Fad Gadget - Collapsing New People (1984 TV appearance)

Suitably bonkers (and brilliant!) TV performance from 1984 from one of the Elektro movement's unsung heroes, the late great Frank Tovey AKA Fad Gadget.  The first artist to sign to Daniel "The Normal" Miller's legendary Mute Records, Frank produced a string of fantastic records for the label including Ladyshave, King Of The Flies and this classic (both featured on Elektro Diskow). Created in Berlin with a full band, Fad's final album, 1984's Gag (which contains Collapsing New People),  brimmed with ideas and innovations. Collapsing uses the sound of a printing press alongside percussion from Mute label mates and Industrial torch bearers Einstürzende Neubauten.

Elektro Diskow - The Samples!

Testament to the enduring influence of these tracks is their use as samples in contemporary recordings. There are a couple of recent (ish)examples (both on Elektro Diskow!)that show the 'reach' of these original tracks in terms of the musical styles that have plundered their beats.

Yazoo: Situation - Snoop Dogg Ft T Pain: Boom & The Saturdays - If This Is Love

This seminal electro proto House classic (a favourite in the clubs of both Chicago and New York)  has been heavily sampled and remixed down the years but in the past couple it has been re-worked into two very different records from two completely different musical schools. First up is Snoop's T Pain-produced Boom a very 21st century hip hop track that uses that addictive synth line to full effect. The second is UK girl group the Saturdays' debut hit If This Is Love, an 80s-influenced piece of pop that grafts the synth hook on to the verse with some panache.


YAZOO - SITUATION (U.S REMIX) by maxmixx









Arto Lindsay & Ambitious Lovers: Let's Be Adult - Groove Armada: Song For Mutya

Arto Lindsay's arty (and slightly obscure) slice of electropop from 1984 is turned into a breezy summer dancefloor confection by London beatmasters Groove Armada (with a little help from ex-Sugababe Mutya Buena).

Elektro Diskow Independent Interview

Nice interview with Stuart Paterson, the compiler of Elektro Diskow.

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/10/17/elektro-diskow-a-homage-to-the-dawn-of-electronic-music/

Elektro Diskow - Released Today!

Elektro Diskow is released today! Available from all good record stores! :)

Elektro Diskow Spotify Playlists

We've put together some 'Further Listening' Spotify playlists to give you a little extra flavour of the artists that inspired Elektro Diskow, the musicians that followed in their footsteps and also a bonus playlist of remixes of tracks from the album. Click on the links below.

Spotify: Influences

Spotify: Generation Next

Spotify: Remixes

Telex - Moskow Diskow (Carl Craig Remix)

Detroit Techno icon Carl Craig was just one of the many Tech'heads from the Motor City who would have grown up listening to the European electronic sounds played on  local radio stations. The Electrifying Mojo had a legendary show where he would play these electro 12 inches alongside the likes of Prince, Parliament and early hip hop. Here Carl gives his sublime take on Telex's seminal classic.  

Savage Progress - Heart Begin To Beat (An Extended Mad Mix)

An intriguing track this, from one of the more obscure corners of the ElektroDiskow universe. Savage Progress were a British group formed in London in late 1982 with a sound that took in Caribbean and African rhythms meshed  with a dark electronic aesthetic.Whilst they never hit big in their homeland they did have a sizeable hit in continental Europe with their single My Soul Unwraps Tonight. Heart Begin To Beat (their third single for Virgin/10) released in 1984 wasn't a pop hit but had a massive impact in underground clubs throughout the world.

In Belgium it was embraced by New Beat clubs in Ghent and beyond while over the Atlantic in Chicago the track is acknowledged as a Ron Hardy/Muzic Box club classic with House innovator Larry Heard (AKA Mr Fingers) acknowledging its influence on his sound. The Extended Mad Mix of HBTB is getting its first release on CD (and digitally!) on Elektro Diskow.  Here's the band performing the 7" version on German TV show Musik Laden.

Synth Britannia

Fantastic BBC documentary (in all its full 90 minute glory!) featuring the leading British lights of the Elektropop movement  including Phil Oakey from the Human League, Martyn Ware from Heaven 17, Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet from Yazoo  and Daniel Miller from the Normal (and latterly boss of Mute Records).

Elektro Diskow - Minimix!

To celebrate the release of Elektro Diskow next Monday (17th October) we have put together a nifty minimix of tracks from the album which our friends at Mixmag are hosting for us over on their site. Click to listen! :)

Elektro Diskow minimix by Mixmag

The Sparks That Fired The Elektro Revolution

While previous recordings had hinted at an electronic future to come, two records came along in 1977 that changed the direction of music inspiring the next generation of electro producers. Donna Summer's I Feel Love (masterminded by Giorgio Moroder) and Kraftwerk's Trans Europe Express were responsible for turning open-minded punkers on to the possibilities of machine music. On the day Martyn Ware (later of B.E.F. /Heaven 17) went to Phil Oakey's house and formed what became the Human League, he brought two records:  I Feel Love and TEE. Playing these two landmark discs, Martyn told Phil  "We can do this!"  David Bowie remembers Brian Eno bursting into the studio while they were recording Low in Berlin putting the single of I Feel Love on the deck and declaring, 'I have heard the sound of the future.'  From house to hip hop (Afrika Bambaataa and Arthur Baker famously sampled TEE on the game-changing Planet Rock), pop to dubstep, r 'n' b to d 'n' b, all owe a debt to these visionary records.