Rare Video of the Week

Christmas, disappointment, Close Encounters, space, rockets, technical drawings – check, check, check, check, check, check. Synthesizers, nose piercing, headband – check, check, check. This one is ready.

Spitalfields Market didn’t used to be a trendy shopping district for City types. It was a back-street series of stalls, with hawkers trying to scrape a living. The members of I Start Counting used to work at the latter, while knocking out superlative pop with Daniel Miller and Paul Kendall lending a hand. This was one of their finest efforts.

It’s the song everyone immediately thinks of, when The Weathermen are mentioned, but of course their output was more varied than this. The thing is, it’s such a catchy number that it will stick in your head for decades.

Possibly the funniest video ever made about the music industry and EBM. Over at Radio RIX Monopol, they have some funny ideas about what people want to listen to, as Container 90 find out. There are little jokes scattered throughout this fine, home-made effort from Container 90, who also supply a driving, hard-line track to pogo to – if you can stop laughing long enough.

Nash the Slash is a Canadian original. Once a member of FM, Nash went solo, wrapped in bandages like the Invisible Man and armed with an organ and electric mandolin. Early interest from the Dindisc label took him to England, where he recorded an album with Steve Hillage (System 7) in the producer’s chair. A tour with Gary Numan followed, and Nash continued to make eccentric and original albums from his base in Ontario. This track is from And You Thought You Were Normal…

No, not a cover of a Rolling Stones b-side – this is Hastings’ finest, Vile Electrodes, in the studio for Phoenix FM, playing one of their most popular songs. The Viles, who supported OMD on the German leg of their last tour, are in the process of releasing their first album. Buy it now and help keep Martin in MIDI cables.