Some minimal EDM from Chris and Cosey to start things off:
This track was from the mid-1980s, but would not have seemed out of place among some of the releases by various ambient and EDM artists recording during the start of the 1990s. I’ve always liked this particular track. Chris and Cosey were members of an industrial band (Throbbing Gristle), and although they were less abrasive than TG, they definitely were on the more experimental side of the spectrum. I’ll throw in some more period pieces in the comments.
Conversation and covfefe anyone? Or just interested in some tunes? Enjoy.
Last week, our host asked for a sangria. Only a few days late, here is Tipsy Bartender’s Strawberry Rosé Sangria.
Awesome. And lo and behold, I have most of the ingredients (need to restock the lime soda). Thanks!
Here’s a mid-1980s video by Cabaret Voltaire. Always enjoyed their vids from the early to mid-1980s. Kino is still one I’ll play on a fairly regular basis.
Just a track from the last Cabaret Voltaire album before Mallinder and Kirk went their separate ways. Both have had some interesting solo recordings subsequently. Mallinder moved to Australia and earned a PhD in ethnomusicology from what I recall (his dissertation focused on rhythm in popular music). Not a bad way to land after the hits stopped coming.
Here’s the vid:
This ended up being my first 12 inch single:
Living in a suburban wasteland, it was sometimes a minor miracle I found some of this stuff at the local record stores. Pop Muzik by M was my second 12 inch single. The stuff I was tuning into back around the waning days of 1979 and the start of 1980. Years later, I would find out that Telex performed a very meta song at Eurovision:
Very little of the music I have posted this week would have been possible without Kraftwerk:
Here’s another forerunner of EDM, Jean-Michel Jarre.
This video was in the regular rotation on one of the LA based video shows right around 1985.
Because, why not. ‘Cause your friends don’t dance and if they don’t dance, well they’re no friends of mine. 🙂
Some night music:
With a heavy heart I have to announce that one of our earliest supporters and a Frog Pond all-star, Diane101 has passed away. I will have more on the somewhat sudden circumstances of her death tomorrow, as I learn more of the story. I believe the cause of death was pneumonia.
She last posted here in February and hadn’t been around for a few years before that. She reported that another old friend and big supporter of the site, shirlstars has dementia and also that scribe and Brenda Stewart have passed on. I missed all of that sad news at the time she reported it.
And, according to boran2, supersoling has also passed.
All of this hit me at once, and it’s a little overwhelming.
If you remember Diane101’s Welcome Wagon, you know how much she meant to the site in the early years.
More tomorrow…
I remember Diane101’s Welcome Wagon from way back, and was so excited when she briefly reappeared earlier this year. We’ve lost some truly beautiful human beings, as you have noted. Their voices are irreplaceable. I’m grieving with you, Booman. Hang in there.
I’ve been on a huge ’70’s pop music kick. This one is a nice, obscure one:
The Partridge Family meets CSNY.
Mike Curb was a Christian music producer who won a term as Lieutenant Governor of California. He was also a NASCAR owner, among other things. Predictably, his music was horrible, this music:
I’m reminded by these explorations that there were a ton of bands in the vein of Chicago and Blood, Sweat and Tears. It was a thing in the early ’70’s:
And the many reappropriations of classical compositions:
Chase and Lighthouse deserve The Ides of March.
For sure…
Here, have a melody gently plowed into your brainpan with a thousand gentle taps of a ball peen hammer:
This is a terrific re-discovery. Loved, and love, this song:
This song was a big fat Top 10 hit here, the same week “He Don’t Love You” by Tony Orlando and Dawn was the #1 song in the U.S.
Why? How?
The ’70’s were weird.
I was a kid during most of the 1970s, reaching my adolescence right as the decade was coming to a close. I suppose in a way the 1970s spilled over into the first couple years of the 1980s, but that may be largely a matter of one’s perception and living circumstances. I often say that the 1970s is a difficult one to adequately describe – I especially say that to my offspring when they see some video of some odd occurrence from that decade. Leo Sayer was certainly one of the decade’s more unique voices.
Look at those dancers in the background! British teenagers with the fun comic relief.
And Petula Clark appears to have remade “Downtown” a few times. It’s a decent song, so I don’t mind much.