Elli & Jacno is a French pop duo active in the early 1980s, composed of Elli Medeiros (lyrics and vocals) and Denis Quilliard, aka Jacno (composition).
The band was formed in 1980 after the duo left the French punk band Stinky Toys.
Their music is recognizable by Jacno's minimal melodies, essentially composed of chords obtained on a synthesizer, and by Elli's lyrics, often evoking love, whether sad or gay. A polyinstrumentalist, Jacno played and then mixed synthesizer, guitar and drum machine himself on tape, and sometimes accompanied Elli on backing vocals.
Their collaboration resulted in three albums including 'Les Nuits de la Pleine Lune' (1984), the soundtrack to Éric Rohmer's eponymous film. The duo broke up at the beginning of 1985 and Elli Medeiros continued her career as a singer and actress. As for Jacno, he released several albums and continued his career as a producer.
A compilation of their hits was released on CD in 1994. In 2009, Indochine covered one of their songs, "Je t'aime tant", on their album 'La République des Meteors'. Their debut album, 'Tout Va Sauter', was re-released on CD in March 2011. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
Der Moderne Man was an experimental band from Hannover at the time of the Neue Deutsche Welle during the early 1980s. Emerging from the punk band The Worst, their records were released mainly on No Fun Records. One of the first radio presenters to put on records by this group was John Peel.
After the first LP their singer Ziggy XY (Michael Jarick) left the band to concentrate on his avant-garde project Kosmonautentraum. With his successor Mattus, the more chaotic parts of the music moved into the background. On 8th March 1983 Rockpalast broadcast a concert by this band from the Zeche in Bochum. Despite support from the press, the band and their label could not stand up to the flood of NDW releases and threw in the towel in 1984. Their guitarist and co-founder E.K.T. (Eckart Kurtz) then played with Beatklub for some time before disappearing into middle-class working life. Drummer Claudius Hempelmann, who had left the band in 1981, committed suicide on August 18th, 1988.
Florim Prishtina and Rezart Veseli recorded together as Cicciolina Holocaust in Firenze, (Italy) during the late '70s and early '80s, releasing several tapes, all as small private editions given to friends. Using a bunch of drum machines, home-made electronic synths, guitars, effects pedals and a Tascam 4-track Portastudio, the pair produced oppressive and uber-dark synthscapes and minimal proto-techno experiments that slot perfectly alongside the kind of darkside work typified by Regis and the more experimental end of the Downwards label in 2011. [SOURCE: SOUNDOHM]
Boye (pronounced /bo.je/; a pun for feminine of boy) were a Serbian new wave and later alternative rock band from Novi Sad. Until the late 1980s Boye were an all-female band, but later lineups also featured male members.
The band was formed in October 1981 by Biljana Babić (drums), Jasna Manjulov (keyboards, vocals), Ljiljana Radaković (bass) and Klaudija Gavrilović (guitar, vocals). The first live appearance the band had in December of the same year, presenting themselves as an energetic all-female new wave band. In February of the following year, along with other Novi Sad new wave bands, they performed at "Novosadski Novi Talas" ("Novi Sad New Wave") concert held in the Vienna club Arena.
In 1983, the band performed at the international rock festival Frauen in der Rock Music in Vienna and Frauen Avantgarde festival in Linz. At the time, Klaudija Gavrilović left the band being replaced by Vesna Branković and Milica Žilnik "Maša" became the new lead vocalist.
The following year, the band recorded their debut album in Zagreb, however, it was never released as the record label wanted them to become an electropop band.
In 1985, without the need for compromise the band made demo recordings, with the Disciplina Kičme frontman Dušan Kojić "Koja" as the producer. The recorded demo tracks provided them with an opportunity to release a single 'Ja hoću te' ("I Want You"), with the song "Kralj dosade" ("King of Boredom") as the B-side, through PGP RTB. The cover of the single featured the inscriptions "Prvi pravi ženski zvuk" ("The first true feminine sound") written in Kojić's already familiar manner.
The single release was followed by the debut album, 'Dosta! Dosta! Dosta!' ("Enough! Enough! Enough!"), released by the same label in 1988, featuring the prominent songs "Mama Kivi" ("Mother Kiwi"), "Gde se možemo sresti" ("Where Could We Meet"), and the title track. The album also featured the new bassist Darko Matić, the first male member in the group, and yet another vocalist Tanja Đajić. Under Kojić's influence, the band had maintained their original musical style and introduced rap vocal sections. The album cover for both the album and the single had been designed by Biljana Babić.
In 1990, the band released their second album '78' through the Croatian independent record label Search and Enjoy, featuring the new bassist Ilija Vlaisavljević "Bebec", a former La Strada member. The album producer was once again Kojić who also appeared as the author of the tracks and a guest guitarist. The song "Ja sam radosna" ("I am Joyful"), present in the band repertoire since the beginning of their career appeared on the album, featuring the lyrics written by La Strada frontman Slobodan Tišma, whose song "Mlad i radostan" ("Young and Joyful") was also sampled on the track.
The political circumstances in the country influenced the work within the group as with the outbreak of the Yugoslav Wars, Tanja Đajić, Jasna Manjulov and Vesna Branković left the band quitting their musical careers. Biljana Babić and Ilija Vlaisavljević continued working with Boye featuring the new members Jelena Kajtez (vocals) and Aleksandra Blažić "Caka" (vocals) and Vladimir Radusinović "Radule", the member of the Novi Sad punk rock band Atheist Rap, who had left the group after a short period of time. The new lineup appeared on the "Ne računajte na nas" ("Do Not Count On Us") antiwar concert held at the Belgrade Republic Square during the spring of 1992.
The following year, the band recorded their third studio album 'Boye se ne boje' ("Boye Are Not Afraid") in the Netherlands at the Sing Sing studioowned by the former Čista Proza member Milan Ćirić. The album production was done by Vlaisavljević, who had also recorded the guitar sections, and as guests on the album appeared the former Disciplina Kičme member Zoran Erkman "Zerkman" (trumpet) and David Gardeur (keyboards). With the help of the latter, the band recorded a promotional video for the track "Gleglegledaj!" ("L. L. Look!") which, along with the interview with the band, had been broadcast on Dutch national television. The album was released by the Israel record label Doranit Enterprises Ltd, led by two people from Novi Sad, and in Serbia it was released first by Music YUser and then by Metropolis Records. The album got the award for the best release in 1993 by the Serbian magazine Ritam. Around that same time, a compilation album featuring 'Dosta! Dosta! Dosta!', '78' and the first three tracks of 'Boye Aren't Afraid' was released.
Having returned from the Netherlands, Aleksandra Blažić left the band, and Miloš Rašković (guitar) and Đorđe Todorović (trombone), became the new band members. During the early 1994, the band held three concerts in Athens, where, along with the performance at Crete, in April of the following year, the band had appeared on the manifestation "Za mir na Balkanu" ("For Peace on the Balkans"). At the time, Robert Telčer became the new guitar player. The new lineup performed in March 1996 at the Balkans Art Festival in Komotini and Xanthi situated in Greece, near the Turkish border.
The fourth studio album 'Prevariti naviku' ("To Trick a Habit") was released in July 1997, once again recorded at the Sing Sing studio and produced by Vlaisavljević, featuring the single "Ludilo mašina" ("Machine Madness"), presenting the band in a more modern musical direction than on the previous releases. After the album release, without any official announcement, the band ceased to exist. During the same year, on the Slovenian live various artists compilation 'V živo v Štuki (Live in Štuk)', the band appeared with the performance made in 1995 at the Maribor Štuk Hall, along with the performances of various bands from Slovenia and Croatia. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
Attic was an Art Punk and New Wave band formed in 1978 in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and disbanded in 1981. Members were Robert Bartlett (vocals), Pete Coote (guitar), Mark Bushell (drums), Steve Austin (bass) and Simon Green (guitar). They released two singles on the Brain Boosters Records label, ‘Yes I Want To’ (1979) and ‘All Plans Exist’ (1980).
16 Bit was a German dance project by Michael Münzing and Luca Anzilotti, which existed from 1986 to 1989.
For the first single 'Where Are You?' Sven Väth, with whom the producer duo had already worked for the project OFF, took over the vocal part. The song entered the German charts in November 1986, reaching number 11, and in the spring of 1987 'Changing Minds' was a second chart success in Germany. The single, on which a computer voice can be heard, climbed to number 19.
Also released in 1987 was '(Ina) Gadda-Da-Vida', a cover version of the Iron Butterfly hit from 1968. The track, sung by Eddie Hind, member of the duo Picnic At The Whitehouse, missed the charts, as did the follow-up singles 'Too Fast to Live' (1988) and 'Hi-Score' (1989). On "Too Fast to Live", Sven Väth's voice, who is also the author of the track, was heard for the first time after "Where Are You?".
A version of "Where Are You?" with opera singing appeared in 1998 under the title "Où-es-tu?". [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
Sign Language was a band from
Blackpool
formed by Paul Connolly (guitar), Simon Borkin (bass), Damian Lonsdale (drums) and Laurence Brewer (vocals, later on Ceramic Hobs). Initially influenced by the spirit of the first wave of British punk bands such as the Sex Pistols, Clash and Buzzcocks, Sign Language developed their sound by merging elements of punk and rock.
They produced a music which was distinctive from the hard-core punk emerging from the second wave of punk bands in the early 80’s, and more in tune with the post punk / new wave sound emanating from bands such as Killing Joke, Joy Division and early U2. After honing down their set of songs Sign Language gained a strong reputation as an energetic live act. [SOURCE: BBC]
Z'EV(born Stefan Joel Weisser, February 8, 1951 – December 16, 2017) was an American poet, percussionist, and sound artist. After studying various world music traditions at CalArts, he began creating his own percussion sounds out of industrial materials for a variety of record labels. He is regarded as a pioneer of industrial music. Z'EV was a strong presence in the New York City downtown music scene in the 1980s and 1990s, performing with Elliott Sharp, Glenn Branca, and doing solo performances at The Kitchen, The Knitting Factory, Danceteria, and other venues where experimental music flourished. His work with text and sound was influenced by Kabbalah, as well as African, Afro-Caribbean and Indonesian music and culture. He studied Ewe music, Balinese gamelan, and Indian tala.
From 1959-65 he studied drumming with Arnie Frank, then Chuck Flores and then Art Anton at Drum City in Van Nuys, California.
In 1963 he abandoned Judaism and began his lifelong relationship with world religions and esoteric systems. From 1966-9 he formed a band with Carl Stone and James Stewart, performing jazz rock. After auditioning for Frank Zappa's Bizarre Records, the band ceased activities and both he and Carl went on to attend CalArts. After studying at CalArts from 1969-70 with poets Emmett Williams and Michael S. Bell and writer / critic Sue-Ellen Case, he began producing works using the name S. Weisser, primarily concentrating on visual and sound poetries.
In 1975, he was included in the "Second Generation" show at the Museum of Conceptual Art in San Francisco. He also became a member of Cellar-M, a musical project of Naut Humon. He would continue to work with Humon on various projects, such as Rhythm & Noise, until 1988. In 1976 he moved from Los Angeles to the Bay Area. A primary reason for this move was his association with the San Francisco alternative exhibition space La Mamelle, run by Carl Loeffler and Nancy Evans. In 1977 he presented his first solo percussion performance at La Mamelle under the project title "Sound of Wind and Limb".
In 1978 he began developing an idiosyncratic performance technique utilizing self-developed instruments formed from industrial materials such as stainless steel, titanium, and PVC plastics. Initially these instruments were assemblages of these materials, used with a movement-based performance style that was a form of marionette, although with the performer visible. He has since come to refer to this performance mode as 'wild-style', a term originally related to graffiti.
At this time he first began to perform outside of the Fine Art context initially at the Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco. In the fall of 1978 he began performing under the name Z'EV, which comes from the Hebrew name his parents gave him at birth (Sh'aul Z'ev bn Yakov bn Moshe bn Sha'ul). In November and December 1980, Z'EV opened a series of UK and European concerts in the first headlining tour of the British group Bauhaus. On that tour and his first solo tour of Europe immediately afterwards, Z'EV introduced intense metal based percussion musics to the UK and Europe.
While but one of the progenitors of the "industrial movement", he was also fairly responsible, along with Genesis P-Orridge, for delivering the 'tribal' impulse and esthetic into the Western / European cultural milieu developing between the years 1978-1984. In 1981, 'Shake Rattle & Roll', a VHS video documenting his first wild-style performance on the East coast (produced by video artist Jon Child), was released by Fetish Records in the UK and was the first 'music' / art video to be commercially released.
In 1982 he worked with Glenn Branca for Branca's 'Symphony No. 2' in which Z'EV had a solo segment swinging with metal can overhead, and rattling chains and sheets of steel.
After 1984, he concentrated on performing in a more traditional mallet-percussion style, albeit with highly idiosyncratic and "extended" mallet percussion techniques and his self-made or adapted instruments.
Both performance modes, (wild-style and mallet percussion), have been described as cacophonous when considered in traditional Western musical terms, because of the dense elemental acoustic phenomena Z'EV's instruments produce. In point of fact, Z'EV doesn't actually consider the results as "music" per se, but more as orchestrations of highly rhythmic acoustic phenomena.
Z'EV did not consider his performances as solos, but rather as the unique inter-reactions between himself and his instruments; the particular physical space of the performance; the particular time and geographic location of the performance; and the energies of the audience.
From 1986-90 he was a Guest Teacher in Composition and Improvisation at the Theater School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Together with dancer Ria Higler he mentored a year group through their entire four-year course of study. The German dancer Thomas Lehmen is perhaps the most currently active of his students.
In 1990 he began working with Amsterdam house musician, DJ Dano. Their work, also in conjunction with Austrian media artist Konrad Becker, was instrumental in the emergence of the genres known as gabber and hardcore.
His recordings have been released by labels such as C.I.P., Cold Spring, Die Stadt, Soleilmoon, Tzadik Records, Subterranean and Touch.
Z'EV was critically injured in the Cimarron train derailment which took place near Dodge City, Kansas on March 14, 2016. After this incident he continued to have health problems, but continued working. He lived for three months in the guest room of his friend Boyd Rice in southern California. Afterwards Z'EV traveled to Europe and was for two months an artist in residence at the Porto based sound lab Sonoscopia, where he built a number of percussion instruments for the organisation. He died on December 16, 2017 in Chicago from pulmonary failure. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
Xero(also styled as Zero or Xiro) were an Australian punk rock and new wave band were formed in Brisbane in 1977 with the initial line-up of Peter Adams on guitar and vocals; Chris Anderson on guitar and vocals; Jude Clarkin on bongos; Barbara Hart on saxophone and flute; John Hunt on bass guitar; Irena Luckus on vocals, keyboard and guitar; and Debbie Penny on drums. By 1978, now including Vic Allen, Deborah Thomas and Lindy Morrison, the band travelled across New South Wales by train, playing gigs in Canberra and Newcastle. In 1979 the group settled as a four-piece with Luckus, Morrison, John Willsteed and Michael O'Connell, and among a number of significant gigs, opened for The Cure in support of that group's second album, 'Seventeen Seconds'. The Go-BetweensRobert Forster was an occasional guest, and when Morrison left in September 1980 to join Forster and Grant McLennan, O'Connell also left, moving to Sydney to play in a number of bands. Zero then became Xiro, and decided on the Roland DR-55 as a suitable drummer replacement.
Xiro issued two different four-track extended plays, 'Half the Profits' and 'Religious Wars', on audio cassette in mid-1980. They supported The Cure again in 1981, with guest and future Xero drummer Steven Pritchard. Luckus and Willsteed were then joined by Clare McKenna on drums to become Xero and entered a period of intense song-writing in their Fortitude Valley practice rooms, and performing at various Brisbane venues. In 1982 Xero recorded a six-track extended play, 'Lust in the Dust', at Basement Studios, Brisbane with the line-up of Luckus, Tony Childs on bass guitar; John Willsteed on bass guitar, guitar, casio keyboards and vocals; and Steven Pritchard on drums.
Xero split in 1983 when Luckus left Brisbane to relocate to France. Later, Morrison and Willsteed were members of fellow Brisbane group, The Go-Betweens. O'Connell and Willsteed were both members of The Apartments. They have reformed for gigs since then, initially in 1986. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
Whirlywirld was an Australian Post-Punk band led by Ian 'Ollie' Olsen (The Reals, Young Charlatans), and the first of his musical collaborations with drummer John Murphy (News). Whirlwirld formed in 1978 with their stated priority from the outset, to go electronic, determined as they were to take flight from the sonic limitations of the conventional, guitar-based rock format. A pioneer of synthesizer punk, the band came across with something of the experimentation of Suicide, Throbbing Gristle or Cabaret Voltaire, and also with the more song-oriented sound of Joy Division. Along with The Primitive Calculators they were supporters of the Melbourne 'Little Band' scene.
Whirlywirld was completed by two keyboardists, who got credited with 'electronics', Andrew Duffield and Simon Smith (Olsen, by this point, had abandoned guitar in favour of 'electronics') together with guitarist Dean Richards. The band made their live debut at The Crystal Ballroom in 1979, by which time Duffield left to join The Models and had been replaced by Philip Jackson. Whirlywirld would go on to play only fourteen performances in their entire career. Gradually, in accordance with a change in direction, Richards, Jackson and Smith departed, with Richards going on to front a couple of cult combos, Equal Local and Hot Half Hour. Arnie Hanna came in on guitar and Greg Sun on bass. During this period Murphy played an array of percussion devices, natural, electronic or otherwise and Olsen even played saxophone as well as keyboards.
The first incarnation of the band released a self titled 7" EP in 1979. The second incarnation of the band recorded a number of tracks at York Street Studios in December, 1979. Four of these tracks came out on a 12" EP, again titled 'Whirlywirld' in February 1980. In 1980 the band released a 7" single through Missing Link Records. In 1986 an album titled 'The Complete Studio Works' was also released through Missing Link Records. After the band split, Olsen and Murphy went on to form firstly The Beast Apparel, and then Hugo Klang. Olsen and Murphy then went on to form Orchestra of Skin and Bone, before their musical partnership ended with Olsen going to form NO in the late 1980's. Hanna and Murphy later played with Olsen and Michael Hutchence in the band Max Q.
A version of one of Whirlywirld’s songs, "Win or Lose", was re-recorded by Olsen in 1986 for inclusion in the film "Dogs In Space". Hutchence sang the early Whirlywirld song, "Rooms for the Memory" on the soundtrack, being a hit on the mainstream Australian charts as a single in 1987. The remixed version of "Win or Lose" was also released as a single by Olsen. [SOURCE: PUNKJOURNEY.COM]
