Where is the love for all these bands from my vinyl 12-inch "M" shelf who have rarely if ever been mentioned on ILM?

What was that then? An extended Disco-mix of "Tiger Feet"?

Les, is it true you have a 12"er?

Ahhhh...Mysterious Art. I had The Omen LP and the the "Karma" 12". Great silly stuff.

I've never been a huge fan of Anne Murray, but Mitsou ... va va voom. "Regardez les Chinois" had an a OMGWTF appeal, but "Bye Bye Mon Cowboy" and "Dis-moi, Dis moi" (especially the video for the latter -- sexxxxy) were fantastic.

Are there many Canadians on ILM?

Are they awake yet?

Where is the love for all these bands from my vinyl 12-inch "L" shelf who have rarely if ever been mentioned on ILM?

Vaughan Mason and Crew's "Roller Skate" is nice mid-paced early 80s toot-toot-beep-beep disco-funk with D-Trainy synth riffs and an almost go-go rhythm track.

Maze/Frankie Beverly are Classic to the power of Classic: Joy And Pain, Back In Stride, and the untypical but equally great Twilight. Superb live act, hugely popular in south-east England in the mid-to-late 1980s.

Mr. Big's one UK hit "Romeo" was kinda Jon Anderson pomp meets mid-70s AM pop - not hard rock at all. Possibly of limited kitsch interest, at a pinch.

Mud were part of the Chinn/Chapman pop/glam stable in 73-74, starting with a weird glitterbeat take on the tango, peaking with kids' birthday party classics like the glorious "Tiger Feet", drifting increasingly to more overt 50s rock 'n roll revivalism and corny Elvis impersonation from singer Les Gray, (especially on the Mud Rock and Mud Rock II albums) before attempting a final burst of relatively "mature" pop. Basically a bunch of lumpy beery geezers who got lucky, their statutory "camp" guitarist Rob Davies ended up writing a whole clutch of pop-dance hits in the late 90s/early 00s, such as Grace's "Not Over Yet", Spiller's "Groovejet" and Fragma's "Toca's Miracle".

Lydia Murdoch was a Roger "Zapp" Troutman protege, whose sublime 1986 single "As We Lay" is well worth another play; it has also just been sampled on J-Lo & Fat Joe's "Hold You Down".

Gonna get your heart
you can't get free
'Cause you got love in the first degree.
And I sentence you to eternity 'cause you've been found feel free.
There ain't no way you're gonna get loose
So don't you try there ain't no use.
You're caught in a track and you can't get back.
So you better be cool and take a rule.

Full of bad puns about courts and law and witnesses, but Kelly sings like her life depends on it, *really* yearning. I've never heard anyone else make a line like "you stole my heart and that's a major felony" sound quite so poignant.

Stupid elyricsworld.com.

Hm. Them vs. Mana.

Mi-Sex has "Computer Games," which strikes me as a fairly Chuck kind of song.

Mofungo, I believe, included a certain Voice food critic. I think Bob Xgau likes them a lot.

Munich Machine: was that actual Giorgio Moroder or an uncanny simulation? Anyway, anything with sexy robots on the cover is A-OK by me.

Moon Martin: Wanted to be the non-synth equivalent to Thomas Dolby -- smart, wry, muso -- and ultimately only got the glasses part right.

Maze featuring Frankie Beverly: More about groove and singing than about songs, which actually makes them closer in spirit to modern R&B than they're given credit for. Except, of course, that their live stuff is as good as the studio recordings.

C.W. McCall: Should be consigned to novelty act hell, not for "Convoy," good buddy, but for having been the springboard that gave the world Mannheim Steamroller.

Mi-Sex: Aussie Magic Orchestra. "Computer Games" was pretty good, though.

Mitsou: Ditto on the already posted kudos for "Dis Moi Dis Moi." And that racy video may be why Yanks don't know about her, seeing as she was signed in the States to Disney-owned Hollywood Records.

Mofungo: Big noise of the unfortunately literal variety. The album "Frederick Douglas" wasn't bad, though.

Munich Machine: Because they were Giorgio Moroder's house band, the playing is great. Because he saved the good material for other artists, the albums aren't.

Anne Murray: No white soul moments and an even blander image than Mandrell, but great songs sung well. I especially liked her cover of "You Won't See Me."

Yeah - "Superstar" That's the 12-inch on my shelf. It's awesome.

Maybe in NYC, but I haven't heard about its comeback anywhere else.

It DESERVES a nationwide comeback. I remember that song being a HUGE hit in Los Angeles when I was a kid. It's criminally easy to find used on vinyl, and it never fails on the dancefloor.

"Hello. May I speak to Mister Don Keeshot, please?"
"No Nonononon No No Nononon No No Senor.... *Clap Clap*"

"I've got a WHOLE NEW BRAIN, I FEEL CRAZY!"
"DON QUICHOTTE Y SANCHO PANZA NO ESTAN AQUI!"
*kadunk kadunk kadunk kadunk*
*synth fluff*

GOD, what a weird, great song!

Also, the discoey bridges with the guitar solos... Man. Dan, REISSUE THIS! ACUTE 02? something I don't know. DO IT! :)

I totally disagree! "Costa Del Sol" and "Pancho Villa" are almost as great as "Don Quichote" (which btw I think also showed up on an early episode of *The Sopranos,* playing in the background in some club.) Anyway, the entire *Costa Del Sol* LP on Baja is worth hunting down.

For all I know, I could buy this online for mere dollars somewhere on CD now, with bonus tracks and all.. it might be worth the chance.

Mr. Big -- US album was "Photographic Smile," rather different mix than the UK record. US album dropped some of the harder rockers like "Timebase" from the UK release in favor of a more poppy mix. "Wonderful Creation" was the cut that got some FM play. Spazzed out singer/guitarist who was almost the entire show. You'll hear him trying to bite his tail and drooling on few numbers. Is set to be re-released on Wounded Bird. Second album, produced by Ian Hunter, was called "Seppuku" and was shitcanned. Didn't see the light of day until Angel Air secured the rights to the tape a few years ago.

speaking of, the break to I'm a Man appears on the forthcoming Crazy Rhythms mix CD (plugging this everywhere now!)

But I was referring to the Crazy Rhythms DJs mix CD or course!

Say it in Broken English. Magazine 60 would!

But not pre-hair!:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.jkkonsult.se/nostalgi/hardrock/MadamX_OKEJnr8-85.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.jkkonsult.se/nostalgi/hardrock/MadamX.html&h=492&w=369&sz=57&tbnid=EZ7-ir_3eKkJ:&tbnh=127&tbnw=95&hl=en&start=5&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmadam%2Bx%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG

Italo-disco has become a more broader, catch-all term now for a certain type of upbeat, synthesized dance sound than it was in the 80s, I've noticed. No one ever used the term so liberally back then -- especially in the states, that's for sure.

Come to think of it, didn't he sing kinda like Russell Mael in Sparks?

1. The electrica salsa kind, discussed in my earlier post
2. The flimsy disco kind a la Lime (who are from Canada, though this one would appear to be "Italodisco proper," really, and would even include most Fun Fun tracks that are not "Baila Bolero")
3. The fuzzdance kind (Alexander Robotnik, Naif Orchestra, etc)
4. The Italo-house kind (Black Box, 49ers, etc).

Personally, I would only object to exluding the #4 type above from my own Italodisco definition, despite the fact that it apparently came from Italy and some of the other stuff apparently didn't. But #'s 1, 2, and 3 still strike me as fairly distinct subgenres, to be honest. #2 often has more in common with so-called hi-NRG (also often known as "aerobics disco" when people exercise to it) than with #1 or #3.

I'm curious because I remember the former being played on Top 40 radio in the L.A. area, so to me, it was just mid-80s new wave electronic pop to me. I first I heard of the term "Italo-disco", it was used by none other than Mark E. Smith! There was a Rebellious Jukebox in an NME circa 1989, and one of the songs Mark E. mentioned was some dance track, and he said that he loved Italo-disco, and that he loved Djing/mixing it with Duane Eddy or something. Anyway, Black Box became really popular around the time, and they were the first mainstream act that were attached to the "Italo-disco" term, so I listened, and I was like "this is.. really.. not that impressive." Mind you, I was still into Wax Trax, Nettwerk, and noisy UK Acid House at the time, and couldn't be bothered with what would become the seeds of early rave music, but at the time, sounded like weak "hip house" to me.

So, anyway, to make a long story short, my experience with the term "Italo-disco" has been nothing more than occasional awkward collisions in the press, and -- more recently -- this very liberal catch-all phrase that now describes half the club music I was listening to in the mid 80s that was rarely Italian much less "Italo Disco" back then, as far as labels go. I hope you understand my suspicion.

xp

I'm not going to pretend to be a New Beat purist, because it was really rather trivial in dance history, overall.. with the minor exception of it being an influence on Elektroklash.. Take that however you want to.. haha.

But New Beat was essentially four or five guys in Belgium who each used a different alias every week, depending on which one or two of the five were having a party then. There were only two great things to come out of New Beat, and they happened to become major commercial successes in their own ways.. Technotronic and Lords Of Acid. The former for breaking the worldwide charts with memorable classic stuff, then falling off the radar years later... the latter for crossing over into industrial club music *and* strip club scene, then morphing into this quasi-joke strip club act with polymorphous frontwomen that is still rolling the gears to this day, much to their credit... (and Lords Of Acid quickly stopped being "New Beat" when Voodoo U was released.)

I said this wrong. I meant I would only object to INCLUDING the Italo-house stuff (which is basically just plain old diva house when you get down to it anyway; hence, not nearly goofy or bubbly or weirdly or Eurotrashy enough to justify its taxonimification as Italodisco.)

>And #3 and some of #1 -- the Off, anyway -- have more in common with Belgian newbeat than with Italodisco <

And this should say SOME of #3 and #1. (Though I realize that, by now, nobody knows WHAT the heck I'm talking about. Including me!)

But today in america and in european scenes that come out of techno, italo-disco is an easy term to use and if you do a set and play Liasons Dangerous or however it's spelled in a set that also includes Gino Soccio and Lime (canadian), Patrick Cowley (san francisco), Cerrone (france) mixed in with italo-disco, people won't say "that was an eclectic set!" but "that was italo-disco", for what it's worth. So while I don't TECHNICALLY consider Telex or Trans-X italo-disco, it may as well be.

Same way "electro" no longer means "hip-hop".

Well, it never really did in the first place. I mean, I think nobody called "Planet Rock" or Jonzun Crew or Planet Patrol "electro" in 1982. At least not in the US of A they didn't. That all came later.

Part of my electro education came from a Streetsounds comp that came out in the early 90s, around the same time as the Mastercuts Electro comp, which was around the start of the aforementioned electro-revival(w/ new tracks from the above and labels like Clear. I think this led stuff like Le Car and Space Invaders are Smoking Grass which led directly to Adult. and I-F's Mixed up at the Hague, and finally electroclash and the italo-disco revival.

The Tommy Boy compilation I think came out later. As mentioned above, while I was aware of Jam On It when I was 7 or so years ago, my education came from Streetsounds and Mastercuts...both british labels, and the liner notes by Greg Wilson, a manchester electro dj.

for this british perspective check out:

http://www.electrofunkroots.co.uk/what_did_it_all_mean.htm backs up the idea that the term originates in the UK

http://www.electrofunkroots.co.uk/essential_beats.htm

Of course, but again, this is the mid '90s -- not the early '80s! Which is what I meant by the genre basically existing in retrospect (or at least, as your links, suggest, from a distance over the ocean.)

xp

All that other stuff when I was a kid in the early 80s was just "breakdance" music, whether it was Run DMC, L.A. Dream Team, Whodini, Newcleus, Laid Back, or Midnight Star. At least, that was my thought process in my younger years.

Not quite as helium-pitched up, more ragged, but in the ballpark. When he did ballads he sounded like a poor man's Jon Anderson, plaintive and pathetic, at times, so the comment upthread on the UK "Romeo" single is apt. I'm not sure "Romeo" made it the US release, but it sucked. He's better when he's screaming and short-circuiting. "Dicken" was the stage name. Mr. Big combusted and then he showed up in a band that was Mr. Big minus a few players, repackaged for the New Wave crowd a few years later. It was called Broken Home and I think the album released in the US was called "Barbed Wire," which it wasn't.

My appraisal, the same as what some yob in Kerrang thought in 1981, just pulled from the net. This is the UK release, not "Photographic Smile," although "Sweet Silence" did make it to the US edition. "Timebase," which was another screamer, did not. I'm not going to go so far as to say "Photographic Smile" belongs in the same camp as the Slades and Deep Purples. That really stretches it, although it remains a very enjoyable mid-70's hard rock period piece.

"Kerrang" (issue 2, August 1981) -
If you remember Mr.Big at all it'll probably be because of their 1977 wimp-out chart hit 'Romeo'. "I am the morning, you are the light. You make the morning such a beautiful thing" crooned vocal leader Dicken with sickening sentimentallity, as if he was singing the verse of a Valentines day card. It's icredible to think that two years earlier, in the context of their debut album 'Sweet Silence', Mr.Big produced a track that even today can stand up proudly alongside the likes of 'Paranoid', 'Smoke on The Water' and 'Whole Lotta Love' as an all time heavy metal classic. You think I'm kidding? No way, Jose. If an HM DJ with an eye for the bargain bins picked up this LP, he would discover a real Soundhouse showstopper at the end of side one. It's the title track and goes like this; 'Aaaagh you look so sweet - Gotta move into rock 'n' roll beat - Such a crazy honey blowin'' my mind - Sweet Silence all MIIIINE!' Dicken, far from being the tender romantic balladeer, spitsout the lyrics like a mouthful of broken teeth and the band, spurred on by two drummers (Glitter Band style) create a racket so frantic, so crazed, so thunderous behind him that they sound like the modern day Plasmatics. And after he's sung the essential vocal lines, Dicken just spits, slurps and farts into the microphone like some noisome, ill-mannered spikey-hair. 'Sweet Silence' is a glorious momentin what is, truthfully, overall an erratic and prettylacklustre LP. Songs like 'I Aint Bin A Man' hint at the disappointingly soft-hearted standpoint that was to come. Such a shame, because Dicken had (still has in fact, even with his current band Broken Home) one helluva rock 'n' roll voice, a real Noddy Holder holler that'd be perfectly suited to metallic material. So if you're reading this Dick, stuff the soppiness and just SCREAM! That's my valueless advice.

"

(For what it's worth, my electro-loving mates and I were all "what the FUCK is that weird slow rap thing?" when "Beat Bop" appeared on Street Sounds Electro 2... it was totally outside our frame of reference.)

Bizarrely, this is very similar to my biggest complaint about what "heavy metal" came to mean! But yeah, I do catch your drift now.

revive

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