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Sounds Of Inner City - Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman - 14-Mar-08 01:50 PM
This is an obscure but funky disco number. It's named after the cult US TV soap parody of the same name. Musically it is almost nothing like the TV show's theme tune; it starts with a "Mary Hartman! Mary Hartman!" announcement, and it has strings, but apart from the occasional vocal chant this is basically a funky instrumental disco tune. It sounds very lush, and it has some wizard electric piano soloing at the end; it features an extended ending that is good for mixing.

Hercules - 7 Ways - 19-Feb-08 11:45 AM
There are few more sinister house tracks than Hercules' "7 Ways to Jack". This is a mid-paced stomper with a relentless groove, led by a booming big bass drum, claps, some white noise effects, and a simple bassline that loops over and over again. It's in the style of Bam Bam's "Where's Your Child" or Adonis' "No Way Back", with a hypnotic voice intoning sinister lyrics - Hercules wants you to visually undress the other dancers - and the overall effect is creepy and obsessive. But good.

Paris Angels - Perfume - 16-May-07 09:36 AM
This was number six in John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1990. It reached number 55 in the pop charts in the UK when it was re-released a year later, by Virgin Records. The label was disappointed with the lack of sales and dropped the band after releasing their first LP, and sadly that was the end for Paris Angels.

Kraftwerk - Computerwelt - 13-Apr-07 04:04 AM
This is famous for the first track, which is, as far as I know, the only remix that Kraftwerk released during their classic period.

It is a remix in the strict sense of the word, created at the mixing desk by manipulating the knobs and faders, and adding effects. The dug-dugga-dugga-dugga rhythm that you know and love only appears during the first few bars. Once the strings enter, it is faded out, and in its place the squelchy, staccato bassline is mixed much louder, and becomes the lead instrument. During the verses, every other snare/handclap is fed through a reverb machine, which unfortunately makes the song sound very dated today. To my ear it sounds as if everything else, including the percussion, is the same as the original version of Computerwelt, which I preferred. This was a very early modern-day remix, and we should be thankful that it's not the dreaded mid-80s "extended instrumental version" that filled up lots of dire twelve-inch records.

I have not heard the regular German version of Computerwelt II. I notice that the version on this record has a slightly different mixture of computer voices during the fade-out at the end of the song than in the version on the English Computer World CD. In particular, the German-language countdown at the beginning of Numbers is triggered again.

Nummern seems to be identical to its English equivalent on the Computer World CD.

Various - Ambient 4: Isolationism - 23-Oct-05 11:53 AM
This was the fourth and last in Virgin Records' zeitgeist-capturing ambient compilation album series. Whereas the previous three double-CD sets were drawn exclusively from Virgin's back catalogue - albeit that Virgin could draw on Brian Eno, Tangerine Dream, the Future Sound of London etc - this album was drawn from all over the place and even contained a number of original tracks, some of which are still quite rare ("Aphex Airlines", for example). It's a commendably out-there compilation, with Disco Inferno, Zoviet*France, Total, O'Rang and a number of other acts who had been lumped in with the ambient boom (this was just before the terms "illbient" and "post-rock" had been invented). It's my favourite of the four compilations and makes for excellent Doom background music.

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