Day 0891 - Darkdancer

Les Rythmes Digitales “Darkdancer” (1999)

More dance music, *le sigh*

No, this was actually pretty enjoyable.  Much like Mark Ronson’s “Record Collection” album some 10 years later, this album draws on a 1980s synth pop sound and features singers from that era/genre.   Singer Shannon features on track “Take a Little Time”, and the catchy “Sometimes” features singer and multi-instrumentalist Nik Kershaw.

Les Rythmes is Stuart Price, an English lad with a soft spot for French electro-pop.   Price has done production and remixing work for a number of artists including Pet Shop Boys, the Killers, Madonna, Kylie Minogue and Coldplay.

This album features upbeat, vibrant synthesizer pop that feels like it’s dripping with fluro 80s colour.   The track “Soft Machine” has a nice jittery, off-kilter rhythm and raspy rock vocal that I quite enjoyed.   "Music Makes You Lose Control" has the kind of repetitive loop-based approach to making music, has a fairly musical synth/bass line running throughout.  

Day 0623 - Isn't Anything

My Bloody Valentine "Isn't Anything" (1988)

The band had produced a few EPs, had some line-up changes and then buckled down to produce this, their first full-length album.

The description in the book sounded really interesting.  It said that they would pile effects on the guitars, and then take the clean guitar signal out of the mix, leaving only the guitar-shaped outline of the effects.   It has its moments, but the overall effect is just of a slightly more aurally interesting take on the shoegazer sound.  Perfectly listenable, but not something I would specifically seek to revisit.

Day 0483 - Non-stop Erotic Cabaret

Soft Cell "Non-stop Erotic Cabaret" (1981)

My favourite part from the blurb about this one in the book is where it said that the band ended up breaking up when, after a bad review, vocalist Marc Almond marched into the office of the critic and set upon him with a bullwhip.   It just screams the kind of twisted sass that you'd associate with a band who made a career out of singing about the seedy sex-market underbelly of the UK.

It's an interesting album  with a very 80s vibe.  The band are a duo with one of them on vocals and the other creating the music, largely just using a drum machine and synthesisers.  There are hints of sleazy jazz moods.  As far as the lyrical sleaze, it feels almost a tad naive in places; like a virgin trying to bluff everyone that he has totally got laid a bunch of times (no matter what that flasher jacket and sleazy porn-star mo might suggest).


The track most people will know from this one is "Tainted Love".





Really looking forward to the next little run of albums.  There are a few artists that I've been meaning to check out and just have never got around to.

Day 0460 - Underwater Moonlight

The Soft Boys "Underwater Moonlight" (1980)

The Soft Boys were actually recommended to me a few short years back by a friend who was really vibing on them. Pretty sure that this was the album he recommended to me.

Despite the fact that this reeks of late stage punk with encroaching post-punk sounds; this album puts me in mind of the Beatles.  The melodies, the dalliances with psychedelia and just some general overall 'tone' to their sound... so yeah, for me, Beatles = good.