Back when I was still in college, I had a regular roster of record stores that I depended on. These were primarily Murmur Records, Crunchy Armadillo Records, Retro Records, and two Record City and Peaches locations. It’s hard to believe that with a handful of such stores, I was able to get anything I really wanted back when I was hip and living within the demographic zone that was catered to by the business, and by that I mean The Industry. I went with my friends to shop for records and there were certainly pockets of ignorance.
I can’t really remember when I first came across Park Avenue Records, but it might have been in the late 80s. I lived in South Orlando. I never really crossed paths much with fashionable Winter Park; the uptown monied area of Central Florida. But wherever there was a college, by law [pre-Napster], there had to be a record store nearby to cater to its student body. In Winter Park the college was Rollins and even kids paying top dollar for their matriculation still need tunes. And they bought them at Park Avenue Records.
I think the first time I ever saw the place was in 1985 and by that time one could also get the silver discs there. I recall the first thing I bought; this French Vogue import of Petula Clark’s greatest hits as I had been pining then to hear “Downtown.” But that was a rare visit. I don’t think I went back to Park Avenue until the early 90s, when my friend Doug and I would shop for CDs; hoping to score some Blow Monkeys imports. I credit their demo CD players and a used copy of Associates “Popera” with my conversion to being the Post-Punk Monk. So low was their profile in America that without that spur, I still might have never heard the band.
The store really became important to me when Murmur Records transitioned to being a bookstore caller Alobar that also sold music. By 1992 the owner or Murmur was stepping out of the store’s hipster-magnet status, and all that entailed, both good and bad, to something a little more sedate. By then the bins at Park Ave. CD as they were then called, were the best place in town to get the silver discs. I went to Rock + Roll Heaven mainly for the records, and Park Ave. CD for the CDs.
By the late 90s it was a regular stop as they always had great used CDs and a wide import selection. Pricing always seemed good, and I liked being able to get the odd Japanese CD without driving to Atlanta [R.I.P. Tower Records…]. I can recall in the late 90s when the store engaged some artist [I think they were actually from Asheville, NC if I’m remembering correctly] to redesign the store décor, and they got a makeover heavy on the diamond plate and rebar welded together like no other store I’d ever laid eyes on. I can remember metal bins for the CDs that were sometimes tricky to extricate what you were interested in.
In the last days of our time in Orlando before moving to Asheville in 2001] many hours were spent at Park Ave. CDs cleaning up on want list items. I can remember holding The Walker Brothers “Night Flights” CD [1st pressing] in my hand and thinking “I’ll get that the next time I see it.” And of course, there was no next time. Following our departure from Orlando, the store moved from Park Avenue [where all of the high end chains were probably driving the rent up to stratospheric levels] to a different location on Corinne Drive, yet still kept their name!
One day, in the early 2000s after Mr. Ware made us a homeburned DVD of rare Split Enz material, we were so inspired by the awesomeness of the Phil Judd years, that we remembered Park Ave. CDs as having the silver and gold Mushroom Records OZ boxed sets of every Split Enz album with a separate disc of rarities. I called the store and by gum they still had the gold box perched perilously on the wall in the tangle of metal that I remembered from a few years earlier! So I bought it on the phone for the not expensive $70-80 asked and they shipped it to me in Asheville. Actually, we were living in now obliterated Swannanoa at the time.
That day would no longer stand as my last purchase at Park Ave. CDs if their history as a Great Record Store was anything to fall back upon. As we approached the site that day, Mr. Ware said that they had [like Rock + Roll Heaven] managed to absorb their next door neighbor in the shopping center to grow even larger with time. What would be there to greet us 23 years later?
PARK AVE CDS AUXILLARY
The store had recently absorbed a neighboring space to the left where we went first, The Ware Pack leading the way
We arrived around 5 p.m. on a Sunday evening to find the place hopping. Back when I lived here at that day and time you’d be running off to Peaches in a hurry to grab something in the hour left to shop, and that might have been it. Obviously it was a whole new ballgame. The space next to the store had until recently, been a diner. They had acquired the space last year and the little shop was primarily used CDs and used records/DVDs/Blu-Rays. It was a small space so it was possible to look at most of the stock in about 30 minutes. I wasn’t getting anything back from the record bins, and there have been two films that I’ve been obsessed with getting copies of on DVD or Blu-Ray [“The Guard” and “Hail Caesar,” if you must know] so I’ve been looking for them high and low, but to no avail, even here. But I did see a DVD that I really needed to own, “All You Need is Cash,” the brilliant film about the career of The Rutles!
CDs fared better and I saw a couple that I was ripe to buy. I’d been wanting the Japanese copy of Duran Duran’s “Medazzaland” for decades with the rare JPN-only track “Ball + Chain,” but I’m speeding toward retirement age and life’s looming less long, so for four dollars, I was more than down with finally buying the US version from 1997 with its garish pink inlay tray that probably cost Nick Rhodes a point for every sale.
I got a special thrill being able to buy this CD for the $4.00 that I thought it was worth. It was almost as if the last 20 years of rising record prices hadn’t happened. It’s what I would have paid in 1999 in the used bins! Similarly, the first album by The Time was going for $8.00. I am on the Great Prince Absorption campaign, and like the Duran disc, $8.00 was a pretty common price point in the used bins in the 90s. It was amazing to see continuity of pricing after all of these years gone by.
Now that I look at it the Sunday hours of Rock + Roll Heaven were from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and I feel like the time might have almost ran out for me that afternoon. So we got in the car for a brief trek from the Lake Ivanhoe district to Colonialtown on Mills Avenue. Ironically, the next destination, Remix Record Shop was quite close to the old DJ/EDM store The Drop Shop [now gone] but I just now see that Remix Records has a second location [still in Colonialtown] that caters to exactly that market. Drop Shop South. The vibrant Techno scene in the 90s was never an aspect of Orlando that had any currency with me, though the two times I went ito The Drop Shop to buy the odd John Foxx or Dr. Robert venture into EDM territory I did not leave empty handed.
REMIX RECORD SHOP
Remix Record Shop with the requisite sandwich board
After the sprawl of Rock + Roll Heaven, the vibe at Remix Record Shop was more appropriately smaller and newer. Obviously a fledgling record store of the new breed. The Post-“vinyls” era we now inhabit. What awaited me inside could be anything. The flyers posted in the window might give a clue. Led Zep, Beastie Boys [as we know, there’s a crossover on that Venn diagram…] and, ulp! Madonna and a flyer for AAHZ; The still there linchpin of Orlando’s “rave scene.” Is it wise to mix Metamucil® and Ecstasy?
I entered to find the usual wall of high profile, OG LP pressings vying for top dollar. $40 for a US 1982 “Rio.” Insanity for what should be a $5.00 LP to me, but the $20 for the green vinyl pressing of Bowie’s “Peter + The Wolf” [I have a black copy] struck me as a good deal. Particularly in the empty, Post-Bowie World® we now inhabit.
The wall of high profile OG LPs
The mix of goods here was about 70% records to 30% CDs as I recall. Pretty great as things go for me now! Many stores where I live have cast out the silver demon discs entirely. I decided to look at the records first. New in shop bin is always a place to start. Nice to see the Pet Shop Boys with their divisive [in America] Latin opus, “Domino Dancing.”
There were 12″ single [!] records on the floor and since most of what I want on wax is on single format, this got my attention, but quick! Especially since there was a copy of the high holy Propaganda “Duel” 12″ staring me in the face! the cover was thick! I had to look and it was a Canadian copy; one I’d never seen before. $5.00 for VG. Not bad! Every home should have at least one.
Then I saw Nina Hagen’s Mororder period opus “New York” in the bins. I thought to myself, “do I have this?” A quick check of the collection on my Discogs acount on my device revealed that I had the “Zarah” 12″ but not this one. But it wasn’t in my want list so I don’t think it was remixed. Thus we skipped it.
The 12″ selection was like most places, largely 90s and later wax with an EDM/Hip Hop/R+B slant. Not the prime positioning for Monastic goods, but we glanced anyway since there’s some R+B goodies I’m very down with having. And it seems like I finally found a live one! It was a Malcom McLaren Bootzilla Orchestra US promo 12″ of “Waltz Darling”‘ which also had the 12” mix of “Something’s Jumpin’ In Your Shirt.” $5.00. Sold, American!
I went to the new and used LPs. A Simple Minds section? Must look! They had the 40th anniversary greatest hits 2xLP, interesting to see, but nothing I needed. Then I found some serious Monastic paydirt! The “O” section [I must always look as an OMD fan] sported the OMD “Bauhaus Staircase Instrumentals” LP! I didn’t even recognize this, but apparently last spring I had written about this very release and said, quote:
“I’ve had to sit out any vinyl of the new [OMD] album and its singles owing to my saving all year for a big vacation and my frankly underwhelmed take on the album itself. If I see it and it’s not $30.00 maybe I’ll bite.”
As it turned out, this was only $25.00; what I consider cheap for a modern record album. So I bit. As I made my way to the CDs next, I passed a column in the store that had been papered with images of iconic bands. PSB immediately caught my attention. The more I looked, the more I recognized.
I had to take a vertical pano of this image as there was no better way to capture it
COLUMN OF NEW WAVE LEGEND
DEVO
Dead Or Alive [!]
Siouxsie + the Banshees
Tears For Fears
Depeche Mode
Bjork
Kraftwerk
Erasure
Joy Division
The Cure
Pet Shop Boys
MYSTERY BAND
Gary Numan
TVLKING HEVDS
Book Of Love
A few were challenging. WhatI thought was The Smiths turned out to be Joy Division! Possibly due to…Blue Öyster Cult! The band at the bottom was mostly covered up with grab bags, but I would recognize Jade Lee and Ted Ottaviano’s eyebrows anywhere. The one that stymied me was highlighted in magenta. Number 12. I actually had to do a reverse image search at tineye and found out it was…The Pixies! Not a band I ever followed. But you must admit, that it was a cool bit of décor! Why can’t we buy wallpaper with this pattern?
I finally glanced at the CD section and only found one disc calling my name. As I’ve been on the Prince Program of hearing everything, I thought that copies of “Batman® Motion Picture Soundtrack” would have been thicker on the ground but I’m finally getting a copy in 2024. I checked out with the following goods:
Remix Record Shop was a pleasant way to spend 45 minutes, and if I’m getting core collection things I’d already forgotten about below the price point I wanted to pay, then all must have been well. We then left to visit the strangely named Park Ave. CDs.
It was almost three weeks ago when we found ourselves taking a trip to the state where we had grown up and departed from over 23 years ago. The swampy cauldron where Ye Olde Monk had developed into the music loving person that I am, in spite of no one exactly pointing the way for me. The occasion was the memorial of a friend who had died earlier in the year, but now there was going to be a weekend of memorial events held by her school alumni [The International School Of Bangok] in their usual Space Coast haunts.
Were is not for this person, its very possible that my wife and I would never have met, because the late Susan was nothing if not extremely gregarious. And one night at Orlando club The Edge, seeing local garage rock kings The Hate Bombs, she and her quieter friend walked up and introduced themselves since she could not bear seeing me every where they went clubbing any longer. By the next year, her friend and I were making wedding plans.
So when my wife was making plans to go and asked if I wanted to attend, I made it happen. Working long days to make up for the vacation time I didn’t have following our big splash out in Europe earlier this year. I felt that I had to honor her role in our lives. The Loy Krathong ritual this year at the class reunion/memorial would be honoring our friend and at twilight one evening we set boats we had made earlier with banana tree chunks, leaves, and assorted flowers adrift on the Banana River as they made their way out to the sea.
The next day my wife was planning on being alone where she and her friend spent many a day together in the Florida Space Coast. The thought occurred that it would be an opportune time to visit with the family of commenter Mr. Ware in Orlando. We met at a logical halfway point and my wife dropped me off into their care for roughly 24 hours.
I’d not seen Mr. Ware and his family since our last visit to Orlando in 2021 to celebrate another friend’s event birthday. Though we FaceTime every now and then, like the song says, “ain’t nothin’ better than the real thing.” We retired back to their home in Casselberry to dine on a scrumptious brunch that his loved one had made. The subject of how to spend our day together arose.
Believe it or not, none of the two times that we had visited Orlando following our move in 2001 [2007, 2021] involved music shopping. And since then, Mr. Ware’s son Kellan had matured to become a record collecting chip off the old block. With a blog of his own! He was keen to join us on our bin-diving trawl, and the two stores I strongly had an interest in visiting were still going! Having survived the scourge of the Napster Plague™. There was also a new store [where said son had a gift certificate from burning a hole in his pocket] which was also thrown into contention since each of these locations were within a five minute drive of one another. And the whole Ware pack would be going along for a day spent together. What’s not to love?
ROCK + ROLL HEAVEN
Many a Saturday was spent in these hallowed halls in the 90s
I first stumbled across Rock + Roll Heaven when it was a tiny storefront in the Lake Ivanhoe shopping district in the mid-80s. I popped in there one evening, glanced around at the stock without buying and then lost track of the store for about 7 years. By the time I started shopping there regularly, in 1993, the store had grown to much its current large size. When there was a Saturday with nothing big planned in the 90s, we would often spend a few hours at Rock + Roll Heaven as owner Ray Ehmen would be famously holding court. A music-loving raconteur, he elevated the spirited discourse that is one of the important secondary traits of hanging out in record stores that doesn’t even cost a penny! There was the cast of supporting characters like Wally or his brother Fred that we relied on for kicks if Ray wasn’t in.
In the old days, we always went on a Saturday for the simple reason that the store was closed on a Sunday. But that was then. These days it’s open seven days a week, baby! That’s no doubt down to the international tourists eager to bin-dive during their trips to the Vacation Paradise™ that is Orlando, Florida. Money was obviously being left on the table and now the store is open seven days a week. So… progress!
The Ware pack enter the halls of Music Valhalla at Rock + Roll Heaven; Kellan [L] eyes widened
The last time I’d set foot in Rock + Roll Heaven was during the summer of 2001 on my last weekend in Orlando where during the last few months, I had been rounding up loose 12″ and 7″ records needed for some of my planned BSOGs [boxed sets of god®] in the knowledge that nowhere where I was moving would have stock remotely deep as at R+RH. The store had grown over the years to absorb one of the shops adjacent to it. The main room had the all important 7″ singles stock up front near the window.
The frontline of the singles face the window – R+B up front, Pop/Rock on the side
Many was the time that I would need just a certain, special 7″ single… let’s say the one Arista UK Simple Minds release with a live B-side that I didn’t have in my Record Cell for a boxed set of rarities that I was driven to make. There was a time that I could decide to go to Rock + Roll Heaven, and ask for it, and Ray would retreat to the back room and bring a box of records out, allowing me to sort through the nearly mint stock to extricate the desired copy of “Changeling” for an $8.00 price. Yes, life was once that simple!
While I had a few ideas of things that I was wanting to buy [my actual want list is as long as dozens of forearms…] I didn’t have the time to select any of the key items that I probably should have. There are always CD-R projects where I need a single here and there to complete them but I’ve lost that plot in the last two years not spending a moment on my former hobby. And the data just isn’t cluttering up my head these days. Which is probably good because on this Sunday Ray Ehmen, the owner, was in the store! I’d hoped against hope that I would get a chance to see him and chat and once we shook hands we were off and running. Pausing only to let other customers ask their burning questions or for Ray to take a phone call for someone looking for that special album.
We spent a long time catching up and talking record trash. Ray’s reach on the Orlando scene that we enjoyed in the 90s went far beyond selling records. Ray was Grand Poobah and advisor to the best of the local bands that occupied so much of our time. When he wasn’t actually promoting shows, he was passing on his wisdom to the wet-nosed punks of the Orlando Scene. I’m convinced that they wouldn’t have know about 60s Orlando Garage Rockers We the People enough to have covered their weird underground rumbling, “My Brother The Man,” without Ray pointing the way.
Ray and I got a really good chance to talk for the better part of two hours, Filling in the gaps and getting up to date. I helped to dispel some misconceptions about who I did and didn’t know. Setting the record straight. Truth be told, I was so grateful to talk to Ray that I was not really crate diving much at all. Kellen and his mom actually retired to the White Wolf Cafe across the street while I was busy shooting the breeze, but it has been 23 years. Ray was looking hale and hearty and had resisted the sort of dissipation with age that most [lesser] record store owners are subject to. And he was familiar with the deceased that had brought us here this weekend so that subject was touched upon.
The central core of the main roomPromo tchotkes abounded at R+RHThere’s still CDs here and Elvis worshipGold and platinum records that used to belong to Jack The Rapper adorn the walls of R+RHEven the ceiliing is packed with stuff @ R+RH
After the better part of two hours, I felt that I should be actually shopping for records, so there were a few things that I remembered looking for in Europe only to find that if it wasn’t LP, Beatles or Metal I was largely out of luck! I regaled Ray with my sad trip to the largest record shows in the world, lamenting that fact that people were still hot on The Beatles after all of these years. Ray couldn’t see it either, but he was glad to sell the record in any case. His idea of a great band wasn’t The Fab Four® and I got Ray to wax eloquent on the glory of Roxy Music which was only music to these ears.
So I saw the John Cale “Mercy” CD on the racks and asked if he had the latest one, but he did not. Then I heard about the infamous John Cale show at Sleepout Louie’s in Casselberry back int he mid-80s that I actually attended. A trainwreck of a show that I was nonetheless happy to have attended. There are good trainwrecks [Cale] and bad ones [Debbie Harry] so it’s not cut and dried.
I’d known the promoter of the Cale show [Robin Shurtz] as he wrote for the New Wave music paper [“Dogfood”] that I followed eagerly as a high-school kid and ended up writing a few reviews for in their last issue. Ray also knew Robin and we exchanged anecdotes and a few raised eyebrows.
The I saw the Blondie Singles Box from 20 years ago adjacent to the register and remembered that I wanted that “Out On the Street” box of rarities, but it wasn’t in store. I knew of at least one 7″ single that would be needed and went to the 7″ stock.
I always have to look at the Simple Minds singles…old habits die hard. I noted with approval that the 2×7″ of “Sweat In Bullet” was there for $15…$5 less than the last time I saw it in my current home town.
I then looked at the Spandau Ballet singles adjacent. I have a good many of these pressings for their 7″ b-side version mixes, but not the whole discography. I was happy to see the reasonably obscure non-hit “She Loved Like Diamond” in evidence for a $9.98 price point in what looked to be a VG+ if not better state.
Then I got to the “P” section and found exactly what I was looking for: The US Robert Palmer 7″ of “All Around The World,” from the “Explorers” OST. A great, wacky Rock + Roll Little Richard cover with an Art of Noise slant to the Bernard Edwards production. But if you want this on the silver disc it’s cripplingly expensive [>$50] due to the vagaries of the specialist soundtrack market! This will do nicely for $2.00!
There are not many LPs that I still need but I always stop and take a photo of the holy “No Wave” album which defined the US New Wave movement for my good friend chasinvictoria back in the day. I cannot say exactly how many copies that he owns as I believe that he buys each one he sees! If you’re not familiar with it, suffice to say that it was quite the catalyst for his conversion to the Church Of New Wave®. As pictured below.
The sacred relic of the ocean blue vinyl copy of “No Wave” sampler on A+M Records
I had hoped to find a cheap CD of 10ccs “The Original Soundtrack” but after I asked the other staffer there that day it was not to be. Then I saw two copies of something that made my eyes bulge!
This bad boy would definitely be going home with me!
It’s nearly impossible to believe but the “Ultravox: The Island Years” box of 4xCDs of everything that the band with John Foxx had recorded for Island was released in 2016. I have many of the DLX RMs of the Island ‘Vox canon, but those with the rarities appended to them, are done in a willy-nilly fashion with things like the “Live Retro” EP spread across multiple discs! This represented the three classic albums with a fourth disc of all of the rarities in a coherent fashion. And the cover art came from a promotional piece that Foxx had designed for the transcendent “Systems Of Romance” album in 1978. And then this 4th disc went one better by including monophonic but cracking live versions from the Old Grey Whistle Test performance by the band!
I have given this to friends as a birthday gift but had shamefully dawdled on buying a copy for myself. $24.98 later and this was a shame no longer! Truth be told, this was the first time that I had ever seen a copy in the wilds in front of me, or naturally, I would have bitten! But when record shopping is largely an online phenomenon, sometimes a paralysis sets in. And today this store had two copies of it! That speaks of a sense of wonder being rekindled in myself.
Ultravox: The Island Years – Caroline International – CAROLR037CD – EU – 4xCD – Rock + Roll Heaven/$24.98
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
So this day after over two hours spent mostly chatting with Ray, I was getting out of R+R Heaven for under thirty dollars! Almost madness, as I can remember spending $150 per weekend visit with a more focused search on actual records instead of conversation. Many was the time where I’d trawl the 7″ bins and buy every record that delighted…whether I “needed it” or not! Often just for a sweet picture sleeve, but I’m older now. And this day it was more important to catch up with Ray for what might be the last time ever.
The store was still here, the hundreds of thousands of releases in hundreds of formats were still there, without a computer inventory. Filling every nook and cranny of the sprawling store. Prices ran the gamut from giveaways to hair curlingly pricey, but with my tastes, I find that everywhere I go, the most exciting things to buy are often there for a song. The stuff I was interested in was all quite what I deem affordable. Let’s just say that I didn’t put anything back with a regret. In the end, all I ask from a record store is that anyone with any budget can come in and shop and leave happily and on that score Rock + Roll Heaven still delivers after nearly 40 years shopping.
Nöel had a second album in her, without Sparks involvement, but that’s a tale for another day
[…continued from last post]
The second track on side two featured another Disco-segue to keep the dancefloor filled. But “Au Revoir” was absolutely a brilliant Sparks tune that deserved accolades. The steady beat marked it as Disco, but it fully reflected the mind of Ron Mael as it delivered the most breezy and insouciant kiss off song possible. Greatly enhanced by Michael Brecker’s buttery sax and the sweet background trills of Julia and Maxine Waters. Parting is less painful in French, yes? It certainly made for a perfect three minute single, even if it never actually happened.
The chirpy closer, “I Want A Man” was another brief song for this album of long discotraxx. It’s only 4:55 but with the sole lyrical content of “I want a man” and “I want a boy” it still had the feel of a 12″ single. Nöel’s multi tracked wails in the climax were a cheerful and euphoric end to the album proper, but the program had plenty in store on the bonus disc.
Disc two featured nearly an hour of single tracks and lost classics. It got right down to business with another lost Sparks classic that for all the world sounded like a song from the “Hello Young Lovers” album to these ears. “I Just Want To Be Seen With You” was a song that only Ron Mael could have written! The lyrical conceit of a lady compartmentalizing her beaus according to the needs of the moment was pure Sparks material. Albeit with a gender swap.
The synthetic glissandos and march tempo put it at odds with the Discocentric slant of the album. Maybe that’s why it fell to the wayside? But Mein Gott Im Himmel, what a Sparks classic got cast to the four winds here! Listening to Nöel rebuff the money and advances of the subject of the song who doesn’t quite realize that he’s there only for the status he conferred was a pure Sparks moment. The verses where she lists all the other men and the roles they play in the film of her life was so close to the methodology of a song like “Perfume” that it simply must have inspired the writing of the latter number…nearly thirty years later. Hear for yourself below.
Next we got a breather with the quirky Technopop of “My Night” which was shot through with squelchy blasts of laserblast synths over schlagerific synth bass. It reminded me of “Trixie,” the circus-like B-side by Lene Lovich. It’s a bit of fun but perhaps the slightest of the songs here. The the let the pièce de résistance casually drop.
“I Never Want To Be A Mother” is yet another song that only Ron Mael could have written, but without a woman to sing it, it never would have worked in a Sparks context. That said, it’s the most refreshing song imaginable. A paean to the single, unattached, and slightly decadent life of one who lives for the clubs. Who can’t possibly imagine being saddled with a bawling brat expecting to be waited on hand and foot. And it’s as vigorous spit in the eye of social expectation that I’ve ever heard, and probably ever will hear! And it’s given a performance to relish with Nöel biting deep in to the neck of the song with obvious relish. If only for this song, one must rush out and buy this 2xCD package!!
Following this salvo of unreleased tracks, we next had the single mixes of the tracks that were issued in one territory or another. The A-side of “Dancing Is Dangerous [Part 1]” really made the cut as a 7″ for radio play with sense that at almost a third of its album length, the song really was meant for the airwaves. The UK 7″ had a “Part two” on the B-side that was like a dub mix extracted from the discovamp middle section of the song given an artificial coda with the chorus appearing in the climax.
The vampy “The Night They Invented Love” was another nine minute opus given tight popsong focus with the judicious edit here. When the album version is a 12″ single length, a 7″edit is far from a perfunctory space-filler on such a reissue.
The already minimal “I Want A Man” also came up smelling of roses with its five minute length trimmed back by 90 seconds. With so little in the way of lyrics, the lack of instrumental vamping was hardly missed and in fact this may be the preferred version for these ears. There was one more unreleased track, an instrumental mix of “Dancing Is Dangerous” which I can’t see on the flipside to any releases on Discogs. This one simple let the backing vocals tell the story for this 3:49 mix.
Then we had basically half of the entire album with two of the unreleased tracks with the guide vocal demos as sung by Russell Mael. The purest form of Monk-bait up front, right? But these were strictly technical in nature. Russell was almost barely there in terms of performance and verve. He wasn’t even using head voice here! He was singing under his breath as if not wanting to wake a sleeping Ron on the Le Courbusier chaise in the control room. Here he was counting off beats to the bar where no vocals were over extremely minimal 4-track demos that were scanty outlines for the songs these eventually became on the album itself.
Far from being a Sparks album in absentia, these were there for the die-hards who would have been raising pitchforks metaphorically had they found out that these takes existed but were not shared. Well, they shared them, and at the end of the day, this was really Nöel’s album. She was fronting the songs, even if she didn’t write them, and her full-bodied and diverse performance really put these songs across successfully.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
It’s fantastic to finally have all of this bounty decades later, and it more than saved me the effort of buying copies of the rest of the vinyl [I already had the “Dancing Is Dangerous” US 7″] and making my own CD. The addition of the three unreleased songs was a two-for-three revelation that more than justified the entire project, as I saw it. And at the end of the day the original five song album was a perfect complement to the already iconic “No. 1 In Heaven” album classic. In this case, showing the breadth and depth that Sparks learned from working with Giorgio Moroder.
As for Nöel herself, her liner notes here were fantastic. relating her story of how she was once attached to a California rock band [Hamlet] working the circuit before singing to a label and finding herself on the outs. A chance meeting with the right photographer put her on the model track and set her waitress days behind her. Now it was Zhandra Rhodes, Karl Lagerfeld, and Fiorucci paying her bills.
Still, the stage and music beckoned. In 1978 she was playing organ and singing in her band, Mick Smiley at a showcase night at the Troubador in Hollywood. Where Sparks were in the audience and they met afterward with a provocative offer. Would she be interested in recording a demo of their new songs to shop to a record label? The next thing was that Virgin bit and though it was at the tail end of Disco, there was still some life left in it by 1979. As for Sparks, they had garnered UK hits from their Virgin debut the year prior so Branson was ready to indulge their ambitions.
The notes tell the story of the album campaign and tour with the singer dealing with track dates and promo glad-handing on both sides of the pond. And the whirlwind was out of fuel by the time 1980 rolled around, but Nöel would resurface in a new band in two years on Scotti Records as Nöel + The Red Wedge, but that’s a story for another day.
pouting vixen Nöel went from the Fiorucci runway to singing Ron Mael tunes!
We wrote about this in the spring and when I happened to recently see a copy of it before me, I pounced! The Nöel album from 1979 is now in the Record Cell and it’s one of two, what can be called, Production Disco™ albums I own. On the face of things, Production Disco is normally the last thing I’m interested in musically. Anonymous session musicians making a Disco album during Peak Disco® under the auspices of a Producer who is aiming for the charts and making all of the creative decisions. How can we make some money here? It’s a practically recipe for ennui.
What stirs the pot substantially is the notion of who The Producer may be. The two such examples that I have were elevated by the auteurship of the producers who also wrote the material. In one case August Darnell’s helming of the first Cristina album. While it was an honest attempt at making a Disco record by someone who was the girlfriend of the label owner, it was also the product of a writer/producer with an artistic vision and the resulting record slots nicely into the oeuvre of the Producer.
Similarly, Sparks learned a lot, I’m certain, with Giorgio Moroder and his team producing the “No. 1 In Heaven” album. Being curious and creative types, the notion of them getting another singer; one without their quirky and noncommercial reputations, to front a project that was also aiming at the flavor of the day, Disco, probably presented a fascinating challenge to the Brothers Mael. And who knows? They might stand to make a few bucks with the results.
Little Beethoven Records | UK | 2xCD | 2024 | LBRCD121
Nöel: Is There More to Life Than Dancing? DLX RM – UK – 2xCD [2024]
Disc 1 – Is There More To Life Than Dancing?
Dancing Is Dangerous 9:45
Is There More To Life Than Dancing? 8:09
The Night They Invented Love 9:16
Au Revoir 3:10
I Want A Man 4:55
Disc 2 – Bonus Tracks
I Just Want To Be Seen With You 4:53
My Night 3:56
I Never Want To Be A Mother 4:39
Dancing Is Dangerous (Part One) 3:42
Dancing Is Dangerous (Part Two) 3:22
The Night They Invented Love (Single Version) 3:45
I Want A Man (Single Version) 3:33
Dancing Is Dangerous (Instrumental) 3:49
I Just Want To Be Seen With You (Vocal Guide Version) 4:21
I Never Want To Be A Mother/ Au Revoir (Vocal Guide Version) 8:07
Dancing Is Dangerous / Is There More To Life Than Dancing (Vocal Guide Version) 14:35
The full monty version of “Dancing Is Dangerous” was almost three times longer than the 7″ single I previously had to listen to. The insistent beat with synth bleats running through it simply reeked of house music nearly a decade in the future. Specifically, the B-side “Chicago” to be found on the flip-side of “When Smokey Sings” by ABC ★★★ in 1987. As I stated earlier, Noël’s strong vocals impress in much the same way that Teri Nunn’s of Berlin also convince. And much of the program here reflects the vibe that High Berlin also reached for. Not coincidentally with Giorgio Moroder behind the boards for the singles from their second album.
The program here was definitely walking in the footsteps of the earlier “No. 1 In Heaven” album with long discomix length tracks segued together. Except that the longer tracks are longer still and the shorter tracks are slimmer yet. While the four-to-the-floor beat struck a relentless tone throughout “Dancing Is Dangerous” when it reached the 9:45 mark and simply continued unabated as the 8:09 title track began. But you would only know this is one was looking at the display of the CD player. The dancefloor was delivered a seamless Eurodisco euphoric swirl. The first voice we heard this go round wasn’t Nöel this time but backing vocalist Oren Waters adding an appealing baritone backing vocal while this time when Nöel entered the song she was operating at the strident upper end of her register. Then on the chorus Oren’s sisters Julia and Maxine [they were all members of L.A.’s family-based R+B vocal group The Waters] were adding their sweetness to the mix.
The constant beat was abetted by one of the best strategic Disco gambits; adding a percussionist on congas. In this case, sessionmeister Paulinho De Costa was doing the song the favors. The song’s long Discocentric arrangement allowed for differing “movements” of multi-part vocal harmonies interlaced with one another to form an impressive vocal lattice. Then the break occurred, and De Costa’s congas came to the fore for a few bars before the backing vocals rejoined the mix. The fun thing about all of this was that the song, more than the first one, was decidedly from the distinctive pen of Ron Mael. His perennially witty lyrics revealed that while this may have been a shot at the charts, he failed in streamlining his typically baroque lyrical thrust to the fullest extent. Thank goodness!
On the original LP that was nearly 20 minutes in and time for side two! So we didn’t have a segue after track two. We’d heard the 7″ edit of “The Night They Invented Love” on the US 7″ B-side of “Dancing Is Dangerous.” Her on the album it was another 9+ minute extravaganza. The slinky sax of Randy Brecker had a prominent part to play on this one, and Nöel moderated her performance to a camp sultriness that was nearly in Mae West territory with her phrasing. Showing that she was no one-trick pony but was modulating her vocal performance to maximize the variety amid the strict beats.
The congas were another highlight here as were the there-but-for-the-grace-of-god-goeth typical Sparks lyrics. The synthetic hi-hats showed the extent of technique that The Maels had absorbed from Moroder. But Moroder had used drummer Keith Forsey on “I Feel Love.” No drummer was credited here, leading me to think that Ron was using synth loops [possibly modular] for the unceasing drum tracks here. Since 1979 era drum machines were hardly this beefy sounding.
Fluid Japan: Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence – US – DL [2024]
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence 3:43
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence [Tokyo Mix] 4:40
Come See Me To The Moon 3:17
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence [Yukiguni Mix] 3:36
An Extra In God’s Great Film 4:35
We are still in catching up mode but this release is worth the effort! It dropped last Thursday and I immediately bought it only to finally hear it today. We’ve not heard any covers yet from the Art Rocking Fluid Japan collective, but there’s a first time for everything. In this case, it was an extended homage to the group’s foundational influence, the late Ryuichi Sakamoto. And they have sought to dig beneath the song’s surface to explore hidden trajectories in this trilogy of versions that forms the backbone of this very pianocentric EP.
When the band first coalesced in Tokyo in the late 90s, the song was a staple of the band’s live sets and first practices. Now that the band is virtual and spread out widely, they have returned to their roots with some widely disparate versions of the iconic song. The EP was primarily down to two members of Fluid Japan flexing their musical muscles this time. Reiko Minimikawa faithfully covered the song on the Kyoto Mix with delicate solo piano with crystalline sustain being the entirety of the performance. The gentle breakdown in the coda being the only real point of departure here.
The band have stated that the Tokyo Mix was an attempt to place the song into a different Sakamoto context; that of the superb “Neo Geo” album. This time the piano was abetted with synthesizers and drum machines. The former courtesy of Minamikawa with Walt Wistrand on synths and drum machine. Delicate synths dispersed throughout the extended intro until the familiar piano theme manifested in the bulk of the song. As accompanied by subtle hi-hat and rim hits. The glassy reverb of the piano notes in the coda were an elegant lead-in for the breakdown in the lower end of the scale this time.
Minamikawa’s solo piano single from 2023, “Come See Me To The Moon,” [which we missed reviewing last year] fits into the conceit and context of this EP marvelously, with its wistful yet sophisticated melody being more than adequate company for the song that changed everything for Sakamoto. Then the Yukigini Mix of Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” re-set the context of the song within a framework of only synthesizers and elegant, spectral, choral patches adding an airbrushed sheen not a million miles away from the vibe of a song like “I’m Not In Love.”
Finally, Walt Wistrand added one more track, which struck a Harold Budd/Cocteau Twins vibe while having a title that Bill Nelson should probably be a little jealous of. “An Extra In God’s Great Film” sported a drum track here but it was so subtle that it almost faded out at the song’s midpoint. Making room for more choral patches to swoop into the mix and soon graciously depart. Leaving the climax of the song to the reverberant piano.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Fluid Japan have produced a trilogy of Sakamoto’s most indelible melody that runs a fascinating spectrum along the Sakamoto/Budd axis of sound and to this they’ve added two of their most coherent contributions to result in a keyboard driven EP that made only scant concessions to notions of rhythm while exploring vistas of placid, tranquil beauty. While there’s certainly no harm in leaving the audience wanting more, their success with “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” here suggested that some enterprising musician might one day craft an entire album from the song.
As evidenced here, it’s certainly sturdy enough to hang such a conceit on. But until then, we can revel this fascinating sidestep in Fluid Japan’s journey that paid generous melodic dividends and is recommended to any and all fans of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Harold Budd, and even the ambient side of Bill Nelson as well. Due to the licensing costs, this single will set us back $3.75 but I felt it was worth more, and I know for a fact that the $3.75 doesn’t quite cover the licensing fees so make sure you top off when buying. DJ, hit that button!
Johnny Rainbow [L] on bass joins Federica Garenna and Frank Marrelli in making Les Longs Adieux a trio
The Italian band with the French name is back! On Friday we got a new notification from the Italian duo Les Longs Adieux that they had a new single so I hot footed it to Bandcamp to buy their latest offering for a review today. I had really loved their “Vertigo” album from earlier this year and have listened to it often; reluctant to remove it from my personal device after my review was written. At the time, I couldn’t wait to see what they ended up doing next, and as it transpires, I didn’t have to wait long. The new single was “La Luna” and Federica Garenna and Frank Marrelli are now joined by Johnny Rainbow [ex Skull Daze] on bass guitar. Always a smart move for a duo wanting to move to the next level and fatten their sound.
The band had just committed this one to hard drive during the summer with Rainbow adding his four-string fretwork earlier this month. The band stated that they were listening to music from the golden age of Post-Punk, particularly The Damned’s sublime “Phantasmagoria,” so as an ardent admirer of that disc, let’s dive in, shall we?
Bandcamp | IT | DL | 2024
Les Longs Adieux: La Luna – DL – IT [2024]
La Luna 4:36
A deceptively gentle intro with sustained synths set against open guitar chords quickly got down to gritty business when the drums jacked up the tempo and the song roared out of the starting blocks. The deep bassthrob of Rainbow was already adding new animal power to the band’s vibe. So when Ms. Garenna began singing with the passionate, fortissimo delivery we’ve come to expect from just hearing her last album, it rocked with a potent force.
Frank Marrelli’s guitars were tightly focused as well; eschewing atmosphere for sheer dynamic punch. Federica’s synths played minor key counterpoint to the drive of the music; sparring with Marrelli as he injected an almost Rockabilly energy into the middle eight, which raised the stakes for the song’s climax. Listen here.
The band were definitely into the Rock zone for this one. Taking a step away from the dark, crystalline beauty of their last album. Did it evince a legitimate influence from the likes of “Phantasmagoria?” Yes, this single could have been bedfellows with material like “Street Of Dreams” with singer Frederica being worlds apart from Dave Vanian, of course! But I’d be lying if I didn’t also detect another complementary vibe at work here…namely that of Billy Idol. Though I much prefer the singer here!
We’ll see if this is a one-off or the first taste of a new Les Longs Adieux album to come. But for now if you want dark, driving Rock music with a Post-Punk sting you would do well to grab this one to help heat up those cold winter nights we’re starting to get in the Northern Hemisphere. The DL is name your price but I urge you to be generous and I’m already regretting not just paying the €17.84 for all 9 releases by the band in their Bandcamp store. This band can be habit forming. DJ, hit that button!
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