THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES @ 50

 

Celebrating 50 glorious years on the screen, it’s the 1971 Vincent Price classic, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, which was released in the US on May 18, 1971 (its UK release was in April of that year). Dr. Phibes has become one of Price’s most memorable characters, even with the limitation that he couldn’t move his prosthetic face! Somehow, Price managed to emote through the deadpan expression and imbue the character with charm, charisma and pathos.

Directed by Robert Fuest, who also came up with the story idea, the character of Phibes bares a striking resemblance to a certain acquaintance of the director, the notorious founder of The Church of Satan, Anton LaVey. LaVey even claimed as much and, given the character’s name is Dr. Anton Phibes and he’s an organist, researcher, medical doctor, biblical scholar and ex-vaudevillian who has created a clockwork band of robot musicians to play old standards at his whim, it’s hard not to see the similarities. I tend to give credence to this after having read LaVey’s writings and been a fan of the film (and its sequel) for decades.

Feust gained recognition as an extremely inventive set designer working on series like The Avengers and the New Avengers and it’s easy to see his talents on display in both Phibes movies. While the rudimentary plot of revenge does not offer a great deal of depth, the film soars on the strength of evocative set pieces and stylish Art Deco visuals. Each of the death scenes is constructed like a meticulously choreographed macabre ballet and Phibes’ home setting is a wonderful fantasy land of mechanical musicians, an ornately animated theater organ and his high fashion mute muse, Vulnavia, who deftly assists the doctor on his quest to redress the wrongs he perceives were inflicted upon his deceased, but preserved wife, Victoria.

Phibes is the quintessential anti-hero and the revenge story told here is very much the opposite of the norm for such fiction, which commonly function as cautionary tales about the cost of vengeance to those pursuing it. In this case, vengeance is a delicious dish to be savored and enjoyed to the fullest, whether served hot or cold or covered in honey for the locusts to feast upon. Each victim in this symphony of sadism is relished and lingered upon to extract every morsel of sustenance. Whereas mere mortals are diminished by their pursuit of revenge, Phibes is enriched and nourished by it. His adversaries, the London police, are shown as bumbling amateurs and fools who are always 10 steps behind their foe. It’s one of the first film series I ever encountered where the “bad guy” always comes out on top. There’s no comeuppance, no moral price to pay, no defeat at the hands of the “good guys”.

I first encountered these movies in the mid 1970s when local TV stations would often have a weekend midnight horror movie. Friday or Saturday nights were the time to tune into the creep shows after mom and dad were in bed and us kids were allowed to stay up late and lose ourselves in these strange scenes. Phibes was an immediate favorite because it looked so beautiful and the story was unlike anything I’d seen in any other horror movie. My appreciation for these films has only grown over the years as I’ve seen them again and again. It’s that combination of artistic style and flair setting the stage for Vincent Price’s nuanced performance that make these films so timeless and transcendent. There’s a sort of “Zen” to them that is rare and leaves one with a wonderful sense of clarity.

AEROSMITH - ROCKS @ 45

 

Celebrating 45 years in the saddle, it’s Aerosmith’s 4th studio album, Rocks, released on May 14th 1976. After the breakout success of Toys in the Attic the previous year, which spawned the iconic hits, Sweet Emotion and Walk This way, the band were looking to secure their position on the top of the hard rock heap and Rocks was more than capable of accomplishing that goal.

The album was created at a time when the indulgences of the band’s “rock ’n’ roll lifestyle” were still offering creative inspiration, before the substance abuse began to take its toll, both creatively and personally. It’s that fine line where the debauchery hasn’t quite caused the band’s artistic vision to become too blurry. Given that they were still a relatively young band, their stamina was such that the excessive indulgences were fodder for expression. That wouldn’t always be the case though, but they sure did make the most of the good times for this album.

The album was produced utilizing the Record Plant’s mobile recording truck, which was backed into Aerosmith’s Waltham, Massachusetts warehouse space, affectionately known as the “Wherehouse”. This gave the band the freedom to focus on their songwriting and, as a result, the album benefits from input from all the members, more so that on previous albums. They were able to submerge themselves into the process and ride the wave of indulgence while producing a tight, hard rocking record that kept plenty of edge and avoided over indulgences, at least musically. For many hard rock fans, Rocks represents Aerosmith at their peak and it has been repeatedly cited as an influence by countless performers over the years, and deservedly so.

Rocks was one of the first records I ever bought when I was just beginning to collect vinyl back in 1976. It may have been among the first half dozen or so LPs I ever bought, so it’s got a long history with me. At the time that I first bought it, it wasn’t one of my favorite albums, although the opening bluster of Back In the Saddle was always able to get my head bobbing. However, the band were soon to start losing their footing after the rousing success of Rocks. The follow-up, Draw the Line, had a killer title track, but the rest of the album came across as halfhearted compared to the previous two albums and things would only get worse in the next few years for the band. Of course they’d make a massive comeback in the 1980s with monster top 10 hits, but I had long since moved onto more challenging music and had no interest in 80's power ballads. For me, Toys in the Attic and Rocks (and the title track from Draw the Line) are all the Aerosmith I need.

KRAFTWERK - COMPUTER WORLD @ 40

 

Released on May 10th, 1981, Kraftwerk’s seminal cornerstone of the digital age, Computer World, is celebrating its 40th anniversary today.

At the time of Computer World’s release, computers were not much more than a curiosity. They were seen as something only used by huge corporations and scientists for esoteric purposes beyond the concerns & comprehension of normal people living their mundane lives. In popular fiction, super-computers might take over the world, but people didn’t perceive them as being part of routine activities. Kraftwerk, however, saw what was coming and created a gleaming set of compositions which celebrated the looming digital age. They saw how the computer would become ubiquitous within our lives and homes and completely integrated into our culture. Within a few years of its release, the first inexpensive home computer systems were finding their place on desktops around the world and started changing the way we lived, worked and socialized.

Though Kraftwerk had well established the synergy between people and technology with their previous LP, The Man Machine, that album had dealt mostly with the mechanics of the day. Robotics, space travel, urbanization and consumer culture were its focus. However, a new branch of technology was fast gaining traction and the revolution inherent in this advancement required a total rethinking of both processes and production tools. In order to go to the next level, the band would need to do a major overhaul of just about every aspect of their methodology. There’s a three year gap between Man Machine and Computer World which was necessitated by a full rebuild of their Kling Klang studio setup. One of the objectives of this redesign was to modularize and miniaturize their gear in order to make it more easily portable for live performances and world touring. To accomplish this, some pretty intensive engineering innovations had to be developed to create the “work station” configuration they’d eventually arrive at and continue to refine throughout the rest of their career. Each member of the quartet would have a similar kind of setup which would help to drive the sense of consistency and unity among the members.

Once the technical aspects of their setup were addressed, then came the process of composing a set of precisely and minimally arranged pieces to capture the essence of the theme being developed. The album needed to show how this technology would integrate into our lives and function as an extension of both our physical and mental existentialism. They explored the basics of the technology in Numbers, showing how the simple process of digital calculation could be used as a creative infrastructure. They anticipated social media with Computer Love. They identified the entertainment value of the tool with It’s More Fun to Compute. They foresaw the arrival of the computer as a standard appliance in Home Computer. They predicted the miniaturization which would eventually lead to devices like smart phones in Pocket Calculator. Nearly every aspect of computer technology which we now take for granted was spec’d out here and delineated.

The impact of the album was immediate, profound and continues to resonate to this day. Starting in the early 1980s, hip-hop producers like Afrika Bambaataa began liberally sampling from it, along with earlier works like Trans Europe Express. Once House music and Detroit techno started to emerge in the mid to late part of the decade, a new generation of producers regularly referenced and paid homage to Computer World and earlier works, through both direct sampling and more oblique acknowledgements. Again and again, throughout the ensuing decades, Kraftwerk’s prescient masterwork became a touchstone for each new generation of electronic music and techno-pop practitioners. And Kraftwerk themselves would continuously find ways to reinvigorate their creation through remixes, remakes and reissues and live performances which consistently found ways to update their sound to make it relevant for the present day. They were simply so far ahead of the curve, even their most perfunctory efforts were able to align these works with the latest trends.

Personally, Computer World is what I perceive to be the high water mark for Kraftwerk in terms of foresight and innovation. The follow up album, 1986’s Electric Cafe, while possessing some great tracks, was not able to capture the kind of cultural zeitgeist that had been perfected on Computer World. Both in terms of technology and conceptualization, the perfection of Computer World is essentially impossible to surpass. It came along at the perfect time and in the perfect form and nothing the group has done since then has made such a massive leap forward. You can look back across the preceding albums and see a clear progression from the abstract experimentalism of the early albums through the shift into more controlled composition, all the while also refining their image from intellectual hipsters into meticulously groomed cultural executors. Once you hit that height of materialization, there’s not much room to move beyond making periodic adjustments in order to maintain one’s altitude. But that’s not a criticism as I have seen them perform live within the past 10 years and was squarely blown away by what they put on stage and how powerful its presence remains. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS - NOTHING HERE NOW BUT THE RECORDINGS @ 40

 

Released in May of 1981 by Throbbing Gristle’s Industrial Records label, William S. Burroughs’ Nothing Here Now but the Recordings is celebrating its 40th anniversary this month. Its release was the first time any of his audio tape experiments were ever made available to the public. Its origin was the result of years of friendship and encouragement to share this material with the world.

Sometime around 1973, Genesis P-Orridge was browsing the classified ads in the underground art magazine, FILE, and happened upon an ad from William S. Burroughs requesting images of “camouflage for 1984” with a London address for correspondence. Genesis had been a fan of Burroughs for some time and couldn’t believer he’d actually publish his real address, so he took the chance to write a tersely worded prank letter to him and duly received a response with an invitation to come down to London and visit him sometime. The invitation was accepted and Genesis made the trip from Hull to London and began a friendship with Burroughs that would last until the senior author’s death.

During their frequent conversations, Gen became acquainted with the “cut-up” technique pioneered by Burroughs’ close friend, Brion Gysin. Burroughs often mentioned the tape experiments he’d done using the process, but P-Orridge never got a chance to hear any of the actual recordings. This wasn’t for lack of interest as Gen repeatedly asked if he could hear them and it took seven years of nagging before Burroughs finally relented and allowed Gen to have at these neglected gems. Burroughs handed over boxes of old cassettes and reel-to-reel tapes, unmarked and unorganized, with the instruction that Gen should catalogue them all.

Gen and Peter Christopherson then spent months slogging through these tapes, diligently typing out logs for every snippet and segment, from Moroccan music to Bill talking to TV sounds, all messed with via editing, stop/start recording or manually spooling tape on the recorder to modulate the speed. They worked hour after hour, all the while carefully noting various bits and pieces that had some sense of significance or resonance or which offered particularly effective examples of the cut-up or other processing technique being explored. Eventually these were paired down to enough to fill a full length LP, transferred to mastering tape and a finished record was cut. The sleeve was created by Christopherson, who was very familiar with LP cover design thanks to his involvement with the Hipgnosis design house.

At the time of its release, Burroughs was rather a forgotten figure in the underground. Most of his books were well out of print and only a few people like P-Orridge cared much about what he’d done. While this album wasn’t a massive seller, it certainly was key in igniting the modern interest in Burroughs’ works and also helped give “Uncle Bill” a proper entry into the world of being a recording artist. There had been a couple of records of him doing the odd reading over the years, but the exposure from the Industrial release coincided with the advent of sampling technology, something which would make Burroughs a popular source for numerous recording artists. As the 1980s progressed, people like Adrian Sherwood and Bill Laswell would incorporate Bill’s distinctive voice into numerous recording projects. It wasn’t uncommon for club goers in the hipper haunts to find themselves busting a move while some Burroughs quote seeped in under the beat. His dystopian perversions made perfect embellishments to the doom disco of the day. All of that started with Nothing Here Now but the Recordings. It was the flashpoint for a career revival which would make him an essential component of the counterculture of the past 40 years.

MICHAEL NESMITH & THE FIRST NATIONAL BAND - NEVADA FIGHTER @ 50

 

50 years ago this month, in May of 1971, Michael Nesmith released his third post-Monkees solo LP and the last with his “First National” backing band, Nevada Fighter. The album continued his journey into the freshly plowed furrows of the “country-rock” genre he’d helped pioneer. The album is evenly split between original songs on the first side and covers on the second. The most well known of the originals is Propinquity (I've Just Begun to Care), which was originally demoed for The Monkees in 1966. It was then recorded by them properly in 1968, but remained unreleased until many years later on one of their “Missing Links” collections. While the First National Band mostly dispersed after this album, replaced by the “Second National Band” for one album, pedal steel guitarist, Red Rhodes, would remain and continue to be an indispensable component of Mike’s solo work until Red’s passing in 1995.

Like most of his post-Monkees work during the first half of the 1970s, this album was largely ignored at the time of its release. With the Monkees having been such a massive phenomenon at their peak, there was the inevitable backlash against them after their fall from grace at the end of the 1960s. That was a shame because Nesmith produced some of the most amazing music during this time, but history has vindicated his efforts all these decades and generations later. Now, serious popular music aficionados rightfully acknowledge the craft and quality of these albums and they have taken their place among the essentials of the American song book.

Personally, while I was a Monkees fan from childhood, appreciating their music’s true value came much later in my life and I didn’t seriously begin to delve into Mike’s solo albums until the beginning of the 21st century, though I do remember my mom having singles of Joanne and Silver Moon when I was a kid. When I did open the door to his solo career, it didn’t take long for me to be awestruck by the breadth and scope of what he’d achieved while no one was paying him much attention. So do yourself a favor and do some digging and discover this man’s music for yourself.

THE CRAMPS - PSYCHEDELIC JUNGLE @ 40

 

Marking 40 years on the shelves this month is the sophomore album from The Cramps, Psychedelic Jungle, originally released in May of 1981.

The Cramps made their name on the New York punk scene starting in 1976, playing clubs like CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas City along with the likes of the Ramones, Suicide, Blondie & Talking Heads. Their first full length LP, however, had their producer, Alex Chilton, co-founder of the band Big Star, hauling them off to Memphis to record in the legendary Sun Studios. As a result, their first album sizzled with the raw heat of zombified 1950’s rockabilly. It was them staking out their claim to the “psycho-billy” variant of that genetic strain, characterized by their obsession with midnight horror movies and fringe sub-cultures. It set them well apart from their contemporaries with only Suicide tangentially drawing from a similar hiccuping spastic greaser shudder.

By 1981, however, they had gone through some changes. In 1980, ghoulish fuzz guitarist, Brian Gregory, suddenly quit the band and they relocated from NYC to LA. I’m not sure if those two things are related, but it may very well have been that Brian simply didn’t want to make that move. Whatever the case, they ended up with Kid Congo Powers filling in the 2nd guitar slot behind Poison Ivy’s lead, while Nick Knox remained on the skins and Lux held fast to the front-man position. For their second album, the group decided to handle the production duties themselves and this move set them onto the task of upping their game and taking their sound in a slightly different direction.

For Psychedelic Jungle, the group opted to leave the 1950s behind and shift into the LSD fueled 1960s, though certainly not in order to embrace any “summer of love” pleasantries. Their trip on this production was strictly BAD - like “don’t take the brown acid” level freakout shit. These songs shimmered with the distorted nightmares of going way-out on the wrong side of town. The album was a fairly even mix between original compositions and forgotten garage & psyche rock gems unearthed with the aid of Lux & Ivy’s encyclopedic knowledge of obscure classics. They knew all the dirtiest little corners of rock ’n’ roll’s gutters and pulled out some of the nastiest boogers of songs they could pick. Their original works were equally unnerving and unsettling, though eating off the sidewalk suddenly took on a kind of “forbidden fruit” appeal. I’m just saying, I wouldn’t do it, but I thought about it… just a little.

The album re-positioned the band with a big step forward which was tragically tripped-up thanks to some nasty legal battles which meant they weren’t able to build on their momentum. Thanks to these binding constraints, they could not set foot into a studio to record a follow up LP until 5 years later with their Date With Elvis album. They were only able to tide fans over with the 1983 live album, Smell of Female, and a compilation of previously released songs, Bad Music for Bad People, in 1984. Though these troubles would prove challenging, the group continued to tour and perform throughout this time and they were eventually able to get back into their groove and resume their career, full steam, until the tragic death of Lux Interior in 2009.

I had the great fortune of seeing them play live twice in Vancouver. The first was on April 12, 1990 at the Commodore Ballroom and then again on October 24th, 1997 at Graceland. Both shows were amazing and rank as some of the most memorable live gigs I ever attended. As far as their studio recordings, Psychedelic Jungle ranks as the peak for me when it comes to The Cramps. It was the album that took the most chances and pushed their sound to its outer limits. Their shift into the more surreal side of their sound had the most appeal for me and it proved to be a huge influence on future projects of my own. Listening to it now, it still occupies its own space and time and shows no signs of age or being dated behind any trend. It creates its own universe where it can reside indefinitely.

UP, BUSTLE & OUT - ONE COLOUR JUST REFLECTS ANOTHER @ 25

 

25 years ago this month, in May of 1996, Up, Bustle & Out released their sophomore album, One Colour Just Reflects Another, on the Ninja Tune label.

The group is primarily the brainchild of Rupert Mould & David Fell, who recruit a vast array of guest musicians and regular co-collaborators on their internationally flavored albums. I first heard this album sometime around 1998 when a friend lent me the CD. This was just as the technology to copy CDs to CD-R came into common use with the appearance of cheap blanks. This was one of the first albums I ever cloned this way! I know that’s a bit shameful of a confession, but I did eventually buy a legit copy when I was able and subsequently picked up their entire catalog, or as much of it as I could get.

What set this group apart in the arena of (mostly) instrumental hip-hop & downtempo electronica was their global flair, particularly when it came to Latin and South American influences. One Colour… was a gorgeous mosaic of inspirations, incorporating urban beats with snippets of Latin folk music, weaving it all together into a travelogue of sounds from around the globe. This approach was a direct result of the pair’s nomadic nature as they traveled the world in search of new elements to incorporate into their funky soundscapes. This wanderlust would take them on journeys to every corner of the globe throughout their career and leave in their wake a rich tapestry of music on each successive album.

For me, it’s music that hasn’t aged at all. A quarter century of journeying has brought together a legacy that remains as relevant and vital as the day it was released.