Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Eight-X (18)

Hello, Eight-X the times you've been waiting for all week, some of you that is. Today we have another mixed bag, 'industrial' folk by a former art/kraut rocker who ended up as a Uni-professor lecturing in/on sound. Hearing it again this week made me wonder who's doing this today..great album and rather of these times "Flying Doesn't Help" being a great lyricist too you can read it as Fleeing aswell.. Our next stop brings us to a dotcom millionaire who went into business a decade after the band folded and her child was reared enough i guess. Eugenie Diserio, the post-punk princess went on to another life as a self-styled astrological self-help guru.Her band, The Dance, released two albums the latter, Soul Force, has recently been rereleased. Here you'll find their first In Lust..Last but not least Underworld, oops no that came later, still even if the boys look rather overstyled, the music shows Underworlds roots, i'm talking of cause about 'Freur' the name they came up with for the symbol that was devised to represent them, obviously the record company had said "bollocks, we can't have that" and i guess announcing a symbol is asking a bit much from the radio DJ's, let alone filing it

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Anthony Moore - Flying Doesn't Help
(79 ^ 98mb)

Anthony Moore's musical career began when he met Peter Blegvad, while both were students at a Letchworth boarding school. After school Moore studied Indian classical music with Viram Jasani in 1969, and went on to compose his first film soundtrack for David Larcher's Mare's Tale. In 1971 Moore moved to Hamburg, Germany and worked in Hamburg's experimental music scene, recording two minimalist albums. In 1972 Blegvad visited Moore in Hamburg and, along with Moore's girlfriend Dagmar Krause, Moore (guitar, keyboards), Blegvad (guitar) and Krause (vocals) formed the avant-pop trio, Slapp Happy. Moore and Blegvad composed the band's music. Slapp Happy recorded two albums for Polydor Germany with krautrock group Faust as their backing band. Polydor released the first, Sort Of in 1972, but rejected the second, Casablanca Moon. This rejection prompted Slapp Happy to relocate to London where they signed up with Virgin Records and re-recorded Casablanca Moon, released in 1974 by Virgin as Slapp Happy. In 1974 they merged briefly with avant-garde rock group Henry Cow, recording two albums in 1975, Desperate Straights and In Praise of Learning. However, soon after recording the second album, first Moore, then Blegvad left the amalgamation on account of incompatibilities with the group, but Krause elected to remain with Henry Cow and that spelt the end of Slapp Happy. Moore and Blegvad parted company at this point, but did reunite for brief Slapp Happy reunions in 1982-1983, 1997 and 2000.

After leaving Henry Cow/Slapp Happy, Moore relaunched his solo career in 1977 by releasing Out on Virgin Records, with backing by Kevin Ayers and Andy Summers. Out, alas not commercial enough for Virgin so they cancelled Moore's contract. Meanwhile he produced a number of albums, including This Heat's This Heat (1978) . Moore went on to record a pair of exceptional albums -- Flying Doesn't Help and World Service -- on small independent labels. 1979's Flying Doesn't Help is elaborate yet accessible, the effects of Moore's masterwork can be felt on a number of levels. The opening track, a hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold story called "Judy Get Down, with playful use of double entendres and in its unfailing Beatlesque melodicism. The songs that follow run the gamut from mordant to mischievous to desolate. Moore manufactures a musical landscape that is starkly beautiful, emotionally charged and a tad dangerous, not unlike the best of John Cale's solo material. The album has stood the test of time remarkbly well .

After 1984's The Only Choice, Moore traded the uncertain fate as unsung singer for steadier employment as lyricist for the post Roger Waters incarnation of Pink Floyd. .Moore worked in various European locations as a freelance composer, writing songs and film scores. and collaborated with Pink Floyd on two of their albums. In 1996 Moore was appointed professor for research into sound and music in the context of new media at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, Germany. From 2000 to 2004 he was the principal of the Academy of Media Arts. Moore has also travelled to many European locations, presenting lectures on sound and music.



01 - Judy Get Down (2:56)
02 - Ready Ready (3:06)
03 - Useless Moments (2:46)
04 - Lucia (4:34)
05 - Caught Being In Love (4:54)

06 - Time Less Strange (3:43)
07 - Girl It's Your Time (3:17)
08 - War (4:19)
09 - Just Us (4:10)
10 - Twilight (Alexander Street) (2:15)


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The Dance - In Lust (81 ^ 99mb)

The Downtown New York City music scene of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s was a renaissance, a coming together of ideas and influences from all the arts and from cultures around the world. From the humble beginnings of CBGB and Max’s Kansas City, the music scene grew to be dominated by the “dance/rock emporiums” Hurrah, Danceteria, Peppermint Lounge, The Ritz, Mudd Club, as well as myriad smaller clubs like Tier 3 and Club 57. Among the first and most prominent bands of this era in NYC was The Dance, a band that made a unique form of poetic beat music, combining musical influences from minimalism, funk, hip-hop, reggae and rock with lyrics that use wit and startling candor to explore paradox and sexual politics. They headlined regularly at all the “emporia” and at similar venues throughout the Northeast US, and were also the “opening band of choice” for a great many of the more commercial British bands including The Cure, Depech Mode, Duran Duran. Releasing two LPs on the Statik UK label, their largest audience was in Europe where they toured only once.

The Dance was formed in New York City in late 1979 when Steven Alexander and Eugenie Diserio, both visual artists with MFAs from Columbia University, dissolved their first band, the notorious Model Citizens. They soon recruited bassist Louis Watterson, whom they heard play at a jazz/funk loft party. The first recording by The Dance was Dance for Your Dinner EP, at that time, The Dance was Eugenie, Steve and Louis, along with Fred Maher on drums and Jim Martin on percussion, second guitar and sax. In the next year, Martin was replaced by Tomas Doncker on guitar, and Maher was replaced by Robey Newsom on drums. This five-piece lineup recorded The Dance’s first LP, In Lust, released by Statik UK in 1981. Recorded in Surry, England, at Strawberry Studios, and co-produced at the label’s insistence by John Walker (a young and inexperienced engineer), In Lust presented a murky and sterile quasi-commercial funk sound. It was well received by fans and press, particularly in Europe where it had major label distribution. About the cover Robey says "Eugenie and Steve (her husband at the time) were artists so, if you listen to her lyrics, it should be no surprise that Eugenie is responsible for the album cover, Genie and Steve “sourced” the photo from a local sex shop and did the filtering and cropping, then added the text. "

Shortly after the release of In Lust, The Dance pared down to a four-piece band of Eugenie, Steve, Louis and Robey, streamlining their sound and embarking on a highly successful European tour. Returning to New York City in spring of 1982, The Dance entered Celestial Sound Studios to self-produce their second LP, Soul Force. The resulting record was The Dance at their most focused moment, confident and at home in the studio, and collaborating with fluidity and openness, reflecting the fusion of international sounds and attitudes that was Downtown NYC in 1982. Like much of the most original music made in the US, Soul Force was met with critical praise but little or no support from the record company. Available in the States only as an import, the record had broad distribution throughout the rest of the world, but left The Dance without distribution and promotional support at home. So in late 1982, Steve and Eugenie entered Shakedown Sound Studios with hip-hop producer Arthur Baker to record extended mixes of a new song “Into the Future,” a trippy, hedonistic incantation with a throbbing bass and a Middle-Eastern-sounding keyboard line. The record was immediately signed to Island Records by Mark Kamins, but then in 1983, a month before the record’s release, a personnel shake-up at the Island label left “Into the Future” on the shelf, where it remains today.

At that point The Dance project reached a natural conclusion. Steven continued to perform solo in New York and Austin for a short time, then resumed his painting career. His work is now widely exhibited and collected, and he teaches painting at a university in Pennsylvania. Louis moved for a time to New Orleans, and now continues to play music in New York. Robey continued his education and became VP of a bank in New York. Eugenie left her musical career behind to birth a baby. She moved in with her parents, and in the early 90's launched an astrology website. The post-punk princess went on to another life as a self-styled astrological self-help guru, who seemingly has a significant following. Her bio says

"A professional astrologer, author, entrepreneur and charismatic media personality, Eugenie Diserio has built a large, devoted following for her unique style of spiritual life management....In 1998, she was honored as one of Harvard Business School New York's Top 10 Entrepreneurs of the Year. She is profiled in DotCom Divas: E-Business Insights from the Visionary Women Founders of 20 Net Ventures published by McGraw-Hill and Mompreneurs Online - Using the Internet to Build Work@Home Success." Here's a 3 page interview she did that year at the New York Times Eugenie Diserio Astronet

In 2007, The Dance’s Soul Force LP has been reissued by ReRelease.net, and available for the first time in digital form. The music on this record is certainly just as alive and true as the day it was made. For many in the US, it is the first availability of this piece of New York underground music history.



01 - Breakout (3:49)
02 - In Lust (6:06)
03 - Survive Another Day (4:22)
04 - Surrogate For Hate (5:46)

05 - Personal Grooves (4:34)
06 - Networking The World (3:47)
07 - Shine (4:35)
08 - Relax And Be Romantic (3:38)
09 - Into The Black (4:28)

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Freur - Doot-Doot ( 83 ^ 99mb)



Formed in the early 1980s in Cardiff, Wales by Karl Hyde, Rick Smith and Alfie Thomas, this band originally had only a graphic 'squiggle' for a name. In 1983, after recruiting John Warwicker and drummer Bryn Burrows, they struck a recording deal with a major label, CBS Records, and met the label's insistence on a pronouncable name with the compromise that the squiggle was pronounced "Freur". Their first and only hit, "Doot Doot" (1983), was typically eighties pop, with drum machine, reverse live drums and phased vocal. The band's look was a cross between goth, rock, glam and new romantic - a combination that eighties chart favorites Sigue Sigue Sputnik pulled off to greater success not long after Freur attempted it.

The band released five further tracks after "Doot Doot", between 1983 and 1985: "Matters of the Heart", "Runaway", "Riders in the Night", "Devil and the Darkness" and "Look in the Back for Answers". All failed to dent the charts. There were also two albums: Doot Doot (1983) and Get Us Out of Here! (1985). The second LP was only released in Germany and Holland and is now a rarity.

Warwicker left the band in 1986 and Freur went into recess. In 1987, Hyde, Smith, Thomas and Burrows, along with bassist Baz Allen signed to Sire Records under a new name, Underworld, and found minor success with the single "Underneath the Radar" (1988) before folding in 1990. This incarnation is now remembered as "Underworld Mk.1", in the shadow of Hyde and Smith's later worldwide fame under the Underworld moniker. Now you may think this Doot-Doot is rather cheesy, but it isn't, with hindsight there are enough elements that brought them success 10 years later. If they weren't so busy and the rights probably reside at CBS, i think they could reproduce/remix it and end up with a good album to release for their 25 years in the muzik-biz party.



01 - Doot-Doot (3:59)
02 - Runaway (3:59)
03 - Riders In The Night (5:36)
04 - Theme From The Film Of The Same Name (3:22)
05 - Tender Surrender (2:57)

06 - Matters Of The Heart (4:04)
07 - My Room (3:25)
08 - Whispering (4:09)
09 - Steam Machine (2:56)
10 - All Too Much (4:49)

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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !

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