From solenoid Sent Sun, Nov 8th 1998, 21:44
From solenoid Sent Sun, Nov 8th 1998, 21:44
On Sun, 8 Nov 1998, Eric Frans wrote: > } From: martin burbridge > } Sent: Thursday, October 22, 1998 2:51 PM > } > } > > } > and what the hell ARE "trombone-propelled electronics"? > } > > } > } aaaaggghhh, everyone too young to remember "einstein a go go" thank yer > } lucky stars. what was it, landscape? > > ahh, landscape! i don't remember them being mentioned on idm before, but > everyone here should track down their album _from the tea-rooms of mars to > the hell-holes of uranus_ (check the used vinyl bins since it came out in > '81). the track "einstein a go-go" is on there plus the track that got me to > hunt the album down, "norman bates" (i'd love to hear that used in the new > remake of the psycho film!). the album admittedly has some cheesey moments > like most synth-pop of that era, but the gems in the lot make for the > cheese. overall i'd describe the ablum as a kind of blancmange meets soft > cell meets tangerine dream (80's) hybrid with that icey le car feel. good > stuff! >From awrc.com: " At long last we reach their one big hit, the apocalyptic paranoia of "Einstein A Go-Go". There's something rather disturbing and anarchic about this track, from the intro (which consists of the replies the band got when they tried to 'phone the US President, whoever was in the Kremlin at the time, and the Ayatollah Khomeini, amongst others), to the wheedling flute melody that winds its way over the paranoid lyrics. It's a pretty song but one with darker undercurrents that deserved to be more than the novelty hit that it was." I recommend the 12" version of Einstein-A-Go-Go, which is longer and extends Burgess' proto-simmons-drum groove a bit louder than the LP version. The Bside is a instrumental bore called "Japan". These guys never got too famous because, imho, their jazz and quirky influences were too strong to make them mysterious and arty enough for the serious nu-romantic types. The 12" definitely goes with the more "fun" instrumental bits of Elektroids LP, some LeCar (Einstein is similarly drum-minimalized, except for a quirky flute riff), some serotonin maybe. If "Einstein" seems like something you might mix, check out the casio-beat + vocoder-voice "Computer Person" from the lp "From the Tearooms of Mars ...to the Hell-holes of Uranus" from '81 or so. Other than the long (intelligent) instrumental passages of side two, the rest of this band's output wouldn't interest anyone who isn't hardcore about light synth-pop. "Einstein.." is built like the jerky "All Stood Still" (Ultravox) from the same time, but has completely the opposite mood, imho. Solenoid