Greg Phillinganes - Behind The Mask

I was quite interested in the story behind this song when I finally discovered that the impressive original was from Yellow Magic Orchestra's 'Solid State Survivor' LP. The version I knew was the more succesful cover by Eric Clapton in 1986. The link between the two is Phllinganes who, as I understand it, did some session work on the track for YMO before then working with Michael Jackson on his next two albums. Phillinganes thought the track would be ideal for Jackson and you can hear why - it would fit very well on 'Thriller' had it only been an original composition. Undeterred, Phillinganes re-recorded it himself with Jacko supposedly supplying backing vocals - if these are the vocoded parts then kudos (the "hee-heees" are surely Greg's own). Clapton took the song on himself when Phillinganes sessioned for him soon after.

While the YMO original is great I find the vocoder voice obscures the lyrics too much. Not a problem here, with Phillinganes belting it out quite admirably. The music itself is, shall we say, 'faithful' to the original but that's also a plus. The song went on to be covered a few more times including by The Human League but I think Greg's version is the best so here it is.

Greg Phillinganes - Behind The Mask

Cabaret Voltaire - Just Fascination

Stark basslines and skeletal beats from an industrial city in decay. I love CV's dancier moments and their resolute, hypnotic effect. About a year before this release Blancmange's 'Feel Me' took a similar approach, building around a harsher and slightly more powerful electronic bassline. But 'Feel Me' runs out of steam somewhat halfway through with Neil Arthur's repeated invitation to "feel the pain!" and the accompanying diva yelps amounting to little but an urge to move on. 'Just Fascination' avoids this trap by concentrating more on ambience, recurring synth and guitar flourishes strained and warped to create an equally exotic and intense picture but with Steve Mallinder's vocals more reserved and driven.



Cabaret Voltaire - Just Fascination

Severed Heads - Lambougini

Appearing only* on an interestingly looking compilation from 1982, this is a fantastic and startlingly ahead of it's time track that seems to pre-empt a distinct dance music trend 20 years in advance. By that I just mean the 'micro' element of the production generally. Everything sounds (unintentionally?) strained and concentrated but in a way that evokes a summer haze with an hallucinogenic tinge.



As a result this track, for me, eclipses 'Dead Eyes Opened' which would follow a couple of years later and itself establish a reputation for striking prescience two decades on, or at least just highlighting how much the dudes at Kompakt and other German house labels were (presumably) influenced by SH.

Severed Heads - Lambougini

*track later listed as Lambourgini on this comp from last year.

Kiki Dee - Star

It seems widely acknowledged that 1981 was a particuarly fine year for pop music and I had at least six great tracks I wanted to put up here for the inaugural '81 entry, from Family Fodder to Dollar to The Associates and more.

But somehow Bradford's finest, Kiki Dee, with her last top 40 hit ever on her own gets the nod. I think it came from my recent acquisition of a 100 80s Hits compilation spanning five CDs and only already having around a third to a quarter of the songs was actually good odds.

By chance it was cued up just after Kylie's 'Wow' (which I like far more than I probably should do given it's generic approach and yet it's feelgood quality and production actually seem better balanced than many of her other hits, and I'd deny it's any more 'bloodless' than them either) and the cheery piano intros are strikingly similar.



With Disco v1.0 supposedly in it's death throes 'Star' may have felt like a throwback at the time but on the sinking crest of the mainstream wave and sandwiching Fame's film and subsequent TV series it fits like a glove. The production is both spangly and solid. Dee's vocals are cool, confident and carefree but with the chorus, layers of voice conspire to reach a pitch difficult for anyone to hit on their own. And if that wasn't fiendish (or maybe foolish - think of the missed karaoke opportunities) enough there's a marvellous key change towards the end - I guess it was (still) the style at the time. By which point cutesy horns tootle in time to the euphoric affirmation...we're halfway to French House. Perhaps one day some buffoon will get their hands on this for a glitzy 00s chart-smashing revamp but they have and you could do a lot worse.

Kiki Dee - Star

Frankie Smith - Double Dutch Bus / Lio - You Go To My Head

"Gimme a hoooo, if ya got your funky bus fare..."

Frankie Smith's vocal performance on 'Double Dutch Bus' is roughly as entertaining as what you hear (not being a test) on 'Rapper's Delight' but it's not until the "izz" infix lingo is introduced after 2 minutes that the track really hits the spot. Much sampled over the years since including on Bomb The Bass 'Beat Dis' and Missy Elliott's 'Gossip Folks'. Without this vocal gimmick Smith and Bloom's disco backtrack is fairly ordinary and even feels overlong after only 5 minutes but in it's rightful context kicking off lengthy disco sessions you can appreciate it's feelgood factor a lot more. Too bad they didn't make more use of that steel drum clang at the very beginning, repeating it later on or even incorporating a melodic sequence based on it to ice the cake.

Frankie Smith - Double Dutch Bus



BONUS: Lio sounds Japanese to me! But this enigmatic Belgian-Portugese girl fronts a rather good disco/pop album in the form of her eponymous 1980 debut. I have yet to investigate beyond this but 'You Go To My Head' is a brief but enchanting number - OMD synths quivering underneath her pleasant if vague romantic tribute while Debussyian strings lap forth occasionally. Short and sweet.

Lio - You Go To My Head

Rah Band - Woogie Boogie / Pyrolator - Struktur 22

I didn't really want to kick off with an instrumental but most of the tracks I currently have from 1978/79 are a little tooo famous for starters.

Rah Band are fairly well known thanks to two great top ten hits some eight years apart but it's interesting how much of their debut album lacks vocals. Regardless, it's mostly a diverse and lively affair worth a listen.

From it here's 'Woogie Boogie', the sound of Duane Eddy and Giorgio Moroder jamming in an elevator...or just something of a warped take on elevator muzak itself, with the chances of tickling or irritating your judging ears around 50/50 I reckon.

Rah Band - Woogie Boogie




BONUS: If a selected track is an instrumental or a short number (or both) you can expect an additional track that day.

So here's a short cut from Pyrolator's 1979 electronic oddity 'Inland' - although this particular recording was not made available until the CD re-issue of 'Inland' in 2002 so I'm not entirely sure of it's exact date.

Much of this album instantly reminded me of Boards Of Canada when I first heard it - not necessarily always in sonic terms but more the themes and ideas the music addresses, explores and aligns itself with. But it seems a lot more stark and radical (ala much of Delia Derbyshire's output) than other largely ambient electronic works even nearly 30 years later.

As with a lot of my favourite BOC moments the track has a punctuative quality within the work it's part of - and does not seem integral to it given it's omission from the original release. But like BOC's 'Olsen' it's evocative sequence of analogue tones and frequencies have a remarkable resonance...the difference being that Kurt Dhalke's work is actually FROM the time, not harking back to it. Not that authenticity is particulaly important to me!

Pyrolator - Struktur 22

I'd be inclined to use both of these tracks in a mix or compilation as punctuation, interludes or breathers.

Introduction

This blog enables me to share great music from the last 30 years of my life. Many of the tracks selected I won't have known at the time they were first released (at least not for the first 10-15 years) so it can be a voyage of discovery for all although I will mainly be browsing my MediaMonkey library for songs I already have copies of.

Every weekday a song will be linked to. The first song will be from the first year of life or more specifically from between May 1978 and May 1979. The day after that this blog will feature a song from the equivlent '79-'80 period and so on until we reach the present ('07-'08) and then it's back to the start to begin the cycle again.

A fairly broad range of genres and styles will be included although the empthasis will probably be on European and American electronic and/or pop music - hopefully not well known hits you've heard already but some singles that have been somewhat overlooked as well as album tracks, b-sides and EP cuts, remixes and perhaps even some of my own re-edits. The quality should be consistent although some tracks featured may be vinyl rips (nothing under 192kbps though).

Have fun!