Here are a couple of cool cuts from 1984. 1984 was an interesting year for music. The boogie greatness of 1982 was fizzling out, electro was king, and house was just getting started. These tracks highlight where genres converged and coalesced into some strange hybrids. This first track by Leon Love shows a lot of electro influence and can easily pass as a theme song for the oft overlooked comedy masterpiece Fletch Lives. Seems like it could have been produced by Herbie Hancock or Jan Hammer with a little help from Egyptian Lover. The next track [...]
You can almost see the flyer in the stairwell at the Canadian food co-op where a young Jane Siberry advertised her desire to put together a New Wave band to execute her proggy/coffee house aesthetic. Or that's how it looks in my most reductionist moments. In reality, I dig this stuff just as shamelessly as I do Kate Bush . This is the nerdy version of that more flamboyant allure. And I am especially loyal to it, since I refuse to follow the muse of Siberry's late career. But this is squarely in that [...]
doris norton - "a.d.a. converter" (download) While Doris Norton 's music doesn't technically sound "groundbreaking" by today's standards, it was certainly very much ahead of its time when she was recording this experimental electronic/borderline electro music in the early 802s. This release, Personal Computer, came out in 1984. What makes her even cooler? She was sponsored by Apple AND Roland .
So, the clocks have been turned back, an act that still is an odd thing to me as I grew up in one of the few swaths of the US that didn't acknowledge such antics. (Paloma is like a ninja somehow resetting all of the numerous timepieces in the treehouse so swiftly, so deftly that I never see her do it, but the feat is accomplished by the time I awake) As the citizens of my hometown were ignoring the changing of the times in autumn, 1984, my friends and I had all reached our sixteenth [...]
1984 released this track for Free Download earlier this month. Grooving percussion with a bassline that punches come together perfectly in this one. 1984 - Theme from 1984 (Original Mix) (Free Download) by 1984forever Related posts: New Pristine Blusters Originals Samantha Fu - Theme From Discotheque Quinten 909 - You're My Friend
Master Funk Records was an '80s UK dance label founded by electro producer Tony Williams (not to be confused with the American jazz drummer who worked with Miles Davis). This 12" was one of the label's later releases from 1984. Both sides are great, I might actually prefer the B-side which sounds starts off sounding like a Sade instrumental until the deep bass line comes in. For more on Tony Williams check out this interview by Greg Wilson on the excellent Electro Funk Roots website. [...]
I'm trying to not think of this tune as novelty, but when a ballet dancer moonlights as a crooning synth popper, it's hard to really know how to receive it. I suppose that's part of the allure. As is the sheer catchiness. Karl Biscuit - La Morte
malcolm mclaren - "carmen" (download) From Malcolm McLaren's LP Fans , released in 1984. This record was Malcolm's attempt at blending r&b/hip hop with opera. It's your call as to how well he pulled it off. This song isn't for everyone. To be honest, the opera parts tend to get on my nerves, but I love the production overall, and Angie B' s rapping parts go well with Malcolm's music.
Back in March Discobelle Records dropped the globally minded "La Mecca" EP. four big tracks of horns, cowbells and deeply percussive techno music. If you missed the Brodinski-lauded NT89 remix that left melon sized lazer holes in dancefloors everywhere it was dropped, it's not too late to still grab it over here. But now 1984 have shared the somewhat mysteriously titled "Theme from 19843 track with us and it's a gem - seven and a half minutes of rollicking, sliding grooving techno, maracas and bongos mingling with a chopped up vocal exertion that's [...]
The best part of this video is everything.
Any true electronic music consumer will be aware of Jean Michel Jarre, synthesist master who produced the classic 'Oxygène' and 'Équinoxe' LPs, so there's no need for the usual backstory here. This track comes off his seventh album, Zoolook, released in back in 1984. Much of the music on the album is built up from singing and speech in 25 different languages, along with more traditional elements. This track starts off pretty dark and black, working its way up to some colourful synth-funk around the 3:25 mark. MP3: Jean Michel Jarre - [...]
Let's stick with angsty rockers, the American variety today. It's a bummer that people of a certain age will never truly emotionally connect with this song. Directing the full weight of pain and anger at, say, voicemail, just wouldn't capture the sense of distance or call out the machines that emphasize it. And maybe it's me being curmudgeonly, but I think a kid covering this today would sound like a petulant brat. Paul Westerberg got away with it because he's Paul Westerberg. The Replacements - Answering Machine
Seems like everything you read about The Sound casts them as poor saps who should've had a following at least as devoted as those of Joy Division and Echo & the Bunnymen. They coulda been a contendah! Well, the fame game is a crapshoot. A lot of mediocrities get on marquees and a lot of brilliance goes unnoticed. And the sun still comes up every day, and the whining gets stale. At the same time, this 'blague has a fair bit of sympathy for said whining, or at least offers a forum for remedy. So here's a [...]
A-Trak's given us all something to "go dance in front of the mirror" for. He says the mirror, I say on your roof top while the September sun sets over New York City. Anyways, this mix is loaded with goodies such as a new Duck Sauce track The Big Bad Wolf and 19842s Arabesque put out by Discobelle. Give this one a listen and let us know what you think. Fool's Gold Radio - July 2011 Mix by A-Trak [...]
1984 released his debut EP "La Mecca" right here on Discobelle Records a couple of months ago and it's been getting some amazing feedback. Diplo just played one of the tracks from the EP on his latest Sirius/XM "Blow Your Head"-show (he also played Brenmars "Taking It Down" ). 1984 also got a new mix out that you should check out. He's got some pure fire in there. You can also check out 1984 performing at Starlight festival with Mathias Khaden, J-Wow (Buraka Som Sistema), Blatta & Inesha, Gigi Barocco etc. [...]
Granted, Van Halen's 1984 has more nostalgic value than timeless artistic merit as the band's heavy use of synths keeps the music firmly dated in the early 1980s. Yet despite all the electro-80s flourishes, 1984 is still a mostly solid rock album. And pop-rock hits "Jump," "Panama" and "Hot for Teacher" are just as catchy [...]
Last week's pick, Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run, is a classic in the truest sense of the word. Other than "Born to Run" - one of the greatest rock songs of all time, in my opinion - none of the tracks really stand out as individuals, but flow smoothly together as a cohesive whole. There's [...]
Haruomi Hosono with Friends Of Earth - Alternative 3 Pretty abstract stuff here from Harry, but ultimately successful (I think) as a self-contained piece of music. Recorded and mixed digitally October-November, 1984, Tokyo. bonus beats: Kurtis Blow - AJ Scratch (1984)
Miharu Koshi - Bara No Yakai~Arui Wa Amai Mitsu No Imashime Japanese title: 薔薇の夜会～あるいは 甘い蜜の戒め English translation (as per Google translate): Soirée , or, Sweet Nectar of the Commandments of Roses Happy birthday (yesterday) to Harry Hosono, who produced this and presumably played the fretless bass(es). Written by Miharu Koshi. See here for another cut from the same LP. Artwork by Satoshi Nishizaki . Best part at 2:15.
MP3: 1984 - Arabesque (NT89 Remix) MP3: Sound of Stereo - Diamond MP3: Don Rimini - G.O.O.D. (BeatauCue Remix) MP3: Mumbai Science - Lotus MP3: Highbloo - Playbook
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