The Judge
RAVES!
Date: 29/03/09
Classic Track - New Musik - "This World Of Water" (1980)
I'm aware of the fact that this section hasn't seen anything new for nearly a month, so I thought I'd introduce you to one of my all-time favourites.
(Oh, and by the way, in contrast to the last entry, this band really did exist)
I'd been interested in electronic music for quite a few years; Hot Butter's Popcorn and Giorgio Moroder's hits with Chicory Tip had started it off, and then I found Kraftwerk's Autobahn, and Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder's I Feel Love came along a little later.
But what came to be known as 'electropop' wasn't hip in the seventies, especially when Punk and New Wave were in full snarl. It copped it from the other side, too. I well remember the MU (Musician's Union, although some have suggested that the letters really stand for "Money Up-front") at the time going so far as to suggest that all synthesisers should be banned because they were taking the bread out of the mouths of poor, struggling, 'real' musicians.
By 1980, however, the objections of the Luddite tendency had been swept aside by disco and by the emergence of such as Gary Numan and Joy Division.
In contrast to these purveyors of dark soundscapes, there were some who promoted a rather more upbeat, poppy style. New Musik were one of the prime suppliers of this sort of material. It's therefore a bit of a mystery why they weren't a lot bigger than they were. A handful of minor hit singles and three albums, and that was it.
I remember enjoying the singles, and bought a second-hand copy of This World Of Water from Cob Records' Wrexham branch not long after it came out (picture sleeve, too!). The other singles apart, I heard nothing more of them until 1985 (some time after they had split) when my University housemate Tim Cappelli played us the whole of their first LP From A To B.
I was impressed, but lack of finances precluded me from adding it to my collection until some years later, when I picked up a slightly tatty second-hand copy in Phase One Records in Wrexham. I loved it immediately all over again, and later got their other two albums Anywhere and Warp, although I didn't think those were as good as the debut set.
From A To B has remained a firm favourite, though, and This World Of Water is, for me, the standout track. The transition from the 'bridge' into the last verse at about 1'33" is a shiver-up-the-spine moment for me even after a hundred hearings.
So click below and enjoy New Musik at their best, with a video which comes from a Spanish TV show (hence the closing credits - I can't find a 'clean' copy of the video on YouTube), and see Tony Mansfield (guitar, vocals - and writer of the song), Tony Hibberd (bass), Phil Towner (drums) and Clive Gates (keyboards and hamming it up like a good 'un) enjoying themselves by the sea.
