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Crash: A Tribute to James Graham Ballard
Author: Simon Sellars • Jul 8th, 2006 •Category: Ballardosphere, music
Thanks to Jo for pointing us to this: Crash: A Tribute To James Graham Ballard (Various Artists), an apparently released-in-Greece only, electro-styled Ballard hoedown.
It mentions Clock DVA…Sheffield contemporaries of the Human League. Their founder Adi Newton has described them as “sex and magic in an industrial setting”. Vaughan himself would approve. Of the rest, I’m clueless. Can any Greek electro fans fill me in? Iraklis — are you out there?
Details from discogs.com:
Crash: A Tribute to James Graham Ballard
Label: Elfish
Catalog#: elf 013
Format: CD
Country: Greece
Released: 1993
Genre: Electronic
Style: EBM, Electro
Tracklisting:
1 Behavioral Control Squad — State Of White (5:38)
2 Electroware — Breath Abating (6:16)
3 Clock DVA — Pool Of Shadows (6:43)
4 Slow Motion (3) — Ngc – 520 (3:37)
5 Sabotage Q.C.Q.C.? — Where (Crash Mix) (4:28)
6 Raw (8) — Machine Tears (Pink Plastic Edit) (5:19)
7 Coti K. — Nested (0:59)
8 Nova State Conspiracy — Definitive Item (3:39)
9 Diva Futura — Mind The Gap (5:12)
10 Lazar U.S. — JgTb Fucklore Saraband On Catherine (3:50)
11 Collapse (5) — H.W.D. (3:39)
12 Aima — Enter My Colasterio (Sonar Stress Mix) (3:37)
13 Michael Briel — The Final Strand (5:42)
14 Forward Music Quintet — Flame Dig Deep (3:15)
15 Advanced Art — Some Time (4:53)
16 Pankow — Warm Leatherette (3:49)
17 In Trance 95 — The Lesser Water Snake (3:59)
Author:
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Kudos to Jo for this reminder – i am a friend of the guy who actually released this compilation, Giannis Papaioanou. Ballard was’nt aware of this collection untill i showed it to him back in ’97. and was quite puzzled that so many greek musicians were influenced by him- i sadistically delayed for 5 minutes to reveal him the truth : only half of them are greeks. If anyone likes a copy of it, just e-mail me!
OK – this a beefed-up version of the previous message. Clock DVA is surely the most well-known band of this cd – Adi Newton is a longtime JGB fan and I have also read much of his Ballard-inspired work. As for the greek contributors:
AIMA were also a duo that lived aoutside of Athens – i used to play their track in clubs and pissing people off. Sadly i have no more news of them.
1) ELECTROWARE is Stefanos Konstantinides, a very effective producer and techno-inspired musician and DJ. His latest work can be heard in the band “drog-atek” (an experimental septet loosely in the conceptual path of Godspeed! You Black Emperor)
2) SLOW MOTION was a very personal sounding electronic duo – imagine echoes of dark wave and prog-rock, singing in german and cryptic thoughts.
3) COTI K is, to my humble opinion, one of the most clever and attractive sound designers in the planet. Perhaps he may be angry reading this, as he is the epitome of shyness, but i have such a great respect for his work and character one might think i am in his pay-roll… A fantastic sound artist and a great producer too, has worked with artists as diverse as Tuxedomoon and Africa’s Konono #1 and also has one of the most intersting tracks in Crash.
4) SABOTAGE and DIVA FUTURA were mainly side projects that contributed tracks and did nothing else – worth listening to, though…
5) RAW was at the time of this release one of the most promising electronic groups of Greece. Its two members were Giannis Papaioannou (mastermind of Elfish records and described by many as Greece’s electronica guru) and Makis Faros – terrific musician and a very original audiovisual artist till today. For Papaioannou, you should really try and check his latest work “No Camera” under the nickname “ION”, a sun-bathed minimal dubby techno experience…
6) LAZAR U.S. is a tremendously idiosyncratic sound vandal, heavily inspired by Foetus, anger and alcohol. His track was mentioned in most reviews as the most original and puzzling of all – no more data is fit to be announced…
9) FORWARD MUSIC QUINTET was a big dark-wave band that sprung out of “Parthenogenesis” (seminal proto-punk greek band from 1979)
10) IN TRANCE 95 was another stylish electronic duo, specializing in electropop and related tunes. The singer had a really strange career but multi-instrumentalist Nikos Veliotis is repected by many as one of Greece’s most clever contemporary musicians and he is always an interesting act to watch and listen to…
Hey Irakli, this sound interesting how do I send you an email?
Hello Christo! You can e=mail me: bwanadj@gmail.com
hi irakli!
strange career for the singer and writer of IT95?
What do you mean by that?
Anyways we play live on dec.8 at Gagarin…
i just found it funny!
all the best
alex macheras
What no mention of all the fine Greek musicians from Paros?
Hey – hello!
So JG.Ballard actually came to know this CD? Now *I* am really proud to be on it!
13) Michael Briel:
A hobby electronic musician from Germany who got into contact with Giannis over the tape scene. Back before the interwebs were used to share music many ppl actually sent tapes round the world, including myself. I have no complete recollection how I got involved with the Crash project, but I still think that “The Final Strand” is one of my finest tunes to date!
Michael, no — JGB does not write the posts on this site. his is an unofficial site dedicated to his work. Anyway, I like your song! However I read your explanation of it on your website, which says you based the song on the JGB short, ‘The Final Strand’. You say it “touched me: a man, living – or better: dying – alone on an island used as a nuclear testing ground, is visited by visions of his family. *Very* sad.”
But surely the song is based on the short story ‘The Terminal Beach’? That is the exact storyline you are describing here, ie a man dying on a nuclear island — that’s ‘The Terminal Beach’! As far as I know there is no story of Ballard’s called ‘The Final Strand’!
Has the title been lost in translation, perhaps?
All the best,
Simon
Aaaaargh, yes, you’re right about the title I had a German version of the stories and it is called “Der finale Strand” – I named the tune without checking it’s original title obviously and never noticed later that the German “Strand” is “Beach” in English. Wow, do I have red ears now!
Yes, I know it’s not an official site, but some time ago Iraklis wrote about showing it to mr Ballard – I allready mailed him as well.
Ok, thanks again for the correction – I added a note to the tune on my page explaining the mixup just now. The track will keep it’s wrong name (I stand up for my mistakes!
) but now people are informed about the mistake.
Dear friends, I’m realy amazed to find anything written about this cd!
I’m also happy to have a copy of it…
Could you please make a correction with the Clock DVA’s song?
It’s “pool of shades” and not “pool of shadows”
Take care, love to you all!
Heh, I opened a myspace account not too long ago and just came into contact with Sabotage and Clock DVA there – “Hey, weren’twe on a Greek CD sampler together once?”