Weren’t SPK great eh? That
Information Overload Unit album was a pinnacle of articulated
noise,and a slew of singles and ep's of equal power backed up the
promise, then.....they went Disco?! I remember being excited at the
prospect of SPK appearing on tea time pop programme “the Tube” in
1984, and was horrified at the horrendous live performance of the
“Metal Dance” single.....and what were they wearing? They looked
like Depeche Mode, in muscle shirts and shiny black trousers,
Australians doing S&M; and the way the female of the group sang
“Daaarnce” in that awful south coast of England way always made
me cringe! Then they released that utter shite “Machine Age Voodoo”
LP, good title but, another one of those “Bluejeans and Moonbeams”
moments; when yer credible artist trys to get some dollar in the back
bin!!!?
This obscure Bootleg of a Bootleg recording of a live performance in Markthalle, Hamburg (Germany) from 9/11(thats the 11th sept,not the 9th of november!? Mmmmm...spooky eh?) 1983,however, is not so bad.Even the version of 'Metal Daaarnce' isn't
too awful. It still has lots of those four to the floor eighties Gay
Disco beats, and banks of arpeggiated synth's to drown out the metal
percussion. But,this all makes it a bit more palatable to the
'public'; a noise they can 'Daaaarnce' to, instead of misunderstand.
And by the sound of the crowd, there's a lot of public there to
witness this softer, cuddlier,SPK, and they're German public too!The fatherland of
this sweaty gay beat.
There is something to be said for the
early eighties fashion to attempt to subvert 'pop'from the inside;
but others achieved this 'New Pop' so much more effectively, like The
Associates, and others worse, like Scritti Pollitti. So you can't
blame them for trying......or can you????......er....Yes! They are only human I suppose?
Track Listing:
A1 Will To Power
A2 Your Eyes
A3 Metal Field
B1 Metal Dance
B2 Dead Steps
B3 Napalm 2
or