January 26, 20187 yr Cant believe skinner said springsteen was usa's answer to russ abbott! I laughed out really loudly at that line!
January 28, 20187 yr Anyone ever heard that song in the 1985 top 5 Close by Art of Noise? Pretty good, haven't heard it before but sounds early House?!
January 28, 20187 yr Author Anyone ever heard that song in the 1985 top 5 Close by Art of Noise? Pretty good, haven't heard it before but sounds early House?! Yes, I remember it very well from the time. Hearing it again in 2018 certainly shows it to be ahead of its time.
January 28, 20187 yr Hard to define and as you say really unique for back then! You know a genre was becoming old when Russ Abbot releases a single like Atmosphere which sounds like a Hi NRG track from 18 months previous!!
January 28, 20187 yr Anyone ever heard that song in the 1985 top 5 Close by Art of Noise? Pretty good, haven't heard it before but sounds early House?! Close to the Edit? I don't think its quite house (it doesn't have enough of a beat to it) but like Paul Hardcastle's 19 it kind of paved the way for more underground sounding electronic dance tunes to become hits later in the decade. I was reading recently that the early house producers in the UK went for a different sound with sampling instead of the soulful vocals of house in America so it actually seems possible they were inspired by stuff like Close To The Edit and 19. Another electronic dancey song that sounds ahead of its time on terms of production imo that made the charts in 1985 is Depeche Mode - Its Called A Heart. I really like Depeche Mode's industrial music phase, they should have continued with it a bit longer rather than going alternative rock imo. Edited January 29, 20187 yr by The Snake
January 28, 20187 yr I bought the cassette single of Close (To The Edit) by Art Of Noise at the time which was 20 minutes of different mixes of the song all segued together to make a continuous piece of music. It still sounds incredible today.
January 28, 20187 yr Yeh Close (To the Edit) - def sounds like house or early house as it's hard to define what it is as there seems to be a move away from Hi-NRG which defined late 83/84 and the New Romantics just became pop from 1983 onwards. Of course Hi-NRG still dominated with You spin me round next week but it was for more no1 pop artists whereas the random artists were more experimental like Art of Noise!
January 29, 20187 yr it's hard to define what it is as there seems to be a move away from Hi-NRG which defined late 83/84The Communards (and the Pet Shop Boys with It's A Sin) kept with the HI-NRG sound of course until 1987 though, even as a few of the early house hits were occasionally making the charts ahead of the main trend in 1988. Also in early 1987 is a HI-NRG hit by Man 2 Man (Male Stripper), the lyrics are awful but the production is actually very good! Of course Hi-NRG still dominated with You spin me round next week but it was for more no1 pop artists Its interesting because Hi-NRG was still around a bit in the charts as late as 1989 with The London Boys, Kon Kan and also Erasure's Drama. So the dominance of house didn't completely kill it off. As for 1985, apart from Dead or Alive's songs, HI-NRG strangely didn't really make the charts much compared to 1984 although Bronski Beat still provided the dancier HI-NRG with Hit That Perfect Beat at the end of 1985. As for Dead Or Alive, Spin Me Right Round and Someone In My House are the danciest sounding of their songs I would say. HI-NRG would eventually become mostly more poppified and cheesy towards the end of the decade especially in the Stock Aitken and Waterman productions. The only dancey SAW single in the late 80s I would say would be Sabrina - All Of Me which does sound a bit like a precursor to the early 90s eurodance sound, especially the sound of the synths in it. Edited January 29, 20187 yr by The Snake
January 29, 20187 yr Just out of interest, why are Mike Smith episodes not shown? He refused to sign a piece of paper that would have allowed his episodes to be shown and his estate is continuing to respect his wishes.
January 29, 20187 yr Author He refused to sign a piece of paper that would have allowed his episodes to be shown and his estate is continuing to respect his wishes. It's the BBC who have chosen to respect his wishes. They could show the episodes if they wanted, but have chosen not to. Of course, Sarah Green (his widow) could still give her permission. Whether she does or not may depend on Mike Smith's original reasons for withholding consent.
January 30, 20187 yr The Communards (and the Pet Shop Boys with It's A Sin) kept with the HI-NRG sound of course until 1987 though, even as a few of the early house hits were occasionally making the charts ahead of the main trend in 1988. Also in early 1987 is a HI-NRG hit by Man 2 Man (Male Stripper), the lyrics are awful but the production is actually very good! Its interesting because Hi-NRG was still around a bit in the charts as late as 1989 with The London Boys, Kon Kan and also Erasure's Drama. So the dominance of house didn't completely kill it off. As for 1985, apart from Dead or Alive's songs, HI-NRG strangely didn't really make the charts much compared to 1984 although Bronski Beat still provided the dancier HI-NRG with Hit That Perfect Beat at the end of 1985. As for Dead Or Alive, Spin Me Right Round and Someone In My House are the danciest sounding of their songs I would say. HI-NRG would eventually become mostly more poppified and cheesy towards the end of the decade especially in the Stock Aitken and Waterman productions. The only dancey SAW single in the late 80s I would say would be Sabrina - All Of Me which does sound a bit like a precursor to the early 90s eurodance sound, especially the sound of the synths in it. The novelty track by Russ Abbott sounded a bit like Hi-NRG in 1985!
January 30, 20187 yr The novelty track by Russ Abbott sounded a bit like Hi-NRG in 1985! Oh my, you are talking about All Night Holiday? It is HI-NRG although not as Hi-NRG as the likes of Hit That Perfect Beat. Just listened to it now and it actually reminds me a bit of the Vengaboys from 14 years later in terms of style :o Edited January 30, 20187 yr by The Snake
January 31, 20187 yr Yeh Close (To the Edit) - def sounds like house or early house as it's hard to define what it is as there seems to be a move away from Hi-NRG which defined late 83/84 and the New Romantics just became pop from 1983 onwards. Of course Hi-NRG still dominated with You spin me round next week but it was for more no1 pop artists whereas the random artists were more experimental like Art of Noise! Listening to it now - A-ha's Cry Wolf which charted in early 1987 sounds quite housey or house inspired, particularly in the instrumental bit about halfway through it.
February 1, 20187 yr Author Only just seeing tonight's episode. The highlight has to be my favourite Smiths song.
February 3, 20187 yr Yes,it's easily the best song The Smiths did. From Thursday's programme,I also liked the Killing Joke and Colourfield songs.
February 3, 20187 yr If you are talking about their first hit in the year 1985 yes that is great, definitely one of their best imo. Edited February 3, 20187 yr by The Snake
February 4, 20187 yr The novelty track by Russ Abbott sounded a bit like Hi-NRG in 1985! I do like 'Atmosphere', it gets a lot of criticism I know, but it does have an excellent chorus, and I liked it when I first heard it when I was younger. Never really saw it as a novelty song up until I saw the video for it/realized Russ Abbott is a comedian. Just saw it as a disco song tbh. Edited February 4, 20187 yr by The Snake
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