Pontone presents special mixtape contributed by Joseph Stannard, writer (The Wire) and gramophone technologist regularly DJing at his excellent Brighton club night The Outer Church .
Download the mixtape (right click > save as)
PLAYLIST:
- 10cc 24 Hours (Intro)
- Salem Water
- Night Moods The Optimist (Edit)
- Thomas Dolby Urges
- Michael Shrieve Nucleotide
- Steve Winwood Spanish Dancer
- Oneohtrix Point Never Memory Vague
- Phil Collins Thru These Walls
- Brother Raven Happy Astronaut
- Peter Gabriel Lead A Normal Life
- Hype Williams Silkhhh
- Marianne Faithfull The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan
- The Derelict Ghost Channels (Edit)
- Tony Banks By You
- 10cc 24 Hours (Outro)
I had a couple of specific aims in mind with this mix, which were a) to explore how comfortably some 1980s mainstream pop sits alongside today’s lo-fi electronic music and b) to illustrate how artists often considered irredeemable, such as Phil Collins, have more to offer than the until-recently-dominant post-punk critical discourse would have us believe.
Collins’s trilogy of solo albums from 1980 to 1985 contain some terrific pop songs and are also replete with nagging sonic details – witness the woozy synth and fuzz guitar in ‘Thru These Walls’. Collins’s Genesis bandmates Tony Banks and Peter Gabriel also appear in this mix, similarly illustrating how 70s progressive rock musicians adapted to the post-punk 80s. As with Collins, their experimentation became focused less on extended modular compositions and more on textural adventurousness within a concise pop song format.
It’s worth noting here that prior to his solo career Collins worked extensively with experimental veterans Brian Eno and Robert Fripp while the ‘dry’ drum sound he developed from the early 80s onward was heavily influenced by that of Public Image Ltd’s Flowers Of Romance. Furthermore, rather than being easily-dismissable exercises in bland smuggery, the first couple of Collins’s solo albums bear unmistakable traces of his art-rock background. Perhaps its understandable then, that a song such as ‘Thru These Walls’ can be placed between Oneohtrix Point Never and Brother Raven without seeming terribly out-of-place.
Those curious about the relationship between the mainstream pop of yesteryear and the lo-fi electronic music of now may be interested to know I’m currently writing a book which will cover this subject and related areas. It’ll be published in 2011 by Zer0 Books.
The Outer Church is held at The Penthouse @ The Freebutt, Brighton, every second Wednesday of every month, admission free. The next edition is August 11 and will feature a live set from Position Normal.
For more information: http://www.theouterchurch.blogspot.com/
Joseph Stannard (The Outer Church)
