NURSE WITH WOUND - SHE AND ME FALL TOGETHER IN FREE DEATH @ 20

 

Turning 20 years old today is She and Me Fall Together In Free Death by Nurse With Wound, which was released on May 31st, 2003.  Initially available only as a limited vinyl edition, the album found Steven Stapleton and Colin Potter exploring a somewhat more conventional musical landscape, at least by NWW standards.  The side long title track verged decidedly into psychedelic rock territory, particularly akin to Krautrock pioneers like CAN and NEU!.  A constant, hypnotic drum beat drives the groove while spacey guitar intonations drift atop of the bass heavy rhythm.  Side two consists of a triptych of compositions, kicked off with a cover of the traditional folk song, Black Is the Colour of My True Love’s Hair, which features the first ever lead vocal performance by Steven Stapleton.  The remaining two tracks go into more recognizably surreal NWW style weirdness, first exploring chicken coup insanity on Chicken Concret and finishing off with some robot pornography on Gusset Typing.  The CD edition issued the following year adds two remixed bonus tracks, the first being of the title track in a “Phosphorous Mix”, and the second being a variation of Chicken Concret titled Chicken Korma.

MALCOLM MCLAREN - DUCK ROCK @ 40

 

Marking its 40th anniversary today is the debut solo album from impresario Malcolm McLaren, with Duck Rock being released on May 27th, 1983. After a decade of working behind the scenes in the music business, McLaren decided it was finally time to step out front, taking the spotlight for himself rather than living vicariously through the likes of Johnny Rotten.

Cultural appropriation is something the Brits have certainly mastered over the years and Duck Rock is a prime example of a couple of white dudes wholesale pilfering black culture for their own ends. While it’s valid to be critical of that process these days, you still can’t deny that McLaren & company managed to put together one hell of a fun album. Since Malcolm wasn’t actually a musician in any sense, a HUGE portion of credit for the creation of this record has to go to co-producer, composer and instrumentalist, Trevor Horn. He’d made a name for himself as one half of The Buggles, followed by a brief stint in the progressive rock supergroup, Yes. Between the two of them, they put together a crazy-quilt of world music influences.

After becoming infamous for managing the Sex Pistols and then helping kick off the New Romantic “pirate” trend with Bow Wow Wow, Malcolm McLaren hooked up with Trevor Horn and the two began a sojourn around the globe, collecting bits and pieces for the collaboration they were cooking up. Their travels took them to places like South Africa, Brazil and the USA, where they recruited local musicians and performers to contribute to the musical gumbo they were cooking up. Unfortunately, several of those contributions were uncredited and subsequent lawsuits ended up being settled out of court in order to provide appropriate compensation to certain slighted musicians while retaining composer credits for McLaren and Horn.

Beyond the the musical elements recorded using local talent, Trevor Horn recruited various UK musicians to help him create the remaining musical components needed to tie all these threads together. These included Anne Dudley, J. J. Jeczalik, and Thomas Dolby. Side recordings which Horn, Dudley and Jeczalik made in between takes of Duck Rock would eventually become the debut album by the Art of Noise, Into Battle with the Art of Noise. Horn was essentially defining the sound of the ‘80s, which is particularly notable given that, after these two projects, he’d go on to co-found ZTT Records and propel bands like Frankie Goes to Hollywood to international fame. In retrospect, it’s impossible to overestimate the impact he had on the world of pop music throughout the decade and beyond.

The structure of the album presents a continuous flow of music inter-cut with radio spots from The Supreme Team radio show. Altogether, the album has a stream of consciousness feel to it, bounding between styles and genres with effluent ease. Each turn reveals a new surprise - from the tribal rhythms of Africa to the rope skipping glee of inner city youth clubs. Since Malcolm had no particular musical abilities, he took on the role of ringleader, contributing speak-sung vocals to several of the tracks. Throughout all of it, he pops in periodically as a kind of travelogue host, enthusiastically highlighting the virtues of each pit-stop along the journey. In his vocals, he affects a kind of mid-western Americana joviality, which almost comes off as obnoxious while somehow managing to remain charming.

As much as this album is an exploitation and appropriation of black music, it’s still interesting to note that the success of the album helped open the floodgates for that music to infiltrate the mainstream of pop consciousness. Before this album, hip-hop was mostly an underground fringe scene known only within select urban environments. After this release, rap music was all over the place. The impact on African music was also notable, particularly when you consider that, three years later, Paul Simon would release his Graceland album, which completely leaned into South African music. Ultimately, Duck Rock was a key pathway by which much or this black culture was smuggled into white western ears. 40 years on, it still has a freshness and dynamism that feels timeless.

THE TIMELORDS - DOCTORIN’ THE TARDIS @ 35

 

Screeching into its 35th anniversary today is the one hit wonder from The Timelords, aka Ford Timelord, aka The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, aka The KLF, aka Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond, with Doctorin’ The Tardis, which was released on May 23rd, 1988. Roaring into the number one UK single spot, it was a novelty record which helped set the stage for one of the most notorious musical careers of the late 20th century.

The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu were founded on January 1st, 1987 whereupon they spent the next year pumping out a couple of LPs and a handful of singles. Those had limited exposure and commercial success, though they had more prominent legal troubles thanks to their unauthorized use of copyrighted music from other artists. ABBA’s legal challenges ultimately resulted in their debut LP ending up as a bonfire when courts order the destruction of all remaining copies.

After that rough startup Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond were looking to take a break from The JAMs to clear their heads and regroup. They were looking for a musical palate cleanser and something unabashedly accessible, rather than the eccentric limited releases of The JAMs with Drummond’s strident rapped social commentary. Initially, the idea was to make a dance record, something grounded in the 4/4 disco beat being rehabilitated by House music. Yet, as the fates would have it, their decision to pillage 1970s nostalgia drove their groove in a slightly different direction.

The rhythmic bed they chose for their “hit single” was lifted from Garry Glitter’s 1972 smash, Rock ’n’ Roll Parts 1 & 2. At first they tried to fight against the song’s boogie-woogie, bump & grind swing in order to shoehorn it into a more disco friendly rhythm, but after three days of struggling, they came to realize that it was useless to resist. Augmenting this groove with a bit of The Sweet’s Blockbuster, they next spliced that rhythm with the sequencer driven pulse and sine wave wail of the Dr. Who theme song. The whole thing was topped off with a football chant style chorus, mindlessly repeating “Dr Who, The Tardis”. It was an admittedly stupid juxtaposition, but something about it seemed to work. It had a kind of rousing brutishness to it, though inter-cut with a sci-fi sense of drama. The pair self-proclaimed their new product, “probably the most nauseating record in the world”, adding that "we also enjoyed celebrating the trashier side of pop”.

They then set about creating a new alter-ego for their creation, based on Cauty's 1968 Ford Galaxie police car. It had been featured in the cover graphics for the second JAMs LPs, but was also Cauty’s regular ride, which he dubbed, “Ford Timelord”. Rather than list Cauty and Drummond on the single, the song’s creation was credited to the car, which was prominently featured on the single’s cover. Cauty and Drummond were only hinted at as “Lord Rock” (controls) and Time Boy (navigation) and the duo claimed the car had issued instructions to them on how to create the record. A music video for the single showed the car chasing various cheaply made Daleks around the countryside, with sirens blaring throughout.

Numerous formats for the single were produced including CD Maxi Singles, 12” EPs, 7” singles and a special remix featuring Gary Glitter on guest vocals. Of course, this was all before Gary’s legal issues and conviction as a sexual predator. After its release, it quickly climbed the charts until it hit the number one spot in the UK, where it stayed for precisely one week. Critically, the single was seen as nothing more than a bit of novelty pop trash. Melody Maker described it as "pure, unadulterated agony ... excruciating”. Yet its creators were entirely aware of the song’s nature and had conceived it as a kind of tribute to the genre of novelty records. After its release, they followed up the single with the publication of “The Manual (How to Have a Number One the Easy Way”, a guide booklet to chart success. The text meticulously laid out the entire process by which one can compose, record, release and promote a number one single. However, while such hubris might indicate a fool-proof methodology, the fact is that the pair’s subsequent attempts at chart success were far less successful.

Success did eventually come to them again after they rebranded themselves as The KLF and began to issue a series of singles, which became exemplars of so-called “Stadium House”. In the early 1990s, these records achieved incredible chart success around the world, including the US. They were considered the most successful group of the era, topping it off with the massively successful White Room LP. But then, just as mysteriously as they rose to fame, they abruptly pulled the plug on their career, deleted their entire record catalogue and vanished from the music industry, leaving behind only a hail of blank bullets, a dead sheep and a pile of burnt money.

THE GOLDEN PALOMINOS @ 40

Marking its 40th anniversary today is the eponymous debut LP from New York art-funk freaks, The Golden Palominos, which was released on May 20th, 1983. Combining elements of funk, hip-hop, no-wave & jazz, it was an album of extreme fusions and deliberate confusions.

Formed by acclaimed session drummer/producer/arranger Anton Fier in 1981, along with Material members, bassist Bill Laswell and guitarist Nicky Skopelitis, the extended lineup of the group was as consistently mutating as the music itself. For their recording debut, the core trio were augmented by DNA frontman, Arto Lindsay on guitar and vocals, violinist/guitarist Fred Frith, percussionist David Moss, turntablist M.E. Miller and keyboardist Michael Beinhorn (also a member of Material). The inclusion of a DJ scratching along with the music made it one of the first records outside of the rap genre to incorporate the technique.

As an album, the music occupies a soundscape of idiosyncratic hybrids skirting the edges of numerous avant-garde sub-cultures of the early 1980s, offering a cutting discordance along with the interplay of tribal-verging-on-funky rhythms. It’s not easy listening by any stretch, but it remains one of the most distinctive creations of the era, particularly in its ability to pull in strands of the burgeoning hip-hop scene, utilizing DMX drum machines along with scratching, but bending them into contorted free-jazz influenced shapes. It’s a record that creates its own rules, which it then indiscriminately breaks. 

THE STRANGLERS - BLACK AND WHITE @ 45

 

 

Marking 45 years on the shelf today is The Stranglers' third LP, Black and White, which was released on May 12th, 1978. It’s an album which continued to highlight the band’s distinctiveness, well beyond the limitations of three chord slashing, bog-standard punk rock. The album showcases the group beginning to develop a more introspective emotional lyricism along with an increased sophistication in their song-craft, introducing elements like the 7/4 time signature in the song, Curfew. For some, the shift towards a more refined sound came at the expense of powerful songwriting, as showcased on their first two LPs, but for others, the writing was just as solid, while pushing musical boundaries with implications of influence upon contemporaries like Gang of Four, Joy Division and Public Image Ltd. Clearly, they were on a path which was akin to those “post-punk” allies and their continued evolution down that path would quickly lead to some significant pop classics down the road. Not that Black and White doesn’t have its own cherries to be picked. Tracks like Nice ’n’ Sleazy, Toiler On the Sea, and Death & Night & Blood are just some of the songs which have become essential listening in the classic Stranglers canon.

The initial release of the UK version included a white vinyl 7” which included a cover of Burt Bacharach’s Walk On Buy, along with two other bonus tracks. The US release did not include the single, but was pressed on black & white marbled vinyl. The album was a critical and commercial success at the time of its release, though retrospective critical praise has been a bit more mixed in light of the band’s evolution. Still, it remains an essential piece of the band’s legacy for any serious fan.

TODD RUNDGREN - HERMIT OF MINK HOLLOW @ 45

 

Released 45 years ago this month, it’s Todd Rundgren’s 8th studio album, the very literally titled Hermit Of Mink Hollow, which was issued in May of 1978. After his excursions into the far reaches of progressive experimentation and excess with his band, Utopia, and solo albums like A Wizard, A True Star, this album found the eccentric genius in an introspective and minimalist mood, stripping back his style to a kind of accessibility which hadn’t been heard since 1972’s Something / Anything.

At the time the album was produced, Rundgren had recently ended a serious romantic relationship and was looking to regroup in a more private setting. He also wanted to simplify his arrangements to the bare bones of drums, bass, piano and vocals, with the emphasis on the last, for which he’d developed some new techniques while out on the road with Utopia. Ensconcing himself in his home studio at Mink Hollow Road in Lake Hill, New York, Rundgren set about creating the album entirely on his own, producing and playing everything, with only the occasional visit from engineer Mike Young. That “do it yourself” approach proved to be somewhat tedious at times, especially with the drums set up in the basement while the control room was upstairs. With no remote controls for the recorder available, Todd would have to bolt up and down the stairs to activate the machine and get the recording done. If he made a mistake, he’d have to dash back upstairs to reset the tape machine.

To help relieve some of the tedium, Rundgren would approach particular instruments and recordings by adopting “characters”. For example, he might imagine himself as Paul McCartney for a particular bass part, channeling characteristic runs and fills after the musician. Songs were generally built up from the drums & bass, with vocals coming in as the final element. After having gone through a breakup, Rundgren’s lyrics tended to be more intimate and confessional, though he later denied that they were directly biographical in nature.

Upon its release, the album received mostly positive critical reviews, with many noting his “return to form” with more modest and accessible pop sensibilities dominating the proceedings. The album performed reasonably well on the charts and the single, Can We Still Be Friends, became his most frequently covered composition, with versions by Robert Palmer, Rod Stewart, Colin Blunstone, and Mandy Moore.

NEU! - 2 @ 50

 

Marking it’s golden anniversary today is the sophomore LP from Krautrock pioneers, NEU! as “2” turns 50 years old, being released on May 7th, 1973. While on the one hand, it furthered the group’s position as the premier ambassadors of the “Motorik” sound, it also generated controversy with its unorthodox approach to dealing with a limited production budget.

For their second LP, Klaus Dinger & Michael Rother, along with producer, Conny Plank, continued to explore the hypnotic, driving grooves which had made their debut album a landmark, creating a sound which would become emblematic of the German music scene of the decade and inspire countless musicians for generations yet to come. While the first side of the LP presented a set of four new finished tracks, the budget for recording had run out by the time they’d completed those pieces. Desperate to find a solution to fill out the other side of the album, the group took the previously released single,“"Neuschnee/Super", and proceeded to create a series of “variations” using no more than a turntable and cassette deck.

The song was played at different speeds, manually spun or mangled on the cassette tape. The result was a set of six “remixes”, as Dinger would later classify the recordings. At the time of the album’s release, critics and fans considered the tactic a con or a rip-off, a “cheap gimmick”, though the band were, in reality, displaying an unprecedented sense of ingenuity when faced with a difficult circumstance. In fact, the move was actually quite in keeping with their artistic aesthetic and approach to “pop art”, presenting an innovative use of a “ready made” sound object, subverted and reshaped to create an entirely unexpected result. It was an approach that would be exploited by many other advocates of experimental music in numerous manifestations over the ensuing years.

Despite the controversy of some of its content, the album is still considered one of the foundation recordings of the German alternative music scene of the early 1970s, presenting a distinct and revolutionary sound, freed from the influence of American blues based structures and building on a completely re-imagined musical scaffolding.