Hope you're all doing okay. A sunny weekend here in Amsterdam, but lockdown persists, although a slight easing in restrictions is expected soon, which is good news for me and my barber, as the hair helmet is starting to reach the seriously annoying stage, and the clippers are looking more inviting by the day (a lot of the local kids have already voluntarily clipped themselves which is kinda funny, all they need is some bovver boots and we'd be back in the early 70s).
#LockdownRadio is back on the rails though, thanks to @JimMcCauley for his cracking debut set this week. Anyone else fancy a go? The more the merrier, no experience necessary or required, etc.
"So I got the frisbee this week.
It was an easy pick in a way. This is a gatefold album I brought in ‘92, or late ‘91. I blame last week’s pick for emboldening me in picking something that I loved as a youth and still love, and hang the potential opprobrium.
In a way it was obvious that I’d love this album, as after being played Radioactivity by my father as a kid I became a Kraftwerk fan, and went on to love Electro tracks like Planet Rock, and British early 80s synth pop. All it took was chemically prying my ears open to the 4/4 beat in places like The Zap Club to push my stupid indie kid attitude aside, although I did love indie-dance, which was a gateway scene to this sort of stuff.
Anyhoo I’m going to try and stop drenching this in sirupy nostalgia, and give a not too spoilery intro
Yes, this is a compilation. Yes, if you don’t like 1980s drum machines like the 606, 808, and 909, you’re not going to like this. Yes, you really should hear these tracks in some sort of mix, in a club. Yes, there was a compilation from the same scene released 3 years before which had more of an impact. Yes, some of the tracks go on too long. But…..
It’s a nicely chosen selection of tracks from a *hugely* influential scene in the mid to late 80s born in the suburbs of an American city which has given the world so much musically. It gave a name to a genre which would take off in places like the UK, Germany, and Belgium, even if it took the US slightly longer to get it. It has cast a shadow over virtually every electronic dance music genre which has come after. The tracks are from predominantly 3 people under a range of aliases, whilst they represent 3 distinct strands of this scene, a fair whack of these tracks are relatively obscure mixes done by one of the other 3.
It’s influenced by Kraftwerk, and I like the way it’s therefore also an indirect way of paying respect to the sadly recently departed Florian Schneider. But it’s also very influenced by P-Funk, things like African polyrhythms, and the then new dance sound of places like The Warehouse in Chicago. Machine soul, some might call it. One of the tracks on here is my favourite track of the whole genre, sounding like a slightly melancholy journey under twinkling stars through a futuristic cityscape.
So, despite the fact that the US government has recently made an announcement which proves the chorus of the first track incorrect, and I still slightly cringe at the ‘Your Love’ style breathy vocals on the second track, let's go back to a time where the future was a thing of exciting possibilities, and to quote the b-side of the opening track ‘calculators, and micro-cassettes’. It’s a better future than this increasingly dystopian late stage capitalism one we turned out to get.
Oh and the last track, it’s a kickdrumless version of one of the biggest tracks from that time/space."
Okidoke. Direct download is here, and the stream's below:
See you at 8pm BST (GMT+1)
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