08: CERAMIC HELLO
THE ABSENCE OF A CANARY
(MANNEQUIN RECORDS LP, 1981)
What a beautiful record, inside and out. Ceramic Hello was a duo from Burlington, Ontario, formed by Brett Wickens and Roger Humphreys in 1980. The songs have a classic minimal electronic feel, nice clean production and moody synth melodies. ‘Climatic Nouveaux’, ‘Footsteps In The Fog’, and ‘Symphony Of Shudders’ are standouts for me. ‘Theatre Matrix’, which appeared on their first 7”, is another favorite. It has some prog-rock elements too which adds a sweet touch. For the nerds out there, the album was recorded using an MS-20, PolyMoog, Juno-60, Roland Space Echo, various guitar effects pedals like the Phase 90 and Electric Mistress Flanger, an old music box that played “Raindrops Keep Falling on my He…ad”, a pull-string doll from the 1960s called “Mod Madge” who said weird things, Moog Minitmoog, Farfisa stage organ, and a Fender guitar. The whole thing was recorded on a Tascam 8-track reel-to-reel and mixed in a 16 track studio in Waterdown, ON, Canada that was mostly set up for country and western bands! It’s interesting to note that Brett Wickens later went on to work as a graphic designer, partnering with Peter Saville and designing many seminal LP covers for bands such as Peter Gabriel, New Order, Joy Division, Ultravox and others.
09: GUYER’S CONNECTION
PORTRAIT
(SELF-RELEASED LP, 1983)
This is definitely a weird one. Two guys from Switzerland: Philippe Alioth and Tibor Csebits formed Guyer’s Connection in 1982 when they were 14 and 15. They had two synths, a drum machine and a 4-track tape recorder, and plenty of ideas, phantasms and weird convictions. Most of their friends were convinced that this “beep –boomboom-blip-bloup-boing” music would not interest anyone (which was true in 1983, by the way). But Tibor and Philippe were confident that they were on the right track. They self-produced and released this album, Portrait, in 1983, which to no surprise is highly sought after these days. When listening to this record, you can hear that they’re fumbling around a bit, kind of uncertain of their playing ability. That imperfection is really cute. The intro track ‘Pogo Of Techno’ sounds so deep and ahead of its time. And they didn’t take themselves too seriously, which is refreshing. There’s another great track called Dallas, and the lyrics are: “no more time for sex and crime cause everywhere it’s Dallas time, that’s fine, so fine / No more war in Palestine cause also there is Dallas time, that’s fine, so fine / Bobby, Pamela and JR are more important than an atomic war…”. ‘She’s So Hot’ is also a killer track (“She’s so hot she’s so cool / **** her in the swimming pool”).
10: KYM AMPS
‘YOU DON’T KNOW MY NAME (BUT I KNOW YOU)’
(DIVERSION 7″)
This one is a melancholy minimal synth track with female vocals. It’s dark and mysterious, and pretty much sounds like what the cover looks like. The bassline is simple and solid, and the melodies create a nice atmospheric mood for the vocals, “You don’t know my name (but I know you)”. It’s a sad love song about loneliness and obsession. There’s a 120bpm TR808 kick drum through out the track, and never a snare or hi hat. That sparse rhythm section creates a nice build-up of tension.
11: NIGHT MOVES
‘TRANSDANCE’
(GC RECORDINGS 12″, 1981)
Night Moves was created after Michael Guihen saw Gary Numan on Top of the Pops in the spring of 1979, performing ‘Are Friends Electric’. The droning, driving sound of the opening notes took his attention and inspired him to make electronic music. Not having any classical music training except for a few piano lessons at school, he placed an ad in a well-known music magazine for anyone who had interest in forming a synth-based band. He formed Night Moves with John Davis and got keyboard wizard Denis Haines (known for playing on some Gary Numan, and Gazebo tracks) to play on ‘Transdance’ and then had it engineered by Simon Smart. Another TR808 jam, this one is a pure electro pop italo dance track. It’s surprising that it didn’t make the pop charts. It remained fairly underground yet it did reach early 80s Chicago since it was played on WBMX, probably due to its popularity on the dancefloor. It ended up representing the New Wave influence on the early Chicago house scene. This masterpiece is a cross between Italo disco and minimal synth. The original white label 12” version sells for about $300.
Pingback: Minimal Wave reissues Futurisk’s Player Piano – FACT magazine: music and art