Month: February 2017

Play

Pause

• DonateView DetailsDownloadShare

So my last post for Pump Up the Volume was a hot mess of ideas. I’ve gone back and provided more coherence to my ramblings so as to follow-up with this final set.

These days, I’ve got a lot of ideas running through my tiny brain and the more I read in the Washington Post and the New York Times about our government, the more angry I get. I try to stay away from the Huffington Post because it’s becoming more and more like the progressive left version Breibart (an alt-right nationalist rag). Mind you, I’m not talking about go out and blow-up a bunch of people anarchistic anger but definitely there is a frustration as to how I can channel what I’m seeing into what it is I already do and how that ties in with the electronic music that I promote on these very pages. This leads me to my final musings of the electronic dance music of the 80’s.

One of the genres I intertwined with this series was called ‘industrial’, which was an offshoot of punk. It was poetry laced with anger set to a repetitive electronic beat. While the lyrics to songs like ‘Headhunter’ by Front 242 and ‘Join in the Chant’ by Nitzer Ebb may be simplistic, their relevance today cannot be understated. Mixed in with the sugar-coated more commercial elements of the movement, the meaning gets lost. Taken by themselves, the anger and frustration of the times was as illuminating then as they are pertinent today. To be frank, I don’t what these groups politics are and the left definitely do not have the market cornered on rebellion.

Right now you’re probably scratching your head thinking to yourself ‘what the fuck does this have to do with anything; I just like these songs and remember them well???’

For those that have read my posts over the years, understand that I’ve been a predictor of dance music trends since I started Party Favorz in 2007. The easiest way to do that is look at what’s going on in the underground. Beatport has been a good indicator of that since I started this site. What I’m seeing and hearing is a ton of music that’s moving away from the EPIC to a darker and more sinister pinning of electronic dance. It’s not a mistake that Prok & Fitch with Green Velevet’s ‘Sheeple’ was number for all of January and is still in their top ten.

Don’t get me wrong. I will continue to deliver the light and frothy commercial dance music we’ve all come to know and love from my podcasts. That will never change but…

…I do fully expect continued darkness in the music but with sharper and more pointed political messages in the very near future. I’m just waiting for the DJ’s and producers to properly channel their anger into something that grabs a wider audience rather than the current output which sounds like toddlers playing with tinker toys. 

Things are moving rapidly in the US and the UK and soon Germany, France and possibly other countries as well. With massive social change, ultimately comes unrest and dissent, which in turn leads to protest. This time, it will likely be bigger and louder than ever before. I will do what I can in my limited capacity to express that frustration and anger visually and musically. I’m thinking the Deep Edition will be a good place to start. You heard it here first.

Forget everything I just wrote. Just know that Party Favorz will keep on keeping on but there may be changes in the way I present things up ahead. Until the next time…ENJOY!

Album : Pure Energy | BackSpin 80’s
Artists : Various
Genre : Electronic; Industrial
Length : 1:23:23

1. Erasure – A Little Respect (Extended Mix)

2. When In Rome – The Promise (Long version)

3. Book Of Love – Tubular BellsPretty Boys And Pretty Girls (Regan’s House Medley)

4. Blue Mercedes – I Want To Be Your Property (Razormaid)

5. Pet Shop Boys – Always On My Mind (Razormaid Mix)

6. Dead Or Alive – Something In My House (Razormaid Mix)

7. Patrick Cowley – Megatron Man (Razormaid Mix)

8. C.C.C.P. – American-Soviets (Cameron Paul Mix)

9. Information Society – What’s On Your Mind (Pure Energy) (Hot Tracks Mix)

10. Uptown – (I Know) I’m Losing You (Extended Mix)

11. Animotion – Obsession (Razormaid Mix)

12. New Order – True Faith (Shep Pettibone Remix)

13. Real Life – Send Me An Angel ’89 (Dance Mix)

Play

Pause

• DonateView DetailsDownloadShare

Continuing where we left off yesterday, the 80’s was a dearth of diversity in musical styles. The primary focus over these three volumes includes industrial music and it’s more commercial off-spring.

If anyone watches AMC’s ‘Catch and Halt’ Fire’ you get a really good feel for the time, the music and the burgeoning scene in computers in the early 80’s. My best friend Dan had purchased a used Mackintosh from the local pawn shop along with a dot matrix printer. You know the kind, the paper had holes down the side so it could move along as it was being printed. The only thing he could really do on his computer was type his school papers and print them. Of course, he could also play ping pong or space invaders, which was pretty cool. Dan took his passion for computers and landed a gig with the burgeoning Dell computers there in Austin. Everybody knows who Dell is, so I’d say Dan is sitting pretty at the movement.

Our other friend SJ or Sequoya disappeared off the face of the earth when his father called him back home for good. He had a drinking problem that he just couldn’t keep under control, which was a shame because he was a super nice guy. I think he’s married and a lawyer now or something. Then there’s Dale. An unfortunate accident stemming from a nasty divorce that had left him permanently scarred and financially ruined took him years to get out from under it. Last I heard, he found his calling and was living in a commune smoking a bunch of pot.

Me, I was just s shithead going to clubs on 6th street in Austin and sneaking out at night to hook up with some strangers in an alley.

It wasn’t until ten years later that I purchased my first computer at the end of the semester in 1998 and spent the winter break taking it apart and putting it back together again to better understand how it worked.That was the point I officially became a geek.

The music at the time stands for itself and I’ll go into more of its darker underpinnings in the next post. Until then…ENJOY!

Album : Pump Up the Volume | BackSpin 80’s
Artists : Various
Genre : Electronic; Industrial
Length : 1:27:42

1. Yello – Oh Yeah (Dance Mix)

2. Boys Don’t Cry – I Wanna Be A Cowboy (Extended Mix)

3. New Order – Blue Monday ’88 (12” Mix) (Hot Tracks Mix)

4. Depeche Mode – Strangelove ’88 (Highjack Mix)

5. Information Society – Running (12” Vocal Remix Version)

6. M.A.R.R.S. – Pump Up The Volume (Ultimix)

7. KTP – Certain Things Are Likely (Original Extended Mix)

8. Nitzer Ebb – Join In The Chant (Long Version)

9. Paul Hardcastle – 19 (Disconet Remix)

10. Depeche Mode – People Are People (Razormaid)

11. Kon Kan – I Beg Your Pardon (Hot Tracks Remix)

12. Talk Talk – It’s My Life (Hot Tracks Remix)

13. Echo & The Bunnymen – Lips Like Sugar (Extended Remix)

14. Pet Shop Boys – West End Girls (Ultimix remix)

15. Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Relax (Ultimix Version)

16. Dead Or Alive – You Spin Me ’round (Like A Record) (Razormaid Remix)