Love And Rockets ‘Hot Trip To Heaven’ (Beggars Banquet / American, 1994)
For some reason, at the tail end of last year, the song ‘So Alive’ got lodged in my head.
The Twins ‘A Wild Romance’ (Hansa International, 1983)
The Twins were a synthpop group formed in Berlin in 1980, and unlike the twins of the Thompson variety, there were just two of them. Rather disappointingly though, they weren’t actually twins.
Luc Van Acker ‘Taking Snapshots’ (Self-Released, 1982)
“These track names were created by the people who bought the album in 1982”
Ananda Shankar ‘Ananda Shankar’ (Reprise, 1970)
In Ananda Shankar’s relatively short lifetime, the Indian sitar player was never afraid to push boundaries.
Charlie Tate ‘Alta Plana’ (OM, 2005)
Without any announcement at all, Alta Plana appeared in 2005 as a digital-only release and promptly disappeared.
Nick Nicely ‘Psychotropia’ (Tenth Planet, 2003)
Born on a transatlantic flight layover in 1959, from the moment he took his first breath there was always going to be something a little different about Nick Nicely.
Yagya ‘Rigning’ (Sending Orbs, 2009)
Is dub techno having a resurgence? Did it ever really go away?
Higher Intelligence Agency, ‘Colourform’, (Beyond, 1993)
"Chris was the older brother of my high school best friend. He had the hippest taste in music, but he was also really intimidating."
Amanda Lear ‘Sweet Revenge’ (Ariola, 1978)
Amanda Lear’s ‘Sweet Revenge’ sold remarkably well on the continent when eurodisco was in its infancy in 1978, even if it made little headway in the UK
I Start Counting ‘My Translucent Hands’ (Mute, 1986)
"Of the various musical guises assumed by David Baker and Simon Leonard, it was arguably their first – I Start Counting – which saw them at their most multifarious"