Ultravox - Vienna 12"

After a desperate piece of keeping up with the Moggieboys, I recently splashed out on one of the reportedly few Neu! vinyl box sets that reached the shores of the UK. Those early albums still sound utterly amazing, even if buying them again was a total extravagance, beautiful though the package is.

Reading through the lavish booklet about the circumstances of those early sessions, I was set on a train of thought about the producer of that early stuff, Conny Plank and have been seeking out other stuff I have with his name on.

It wasn't long then, before I happened upon the first post John Foxx Ultravox album, "Vienna", and blow me down if it isn't sounding bloody great. Have a listen to this excellent 12" and you'll see what I mean. This single is worth the price of admission for the non album B-Sides alone, the second of which, "Herr X" is a German language version of "Vienna" album highlight, "Mister X".

Does anyone know who the voice is on this version? Could it actually be Herr Plank?

EDIT: Consensus from Team CiS seems to be that it's Warren Cann on "Herr X'. You guys rock!

Meanwhile, I'm revisiting the other Midge Ure period Ultravox stuff, which I'm rather enjoying. Maybe more nuggets will appear here over the coming weeks.

Vinyl rip at 320 Kbps.

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Visage - The Damned Don't Cry 7"

Enough with the maudlin shit. Let's have some fun.

The recent and ongoing popularity of 80's inspired electropop has given me the excuse, if one were needed, to dig out some more Visage. And at the risk of temporarily transmogrifying into one of those Eastern European blogs that post this stuff without distance or irony, I hereby reserve the right to have my cake and eat it by posting this stuff inside big inverted commas, while secretly being as filled with love for it as I always have been (off and on) throughout the years.

This is from the brilliant second album, which is MUCH better than the first. By this time McGeoch had exited, but even better, Barry Adamson had turned up. So what we have is some of Magazine and some of Ultravox all topped off with just a little too much Steve Strange. I seem to remember that the Helmut Newton photo shoot was more expensive than the recording budget for the whole album. How Eighties. And worth every penny.

The instrumental B side, "Motivation" is a solid classic which genuinely sounds like a funked up Magazine sans Devoto, but with that Adamson bass in FULL effect. Genuinely fantastic.

I'll be posting the second album, "The Anvil" in all it's glory over the next few days. You lucky bastards.

Vinyl rip at 320 Kbps.
Full artwork.

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