No.5 x 2012

I did a guest mix recently for one of my favourite blogs, FRWCTRL. The idea of the mix is based on the arty and surrealistic low budget porn movie Night Dreams from 1981, one of two (the other being Café Flesh from 1982) porn movies written by Jerry Stahl under the pseudonym Herbert W. Day. Most people know Jerry Stahl for his biography-turned-to-film Permanent Midnight of 1998, where Ben Stiller stars as a sweaty and leather-clad Stahl in a very un-romantic portrayal of his own heroin addiction during his years in L.A. as a writer for the TV-series ALF and Moonlighting. Both Night Dreams and Café Flesh are dark and twisted visual experiences with the same aesthetics of the post-punk era as Liquid Sky, and the music in these films are great. The trailer for Night Dreams (which is also the intro & outro for my mix) uses a sample from electronic pioneer Morton Subotnicks Wild Boar from 1968.

SERGIO RIZZOLO - NIGHT DREAMS

No.6 x 2012

Continuing on from our previous post, here is the track that's featured on the Hollywood Seven EP as the German Version. While touring with Glass Candy in San Diego in 2009, Johnny Jewel found this cover of the Jon English/Alides Hidding track Hollywood Seven in an alley shop behind a pharmacy (also a cosmic circumstance of fate since the Albuterol Mix that started the whole thing refers to Mike Simonettis asthma medicine... which can be bought at pharmacies!). The german title of this cover is however a free interpretation of the original (in translation it means "Big City Lights", and there's no mention of Hollywood anywhere), so Jewel must have memorized the names of the two persons who are credited as the writers of the original song, Gloria Sklerov & Harry Lloyd, in order to have spotted this gem.

The first recording of the song was in 1976 by Jon English, which is a slow moving rock bagatelle. But Juliane Werding & her co-producers has clearly based her electronically loaded version on Alides Hiddings interpretation, which both came out in 1980. And she had some great company, apart from her husband Tobi Pflug the credit is shared with a certain Ulrich A. Rudolf who was also involved on the amazing cosmic boogie classic Don't Stay For Breakfast by Ströer as well as in the "electronisch rocktheater"-project Xynn. And on mixing duties? Ralf Nowy of Methusalem! Of course, it's possible that Jewel picked up this record simply on account of those names alone without knowing that this would turn out to be a cover of Hollywood Seven, I know I would have.

JULIANE WERDING - GROSSSTADTLICHTER