3 posts tagged “fon”

Here starts at last my Crooners thread, and I will state right here at the beginning that no songs posted will contain the MMc Factor.  In this case MMc stands not for Microsoft Management Console, but Michael McDonald.  Just as there are certain flavors I can't stand (wintergreen), and certain smells (whatever the key scent in scented toilet paper is), and certain textures (eggplant), so are there sounds I don't like, and one of them is Michael McDonald's voice.  That is the sound I call the MMc Factor.  Other singers have it, too, and that has prevented me from liking music that I would have enjoyed otherwise.  XTC is a prime example; I have a hard time getting past Andy Partridge's MMc Factor.

So with that out of the way I'll segue from Sheffield into Crooners with a Sheffield crooner, John Stuart.  Richard Hawley is currently riding a wave of popularity in the UK as the "Sheffield Sinatra," but in 1987 he played guitar behind velvet-voiced ex-Chakk singer John Stuart on Stuart's only solo single, a cover of Seals and Crofts' "Summer Breeze."  You will never hear a lusher version:

(There's that unmistakable Designers Republic graphic style again.)  Rounding out the backing band, billed as The Heavenly Music Corporation, are Dee Boyle (drums, also from Chakk), Darrell de Silva (sax), Jon Quarmby (keyboards), Justin Bennett (percussion), and Heather Allen (backing vocals), with production by Rob Gordon. 
Alas, that was all from The Heavenly Music Corporation as such.  Stuart would go on to be a member of the Lovebirds (with Hawley) and Magic Bullets.  He now lives in Barcelona and continues making lovely music as one-half of Forgetting, and on his own as, once again, The Heavenly Music Corporation.  (Hooray again for MySpace!)

Back once more to Sheffield and Damon Fairclough's "Destroyed by gods" annotated musical tour.  Fairclough writes:

As the Designers Republic made their first assault on Sheffield's graphics/music interface - in tandem with Leeds' Age Of Chance, it has to be said - they seemed to usher in, or at least popularise to a degree, an age of shouty slogans, sub-graffito clamour and statements smartly-dressed: 'Release the heat'; 'You can live forever'; 'Work Buy Consume Die'.

"Release the heat" comes from Chakk's first single, "Out of the Flesh," released in three mixes as a 12" on Cabaret Voltaire's Doublevision label in 1984.  Mark Brydon's rumbling, elastic bassline is really the song's central motif, echoed by Sim Lister's sax, then there is the other shouty slogan, "Out of the flesh, out of the flesh, taste the sweat!",  followed by the vocal "Ooooh oo-eee-ooooo ooooh" referenced by Fairclough, and bashing along above everything is the gated snare turned up to eleven that marred nearly every single song of the 80s.  Listen closely to the four-tap drum bit at the beginning of the song: isn't that the sound that MTV used between ads and clips for years, along with samples of "There Is No Love Between Us Anymore" by Pop Will Eat Itself and "Peace Sells" by Megadeth?

The way I recall it, music journalist Amrik Rai was so taken with the Sheffield scene in general and Chakk in particular that he started a record label in Sheffield, FON Records.  FON released Chakk's second single, "You," then Chakk got signed to MCA, got a huge advance, spent it all (?) to build FON Studios, added John Stuart as a second vocalist, recorded their album for MCA, Ten Days in an Elevator, the album tanked (it just wasn't that great, they completely lost whatever it was that gave their independent singles a sense of urgency), released two more singles on FON, one as Chakk ("Timebomb," which did recapture the spark) and one as the backing band for South African band Swanhunters ("Bloodsport") (why did a band need a backing bad?  I never understood that), then split up.  FON released a John Stuart solo single ("Black and Blue" backed with a gorgeous version of Seals and Crofts' "Summer Breeze").  Mark Brydon became a producer and then formed Moloko (way too camp for me) in the 90s with singer Roisin Murphy (now a solo artist, recently seen bashing her head on a chair on PerezHilton.com); other members joined other bands that I've never heard at all.  In other words, it all just fizzled out.  But it was great fun there at the beginning!  You can stream a few more Chakk songs at the Chakk MySpace page.

Eric Random (Ramsden) had quite an interesting musical trajectory in the 80s.  He was from Manchester, but after hooking up with Cabaret Voltaire he became more closely aligned with the Sheffield scene.  His first recordings for New Hormones consisted of simple drum machine patterns, basic synth noises, and manipulated tapes, but he began incorporating, on one hand, Middle Eastern and dub styles, and on the other hand, more insistent rhythms, especially after adding drummer Graham "Dids" Dowdall.  This musical journey culminated in 1987 in what I think of as "The Great Lost Worldbeat Album," Ishmael, on FON Records; "lost" because it has never been issued on CD, an oversight I find astounding.  Random weaves Middle Eastern modalities with rock structures and rhythms, acoustic instruments with electronics, danceability with meditation.  In short, it's a masterpiece.  Here is the first track, "Cherish":

I love that bongo/flute jam in the middle!  The album cover doesn't translate well to digital format, it is actually very striking.  "Ishmael" is printed in white-on-white Arabic-style letters using a mask technique, i.e. the cover is glossy except for the letters.  The only thing wrong with this album is its length: only six tracks (one a cover of Collin Walcott's "Hey Da Da Boom") for roughly half an hour of music.  If only there had been more... Eric Random has remained active, sort of, so I suppose I should track down some of his newer material.

I could participate in the Sheffield scene only vicariously, from across the Atlantic, through reading the weekly UK music papers.  I remember reading Amrik Rai's highly enthusiastic review of Hula.  He was so enthusiastic that he founded the FON Records label in collaboration with Mark Brydon of Chakk (coming to the blog soon, maybe).  Hula was already signed to Red Rhino, but FON picked up some closely associated bands (Chakk for one, obviously).  Now that was a label whose every release was a must-buy for me; up until The Funky Worm, that is.  FON records were easy to spot by their distinctive black-and-white-striped spine, which just lapped onto the front cover.  Now that I think of it, and have done a quick Google search, very little of the FON catalog has made it to CD, except what I have ripped from vinyl for myself.  And you!