Julia's Club Eighties
Friday, September 7, 2007
Hey you're such a pretty boy!
Here's another DM bootie for Club Eighties loyal visitors. DEPECHE MODE - DANCE CLUB REMIXES 1981-2000
Tracklisting:
- only when i lose myself (gus gus dance remix)
- surrender (catalan dance remix)
- enjoy the silence (ricki tick dance mix)
- it's no good (bt dance dub mix)
- everything counts (bomb the dance mix)
- i feel you (renedance soundwave)
- but not tonight (US 12" dance remix)
- master and servant (black and blue dance mix)
- behind the wheel (UK radio dance mix)
- never let me down again (tsangarides dance mix)
- photographic (On-US 12" dance remix)
DOWNLOAD LINK: dmbootie3
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Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Perhaps if I held you I could win again...
Yazoo (known as Yaz in the U.S.) was a short-lived but highly successful English synthpop duo from Basildon, Essex that had a number of top ten hits in the British charts in the early 1980s.Heavily influenced by earlier bands like Kraftwerk, Yazoo expanded upon the synthpop formula by juxtaposing Alison Moyet's bluesy and emotional vocals with Vince Clarke's clinical electronic hooks. Its sound referenced disco but added a more disaffected attitude that disco lacked. Their second album saw greater songwriting input from Moyet, adding a rather more mature and soulful flavour, particularly on the hit single "Nobody's Diary."
The group was formed in 1981, using a moniker that Alison Moyet, veteran of a number of southeast Essex based punk and rock bands, had seen on the labels of old blues albums: Yazoo, although Clarke would later confess that this came from mis-hearing the name of the mouth instrument Kazoo which was popular in the late 1970s. Clarke had been the main songwriter in Depeche Mode, who at that point had recorded one album and three singles for Mute Records, including the hits "New Life" and "Just Can't Get Enough". Clarke surprised many by quitting Depeche Mode just as they were beginning to reap success, claiming that they "just weren't getting on, really", forming Yazoo with the then relatively unknown Moyet. Mute Records continued to release the output of this new Clarke project. The band was licensed to Sire Records in the United States.
Its debut single "Only You" backed with "Situation," was released in April 1982 and rose to number two in the UK. Clarke had offered the song as a parting gift to his former bandmates in Depeche Mode, but they declined. Yazoo quickly scored another hit with the next single, "Don't Go," which hit number three, and became popular on MTV in the United States thanks to a Frankenstein-themed video. They continued their successful streak with their first album, Upstairs at Eric's, which went platinum in Britain. The band received favourable reviews for their pioneering sound. Clarke and Moyet toured briefly, while releasing a stopgap single, "The Other Side of Love."
The duo's second and last album, You and Me Both, yielded more success, hitting the top of the UK charts, and spinning off one single. The album's success was tainted by Clarke and Moyet deciding to go their separate ways.
Moyet decided to venture off on a solo career, signing to Columbia Records, where she would enjoy a great deal of early success. Vince Clarke recorded a single with producer Eric Radcliffe (the same "Eric" from the title of Yazoo's debut album) and Undertones singer Feargal Sharkey as The Assembly, and another with vocalist Paul Quinn. Clarke then founded the highly successful pop group Erasure with vocalist Andy Bell.
Mute Records released a remixed version of "Situation" as a single in 1990 to moderate success. In 1999, a compilation was released, entitled Only Yazoo - The Best of and was preceded by a re-release of Yazoo's debut single, "Only You", featuring a new remix of the title track and several more of "Don't Go". The band's output was bookended with yet another release of "Situation", accompanied by many remixes.
Clarke was tapped to remix Moyet's 1994 single, "Whispering Your Name" and with Erasure, Clarke and Moyet tried to record her single "This House" as a duet. This project never came to surface, because Sony Music Entertainment would not permit it.
The band's songs have appeared in a number of films and television shows. "Only You" was used in the Napoleon Dynamite, the BBC television series The Office, and the film Can't Hardly Wait; a cover version of "Only You" by Joshua Radin was used in 2007 in a JC Penney commercial; "Don't Go" appeared in the BBC series I'm Alan Partridge, was used in the movie Tango and Cash, and can be heard in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories; the song "Situation" was used in the 1990 tv movie "Exile" and was also used in a Nintendo commercial highlighting the classic edition of the Game Boy Advance SP and the classic NES games ported to it. (info taken from wikipedia.org)
DOWNLOAD LINK: yaz12inchers
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In a big country dreams stay with you...
Big Country was a rock band from Dunfermline, Scotland, popular in the early to mid 1980s but still are releasing material for a cult following since 2004. The band was notable for music heavily accented with traditional Scottish folk and martial music styles, as well as for playing and engineering their guitar sound to resemble the bagpipes, fiddles and other traditional folk instruments.Composed of Stuart Adamson (formerly of The Skids, vocals / guitar / keyboards), Bruce Watson (guitar / vocals), Tony Butler (bass guitar / vocals) and Mark Brzezicki (drums / percussion / vocals) though a variety of other drummers have been in the band their long career, including Simon Phillips. Pete Wishart who joined Runrig and became prominent in the SNP, was in an early version of the band -- the same incarnation that supported Alice Cooper and got thrown off the tour for being "too weird". Although the band's music drew from Scottish traditional music, none of its members were born in Scotland. Adamson grew up in Dunfermline, and as such, his trademark Scottish accent was genuine.
Formed initially as a five piece band in 1981, their first single was "Harvest Home", recorded and released in 1982. It was a modest success, reaching #91 on the UK Singles Chart. Their next single was 1983's "Fields of Fire", which reached the UK's Top Ten and was rapidly followed by the album The Crossing. The album was a hit in the United States, powered by "In a Big Country", their only U.S. Top 40 hit single. The song featured heavily engineered guitar playing, strongly reminiscent of bagpipes; Adamson and fellow guitarist, Watson, achieved this through the use of the MXR Pitch Transposer 129 Guitar Effect. Also contributing to the band's unique sound was their early virtuoso use of the e-bow, a device which allows a guitar to sound more like strings or synthesizer. The Crossing sold over a million copies in the UK and obtained gold record status (sales of over 500,000) in the U.S.
The band released the non-LP extended play single Wonderland in 1984 while undergoing a lengthy worldwide tour. The song, considered by some critics to be one of their finest, was a Top Ten hit (#8) in the UK singles chart but despite heavy airplay and a positive critical response, was a comparative flop in the U.S., only reaching #86 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was the last single by the band to make a U.S. chart appearance.
Their second album Steeltown (1984) was a hit as soon as it was released, entering the UK Albums Chart at Number one. The album featured three UK Top 40 hit singles, and received considerable critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic, but like Wonderland (and, in fact, all subsequent releases) it was a commercial disappointment in the U.S, peaking at #70 on the Billboard album charts.
Throughout 1984 and 1985, the band toured the UK, Europe, and, to a lesser extent, the U.S., both as headliners themselves and in support of such artists as Queen and Roger Daltrey. They also recorded prolifically, and provided the musical score to a Scottish independent film, 'Restless Natives' (1985), which was not released on CD until years later on the band's Restless Natives and Rarities (1998) collection.
1986's The Seer, the band's third album, was another big success in the UK, peaking at Number 2, and producing three additional Top 40 UK singles. These included "Look Away" which reached Number 7 (the band's highest charting UK single). Kate Bush provided backing vocals on the title cut, and, as was the norm for the band at the time, the album received good reviews from the music press. In the U.S., the album sold modestly better than Steeltown, reaching #59 on the Billboard album charts.
This album showed the band's loyalty to Scottish Nationalist themes, with "The Seer" being about a woman who tells a traveller about the tyranny of William of Orange upon the Jacobites movement coming to an end soon; while "The Red Fox" was based on Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson, and the so called Appin Murder of Colin Campbel, a Tory who was hated by many in Scotland around 1752.
In what some critics felt was an apparent attempt to regain their dwindling U.S. following,[5] Big Country hooked up with producer Peter Wolf for their next album, Peace in Our Time (1988), which was recorded in Los Angeles, California. The result was very different from the previous singles and albums, and it was not well received by most critics and fans. One reviewer noted that it was the group's "least representative and least interesting album." It sold poorly.
In 1991, the band was dropped by Phonogram, the label that had released all of their material for ten years. After that, Big Country became a minor act, popping up in the lower echelons of the charts in the UK and Europe with the release of every subsequent album. Only one of these, 1993's The Buffalo Skinners, received a major label release (via Chrysalis Records); it seemed a return to form of sorts for the band, and obtained a surprisingly enthusiastic critical response. But its sales were meagre and, in retrospect, it can be seen as Big Country's last, lost chance to regain a mass audience. Regardless, the band retained an intensely devoted cult following, as evidenced by their deceptively large post-1990 discography, which consists mostly of live concert recordings and singles/rarities collections.
Throughout the 1990s, Big Country became a popular 'opening act', supporting such bands as Rolling Stones and The Who; Roger Daltrey reportedly uttered on numerous occasions that he'd 'love to steal their rhythm section!'. (In fact, Big Country had backed Daltrey on his 1985 solo album Under The Raging Moon, and Tony Butler played bass and backing vocals on Pete Townshend's 1980 hit single "Let My Love Open The Door". Both Butler and Brzezicki performed on Townshend's 1985 solo album White City: A Novel.
Of growing concern, however, was the mental and emotional health of lead singer Adamson, who reportedly had struggled with alcoholism for several years. Adamson split with his first wife, who later spoke to Scottish and English tabloids about his heavy drinking. He moved to Nashville, in the mid 1990s, where he took up residence and married a hairdresser. While in Nashville, he met noted artist Marcus Hummon and released an acclaimed studio album with him, under the moniker The Raphaels.
In 1995 Big Country released another album Why the Long Face?.
1999 saw the release of Big Country's eighth and final studio album, Driving to Damascus (titled in its slightly different, augmented U.S. release John Wayne's Dream). Adamson said publicly that he was disappointed that the album did not fare better on the charts, which led to depression. Later that year, he disappeared for a while before resurfacing, stating that he had just needed some time off.
Adamson returned for the band's 'Final Fling' farewell tour, culminating in a sold-out concert at Glasgow's Barrowland Ballroom on 29 May 2000. Although that marked the end of Big Country as a touring band, they were always adamant that they would appear together again. They played what turned out to be their last gig in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in October that year.
In November 2001, Adamson disappeared again. Numerous appeals were put on the Big Country website asking for Adamson to call home and speak to anyone in the band, the management company, or his ex-wife. The website also requested that any fans who might have been 'harbouring' the singer to contact the management company and alert them to his whereabouts. Brzezicki and Butler had indicated they were concerned but the reason Big Country had lasted so long was they stayed out of one another's personal lives, and both later noted they were unaware of the extent of Adamson's problems. He was found dead in a room at the Best Western Plaza Hotel in Honolulu, Hawaii on December 16, 2001. The official autopsy revealed that he had hanged himself.
A memorial to Adamson was held at Dunfermline’s Carnegie Hall in January 2002, followed by a tribute concert at the Barrowlands in May. It brought together the remaining members of both Big Country and The Skids; Adamson's teenage children, Callum and Kirsten; as well as Steve Harley, Runrig, Simon Townshend, Midge Ure and Bill Nelson.
In 2007, to celebrate 25 years of Big Country, founder members Bruce Watson, Tony Butler (now lead vocalist for the first time), and Mark Brzezicki have reunited to embark on a tour of the UK with dates in Scotland and England.
They are also rumoured to be going into the studio and record a new album. (info taken from wikipedia.org)
DOWNLOAD LINK: bc12inchers
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Craving for Clan of Xymox...
Clan of Xymox, also known as Xymox at various parts of their career, are a darkwave/gothic rock band founded in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, in 1983 by Ronny Moorings, Pieter Nooten, and Anke Wolbert. Of the original members, only Ronny Moorings remains in the band today.
The band began with the self-published Subsequent Pleasures EP under the name Xymox, at that time consisting of Moorings on guitar and vocals, Anke Wolbert on bass, keyboards and vocals, and Pieter Nooten on keyboards. A chance meeting with Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance led to an invitation to support that band on a UK tour, and then a recording contract with their record label, 4AD Records.
Their debut album, self-titled under their newly adopted name Clan of Xymox, was released by 4AD in 1985, and drew comparisons to Joy Division and The Cure. 1986 saw their second album, Medusa (considered by many fans to be their finest work), continuing in this dark vein.
1987 saw the band provide a track for Lonely Is an Eyesore, a fascinating compilation album highlighting the diversity of talent on the 4-AD roster. "Muscoviet Musquito", sandwiched between Dif Juz and Dead Can Dance, showed a more confident side to the band. Album number two was a very different beast.
Subsequently, Clan of Xymox and 4AD parted company, Pieter Nooten left the band, the name Xymox was once again adopted, and the band signed to the Polygram subsidiary label Wing Records. 1989's Twist of Shadows was the band's most commercially successful album, selling 300,000 copies. It was in many ways a bold record and showed that being signed to a major concern wasn't going to stifle a natural sense of musical adventure. Supported by three single releases - "Obsession", "Imagination" and "Blind Hearts" - this was an album that confirmed the diversity of their appeal as again they clicked in both dance and alternative circles.
The bands fourth album, Phoenix (with Nooten back on board), released worldwide in 1991, was their last album on Wing. It had ecstatic reviews but did not sell as much as their predecessor, despite their loyal U.S. fan base. The band embarked on sell-out tours around the world and featured in college alternative and mainstream Billboard charts. The sub label Wing ceased to exist and when Wing declined to release the next album, Metamorphosis, Nooten and Wolbert left the band forever.
Mojca Zugna joined Moorings as bass-player (and album cover designer) and two albums followed on independent label Zok Records - Metamorphosis (1992) and Headclouds (1994) - before Moorings decided it was time for a change. Here, in addition to their trademark choral sounds and hypnotic electro rhythms, are albums spanning a whole range of styles and influences, taking Xymox into the '90s dance era. It is the work of a band who are never afraid to take chances. In the UK they nearly entered the top 40 charts with the "Reaching Out" single and were played on heavy rotation. "On Headclouds, Xymox tried to combine dance grooves with a melancholic sound, plus vocals. It was part of an experiment which we now steer clear of... After Headclouds, I moved back to Amsterdam and had a break from making music, and regained my interest by meeting different people, going to Industrial/Gothic parties, and basically rediscovering myself again".[1]
In 1994 Xymox re-released their first (from 1984, only 500 original printed copies exist) limited availability mini album Subsequent Pleasures on Double Dutch Records, and, without consent, Zok Records released a "Remix" album which contains only radio edits of the albums Metamorphosis and Headclouds compiled together.
In 1996 Xymox contributed music for a CD-ROM games project titled "Total Mayhem" and a year later the music for the game "Revenant", released worldwide by Domark.
In 1997 Ronny Moorings ended the Xymox era and restarted Clan of Xymox. The band signed to a brand new USA and German based Independent label Tess Records, and the album Hidden Faces was released in 1997. Moorings described it as "a logical follow-up to what Clan of Xymox made in the early '80s", and the band went on to tour extensively, co-headlining the Wave-Gotik-Treffen and Zillo festivals in Germany, where two singles from Hidden Faces - "Out Of The Rain" and "This World" - both reached the top 10 in the independent charts. Two more albums (1999's Creatures and 2001's Notes From The Underground) followed, blending guitars and electronics into a more standard electro-goth sound which has won Clan of Xymox a new generation of fans in the gothic subculture.
The year 2002 saw in April the band's first remix album Remixes From The Underground, which was composed of all the tracks from Notes From The Underground remixed by renowned artists like Front 242 and Assemblage 23. This year also saw the very first video disc of COX.
The current lineup of Clan of Xymox is Ronny Moorings, Mojca Zugna, Denise Dijkstra (keyboards), Agnes Jasper (alternate keyboardist), and Mario Usai (guitarist). Farewell was released in September 2003, and the band's most recent album, Breaking Point, was released in April 2006. The CD single Heroes, containing two interpretations of David Bowie's original track "Heroes", was released in May 2007. Original members Pieter Nooten and Anka Wolbert are both active today, pursuing a different musical direction as solo artists on i-rain records. (info taken from wikipedia.org)
DOWNLOAD LINKS: clanofxymox; medusa, twistofshadows
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The band began with the self-published Subsequent Pleasures EP under the name Xymox, at that time consisting of Moorings on guitar and vocals, Anke Wolbert on bass, keyboards and vocals, and Pieter Nooten on keyboards. A chance meeting with Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance led to an invitation to support that band on a UK tour, and then a recording contract with their record label, 4AD Records.
Their debut album, self-titled under their newly adopted name Clan of Xymox, was released by 4AD in 1985, and drew comparisons to Joy Division and The Cure. 1986 saw their second album, Medusa (considered by many fans to be their finest work), continuing in this dark vein.
1987 saw the band provide a track for Lonely Is an Eyesore, a fascinating compilation album highlighting the diversity of talent on the 4-AD roster. "Muscoviet Musquito", sandwiched between Dif Juz and Dead Can Dance, showed a more confident side to the band. Album number two was a very different beast.
Subsequently, Clan of Xymox and 4AD parted company, Pieter Nooten left the band, the name Xymox was once again adopted, and the band signed to the Polygram subsidiary label Wing Records. 1989's Twist of Shadows was the band's most commercially successful album, selling 300,000 copies. It was in many ways a bold record and showed that being signed to a major concern wasn't going to stifle a natural sense of musical adventure. Supported by three single releases - "Obsession", "Imagination" and "Blind Hearts" - this was an album that confirmed the diversity of their appeal as again they clicked in both dance and alternative circles.
The bands fourth album, Phoenix (with Nooten back on board), released worldwide in 1991, was their last album on Wing. It had ecstatic reviews but did not sell as much as their predecessor, despite their loyal U.S. fan base. The band embarked on sell-out tours around the world and featured in college alternative and mainstream Billboard charts. The sub label Wing ceased to exist and when Wing declined to release the next album, Metamorphosis, Nooten and Wolbert left the band forever.Mojca Zugna joined Moorings as bass-player (and album cover designer) and two albums followed on independent label Zok Records - Metamorphosis (1992) and Headclouds (1994) - before Moorings decided it was time for a change. Here, in addition to their trademark choral sounds and hypnotic electro rhythms, are albums spanning a whole range of styles and influences, taking Xymox into the '90s dance era. It is the work of a band who are never afraid to take chances. In the UK they nearly entered the top 40 charts with the "Reaching Out" single and were played on heavy rotation. "On Headclouds, Xymox tried to combine dance grooves with a melancholic sound, plus vocals. It was part of an experiment which we now steer clear of... After Headclouds, I moved back to Amsterdam and had a break from making music, and regained my interest by meeting different people, going to Industrial/Gothic parties, and basically rediscovering myself again".[1]
In 1994 Xymox re-released their first (from 1984, only 500 original printed copies exist) limited availability mini album Subsequent Pleasures on Double Dutch Records, and, without consent, Zok Records released a "Remix" album which contains only radio edits of the albums Metamorphosis and Headclouds compiled together.
In 1996 Xymox contributed music for a CD-ROM games project titled "Total Mayhem" and a year later the music for the game "Revenant", released worldwide by Domark.
In 1997 Ronny Moorings ended the Xymox era and restarted Clan of Xymox. The band signed to a brand new USA and German based Independent label Tess Records, and the album Hidden Faces was released in 1997. Moorings described it as "a logical follow-up to what Clan of Xymox made in the early '80s", and the band went on to tour extensively, co-headlining the Wave-Gotik-Treffen and Zillo festivals in Germany, where two singles from Hidden Faces - "Out Of The Rain" and "This World" - both reached the top 10 in the independent charts. Two more albums (1999's Creatures and 2001's Notes From The Underground) followed, blending guitars and electronics into a more standard electro-goth sound which has won Clan of Xymox a new generation of fans in the gothic subculture.
The year 2002 saw in April the band's first remix album Remixes From The Underground, which was composed of all the tracks from Notes From The Underground remixed by renowned artists like Front 242 and Assemblage 23. This year also saw the very first video disc of COX.
The current lineup of Clan of Xymox is Ronny Moorings, Mojca Zugna, Denise Dijkstra (keyboards), Agnes Jasper (alternate keyboardist), and Mario Usai (guitarist). Farewell was released in September 2003, and the band's most recent album, Breaking Point, was released in April 2006. The CD single Heroes, containing two interpretations of David Bowie's original track "Heroes", was released in May 2007. Original members Pieter Nooten and Anka Wolbert are both active today, pursuing a different musical direction as solo artists on i-rain records. (info taken from wikipedia.org)
DOWNLOAD LINKS: clanofxymox; medusa, twistofshadows
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