single // Warm Leatherette / TVOD
You can scarcely begin to imagine just how cool
this release must have been back in 1978 - white backdrop, black
and white British Safety photograph, minimal lettering, and the
proclamation - 'This is a Mute record'. Imagine picking up this
7" when it came out, imagine seeing that proclamation and wondering
whether this wasn't some artsy prank record with no music on it;
a mute record indeed.
But this was not in any way silent. The debut release
on his nascent Mute label, the two tracks here
- 'Warm Leatherette' and 'TVOD' - were written and recorded by erstwhile
punk Daniel Miller. Sickening and confrontational
in the same breath, these tracks were also catchy in some obscure,
alternative pop fashion. Pop, that is, as conceived in New York's
Bowery by Martin Rev and Alan Vega
as Suicide some years earlier. This one solitary
single from Miller as The Normal pretty much set
out his range of collective influences, which would guide the early
roster of the Mute label - synths, Krautrock-style motorik rhythms,
and a punk spirit.
'Warm Leatherette', later covered by Grace Jones,
is pure JG Ballard - a track about the erotic possibilities
of the car crash, this controversial song would probably have riled
Mary Whitehouse something rotten if she'd ever got to hear it. Repetitive
and minimal, the track is constructed around a central, chugging
electro percussion rhythm upon which Nitzer Ebb
would found their earliest material, and some synths sounding like
human breathing. 'Quick, let's make love / Before you die'
Miller intones toward the end of the track.
'TVOD' has slightly more depth, but is no less repetitive
with its arpeggiating high synth melody. More inspired by David
Lynch than Ballard, this finds our narrator conducting
TV signals by inserting the aerial directly into his skin. Ouch.
Miller's voice, delivered in a half-spoken fashion, combines the
sophistication of Malcolm McLaren with the roboticism of Kraftwerk.
The track also deploys 'samples' from real TV broadcasts, and concludes
with some modulating white noise as the television overdose finally
becomes too much. Social commentary or anti-social practices? Who
knows.
Less a fanfare heralding what was to become the
UK's biggest indie label, this was a statement of very serious intent.
Classic.
7"/cd:
1. Warm Leatherette
2. TVOD
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