Back in the Post-Punk twilight of the early mid-80s [this loaded phrase almost makes me weep…], we would watch Night Flight every Friday and Saturday night on the USA Network before they went downmarket with the campy B-movies replacing the formerly eclectic and cult-oriented Night Flight block of weekend programming. One of the joys of Night Flight was that one could see almost anything there and the programming was curated by like-minded sensibilities. It was still the music video era, but if Night Flight showed any music videos, they made sure that it was programming not replicated on MTV.

One of the videos I saw back in those bygone days was a clip by Danish Synthpoppers [?!] Laid Back for their druggy, Minimal Synthfunk meisterwerk “White Horse.” The low budget video featured the duo and a model with astonishing muscular control cavorting around in a city square somewhere in Denmark with sufficient Eastern Bloc vibe to boost the edginess of the already daring material. I had fond memories of the song’s grinding synths and my only experience of it was seeing that clip briefly on Night Flight. Why not watch it again?

MTV wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole in 1983 as drug references were almost all the song contained. Then again there was the matter of a five letter word that figured prominently in its equally minimal lyrics. On the video they worked around this by dropping out the offending word in its entirety on the vocal track, which worked for me. The misogyny of it was never cool. I actually got the US 12″ of “White Horse” several years back at a friend’s antique store [r.i.p. Quirks!] and was surprised to find that it was actually the B-side of the single it was on!

Laid Back: Sunshine Reggae – US – 12″ [1983]

1. Sunshine Reggae [ext. ver.] 6:35
2. White Horse [12″ edit] 5:50

The A-side was a cut called “Sunshine Reggae,” which also featured a minimal lyric over music that could only be two Danes response to Reggae! The resulting track featured a dinky loping skank which had been heavily seasoned with Schlager Sauce™ such as to be the clear progenitor to similar efforts to come, like Opus’ immortal “Life Is Life.” Nevertheless, the song went over gangbusters in Europe and the band had a reasonable hit with it. But it was the naughtier B-side that got all of the attention in America.

The simple drum machine was shot through with wheezing synths shooting overhead while a Latin bass pattern not a million miles away from the the vibe of War’s awesome “Low Rider” chugged away. More synths doppler shifted across the stereo spectrum in a boldly garish fashion. The biggest clue I immediately got from this track was that “good taste” was going to be thrown right out the window. So far, this song was all about maximizing itscrude impact with the fewest energies spent.

A long, sustained organ drone carried over two full bars and then the badass unison vocals of the duo were in our faces with the equally minimal lyric. I loved how at the end of the bar, the member with the most ice-cold baritone added the irresistible “no, no no” hook. Then the grinding wheel synths took to the fender of the song; shooting off an array of sparks to the crudest Simmons Drum fill I’ve ever had the pleasure of hearing.

The synth solo before the second movement of the song was so minimal as to barely be there. Then the second verse rubbed our noses in its bad taste rhyming scheme as the chorused synths yowled like cats in heat. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. At least until the abrupt hard edit of the rhythmic synth coda that showed up a full minute before the actual ending like an acid premonition [as opposed to flashback], slapping us in the face. In this regard, Sire Records were with to enlist John Potoker and Bobby Shaw to craft the extended edit on this 12″ single.

What I could not have known at the time was just how popular this cut was in its day. In 1983 I was only listening to college radio and watching MTV/Night Flight. Without the latter, I would have never ever heard of it. I am flabbergasted to see that the track crested up to number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, in spite of its lyrics and subject matter! By a Danish group! Has there ever been another Danish record reach such a high profile? It also topped the US Dance charts and made friends on the R+B charts as well! Leading to its legacy as a source of samples nearly as rich for plucking as fellow white Funkateers The Tom Tom Club. But we had much edgier acts like 2 Live Crew instead of Mariah Carey doing the sampling of this band; the only time her name has popped up in 2600+ posts here, undoubtedly.

In a world where the middlebrow is deadly to my sensibilities, I have to go with the high and low end of the musical spectrum. Laid Back managed to craft a single in “White Horse” that was timeless in its bad taste and crude, minimal power. If the ne plus ultra of synth minimalism was “Warm Leatherette,” then surely, “White Horse” was the funky very next rung up on the ladder that probably ends in Trevor Horn’s studios in SARM East.

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