Thursday, August 05, 2021

criminally sweet

"Like a Glucose Overdose" - a piece on Scritti Politti for Tidal, pegged to the new reissue of Cupid & Psyche 85

Not a great video but this single, as sound and song, still seems astounding to me.



This longer "Absolute" has some sampladelic eerieness absented from the 7-inch radio mix above - woogly vocal-science riffage. 

 


There is also a proper 'extended for the disco floor' 12 inch version that crammed with very '80s FX and feels unnecessarily elongated.  

Amazed me then and amazes me still that this single (the third leading up to Cupid) was not a hit




Another stilted video - Green seated, doubtless to get around his issues with dancing on camera. 

With "Wood Beez" the dancing was out-sourced to Michael Clark! 




Promo-wise "A Word Girl" was slightly better than the first three. And "Perfect Way" was efficiently slick and MTV-ready, pushing Scritti over the edge in America. But overall it's really not a medium that suits Mr. Gartside. 

Interesting that Scritti Mk 3 could so amply master the ultra-pop sound of the mid-80s while still limning it with strangeness - but they couldn't pull off an equivalent feat of excelling / surpassing / subverting when it came to the promo video, such a crucial component of New Pop / the Second British Invasion