Electro!

Author
Discussion

President Merkin

Original Poster:

3,216 posts

20 months

Thursday 11th April
quotequote all
I thought the Shoegaze thread would go nowhere in here, how wrong can you be? So I wonder if there's fans of other genres

Being a teenager in the early 80's, my first musical infatuation was electro. For me it sounded like the future yet borrowed heavily from bands like Kraftwerk,Can & lots of the funk era. It would probably not have happened at all without the Roland TR808 but it did & unleashed a vibrant yet fairly short lived scene before morphing into a harder sound & sprouting hip hop.

Back then, it was barely on the radio & your options outside of London & the pirate radio scene were really Our Price & the Streetsounds compilations but it still left us with classics like Planet Rock, Al Naafyish & 2-3 break. Still feel a frisson when I hear that stuff. Anyone else?





Edited by President Merkin on Thursday 11th April 09:45

President Merkin

Original Poster:

3,216 posts

20 months

Friday 12th April
quotequote all
boxedin said:
The halcyon days of on a Saturday going up to Groove Records in Soho..,
Man I loved that place, I spent hours digging in there.

President Merkin

Original Poster:

3,216 posts

20 months

Friday 12th April
quotequote all
Looks like it's just us four smile

I also like the poppy stuff that came out of it. This is really Mantronix with a Joyce Sims vocal



And the guy who produced this all time classic is now a Pastor in Florida.


President Merkin

Original Poster:

3,216 posts

20 months

Friday 12th April
quotequote all
I remember Mike Allen's show on Capital. Wasn't it something like 10pm to midnight once a week?

President Merkin

Original Poster:

3,216 posts

20 months

Friday 12th April
quotequote all
I can remember taping it loads, god knows what happened to them. We lived close enough to London to be able to pick up a couple of the pirates. I listened to LWR a lot in those days & that meant Tim Westwood. If only we knew.

President Merkin

Original Poster:

3,216 posts

20 months

Saturday 13th April
quotequote all
Crook][YouTube said:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s2Zm7peJPU0&pp=y...

The street sounds series, particularly 4 and 5 (but mainly 5) are amazing. There was a great article on 6 music about them a while ago.

The mix from Captain Rock to the Future Shock into Release yourself by Aleem is, probably the best mix of any two records of all time.
True & how good was Arthur Baker? I enjoyed listening to that, Thanks Crook thumbup

Happy Saturday morning folks


President Merkin

Original Poster:

3,216 posts

20 months

Tuesday 16th April
quotequote all
There is a South bank show (remember that?) documentary you can find on Youtube on Morgan Khan, the founder of Streetsounds, fronted by, of all people, Hugh Laurie & at one point, he climbs into the bath with him for an interview. It is in places, surreal.

President Merkin

Original Poster:

3,216 posts

20 months

Tuesday 16th April
quotequote all
I diodn't know about that, one to check out. Another part of it I think gets overlooked is the whole look & feel of the scene. Obvs in America, it was heavily influenced around grafitti & the street movement as well as brands like Stussy etc. but here, lots of it was down to Graham Needham the graphic designer who did all (I think) of the Street sounds artwork,

https://www.intj.co.uk/analogous/audio/electro/str...

President Merkin

Original Poster:

3,216 posts

20 months

Tuesday 16th April
quotequote all
Big beast off Electro 3, yes I am browsing through the Graham Needham website smile


President Merkin

Original Poster:

3,216 posts

20 months

Tuesday 16th April
quotequote all
When I think of those times, it's all Phil Collins, Queen, Wham, David Bowie, U2 etc. in my head. Nothing against any of those but I still think we were onto something way cooler, I suspect anyone into stuff below the mainstream radar thinks that way.

15 year old me's first ever gig was Run DMC doing a matinee show at the Electric Ballroom. I think I told my mum I was off playing football & four of us legged it to Camden. I can still remember that show in vivid detail.

President Merkin

Original Poster:

3,216 posts

20 months

Wednesday 8th May
quotequote all
Have we got to six pages without the OG? Soz if I've missed it.