Kraftwerk Kovers

Anybody who has ever read this (both of you) will know I have a softspot for Kraftwerk.
And it seems I'm not alone, it appears there is a robot army out there dropping covers and reinterpretations of the 'Werk at every opportunity.


Luckily for lazy buggers like me, DJ Food of Sold Steel and Coldcut fame has lovingly collated them in a mix series called, Kraftwerk Kovers. Not content with dropping robotic moves at every possible opportunity, I'm sharing the robot goodness, right here.....


Here's Senor Coconut with Home Computer in a meringue style...

Orbital Electro Mix

To be honest, Chime and Belfast aside, I never really had much time for Orbital. However they are veterans of the scene and redeemed themselves a little bit by throwing down this classic electro mix on 6 Music a couple of weeks ago:

Download here:

PHIL HARTNOLL OLD SKOOL ELECTRO MIX

Shannon - Let The Music Play
Newcleus - Automan
Kid Frost - Rough Cut
Roxanne Shante - Bite This
Hashim - We're Rocking This Place
Imperial Brothers - We Come To Rock
Afrika Bambaatta - Planet Rock
RSW - The Phantom
Ryuichi Sakamoto - Riot In Lagos

Here's a robot:

What a Pair of Pins....

Some heavy shit coming up, with a couple of reviews and an exclusive interview I have been working on. In the meantime you will have to get by with a video. Poor you as it doesnt get any fucking better than this....

DJ Vadim_ U Can’t Lurn Imaginashun

DJ Vadim first entered the consciousness through the Ninja Tunes camp and a definite association with trip hop, a genre so steeped in the nineties I last saw it down the Blue note sporting Carharrt jeans and Nike Huaraches.

Judging by the press release, time has not been kind to Vadim, encountering as he has a string of personal misadventures, including mass bereavement and ocular melanoma (eye cancer). Musically, however this purple patch seems to have invigorated the artist formerly known as Russia favourite cut n paste hero (probably)

Whilst being rather unsure of it role, this album showcases admirably Vadim exemplary production skills, and love for the bass driven end of black music in all its forms.

Schizophrenically switching styles from roots reggae to straight up breaks, via clipped hip hop and soul, the album meanders ingeniously but tastefully across a myriad of musical styles.

Opening with the laidback guitar led ‘Soldier’, lets the album down as the righteous roots vibe recalls a dozen student gaffs thick with the smell of cheap draw. The album soon moves into darker territory with the Kraftwerk meets Jammy’s uptown vibe of ‘Imaginashun’ (and yes this IS a good thing.) Digital dub as genre is about as fashionable as Piers Morgan, but Vadim carries it well, keeping tight to the groove with falling off into noodling territory.

Things get interesting again later on with the instrumental goodness of ‘Game tight’ beautifully sampling ‘Nadia’s Theme’ also used by a certain Miss J Blige, and the bouncy soulful closing jam ‘Hidden Treasure’, what’s known as a ‘banger’ and definitely the highlight of the record.

A few dodgy vocal performances aside, this is a real summer party record, Vadim has managed to throw off the clichés of his past and overcome his personal demons to create, not quite a masterpiece, but certainly a worthy record. Worth Checking.

Pop Art ?

Just cant fault this, came across these superb classic albums as Pelican books on Flickr

Anybody with a love for classic nineties albums and cheap paperback (isn't that everyone?) should take a look.

Giant Paper Robot Fight

Lets face it...WHAT MORE DO YOU NEED ???????

Giant Paper Robot Fight - Shin Tanaka Contest from elemental on Vimeo.

Tomorrows World

Who's trying to tell me that the 70's had no style.......??

Clip from the futureproof Tomorrow's World.

M.M.M.M.Mantronix.....

Digging in the crates, well the cardboard box under the stairs this morning, looking for something to play in the car on a dark rainy morning I came across this.

Always loved a bit of Mantronix and this album in terms of energy and production detail is a blinder. Innovator, legend etc. are big shouts but Kurtis Mantronix is one of the few people to genuinely alter the path of electronic music.

Schooled in old school hip hop and electro from the school of Arthur Baker and Marley Marl, Mantronix pushed it as far as they could; combining peerless studio production techniques with the traditional electronic sounds of YMO, Kraftwerk and Neu and most tellingly the sonic sculptures of dub reggae. In fact Kurtis has a Jamaican /Canadian heritage, and it’s the simplicity and space in his sound that echoes the rhythmic mastery of dub that sets his work apart.

At the back end of the eighties Mantronix dropper rapper Mc Tee and embarked on a more club friendly direction, releasing proto swingbeat classic, “Got To Have Your Love” . It appears the trail soon went dead as he hung up his slipmats and drifted into obscurity before being rediscovered by London Soul Jazz collective in the 21st Century.

Here’s one of Kurtis el Khaleel aka Kurtis Mantronix’s finest moments:

Mantronix: Who is it? (Dub)

Steinski - What Does It All Mean ?

Steinski

What Does it all Mean?

Illegal Art


Old School hip hop, three stripes, gold chains and big ass ghetto blasters eh?

That’s how it’s been written, and the guns and bling philosophy of modern rap, certainly has its feet carefully planted in reality, as hip hop remains the music of the streets. But the incubation of rapping over a beat came at fascinating time in the late seventies New York, where art was king and the idea of crossover was rampant.

So instead of the closed mentality of ‘keeping it real’ you saw boys from the Bronx rapping over uptown disco music (Rappers Delight) or icy Teutonic electro (Planet Rock). This melting pot of high end nightlife and bloc party grit also saw some unlikely individuals taking a prime role in creating what was to become an all conquering musical monolith.

One of these characters was Chris Stein, a self styled ‘nerdy white advertising geek’, who along with his partner in crime Double Dee (Douglas DiFranco) entered a Tommy Boy records competition to remix ‘Play that Beat Mr D’J by NY rappers Globe and Wiz kid. Instead of adding a new bassline or cutting up the vocal, the pair deconstructed the entire song meticulously splicing together clips of popular hits and sound bytes sourced from popular TV shows and adverts.

In today’s post –modern sampling world, it’s not that revolutionary to stick together your favourite bits of something else to create a new entity. But these were the fledgling days of sampling, and the agility and style with the duo approached the project created the now legendary Lessons One. Of course they won the competition and went on to create Lessons Two and Three, before Steinski chose to go alone, creating denser and more adventurous works as the decade progressed.

Of course the problem with nicking other peoples sounds is that they are unwilling to let you put it out under your own name. So for yours Steinski’s rocking dancefloor masterpieces existed only on white label bootlegs and dusty tapes recorded from the radio.

This release package goes some ways to restoring the legacy of those sessions, a beautifully complied Double CD and accompanying booklet, ‘What does it All Mean’ contains not only the original ‘Lessons’ series, but other seminal works such as the JFK assassination track’ The Motorcade Sped on’. Disk two brings things (almost) up to date with a full length mix recorded for Coldcuts legendary Solid Steel show.

Many works of art are deigned masterpieces, but in the canon of modern music, the tracks contained here certainly out punch their weight in terms of influence. Not merely abstract works of art, Steinski also had his finger on the groove, and its safe to say fathered a musical legacy from Public Enemy, through to DJ Shadow, The Chemical Brothers and most recently 2002’s mash-up craze. Pure gold dancefloor history- ignore at your peril.

Classic Album- League Unlimited Orchestra- Love and Dancing

Originally published in 'One Week To Live' Magazine - May 2007

Classic Albums

League Unlimited Orchestra -Love and Dancing

The Human League? Don’t you want me Baby? Dancing round handbags in backstreet suburban nightclubs?

Well, actually yes and no; before The Human League descended into a haircut induced parody of themselves they started life as a credible and experimental electronic dance outfit that owed as much to electro-funk and disco as Top of The Pops.

Created from the ashes of punk, the Human League rejected the standard three chord chaos of punk’s year zero and instead utilised emerging synthesiser technology, funded by mundane day jobs as computer programmers. These electronic experiments were a world away from the new wave of punk bands then sweeping Britain, making The League not only unpopular, but also hugely controversial in their native Sheffield.

Flying in the face of their detractors, the group began flogging their experimental demos around record companies to near total indifference. The only spark of interest came from Island records supremo Chris Blackwell who suggested the group try a more pop orientated direction.

Armed with this new inspiration they returned to Yorkshire and enlisted the talents of Phil Oakey, a local ‘face’ whose only real credentials for the role was his asymmetric haircut and his pop star bravado. This new line up comprised a different Human League and resulted in the breakthrough album ‘Dare’ a pop smash that went on to break the group worldwide and seal their reputation at the vanguard of the emerging new romantic scene. However the bands success was not totally down to foppish hairstyles and catchy chart friendly compositions, an instrumental part of their success lay with their producer Martin Rushent.

Rushent, a veteran UK producer who had worked with artists as diverse as T Rex and The Buzzcocks, fed the groups elements of pop hooks and synthesiser experimentation into his desk, and came out with the classic Human League sound of Dare. Featuring the hit singles Don’t You Want Me and Love Action. The rest of course is history.

However Rushent was more than a journeyman producer, his innovative and futuristic production style led him to take the bare bones of Dare and remodel it in his studio to create something quite different and in many ways much more significant.

Released under the name "The League Unlimited Orchestra" as a tribute to Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra, Rushent crafted an instrumental dub version of the album aimed squarely at the dancefloor. This new ‘version’ contained songs from Dare along with a version of the track "Hard Times", which was originally the B-side of Love Action.

Finally released in 1982 “Love and Dancing” is one of the most underrated and influential British albums of the decade. Listening to it now it’s hard to believe it is not a modern creation. The rock hard beats and mammoth synth sounds of tracks like Hard Times or Love action sound more like tracks created in a sweaty Berlin basement in 2007, than the product of a suburban British record producer in 1981. As the tracks effortlessly glide into one another with a funk fuelled groove and pulse, snatches of the pop hits we all know and love slide in and out of the mix to create genuine moments of brilliance. Its safe to say that this is not only the best dancefloor album by a White British band in the 1980’s but the best dancefloor album created in the eighties full stop.

Take a listen to the album, and it’s easy to see the connection between German Krautrock, New York Electro and ultimately the house and Techno sounds that captivated British Youth in the late 80’s. The reason that house and rave culture overtook the country so comprehensively was that the funky electronic sound was already familiar to many. Love and Dancing is one of the reasons behind this recognition, and for that it truly deserves the ‘classic’ status; in addition it sounds bloody great today and genuinely stands up against today’s electro house soundtrack.

If you need any further proof of how ahead of its time this album was Richard X's saw no harm in sampling 'Things That Dreams Are Made Of' in it's entirety for his 'Finest Dreams' single. Also George Michael's 'Shoot the Dog' samples large chunks of 'Love Action' to brilliant effect.


If you like this try:


Soft Cell- Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing

A Certain Ratio- Early

Cyberton -Clear

Georgio Moroder – Best of

Blondie- Parallel Lines

New Order Substance

Yello - 1980-1985 The New Mix in One Go

Kano- Kano

Classic Album Kraftwerk The Man Machine

First Published April 2007- One Week To Live Magazine

Classic Album

Kraftwerk The Man Machine

Capitol 1978 (Re-released 1995)


In the all encompassing universe of electronic music that now surrounds us, it was the unlikely combination of four synthesisers experts from German called Kraftwerk who provided the big bang. In fact Kraftwerk were so far ahead of their time that the rest of the world has spent twenty five years inventing new musical genres in an attempt to catch up. House, techno, hip-hop, trip-hop, synth-pop, Hi NRG, trance, electroclash: Kraftwerk's influence looms over all of them. In fact it's impossible to imagine what popular music would sound like today if Kraftwerk had never existed.

By the time they released The Man Machine in 1978 the band had already unleashed the metallic funk of Trans Europe Express on an unsuspecting world, and the sound of Kraftwerk had already made the world sit up and take notice. Years ahead of any so called contemporaries, Trans Europe Express melded synthesized melodies to rigid precision beats, that were picked up and wholeheartedly embraced everywhere from the hip hop godfathers of the Bronx to, the insipid English boys in the back bedrooms of Sheffield.

With its Russian modernist El Lissitzky cover design and songs about robots and dehumanized cities, Man Machine cappitalised on this early success, and delivered a concept for the band that represented the next step in world domination, whilst manufacturing a landmark for modern music.

Opening single ‘The Robots’ is probably Kraftwerk at their most self referential, featuring mechanised bleeps over a punchy rhythm, the band set out their stall early, declaring themselves as Robots, and in the process creating a blue print for electro- hip hop. This robot concept was taken even further by Robot dummies taking the bands place on stage, a strange concept at first, but one that ideally represents the ideas surrounding melding of man and machine that the album was trying to represent.

Alongside The Robots Kraftwerk biggest and perhaps best know track is ‘The Model’; a strange tribute to high fashion and glamour, delivered here in a deadpan German monotone. This is a track that would be rendered a ludicrous novelty by any band other than this. Charting at number One in the UK at the height of the New Romantic era over two years later ‘The Model’ managed to ignite another whole genre of pop single-handedly, simply by being light years ahead of its time.

The beauty of this album however lies not in its leftfield pop hits but the intelligence and sophistication of the remaining tracks, to discover ‘The Man Machine’ at any stage of your music listening career is to open a whole new perspective on electronic music and its place in modern culture.
The polished sophistication and intense electronic concentration of the rest of tracks such as ‘Spacelab’, ‘Metropolis’ and particularly the sublime ‘Neon Lights’, combine rhythm, emotion and melody in a way which has yet to be bettered. Kraftwerk were not working in an experimental avant garde bubble when producing this album. Dispelling the stereotypical German coldness, the band managed to immerse themselves in contemporary funk and disco, producing the groove and rhythm that give the synthetic textures and chords their pulsing charm. To produce a landmark record of this quality of breadth today would be an extraordinary feat, but to virtually rewire the DNA of pop music nearly thirty years ago in a way that manages to sound contemporary and relevant today, is truly an amazing accomplishment.

If you have even a passing interest in electronic music of any genre, this album is an absolute necessity. The electronic sound Kraftwerk pioneered has become so embedded in our culture that it remains a template for the majority of today’s dance, pop and experimental music; despite this Kraftwerks music manages to remain fun and hugely listenable. Many so called ‘influential’ bands music today just sounds primitive and jaded; Man Machine however remains the benchmark for future electro pop disco and is as electrifying and essential as ever.

Tobold Hemming

Classic Albums New Order Techique

This review originally published in 'One Week To Live' Magazine in April 2007


Classic Albums
New Order- Technique
Factory 1989


The rise of acid house and Balearic culture caught New Order at a difficult time, having shrugged off their indie roots as Joy Division in the aftermath of Ian Curtis’ suicide; they had taken their beat back to the street whilst rewriting the future of electronic music.

However by 87 the climate was changing and the rise of ‘new pop’ acts they had influenced, led New Order to strike out in a more chart friendly vein. Poaching Stephen Hague, the producer who led the Pet Shop Boys to massive success, they produced the classic ‘True Faith’ bringing their sound to a far wider audience, but ultimately leaving them lacking direction. Meanwhile however the world had been listening to New Orders early synth led sequenced tracks, and the huge impact of Acid house in 1997/8 left New Order lagging behind the very music they were instrumental in creating.

Having struggled through problematic personal problems, the band decamped to Ibiza at the beginning of 88 to immerse themselves in the new Balearic sound that was emerging from the White Island. Here clubs such as Space were mixing house, hip hop, pop and rock in a revolutionary fashion that mirrored the bands own musical journey over the past decade.

Renting a villa in the hills New Order threw themselves wholeheartedly into the hedonistic party lifestyle of the island and began work on a new album. Inspirited by the enthusiasm and energy of the scene they were the spiritual predecessors of, the band created what is believed by many to be their finest album ‘Technique’

Surprising critics and fans alike, the opener ‘Fine Time’ took the classic New Order blueprint, united it with the driving rhythms of house and created a bass led pulsating monster of a track; ultimately their greatest dancefloor statement since Blue Monday.

Released in Nov 88 two months ahead of the album, Fine Time signalled the return of the band to the clubs whilst scoring them a chart hit. Featuring a bleating sheep and Barney Sumner’s sleazy Barry White-esque drawl, the single clearly saw the band rightfully reclaiming their techno crown.

Whilst the album retains a rare uniform quality throughout, Standout tracks include the energetic “Round and Round”, a tense and minimal number that sees Sumner’s soul laid bare over a relentless precision bass groove, and Run, the jewel in the albums crown.

In many eyes Run remains New Orders finest moment; more melodic and guitar-led than many of the tracks on the album, Run is a sublime paean to love lost, underpinned by startlingly beautiful melodic interplay, that captures the wedding of acid house and traditional British pop in its purest form. Extraordinarily the single release was subsequently pulled from the shelves due to a lawsuit by MOR rocker John Denver who claimed a theft of his hit ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’, the similarity is hard to distinguish, however the resulting settlement left the release a collectors item.

Technique is not all Ibiza rave madness however as there are sufficient ‘classic’ New Order moments (Guilty Partner and the atmospheric Loveless) to retain a bridge to their earlier, more introspective compositions. This eclecticism means the strength of this album lies not in a collection of DJ fodder tracks, but its ability to stand up solely on the quality of its songs. Lead singer Sumner had recently come through an acrimonious divorce and the combination of his melancholic vocals, and the sunshine and party vibe of Ibiza give this record its masterpiece status

Technique came at a time for New Order when they needed it most, and performed the task of ensuring them a reliantly seamless transition across the decades. To come was the football terrace brilliance of ‘World in Motion’ (probably the last straw for Joy division fans’), and a domination of the house sound.

Indie Dance was a term bandied around without abandon at the beginning of the 1990’s, the fusion of house music with rock heralded as the new punk. In hindsight it was only New Order who really got it right, whilst the other bands grappled to meld funky drummer beats to their traditional rock staples, New Order the band that started it all, effortlessly pulled off the only real marriage of disco and punk, and in the process created the first great album of the nineties.

Tobold Hemming




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