2nd attempt... ARTIST: VARIOUS TITLE: ESKIMO presents SERIE NOIRE COMPILED BY: MO, BENOELIE & DIRK FOR ESKIMO SOUND SYSTEM LABEL: ESKIMO RECORDS FORMAT: CD (mixed) & DOUBLE VINYL (unmixed) RELEASE DATE: 16 DECEMBER 2002 CAT NO: 541416 500874 (CD) / 541416 500875 (2LP)
Série Noire, is a collection of groundbreaking electronic dance music from the (recent) past which aims to reinstate the value of long-lost dance collectives, producers and bands who once (or repeatedly) hit the mark and proved to be hugely influential for generations to come. These torchbearers never set the charts alight, nor were they backed by big record companies (or for that matter, endorsed by fizzy soda drinks). But their output is still revered by both adventurous DJs and and well informed punters. Sometimes, visiting the past makes the future a little clearer. It's no coincidence many contemporary alchemists of sound are now harking back to the era when electronic music was at its primal stage. Two decades ago, synthesisers, beat boxes and samplers were the domain of freaky fanatics and world-weary outcasts who would lose sleep over crossing the right wires, pushing the appropriate buttons and distilling emotions from stark hardware and volatile electricity. In those days, electronica was not an option, it was a statement, a declaration of independence and intent. Little wonder the world back then was not yet ready for the uncompromising sounds of the loosely assembled avant-garde of dark pop. Culled from different time zones and non-aligned scenes, the Série Noire-tracks all have a similar brooding, ominous feeling about them, a fact that's got more to do with the artists' vision and mindset than the kind of record label they chose to release their songs on. The bulk of these tracks were recorded at a time when people didn't yet need a brick-heavy directory to catalogue all the different dance genres that are around today. Electronic music was still made in a special kind of splendid isolation, far away from the mainstream. Shying away from disco's all too obvious hedonism or industrial's blatant body politics, underground dance from the early eighties in particular excelled in creating music that perfectly encapsulated both feelings of tension and release. Fusing cold Kraftwerkian robotic beats with primitive funk, or pasting sinewy squelches onto calculated rhythm patterns, a batch of wayward musicians devised the kind of music that felt strangely detached but couldn't help but get under the skin. Belgian New Beat took this approach to the extreme: snarling, seductive and above all tantalisingly slow, it may still be the only dance genre in the book that manages to sound neutered and devilishly sexy at the same time. The cuts compiled here on Série Noire were never intended as incrowd anti-art or some kind of aural poetry. They were created to dance to, and not much else. And so the clubheads did, although only a very specific breed of clubhead. While the rest of the population grooved away on popular Top 30-tunes, the kids of Dark Pop and New Beat hid away in derelict disco's and disused warehouses. In Belgium, places like Ghent's Boccaccio and Antwerp's AB gave shelter to a crowd craving for more than a status-quo. Highly individual, proudly nonconformist and dressed to impress, those figureheads of youth gladly gave in to the otherworldly, droning sound, reflecting as it did both their sophistication and their dissatisfaction. It wasn't just a local thing: everywhere in Europe a movement took shape, only to make way, years later, for house, techno, MTV and mobile phones. Still, it's rewarding, nay, elementary to look back to those missing links of electronic dance music. It doesn't happen very often that something as simple and evident as dance music proves to be as much about sheer imagination as it is about effortless innovation. And judging from the enthusiasm the kids of today are lapping up these past nuggets with, the original, pioneering dark pop of yesteryear still transmits its true message: to be a cut above the rest. LOGIC SYSTEM 'UNIT': Hailing all the way from Japan, weird computer music from 1983, very much in the same vain as Ryuichi Sakamoto, but with a more dancefloor edge to it! THE POOL 'JAMAICA RUNNING': Lo-fi production on this tribal/elektro workout from the early eighties... Originally out in the states, but this mix was exclusive to the Belgian pressing. WILLPOWERS 'ADVENTURES IN SUCCESS': 1983 - project from photographer Lynn Goldsmith. Balearic & New Beat classic co - written by Sting... ALAN PARSONS PROJECT MAMMAGAMMA': Prog-rockers Alan Parsons churn out this elektro-wave instrumental, who would've guessed!? A SPLIT SECOND 'FLESH': 1988 - This 12" ignited a new rage, later to be baptised 'New Beat', which put Belgium as a dance music production nation on the world map a few years later. Initially, it all started with some DJ's playing the 45rmp 12" at 33rpm, forcing 'Flesh' to a huge hit. Within the year, A Split Second became a reference for this music style. SNOWY RED 'EUROSHIMA / WARDANCE' 1988 - shall we name it Techno Pop, Synth Pop, New Wave or New Beat? Or even goth! Snowy Red are one of those very simply structured yet sophisticated electronic bands, proof that you can do decent music with just a few layers. SECTION 25 'LOOKING FROM A HILLTOP': Originally out on Factory records (Joy Division...) 1984, produced by Bernard Summer, hard-edged haunting electro. JUMP 'FUNKATARIUM': The odd one in the selection, but melts beautifully with the darker tracks on this comp... released in the mid - 90s ... METRO AREA 'MIURA': Morgan Geist's anthem! No introduction necessary. MY MINE 'HYPNOTIC TANGO': 1984 - instrumental version of this Italo classic, which definitely inspired Carl Craig in his 69 guise. Check out 'Sound On Sound'! GRAUZONE 'FILM2': 1980 - obscure B-side of their Eisbar anthem... became a classic in New Beat circles... coming from Switzerland VICIOUS PINK 8:15 TO NOWHERE': 80ies... no info whatsoever, only that they did backing vocals on Soft Cells Sex Dwarfs EXCUTIVE SLACKS 'THE BUS': 1984 - coming from Philadelphia, playing heavy metal disco... one of their songs was actually used for a Miami Vice episode! JOHN CARPENTER 'THE END': 1976 - from the soundtrack of "Assault on Precinct 13", John Carpenter's second movie, a black & white claustrophobic journey, for which he composed the soundtrack himself... The violence in the movie was shocking for its time and has remained so over the years since its release, mainly due to the stark, unaffected direction of a young John Carpenter. KISSING THE PINK 'BIG MAN RESTLESS': 1983 - from North London, influenced by Talking Heads, Steely Dan, but quite new-romantic sounding CARLOS PERON 'NOTHING IS TRUE, EVERYTHING IS PERMITED': Early eighties: seminal German producer (The Normal / Nitzer Ebb / Daf / Yello) delivering a haunting deep track... C CAT TRANCE 'SHAKE THE MIND': 1986: UK-artists - playing entrancing Arab-influenced white funk coming from the same scene as A Certain Ratio, Shriekback & 23 Skidoo.
