Better Late Than Never

 

During the last days I listened to some records which were released last year and which, for whatever reason, I didn't listen to even though they were on my list. One of those was Charge Of The Love Brigade by Escape-ism. It is the latest project by Ian Svenonius, a Detroit born author, filmmaker and musician who worked with several punk band from Washington of which Nation of Ulysses may be the best known.

His last year record is a lo-fi gem with a drum machine, guitars and organ. Sometimes it sounds like a lost Suicide tape with less synths and a voice that doesn't quite measure up to Alan Vega and would be more suited to French ye-ye songs. All in all an album which captivated me from beginning to end. It is remarkable that even today, minimalist songs can still be written that resonate.

Monday's Long Song

 

There are song I love but I can't listen to them everyday. One of those is Frankie Teardrop the centerpiece of Suicide's debut album from 1977. At this time Alan Vega and Martin Rev worked in New York on a new electronic proto-punk sound. Minimal synths, a Farfisa organ, a simple drum-kit and the crazy voice of Alan Vega were enough to inspire a lot of bands from the new wave era. 

Their debut combines strange noises, eerie howls, erratic moans and Frankie Teardrops a song that brought together madness in absolute perfection. At the height of a seemingly endless terror of hammering rhythms and sawing monotony, the singer let out blood-curdling screams: a gunshot, a child's death, then the limbo where suicides dwell. I was impressed that a song whose lyrics I hardly understood at the time and whose musical elements I couldn't decipher could cause me so much discomfort. 

Suicide - Frankie Teardrop

Red Desert

 

The Vacant Lots is a Brooklyn, NYC based post-punk, electronic duo that is active since a decade and made some albums that are far over the average. A few name them as the devisee of Suicide. But you can't compare them with the synth-punk pioneers Alan Vega and Mercury Rev although you can hear fragments of their sound in their music. They have also influences of New Order, Pet Shop Boy and Human League in their songs. Red Desert is a song that could appear on any album by Sonic Boom and this is astonishing because Peter Kember mastered a few of their albums.  

And Disintegration could be song that was played often when it was released 30 years earlier.

Diabolo

 

Once again Adam over at Bagging Area was a bit faster than me to feature a new superb release. But it doesn't matter to feature Gabe Gurnsey's new album a second time at this little place in the internet. Diabolo his second album is a hybrid of many of his influences and marks a fusion of Simple Minds, Suicide, DAF, Detroit techno, deep house and Eurythmics. And with the vocals of Tilly Morris she adds the spirit of Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder to their sound. Nothing more or less than an album from another great Manchester band that will be played at my place more than one time.

Post Punk Electronic

 

Another compilation came to my ears a few days ago. Do You Have the Force? It sprawls the years from 1978 to 1982 after punk broke and a few artists are ready to create alternative electronic sounds. Based on the ideas of punk and that everything could be possible bands like Suicide in NYC or Flying Lizards in Britain created a new kind of sound. Instead of guitars and drums they were focused on electronic equipments and prepared the floor for the the upcoming club sounds. It made fun listening to this long gone songs again.

Suicide - Mr. Ray

The Flying Lizards - Steam Away

New to me was The Sea of Wires, a DIY-synthesizer duo from Coventry and as far as I know they released their songs only on cassettes. It is a dark krautrock inspired sound and too good not to give them a listen.

Nike Soldier

Last week I got a promotion information by Sacred Bones Records that they are going to release next month of a new album by Alan Vega. Of course it is not a new album - it the release of his lost album which was recorded in a collaboration with his wife Liz Lamer and Jared Artaud in NYC between 1995 and 1996. The first appetizer Nike Soldier shows that he was still on a high level recording dark industrial motorik sounds and there was still a fire burning inside him. A song that is out of time of course but shows again why many bands name him and Suicide as a massive influence.  

 

Monday's Long Song

 

One of the best findings last year was Kompromat by 10.000 Russos, a band from a coastal town in the north-east of Portugal. I got aware of them when they released their third album on Fuzz Club records. I have to admit that I never supposed that music like this was made Portugal. But it is better than many other bands all over the world. These guys are the ones that give psychedelic music a new inspiration (except some bands from Sweden that was featured at this place). The band have a combatative repeato rock sound with nods to Suicide and Neu! with lots of abrasive guitars and motorik percussion. And Joao Pimenta barks out rants like a futurist Mark E. Smith or Captain Beefheart. Hypnotic drones, pulsing beats and shaman-like mantras stamp their sound - perfect for a party in a basement garage in post-apocalyptic days.

Monday's Long Song

A few days ago a new album by an artist I never heard before came to my ears and it's name Sex Monk Blues made me investigate for more. The artist Tom of England is the newest project by Tom Bullock former based in Cambridge and a member of Tonka Sound System and he had to flee because of several reasons to bring rave to San Francisco in early 90's. After moving to NYC he worked with a free-jazz punk band, had a collaboration with a DJ and releasing some balearic tunes as Laughing Lights of Plenty.

He worked on the project Tom of England during the last years and it seems all of his weird influences were packed into this record. It is also another collaboration with Rene Love after a longer time when they released a few EP's. She once told in an interview how they met: “He was playing rock/dub/disco that night. A week later, I came around his house, had a meal, smoked a spliff, etc. He asked me where I was living, I told him I was kinda homeless, so he asked me to move in and the rest is history. We’ve been friends for about 15 years.”

It is a record filled with influences from Suicide in their NYC years, a Jah Wobble bass and the result of some psychedelic trips. After all one of the best, inspiring and courageous albums of this year.

 
And as a bonus his balearic escape:

The Laughing Lights of Plenty - The Rose

Dance Alone

During the last years I often thought most of the best albums of the year will be released from August until October. Now by Shari Vari is one of those that will be in the list of my favorite albums from this year. Shari Vari is the common project of Baltimore born Sophia Kennedy and Helena Ratka. Both living in Hamburg and their gloomy, catchy and groovy sound is filled with ingredients from the last decades. It seems like Psychobilly, Suicide, Art of Noise, Anne Clark and Gun Club went together into an experimental Techno-Club filled with tribal beats.
 

Tuesday's Cover

I really don't know if it is the start of a new series but I found a cover from Ghost Rider originally played by Suicide and release in 1977 as the opening track of their epic first album. Anna Calvi, who made one of  favorite albums from has this song in her live repertoire and she does it very well in her own style. Not too far from the original but far enough to incorporate to her sound. A version of this song I can agree to and probably next week there will be another cover appear at this place.

Monday's Long Song

Suicide's song from 1977 was one of those from their debut album that lasted since then in my memory. The song tells another story about poverty about a young father and factory worker who is not able to feed his family and he comes home, murders his wife and child to commit suicide. It is a story we Europeans heard many times in songs by black blues musicians and sometimes really great by new bands like Violent Femmes. I really like the output by Suicide and Alan Vega but in this song they transformed the inescapable end into a proto-punk inspired sound that hurts by every word and phrase Vega sung. For me a monument of song that prepared the ground for next generations.

Suicide - Frankie Teardrop

Nothing Gonna Hurt You Baby

If you name your band Cigarettes After Sex you can be sure that you get more attention as you name them The Chairs for example. But you have to deserve this attention in your songs. And they deserved this requirement well. It's a indie/slowcore band originally located in El Paso and started again a few years ago in NYC. To describe their sound is difficult. The vocals remind me to Slowdive, the bass line seens to be an evil, dark version from The Pixies, the reluctant guitar could be played by the  Cowboy Junkies and the organ to a pop version of Suicide. All in all music borrowed from great artist, mixed in a very own way and not the worst start for a Sunday morning.

Listened To The Words Of Alexander Hacke

Two days ago I listened to a radio feature about Alexander Hacke former guitarist and bass player of Einstürzende Neubauten maybe which had a massive influence on electric music. Featuring his new biography he talked a lot of the times in the early 80s while he lived door to door to David Bowie and Iggy Pop. It was a very interesting and entertaining hour listen to him and his stories and I think a go out to buy his book. This are some songs they played based on Hacke's own choice.

Indie Scene 1980

Back in real life after my military service and going to work as a regular employee in my job in a bank. I found my peace of mind spending eight hours in the office to hang around with my pals in the evening. It was also the days we formed a football team sponsored by the owner of the pub we hang around. This pub was hardly frequented especially on weekend. In the early 80s there are only two ways to serve music to your guest. Either you play a tape or you switch on the radio. So the idea grew that me and some friends will DJing on the weekends. And from then on I used to walk into the pub on Friday or Saturday with a wooden box full of records playing them to the audience. I remember some unforgettable evenings in these days. Looking back to the music I think a lot of classic songs were released. It's only a short list but man I love this songs.

D.A.F. - Kebabträume
Modern English - Gathering Dust
Nightmares in Wax - Birth of a Nation
Spizz Energi - Where's Captain Kirk
Wah! - Seven Minutes To Midnight
Woodhead Munro - Mambo Jumbo

Death

Listen to Viet Cong, a new band from Alberta, reminds me on the glorious 80s. Stylistically it is everything held in grey. Everything what sounds possibly bleak, dreary and hopelessly was added together to a sound to create it rushes so properly and scratches to play then all these groups: Joy Division, Bauhaus, Suicide, Shoegazer-Indie, as well as the usual in the meantime Krautrock and Industrial loans. But they are worth to be listened. Especially 'Death' - a 12 minute excursion in guitar sound. Sometimes slow, sometimes fast and not a dull moment.

Viet Cong - Death