We are proud to be participating in Electrospective where EMI, Virgin and Mute Records bring together some of the key moments from the history of electronic music.
More details on www.electrospective.com including an in-depth timeline with Spotify playlists which chronicles electronic music from 1958 to the present day.
With a new Depeche Mode album (their 13th!) very much on the horizon, here's a reminder of how it all started more than 3 decades ago in Basildon, Essex.
This is the '80-'81 segment of the album-by-album series of documentaries that accompanied the 2009 reissues of the full DM catalogue and takes us from the very earliest beginnings in Basildon, Essex to the point at which Vince Clarke leaves for musical pastures new.
As a bonus, here's a very rare piece of live footage of DM in '81 performing the song Television Set which has never had a full release!
Heaven 17's second album, The Luxury Gap is getting the deluxe 3 disc treatment this October which got me thinking and digging about and for all things H17. Lo and behold what did I find? A magnificent and definitive documentary of the Sheffield legends' career from the very early days in the Steel City, Human League 1.0, chart success and the British Electric Foundation right through to the present day. It also includes a very rare piece of recent (from 2010) interview footage with Martyn Ware and the League's Phil Oakey - in the same room! - talking about the split of the original Human League
Fantastic stuff from one (two!) of the most influential electronic pop groups of all time.
It is 3 decades since Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet released their seminal debut Upstairs At Eric's. The Quietus have an excellent new interview and piece on UAE with Vince giving his memories of the album 30 years on.
The Human League's masterpiece Dare!is released in remastered and repackaged Deluxe format this week. In addition to the remastered album the package includes the North American only Fascination! EP on CD for the first time alongside several other previously vinyl-only cuts including the Instrumental mix of Sound Of The Crowd (from the original 12") and the stunning Instrumental/Dub version of You Remind Me Of Gold which was an extra track on the Mirror Man 12.
The story of Dare! should be fairly familiar to pop and electronic fans but the tale of the hotly awaited follow up that never came is a case of what might have been... In 1982 with a world-conquering album under their belts, the League reconvened with Dare! producer Martin Rushent to make their next Global smash. The first taster of this new material was the brilliant electro Motown of Mirror Man. A new LP was expected to follow but then nothing for another year when they finally released the stunning (Keep Feeling) Fascination, a transatlantic top 10 smash. Tensions had been rising and Rushent quit the project soon after leaving behind some stunning tracks including the aforementioned You Remind Me Of Gold and I Love You Too Much. Their then US label A&M, desperate for new product, assembled these tracks alongside the two singles and put out the 7 track Fascination! EP in late '83. It offers a tantalising glimpse of what Dare!'s follow-up might have looked like - we can only speculate as to whether it would have matched (or exceeded!) the 1981 album's success. Essential listening!
And while we're on the subject ... a quick mention of the Patrick Cowley Mega Mix (nothing to do with the later 80s concept of a medley!) of Donna's I Feel Love. Alongside François Kervorkian's remix of Yazoo's Situation it defined the modern idea of the remix as a radical reworking of a tune primarily for dancefloor rotation.
San Francisco producer Patrick (famed for his work with Sylvester) produced this 15 minute reworking in 1980 for the DJ only subscription service Disconet where it was an underground sensation. The multiple breakdowns, proto-acid house synth and toughened up rhythm track made the original Disconet 12" a must-have for progressive DJs and an instant collectors item. The great man and creator of the track Giorgio Moroder was also said to have loved Cowley's new treatment.
In 1982, Donna's label Casablanca gave this ground-breaking remix a richly-deserved full release making IFL a hit all over again, an edited version making no. 21 in the UK charts.
Sadly Patrick died of AIDS soon after the release of this incredible game-changing mix.
In 1982, another remix was released which was to have a similar effect on electronic dance music: Francois Kervorkian's legendary US Remix of Yazoo's Situation.
Starting off life as the B side to Yazoo's debut hit Only You, Situation, the track was earmarked for remix by music industry icon Seymour Stein head of Mute US licencee label Sire Records. He was aware of NYC-based French DJ François Kervorkian exemplary remix work for New York dance label Prelude and suggested to Mute boss Daniel Miller that FK gave Situation a more club-orientated mix.
The result was the sensational US remix and its accompanying Dub Mix (which appears on Elektro Diskow) which their distinctive breakdowns, synth strings and use of cut up vocal stabs (Alison Moyet's laugh motif along with almost every other part of the track, would end up being some of the biggest samples of all-time). The track would take Yazoo and Mute firmly in to the clubs both in Europe and North America. The mix was a one of the top 50 records at Larry Levan's Paradise Garage New York, the band even playing a rare club gig there while it was also a key record in both Chicago and Detroit. Illuminaries such as Larry Heardand Derrick May (Derrick's Nude Photo includes a sample of the famous laugh) have declared it a huge influence.
For more on the remix and Yazoo's appearance at the Paradise Garage please have a read of our recent (and exclusive!) interview with Daniel Miller.
Very sad to hear the news today that Donna Summer has died following a battle with cancer.
Her first hit, 1975's epic Love To Love You Baby changed the direction of dance music. Its hypnotic 17 minute groove expanded the possibilities of disco.
As previously posted, alongside the genius Giorgio Moroder she made one of the greatest and most influential records of all time, I Feel Love. With Kraftwerk's Trans Europe Express, it sparked the electro revolution creating the blueprint for electronic dance for decades to come.
Other classics followed including 1979's Our Love (with its distinctive stuttering drum pattern) which was a key influence on New Order's epochal Blue Monday and State Of Independence, a Balearic classic.
