"overdose" || tomcraft || 2001

Back in the later 80's, ravers had acid house music to listen to at their parties. This same crowd still exists today, but most of them seem to listen to trance. Trance music has a massive following all over the world. Trance DJ's (and listeners too) seem to have been quite successful in creating a subculture that surrounds their hypnotic tunes.

I'll be honest though; the stuff doesn't do a lot for me. I find it machinist and repetitive, which, from what I can tell, are the same qualities that trance fans adore about this music.

It's hard to say why this one trance tune struck a chord with me, when no others have ever been able to. It's sexy. It's macabre. It also tells the story of a girl who suffers a fate that's probably due to a lot of people who live this trance lifestyle. It's an amusing thought that people hear this song in clubs and more than likely don't take its story to heart. They just keep moving their bodies to the trance groove, dancing the night away.

There's something sickeningly pleasing about a song that warns of the dangers of a certain lifestyle while providing its soundtrack at the same time.

Listen to it here.

"magic carpet ride" || bardeux || 1987

Alright, I'll admit it: I'm having a love affair with Hi NRG music, and what's worse; I'm emotionally attached. I often think about it before I go to sleep at night, or while I'm on a long car ride. Sometimes I think about its absence from today's music scene and I have to watch Seinfeld reruns to make myself feel better.

Okay, so it's ot quite that extreme, but you get the point. I love the stuff. It's my favorite style of electronic music. The structure of the beat in Hi NRG is what I find so fascinating. If you listen closely, you'll hear two distinct rhythms to which you can dance: a quicker, "high energy" beat (if you shake every beat, on the beat), and a slower, sexier groove (if you shake every other beat). That subtle amalgam of dancing and sexual energy is sublime.

Bardeux were more than two pretty faces; they were two extremely sexy faces. Actually, by the time they broke up, they were a total of four sexy faces. Stacy "Acacia" Smith (the blonde) was the only one who remained with the group through both of their albums. Her first partner in the duo was Tairrie B., who sang only on the single "Three-Time Lover" before leaving the group (in what would eventually surface as not-so-good terms) and pursuing other musical interests. Lisa "Jaz" Teaney then stepped in and sang the rest of the tracks on Bold As Love with Acacia. For Bardeux's second album, 1990's Shangri-La, Acacia sang with Melanie Taylor.

Acacia continued working as a producer of dance music into the 1990's. Tairrie B. went on to record a gangsta hip-hop album called The Power Of A Woman, on which there appears a track called "Ruthless Bitch." In the song, she takes several shots at both Acacia and Jon St. James, the group's producer (and a member of SSQ). She then fronted the hardcore death metal band Manhole / Tura Satana and is currently the lead singer (if you can call it that) of My Ruin. Jaz faded into complete obscurity, and Melanie Taylor appeared in liner notes as a vocalist as recent as 2001.

Bold As Love and, more importantly, today's track represent Bardeux as they were at their prime. They're youthful, extremely attractive, full of energy, and offering an irresistible dance floor invitation. Watching the clip below will give you a window into what it looks like to HAVE FUN making music.

Listen to it here.

"fred vom jupiter" || die doraus & die marinas || 1982

The beautiful thing about new wave music was that the listener really never had any idea what he or she was in for. "New Wave" might indicate a nice chip off of the post punk block, with gnashing political lyrics, hard guitars and a minor key. It might also indicate machinist, robotic synthesizer music with disharmonious (or sometimes eerily harmonious) lyrics about the bleakness of life.

It might also indicate complete fucking ridiculousness.

Which brings me to today's track: "Fred Vom Jupiter."

Do you even have to hear a single note of this song to know that it's going to be ridiculous? Of course not. (That's the beauty of new wave.) I would rate this song near the absurdity level of Nina Hagen's "New York / N.Y."

I don't speak German, but I did run the lyrics through an online translator. From what I can gather, Fred was a very dapper alien who came from a star near Jupiter and swept the Earth ladies off their feet with his golden hair, much to the dismay of the fellas in town. Sounds sort of like the plot to Earth Girls Are Easy, doesn't it?

Any way you look at it, this song aims to please, and does so in a quiet, simple manner.

Listen to it here.

"goodtime romeo" || price jones || 1985

I stumbled across this song completely by accident, and it turned out to be one of the coolest results from any accident I've experienced. I found the 7" single of it while cleaning up around the stereo shop where I work, and threw it on a console I was testing just to hear some music. I fell in love with the song and asked my boss if I could take it home to make some MP3s. Within a week or so, I offered her two bucks for it, and Price Jones was mine.

I can't really explain why this song has such a hold on me, but it definitely does. It's a blues song, but it's still got a deliciously electronic undertone that makes me tingly. I also appreciate the fact that it probably sounded exactly the same when played live as it does on this record.

And, yes, I'll go ahead and say it: It would make an awesome stripper song.

This is one of the many singers I that listen to that I know virtually nothing about. I know that she didn't fade into obscurity after this single was released, as I have a full album of hers from 1993 called Oooz N Oz. It's much more traditional in its performance of the blues than this record, which to me doesn't make it quite as special.

Jones is a talented songwriter, though, and it's a shame that I can't even locate an album that "Goodtime Romeo" was on. Nevertheless, the single lives on, and it continues to make me smile.

Listen to it here.

"chelsea" || stefy || 2006

Why was this not a bigger hit? Am I missing something here?

We have all the makings of pop perfection:

• Easy-to-sing-along-with vocals
• Memorable synthesizer hook
• Relatable subject matter (bitch stole my man)
• Goofy outfits
• Hot lead singer chick
• Adam West in the music video

What more does America's youth WANT?

People, this is how pop music SHOULD be. This group has nothing to hide. There is no image. There's no pretense. They're making music, and they're having fun doing it. They were even ballsy enough to make their first album a concept album! Sure, the concept is just a color, but it's getting a tip of my hat!

Okay, I'll admit it, they completely lose me with the song "Orange County," but that's probably because I'm not a rich white kid from Orange County. Hey, the rest of the record freaking rocks. "Hey School Boy" was definitely a perfect follow-up to this one.

"Chelsea" will make you dance right from its opening measures, probably thanks to the sample of the bassline from Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)." Crank it up...they're about to be your new favorite flavor of the month.

Listen to it here.

"shake the house" || misa || 1990

Just a few entries back I promise more hip-house music in future writings. This evening I'm cashing in that promise.

This song is everything that hip-house should be: It's lighthearted, the vocals are crisp, the hook is memorable, and the bass is so intense it could literally carry out the promise implied in the song's title.

Misa seems at first glance like a harbinger to Icy Blu (who would show up the next year), but she's got something that Icy doesn't: more than one or two other good tracks. As far as I know, Misa never cracked the charts with anything but this song, but I must say that with the right exposure, she damn well could have. This won't be the first time we hear from Misa in this blog, as I'd like to spotlight at least one other song on her album.

Today, though, we shake the house. If you loved anything about the early 90's, then you will love this song. And you'll probably end up like I have, with it landed somewhere in your top five most played songs in iTunes.

Listen to it here.

"synthicide" || ssq || 1983

I can't believe I've made it this far in this blog without writing about SSQ.

The word "brilliant" doesn't even begin to describe this band for me. I find myself in the position of trying to describe an entity that I find beyond any greatness that words could possibly describe. Their music is the soundtrack to my life. It was after my discovery of SSQ in 2005 that I started to listen to more interesting music. They started it all for me.

They are, to me, an immaculate musical machine.

SSQ began as a smaller operation called simply "Q," named after the James Bond gadget man. Producer Jon St. James was embarking on a new project in 1982 when he met Stacey Swain, a dancer and former circus performer in her early 20's. Although he brought her into the project as a producer, he ended up asking her to sing on the group's first recording, a track called "Sushi." After that, she was the group's official vocalist and eventual focal point.

Jon & Stacey added a few other members to their entourage, and by 1983 they were the mighty SSQ -- a synthpop powerhouse, set to write music that would change my life 22 years down the road. They released only one album, entitled Playback.

Today's track was the only song off of Playback that really got any radio attention, which is extremely unfortunate, as every song on the record is perfect. The cassette version even has two additional tracks of perfection: An early, instrumental version of "Synthicide" called "Synth Samurai," and an extremely killer cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Fire" that employs synth quite liberally.

I wish for everyone reading this that you discover your own SSQ in 2008. I hope you discover a band that, to you, is so brilliant that you find them indescribable. I hope you discover your own life's soundtrack.

Listen to it here.