Early 1980s post-punk with icy string synths, detached vocals, heavy driving bass, and razor sharp guitars like Factory / 4AD vibes. 'A Look From Outside' is the lone release by UK band The Blush, who self-released this 7” in 1982. The lineup on the back of the sleeve lists five members -two guitars, bass, drums, and of course, synths. There may be some Associates connections, though it’s hard to tell if the original lineup changed or adopted pseudonyms before this single was recorded. Even without confirmation, this single should definitely please fans of early Associates material, as well as bands like The Names, Acute Logic, etc. [SOURCE: SYSTEMS OF ROMANCE]
Ann Steel, lead singer from Boston, had arrived in Italy in 1979 with a master at the University of Michigan in Medieval and Renaissance music and some experience in American experimental theatre with the Living Theater by Julien Beck, as well as classical, playing: King Lear, Old Times by Harold Pinter and many other theatrical pieces.
She was chosen by Roberto Cacciapaglia after a long search. Ann Steel possessed pop music features but also the wanted sonority. She was modelling, and her voice was well cared for and straightforward with little vibrato, she had sung for a long time sacred music in churches and cathedrals in America.
The songs are crafted with acoustic instruments masked by electronica. For example, all the bass lines are performed by playing the piano with prepared rubber between the strings, the rhythmic harmonics are performed with light chains that touch the strings of the piano and give a metallic and percussive sound, but harmonious, many guitar parts are executed at low speed or taped and then turned backwards. In some passages Roberto Cacciapaglia used filtering of the harpsichord and the portative organ. The drums and percussion were performed separately in order to be manipulated independently: it may sound electronic, but the truth is that all was played acoustic, with great skill and precision by Peppe Sciuto.
Lyrics by Giada Manca di Villahermosa are a fundamental part of the project, bizarrely suggesting an artificial world, that in many respects has proved to be prophetic.
The first release of 'The Ann Steel Album', was distributed in 1979, in Italy by Durium, France by Barclay and in Germany by Metronome, it has received international acknowledgement including the Olimpia di Parigi.
'The Ann Steel Album' CD was released in 2003, dedicated to the memory and work of Guglielmo Marconi, it includes all songs from the original LP and the single 'Media / Sweet Life'. The CD booklet also contains a number of unpublished pictures that portray the beautiful model-singer.
The idea of re-issuing 'The Ann Steel Album' was born by the interest that trendy Parisian label Colette had shown about the song “My Time”, which they included in one of the Colette’s compilations: Colette N°4. The increasing attention on this song brought the Recording Arts (which publishes Roberto Cacciapaglia’s work) to re-issue the whole album that is still today modern and timeless. [SOURCE: RATE YOUR MUSIC]
Often referred to as "the Mexican Ramones," The Zeros (guitarist and singer Javier Escovedo, second guitarist Robert Lopez, bassist Hector Peñalosa, and drummer Baba Chenelle) were just one of many contributors to the L.A. punk explosion in the late '70s. Although they never received the acclaim of such L.A. peers as Black Flag, The Circle Jerks, or X, The Zeros made admirers out of such renowned artists as Tom Waits, Patti Smith, and The Damned, played numerous West Coast shows with the likes of Dils, Avengers, X, Plugz, Nerves, and Wipers, and even gave the Germs their very first live gig -opening for them in 1977. The group was first formed in 1976, and were initially known as "The Main Street Brats" -but by the time of their first show, they had settled on the name The Zeros. Although the quartet broke up in 1981, The Zeros have re-formed sporadically for live shows (such as a 1991 benefit show for ailing punk rocker / writer Craig Lee, and a few years later, Bomp Records' 25th anniversary party), and a full album -1999's 'Right Now!' In addition, several of The Zeros' compositions have been covered by other bands around the world, including Spain's La Secta ("Wild Weekend"), Australia's Hoodoo Gurus, Sweden's The Nomads ("Wimp"), and Hollywood's The Muffs ("Beat Your Heart Out"). [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Dunedin supergroup The Weeds were Michael Morley (bass, vocals), Shayne Carter (guitar, vocals), Robert Scott (guitar, bass, vocals) and on drums, Jeff Harford, Chris Healey or John Collie.
Sometimes they played in their underwear and in 1985 they released the raucous folk-blues ‘Wheatfields’ as a one-off single, flipped with a live take on Elvis Presley’s "Trouble" on Flying Nun Records.
'Pay It All Back', a 13-song tape, was released in 1985 on Scott’s Every Secret Thing tape imprint, followed in 1986 by songs on three subsequent EST compilation tapes. An EP was recorded with Ivan Purvis at Chippendale House in Dunedin in November 1985 but remains unreleased in that form.
Hometown shows in Dunedin’s Chippendale House in August 1985 were followed by a trip north to Christchurch’s DB Gladstone in October 1985. [SOURCE: AUDIOCULTURE]
There's little documented about this L.A. band. Vox Pop were active in the timeframe of 1978-1980 and preceded and perhaps overlapped a little with 45 Grave to which three of the members eventually ended up. They are most famous as a footnote to The Germs story in that this band is often cited as the reason Darby Crash kicked Don Bolles (Germs drummer) out of the band.
They released two singles, at least one on the same label that released some Angry Samoans (Bad Trip Records) an other on Mystic Records. The front cover photo of this record has Dinah Cancer holding what looks to be a 7" record (that's Paul B. Cutler providing the full frontal nudity and Jeff Dahl standing in shock to left). [SOURCE. VINYL MINE]
Uvegraf is Juan Teruel, also involved in the scene of fanzines of the 80's ("Mental") and founder of the tape recorder Proceso Uvegraf in 1985, where he published the first work: 'A.C.I. / Enucleación' (C-40). He later edited the legendary compilation 'Conspiración' (1986) which counted on the contribution of some of the main protagonists of the electronic underground scene of Madrid (Esplendor Geométrico, Interacción, Depósito Dental, La Otra Cara de un Jardin, etc..) [SOURCE: GH-RECORDS]
There are several components that would contribute to what would become Those Little Aliens / This Little Aliens and the zine / labels Flowmotion and Image 341 and Un-Ltd.Abilities, all run by British DIY-Protagonists Ian Dobson and Gordon Hope. [SOURCE: CLONE.NL]
Silvia is the name of a Neue Deutsche Welle (NDW “New German Wave”) project created Tommi Stumpff and Silvia Nemanic. The pair met in Düsseldorf in the late 1970s and started dating when Tommi was the singer of punk band Der KFC. Silvia was absolutely inexperienced in musical things, she said, “I’ve played the recorder.” Tommi rented Klangwerkstatt studio for a few days in January 1982 to record his an album with his bandmate Ferdinand Mackenthun aka Käpt’n Nuss of Der KFC, but finished earlier than expected. With one extra day that was already paid for, they quickly wrote some more songs and recorded them. All they needed was a singer, so they asked Silvia.
Simply titled 'Silvia', the record was released in mid-1982 on cult label Schallmauer Records, which had released many German punk, NDW, and New Wave records in the 80’s. Tommi and Käpt’n Nuss played all instruments and wrote the lyrics. Since Silvia had a very deep voice, Tommi slightly pitched up her vocals to sound higher on the recordings. The album displays Tommi’s transition from punk rock to cold electronics, EBM and eventually Techno. Tommi’s instrument set up was a Sequential Circuits Pro One and Moog Prodigy controlled by a Fricke sequencer and a Korg SQ-10 Analog Sequencer. Silvia urges the listener to save themselves and says “No miracle will happen. You die tomorrow, young and guilty” evoking the urban Zeitgeist of the Cold War. Sadly Silvia passed away in 2003. [SOURCE: DARK ENTRIES]
Thanks to the reductive onslaught of the "'80s party weekend" radio format and the numbing similarity of most '80s hits compilations, hearing the name Romeo Void instantly conjures up the phrase "I might like you better if we slept together" in most minds. The unforgettable chorus of their best-known song, 1981's "Never Say Never," the phrase on its own makes the song sound like some kind of shock-value novelty, and indeed, that's probably how many people remember it. Yet a careful listen to the verses, with their intimations of incest, murder, homelessness, and other dark subjects, makes plain that singer / lyricist Debora Iyall has more on her mind than simple salaciousness. The combination of Iyall's powerful vocals and searing imagery with the band's muscular blend of Joy Division's atmospherics and the Gang of Four's rattling momentum, with Benjamin Bossi's splattering free jazz saxophone coloring everything, made Romeo Void one of the strongest of the American post-punk bands.
Debora Iyall, a Native American (from the Cowlitz tribe) born in rural Washington and raised in Fresno, CA, moved to San Francisco in the mid-'70s to attend the San Francisco Art Institute. While there, she fell in with fellow students Peter Woods and Jay Derrah, who had formed a tongue-in-cheek '60s revival band called The Mummers and the Poppers. Iyall became the group's singer and also began incorporating music into her own poetry and performance art projects, drafting Frank Zincavage, a sculptor who also played bass and electronic drums, as her work partner. (Zincavage was also a noted graphic designer and photographer; his name and that of his sister, Diane Zincavage, appear in the credits of many San Francisco and Los Angeles indie albums of the era.) Intrigued by the burgeoning local punk and post-punk scenes, which included fellow Art Institute students like Avengers singer Penelope Houston and members of The Mutants and Pearl Harbor & the Explosions, Iyall, Zincavage, Woods, and Derrah formed Romeo Void on Valentine's Day 1979. Iyall has said that the name, meaning "a lack of romance," was inspired by a headline on the cover of a local magazine that read "Why single women can't get laid in San Francisco."
Shortly after the group's formation, original saxophonist Bobby Martin and another local reedsman, Benjamin Bossi, swapped bands, with Martin joining art punk extremists The Offs and Bossi teaming up with Romeo Void. The revised lineup recorded their debut single, "White Sweater," and a cover of Jorgen Ingmann's atmospheric 1961 twang-guitar instrumental hit "Apache", for the new local indie 415 Records in 1980. Before sessions commenced for their first album, 1981's 'It's a Condition', Derrah left the group, replaced by ex-Explosions drummer John "Stench" Haines. One of the masterpieces of American post-punk, 'It's a Condition' received rave reviews upon its release. Perhaps even more importantly, Cars leader Ric Ocasek heard the album (supposedly, a roadie played it in The Cars' tour bus) and invited the group to his Synchro Sound studio in Boston. The resulting Ocasek-produced EP, 'Never Say Never', on the back of the enormous dance club and college radio airplay of the single, led directly to 415 Records' ongoing association with Columbia Records (bringing not only Romeo Void but also Red Rockers, Translator, Wire Train, and others to major-label status), who reissued the EP later in 1981 before ushering the group back into the studio to record their next album.
1982's 'Benefactor' kicks off with a less-impressive shortened mix of "Never Say Never," almost completely eliminating Bossi's squalling, Albert Ayler-like solo, fading out before the hypnotic ending and bleeping out a rude word in the second verse. (This is the version the video, an early MTV staple, features.) A denser album than the sparse 'It's a Condition', 'Benefactors' is nearly the equal of the earlier record, with the hyperactive dance-pop of "Undercover Kept" signaling a new interest in musical directness that would reap commercial benefits on their next album.
Like 'It's a Condition', that third album, 1984's 'Instincts', was produced by 415's former house producer David Kahne, but it's far slicker than the debut, a precursor to the ultra-shiny albums Kahne would do with The Bangles over the next couple of years. Although this newly commercialized approach scored the band their only Top 40 hit, "A Girl in Trouble (Is a Temporary Thing)," which Iyall claimed is an answer song to Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean," the album is a disappointment in comparison to the stellar work that had preceded it. By the time of these sessions, Haines had been replaced by former session drummer Aaron Smith, and relations had become strained in the group. Romeo Void broke up in early 1985.
Debora Iyall recorded one solo album, 1986's 'Strange Language', which continued the commercial tendencies of 'Instincts', then returned to her previous career as a poet, artist, and teacher. She formed the noise pop duo Knife in Water in the '90s. Benjamin Bossi joined The Ordinaires. Romeo Void reunited for a few benefit shows in 1992 and later that year released a career-summary compilation, 'Warm in Your Coat', which featured one excellent previously unreleased song, "One Thousand Shadows," recorded as a live demo in late 1984 for a movie soundtrack, but it was never finished. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Pel Mel were an Australian post-punk music band, which formed in Newcastle in mid-1979 and moved to Sydney in late 1980.They issued two studio albums, 'Out of Reason' (1982) and 'Persuasion' (1983). They toured until the end of 1984 and then disbanded. They reformed in 2012 as the Pel Mel Organisation and have played occasional shows since.
Pel Mel's early lineup included Graeme Dunne (guitar, vocals), Judy 'Jude' McGee (saxophone), Jane McGee (guitar), Glenn Hill (bass), Dave Weston (drums) and Nigel Savage (saxophone). By early 1980 Nigel Savage had left, and by late 1980 Lindsay O'Meara (ex-Voigt/465, Crime and the City Solution) replaced Hill on bass. Judy McGee began playing keyboards in 1980 and began sharing vocals with Dunne. Jane McGee left in February 1981 and Craig Robertson replaced O'Meara on bass in late 1981.
Pel Mel's first single, 'No Word From China', was originally recorded at the Double Jay radio station and gathered so much interest that it was rush released on the band's own label, Primate Records, in January 1981. The band performed the song on the nationally broadcast music show, "Countdown". It was subsequently re-mastered and re-released through GAP Records in June 1981. It was followed by two additional singles, 'Head Above Water' and 'Blind Lead the Blind' in December 1981 and November 1982 respectively. The band released its debut album, 'Out Of Reason', in December 1982.
Pel Mel's second album, 'Persuasion', was recorded by a new lineup including Graeme Dunne on vocals, bass and guitar, Paul Davies
on guitar, Jude McGee on vocals, keyboards and saxophone and Dave
Weston on drums. The album was released by GAP in October 1983.
The band toured extensively, playing with local bands including The Reels, Mental as Anything and The Birthday Party, as well as supporting international acts Elvis Costello, New Order and The Fall.
Pel Mel moved from an early punk-influenced sound to a distinctive pop sound, and were a backbone of the thriving inner Sydney music scene in the early 1980s. Other bands associated with this scene include Pel Mel offshoot band The Limp, Wild West, Tactics, The Particles, Scapa Flow and the bands from the M Squared label and studio.
The band continued to tour until the end of 1984 before eventually disbanding without breaking into the mainstream. "No Word From China" was included on 'Tales From The Australian Underground', a collection of key Australian independent singles from 1976-1989.
In March 2012 the group reformed under the name Pel Mel Organisation, with an expanded line up of Dunne, Judy and Jane McGee, Paul and Mark Davies, Dermot Browne and Stuart Nichols. Pel Mel have since played a number of shows in Sydney under both names. A best-of and a live album were released in 2016. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
