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CD FEATURES 3 BONUS TRKS. LTD TO 1000 COPIES!
A MIND EXPANSION RELEASE ME-2009
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RELEASE DATE 03/20/07
TRACK LIST:
1. WINGS OF THE WIND 7:55
2. RED SIERRA 6:35
3. DAKOTA 2:56
4. CHEYENNE 3:06
5. RIVER OF TEARS 3:47
6. BUCKEYE 2:13
7. LITTLE ROCK 6:58
8. PRARIE STAR 2:24
9. MUSTANG 2:39
10. PONY 1:53 *
11. DURANGO 2:19 *
12. COYOTE 5:02 *
TRACKS 2-6, 8, 9, 11 PRODUCED BY RIC OCASEK 1980-1991
TRACKS 1, 7, 12 PRODUCED BY MARTIN REV 1990
TRACK 10 PRODUCED BY CHARLES BALL 1992
* BONUS TRACKS
LINER NOTES (WEB ONLY) BY SONIC BOOM (SPACEMEN 3/SPECTRUM)
MARTIN REV (nee SUICIDE) - Cheyenne
The history of electronic music in popular music culture is overshadowed by its 3 earliest & most succinct exponents : The WHITE NOISE , The SILVER APPLES & of course thee legendary SUICIDE .
Martin Rev , who’s work you hold here is the powerhouse that runs the music & rythmns of the latter .
All 3 bands somehow evolved out of the primordial ferment of new technology & psychedelic awareness that would simultaneously spawn the first synthesisers .
What’s perhaps most astounding about all 3 is the fact they all create astounding music using relatively primitive equipment , and none more elegantly so than Rev himself.
As Marty Suicide in the early Seventies he dosed up basic keyboards & early drum machines to produce stunning , minimal workouts - intense . psychedelic . & threatening .
Suicide never claimed they were music . Ofcourse it is ............... but somehow the approach is more visceral , more uptight . more street than any of their contempories.
In both his work with Suicide and on his own pioneering solo discs Rev effortlessly captures the sounds of New Yorks cavernous avenues - filtering , phasing & modulating the sounds of the Empire city . Making tangible the very essence of living in the bright neon & dark shadows of their unique abode.
From their early stark , entancing recordings , Suicide gradually layered & wove ever more complex rythmns & tones into their music , somehow maintaining its minimalist/maximalist mood . And that is essentially what we get to observe here . Some of the legendary 2nd Suicide l.p.’s best tracks with radically differant instrumental mixes allowing an insight to the complexities of the original arrangements whilst letting us glimpse an alternate perspective .
Six of the l.p.’s best songs (Harlem , Touch me , Sweetheart , Fast Money music , Diamonds Furcoats Champagne & Shadazz ) get Rev’s fingers twitching all over them . As Suicide’s sole music composer he has unsurprisingly created an lp that sounds as unique & fresh & timeless now , as it did in those distant dark early 1980’s .
For extra spice here , were also served what sounds like an out-take from Alan Vega/ Martin Rev / Suicide disc - the 2nd l.p.’s full title - in the groove heavy Dakota . It’s one of several songs from these sessions that are perhaps the best & closest precedent to what would 10+ years later become the phenomena known as Techno or Rave .The real parents of that whole sound was surely these guys - somehow conspicuous by their abscence from any of those genres artists props & credits.
Rounding out the whole package here , are five of Rev’s most acid drenched & often disconcertingly rythmnless pieces . The serene Wings Of The Wind , & the subway-journey like trip we take in the wee hours in Little Rock standing tall amongst them .
These songs from Rev’s early solo work with the Car’s Ric Ocasek - a man heavily involved with Suicide - & Soft Cell’s Charles Ball stand as supreme electronic workouts , easily as rewarding as any of Suicide’s previous oevre and a fitting mixer for the coctail here presented.
Thankfully , Martin Rev is slowly but surely being recognised as the roots of electronic pop/rock music ,.With many contemporay acts , such as LCD Sound System , paying obvious homage .
Not a moment too soon .
Whether discussing electronic dance , pop or rock it is impossible to remain ignorant to the massive & groundbreaking input and influence he has had .
Both Rev & Suicide will continue to be seen for their unrivalled input into rock ’n’ roll & its warped evolution .
But meanwhile .
Remember .
They never said they were music , they are SUICIDE.
sonic boom feb/2007/earth
FOR MORE INFO ON MARTIN REV AND SUICIDE GO TO:
WWW.MARTINREV.COM
WWW.MYSPACE.COM/MARTINREV
www.limbos.org/suicide/
10 QUESTIONS WITH MARTIN REV
MIND EXPANSION/RANDALL NIEMAN
1. You have a re-issue of your classic "Cheyenne" album coming out on Mind
Expansion early next year. What can you tell us about the creating/writing process for that album?
REV: Cheyenne was just written from what I was hearing and playing live with Suicide and solo at the time. I tried all the latest studio instruments available ,
picked the new drum machines, some of the new modules and the Prophet 5, and just put down tracks one on top of the other.
2. What was it like working with Ric Ocasek?
REV: Ric was then and has always been the best to work with. Totally open, totally intelligent and totally giving. You can’t ask for more.
3. The new re-issue of "Cheyenne" features 3 bonus tracks that are out of this world. Can you tell us a little about them?
REV: The first bonus track Pony, was written on a western theme I was playing with while doing some tracks with Charles Ball, who produced my first Album on his Lust/Unlust Records. We had run into each other years after that album was made, and he wanted me to go back into the studio with him and just record. We did a bunch of stuff, some of which came out on the CD version of that first album.
Durango was played in one take at Ric’s studio while working on Suicide’s Why B Blue album. It was totally improvised off of the basic riff.
Coyote was sometlhing I cut while recording tracks on my own in a studio in NY called Czarist Productions. It’s from the same sessions that produced LIttle Rock and Wings of the Wind
4. What equipment did you use recording the "cheyenne" album?
REV: Equiptment used included the Prophet 5, Roland Compu Rythm CR 78, and a Kurzweil module on some tracks like Coyote and Wings.
5. How do you go about writing a song?
REV: Songs are usually written in a variety of ways. If it’s purely instrumental, then I either have a specific simple idea I start from which may be musical or visual. Or I might just start creating the first track or a rhythm line and go from there.
6. Your music as well as Suicide has influenced and inspired so many bands over the years and sounds as fresh today as the day it was released. What do you credit to its unfailing longevity and potency?
REV: I really couldn’t say why my music has had longevity. And one never knows how long that may last and to whom. I guess if you infuse your work with enough vision and thought combined with everything you’ve learned and are still learning, and there’s something deep inside of you that comes out in the process that you often don’t fully understand until maybe way later, it may have enough substance to last. When your work was created in terms of the period and what came before and after also gives it meaning.
7. What is the reaction to yours and suicide’s music now as compared to when it was first released?
REV: Of course we do not take the audience by complete surprise as when we first hit the stage but there’s still a lot of edge mixed with a hot but more appreciative reaction of an audience who has some sense now of what or whom to expect.
8. What records/artists have inspired you and what records are you listening to at the moment?
REV: My inspirations are too numerous (or taxing) to list and what I listen to today are basically references to what I’m searching for or creating at the moment. It could be anything.
9. You seem to do more live performances in europe than the states these days. do you find that they are more responsive to your music there than here in the states?
REV: I don’t know if the audiences are more responsive as we’ve had some similar responses in the states in the last few years. It may just be that the music business has more opportunities and there’s more demand for us in Europe so there’s more a willingness to have us play.
10. Are there any plans for a new suicide album in the near future?
REV: No plans at the moment but the idea is always at the top of our list. Just recently there was a live DVD released with some new tracks. And a new track made for the Atari game Driver.