GENOTYPES
(GEN030)
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VARIOUS ARTISTS GENOTYPES |
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(GEN030) |
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When we had the original idea for this compilation some time in 2007, it was supposed to come out in the year of our 10th anniversary.
But it wouldn't have been us if the project hadn't taken longer than expected! ;-) Our label was born in 1998 and the
first release saw the light of day in 1999. So it is our 11th (or 12th?) anniversary this year. But what's so special about the 10th
anyway? So who cares, it's 2010 and here is GENOTYPES! Many of the tracks on this compilation are with us for more than 20 years and they have been giving us goose bumps ever since! So it was more than time to pay tribute to some classics. We are very happy to preserve these real gems of early synth and wave music and present most of them for the first time with the approval of the artists after their original release. It is lovely to have this little extract of the soundtrack of our lives. "Genotypes" is a bit of a present to ourselves and we hope you'll enjoy it too! genetic sincerely thanks all participating artists for their enthusiasm, endless patience and great support! Thank you for your music we are all enjoying so much and thank you for being so nice! |
| Below you find a bit of information about the artists on Genotypes... |
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ALIVE SHE DIED (Greece) |
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| ALIVE SHE DIED was formed in 1983. Their first gig took place on February 21st 1985, in a popular venue for independent bands in Athens called "Pegasus". They performed a few more gigs and in March 1985 they self-released a cassette named "Viva Voce". This tape featured 5 tracks, including a cover version of Joy Division’s "She’s Lost Control". All of the band members have their own bands today. http://www.myspace.com/atriagreece http://www.myspace.com/lightproject http://www.myspace.com/ammosmusic |
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CIARAN HARTE (UK) |
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| CIARAN HARTE remains a bit of a mystery. He only released one 7", the nowadays much sought-after "Love Is Strange / Shimahero" Single on Glass Records (1980). Besides an appearance on "The Wonderful World Of Glass" compilation and being mentioned on releases of a few other Glass Records artists (like "Religious Overdose") he disappeared. Ciaran didn't have any biographic details he could tell us, but he said that he actually likes the B-side "Shimahero" much better than "Love is strange"... ;) |
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CINEMA 90 (USA) |
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| CINEMA 90 were David Shumate and Colin McDonell from Seattle. They met up through the local music scene where not too much was going on in the way of electronic pop in the early 80's. They had a lot of technical experimentation to go through before settling on a sound and performance theme. Programmed drums were through the Linn LM-2, bass lines were developed on the Sequential Circuits Pro One. David played various "hot-rodded" Casio keyboards through effects, while Colin sang. Their live performances at various Seattle and Vancouver BC clubs were somewhat minimal but entertaining. In 1983 their song "In Ultra-Violet" was released on the "Seattle Syndrome Two" compilation. Today David has his own design firm and Colin works at a university where he had studied classical music. Both are still playing in bands as drummers. |
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JESSICA DENTON & PATRIK FITZGERALD (NEW ZEALAND) |
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| JESSICA DENTON was born in New Zealand and has spent time in London, America, Mexico, Ireland, Guatemala and Norway. Her poetry puts into words how life used to be in New Zealand. She has listeners throughout Europe, South America and Japan who relate to her matter of fact way with images in words, as well as the emotional pictures her poems evoke. The CD "Voices from the wash-house" is the result of a collaboration with her partner PATRIK FITZGERALD. Patrik began as an acoustic punk singer/songwriter in 1977 and developed a low-fi style of home produced electronic music through the 1980's. The music here is a 21st century continuation of that style. "Mr and Mrs" was one of Jessica's poems. She read it and Patrik did the backing music to it. It was recorded in their kitchen in a park on a hill in Christchurch, New Zealand. http://www.myspace.com/jessdenton http://www.myspace.com/patrikfitzgerald |
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DR. NUMA (JAPAN) |
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| DR. NUMA is the one-man project of Yosihumi Niinuma from Japan. He is been releasing electronic experimental music since the early the 80's with various projects like "O2 Soul" or "Sympathy Nervous". http://yosi.xxxxxxxx.jp/ |
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STEVEN GRANDELL (USA) |
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| STEVEN GRANDELL is a male-to-female transperson and has changed his name to Venus DeMars. S/he released the LP "Animal Angst" under h/ir birthname Steven Grandell in 1984. Venus continues to work, record, perform and tour today with h/ir dark glam band "All The Pretty Horses". http://www.myspace.com/atphvenus http://www.venusdemars.com |
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HYSTERICA PASSIO (USA) |
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| HYSTERICA PASSIO was formed in the early 80's in downtown NY. Originally performing as a 4 piece unit they eventually added a drummer to fill and expand their sound giving them the energy to reproduce their music live to the fullest capability. The 2 tracks on their EP "Grey Over Life" received heavy play in the clubs and are still on playlists around the globe, even though it is not a good representation of what the band evolved into. The band only lasted about 3 years but they managed to gain a good following playing at all the local venues such as Danceteria, The Pyramid Lounge, The Mudd Club & Maxwells to name a few. http://www.myspace.com/hystericapassio |
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LOW CLASS (BELGIUM) |
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| LOW CLASS is a collaboration project of Henk Wallays and Peter Bonne. In the early 80's Henk has been playing records on the alternative circuit in the pirate / free radio scene in Belgium and had his own music programme called 'Stalhwerksymgonie' (after Die Krupps) on Radio Caraad, Kanegem, Belgium. This involved playing mainly electronic new wave music and he actively chased bands for demo's and interviews. Through it he came in touch with various bands and people like Polyphonic Size, Front 242, Vibo, Red Zebra, A Blaze Color, Neon Judgement, Chris & Cozy, Andy Oppenheimer etc. He came more and more in touch/involved into the selftape scene and met with Magisch Theater (Sandy Nys) and Absolute Body Control (Dirk Ivens). On the outcome of a meeting they founded the label "3rio tapes". Since all 3 of them had lots of contacts wordlwide they were able to compile a quite large series of tapes with independent selftape material, issuing many unknown bands. When Henk came in touch with Peter Bonne from Twilight Ritual/Autumn/Linear Movement, he was inspired to start making music himself and so his project "Unovidual" was born. Being active in the home tape world and having lots of contacts meant that some of Unoviduals music was issued on over 80 compilation tapes in the world. The 3 first Unovidual tapes were also issued in Japan and in Holland. Unovidual was always interested in collaborating with various other artists. This happened either live or by means of switching base-track tapes, over which the other party played it's piece. He did so with many people from Europe and even some international contacts like Tara Cross (USA) & Michel Madrange (France). The basic idea/track and lyrics of "The Alienation Ballade" were by Unovidual and wander around the theme 'solitude'. Peter Bonne is responsible of reshaping the song into what the final version sounds like on the Belgian compilation "1994" (released in 1984). http://www.micrart.com |
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MECANO (NETHERLANDS) |
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| MECANO was founded by Dirk Polak in the late 70's. Inspired by an old booklet of a Meccano construction box (a very popular toy long before Lego existed, as fabricated and sold in the 30’s) Dirk was struck by a vision of a world built out of Meccano, in painting, sculpture and even lyrics and music that lead to his 1977 Painting “______”. The examples in the instruction booklet set Dirk to paint his Meccano figures, surrounded by surrealistic landscapes and interiors. In those days punk was booming and Dirk thought it was time to start a band. Together with Pieter Kooyman he asked Ton Lebbink to be the drummer. Ton, who was a bouncer at Paradiso in Amsterdam and thus knowing everybody on the scene, immediately introduced them to the brothers Tejo and Cor Bolten, who also worked at Paradiso. Beside their musical abilities, Ton and the Bolten brothers had the advantage of unlimited access to Paradiso, the best rehearsing place a band could think of and they started experimenting and putting the music together, mainly based on the ideas of Dirk and the Bolten brothers. In the summer of '79 Mecano made their stage debut and began touring. During the early 80's they put out several releases on the Torso label (co-founded by Dirk Polak). After some years, the band decided to take separate ways, although reunited throughout the times for specific projects. http://www.mecano.ws http://www.myspace.com/mecanomusic http://www.mutantjasz.com |
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LEE NEGIN (USA) |
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| LEE NEGIN is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, synthesist, vocalist, producer and recording engineer. He was a pioneer in the international DIY/techno/new wave movement of the 1980s, and his recordings have received airplay around the world. He is listed as an influential artist in "The International Discography of the New Wave." Leaving the USA (San Francisco) 21 years ago, he has traveled in over 40 countries and has lived in India, Japan (15 years), Warsaw / Poland and for the past 4 years in South Korea where he currently is a university professor. Lee is still making music and a CD of new material is slated for release in late 2010. http://leenegin.com |
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REAL TIME MUSIC (UK) |
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| REAL TIME MUSIC was the band of Robin (Bob) Rowley from Liverpool. He started out in the 1970's 'Liverpool Scene' writing songs and doing floorspots in the early UK Northern folk, blues & country clubs. He eventually moved to London to become the resident singer at "Bunjies" (a legendary folk & country club in the heart of London's West End). He prefers to record his stuff in his own way and the result is often an original and unique outcome. Most of the tracks you can hear now and via the Band Website were created and engineered in studios that he built himself. Although he is mostly an acoustic folk rock & country musician, his public is often exotic, weird and wonderful. For example, after an introduction by friends in "The Poison Girls" to the formidable UK punk band CR@SS, they asked him to make a record for their label. In 1979 CR@SS released an EP by REAL TIME MUSIC called "Jobless Streets". Thus, Bob Rowley's only vinyl record went out on the biggest punk label in Britain. In 1981 he quit his lecturer's job and went on the road. For the next seven years he travelled around Europe and Ireland as a gentleman troubadour, playing gigs, terraces, bars, and theatres. "Following my dreams and avoiding my nightmares...", he eventually arrived in Brussels. In 1988 he married and settled down in Belgium. http://www.myspace.com/bobrowley http://cdbaby.com/artist/BobRowley |
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SECESSION (UK) |
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| SECESSION was a Scottish synth pop band that existed between 1983-1987. They were mainly on two different labels during their short career (Beggar's Banquet and Siren Records) and they released a number of singles starting in 1983, until they released their only album "A dark enchantment" in late 1987. http://www.myspace.com/secessiontribute08 |
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SEPPUKU (SWEDEN) |
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| SEPPUKU were formed in spring 1984 by friends Rasmus, Ronny and Fredric. Out of the frustration of teenage boredom the trio started to experiment with music, which was the result of their common interest in spy flicks, electronic music, Asian culture and space-age futurism. By early autumn 1984 the single "Under your control" / "A new illusion" saw the light of day. Rasmus and Ronny were then joined by new members Togga Papp and Conda, while Fredric left as part of the recording-/live act, but remained a close firend. The successful 7" took Seppuku out on tour (with new member Johan) through Sweden, Germany, BeNeLux and France. http://www.myspace.com/seppukusweden http://web.comhem.se/~u46307333/index.html.htm |
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SIEG ÜBER DIE SONNE (GERMANY) |
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| SIEG ÜBER DIE SONNE was founded in 1989 by Lars Müller, Martin Schopf and Tobias Freund from Germany. Back in the 80's Tobias and Lars formed the band "Vo Ese", known from their contribution on the much sought after "SNX" compilation (4LP-Box + 7"). Vo Ese's track "Rike's birthday" was the B-Side of the 7" also feat. "Herzlos" by Stratis. Today Tobias is working in the elctronic dance music scene. He is also known as "Pink Elln" and is one half of the project "NSI" (Non Standard Institute). He his running his own label "NSP" (Non Standard Productions). Martin Schopf is also active in todays dance music scene and known for his work as "Dandy Jack". With their projects both are playing all the big clubs around the world today. "Sieg Über Die Sonne" has released several records in the past 20 years. "Mr. Leben" was the first 7", self-released in 1989. 300 copies were made without cover, just in a plain generic paper sleeve without any information. The titles can only be found in the run-out grooves, which makes it pretty hard to find this record today. http://www.siegueberdiesonne.de |
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URGE (UK) |
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| URGE was founded by David Wankling from Coventry in 1978 together with his flat-mate and guitarist John Shipley (later of the now defunct Swinging Cats). The first edition included the rockabilly fan Billy Little as drummer, who’d previously played behind Special Terry Hall in The Squad. When Shipley departed for the Cats, it was Kevin Harrison who came in as replacement in January of 79. Kevin quickly became a central force and in September of that year, his wife Lynda was added to the group to share vocals with David Wankling. David and Kevin had good chemistry. It turned out to be a good song writing team, Dave wrote most of the lyrics and Kevin composed most of the music. They remain good friends until today. Urge played many shows in the UK and during Sept-Oct '79 they have toured with the UK Subs. In January 1980 the band released their debut single "Revolving Boy" on their own label "Consumer Disks". They had 2000 copies pressed and for an independent with little publicity and little or no distribution (no one seemed to want to distribute it though Pinnacle did for a few weeks) they did quite well with it, selling 1500 copies. It was played a few times on Radio One and when John Peel first played it, needless to say it made them feel ten feet tall when Peel described it as "Coventry genius"! Urge signed a major recording contract with Arista, so their single was being withdrawn from the shops and the group re-recorded it for release by Arista. The second single "Bobby / Teach yourself dutch" was released on Consumer Disks and marketed through Arista. During Jan-Feb '80 the band also played gigs outside of the UK as the support act on The Specials tour through Holland and Germany. In April '81 Urge split up due to difficulties with Arista and some internal wrangles. The wheels had come off the wagon. It was a difficult time although a new Urge line-up was quickly put together and they played plenty of gigs. But times have shifted and some of the elusive chemistry had gone. And despite tentative record company interest, the band reluctantly decided to call it a day. http://marz-imprint.co.uk http://www.myspace.com/kevinharrisondnastudio http://www.myspace.com/obsessione http://profile.myspace.com/isotopex |
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