The return of Student Selection - a series that never really got started (just one post I think - actually two) but was intended to showcase cool music that my students have turned me onto.
Quite a few classes are based around a prompt - send me a clip of your favorite tune in such-and-such a genre, or sometimes a specific artist (Bowie or Joni). For a recent class on New Wave / Postpunk, a student who is very knowledgeable about the genre nominated this from a Japanese group that shamefully (what with being a postpunk historian and all) I'd never heard of.
Listening it struck me initially as "none-more-New-Wave" - like how could anything be more New Wave than this? The angularity, the synth bit, the strained vocals....
But then, listening more, I discerned an odd resemblance to Led Zeppelin - the beat reminded me of "When the Levee Breaks" (or Billy Squier's Zep-clone "The Stroke"). The vocals get quite soaring and Plant-y. And when the noisy guitarburst comes in, it's excitingly noisy but it's definitely a solo - not so far from something Jimmy Page might let loose.
And what d'ya know? As the knowledgeable student revealed, P-Model is a classic example of the Old Wave / New Wave switcheroo. Before, they had been an unsuccessful prog band and like so many Western counterparts (Police, Cars, etc) they wholesale embraced the New Aesthetic - sonically, sartorially, in terms of record design.
Geometrics heightened by the obi-strip
None-new-wavest of all time, possibly, this back cover:
And not least a significant element of the total make-over is the band name P-Model, which is "we are product" / "we are machines" in its oblique sleekness.
But you can tell these dudes can really really play - they got the chops and in classic crypto-Oldwaver fashion are shoving all that snazz into the strictures of the New Thing.
Listen to the demented clockwork virtuosity of this one
Are there any bands that can be said to have swam upstream to spawn, i.e. new wave-to-old wave? Thinking of ABC on the second album, though that direction didn't take. In the 80's it didn't seem like too many bands were "selling their turntables and buying guitars", so to speak, but there must have been others.
ReplyDeleteWell the classic example is the trajectory of Talk Talk - they start as pretty characterless New Wave / New Pop and then the records subsequent get a bit jazzy and expansive - and then, bang, Spirit of Eden - it's like a flashback to Island Records in 1972, Jade Warrior, John Martyn, Traffic, etc. Flute and oboes and cor anglais. A breath controlled synth called the Variophon. Long tracks, huge expanses of sound designed for your hi-fi and Dark Side of the Moon style stoned / immersive listening. I think they actually employed someone who engineered one of the groups of that era of Island / Pink Label progginess. Or was it that Danny Thompson plays? That kind of music - Martyn, Roy Harper, etc - was definitely what they took their bearings from.
DeleteMeanwhile probably the actually existing and still recording survivors from that Old Wave were still trying to sound New Wave or at least taut, modern soul-dance. Talk Talk are making a record that could sit along Traffic's post-psych run of records. Steve Winwood is making slick R&B using the latest drum machines.
The Prodigy? Not going the whole distance, perhaps, but definitely heading in a more trad-rock direction circa Fat Of The Land. And they added a guitar player for their live shows.
DeleteLive instruments seem pretty common for hip-hop these days: eg Public Enemy when I saw them earlier this year. IIRC the line-up was bass, drums, keys and two DJs behind Chuck and Flav.
I was going to mention Primal Scream circa Give Out… But they have had so many directions it hardly seems fair to pick on one particular transition.
And then there are the great cycles for bands like Rush, who went New Wave with synths and drum machines in the 80s, and then back to gtr/bs/drums rock in the 90s.
Depeche Mode were a cute modern techno-pop band who became stadium-shaking rockers.
DeleteBut that was the Mode going a la mode - adjusting to grunge, the new thing. Right down to Gahan's narcotic adventures.
DeleteI think with Primal Scream we are firmly in the age of retro where ideas of Old Wave and New Wave collapse.... the late 80s is in many way all about reversing on the New Wave aesthetics (New Wave by that point has now been around long enough to be its own Old Wave - Boring Old Farts like Psychedelic Furs and the Banshees trudging out to tour their 8th or 9th albums, just as tedious as Page doing The Firm or Robert Plant's attempts to be with-it on his solo albums). Late 80s young upcoming bands bring in pre-punk influences that actually seem fresher.
The Cult's album with Rick Rubin producing might be a pivotal point but then there are many others. Sabbath-riff recycling by Buttholes et al.
Groups in the late Eighties want to sound like 1969 rather than 1979 - in the weirdest way, 1979 seems further back in time, or at least, more out-moded (mode as in a la mode as in fashion-logic)
U2 swapped out their post-punk cred and expansive Eno production for the dreadful retro-roots folly of "Rattle & Hum" (in fairness, they saw the error of their ways).
DeleteThe Stone Roses (RIP Mani) decided to go full Zep on "The Second Coming" - probably the most star-crossed comeback in music history.
Avant experiments with Yoko aside, much of John Lennon's solo stuff is far more retro-sounding than post "Rubber Soul" Beatles.
I'm in a tiny minority (possibly of one) who thinks that the best period of Talk Talk was their brief middle period circa The Colour of Spring, when they ditched the new wave/new pop trappings and let their magnificent rhythm section do their stuff.
DeleteThe problem with the two late albums is precisely that the rhythm section is absent - a tremendous waste.
I dunno, I think that in hindsight a lot of artists are at their most interesting in their "transitional" periods. I return to Isn't Anything far more than Loveless, maybe it's just more thrilling to hear a band searching for a new direction, than actually finding it.
DeleteYeah, Mark Hollis even grew his hair out and started wearing denim jackets and beaded necklaces. As opposed to the skinny ties and straight-leg pants that the rockers were donning in order to look "edgy."
ReplyDeleteSimon, Ed, Phil, and everyone else who comments on this blog, I've a real favour to ask of you. A dear friend of mine has just lost his mum, and I want to show him how much I care about him. He's a dance music obsessive (I got him Energy Flash as a present), and he has howitsered a multitude of times as to why hard house is a million billion times better then progressive house. So, if you lot were to name the five best hard house tracks, I could relay your choices to him and say that I was thinking of him.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear that
DeleteI honestly couldn't name 5 hard house tracks, it's not a genre I followed
BUT I did love this track "Don't You Want My Love" by Felix, which was particularly big in the gay clubs in 1992 like Trade. The sound was called Nu-NRG I think, and associated with the deejay Tony de Vit. Actually looking him up, he's considered a pioneer of hard-NRG and hard house. The Felix tune's tempo is quite leisurely compared to hard house proper, but for its time it was considered "slamming".
https://youtu.be/nBRxhl9xtYQ?si=VK2hfFfikOM2ay5j
I guessing the regular blog commenters are even less likely to be able to nominate hard house classics, but maybe we have some secret fans of Mrs Wood and Lisa Lashes and Ann Savage here.
DeleteThe top female deejays for hard house all seem to have names connoting S&M and discipline - Mrs. Wood Teaches Techno was her big compilation.
To be honest, I can't tell you the distinction between hard house and progressive house, so you could just name 5 house tracks. I mean, the point of the exercise is to show that I care about my friend.
DeleteTry "Electric Guitar" by Fluke:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp8K5aG_gOU&list=RDcp8K5aG_gOU&start_radio=1
I'm in the camp that began to lose track of what-genre-meant-what right about the time Hard House became a thing (I'm still trying to figure out what Dubstep really is), but if we're talking straight up House music, these 5 tracks are among the first ones I look for when putting together some kind of dance music playlist:
DeleteKim English - "Nite Life"
Aphrodisiac - "Just Before The Dawn"
River Ocean - "Love & Happiness"
Neal Howard - "Indulge"
Yohan Square - "Love of Life"
So much positivity in those titles! Hope your efforts bring some small level of comfort to your friend.
Progressive house I know nearly as little as hard house - not my bag. But here are five Top house tracks
DeleteDe Lacy - Hideaway (Deep Dish Remix)
Jaydee - Plastic Dreams
Hardrive - Deep Inside
St Germain - Alabama Blues (Todd Edwards Vocal Mix)
Sneaker Pimps - Spin Spin Sugar (Armand Van Helden Dark Garage Mix)
You have set a tough one, Stylo! I haven’t really thought about House music for 35 years or so.
ReplyDeleteBut here are a few of my faves from the days when I used to go out dancing:
Sterling Void - It’s Alright
Joe Smooth - Promised Land
Phuture - Your Only Friend
Frankie Knuckles - Your Love
Mr Fingers - Mystery Of Love
This is absolutely the most mainstream normcore set of House tunes ever assembled. But it includes some of the absolutely greatest popular music ever recorded, every bit as worthy of being immortalized as Motown’s greatest hits or James Brown’s classic singles. And as your friend is a Hard House devotee, he might find some unfamiliar tunes that share some connective DNA with the music he loves.
Sympathies to your friend. I hope your kind gesture offers some comfort at a difficult time.
Sorry for not replying earlier. My mate wishes to thank you all for both your sympathies and your choices, and he came up with his own suggestions (he also appreciated the opportunity to talk to a mate in the pub about something other than the week's events):
DeleteTony De Vit: The Dawn (Paul James remix)
Tony De Vit: Are You Already?
Tony De Vit: We Don't Care
Stimulant DJs: Hoovertime
Anything by Untidy Dubs
Kronos: Funky Groove
Nick Sentience: Discotech
Bulletproof: Say Yeah
Hyperlogic: Only Me (Stimulant DJS remix)
Paul Glasby: Kick It
OD4O4: Motherfucker
Baby Dee: Mantra to the Buddha
He named one more but I can't read my handwriting. I have not heard of any of these tracks. My mate also claimed to be unable to distinguish Nirvana and Dire Straits.
Thanks for that! I will listen to your friend’s recommendations and expand my horizons.
ReplyDeleteThe Nirvana / Dire Straits line made me laugh. Reminds me of a friend of mine, also a dance music fan, who could not tell the difference between Van Morrison and Bon Jovi. When you are close to these things, the differences might seem glaringly obvious. Take a few steps back, and it’s the similarities that stand out.
Well the revving-up riff in “smells like teen spirit” is rather close to the one in Boston “more than a feeling” innit
Delete