The Blue Hour

'I'm going down the waterfront tonight'

Okay, so here's a weird one. One of the tricks I use to find random tracks to listen to is to search my hard drive for a particular word and copy over a bunch of tunes with the word in the title. A few weeks ago, I chose 'blue' and went from there.

I had to laugh when one of the tracks cued up while I was driving home. Evidently, I had recorded "The Blue Hour", a track from a 1984 EP by British band Raise The Dragon, at the wrong speed. I let it play for a while so I could chuckle at the helium vocals. Then something strange happened.

We went away to Denver for the weekend, and several times during that great trip, the keyboard part from that sped up track floated into my head. Evidently, there was something there. I had to wait until we returned to find the track, correct the speed, and replay it. Unfortunately, slowed down, it sounded wrong. It didn't sound 'right' at all. Even as a track re-recorded by the band (under the name Intimate Strangers, from the Charm LP) I missed the keyboard riff I heard that first time.

Thanks to Audacity, I got my remixing head on and got to work. I found that if I sped the track up to just slightly less than what I inadvertently did previously, and corrected for the change in pitch on the vocals, I now had a very listenable track indeed. Having listened to it about a hundred times, I still have no idea what it's about - but 'fire up the engines of love' definitely has a somewhat lascivious ring to it.

See what you think.

Raise The Dragon - The Blue Hour (remixed version)

Classic Track: Forever Young

I was researching some information on Youth Group's cover of the Alphaville classic "Forever Young" when I was reminded of how I discovered the original song in the first place. It led to some interesting musical developments for me personally so it seems appropriate to recognize this song in all the various versions.

Alphaville's one hit in the UK was "Big In Japan" in 1984 which was marginally before my time and the band did not feature on the 80's themed compilations I collected over the years. Although "Forever Young" is regarded as a prom-theme staple in the US, it also never charted and remained on the outskirts of '8o's musical history.

I'm not one to pay attention to commercials, but I caught a snippet of an ad for the Saturn Ion here in the US back in 2003 and was intrigued by the backing track. Here's the commercial:



I initially mistakenly thought the track was by The Walkmen, which led to a series of aborted downloads and confusion. After more research on some forums, I discovered that it was the Alphaville track. Here's the original music video (warning - extreme cheese alert!):



I was excited to discover that Alphaville was not only a prolific (though critically panned) outfit, but that I really liked the synthpop sound which was very polished, with slightly affected vocals. As I discovered, they had continued making music throughout the '90's and into the new millenium, in much the same style. I was mildly surprised, because synthpop had died in the UK in the late '80's and had never really flourished in the US.

What I discovered was that in Germany in particular, the synthpop sound had remained commercially viable, bucking the trends towards grunge, britpop and teen pop elsewhere, and that many German groups had built up an impressive catalogue completely unknown to me. Bands such as De/Vision, Camouflage, Sea of Sin and others became new favorites. I discovered that all this and more was available through the excellent website A Different Drum, which also acted as a US label for many acts.

While my passion for synthpop has ebbed and flowed over the following years, "Forever Young" will always remain a personal favorite. Another blogger has kindly put together the following short compilation, including the original version, the extended version, and a brilliant modern remix version. If that leaves you wanting more, then Jacyk's Music Memories has a more comprehensive compilation of remixes here.

If all this leaves you wanting more Alphaville, there's plenty around. Start here for a good rundown of various mixes of the better known songs.

And finally, let's not forget the cover version that started this whole stream of consciousness rambling:



Youth Group - Forever Young (mp3)