Suche:talking heads

Recorded in 1991 by the quintet of vocalist Billie Ray Martin and Birmingham-based electronic musicians Brian Nordhoff, Joe Stevens, Les Fleming and Roberto Cimarosti, Electribal Soul was conceived as the sequel to the band’s 1990 debut album, Electribal Memories.
Electribal Memories had yielded the hits ‘Talking With Myself’ and ‘Tell Me When The Fever Ended’ and pushed Electribe 101 to the forefront of a crossover electronic scene that fused dance music with pop savvy. They were snapped up by Phonogram, managed by Tom Watkins and hailed as “the next band to meet the Queen” by i-D. The band took the coveted support slot for Depeche Mode on their epochal World Violation tour and supported Erasure at Milton Keynes Bowl. Seen as the next big thing, everything pointed toward enduring critical success for Electribe 101, and the band settled into putting their second album together.
“There was a degree of confidence among us when we came to write the second album,” recalls Billie Ray Martin. “To me, the songs we put down sound like some of our finest moments.” More immediately lush and warm than the dancefloor-friendly structures of Electribal Memories, the clue to the sound of Electribal Soul lies in the second word in its title: soul. Songs like the aching sensuality of opening track ‘Insatiable Love’ or the emboldened defiance of ‘Moving Downtown’ showcase Billie Ray Martin’s distinctive vocal range as it moves from haunting quiet to dramatic, euphoric rapture. Lyrics from ‘Moving Downtown’ had found their way into ‘Pimps, Pushers, Prostitutes’ by S’Express, and the song would appear as ‘Running Around Town’ on Martin’s 1996 solo album. The strikingproduction on the version of the song presented on Electribal Soul suggests classic late sixties soul influences, such as those of legendary Motown producer Norman Whitfield, with the long shadow cast by Kraftwerk never being far away.
‘Deadline For My Memories’, the song that provided the title for Martin’s first solo album, was originally intended for the second Electribe 101 album. Its lyrics document a sense of freedom and liberation from the darkness of a bad relationship, accompanied by jazzy piano and organ sounds over a quiet rhythm and discrete electronics. In contrast, ‘A Sigh Won’t Do’ finds Martin in soothing vocal mode, despite its devastating message about the final ending of a strained relationship, her lyrics framed by restrained and subtle beats and sounds.
To spend time with Martin’s voice on Electribal Soul is to find yourself moved deep into the ordinarily impenetrable emotional corners of your own psyche. “I was into big ballads at the time and listening to all kinds of US and UK singers, and I was also young enough to want to prove myself as a belter of ballads,” explains Martin of the classic soul edge the album showcased.
Electribal Soul heads into darker territory with ‘Hands Up And Amen’. Originally written by Martin in Berlin in the period before moving to London and forming Electribe 101, the song was then perfected and enhanced by the band’s production nous. ‘Hands Up And Amen’ savagely documents the mugging of a woman in Queens, NY at gunpoint, only to resolve itself with a middle section that nods reverently toward gospel tradition. The song coalesces around a regimented break and burbling synths, finally ending with layers of urgent synth sounds.
Meanwhile, a cover of Throbbing Gristle’s ‘Persuasion’ takes us into a seedy world of sexual coercion and creepy infatuation, predating Martin’s chilling version of the track with progressive house unit Spooky two years later. Supported by a minimal, nagging rhythm and barely-fluctuating sounds, Electribe 101’s take on ‘Persuasion’ makes for uneasy listening, even though Martin manages to inject a sort of twisted sympathy for the protagonist as the song progresses.
That Electribe 101 were as comfortable offering complicated, nuanced tracks like ‘Persuasion’ alongside pop house bangers like ‘Space Oasis’ – written by Billie Ray Martin with Martin King before Electribe 101 was formed – is testament to the way the band wove their way effortlessly through electronic music reference points. Framed by light, jazzy piano melodies and string sounds, the energy of ‘Space Oasis’ soars so high that it could easily reach the moon, while highlighting how well-suited Martin’s voice has always been to club music. We hear the same reminder of her dance music credentials on ‘True Memories Of My World’, finding her describing a Hollywood actress who reflects on being used by directors to sell her ‘tears’.
Hooking up with the Birmingham-based Nordhoff, Stevens, Fleming and Cimarosti after placing a Melody Maker ad in 1988 (“Soul rebel seeks musicians – genius only”), it was clear that Martin had found a group that recognised the unique power and importance of her voice. Having worked with genres as diverse as reggae, rock and R&B, the four producers proved to be perfect collaborators, presenting carefully-sculpted backdrops that emphasised the towering emotional dexterity of her voice.
“Listening back to these tracks now, I was reminded of what a bunch of great musicians they were,” says Martin. “They had a rule that if a part still sounded good after a day or two then it could stay. If it bothered the vocals, it would go.” Even more so than on Electribal Memories, Electribal Soul places Martin at the captivating centre of these pieces, surrounding her voice with everything from dubby rhythms to chunky R&B beats to nascent trip hop breaks; wiry, acid-hued synths uncoil gently without ever dominating, while horn samples and lush, disco-inflected strings provide a rich, naturalistic accompaniment for Martin’s emotional outpourings.
The band finished mixing the album at London’s Olympic Studios in 1991. They were assisted by Apollo 440’s Howard Gray on production duties for ‘Deadline For My Memories’, ‘Insatiable Love’ and ‘Space Oasis’, with Gray supported by talented engineer Al Stone. Pre-release promo tapes were issued and an enthusiastic energy started to build around the band’s anticipated second album.
It was not meant to be. Against a backdrop of a worsening relationship with Tom Watkins, and a disinterested Phonogram, instead of receiving a positive reaction to the new tracks, Electribe 101 were swiftly dropped by their label. Electribal Soul languished, unreleased, and the band yielded to pressures that had been building and split up. After collaborating with Spooky and The Grid, Billie Ray Martin went on to release her seminal debut solo album in 1996, with it securing the era-defining hit ‘Your Loving Arms’, while the other group members continued to work together as The Groove Corporation.
Thirty years after the songs were recorded, we’re now finally able to hear what the second and final chapter of Electribe 101’s story sounded like. Electribal Soul shows that the band had really only just got started when they dropped their first album in 1990. Heard only by a select and privileged few, what followed elevated the band’s music to a completely new level, making Electribal Soul musical buried treasure of the most precious and rare variety.
Electribal Soul will be released on LP, CD and digital formats on 18th February 2022 through Electribal Records. The physical formats include extensive liner notes from Billie Ray Martin, and the album sleeve features unseen archive photographs by Lewis Mulatero from the original 1990 sessions with the band that were never used in the sleeve designs for Electribal Memories.

First single in three years from Belfast’s Robocobra Quartet.

For fans of Black Country, New Road, Black Midi, Squid, Fugazi, Dry Cleaning.

“Fugazi meets Mingus.” - Drowned in Sound
“Exploratory pioneers.” - BBC Radio 3 Late Junction
“A cunning marriage of jazz, spoken word and punk” - The Quietus

Improvisation and experimentation is at the core of Robocobra Quartet's DNA, almost intentionally at odds with their roots as a post-punk band. Including members with no musical training alongside
European music conservatoire innovators, the result is a groove-driven but cerebral blast, invoking the likes of Fugazi, Talking Heads and contemporaries such as Squid and Black Country, New Road.

The eclectic free nature of their live shows allows them to channel-hop from moments of joy and playfulness to periods of intense fury, creating a unique sound that has earned them invitations to Montreux Jazz Festival, Latitude and as far out as the Inversia Festival in the polar north of Russia.

Extensive live UK and Europe dates and album launch tour to be announced.

Johnny Marr started his career with The Smiths, beginning an amazing history as one of the most influential songwriters and guitarists in British independent music. His subsequent creative journey has seen him at the heart of The The, Electronic, Modest Mouse and The Cribs, as well as working with such names as The Pretenders, Talking Heads, The Avalanches, and the musician and composer Hans Zimmer - with whom he recently recorded the score and soundtrack for the forthcoming James Bond film, No Time To Die, including the title track created with Billie Eilish.

In the wake of his time leading The Healers, Marr’s solo career has given rise to three UK Top Ten albums - The Messenger (2013), Playland (2014) and 2018’s Call The Comet, and he will be returning in February with his most expansive work to date, Fever Dreams Pts 1-4. It was created during the long, uncertain period that followed the arrival of the UK’s first lockdown, when his focus was pushed into both his interior life, and evoking the emotional states of others. “It’s an inspired record, and I couldn’t wait to get in and record every day,” he says. “But I had to go inwards.”

The upcoming album reflects his multi-faceted past, but takes his music somewhere startlingly new. “There’s a set of influences and a very broad sound that I’ve been developing - really since getting out of The Smiths,” he says. “And I hear it in this record. There are so many strands of music in it. I think it’s the most ambitious solo record I’ve done.”

Scott Lavene is set to release ‘Broke’ on 7th June 2019, an album that is drenched in living in the gutter but staring at the stars.

Lavene has the lyrical smarts and the fairground bark of an Ian Dury, the incisive wordplay of a Costello and the deadpan pop of Madness in his creative DNA, along with the street poetry of an Essex boy version of Lou Reed, the dislocated funk of Talking Heads, the jellied eel lyrical bounce of Chas and Dave, and the inventive surreal see-saw of a Tom Waits, and many other nonconformists.

It’s an intoxicating brew that he makes his own in this collection of wonderful quirky songs that make up ‘Broke’.

These are songs that are full of detail and a life lived in scuffed shoes, rainy towns and the magic of the everyday. Songs about small talk, being skint, doomed affairs and the sweetness of falling in love over a cup of tea.

Creating unconventional backdrops for his street tales Scott builds up shapeshifting rhymes and looping grooves.

Translucent Orange Vinyl. "Deep States" ist ein Protestalbum, das neues kulturelles Terrain erforscht und im subjektiven Zustand zeitgenössischer Panik gräbt. Aber TROPICAL FUCK STORM predigen heimlich, immer im Bewusstsein der Tatsache, dass sie schließlich Popmusik machen, egal wie avantgardistisch oder "out there" es wird. Entsprechend kommt "Deep States" komplett mit Q-Drops, Anspielungen auf den Capitol Riot vom 6. Januar 2021, einem Riff auf Pizzagate, Waterboarding-Marsianern, gefährlichen Kulten von Heaven's Gate bis The Shining Path und, nicht zu übertreffen, Romeo-Agenten, die uns nachts ins Bett legen, um uns am Morgen zu verraten. Wir leben in einer Welt, in der das Bizarre zum Normalen geworden ist, und TROPICAL FUCK STORM lotet dieses Paradoxon aus. Was TROPICAL FUCK STORM so großartig macht, ist die Schnittmenge zwischen ihrem düsteren, aber satirischen Storytelling und den musikalischen Arrangements, die darauf abzielen, erhaltene Kanons und Weisheiten zu pervertieren. Diese Songs sind ein Experiment, das sich in seinem eigenen idiosynkratischen, zutiefst beunruhigenden Tempo vor- und zurückbewegt. Sie hängen am schrägen Beat und gleiten in jazzige, verzerrte Jams, die so turbulent sind, dass sie Charlie Mingus stolz machen würden. Musikalisch macht "Deep States", was es will: Pop, R&B, New Wave im Stil der Talking Heads, Delta Blues, Tom Waits und einige der HipHop-Lieblinge der Band wie Wu-Tang Clan und Missy Elliott. Barrieren werden nicht nur durchbrochen, sie scheinen komplett weggefallen zu sein.

Parquet Courts’ thought-provoking rock is dancing
to a new tune. ‘Sympathy For Life’ finds the
Brooklyn band at both their most instinctive and
electronic, spinning their bewitching, psychedelic
storytelling into fresh territory, yet maintaining their
unique identity.
Built largely from improvised jams, inspired by
New York clubs, Primal Scream and Pink Floyd
and produced in league with Rodaidh McDonald
(The xx, Hot Chip, David Byrne), ‘Sympathy For
Life’ was always destined to be dancey. Unlike its
globally adored predecessor, 2018’s ‘Wide
Awake!’, the focus fell on grooves rather than
rhythm.
“‘Wide Awake!’ was a record you could put on at a
party,” says co-frontman Austin Brown. “‘Sympathy
For Life’ is influenced by the party itself.
Historically, some amazing rock records been
made from mingling in dance music culture - from
‘Talking Heads’ to ‘Screamadelica’. Our goal was
to bring that into our own music.”
Deluxe LP features tipped on gatefold sleeve with
a glued-in six page booklet.

Parquet Courts’ thought-provoking rock is dancing
to a new tune. ‘Sympathy For Life’ finds the
Brooklyn band at both their most instinctive and
electronic, spinning their bewitching, psychedelic
storytelling into fresh territory, yet maintaining their
unique identity.
Built largely from improvised jams, inspired by
New York clubs, Primal Scream and Pink Floyd
and produced in league with Rodaidh McDonald
(The xx, Hot Chip, David Byrne), ‘Sympathy For
Life’ was always destined to be dancey. Unlike its
globally adored predecessor, 2018’s ‘Wide
Awake!’, the focus fell on grooves rather than
rhythm.
“‘Wide Awake!’ was a record you could put on at a
party,” says co-frontman Austin Brown. “‘Sympathy
For Life’ is influenced by the party itself.
Historically, some amazing rock records been
made from mingling in dance music culture - from
‘Talking Heads’ to ‘Screamadelica’. Our goal was
to bring that into our own music.”
Deluxe LP features tipped on gatefold sleeve with
a glued-in six page booklet.

"Future indie classics that reek of modern New York City Charm” – DIY Magazine
"Captures honest-to-god truths in a new light’ – The Line of Best Fit
“A nostalgia-tinged hit, filled with jangly guitars and contagious melodies” – Wonderland
‘WANDERKID’ is the sophomore album from New York’s next lo-fi legend, JW Francis, and will be released whilst its creator is in the middle of trekking 2000 miles along the Appalachian Trail in the US. The follow up to JW’s critically acclaimed debut album ‘We Share A Similar Joy’, ‘WANDERKID’ will be released on 3rd September by Sunday Best Recordings. “WANDERKID is an album about escape. It’s supposed to be a gut punch of a record about an anti-hero named WANDERKID who wants to get OUT: out of his living situation, out of his head, out of his life. This album is like looking out the car window with an urgent desire to be on the other side. It was finished during the most recent global pandemic, so hopefully folks find it relatable.”
JW is fast making a name for himself as one of the most exciting new artists around. Born in Oklahoma, JW landed in New York City at 19 to study Economics at Columbia University, but not before making stops, stays and stints in Vermont, aged 12 and Paris, aged 13. Whilst at Columbia, the troubadour started music blog Rare Candy and founded student-run recording studio CU Records. Musically, JW takes his lead from the greats of the Downtown scene - Patti Smith, The Velvet Underground, Television, Talking Heads, The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs - and is fast emerging at the forefront of the next generation.

If your brain has a shortlist of bands that instantly evoke New Wave, Suburban Lawns deserve a slot right next to the likes of Devo, Talking Heads and the B-52's. After putting out two singles on their own Suburban Industrial imprint, the Lawns signed to I.R.S. Records and released their debut LP in 1981. While the band gained cult status thanks in part to a Jonathan Demme-produced music video which aired on Saturday Night Live, their self-titled album would sadly be the five-piece's only full-length statement.

Suburban Lawns' asymmetrical aesthetic is personified by co-vocalist Su Tissue, whose mesmerizing stage persona was at once childlike and terrifying. Her unique style embodies the awkward/arty female singer of the Reagan era, while the group's male vocals – courtesy of Frankie Ennui, Vex Billingsgate and John McBurney – maintain the satirical themes of Southern California's postwar mirage of limitless sprawl.

Suburban Lawns' catchiness can be attributed to their drum-tight performance and taut songwriting. Listen to the vocal trade-offs on "Anything," which could have easily come out on any purely Punk label from LA at the time, while Tissue's deadpan delivery on "Janitor" glides into the best art-warble this side of Lene Lovich, broaching the possibility of nuclear annihilation with a murmured "Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom."

From a West Coast scene dominated by 7-inch singles and EPs, the Suburban Lawns' lone LP remains in a class with precious few. It's not surprising that they found acceptance in the Hollywood punk scene, despite their Long Beach roots, and would influence other bands such as Minutemen. This is not a disc that will get parked in your collection hoping to get pulled once in a while; this is a record you will play.

Soul Jazz Records new 'Two Synths, A Guitar (and) A Drum Machine' is a new collection of current D-I-Y post-punk bands shaped by the mutant sounds of no wave, punk funk and New York Noise bands from the late 70s and early 80s that collided with the world of underground dance music found at the Paradise Garage, Mudd Club in New York City (ESG, Arthur Russell, Bush Tetras, Talking Heads, Suicide, Liquid Liquid). Other influences cited here include Manchester and Sheffield's industrial post-punk sounds of the 1980s (Joy Division, Cabaret Voltaire, Gang of Four) as well as the 1970s German electronic experimentalism of Cluster, Neu!, Harmonia and Can. Featured artists from around the globe include Los Angeles D-I-Y band Automatic, New Fries from Toronto, artist/music collaborators Toresch from Germany, Susumu Makai from Japan/UK, VexRuffin from the Philippines/California and Madmadmad, Gramme, Tom of England and other UK groups. That all the bands featured here manage to make distinctive contemporary music out of these 80s roots is testament to the wide range of other musics that are seamlessly absorbed into a modern melting pot of sound - hip-hop, the electronic European avant-garde, rave culture, and more.

Liz Phair announces ‘Soberish’, her highly-anticipated new album and first collection of original
material in eleven years. Produced by Phair’s longtime collaborator Brad Wood - known for helming
Phair’s seminal albums ‘Exile In Guyville’, ‘Whip-Smart’ and ‘whitechocolatespaceegg’ - ‘Soberish’ is
released via Chrysalis Records.
Almost thirty years since her peerless debut album ‘Exile In Guyville’ was released (voted #56 in
Rolling Stone’s 2020 list of the 500 Greatest albums Of All Time), Phair returns with a new record that
will both intrigue and satisfy her long-standing fans and introduce her to a smart young audience
whose contemporary heroes have been reading from Phair’s playbook since they first picked up a
guitar.
Liz Phair has achieved the kind of status in her industry rarely bestowed on recording artists. Her
albums in the 1990s were central to the indie rock canon of the day. Her image was featured in
countless magazines, early Apple commercials and Gap ads. Her eponymous album for Capitol
Records in 2003 took Phair in a pop direction that ruffled some critics’ feathers but nonetheless went
gold, galvanizing a host of new fans, particularly among young women who fell in love with hits like
‘Why Can’t I’ and ‘Extraordinary’, tracks that were featured in several major films and TV shows,
including 13 Going On 30, Raising Helen and How To Deal. Liz has picked up two Grammy
nominations and a spot in Pitchfork’s Greatest Albums Of The 90s, with over five million record sales
to date (including three US gold albums). She sang ‘God Bless America’ at the opening game of the
Chicago White Sox World Series victory in her hometown in 2005.
‘Soberish’ is a portrait of Phair in the present tense, taking all of the facets of her melodic output over
the years and synthesizing them into a beautiful, perfect whole. She’s at the top of her game in the
recording studio, drawing upon years of experience in television composition to weave through the
songs daring and unexpected sound design. With Brad Wood’s exquisite engineering and masterful
production, the result is a wholly fresh yet satisfyingly familiar sound that challenges on the first listen
and seduces with each subsequent play through. The earworms are strong with this one.
Phair says, “I found my inspiration for ‘Soberish’ by delving into an early era of my music development,
my art school years spent listening to Art Rock and New Wave music non-stop on my Walkman. The
English Beat, The Specials, Madness, R.E.M.s Automatic for the People, Yazoo, The Psychedelic
Furs, Talking Heads, Velvet Underground, Laurie Anderson, and the Cars. The city came alive for me
as a young person, the bands in my headphones lending me the courage to explore.”
None of the arrangements on Soberish are traditional songwriting standards but the hooks are so
catchy, the imagery so compelling, that the listener is drawn effortlessly along with the music. There
are the off-kilter, unexpected guitar chords listeners will recognize as her signature style, a mainstay
from her earliest work; the instantly knowable choruses of her most pop-friendly songs of the early
2000s; the frank lyricism and storytelling that has opened doors for countless women picking up
guitars and attempting to speak about their experiences.
Phair shares insight into the meaning of her title: “‘Soberish’ can be about partying. It can be about
self-delusion. It can be a about chasing that first flush of love or, in fact, any state of mind that allows
you to escape reality for a while and exist on a happier plane. It’s not self-destructive or out of control;
it’s as simple as the cycle of dreaming and waking up. That’s why I chose to symbolize ‘Soberish’ with
a crossroads, with a street sign. It’s best described as a simple pivot of perspective. When you meet
your ‘ish’ self again after a period of sobriety, there’s a deep recognition and emotional relief that
floods you, reminding you that there is more to life, more to reality and to your own soul than you are
consciously aware of. But if you reach for too much of a good thing, or starve yourself with too little,
you’ll lose that critical balance.”

Recorded sporadically over five years from 2015 to 2019, Sixty Summers was shaped profoundly by Stone’s key collaborators on the album: Thomas Bartlett, aka Doveman, and Annie Clark, the Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and producer known as St. Vincent. Bartlett and Clark were the symbiotic pair Stone needed to realise her first pop vision. A wizard of production and songwriting, Bartlett helped coax Sixty Summers’ independent, elemental spirit from Stone, writing and recording over 50 demos with her at his studio in New York. Itself a thoroughfare for indie rock luminaries, some of whom, such as The National’s Matt Berninger and Bryce Dessner, ended up on the album, Bartlett’s studio was perfect fertile ground for Stone’s growth.
Clark was the incisive yang to Bartlett’s yin, a sharp musical polymath who, when presented with the work Bartlett and Stone had made together, quickly helped fashion Sixty Summers into the album it was destined to be. Contributing vocals and guitar in addition to production, Clark’s revered acidic touch ignited the sparks of Stone’s creations.
The scope of Sixty Summers is dizzyingly vast; miles away from Stone’s past work, it is a world unto itself, a surreal and breathtaking new landscape. Where Stone’s previous solo records, 2010’s The Memory Machine and 2014’s By The Horns, found her grappling with the natural darkness that comes with loving too much, Sixty Summers finds Stone claiming every part of herself: fire, fury, love, lust, longing. Touching on reference points as disparate as the avant-funk of Talking Heads (on ‘Break’) the romantic 2am musings of Serge Gainsbourg (‘Free’, ‘Dance’) and the sleek, ecstatic synth work of Lorde’s Melodrama (‘Substance’), Sixty Summers is an album you can dance to and one you can lose yourself in completely.

Formerly unreleased, super-rare tracks from the original New York scene, art-house band Gray originally fronted by the legendary artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.

A slice of the Lower East Side New York grounded in real experiences, real feelings and the joys of urban living, expressed through the tracks ‘Never Gonna Leave New York City’ & ‘Willie Mays, Boom For Real’ from founding Gray member Michael Holman and bandmate Nicholas Taylor.

This RSD release comes in a stunning full colour sleeve complete with liner notes from executive producer, as well as legendary counterculture author and rock biographer (Jagger, Dylan, Bowie, Pink Floyd, The Ramones, Talking Heads, Zappa, etc), Barry Miles.

Two things become immediately clear when you hear “Body Electric”, the third original album by White Haus, João Vieira (X-Wife / Dj Kitten)’s solo project. The first is that we’re faced with an insatiable music lover, with an exemplary historical awareness. The second is that is music, although it channels all that passion, does it in such a way that is increasingly all his own. The thing is, that if on one hand, in these twelve new tracks, we’re assailed by the presence of the tutelary Talking Heads and their satellite projects, by Vivien Goldman, Sexual Harrassement or Konk’s New York No Wave, by the electronic pop of Soft Cell or New Order, by the hybrid funk of Prince and his Minneapolis accollites, by the Italo-Disco inspired by Giorgio Moroder or Patrick Cowley or the Acid House of Adonis or Maurice.

Honey Dijon was asked the remix her “favourite band” Blancmange and choose the magnificent disco oddity, 1983 hit ‘Blind Vision.’ The result is stripped back, bumping houser that sounds as much Green Velvet as it does Talking Heads. Urgent percussion and oscillating synths drive things forward, allowing a full Blancmange vocal to unfold aloft to great effect. Also features the original and sought after extended mix. The first in a new series of ‘London Records Remixed’ releases on 12” and digital. Now at its new home as part of the Because Music Group the London Records catalogue is being revisited by pioneering, contemporary electronic producers.

ALBUM: I came up with the album title after watching a YouTube video by the channel "Watch Mojo" entitled "The Top Ten Dead Music Genres". In this video, they claimed that Synthpop is dead. Since everybody said I was a Synthpop artist, I was astonished to discover that the genre I play is considered "dead". It's relatively tongue in cheek because I don't believe any musical genre is dead and everything can be revisited and everything evolves. That being said, this is an album in which, at least musically, I am working within the boundaries of this genre, while at the same time starting to experiment with other, more modern sounds and concepts. Thematically, I tackle various topics: dysfunctional childhoods (Shortcut), heroic love in a dystopian nightmare (Billions of Years), self-destructive behaviour (Drink and Drive), unrequited, criminal love (House Arrest) and many others.

BIOGRAPHY: Glitter, glam and good vibes from the heart of Berlin! Stephen Paul Taylor (SPT) is a Canadian artist who went viral in David Bowie's old stomping grounds and has played hundreds of concerts, festivals and weddings all over Europe. He makes Synthpop-Art-Punk with undertones of New Order and Talking Heads.
Taylor was in Post-Art Synth-Folk duo, Trike, for five years before branching off into his solo project in 2014. Trike won a $20K award from "The Gong Show" (in Vancouver) in 2011, toured 22 countries, recorded an album in Denmark and Belgium and played hundreds of shows. Taylor then went solo and began playing all over Europe, from Denmark rooftops to weddings in East Germany. He gained a name for himself after achieving viral status and has continued to play all over Europe ever since. Well known for being a street musician, he essentially quit playing in the street in 2018 and focused exclusively on playing on the stage
His music is a blend of both old and new. A strong beat pulses beneath the catchy melodies and captivating lyrics float atop the whole ensemble. His bittersweet words often contrast the happy melodies within the music. He tackles unique subjects that reflect the 'ennui' our our current cultural climate. His newest album "Synthpop is Dead" is an ironic interpretation of the notion of musical genres actually "dying". Did Synthpop actually die or did it evolve? His new album also touches on other themes, from our dependance on fossil fuels to our addiction to self-destructive activities, like drinking and driving. The album uses healthy doses of humour to hammer down its themes
A year after going solo, SPT went viral with his song "Shi*t's F*cked" (His channel has 7.5 million views on YouTube) and appeared on many TV shows and well-known media outlets, from RBB to Arte to Comedy Central. He was also featured on Germany's "Das Supertalent" in 2016. He has 1.5 million listens on Spotify. He's been on the radio in Italy, Latvia, Canada and Australia, to name a few. He was also signed with Budde publishing and his racord label, "SPT Records" is a subsidiary of "Shitkatapult Records"
Dieter Bolle said his "80's influenced" music was "sehr geile" (very beautiful). Electric Six frontman, Dick Valentine, said he's "a firecracker".

After much anticipation, our Belgian disco diamonds Rheinzand present their debut full-length album. On their self-titled record, The Belgian trio wraps the human heart in synthetic threads of modular electronic disco. 9 songs writhing on timeless dancefloors, morphing in and out of shapes of luxuriant melody and vivid instrumentation.

The album is full of classic disco and electro sounds, wielded with imposing prowess by multi-instrumentalist Reinhard Vanbergen. It’s both an exploration ofdance music’s electronic genealogy and the vintage cool that has defined its different eras. Still, an organic atmosphere pervades as the blend of real instrumentation fixes a sort of retro-futurism, imagining an alternative timeline that’s a bit more exciting, more sensuous and libidinal, maybe more human, too, than our current outlook.

We start the engines with Break of Dawn, a compelling beat rises from the basement and soon we’re submerged by the pulsing bassline. Dark sunglasses on, we cruise through the night, letting flashing city lights flow into unbroken torrents of color. Blind awakens us, a splash of handclaps in the face, vivid strings and Charlotte’s trademark slick vocals enter the stage. Tantalizing sunbeams power up circuits of electronic synths blipping and beeping away.

Later down the road, we hit the Latin part of town. Porque fits enchanting vocal spells in beautiful Spanish on playful flamenco rhythms. Fourteen Again is a throwback to early electro, playing around with knobs and buttons. An oscillating synth imagines new worlds of plastic emotion. Still disco and still very cool, though. A constant velocity is sustained throughout the album bythis recurring locomotive synth, trudging away beneath the action. Once in a while, we hear the deep, mighty, trembling voice of Mr. Rheinzand speaking to us in incantations. Someone’s pulling the strings here.

On Slippery People, the trio cover the Talking Heads classic in a characteristic procedure of bouncy funk. We’re swirled around by the delirious glasswork of You Don’t Know Me into the hypnagogic funk noir of Strange World. Drifting through the house of mirrors after the fourth mojito.

Obey collects all these threads in a full-bodied future classic disco anthem, before Queen of The Dawn wraps up the show with a sky-bound epic of operatic choirs and ceremonious drums that lands somewhere between Kate Bush’s Aerial and Peter Gabriel’s most bombastic.

In 1981, London-based E.G. Records released the debut album from a young Ghanaian group called Edikanfo. Edikanfo quickly rose to international notoriety following the release of “The Pace Setters” because of the infectious, forward-looking highlife meets afro-funk synthesis the band committed to tape. But the album also caught an additional wind of publicity due to its producer, the already legendary British musician and sound conceptualist Brian Eno. During that time, Eno was researching and openly propagating West African musics. He often mentioned his love of Fela Kuti and called his own rhythm-driven experiments the search for a “vision of a psychedelic Africa.” He had recently been collaborating with The Talking Heads on their Avant-funk masterpiece “Remain in Light” and with The Talking Heads frontman David Byrne on “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts,” an album which foretold the sort of cross-pollination and global music interconnectivity that today we take for granted. Eno and Edikanfo’s work together at Studio One in Accra (Ghana) was yet another inspired morphing of soundworlds and processes and a significant touchstone for both artists. As Brian Eno recently noted: “the actual recording sessions were joyful - the band played with such verve that you couldn't resist.”



But just when the sky seemed the limit for Edikanfo, the coup d’état in Ghana on the last day of 1981, tragically put the brakes on the band’s quickly developing fortunes. For years after that, the country endured enforced curfews at night, which of course ultimately gutted the live music scene in Accra and elsewhere. Because of this and other financial setbacks, the band ceased activity and its members spread out in exile, all over the world. It clearly seemed as though the story of Edikanfo, one of Ghana’s greatest bands of that era, had come to a premature end.



Now, almost four decades later, Edikanfo has returned. And with its surviving members gearing up to reissue and tour their classic 1981 album, “The Pace Setters,” the band is once again excitedly pointed towards the future.

The last Happy Mondays album on Factory Records originally released September 1992 - reaching no 14 in the UK chart. Produced by Talking Heads’ Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz. Artwork lovingly replicated by original Manchester designers Central Station Design. Featured the singles "Stinkin' Thinkin”, “Sunshine & Love” and “Angel”.