Music music music music.
Mark Shreeve
Legion (Razor Mix)
Legion (Single Edit)
Legion (Satan Mix)
Legion (Space Mix)
Mark Shreeve was an early electronic musician/composer who put out a lot of stuff on Jive Electro during the 80s. He also wrote a lot of Samantha Fox’s stuff from that time period as well, which I assume made him a shitload more money than anything with his name on it.
This is a damned weird song. It’s like Afrika Bambaataa by way of Hellraiser. I don’t know if the “Call me Legion!” snippet at the beginning of the track is a sample from a film, or something that Shreeve recorded himself, but it’s creepy nonetheless, although not as creepy as the freaky-ass laugh that pops up from time to time. Seriously, this sounds like break-dancing music from hell.
You think Pinhead could do the worm? I’d pay to watch that.
Oh, and also apparently a version of this song is in the 1986 film The Jewel of The Nile, which is pretty damn random. I actually saw that move in the theaters when it came out, but I was six at the time, so I don’t remember much. Doesn’t Danny DeVito walk on hot coals or something like that? Whatever, flick was a total Indiana Jones rip-off.
These next four tracks I snagged from a vinyl copy of Disco Not Disco 2, a compilation album that features more “leftfield” dance tracks from the late-70s and early-80s. I’m only featuring these four because everything else on the album is in-print elsewhere.
Alexander Robotnick
Problems d’Amour
Alexander Robotnick (of no relation to Sonic villain Dr. Robotnick, at least I don’t think so, he was MIA for most of the early nineties…) is a godfather of 80s electro, thanks in large part to this amazing track, which is a killer combination of electro and disco. It’s great, but if you want to hear something that’ll really melt your brain out of its pure awesomeness, check out Robotnick’s “Analog Sessions” project, his collaboration with Ludus Pinksy. Just two old dudes in a cabin rocking out with a mountain of old-school analog gear. Shit is epic.
Material
Ciguri
Material is yet another side-project of mega-productive bassist Bill Laswell, who has been in more bands and produced more records than I care to count. Some of his highlights include his production work with Herbie Hancock during his electro phase of the early 80s; and Praxis, an experimental supergroup that featured him, Buckethead and Parliament’s Bernie Worrell.
Material appears to be a Laswell-centric project, with other members coming and going through the years, including Bootsy Collins, Sly & Robbie, Fred Firth, Buckethead, the Jungle Brothers, William S. Burroughs, Ginger Baker and even Whitney freaking Houston.
Material’s genre, as you can imagine, is pretty hard to pin down, but if I had to name it I would probably go with “music that James Murphy ripped off 30 years later.”
The Coach House Rhythm Section
Timewarp
According to Discogs, The Coach House Rhythm Section was an alias for Eddy “Electric Avenue” Grant. And if that’s the case, then damn, I have to give that dude some credit for range. This sounds nothing like his reggae work, and is straight-up avant-garde, new-wave inspired dance music that’s really unique still.
But it’s no “Electric Avenue.”
OY!
Connie Case
Get Down
Is “lo-fi electro/disco” a genre? Because that’s what this sounds like.
I got no clue as to who this is. So if anyone wants to help me out go for it. All I can find on her is that she worked on an album called Extra Funky that featured not one, but two versions of a song called “”Haven’t Been Funked Enough.”
I guess she never met Sylvester, he would helped her out.