With his final recordings in 1967, John Coltrane set up a framework for avant garde jazz musicians to follow for decades to come. “Interstellar Space” consists of four pieces recorded with Coltrane and drummer Rashied Ali. Both play as hard as possible. The resulting music is intense, forceful and filled with details. You can feel the gravity such as planet within the performance.
When Curtis Mayfield left The impressions he made a big splash with his first album, “Curtis”. Not only did he appear larger than life on the cover, but nearly half of the album was taken up with mini-epics. While “Get On Up” takes most of the fame these days, this tune sets the tone for the album in dramatic fashion. He really seems to be going straight to Motown’s head with the grandiose arrangement and heady political commentary. The fact is that these recordings pre-date “What’s Going On” by a whole year and 56 years later, it all still rings frighteningly true.
Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions were a big influence on Jamaican music, as evident in this cover by Lloyd Charmers in 1975:
Sly Dunbar helped create more hits than most people in the entire recording industry have ever. Before getting involved with major artists from across the globe, Sly had his first hit at the tender age of fifteen with what is today still a major party starter. One year earlier, he made his first recording as an Upsetter for producer Lee “Scratch” Perry:
Rest in Power to a true GOAT!
When King Tubby decided to build his own studio in his home he set up one of the most unique studio setups on the island. His studio served only for recording vocals and mostly for mixing dubs. This environment helped to create a particularly creative space for art of dub. Here are two of the most abstract mixes performed by Tubby’s most renown apprentices: Prince Jammy and Scientist. Jammy nearly takes the drums completely out of the mix and replaces it was long, distorting echoes. I’m not sure what effect Scientist has on those drums, but they sound otherworldly!
Suicide were not only one of the first synth-based bands, but also one of the first bands to adopt the moniker of “punk”. Formed in 1970, the duo of Alan Nova and Martin Rev combined contemporary electronics with a old school rock ‘n’ roll vocal delivery. Being based in a decaying New York City meant that instead of singing “oooh girl oooh” lyrics Vega sang about desperate characters in dire straits. Like the rest of the burgeoning punk rock scene, they performed at seminal venues such as CBGBs and Max’s Kansas City. However, when they hit the road audiences would be confused by the band to the point of inciting violence towards them. History has smiled upon the duo as their influence has helped shape countless alternative artists. This song has often been performed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band during their arena-sized shows. Dare to dream!
With all the bullshit going on in the news, let’s take a little break to listen to something fun.
It’s hard to think of many other industrial-dance acts that took themselves less seriously than My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult. There’s enough trash, sleaze and exploitation in the band name alone to make John Waters giggle. This track hit the record store shelves and dance floors in 1989 amid the Satanic Panic. It can still unnerve gullible parents and shake butts! Take a break from the bleak and embrace the absurdity!
Electronic music label Warp’s Artificial Intelligence series of the early 90s proved to be highly influential. It featured albums by the likes of Aphex Twin, Autechre and Richie Hawtin who all continue to be relevant in the present tense.
Many of the acts featured in series starting compilation went under pseudonyms. None were as elusive as the trio collectively known as Black Dog Productions. Their full length contribution to the series, “Bytes”, featured seven aliases over eleven tracks. One moniker, Plaid, broke off to become their own duo while Ken Downie went on as The Black Dog. Initially, Downie’s productions featured esoteric time signatures and world music leanings. Later, with The Black Dog becoming a trio once more, his music took on a much more ambient bent.
You can read more about Downie’s legacy in this more comprehensive article over at CDM.
Of all the artists featured in the Artificial Intelligence series, Ken Downie is a first of the gang to die. Rest in Power, Black Dog.
More dramatic heaviness from the King Crimson quartet of the mid-70s. The singing tones of David Cross’s violin combined with the mids-heavy bass work by John Wetton creates some sort of sonic alchemy that does it for me every time! The live recordings are truly the best with this band. This one from the official live album USA really gets all the menace and dynamics these four players could achieve. This brand of dark seems appropriate for coming out of the darkness and into the light. See you next year!
Think warm thoughts this holiday week with Tino Corp (aka Jack Dangers and Ben Stokes)!
When people speak of the history of electronic dance music, two midwestern cities pop up: Chicago and Detroit. One for the innovations of acid and house musics and the other for techno. Despite the fact that these two rust belt cities are often rivals on the court or playing field, the two emerging scenes were quite supportive of each other and symbiotic to each other’s development.
Richie Hawtin is a Canadian Detroit techno musician known around the world. For one of his first full lenght endevours Hawtin adopted the alias of Plastikman, which was wholly devoted to the Chicago acid house sound. Based on the same Roland instruments and bare bones production as the Windy City sound, “Sheet One” achieves a maximal impact based on simplicity.
Steve Cropper is a true US music legend. As a guitarist, band leader and songwriter he was a core element of the hugely influential Memphis label Stax Records. He backed Booker T and Otis Redding in the 60s and The Blues Brothers in the early 80s. Here is talking about just a few of the highlights from his storied career:
Rest in Power, Steve!
Jimmy Cliff was one of the first superstars of Jamaican popular music and definitely the longest living. Rest in Power!
Wevie Stonder have been jumbling up words, electronic music and comedy since the year 2000. This piece from their newest album, “Sure Beats Living”, is a magic trick that takes some unexpected turns. The ominous soundtrack makes this seem like a Coil tune turned on its head.
Depeche Mode’s 2023 album “Memento Mori” serves as the band’s pandemic album as well as tribute to their fallen member Andy Fletcher. The title of the album loosely translates as “remember that you must die” and sets the dark tone appropriately. Back in 1986 they said that “death is everywhere” and nearly twenty years later, that proves to be the case literally. “People are Good” is ironically titled, with the lyrics dealing with losing the fight to cynicism in dealing with the rest of humanity. The provocative video does a good job of subverting expectations. “Keep fooling yourself…”
It’s hard to talk about the history of Jamaican popular music without mentioning The Ethiopians. Their 1967 hit “Train to Skaville” heralded in the Rocksteady era. Here they are in all their early Reggae glory with a fantastic ganja tune. Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em and stay red!
Here in the northern hemisphere darkening times are upon us once again, and not just politcally. Here is a pretty piece of guitar work from Bill Bartlett and the Country Paupers. It served as the b-side to their only single, “Chicken Squawk”.
Here’s another spooky season favorite: the closing track from Siouxsie and the Banshees’ ominous masterpiece, “Tinderbox”. This track seems literally Gothic in the ornately intertwining patterns of the instruments. The opening track, “Cities in Dust”, gets all the fame but Siouxsie’s entreat here to take a walk with her by the sea ends the album with a particularly sinister tone.
Here’s a spookytime favorite from the media mavens Greater Than One. Definitely a track best played in the late night hours in the dark very loud!
This is a story about a little song no one believed in that became a hit for two individual artists. “Der Kommissar” was originally written by Robert Ponger for Reinhold Bilgeri who rejected it. Ponger took it to Falco who re-worked it into a pseudo-rap in 1981. Flaco did not really think it was single worthy, as the chorus was heavily influenced by Rick James’ smash “Super Freak”. His record label thought better and it became Falco’s first hit in multiple countries.
in 1982, one-time prog rock band After the Fire was reinventing themselves to fit in the New Wave scene. They decided to cover “Der Kommissar” with what I assume to be radically different lyrics in English:
This proved to be a big hit for the band, hitting the top 5 in the US. However, this success came too late as the band had already broken up after several years of lineup and stylistic changes. Their record company begged them to come back, at least to tour off the success of the single, to no avail. In fact, the band had sold off the instrumental track to singer Laura Branigan:
The song no one seemed to believe in much had surprising longevity. It also helped bring to life some textbook ridiculous 80s videos!
The TONTO was a monstrous synthesizer created by Malcom Cecil and Robert Margouleff in the early 70s. Modern-day Eurorack modular setups make this looks VERY inefficient, but this is what it took to get multi-timbrality back in the day. Here’s a clip of the beast in action with “Fifth Beatle” Billy Preston behind the keys.