Got a new Pyjamarama show that should be going on at 1pm today, perfect thing to listen to after following the big Verizon iPhone press conference. If you haven’t already guessed from it’s title (and the pic), I just finished reading Rob Chapman’s book Syd Barrett: A Very Irregular Head. I’ve read a few books about Syd before, if you don’t know me well you may not realize that I’ve been a totally obsessed Syd Barrett fanatic since I was like 12 years old. Hearing classic rock Pink Floyd staples on WNEW radio while trying to fall asleep helped get me into classic rock in a period when middle school/junior-high kids didn’t really listen to classic rock (that changed with the Oliver Stone Doors movie). And not long after discovering Pink Floyd I started buying all their records. For some reason your average pot-smoking teenager was content to stick with the 70s mega-albums, but I didn’t smoke pot and I wasn’t even a teenager yet, so I got them all, and I will never forget the moment I put Piper at the Gates of Dawn on the stereo in the living room. Mind=blown. The combination of space-age exploration, free-noise freakout, melancholy twee, snarling R&B riffs, killer rock and amazing pop. Then and there I knew what kind of Pink Floyd fan I was.

Going further I heard Arnold Layne and See Emily Play on Relics, then got the Dark Side of the Moo bootleg with Candy and a Currant Bun and Apples and Oranges. And finally I got the double LP compilation of Syd’s two solo albums. I also got a bootleg of most of the material that would later end up on the Opal compilation, featuring Robyn Hitcock’s cartoon of Vegetable Man as it’s cover. Along with lo-fi versions of Opal, Clowns & Jugglers, Silas Lang etc, it featured two songs that confused me to no end. The first was called What A Shame, Mary Jane and the other was called Singing a Song in the Morning and neither sounded quite like Syd to my young ears, but similarities were there. Only many years later did I learn what they were. The first was more commonly known as What’s the New Mary Jane, a song written and recorded by John Lennon and some other people from the Beatles world. It’s been often said that Syd was involved but that’s been debunked. My take on it, and the Beatles in general, is that their entire M.O. was to hear things that turned them on, and then with a strange mix of adulation and condescension, would do a cynical but superior version of the very same thing, and I think this song is John Lennon having a lot of fun with Syd Barrett’s style, but I’m not sure if he’s doing it in homage or farce, probably a bit of both!

The second song I loved immediately but knew it couldn’t be Syd and only sorted this out years later when I finally started getting into the first few Kevin Ayers solo records. Having played with Pink Floyd many times while still a member of the Soft Machine, they were likely friends. Apparently pretty late in Syd’s career, Ayers invited him over to play guitar on a song he was working on called Religious Experience. That song would finally be released as a single called Singing a Song in the Morning, however without Syd’s guitar playing on it, despite what the bootlegs say (and my Syd boot definitely had the released version). What one does learn from the Kevin Ayers’ Joy of A Toy CD is that Syd did come by and record lead guitar, and that version is on the CD. But then Ayers decided to wipe it off and replace it with himself playing a clearly Syd-styled guitar part, and I have to admit, Kevin’s version is better, so that’s the one I included to end this playlist!

So the playlist revolves around Syd and the early Floyd but stretches in both directions. Most of it is very UK circa 67, with some selections pointing a bit more to the R&B rave-up roots and some further into psychedelic whimsy. It’s also got the under-appreciated post-Syd Pink Floyd single Point Me At the Sky and some early Soft Machine. And it opens with Syd and Pink Floyd’s first recording, Lucy Leave, and if you haven’t heard that…

I would definitely recommend the book, but be prepared to learn way more then you’d ever expect about obscure british art scenesters from the 60s and whimsical late 19th century british poets and children’s book authors. All great for context, but sometimes a bit much! I really loved the last chapter, where Rob started going in many directions and managed to debunk many Syd myths, and theorize about the failings of Rock, and really explore what may have been going on in Syd’s head at various times. I was also excited to learn that the book’s author was the lead singer of the first phase of the Glaxo Babies, a band I once tried to reissue. I offered two separate CD releases covering their whole career and was ignored, and instead they got a single CD best-of on Cherry Red!

But yeah, Syd. Really an amazing story (is Johnny Depp going to make his biopic? better hurry before he’s too old), but even without the drama, just absolutely my favorite music ever. This playlist doesn’t include any solo Syd as it’s more of a 67 thing mostly, but don’t take that to mean I have no love for those records. They are timeless and have dated extremely well. Which is to say they could’ve come out yesterday. Relic of the 60s? Hardly.

1. Pink Floyd – Lucy Leave
2. Pink Floyd – Candy and a Currant Bun
3. The Move – Night of Fear
4. Tomorrow – My White Bicycle
5. Pink Floyd – Scream Thy Last Scream
6. The Beatles – What’s the new Mary Jane
7. Caleb – Baby Your Phrasing is Bad
8. Jeff Beck – Hi Ho Silver Lining
9. The Yardbirds – Shapes of Things
10. The Who – See My Way
11. The Creation – I Am The Walker
12. Small Faces – (Tell Me) Have You Ever Seen Me
13. The Pretty Things – Walking Through My Dreams
14. The Zombies – She Does Everything for Me
15. The Soft Machine – We Know What You Mean
16. Pink Floyd – Point Me at the Sky
17. The Soft Machine – Hibou Anemone and Bear
18. Kevin Ayers – Singing a Song in the Morning

Blanks NYC is an art collective of sorts, a bunch of friends who are artists, animators, designers etc that host parties throughout New York City. They invited me to take part in Blanksgiving 2.0, their first anniversary party, in which they invited a ton of people to make mix CDs and come DJ. The idea was to make 20+ copies and bring them to the party, where they’d be collected in batches so everyone would leave with a stack of mixes. We would also all DJ. Being 5-10+ years older than most of the people involved I was given one of the prime DJ slots. I have to say if I had to choose between working a party from 10pm till 4am, or just going on at 11:30 on a thursday night, killing it for a half-hour, then going home at a reasonable hour, in my advanced age the latter is sounding really great.

I was excited about the mix idea as it’s been a few years since I’ve recorded any kind of proper mix. As a “DJ” I should be recording mixes every day but I’m really lazy. I have a couple ideas for mixes that I’ve been planning for years but never getting around to doing, and in the last year or so that I’ve gotten my little letterpress studio set-up, the idea of recording good mixes and printing neat covers has been an obvious goal, just one I keep putting off. So this party at least gave me the push I needed to do such things. Sure, I waited till the day before. Woke up, recorded the mix, went to the dentist for a few painful hours, came home, edited the mix, set some type, printed the black, cleaned the press, set some more type, printed the red, cleaned the press, burned 20 copies, and off to bed at a totally unreasonable hour. Note to amateur printers–remember to print black last so you don’t have to be so anal cleaning the lighter ink off the press.

So I consider this a dry run. The mix is kinda sloppy, drags here and there, filled with forced transitions. I thought it was going to be more poppy, but some of the transitions were so off I just edited entire songs out. But there’s some pretty cool stuff, some kind of weird stuff. Certainly not the most fun, dancey or poppy mix I’ve ever recorded, but it has it’s charms. The cover was done quickly with some hand-set type on some leftover stock pulled from the recylcling bin, using way more impression then is healthy.

Dan Selzer – Blanks NYC Mix
[audio:http://danselzer.com/sounds/danselzer_blanksnyc.mp3]
control-click/right-click to download

Download hi-res cover art here.

Tracklist:
Ultramarine – Stella
Housemaids – Je T’aime
Long Ago – A Relic
Eric Random and the Bedlamites – Hardcore
The Naughtiest Girl Was a Monitor – To Love Nuclear
The Associates – The Associate
Stephen Mallinder – Cool Down
Psychic TV – She Was Surprised
The Dragees – Shoot To Kill
Simple Minds – New Gold Dream (Bottin Remix)
Repetition – A Full Rotation
Japan – Life in Tokyo
Up! – Spiritual High
The Associates – Theme from Perhaps
Les Rita Mitsouko – Marcia Baila
Durutti Column – The Together Mix
Sweet Exorcist – Track Jack
400 Blows – Men of Divine Wind (The Kamikaze)
Renegade Soundwave – Pocket Porn Dub

Another not quite Acute themed post, but important enough to me to disregard all self-imposed rules in an attempt for maximum exposure. For 6 years now, I’ve thrown a disco halloween party that also serves the purpose of being a birthday party for my girlfriend, roommate and crafts partner Nicole. Starting as part of the long-forgotten Alldisco party, these parties have moved around Williamsburg and have had many different fun and silly themes. Dancing In Space, Wild Kingdom, The Haunted Disco, Night of the Living Disco Dead and last years 80’s Prom of Horrors. This year we also wanted to celebrate the first year anniversary of Nicole’s online literary and arts journal, Underwater New York.

So that brings us to this years theme…THE UNDERWATER DISCO. You can dress up however you like, but water themed costumes are encouraged! For instance, I am going as a Music Pirate. Like the notorious 18th century pirates of the west indies but instead of stealing barrels of wine and gold coins I steal music and share it illegally on the internet. Arrrr that’s a low bit rate, matey!

As usual, I will be joined by my erstwhile DJ partner Tropical Jeremy, who’s already halfway there with a name like that. And as a very special guest, we have none other than Morgan Geist of the pioneering and influential Metro Area and his label Environ. He knows a thing or two about water…just ask him about the fountains of Wayne. It’s a rare opportunity to hear a world-class DJ playing such a fun local down-to-earth party, so don’t miss it!

This may also be the last time we ever do this! We’ll be out of town during Halloween of next year and after that? Who knows, we’ll be too old by then…or DEAD (oooh, spooky)

Here are the details in case you’re too lazy to look at that flyer up there….

Underwater Disco

Underwater New York’s 1st Anniversary Party

+ Dan, Nicole and Jeremy’s 6th Annual Halloween Dance Party

The Loft above Public Assembly

70 N. 6th St., Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Saturday October 30th, 10pm

DJs Dan Selzer, Jeremy Campbell and special guest Morgan Geist

Underwater Costumes Strongly Encouraged

$7, proceeds benefit Underwater New York

underwaternewyork.com

New Pyjamarama show FAULTS should be airing at 1pm on Tuesday and will be able to be streamed after that. I’m really into this one, it’s got a real strong atmosphere and a certain sonic sensibility holding together a few different styles/genres/whatever. I’m especially happy however because the ratio of NEW music to old music is the highest it’s been in some time. I think there’s actually only 2 songs that are more then a year old, and most are from within the last few months. Hell, two of them haven’t even been released yet! Daylong Valleys of the Nile, a new band featuring Jeff Rosenberg from Pink and Brown, Young People and Lavender Diamond, Steve Gregoropoulos from the legendary Wild Stares and Lavender Diamond, Jeff Kwong of Bedroom Walls and Lavender Diamond and Ron Rege of, you guessed it, Lavender Diamond (and comic book fame), Recorded by Justin Burrill of Wild Stares and Propeller Records fame. The other yet to be released gem is from my favorite local band, Regal Degal, though that doesn’t do them justice. I mean, I can say they’re my favorite local band because they’re from New York, but if they were from LA, or if I lived in Seattle, I’d say they’re my favorite American band. Maybe if I lived in Barcelona and they were from Montevideo I’d say they’re my favorite band on earth. I have trouble describing them, which I suppose is a good thing. Krautrock informed post-punk. Epic minimal art-rock. Good stuff. Here’s the playlist.

1. Nosaj Thing-Fog
2. XX-Crystalized
3. Seefeel-Faults
4. Richard Youngs-Collapsing Stars
5. Violens-Are You Still in the Illusion?
6. Abe Vigoda-Repeating Angel
7. K-X-P-18 Hours (Of Love)
8. Daylong Valleys of the Nile-Gossamer Station
9. Regal Degal-Country Song
10. Happy Mondays-Country Song
11. The Durutti Column-The Together Mix
12. Innergaze-La La La
13. Belbury Poly-A Great Day Out
14. Broadcast & The Focus Group-Inside Out

This is another one of those rambling late-night posts where I catch up on a few things…but I’ll try to make it quick.

First we’ve got two cool Czech bands in the states, the prog-punk Rock In Opposition stylings of Uz Jsme Doma, one of the Czech Republics leading underground bands since the mid 80s. Playing with them is the all female Zuby Nehty, previously known as Dybbuk, who have a definite late 70s/early 80s Rough Trade meets ReR vibe going on. They are playing friday night at the Rock Shop in Gowanus, Brooklyn, New York, USA.

Also Friday night, the fine folks behind the No Wave cinema documentary Blank City will be screening a few of the movies only featured as snippets in their film for Raw Stock: No Wave Films from Downtown NYC, 1976-1984 at a space in Brooklyn called Louis V E.S.P. A few on the 1st, and some more next friday on the 8th.

What else is going on in Brooklyn? Oh just the first live appearance in years and years in NYC of the totally amazing and awesome band Ut! Early next month, art historian Branden W. Joseph and squirrel bait David Grubbs are curating a three-day event called Theoretical Music: No Wave, New Music, and the New York Art Scene, 1978-1983 at the ISSUE Project Room at the Old American Can Factory, also in lovely Gowanus, Brooklyn. Wed Nov 3 features film screening and talk with filmaker James Nares (who will also have work in Raw Stock), Thursday Nov 4th is panel discussions with a bunch of No Wave scenesters and superstars and finally Friday Nov 5th will be a live performance by Ut with Talk Normal opening up. Details here.

Finally, wanted to plug Cucumber the recent release by Scotland’s The Sexual Objects, featuring front-man Davey Henderson, previously of The Fire Engines, Win and The Nectarine No. 9. True to form, this is one hell of a record from one hell of a band. I don’t even know how to describe it, just go buy it. See what Tim has to say. More on the band on facebook.

Too tired to post pictures, check back in a few days!

Totally forgot to post about my latest Pyjamarama show yesterday. It was appropriate as it’s tangentially related to last night’s FAC OFF party, which featured some pretty hip factory stuff before devolving into banging techno classics (how many nights out will you hear A Full Rotation by Repetition and Jupiter Jazz by Underground Resistance? Maybe just a few). Anyway, nothing too shocking here, but a real rollicking good time.

1. Beak> – Wulfstan (saw these guys a few weeks ago in NY. They were totally awesome)
2. Joy Division – Digital
3. The Lines – Two Split Seconds
4. Digital Dance – Hospital Dance
5. Rapid Dance – Hidden So Well
6. AA – Suicide Fever
7. Josef K – It’s Kinda Funny
8. The Wild Swans – The Iron Bed
9. The Names – Nightshift
10. Simple Minds – Glittering Prize
11. Thomas Leer – Memories of Reason
12. Red Turss To… – Deep Sleep
13. Fad Gadget – The Box
14. Justus Kohncke – Old Man
15. The Durutti Column – Tomorrow

Excited to be DJing this free party tuesday night at Santos. DJ William, who has been hosting the Joy Division/New Order night at Trophy Bar for a few months with Justin Miller is starting a new weekly party called FAC OFF (IT’S HACIENDA NIGHT). Now those who have known me for more then a while know I have a longstanding habit of being involved in Factory/Hacienda tribute parties. There were my first Factory tributes as part of my Transmission party at Plant Bar. There was the Hacienda party at Spa hosted by Record Camp. Tony Fletcher’s Step On party in Brooklyn. Aux Armes at Black and White, and so on.

What is the appeal to someone too young and too foreign to have ever experienced it? The ideals and fantasies of the Hacienda always hit home. New Order sitting in the Paradise Garage and wondering if their music would ever get played there…then wondering if they could recreate it. The Durutti Column playing to an empty room. Cabaret Voltaire funking it up.

It’s the culture clash of british post-punk/new wave and american club music through the 80s. In Mick Middles’ From Joy Division to New Order, the Factory Records story, there’s a list of the top 50 records of the Hacienda of 82 or 83, where Party Fears Two by the Associates sits next to D-Train’s You’re the One For Me. A time when New Order were listening to Donna Summer and Klein + MBO and producing club records like 52nd St’s Can’t Afford To Let You Go. A Certain Ratio and ESG are recording in New Jersey. New Order’s working with Robie and Baker and Quando Quango’s getting mixed by Mark Kamins while Section 25’s Looking from a Hilltop becomes a proto-freestyle breakers classic at the Funhouse. New York disco and electro-funk meets italo-disco and british New Wave.

Fast-forward a few years and the forward thinking DJs of the Hacienda start importing Chicago House and Detroit Techno records. A younger generation of post-post-punks raised on or with New Order arise, The Happy Mondays, 808 State featuring Graham Massey from Biting Tounges, A Guy Called Gerald. T-Coy. House, techno, acid-house, madchester, RAVE.

So that’s a lot of buzzwords…but it’s a good shorthand for a large amount of the music I like to DJ and listen to. Post-punk and new wave, disco and electro, house and techno.

I’ll be joining DJ William and Jacques Renault, whom I’ve had the honor of DJing with in the past.

Tuesday Sept. 14, Santos Party House. 100 Lafayette a block below Canal. Free. 21+. And upstairs at the same time, a very cool party hosted by Spencer Sweeney, folk from Gang Gang Dance and a bunch of their art-world friends.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wk36RrGo1o&feature=related[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ADoBW0c-18[/youtube]

KEVIN DUNN
Another chance to check out some recent reissues, not stuff we’ve released but stuff we would’ve loved to have released, and in some cases stuff we almost got to! For instance, and appropriate in other ways, is No Great Lost by Kevin Dunn out on the Casa Nueva label. Keven Dunn started out in the seminal Atlanta new wave band The Fans in the mid 70s. I first heard the Fans on a mixtape (not CD, tape) made for me by Jonathan Marx, the same 2 volume tape compilation where I first heard the Lines. He made me a UK volume and a US volume. (looking now, the UK volume was the George Harassment LP on one side, The Tea Set, the Table, The Jets, The Cigarettes and the Lines on the other, while the US mix included Monitor, The Twinkeyz, The Fans, Plastic Idols, who’s second single I’m still looking for, The Molls, Man Tit, Monitor, Doodooettes, Dennis Duck, Le Forte Four and Human Hands…quite the education.) Anyway…I started collecting The Fans records (all 3 of them) and Kevin’s later solo stuff. Also got in touch with a journalist who was working with Dunn who sent me CDs…a potential Fans compilation featuring some unreleased stuff and a potential Kevin Dunn compilation. Unfortunately for the latter, the tapes had been lost in a fire years ago so what I heard was transferred from vinyl. I thought it sounded good but they weren’t happy with it and I dropped the thread. A few years later they realized they had the original multi-track tapes. So instead of remastering from vinyl like lazier labels (cough), they went ahead and re-created the original mixes from the multitrack. This stuff isn’t “remixed” in the sense that they did anything different. Instead, with constant comparison to the original vinyl, they matched the mix that was originally done and ended up with something that basically has the same decisions and sound of the original vinyl releases, but better sound quality, a great job by folks at Casa Nueva and the engineers.

If you haven’t already gone back and read what I wrote about the Fans in a previous post, it’s worth noting that The Fans and Kevin Dunn were heavily influenced by the smarter side of british art rock of the Eno type and pioneered new wave in Georgia which within a few years would give birth to B-52s and Pylon, both of whom’s first releases were produced by Dunn, and of course R.E.M. and a little band you may have heard of called The Method Actors. It’s hard to describe Dunn’s music, he released much of it under the name Kevin Dunn and the Regiment of Women but it was mainly a one-man project. Thin drum machine rhythms like you’d hear in any number of early 80s pop new wave bands but absolutely killer guitar playing vacillating between the kind of GA rave-ups you’d hear from Vic Varney, Peter Buck, Randy Bewley and Ricky Wilson and more elaborate and processed leads of Robert Fripp. Some keyboards where appropriate and some of the most goddamn catchy “how is I’ve never heard this before” pop music committed to vinyl in the 80s and forgotten by too many.  The timing is really good for this reissue, coming out just after the DFA‘s release of the two Pylon CDs and our own Method Actor’s CD. The CD is really a treasure of awesomeness, especially the opening song 911, which oddly enough is one of the reasons I stopped listening to my earlier version for a few years after being pretty obsessed with it for a few years around the turn of the decade. In the chorus he sings 9 11, 9 11. Living in NY during the attacks on the Word Trade Center, listening to that song suddenly had this weird resonance. It’s still my favorite song, though many others come close, including this one.

Kevin Dunn-Saturn [audio:http://acuterecords.com/blog/audio/Kevin Dunn-Saturn.mp3] control-click to download

OK, I’ve got two more to mention and I’ll try to make them quick.

KIMBERY REW
I have wanted to hear this one forever. I’ve been a big Soft Boys fan since High School. At some point in college people started telling me what an awesome pop album Kimberley Rew’s solo record from the early 80s The Bible of Bop was, but I simply never saw it anywhere. Now it’s finally getting a CD reissue. I didn’t realize that it wasn’t a proper solo album but actually a compilation from a few sessions and releases, 1/3rd of which recorded with the Soft Boys, which strangely enough, sounds like the Soft Boys but without Robyn Hitchcock singing, 1/3rd recorded with the dBs, who were fans, and 1/3rd recorded with the Waves, who would shortly become Katrina and the Waves with whom Rew would see fame of the like The Soft Boys never would! And while the different parts sound a bit different, they’re all great, smart, punky power-pop of the highest order. This song, with Katrina on co-vocals I assume, is the first song on the CD and is as simple, catchy and awesome as rock-n-roll gets.

Kimberley Rew-The Nightmare [audio:http://acuterecords.com/blog/audio/Kimberley Rew-The Nightmare.mp3] control-click to download

STUART MOXHAM
Gonna make this quick because my server ate my first attempt. To quote the liner notes, “I chose my favourite tracks from thirty years of post-Young Marble Giants recordings; unreleased obscurities by the Gist and highlights from solo albums of the 90s; some unheard gems from my American adventures, a couple of fin de siecle rarities and the best of current and new material. Inevitably it’s a very mixed bag but I think it gives a fair overview of my attempts never to write the same song twice.”

One thing I love about his music is the echoes of those very unique and iconic Young Marble Giants qualities that remain. The music and songwriting, experimentation and arranging has matured, but aspects of YMG’s simplicity and basic building blocks remain.

This is coming out on Stuart’s own Habit Records label, for more information check out his myspace page or the Young Marble Giants fan page.

Stuart Moxham-Autumn Song [audio:http://acuterecords.com/blog/audio/Stuart Moxham-Autumn Song.mp3] control-click to download

THE RETURN AGAIN OF DAZZLE SHIPS
The monthly party I hosted with Tropical Jeremy for 3 years is now back after a year long respite with new resident DJ Ben Gebhardt, which means I get to carry less records, show up later and leave earlier. We return tomorrow night, Wednesday May 19th with guest DJ Steve Silverstein of Christmas Decorations and Wodger Records. It’s also Jeremy’s birthday! And it’s the day after the 30th anniversary of Ian Curtis’s death, so I’ll be bringing plenty of moody Martin Hannett-produced post-punk and a few Joy Division gems along with the usual randomness. Dazzle Ships takes place from 9 till 1-ish (or later) at Heathers, 306 east 13th st at Ave. A in Manhattan and we now have an exciting new website to present such information, but as usual, facebook rules for this sort of thing.

IKE YARD NEWS
Ike Yard’s new EP, Öst came out recently on the Phisteria label. It’s a great 10″ (for those of you new to vinyl, that’s a bit bigger than a 7″, but smaller than a 12″) featuring two new tracks and two remixes. The late-night atmosphere, the dubbed out synths, the  post-punk bass, the spoken vox all remain on the A-side Oshima Cassette, while the flipside Citiesglit is an altogether more ambient and textural affair. Phisteria will follow this up with a full-length soon.

In other Ike Yard-related news…the post-Ike Yard deconstructed hip-hop project Death Comet Crew, featuring Stuart Argabright and Michael Diekmann of Ike Yard, Shinichi Shimokawa and DJ High Priest (legendary hip-hop DJ, partner with Vince Gallo in “Trouble Deuce“) are making a rare live appearance in New York this saturday at Public Assembly in Williamsburg with Beans, Crunc Tesla, Plasticity and Toboggan. Details here.

METHOD ACTORS PRESS
We have had nothing but awesome press from all corners. Here’s some of it…

Last Days of Man On Earth

Pitchfork

The Music Critic

Simon Reynolds Blissblog

BBC Music

Allmusic Guide

Cybore

Dusted

Artrocker

Gigjunkie

Critical Mob

Prefix Mag

Drowned in Sound

Spectrum Culture

The Big Takeover

FINALLY, IAN CURTIS
I said plenty about Joy Division in my epic Acute Blog post around the time of my work on some Viva-Radio playlists tied-in to the release of the movie Control. I beg you to read it again. One thing that’s always been funny about my passion for Joy Division is how every few years, every few months, different songs plant themselves in my head as a new favorite. For the last few months, I simply cannot stop listening to Digital. Historically, the idea that this is where the big change took place, that no matter how much you love the Warsaw material, that it wasn’t until they recorded this session with Martin Hannett that they started to truly show that they were something really special. But it’s the energy, simplicity and repetition of Digital that totally kills me. Even without Hannet’s touch, it’s somehow a great deal more modern then the material on An Ideal for Living. There’s almost a krautrock quality in it’s stilted rhythm and motorik/mechanic beat. Like Wire and the Fall on MORE speed. Imagine that. Here’s the video clip from the Here Are the Young Men video (I still have the Ikon VHS). Not the best audio or video quality, but even that just adds to the power of this performance.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btzIdZpln6k[/youtube]