Tune Tag #131 with PeDupre of The Twelve Inch, Pt. 3: New Musik, Ali Jamieson, Black, RPM, Marshall Crenshaw, Laura Branigan, Scarlett & Black
🌟At 20, I spun discs at a small disco in 1975.💿I even frequented a few later that decade, mainly for the scene. We've got Disco King, Pe, aboard today! Let's, as they say, boogie AND get down!💃🕺
WELCOME TO CLUB TUNE TAG!💃🕺
Our bouncer, 10, invites you to enjoy yourself this evening!
🚪Welcome PeDupre of The Twelve Inch (Disco/80s) to Studio 53 1/2 (aka Club Tune Tag)!
You’ll be happy to hear we’ve waived the cover charge for entry tonight! And, drinks are on the house (we put the kegs and wine on the roof)!🥂
In your honour, Pe, we’ve cued up the late Martin Mull (our favorite funnyman) and his “Get Up, Get Down” from 1977! We’ll have another Dance Break shortly!
Last June, Pe and I did the Tune Tag Tango to great international effect:
Last week, we bumped into our new good friend, Diggin' it’s Karol, crate diggin’:
Next week, we’ll roll out the red carpet for Ali of Hi-Fi Amateur!🎶
Pe’s song #1 sent to Brad: New Musik: “They All Run After The Carving Knife,” 1981
Pe’s intro: I sometimes pretend I’m a child of disco, but really, I’m an eighties kid…early eighties, to be precise. In his landmark books on the (New York) dance music scene, Tim Lawrence (below) ends the story in 1983. To him, the first four years of the 1980s belong far more to the 1970s than to what came after. I couldn’t agree more.
The early eighties were a hinge moment, with economic and social upheaval, but was also a creative explosion and a fearless wave of musical experimentation.
Disco may have been declared dead in the U.S. in 1979, but Europe clearly missed the memo. If anything, the 4/4 pulse had infiltrated pop itself, re-wiring post-punk beyond recognition in the process: This was the era when electronic instruments reshaped everything, when new bands & producers surfaced almost weekly, especially in the UK!
Pe’s rationale: One of those bands was New Musik (l). Fronted and produced by Tony Mansfield (r), later one of early electro’s defining producers, the group itself remains his greatest work, in my opinion. And let me be clear: I adore New Musik!
They only released three albums, but the first two are permanent fixtures in my personal hall of fame. Their second, Anywhere (above), might even be my all-time favourite album! It sound-tracked my teenage years. For pure synth-pop, it doesn’t get much better.
And here’s the best part: New Musik were never a commercial success. They were a best-kept secret, a band for the curious few tuned into what was happening across the Channel. I’ll admit it: I was an easy target for that kind of mystique.
The thing with music is: It hits like memory. It imprints like a photograph. It connects to precise moments in your life and keeps them alive. And that, more than anything, is what New Musik does for me.—PeDupre
Brad responds: In contrast to Pe’s immersive New Musik experience, my exposure to the quartet was minimal, Stateside. In ‘80, the band was included in a special “Nu Disk” 10-in, 33 1/3rpm, multi-title New Wave EP promotion by Epic/CBS Records, U.S.
New Musik’s 10-inch Nu Disk offering was a 4-song EP called Straight Lines. I had just moved from Houston to L.A. in early 1980, and landed a job at regional retail chain, Music Plus Records & Tapes in the Glendale suburb, and I collected all 10 or so of the Nu Disks. See the complete list of Nu Disks released by Epic in 1980 by clicking here. Artists joining New Musik in the series included The Clash, Cheap Trick, Rick Nelson, and Gary Glitter.
Brad’s song #1 sent to Pe: RPM, “Now That Summer’s Here,” 1981
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