I have been spending time travelling recently, back and forth between TÄmaki Makaurau and Kirikiriroa. There is a new motorway that makes the trip pleasant as long as you avoid traffic. Here is a mix inspired by all that time on the road.
Electronic bands can be cold and not very exciting in real life. Swaying behind a keyboard looking down while twiddling the knobs and buttons is not much of a show. William Doyle aka East India Youth manages to make great music and put on a show. As the music journo says in the interview below, all you need is charisma and a good suit, and he has both.
For the curious here is an explanation of how synthesisers work. Try and not be too distracted by the guyâs hairâŠ
Sad to report that Mr Moebius has left this mortal coil. However, before going he performed a live soundtrack for a showing of Metropolis and here is an extract.
 Weltweit- Wolfgang Riechmann- Wunderbar
He only made one album, but what an albumâŠ
Wolfgang Riechmann started his musical career in 1966.
After playing in a school band with Michael Rother and Wolfgang FlĂŒr, later famous with Kraftwerk and Neu, he then became member of an other DĂŒsseldorf (Germany) located band called âStreetmarkâ .
It was end of 1977 when Riechmann started working on his solo career.
The result was the LP âWunderbarâ which was released on SKY Records.
Unfortunately he did not experience the release.
In August 1978 Riechmann was killed â without any reason â by two drunk guys, who stabbed him to death.
After being active in DNA with Arto Lindsay and Ikue Mori, Robin Crutchfield form the Dark Day in â79 with Nina Canal (UT) and Nancy Arlen (Mars) then come into training Steven Brown, Peter Principle, Jarmusch, again Nina Canal and D.Rosembloom. In â80 he released their first LP âExterminating Angelâ created together with Phil Kline and Barry Friar. They play at clubs like CBGBâs, Maxâs Kansas City, Hurrahâs, Trax and M-80.
We are at the beginning of 1980, in full emergence of NO WAVE, a period that gave its highest artistic expression in all areas: painting-graphites (Basquiat), video art, cinema (Jarmusch, R. Kern, N. Zedd, Vivienne Dick etc) with a prevalence of films shot on super 8 and 16 mm and in the music that gave birth to groups that now are part of the story. DNA, Richard Hell, Mars, Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, Lydia Lunch, Contortions, Patty Smith, Debby Harry, Suicide, Bush Tetras, Foetus, Sonic Youth and many others. Crutchfield made a Dark, gloomy and cold music with an obsessive rhythm and a monotone voice. After a few singles released in â82 and the second synthetic LP âThe Windowâ with Bill Sack. In â85 Crutchfield only owner of the group left the experiments to make medieval chamber music. In â89 comes âDarkest Before Dawnâ for Night Eve Production, his label. In 2003 he released a new CD âStrange Clockworkâ (self-produced) but we are very far from the atmosphere of Exterminating Angel. Since then, nothing.
R.I.P.