Monday 17 September, 2007

General Strike - Danger in Paradise (1984)


"The atmosphere which General Strike conjure together suits an old fashioned, cold war-ish scenario of technology. Their 'Interplanetary Music' is the space pop of George Pal and 'The Day The Earth Stood Still', of computers built like Blackpool Tower in order to struggle through simple trigonometry, of 'The Jetsons' and I.G.Y. They go no further than Expo 67, the world's last gasp of optimism. And although there are dark and disquieting moods set in this mosaic which their listeners have pieced together, it is made with a humour which is true to the spirit of adventure which those references apply.

The sanitation merchants who make up most of the world's record-makers today would forbid our ears from hearing these strangely electric keyboards, earthworked textures, bizarre chatterings of percussion, and voices that seem like puzzled robots. Cataloguing the sound in that way makes it all seem a bit of a joke, but it isn't: laughter is encouraged, but it's serious music, made with a great deal more serious spirit than the great and disheartening mountain of music which today implores you to hear and not listen". Richard Cook


David Toop: guitar, prepared guitar, bass, percussion, flute, alto flute, glockenspiel, voice, tapes, noises, rhythm tracks
Steve Beresford: bass, piano, farfisa organ, prophet 5, trumpet, flugelhorn, euphonium, percussion, glockenspiel, voice, toy piano, melodica, noises, rhythm tracks, drumkit
David Cunningham: tape treatments, production
Guests:
Lol Coxhill: tenor saxophone (Guided Missiles) and soprano saxophone (Interplanetary Music)
Dawn Roberts: voice (My Other Body)
Maartje ten Hoorn: violin (Interplanetary Music)

Originally released on cassette by Touch in 1984 with the exception of "Parts of my Body", released on a single by Canal Records in 1979. CD reissue in 1996.



link @320 [Re-Up]

Courtesy of Double Avenue Tentacles

11 comments:

Spring Day said...

That's a very interesting album. I got it from Lucky's old Border Music blog (maybe Double Avenue had it from Lucky too?).

Anonymous said...

... Bad shot Spring Day, this is a 1995 Piano 503CD edition...

...Lucky have a great "recordGallery", but we used to buy sometimes a few discs...

bravo juju said...

Gee... No need to get all pissed off on this subject...

THANKS to Double Avenue for this great contribution - a record he has been listening to for 10 years or so. It is, as Spring Day said, a very interesting album - the kind of music nobody produces anymore.
THANKS to Spring Day for keeping up with Juju, and THANKS to Lucky for his long career in posting adventurous music.

Unknown said...

JUJU, I appreciate enough your character.
obliged since you been so sensible
I would not say better...

beautiful presentation of the post

Spring Day said...

Ooops, sorry,

I really did not mean to be offensive at all. Actually, I'm a person who rather enjoys how things can flow from here to there in the blogosphere.
If you return to here, dear Double Avenue, would you please accept my excuses?

Anonymous said...

bravo - i never have seen the cassette cover, very different from the cd i have. one of a few i would NEVER give away, dear or alive!

spring day - good music is at good places. :)

Anonymous said...

doubleavenue - thanks for offering such a jewel, and also for the compliment about my 'musicGallery'. :)

bravo juju said...

I didn't even know this was originally a cassette release. One of the best things about blogging is that it forces me to discover new things about the records posted here. I've been reading CD booklets - something which I had given up years ago.
In this particular case, it is very interesting that both covers (cassette and cd) perfectly illustrate my understanding of the music.

Anonymous said...

please re upload this post ...
why really link is dead for inactivity reasons?



thanx a lot
michelangelo
from beyond....

bravo juju said...

It seems that Double Avenue, who provided the link, had some problems with the host. He will re-upload it in 1 or 2 days.

bravo juju said...

Double Avenue has provided a fresh link for this. Thanks, Mr. Duplex.