Man, have I ever been there?! There is a ubiquitous sample in this track at 1:53 followed by a pretty sick instrumental jam. I can see why Johnny Jewel (Italians Do It Better) moved to Montreal: This is how chicks dress there. Thank you American Apparel.2

Shangaied (Music Video Version)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOJW_Z9gSIM

SCHEMATIC: LP and 12" extended versions...

Shangaied (LP Version)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQcsCyiBWWw

Shangaied (12" Extended Version)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxgWQCr8tFo&feature=fvsr

There is absolutely no fronting on this straight-up funky disco track from Canada (Ontario, I think)! The video, which features clips from the terrible 1979 flick Roller Boogie, is a stroke of genius. Now, the first three minutes of this song may not do much for you, but when the breakdown begins, the song deconstructs into some pretty trippy disco.

In 1982, Neil Young was abducted by robot aliens who grafted an organic neural-net processor onto his existing human brain and sent him back to Earth to make vocoder-infused, heavily distorted guitar rock. Five of the nine tracks on Trans were recorded by this Neil Young Beta Unit, who also remixed Mr. Soul as the b-side on the Sample and Hold 12" single.

SCHEMATIC: Other Neil Young Beta Unit videos and cover art...

So, the actual story here, according to Wikipedia, is that Neil Young's son was born with cerebral palsy. Somewhere along the line, Mr. Young found that he was able to elicit a better response from his son when using the Moog vocoder. Pretty awesome. Not sure if this album is a result of Mr. Young pushing the creative envelope or just ruminations on technology and communication. Either way, this album was a really, really pleasant surprise.

Sample and Hold (LP Version)

We R In Control

Computer Age

Transformer Man

Computer Cowboy

Mr. Soul (Dance Remix)

Trans LP Cover Art

Renditions of this killer track keep popping up. What is really strange, however, is that multiple bands released the same track in the same year. Kébekélektrik (aka Gino Soccio) released Journey Into Love in 1977 on Les Disques Direction Records from Montreal. The track, re-released as Magic Fly later that year, is nearly identical to Space's Magic Fly, but with a slightly different production feel. 

SCHEMATIC: Record scans, photos and YET ANOTHER VERSION...

Pink Project is like Pandora's Box, so I'll open that up on another post. In the meantime, you will hear Magic Fly at around 1:00 and again throughout this Italo track from 1982 that sounds like something from The Neverending Story. Thanks for posting this video Ignacio!

VIGR is in the house. 4+ hour rare vinyl set. Need I say more? Hope to see you there! I'll try to keep track of the setlist...