UBERHIPSTERS UNITED INFLUENCES INDEX 2003

HARDY PERENNIALS
[blue chip stocks, cooler than being obscure ultra--oneupmanship manoevure stuff]

Beatles. Kraftwerk. Chic. Giorgio Moroder. Nirvana. Tubeway Army/Numan. Joy Division. The Fall. Pixies.

PASSE
[tapped-out, yesterday's cool move, middlebrow]

Gang of Four. First three albums Wire. Can up to Tago Mago and Ege Bamyasi/Neu!/ Faust. Electro. Obvious No Wave/mutant disco: Contortions, 99 Records (Liquid Liquid, ESG). Gram Parsons. Boards of Canada. Italo Disco. Crate-digga: Library Music: KPM, Boosey & Hawkes etc/David Axelrod/The Rotary Connection. Obvious dub producers: Perry, Tubby. Brian Wilson/Van Dyke Parks. Scott Walker. Tropicalia. Cleveland: Electric Eels, Styrenes, Rocket For The Tombs, early “classic” Pere Ubu. New York electrofunk/postdisco: Arthur Russell, Prelude, West End, Peech Boys, D-Train etc. "Being Boiled" era Human League/The Normal/”Nag Nag Nag”-era Cabaret Voltaire. Suicide. Nick Drake. United States of America. IA-era Red Krayola.

HOT FOR NOW
[OTM this minute, edge-of-middlebrow danger like pears that go over-ripe when you turn your back for a second]

Soft Machine. Dancehall: early Nineties to early noughties. This Heat. St.Pancras/Rough Trade-era Scritti Politti. Ze. Eugene MacDaniels. Incredible String Band. The Cure. America. Young Marble Giants. Supertramp. Amon Duul (I). Fleetwood Mac circa Rumours/Tusk. Ethnographic field recordings. Proto-synthcore: The Screamers, Nervous Gender, Minimal Man.. Post-electro: Mantronix, T. La Rock, Chep Nunez, Nitro Deluxe, Cutting label, freestyle. My Bloody Valentine. The Godz. The Fugs. Virgin-era Scritti. Canonical UK folk rock: Fairport Convention/Shirley Collins/ Pentangle. Janet Kay/Dennis Bovell lovers rock productions. ‘Attic Tapes’ era Cabaret Voltaire. BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Yoko Ono. Rudimentary Peni.

TRES HOT a/k/a RIPE FOR REDISCOVERY
[cooler-than-thou dead-cert trump-all-comers power move]

The Homosexuals. Jefferson Airplane circa After Bathing At Baxters. Heldon/Richard Pinhas . Eighties pre-ragga dancehall. Electronic body music: Front 242, Nitzer Ebb, Skinny Puppy, et al. Bugge Wesseltoft. Henry Cow. Less obvious No Wave/mutant disco: Lust Unlust label, ImpLOG, Jody Harris/Bob Quine, Pulsalamma, Dark Day, Ut. More obscure UK folk-rock: Martin Carthy/Topic label/ June Tabor/Albion Band. Tuxedomoon. Canterbury lesser lights: Caravan, Egg, National Health, Hatfield & the North, Gilgamesh. Ron Geesin. Radar/Rough Trade-era Red Crayola. More obscure post-punk: Family Fodder, Fatal Microbes, Metaboliste, I’m So Hollow, Lemon Kittens, Vice Versa, Out On Blue Six, Basement 5, 4 Be 2’s, Furious Pig. Metal Urbain/Dr. Mix. South Asian fusion/desi/bhangra. Bleep & Bass: Unique 3, Sweet Exorcist (esp. C.C.C.D), Nexus 21, Rob Gordon productions, Ability II, etc. Soft-hop: PM Dawn, Definition of Sound. Vanity 6/Early Prince/Sheila E. Wire circa "The Drill." Speed Garage. Hamilton Bohannon. Romeo Void. The Buggles. M. Tom Tom Club circa The Man with the 4 Way Hips. David Crosby. The Blue Nile. Simple Minds circa New Gold Dream. Swoon/Steve McQueen era Prefab Sprout.. Ragga jungle. "Lost Generation” a/k/a UK postrock-with-songs: Disco Inferno, Seefeel, Pram, Earwig/Insides, Moonshake/Laika etc.. The Minutemen. Judee Sill. Australian postpunk: Voigt/465, Rhythmx Chymx, Slugfuckers, Tame O’Mearas, early Severed Heads. Pre-Some Bizarre Einsturzende Neubauten. Recommended Records. Bill Fay. San Francisco industrial: Factrix, Monte Cazzazza, Chrome, Z’Ev. LA Free Music Society/Monitor/B-People. German postpunk/industrial/artpop: pre-Virgin Deutsches Amerikanische Freundschaft/Der Plan/Palais Schaumberg. Japan circa Adolescent Sex. Sproton Layer. Rose Royce. Fuck Off Records: Danny & the Dressmakers, Teen Vampires, etc. Savage Rose. John Martyn circa Inside Out/One World. Pere Ubu circa New Picnic Time/Art of Walking/Song of the Bailing Man. Joni Mitchell. Obscure Manchester postpunk: Object label (Spherical Objects, The Grow-Up), The Passage, Manicured Noise, New Hormones (Ludus, The Tiller Boys, Biting Tongues, Eric Random). Thomas Leer (with Robert Rental and solo circa 4 MovementsEP ). Annette Peacock. Curved Air. Early Gun Club. Blood On the Saddle. Agitation Free/Univers Zero. David Byrne circa “Cloud Chamber”/Catherine Wheel. Pre-baggy Happy Mondays.

RANK OUTSIDERS FOR 2004
[a gamble--major ahead-of-the-curve cool potential versus total humiliation]

Jefferson Starship. Simple Minds circa Empires and Dance. Spacebox. Colosseum. Wigwam. The Strawbs. Rock Follies soundtrack/Julie Covington. Sopwith Camel. The Police circa "Walking On the Moon". Wings. Pavlov’s Dog. Virgin era-Can. Steve Hillage. Stackridge. Manfred Mann’s Earth Band. Danielle Dax. Kate Bush circa The Dreaming. Late Gun Club. Patrick Adams. The Three Johns. Irish folk-rock: Planxty, Horslips, early Clannad. Be Bop Deluxe/Red Noise/Bill Nelson solo. Peter Gabriel III. Pre-'94 trance: Hardfloor, Arpeggiators, etc. Second-wave avant-funk: Chakk, Portion Control, 400 Blows. Doctors of Madness/Richard Strange. Angletrax. Judie Tzuke. Man Jumping. Crammed Records. UK Decay. Mid-Eighties New Zealand: The Chills, The Clean, etc. Jean-Michel Jarre. Shambling: Ron Johnson Records, Stump, Shrubs, Bogshed, Big Flame, Membranes. Yargo. The Skids circa Absolute Game/Joy. Terence Trent D’Arby. Osibisa. Belgian hardcore techno. Luigi Nono. Really herky-jerky/quirked out New wave: first three albums XTC, Punishment of Luxury, Lene Lovich, Nina Hagen, Plastics, Cardiacs. Landscape. Post-golden age SST: Saccharine Trust, Paperbag, Always August, Universal Congress Of, Lawndale, Zoogz Rift. "Mature” Undertones circa “It’s Going To Happen” and “Julie Ocean”. Gryphon. Jethro Tull. Sailor/Pilot. Swans Way. Raunch-era Last Few Days. Brand X. Non-Devo Akron (Tin Huey, Rubber City Rebels, etc). Batcave: Specimen, Alien Sex Fiend, Sex Gang Children, Flesh For Lulu.

DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT
[their day will never come again]

Starship. Simple Minds from “Don’t You Forget About Me” onwards. The Doobie Brothers. Pearl Jam. Collective Soul. Bush. Primal Scream (all phases). UB40. Jamiroquai. Lloyd Cole and the Commotions. Fatboy Slim. NWOBHM: Iron Maiden, Saxon, etc. Manic Street Preachers. Beck. Deep Purple/Rainbow. Roger Waters solo. Pink Floyd post-Roger Waters. Elvis Costello from Blood & Chocolate onwards. Texas. Leisure Process. The Police circa Synchronicity. Mid-period Factory: Cath Carroll, Kalima, etc. Big Country/The Armoury Show. Microdisney/Fatima Mansions. Bethnal. TRB. Erasure. The Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Jeff Beck. 1984/85 retro-rock Americana: True West, Guadacanal Diary, Long Ryders, Jason & the Scorchers. Curve/Garbage. Living Colour. Blood Sweat ‘n’ Tears. UK mod revival: Secret Affair, Merton Parkas. College rock (including all REM apart from Murmur).

Compiled from data provided by Dominic Laruffa, Kodwo Eshun, Jess Harvell, Rebecca Rosengarde, Jon Dale, Sasha Frere-Jones, Job de Wit, Suzanne Spiers, Joshua Merin, David Howie, Steven W. Schuldt, Scott Neill, Matthew Ingram (ha, gotcha), Nicola Stecher, Haley Kenshin, Nick Runcible, Gus Halpern, Michael Jary, Graham Dudlike, Mark Simmons, Donald Pryner, Alice Thompson, Heike Blumner, Jake Sandlin, Fletcher Kern, Claire Brighton, B. Cole, Chas Bovis, Jason Blum, Noam Chomsky,
Chris P. Laika-Crouton, Rennie J. Pilgrem, Hugh Ball, Michael Belfer, Owen Gavin, M. P. Acardipane, Sasha Digweed, Jen Porridge, Chris Watson, Ally Turnbull, Adrian Newton, Mal Linder, Una Friel, Nicky Mancuso, David Siano, Danny Privet-Hedge, Rupert Sager, D. Raskit, Sprettro Blanquez, D. Galas, Orlando Julius, Smitty Davenport, Sid Barcelona, Jeff Simply, Sly Fidelity, Brown Hitgowenit, H.P. Buggo, Waldorf Statler, Andy Breton, Linda Gartside-Stroheimer, Gabi Bargeld, Holger Fehlmann, Mannie Fresh, Lynval Schneider, Rowland Cave, Bruce Falconi, J.D. Carducci, Mark E. Bramah, Deena Wrigley, Hilary Small, Brenda Twice.

Thanks to all contributors.

Best of the individual ballots to appear next week.


NOTES

1/ Which Eighties? Post-punk still has some legs but it’s advisable to disinvest from obvious names and areas, and stack your portfolio with the very obscure (John Peel one-offs) or the geographically remote (Germany, Australia, the Belgium/Netherlands, even France). Generally speaking, the early Eighties looking pretty peaked on most fronts, even though it’s yet to really cross over into the mainstream, so the smart money is already moving deeper in that decade--skipping
the mid-Eighties (the so-called “Bad Music Era”: 83/84/85/86) altogether and going straight to the late Eighties. Now is the time to start investing in second-wave industrial/Euro Body Music and early dreampop (the surprise, seemingly premature return of My Bloody Valentine to currency). Likewise in dance music, it would seem that last year’s power move--punk-funk/mutant disco/Italodisco/NYC electrofunk (Prelude/Russell/West End)--is already tapped out, and the more astute speculators will be moving into the post-electro/pre-house phase (Cutting, Nitro Deluxe, Freestyle). The trouble with moving to the late Eighties and bypassing the mid-period (a time when things were so desperate that The Triffids were regarded as saviours) is that the optimum time span for recycling is 20 years or more, and although revival-attempts often begin after 15 years, the first several attempts are usually false starts or premature stabs (sort of equivalent those warriors in Zulu who sacrifice themselves in order to test the firepower of the besieged British garrison and use up their ammunition), e.g Romo which was roughly 14 years after the period it was attempting to revive and thus six to eight years premature. So although we can expect some tentative moves into baggy/Madchester, say, these are too risky for the sensible coolmongerer.

2/ It seems like only yesterday. Dance music’s cycles run about half the duration of rock’s cycles--instead of 20 years, the optimum period is 10 years. Despite the surprisingly non-appearance of a major ardkore/darkcore revival (probably because people started pining for and recycling that era within only a few years of its demise), we’re gearing up for a massive ‘94-the-year-jungle-broke ragga-amen-rinse revival. For a while now, ‘ardkore dealers have been devoting more space to tunes from 94-95 and prices have been rising accordingly. Other signs include the Soundmurderer CD, figures like DJ Shitmat and Enduser, Luke Vibert who has cut five old skool jungle singles and has the Amen Andrew Vol. 1 record sooncome on Rephlex, while Mike Paradinas’s Planet Mu label is putting out a compilation of Remarc’s classic amen tunes. Power moves here entail moving out well beyond the obvious knowns (forget about the serious middlebrown zone of Rage/Grooverider/Fabio/Reinforced/Goldie, and especially Bukem --even though ‘Demon’s Tune’ was one of the first Amen tunes) and expand the ‘auteurisation’ syndrome to the figures who never got the iD/Face/Muzik/Mixmag treatment: Remarc, Bizzy B, Randall, DJ Nut Nut, Kemet Crew, Suburban Base/Ganja (Marvellous Cain, Hype, Pascal/Johnny Jungle, Noise of Art, Flex, Krome & Time), Dead Dred/Second Movement/Back 2 Basics, DMS & Boneman, X Ram/Shimon/Andy C, Gappa G & Hyper Hyper, Formation/SS, plus the countless ragga-sploitation bandwagon-jumping dancehall relicks of the era. Ultra power moves: Leviticus ‘Burial’ and anything by M-Beat especially the ones not featuring General Levy.

Mark @ K-Punk has a pretty thoughtful and thought-provoking response (friday last week) to my scattershot riffing of the day before. Which has provoked further thoughts at this end, to be riffed in due course and probably equally scattershot fashion.