KRAFTWERK - TOUR DE FRANCE @ 20

 

Marking its 20th anniversary today is the eleventh studio album from Kraftwerk, Tour De France Soundtracks, which was released on August 4th, 2003. It was their only collection of new recordings in 12 years, with The Mix being released in 1991, but it was also their only collection of new compositions in 17 years, with the last set, Electric Cafe (aka Techno Pop), coming out in 1986. While the group continue to tour regularly, they have not released any new studio recordings since, albeit numerous live collections have been made available from their 21st century tours. Tour De France was also the last album to feature Florian Schneider before his departure from the band in 2008 and his passing in 2020.

The album was conceived as a tribute to the Tour De France bicycle race, which was celebrating its 100th anniversary that year, though the album release was delayed, missing the actual anniversary of the race. It was also an expansion on the single of the same name, which was released 20 years earlier, in 1983. The cover graphics for the single and album are nearly identical. Following the release of the album, the group began to tour again, revamping their live presentation to utilized the now familiar four podium "laptop" setup, with each member having a compact array of computers, keyboards and minimal controls, all backed by large visual projections, which eventually evolved into 3D graphics in more recent years.

With such a long lapse in activity from the band, it was a concern as to whether fans would be there to pick up on the release, but the band's impact had become so pronounced within the popular music world, with it's decisive shift towards electronic pop, that the album was a global hit, rising to the upper ranks of numerous charts. Stylistically, the album continued along the path of tight, punchy dance music forged by The Mix from 1991.

With Ralf Hütter now the only remaining founding member of the group (or from their "classic" era lineup), fans continue to speculate on whether or not they have another album of original new works in the wings. 20 years is a long time to go without anything new, especially for a group who are now recognized as being on the same level as The Beatles in terms of influencing the direction of popular music, and some could argue they've surpassed the Fab Four, and convincingly. They're still out there touring regularly and packing venues with their 3D live shows, which I got to see in 2012, and which duly blew my mind. I can't accept that they haven't got at least ONE more album up their robotic sleeves.

PSYCHIC TV - TUNE IN (TURN ON TO THE ACID HOUSE) @ 35

 

In August of 1988, 35 years ago this month, Psychic TV came out of the closet as an Acid House band after having pranked the club crowd with a fake Various Artists compilation of dance music in June of that year under the title, Jack the Tab. The TUNE IN single is purported to be the first UK release to use the term "ACID HOUSE" as it directly referenced the Chicago originating style. Whereas the Jack the Tab album had obliquely alluded to the movement, though skewing towards a more hip-hop & funky style of groove, Tune In went full tilt into the classic "four on the floor" techno-disco beat which characterized the US inspiration, though the signature squelching TB-303 wasn't quite in place just yet.

 

At the time of its release, I'd only recently clued into the sound via the seminal Phuture 12", Acid Tracks. I was a fan of TG's brand of "Industrial" music and Psychic TV, but what I heard from Phuture was a completely fresh sound with a whole new sense of possibilities. I recall many of my friends who were into experimental music were suspicious of this new sound, finding it too dry, basic and minimal, but I was twigged and my guts told me something big was coming down the pipes. When I saw Tune In on the shelf in my local import shop, I remember I got a sudden rush of delight by seeing that someone like Psychic TV had recognized the potential of what was coming. I hadn't heard the Jack the Tab LP yet, so this came as a total surprise after hearing the retro psyche-rock of their latest album, Allegory & Self. It felt like a paradigm shift was happening.

 

The single was originally released on Temple Records under the Jack the Tab name with a label showing a picture of Superman holding a Psychick cross, and without any mention of the name, Psychic TV. This short-lived version was quickly pulled from distribution after DC Comics expressed objections to the use of their intellectual property and threatened legal action. 

 

Soon after the release of this single, it seemed the UK exploded with ACID HOUSE music and rave culture soon followed, with clandestine warehouse and outdoor parties sprouting up all over the country, luring young party-goers into the ecstasy of new designer drugs and all night techno dance parties. For me, the birth of the entire modern electronic music scene traces back to the summer of 1988 and the release of records like Psychic TV's Tune In. For the next few years, until Genesis P-Orridge and family were chased out of the UK, Psychic TV pursued a course of becoming the ultimate psychedelic electronic dance band, putting on marathon 3 hour live shows across the UK, US and Europe, travelling in a Merry Pranksters style school bus, and spreading the word of tuning in, turning on and freaking out.

 

HERBIE HANCOCK - FUTURE SHOCK @ 40

 

Released in August of 1983, Herbie Hancock's Future Shock turns 40 years old this month. Fusing jazz, funk, hip-hop & electronic dance music, the album, along with the Rockit single and it's unforgettable music video, would bring Hancock's name to its highest recognition in popular music.

With two decades of work under his belt, Hancock was well established in the jazz scene, both as a solo artist and for having worked with legends like Miles Davis. He was always a forward thinking musician and he'd done extensive work throughout the 1970s defining the jazz-fusion sound, incorporating funk grooves with jazz sensibilities and pushing it all into the modern age by incorporating synthesizers and electronics. But Future Shock didn't even begin life as a Hancock album.

The origins of the album began with bassist Bill Laswell and keyboardist-producer, Michael Beinhorn, who were looking to devolp a follow-up to their sophomore Material album, One Down. Many of the songs on Future Shock began as demos for what was thought would be the next Material LP. However, once the ball began rolling on these compositions, the duo approached Hancock to work with them on developing the songs further. From there, reggae drumming legend, Sly Dunbar, guitarist Pete Cosey and DJ Derek Showard, better known by his stage name of GrandMixer DXT, came onboard to fill out the studio band. Together, they managed to channel the zeitgeist of a new breed of fusion music, incorporating modern jazz sensibilities with cutting edge alternative hip-hop funkiness. They soon realized they were on to something when demos of their recordings started receiving unexpected positive reactions from people who had a chance to hear them.

For the single, Rockit, a stunning video was directed by 10cc's Godley and Creme, who helped mastermind an iconic set of robot dancers and musicians created by Jim Whiting, a production which swept the MTV music awards of that year. The video managed to keep the song in heavy rotation on the fledgling music channel, propelling the single and album into major sales territory. It was one of those rare moments when true innovation and creativity managed to break into the mainstream music scene.

QUEEN @ 50

 

It's time for another Queen to celebrate a jubilee, this one being golden, as the debut eponymous LP from Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Meadows Taylor and John Deacon (credited as Deacon John), collectively known as QUEEN, was released 50 years ago today, on July 13th 1973. It would be the coronation of one of rock's greatest bands, a creative collective who would leave an indelible and enduring legacy of music and performance.

Before their first album hit the record shops, Queen had to evolve through a series of manifestations which began in 1968 when Brian May formed the group, Smile, with lead singer and bassist, Jim Staffell. May had worked with Jim previously in 1963 in a band called 1984, named after the Orwell novel. Brian had taken a break from music to pursue his degree in physics and infrared astronomy at Imperial College, but was back into playing again. To complete the band, drummer Roger Taylor was hired after auditioning from an ad requesting a "Ginger Baker" style player. While attending Ealing Art College, Staffell became acquainted with one Freddie Bulsara, an Indian of Parsi descent who had grown up in Zanzibar. Bulsara was a design student and took a shining to Jim's band, even offering Brian to join as lead vocalist, though May turned him down because he didn't think Staffell would want to relinquish the role. By 1970, however, Staffell was tired of going nowhere with the band and packed it in, leaving an opening for Freddie to step in.

Once Freddie was on board, it didn't take long for him to suggest a new moniker for the band, christening them QUEEN. Though the other members were initially hesitant, Freddie, who'd also adopted the sir name of Mercury, was confident that, "...people will love it". Whether the connotations of the name were evident or deliberate is somewhat debated, but I have a hard time thinking Freddie didn't have a sly subversive intent up his sleeve. Initially, the band rotated through a number of bass players before they finally encountered John Deacon in 1971, whose modest demeanour and skill in electronics became a perfect compliment for the other quarters of the band.

After scrounging around for a bit, trying to find someplace to do some recording on the cheap, an encounter with an audio engineer friend managed to get them into De Lane Lea Studios' new premises in Wembley. The studio was looking to bring a band in to test out the new gear and rooms, so Queen were able to record five of their original songs: "Liar", "Keep Yourself Alive", "Great King Rat", "The Night Comes Down" and "Jesus". During the recording sessions, producer Roy Thomas Baker was present to hear Keep Yourself Alive, which impressed him enough to promote the band to a number of record labels.

Throughout 1972, Queen, working with Baker as producer, proceeded to record their debut, negotiating to record during studio down time to save costs. Roger Taylor recalled, "You could see the working girls at night through their laced curtains, so while we were mixing, we would have a little bit of diversion". The process proved to be somewhat fraught with conflict, especially between May and Baker, as the former's perfectionism clashed with the latter's desire for live spontaneity. The clash lead to what Baker referred to as "kitchen sink overproduction". The band had also wanted to use the De Lane Lea recordings, but Baker insisted on new versions of those songs. The mixing process proved to be just as difficult with no mix meeting the band's approval until engineer Mike Stone stepped in and was finally able to satisfy everyone's tastes. In the end, the band managed to work through their differences and crafted a bristling mixture of heavy metal and progressive rock, all shot through with a vein of glam's sense of drama. Recording wrapped on the album by November of 1972, and the band then went on a spree of performances to promote the as yet unreleased album. They were still lacking a record deal, so there was some manoeuvring to do, in order to secure a contract.

The group's management firm, Trident, managed to eventually strike a deal with EMI and the album was finally released on July 13th of 1973. The album received overall positive reviews from the music press, with Rolling Stone writing, "There's no doubt that this funky, energetic English quartet has all the tools they'll need to lay claim to the Zep's abdicated heavy-metal throne, and beyond that to become a truly influential force in the rock world. Their debut album is superb." Commercially, the album was a modest success, but delivered nowhere near the kind of sales that they'd soon be pushing. The band was, while highly developed, still finding some of its footing and figuring out how to properly balance its excesses. Their mastery of the studio was not quite fully in bloom, though their ambitions would push them into that sweet-spot very soon.

As a long time Queen fan, the rawness of their debut makes it a singular and fascinating glimpse into a band just starting to flex their creative muscles. All the roots of what they'd become are firmly in place, it was only a matter of time before they'd sprout into full flower. That rough edge, however, gives this album a dynamic which is completely unique within the groups canon of recordings. They'd never sound quite like this again, albeit their followup, Queen II, would perch confidently on the foundations laid by their debut. If you're looking for a version of Queen with some youthful vigour and bite, this is a perfect place to start. It's certainly a dazzling debut by any band's standards.

MAGAZINE - REAL LIFE @ 45

Marking its 45th anniversary this month is the debut LP from Magazine, Real Life, which was released in June of 1978. After showing the punks how to write catchy pop songs with The Buzzcocks, Howard Devoto stepped up his game by hooking up with some top notch musical co-conspirators, producing an album which continued to push boundaries as "post-punk" dropped the artifice of three chord grinding affectation and set about creating some truly original and effective music.

Along with Devoto, the band featured some truly remarkable musicians who would soon become major influencers in a variety of other bands. First there was guitarist John McGeoch, who would become one of the true innovators along with the likes of Keith Levene in terms of finding new tones and textures for the instrument. He's find his way into influential albums not only with Magazine, but with Siouxsie & The Banshees, Visage and even Public Image Ltd after Levene's ouster. Then there was the bass work of Barry Adamson, who would also be part of Visage before going on to be part of Nick Cave's Bad Seeds. Then you had the keyboard wizardry of Dave Formula, who brought in layers of synthesizers to help push the band's sound into the fringes of modernism. It all combined to make a sound which was forward looking and innovative, setting a standard for bright, insightful and intelligent pop music.  

SILVER APPLES @ 55

Released 55 years ago this month, in June of 1968, it's the eponymous debut LP from Silver Apples. It's an album which may well be the single most foresightful collection of rock music to ever predict the future.  

Silver Apples was formed in NYC by electronics wiz, Simeon Oliver Coxe III, and drummer, Danny Taylor. Simeon played a bizarre conglomerate of electronic oscillators and effects processors which were crudely affixed to a wooden frame. He played the oscillators via telegraph switches triggered with his hands, elbows, knees and feet. Drummer Taylor worked with a kit which was composed of two complete drum sets, each tuned to a different key so that he could change the key of his playing in synch with pitch changes from the electronics. Together, the duo created a sound which was completely and utterly idiosyncratic of their era. There simply were no other artists exploring anywhere near their sound.  

The use of synthesizers in pop music was barely getting off the ground in 1968, with a scant few examples of artists utilizing the recently release MOOG modular system. Micky Dolenz had picked one up and used it on a couple of songs with The Monkees, the Rolling Stones had followed a few months later, but for the most part, it was a mere novelty. It certainly wasn't the source of any band's principal sounds like with Silver Apples.

Silver Apples had started out as a fairly conventional rock band by the name of The Overland Stage Electric Band, with Simeon on vocals, but once he started bringing an old 1940s military oscillator into the picture, the other band members felt alienated and soon departed, leaving only Simeon and Taylor to rename themselves as Silver Apples in 1967. For their first album, seven of the group's original songs had lyrics provided by poet friend, Stanley Warren, including the album's single, Oscillations.  

While the album and its followup were both commercial flops at the time of their release, and a third aborted album fell into a void of lost obscurity, the music of Silver Apples would eventually find a cult audience in decades to come. As electronic music came into its own in the 1980s and 1990s, its supporters began to rediscover the prognosticating brilliance of Silver Apples, who's sound was like a blueprint for experimental electronic music which would surface a full decade after the original albums were released. In the 1990s, Simeon would revive the band as a solo outlet, performing at techno raves.  

THE ROLLING STONES - SOME GIRLS @ 45

 

Celebrating its 45th anniversary today is the Rolling Stones' classic comeback LP, Some Girls, which was released on June 9th, 1978. After slipping into a slump in the middle of the decade (they didn't call that "best of" album, "Sucking In the '70s" for nothing), the band regrouped and managed to knock out the most commercially and critically successful album of their career. At a time when they seemed destined to be drowned out by disco, or made irrelevant by punk, they managed to embrace both genres in tandem, harnessing the infectious dance grooves of the former, while embodying the brazen rawness and edge of the latter.

After kicking off the '70s with a couple of solid albums, The Rolling Stones spent much of the middle years of that decade middling around with unfocused studio albums and lacklustre live releases. As a result, the band's popularity had waned significantly and they were in serious danger of becoming relics of a bygone era. The emergence of punk culture in the latter half of the decade was branding old farts from the '60s as "dinosaurs", lumbering about the world on their great big tours and motivated solely by their avarice for ticket and merch sales. Keith Richards was also struggling with legal issues resulting from drug charges in Canada, so the burden fell on the shoulders of Mick Jagger to rally the troops and rescue the band from oblivion. By 1977, Ron Wood had secured himself the position of permanent 2nd guitarist in the group, so they had a solid lineup for the first time in years. With the younger generation's wolves snapping at their heels, the band set about getting back to basics and crafting a lean, mean collection of songs capable of capturing the era's zeitgeist.  

Keith's legal issues ended up soliciting the help of US president, Jimmy Carter, and Richards was able to negotiate release from Canada in February of 1977, securing a visa which allowed him to first detox in the US and then travel to Paris to join the rest of the band in the studio. The severity of the charges for heroine possession with intent to traffic were such that there was a very real possibility of the bad-boy guitarist facing up to seven years in a Canadian prison. This dangling sword over the band's head meant that they could be facing the prospect of disbanding and that this might be their last album for a very long time. The thought that Some Girls might be their swan-song was clear motivation for them to put everything they had into giving their best effort in the studio. With the list of guest musicians kept to a bare minimum, the group turned to each other to create a tight, tough and focused sound, the likes of which hadn't been heard for many years. Richards eventually escaped the prospect of a custodial sentence with an agreement to perform a couple of benefit Stones concerts, but the experience certainly helped get the band's house in order.

With Richards distracted by his legal woes, Mick Jagger became the principal creative force during the writing and recording of the album, taking sole writing credits on a number of tracks. The explosion of dance music culture in the discos became a very big influence and Jagger sought to bring some of that four-on-the-floor vibrancy into the band's wheelhouse. Also, by 1977, punk had made major inroads into the public consciousness. Its sense of urgency and disregard for authority or manners had reinvigorated the rock 'n' roll landscape with a sense of danger, risk and innovation, something which had been lacking since the psychedelic inspired creativity of the previous decade gave way to the MOR "yacht-rock" sounds of the '70s. This time, however, it wasn't all utopian idealism and love, but rather it's inverse, with young artists embracing a decidedly dystopian misanthropy.  

Ronnie Wood securing his full-time position in the band helped bring a fresh energy to the group dynamic, shining a new light on their relationships. This interplay meant that, for the first time since 1968's Beggars Banquet, the group were confident enough to eschew the parade of guest players and lean into their own abilities for much of the recording. The result was a collection of songs which were brimming with renewed confidence. 

When it came time to package the album, the band wanted something extravagant and designer Peter Corriston came up with an elaborate die-cut design inspired by an old Valmor Products corporation advertisements for wigs. The cutouts revealed faces printed on the inner sleeve featuring the band in drag along with celebrities like Lucile Ball, Judy Garland, Farrah Fawcett, Raquel Welch and Marilynn Munroe. Color overlays on the images varied by market. The result was quite striking, but the fact celebrity likenesses were used without permission triggered a barrage of legal threats, including one from Valmor, who did go through with a suit and won monetary compensation. The cover was quickly pulled and the celebrity images were removed (except for former Beatle George Harrison). Where they had been was plastered over with garish punk like phrases like "Pardon our appearance – cover under reconstruction". Jagger personally apologized to Liza Minelli for using mother Garland's likeness when he encountered her at Studio 54. 

Despite the controversy over the album's cover, as well as over certain lyrics (the title track attracted scrutiny with the line "Black girls just want to get F****d all night/I just don't have that much jam."), the album went on to become one of the Stones' best selling releases of all time, garnering near universal critical praise in the process. It spawned numerous hit singles, including Miss You, Beast of Burden, Respectable, and my personal favourite, Shattered. It remains one of the band's most popular albums and helped propel their career well into the next decade.