I am an experience designer and strategist
fostering dialogue between technology and people.
Hot off the press!!! Aptly-named revival label Minimal Wave has compiled Futurisk's entire catalog and pressed it on collector-quality 180g vinyl, including this alternate take of their signature track, Meteoright. Destined to be a collectible. At $22, you'd be crazy not to pick one (or two) up.
SCHEMATIC: Need more Futurisk videos??? Get your fix HERE!!!
This EP/12" gets me all wound up with some serious non-goth electro industrial madness! Crash Course in Science was formed in 1979 while the three members were attending art school in Philadelphia.Flying Turns is off their 12" Signals from Pier Thirteen originally published on Press Records in 1981.
SCHEMATICS: More videos and MP3s from the 12"...
Clean, first pressings sell for upwards of $100, with second pressings from 1986 on LD Records fetching only slightly less.
[audio:http://www.innernerd.de/audio/CrashCourse/Crash Course Crashing Song.mp3|titles=Crashing Song|artists=Crash Course in Science]
[audio:http://www.innernerd.de/audio/CrashCourse/Crash Course Factory Forehead.mp3|titles=Factory Forehead|artists=Crash Course in Science]
High Pressure Days and Cowboy are filthy, gnarly animals. Let Uncle Rico's time machine teleport you back to 1977 San Francisco. Eschewing guitars in favor of synths (good move, fellas), Units become one of the very first synthpunk bands. They then start tearing it up, self-releasing the original versions several LP tracks in 1979 on what is now an absurdly rare 7" record (sells for about £100). This video features the album versions, released in 1980 on the Digital Stimulation LP.
SCHEMATIC: The ENTIRE Digital Stimulation album, band portrait and flyer (via synthpunk)...
What follows is the entire Digital Stimulation LP with each track listed in its proper order. This album is an opus and deserves a concentrated listen. The last track, Cowboy, is a mind-warping experience. I just yoinked an original 7" copy of High Pressure Days from eBay and will make/post vinyl rips and videos as soon as it arrives. In related news, an anthology was released in 2009 called History of The Units - The Early Years: 1977 - 1983 and is available through discogs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0kesHOv5Ck
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQK96pszMUs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRvUBla-rAQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaaTklS4P3A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knn80HCccos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHkpE_Yssdw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iu53BVg2Z4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teTHIM1cMvA
This video somehow manages to aggregate nearly everything that was so boss about the early 1980s: 7" records; boomboxes/ghettoblasters; BMX bikes; popping and locking; synthesizers; fashion; and even a healthy dose of naïve sexuality. If this song sounds like a cross between Afrika Bambaataa and New Order, that is because legend Arthur Baker produced it! Thanks to fellow nerdbot Tom in the UK for the heads up on this one.
SCHEMATIC: Acapella & Dub Versions...
These versions are included primarily for posterity rather than actual musical interest.
Chew on this dark wave nugget for a while.
SCHEMATIC: Limited edition repress, original female vocal version and more videos...
Flucht was one of my very first blog posts. There is something about this song that works its way into your bones. Josh Cheon of Dark Entries Records in SF just did a limited, hyper-quality repress of the Heute EP including the superior German version of Flucht. For $13, you'd be nuts not to grab one while they're still in supply. Josh also wrote up his great interview with Stephen Kraemer of Zwischenfall.
The female vocal version of Flucht was actually the b-side of the Sandy Eyes single released on Belgian label Les Disques du Crépuscule and Italo champ Fuzz Dance.
This song has a much warmer, almost pre-balearic feel to it and was NOT on the Heute EP.