Feel The Steering Wheel

Ice Machines: The Album came out last week, ten tracks from five producers from Ireland with 100 Poems represented by a pair of new recordings- a cover of Warm Leatherette and a new track Komputer. Warm Leatherette is something of a foundational moment in post- punk/ synth- pop, Mute's Daniel Miller as The Normal and a 1978 single that set JG Ballard's 19973 novel Crash to bleak, squelchy, dystopian, industrial synth. It was originally the B-side of the single, T.V.O.D. being the lead track but it quickly become the one that gathered the most attention. 

Warm Leatherette

It's a track that I always want to play next to Fad Gadget's Back To Nature, a similarly singular groundbreaking record, again lo- fi industrial synth with a post- apocalyptic feel. 

Back To Nature

It's a brave song choice for a cover and Mike Wilson of 100 Poems takes a slightly different approach- the synths are still ominous and foreboding but the vocal (by Georgie) is more human, less detached. 

The second 100 Poems track is Komputer,a love song to the Commodore 64 and 8- bit home programming. The Commodore 64 was the best selling desktop computer of all time, an origin story for the modern world. Mike's track fizzes and buzzes, clunky graphics and the whir of the cassette machine re- animated while an American woman talks us through the joys and simplicity of home computing.

The ten track album Ice Machines can be found at Bandcamp, name your own price with all proceeds going to the Musical Youth Foundation. As well as the pair of 100 Poems tracks there are contributions from Circuit3, Empire State Human, PolyDROID and Amalgamated Wonders Of The World and covers of Simon and Garfunkel, The Carpenters and Depeche Mode. 

Back To Nature

We spent a night camping at the end of last week. We haven't camped since before Covid and part of me felt like I didn't want to think my camping days were over. We borrowed a smaller tent than the giant three pod, family tent we have (which is in a poor state of repair too) and headed out for Sherwood Forest. This was partly because we wanted to see Isaac's tree, the oak sapling we planted in MPS Remembrance Wood at Sherwood Pines two years ago- it's a four to five hour round trip in a day so staying overnight made sense, the weather was lovely and the campsite looked good. Isaac's oak tree has for the first time started to peak above the protective cone. 

As soon as the tent was up I realised how much I've missed camping and while this summer may be over I'm now sure that weather permitting we'll be camping more often and for longer next summer. Last Thursday night we sat outside our tent with a bottle of red wine watching the sky turn from blue to black, the stars appear in the heavens above us and it felt good. Earlier on we had a look round the campsite- among all the motor homes there were a number of glamping pods and a single camping pod that looked like this...

'A geodesic dome for camping in', I muttered to myself, and as soon as the words 'geodesic dome' left my mouth I was singing this 1980 Fad Gadget single, stunning turn of the 80s apocalyptic synth pop, one of those records that creates its own world and inhabits it. 

Back To Nature

We walked into the pines in the early evening, the sunlight breaking through in shafts, the umbrella pines creating a canopy way above us, a strange warm silence settling over the woods broken only by birds and the odd mountain biker. 

On Twitter Khayem suggested Back To Nature should be followed by Faze Action's Into The Trees (and I agreed) but I don't have it as an mp3 at the moment and this has a virtually identical title- from Moon Duo's 2010 debut Escape...

In The Trees

Weatherall Mix Im Berlin

I've been listening to this tonight, Andrew Weatherall on a Berlin radio show (Farb Fernseher) courtesy of Dazed Digital, and its got several things going for it- Weatherall 's storytelling is up to its usual standard (as per), the quality of records he plays is first rate (also as per but maybe moreso), and the sometimes awkward silences coupled with the interview technique of Sarah Miles and Anastasia Filipovna. Also revealed are the twin pieces of news that a) his second solo album is almost complete and needs to be out by the time he tours Japan in September and b) he's remixing Madness. Recommended listening for your jubilee weekend.

Part of the way in he plays Fad Gadget's electronic post-punk debut single Back To Nature which I put up at Bagging Area way back when hardly anyone was reading. It's a truly great record and I'm not sure Fad Gadget ever equalled it.

Back To Nature

Fad Gadget 'Back To Nature'

This was the first single by Fad Gadget (Frank Tovey), released by Mute in 1979. It's an amazing record- synths, found sounds, drum machines, vocals. The lyrics are disturbing; ''Back to nature- bodies burning in the sun, Back to nature-just like lemmings everyone'', but Fad and his lover will be alright ''under the geodesic dome'', ''sitting in the shade of the rubber tree, I'll kiss you and you kiss me''. Wait for that final stretched out ''and you'll .....kiss me'' towards the end. Tension and release. I've no idea really what it's about. It always makes me think of a post-apocalypse love-song (happy happy joy joy), but that could just be me. Whatever it's about it's utterly great- groundbreaking, synth-laden, doomy pop.

01 Back To Nature.wma