CABARET VOLTAIRE - MICRO-PHONIES @ 40

 

Marking its 40th anniversary today is the sixth full length studio LP from Cabaret Voltaire, Micro-Phonies, which was released on October 29th, 1984. It's the album that effectively marks the bands full transition from avant-garde industrial provocateurs to EBM dance-floor domination.

Cabaret Voltaire had started out their career in the early 1970s as an exploration of electronic music created using non-musical tools. Their early works were primarily abstract tape loop experiments and forays into hand made electronics, like custom oscillators. Gradually, however, they began to incorporate more traditional instrumentation into their sound, especially the use of percussion, drum machines and actual drum kits. A sense of rhythmic awareness soon started to indicate a penchant for making music that people could actually dance to. This latent funkiness would start to manifest from their first LP release, Mix-Up, in 1979, but by 1982's 2x45, the focus on rhythm had become explicit. The departure of co-founder, Chris Watson, during the middle of that album's production was a key point of departure for the band to shed their experimental skin and move into something entirely more dance-floor friendly.

The release of the John Robbie remixed version of Yashar as a 12" single in July of 1983 was the first proper disco salvo from the group, as their intention of invading the alternative dance-floors of the club scene became explicit. This was soon followed by the release of The Crackdown LP in August of that year. That album offered up an entirely revamped version of the group. Their "glow-up" came courtesy of some key innovations in the realm of electronic music making. A new generation of drum machines, sequencers and synthesizers, along with the introduction of digital sampling, had caused a C-change on the landscape of electronic music, supplanting the wobbly inaccuracies of voltage controlled step sequencers and synchronization architecture with the precision of digital interfaces, MIDI, that offered pin-point accuracy when it came to creating percussion and drum patterns and the attendant bass and melodic sequences that accompanied them. The Crackdown was a solid step into that arena, while Micro-Phonies was the group fully making themselves at home in their new domain.

The album features the single, Sensoria, which thanks to a particularly innovative promotional video, became an MTV staple in the mid '80s. The video incorporated some particularly impressive camera work, which involved the use of a pivoting camera mount that created some gravity defying camera movements, baffling viewers who tried to figure out how the effect was achieved. It was voted Best Video of the Year by the Los Angeles Times in 1985, and was later procured by the New York Museum of Modern Art. By this point, Cabaret Voltaire had invested a lot into video production, even launching their own company, Doublevision, for releasing their works and those by others, like Chris & Cosey, who released the live VHS, European Rendezvous, and the video art ambient compilation, Elemental 7.

The group would remain dedicated to the creation of electronic dance music for the duration of their active career, up to their final group effort, The Conversation, in 1994. With The Crackdown and Micro-Phonies, Cabaret Voltaire set the template for the underground dance music of the era, providing the foundation stones for countless artists who came in their wake.

THE PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE @ 50

Celebrating the golden jubilee of its big screen premiere half a century ago, on October 31st, 1974, it's that wild rock 'n' roll fantasy, Phantom of the Paradise. Combining elements of the 16th century Faust legend, Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray and Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera, the film is a mind bending satire that rips into the soul destroying corruption of the music industry, pitting its protagonist against Satan himself, in the guise of Paul Williams, no less! Written and directed by Brian De Palma, the film occupies a similar cult status to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, with its exaggerated characters, wild sets and iconic musical numbers.

The production of the film involved a few notable incidents that are worth mentioning. For one, the record press in which the character Winslow Leach is disfigured was in fact a real pressing plant (it was an injection-molding press at an Ideal Toy Company plant). William Finley was worried about whether the machine would be safe, and the crew assured him it was. The press was fitted with foam pads (which resemble the casting moulds in the press) and there were chocks put in the centre to stop it from closing completely. However, the machine was powerful enough to crush the chocks so that it gradually kept closing. It is commonly believed that Finley pulled his head out of the press just in time to avoid being injured, and that his scream in that scene was genuine, but this is an exaggeration. Finley was in fact quickly pulled out by grips, and the record press scene, along with most scenes in the movie with little dialogue, was filmed without sound, and the talking and sound effects were dubbed in later, meaning any screaming that may have taken place went unrecorded.

Another investing anecdote involves the name of Swan's media conglomerate "Swan Song Enterprises", which had to be deleted from the film prior to release due to the existence of Led Zeppelin's label Swan Song Records. De Palma actually held a private screening of the film for Led Zeppelin's imposing manager, Peter Grant, so that he could ensure that all necessary references to the name were removed. During the scene where Beef is electrocuted, Grant broke down in tears. The scene reminded him of the onstage electrocution death of Les Harvey, lead singer of Stone The Crows, a band managed by Grant. The producers had to explain to the visibly distraught Grant that it was unlikely that Brian De Palma would agree to remove the death scene.

Among the crew for the film was a young set dresser by the name of Sissy Spacek. She was assisting Jack Fisk, the film's production designer. The two would later marry, and Spacek would end up staring in De Palma's next feature film, Carrie. Also, the electronic room in which Winslow composes his cantata, and where Swan restores his voice, is in fact the real-life recording studio The Record Plant. The walls covered with knobs are in reality an over-sized custom-built modular synthesizer, famously known as TONTO.

Production of the film was financed independently, but the film was then screened for various studios and sold to the highest bidder, 20th Century Fox, for $2 million plus a percentage. But during its initial theatrical release, its box office was pretty disappointing, and critical response was predominantly negative. Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two stars out of four, writing that "what's up on the screen is childish; it has meaning only because it points to something else. To put it another way, joking about the rock music scene is treacherous, because the rock music scene itself is a joke." A notable exception to the naysayers of the time was respected film critic, Pauline Kael of The New Yorker, who wrote, "Though you may anticipate a plot turn, it's impossible to guess what the next scene will look like or what its rhythm will be. De Palma's timing is sometimes wantonly unpredictable and dampening, but mostly it has a lift to it. You practically get a kinetic charge from the breakneck wit he put into 'Phantom;' it isn't just that the picture has vitality but that one can feel the tremendous kick the director got out of making it."

The film's true impact, however, would require some time to ferment among the cult movie crowd. Strangely enough the first wave of cult fandom took root in Winnipeg, Manitoba, which remains the epicentre for the film's fandom to this day. A fan-organized festival, dubbed Phantompalooza, was held in 2005 in Winnipeg. That event featured appearances by Gerrit Graham and William Finley, in the same Winnipeg theatre where the film had its original run in 1975. A second Phantompalooza was staged on April 28, 2006, reuniting many of the surviving cast members and featuring a concert by Paul Williams. Additionally, Daft Punk have proclaimed the film an integral inspiration for their band, claiming to have watched the movie more than 20 times, and even inviting Paul Williams to guest on their album, Random Access Memories.

After 50 years, the movie has long become established as a cherished cult masterpiece, with die-hard fans remaining steadfast in their dedication to its bizarre charms.
 

BRIAN ENO - TAKING TIGER MOUNTAIN (BY STRATEGY) @ 50

Marking half a century on the shelves this month is the sophomore solo LP from former Roxy Music electronics wizard, Brian Eno, with Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) being released in November of 1974. The album continued his trajectory into the "art-pop" genre, though his focus was more refined, even opting for a very tight group of musicians for the album, rather than the large list of guest musicians credited on his solo debut.

One of the key innovations in Eno's process came about during the recording of this album, as he and artist Peter Schmidt developed their first iteration of their Oblique Strategies card system. The initial version took the form of a deck of 7-by-9-centimetre (2.8 in × 3.5 in) printed cards in a black box. Each card offers a challenging constraint intended to help artists (particularly musicians) break creative blocks by encouraging lateral thinking. Examples of suggestions include: Honour thy error as a hidden intention, Use an old idea, Try faking it, etc. The deck would eventually include over 100 cards, with some later web editions topping 200. The system would end up becoming integral to Eno's creative process, for both his own works and all his collaborative projects, throughout his career.

Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) is a loose concept album that references themes of geopolitical intrigue ranging from espionage to the Chinese Communist Revolution. The album was inspired by a series of postcards depicting a Chinese revolutionary opera titled, Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy. Eno described his understanding of the title as referring to "the dichotomy between the archaic and the progressive. Half Taking Tiger Mountain – that Middle Ages physical feel of storming a military position – and half (By Strategy) – that very, very 20th-century mental concept of a tactical interaction of systems."

The core musicians for the album include former Roxy Music band-mate, Phil Manzanera on guitar, Robert Wyatt on percussion, Freddie Smith on drums, and Brian Turrington on bass. Guest musicians include Phil Collins playing drums on Mother Whale Eyeless, which came about as repayment for Eno helping produce the Genesis album, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.

The lyrics for the album introduce another technique that would become a regular tactic, not only for Eno, but for people like David Bowie during their work together in subsequent years. Eno would begin developing lyrics by singing nonsense words along with the music, focusing on the phonetic qualities of the sounds before attempting to evolve them into recognizable words. It's a process that, like the Oblique Strategies cards, could often reveal unique and unexpected word couplings that might not have otherwise become apparent. By the time they took their final forms, the lyrics, inspired by the aforementioned theme, took on a decidedly darker and more sinister tone than his previous album.

While the album failed to chart on either side of the pond, it received widespread critical acclaim, and has since become considered essential listening as far as Eno's solo releases are concerned. As it was instrumental in introducing certain key processes for Eno, its influence has been significant, far beyond what it may imply by its limited commercial success.