Friday, January 26, 2007

Air-Pocket Symphony

Air are set to release the follow-up to 2004's Talkie Walkie on March 6 on Astralwerks. The record is titled Pocket Symphony, features artwork by contemporary artist Xavier Veilhan, and was recorded with Nigel Godrich over the last year and a half. Both Air members, Nicolas Godin and JB Dunckel (aka Darkel), sing on the album, and Jarvis Cocker and the Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon contribute vocals as well.
 

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Dali's Car

Dalis Car was a musical group formed in 1984 by Peter Murphy and Mick Karn soon after Murphy and Karn left their former bands (Bauhaus and Japan, respectively) to the great disappointment of the numerous fans. They took their name from a Captain Beefheart song from his album Trout Mask Replica

Formed by former Bauhaus vocalist/ lyricist Peter Murphy and Japan bassist/composer Mick Karn. Some say that Dalis Car was doomed almost from the start and that the group nearly self-destructed itself, before it was disbanded.
“It was a particularly difficult project. We were two very different people.Socially we were fine, but no matter how good the idea of working together sounded, when it did come to work, we couldn't get on. However, I do think the end result makes for a very interesting album. Situations full of tension can often be the most creative. Perhaps due to our strong, opposing opinions, there's a certain strength to Dalis Car. I doubt if there will be a reunion.” Mick Karn

 

image courtesy of amazon.com
Their album, The Waking Hour, released in 1984, came in at more than thirty thousand dollars over the sixty thousand dollar budget given them by Virgin and Beggars Banquet. As a commercial failure, back then, the album produced one equally disappointing single,"The Judgement Is The Mirror" In musical styles it is post punk with oriental elements and folk. The painting on The Waking Hour cover is by Maxfield Parish, an American artist who used to paint happy psychedelic pictures just like for the food ads.
 
Update:
In August 2010, Peter Murphy announced on Twitter that he and Karn were planning to head into the studio in September to begin work on the second Dalis Car album. The project was cut short, however, as Karn had recently been diagnosed with cancer. He died on 4 January 2011, thus ending the reunion. The tracks they did record—including a re-working of "Artemis" from The Waking Hour with newly added vocals, guitar, and drums, and renamed Artemis Rise—were released on 5 April 2012 as an EP entitled InGladAloneness.

Source: Wikipedia (edit)

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Fay Ray

Formed by Sheila McCartney (vocals, percussion), John Lovering (guitar), Owen Hughes (drums), Tony Travis (bass, vocals), and Jeff Taylor (wind), Fay Ray debuted in 1980 with the 7" single "Family Affairs" and three live tracks on the compilation 101 Live Letters. Named after famous photographer William Wegman's dog, Fay Ray faded into obscurity after its record label locked its second LP in the vault, refusing to release it once the group was dropped.


McCartney's voice resembled Siouxsie Sioux's, but Fay Ray had a more accessible pop sound than its post-punk peers. The group filmed two videos, "Modern Lovers" and "Heatwave" that received some airplay during MTV's early years and were revived by VH1 Classic in 2002.
The band was never able to catapult itself from its small cult following to a mainstream audience. Its 1982 debut album, Contact You, was a flop. Signed to Elektra Records, Fay Ray had just finished recording its follow-up when the company pulled the plug and kept the masters. Disillusioned, the group broke up. 
Interest in Fay Ray was revived when the band's records were discovered in used music stores by new wave collectors and shared via mp3 format over the Internet. However, the band's entire discography remained unreleased on CD.


Wednesday, January 17, 2007

The Shins- Wincing The Night Away

Wincing the Night Away, the third album by indie rock group The Shins, was released by Sub Pop Records on January 23, 2007. It is the band's final album under their current contract. Recording for the album occurred in James Mercer’s basement studio, Phil Ek’s home in Seattle, and in Oregon City with veteran producer Joe Chicarelli (Beck, U2). One single from this album, "A Comet Appears", was featured in the pilot of the new television show, Chuck.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Instant Hit: B-Movie- Remembrance Day

"Remembrance Day" is one of b-Movie's biggest hits which was released twice during the 80's decade. The first release was in 1981 on DERAM label with "Institution Walls" as the B-side. The second release followed six years later on Wax records with "Marilyn Dreams" as a B-side track. The song was also featured on Flexi Pop's split release with Soft Cell's song "Metro MRX".


Monday, January 15, 2007

Fiat Lux

Fiat Lux formed in Yorkshire, England, in 1982 with Steve Wright (vocals), Ian Nelson (sax, keyboards), and Dave Crickmore (guitars, keyboards). The British synth pop trio notched a handful of hits in the UK before vanishing into the pop abyss. They named themselves Fiat Lux, which is the Latin translation for the Biblical quotation "Let There Be Light."

It all began at Bretton Hall College, Wakefield, during the late 70's which was attended by Steve Wright and David P Crickmore. They came together when Steve joined the college band that David was in called The Juveniles (2 of their tracks appeared on a compilation album Household Shocks around 1980).

After college, Steve joined the Yorkshire Actors Company and this is now he met the musician Bill Nelson. Steve mentioned that he had some songs and Bill suggested that he shout them into a cassette recorder and if they were any good he would do something with them at his home studio The Echo Observatory. Instead of this, Steve went to David for help and they revamped and arranged the ideas and recorded them decently on a 2 track Reel to Reel. The result so impressed Bill that he abandoned the home studio offer. Instead, he booked time at Ric Rac Studios in Leeds for them to record a single for his Cocteau Label.
"The content of our songs is very emotion-drenched, but so many of the bands that have been out in the past that have had that synthesised background have tended to become very stark - the wailing vocals often seem to be just part of a formula and they don't really convey any emotion."
While waiting for this to happen, Steve and David started gigging the material locally as He's Dead Herman. They used a number of local musicians to bolster Steve's vocals and David's Casio keyboard and guitar. One of these was an Ian Nelson, who they met not through Bill, but through another local musician Ada Wilson, who had used Ian in his band Keeping Dark. At this stage Ian was one of a number of random musicians who turned up on an impromptu basis.


Steve and David then recorded "Feels Like Winter Again" and "This Illness" as a duo, with Bill as the third musician and producer. The single was released it on the Cocteau Records label in November 1982, by which time Nelson's brother Ian had joined the band. "Feels Like Winter Again" gained the band radio airplay and led to them signing a record deal with major label Polydor and subsequent support slots with Howard Jones.


In the years to come, the band would continue to release singles which included  "Secret" and "Blue Emotion", both with promotional videos, becoming minor hits in the UK. Their mini album Hired History followed in 1984.  The band disbanded after the release of "House of Thorns" which failed to enter the charts. Wright joined Camera Obscura, replacing Nigel James, Crickmore dedicated to more experimental projects through the remaining 80's decade, culminating in an album on the London based independent record label, Yellow Moon Records. Ian Nelson continued to work with his brother Bill, joining the line-up of Be-Bop Deluxe, in the early 1990's; He died in his sleep on 23 April 2006.

Their recording material was never reissued on CD, but there are plans for the reissue of Hired History plus bonus tracks.

Update 07.02.2020
Hired History Plus was issued by Cherry Red in 2019. The band also released their first new material after more than 30 years with the full length album entitled Saved Symmetry.

Wednesday, January 3, 2007

Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (D.A.F.)

DAF is an influential electropunk / Neue Deutsche Welle band from Düsseldorf, formed in 1978 as a five piece band and one of the most influential 80's bands from Germany who found success outside their home country. The band started as a five piece in the late seventies and featuring drummer/synth player Robert Görl and vocalist Gabi Delgado-Lopez who also continued to release as DAF after the original line up disbanded.


Gabi and Robert met for the first in Düsseldorf, Gabi sang in local punk bands and Robert was finishing his formal musical training. Along with Wolfgang Spellmans, Ludwig Hass and Michael Kemner, they released their first album in Germany called Product der DAF on Warning Records. It was a riot of synth and tape powered heavy metal. The name stands for Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft or German-American Friendship - which at the time the band formed was a shot at DSF, the East German German-Soviet Friendship organization. They later moved to London where they made their England debut at the Marque club with The Fall. Shortly after they signed to Mute records.

An early Sounds review summed up their early music: "If DAF has an onstage duel with Throbbing Gristle, there would be no-one left alive on stage to announce the winner."

After releasing their first Mute single, "Kebabträume", Conny Plank asked to produce them and by this time, they had been reduced to a duo. After releasing their first Mute album, Die Kleinen und die Bösen, and second single, "Tanz Mit Dir" they embarked on a tour that encompassed Austria and Germany, with some London dated mixed in the middle.


A change of record label, to Virgin, saw the release of their second album, Alles Ist Gut, and a single, "Der Mussolini"/"Der Räuber Under Der Prinz", which charted in England. In interviews, they claimed to not target anything or anyone specific while creating lyrics to be taken as a parody of words and phrases floating around in the public media. "Sato Sato" and "Der Mussolini" are both examples of songs written around Delgado-Lopez's fascination with the sound of a particular word.. In 1985, the band released their commercially most successful single "Brothers" and the band disbanded soon after.


The pair have also released solo work over the years, Robert Gorl released one album on Mute, Night Full of Tension, and two singles, "Mit Dir" and "Darling Don't Leave Me" with Annie Lennox.
"DAF was the kind of band that had a very severe, minimalistic concept in music. We were a two piece that only sung in German. We restricted ourselves by using electronics, acoustic drums and vocals. It was concentrated power, the more minimal the better. Eventually, after three albums, we realized that we had reached our limits. The question was, 'Are we going to continue and maybe repeat the whole thing again, or should we stop and do something completely new?' DAF was a band that never wanted to look back. I'm still good friends with Robert, but when you work with someone for five years you get into a routine of exchanging ideas. Suddenly you discover that you're saying the same things you said two albums previously. For me it's a very normal thing. I wish a lot of bands would break up after two or three albums." Gabi Delgado 1983

Gabi Delgado-López died in 22 March, 2020, due to heart attack. Sources may vary about his death place, while some say he died in a hospital in Portugal, while Deutschlandfunk say he died in his birth place of Córdoba. He was 61.

Tuesday, January 2, 2007

Instant Hit: Ian North- Sex, Lust, You

"Sex Lust You" was the b-side song from Ian North's EP Rape of Orchids which was released in 1982. It was written and produced by Ian and released on Neo Records. In 2006 Ian's album My Girlfriend's Death as well as the Rape of Orchids were reissued through the repressed label.


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