Short Circuit Presents Mute

Short Circuit Electronic Music Festival returns with two days hosted by the influential label Mute. In a celebration of Mute's unique culture this event will include performances from artists past, present and future including DJ sets by Martin L. Gore, Daniel Miller, Moby and Andy Fletcher as well as special performances by Erasure, Alison Moyet, Recoil and many many more.The festival begins on May 13, 2011 with an evening hosted by German label Raster-Noton, featuring the world premiere of a new collaborative piece by Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto.

http://www.roundhouse.org.uk/short-circuit

Instant Hit: Lustt- Pillow Talk

"Pillow Talk" is a fantastic example from the golden age of Italo Disco and it was released both as 7" and 12" single backed with Instrumental Dub version. BMC records from Belgium gave birth to this single by releasing it in 1983. Sadly it remained the only output by this producer, group or act called Lustt.

Lustt- Pillow Talk

Depeche Mode- Remixes 81-11

On June 6, 2011, Depeche Mode will release Remixes 2: 81-11 on Mute. An inspiring collection of new and classic mixes of material covering their entire career, the album includes remixes of tracks from their 1981 debut 'Speak And Spell', through to 2009's 'Sounds Of The Universe', and is the follow-up to 2004's million-plus selling Remixes 81-04. These remixes reinforce Depeche Mode's standing as one of the world's most influential and innovative acts.

http://www.depechemode.com/news

80's Duets: Philip Oakey & Giorgio Moroder- "Good-Bye Bad Times"

In 1985 Philip Oakey took a break from the Human League and teamed up with Giorogio Moroder to record a collaborative album. The album is most notable for containing the song "Together in Electric Dreams", which was the title track for the movie Electric Dreams and a major hit single. "Good-Bye Bad Times" was released during the same year, never reached the success of the first single, but the video for the song was quite a high budget production filmed in black and white, directed by Steve Barron set in 19th century London.

 

A Flock of Seagulls Reissued

Cherry Red Records have reissued two albums by A Flock of Seagulls. Their self tiitled and debut which was originally released in 1982 and peaked at number 32 in the UK album charts is reissued for the third time. This version is a 15 track CD which features the 11 original tracks of the album plus 4 bonus tracks. The record contains timeless singles:"Telecommunication","I Ran" and "Space Age Love Song".

Their fourth studio album 'Dream Come True' dating from 1986 is reissued for the second time. This 14 track CD features the nine original tracks of the album plus five essential bonus tracks including the 7" & 12" single versions of "Who's That Girl (She's Got It)" and "Heartbeat Like A Drum". Both albums were originally released by Jive records between 1982 and 1986.

For track listings and more information go to this site.

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Duran Duran Sound, David Lynch Vision

First Installment of Unstaged 2011 will feature Duran Duran's performance coinciding with the release of the band’s 13th studio album and their first official tour since 2008. Duran Duran are also excited to confirm special guests Mark Ronson and Kelis at the American Express UNSTAGED Event on March 23rd (today) live from LA. Award-winning filmmaker David Lynch has been enlisted to capture the performance, providing fans with a visually stunning home viewing experience.

http://duranduranmusic.com/

Peter Murphy- New Single, Album, Tour

Former Bauhaus frontman Peter Murphy will release his ninth album 'Ninth' on June 7, 2011 making his debut on Nettwerk Music Group. "I Spit Roses" is the first single to be taken form the album is out, available on itunes or as a stream via Soundcloud. Peter is also touring, check out his page for tour dates and ticket info.

Kate Bush- Director's Cut

Kate Bush will release a compilation album 'Director's Cut' which features some of her classic songs from her albums 'The Sensual World' and 'The Red Shoes', re-recorded in new arrangements. The album will be released on May 16, 2011, as a digital album, CD in a case-bound book and a Deluxe version. The first single to be taken from the album is an updated version of her classic "Deeper Understanding" and it is scheduled for release in April.

www.katebush.com

Alphaville- Song for No One (Official Video)

Alphaville's new single "Song for No One" was released earlier this March. It's the second song taken from the album 'Catching Rays on Giant' and here is the fantastic video that was recorded for this song.

(C) 2011 Marian Gold under exclusive license to Universal Music Domestic Pop, a division of Universal Music GmbH

The Golden Hour Of The Human League

The Original Human League

In April, 1979 The Human League released their first EP under Fast Record entitled ‘The Dignity of Labour’, which contained four experimental instrumentals. Although the EP barely charted, major record labels began approaching the band. Eventually in May 1979, the band accepted an offer by Richard Branson's Virgin Records. The band recorded and released their first full studio album Reproduction in August, 1979. Both the album and the single "Empire State Human" failed to make any impact on the charts.
In 1980, the band released their second album Travelogue and made their first TV appearance on BBC TV Top of the Pops. The re-release of “Empire State Human" failed to make any good chart impacts and due to their lack of commercial success, Virgin refused to release further singles from Travelogue and the general discontent among the members led to internal conflict within the band. Oakey and Ware often quarreled over creative and personal matters. Ware insisted the band maintain their pure electronic sound while Oakey wanted to emulate more successful pop groups. In the same year Ware decided to quit the band with Ian Craig Marsh joining him. Ware and Marsh became Heaven 17.

The Human League 'Mk2'

After Ware and Marsh departed from the Human League, Phil Oakey carried on with the name and he was responsible for all Human League debts and commitments. The Human League also had to pay Ware and Marsh one percent of royalties of the next Human League album under the Virgin contract. With the tour only ten days away promoters started threatening to sue Oakey if the tour was not completed as contracted. To complete the tour, Oakey had to recruit new people in a matter of days. Oakey and his then girlfriend went into Sheffield city centre on a Wednesday night with the intention of recruiting a single female backing vocalist. After looking in various venues, they visited the Crazy Daisy Nightclub on High Street where Oakey spotted two teenage girls dancing together on the dance floor. Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall were just schoolgirls on a night out together. Neither had any experience of singing or dancing professionally. With no preamble, Oakey asked both girls to join the tour as dancers and incidental vocalists. Phil said that having two female vocalists/dancers would also add potential glamour to the band. Another two band members joined the band Ian Burden from Sheffield synth band Graph who was covering the keyboards for the tour due to departure of Ware and Marsh. In April 1981, the fifth final member of the group was joining the band, another professional musician who used to play in the band called the Rezillos. The Mk2 Human League formation was now complete.

Dare!

Dare is considered as the Human League’s most successful album to date. The musical style of the band has rapidly changed with the new Human League formation leaving the experimental e avant-garde electronic style to the past and welcoming the new commercial synth pop sound. ‘Dare!’ was recorded between March and September 1981 and first released in the UK on 20 October 1981, then subsequently in the U.S. in mid-1982. The album was produced by none other than the veteran producer Martin Rushent who was an expert on emerging music technologies of the time. During 1981 the group enjoyed huge commercial success with both the album and the singles. The fourth single “Don’t You Want Me Baby” reached the top positions in the UK and USA. Dare became critically acclaimed and has proved to be a genre-defining album, whose influence can be felt in many areas of pop music today.

"Don’t You Want Me"

"Don't You Want Me" is a single by British synthpop group The Human League, released from their third album: Dare on 27 November 1981. It is the band's best known and most commercially successful recording to date, and was the Christmas number one in the UK where it sold over 1,400,000 copies, making it the 25th most successful single in UK Singles Chart history.

The lyrics were originally inspired after lead singer Philip Oakey read a story in a "trashy US tabloid" and the very expensive and elaborate promotional video for the song was created by filmmaker Steve Barron. The Music video was a very new phenomenon and cable TV station MTV had only just started up to capitalize on this new media but had very little material to work with. Virgin Records syndicated the video to MTV which was played around the clock. The video is credited for making Oakey, Sulley and Catherall visual icons of the early 1980s.

Source: Wikipedia (edit)

The Rise of Human League (Part I)
The Human League- Hysteria (Part III)

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