Thirty years ago this week Adamski's Killer was number one in the UK. It felt like the future, electronic modernity and mass market popularity had come together. From the opening throb of electricity and the sheer jolt of the thumping bassline, Killer is right there, present, startling and in your ears. The bursts of high and low synth sounds are joined by Seal's vocal, his deep voice giving the rave energy a melancholic undertow, something less than shiny and happy lurking beneath the smiley faces. At just after a minute a snare rattles in and then some synth strings adding to the disquiet. 'Solitary brother, is there still a part of you that wants to live?'' Sad dance music. The juddering bass breakdown and beep- beep- beep parts add to the tension.
Killer
Adamski, already performing at raves and with a hit with N- R-G already in his bag, met Seal on New Year's Eve 1989 at a club in London and they agreed to work together. Seal had been singing in blues bands but a year travelling in Asia and then attending raves on returning to London had cured him of that. The lyrics were all Seal's and sung over an existing track Adamski had called The Killer, recorded using only a keyboard and a Roland 909 drum machine. Seal says the lyrics are about transcending your circumstances. 'Tainted hearts heal with time' he sings and 'live your lives the way you wanna be'. Coming out of Thatcher's 80s the new year and new decade seemed to offer some hope, especially with the wave of revolutions sweeping through Eastern Europe and South Africa and the new music and scene growing and gathering force. The summer of 1990 would become the Second Summer Of Love. Killer was a proper crossover hit and sat at the top of the charts, blaring out of radios and through open windows until June when it was replaced at the top of the charts by England/ New Order's World In Motion.
30 years? Ouch. I saw him around this time supporting BAD (or BAD II more accurately) at the old Town & Country Club in London.
ReplyDeleteWhen he played that at Glastonbury in 1990 it definitely felt like a high point, and it's one of those I remember best from that summer. Don't remember the rest of the set being that memorable though unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteAs soon as I see the words 'second summer of love' I get that Danny Wilson song as an earworm.
ReplyDeleteI missed him at Glastonbury, not sure why.
ReplyDeleteIt seems almost impossible that its 30 years old doesn't it, especially something so futuristic.
I had a look on youtube yesterday and amazingly his set from Glastonbury 1990 is on there, albeit in audio only form. Reasonable sound quality too, considering.
DeleteYou can just hear how the idea of what Rave was, is moving on in Killer. All the elements are there, but the end results is far from fleeting, far from requiring chemical enhancement to be taken away by the music.
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