Unpiano | Music Blog

Hey look, its little Inga Humpe from the German art-punk outfit Neonbabies from a few posts back, all grown up and off to covering British dance hits. Sometimes, when I re-read the things I write, I hate that I always say things like “it sounds like ‘x’ mixed with ‘x’”, but I’m a really lazy writer, especially after a few beers, so I’m going to say “it sounds like the Chromatics mixed with early OMD, covering the Pet Shop Boys”. But this time I’ll have to add “except it sounds about ten times cooler than anything those two stone-faced twinks ever did”.

In 1984, Manuel Göttsching released E2-E4, an avant garde electronic composition that helped shape the sound of modern dance music. Continuing to experiment with synthesizers as he had with his previous band, Ash Ra Temple, Göttsching created a seamless ambient masterpiece where the interest all lies in the minute details. Many of the subtle rhythm changes and droning synth loops would later be heard in genres like Detroit Techno and Progressive Trance.

In many ways, E2-E4 owes a lot to Mike Oldfield‘s progressive rock album, Tubular Bells; the subtle build, long-form song structure, and guitar tone all draw heavily from the 1973 classic. Even the clean noodle-y jazz guitar solo in the later half of the piece seems like a nod to Oldfield, though the tone and synthesizer sound borrow heavily from Brian Eno‘s ambient records.

The name of the piece and the album art are both Chess references; the artwork is a chess board pattern, and the name refers to a popular pawn opening, moving the King’s pawn 2 spaces forward. Maybe the piece is just meant to be background music for a chess game, but it has to be that future-space-chess Chewbacca was playing in the Millennium Falcon.

Stream a 12-minute excerpt below, or get the whole thing here.

Manuel Göttsching – E2-E4 (excerpt)

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There are plenty of Goth nights in San Francisco but unless you are way into industrial, you are probably going to be a little bummed out (no pun intended). Luckily Club Shutter hosts the best dark wave night this side of San Diego and they usually have it pretty well covered. Sure they throw in The Smiths every now and then, but a good dance party always beats playing by the rules and when you are cataloging all the best goth bands of the 80′s you are bound to come across some crossover (*see the bonus section below). Anyways, I usually end up missing it for whatever reason, so I decided to have my own goth night right here at my secret club called the internet. Ladies free before eleven..

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The Church – Reptile
Visage – Fade To Grey
Bauhaus – Dark Entries
The Danse Society – Somewhere
The Chameleons UK – Swamp Thing
Depeche Mode – Shake The Disease
Xmal Deutschland – Incubus Succubus II
Sisters Of Mercy – Lucretia My Reflection

Bonus:
Tones On Tail – Go!
Berlin – Metro

//photo by ian mackean

Great disaffected 80′s Brit-pop from The Heart Throbs, who were released on One Little Indian around the time they were putting out The Sugarcubes. A friend of mine just walked in while this was playing and complained that all bands sound the same nowadays until I explained to him that they were two decades old. I think that speaks volumes to the kind of influence bands like this have had over pop music to date.

The Heart Throbs – Dreamtime
The Heart Throbs – She’s in a Trance
The Heart Throbs – Tossed Away

I couldn’t post up all this fuzzy girl-punk without tipping a hat to the Primitives, who probably introduced me to this sound in 1988, as a freshman in high school tiring of American hardcore. This band got fucked over by their record company six ways ’til Sunday, but still managed to release Lovely, an LP of Shop Assistants-style fuzz drenched radio hits.

The Primitives – Spacehead
The Primitives – Crash

Did you ever notice how Felt singer Lawrence Hayward’s voice sounds a bit like Lou Reed on a number of songs? Hmm.. Maybe it’s just me. Anyways, the eighties were a good time for British rock band Felt. They put out an astounding ten albums in ten years with a collection of singles and comps left over for good measure. Can’t say I really was into all of the albums, but there are some gems in there for sure. 1984′s The Strange Idols Pattern and Other Short Stories has some great catchy pop songs that would hold up at any Smiths Night and Penelope Tree is a great example of some strong British songwriting. I’m sure I’ll get some flack for not immediately canonizing the band and their place at the top of British cult rock, but I can say that they (or should I say he – since it was pretty much just Lawrence) have a special place in many people’s hearts. Especially one melancholy Scot..

Felt – Sunlight Bathed the Golden Glow
Felt – Whirlpool Vision Of Shame
Felt – Penelope Tree

Bonus:
Felt – Primitive Painters (video)

More gems from the HSA Mix Trade came in the mail this week. Scottish band Josef K had a bunch of singles on Postcard Records back the Eighties and wrote songs that made you feel sad in that pleasant way. Some great crooning from singer Paul Haig and you can never go wrong when you mix a disco beat with post-punk guitars. They never quite got the recognition they deserved, but then again they may not have wanted it anyway. Click on the photo above to check out their songs before they got all polished.

Josef K – It’s Kind of Funny
Josef K – Sorry For Laughing
Josef K – Pictures (Of Cindy)

Bonus:
Josef K – Sorry For Laughing (video)

Another kiwi-pop favorite, The Bats were a New Zealand staple in the late 80s early 90s. Critically acclaimed, commercially ignored, probably one of my top three from the Flying Nun scene of that time.

The Bats – Treason
The Bats – Round And Down
The Bats – North By North
The Bats – Tragedy

Three nice Jewish boys from Miami got together in high school during the early 80s and decided that cultural progression had stopped at the second Beatles record. Hell-bent on reversing the musical carnage of the 70s, they took their Merseybeat and Motown fascination and formed a band called The Wind. They recorded 14 of the hundreds of songs they had written together at a studio that catered to salsa bands, ran the whole thing through as much compression as it could handle, and produced this amazing private press LP that garnered them a write up in Rolling Stone (by none other than a young Kurt Loder in ’81). It went nowhere, like lots of good things do, but two copies of this record, out of the thousand pressed, ended up a popular dollar bin of a record store in midtown Sacramento (owned by a total asshole) and then into the hands of a friend (who hopefully stole them from that asshole) who turned me onto this (recently reissued on vinyl btw) awesome slice of power-pop.

The Wind – Wonder Track
The Wind – Hey Mister!

Considered one of the greatest Australian songs of all time, this Go-Betweens track is an all time favorite. The songwriting duo of Robert Forster and Grant McLennan had a long and varied run from the late 70′s until McLennan’s death a few years ago, but 1983′s Before Hollywood is my favorite by far.

Go-Betweens – Cattle And Cane