Love In C Minor

Having lived in the UK for 20 months now, it’s hard to escape pop music. Growing up in New Zealand, I was surrounded by pop from both the US and UK. Combined with a healthy sprinkling of kiwi and Australian pop (actually rock from Aussie), I had much to draw on. More recently down-under, the focus and tastes changed from what I grew up with. NZ grew more toward rock of the indie, university-band, style or hip hop which was driven by a large Polynesian population who connected with the US sounds and hip hop culture. Australia is a strong rock market, although that is slowly changing.
So, when I arrived in the UK, it seemed evident that the pop scene was alive and well. When I say pop, I music that is very commercial, intended to sell many units and vocal songs mostly by women artists. This music dominates charts, radio, advertising, TV, reality shows and people’s playlists. I had intended to write about how much of that pop I didn’t like and how formulaic it is. But what I have realised is that much pop is driven by the media culture in the UK. It’s a culture obsessed with celebrity, scandal, news and fashion and pop stars are perfectly placed to deliver readers to publishers.

I don’t know all The Saturday’s hits, the lyrics of a Pixie Lott song or the names of each of the Girls Aloud girls. That’s because those pop acts who are royalty (?) here, never even registered on the NZ psyche, let alone the charts. The latest pop news is the apparent success of two boy bands One Direction (X Factor 3rd placegetters ) and The Wanted – a #1 album for 1D and top 5 single for The Wanted  The PR machine rolls on and more pop and increasingly what is being labelled as dance is churned out for (tongue in cheek now) 12 year old girls and 40 year old gay men. Meeeouw. It’s fine actually because my taste is different, and it doesn’t mean people shouldn’t like what is marketed at them.
Which brings me around the three pop events of the few months which have caused a twitter-storm or two.

1. The Steps reunion. They were a global success and a few Kiwi friends could sing along to all their hits from the 90s – so the reunion and upcoming concert was a massive media thing. All good I guess.
2. S Club 7 reunion. Groan. They trended for a day.
3. Hit Factory Live. Squeal! This is the 25th anniversary concert for the Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW) pop machine of the 80s and 90s. It’s in Hyde Park in July and adds to the list of big events for  2012 London. Once ridiculed, with the current pop sensibility, Steps-mania, X Factor-madness in the UK, their, now influential, music seems worth celebrating. Who could resist a line up of b-grade, minor-hit artists all on one stage at one gig? Plus I never thought I would hear Rick Astley sing, or perhaps he will rickroll?. The success of the SAW /PWL product is undeniable. Some of their artists are household names (like them or not) who provided some decade defining songs.

In other SAW (Hit Factory) related information, I recently bought (it’s nowhere to be found digitally) the 1985 O’Chi Brown album Deluxe edition remastered CD with 19 bonus tracks. Definitely a geeky nostalgia collectors item. I discovered O’Chi from a mix tape a friend gave me in  the late 80s and when he moved away and left all his vinyl, there was her debut album “O’Chi”. She had very minor success on the charts – hardly bothering the top 100. One notable song is her duet with 20 year-old Rick Astley “Learning To Live Without Your Love” – one of his earliest recordings and before he hit the big time..

In reading the liner notes in the booklet (I LOVE good liner notes), I learned that the PWL studios were in Borough, London in a small street I walk through every day. It’s the site where 250 million single sales began, so I believe it needs a nod to pop culture, perhaps a blue plaque.

Here’s O’Chi Brown and the (mislabelled) 100% Pure Pain (US Remix)

Tom Moulton was one of the first remixers ever who took the best ‘breaks’ and songs and extended them for the dancefloor way back in the 70s. After being fed up with the music scene in the 1960s, he was taken to Fire Island and heard soul tunes badly blended together and resolved to do better for the dancers. He created a mixtape with edits, mixes and extended breaks into a seamless groove. So popular this was, he went on to create many more and in the process, the remix. Where would contemporary music be without the remix?
2011 marked the 40th anniversary of legendary writer/producers Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff’s creation of a label that set the groundwork for some of the best soul and R&B sounds of the decade, and this year there are some excellent catalogue projects honouring that legacy.

One of these projects is the amazing four-disc box set that combines the great arrangements of Philly soul with the mixing techniques of Tom Moulton. This means there are classics by The O’Jays, The Three Degrees, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes and MFSB .  Tom was commissioned for a variety of other projects for the label, some of which never saw the light of day past a few rarer promo records or obscure compilations. And some of these are featured on the new release along with 15 extended versions commissioned exclusively for this release. Also included is a new booklet with liner notes from British music journalist Lloyd Bradley plus photos of Moulton at work in Sigma Sound Studios. I do love booklets that tell the stories of the songs, writing, recording and events at the time. It helps place into context how and why the music was created. And in the 70s and early 80s, there was more than making money and becoming a celebrity as reasons to make proper music.
The box set reached me this week and while I’ve had plenty of Philly soul in my collection, it’s never been my favourite disco genre. But, playing these extended beauties as this release intended has opened my ears to how influential the strings, horns and soul has been on modern dance music. Just when I thought the back catalogue for the decent disco and soul had been totally mined, up pops these stunningly remastered gems to further complete my collection. They are of such quality that it puts almost all recent attempts at soul and dance music to shame. I’m looking at you Ms. MDNA et al.

Here’s The Three Degrees  ”Dirty Old Man”.  The remix on the album has a brilliant wee house breakdown at the end which I’m currently obsessed with.

The Guardian in London were hosting an open weekend featuring talks, seminars and performances covering the myriad of content they publish. I was excited to see an evening with Green Gartside (of Scritti Politti) interviewed by their music critic and writer Alexis Demitrius. Not knowing what to expect other than an interview, we arrived to find about 50 people in a meeting room.  The band were set up on a stage and we took our seats.

Green is an intriguing character. If I’m honest the first several minutes of him reading from his notes, about his philosophy on pop and rock from his beginnings in the late 70s and early 80s, went right over my head. Checking off communism, marxism or mental illness  - he summarised it as “theories up the wazoo”. Clearly uber-smart, at times it seemed like he had so much in his head, he didn’t know where to start to express it all.

The interview was billed as celebrating 30 years of his first album Songs to Remember, and covered mostly Scritti’s indie early years and subsequent move into pop. The treat came when they performed a few songs. There was a moment of immense expectation as he stood before the mic as I waited to hear what he would sound like all these years after I feel in love with their pop perfection. The band sounded exactly as I wanted to hear. And that voice!  Sweet, young, crisp, perfect.  The setlist:

Sweetest Girl

Boom Boom Bap

A new song about a dog and cat

Skank Bloc Bologna

Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)

The Cupid & Psyche 1985 album and Provision from 1988 are two of my favourite ever albums and having thrashed them when I was in my 20s in NZ, to sit in a live and intimate gig in London 27 years later and hear him sing was an absolute joy.

 She’s  back! I got very excited when I heard she was returning with an album produced by Nellie Hooper. Admittedly, I haven’t heard much of him in years but his work with Madonna, Bjork and Soul II Soul is good enough for me. She promised something orchestral and it certainly is. But wait, there’s a bit of an Emeli Sande sound? I’m expecting a really strong album, but yearn for something left-field or quirky over a 10 song collection of great, well produced songs.