Light Asylum – "A Certain Person"

A beautiful new video from dark-wave Brooklyn duo Light Asylum for their latest single "A Certain Person" from their debut In Tension EP. Beautiful and powerful vocals are entwined with mesmerizing dark synth melodies and all this is fantastically visualized by director Eden Batki. If you dig the song which I'm sure you do then grab it for free.

Light Asylum – A Certain Person.mp3

Light Asylum: A Certain Person
on Nowness.com.

VHS or Beta - "I Found A Reason"

I just love when I find something as catchy as this. Really good and danceable synthpop with some nice lyrics. New single from American band VHS or Beta that will be included in their forthcoming Diamonds and Death album. It got me hooked straight away. If you like the song grab it for free from the link below.

Харесва ми, когато намирам по случайност нещо толкова привлекателно и запомнящо се като това. Наистина доста добър и танцувален синт-поп с доста приятни вокали. Нов сингъл от американската формация VHS or Beta, който ще бъде включен в техният предстоящ Diamonds and Death албум. Песничката веднага ме грабна. Ако и на теб ти е харесала, можеш да си я свалиш безплатно от линка по-долу.

VHS or Beta - I Found A Reason.mp3

VHS or Beta-I Found A Reason by emn2

Ou Est Le Swimming Pool - "Dance The Way I Feel"

Really great synth-pop tune by Ou Est Le Swimming Pool from London, UK. The song's from their one and only album The Golden Year. It's a shame that they're no more. Vraiment triste.

Kindest Lines – "Destructive Paths To Live Happily" (official video)

American dream-pop trio Kindest Lines's brand new video for "Destructive Paths To Live Happily" from their debut album Covered in Dust
via Wierd Records.

Kindest Lines - "Destructive Paths To Live Happily" from stereogum on Vimeo.

Vanity 6

And for the second of my lossless Prince-related posts...

Susan Moonsie, Brenda Bennett and Denise Matthews, better known as Vanity, were the ladies known as Vanity 6. The Time are credited as their backing band and when performing live that was completely accurate. In the studio though, we know better. Prince credits the group and members of The Time with composing the songs, which for the most part is a fabrication. I believe I read somewhere that Jesse Johnson did co-write Bite The Beat but who knows how true that is.

Vanity 6, the album, isn't all that mind-blowing, but it's certainly catchy, throw away dance pop with some memorable touches. Nasty Girl is certainly the best song of the bunch with Vanity's over the top lead vocals, but Wet Dream is just as catchy and He's So Dull, a throw-back to girl-group pop, is also good. The other songs veer between boring and oddly fascinating. If A Girl Answers (Don't Hang Up) is a ridiculous phone conversation primarily between Vanity and an unidentified female, voiced by Prince of course, that has been sleeping with Vanity's boy. The song doesn't hold my interest beyond the ridiculous verbal sparring between Vanity and Prince although Brenda's assault reminds me that you wouldn't want to run into her in a dark alley. Or maybe you would. Susan's two songs, Drive Me Wild and Make Up, probably sounded the strangest at the time of the album's release with their robotic deliveries, but now their cyberfunk (can I trademark that adjective? seriously?) sounds rather crisp and would be great if dropped in the proper dj set. The two leftovers, Bite The Beat and 3 X 2 = 6 are rather pedestrian, with Bite featuring Brenda going for a bit of Susan's style on a less developed jam and 3 X 2 = 6 being a sappy closer about working girls. What kind of working girls you may ask? Honestly, it could go either way but by the time that song is over I could care less.

For your listening pleasure I have uploaded Vanity 6's self-titled debut, their only full-length album, as a lossless FLAC and V0 MP3, both from a copy of the long out of print US CD. Don't be surprised if you find yourself bopping around to this one all day long. It's nothing great to be certain, but it has an appealing quality to it. I suppose that fun vibe is enough to make it a success. After all, it still sounds good 28 years later.


Vanity 6

FLAC

V0 MP3

01 Nasty Girl
02 Wet Dream
03 Drive Me Wild
04 He's So Dull
05 If A Girl Answers (Don't Hang Up)
06 Make Up
07 Bite The Beat
08 3 X 2 = 6


PS - Just in case you don't know which is which, I've included a little photo below explaining who's who in Vanity 6. Susan always looked so hot! MSPAINT FTW!

Futurisk

This is another fine example of what happens when I have no time to really write a post. Nonetheless, this is some good stuff and I figured people would like to check it out. Futurisk were an early synth-pop band from Florida that produced some very good grooves. For more info about Futurisk, click here for a bio courtesy of Jeremy Kolosine himself. Jeremy is the man behind the music and is active to this day in the 8 Bit and Chiptune scenes. You can find info about his other projects at Receptors Music.

This download contains, to the best of my knowledge, EVERYTHING released by Futurisk including some unreleased recordings. I've used the versions of the Player Piano EP posted by Mutant Sounds (see here) and the Army Now 7" posted by Mmmbling Around (see here), so I want to give them credit here. I don't like stealing content, but since these are pretty rare records and I'm featuring more than just those two releases, I figured as long as I gave a shout-out it would be alright. Thanks guys!

You'll also find here some live recordings, some previously-unheard tracks, the version of Meteoright from The Found Tapes compilation and a lower-bitrate copy of Split Second Decision from the Player Piano EP that doesn't feature the skip from the copy included. Most of the tracks mentioned in this paragraph are courtesy of a friendly fellow named anemic cinema. Massive credit to you sir!


Futurisk - Complete (as far as I know) Discography


PS - Jeremy has mentioned that he would like to reissue some of the Futurisk material eventually. As always, Jeremy, if you would like me to remove the downloadable content from the post please let me know, I will be more than happy to do so.

The Normal - Warm Leatherette / T.V.O.D.

Daniel Miller is, above all, the founder of Mute Records. He has also produced a number of bands, most notably Depeche Mode, and recorded several of his own projects. The most notable of his recorded output is The Normal, who apart from a bizarre single-sided live EP with Robert Rental, released only one single, the ridiculously influential Warm Leatherette with T.V.O.D. on the flip side. Clearly influenced by J.G. Ballard's Crash, Warm Leatherette is a sick sexual trip about getting it on in a car crash. That might be over-simplifying things, but it's still fairly accurate. T.V.O.D., while not explicitly linked to any pre-existing content, is about plugging yourself directly into a television signal with your antenna/aerial. By today's standards, these songs aren't all that shocking, but they get Miller credit for being an early example of popular music being created with minimal electronic equipment.

Miller also recorded as Silicon Teens, labeling that moniker a band and even coming up with fake members. Next week I'll post their sole full-length, Music For Parties. It's very much in the same vein production-wise as The Normal, but instead focuses on synth-pop covers of early rock classics like Memphis, Tennessee and You Really Got Me.

This is transferred from a US promotional 12" with each song on an individual side. I don't know why they bothered to press a 12" for such short tracks when a 7" would have done just fine, but someone must have thought a DJ might cue these in a live set and would prefer a larger record. Really though, who knows? If you're curious, here are links to the discogs reference for this single and the pressing these files were made from. Enjoy!


The Normal - Warm Leatherette / T.V.O.D.


PS - Grace Jones recorded an excellent cover of Warm Leatherette in 1980 that's very funky. You can download it HERE. She's not the only one to cover it, either. Check the wikipedia reference for a list of additional artists who have covered it.