LAURIE ANDERSON - BIG SCIENCE @ 40

April 19th marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Laurie Anderson’s debut LP, Big Science, which was issued on this date in 1982. Featuring the surprise hit single, O Superman, it took Anderson out of the obscure corners of the performance art world and made her into a “new wave” pop star.

Big Science was not Anderson’s first appearance on vinyl. Anderson had previously recorded one side of a 2-LP set titled You're the Guy I Want to Share My Money With, a collaboration released on Giorno Poetry Systems with William S. Burroughs and John Giorno. She had also contributed two pieces to a 1977 compilation of electronic music. But this was her first album all on her own and it was a showcase for material which had been part of a massive 8 hour stage production, United States Live, which was a multimedia experience where music was only part of the show. The success of this album helped to put Laurie’s musical efforts into a far more prominent position in her career.

A key distinguishing factor for this album was that it put to use a number of technological innovations which were only starting to become known in the world of popular music. Digital samplers and effects processors allowed her to work with a palette of sounds unlike anything else familiar to the record buying public at the time. The few people who were using samplers back then were mostly employing them for special effects and augmentation of more traditional instruments. Anderson put those tools front and center and took specific advantage of their potential for performance techniques beyond the scope of conventional instrumentation. That’s not to say that regular instruments weren’t used, but that they were seamlessly balanced with the digital and electronic tools to create a combined sound that was fresh and alien. Even the use of pitch shifting was novel at the time and made her songs stand out as she modulated between her normal voice, a deep baritone and a high pitched childlike patter. The fact she could replicate this live was also something new for most audiences and gave her a kind of magical presence, like an illusionist performing a slight of hand or a space age version of ventriloquism where she became her own puppet.

All these strange sounds were further emphasized by her arrangements, which were kept to minimalist essentials so that every nuance was highlighted in a way that brought focus and attention to the austerity of each composition. O Superman is a singular example of this approach as it rests upon a starkly simple vocal pulse with little more than vocoder enhanced spoken word accompaniment. Careful accents highlight the shifts in the extended arrangement of the piece until, near the end, it starts to open up and bloom before it finishes in a flutter of synth arpeggios.

Conceptually, the album uses the same kind of dispassionate observational disposition as David Byrne was doing with Talking Heads. Anderson offers commentary on life and culture and human nature while weaving in a subtle, but omnipresent sense of humor throughout each piece. Yet she also manages to place in those perfectly poignant moments along the way, like her heart warming “hi mom” in the middle of O Superman. Although she sounds emotionally distant on the surface, it always feels like her finger is still lightly touching a pulse of empathy and feeling throughout.

I bought the album when it came out on the strength of seeing the O Superman video on late night TV. The video for the song is just as innovative as the music and just as minimal and stark. The hook for the whole thing is the use of a small light which Anderson had inside her mouth, creating the strangest dehumanizing effect. It made her seem like some kind of android automaton in performance as she kept her motions slow, mechanical and deliberate, though with a dancer-like sense of grace and precision. It was enough to bring her to my attention and get her album in my collection.

THE STRANGLERS - RATTUS NORVEGICUS @ 45

 

Celebrating 45 years since its release is the debut LP by The Stranglers, Rattus Norvegicus (aka, The Stranglers IV), which was issued on April 15th, 1977. It would become one of the biggest selling “punk” records of the year and set the band on a run of hit LPs and singles throughout the remainder of the decade and into the early 1980s.

The group was founded in 1974 by drummer, Jet Black (Brian Duffy), who had made good financially running a fleet of ice-cream vans and an off-license club by the time he reached his mid 30s. He’d had experience as a jazz drummer back in the late 1950s & early 1960s, but left the music world to pursue his business ventures. By 1974, the urge to return to music had surfaced and he set about recruiting blues musician Hugh Cornwell, classical guitarist Jean-Jacques Burnel (who took up the bass) and keyboardist Dave Greenfield. The group was initially known as the Guildford Stranglers, but dropped the geographic prefix before officially registering as a business on September 11th, 1974.

They proceeded to work the pub circuit in the UK until they came to some notice opening for US acts like Ramones and Patti Smith, which found them serendipitously being swept up in the burgeoning London punk scene. By the time their debut LP was released, they’d built up enough of a following that the LP and it’s attendant singles became some of the most successful releases to come from that scene. While they were an immediate hit with fans, the critics were suspicious. The band’s age and obvious technical proficiency set them outside the realm of snotty young three chord thrash, which was quickly becoming the accepted norm for the movement, even though its premier artists all colored outside those constricting lines. The Stranglers also embodied a literary articulation within their lyrics which set them well outside the more primal youth rebellion themes of their so-called peers.

The group themselves were not at all uncomfortable working within the punk zeitgeist and embraced its raw aesthetics, though they never held back on adding their own sense of sophistication to their work. They never dumbed themselves down in order to fit into that scene. Their debut LP, which was essentially a snapshot of their live set at the time, along with its two follow up releases, No More Heroes & Black & White, securely put them at the head of the pack of new bands dominating the UK charts in the late 1970s. In the ranks of the albums released at that time, it certainly captures the energy of the era while injecting a depth of content to the proceedings which was beyond most of their contemporaries of the day.

THE CLASH @ 45

 

Marking 45 years on the shelves today is the eponymous debut LP by The Clash, which was released in the UK on April 8th, 1977. Recorded over a scattered three week period in February of that year at a cost of a meager £4,000, it would go on to be considered one of the most important and influential albums to come from the UK punk movement.

The Clash came together early in 1976 after founding members, Mick Jones & Keith Levene, made a concerted effort to recruit Joe Strummer into their ranks and out of his position fronting the 101ers. Filling out their lineup with Paul Simonon on bass and Terry Chimes on drums, the group began playing gigs around London along with friendly rivals the Sex Pistols. Before recording their debut album, Levene would end up departing the band to dabble with Sid Vicious in the Flowers of Romance before eventually founding Public Image Ltd with ex-Pistol John Lydon in 1978. Levene is only credited with one song writing acknowledgement for What’s My Name from the debut LP.

Upon delivery of the album to label, CBS, its US counterparts passed on releasing it, citing that the production values were sub-par, rendering the LP not “radio friendly”. This, however, didn’t stop the album from gaining chart traction in the UK, along with several singles, which helped to make the band premier ambassadors of the punk movement along with the Pistols and The Damned. Even though the album wasn’t released in the US, initially, it became one of the best selling imports of the year, racking up over 100,000 unit sales. The album would eventually find release in the US and Canada in 1979 after the group’s second album, Give ‘em Enough Rope, though with a slightly altered track listing and cover color. The US edition swapped out 4 tracks for 5 different ones and a re-recorded version of White Riot.

The legacy of the album has become clear as it is acknowledged as one of the most important releases to come from the initial punk movement on either side of the Atlantic. My own relationship to the album goes right back to the dawn of my fascination with non-mainstream music early in 1979. The “A-B-Cs” of my “gateway” albums into the realm of the paths less traveled goes: The Cars (debut) > Ramones - Road to Ruin > The Clash (debut). Those three albums were the trifecta which knocked my musical trajectory off the “middle of the road” and onto a path that would lead to progressively more and more extreme music. DEVO, PiL, TG and others might never have caught my ear if it weren’t for getting curious about all these new groups being written about in music magazines like CREEM. The Clash also helped me meet people who would become musical compatriots, like that gruff blonde kid who asked me about my Clash record in high school assembly that one day and told me he was into the Pistols and had a cousin in the UK who periodically sent him cassettes of upcoming bands (hello Mark!). As such, it’s a watershed album for me and, I’m sure, for many from that generation.

THROBBING GRISTLE - PART TWO - THE ENDLESS NOT @ 15

 

Marking its 15th anniversary today is the reunion album from Throbbing Gristle, Part Two - The Endless Not, which was released by Mute Records on this day, April 1st, 2007. More of a “re-birthing” than a reunion, it was the first fully realized studio album produced by the group since 20 Jazz Funk Greats in 1979.

The road to Part Two began back in 2002 with the reactivation of Industrial Records under Mute’s umbrella and the release of the sprawling TG24 box set of live recordings. This was concurrent with a museum exhibit of TG memorabilia and ephemera, which was held at the Cabinet Gallery in London in December. The occasion of this event was the catalyst for the four members of TG to come together again for the first time since disbanding in 1981. With the old wounds mostly mitigated by the passing of time, Mute began a process of encouraging the group to explore the potential of working together again, even if for only very specific and limited purposes.

The initial results of these efforts manifested in a planned one-off reunion performance to be called RE:TG. It was to have been part of a music festival put on by All Tomorrow’s Parties featuring an impressive lineup of groups who had been, in some way, inspired or influenced by TG. The event was well into being realized when it was abruptly cancelled due to logistical reasons beyond the groups control. However, the momentum of putting this together left the group in a position where they felt compelled to offer a performance, regardless of the situation with the festival. This resulted in the now legendary Astoria gig on May 15th, 2005, almost 23 years exactly since TG’s last appearance on stage.

The preparation for this performance involved the group going to the studio, not only to rehearse, but to come up with new material for the show. In typical TG fashion, they didn’t want this to be merely a “best of” set of fan favorites. They wanted to showcase how the individual members had progressed as artists and demonstrate what that development meant in terms of a 21st century incarnation of TG. Some of the material created during these sessions became the four track TG NOW EP, which was a souvenir release made available in a limited edition for the RE:TG event. The success of those recordings and the live performance then became the impetus to push beyond what they had foreseen as a one-time event.

After the Astoria show, other performances followed and more time was spent in the studio to work on additional materials with the objective of creating a full album of new TG compositions. Those efforts eventually culminated in the realization of Part Two - The Endless Not. The finished album featured all new material, save a reworking of Almost a Kiss from the NOW EP. Like the DOA album from 1978, Part Two features four individual solo tracks from each member, though Gen’s track was a collaboration with his Thee Majesty partner, Bryin Dall. Overall, the album offers a fully updated manifestation of Throbbing Gristle’s sound, with their collective knowledge and experience gained over the preceding decades readily apparent in the sophistication of the production. It was unmistakably “TG”, but that beast had evolved and grown into something new and vibrant. There was no rehashing of obvious old tropes and no nostalgia for their bygone glory days. This was 21st century TG for the present day and beyond.

The album was minimally packaged for the CD release with only a card insert in the front featuring a photo of Mount Kailash taken by Martin Gray. The initial run of the CD included a “totemic gift”, the production of which was overseen by Peter Christopherson at his compound in Thailand. The primary run included one of four items encased in the spine of the CD tray. Each was made from one of the following materials: bone, wood, rubber or copper. A fifth stainless steel totem was made available in a Japanese edition of the CD. A sixth totemic gift was made of 23 carat gold.

Critical reception for the album was generally very positive, as was the response from fans, though there were those who were not so enthusiastic about it all. Personally, I felt it was something of a minor miracle to be able to get a brand new album of TG music, something I never expected to happen prior to the reunion rumblings that began in 2002. I loved hearing how this creature could come back to life after so long and, not only exist, but be more than it had been in the past. Perhaps the overt confrontational nature of “classic” era TG was gone, but this was light years away from the kinds of rehash “oldies” reunion efforts that you see from most other aging bands.

TG would continue in this reconstituted form until December of 2010, when it would all come apart, first with the abrupt, mysterious departure of Genesis P-Orridge at the beginning of a short European tour, and then with the sudden death of Peter Christopherson. During their reunion era, they would release a number of recordings along with NOW and Part Two, but nothing which constituted a full, proper studio album. Third Mind Movements was essentially a collection of improves captured during the Desertshore Installation and 32nd Annual report is a live recreation of their first LP. Their Desertshore project would eventually materialize in 2012 under the X-TG banner, without Genesis being involved, so Part Two stands, like the mountain on its cover, as the sole complete manifestation of 21st century TG. Whether or not we’ll see anything else materialize from this era remains a mystery as Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti now remain as the sole gatekeepers of the TG archive. I suspect there are many recordings, both studio and live, which could be released at some point in the future, but no word has come in terms of any specifics. For now, this is what we’ve got to mark this creative period. It’s an album that sits along side a host of other releases from that year by the members of the group. It was a remarkable period with new albums from TG, Psychic TV, Sleazy’s post-Coil project, Threshold HouseBoys Choir, Carter Tutti & Thee Majesty. All in all, 2007 was a banner year to be a fan of the music created by these four remarkable individuals.

CARTER TUTTI VOID - TRANSVERSE @ 10

 

Released on March 26th, 2012, the debut album, Transverse, by Industrial super-group, Carter Tutti Void, turns 10 years old today.

In May of 2011, Mute Records organized a music festival of its artists called “Short Circuit”. For this event, they contacted Chris Carter & Cosey Fanni Tutti and proposed a one-off collaboration with Factory Floor’s Nik Colk Void. The trio agreed to do an impromptu performance for the festival and, after Chris Carter prepared some backing materials and they’d done a bit of rehearsing at Chris & Cosey’s studio in their Norfolk converted schoolhouse home, they performed their set at the Roundhouse in London on May 13th, 2011.

The impact of this performance took both the CTV trio and Mute by surprise with its intensity and enthusiasm. What they had managed to put on stage was a seamless fusion of old school industrial edge with modern electronic sophistication. With Carter manning the machines in the center, flanked by Cosey and Nik on noise guitars, they offered up an atonal, pulsing maelstrom of sound. However, rather than projecting the typical nihilism that has become associated with modern Industrial music, the effect of their performance was transcendent and joyful. All those shards of discordant sounds flailing against Chris’s rhythms were a celebration of unbridled, spontaneous creativity.

Nearly a year after its presentation, the recordings of this performance were finally released. What was intended to exist for a single night had taken on a life of its own, prompting further live performances and, eventually, two more albums to complete a triptych trifecta of soaring, searing electronic exuberance. The trio had demonstrated how challenging experimental music need not be confined by dour depression and hopelessness. They brought it all to life like some triumphant three headed mythological creature, which however briefly, strode across the contemporary musical landscape and left behind its examples of an entirely different disposition within the experimental music world.

IGGY POP - THE IDIOT @ 45

 

Issued on March 18, 1977, Iggy Pop’s debut solo album, The Idiot, is celebrating 45 years since its release. As well as re-birthing Iggy’s career, it also marked the beginning of what would become known as David Bowie’s “Berlin” period, even though the bulk of the album was recorded at the Château d'Hérouville, France.

By 1976 both Bowie and Pop had abused themselves sufficiently with drugs, cocaine and heroine respectively, that the two artists found themselves in a position where they were ready to do some self maintenance and clean themselves up. Their friendship had brought them together to go through this process as a team and they set about putting their ships to rights by getting out of the US and heading to France where they figured they’d be able to better buffer themselves against temptation. Arriving at the Château in June, they spent the next two months working there until relocating to Musicland Studios in Munich in August to finish off the album. Production on The Idiot somewhat dovetailed with work on Bowie’s Low album, which was recorded back at the Château through September & October of 1976. Though Low was recorded after The Idiot, it was released first in January of 1977 so that The Idiot did not distract from the Bowie release, at least as far as the record label was concerned.

The Idiot, insofar as it’s a solo album for Pop, should really be considered a collaboration between Bowie and Iggy. Bowie’s participation on the album is significant, writing most of the music and performing much of the instrumentation, which included guitars, keyboards, synths, sax & backing vocals. Its style is very much part of the direction Bowie was going with his own music at the time, taking in the influence of Germanic experimental music like Kraftwerk and the general Krautrock aesthetic. Iggy and Bowie even managed to have themselves name-checked in the Kraftwerk song, Trans-Europe Express, after encountering the group while visiting in Germany. This influence pushed Pop away from the proto-punk thrash of The Stooges and into a more subdued, restrained sound, something which alienated him from some of his fan base. Some considered Bowie’s influence here too overwhelming and that the album is less than representative of Pop’s true character and style.

Production wise, it may have suffered a bit from neglect as recounted by Laurent Thibault, the owner of the Château. Bowie bonded with him while they started work on the project and the former Magma bassist was asked to play on the album. He recorded bass, engineered and hired Frenchman Michel Santangeli to play drums on what he thought were demo recordings. After Bowie dismissed him from further work, he realized that the recordings were actually going to constituted final takes for the album and has since expressed dissatisfaction with the end results.

Despite the mixed responses to the album from critics and fans, in the long term, the album still contains numerous classics. Songs like Sister Midnight, Nightclubbing, China Girl and Dum Dum Boys have established themselves as essentials within Pop’s solo canon. Nightclubbing was also covered by Grace Jones, who had a major hit with it, as did Bowie with his version of China Girl. While it may not be completely representative of Iggy’s raw essence, it still demands acknowledgement as an innovative and forward looking album that set up both artists for success throughout the remainder of the decade and beyond.

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND & NICO @ 55

 

Celebrating its 55th anniversary today is the debut album by The Velvet Underground and Nico, which was released on March 12th, 1967. It was an album that had limited sales when it first left the gate, but as Brian Eno famously remarked, pretty much every person who bought it in those early days went out and started a band themselves, with often revolutionary results. After over five decades in the world, it is surely one of the most profoundly influential records ever produced within the realm of rock and popular music.

It’s an album that came about at a time when youth culture was intoxicated by the psychedelic swirl of groups like The Beatles and albums like Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The summer of love was about to happen and flower power and hippy utopianism were all the rage. As such, even though the Velvets were honing their craft as part of Andy Warhol’s LSD freakout Exploding Plastic Inevitable “happenings”, the essence of their music was on another level entirely. Rather than singing songs about peace and love and togetherness, they were exploring drug addiction, sexual perversion, sadomasochism, prostitution and a generally darker, New York style street hustler vibe that was on a completely different wavelength than the hippies. They dressed in black and seemed like a bunch of dour, unsettling people. Musically, their sound was harder and sharper and had a strangeness to it that felt off center and, at times, distinctly dissonant. They were, quite literally, ahead of their time.

The kind of attitude that the VU fostered wouldn’t become in vogue until a decade later, when punk, new wave, post-punk and industrial music sprang up in the late 1970s. By that time, the VU’s first album, along with the the ones that followed it, had become musical touchstones for that next generation. The naiveté of the hippies had long since lost its sheen. The reality of the crumbling cities and the failure of the “love” revolution to influence any real change had fostered a deep sense of disillusionment and that zeitgeist became the perfect ground for the VU legend to take root and grow.

The album was recorded during the latter part of 1966 with Andy Warhol listed as the “producer”, though he actually had no direct hand in its sound. Rather, Warhol was the band’s facilitator. The credibility his name offered allowed the group to do basically whatever they wanted with the recordings. That “hands off” approach, however, is still considered by the band to have been a valid production technique as it allowed them to realize their music the way they wanted. However, Warhol did contribute the distinctive album art for the record, featuring the infamous “peel and see” banana, which resulted in some exorbitantly expensive and complex manufacturing in order to realize. It was hoped that Warhol’s name would help to bolster sales of the record, but even with his branding firmly affixed to the project, the sales didn’t materialize.

But it’s not always about the numbers in the bank accounts and The Velvet Underground and Nico proved that sometimes art requires a long game in order to realize its potential. One has to wonder if this kind of influence is still possible in today’s modern music industry. Is it possible for a group of outsiders like this to set anything in motion that can flow into so many sub-genres throughout the decades. How many touch points are there in contemporary music that can trace their roots back to this album? Are there any contemporary artists around today that have the potential to plant that kind of seed for the future?