The Young Gods - Gasoline Man
That was the very first time (everything seems to have happened for the first time in the Nineties...no, wait, I'm sure I got drunk after my First Communion party when no one was watching the table...) I've heard The Young Gods. Those were times of pre-copyright era in Poland which resulted in the marked being saturated with cheap copies of Modern Talking cassettes. Or the nearest equivalent you can think of. Getting music was extremely easy then. With no royalties to pay and production costs getting cheaper every day (generic cassettes, booklets? what booklets!) even my modest pocket money was enough to visit music shops (well, that's an overstatement, they were very often just a small, dingy places trading music, socks and all the plastic shite Mother Russia ever manufactured) and come out with 5 - 7 tapes in one go. The production was shambolic and the track order very often messed up but you could get a lot of unusual stuff. And the same rule applied to the newly emerged private TV stations. One of them was called Top Canal and specialised in airing bad VHS copies (with subtitles done by a random guy with a pocket dictionary) of American films. And as it happens, Top Canal became a home of an absolute gem. A music slot (measly 30 minutes a day if I remember well, so correct me Big K if your memory fares better on that one) prepared by the future 'star' of Polish music journalism Robert Leszczyński. This man and my then very good friend Paweł Kowalski were the people responsible for hooking me on The Young Gods. First, Paweł copied for me the TV Sky album to listen to and coincidentally within weeks after that Mr. Leszczyński prepared a whole edition dedicated to the Swiss band. Gasoline Man was the first song from The Young Gods I've heard and the first video I saw. I absolutely fell in love with its harsh, repetitive rhythm and from the moment I've heard it I knew that sample-based music will become important to me. Once again, I was absolutely right and more examples of that will follow...
Public Image Ltd. - Acid Drops
As I am writing these words on Thursday, the 2nd of June 2011 I have only four days left to finally see P.I.L. live for the first time in my life. Would I believe that to be ever possible back in 1992? I think I was hoping that they'd come to Poland but even then it would be rather unlikely for me to be able to afford it or I wouldn't bother travelling should the gig be organised some place far from home. Fast forward nineteen years and guess what, some things come for those who wait. Not that I had any hope left, That What Is Not was the last studio album and although Lydon did mention in recent years that he'd happily re-enter the recording studio, it is heavily dependent on the takings from the last year's and current tour. Well, I'm sure as hell doing my bit!
As for the track, it might be surprising how light and cheerful the tune is but then again, let's not forget they've already done Don't Ask Me by then (Jonathan, watch the video under the link, there's a dinosaur there! Well, sort of...) and it's only first half of the song anyway :) What I could never understand about P.I.L. though is how come that such a brilliant, innovative and original band never became more influential. Maybe it's a problem with Lydon's past and the so called general public only focusing on the Sex Pistols bit while not caring about what he's done after? It's a real shame though since P.I.L. has always been so much better and interesting band, and where Lydon was able to actualy communicate something instead of just being Malcolm McLaren's stage puppet. I would happily submit the whole album here and choosing just one song from it was a real pain but rules are rules so Acid Drops it is then. It's a great opening track and the way it drifts into the Sex Pistols sample at the end is quite poignant as well.
The KLF - America: What Time Is Love? (Uncensored)
Oh. My. God. What a mindfuck that was... The KLF came from nowhere and made the Operation Desert Storm look like Waiting for Godot performed by the Dementia Care Home Association's most prolific members. Above I've linked the shorter version for which I could find the original video but in my selection I've included the nine minutes version you can listen to HERE.
Again, I can remember very well the first time I was blasted by this song. Since my school was fairly modern, in each classroom we had a TV and a VHS player (and also a satellite TV allowing us to have MTV on every break) and one day one of my friends just brought a tape on which he managed to record America at home. Now, let's be frank here, his main interest did lay in the pair of jumping tits (they've not escaped my attention either) but the energy, the madness of the whole song simply swept me from my feet. I still find it risky to play that song in the car. It would probably make the speed cameras very happy indeed.
The Cure - Apart
Now we're talking... When the Wish album came out a lot of original The Cure charm had died. Every single radio station in the known universe decided to collectively butcher the Friday I'm in Love by playing it twice an hour, every day, for six months. For which act of despicable cruelty to music everyone responsible for putting this song into the playlists and on the air should be punished by making them listen to Black Eyed Peas until they puke themselves out to death. But it wasn't all bad news though. Wish was a fantastic (if underrated) album. With Open, From the Edge Of the Deep Green Sea, Doing the Unstuck, A Letter to Elise and To Wish Impossible Things it was filled with great songs that simply never made it big because of the Friday I'm in Love overplay murder. Why Apart then? Well, the answer is much simpler than you'd expect from such a sophisticated gentleman I'm not. Laaaydies! The main attribute of being goth is, obviously, being depressed. And for some reason it really goes well with certain type of teenage girls. And therefore I was making attempts at accessing their torment-starved hearts with compilation tapes of the most depressing songs I could find. Apart was a crown jewel in each one of them.
I can obviously see you now wondering, if it ever worked and, considering how much time has passed and that I'm not trespassing on anyone's privacy, I can reveal the truth now.
Not even once.
HERE's the actual album version, with the obligatory naff, fan-created video.
Alice in Chains - Rooster
This one is actually quite difficult. At the beginning of the Nineties I had a bit of a problem with grunge. I really loved Smells Like Teen Spirit when it first hit the radio, but two weeks later it felt like my every dump was smelling of Teen Spirit. I simply couldn't deal with the fact that every disco-techno-I'm-a-child-of-a-cheap-beer-and-tracksuit-trouserleg shithead suddenly was a devoted Nirvana fan. And Alice in Chains only made things worse. When I saw Them Bones video I actually laughed at loud. I couldn't believe how could anyone rip off the Faith No More (even compare the way Layne and Mike Patton looked like back then!) so much and expect to be taken seriously. I must admit that back then every time I was referring to Alice in Chains I would only use words even Kurt Kobain's house cleaner would find strong.
And then the Rooster happened. Don't get me wrong, it didn't make me change my view and become friends with Alice in Chains, let alone the whole of the grunge scene. But personal dislike aside I just had to admit how important and remarkable that song was. And since in those mythical times the music television actually played music, it is very likely that I've heard it first time while seeing the video as well. And it absolutely shocked me. I've seen Platoon, I've seen Apocalypse Now and yet, even now I find it almost too difficult to watch. Maybe it's because how personal the song is, maybe it's for the image of Layne's dad breaking up under the weight of his memories, and maybe also because it's actually very well directed. One of the most important songs of the Nineties and who knows if not the most important video.
Didn't make me shed a tear after Layne's stupid death though. No sympathy for junkies :->
Leonard Cohen - Waiting For The Miracle
It may seem a little bit unusual for a teenager to be a fan of Leonard Cohen. Even more considering that when The Future was released in 1992 I was already a devoted Cohen fan. You'd be also forgiven to think that it is unusual for a goth to be a Leonard Cohen fan. But then you only need to check where The Sisters Of Mercy took their name from. For me, it didn't matter much. I simply grew up with that enchanting voice, and the Various Positions and I'm Your Man albums were absolutely huge in Poland. Sometimes I think that Poland was a place where he's always been popular far more than anywhere else in the world, even including his homeland - Canada. Well, it only shows what you've missed. With The Future though, I wasn't all that wowed with the whole album. Especially the Closing Time and Democracy I found musically disappointing. But The Future and Waiting For The Miracle were up there with the greatest from the first moment I've heard them. And then, out of the blue, something absolutely incredible had happened. I don't think there has ever been another film that would trouble me emotionally so much. I remember that after I've left the cinema, I felt like I was so pissed off I'd start shouting at anyone who'd try to talk to me. Having Waiting For The Miracle in the very opening of the film just added another stamp of significance to that song for me.
Bel Canto - Die Geschichte Einer Mutter
I didn't exactly discover Bel Canto in the process of actively searching for music but this band, as many many others I've just heard on the radio. Which radio (Trójka) and who played it (Tomek Beksiński) could be subjects for small books in their own rights so I'm going to skip this part altogether. Enough said, it was Friday night and the show would only start at 1 a.m. Listening to it every week (for two hours if you could make it) required dedication but it would also reward aplenty. Bel Canto was simply another band which would fit the profile of the show and during one of those nights I've heard the bigger part of the Shimmering Warm And Bright album. Resistance would have been futile. But I didn't even try. It was an album that as a whole poured into my heart like a glacier of warm honey but then it set and trapped me inside like mosquito in amber. Die Geschichte Einer Mutter is one of the two tracks on this album I took to liking most but it's the story in this one that pushed it to the top spot and granted it a place in my favourite songs from the Nineties. And for those who can't understand any German... well, tough. Your loss. At least you can still enjoy Anneli Drecker's voice.
Laibach - Wirtschaft Ist Tot
For the purpose of the blog I've got a bit of a problem with Laibach. Should I get myself into an encyclopedic essay and go on for three days or cut to the chase assuming everyone interested will do their homework on their own (which will never happen and I'm not even deluding myself about it). Some think that the likes of Rage Against The Machine were politically involved bands. Some would think that Radiohead is a pinnacle of avant-garde. Some others still would claim that the only good bands in this world are either British or American. All this people should come together, put on their roughest sackcloth garments and roll a red carpet for Laibach. It is simply impossible to summarise this band in a short paragraph. As cult bands go, they're gods. Full stop. I remember very well when another of my school friends, who introduced me to a lot of other fantastic music, lent me the Opus Dei album to have a listen to. There was a slight problem though. It would take me another four years to get my first CD player... I've made a few phone calls and lo and behold, same evening I found myself at my dear friend Marta's place. I don't actually think she's ever forgiven me for introducing Laibach into her life though :D Just have a look HERE and HERE to see why. It was not everybody's cup of tea, that has to be said. And even though I didn't know that much about the band back then, I knew instantly that it couldn't have been just for fun. That those bizarre covers of pop songs were not there for amusement. It took me a few more years to build a more complete picture of Laibach's philosophy, to find out about the NSK and become a devoted fan. But that evening when for the first time Milan Fras' voice hit my eardrums will forever remain with me, heavily tinted with nostalgia, as my THE Laibach experience. The track I have chosen here comes from the album Kapital, far more electronic and mostly instrumental. In the Nineties Laibach also released NATO and Jesus Christ Superstar albums, both of which gave them mainstream recognition and even (mostly thanks to the Final Countdown cover) some radio airtime and popularity. But, as opposed to decent albums with a few good tracks on them, I definitely prefer Kapital as a whole. And from it, Wirtschaft Ist Tot stands out enough to get the honour of representing Slovenians in my choice from this decade.
Obywatel G.C. - Powoli Spadam
There was a time, when we would all have to take sides. The youth of People's Republic of Poland had to declare themselves as either Republika or Maanam fans. Animosities ensued. Should I be old enough I would definitely have been in the Republika camp. And in a way I was. When Republika took a little break and their leader, composer and singer started a solo career as Obywatel G.C. (Citizen G.C. - Grzegorz Ciechowski) I pretty much became a fan. In November 1988 Obywatel G.C. played a concert in Warsaw (in a venue that would still be used for the communist party assemblies). Being in my very, very early teens I wasn't really going to mingle with the punks that formed majority of Republika and Ciechowski's fans so my dad took me there. My. First. Proper. Concert. Ever. I remember some of it. I remember two black walls of speakers on both sides of the stage, speakers that were bought in England (someone must have paid some real money for them, not our useless communist ones) and the fact that I wore a pair of brand new jeans. Well, they looked jeans-like enough but were made of our very own, Polish denim which resembled original slightly in colour. They felt like two cardboard tubes around my legs. When the sound kicked in, they were trembling on me. Never before have I experienced anything like it. After Grzegorz CIechowski's death in 2001 two comprehensive box sets were released - one for Republika and one for Obywatel G.C. A lot of previously unreleased material saw a daylight for the first time. Among them, the recording of that amazing concert from 1988. It sounds astonishing. I do believe that both Republika and Obywatel G.C. recorded their best music in the Eighties especially after Ciechowski's writing started becoming more and more personal
but Powoli Spadam is still a very nice song, even if every week I change my mind as to which Ciechowski's song should be my favourite from the Nineties :)
Peter Murphy - Keep Me From Harm
It's amazing how many times I would discover an artist, become a big fan and then realise that I've already known them before because of a popular single or two some years back. With Murphy it was even more complicated. Obviously, I already knew Cuts You Up, after all, who didn't? But I only knew it from the radio and as much as I liked the song, I wasn't making too much of it. And then at some point I saw that video and thought 'wait-a-minute... that guy looks familiar'. First I though he looked like someone who escaped from the Siouxsie And The Banshees but I could not find any reference to that in the materials I had on the band. Quite how I wasn't able to make the Bauhaus connection then (I already knew Burning From The Inside by heart) still remains a total mystery to me. I have nothing in my defense. But at some point the click has been made which only made Murphy even bigger in my eyes. The first two songs (apart from Cuts You Up) I've heard - again my big thanks to Paweł Kowalski - were Keep Me From Harm and Let Me Love you from the Holy Smoke album. Now, I don't want to jump into conclusions but depending on a day, Keep Me From Harm could be my favourite Peter Murphy track. Well, at least every time I hear it, that's exactly what I think.
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