God knows why but I woke up with this song in my head this morning..and it seems to be sticking all day. Must have come up in a now-forgotten dream or summat.
Naturally I looked it up on the interwebby and as I learned of the correct spelling Gaudete (should've known that) I also remember it was made famous by Steeleye Span in the 70s, who sang it on TOTP once. Wikipedia also further informs that it's a Latin Christmas carol, from the 16th Century.
Maybe I was a monk back then and I was taken back to a previous life in my dream. or maybe it was my current fixation with 70s music which brought out the "Span" version from 1973.
Fact: the Steeleye Span single is one of only three top 50 British hits to be sung in Latin - can you name the other two?
Anyway, fingers on ears chaps and let's have a sing-along....we'll be perfect by Christmas.
Mesdames et messieurs...bonsoir! Things are heating up in Azerbaijan as the first semi-final of this year's Eurovision Song Contest reached it's heady conclusion in Baku last night. The qualifiers were: Romania - Moldova - Iceland - Hungary - Denmark - Albania - Cyprus - Greece - Russia - Ireland.
Sadly, Montenegro didn't make it through with the fabulously titled Euro Neuro.
Other surprise non-runners were Switzerland, Belgium, and San Marino with The Social Network Song (Oh Oh - Uh - Oh Oh) Austria also nul-points, or thereabouts, with eloquently titled Woki Mit Deim Popo, approx. translation 'Shake Your Arse' ..performed appropriately by Trackshittaz (I kid you not)
Euro-fun continues with second semi-final on Thursday, with the grand finale on Saturday. Stay tuned!
Meanwhile here's some fab nul-points nostalgia. It's Belgium's Telex from 1980, who so marvellosuly mixed stae of the art instruments with a touch of Belgian surrealism and a catchy tune. Nul points, naturellement..
Was pretty gutted to hear last night that singer Donna Summer had passed away aged just 63. She died of lung cancer which she blamed on toxic dust inhaled after 9/11 in New York. A tragedy within a tragedy.
Although still very active as a recording artist Donna was best known for her work in the 70s, practically inventing disco music as a genre and certainly breaking new ground with her more electronic based work with Giorgio Moroder. The epic Moog-fuelled I Feel Love is probably one of her best known songs, but let's not forget other gems such as Love To Love You Baby, I Remember Yesterday, the somewhat bizarre McArthur Park ("someone left the cake out in the rain..") and the classic disco-stomper Hot Stuff
Her raunchy, sexy style in the 70s disco phase under the Casablanca label, was somewhat offset with her becoming a 'born-again Christian' in the 80s. Although Summer spent much of the decade in musical obscurity, save for her
collaboration with Anderson/Vangelis on State of Independence, she
returned to the charts in 1989 under the Stock, Aitkin & Waterman umbrella with This Time I Know It's For Real and an album Another Place and Tim.
1991's Mistaken Identity album saw Donna try out a more urban style but with little success. The single Work That Magic failed to do just that. The rest of the nineties saw just greatest hits compilations and a live album, with Donna living on her legacy.
Crayons, an album of original material, was released in May 2008 with modest succes in the US although shifting very few digital units in Europe. An undeserving demise to one of our best female vocal artists and songwriters.
Ironic then that it was 30 years ago almost to the week that New Order issued their first electronic-dance orientated single Temptation which borrows heavily from the Summer / Moroder song Our Love from the ground-breaking Bad Girls album, as does their subsequent Blue Monday released in 1983 which started the electronic Hi-NRG dance and house music trends.
Regular readers will have noticed, perhaps with some disappointment, that LiM hasn't bothered to continue the tradtional 30th anniversary "I Love.." series as we did with 1980 and 1981. Possibly because as a matter of fact we don't love it much, or at least not as much as the previous 2 or 3 years, musically speaking.
That said, there was still some great new pop music being made and sold albeit a kind of 'second'wave' of new music with a bit more shine to it, thus lacking the gritty appeal of earlier post-punk/new wave tunes.
Duran Duran were a typical example - the short-lived "new romantic" (sic.) trend with the band and its music, influenced by both Bowie and Oxfam alike, developed into the smoother, smarter version of the Birmingham band, which would in fact bring them out of the clubs and into the big wide world. Their second album Rio was released thirty tears ago this month.
The transient single My Own Way at the turn of the year was a logical progression from their 1981 debut although Girls On Film from that album had already shown the way ahead. The 80s were going to be sexy. The first new single from '82, Hungry Like the Wolf, mixed pop-friendly guitar riffs, soft electronics and of course the catchy vocal lines making it a worthy figurehead for the album. The seminal Save a Prayer released some weeks later would take us nicely through the warmer months, thank you, while the album's title track would serve both as summer holiday soundtrack and memory-jerker for the chillier months ahead.
Whatever you think of Duran Duran there's no doubting the fact that they were very much an emblem of their time - the "who gives a damn" attitude of pop against a backdrop of rampant Thatcherism, the Falklands War and a brand new Princess for the People, perhaps unsurprisingly a "Durannie" herself.
Very sad to read that Theremin virtuoso and teacher Barbara Buchholz passed away yesterday, at the age of just 52. I found out about her recently when researching for my lecture on electronic music and mentioned her as perhaps the most important contemporary Theremin musician. She regularly gave performances and workshops for the instrument, including one in Sardinia during the summer.
Born in Duisburg in 1958, Barbara studied music and palyed various instruments, including bass before becoming a master student of Lydia Kavina, a descendent of the Theremin inventor Lev Thermen. Together with Kavina, in 2005 Barbara founded the platform Touch! Don't Touch! for theremin. Apprently she even partecipated in a German talent show in order to bring the Theremin to a wider audience.
As stated in her official biography.
In the age of digital media, Barbara Buchholz’
work explores the options of making electronics
a dimension of human communication.
The combination of Thereminvox and
Midi Theremin is a bridge from the oldest to the
very latest technology.
There's a certian obnoxiousness about Ms. Madonna which often makes her and unlikeable and, well, obnoxious. But you've got to hand it to her - she's the kind of Female David Bowie of Pop (c) taking trends old and current and turning them into something new.
I was listening to her GHV2 album today and it's amazing how much electronica is on it, even though you would hardly classify her as an electronic artist. To top it all I believe her latest single is done in collaboration with electronica-princess M.I.A., who I instantly recognised.
Here's one of my Mad (sic.) faves anyway, the William Orbit produced Ray of Light from the 1998 album of the same name.
New York's Museum of Modern Art (that's MoMA to the locals) have announced a special Kraftwerk performance/installation over eight days in April. The group will be giving a special live 3-D performance of their eight albums from Autobahn to Tour de France Soundtracks, with a different album being featured every night (starting Tuesday 9th). Tickets are $25 per night, plus the trip to NY, eight days stay etc.. Not cheap at the end of the day but may well be worth it to witness this unique show.
Dates as follows:
Tuesday, April 10, 8:30 p.m.
1 – Autobahn (1974)
Wednesday, April 11, 8:30 p.m.
2 – Radio-Activity (1975)
Thursday, April 12, 8:30 p.m.
3 – Trans Europe Express(1977)
Friday, April 13, 10:00 p.m.
4 – The Man-Machine (1978)
Saturday April 14, 8:30 p.m.
5 – Computer World (1981)
Sunday, April 15, 8:30 p.m.
6 – Techno Pop (1986)
Monday, April 16, 8:30 p.m.
7 – The Mix (1991)
Tuesday, April 17, 10:00 p.m.
8 – Tour de France (2003)
Even more tantalisingly the 'Werk will also perform "..additional compositions from their catalog, all adapted specifically for this exhibition...". Does this mean we will get to hear some of the fab early stuff like Tanzmusik in a new upgraded format, I wonder?
Colourbox are perhaps one of the most underrated groups of the eighties, reamaining as they did for most of the decade on the fringes, too late for synth-pop and a little too early for the new electronica dance movement towards the end of the decade, which ironically they also championed.
Although they produced some good quality music influenced by electro, reggae, indie and all sorts of other stuff, they never really got the big hit, at least not until they somehow morphed into MARRS in 1987 and produced one of the biggest and most-influential 'one off' singles of all time Pump Up The Volume.
But now their label 4AD is set to celebrate the band's 30th anniversary (if somewhat prematurely) with a brand new 4 CD box set of all their released studio recordings and mixes put together by founder member Martyn Young. CD1 is the 1985 album, Colourbox, and includes all the tracks
from the free album that was included with the original 10,000 LPs. The
second disc is the 7" singles and the third is the 12" mixes. The final
disc includes the 4 track mini-album, Colourbox (yes, same name as album) and loads of other previously unreleased stuff. Spiffing.
Back in 1986, Colourbox wrote a theme for the World Cup, aptly calling it The Official Colourbox World Cup Theme which, sadly, it wasn't. Here's the 12" version.
Now here's a thing: a recording artist's biography/discography shown on video through their music and respective record sleeves. This is one for John Foxx done by Ratatouille TV, a non profit Dutch tv programme in Amsterdam with music, art and culture.
A good selection here (although it only covers Foxx's work up to mid-80s before his electro-Renaissance) and I like the way they show front and back of the sleeves at the same time, although I think they aren't using two copies but the same one super-imposed somehow. Clever that.
The commentary's in Dutch so I'm not sure exactly what is being said, but a good idea. Enjoy.
And by that, we don't mean 'he has returned', quite the opposite in fact as Sylvian has had to postpone the upcoming tour due to problems with "..a lower back injury that is causing him significant pain and affecting his mobility", ie. he's done his back in.
The official statement published last week was quite clear about the reason for postponing the much anticipated Implausible Beauty tour, and was followed up with a personal message from Dave expressing ".. sincere apologies (and gratitude) to all who purchased tickets for the shows" and ominously promising that the delay would make the tour "..all the stronger for it.". Mmm.
Not all is lost however as EMI's new best of compilation is still due for release on 27th February. A Victim Of Stars 1982-2012 is a celebration of Sylvian's 30 year solo, or rather post-Japan career, including tracks done alone and with Sakamoto, Rain Tree Crow and Robert Fripp. And just to make sure the fans buy it there's also the token previously unreleased track Where's Your Gravity?
Speaking of 30 years of history, Sylvian was featured as star interviewee in Smash Hits, February 1982, discussing Japan's surprise 'break' announcement of the time. Click on pic below to see full issue and interview on pages 4 & 5. (Our gratidude - to use a Sylvian-esque term - as ever to Brian at Like Punk Never Happened for the scans)
According to the The Human League forum and this CD-merchant, a double-CD 30th Anniversary edition of The League's seminal synth-pop album Dare is due out on March 26th 2012.
While the main album seems to be as per 2002 21st anniversary issue, there are also some new masterings including the whole US issue mini-albumFascination!, originally issued in 1982.
Full tracklisting as follows:
CD 1
1.The Things That Dreams Are Made Of (2002 - Remaster) 2.Open Your Heart (2002 - Remaster) 3.The Sound of the Crowd (2002 - Remaster) 4.Darkness (2002 - Remaster) 5.Do or Die (2002 - Remaster) 6.Get Carter (2002 - Remaster) 7.I Am the Law (2002 - Remaster) 8.Seconds (2002 - Remaster) 9.Love Action (I Believe in Love) (2002 - Remaster) 10.Don't You Want Me (2002 - Remaster) Bonus tracks; 11.The Sound of the Crowd (Complete) (2012 - Remaster) 12.Don't You Want Me (Extended Dance Mix) (2012 - Remaster) 13.The Sound of the Crowd (Instrumental) (2012 - Remaster) 14.Hard Times/Love Action (I Believe in Love) (Instrumental) (2001 - Remaster) 15.Open Your Heart/Non-Stop (Instrumental) (2012 - Remaster) 16.Don't You Want Me (Alternative Version) (2012 - Remaster)
CD 2
Fascination! (USA mini album);
1.Mirror Man (2003 - Remaster) 2.You Remind Me of Gold (2012 - Remaster) 3.(Keep Feeling) Fascination (Extended Version) (2012 - Remaster) 4.I Love You Too Much (2012 - Remaster) 5.Mirror Man (Extended Version) (2012 - Remaster) 6.You Remind Me of Gold (Instrumental) (2012 - Remaster) 7.(Keep Feeling) Fascination (Improvisation) (2012 - Remaster)* 8.I Love You Too Much (Dub Version) (2012 - Remaster) 9.Total Panic (2012 - Remaster)
*one hopes that the full-length version of this track is included. this time.
Most folks in the UK - and possibly elsewhere - are probably sick of hearing about the London 2012 Olympic Games already, but here's a bit of interesting news at last. Electro-daddys Underworld have been appointed as official Musical Directors for the opening ceremony of said games, which will take place on 27th July. Hoorah!
Rick Smith and Karl Hyde of Underworld will be working on the event with old mucker Danny Boyle, who by chance is also the Artistic Director of the ceremony.
The trio go way back of course, starting from the soundtrack of Boyle's Trainspotting flick which gave Underworld their big break with Born Slippy. Since then they've also contributed tunes to Boyle films The Beach, A Life Less Ordinary and Sunshine. More recently Underworld's music was also used for Boyle's theatrical production Frankenstein.
Underworld are determined to leave their mark on the Olympic Ceremony this summer with their particular style of electronic music "It's not something we'll get to do again" says Karl Hyde. Go for gold guys!
The band have a new 20-year retrospective out soon, Anthology 1992-2012 - get your preview here. And here's my fave Underworld track of the moment:
