RIP Tango

Tango interviewed by Droid five years ago and written up for Blog To the Old Skool 
















three years of nuumvolution across three remixes - 91 - 92 - 93








on the ones and twos with Ratty

rollin' Haigh-ts

love that liquid smoky piano

lord of the universe

Acen's "River Deep, Mountain High" *

The second-best version:



The best of the rest










The best version again - i.e. the first video, the one at the top with the amazing female dancers - the "Monolythikmaniak Mix"  - only this time without the annoying hiss and the abrupt too early cut-off



* in the earlier Blissblog post I nominate "Window in the Sky (Kingdom of Light Mix)" as the 300th best hardcore tune of all time (this being an unfinished, indeed barely started project - the #300 tune entry was the only installment of it, I'm ashamed to admit).  Having already planned for "Trip to the Moon" to be #1 (ah, but which mix, which mix, eh?), and "Close Your Eyes" at #150, the circularity would place Acen Razvi at the centre of the Canon, its spine). 

At that point I'm not sure I'd heard the "Monolythikmaniak Mix" - or if I had, it hadn't really registered with me - but if I was to re-embark on that lunatic List, I'd be placing that mix high, much nearer the top. Which would mean that "Window in the Sky" appeared twice. (Not a unique occurrence, actually - three, possibly four, mixes of "Renegade Snares" would have to feature, obviously...  and at least two of "Open Your Mind").  

Somewhat unusually - given rave's general tendency towards the purely sonic, its downgrading of the visual component in pop's audiovisuality - this was a dance track whose glory was opened up for me by that promo video when I came across it a few years ago. (Who knew there were actually a fair number of rave promos made back in the day?) . Above all  it was those astounding dancers....  the chaste frenzy of their movements transmitting and incarnating the sheer ambush of rave -  its "something new under the sun" quality -  just as forcefully as Acen's beats and vamps. 

Switzerland!

I'm in Geneva this Friday 19th January to talk about retroculture + retropolitics, as part of the Innervision lecture series hosted by the bookstore Beckbooks and the record shop/record label Bongo Joe. 

Entrance is free of charge - swing by Le Pneu at 7pm to watch some retrolicious videos and ask tricky questions.

I'm also giving a longer retro-themed video illustrated talk in Lausanne at the Haute Ecole de Musique. Titled 'Everything Isn't A Remix' it starts at at 2pm on Saturday 20th and is open to the general public. Info here

The finest in Swiss antiretro!










The second finest in Swiss antiretro!

Here's a piece I wrote for Frieze about Mute's 40th anniversary  - pegged to the recent and  graphically sumptuous book Mute: A Visual Document from 1978 → Tomorrow - and focused on the label's sustained commitment to futurism and Europeanism.

Just some of the futurism and / or Europeanism emanating from Mute and its affiliated subsidiaries (Product Inc, Rhythm King, Blast First, etc) over the years: