Level 42

Something About You is just sublime, simple as that

Those high harmonies on "Something About You" kill. For most of my adolescence I thought Level 42 was an American R&B band.

I served Mike Lindup when I was a teenager working at a WHSmith's. He walked up to the till in a baseball jacket with an embroidered badge reading "Level 42 Racing Team". I'd been a big fan when I was younger, but by then I was into grunge and noise punk so I just sold him his newspaper and said nothing.

regrets.

what did he buy?

daily express and a scotch egg amirite?

guys i love Level 42 great thread good work

we didn't serve food at our branch xp

Greatest british singles band of the 80s

its kind of weird how quickly the band broke into pieces when they finally hit it big. the boon brothers seemed to hate the whole pop thing, wanted level 42 to remain some pure jazz funk thing. but after they left, it was pretty much all over. even as a kid i knew the staring at the sun lp was some sorry shit.

you weren't able to give him any lessons in lunch then xps

when i started getting into electric miles and herbie hancock and suchlike, i felt like listening to loads of level 42's early instrumental stuff when i was 10 was good grounding for understanding what this music was all about.

well played nickb, well played.

(ps pls do not misinterpret statement above as some "level 42 - the band miles davis wished he could be" ish)

i feel like in some way Level 42 shd be the "Real England" house band

definitely an improvement on shakatak who i really tried hard to like as a pre-teen who wanted to find something to like every kind of music but always felt it was music for people clinking glasses in sophisticated clubs and therefore i just could not relate

though i will freely admit now that down on the street is kind of a jam

I passed up a chance to see them at Ronnie Scott's a couple of years back. I can't remember whether they were billed as Level 42, or had some legal issues name like The Mark King Funk Ensemble. Either way lounging against the bar while they laid down smooth grooves would've been so choice.

It was very weird listening to a live set by Damo Suzuki backed by 23 Skidoo a couple of days back thanks to the prominence of slap bass.

Linx's bassist Peter "Sketch" Martin joined 23 Skidoo after Linx split up

Stevie Chick on Level 42's World Machine, in 33 Tweets

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1381964367655174148.html

My partner later explained that, no, they aren't called "Tweetstorms"

The only record of theirs that I know, which I bought as a kid when it was released and I still revisit.

Lindup is their secret weapon, that lovely spooky, high register singing voice.

'It's Not The Same For Us', the pre-chorus, so great!

"level 42 - the band miles davis wished he could be"

^^absolutely here for this stance, if you switch HAVE for BE (he'd probably get to play trumpet and that's OK)

There has been some reappraisal of Brit-funk in the last few years, but it seems to be limited to the London scene. The only Level 42 supporter with any profile I can think of (present company excepted) is Gilles Peterson, who plays them about twice a year on his 6Music show.

Marcello Carlin was quite positive about them (and World Machine in particular) here: https://nobilliards.blogspot.com/2014/08/various-artists-now-thats-what-i-call.html

(some present company may be involved)

Lindup is their secret weapon, that lovely spooky, high register singing voice

I was quite surprised to discover, 35 years after it was a hit, that the verses in "The Sun Goes Down" were sung by Lindup. So, he can carry a tune in a low tenor range too!

their first album’s pretty good

"Something About You" will never stop revealing surprises 35+ years later.

another childhood favorite. the "ooooohs" in the beginning are a solid way to begin things.

and I had no fucking clue what Lindup sang until the internet invented lyrics.

i think their secret weapon is actually wally badarou (has he even been mentioned on this thread yet?)

He certainly helped them a lot in the best pop moments, although the albums I go back to these days are mostly the first fusion-y ones. “It‘s good music to work to”

i love this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWM3-Nix_xs

The best!

I quite like this cut-up edit Mark-E did of it too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O68Y6BAhS0E

Was thinking some more, and I have seen a video of some DJs in the 80s playing Physical Presence at 45rpm, which sounds quite good to me. I can’t find the video of the DJ right now, and someone has uploaded the track at that speed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEQjdFSSmtY

haha oh man

Damn it, looks like the video is offline now. Was DJ Mozart, Beppe Loda and more: https://community.soulstrut.com/discussion/68497/proto-boiler-room-italy-1986

lol italian djs dgaf about your english vocals

I wonder if that was prompted by the voice at the very end of the original that was obviously sampled and played back at a lower pitch than normal.

There’s a few other tracks in the mix played at wrong speeds, either too fast, or too slow, it’s all about keeping the tempo.

'starchild' also gets a proper mangling in this baldelli set from 1981 except this it's sloowww as fuck:

https://www.mixcloud.com/Yebo/cosmic-c531981-mix-daniele-baldelli-tbc-lato-a/

"except this time"

something that's been annoying me since this thread got bumped is that i think there's this one doomy level 42 song that's all about nuclear annihilation or the cold war at least. kind of their answer to ub40's 'the earth dies screaming'? am i imagining this (or getting it confused with something else?) or does someone else know what i'm talking about?

it's not 'sun goes down' btw. wanna make a playlist of 80s pop songs about the apocalypse just to cheer me up

'Coup D'Etat' maybe?

hmm could be! not as doomy as i was remembering though