Magazine–Motorcade, Cut Out Shapes, Permafrost

Magazine–Motorcade.

Magazine, my current favorite band ever.  Mix the best parts of Joy Division, Roxy Music, Brian Eno, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Josef K, Birthday Party, PIL, Bauhaus, T Rex, Flying Lizards…Pink Floyd…etc.

Magazine–Cut Out Shapes

Magazine–Permafrost

The Most Overlooked 70s/80s New Wave Album Ever–Magazine: Secondhand Daylight

Magazine–Secondhand Daylight (mp3s on Amazon)

This is the best.  They combine the best of postpunk, pop, and yes, prog rock.  First track Feed the Enemy distinctly sounds like the best parts of Pink Floyd songs like Have a Cigar, the tempo, the bassline, the analog synths, with a distinct postpunk new wave angle.  Same with their song Thin Air.  Other standouts are Cut-out Cruelty, then insane Back to Nature (what kind of a futuristic song/rhythm is this???), and Permafrost.

Then unbelievably, the opening/main riff of Belive that I Understand sounds like My Bloody Valentine, Swervedriver, a whole host of late 1980s/early-mid 1990s shoegazer bands.  And this was made in 1979!  The remaster comes with a cover version of Captain Beefheart’s “I Love You Big Dummy”!

Top notch stuff, my favorite album at the moment.  Also see some almost-as-equally great Stranglers albums, including the great Raven and Black and White, which some of Secondhand Daylight tracks are simliar to.  Other reference points: Brian Eno, Roxy Music, David Bowie, Bauhaus, Joy Division, Birthday Party, Siouxsie and the Banshees (the guitarist went on to play in Siouxsie and the Banshees), Blur, Gorillaz, Stereolab, and…Radiohead, which covered a Magazine song or two.

Check out some of their album Magic, Murder and the Weather, I especially like the song Great Man’s Secrets, which is a great disco/ska/dub/new wave electro dance song that bands like !!! and Hercules and Love Affair only wish they could write.

See this post,  Magazine–Motorcade, Cut Out Shapes, Permafrost for some of their live/promo videos.

The Most Overlooked 80s New Wave Album Ever–The Fixx: Shuttered Room

The Fixx–Shuttered Room (mp3s on Amazon)

Yes, the Fixx album Reach the Beach has those staples of alternative rock and now classic rock stations Saved By Zero and One Thing Leads to Another.  But Shuttered Room is a whole other beast–it’s the kind of new wave that indie kids and new wave revivalists have been trying to recreate like forever now.  Throw in a mix of Joy Division, PIL, Duran Duran, Kajagoogoo, Flying Lizards, Bauhaus, and Josef K and newer bands like Stereolab and you’ll get an idea of the sound–a sound emulated by bands like Franz Ferdinand, Santogold, Sebastien Tellier, Interpol, etc.  More mainstream bands this album sounds like are the Police and U2.  Every song has an unexpected and/or triumphant hook that makes the song classic.  This album will take you back to the days of Ferris Buller and Better Off Dead for sure.

Standout tracks include the totally awesome I Found You, Stand or Fall, Red Skies, Lost Planes, and Cameras in Paris.  Also recommended: Golden Earring’s 80s-tastic new wave classic rock songs Fist in Glove and N.E.W.S.

Reach the Beach is a classic, great album of course.  I never realized how dubby some of the tracks are, and standouts include Saved By Zero, One Thing Leads to Another, Reach the Beach, and Outside.

After Shuttered Room and Reach the Beach, I probably like Phantoms the most.

Also check out: The Most Overlooked 70s/80s New Wave Album Ever–Magazine: Secondhand Daylight.  It’s several times better than Shuttered Room, coming out of a true 1970s prog rock Brian Eno/Roxy Music tradition that 80s new wave grew out of.

Holger Czukay / Jah Wobble / Jaki Liebezeit/The Edge–Full Circle and Snake Charmer Albums, Awesome New Wave Dub

Okay so are you ready for some awesome dub/new wave/postpunk/krautrock? Brought to you by Holger Czukay/Holgar Czukay, one of the founders of Can, Jah Wobble, dub bassist extrodinaire with his own solo career and PIL, and Jaki Liebezeit, also a founding member of Can. Kind of reminds me of the equally excellent Flying Lizards of course…with touches of Kajagoogoo and the Fixx at times, which is either very good or very bad depending on your tastes of course, R&B such as Frankie Beverly’s Maze, and lots of nice disco stuff. Very 70s/80s/dubby, from the album/EP Full Circle.

Watch out all you new wave/postpunk/disco electro revivalists!!! This old stuff still sounds better!!! There are tracks on Snake Charmer that sound a lot like some of the stuff on the proggy album Effects of Exposure or whatever by this band Regressive Aid…wonder which was first?

Here’s another one, Hold On To Your Dreams, feature the EDGE of U2 on guitar…awesome!!! Off of the album/EP Snake Charmer.

mp3s: Snake Charmer album/EP (via Wiel’s Time Capsule blog)

mp3s: Full Circle album/EP (via the Fantasmi Macchina blog)

Out on Blue Six–Obscure New Wave

Here’s some obscure but good new wave: Out on Blue Six – Party Moods (mp3). Nice frenetic female-fronted new wave, with that great jangly angular guitar and kind of dub influenced bass and drums. There’s a really great keyboard/synth part towards the end of the song. Kind of superficially reminiscent of the Delta 5, but not really. Kind of also like the great female fronted stuff on the first Flying Lizards record and on their Fourth Wall record.  They had at least seven inch and a cut on a 1980s compilation that I’m aware of, and this song was re-released on some more recent compilation. The bass player I think was also in this band Shriekback.

More Awesome Hip-hop/Dance/Dub/Soul mixes by Klenderfender

Enigmatic DJ/mixmaster/noise manipulator Klenderfender at the Musical Coco Basket blog has been putting out a whole bunch of incredible mixes. Here’s Messy Mix II, lots of great stuff I’ve never heard and some I have heard, taking it back to some great 80s/90s classic/obscure hip hop, dance, dub and reggae, breakbeat, and soul:

D 1 – Crack Bong

Mutabaruka and African Headcharge – What is the Plan? (Version)

Richie Spice – Marijuana (Remix)

Shinehead Real Rock (Irie Ext.)

Tek – Nothings Gonna Change (Inst.)

Grace Jones – Cry Now Laugh Later

Cypress Hill – Real Estate (Inst.)

Prime Minister Pete Nice and Daddy Rich – Rap Prime Minister and Daddy Rich (Inst.)

Simon Harris – Bass (Bomb the House Mix)

28th St. Crew – Inch By Inch

Chill Rob G – The Power (Radio Edit)

Geeneus – Congo

TTC – Catalogue

Congo Natty – Lion In The Jungle Side 4 (White Label)

Wiley – What Do You Call It? (Inst.)

Roots Manuva – Colossol Insight (Jammer Remix + Revox)

Sin – With You (Inst.)

Detroit Emeralds – Baby Let Me Take You

Dobie – The Ride (Inst.)

Freda Payne – Band of Gold

N Tyce – Hush Hush Tip (Inst.)

C. O. D. – Crime Don’t Pay (Inst.)

AMG – Vertical Joyride (Fat Booty Inst.)

Parliament- Flashlight

Joe Sinister – Under the Sun (Inst.)

Barry White – It’s Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next To Me

Pebbles – Girlfriend

Now must go listen to some 808 State last.fm similar artists channel…

Awesome dance/disco/dub mix by Klenderfender: Messy, 2008

This is a really cool and eclectic mix by the infamous Mr. Klenderfender. Lots of crazy hip hop, disco, dancehall, soul, and dub stuff thrown in there. Here’s the Klenderfender: Messy Mix from the Musical Coco Basket blog.

Cover Girls – Show Me (Hearthrob Mix)

Floormaster Squeeze – Kick Out The James (Again)

Mr. Dead – Spit Something (Inst.)

Pop Will Eat Itself – There’s No Love Between Us Anymore (Specially Ext. Dance Mix)

Young Disciples – Apparently Nothin (Org. Inst.)

D’ Lux Dropz – Original Dun Dunna

Michel’le – No More Lies (Inst.)

Chic – Dance, Dance, Dance

Slow Mo Acid – Coming Down Band

Village People – I Am What I Am

Slow Mo Acid – Coming Down Band

Acid Ant – Stepper

Robert Owens – Living In A Land

Chopstick Dubplate – Chop 3

Terrorist – Helicopter

Orbital – Chime

Soul II Soul – Jazzie’s Groove

Timelords – Doctorin The Tardis (Minimal Mix)

Ronnie Davis – Every Rasta Is A Star

Fatlip – What’s Up Fatlip (Inst.)

Son Doobie – Por Amor (Inst.)

Coldcut – Stop This Crazy Thing (The Beat)

Chubb Rock – I’m Too Much (Hands On The Sax Inst.)

Poor Righteous Teachers – Easy Star (Inst.)

The Rootsman – Pass the Lighter (Remix by Q)

Inez Foxx – Mousa Muse

Funkdoobiest – Rock On (Inst.)

Attica Blues – What Do You Want? (Exemen Mix)

Bruce Lee MC – No Mind (Zen Experience)

English Beat – Twist and Crawl

Herbaliser – Generals (Inst.)

English Beat – Twist and Crawl (Dub)