each song received remixes by Quiet Village, Elitechnique, and CU faves In Flagranti.
eMusic has a good article on Fevre and Black Devil.
“Lisbon-based Rafael Toral has released a series of CDs that push the boundaries of musical genres as well as the limits of his instrument, establishing him as one of the most gifted and innovative guitarists of the decade.” – Bill Meyer, Chicago Reader (October 1996)
I finally received my copy of the Loveless 33 1/3 and ended up reading it in one sitting. Overall, it was a pretty great read, but I really like the way Mike McGonigal ended the book with a postscript discussing Rafael Toral’s Wave Field.
Wave Field was originally released in 1995 on Moneyland Records in Lisbon, Portugal and then reissued in the U.S. in 1998 on Dexter’s Cigar. The album marked Toral’s second release, after his 1994 debut, Sound Mind Sound Body.
As McGonigal states in his book, Wave Field was an “explicit homage†to My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless, even right down to its cover which pictures a pink and red blurred close-up of a Fender Jaguar guitar. Even, the reddish font, all in lower case simply reading “rafael toral†is placed in the lower left hand corner of the cover, as it is on Loveless.
Just three tracks make up the album, starting with the 30 minute “Wave Field 5″, followed by “Wave Field 6,” which clocks in around 15 minutes. The third track, “WF Radio Edit” is a 3-minute edit combining the first two tracks. All of the soaring drones, noise, and effects on the album were created by Toral using a single Fender Jaguar guitar. I didn’t realize this because I only have mp3’s of the album, but apparently it came with instructions to be played “very soft or very loud,” which Toral explained as the “two faces” of the record in a 1998 interview with McGonigal. In the interview, Toral went onto say that “when it’s played loud it becomes something completely different: a very physical, hypnotizing wave of electronic drone that you feel around your body – like a river.” Turned down, which is the only way I’ve ever listened to it, the album is blissful, beautiful, and epic, more akin to the ambient work Brian Eno. It’s a great record to chill out with.
Muna Lusa has a nice four-part article about Toral, noting that Wave Field marked a turning point in his work, “from then on sound itself as the basic matter for all music, thus rendering his work unwriteable.”
Check out a sample of “Wave Field 6″ below. Toral’s most recent effort, Space, was released on Staubgold last year and unlike Wave Field, is widely available.
Malaria! was a popular band of the Neue Deutsche Welle (German New Wave) movement formed in 1981 by Bettina Koester, Gudrun Gut, Manon P. Duursma, Christine Hahn, and Susanne Kuhnke.
I was first turned onto the Berlin quintet from their Compilation 1981-1984 album, a collection of 16 tracks from all of their early releases, and includes just about all of the tracks from their critically acclaimed debut, Emotion. Malaria!‘s style of deep-voxed no wave was dark, cold, abrupt, harsh, and yet still danceable, notably due to the electronic elements in their music.
Prior to the release of 1982′s Emotion, the all-female group appeared on a John Peel session and toured with the likes of The Birthday Party and John Cale. A bio on the band stated that the “tour was the first that promoted new German music in the United States.” An Indie Top 10 hit followed in the U.S. and Europe with the 12″ single “New York Passage/Your Turn To Run” late in 1981.
The band broke up in 1984, but were still making the charts in 2001 with the Chicks On Speed remix of “Kaltesklareswasser” from the remix album Malaria! Versus. Check out “Your Turn To Run” below and pick up their work from your favorite record shop. Online outlets such as iTunes and eMusic also carry some of the band’s albums.
Whoa – it’s been a little while since I wrote one of these things. Any regular readers have probably already noticed that these posts typically focus on bands from the early 90′s and this one is no different. Blonder Tongue Audio Baton is one of those albums that gives me the chills everytime I hear it. The album, named after a vintage tube equalizer (thanks All Music), has more of a kick to it than any of my other shoegaze faves sounding like something that Polvo, Sonic Youth, and Slowdive would come up with if they collaborated on an album together.
Swirlies originally formed as a Go-Go’s cover band called Raspberry Bang in Boston in 1990 consisting of Damon Tutunjian and Seana Carmody on guitars and vocals, bassist Andy Bernick, and drummer Ben Drucker. The band signed to Boston-based label Taang! and released the mini-album What To Do About Them in 1992 which documented the band’s growth from My Bloody Valentine idolizers into their own unique style. The band’s first full-length and most celebrated work, Blonder Tongue Audio Baton, followed in 1993. The album retainined elements of their earlier work, but was a much more noisy and complex take on shoegaze and dream pop and included the addition of found sounds, tape loops, mellotrons, and white noise. “Park The Car By The Side Of The Road” is one of my favorite tracks on the album as Seana Carmony’s Bilinda Butcher-ish vocals swoon over the distorted noise only to be followed by furious guitar explosions that sound like My Bloody Valentine on steroids.
Swirlies experienced a slew of lineup changes following the release of 1994′s Brokedick Car EP, but are still alive and kicking today thanks to Damon Tutunjian and Andy Bernick who have been involved with the band from the beginning. Tutunjian and Bernick created a Swirlies offshoot called The Yes Girls with Rob Laasko and Ron Rege Jr. (drummer for Lavender Diamond) as well as a label/collective called Sneaky Flute Empire, a medium for their recordings. The lastest Swirlies release (and first in 7 years) was 2003′s Cats of the Wild, Volume II EP.
Check out some mp3′s and a video for “Bell” below.
Adorable was formed in Coventry, England in 1990 and consisted of vocalist/guitarist Piotr Fijalkowski, guitarist Robert Dillam, bassist Wil, and Kevin Gritton on drums.
Adorable‘s first single, “Sunshine Smile,” was recorded in 1991 but wasn’t released until the band signed to Creation in 1992. Upon it’s release, the single was hailed by the British press, but the band’s cockiness ended up biting them in the ass. “In subsequent interviews, Piotr Fijalkowski and Wil snidely, stridently insisted that every other band of the time was crap and that young Adorable was a dead cert for immortality (Trouser Press).” Eventually, the press and critics alike became fed up with the band’s overconfidence and were indifferent to Adorable’s 1993 debut, Against Perfection (originally titled Against Creation). Troubles between Creation and the band’s U.S. label (SBK) affected the release of the album here in the States as well.
The immensely overlooked Against Perfection blends the elements of shoegaze with the neo-psych pop/rock of Echo and the Bunnymen. Fijalkowski vocals are hauntingly similar to those of Ian McCulloch’s, while the wall of sound guitars recall Catherine Wheel and My Bloody Valentine.
Head over to Amazon to pick up a copy of the U.S. version (now released by Capitol) and download “Homeboy” from the album below.
A lightbulb dinged on above my head earlier today. I was sitting at work listening to Bowery Electric‘s Lushlife and all of a sudden I realized why I like the French band OMR so much. The entire mood of OMR’s Side Effects echoes Bowery Electric‘s Lushlife, a blend between dream pop and trip hop. I haven’t listened to Bowery Electric in a while, and very recently have been revisiting their albums. Ashley actually got me listening to them again when she asked me if I knew what happened to the band and its two founding members, Lawrence Chandler and Martha Schwendener.
Bowery Electric formed in New York City in 1992 with their early work, including 1995′s self-titled debut, being very shoegaze/atmospheric and sounding similar to Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, or Chapterhouse. Similar to Slowdive’s departure from shoegaze on Pygmalion, Bowery Electric‘s second studio album, Beat (1996), became more electronically based, blending hip-hop/electronic rhythms with the atmospheric sounds of their earlier work. Following the remix album Vertigo in 1997, the group released Lushlife on Beggars Banquet in 2000. Lushlife is probably my favorite Bowery Electric album, Martha Schwendener’s voice echoes (almost creepily at times) over the atmospheric trip hop beats generated by Lawrence Chandler in a similar fashion to Cranes’ Alison Shaw on Wings of Joy. ‘Pslams of Survival’ is a perfect example of this. Lushlife was the last release from Schwendener and Chandler and I have no clue what the duo are up to now. Does anyone know if they are still working together, have they formed other bands? Let me know in the comments section and check out the video for ‘Freedom Fighter’ from Lushlife below.
“Lisbon-based 
Whoa – it’s been a little while since I wrote 
