Archive for the post punk tag

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.

Modern English: Life In The Gladhouse

You know this band. You've heard "I'll Melt With You" about a million times in your life, but you probably can't remember a single other Modern English song, can you? It's ok, neither can anyone else. And that's a damn shame, because they have a really nice catalogue if you want to do just a little digging.

Signed to 4AD in 1980, their other material borrows more influence from post punk than you'd suspect from their biggest hit. "Life In The Gladhouse" is by far my favorite Modern English song, and if you know what a fan of Gang of Four I am, you'll not be surprised. Taken from their 1982 release After The Snow, the title track for which I highly recommend to New Order fans.

Trivia bit: A pair of Modern English songs inspired the formation of This Mortal Coil.

official website
buy After The Snow on Amazon.com

Editors: Lullaby

It seems like I've been posting a lot of covers lately. I hope you don't mind, but here's another, a bit inspired by Nocturna this evening. If you've somehow managed to not hear Editors before, go check them out; this may be a cover, but it's an excellent example of their style.

In a statement about their most recent album and criticism of its tone, Tom Smith wrote, "dark is interesting, dark is exciting, dark can be funny, there’s real life in the dark, real life IS dark...I am so fucking bored of people asking us why we’re so “dark”, or worse questioning our integrity for being this way, this is how we do it, it excites us to express ourselves like this, to be honest we don't even understand what the alternative is and the alternatives we can imagine are too boring for us to even consider". Did he just write the Grufti Manifesto?*

Who better to rework a Cure song, then, than Editors? Smith invokes Ian Curtis to make Robert Smith's lyrics a little more paranoid, but I'm still not buying that he's really afraid of "the spider man". In fact, I suspect that he might just be inviting him over for dinner.

This track is taken from the BBC Radio 1 Established 1967 2 disc compilation, released in 2007 and bizarrely listed as being a Kaiser Chiefs album (they contributed the first track). It chronicles 40 years of the legendary radio show with 40 artists doing a cover for each year. Editors were assigned 1989; they certainly did right to choose a song off of Disintegration.

official website
Buy Editors on Amazon.com

*I prefer the word "grufti" because it's much more inclusive than "goth". I encourage you to use it as well!

A Certain Ratio: Shack Up

This blog entry is something has been an item that's been a long time coming, aside from the fact that I've been pushed the passed several weeks to do so.  Through technological failures, and alcohol issues, I've pretty much sidelined this project (that and I'm a lazy son of a bitch, one must note).  What makes this particular post all the more pressing is the necessity for A Certain Ration to be known by YOU!: the common people, the beautiful people, the wondrous, glorious readers of this blog, and fellow patrons of Atomic.

In a perfect world, ACR would have shared some of the notoriety of fellow label mates, Joy Division. Not that I believe they're more deserving of it than say later acts :cough: Happy Mondays :cough:, but ACR would find its audience.  The band would find popularity in NYC clubs, falling in with the post-disco/punk, and the short but influential no-wave movements; with other funk-stylized acts, ESG and Liquid Liquid (to name a shallow few).

So, here is where I serve up one of my favorite tracks (there's also a pretty outstanding remix that should be sought after).  Enjoy!

official website
Buy Shack Up on Amazon.com

Colder: To The Music

I'll complete our series of New Order tribute posts this week with a look towards the future and an artist I have been dying to write about since we started this blog. The work of Parisian graphic designer Marc Nguyen Tan, Colder bears some resemblance to the fashion industry he works in by day; dark minimalism comes across as stylish and sexy despite it's mechanical synthesized structure and disassociated vocals. Is this meant to be heard on a dance floor, or alone at home with the lights out?

"To The Music" is a particular favorite of mine, an anthem to the solitary dancer, lost in the music and oblivious to the gaze of bystanders. I can think of few songs more appropriate for Neo, where it seems all eyes are on the floor. It's taken from Heat, but if I were to recommend only one Colder album, I'd first choose 2003's solid Again. Though the influence of Joy Division couldn't be more obvious, it's an equally fine example of modern French new wave.

Without an official website (or even so much as a MySpace page) and a now-defunct label, it's difficult to know if/when there will be another Colder album out. In this rare interview in 2005, he seems to indicate that making music is not a high priority, so we may be waiting a while. He also hints at a collaboration with Chris & Cosey. Yes, that Chris & Cosey.

Finally, no post on Colder would be complete without including Nguyen Tan's unbelievably good remix of Depeche Mode's "Clean". I feel like Depeche Mode doesn't get enough credit for how spot-on they are with choosing the most perfect and current producers to remix their stuff, and they really nailed it with this one. Do I dare say it? I like it better than the original.

Colder on Amazon

Coincidentally, Marc Nguyen Tan released a new album just last week; it's a collaboration with his long time friend Guillaume Ollendorff, under the name Scratoa!. Called Live en San Antón, it was recorded in the barrio of the same name in Alicante, Spain two years ago. It's improvised noisy experimental sound is quite a departure from Colder, and will more likely appeal to Nurse With Wound fans. Scratoa! on Amazon

New Order: Tribute at Neo 2/4/10

I  still get excited every year when we do our New Order Tribute Night. It’s not only a chance for us to play a bunch of New Order that we don’t normally play at Atomic, but it’s now one of the few times a year that I indulge in the brilliance of one of the most influential bands over the last thirty years.

The two songs here represent two completely different New Order styles, but they share that sentimental touch that ties the history of the band together. "Dreams Never End" is from their debut album Movement. Musically, the album still had a Joy Division feel to it, but it laid the ground work that turned them into international pop stars later in the decade. It's one of the few New Order songs with Peter Hook on vocals. Listen to Dreams Never End (1982) and then The Cure’s Inbetween Days (1985). Trust me. The second song, "Here to Stay" was recorded for the 24 Hour Party People Soundtrack in 2002 and was dedicated to Martin Hannett (Joy Division/New Order producer), Rob Gretton (Joy Division/New Order manager), and Ian Curtis (Joy Division lead vocalist).

New Order Online [official fansite]

Allez Allez: Allez Allez

I got a text from the manager of the club the other day.
"Did you play Yeah Yeah Yeahs last night? Or the Ting Tings? Something you played late."
"I got it. Tegan and Sara..."

I knew someone was going to ask me this. If I didn't know better, I'd probably think it was the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, too. Given the current resurgence of post-punk and new wave, this song doesn't necessarily sound like it was released in 1981. And I'm pretty sure that at least one of Karen O's personalities believes that she actually is Sarah Osborne*. Listen, though, and you'll hear the band's name chanted throughout the song. They want you to know that they're not Tegan and Sara, or Ting Tings, or Yeah Yeah Yeahs, or all that was to come after...

From their album African Queen, and also available on their Best Of [released just last year]

*A bit of '80s new wave trivia: Sarah Osborne left Allez Allez when she married the lead singer of Heaven 17.

30 Years of The Cure

Robert Smith's tips to sustaining a long career:

• Write good songs: "I could write songs as bad as Wham's if I really felt the urge to, but what's the point?"

• Don't worry about status: "I'm not going to worry about the Cure slipping down into the second division; it doesn't bother me because I never expected to be in the first division anyway."

• Don't do it for the money: "I've never wanted a group to ever fall out about money. It's not important. We earn far more than we should anyway."

• Be inspired and love what you do: "I do a job I really, really love and I kind of have fun with. People think you can't be grown up unless you're moaning about your job."

• Do things in moderation: “I think the rock'n'roll myth of living on the edge is a pile of crap.”

• Don't worry about what people say or think about you: " Most of the time I'm a professional idiot. I really don't care about what other people think, which can be a bad thing."

• Know when to quit: "If any of our songs ever did make it on the top ten, I'd disband the group immediately."

The Cure on Amazon.com
band website: www.thecure.com

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