Level 42

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