28 December 2015

Final F For 2015



The Fatima Mansions – The Loyaliser CD single, Kitchenware Records SKCD67, 1994
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Tracklist –

The Loyaliser
Gary Numan’s Porsche
Arnie’s Five
Into Thinner Air with The Loyaliser (Juno Reactor mix)

Feliz año nuevo,

23 December 2015

Back to Alphabet City



Got both Fad Gadget & Frank Tovey under F, so let's go.

Francis John (Frank) Tovey is Fad Gadget.

He was an early practitioner in the melding of New Wave & Industrial into skewed pop songs filled with his black-humor lyrics regarding dehumanization in the modern Industrial age & the mass media's enslavement of modern society.

Fad Gadget's music was synth-driven but augmented by the sounds of electrical appliances such as electric drills or razors. The vocals were satirically deadpan.


Fad Gadget was the first artist to sign to Daniel Miller's Mute Records. "Back to Nature" was recorded as the second Mute Records release at RMS Studio in London.



Side A –
Back to Nature

Side B –
The Box


"Back to Nature" was a great success for Mute Records so the follow-up record titled "Ricky's Hand" was recorded. The recording included Tovey's wife, Barbara, singing a vocal part near the end of the recording; the vocal part is then mixed with a synthesiser part into the outro of the song.



Side A –
Ricky’s Hand

Side B –
Handshake


By the time Frank/Fad recorded the album Fireside Favourites at Blackwing Studios, he had decided to record the album without Daniel Miller's assistance. He wanted the final say to be his alone. Tovey recorded two more albums for Mute at Blackwing, Incontinent & Under the Flag. During the recording of Under the Flag Frank began using a Roland MC-4 Microcomposer. This made it easier for him to create a more controlled style of music. This style was carried on with the recording of the album Gag.


The recording of Gag was a change of direction for Tovey. It was the first time he used a band of musicians to record an album. Before he had recorded most of the musical parts himself. He also moved the recording from London to Hansa Tonstudio in Berlin. This recording included many acoustic instruments (like Joni Sackett – viola & David Simmonds – keyboards). Frank had utilized synthesisers before they were fashionable, now he moved away from electronic instrumentation which was the trend at the time. At this same time, Einstürzende Neubauten played a show with Fad Gadget at The Loft in Berlin & Tovey was moved by the use of heavy machinery for percussion. He had heard a large printing press nearby & got recording engineer Gareth Jones to record it. This was looped & would become the basis for "Collapsing New People".


Here Fad Gadget was assisted by: David Rodgers – guitar, double bass, & bass synthesizer; David Simmonds – piano, synthesizer, organ, celesta, bottles, & marimba; Joni Sackett – vocals & viola with additional vocal chores by Tovey’s wife Barbara Frost & daughter Morgan Tovey-Frost as well as guitars by Rowland S. Howard.



Fad Gadget – Gag, Mute STUMM 15, 1984.
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Side 1 –
Ideal World (featuring Rowland S Howard – guitar)
Collapsing New People
Sleep (featuring Morgan Tovey-Frost – baby vocals)
Stand Up
Speak to Me

Side 2 –
One Man’s Meat
The Ring
Jump
Ad Nauseam (featuring Rowland S Howard – guitar)


After recording Gag, Tovey began recording under his own name, Frank Tovey. In 1986 he released Snakes & Ladders. The dancefloor success of the Fad Gadget single "Collapsing New People" led to the song's inclusion on both the U.S. & Canadian versions of Snakes & Ladders as it was the first Frank Tovey or Fad Gadget album released in North America. This special edition French version includes a free limited issue 12" maxi EP with songs selected from all four previous Fad Gadget albums.


Frank Tovey – Snakes & Ladders w/bonus 4-song 12" 45, Mute STUMM 23, 1986.

Face A –
The Cutting Edge
Snakes & Ladders
The Cutting Edge (reprise)
Shot in the Dark
Concrete

Face B –
Luxury
Small World
Luddite Joe
Megalomaniac

Maxi Face A –
Coitus Interruptus
Innocent Bystander

Maxi Face B –
Sheep Look Up
Ideal World



In 2001, Tovey resurrected his old pseudonym to support his former colleagues & Mute label-mates, Depeche Mode on their Exciter tour. Tovey suffered from heart problems since his childhood & died of a heart attack on April 3, 2002 at the age of 45. He was working on a new album at the time of his death.

F-you,

13 December 2015

Space Dub - Zither Style



This gem came out the same year as Audio Active’s On-U Sound release Happy Happer.

Here Audio Active are Taki 244 (Tsuyoshi Taki), 2 DD (Daisuke Omura), Masa the Al-Tamyran (Masa Osada), & Nanao (Shigemoto Nanao), on this outing joining zither great Laraaji Nanananda (Edward Larry Gordon).

Audio Active & Laraaji – The Way Out is the Way In, All Saints ASCD26, 1995.
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Tracklist –
New Laughter Mode (the Way In)
Music & Cosmic (Feel Yourself) w/Bill Nelson - guitar
Think Cosmically
How Time Flies (when You’re Having None)
Laraajingle
Space Visitors for Tea-That Lump on Your Head
Hither & Zither
Blooper’s Dance Floor
New Laughter Mode (the Way Out)

Enjoy,

12 December 2015

& Now for Somethin’ Completely Different





Here is Man Klan's only LP, released in 1987. Their output consists of two 12" EPs  released in 1985, this LP, & a 12" single of  "Wanting & Waiting". They were from Stockholm, Sweden although this particular LP was released on the UK label Wire. Some good female-fronted punky Goth grooves in the vein of Devils era Concrete Blonde or 4ADs X-Mal Deustchland.

Man Klan was started by Carita Palmroos – vocals & Jacki Pazda/Huberhoff – bass with Jens Lansman – guitar; & Johan Bomberg – drums on this release.

Man Klan- Flesh Machine, Wire Records WRLP007, 1987.
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Side A –

Wanting & Waiting
Everytime
Love for Pleasure
No Time for Mercy
Redheads

Side B –

Candyman
Getting Closer
Fisherman
Flesh Machine
Love Child

Enjoy,

06 December 2015

Today's E is You, Gene





Eugene McDaniels, 70s revolutionary radical & all-around heavy cat, was once Gene McDaniels, mellow soul singer & #1 contender for the Black Scott Walker title. Here's a pair of doozies from the mid-60s Genester.

Gene McDaniels – The Facts of Life from Sometimes I'm Happy Sometimes I'm Blue LP, 
Liberty 7175, 1960.

&


Gene McDaniels – (There goes) The Forgotten Man single side B, Liberty F 55752, 1964.



Leap ahead to 1970: Here’s a Bible-toting, denim-clad McDaniels on the grainy, guerilla-styled cover shot for Outlaw accompanied by then-wife Ramona, outfitted in ammo-belt & Angela Davis afro, & a grim-faced feminist Susan James with a semi-automatic.  Like many other of us from that era, something BIG had happened to Eugene McDaniels between 1965 & 1970 that transformed him from Gene McDaniels to "Eugene McDaniels the Left Rev. Mc D". This is a back-to-the-country rock album in many places, but the funky soul shines through strongly, especially on tracks like "Reverend Lee". McDaniels recorded Outlaw with a rock/jazz band that featured legendary Miles Davis alum jazz bassist Ron Carter & ubiquitous 70s session guitarist Hugh McCracken. The group fleshed out the Rev's hippie-folk-funky dreams with smooth style. The band is largely responsible for the record’s pure cohesiveness, as they bring McDaniels disparate elements together into one of the most powerfully lasting statements of post-Aquarian Age culture.

"Under conditions of national emergency, like now, there are only two kinds of people – those who work for freedom and those who do not." -Mc D.



Eugene McDaniels – Outlaw, Atlantic SD 8259, 1970.
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Side One –

Outlaw
Sagittarius Red
Welfare City
Silent Majority
Love Letter to America

Side Two –

Unspoken Dreams of Light
Cherrystones
Reverend Lee
Black Boy

Outlaw's follow-up, 1971s Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse cover superimposes McDaniels' screaming face on a painting of a samurai battle scene. This release features a more jazz-inflected moodiness than Outlaw. While much of Outlaw was countrified blues, casually arranged, Headless Heroes is a much tougher, tighter, & more adventurous outing. With a distinctive two-bass attack supplied by the tag-team of prog hero Miroslav Vitous on acoustic & Gary King electric, HHotA is largely the work of seasoned jazzmen essaying early 70s funk.

Vice President Spiro Agnew allegedly called Atlantic to issue a verbal cease-&-desist order upon the release of Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse. Altantic pulled support for & finally sales of the album, though they cited "poor sales numbers".




Side One –

The Lord is Back
Jagger the Dagger
Lovin’ Man
Headless Heroes
Susan Jane

Side Two –

Freedom Death Dance
Supermarket Blues
The Parasite (for Buffy)

In 1975, Gene (once more) McDaniels released Natural Juices. Here McDaniels delivers his by-now perfected blend of Soul/Funk combined with his exceptional songwriting abilities.



Gene McDaniels – Natural Juices, Ode Records SP 77028, 1975.

Side 1 –

Feel like Makin' Love
Lady Fair
Natural Juices
Can't Get Enough of You
River

Side 2 –

Shell of a Man
Dream of You & Me
Waterfall
Honey Can You Know
The Perfect Dream

But just before he became a true Outlaw, McDaniels handled the vocal duties on my favorite Bobby Hutcherson release, Blue Notes's Now! from 1969. Here is that sometimes neglected gem. If you've come along this far with Eu/Gene, you should really enjoy this (I added some alternate takes as a bonus).

Bobby's band members: Bobby Hutcherson – vibraphone & marimba; Harold Land - tenor saxophone; Kenny Barron & George Cables – piano; Wally Richardson – guitar; Herbie Lewis & James Leary – bass; Joe Chambers & Eddie Marshall – drums; Candido Camero – congas; Gene McDaniels – vocals; Hilda Harris, Albertine M. Robinson, Christine Spencer, Eileen Gilbert, & Maeretha Stewart - backing vocals; Stanley Cowell – piano & electric piano; Manny Boyd - tenor & soprano saxophone; & Bobbye Hall Porter – percussion.



Bobby Hutcherson – Now!, Blue Note BST 84333, 1969.


Side One –

Slow Change
Hello to the Wind
Now!

Side Two –

The Creators
Black Heroes

+ bonus tracks –

Slow Change II
Now! II
Hello to the Wind (live)
Now! (reprise)

Enjoy,

03 December 2015

Death of a Dog





Back in August I decided to start going through a folder I have called “Musick that Needs Work” (cleaning up the sound, fixing the tags, getting the art work, whatever).

I’d made it through the Ds (Dakila, Darshan Ambient, & Dot Allison) before I drifted off into Dub & harvest & krazy kat adventures. Think I’ll venture back to that dreaded folderland (it was helping me straighten out messes that I’ve left too long undone) until the end of the year (or until life once more distracts me).

Brought to you by the letter E & pertinent to out dismal times…



Ennio Morricone’s soundtrack to White Dog. White Dog is a 1982 film directed by famous cult filmmaker Samuel Fuller. The film depicts the struggle of a dog trainer named Keys (played by the great Paul Winfield) trying to retrain a stray dog found by a young actress (a ‘young actress’ Kristy McNichol), that is a "white dog", that is, a dog trained by racists to viciously attack any black person. Fuller uses the film as a platform to deliver an anti-racist message as it examines the question of whether racism is a treatable problem or an incurable condition.

The film takes a hard look at racism. Fuller's uses melodrama & metaphors to present his argument. The film’s disheartening ending makes its point that while racism is learned, it cannot be cured. Many critics have questioned the film's lack of release in the United States when it was completed in 1982 (Paramount Pictures feared “negative press”) & have applauded its belated release (2008) by Criterion.

Included is a 16 page booklet that delves deeply into the whole production-process fiascos & Fuller’s frustration with Hollywood.


Ennio Morricone – White Dog soundtrack, FSM Vol. 13 No. 3, 2010.
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Tracklist –
Main Title
Sick Dog
Death of a Dog
Walking Dog
Dog’s Escape
Saving Cops
Chasing Rabbits
Dog Pound – The Girl’s Thought
Sweeper Attack
Dog’s Return
Stewardess Surprise
Untitled 3M3
Certainties & Uncertainties of the Dog
Cure or Kill – Dog’s Escape
Protected Attack
Sorrowful Julie
Cage Escape
Attack #2
After the Murder
White Dog
White Dog 2
Absent-mindedly from a Radio far Away
The Girl & her Problems
Cured Canine
Attempts at Fidelity
Death of a Dog – End Credits

Bonus tracks
Second Theme: The Girl & the Dog
Guitar Venizia
After the Murder (alternate)
Absent-mindedly from a Radio far Away (source music)
Lamb Bone Muzak
Inside the Church
Death of a Dog (part 1)
Death of a Dog (part 2 – album track)

Enjoy while we can,