Quiet Force were the German duo of producer Thilo T.C. Rex and multi-instrumentalist Stephan Töteberg. Signed to Klaus Schulze`s Innovative Communications in the late 1980s, they produced four albums for the pioneering electronic imprint. They also released two singles on Italian label Les Folies Art, co-produced by Sergio Pisano. Mind Fair have licensed one of these to their reissue arm, Rogue Cat Resounds.

To try to describe Listen To The Music (For Love And Emotions) I`d ask you to imagine an Italo remake / remodel of Art Of Noise`s Moments In Love. Slightly “danced-up”. Sporting Max Headroom Fairlight stutters, and fretless bass flourishes. Synthesized strings, glissando and pizzicato. Mediterranean reeds and surf. Peppered with a lover`s laughter and ecstatic shouts. It could quite easily have been a template for The Grid`s Flotation. It`s definitely something for you file next to Dancing Fantasy in your Cafe Del Mar collection.

Apiento & Tepper submit the track to a tight, and timeless, update. Sending the original`s 80s moments tumbling in and out of a metallic Electro break. Cowbell rattling around. Go-Go-esque. The bass, a barely contained growl. Synths gated to classic, trippy 90s “Ambient House” effect. Only the size of that b-line betraying its production date.

NYC legend Justin Strauss teams up with Max Pask and fuses the Fairlight sprites with bleeps and machine handclaps. Taking the tempo higher, to 110BPM. Reducing the OG to sonar blips, surrounded by spiralling sound effects. Trance arpeggios. Digidub skank and sinister symphonic New Beat keys. That girl giggling as if tickled by the 303.

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Next up from Mind Fair is a crafty cover of cosmic classic, That Thing, by That Thing. Originally released as a currently scarce 12 on AVI in 1977, That Thing was a one-off synth-pop project produced by Dutch musician Geertjan Lacunes – who worried the outer limits of various European hit-parades during the ‘70s and ‘80s under the alias Jerry Rix. German label Jupiter picked up the quirky curio and repressed it as 7 for wider distribution, no doubt envisioning that they’d licensed a novelty monster the scale of Chicory Tip’s Son Of My Father - which alas was not the case.

The track was however a firm favourite of pioneering Italian DJ, Daniele Baldelli, since its wonky bass riff can be heard spinning in and out of a multitude of his legendary mixtapes - where it`s twisted, almost inverted, by the maestro’s use of EQ.

Back in 2020, Mind Fair have fashioned a faithful but you-betcha beefed-up reworking. The crazy lyric - care of Chicken Lips cohort, Johnny Spencer - and cowbells accompanied by un-MIDI-ed Moog and modular synth twitches, italo arpeggios and fuzzed guitar tones.

Fabrizio Mammerella delivers a remix that's like a meeting of NYC’s Emergency Records, and Belgium’s Antler and Subway. Chris Barbosa and Morton, Sherman and Belluci. ‘80s New York and ‘90s New Beat. Dropping the chorus into devastating delay, chopping Johnny up into percussive Pop Muzik snippets. Sealing the psychedelic deal with a deft dose of analogue acid.

In comparison, Eric Duncan’s re-imagining, initially comes across as kinda muted, but that’s just to catch you off guard. While pitched down, and the drums for sure more sedate, it’s definitely the trippier of the two revisions - with all sorts of strangeness throwing abstract shapes deep in its detail. That 303 now sounding severely stoned.

It’s like that cat at the afters, the one who commandeers the drinks table in the kitchen and then bends any and every unsuspecting ear - spontaneously connecting the disparate dots in the universe, seemingly without stopping to draw breath - while endlessly shaking folks’ cocktails. The kind of nut that everyone knows, but can never work out how they make it home.

Tongue-in-cheek weirdness worthy of Eric’s Rub N Tug partner, Thomas Bullock, and his mate, DJ Harvey, too slow to disco, too high to stop dancing, it’s quality psyche gear for the experienced, discerning, dimensional traveler. There’s a dub for those that can’t quite handle the vocal (lightweights!).

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Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
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Full printed sleeve - black 12” vinyl.
Washington collective, The 3 Pieces, privately-pressed Iwishcan William on their own DL Records in 1982. The 12 has Discogs, for one, confused. Is it soul, rap, jazz, go-go, funk, electro, or educational? By nature of its birthplace and date of birth, it`s all of those.
Synths shimmer in harp-like glissando. The bass grumbles, rumbles, machine-made. The beat pops and locks. The whole thing grooving and exuding positivity. One part the cosmic funk of say Cloud One`s Patty Duke. Another, the balearic chug of Will Powers` Adventures In Success. Like Brother D it looks to “agitate, educate, and organize”, and stirs in the sentiments of Razzy`s I Hate Hate. Imagine if the Last Poets jammed with sister Sarah Webster Fabio. Keys parp like car horns, a real trumpet blows a Don Cherry solo, but the track really revolves around its sweet Sesame Street call-and-response chorus:
“I wish love. I can love. I will love. I am love.”
Swiss gentleman DJ and Phantom Island resident, Lexx, produces a killer remix - smoothing out the OG`s jerky edges, upping its sophistication. Making clear the contributions of Lexx` new bubbling electronics. rescuing a clipped guitar, previously lost deep in the mix, and moving the children’s voices to the fore. Ensuring you’ll remember that
““I am” is the glory of a wish come true.”
Idjut Boy Dan Tyler then ties up the package, well he actually kinda sends it out into space - expanding everything in echo. NYC Peech Boys-esque delay. The result is a mind-blowing, psychedelic, almost ambient, Larry Levan-like, Paradise Garage dub. Where fragments of song fly at you from four corners. Trippily pan from left to right. The horn blasts now paying tribute to King Tubby`s Hi-Fi. François Kevorkian going bang!
All carefully mastered with love from the original master tapes by Sam Berdah at The Wall studios.

Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More