Genius might be overplaying it but it isn't too far off. Before M-People, before T Coy, Mike Pickering formed Quando Quango with Gonnie Rietveld and her drumming brother Reinier Rietveld. ACR's drummer Donald Johnson helped out too. They made dance music before such a thing really existed, combining the energy of New York's early 80s music scene with northern European tastes. Gonnie described it as 'Fela Kuti meets Kraftwerk somewhere between Manchester and Rotterdam' This song has manipulated voices, slow and fast, intoning the groups's name, spiraling piano parts, a Latin vibe and synths. It should have had them bouncing all over the Hacienda's dancefloor, except this was 1985- The Smiths held sway. And although this song is now thirty years old it still sounds really fresh. I like it so much I think we'll have two period piece pictures to go with it.
Genius
2 comments:
Enjoyed this. You're right, it does still sound fresh.
It must be something in the air...I've been all over what I call Fractured Funk for the passed 10 days or so. I even put up links to an edited list of some of the tracks I have in a current playlist in my blog. That NYC New Wave/No Wave scene gave birth to what some might consider serious dance music in the early 80's and its influence certainly found it's way across the ocean to the UK and France. ACR and Mike PIckering really caught the bug. Quando Quango came at it from a more Latin tinged edge where ACR took a stab and funk and jazz, but Manchester was a hot bed of funky rhythms that rivaled the NYC scene by the middle 80's.
And Gonnie was right on. This was music that mixed Afrobeat with Teutonic Disco and the result was often very otherworldly.
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