Search Results for "Tony Fletcher"

That avant-garde industrial dance music produced by Belgian art terrorists could compete in the early-’90s American mainstream says much for the progress of the digital beat through the ’80s. While Front 242’s early records (best exemplified by their debut album, Geography) were firmly rooted in the clinically crisp synthesized sound of Kraftwerk and Cabaret Voltaire,…

London DJs Matt Black and Jonathan More were at the vanguard of the British warehouse party scene, and their dissection of popular dance music into “bootleg” records full of samples made them a name on trendsetters’ lips from the start. Yet had these collagists never done anything after pairing the wailing of Ofra Haza to…

Paul Walden was not the only former rock’n’roll musician to be converted by Britain’s dance explosion of the late 1980s. He was, however, one of the first (after Adamski) to recognize the masses swaying to records at all-night raves as a potential audience. Arriving on stage — often uninvited — with portable keyboards and a…

With its aggressive music and Teutonic name, casual listeners may assume Nitzer Ebb to be of German origin when, in fact, the trio is from the tranquil English town of Chelmsford. Nonetheless, this is one angst-ridden band: seizing on simple catchphrases (shouted more often than sung or rapped), minimal synthesized hooklines and pounding, cathartic beats,…

The convoluted adventures of the musically fascinating Tackhead collective began when the members of New Jersey disco/rap label Sugar Hill’s house band — Keith LeBlanc (drums, percussion, keyboards), Doug Wimbish (bass) and Skip McDonald (guitar) — collided with British dub producer Adrian Sherwood. In addition to working with Mark Stewart and releasing singles as Fats…

The Belgian duo of Mark Ickx (ex-Extraballe) and Chrismar Chayell first emerged in 1986 with an imaginatively upbeat instrumental dance track, “Flesh.” Despite the promise of a bright future in that vein, A Split-Second wanted desperately to be perceived as a band and, on their next record (“Rigor Mortis”) introduced deep, morbid vocals to prove…

At a time when it seemed Britain’s rave culture of vast warehouse and outdoor acid house parties might cultivate a generation oblivious to the concept of live performance, the then-teenage Adamski hauled his synthesizers up onstage alongside the star DJs and reintroduced the notion. This novel approach made him an overnight star, the catchy debut…

Much has been made of the fact that two members of Meat Beat Manifesto — dancer/choreographer Marcus Adams and costume/set designer Craig Morrison — have no musical input. But the group’s commitment to the visual aspect of its stage presentation shouldn’t create the impression that the audio side can’t stand up on its own. In…

As a dark and moody British independent rock act, Camberwell, London’s Beloved floundered in obscurity for much of the late ’80s, releasing a series of unsuccessful singles (eventually compiled as Where It Is). Comparisons to early New Order are inevitable, not just because of the similarity between Jon Marsh’s plain-but-comforting vocals and those of Bernard…

Trained neither as a musician or producer, Mark Moore was instead a young DJ deeply involved in Britain’s dance scene. In the spring of 1988, his aggressively erotic British No. 1 hit “Theme from S’Express,” along with debut hits by Bomb the Bass and Coldcut, opened the doors for a whole legion of young DJs…

Understandably for a trio of sociology and philosophy students who began as a theater group, Borghesia’s music is arty, grandiose and pretentious; however, as a band emerging from a repressed society (Yugoslavia) to create its own movement (the New Slovenian Art scene, along with Laibach), Borghesia is also intriguing and provocative. Lacking Laibach’s fascistic bent,…

Tim Simenon was only 19 years old when he recorded a relentless dance collage of stolen sounds and break beats entitled “Beat Dis” in early 1988. Released under the name Bomb the Bass, the single was not just a major hit in Britain and a club smash in America, but the birth of the DJ…

Originating as DJs and warehouse party promoters, the three members of Renegade Soundwave have always shown as much enthusiasm for dance beats and studio gimmickry as for actual songs. A home in the multi-ethnic west London enclave of Ladbroke Grove has also instilled in them the love of reggae and dub that is evident from…

The Chicago duo of Van Christie and Jim Marcus possesses a wide range of stylistic interests (the former has a guitar-rock background; both have experience in house and techno music and a fondness for samples, industrial percussion and a pounding dance beat), all of which come together on the promising Disco Rigido. Though the opening…

This stylish Manchester pop quartet somehow managed to bring something of its own to much-traveled terrain, making songs like the melodic “Up the Down Escalator” and the far denser “Don’t Fall” moody and memorable. Bassist Mark Burgess recalls Psychedelic Fur Richard Butler’s world- weariness in his singing; the band’s playing is, however, generally lighter in…