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Archive for the ‘Music’ Category
KylieX2008 DVD
Monday, November 24th, 20081982 Eurovision Song Contest
Monday, November 17th, 2008After immersing ourselves in the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest for a night back in September, it was around to Mark’s again on Friday night for the 1982 competition. Meeting Bill there, we spent over four hours in South Woodham Ferrers watching the preview videos, and then the contest itself proper. Only 18 songs long, Jan Leeming steered the acts through the live show from 26 years ago as best she could, but all too quickly the winner had been announced.
Comparing the studio-produced songs with their live counterparts was interesting, as songs that were electronic-based (such as the UK’s One Step Further), ultimately sounded worse with Ronnie Hazelhurt’s live orchestra. They also didn’t score as highly as those whose simple orchestration changed little from preview to contest night. But, even more so than 1981, it was a classic competition, with many good songs worthy of the winner’s title.
Portugal kicked off proceedings. Their entry, Bem Bom, was a flamboyant number, and was sung by Doce, a four-strong female group with an equally outrageous appearance. Wearing what appeared to be musketeer outfits with some very straight-cut fake wigs, there was a lot of arm in the air action, and although we couldn’t understand the words, their strange drum-led tune appealed to me, if no-one else.
A favourite for all of us was Anna Vissi, fielded by Cyprus. Her haunting ballad, Mono I Agapi was very sophisticated. So too was Vissi herself, and with her monotone dress and jet black hair, she was very much a subscriber to 80s glamour. A Eurovision veteran of three contests, in 1982 she took more than a little inspiration from Dynasty’s Joan Collins. The song deserved to do much better than its final fifth placing and 85 points.
After the jubilant 1981 win, the UK stuck to its jolly, happy, electronic pure pop sound. The pairing of duo Bardo with their song One Step Further worked well, and their stage routine was polished, with lots of nods to the world of contemporary theatre. They were one of the arrangement casualties, though, and were placed seventh in the final result, scoring 76 points. A solid placing, though, and the Bucks Fizz connection was one we’d spotted; Andy Hill who produced the song was also heavily involved with the Brit foursome who had won just a year earlier.
But, our winner for the night was the husband and wife duo of Mess, representing Austria. Singing about Sundays with their entry Sonntag, it was these two who should have taken the trophy home and enjoyed the enduring success. The Same Difference of their day, their catchy tune and energetic dance routine was the perfect example of happy, shiny, pop. It could have flung them far, always raising a smile, but it wasn’t to be, and their 57 points score only took them to ninth.
And the real winner? Of course, after the excitement of Bucks Fizz’s win the previous year, we’d forgotten who came out on top in ‘82. Once we’d seen the preview tape, though, it was painfully clear which song would come out on top. Germany’s Nicole with her Ein Bisschen Frieden (A Little Peace) was the runaway winner, and the 500th number 1 single in the UK upon its release.
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Sam Taylor-Wood produced by the Pet Shop Boys: I’m In Love With A German Film Star
Thursday, November 6th, 2008
Even the title sounds like one by the Pet Shop Boys. Artist and film-maker Sam Taylor-Wood has strengthened her collaboration history with the electronic duo, as she has just released I’m In Love With A German Film Star. Produced by the PSBs, and a cover of The Passions’ minor hit from 1981, it’s the third time she has teamed up with Neil and Chris, previously having sung on cover versions of Je T’aime… Moi Non Plus, and Love To Love You Baby.
Sounding unmistakably PSBs, and with more than a familiar nod to their Behaviour period, the song has few words, which is maybe why it works. The title isn’t just very PSB (Saint Etienne could have come up with it, too), but also very atmospheric; exactly like the music it is allied to in 2008. Chords pulsate and drift in and out, and the track drifts along, like the smoke coming from the end of Taylor-Wood’s cigarette on the cover.
Should the PSBs have thought to make it truly their own, vocal duties could easily have been taken on by Neil Tennant, as Taylor-Wood’s sung and spoken lines sound eerily similar to previous deliveries by the PSB front man. A massive four-format release (limited 7”, 12”, CD and download) reveal a seven-track package, with the best undoubtedly Mark Reeder Stuck In The 80s Mix. A homage to the original’s period, it’s all electronic drums, sitars, and New Order-esque hooks.
Some might say that this record is just a vanity project to garner interest in the boys’ new album, due for release next year. Produced with help from Girls Aloud and Kylie tunesmiths Xenomania (the Pet Shop Boys even co-produced a track, The Loving Kind on Girls Aloud’s new album, Out of Control), it promises to be a corker. But, with a BRIT award coming in 2009 for their 25-year outstanding contribution to music, surely they’re as relevant as they always have been. This record is proof.
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Saint Etienne: Tomorrow Never Dies
Friday, October 31st, 2008Today is Bond day, as the 22nd James Bond motion picture, Quantum of Solace, is released. You can’t fail to have noticed that the film is out what with every radio brodcast, television programme, and magazine seemingly having a Bond feature, so here’s my contribution to the 2008 007 dossier of hype.
This morning, The Guardian highlighted songs that could have been Bond themes (note they weren’t should-have-beens). Among the rejected songs by luminaries such as Blondie, Johnny Cash, the Pet Shop Boys, and unbelievably, Ace of Base, is this easy-listening groove from UK poppers Saint Etienne.
I’d forgotten that this song existed, even though it was on the band’s fan club release, Built on Sand, re-issued in January as part of the group’s four-disc collection, Boxette. Recorded in 1997, and submitted for consideration as the theme song for Pierce Brosnan’s Bond flick of the same name, this version is a demo (there was another tune, too, on the same long player, called Blofeld Buildings).
In the sleeve notes for Boxette, Bob Stanley states that the master tape was stolen by Brosnan, who claimed it was ’seven times better than Sheryl Crow’ (Crow eventually sung the theme for the film). See what you think. It may not have been sharp-shooting enough for 1990s Bond, but it would have made a fitting opening credits theme for any one of the Connery-era 007 pictures from the 1960s.
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Sandra: Japan ist Weit
Friday, October 17th, 2008There were many things about the 1980s that weren’t cool, but the music certainly was. Ask for an opinion about the period, and the tunes that powered it will most likely come up as one of the most-loved of any decade. The start of the 80s heralded the arrival of electronic music, and by the decade’s end, was hugely popular dominating the charts, before becoming uncool, when Britpop invaded the music scene in the 1990s.
There’s no doubt about it; Eighties music is fondly remembered, and every ‘cool’ band and solo artist is referencing it in 2008, following on from a trend started in 2007. British three-piece Keane are the latest to go 80s, with their latest album Perfect Symmetry, which, I believe, yields mixed results. It turns out that there are right and wrongs things from Eighties music to reference.
I discovered this genuine 80s track this week, hidden away on a greatest hits DVD. Sandra Cretu is best-known for providing vocals on the early Enigma albums from the early 1990s (her husband, Michael, is the brains behind the atmospheric productions), but she has had a solo career of her own for over 20 years. She’s Germany’s answer to Kylie.
Putting out singles since she was 13, and then breaking away from girl group threesome Arabesque in the late 1970s, she was little known outside her native country. Her breakthrough hit, Maria Magdalena, gave her worldwide exposure in 1985, and a string of 33 hits followed in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. Her latest long player, The Art of Love, was released last year, following 11 other solo productions.
But this, her first solo offering, Japan ist Weit, must go down as one of her best moments. No, it’s not strong vocally, but with a squelchy synth bass line and backing track pulsating like a musical heart, typically 1980s drums, and lots of clichéd Japanese-sounding keyboards, it’s a legendary piece of little-heard 80’s pop. The fact that Japan is pronounced ‘Yapan’ in German is the icing on the Black Forest Gateau.
If you recognise the song, there is a reason why. A cover of Alphaville’s Big in Japan from 1984, Sandra’s version disappointingly didn’t chart (her compatriots’ release got to number 1 in 4 territories). If you yourself would like a copy of this slice of particularly string 1980s cheese, hunt around a bit on the web, as it is there waiting to be put on the cheeseboard of long-forgotten 1980s pop.
So, although she was incredibly popular on the continent in the 1980s, was Sandra herself big in Japan?