Pigbag - Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag

Today, in addition to the post about "forgotten hits" I'd like to dedicate a few words to the one of the most unique bands on a British music scene in early 1980's. The name of this band : Pigbag, so unusual or even freak, didn't promise them to achieve any great success whatsoever. But life goes in the strange ways and against all mainstream pop music trends this crowdy bunch of friends, who had gathered together originally to play some jam sesssion, has become so recognizable to allow them to record several well received singles and albums and extensively touring all over UK, continental Europe and US. Nowadays, Pigbag is only linked with their biggest hit titled "Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag" (Y Records - Y10) which was released for the first time in 1981 gaining enough success to reach number 2 on the UK Indie Chart and re-released on the public demand a year later peaking at number 3 on the main UK Singles Chart in April'1982. This song was a huge comercial success for the band and has been numerously used as a soundtrack music or at sporting events, especially by several English professional football clubs. It's still a popular dance track heavily rotating in many clubs. At last, one can mention that it was covered or remixed by so famed artists as Madness, Paul Oakenfold, Thunderpass.    

A-ha - Summer Moved On

This year's summer is almost over but it's still warm and sunny. It's got to be a hot and lazy Sunday, the last one in August. So, searching for a song being in the adequate mood for today I found one of the most sophisticated ballads recorded in year 2000 by a Norvegian pop giants A-ha titled "Summer Moved On" (WEA - 3984 29692-2). By the way, the brand new studio album from A-ha, their tenth one, titled "Cast In Steel" is scheduled to be released on 4th September 2015.

Twilight Ritual - The lost synthpop gem from Belgium

I have just discovered the song that I can listen many times in a one day and I haven’t enough of it at all. The title of the song : „She Told Me Lies”, the author : a Belgian band Twilight Ritual. This song was recorded about thirty years ago but it laid in hiding until year 2002 when it was released on band’s compilation album „The Factory Scream” (Micrart MCD 8504). How can I describe this song? Simply, synthpop in the purest of all possible shapes.  

Gold Zebra - Apart Again

Canadian synth-pop came to some signifence over last few years. A true representative of this music genre is Gold Zebra, a man female duo from Montreal, popular mainly on a local music scene, but I think it deserves to achieve much more success in the future. As for today, the band's masterpiece is the self-titled album "Gold Zebra" which was recorded between years 2010 - 2013 and finally released on 22 April'2014 by Montreal-based music label Visage Musique ( catalogue number : VM13 ), now it's available to download under this link : http://goldzebra.bandcamp.com/releases. The album consists ten tracks worth to listen in whole, my favourite one is titled "Apart Again" with video filmed for it in the desert.

Men Without Hats - The Safety Dance

Forgotten hits. It's not easy to find a clear definition for this music category. For me, this could be an adequate term for songs which reached at one point the higher regions of the various, local or worldwide hit charts and were recognizable by listeners all over the world. The fine example of "the forgotten hit" may be "The Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats, a Canadian new wave band from Montreal. This song was originally released by indie label Statik Records ( STAT 24 ) in UK and Canada in 1982, entered  The Canadian Top 50 Singles Chart in February'1983 and gradually gaining places it peaked at number 11 in July that year. But that was only the preludium of the worlwide success for this record which came in the second half of 1983. It became a bigger hit than it had been in Canada, both in US and UK, peaking at number 3 on US Billboard Hot 100 and nunber 6 on UK Singles Chart. "The Safety Dance" has also achieved  success on the official hit charts in many other countries or continents, as in Australia (no. 5), New Zealand (no. 2), Germany (no. 2), Ireland (no. 3), Norway (no. 3), South Africa (no.1), Belgium (no. 10), Austria (no. 7), Sweden (no, 3), Switzerland (no. 4). Nowadays, with a liitle luck you can still listen and watch live this song during one of rare gigs by reformed Men Without Hats (with only one member from band's original line-up, Ivan Doroschuk - lead vocals, guitar, keyboards, by the way the author of this song).

Kissing The Pink - The Last Film

I think that everybody has got his own list of music tracks which  have written permanently in his memory throughout his life. So when you hear one of such songs on the radio or the music television, just after two or three seconds you can easily name the title of this song, the artist who perform it, the exact date or at least the year it was released, if or when it was a hit and what place it achieved on various charts, My personal setlist of the most favourite tracks consists mainly of songs from the 80s and the late 70's, so my memories have been revived today as I listened to the song titled "The Last Film" by the English new wave band Kissing The Pink. Originally it was released by indie label Magnet Records (KTP 3) in 1983 and gained some minor success, reaching number 19 on UK Single Chart. I remember the band's performence in Top Of The Pops in Fabruary;1983, it gave me a thrill, I think it was very cool then and it's cool nowadays.  

Wire - Just Wire or maybe Harpooned

In 1977 .......

And In 2015

Wire is the band I admired a lot especially in the late 80's and early 90's, Started in 1976 as the raucous punk rock group with their first eponymic record "Pink Flag" (Harvet, SHSP 4076), but soon they developed their own music style, full of multilayered structures built on sophisticated sounds with greater use of guitar effects and synthesizers.Their masterpieces were albuns "The Ideal Copy" (from 1987, Mute STUMM 42), "A Bell Is A Cup ... Until It Is Struck" (from 1988, Mute STUMM 54) and "It's Beginning To And Back Again" (from 1989, Mute STUMM 66). The personell responsible for these records were : Colin Newman (vocals, guitar), Graham Lewis (bass, vocals), Bruce Gilbert (guitar) and Robert Gotobed alias Grey (drums). But the assumpt for this post is the brand new album by Wire which was released in April 2015. It's titled just simply "Wire" (Pinkflag - PF22). There was one change in band's line-up, Bruce Gilbert was replaced by Matthew Simms, a very talented young guitarist from London. In my opinion, this album's highest point is its last track named "Harpooned", an almost nine minutes long, vastly athmospheric, hypnotic, drowned in a shrill melancholy.