JOY DIVISION - UNKNOWN PLEASURES @ 45

Released on June 15th, 1979, the debut LP by Joy Division, Unknown Pleasures, is celebrating 45 years on the shelf today. It's an album that would define both the band and a genre of music, bringing to the fore the potential of studio production in a way that was as significant as The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper, elevating what could have been a mundane post-punk band to the level of visionary pioneers.

Joy Division's beginnings and career have been well documented in recent years, with both theatrical dramatizations and documentaries detailing everything from their inception following that infamous 1976 Manchester Sex Pistols gig to the tragic 1980 suicide of their lead singer, Ian Curtis. The creation of their first LP was a case of an unsuspecting young band falling into the clutches of an ambitious producer who was looking to redefine his role in the studio. Over the course of three weekends in April of 1979, Martin Hannett would impose his signature sound on the group, a move that would leave some members of the band feeling like they'd been misrepresented by the end product.

Once Joy Division got into the studio to record, Martin set about taking their raw, aggressive sound and deconstructing it, pulling the pieces apart and setting them out in a sonic landscape that emphasized distance and negative space. Akin to the approaches that defined dub music, Hannett utilized reverb, echo and abstract electronic ambience to push those pieces into a more expansive configuration where each element suddenly stood out in stark relief, accented and counterpointed in ways that were much more subtle than the "pedal to the metal" thrust the band would use on stage. The effect was to soften their sound, while also creating a menacing and brooding sense of depth and space, with its accompanying sense of isolation. It's an approach that engendered feelings of paranoia and apprehension. Of course, that tactic was greatly enabled by superlative songs and the somewhat unorthodox style of the band, which pushed the bass frequencies in to the upper register, an approach Peter Hook had developed simply out of a necessity to be able to hear himself on stage against the extreme volumes they favoured in their performances.

Once the album was mixed, some members of the band came away from the production feeling disheartened and frustrated by the way they were reshaped in the studio. Hook, in particular, had envisioned a harder, tighter and more concentrated sound from the band, and its only in recent years that he's been able to concede that there was method in Hannett's madness, and that the end results stand the test of time. Some critics were also ambivalent towards Hannett's indulgences, dismissing them as frivolous ornamentation and distractions from the band's essence. But the tides of legacy have seen the album codified as a comprehensive masterwork of innovation and originality. Nothing had sounded anything like it beforehand, with every instrument finding a distinctive new texture and tenor of expression.

The graphic design for the album has also gone on to have a life of its own as a distinctive item of iconography. It's become so ubiquitously associated with the band that one has to wonder how many of the millennial and gen-Z folks running around with the design on their T-shirts have ever actually listened to the record. Taken as a whole, they add up to an artifact that defines a generation and survives as a timeless example of musical risk taking at its best.

THE HAFLER TRIO - "BANG" - AN OPEN LETTER @ 40

Celebrating its 40th anniversary this month is the debut LP from The Halter Trio, "BANG" - An Open Letter, which was released by Cabaret Voltaire's Doublevision label in June of 1984. The album introduced both a wildly original approach to audio art while also perpetrated a remarkable prank upon the oft pretentious experimental music community.

H30 were founded by Andrew M. McKenzie and Cabaret Voltaire co-founder Christopher R. Watson in the early 1980s. Watson had left Cabaret Voltaire during the recording of their 2x45 album in 1982 as the group were evolving into a more mainstream, dance-floor friendly incarnation, and rapidly shedding the elements of experimentation and industrial/surrealistic "musique concrète" that had defined their early career. McKenzie had dabbled in music as a member of the short lived Flesh, who released a single cover of the song, My Boy Lollipop. The third member of the "Trio" was a fictional character by the name of "Dr. Edward Moolenbeek", which is where the "prank" aspect of the group comes into play, but more on that later.

The principal theory that drove the group's sonic direction was the conception that sound could be organized in a manner that had little or no relationship to traditional musical structures of melody and rhythm. Andrew McKenzie has stated in interviews that the principal guide for the creation of their early works was based on the mechanisms of film editing. Their idea was to assemble their sounds in the same way a film editor might create a narrative from images. This involved Chris' skills as a a natural sound recordist combined with Andrew's use of electronics and their mutual talents for audio processing. You'll find no verse/chorus/bridge structures in Hafler Trio productions. No time signatures, no keys or chords or notes, though frequency modulations were certainly an element of consideration. Transitions would be built in the same that way a movie is assembled, using cross dissolves, cuts and juxtapositions. It was all intended to have a cinematic essence.

The album was presented as the result of specific scientific investigations on the nature of sound and its effects on humans that were supposedly conducted by one Robert Sprudgen [?], who had conducted extensive secret research during the mid 20th century. The third member of the "Trio", Dr. Moolenbeek, was supposedly an expert on this research and a former colleague of the researcher, who worked out of a corporate entity known as "Robol Sound Labs". All of this was backed up by research papers and other documentation, much of which could be obtained by writing to The Hafler Trio PO box, whereupon they would provide various pamphlets and booklets detailing the history of this research. I've seen some of these materials thanks to a friend making the effort to contact the group. All of it gave the impression that they'd somehow managed to uncover a vein of scientific research from decades ago that had been largely forgotten or, as suggested by the documentation, buried because of the controversial nature of the materials and the potential for misuse if it should fall into the wrong hand. I must confess that myself and my friends who got into early H30 were completely suckered into believing all of this, and it was only years later, when access to the internet became common, that the truth of the hoax finally became obvious. I certainly felt gullible, but also marvelled at the depth and detail of the work that went into creating this fiction.

As for the album itself, it's a strikingly original construction, only finding any remotely close kin with the likes of Nurse With Wound and their surreal sound collages, though NWW could be positively musical in comparison to H30 and their obtuse alien soundscapes. These recordings definitely opened up some sonic possibilities in my mind as a result, indoctrinating a branch of sound art that was utterly divorced from conventional music making principals.

After its release, The Hafler Trio would only continue operating under the "Robot" banner until the departure of Chris Watson in 1987. Chris would go on to an illustrious career with the BBC as one of their most renowned natural sound recordists, contributing his skills to innumerable documentary programs. He would also occasionally release solo album collections of some of his personal audio experiments, ranging from purely documentary field recordings to more composed & processed assemblages of these sounds, like his incredible 2003 album, Weather Report. Andrew McKenzie would continue on with H30 as primarily a solo alias, though, like Steven Stapleton's Nurse With Wound, he'd involve a wide variety of ever changing collaborators, including Stapleton and the likes of Genesis P-Orridge and Autechre. Without Watson's contribution, the focus of H30's sound shifted away from natural sounds into more processed electronic drones and textures, involving less editing and more extended atmospheric washes. Releases would continue to be elaborately packaged in limited editions with accompanying texts and artwork.

Unfortunately, there is currently no free streaming source for this album. While there is a Halfer Trio Bandcamp page, in 2022 all the non-spoken-word releases were removed due to certain accounting complexities which Andrew McKenzie did not go into any great detail to illuminate. I cannot even find anyplace to purchase this particular release at all, save used copies on Amazon and similar sources. Very little of the H30 catalogue can be found on YouTube as Andrew has remained ever vigilant against allowing unauthorized uploads, which are taken down as soon as he discovers and reports them. As such, if you don't already have this or have never heard it, you'll just have to take my word that it is a remarkable and unique creation that breaks barriers for what sound art can achieve. Plus it was a wicket little trick to play on unsuspecting hipsters looking to get in on the ground floor of something nobody else knew about. You NAUGHTY trio!

BE BOP DELUXE - AXE VICTIM @ 50

Celebrating its golden anniversary at 50 years old this month is the debut LP from Yorkshire progressive rock underdogs, Be Bop Deluxe, with Axe Victim being released in June of 1974. While the band did not actually play any "be bop" music, they did come out of the gate as glam-rock wannabes until leader Bill Nelson retooled his vision and managed to conceive of something rather more original on their subsequent albums.

As it was, Be Bop Deluxe came out at the height of the UK glam movement, fashioning themselves while under the looming shadow of David Bowie. Though Bill Nelson denies any overt influence, it's hard to take that stance too seriously when a song title like "Jet Silver And The Dolls Of Venus" is clearly a first cousin of "Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars". That overt similarity would undercut the band's ability to distinguish themselves at first, a situation further aggravated by their use of makeup and extravagant attire as shown on the group photo adorning the back of the album.

However, on closer inspection and with the benefit of hindsight, there is a blush of the sophistication and sincerity that would bloom on subsequent albums, as Nelson found his own voice and cast aside obvious influences. The album's title track offers up a convincing perspective on the rigours of rock stardom, Adventures in a Yorkshire Landscape glints with the essence of the band that would come, and Night Creatures offers up a sublimely beautiful ballad about denizens of the darkness. The only real fly in the ointment of this album is Rocket Cathedrals, the only song to ever appear on a BBD album that was not penned by Bill Nelson. It appears here as a concession track for bassist Robert Bryan, and sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the other songs.

The version of Be Bop Deluxe that recorded their debut would be short lived. After a brief tour of the UK to promote the LP, Nelson realized that his band, mostly mates from the Yorkshire music scene, really weren't up to snuff as far as being players capable of realizing Nelson's ambitious musical vision. As a result, the entire band would get amicably sacked and replaced for the next album by two thirds of the players who would constitute their stable lineup until their ultimate dissolution by the end of the decade.

While Axe Victim doesn't quite fulfill the promise that Nelson held in his potential, it does set the stage for what would come and still contains a few excellent tracks that make the album worth its place in the band's canon. Plus it's got an absolutely ace cover, so you can't really fault it too severely for being a tentative step towards eventual greatness.

ELVIS PRESLEY - FROM ELVIS IN MEMPHIS @ 55

 

Released on June 2nd, 1969, Elvis Presley's 9th studio album, From Elvis In Memphis, turns 55 years old today. After spending the bulk of the decade shackled to an MGM film contract that prohibited him from performing live and only allowed the release of soundtrack collections, "The King" was finally unleashed to revive his soul and record the kind of music HE wanted to do.

After the massive success of his TV special and its accompanying soundtrack in 1968, Elvis was ready to do a proper studio album, something which he hadn't really been able to do since 1960's "Elvis Is Back" album, which was recorded shortly after his return from being drafted into military service. After spending most the '60s recording soundtrack songs for his films at RCA studios in Hollywood and Tennessee, his close associates encouraged him to set up in Memphis for his next album, taking advantage of the renowned group of studio musicians who called the city home and who were collectively known as the "Memphis Boys". The decision proved advantageous and allowed Elvis to lean into his more "country" style roots, albeit with a heavy dose of Southern soul.

The album was released to praise from both fans and critics, with many now considering it one of Elvis' most essential releases. With Presley no longer bound to Hollywood and making movies, the TV special and new album set the stage for a triumphant return to live performing, which included the conquering of Las Vegas, a city that had rejected him back in his 1950s heyday as too "raw and unrefined", but which embraced him a decade later as the town struggled to retain its relevance in the face of a youth culture that had no interest in its bright lights and games of chance. Elvis came in like a messiah, and setting up residence there would be the shot in the arm the town so desperately needed, making it a destination for fans eager to see a legendary performer at the peak of his powers.

DEVO - DUTY NOW FOR THE FUTURE @ 45

 

Marking 45 years on the shelves today is the sophomore LP from Akron Ohio mutants, DEVO, with Duty Now For the Future being released on June 1st, 1979. While it was critically disparaged at the time of its release, fans know it's an essential sequel to their debut, documenting, as the first album did, the band's early catalogue of music.

Forming in 1974 as a response to the Kent State massacre of students by police in 1970, DEVO spent their early career amassing a staggering catalogue of original songs before they ever got the chance to step into a professional recording studio to produce a major label LP. Their 1978 debut put a reasonable dent in that backlog, but they still had plenty enough for their second album, with enough to spare to, years later, fill a double CD set of early demos (Hardcore DEVO -Volumes 1 & 2, 1990/91). Only three new songs were brought in to fill out their second outing: "Red Eye", "S.I.B." and "The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprise".

Their debut album was produced by Brian Eno, but the relationship during that effort was slightly strained and the band were eager to learn from different people, so they wanted to work with a different producer for their next album. In fact, throughout their career, they've never worked with the same producer more than once. For their second LP, they chose Ken Scott, who had previously worked with The Beatles as an engineer and produced David Bowie's Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane. While the atmosphere in the studio was professional and pleasant by all accounts, in retrospect, several members of the band didn't feel he understood the sound they were wanting to achieve. For this album, rather than perform in the studio as a band to lay down bed tracks, every instrument was layered individually, playing off a click track. That approach ended up siphoning some of the edge off the band's sound, muting the dynamics which had been so prevalent on their first album. Overall, the production simply doesn't have the same punchy heft that Eno was able to get on their debut, a situation that didn't go unnoticed by critics, who felt the album sounded lacklustre. The flat production is compensated for, however, by the strength of the songs, especially the older, more developed material.

For the album's cover design, a dummy bar-code was integral to the design. Bar-codes were just starting to come into use at the end of the '70s, so there was a kind of novelty futurism inherent in its graphic presence. The central photo of the band was stamped with perforations so that it could be popped out of the cover and used a postcard. This was something the label refused to pay for, so the cost of the processing had to be taken out of the band's advance. The photograph of the band was taken by photographer Allan Tannenbaum for the SoHo Weekly News in New York City. It was used in the album artwork by simply taking it from the front page of the newspaper in the exact same dimensions, unbeknownst to the photographer. When he discovered this, he contacted the record company and was paid for its use. The "Science Boy" logo originated from a science pamphlet the band had found in the late 1970s in Akron. After first using it on a promotional item for Virgin Records, the band were contacted by the original organization that had created the image for their logo, which resulted in them paying to acquire legal rights to it.

Upon release, the album sold well, but was met with some harsh criticism. Dave Marsh, writing in Rolling Stone, condemned the album, feeling that "inspired amateurism works only when the players aspire to something better." Robert Christgau of The Village Voice panned side one as "dire" and "arena-rock", but felt that "The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprise" and "Secret Agent Man" were "as bright as anything on the debut, and the arrangements offer their share of surprises." Red Starr of Smash Hits described it as "unimpressive", but noted that the "change of style definitely grows on you". They went on to say that, although the album was more accessible, it was "lacking the zany magic of old".

Personally, I've always thought the band's first two albums delivered an effective "one-two punch", with enough variation in the style and approach to allow each to stand as a distinctive representation of different aspects of the band. Yes, I did find the lack of dynamics on the second album less engaging than their debut, but classic tunes, like Clockout, Blockhead, Pink Pussycat and Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA, made the album essential and unforgettable.

DAVID BOWIE - LODGER @ 45

 

Marking its 45th anniversary today is David Bowie's 13th studio LP, and last of the "Berlin Trilogy", Lodger, which was released on May 25th, 1979. Though the bromance between Bowie & Eno was cooling off, tempering the reception of the LP at the time of its release, retrospectively, it has become recognized as one of his most underrated albums.

The "Berlin" era began when Bowie and Iggy Pop recused themselves from the rock 'n' roll fast-lane and escaped to France and then Germany near the end of 1976. Both were looking to dry out from their respective bad habits. In the case of Bowie, it was a gargantuan cocaine addiction that left him emotionally hollow and physically whittled down to a frail stick. Iggy, on the other hand, had become a professional junkie, with the result being that his band, The Stooges, had disintegrated by the middle of the decade. Their efforts to get their shit together ended up resulting in a string of remarkable albums, including The Idiot and Lust For Life, for Iggy, and Low and "Heroes" for Bowie. But by the back end of 1978, Bowie and principal collaborator Brian Eno's creative jive was starting to run out of gas, albeit they were still committed to knocking out one more album to cap off their adventures.

Work on Lodger began in September of 1978 with a four month break from touring giving them the chance to get back into the studio. They assembled essentially the same creative team as the previous album: Tony Visconti, Carlos Alomar, Dennis Davis and George Murray. A new addition was future King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew, who Bowie had "poached" from Frank Zappa's latest tour.

In order to push the creative boundaries of the album, Bowie and Eno leaned heavily into Eno's Oblique Strategies system, which was a collection of customized playing cards containing vague suggestions that could be randomly drawn whenever anyone felt they were hitting a creative wall and needed a nudge in an unanticipated direction. Using this process, the musicians would receive instructions such as to swap instruments or play a familiar musical theme backwards. Belew was, at one point, asked to record guitar solos without listening to any of the music or having even an indication of the key to play in. While this methodology could spur innovation, it was not always popular with some of the musicians, who were pushed to work well outside their comfort zones. None of the songs would even have lyrics until the very end of the process, when Bowie took all the musical backings to the Record Plant studio to record his vocals.

The results of these sessions turned out to be rather different than the preceding two LPs and their mix of vocal and instrumental tracks. All the songs used for Lodger ended up with vocals, and the focus was on more pop song structures, though the feel was decidedly subversive throughout. Musically, the tracks ventured into a variety of styles, including Afro-rhythms, reggae, atonal post-punk discord and Middle Eastern motifs. The lyrical themes were split on each side of the record between concepts of travel on the first side and social critiques on the second.

For the album's cover, photographer Brian Duffy shot Bowie in a tiled bathroom looking like an accident victim, heavily made up with an apparently broken nose and a bandaged hand. This was inspired by the self-portraits of Egon Schiele. While the facial injuries were achieved with makeup and prosthetic appliances, the hand bandage was covering a real burn wound Bowie acquired earlier that day from some hot coffee. Call it a bit of a "happy accident"? Bowie was supported by a metal frame while the camera was positioned overhead in order to create the gravity defying final image, with Bowie looking like a fly that's been smacked by a giant swatter. At Bowie's request, the image was taken in low resolution by a Polaroid SX-70 type camera.

For the album's singles, innovative videos were shot for both D.J. and Boys Keep Swinging, the latter featuring Bowie in a series of drag outfits ranging from a '50s bobby-soxer, to a movie glamour queen to a matronly "Betty Davis" type character, all of whom end the video ripping off their wigs and smearing their lipstick in a show of defiance. It's gender bending at a time when drag was nowhere near the mainstream form of entertainment it is today.

At the time of its release, the pendulum of critical opinion had shifted from the universal praise bestowed on "Heroes" to a muddle of middling approval or outright disdain from some who felt it was a stop-gap album and dismissed it as a faltering miss-step after the previous album's confident successes. The consensus was that it was the weakest of the triptych of Berlin LPs, losing the focus and clarity of the previous releases. Yet it has undergone significant reappraisal in later years, with critics and fans giving it a second listen. The album received a complete remix in 2017, which helped to revive interests. Both Bowie and Visconti were never quite satisfied with the original mix, and the updated version does actually offer some clarity and body that is lacking in the original.

A few years ago, I wrote a piece on this album from a more personal perspective, looking at my relationship with it, how it was my first Bowie record and how it has remained one of my favourites throughout his career. You can find that piece here.

https://ugohere.blogspot.com/.../influential-album-david...

DAVID BOWIE - DIAMOND DOGS @ 50

 

Celebrating its golden jubilee today at 50 years old is the 8th studio LP from David Bowie, Diamond Dogs. It would mark the end of his glam-rock, Ziggy Stardust era and point the way to his transition to his next incarnation the soulful "Thin White Duke".

After completing his previous LP, Pin-Ups, a collection of covers recorded to satisfy record label obligations, Bowie was beginning to waffle in terms of the clarity of his vision for the direction of his career. He was running out of runway with the Ziggy persona, and had disbanded The Spiders From Mars band lead by guitarist, Mick Ronson. Ronson had moved on to record a solo album, so Bowie opted to assume the position of lead guitarist for the recording of Diamond Dogs. Bowie's more rudimentary guitar technique ended up working in his favour in some respects because it necessitated a raunchier, more primitive performing style, something that, in retrospect, became a bit of inspiration for the punk scene that would start bubbling up in the UK within the following year. Those kids, like Sid Vicious, were ardent Bowie fans, and the link between the punk explosion in the UK and Diamond Dogs cannot be overlooked.

However, as pivotal as the album may have been towards inspiring the musical revolution around the corner, Bowie was still in a state of flux, part way between shedding the Ziggy skin and emerging in a new form. In that sense, Diamond Dogs was a bit of a chrysalis, with the artist beginning to embrace the R&B and soul influences that would overtake his sound on his next record, Young Americans. Because of that, critics of the day saw Bowie as loosing focus, so some of the contemporary reviews of the day were quite critical of his stylistic floundering. That didn't stop the record from smashing its way the top of the charts in the UK and getting near there in the US at a respectable number five position at its peak.

The themes explored on the album were equally a hodgepodge of half grasped concepts, some stemming from a planned Ziggy Stardust stage musical Bowie had been contemplating, others inspired by William Burroughs apocalyptic visions, and who's "cut-up" technique Bowie had been actively exploiting to help with his creative process. Bowie was also toying with an adaptation of George Orwell's 1984, all of which meant the overall vibe of the album was decidedly nihilistic, a disposition that, along with the thrashing guitar work, dovetailed with the mindset that would inform the aforementioned punk aesthetic. Even Bowie's look, still within the Ziggy framework, took on a spiky visage, another element predicting the near future.

In many respects, Diamond Dogs serves as a fitting capstone to the glam-rock era of the first half of the 1970s, putting a final punctuation on the scene and queuing up the punk era around the corner, though Bowie himself was about to shift gears into something slick and sophisticated for his shift to LA, along with a serious cocaine addiction and some funky grooves.