Malik has kindly compiled and added to with some of his own mixes (indicated by a *) a compilation of the bands single releases.
“Thanx 4 The Funk” is a tribute to George Clinton. The quicker European Dope Dub would be a pick. Sounds a bit Renegade Soundwave – Not many vocals. Track 11 has no vocals but contains “Crazy” elements and vocoder.
“Thing Called Love” adds some guitar and Malik’s mix brings out all the elements (Track 15)
The top track is the track by Earth, Wind & Fire (featuring The Boys) A truly funky and uplifting extended version.
1
Thanx 4 The Funk (Radio Remix)
4:31
2
Thanx 4 The Funk (Funk Mix)
5:36
3
Thanx 4 The Funk (Dope Dub)
5:32
4
Thanx 4 The Funk (European Mix)
5:20
5
Thanx 4 The Funk (European Dope Dub)
4:22
6
Thanx 4 The Funk (European Video Mix)
4:20
7
Thanx 4 The Funk (Alternative) Malik Jefferson Mix *
Some commercial R&B with the helium vocals (but no swearing) from child group, The Boys.
Manufactured and marketed by Motown
Jheryl Busby signed the Abdulsamad Brothers, better known as the Boys, while employed at MCA Records. “The Boys” Khiry (born November 8, 1973), Tajh (born December 10, 1976), Hakim (born March 27, 1975), and Bilal Abdulsamad (born April 17, 1978) started singing in their hometown of Carson, CA, when Bilal was five and Khiry nine. Today, they live in Gambia on the West Coast of Africa
Seems they did arrange their tracks, mini moog appears on some tracks as well as a full orchestra on the classic Motown of “Got To Be There”
It is always well produced and varied but….. Shanice helps out on track 6 with a deep Moog bass. D- Nice Raps on a very jolly track that features Martin Luther King’s speech, a weird juxtaposition.
A bonus track is a collab with Earth, Wind & Fire. Funky New Jack Swing with a strong message.
Hair / Glam Metal (Heavy Metal) band from Queens, New York.
Danger Danger was formed in 1987 by ex-White Lion bassist Bruno Ravel and drummer Steve West, with Mike Pont on vocals, keyboardist Kasey Smith and Al Pitrelli on guitar, and with this line-up they played live and recorded a demo with songs that ended up on the debut album: “Naughty Naughty”, “Don’t Blame It On Love” and “Rock America”. The same year, Pont was replaced on vocals by former Prophet drummer Ted Poley, and Pitrelli left to join Alice Cooper’s band in 1989 to be replaced first by Tony Bruno and then Andy Timmons completed the line-up for their 1989 debut album.
From July 1990 and a very commercial Rock sound, ideal for the Japanese market ? The keyboards fill out the sound but it is typical by numbers Rock.
The Live tracks were recorded at Bangles, Denver, Colorado and L’Amour, Brooklyn, New York
Hair / Glam Metal (Heavy Metal) band formed in New York City.
The band formed in 1983 by Danish vocalist/rhythm guitarist Mike Tramp and American lead guitarist Vito Bratta. Mainly active in the 1980s and early 1990s, releasing their debut album – “Fight To Survive” in 1985.
From 1991 and the main track has some quite Progressive elements. From the LP, “Mane Attraction” their 4th and final album.
Bass – James Lomenzo (Megadeath,
Drums – Greg D’Angelo (Anthrax, Britny Fox, Pride & Glory)
Guitar – Vito Bratta
Keyboards [And B3’s] – Kim Bullard
Vocals – Mike Tramp
Track 2 was recorded at The Ritz , NYC. And not very well considering it was one of their major tracks.
The last track is long, anthemic and with a bit of vocoder thrown in.
I really enjoy doing this, it’s my weekly highlight. S will come in well over 4 parts and I hope it will turn people on to the more obscure bands of the 80’s.
A good opening track for the S Series. Obscure UK Post Punk recorded at Ark Studios, Kingston Upon Thames with David Motion engineering. This was a side project by the Eleni V band. Even more obscure.
Driving beat and 5:40 mins , so quite a long track and the synths fill out the sound.
Sabdié – Going Nowhere (1988)
First visit to Canada with this bit of minimal synth from this mysterious duo. From the 12″ “Wôbanaki” named after the Quebec tribe Native American Indians. High pitched female vocals and very basic synth sounds.
Sadol – Two Memories (1986)
Nothing on this. Acoustica with just bass and acoustic guitar with a bit of keyboards. After a bit of digging they were from Bootle, Merseyside and it stood for Sons And Daughters of Liverpool.
Sam Rosenthal – The Return (1985)
Under the name Projekt Electronic Amerika this opened the album, “Tanzmusik” A moody Coldwave instrumental.
Originally released in March 1985 and completely recorded at home on a four-track TEAC-2340 with a super minimal setup (Korg Poly 61, Realistic Moog, Boss Dr-110 and some effects).
For fans of John Foxx
Samir & Abboud – Games (1983)
A rare trip to the Lebanon from this self released cassette LP and the title track.
Reggae tinged funky New Wave. A little bit of jazz also in the bridges.
Sammie America’s Gasphetti – Top of the Dream (1981)
Bio;
Experimental punk pop group from Tilburg (The Netherlands) around singer / bassist Tom America, founded in 1978 as Sammie America’s Gasphetti. Renamed around 1982 as Sammie America’s Mam, which then somewhere around 1984 became MAM.
From their only mini album, “Affanno D’Amore” and synth injected Post Punk mechanically produced.
Bass – Hans Peeters Innemee
Drums – George van de Bosch
Guitar – Eric Van De Boorn
Guitar, Vocals – Sammie America
Synthesizer – Lex Ballings
Satellite Spies – Machine (1985)
Over to New Zealand with this 7″ recorded at Mandrill Studios on Reaction Records. Plenty of sample action on this conventional Power Pop song produced by Tim Palmer.
Vocals, Bass, Keyboards, Clarinet, Written-By – Mark Loveys (Blasé)
Vocals, Guitar – Tommy Joy (Supreme Love Gods, Pusher)
Sator Codex – Leech (1985)
To Sweden and recorded at Music A Matic, a set of vintage recording studios located in Göteborg (Gothenburg), Sweden, founded by Henryk Lipp in 1982.
Swedish punk rock band from Borlänge. Between the years 1981 and 1987, the group was called Sator Codex, but changed its name to Sator in 1987. Together with the name change, the band also changed style.
Bass led with spacey synths. Quite proggy in a “Let’s Go All The Way” by Sly Fox style.
No idea who was who.
Savage Progress
These were next and I’ve got it covered. Still no comments (or likes) about them ?
Back to the Netherlands (Utrecht) and more synths !!
“Silly Earth” is an semi-instrumental with spoken lyrics. Atmospheric and very different.
Scenes De La Bohème – Zara (Act 1) (1982)
From the 7″ release, Bohemian Broadcast Of Comeliness. Handmade sleeves and very rare. Not a hint of irony I guess from this bit of bedroom minimal synthwave. Not the best vocals to be fair but proves how liberating synths were for this UK duo.
Scent Merci – The Night (1984)
Off to Italy and some Goth Rock with Simmons drums.
Bass – Andrea Desidera
Drums – Pietro Zanetti
Guitar – Giorgio Ricci
Keyboards – Enzo Procopio
Vocals – Massimo Zanata
Lots of reverb and low slung bass guitar fumbling’s.
Schicksal – Power Hate Destruction (1988)
This Belguim band featured on the 2014 CD compilation, “Underground Wave Volume 4”
Quite a long bio from Discogs, seeing that he has this solitary release,
Schicksal is the alias of Rudi Huybrechts, born in Hoboken, a small town near Antwerp (Belgium). As a teenager he spent some time studying music and piano, but got quickly tired of the rigid way of teaching. With the money earned from his first student job Rudi bought a Roland SH-101 synthesizer. The year is 1982 and he is just 15 years old.
Rudi decided to name his project Schicksal (best translated as “Fate”) which was the word Jews used in WW2 when they were deported by German soldiers. Heavily inspired and impressed by Front 242 first album “Geography”, DAF’s elektronische körpermusik “Alles Ist Gut” and of course Kraftwerk’s “Man Machine” and “Computer World”, Schicksal started experimenting with synths and drum computers. All this in a tiny 3x3m bedroom.
The tracks included on “Perpetuum Cycle” are from these years. Everything home produced with only a tape recorder and some gear. You can definitely feel the vibe of this period and the place where the songs were created: the old industrial town of Hoboken, the culmination of the cold war and the aim of a young musician to combine melody and harmony into minimal electronic music.
In 1988 the hype of New Beat started in Belgium. Rudi persuaded Marc Grouls, the resident DJ of discotheque Prestige in Antwerp, to play the track “24 hours” that he just composed. What happened? All the people on the dancefloor just got wild and the next day Schicksal signed a contract with Maurice Engelen for the release of a maxi-single on Subway Records (SUBWAY 48).
The day of the production for “24 hours” started a little bit chaotic. Rudi forgot at home his floppy disks with all samples so he had to drive back and forth losing some hours of expensive studio. In the evening, Jos Borremans, aka producer Chris Inger, left Rudi alone in the studio and he secretly recorded some synth tracks on the mixing desk with a Roland D-50. Chris thought these sounds came from Rudi’s Akai sampler and so were used to create the B-side “Manipulation$”.
Schicksal is still active and keep looking for that perfect bodybeat!
Well ! The track itself meets the criteria, inventive EBM for your headphones. Love that discordant synth solo !
Schleimer K – Hope Deep Inside / The Stag (1983/1982)
Another discovery for all you 80’s addicts !
Schleimer K were a four piece (Michael Wolfen, Dominic Brethes, Mark Bernjamin and Bill Duncan) UK based experimental/minimal wave band who existed from 1981-1983. During their two year tenure, the more studio oriented band put out three releases and one split 7” with Die Partei.
Recorded at Wolf Studios in Brixton, London.
The first track has an element of Fad Gadget about it, with additional bass from Orlando Kimber.
Bass, Guitar – Mark Benjamin (Bone Orchard, The Blue Hearts)
“The Stag” is an earlier track , originally on a Flexi Disc for in Dutch magazine WATT with the German band Die Partei. Minimal Cold Wave with basic synths and vocoder ? (Pater Noster by John Foxx) Like the primitive beats.
Schmutz – Love Games (Special Dance Mix) / Love Games (1986)
Last couple of tracks from this Belgium band. Bio;
Belgian New-Wave/Synthpop band founded as The Schmutz in 1982 in Limbourg, Liège Province. After winning a local contest for young bands in 1983, producer Herwig Duchateau took them under his wing and produced multiple singles, including the hit song “Love Games” in 1984, and later the full length album “Lipservice” in 1985. The band also performed live during this era in the Benelux region and West Germany and was even considered a possible Belgian entry to the Eurovision song contest. A final single followed in 1991 before Schmutz disbanded. The band was reformed in the early 2010s and continues to tour locally and record, with “Pillow Talk” being released in 2018 as a full length album combining old works with new songs.
Schmutz means dirt/mud in German, however the band claimed their inspiration for choosing it as their name was just the way it sounded when hearing it as part of a tv coverage about Swiss cyclist Godi Schmutz.
So a very Euro feel to it, even though it has a moody bass.
British producer John Tilly does the 12″, quite cheesy really !
So quite an International selection on our first dive into the letter S !
This has been on my radar for a bit. Fellow Salfordian and all round lovely bloke, John Montague (a.k.a The Junta) gives us a bit of a Future Retro with this infectious groove. Bass synth played in real time I believe. Love to think that Mick Hucknall was sampled – thus completing the Greater Manchester connection.
Off to Cornwall for a week today so had to prep up some posts as this milestone is looming !
I’m sure I tried to post 2 things a day so it is going to be a hell of a feat. I’m not expecting the badge to change colour or get an immediate Take Down notice from WordPress but I will show you what happens , probably not much but I will posting and posting and posting….
“This release means a lot to us. “Robert Smith’s Eyes” started as a throwaway lyric in rehearsal, but quickly became something more—a sincere tribute to one of our biggest influences. What began as a playful nod turned into a song about how music, emotion, and identity intertwine. It’s our way of honouring Robert Smith’s legacy while expressing something deeply personal.
Alongside the original version, this release includes two exclusive remixes by Dutch synth-pop producer Matt Pop, who reimagines the track with vibrant, danceable energy.
Thank you for listening and supporting independent music. Whether you stream it, share it, or grab a copy at a show—we’re grateful you’re on this journey with us.”
I can vouch it isn’t just a throwaway track but a well structured track with great vocals from Sam (like a warm hug!)
The Mixes beef everything up for the Future Pop crowd. Love that all versions keep the a sly Robert Smith type vocal yelp in there.
Here is the second CD of the more Dance orientated remixes from the old skool scene of 1988.
You can’t get more Classic than the Maurice with some nice edits and sneaking in Stakker Humanoid amongst some other Acid Classics halfway through. A mini megamix !
Cappella is always a crowd pleasure with some added overdubs. Fine Italo House !
A cover of the 10cc track given quite a hard Euro House mix by German producer Theo Wardin, just the right side of cheese with a guitar (and sax) jamming in the background. I’ll look out for this !
S’Express forgotten follow up single gets some Acid Bubbles. Still a bit of an overproduced dogs dinner.
Jody Watley’s track is decent New Jack Swing with some fierce edits, originally by Greg Royal, wonder what Malik’s thinks of this mix ?
“Wait” was already a solid early House now with a different mix. Coldcut is given a deeper House mix. The worst mix is that Hubert Kah , didn’t get the original song anyway.
PSB’s do get a radical remix with a heavy intro on this Eco anthem. Talk Talk seminal track isn’t ruined too much by the accented drums. Top Mix apart from the stutters.
Closing with a gem, originally from 1983. Spiky synths and odd vocals.
myvinyldreams