FM - DIRECT TO DISC / HEAD ROOM @ 45

 

Marking its 45th anniversary this month is the sophomore LP from Canada’s OTHER progressive rock trio, FM, with Direct to Disc (aka Head Room) being released in May of 1978. Recorded shortly after the departure of co-founder, Nash the Slash, this would mark the premier of Ben Mink on mandolin & violin and highlight an idiosyncratic use of a short lived, but fascinating recording process.

For the recording of this album, FM employed an experimental technique which bypassed the use of recording tape and, instead, captured the sound directly to the master acetate disc. To utilize this process, the band had to perform live in studio, with no overdubbing capability, and mix the LP as it was being captured by the transcription mechanism to the master disc. The process for doing this was extremely sensitive as any flaw would ruin the master, so over-saturation, clipping and distortion were essential to avoid. This also meant that the band had to be prepared to get it right with only one or two takes allowed as it was extremely expensive to be burning through master discs for throwaway takes.

Despite the limitations of this process, FM opted to record two side-long, heavily improvisational and predominately instrumental compositions. It was a risky proposition to be flying by the seat of your pants when you are trying to work within such strict technical parameters. Yet the band managed to deliver the goods with two 15 minute excursions into jazz-rock infused experimentalism - incorporating their traditional electric violin & mandolin from Ben Mink, Cameron Hawkins’ battery of synthesizers & bass guitar and drums & percussion from Martin Deller. This also included a bizarre configuration which used an alpha wave brain monitor plugged into a synthesizer, translating Deller's live brainwaves into a throbbing hum. All in all, a pretty bold experiment for a young band to undertake.

The sessions reportedly produced two sets of master plates with one set used for the finished LP, which was pressed in a run of 20,000 copies, all of which sold out. There are rumors that the unused plates were later used for an unauthorized second pressing, titled Head Room, which because of the different plates, contained different performances of the tracks. The existence of this alternate version remains somewhat questionable as the band have not been able to confirm that the Head Room release actually contains different performances from the initial Direct To Disc release. Because of the nature of this “direct to disc” process, all records which were manufactured using it were, by necessity, limited editions. The master disc simply wasn’t usable past a certain number of copies. This also meant that any future reissues would have to be remastered from the vinyl pressings as there would be no master tape available.

For the initial authorized release, regular FM artist, Paul Till, provided the cover painting and the album was issued by independent label, Labyrinth Records, as their first and apparently only release. Critically, it was a well received album, but it is mostly neglected because of its limited availability and the more experimental nature of the music it contains. A reissue on CD was finally released in 2013.

KRAFTWERK - THE MAN MACHINE @ 45

 

Marking it’s 45th anniversary this month is the seventh studio album from Kraftwerk, The Man-Machine, which was originally released in May of 1978. It would complete the dehumanization process which had begun with Autobahn and crystallize the band’s image is musical “robots”, precisely crafting the future of techno-pop music for generations to come.

While the band’s previous album, Trans Europe Express, did a lot to streamline and perfect the pulsing electronic rhythms which had been evolving throughout their previous two albums, particularly with its groundbreaking title track and their expanded use of step sequencers and automated rhythms, Man-Machine took those techniques to their logical conclusion. They enabled the group to achieve a kind of stately exactitude which had a transcendent quality, ushering the listener into an alternate mechanical universe. It was like they’d finally manifested the true “soul” of the automaton and, not only made it live and breath, but also imbued it with the uncanny ability to bust a remarkably funky move! The entire album was bursting with a syncopated dance-ability which had been bubbling up in past releases, but which was now the dominant force. The opening track in particular, The Robots, announced itself with such bass shaking authority that it sent listeners cranking their volume to fully exploit its shuddering groove.

When I first bought the album, sometime around 1979/80, I brought it over to my friend’s place because he had a proper hi-fi stereo system. He aptly pointed out to me how perfect it sounded, with no sense of acoustics from the natural world. It sounded completely synthetic, though not at all “plastic” or phony. It was like hearing sound directly for the first time, like it was being transmitted to your brain with no interference from the atmosphere, like you were hard-wired. It was pure and pristine and unaffected. That made it stand out from any other record I had in my collection, electronic or otherwise. The uncompromising elegance and precision that was in place throughout every track put it in a category all its own. There was nothing else that came close to it.

That distinctiveness carried through to the artwork and even the promotion of the album, where Kraftwerk had commissioned the creation of mannequins to be made in their exact likeness. This allowed them to host two synchronized release events, one in London and one in NYC, where the former was attended by the group themselves and the latter was attended by their mannequins. In later years, they would be evolved to become actual physical robots and then 3D computer generated avatars. Artwork for the cover was produced by Karl Klefisch, based on the work of the Russian suprematist El Lissitzky – the words "Inspired by El Lissitzky" are noted on the cover. The back cover image is an adaptation of a graphic from Lissitzky's book for children About Two Squares: A Suprematist Tale of Two Squares in Six Constructions. The image of the band in their coordinated attire also set a precedent for the group, who would hence-forth always adopt coordination in their outfits, especially for live presentations.

Strangely, the album did not sell well when it was initially released, but it proved to be a sleeper. In the UK, it took until 1982 for it to chart high enough to become the group’s 2nd best selling record behind Autobahn. Two singles where released from the album with The Model, again, becoming a sleeper hit in the early 1980s. It’s like it took a few years for the world to catch up with Kraftwerk and figure out how far ahead of the game they were. Of course, the release of Computer World finally reinforced their visionary comprehension of where electronic music could go and there’s NOTHING in that world today which hasn’t built on Kraftwerk’s foundations. The Man-Machine is still my favorite album from them and its pristine songs hold up time and time again.

THROBBING GRISTLE - UNITED / ZYKLON B ZOMBIE @ 45

 

Issued 45 years ago this month is the debut single from Throbbing Gristle, United b/w Zyklon B Zombie, which was released in May of 1978. After coming out of the gates with a murky slurry of sonic despair for their debut LP, TG being ever the contrarians, felt it was necessary to demonstrate they were capable of knocking together a catchy pop song, despite any perceived musical limitations. The result was United, what appears to be a “love song” on the surface, although upon closer inspection, TG still managed to subvert the genre by bringing in allusions to obsession, identity confusion and occult references to Aleister Crowley’s Book of the Law. These sing-song musings sit atop a minimal yet catchy synth & drum machine rhythm, accented by occasional slashes of discordant guitar. But the mayhem is kept to a bare minimum with the results being what critic Jon Savage classified as the first “electropop” song. This respite from madness is short-lived, however, as the B-side returns the listener to the ravages of unfettered TG noise, this time focused on the subject of Nazi death camp poison gas, Zykon B. The single’s sleeve depicts an innocuous looking apartment complex and row of garages with an inset of some bare crossed limbs for the A-side, while the B-side shows Chris Carter in the shower with an inset of gas canisters sporting the label “Giftgas” and what looks strangely like a Psychic cross, albeit some years before Genesis would use a similar symbol for Psychic TV, his post TG project.

MARTIN DENNY - FORBIDDEN ISLAND @ 65

 

Marking its 65th anniversary this month is the third studio album from exotic lounge music pioneer, Martin Denny, with Forbidden Island being released in May of 1958. It was recorded in Hollywood at Liberty Studios after Denny’s group had finished a nine month residency as the house band at Don the Beachcomber's Bora Bora Lounge in Hawaii. This was their first album to be recorded without Arthur Lyman, who had left the group to pursue what would become a successful solo career. Along with the usual covers of popular tunes of the day, the album features four original compositions from Denny: "Cobra", "Exotica", "Primitiva", and "Forbidden Island". The album received mostly favorable reviews from critics and Billboard awarded the album four stars writing: "Interesting treatment of exotic original and standards… produced provocative sound. Good off-beat jockey wax." Where some critics maybe didn’t rate the music as “serious”, they at least had to acknowledge the technical perfection of the production and record engineering. Australian critic John Masters wrote in December 1959 that high fidelity addicts may enjoy Denny's "conglomeration of weird and wonderful imitations of tropical rhythms" and opined that, although "most of the content is sugar coated trash, the recorded sound is outstanding and for this reason the disc is commended, as a technical showpiece only, to stereophiles." Personally, it is one of my favorite of Denny’s classic “exotica” albums.

THE BIRDS, THE BEES & THE MONKEES @ 55

This month marks the 55th anniversary of the release of The Monkees fifth studio album, The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees, which was issued in April of 1968. While it was home to two of the last hit singles to come from the group during its heyday, it was also the first major indicator that the band’s fortunes were about to take a nosedive.

After the production coup of early 1967, which saw the group wrestle control of their music away from the dictatorial hands of Don Kirshner, the honeymoon phase that graced their third album, Headquarters, would be short lived. The camaraderie that guided the production of Headquarters, driving the group to handle all the playing themselves in order to prove their merits as a band, began to crumble once they started work on Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.

The reality was that they were four disparate individuals with completely different musical priorities and sensibilities. Reverting to their previous production approach, the group began to rely on session musicians again while they also separated into discrete production teams. By the time they started production on The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees, the segregation between the members was essentially complete. Each had their own team of musicians and techs, often working in different studios in the LA area. Whereas the previous two records had the benefit of Chip Douglas’ production to tie things together, he was dismissed for this album and had no hand in its creation. There was still an agreement that all work created under these conditions would be credited as “produced by The Monkees”, but the concept of them being a band was now in name only.

This situation resulted in a collection of songs for the album which was wildly divergent and eclectic in style. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but does make it difficult to give a singular LP product a sense of cohesion, though it was not significantly different than what The Beatles were going through while producing their “White” album. Davy pursued his show tunes style, Mike indulged in country rock and bizarre psychedelic experiments and Micky explored his soul and baroque pop leanings. Sadly Peter Tork’s work remained mysteriously consigned to the outtakes bin as none of his songs were selected for the final track listing. In fact, Peter only played piano on Daydream Believer, so he was effectively absent from the album save for his picture on the cover. One has to wonder how much this played into his decision to be the first to quit the band, but it should be noted that he contributed two songs on the HEAD soundtrack, their next album before his departure.

In addition to the songs created for the album, a couple of tracks left over from the sessions for the previous LP managed to find their way into this collection. These included the hit singles, Valleri and Daydream Believer, both of which hit #1, though the latter would be the last such success for the band. The album also features some particularly innovative elements, especially with the songs from Mike and Micky. Micky’s P.O. Box 9847 & Zor and Zam showed off his ability to deftly slip social commentary into bubblegum pop while Mike’s Writing Wrongs featured an extended, tripped-out arrangement that took the listener through a series of shifting dreamy soundscapes. And Magnolia Simms emulated the squeaky sound of a scratchy, skipping vintage phonograph, much to the confusion of some listeners, necessitating a warning on the LP’s back cover that the “skipping” was intentional and not the result of faulty stereo equipment or a damaged record.

Upon release, the album managed to climb to #3 on the US charts, which wasn’t terrible, but was shy of the #1 slot their first four albums had easily secured. In the UK, the album didn’t chart at all, though the two singles did well. It was clear that the tide was beginning to turn on their popularity, however. The last episode of their TV series aired barely a month before the LP’s release and news of the show’s cancellation soon followed.

With the end of the series, producer Bob Rafelson was ready to bury the project in order to pursue a feature film career and saw the band’s feature film project as the perfect opportunity to desecrate their “manufactured image” while simultaneously making a social commentary on commercialism and consumer culture. Not that The Monkees were victims in this. They were completely complicit in this process and were looking to break out of their "pre-fab four" kiddie band box, a metaphor seen repeatedly throughout the movie. They were desperate to be seen as a legitimate creative force, but the backlash of popular opinion ultimately overwhelmed the group. With the commercial disaster of both the movie and a poorly conceived subsequent TV special, the group soldiered on through a few more albums, shedding members like so many falling leaves, before the whole thing collapsed in 1970.

Fortunately, history has has seen fit to rehabilitate the band’s image and allow them a remarkable renaissance in the 21st century. Their legacy of classic, timeless and innovative pop music has survived the reactionary and unfair misjudgements of the past. Now, we can appreciate all the marvels that lurk in the grooves of these records. Like most of their catalogue, Rhino Handmade have issued a deluxe expanded edition of the album featuring both stereo and mono mixes and a plethora of alternate mixes and outtakes. The sheer volume of the bonus material included in these reissues begs the question of how they managed to be so stunningly productive within such a relatively short period of time. It was really only a handful of years where they were initially active, yet they left behind an incredible catalogue, a treasure trove that would take any musicologist a lifetime to fully comprehend.

BOARDS OF CANADA - MUSIC HAS THE RIGHT TO CHILDREN @ 25

It was 25 years ago today when Boards of Canada released their debut full length album, Music Has the Right To Children, on April 20th, 1998. Blending muted downtempo hip-hop grooves with blurry ambient textures, the album created a whole new genre of chill-out music, evoking faded recollections of childhood nostalgia while simultaneously projecting itself into the future.

BoC began with brothers Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin experimenting on modified tape recorders and synths as early as 1981. Becoming involved with the Hexagon Sun artistic collective in Pentland Hills, Scotland, they began releasing limited cassette collections of recordings, which were self-distributed among friends and relatives. Eventually, the Scottish brothers came up with the the name "Boards of Canada" as a reference to time spent in Canada as children, an experience which left an indelible imprint on the duo. After releasing a trio of EPs between 1995 & 1996, which contained numerous early versions of tracks destined for their major label debut, they signed a deal with Warp Records to release their first proper album. Of their origins, Marcus Eoin has commented:

“We'd been recording in various forms of the band as teens through much of the '80s, and already had a big collection of our own old crappy recordings that we were really fond of. Then, around 1987 or 1988, we were beginning to experiment with collage tapes of demos we'd deliberately destroyed, to give the impression of chewed up library tapes that had been found in a field somewhere. That was the seed for the whole project. In those days, everyone used to have drawers full of unique cassettes with old snippets from radio and TV, it's kind of a lost thing now, sadly. To me, it's fascinating and precious to find some lost recordings in a cupboard, so part of it was an idea to create new music that really felt like an old familiar thing”

The album was recorded at their home studio in Pentland Hills, a facility which was described as a “bunker”, a characterization which the band claim was inaccurately exaggerated for publicity. Their recording facility included samplers, de-tuned synths, drum machines and a variety of analogue reel to reel and cassette tape recorders. Samples which were included in the album include bits of Sesame Street songs, CBC Canadian cultural promos and chance natural sounds like on Rue the Whirl, where the studio's window was left open and the sound of birds was accidentally recorded into the track. The results of their efforts were a mix of short transitional pieces and longer rhythmic meditations. The often muffled, degraded sound employed throughout the album contributed to the sense of experiencing faded memories, calling up recollections of youthful encounters and half remembered dreams. The titles for the songs and the albums were kept obtuse, offering as much murk as the sound of the music. The band have commented:

“Our titles are always cryptic references which the listener might understand or might not. Some of them are personal, so the listener is unlikely to know what it refers to. Music Has the Right to Children is a statement of our intention to affect the audience using sound. The Color of the Fire was a reference to a friend's psychedelic experience. Kaini Industries is a company that was set up in Canada (by coincidence in the month Mike was born), to create employment for a settlement of Cree Indians (sic). Olson is the surname of a family we know, and Smokes Quantity is the nickname of a friend of ours."

The cover image for the album is a family photo taken at Banff Springs in Alberta, Canada. The photo has been processed to reflect the same blurred, indistinct quality as the music, again bringing to mind the imperfections of memory and the sense of melancholy. There’s a kind of sadness that lurks throughout the album on every level, as a recognition of the impermanence of existence. All the cues that trigger recollection also remind the listener that these moments are gone and on their way to being lost forever.

The album won near universal critical praise upon its release and set about defining a new sub-genre of electronica. The mixture of funky rhythms undercut by textured softness and ambience surrounding them stood out as stylistically distinct in the realms of both downtempo and ambient music. It bridged the two spheres while also creating a new aesthetic which celebrated the glorious decay and imperfection of analogue recording. Dropout, hiss, warble and other artifacts of the medium of tape became functional elements of style. Brian Eno identified the phenomenon perfectly in his famous quote:

“Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit - all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. It’s the sound of failure: so much modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking apart. The distorted guitar sound is the sound of something too loud for the medium supposed to carry it. The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry too powerful for the throat that releases it. The excitement of grainy film, of bleached-out black and white, is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the medium assigned to record them.”
 

DAVID BOWIE - ALADDIN SANE @ 50

 

Celebrating its golden jubilee with half a century on the shelves, it’s David Bowie’s sixth studio album and second during his initial commercial breakthrough as "Ziggy Stardust", Aladdin Sane. After taking the charts by storm with his previous record, it would exceed that success, commercially, though perhaps not quite artistically.

Aladdin Sane was written and recorded during breaks between grueling touring schedules as Bowie and RCA sought to maximize his exposure following the success of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Aladdin Sane, the title being a play on the phrase “a lad insane”, continued the narrative of the previous record, introducing the titular character as a means to explore the personality fragmentation symbolized by the lightning bolt across Bowie’s face. Thematically, the record deals with a lot of the ups and downs of life on the road, fame and how those dichotomies can split a personality. This was the first album Bowie wrote from a position of stardom, so the view from the mount of fame plays a significant role in the concepts explored.

Because production for the LP was squeezed into snatched free time between touring legs, this didn’t leave Bowie a lot of time to develop ideas or stockpile songs from which to cherry pick later. This meant that, overall, the quality of the material on the album maybe wasn’t quite as consistent as the previous few records, though there are clearly essential songs which managed to find a home in its grooves. The title track and Jean Genie are the obvious standouts. Musically, being on the road and performing live put an emphasis on a harder rock sound, though a bit of British music hall camp can also be found lurking about the edges. The Rolling Stones were a significant influence at this period as is evidenced by Bowie's cover of Let’s Spend the Night Together.

Recording for the album took place mainly between December 1972 and January 1973, and was split between Trident Studios in London and RCA’s NYC facility. The Spiders From Mars band, comprising Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder and Mick Woodmansey, contributed heavily to the album’s creation, though after a run of three albums with Bowie, this would be the last to feature this lineup. Though the album focuses on a heavier rock sound, it also starts to bring in some more experimental leanings, and many consider this the beginning of that trajectory, a disposition which would lead him into stranger and darker realms throughout the remainder of the decade until his crowing achievement in that vein with Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) in 1980.

For the cover of the LP, Bowie is seen in what has become his most iconic form, in fully Ziggy glory, lightning flash blazing across his face. It is perhaps the most recognizable image of Bowie ever created. It was shot in January 1973 by Brian Duffy in his north London studio. Duffy would later photograph the sleeves for Lodger (1979) and Scary Monsters. In an effort to ensure RCA promoted the album extensively, Bowie’s manager was determined to make the cover as costly as possible. He insisted on an unprecedented seven-color system, rather than the usual four. The resulting image was the most expensive cover art ever made at the time. The make-up designer for the shoot was Pierre Laroche, who remained Bowie's make-up artist for the remainder of the 1973 tour and the Pin Ups cover shoot. Laroche copied the lightning bolt from a National Panasonic rice-cooker that happened to be in the studio. The make-up was completed with a "deathly purple wash", which together with Bowie's closed eyes, evoke a "death mask".

After its release, it quickly became Bowie’s biggest selling record to date, but critics picked up on the uneven songwriting in comparison to the previous records, though they still praised it overall. It certainly deserves its legacy as being considered an essential entry in Bowie’s catalogue, capturing the artist at a peak in his creative and performing abilities. In some regards, perhaps it’s Bowie merely riding the wave of his success for a time, but history has clearly shown that he was just taking a bit of a breather before his next artistic ascent.