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no-disco · 2 years

Photo

Sounds, 31st January 1981. Photo by Paul Slattery.

Transcription under the cut.

Photo and transcription retrieved from sacreddm.net on the wayback machine

Dispel from your minds the untenable notion that Futurists are either bored Mummy’s boys tinkering with expensive gadgets or desperately earnest avant-garde merchants trying to preach the gospel according to Kafka: the current resurgence, or (in fact) emergence of electronic-based bands is at a truly grass-roots level – an increasing number of fresh-faced young men (and women) are taking to synthesisers and drum machines for their amusement rather than cheap guitars to create cut-price, instant tunes.

As the great Gal Numan himself said: “You can use just one finger and still produce the most amazing sounds!” Such a sage. After all, the capital outlay of one or maybe two synths plus a rhythm box compares rather favourably with paying four or five dodgy musicians when you can get away with less with reliable hardware. You know it makes sense for a good start in music life!

Some new futurist boys favour walls of noise, some boys favour experimentalism. Some boys like electronic pop and others electro-disco.

The very young, tender and fresh-as-a-mountain-stream Depeche Mode favour our third category.

Natives of Basildon, Vince Clarke (synth), Martin Gore (another synth), Andy Fletcher (yet another (bass) synth) and David Gahan (vocals and electronic percussion) used to play guitars but gradually shed them in favour of more modern toys.

Six months ago they ventured into Croc’s Glamour Club Rayleigh to find themselves resident on the Electronic Saturday Night, followed by brief showings at the mightiest of oi-some venues, the Bridgehouse.

Twas in that dark, unromantic setting that their fairytale rise commences; synth-svengali Daniel (The Normal) Miller spotted les Modes, took an instant and profound liking to their brand of melodic electro-pop and decided to whisk them away to do a single on Mute Records, the result of which is “Dreaming Of Me / Ice Machine”, which will be out on February 20.

Just the right time, methinks, to attack our touch-sensitive ears with their brand of sweet, simple, precise rhythm and lightweight synthetic pop, which, with the luck of the gods, will launch a full-frontal campaign on the complacent legions of Orchestral Manoeuvres kiddies who know a good hookline when they hear one.

But before this solo effort comes their contribution to the long-awaited Stevo-inspired compilation of ‘futurist’ bands, ‘Some Bizzare Album’, out at the end of this month, plus appearances on the accompanying tour of ‘Bizzare Evenings’. Busy, buzzing boys.

Depeche Mode are so fragile and new that this was their first press-ganging, which resulted in a bit of an impasse. Those words which were imparted were precious few, just innocent observations on their still embryonic state. Without wishing to sound condescending – out of the mouths of babes comes forth truth. But it’s great: four young men making simple, commercial music about which they have absolutely no pretentions. Refreshing as a glass of Andrews.

Perched nervously round a creperie table, they responded blushingly and politely to my thrusting questions. I ventured, foolishly, that a fair description of their music would involve comparing them to Orch Man, but with lashings more melody.

David, the trendiest, best coiffed Mode, denied any such connection: “We wouldn’t like to be categorised with them or associated with them at all.”

This may have something to do with the fact that OMD started life as a nauseously trendy Liverpool band along with such luminaries as the Bunnymen and only reached their hit potential later on.

DP reckon to be fairly confident of their instant commercial viability and would be extremely happy to see themselves in the charts and on TOTP tomorrow.

“Yes, please!” they chirped in chorus.

Because of this shameless advocation of hit singles, they also refuted any association with the Sounds-spawned Futurist scene.

David: “I don’t like that scene at all. All the bands involved with it are in one bunch together and they’ll never escape from it. Soft Cell are about the only ones with a good chance. I don’t like to bitch, but Naked Lunch have been going for years… We write pop music, electric pop, so we couldn’t get tagged by appearing on that album. Once people hear the single, they’ll change their minds!”

And that, punters, is hopefully what you’ll think too. It’s the right place, right time for new blood in the charts, a prospect which seemed unlikely mere months ago, but pioneers like the Spands have made it easier for on-coming bands. Popular electronic music so far hasn’t used synthesisers too intelligently (thanks to Numan) or lightheartedly; DP don’t depress, they uplift – something you up there, North of Watford will be able to sample at the start of next month.

Watch out for their four gigs at the most style-conscious clubs in Leeds, Preston, Liverpool and Manchester. But don’t think that just because you don’t sport a fine quiff and startling technicolour threads that you’ll feel like a cat amongst pigeons at a DP show; they attract Blitz-like characters but don’t wish to be cliqueish and welcome all peace-loving gig-goers.

The Modes generally concur that they have just as good an opportunity to achieve their aims on Mute Records as they do signing to any large conglomerate record label you care to mention.

Vince: “We’ve got a better chance on Mute. Daniel’s been good to us and we like the way he operates. We listened to a few other companies seeing what they had to offer but we decided to stick with him. He had a big success with the Silicon Teens, and we’ve got that same sort of lightweight feeling to us. Daniel’s got a good nose for things like that. He’s an underestimated man.”

“Filming and screening / I picture the scene / Filming and dreaming / Dreaming of me” (‘Dreaming Of Me’). A flirtation with romanticism, of seeing yourself up there on the screen. It may happen for DP sooner than they think; the time for diversification is ripe after the Numan plateau and with the likes of Visage and Ultravox surging into the Top 30. It’s early days for Depeche now, but they may come across criticism for using drum machines instead of a real live drummer.

David disagreed: “I don’t think it’ll happen now. The tapes we’ve got now sound like real drums anyway. I know Orchestral Manoeuvres were put down for using a drum machine on stage but the worst thing they ever did was to get a drummer. It was really bad after that. We don’t need one anyway – it’s just another person to pay!” [1]

Seems like eminent business sense to me. The live version of Depeche Mode should prove interesting, due to the total reverse of normal stage practices: one vocalist, plus three others all playing keyboard synthesisers.

The band may remain static, but they believe in entertainment and encouragement of dancing. The gyrating stops at pop, though, as DP are certainly not thinking of branching into funk (the next big thing!). Vince claims they simply don’t understand it!

Apart from the great Stevo tour, Depeche Mode are forging their way into more fashion-conscious realms when they take to the stage of the Rainbow on February 14th for Steve Strange and Rusty Egan’s People’s Palace St Valentine’s Ball (phew!), along with their favourite new burlesque dance troupe Shock and the hitherto untrendy Metro.

For a future that’s bound to be exciting, stylish, fun and constantly changing, Depeche Mode have their place in the scheme of things; the charts may well prove to be their oyster. Ain’t it a shame, for a band who are no strangers to the charms of the tape recorder, to clam up when facing one in a different scenario… Maybe once they see the world outside Basildon they’ll give away their trade secrets.

Until then Depeche Mode are content to remain something of an enigma…

#depeche mode #dave gahan #martin gore #andy fletcher #vince clarke #s&s era #s&s photoshoot #sounds magazine #by paul slattery #b&w #dm interview #tbt

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jamesshawgames · 3 years

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Character Profile: Stevo

It’s time for the second in my occasional series of profiles of secondary characters from the Relics series. This time, we’re focusing on everyone’s favorite cheery, rough-and-ready Aussie pilot for hire and bestower of annoying nicknames. Stevo, it’s your time to shine! (Also, sorry that his face is so shiny, I still haven’t really figured out how to use Artbreeder properly!)

Name: Ted “Stevo” Stevenson

Place of Birth: Gooloogong, New South Wales, Australia

Date of Birth: August 15 1912

Appearance:

Bio: Stevo’s parents, Albert and Phyllis, were members of the Indigenous Australian Wiradjuri people, and residents of the outback village of Gooloogong, New South Wales. When Stevo was just three, his father died in an industrial accident, leaving him, the couple’s only child, to be raised by his single mother. However, she had a lot of help from her family and neighbors – folks look out for each other in Gooloogong. Stevo didn’t excel academically, and he soon found that his passions lay outside the classroom. Growing up, he developed two major enthusiasms. The first was adventure fiction. Whenever they visited a bigger town, Stevo would always seek out the second-hand bookshop and emerge with big hauls of paperback adventure novels. He eagerly devoured these stories of explorers and adventurers in exotic locations all around the world. Because of this reading, young Stevo was gripped by a powerful desire to travel, to see as much of the world as possible, because it all seemed so much more exciting than Gooloogong. He acquired his second passion from “Uncle” Bill, a Gooloogong local, friend of Stevo’s mother, and the local crop duster pilot.

Since the accident had deprived Stevo of a father-figure within his own family, Bill stepped in to play that role. He’d often entertain the boy, take care of him when his exhausted mother needed a break, and, from time to time, he’d even let young Stevo fly with him when he was doing the rounds at the local ranches, spreading pesticides for the farmers from his battered old biplane. When Stevo got old enough to be trusted with the controls, Bill even taught him the basics of piloting. That’s the only formal flight training Stevo ever received, and it shows. His style of flying could best be described as “rough and ready”, and he never quite got the hang of the art of smooth landings.

Just before Stevo’s 18th birthday, old Bill passed away of emphysema. Hoping that his promising young pupil might take over from him as Gooloogong’s crop duster pilot, Bill left his old plane to Stevo in his will. Bill’s death hit Stevo hard but, once he had worked through his grief, he realized that he now had the means to fulfil his childhood dreams of travel and adventure. So he clumsily painted the old plane a garish shade of red, nicknamed it “Ruby”, and, over his poor old mum’s objections, he set out into the world.

Since then, he’s been going wherever the trade takes him, picking up passengers, taking them where they want to go, and then using the money from the fare to explore wherever it is he’s ended up. Then, when the money runs out, it’s time for the next passenger. It’s a crazy, itinerant life, and it won’t make him rich, but he doesn’t care about that. He sees all those years in Gooloogong as wasted, and he wants to make up for all that lost time by seeing as much of the world as he can. That’s far more important to him than money, and he has simple needs. As long as he has Ruby, a place to sleep, a beer and whisky fund and the occasional adventure, he’s as happy as can be.

He’s a rough character, plain-speaking, sometimes crude, completely down-to-earth. Some people find him irritating, but others are charmed by his child-like joy in life, his constant optimism, and his fierce loyalty to his friends. And he’s got no plans to change his ways, to ever stop his random voyages of exploration all around the globe. At least until the day he meets a certain archaeologist, who needs a pilot to take them to a shady meeting at an abandoned Chinese military airbase In the Himalayas.

That’s one trip that will change him forever. Assuming he comes back from it alive…

#relics of the lost age #relics 2 #relics series #hosted games #interactive fiction #character profile #choice of games

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smlpodcast · 7 years

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The SML Podcast - Episode 268: tinyBuild, bigEpisode

Download Episode 268

Second longest show ever as we get two guests hosts on as well as an interview with Yulia from tinyBuild!

We start the show joined by Stevo "Level 99" Bortz and David "Brushfire" Hubbard of Friday Night Fanfiction who came just to screw around and keep us off topic, and boy howdy did it work! In between the shenanigans we cover news like PS Plus for April, new Xbox BC and EA Access additions, a We Happy Few update, and tons more! Plus featured games!

Stevo reviews Senran Kagura Estival Versus, a beachside brawler with buxom beauties from Tamsoft and XSEED Games/Marvelous USA. Cole Martin joins us to review The Walking Dead: A New Frontier - Episode 3 the newest chapter in the franchise from Telltale Games as well as the dark and atmospheric underwater exploration title Anoxemia from BSK Games and BadLand Games.

Troll & I from Sprial House and Maximum Games is an action adventure with lots of exploration and a cool co-op mechanic. Beat Cop from Pixel Crow and 11 bit Studios is an 80s era pixel art adventure finally available in full release. FATED: The Silent Oath is an first person story driven adventure game on PSVR with a gut punch of a finale from Frima Studios.

After a quick break, Yulia Vakhrusheva of tinyBuild joins the show to talk all things tinyBuild from their newest titles like Phantom Trigger and Graveyard Keeper, to classics like Party Hard and Punch Club, out now on Xbox and PS4! We talk about nearly every tinyBuild game in the works, future plans for some beloved games, and tons more over our 90 minute chat!

This episode features music from our beloved Stevo Bortz because we clearly didn't get enough of him!

Level 99 - Unplug the Katamari (Intermission) Level 99 & LuIzA - Fossil's Oasis (Star Fox Adventures) Level 99, Hope Fails, & Moonlapse - Waves of Stone (Ecco: The Tides of Time) Levek 99 - A Simple Flip Can Change Fate (Final Fantasy VI)

http://www.tinybuild.com/ http://nerdyshow.com/fridaynightfanfiction/ http://www.xseedgames.com/ http://www.tamsoft.co.jp/ https://telltale.com/ http://badlandindie.com/category/studio/bsk-games/ http://badlandgames.com/ http://www.spiralhouse.co.uk/ http://www.maximumgames.com/ http://www.11bitstudios.com/ http://pixelcrow.com/ http://www.frimastudio.com/ http://ocremix.org/artist/5420/level-99 https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-sml-podcast/id826998112 https://twitter.com/theSMLpodcast/ https://www.facebook.com/theSMLpodcast/

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