The vocal on “Moon Maps” is so gorgeous, and the chiptune actually makes this even clearer than on the excellent original. The first chiptune record I’ve ever had a minute for, let alone three.
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Author: David Gerard
Theodor Adorno wrote all the Beatles’ songs as a Cultural Marxist assault on America. Possibly.
One of the finest conspiracy theories in popular culture is the claim that Theodor Adorno, a main figure in the Frankfurt School of “cultural Marxism” fame, secretly wrote all the Beatles’ songs.
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Links: Spotify malware ads, music manuscript fonts, drugs. And Blockchain.
It’s been another busy day with Blockchains in. Have some links.
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Reviews: Black Arcade, Atlantic A.M., Bootblacks (2016).
Minimal synth darkwave with a fondness for Gary Numan, punky new-wave power pop and melodic post-punk with high bass.
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How to discuss rock music, with German Fall fans.
German Fall fans in a round-table discussion. Be sure to watch to the end.
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Reviews: Magana, Night Club, Cybercide, Brandenburg (2006, 2016).
Acoustic songwriter guitar rock, new wave disco, pounding futurepop EBM and Russian post-punk revival.
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Lost post-punk classics: That time A Certain Ratio were hanging out with Grace Jones.
Back in the day, A Certain Ratio were regarded by the outside world as post-punk no-hopers. So it was a surprise when Grace Jones, fresh off a hit with Warm Leatherette, took an interest in them …
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Reviews: Möss, Ladylike Lily, Faderhead (2016).
Soundscapes with songs, indie pop with synth and guitar, and industrial gone synthpop. Three excellent finds today.
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New Order, BBC Basement Studios “Saturday Live”, 25 August 1984.
New Order live in the studio for the BBC, simulcast on Radio One and BBC Two. Watch for Bernard missing his cue. And his terrible shorts, of course. And Hooky’s famed “gay sperm” bass cabinet.
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Links: September, Ziggy Stardust, Alan Turing, rap as social news system, even cheaper streaming.
Today at work I’ve been busy discussing the horror of Blockchain. So have some interesting webpages that are completely not about that in any manner.
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Spray: Living In Neon (reissue) (2002, 2016).
Spray’s first album Living In Neon from 2002, with a disc of new tracks, additional remixes, alternate versions and compilation appearances. What Abba would have done had they been just that bit crankier.
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Links: The record industry is still suicidally stupid, torrented MKV at 11.
Shazam makes a profit but not from records, the record industry goes back to trying to sue the Internet out of existence, the record industry thinks a YouTube employee is really working for them for free, Spotify and Soundcloud will prove that 2+2=1.
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Latest Rocknerd v1 recoveries.
More recoveries, lovingly hand-ported from archive.org. Obviously I’m easily bored on weekends. These are from 2001 and 2002.
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Reviews: French Concession, Novie, Golden Graves, The Decliner (2016).
Dreampop, shoegaze, synth landscapes … and in-your-face rap.
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Witch house is the new coldwave: totally not goth video links.
The nicest Nivek Ogre interview ever, 1984 goth clubbing and Joy Division’s influence on rap.
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Apple’s shiny new headphone adapter turns out to suck. Gosh, etc.
The shiny new iPhone headphone adapter for Lightning isn’t actually powerful enough to drive headphones properly, and Bluetooth linking inexplicably doesn’t work so well for non-Apple headphones.
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Radio and television finally admit, in 2016, that they’re competing with the whole vast Internet.
The mass media have suffered the effects of the Internet much in the manner of the record industry, as consumers, conclusively sick of their shit, withdraw their attention. Their worry has gone from piracy to … being ignored.
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Reviews: Növö, District 13, Adhere to Form, Seattle Fix (2016).
Industrial atmospherics, EBM synthpop, ’80s old synth work and dreampop on real instruments.
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The streamingpocalypse first hit the record industry in the 1930s. It was called radio.
The music industry occasionally forgets that entertainment is an optional expense, consumer confidence is a critical material condition for what they do, and when times are tough people stop spending.
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Post-punk links: More secret histories.
Michel Duval and various Crépuscule bands, Mark Reeder, Dominatrix, the non-white and non-male nature of punk and post-punk, the Fall and what to do with ex-punk survivor’s guilt.
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The overwhelming historical importance of the Beatles, and why Live At The Hollywood Bowl is revelatory.
The trouble with the Beatles is not that they aren’t mindbogglingly important (they are) or indeed actually good (they are), it’s that you can’t get away from them even in 2016. They are actually so famous and so important that it’s almost impossible in the present day to understand how and why.
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More recovered articles from Rocknerd v1.
A few more recoveries, lovingly hand-ported from archive.org. Wind the schadenfreude back to 2001-2002. RIAA hacks! The Continental Cafe! The Vivendi Universal meltdown!
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Rowland S. Howard and his albatross, “Shivers”. (And more.)
Rowland S. Howard plays his albatross “Shivers” on ABC TV Studio 22, 25 November 1999. The band is Rowland with Brian Hooper on bass, Mick Harvey on drums and Edward Clayton Jones on keyboard. And a lot more stuff.
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Hey, ho! Let’s go! Punk rock links.
Pavarotti’s “Blitzkrieg Bop”, Kill Your Pet Puppy retrospective, a contemporary punk novel, Manchester punk history, Czechoslovak punk history, Scottish post-punk history and a children’s picture book on punk. The secret histories.
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Industrial reviews: Aesthetische, Mari Kattman, Cyanotic, Syntec (2016).
Selections from the industrial/EBM/synthpop axis.
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Brian Eno knows the score.
It’s been a busy day, have an illustrious musician tweet.
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On this day in 2015 … gettin’ piggy with it.
At approximately 10:20pm BST on Sunday the 20th of September, 2015, the image of the Daily Mail‘s Monday front page hit Twitter. And Britain exploded.
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Reviews: Arsia Line, The Primary Colors, Lindy Vision (2016).
Black Native angular post-punk, psychedelic garage and some straight-up witch house.
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Arts Council of England to introduce quantitative performance metrics across all cultural endeavours. Seriously.
In an attempt at the prize for most fatuous bureaucratic innovation of the decade, Arts Council England plans, against all non-conflicted recommendations, to impose a standardised numerical system for arts quality on its national portfolio organisations.
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Synthpop: Crystal, Vile Electrodes, Hante (2016).
Synthwave with vocals, English synthpop scene and the darkwave end.
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