They came with Beards,with bunches of unkempt long hair tied back in unsightly pony-tails, and carried keyboards as their weapons.......no i'm not talking about the Viking Invasion of Northern England!? The Vikings had weaponry at least equal in lethal effect as a Korg Monopoly or Moog Prodigy, but these later invaders were better known as The UK Electronic Underground. An unsubscribed terrorist organisation from the late seventies and early eighties.
Just as those naughty Punk Rockers, with their spitting and their habits, thought we were free forever from a Klaus Schulz hypnotic sequencer driven electronic symphony, or a Tangerine Dream Live album.There appeared, bubbling below the surface, in the very 'Punky',and certainly not Funky, world of DIY Cassette culture, grew a rebellious,or more accurately,Oblivious,infiltration of unrepentant progressive music fans with a spare few quid to spend on the latest polyphonic synthesisers.
One of these bearded invaders was none other than Mark Shreeve,who spread fear throughout the post-punk legions with his hypnotic keyboard sequences,effected electronic dream-scapes,and meandering melodies.Wielding his Prophet 5 like a sword in the hands of a disenchanted east-London born benefit cheat in Islamic State, with a captured Saudi-Arabian Fighter Pilot kneeling in an orange boiler-suit before him.
I exaggerate of course......no-one had the slightest clue this stuff existed in 1980.They were all too busy moonstomping in that bloody awful Two-Tone cult, where everyone dressed like they were in the Specials and had 'Fun' forced down their throats like geese at christmas......Skin'ead Fois Gras anyone?....no thanks!
That stuff makes Mark Shreeve, music and image, look like real rebellion against any kind of Status Quo,new or old (not the band of course!...ps, R.I.P. Rick Parfitt 😭).....(and as of 31/08/2022 R.I.P. Mark Shreeve too!?
Tracklist:
A1 The Keeper
A2 Alive!
B1 Embryo
B2 Iceflakes
5 comments:
Awesome, would love to hear more of the Shreeve / Redshift works if you have more. Thanks Jonny! PS, Is it weird that I have a beard / umkempt long hair ( minus the ponytail of course! ) and am armed with a synthesizer?
Hey, I've got a beard too, but no hair otherwise. Sold my synthesizers, but do borrow my neighbours Korg MS20 from time to time.
There is more early Shreeve in the works......i'll work on the redshift angle.
ta JZ
Ponytail, check. Beard, haven't seen my chin since 1972. Synthesizer, nada. But I do collect 'electronic' music in pretty much any variety I can find. Both of these are new to me. Many thanks.
-Brian
Hello
Not heard him before,
awesome if you like earle Tangerine D & Klaus S
Best wishes
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