I know. That cover.... yeesh! It's almost impossible to believe that a couple that look like they're getting ready to get physical with Olivia Newton John (named Jewel and Jason Star, just to compound the agony) could produce minimal synth shite of the caliber featured on the best bits here, but no kidding...some of this is seriously superb, especially the Richard Bone cum Dennis Weise-like masterpiece "The City Of The Seventh Sun". I won't lie...parts of this do cheese and cheese royally, but even these bits are sorta perversely endearing, possessing the same knuckleheaded (and distinctly American) inanity of, say, XeX. That they close out the proceedings with something wonderfully Tuxedomoon-esque just seals the whole absurd deal with a kiss.
Get it Here
definitely some cheese here. it seems like this band were wishing that they would get a big break and appear on Solid Gold with the Solid Gold Dances.
ReplyDeleteYou can feel the poser attitude and the cheese when you listen.
I agree, Xex to me is also very cheese type stuff. I never enjoyed Xex either. All those little hipsters who were so excited about the Xex reissue a few years ago.
To me this is synth-pop and not minimal-syth. To me synth-pop is that cheesy happy stuff with lyrics about robots and the future, with some guy or girl trying to do high pitched crying vocals like Midge Ure.
Minimal-synth to me is just what it is, it's a band or one person just making a stripped down sound, one single bleeping syth, one single plusating drum beat, and minimal vocals.
I'm sure some of those modern new wave revival synth-pop groups of today would approve of not only of the cover art of this album but also the music. For example, a modern poser band like Glass Cany.
H.M.
H.M.-Well...first off, yay to lyrics about robots and the future! Better still when said lyrics are vocoded. While you may desire to whittle down the parameters of the genre designated minimal synth, I doubt many others would wanna hold firm to a doctrine that'd preclude the pleasures of good cheese (robots, the future, heliated new wave chick vocals etc). ALL this minimal synth stuff used to be designated synth pop until some clever folks found they could transform yesterdays obscure dollar-cut-out-bin synth pop records by rechristening the genre minimal synth and inflating prices (and descriptions) sky high. I use the phrase principally because it's the coin of the realm nowadays when discussing this stuff. Frankly, I love the pared back single-voice-single-synth formula as much as the next synth music collector but the ridiculousness factor of a record like this one, where, despite your protestations, the cheese you cite coexists with cuts that are weird and innovative...that frisson of excellence and dubiousness is one of the principal pleasure to be gleaned from from the minimal synth genre.
ReplyDeleteMinimal synth is not exactly a genre that inspires a lot of lump-in-throat emotional gravity. It's principally for me a music I listen to for fun and your rigorously stripped back and po-faced ascetic aesthetic sounds like a party killing formula to me.
Easy now person Ann-on-e-mus.
ReplyDeleteThe person who is responsible for getting the Xex recording reissued is none other than Tom Smith of To Live and Shave in LA, a prolific mutant sound maker himself. You will see his comments here as Ommyth. I bought my copy of Xex from him personally while he was here in Nashville. He discovered the band itself while a DJ at WFMU. His mode of playlist creation at the time was to start at the letter Z of the record library and work his way backward. He did not have to go too far to find it.
good points by both of you guys. thanks.
ReplyDeleteH.M.
How is it that you have everything?!
ReplyDeleteYou are the only other person I know with this record.
I enjoy the avant-pop of the sample heavy tracks (forgetting titles...). It sits nicely with other late 80's American avant stuff like Orthotonics, Fibonaccis, Fish & Roses, etc.
I like this and the Xex album you posted months ago, and I find neither of them kniuckleheaded, inane, or cheesy. They're products of their time, and should be remembered as such. Perhaps a lessening of the hyperbole and a more straightforward presentation of offerings is required. We don't have to be sold on every post, nor should comparisons (bordering on ad hominem) need to be made between artists. We're here to be fed.
ReplyDeleteKudos,
Clint
The album begins too light and "normal", like fluffy tecno, but on the middle improves a lot:great songs, full of suffering and heavy tecno-atmosferes.
ReplyDeleteHi! Could you re-upload this please??
ReplyDeletejust scored a sealed copy for $6!
ReplyDelete