Archive for qbot

Marc Houle: Undercover

Wrylab (one of the funniest people I follow on twitter) posted this on facebook today, and I had to share. I'm a fan of Marc Houle already, but I hadn't seen this video for a track from his forthcoming album. Houle started off playing new wave in Windsor, Canada, before his then-roommate (superstar DJ Magda) convinced him to strip down his tracks for her sets. Many techno records and a move to Berlin later, he's returning to his roots with his label Items & Things (which he runs with Magda), releasing material far different than what he previously did on Richie Hawtin's iconic minimal techno imprint M-nus. He'll also be releasing a synthpop album later this year on Tiga's Turbo Records label, under the name Raid Over Moscow.

Marc Houle official site

Aswefall: Nevermore

Thank the internet for free translation websites, because there is damn near nothing about this band in English. Hailing from Paris, Aswefall appears to have not a lot of output, the most notable of which is this single from last year, "Nevermore". I didn't need to google translate the names of bands that kept coming up in reviews about them; it seems like everyone thinks they remind them of some band from the '80s, or maybe three or four of them, but no one agrees on which one. Like Colder, they're decidedly French, and appropriately, one of their songs is the official music for Air France. But what stands out to me here isn't their techno-slick repetitive new wave, but the dark atmosphere, Cure style bassline, and Poe-esque lyrics that bring to mind a goth warehouse party.

Aswefall official site
Available on beatport.com

TTL: Transistor Generation

There's a huge storm coming through Chicago; a great time to sort through some music. I'm not sure where I got this track from, but I suspect it came to me via one Omar Padrón. What I know about TTL: they're Dutch, this song is the B side to a 1982 single called "Bored & Lonely", and it appears to be the only thing they put out--this track is obviously a vinyl rip, and I doubt they made it to cd or even cassette for that matter. Though "Bored & Lonely" has a tinge of ska, this track is about as classic early new wave as it gets. The '80s is littered with these bands, who produced one track and were forced to give up when it went nowhere. In the days when it was so much more expensive to record a song, they weren't a safe bet...and in the days before the internet, they've been forgotten.

If you've got any info on TTL, drop it in the comments!

Naked Eyes: Voices In My Head

Though better known for the singles "Always Something There To Remind Me" and "Promises, Promises", Naked Eyes have plenty of equally good output that tends to go unnoticed. "Voices In My Head" is the opening track on the same 1983 release as those hits, Burning Bridges. In this digital music era where people rarely listen to full albums anymore, it's been largely forgotten.

The English duo were originally in the band Neon. In the early '80s, Neon split; Pete Byrne and Rob Fischer then formed Naked Eyes while members Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal became Tears For Fears. Still making music and touring, Naked Eyes will release their latest album, Piccadilly, this summer.

official site
available on their Best Of complation

Richie Hawtin Interview with Daniel Miller

Whoever came up with the idea for this is brilliant. Superstar techno dj and producer Richie Hawtin interviews Daniel Miller, founder of legendary UK label Mute Records. They talk about the early days of the British electronic music scene, the trials of starting up a label, his signing of Fad Gadget and later Depeche Mode, synthesizers, Berlin, and the influences Mute has had on Hawtin's own Plus 8 label. Miller signed Hawtin to his sub-label Novamute in 1992 as his dark alter ego Plastikman.

Mute Records
Plastikman

C Cat Trance: Shake The Mind

Though boasting a fairly large rotating cast of members, C Cat Trance was primarily the project of John Rees Lewis, previously of the band Medium Medium. Combining British post punk (hey, they're from Nottingham) with more traditional Middle Eastern and African influences and an artistic, vaguely experimental sound seems like it might be a recipe for disaster, but it certainly wasn't. C Cat Trance pulled it off with an aesthetic that is at once worldly and intelligent while still being infectiously danceable. Often referred to as "ahead of their time", it's debatable whether that time has or ever will come.

C Cat Trance released five albums on Red Flame and subsidary Ink Records in a fairly short span of the late '80s, followed by a retrospective collection released in 2005. "Shake The Mind" is one of their better known singles.

C Cat Trance MySpace
Available from Amazon.com on their 2005 retrospective Karadara.

Voxbox: Passive Aggressor

My friend Nevin dropped off a video of a track from his forthcoming EP on my facebook the other day, aptly describing it as "kind of an homage to Depeche Mode & Ministry". Couldn't put it better myself.

Check out Nevin's website for not only info and samples of his original work, but some really creative mashups and dj mixes (I HIGHLY recommend his live dj sets).

official website

Venetians: Things

Ah it's a snowy, dreary winter in Chicago...time to post some more music!

I have little to say about Venetians; they're from Australia, and had relatively little success there, let alone anywhere else. "Things" is taken from their 1985 debut Step Off The Edge. Sadly, I can't find this album available for sale anywhere, and no official website for the band, as they disbanded in 1989. So enjoy this mp3 and good luck finding more; I think it's worth digging up.

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