Monday's Long Song

 

There are song I love but I can't listen to them everyday. One of those is Frankie Teardrop the centerpiece of Suicide's debut album from 1977. At this time Alan Vega and Martin Rev worked in New York on a new electronic proto-punk sound. Minimal synths, a Farfisa organ, a simple drum-kit and the crazy voice of Alan Vega were enough to inspire a lot of bands from the new wave era. 

Their debut combines strange noises, eerie howls, erratic moans and Frankie Teardrops a song that brought together madness in absolute perfection. At the height of a seemingly endless terror of hammering rhythms and sawing monotony, the singer let out blood-curdling screams: a gunshot, a child's death, then the limbo where suicides dwell. I was impressed that a song whose lyrics I hardly understood at the time and whose musical elements I couldn't decipher could cause me so much discomfort. 

Suicide - Frankie Teardrop

New Song On Sunday

Last week another song by British DJ, Remixer and producer Neil Parnell aka Tronik Youth was released via Berlin's Nein Records. To be honest, Ghost in the Shell is new but a rip-off by Alan Vega's Ghost Rider from 1981. While Vega builds his song on a simple rockabilly riff, Tronik Youth has taken a pulsating synth riff as a basis to let echoing vocals circle in the background. And he actually manages to give the song a new guise without destroying it or freezing it in awe. You can't kill good songs.

And I couldn't resist to feature the original with scenes from Marlon Brando's The Wild One.

Blood On The Moon

 

Sometimes I really got surprised about a collaboration I never thought. Yesterday the news arrived that a new song is out by Alan Vega, who died seven years ago. Blood On The Moon is a collaboration between him and Bobby Gillespie and Roxy's Andy Mackay. I have no further information about this but assume that it was a contribution to a compilation for his 70th birthday almost 20 years ago. Anyway, it shows that Vega's song can work in different kind of styles. This one lifts the song to a techno/house level and Andy Mackey serves some saxophone parts to work in a different direction. A very nice song and worth to be featured at this place.

Red Desert

 

The Vacant Lots is a Brooklyn, NYC based post-punk, electronic duo that is active since a decade and made some albums that are far over the average. A few name them as the devisee of Suicide. But you can't compare them with the synth-punk pioneers Alan Vega and Mercury Rev although you can hear fragments of their sound in their music. They have also influences of New Order, Pet Shop Boy and Human League in their songs. Red Desert is a song that could appear on any album by Sonic Boom and this is astonishing because Peter Kember mastered a few of their albums.  

And Disintegration could be song that was played often when it was released 30 years earlier.

2021 - Long 1/2

 

The year is almost over and it is time to have a look back to the releases from 2021. I have to say that there were many albums released that are worth to be mentioned in a retrospective. Not all albums that impressed me or made fun got it on the year and list. What doesn't mean that they are no good at all but I decided to list 21 albums from this year without scoring in the order. 

Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg

Sault - Nine

Ben Watt - Storm Shelter

The Orb - Abolition of the Royal Familia (Guillotine mixes)

International Music - Ententraum

Mogwai - As The Love Continues

Nashville Ambient Ensemble - Cerulean

Curtis Harding - If Words Were Flowers

Dot Allison - Heart Shaped Scars

Parquet Courts - Sympathy For Life

Alan Vega - After Dark

Monday's Long Song

 

In July 2016 Alan Vega died at the age of 78 by the aftermath of a stroke he had a few years ago. I don't have to tell about his influences and works with Suicide because most of you will know. During this year his widow and son opens their archives and releases album by album. The latest release was After Dark the result of a late night session from 2015 with Ben Vaughn's rock and roll band Pink Slip Daddy. And it shows what a great artist we lost. Based on a floor of classic blues rock his voice shows what rock and roll could be. Great stuff and I ask myself which collaboration will be released next.

Monday's Long Song

Last December I featured The Vacant Lots at this place with another long song from their latest album. This album combines two EP's of this Brooklyn based duo who carries the spirit of psychedelic rock and minimal rock and roll. I forgot this album during the last months bur I rediscovered it a few days ago. Their first recordings were collaborations with Sonic Boom and Alan Vega and you can hear their influences on the whole album as well as song structures we all knew by Echo and the Bunnymen. Damage Control is one of those overlooked albums from 2020 and it rises the more I listen to it and not only because it reminds me to long forgotten times. 

Nike Soldier

Last week I got a promotion information by Sacred Bones Records that they are going to release next month of a new album by Alan Vega. Of course it is not a new album - it the release of his lost album which was recorded in a collaboration with his wife Liz Lamer and Jared Artaud in NYC between 1995 and 1996. The first appetizer Nike Soldier shows that he was still on a high level recording dark industrial motorik sounds and there was still a fire burning inside him. A song that is out of time of course but shows again why many bands name him and Suicide as a massive influence.  

 

Cult Hero

The last days I listened often to the new album by purist Acid duo Paranoid London. It is not the music I listening most but this tracks grabbed me from the first time they came to my ears. Probably it is the collaboration with other musicians playing on various tracks. Also the artists are very different from A Certain Ratio's Simon Topping to the final vocal performance by Alan Vega. Often a mixture of singing/speaking over forward-moving beats and adventurous rhythms make these tracks very special and fits completely to my ears at this time.

Ghost Rider

It is now a half year since Alan Vega passed away. His music is still present to me and I think it is worth to feature him once again here. it is rockabilly from outer space and far ahead of his time. We couldn't say more than thank you to him for giving us this music. Still hot, inspiring and cool after many decades.

Alan Vega 1938 - 2016

It seems like the year goes on like it started and takes artists that I grew up away. The sad news arrived when I was on Echorich's site. He said the right words and I just have to agree. He was a hero to my younger days as well and his first records were on heavy rotation at my home in the early 80's. I loved the way he used to make Rockabilly to his very unique sound.

Another highlight was the fantastic Viet Vet - a 12 minute journey through the hot and dangerous jungle. Gloomy, sharp and dangerous.

Rest In Peace, Alan