Search Results for "Karen Schlosberg"

Although singer/guitarist Kirk Brandon’s heart and conscience were obviously in the right place, the intense and ambitious but short-lived Theatre of Hate always carried an air of undeserved hype. The band wielded impressive imagery and confidence and had a manager who released their budget-priced records on his Burning Rome label, but Theatre of Hate’s recorded…

Liverpool’s Hambi and the Dance attempted an interesting combination of synthesized art-rock and traditional rock’n’roll, with mixed results. When ex-Tontrix singer/songwriter Hambi Harambolous draws on influences ranging from Phil Spector and the Searchers to the Roxy/Bowie/Ultravox school, the record can be very impressive (“Living in a Heartache,” “Madelaine”). He is less successful, however, when trying…

The enormous commercial success of Beauty and the Beat in America was not only a welcome breakthrough for new music, but proof that an all-female band could make it big under its own steam and on its own terms, without resorting to an image grounded in male fantasy, be it sex kitten or tough leatherette.…

This overlooked gem of a pop album was criminally ignored in England and never released in the States. The four Keys may wear their influences (mainly the Beatles and their producer, Joe Jackson) a bit too much on their sleeves — several of the songs sound unfortunately like outtakes from Joe’s Look Sharp! — but…

Copenhagen’s Sandmen have an indistinct sound but manage to be pretty charming anyway. The songs on Western Blood (four new tracks were recorded for the American version, omitting five from the original Danish edition) are glossy, commercial guitar-pop, something between a less rootsy Rolling Stones and a synth-free INXS; singer Allan Vegenfeldt has a casual,…

Yazoo (known as Yaz in the US) was one of England’s most engaging synth-pop duets, mostly because of the sharp contrast provided between vocalist Alison “Alf” Moyet’s incredibly rich and soulful voice and the high-tech instrumentation of ex-Depeche Mode synthesist/songwriter Vince Clarke — he of the band’s earliest and fluffiest pop songs like “Just Can’t…

Named for a Sonny Boy Williamson song, London’s underrated Nine Below Zero started out as a cautious but promising R&B cover band but progressed to playing fresh, confident originals by the time of the band’s 1982 breakup. Releasing a live album as a debut is a mite unusual, but Live at the Marquee clearly captures…

Talk Talk’s first album is slick, professional and lifeless, sounding as though it were programmed by British record company execs to be a synth-rock Foreigner. The London group earned some early comparisons to Duran Duran thanks to their double name, producer (Colin Thurston) and similarly superficial veneer. (The two young bands even toured England together…

One of 1982’s bright new chart groups, the six energetic young Londoners of Haircut One Hundred created a crisp mixture of melodic pop and African-American and Latin rhythms, seasoned with horns and an occasional dash of jazz. Haircut’s funk-oriented songs tend to be a bit samey (placing three of them — “Favourite Shirts,” “Lemon Firebrigade”…

From an inauspiciously named punk starting point in Johnny and the Self Abusers, Simple Minds made steady progress after forming in Glasgow in 1978, developing from new wave Roxy Music/Velvet Underground aspirations (a debt renewed on the group’s 2001 covers album, which includes songs by both) to commanding anthemic power inside of three years. Between…

Charming despite frequent bouts of pretentiousness, Welsh-born singer/songwriter Julian Cope (once in a crypto-band called the Crucial Three with future-Echo icon Ian McCulloch and future-Wah! man Pete Wylie) led Liverpool’s great psychedelic hope, The Teardrop Explodes, through two albums before moving on — in the midst of an aborted third — to a solo career.…

As introduced on Michael & Miranda, the Passions (most of whom had been in a London punk band called the Derelicts) appeared to be part of the post-punk movement. The record is characterized by spare arrangements, stark vocals and fairly unmelodic — though lyrically interesting — songs. Subjects like unhappy love (“Oh No, It’s You”)…