Crystals

 

If I put on “Global” from Future Sound of London's predecessor Humanoid, it will always first or only exclusively be side B, track 4 - „Crystals“. I first heard this track on Monika Dietl's House show on SFB2 (of course). I could hardly believe what I heard there. Humanoid was the baby of Brian Dougans before he made music history with Gaz Cobain as Future Sound of London and produced unforgettable sounds and tracks & previously had success at number 17 in the charts with “Stakker”, a pretty acidic, technoid track, and of course an inevitable appearance on Top of the Pops (see following post).

“Crystals” is a moment on the album that also comes quite late. If you listen to the album from beginning to end (side B, penultimate track), which you certainly did back then, it completely blows you away and surprises you (if you read the track of course you didn't already know, see above). But in any case it remains surprising. In addition to “Stakker Humanoid”, “Slam”, “Cry Baby” & ​​“Technoid”, the album contains another 303 technoid tracks, two hip house-like tracks with “the Deep” & “Don't Stop” and the very nice by “Tonight” sung by Sharon Benson, melodic acid house, absolutely 1990. 

I can't figure out what the story behind "Crystals" is, the information about it is scarce or simply non-existent. Even on the cover, in contrast to the other tracks, there are no details or credits for vocals or what I know. “Crystals” is something from The Beloved, New Order in the “Technique” era, Pet Shop Boys “Being Boring” or Electronic’s “Patience of the Saint”. That's a lot of text and fuss about a single track, I'm happy to admit that, but for me it was an incredibly intense moment & it represents an important part of my musical taste. And this moment comes in the middle of an album that actually takes you somewhere completely different, only to amaze the music listener with this incredible, beautiful acid ambient pop song. 

More information? You're welcome to give it to me!

https://www.discogs.com/master/32357-Humanoid-Global

Newbuild

 

After the last post about A Guy called Gerald, something from 808 State just had to come here. The band he was a member of for that first album. Well, I don't know what the relationship with the band is like today, there were court hearings because of missing author credits for "Pacific State", the first 808 State hit, swipes and "Specific Hate".

Perhaps Gerald Simpson would prefer not to live next door to his old colleagues, even in a text about the past. But maybe it is just that: the past.

Gerald Simpson doesn't just stand only for “Voodoo Ray”. He delivered incredible albums. “Automanikk” is fantastic and the later jungle albums were simply different than others in this genre. His tracks have hardly aged at all, I personally prefer the years up to 1989/1991, simply because so much happened there musically and I certainly romanticize that time. His credits for 808 State are also well known, perhaps there was some satisfaction afterwards, also in the form of outstanding payments. Maybe there was the agreement with 808 State that it had with Rham! because of “Voodoo Ray” never existed. Gerald Simpson never got any money for “Voodoo Ray,” which seems incredible and impossible. This is my level of knowledge.

As far as I know, I actually read all the interviews and texts about AGCG, I have always perceived Mr. Simpson as a calm, reflected, emphatic, thoughtful artist who was happy to pass on his knowledge of the machines, his irritation to this time is absolutely understandable.

I first heard “Flow Coma”, of course, in one of Monika Dietl’s shows on SFB, in an exclusive Coldcut mix. A raw, wild, groovy acid piece. One of the two Coldcuts fades out briefly in the middle, chatters briefly about the piece, but rather loudly, and then cranks it up again. What is otherwise annoying comes across as completely effective here and has stuck in my ears in such a way that when I hear the piece without that voice, which is more the norm these days, I think something is missing. Wild, important acid album.

„“NEWBUILD" was made before computers dominated production. All the sounds on this album, bar a few, are triggered by the drum machine. This is why you can hear mistakes on the album as it was laid down live to two-track tape recorder. Incidentally, the master tape, long-since disintegrated, was nicked out of a skip from the back of the BBC, Manchester. It had been spliced and diced heavily enough to get binned, even before 808 got their hands on it.

The great thing about "NEWBUILD" now is that it hasn't been diminished by the passage of time. It's still dirty, cavernous, messy, full of mistakes and profoundly f***ed up - Acid house from a brief period before it all went loved-up, blissed-out, whatever. "NEWBUILD" is unhinged, genuinely lysergic, made all the more vivid by the overwhelming sense of optimism that a new music was being formed right here and right now. The tyranny of formula had not yet made its presence felt on the scene.“

• Richard Hector-Jones -

„Newbuild is a testament to the band's stop- at- nothing enthusiasm for their music, and is also the guts and determination of fiercely independent music. The tape they recorded the album on was removed from a dumpster 'round the back of the Manchester studios of the BBC; it'd been thrown away because it had been cut and spliced so often that it no longer met the quality thresholds of BBC engineers. But these three Mancunian scallywags saw an essential resource and seized it.

And it's with this spirit that 808 State imbued their debut record. The instruments were crappy and severely dated (remember, this was 1988, and the vogue for the Roland TB303 was five years in the future). Simpson, Massey, and Price recognized that the acidic spikes and snarls of the 303 and the synthetic percussion of the Roland 808 were exact replicas of the sounds they heard in their mindspaces. The trio then recorded an album that, after more than ten years of technological progression, still kicks away every other attempt at the definitive acid house album. And I mean "album," not just a collection of individual tracks sequenced together.

Newbuild takes you on an excursion through the jacked up sounds of dendrites firing, quasars spinning, and the piezoelectric sounds of an electron mist. From the opener "Sync/Swim" through the body- tingling bass pulses of "Flow Coma" and the percussive frenzy of "Headhunters" to the closing tribal techno funk of "Compulsion," 808 State challenge your preconception of how music should be and prove just how damn funky three tearaways with a beat-up drum machine can be.“

• Paul Cooper -

„There used to be a time when Newbuild could be considered the ultimate in freaky shit stuff, and there have been rumors (actively supported by 808 State themselves) that the album was a huge influence on none other than Mr. Richard D. James. But look for user reviews these days, and many of them will express disappointment. «It's almost as if I camped out in a Casio forest», a guy complains on Amazon, and he's far from the only unlucky camper. In retrospect, Grand Historians of Elec­tronica usually throw out the required five-star patches, but the rest of the crowds have simply moved on, discarding the past in favor of more «relevant», instantly gratifying pleasures.

But somehow, it makes me a little sad, even if I am by no means a fan of machine loop music, and, normally, the slightest talk about «Acid House», which 808 State allegedly helped bring around into European public consciousness or both, makes me scream in terror and run to my Bessie Smith recordings. Because, loops and rhythms and obsolete recording technology aside, Newbuild is really an excellent musical album. And, furthermore, I do not quiteunderstand what all the fuss is about: to my untrained ears, Newbuild still sounds sufficiently modern. I've certain­ly heard Aphex Twin tracks that were far crappier from a straightforward sonic point of view.

What these three merry guys from Manchester (Graham Massey, Martin Price and Gerald Simp­son) are doing here is making house music from an alien standpoint, borrowing the basics, cros­sing them with an artistic mindset that is influenced both by the astral dreams of Tangerine Dream and the industrial nightmares of Nurse With Wound, and coming up with enough in­di­vi­dual ideas to make nearly each track a stand-out. Sure, they would probably work best as top-le­vel soundtracks for arcade games — but if you find that demeaning, you can choose «sonic equi­valents of looking out the window in a spaceship flying close to light speed». That's acid house for you all right, if you are really in need of labeling.

The album never relents or slows down: it is fourty minutes of pounding grooves, seven different landscapes that shift form and color, but never speed, lest you lose the proper momentum. And what they lack in the ability to program a real tricky rhythm or polyrhythm, they gain in the pure art of invention. 'Sync/Swim' is all based around the bizarre interaction between the funky (but al­so quite heavy-metallic) bassline and the cute (but dangerous!) synthy double-note chomp-chomp that may represent little alien battleships speeding past that window of yours in regular formation — or, in a microcosmic manner, batches of viruses speeding up and down your arteries. 'Flow Coma' is less heavy, but equally mind-blowing, a real delight to see these synth patterns flow into and out of one another, weaving harmoniously melodic psychedelic patterns. And so on. The on­ly thing I am not sold on are the vocal loop overdubs — their presence on 'Dr. Lowfruit' and especi­ally 'Compulsion' is grating and distracting.“

• George Starostin / Only Solitaire -

https://www.discogs.com/master/25427-State-808-Newbuild

Trip City

 

When Trip City was released in 1989, there wasn't the slightest chance of getting hold of a copy.

Although the Berlin Wall had just fallen, I began to explore the record stores in the west of the city with a modest budget, but the method of choice was to make recordings from the radio for a while. Monika Dietl played “Voodoo Ray” in the SFB, of course, but also tracks like “Time waits for no Man” and “Rockin Ricky”. And at some point, not too long later, the albums “Automanikk” and “Hot Lemonade” were in the record cabinet. But on “Trip City,” I first came across Discogs, but everything was already there.

Almost 3 years ago, Velocity Press took pity and brought a new edition of the book onto the market. This time the music came not from tape, which would have been appealing, but from vinyl. “Valentines Theme” is an absolute hit here for me. A typical, groovy Gerald Simpson track as you know it from “Time waits…” or “Subscape”. You already know “FX” from the Automanikk album. In general, we're listening to A Guy called Gerald 1989. The album has fewer melodic moments than Automanikk, but has that AGCG sound from that time throughout. Put on Trip City and go back to back then. Feel free to read later the Book.   

„In the summer of 1989, when Trip City was first released with a five track cassette EP by A Guy Called Gerald, there had been no other British novel like it. This was the down and dirty side of London nightclubs, dance music and the kind of hallucinogenic drug sub-culture that hadn't really been explored since Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Maybe this is why Trip City is still known as "The Acid House novel" and an underground literary landmark.

Over the decades, Trip City became shrouded in scandal and mystery. The original London book launch literally descended into a riot - shut-down by the Metropolitan Police.

Everyone from the makers of Raiders Of The Lost Ark through the director of Candyman tried to adapt the book into a movie - but imploded in the process. And the galleys of the 25th anniversary edition were destroyed in a fire, before they could even be proofed or printed.

Perhaps Trip City is uniquely summed-up by the original publisher, dearly departed sci-fi legend Brian Aldiss, who wrote of the novel: "In the vintage of Thomas De Quincey's Confessions Of An English Opium Eater - but smack up to date.

It's about a young man's descent into hell - a hell that looks very much like London."

- Velocity Press -

„It was an overcast afternoon, early in 1989 when I went to visit A Guy Called Gerald at Moonraker Studios in Longsight, Manchester. The long bus ride felt quite strange. Plus for many people, the idea of a soundtrack for a novel was particularly absurd. I wanted to use the word 'visionary' myself. | wanted this process to be something that would kick the Trip City legend into overdrive, add a dense layer of atmosphere, like a smoke machine in a club - or at the very least make the story more accessible for the people who might read it... But, you have to imagine or cast your mind back to a time before electronic music was largely generated via software or complex apps. Drum machines and sequencers were the gold standard - or all there was. So, the early pioneers like Gerald Simpson were literally inventing a 'sound' that didn't totally exist, yet. More importantly, the kind of narrative multimedia you see every day now on Instagram hadn't been invented.

I must confess, I was a little sceptical at first when Gerald opened a few beat-up holdalls and started lifting out a weird collection of 808s, 303s and the like.

Still, he plugged them together like some mad genius and then literally conjured a soundtrack from thin air. I was staggered by his intuitive skill and virtuosity. I was energised by how he changed-up and dropped into different styles, without skipping a beat. From orchestral, through danceable, even the sombre power of Gregorian chants... He made a theme for the main character. A track emblematic of the

'Latin' club in my story. Then a longer piece that was allegedly inspired by the fictional designer drug, as depicted in the text. I wrote a few lines - which he used as lyrics - and five minutes later he called up a female vocalist and she was singing the Trip City theme. If you listen closely, it's Gerald's voice saying "you can feel the atmosphere - there is sound, everywhere..." on the Trip City title track.

Later on, a number of journalists came up with the idea that this music or soundtrack was created to listen to as you read the book. Somebody even said that the staccato writing of the novel is meant to emulate the 4/4 beat of Acid House. Maybe I even said that myself.

Thirty-plus years later, I would like to think that the soundtrack is important because it sets the story in a time and a place. It's an atmospheric companion piece that may well transport you back to those sweaty nights in a smoke-filled club when too many pills took hold. If it does - great. And if not, it doesn't really matter - because these are still terrific tunes that sound just as unique and emotive as when Gerald made them, all those years ago.

I remember back in the 80s, in my hometown, Tony Wilson (of Factory Records fame) was fond of calling Shaun Ryder the WB Yeats of his day. In that vein, whether or not I like to see myself in the canon of Anthony Burgess and Clockwork Orange - with these five tracks, AGCG feels very much like the Ludwig Van to my Alex DeLarge.

- Trevor Miller -

“I got the manuscript off Trevor, the book wasn’t out yet, I read bits of it and made music to go with what I’d read. I wouldn’t say I read the book and sound-tracked it. I read bits of the book which got me thinking and feeling and then went ahead and made the music. So, I’d have to say the book did influence the sounds. It’s what I was asked to do and I thought it was a really interesting concept and collaboration”

The music on the Trip City EP is relentless groove. There are no break downs or drops, just an undeniable dance beat, which goes on forever without any stops. The tracks coming out today mostly have break downs and build ups, drops and sections which show the crowd when to dance and what to do. It’s like wait for it, wait for it…..OK NOW!“

- Gerald Simpson -

https://www.discogs.com/release/19135738-A-Guy-Called-Gerald-Trip-City

Adventures in the Rainbow Vortex

 

Inspired by some wonderful posts in the Bagging Area & Dubhead blogs, I've been listening to a lot of music from the years 1988-1994 again. You don't have to ask me twice about that. I always like to return to this time, always a little nostalgic and wistful. The posts gave me the idea that this was a really crazy time. I'm a child of the East, but thanks to the proximity to Berlin and the right radio stations, I was always well informed and, if necessary, I spent half the night in front of the radio recording John Peel on BFBS or Monika Dietl with her acid House shows on SFB. Then the wall came down and suddenly you had access to all the wonderful records, all the fantastic books, culture overkill. And during this time, from 1989, 1990 - 1994, so many great albums were released, it seems to me that it's no wonder that this time was one of the most formative of my life. They laid the foundation for much that came after. However, I also think that the time afterwards was never as intense again.

Jon Tye is the label boss of Lo recordings, where many impressive albums have been released since 1995. Their catalog of over 50 releases includes recordings by Aphex Twin, Blur, Mike Flowers and Squarepusher to name but a few. But it was Rothko who introduced me to John Peel. Rothko are a London based mainly instrumental group. The group mainly used 3 (!) Bass Guitars and keyboards to create their soundscapes. The first album “Negative for Francis” couldn't be found in Berlin at the time, so I had to order it from WOM - world of music. When it was finally available, I was in bed with a fever of 40, but that didn't stop me from dragging myself to Berlin and picking up the album. To immediately put it on tape at home and disappear back into bed with the tape and confide my fever dreams to Rothko. This is hard to imagine today, when many things are available at the click of a button. I've lost sight of Rothko a bit in recent years, but not Jon Tye. I didn't know it back then, but in my world today, with his many projects, whether Ocean Moon, Seahawks, Captain Sunshine, MLO, he is a daily companion.

“Adventures in the Rainbow Vortex” was released in 2021 on Aural Canyon, home to many wonderful ambient gems, and is one of them itself. For a wonderful, magical New Age meditation in which the Seahawks can also be found, listen to “Energy Mosaic,” for example.

In Jon‘s own Words: 

„All the ‘Adventures' material was recorded 2017-2018 at The Centre of Sound Maker Heights Cornwall. 

I always really liked the basic tracks but I could never get the mixes sounding as I wanted them to. When I came back to the tracks in 2021 all was clear and the new mixes came together really swiftly. 

I feel that the material is very different to the ‘World of Light’ album, more visceral and multi-faceted. With ‘World of Light’ I really wanted to create a sense of peace, a safe place. 

‘Adventures’ is more about journeys that can at times be turbulent and that go beyond the everyday. There is a shamanistic intensity to some of the tracks that can induce visions and although many of these visions may be beautiful others may invoke a sense of awe and of being engulfed. 

I can’t recall which keyboards were used other than the Roland Juno 6 and Yamaha SY-77, I also played zither, xylophone and bamboo wind chimes, Dan Hillman played a Moog on some tracks and saxophone on others. The field recordings were made on the deck in Millbrook. 

I hope this album takes you places you’ve never been before and that it takes you on adventures that are enriching and empowering.“

Ocean Moon

Adventures in the Rainbow Vortex

Label: Aural Canyon

2021

file under : Ambient I New Age I Kosmische