Last week saw the London launches of the new Fad Gadget 2CD/2DVD box set issued by Mute. Watching the documentary and seeing the range of people present, FG's influence on electronic pop(ular) music was more obvious than ever. The rich selection of live performances from the early to mid eighties finally give a chance to see why these shows were so influential and talked about. The CD tracks are a fairly obvious selection of career highlights, but the demo tracks are worth listening to for an understanding of Tovey's earliest efforts. If well selected, what might be interesting now would be a remix album or some vinyl issues with contemporary artists taking on FG tracks. In any case, this collection is a useful document cementing FG's place in the history of electronic music (and of course of Mute).
Montage by Vera Bremerton. Next Friday I'll give an experimental presentation at Noise=Noise on the strange parallels between the sonic and conceptual dystopianism of Doctor Who and first generation British industrial music. Dr. Who exposed mass audiences (often very young) to a combination of experimental electronic sound and dystopian themes, a combination that could also summarise industrial music. Dr. Who frequently presented post-apocalyptic scenarios of mutation, mind control and para-militarised societies and, in the process, at least implicitly criticised actual political and technological developments of the time, particularly those associated with the Cold War arms race. Due to budgetary constraints these visionary scenarios were often realised in a rudimentary ad hoc fashion; an approach that also applies to industrial. The early industrial groups highlighted the most serious social and political themes using very primitive electronic equipment, creating a kind of...
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