S.P.O.C.K might look, on the outside, like a Star Trek-themed novelty act, but in fact it’s a complex and sophisticated blend of poptronica and philosophy. Like the best science fiction, their music tells us more about our life on Earth than any imaginary venue in space, but the message is hidden within layers of vintage synths that lure you towards the dancefloor. It turns out that this video was made by the same company who produced Ace of Base’s “All That She Wants”, which makes sense in a way.
Rare Video of the Week
I Satellite is the project of Kalamazoo’s Rod Macquarrie. It’s inspired by Numan, Foxx and Alphaville, but driven by the capabilities of his unique collection of vintage machines. This song was a firm favourite during I Satellite’s Nordic tour for the new cold war, earlier this year.
Maybe we’d forgotten how great it was when Lush, Pale Saints and Galaxie 500 were doing their thing, but the shoegaze spirit is strong with this one. Canadian expatriate, Jennie Vee, already impressed us with her debut solo EP, Die Alone, and from her New York base shows that there is more to come. Just don’t let a major label do to her sound what Virgin did to Frazier Chorus.
Dan Pachet used to host a late-night public access cable TV show called Alternative Rockstand. His own tastes were quite varied, but he knew when something was worth listening to outside of the musical mainstream. He captured footage of Skinny Puppy playing the Winnipeg Art Gallery in 1985, but it was poorly lit and shot from the back of the venue. The video has gone from Youtube, but you can still find this unique early interview by Pachet.
Secession were one of Scotland’s finest alternative acts. The video for their 1987 single, “The Magician,” had been missing in action, as it was never officially released, but it’s just been uploaded to Youtube by the video’s director. Where’s it been hiding? Why wasn’t it released? We don’t know, but any video mixing bicycle repairs with beans on toast might have been vaguely suspect in those days.
Hannah Peel is one of those artists who surprises with their ability to turn common materials into triggers for deep feelings. Air and paper, in this case, are vibrated and cut, and the result is a soul classic first reinvented by a couple of lads from art school in Leeds and then recast by Ms Peel with immeasurable beauty.
Way back in the early 1980s, a trend arose for smashing pieces of metal and organising the resulting sound into ambient urban soundscapes or dance tracks. Berlin’s Einstürzende Neubauten arguably kicked it off, but in short order the availability of new-fangled sampling technology had Fad Gadget (“Collapsing New People”), Depeche Mode (“People Are People”), SPK (“Metal Dance”) and others incorporating post-industrial metal-bashing into their tracks. One of the originals was London’s Test Dept, who reversed the trend by starting as a hammer-wielding group and moving into dance music. This was their first single, released by Some Bizarre to an unsuspecting public in 1983.