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April 28, 2009
Ripping Vinyl, part 11
After many years of musical obsession completely removed from a record player, my pile of vinyl now grows incrementally, aided by the quality LP sellers of New York City. Baubles from the treasure chest will be posted here whenever it seems appropriate...
Before we get into this, let me first explicitly state my disapproval for "aural" = "oral" puns. When someone describes a song or a sound as "aural sex" they deserve a sock in the jaw, no exceptions. The freewheeling NYC disco scene of the early 80s is no excuse. So, "Aural Exciters," that's ten demerits (or, you know, one sock in the jaw). On with the praise...
Bob Blank got around. He arrived in New York City in 1973, quickly finding work as a session guitarist (try that career path these days). Two years later, he was opening his own Blank Tape studios, and would eventually engineer or produce "over 500 charted records," not that you can track down a precise list of said. A partial list does the trick though, as he worked on the production for such artists as: Beach Boys, Talking Heads, Donna Summer, Patti Smith, and Sting. He had a finger in both the No Wave and the disco scenes, which continue to seem puzzlingly opposite in retrospect, but as we know were snug as a bug back then. He worked as in-house engineer for some of the best output for the sainted Ze Records, my fondness for which will be familiar to longtime readers. Kid Creole & the Coconuts, James White & the Blacks, Lizzy Mercier Descloux, Lydia Lunch, the Contortions--he was directly involved in most of the label's greats. Funnily enough it seems his day job was recording Sun Ra when most of this stuff was going down. Guy got around.
"Aural Exciters" is billed as Blank's blow-off steam, party production monicker, a claim that's easy to validate with a quick look at the overflowing back of record credits. We have all-time credit classics such as a listing for "Tap Dancing," "Running," and "Bubbles"(?). "Marimba : Rogelio." A vocal credit for "The Mulatto Madness Singers." Geographically and chronologically, it makes perfect sense that James Chance was in this room playing horns, but you have to think he was the wet blanket No Wave guy. Certainly he could not get down like "Sugar-Coated Andy."
The record's title track, and crowning achievement, is "Spooks in Space." The intro is an unimpeachably hilarious send up of the Shirelles' "Mama Said," which I won't quote in full in order to give it the appropriate laugh quotient for the uninitiated. Certainly Mama should have had some more foresight! The ranks of the unfamiliar have been shrunk slightly due to the relatively high profile of Ze's Mutant Disco compilation. But the version on that double CD is the record's "disco mix" which stretches the instrumental vamp out to 5:30, stretches the awesome proto Go! Team girl choruses thin, and doesn't generally add all that much in return. The version below is on the record, a super super super goofy 3 and a half minutes of laser-guided disco-pop, and my preferred (and just coincidentally more obscure I swear) take. Serious grooves are the only serious thing included, which is why Ze hits are so much damn fun. "Ain't ashamed to say I seen a modularistic lunar beam come in on my TV one night." Why would you be?
Aural Exciters - "Spooks in Space"
Previously:
- the Raincoats, live @ the BBC
- Linear Movement play "the Game"
- A hole where the Romeo should be
- Pete Shelley, also a homosapien
- Not nearly the only Stereolab tour-only 7"
- Monochrome Set transcend the singles scene circa '82
- Pylon continue to gyrate, mid-Chomp
- James McNew's home-recordings are so good that I refuse to make a "Dump" pun
Posted by Jeff Klingman at April 28, 2009 11:07 AM
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Comments
Jeff, it IS a pun, and a bad one at that, but Aural Exciter is actually a reference to the Aphex Aural Exciter, a popular piece of signal processing equipment that was very big in the late '70s/early '80s for cleaning up vocals. Think of it as the auto-tune of the Carter-Reagan era.
Posted by: david k ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.merryswankster.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at April 28, 2009 01:11 PM
Well, that's 5 demerits for Aphex, 5 for Bob Blank, and they can share the mouth-punch between them. How'd you like the song? No "I'm an Indian, Too" but appealingly silly...
Posted by: Jeff Klingman at April 28, 2009 01:41 PM
You make a good point: my demerit-issuing frenzy was so profound that I completely forgot to listen to the song, which, now that I listen to it, is another eccentric disco-but-not-quite, shoulda-been-classic that you are so adept at sniffing out. And for that we can be grateful.
Posted by: david k at April 28, 2009 08:55 PM
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