ORBITAL @ 30

 

Celebrating its 30th anniversary today is the debut eponymous album from Orbital, which was released on September 30th, 1991. Along with debuts by the likes of LFO, Aphex Twin, Nightmares on Wax and The Future Sound of London, Orbital would become recognized as a critical part of the new wave of British techno music bursting from the clubs at the dawn of the 1990s.

The Hartnoll brothers, Phil & Paul, would begin working towards this album in 1989, crafting their first single, Chime, on their dad’s cassette deck in a compact little office/workspace he had cut out from the void under the staircase of the family home. Over the course of the next few years, they’d assemble the songs that would eventually become their debut. Taking their cue from Detroit techno and Chicago acid house coming from America in the late 1980s, they’d quickly become part of the UK’s exploding rave scene, where they were recognized for their improvised live sets. Some of these would make it on to their debut in the form of live versions of Chime and Midnight.

I was turned onto this album almost immediately upon its arrival at the local import shop. As soon as I heard the Star Trek - The Next Generation samples on the opening cut (The Moebius, Time Squared, S02E13) with Worf’s “… where time becomes a loop” and LaForge’s “…whatever happened WILL happen again”, I knew I had to have this album. With TNG being at the peak of its popularity by 1991, that hook was irresistible. And the rest of the album didn’t disappoint as they filled the entire CD’s 78 minute capacity with one solid groove after another. It became regular essential listening in my home for some time after its arrival. Digging it out again for a fresh listen, it’s still got a lot going for it and has held up nicely over the past thee decades. I’m sure it can still pack a dance floor whenever it gets a spin.

For some reason, however, I never really kept up with the group after their first release. I remember checking out their third album, Snivilization, and being somewhat ambivalent about it and I never bothered to go back to that well again after that. Yet I’ve been doing some dipping in now, spurred on by the nostalgia that was triggered after rediscovering their debut, and I’m finding myself very much enchanted again. I don’t know why I didn’t stick with them back then, but I’m glad I’m giving them another chance now and I’m very impressed with what I’m hearing with fresh ears.

RICHARD H. KIRK - RIP

 

The unexpected passing of experimental electronic music pioneer, Richard H. Kirk, has got me thinking about how his work has impacted my own personal musical journey through the decades. Not only since I first came across Cabaret Voltaire so long ago, but also because I kept rediscovering him over and over through his solo works released under their innumerable aliases. I first heard Cabs way back in 1981 when a high school buddy and band mate in my first band, Mark, bought a copy of Voice of America. He’d special ordered the album based on a recommendation from his cousin. Mark had sent him a cassette of some demos we’d recorded and he’d told him we sounded a lot like this band from Sheffield in the UK. So Mark ordered the album and, when he eventually picked it up from the shop, we ended up going back to his place to check it out since he had a proper hi-fi stereo system. After our first listen, Mark was a bit ambivalent about the album, but I heard something in it that I instantly took a shining to and offered to buy the record off him. That’s how I acquired my first proper “Industrial” album for my growing little record collection.

Voice of America was an album that clicked with me for a number of reasons, mostly down to the way the drum machines sounded, Mal’s deep bass throb, Chris’ cheesy organ & disorienting tapes and Kirk’s piercing guitar & clarinet stabs. My full-stop favorite record at the time was PiL’s Metal Box (Second Edition), and there was a definite kinship between the two given the atonal, metallic din of CV’s sound. But there was a lot more experimentation going with Cabs than even PiL were up for and that started opening my mind up to all sorts of new possibilities in terms of structure and sounds. Plus the band looked absolutely miserable on the cover with their long black overcoats, frazzled fringes and glowering glares. It was all very appealing to my sense of teenage post-punk angst.

From there, I next encountered some of their singles like Nag Nag Nag, which sounded like this amazing fusion of electronic and punk and showed just how simple you could keep things and still whack out a catchy, furious ditty. Then there was Seconds Too Late, which I heard shortly after moving to the big city and discovering my first underground after-hours warehouse nightclub. This was in early 1983 and I can clearly remember that immense bass sound pulsing through the PA while its ghostly synths drifted over top. Seeing all these wild looking spiky haired Goths dancing away in the dimly lit shadows of this hidden nest of subversion was one of those magical experiences that stays with you for your entire life. I felt like I was in a post apocalyptic sci-fi movie, which was aided by the chemical enhancements that were available at the time. This was soon followed by encountering the single version of Yashar in a more mainstream, legit nightclub. It's a song that would set the template for the group’s metamorphosis into something truly “club friendly”.

Of course, this was the shift into serious dance music with the release of The Crackdown. It became the root DNA for all the electronic dance music which would come to dominate the more hardcore dance clubs throughout the ‘80s. Everything that would become “EBM” or “cyber-punk” was rooted in The Crackdown’s pulsing beats and riveting synth-bass. For me, they did it first, they did it best and they were the godfathers of that sound. That was, however, a bit of a double edged sword. As that style became more codified, popular and ubiquitous (and ultimately cliched), it started to drive me away from Cabaret Voltaire’s subsequent works, though I would continue to delve into their earlier catalogue and fall in love with everything from Mix-Up to Red Mecca to 2x45 and compilations of their early singles and EPs like Eight Crepuscule Tracks, which kicked off with the massively inspirational, Sluggin’ For Jesus.

For the most part, however, the later half of the ‘80s and most of the ‘90s had me leaving Cabs behind and going into the worlds of Chicago Acid House and UK & European electronica. It wasn’t until 1998 that I spotted this CD by Sandoz called “In Dub - Chant to Jah”, that I would chance to cross paths with Kirk again. I didn’t even realize he was behind that project at first and bought the CD purely because I’d seen the name Sandoz associated with Psychic TV and knew that it was an LSD reference. When I got around to looking at the album’s credits, seeing Kirk’s name attached was a most pleasant surprise! The album’s fusion of electronica and reggae made it a frequent listen in my home and I ended up picking up anything I came across with that name on it.

What I didn’t realize was that Kirk had become a shape-shifter and was putting out obscure titles under a plethora of pseudonyms and it wouldn’t be until early in 2020 that I finally sat down and seriously started trying to put all the pieces of that puzzle together. Thanks to Discogs extensive database and cross-referencing tools, I was able to ferret out innumerable side projects, collaborations and one-off gems strewn about from releases issued throughout the last three decades. That got me on a binge of it all since I was able to find a good deal of it on YouTube. There was a wide range of styles to explore from straight up dance techno to ambient to noise to downtempo and everything in between.

This foray into his obscure solo catalogue was preceded by a re-examination of Cabaret Voltaire’s later works after The Crackdown up until their last album before going into hiatus, The Conversation (1994). While some of the more mainstream leaning albums like Code and Groovy, Laidback & Nasty now show a bit of their age since their release, CV’s releases in the 1990s returned to something that now sounds more timeless and hold up well compared to anything released by their contemporaries of that era. The 1992 album, Plasticity, in particular works exceptionally well in the realm of underground electronica.

Finally, in late 2020, Kirk formally revived Cabaret Voltaire with the release of Shadow of Fear. It’s an album that hearkens back to the earlier edgy grooves of albums like Voice of America while bringing it all forward to the 21st century and the zeitgeist of the current times. With the specter of pandemics, war and environmental collapse infusing the music, it has a familiar sense of dread and anxiety while also making you want to tap your toes. It was, as it had been in the beginning, dance music for the end of the world, but now with 45 years of experience and living built into its essence. It was clear that Kirk was still on the edge of the curve and able to create music that was able to build on the past while looking forward and eschewing any sense of nostalgia, a concept Kirk often made clear was anathema to his process.

I suspect there’s a lot of material in Kirk’s vaults which remains unreleased, both in terms of older material and projects that were just completed or nearing completion. I expect we’ll be able to enjoy his works for some time to come, but it’s still very sad to know he was hardly at the point of losing steam in his creative career and that he was cut off while still rolling down the tracks. But one thing is certain. He’s left a mammoth legacy of incredibly varied and influential music that’s had an impact on generations and it will continue to do so for generations to come.

NIGHTMARES ON WAX - A WORD OF SCIENCE (THE FIRST AND FINAL CHAPTER) @ 30

 

Released on September 16th, 1991, the debut album from Nightmares on Wax, A Word Of Science (The 1st & Final Chapter), is celebrating 30 years on the shelves today.

NoW began to germinate their debut as far back as 1984 when then 14 year old George Evelyn began to experiment with mix tapes using bits of film dialogue that caused one friend to comment that it all “sounded like a nightmare”. This was the inspiration for the group’s name. In 1987 Evelyn began working with a Leeds crew recording demo tapes using a 4-track system and a sampler. Elements from these recording sessions would eventually find their way into A Word of Science. At this point, they were working predominantly within the techno style of 4x4 dance electronica, which would lead to the group’s first two singles on Warp, Aftermath (1989) and Dextrous (1990). In the early days, the group was a trio consisting of Evelyn, Kevin "Boywonder" Harper and Jon Halnon. Though their debut album is credited to the group, Harper and Halnon don’t actually appear on the record and didn’t tour to support it.

The album itself is one of those releases that contains the DNA for at least a half dozen different stylistic offshoots. It drifts from its founding techno grooves to venture into more funk & hip-hop oriented vibes with psychedelic overtones offering a strong signpost for the evolution of trip-hop and downtempo music throughout the coming decades. It’s also a conscious move away from strictly dance-floor oriented music and is one of the first “techno” albums to fully embrace the idea of “home listening” electronic music along with the likes of LFO’s Frequencies album from the same era. Its divergence of styles was something of a frustration for those looking for the basic beats characterized by their debut singles as the album ventured down avenues that other producers were barely starting to consider options for exploration. As a result it has gained a legacy as a ground-breaker for innovation in electronic music.

This one went under my radar when it first came out and Nightmares on Wax went into a bit of a hiatus for a few years before their sophomore LP, Smoker’s Delight (1995) would cement them in place as leaders in the downtempo scene. Their reworking of the debut album’s Nights Interlude would appear on the 1996 Future Sound of Jazz Vol. 2 compilation and serve as my gateway into the world of NoW. I wouldn’t discover their debut until nearly 10 years after its release, but it has continually surprised me with how well it has held up. At the very least, it’s a signpost album that points the way to the future of electronic music for the next two decades.

DAVID SYLVIAN - GONE TO EARTH @ 35

 

Released on September 13th, 1986, David Sylvian’s third solo album, Gone to Earth, is celebrating its 35th anniversary today.

Issued as a double album, it included a set of vocal songs on the first LP paired with a set of instrumental pieces on the second. Virgin records, at the time of the album’s production, weren’t interested in Sylvian’s instrumental works, but they agreed to release them provided that David funded their production himself. As such, the instrumental music was recorded during studio off-times, before or after the main sessions were done and paid for out of pocket by David. The album features significant contributions from both Robert Fripp and Bill Nelson as well as appearances from former Japan band mates, brother Steve Jansen & Richard Barbieri. The vocal album represents a continuation of the styles and themes begun with Brilliant Trees in 1984.

Overall, Sylvian wasn’t particularly focused during the recording of this album, with the initial phase being something of a struggle to find a way to pull together all the work he’d been doing. He was in a process of starting a number of different projects without a clear intention of where it was all going to end up. Eventually, he got to the point where he was able to coral all the disparate threads he’d initiated into something reasonably coherent. This is what necessitated the conception of a double album so that he could find a home for the instrumental works he’d become quite enamored with. Initial recordings were begun at Eel Pie Studios in Oxfordshire throughout 1985 and the album was completed during the first half of 1986 at The Manor in London.

Despite its somewhat unfocused genesis, the album garnered critical praise in the UK press upon its release with Sounds' Chris Roberts saying: “It's the perfect realization of artist converting image to mood, subverting fantasy to super-reality. Delicate, but with the strength of legions, it's an '80s masterpiece and conceivably his finest approximation of distilled beauty ever... [Gone to Earth] is almost as breathtaking as it is life giving." Personally, I find it has held up exceedingly well over the years, unlike a lot of ‘80s music, which suffers from production techniques and styles which all-too-often leave their stamp in the form of over-compressed drums and plastic sounding mastering. Gone to Earth escapes the bonds of its era and still sounds contemporary today.

JOHN LENNON - IMAGINE @ 50

 

Celebrating its 50th anniversary today is John Lennon’s second proper solo album, Imagine, which was released on September 9th, 1971. Along with his previous release, Plastic Ono Band, Imagine has come to be considered the peak of his solo career. Where the previous album had gone for a stripped down simplicity, Imagine embraced a richer, more layered sound. The album was co-produced by Phil Spector and featured numerous contributions from former Beatles comrade, George Harrison.

The album was recorded at various times throughout the spring & summer of 1971 with sessions beginning in the UK in May at Lennon’s Tittenhurst Park estate before moving on to Abbey Road and then The Record Plant in NYC for final recording and production. The entire process of producing the album was extensively documented on film with the objective being to produce a documentary on the album, but that film project was eventually abandoned, though footage from the sessions would survive and surface in various other documentaries over the years, most notably the 2018 film, John & Yoko: Above Us Only Sky.

While Imagine is often put in second place within Lennon’s solo catalogue behind Plastic Ono Band, it’s still bursting with iconic musical moments, not the least of which is the album’s title track, which has gone on to become Lennon’s signature theme. It’s a little less confessional than its predecessor and maybe a little heavy handed on some of its social and political messaging, but Lennon somehow manages to channel enough sincerity to avoid utter pomposity and pretense, though he skirts those edges rather closely at times. Part of his success at avoiding the worst of those sins rests on the times it was created. I don’t think anyone would dare try to write songs like this now, likely because we consider ourselves so much more jaded and cynical than a celebrity of his stature could get away with on the heels of the “peace and love” movement of the 1960s.

Since it’s release, the album has undergone a number of remastering and remixing variations, some more successful than others, but the power of the album has remained and it has continued to exemplify John Lennon’s essence throughout its half century of existence. It certainly deserves to be positioned, if not at the top, then very much just a shade below that high water mark of his career.

BUNNY WAILER - BLACKHEART MAN @ 45

 

Celebrating 45 years on the shelves, Bunny Wailer’s debut album, Blackheart Man, was released on this day, September 8, in 1976. It remains one of the most brilliant, important reggae albums ever released.

The album is a mystical marvel of top notch songwriting used to support messages of profound power, all the while maintaining a kind of quiet humility that refuses to allow those messages to come across as “preachy”. It’s an honest expression of faith and love that never feels anything less that 100% authentic. It’s an astounding achievement to be able to communicate with such force while never raising the amplitude above a hush.

The album kicks off as it means to go on with the magnificent title track, a story pulled from Wailer’s childhood where he was warned of the Jamaican equivalent of the “bogie man”, a figure who would often align with perceptions of the Rastafarian movement among the general population. As the song progresses, Bunny recounts his shedding of those fears and the way that process eventually put him in the place of the Blackheart Man he’d been warned against. In doing so, the song masterfully illustrates the process of enlightenment changing perception where the “evil” seen by the ignorant becomes the “good” of the illuminated. Darkness becomes light.

The remainder of the album accomplishes similar feats of inspirational insight, touching on concepts of repatriation (Dreamland), justice (Fighting Against Conviction) and various other manifestations of Rastafarianism. The music is all delivered by a who’s-who of the eras best players like the flawless rhythm section of the Barrett brothers and guest appearances by Wailers cohorts, Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. Everyone and everything on this album seems to be working towards a singular, perfect manifestation of roots reggae music that ends up as a near flawless album of timeless beauty.

This was one of the first reggae albums I ever purchased, right alongside Peter Tosh’s Equal Rights LP, both of which I picked up early in 1982. I couldn’t have picked a better pair of albums to start my exploration of this vast genre. Nearly 40 years after being introduced to my music library, Blackheart Man remains an album I can put on just about any time and marvel at its effortless perfection. It emanates from the speakers like a deeply exhaled breath of freshness every time I play it and it always retains its power to inspire with its heartfelt messages.

THE APHEX TWIN - ANALOGUE BUBBLEBATH @ 40

 

 

In September of 1991, the world of techno music would welcome the debut release from The Aphex Twin as the Analogue Bubblebath EP hit the shelves for the first time.

Richard D. James wasn’t initially interested in releasing his music. He was content to hand out cassettes to friends and play his tracks occasionally during his DJ sets, but the idea of putting out records didn’t hold any real interest for him. It wasn’t until James was tripping on LSD during a rave at the Academy in Plymouth that he was cornered backstage by Mighty Force record shop owner, Mark Darby, and Rich’s friend, Tom Middleton, that he was browbeaten into submission as they dangled money and contracts in front of him until he relented to have his music become the debut release on Darby’s newly minted indie label. Middleton had been playing Darby cassettes at his record shop and the two were amazed that James wasn’t bothered about putting anything out officially, so they set up this ambush to convince him to change his mind and it finally worked. If not for this acid trip, the world may never have heard of Aphex Twin!

It didn’t take long for the EP to take on cult status as the initial pressing of 1000 while label copies sold out within a week and demanded immediate subsequent re-pressings. Critical response was also instantly positive as people recognized an entirely new breed of UK techno had been birthed by the record. James had put a distinct personal stamp on the world of electronica, one that would soon catapult him to legendary status within the span of a few short years. The release of Selected Ambient Works 85-92 a year later would quickly consolidate his status as the premier producer of the most original and advanced form of techno in the country, or the world, for that matter. The music on this EP was so far ahead of the curve that it still sounds fresh and current some 40 years after its release.

The impact of James’ music is incalculable at this point. So many people have been influenced by him and so many of his releases have achieved iconic status over the years. He’s still able to stir up excitement and controversy with his releases as he’s continued to carve his own path through the record industry. He’s remained enigmatic and aloof from the business while securing his stature for the foreseeable future. It all started with this one most exceptional collection of four tracks. Music that set new boundaries and then broke them just as quickly.

THE RESIDENTS - MARK OF THE MOLE @ 40

Released in September of 1981, The Residents’ Mark of the Mole is celebrating its 40th anniversary this month.

After taking some time to decompress with something relatively “light” in the form of The Commercial Album in 1980, The Residents were ready to dig back into some serious conceptual ground again, similar to what they’d done with their epic and exhausting Eskimo LP from 1979. For this new project, they set their sights on something far more ambitious than a single album. The concept for this new project was to create a “six part trilogy” of releases to tell the tale of two vastly different fictional civilizations and their complex conflict with each other. Thus, they embarked on the creation of the infamous “Mole Trilogy”.

Mark of the Mole was the first chapter in this story, which told the terrible tale of the “Mole” people, a subterranean society who were driven from their underground homes by catastrophic flooding. The Moles were known for their work ethic and valued their labors above all else. As refugees, the Moles found themselves searching for new lands until they came across the aquatic “Chubs”, a race rooted in their hedonistic leisurely lifestyle. The Chubs initially welcomed the Moles as workers, but then rejected them when automation technology rendered them obsolete. Thus the conflict ensues.

The scale of this project proved to be rather more than the eyeball headed four had anticipated, but the project proceeded with some struggle. These efforts eventually resulted in The Residents mounting their first ever live tour after only ever having performed a couple of times in the prior decade of their existence. The complexity and expense of these endeavors would eventually take their tole on the group and there are rumors that these conflicts caused the eventual departure of at least one founding member of the group during this period. However, the touring and promotion of this release and the albums that followed on its heels raised the profile of the Residents to the higher echelons of “cult” status. Still, it didn’t make them rich, by any means.

Though Mark of the Mole was followed by releases such as The Tunes of Two Cities, Intermission and The Big Bubble, the narrative of The Mole Trilogy became very confused and fragmented and it was never made particularly clear if any of these releases was actually part of the “trilogy” proper. In that respect, the story of the Moles and Chubs never seemed to come to any resolution and the group moved on to other projects soon enough, abandoning the threads they’d woven thus far. Ultimately, it seems the Mole Trilogy proved to be a lesson learned as the group matured and became far more consistent when developing their larger conceptual works and bringing them to some kind of completion. In hindsight, however, the Mole story and the tours that were connected to it remain a high water mark for The Residents as far as creative depth and cultural impact are concerned.

CABARET VOLTAIRE - RED MECCA @ 40

 

Released in September of 1981, Cabaret Voltaire’s third full length studio album, Red Mecca, is celebrating its 40th anniversary this month.

Before becoming dance floor staples in the mid 1980s Industrial/EBM club scene with their breakthrough album, The Crackdown, Cabaret Voltaire were pursuing a strange brand of discordant pseudo-free-jazz funkiness that drifted between fractured syncopated grooves and flat out noise. The pinnacle of that strand of their early career is centered on the Red Mecca album. It’s where they managed find the perfect balance between accessible grooves and atonal dysphoria. While their earlier efforts had their moments of genius, they also had experimental misfires or moments that just came across as merely academically interesting, though not necessarily “enjoyable” or emotionally engaging. Red Mecca offers up a much more consistent collection of tracks that straddle the eccentricities while clinging firmly to the rhythmic core driving the music forward.

Thematically, the group were very much influenced by their recent tour of the US and the looming totalitarianism evident in the American Christian Evangelical movement which formed a counterpoint against the erupting fundamentalism of Islamic states like Afghanistan and Iran. How prophetic is it that, here we are, four decades later, and we’re still witnessing these ideologies thrashing against each other on the world stage with the US even more threatened by religious fundamentalism than ever before. In that sense, the album’s themes have remained just as vital and relevant as ever.

This was the last full album to feature the founding trio of Stephen Mallinder, Richard H. Kirk and Chris Watson. Though Chris would be around for the beginning of the 2x45 sessions, he’d be gone half way through working on that album, which was a record where the first steps towards more conventional dance floor grooves would be emphasized. As such, Red Mecca is the natural end point for the evolution of the band from its early experimental roots to their fullest sophistication within the avant-garde musical arena. It’s an album of spiky beauty and razor sharp charms.