Yesterday, the Anlo-Italian producer and musician Gaudi released a new single. Gaudi has been working as a producer for decades, mainly in the dub, electronica and reggae genres. He has also made a name for himself as a remixer and his collaboration with The Orb.
For his latest collaboration, he has teamed up with Italy's longest-serving DJ, Daniele Baldelli, and completed an EP. A foretaste of what is to come can be heard on the pre-released song. A conglomerate where elements of psychedelic funk, tribal dub and electronic disco come together.
Today the sad news arrived, that Michael Madsen died yesterday on a heart attack at the age of 68 in Malibu. Madsen was an actor for more than 40 years in Los Angeles. He got well known by the movies directed by Quentin Tarantino. To be honest I first recognized him on Tarantion's first movie Reservoir Dogs when he performed as Mr. Blonde, the biggest sociopath in the whole movie. What perhaps remains is his improvised and bloody foley scene in which he awkwardly dances through the scene to the music of Stealers Wheel.
Today Vince Clarke turns 65 and it is time to pay tribute to his work here. Born in Essex he studied violin and piano. Influenced by Sparks, Human League and Fat Gadget he formed with a schoolmate a short lived band which became Depeche Mode after Martin Gore and Dave Gahan joined the band. Clarke wrote the most of the songs for their debut album Speak & Spell, a record that changed everything in synthpop. Not only that they were an all-synthesizer band, they were clever enough to write songs with great hooks.
Shortly after this album he left the band, because the sound of them got a darker touch and he formed with Alison Moyet, another schoolmate, Yazoo. They released two albums and with Upstairs at Eric's they reached the charts. Since then, it has become clear that Clarke's songs need a great voice to come to full fruition.
As erratic as he appears, he dedicated himself to a new project after the second album and founded The Assembly. But not much more than Never, Never, in which Feargal Sharkey is allowed to sing, remained.
With his next project he found a destination for the next years. In Andy Bell, he found a voice that would shape the sound of Erasure through an advertisement in Melody Maker.
In 2003 Erasure released Other People's Songs an album with cover versions in which the cover version by Steve Harley stands out above all (because it is also a great song).
As announced last week, a small series of songs with Red, Hot or Blue in their titles starts today. As always, the selection is eclectic and, apart from the color, has no further context.
Let's start with Nick Cave and a song from Peaky Blinders a British drama series set in Birmingham around 100 years ago. The song fits perfectly with the gloomy mood that this series exudes.
When I was rummaging through my record collection to find another long song, I came across an old record by Louis Tillet. Tillet was an Australian musician, singer/songwriter, pianist and saxophone player who came to my attention in the early eighties when he was part of Ed Kuepper's Laughing Clowns.
At that time, a wave of Australian bands came to Europe, some of which were great or just very good. The Go-Betweens, Birthday Party and the Triffids are just a few to mention here. While many of these bands wrote catchy or brute songs, Louis Tillet turned to the darker side of music. Many of his songs are rooted in the blues and are performed with piano, saxophone and a sparse guitar and dominated by his voice, which sounds like an aged Nick Cave. This song is from his 2001 live album Live @ the Basement and is typical of his sound.
Today's song is from Florence Road, a four piece all female band from Ireland. They started as a student band with cover songs. It may be the future way to attract attention, but they have decided to release different cover versions like Billie Eilish and Kate Bush on TikTok. Immediately they had a million followers and record companies took notice.
The result is nothing more and nothing less than a great indie-pop song about the end of a relationship. A song with clear structures, indie guitars, catchy hooks and the clear voice of Lily Aron. I would be surprised if this song wasn't often played on the radio.
