1986. Picture this…
Last call for Electro, please. As the musical landscape of Hip Hop started to change towards a more aggressive Funk laden breakbeat sound, we got a slice of something more than Electro from the UK. A glorious throb of Gregorian choral synth riffage meets the four-to-the-floor swagger vibe of The Harlequin 4’s ‘Set it Off’. This was more than just an Electro homage to the US. Rather, a serious slice of UK Electronic dance music. Salute Max LX and Dave VJ of The Hardrock Soul Movement.
#thatnicesynthbit #hardrocksoulmovement #handstyle #lettering
Enter the Killzone…
Picture this. April 1989 and the infamous Stalingrad neighbourhood of Paris. The four of us left Essex, wide eyed with optimism in search of the best European graffiti. That optimism soon evaporated when we all realised our expensive quality footwear was getting us noticed by the ‘yoof’ of St. Denis for all the wrong reasons. There was no alternative, it was time to splash the cash on a pair of Green Flash. Oh, the shame.
Pictured L - R: Phill M, Mark M, Matty L & Liam H.
@essex_rockerz
#synth #waroftheworlds #cut2kill #essexrockerz
A real pleasure to work with the team on the relaunch of the new @obsmagazine which hits the streets tomorrow. I mean, that new logo just for starters!
Big up @joannacochrane@leeds_mark@lolaemilyw for the immense work and passion they put in here x.
And yes, they got me to do it.
#print #publishing #observermag #photoshop #design
Picture this…
1985. Justin Cronin’s mum had just won £25,000 from some newspaper competition. He got a Diamondback Viper BMX (£149 from Halfords) - I got envy.
Rick Wright on the synths. Less was definitely less when it came to Pink Floyd.
#synth #diamondbackbikes #harrylearyturbo #bmx
Could I take a pic of my hand (at Finchley Road, move it on) and then artwork the image into pure chrome heaven in Potatoshop? Yeah, reckon I could, you know.
Glistening synths, vocoders and a retro nod to a futuristic past era when European robots jammed with P-Funk flavours, all coming together to definitively suggest that Space was indeed the place for tribes of teenagers.
#electro #synths #oldschool #chrome
Leo Gemelli jumpers and Chinese throwing stars.
picture this…
1984 Moulsham High School. Chelmsford.
My classmate Stevey Harris was beginning to make a name for himself as being a bit tasty on his Casio keyboard. By mid 84, he’d already perfected copying the riff to Duran Duran’s The Reflex. So when word got out that he’d mastered Axel F too, I needed to get involved. I could already Imagine standing in Dixons Electrical shop on a Saturday morning in town, nonchalantly playing this riff on one of their demo keyboards? The Kudos. The adulation. The girls!
Stevey duly obliged and taught me the riff. Sadly though, that was it for Stevey’s synth career, announcing shortly afterwards to all of his classmates that he was now “addicted to w*nking” and tossed his keyboard aside - not literally mind you.
What a predicament? But all of us lads understood his ‘trauma’.
#synthesizer #nostalgia #leogemelli #chinesethrowingstars #axelf
DFS - Dodgy ‘effin Sofas
Picture this…
And so Def Jam Records did doth bring a travelling show to London back in 1987. An audience of (prominently) teenage boys turned up to hear songs about bells, radios and machismo and they were not thus disappointed.
However though, one of the rappers would request a sofa to be placed on stage and proceed to gyrate his hips provocatively against the sofa whilst performing his chart hit ‘I Need Love’.
The audience did proceed to show their appreciation for this temporary diversion away from hardcore Rap music with hoots of “you f*#$in wanker” and many an empty bottle of pop did get chucked towards the rapper on that stage.
All was well. All was B.A.D.
#synth #keyboard #llcoolj #sofa
Velodrome photo-finish.
50 x 16 gearing riding with this dude today. In 2008 we rode The Dunwich Dynamo on fixed wheel. 18 years later we returned, this time to the track. Lungs on fire but what a blast. If you ever get the chance, ride the track, let the bike lean you at 42 degrees and go for it. Salute Mark II ❤️
#leevalleyvelodrome #fixed #trackbike
Picture this...
I slowly watched something move across the shed floor. It was covered in dust and I simply presumed it was a large moth that had fallen to the floor as I cleaned the inside of the shed roof. But since when does a moth emit a loud angry buzzing sound? It wasn’t a moth and as the dust fell away, the black and orange stripes confirmed my worst fears.
Fucking Hornet! Run.
This track then, not so much a hornet; but its glorious and dirty fat synth riff could well be the audio equivalent of an angry hornet trying to get airborn whilst covered in vintage analogue dust.
Check this track out, let it play. And then go and check your garden shed.
#synth #lcdsoundsystem #wasp #hornet
Picture this
1977.
There I was, sat in an armchair with a cup of tea, United snack bar and a lap full of undressed Action Man dolls.
Monday night, 7.30pm on BBC1 meant only one thing. Tomorrow’s World and this TV programme’s look into the future. Some proper sci-fi shit going on right there, for real.
Cut to a scene of a tranquil misty lake with an eagle gently gliding above it. And then the soundtrack to this clip blew me away. Breathtaking sequences of melody from what seemed like another universe. Fuck the flares and Alvin Stardust, it was proto-ambient pop, Adidas and synths from here on in.
Coo ca choo, my arse. (Not literally)
Artwork by yours truly in a relationship of Potatoshop and Ay-eye strategy mapping nonsense.
#thatnicesynthbit #synth #1977 #oxygene
