| 
album // Music For Parties
After launching Mute Records
with his single 'TVOD / Warm Leatherette' as The Normal,
few would have expected Daniel Miller's next musical
move to be an album of (mostly) covers of old rock 'n roll songs.
But, then again, if you believed the liner notes Music For Parties
by Silicon Teens wasn't by Daniel Miller at all.
Rather, the album was made by Paul (percussion),
Diane (synthesizer), Jacki (synthesizer)
and Daryl (vocals) and produced by Larry
Least (a pseudonym Miller would use again as a producer
for Missing Scientists and Alex Fergusson). Erics
Hine and Radcliffe engineered
the LP. Not having been aware of Daniel Miller, Mute or anything
close when this was released (I was four years old), I'm not sure
if anyone was suckered in by the ruse at the time – by the
time I fell in love with Mute in 1991, the secret (if it ever was
one) was already out; Biba Kopf's Documentary Evidence
pamphlet made it completely clear that Silicon Teens was the work
of one man and one man alone, Daniel Miller. Apparently, at the
time, actors playing the fake quartet would be deployed for interviews.
Anyone familiar with 'Daryl's particular brand of
singing (nasal, a definite punk-informed delivery) would detect
that this was a Miller project from the first lines of opener 'Memphis
Tennessee'; anyone familiar with his electronics work before and
after would spot his unique synth work in the chirpy sounds and
harsh dissonant interruptions. Anyone who didn't, but was listening
closely to the lyrics of one of the four Miller compositions here,
'TV Playtime', may have finally got the connection with the line
'TV OD, video breakdown' delivered in a wobbly voice during
one section of that track, while behind the watery voice malfunctioning
synths not dissimilar to those deployed on Fad Gadget's
'Ricky's Hand' flutter and bleep.
To my shame, I only bought this recently, though
I had bought the album's three main 7" singles years ago. I
picked up a CD copy of the album last year from Rough Trade East
and happened upon it in the 'punk' section; I scoffed at first,
until I remembered that when I'd played 'Memphis Tennessee' to my
dad - an avowed Chuck Berry fan - back then, he screwed his face
up in disgust, as if the generally polite sounds of Miller's version
were somehow abrasive on the ears or that making an electronic facsimile
copy of a rock 'n roll track was like sacrificing a holy cow; it's
how I'd seen footage of people in punk documentaries reacting to
the Sex Pistols, so perhaps Music For Parties was punk
after all. Certainly, in 'TV Playtime' there is a dimension which
evokes the uncompromising sound of Suicide and
in turn the pre-Dare sound of Human League at their most
uncompromising.
One of my favourite tracks here is Miller's take
on The Kinks' 'You Really Got Me', where the proto-punk / garage
rock central riff is replaced with a buzzing synth delivered over
a simple motorik beat. If this had been released as a single it
could potentially have been chart-bothering, compared with the slightly
more bouncy 'Just Like Eddie' which apparently did reasonably well
as a single. 'Do Wah Diddy' and 'Do You Love Me' again are brilliant;
these were two tracks that I absolutely detested as a child when
they cropped up on radio. The latter is frankly among the most manically
joyous songs I own, even if it doesn't start out that way. The album
version of 'Let's Dance' sounds like Depeche Mode's
'Photographic' in its Some Bizarre Album incarnation; like
Soft Cell did with their 12" version of 'Tainted Love' mixed
with 'Where Did Our Love Go?', you almost long for someone to hitch
the Teens and Mode tracks together. Irrespective, it's very danceable,
with some quite tasty big fat synth notes as well. The Ramones also
covered 'Let's Dance' for their début; when rendered on Ramones
as amphetamine-fuelled speed-punk it made complete sense alongside
their own 'Beat On The Brat', 'Sheena Is A Punk Rocker' and 'Now
I Wanna Sniff Some Glue'; here too, as a piece of high-energy synthpop,
it likewise makes complete sense and the link to The Ramones' version
comes in as Miller snarls the '1, 2, 3, 4' intro.
Aside from the abrasive 'TV Playtime', Miller also
contributes three other compositions to Music For Parties.
'Chip 'n Roll' is an insanely upbeat synth pop gem, lots of handclaps
and hissing hi-hats, as well as a gloriously twee main riff. It's
like Martin Gore's 'Big Muff' only way more poppy.
'State Of Shock (Part Two)' begs the question as to whether the
Mute archives will ever turn up, or indeed if there ever was, a
part one; this is a clanking, vaguely dark instrumental track with
a stuttering rhythm and some squelchy sounds muttering away in the
background. I'm not entirely what party you'd play this at; probably
some dark, moody place where you'd be as likely to hear Kraftwerk
nestled up alongside Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret
Voltaire. Miller's 'Sun Flight', originally a B-side to
the 'Just Like Eddie' 7” and included here as a bonus track,
is again reasonably dark and mysterious, the distorted chorus intonation
of 'Come to the sun' and some snatched radio conversation sounding
like a course of action filled will danger, even if the main keyboard
riff is singularly both captivating and entirely of its time.
Would an album like this ever get released today?
Hardly likely. Music For Parties taps into a sense of kitsch
excitement surrounding the relatively (then) untapped potential
of the synth in a pop context. Prior to this, and other albums released
at around the same time, the synth was mostly deployed by po-faced
Progsters with lavish budgets to spend on huge modular synth behemoths.
Music For Parties' most punk achievement was to take these
songs from yesteryear, remodel them as cheeky pop tunes and inject
some tradition-baiting lightheartedness.
One gripe is that this probably needs a bloody good
remaster as the sound quality sounds a little circumspect at times.
The other, in the context of having heard some snatches of 'Warm
Leatherette' covers by other early Mute artists (Fad Gadget, Yazoo,
Nitzer Ebb) would be a cover of that track
by this purported 'quartet'; now that would be fun.
lp/cd:
1. Memphis Tennessee
2. Yesterday Man
3. Do Wah Diddy
4. TV Playtime
5. You Really Got Me
6. Chip 'n Roll
7. Do You Love Me
8. Let's Dance
9 . Oh Boy
10. Sweet Little Sixteen
11. State Of Shock (Part Two)
12. Just Like Eddie
13. Red River Rock
14. Judy In Disguise
extra tracks on 1993 cd edition:
Let's Dance (Single Version)
Sun Flight
single // Memphis Tennessee
Review forthcoming.
7":
A. Memphis Tennessee
B. Let's Dance
single // Judy In Disguise
Review forthcoming.
7":
A. Judy In Disguise
B. Chip 'n Roll
single // Just Like Eddie / Sun Flight
Review forthcoming.
7":
A. Just Like Eddie
B. Sun Flight
single // Red River Rock
This 7" single from Daniel Miller's
Silicon Teens project was released eight years
after the album Music For Parties as part of the soundtrack
to the John Hughes comedy Planes, Trains And Automobiles
starring John Candy and Steve Martin. I've read that the late Hughes
personally selected Miller's version for the soundtrack, though
you'll have to listen very carefully to find anything more than
a fleeting burst of the track during the movie.
Ostensibly a mad dash home across the States for
Thanksgiving, Planes, Trains And Automobiles is a classic
US road movie, albeit one tinged with a distinct sense of sadness
at the very end. Nevertheless, road movies need driving soundtracks,
and 'Red River Rock' works perfectly as a backdrop to the frustrating
journey that the uptight Martin and the crude, hapless Candy find
themselves on. Miller's reworking of Johnny & The Hurricane's
rock 'n' roll hit is undeniably pop of the highest order, a fast-paced
instrumental that has a shamelessly euphoric edge. The central melody
chimes well with an electronic beat and buzzing rhythm track and
one can hear the genesis of almost every synth instrumental that
Vince Clarke has recorded since departing Depeche
Mode. To the uninitiated it may scream 'novelty', but it
probably captures the futurist leanings of many Fifties teenagers
better than the original. It's also a huge amount of fun. The Planes,
Trains And Automobiles version, whilst the sleeve doesn't mention
this, is different from the version on Music For Parties;
it is clearly updated, more digital than analogue and a whole lot
crisper, but it's still just as gleeful. I'd all but given up hope
of tracking down this single, and I thought I was doing it purely
for completist reasons; finding out that this was an alternative
version was a pleasant surprise when I finally got hold of this.
The B-side 'Chip 'n Roll' is also available on Music
For Parties and also formed the B-side to the second Teens
single, 'Judy In Disguise'. It's a darker, more motorik affair whilst
still showing all the hallmarks of 1981 electronic pop and effectively
provides the bridge between the industrial clang of Miller’s
more famous and Mute-launching alter-ego, The
Normal, and the early electropop of Depeche Mode.
7":
A. Red River Rock (Planes, Trains And Automobiles Version)
B. Chip 'n Roll
|
