The french duo Equatuer (Romain Nouhi & Charles Rocher) have produced a wonderful New Wave track called, “Haunted”. From the initial second this track started to play, my ears instantly started smiling — well, you know what I mean.
I first came across COOLRUNNINGS a while back, when a dude with a hamburger tattoo told me to check out they’re recently released Babes Forever EP. I was immediately intrigued by the album artwork, which features a photograph from Hustler Magazine circa 1989.
After my initial intrigue for this photos awesomeness had passed, it didn’t take me long to fall for there unique sound. The four-piece band that originally hails from Knoxville, beautifully mixes together new wave and psychadelia with the right amount vulgarity.
Lucky for me, the band just dropped “Spirit of the High”. It’s four minutes of pure sunny enjoyment. And while you might not notice it at first, the cymbals were actually recorded using a handled steak knife as a drum stick. Pretty badass if you ask me. Check it out below.
COOLRUNNINGS – Spirit of the High
posted by @clarkbs
I first came across COOLRUNNINGS a while back, when a dude with a hamburger tattoo told me to check out they’re recently released Babes Forever EP. I was immediately intrigued by the album artwork, which features a photograph from Hustler Magazine circa 1989.
After my initial intrigue for this photos awesomeness had passed, it didn’t take me long to fall for there unique sound. The four-piece band that originally hails from Knoxville, beautifully mixes together new wave and psychadelia with the right amount vulgarity.
Lucky for me, the band just dropped “Spirit of the High”. It’s four minutes of pure sunny enjoyment. And while you might not notice it at first, the cymbals were actually recorded using a handled steak knife as a drum stick. Pretty badass if you ask me. Check it out below.
COOLRUNNINGS – Spirit of the High
posted by @clarkbs
A total forgotten classic New Wave/Post-Punk-Pop club gem. Wide Boy Awake was Kevin Mooney, bassist for Adam and the Ants on his iconic ‘Kings of the Wild Frontier’ album. They only released a few EP’s and 12″s but never an album before dissolving.
Slang Teacher was the B-Side to the cheeseball track ‘Chicken Outlaw’ and god only knows why they didnt just stick to this style.
Next to impossible to find in a digital format, the other Wide Boy Awake track that I could never tire of is ‘Billy Hyena’, released in 1984 and still sounds completely fresh.
Wide Boy Awake need to be known by everyone.
It can be a real treat when, in all the digging through old artists/albums, something pops out and really surprises you. This LP, released in 1983 by Japanese pop/new wave(?) act Mariah, is a seriously amazing little gem. Full of dubby beats, smooth J-grooves and sung both in Armenian and Japanese; this all sounds like something I wouldn’t even like myself, but most descriptions Ive read on the album never seem to do it justice.
Just trust us.
Apparently the vinyl pressing of this fetches around $150 these days, so it’s a pretty sought after number.
Mariah – Shinzo No Tobira (心臓の扉)
Mariah – Hana Ga Saitara (花が咲いたら)
It can be a real treat when, in all the digging through old artists/albums, something pops out and really surprises you. This LP, released in 1983 by Japanese pop/new wave(?) act Mariah, is a seriously amazing little gem. Full of dubby beats, smooth J-grooves and sung both in Armenian and Japanese; this all sounds like something I wouldn’t even like myself, but most descriptions Ive read on the album never seem to do it justice.
Just trust us.
Apparently the vinyl pressing of this fetches around $150 these days, so it’s a pretty sought after number.
Mariah – Shinzo No Tobira (心臓の扉)
Mariah – Hana Ga Saitara (花が咲いたら)
New Musik was formed in 1977 comprising of singer/guitarist Tony Mansfield, keyboardist Nick Straker (replaced by Clive Gates in 1979), bassist Tony Hibbert and drummer Phil Towner (who had played on the Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star”). After their first two albums done together, Hibbert and Towner eventually both left the band, leaving Mansfield and Gates to record the third and final New Musik album as a duo with a hired drummer.
Unlike From A to B and Anywhere, which blended synthesizers with acoustic guitars, live percussion, and other classic pop elements, Warp is almost entirely electronic. One of the first albums to be recorded primarily with digital samplers and emulators, Warp sounds a bit more dated than the first two New Musik albums, but the songs, among the most lyrically pessimistic of the band’s career, are quite strong. New Musik split after this album. — AllMusic.
“Warp” was released with bonus tracks on CD for the first time in 2001, exclusively in Japan and remains as its only CD release. I’ve selected a handful from the CD, downloadable below:
New Musik – Warp
New Musik – The Planet Doesn’t Mind (12″ Version)
New Musik – Here Come the People (Remix)
Fockewulf 190 (Italian, but named after a German WWII fighter plane) produced some complete cult classic New Wave/Italo Disco cuts back in ’84 (seemingly) from nowhere, then totally dropped off the map til recently.
Both ‘Body Heat’ and ‘Gitano’ were both under appreciated hits in Germany, but brought the Italian Discomagic Records to a greater light in the rest of Europe.
Here’s an interview with Victor Life from the band.