Arabiklan

 

A new release from Leeds based electronic label Paisley Dark arrived last week. It was the new release by Spanish DJ Jaime Rodriguez aka James Rod. It's a two song collection with additive remixes by Rude Audio and Hunterbräu. Arabiklan persuaded with a track that will work extremely fine on the dancefloor under strobe light with it's pulsating rhythm and Arabic influences.  

Monday's Long Song

 

Another obscure sound for this series. Tolerance was a short living band from Japan in the late 70's. Formed by Junko Tange and Masami Yoshikawa in Tokyo to make only two albums. Both are re-released during the last days. They made a sound that was inspired by German bands like Neu!, Can and Amon Düül and the free music theories of Karlheinz Stockhausen. Not everything by them is easy to listen but Pulse Static (Tranquilla) is outstanding because the combine motorik rhythms from a drum machine with analog instruments to something I would name pre-techno because this kind of music was made three decades later by European electronic artists.

The Eyes In The Vase

From time to time something very unexpected was released. I never thought that an instrumental album by Robyn Hitchcock will ever be released. But in fact he released Life After Infinity few days ago. Since the days he formed the Soft Boys in the late 70's I followed his career because he was one of those artists who is able to write and perform songs. To be frank, I don't know every album he released during the last decades but the ones I owned were gems I can enjoy after all the years. With the release of this instrumental album he leaves the beaten paths of singer-songwriter and creates a wonderful world of playing semi-electric guitar music. It is a music to let your mind flow and take you to somewhere else. Probably the late-work of an fantastic musician and worth to be listened on a Sunday morning.

  

Herbstwind (Autumn Wind)

Fehlfarben were one of the most impressive bands in the German punk years. Formed in Düsseldorf in 1979 by members of local punk bands like Mittagspause, DAF and Der Plan after they came back from a trip to London where they saw The Teardrops Explodes. And they started something new - they combined the rough sound of punk with German lyrics. Their first album Monarchie und Alltag is still a classic and the song Paul ist tot a highlight from these days. I always had a fondness to this band and saw them several times during the last decades. But sadly they made never a record that was that successful like their debut. More than 30 years ago they released Xenophobia an album that had class and style because they moved ahead from their early sound and moved to a different kind of sound. More guitar riffs and partial with reduced speed but added with cryptic lyrics and political statement they made in 2012 a retro sound that could lead into future.

Fehlfarben - Herbstwind

Difficult Machinery

 

Two years ago French three piece band Veik released their debut album Surrounding Structures, a concept album as they say in their own words that tackles the whole spectrum of the human struggle on Earth: physical and mental illness, political activism, personal achievements and failure. It is an album torn torn between industrial, krautrock an no wave. To be honest, I came to this album by a superb remix of the main song by Sonic Boom that is far better than the original. A song that fits perfectly to him and stands in a row to other great remixes by him.

That this Caen, Normandy based band can play a different kind of music that sometimes hurt is showed by this song. A song that comes in the true religion of post-punk and could be released 40 years ago.

Thatcher's Not Dead

 

During the last week I read the news that French/German cultural channel released a documentary about the iron lady. I don't know exactly who needs this after 10 years she passed away. Otherwise I think it is necessary for those who didn't live in times when she ruled England as the last prime minister leading Britain into a fucking war. Margaret Thatcher was the embodiment of the nightmare of a world, the new-liberal Western world, which was just beginning to change, determined to rid itself of the cumbersome legacy of post-war Keynesianism. I was surprised when I read that Lionel Limiñana wrote the soundtrack to this documentary together with Cologne based composer David Menke once again after the OST to The Devil Inside Me from 2021. This song sounds like Sleaford Mods jamming with The Limiñanas.

Monday's Long Song

 

Let's go back again today to the days of post-punk when almost every week new great bands appeared and sadly many of them vanished in the fog of oblivion. This happened also to In Camera, a band formed in London in 1978 and split after releasing one single and two EP's for 4AD-label. As far as I know they were a good live band and invited by John Peel for a session. I didn't heard anything from their members later except Andrew Gray who joined The Wolfgang Press. In Camera played exactly the sound I loved at these days and still.

In Camera - Fatal Day