Before becoming the beloved friend of families and children, the ultimate studio nerd François Feldman had a youth, truly infused with soul, glittery funk and the decisive influence of figures such as Marvin Gaye or Stevie Wonder.
These were years before he manages to enter the charts, although this 1980 You want every night is now considered as a collector's scarce classic. Then, he embraced a typical 1984 sound (Wally Boule Noire, omg this vocoder break, but check also Obsession), allowing him to appear in the french Sidney's H.I.P. H.O.P. tv program with such unforgettable punchlines:
"I do the synthesizers, arrangements [...], There are lots of black people who strongly rule in studio, you know, the funk."
Then, he went to Vienna. Black people who strongly rule, you know, the funk, vanished. Oh, maturity.
From minimal synth to italo-disco, with avant-garde elements and a specific taste for drum machines, Maurizio Marsico, the man behind Monofonic Orchestra, brilliantly crossed the tumultuous ocean of italian underground through the years, although he remained quite confidential outside of the italo-german axis.
Involved with Luca Majer and Al Aprile between 1979 and 1981 into experimental 'Lectric Art trio, Marsico also was in the neighborhood of the italian avant-garde collective Frigidaire (an extension of the Cannibale crew) alongside Liberatore, Tamburini, or Massimo Mattioli, who published here the stories of Frisk the Frog: a character who became also the protagonist of an early 7" hip hop single produced my Marsico. "I was a DJ with a sound system, a Korg analog synthesizer and various vocal effects. It was in 1981 and I wanted to improvise a bit of vocal rap. We did many damages both to us and other people."
Still active as a contemporary composer, his last album includes contributions from Robert Wyatt et Derek Bailey, while early works have been reissued recently on cd by Alga Marghen. Be sure I pray for more posts on Marzico in the future, if lucky enough to find a copy of the Funk Sumatra now rare italo bomb.
West coast "Techno Hop" influential collective which included notorious members in its line up (Joe Cooley, The Unknown DJ, Ice T etc). Check the band's bio at West Coast Pionneer. It looks like rapping about zodiac signs was somehow quite common in the early 80's. U.J.A's track is maybe the best exemple around, but i can remember for other early hip hop mc's having delirious rap with astrology elements (Vericheri's "Cancer Sign" for exemple).
A gear freaks' favourite, Marcello Giombini is quite unknown to italian ost diggers. An entire post will come soon dedicated to the man. Ahead of his time, Cinecitta's composer anticipates the Detroit techno sound, long before its birth (think Carl Craig's Landcruising LP).
Weird record from Belgian astrologue Paul Cardinal. Reminds me in some ways for Dominique Webb's "Hypnose" 7 inch... I believe more singles were recorded (Jupiter Collection), but wasn't able to found some more concrete infos. Anybody ?
At last comes the hit ! Exhumed last year on the "Chansons De Films", this one was supposed to be on the "Astralement Vôtre" single, but due to some complications finally never saw a propper release until Stephane Lerouge (Playtime's label owner and the man behind many fantastic compilations around french movie composers) refixed both vocals and the instrumental.
A lot of confirmed artists chanted their love for computers : Dani, France Gall, Xenakis, Bruce Haack, Doris Norton, Theorical girls, Zapp & Roger, Kraftwerk, Michel Polnareff (although he was dating on Minitel), Annie Cordy and many others. Then Major Tom Anderson created Myspace and everybody could share this passion with the world. And we, fellow citizens of the internet, are gratefull persons. Here is a florilège of songs dedicated to the websites that turned our lives into a cyberzoo. When inspiration meets finest technology.
The Kings of Myspace were maybe the first to kick social networking in 2006. That was the golden age of animated gif. Their vid has been watched 2 796 166 times, imagine every fan had sent them a dollar.
Myspace inspires a lot of dabster rappers. Those two ganstas are digging it from their bed, they must be over 18 now.
Above, another bedroom celebrity doing prevention. And there a cover of “Grease” by a comment addict.
I end the myspace chapter with a love/hate couple of songs about Tom Anderson. The first comes from a californian bard called Plinkaplink, he wrote an ode to his favorite CEO in 2007. Tom had already sold us to Murdoch, but he's still in his top 5. The one below was posted anonymously on a forum, and hits pretty hard.
Then a search engine starts to absorb every information on you. So if you were looking for your self, you could Google it. Teyana Taylor, for exemple, does it pretty well. This guy, Waka Flocka Flames, somewhat less. Check his mixtape “Salute me or Shoot me”, you’ll understand. A slam about Googlemap, anyone ?
And one day we got tagged in Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook. Nothing really changed excepted that we spent even more time connected, and lost total control on privacy. For real.
Meanwhile another american website was channeling the overflow of internet exchanges. An auction database where you could sell your boyfriend and buy the socks of Juri Gagarin (a bargain). Indoor surfing begun to have concrete impacts in the cupboards. Here is the Weird Al Yankovic tribute to Ebay.
Of course, all this wouldn’t have been possible without personnal TV broadcasting. That’s the conclusion of Sandstorm88, who felt free to post 62 videos of him and his guitar on Youtube. “Every body needs to do what they do”, you said it bro.
Yes we’ve been warned, and that's my mp3 upload for the week, Newcleus' “Computer age”, released in 1984. How many orwellian songs were written that year ? That would make a good post. Now push the button.
2 records relevant of the now-sound of 1984 France !
--- "SMURFIN' KIDS" = promotional 12" for K-WAY raincoats, produced by PUBLICIS. Interesting commercial attempt to surf - smurf ! - on the 1984 cooool. Though 2 details spoil the cool: the over-cool lyrics, and the mistake on "smurf": "smurf" exists only in France & Germany - it's actually "popping" ! READ THAT
Smurfin kids
Smurfin kids -instrumental
--- "LE CLUB - ATTENTAT À LA COULEUR" = very schön fluo cover, with discreet evocations of graffiti culture ! LE CLUB was an early 80's band which made 3 12". Again here, the lyrics want so much to play on a cool attitude that it spoils the intention: http://www.bide-et-musique.com/song/4670.html French people will note Alex Bauer on guitar and Manu Katché on drums - and Nelly Co-Quat singing: she was one of the dancers in the film "Marche à l'ombre".
These 2 records are related by their use of nearly the same chords & beat.
