190n120: 30 Years of Music with Adam Johnson...Episode Seventeen: "So many of the loveliest things in England are melancholy"

142. Duran Duran - Rio (1982)

My appreciation for stadium power-pop starts here. I dug into Fanotmas pretty heavy around the same time, too, so my endearment towards this particular Duran Duran album may be augmented a bit Fantomas' quixotic weirdness. But try to imagine the title track digested through Buzz Osbourne' and Mike Patton's sludgy tracts and you can see why...

..right?

Slick-as-shit guitars, buoyant synthesizers, bumpin' poppin' bass - it's like Duran Duran invented the 80s. Most of all, Rio is plain fun. Like Wham!'s Make It Big (1984).


Recommended Listening: Rio, Lonely In Your Nightmare, Hungry Like the Wolf, Hold Back the Rain, The Chauffeur


141. Wham! - Make It Big (1984)

Whomever may get the credit, be it exclusively George Michael or Wham! as a "band", this album is just plain fun, damn near perfect in character and quality. George Michael sings from the same place as Peter Gabriel, Freddie Mercury, and Florence Welch, and he has an impeccable sense of composition. Dude could write a song, s'what I'm saying.

Also, I think Fantomas could get away with covering "Freedom" or "Credit Card Baby". And that's what makes a good song--anyone may take a crack at the tune and come away with brilliant results. The proof is in the pudding.

Recommended Listening: Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Freedom, Credit Card Baby, Careless Whisper

140. 23 Skidoo - The Culling Is Coming (1983)

I've always had an interest in electronic music, though far removed from the EDM jawns fueling raves around the world these days. I'm more interested in the origins, the bricks and mortar that built the house that Skrillex subleased. Backtracking through the various British techno and house seemed to be the most logical place to start.

You’d be surprised how many Venn diagrams come out of a simple AllMusic search: witch house, acid, acid house, soundtrack, no house (not kidding), electro, techno. Beats were broken, tapes were traded, and sounds started becoming convoluted. The beat goes on, alright; and on, and on, and on, and on…

...and then – there was silence. There was 23 Skidoo.

That got my attention. A team with balls enough to quiet the room before breathing life into it again with atmosphere instead of alarms, 23 Skidoo were more in line with the dread beats of dub than the pulse of London.

Where groups like Madness pulled the hop and skip of Jamaica into their metropolitan beat rock, 23 Skidoo had fallen into the pocket, found it incredibly comfortable, and decided to stay. They pulled smoky sheets over their beats and played a tape loop like a piano, weaving sounds and samples through their compositions to spectacular effect.

Contemporaries Mission of Burma were utilizing tape loops to similar effect in Boston, Massachusetts. The punk rock stage was getting a musique concrete makeover, why couldn’t the dance floor?

This is 23 Skidoo's third release, said and told. It's an entire live set, one long invocation, but I've selected a few of the more notable sections of the performance piece. My best recommendation would be to enjoy the entire performance, but people are busy these days. I get it.

Recommended Listening: G-2 Contemplation, Stifling/Healing (For the Strong), Move Back - Bite Harder