Tuxedo Moon

 UPDATE: This post was re-uploaded 09/14/2013.       Enjoy, NØ.

Tuxedomoon was an avant-garde, electronic-oriented collective whose music ranged from new wave pop to jazz fusion to more experimental synthesizer soundscapes (usually including saxophone & violin), which were frequently married in concert to performance-art shows. Tuxedomoon was formed in San Francisco in 1977 by two electronic music students at San Francisco City College, Blaine L. Reininger (keyboards, violin) & Steven Brown (keyboards, other instruments). Brown's local theater connections supplied equipment & occasional vocalists in Gregory Cruikshank & Victoria Lowe, plus more frequent contributions from singer & performance artist Winston Tong. Punk & new wave were opening up the San Francisco music scene at the time, & Tuxedomoon landed an opening slot for Devo in 1978 at around the same time they cut their first single, Pinheads on the Move.

Lowe quit the band before their first EP, No Tears, which featured off-&-on members Michael Belfer (guitar) & Paul Zahl (drums). Tong & Belfer departed temporarily, & Peter Principle (b. Peter Dachert) joined as a full-time member. Tuxedomoon signed to the Residents' Ralph Records in 1979, when Tuxedomoon recorded their now classic album Half Mute. It's startling variety & innovation combined with Patrick Roque's brilliant award-winning cover art made it an unexpected success. Feeling that their ideas were more in tune with the European electronic music scene, the band then toured Europe. Touching down first in Rotterdam in April, 1981 where they spent six months as artists-in-residence, they were soon drawn (along with many others) to the independent music scene which began to flourish in Brussels in the eighties. Brussels at the time was a cultural crossroads, drawing groups from all over the world.

After 1981's Desire, the band relocated permanently to Rotterdam, where Reininger began to branch out as a solo artist. Tuxedomoon was also hired to score a Maurice Bejart ballet, the results of which were released in 1982 as Divine. Reininger left for a solo career in 1983 & was replaced by Frankie Lievaart & horn player Luc Van Lieshout.

Their period of European residence based in Brussels was extraordinarily prolific. When not touring, they spent much of their time in the studio, taking advantage of the free-spending optimism of the time & producing a large body of work which has stood the test of time & continues to appeal to those who seek alternatives to mainstream consumer Culture.

Although the group itself was semi-officially dissolved in 1989, they have continued to work on collaborative projects as well as their individual output, continually updating their collective discography with works for dance, for film & other media as well as music for its own sake.

In June 1997 Steven Brown, Peter Principle & Blaine L. Reininger, the founding members of the band met in Tel Aviv to collaborate upon the composition & performance of a series of pieces of "Hypothetical Elevator Music", music designed to create aural backdrops appropriate for a pursuit of leisure activities within the urban landscape.

Here are a couple songs from the Deaf Club compilation:  

"19th Nervous Breakdown" & "In Heaven".

decryption code in comments

Enjoy,
NØ