Wednesday, February 24, 2016

VIVA LA DIFFÉRENCE

I don't listen to James Chance that often, despite having a chunk of his Contortions stuff and the stuff he did with James White and the Blacks. But I dig his music, his perseverance, his whole thing. You just have to pay attention when you listen to his stuff; it's hard to let it roll without notice, and I rarely have time for that. You can't bop or groove, or put the headphones on and trip out to spacey sounds or a badass production. It's hard to go about your business and imagine it as some sort of soundtrack to what you're doing, unless what you're doing happens to be smashing shit up. Some of you know that about him, and that he was a big part of the whole No Wave thing. Let me set the scene for the uninitiated. It's 1978, you're totally sucked in by punk rock and other adventurous music, basically anyone screwing with things. You think that you're relatively immune to abrasive type stuff. Then you hear about some compilation that Brian Eno's putting together with some fringe NYC bands. Okay, you say, I'll bite. The first band on the album is the Contortions. A few seconds into it, you wonder just what it is you're listening to. You are challenged. Just what the hell is this? It's not punk rock, it's not funk, it's not jazz. It's, it's...just what the fuck is going on here?



I just ran into an fairly recent interview with Chance. If you're into his stuff, you'll dig it. If he's new to you, check the link to the No New York compilation below, listen to the Contortion cuts. Go hit Wiki or something. Catch up for crying out loud.

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