I am an experience designer and strategist
fostering dialogue between technology and people.
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.
This video is remarkably awesome.
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.
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.
This track treads a fine line between funky disco and satin-smooth pillow talk. This particular cut is actually experimental composer/saxophonist Peter Gordon's lovely re-arrangement of Battisti Lucio's early Italo track, Ancora Tu, with some lover's chat provided by pioneering NY-based designer/artist Colette.
SCHEMATIC: Battisti Lucio's Ancora Tu video and photos of Colette's work...
Regardless of what on Earth this dude is running from, this video is unmistakably Italian.
