#staubgold

[orbitofdesire]

crazy album i'm obsessed

[restwaerme]

“A hidden gem from the notorious Nurse With Wound list ! Limited to 500 copies, this double LP features Heratius' studio album Les Boniments (1979) - never before released on vinyl - and the first ever vinyl reissue of Gwendolyne (1978). Heratius could be described as a mix of Etron Fou Leloublan and Faust (in acoustic mode that is), with hints of Albert Marcoeur, Red Noise, in a music that is full of invention with typically French eccentric touches. The Heratius album Gwendolyne was also much touted by Chris Cutler (of Henry Cow fame) at the time as the French Faust.“

https://staubgold.bandcamp.com/album/gwendolyne-les-boniments

https://staubgold.bandcamp.com/album/lettre-monsieur-le-chef-de-gare-de-la-tour-de-carol-un-mauvais-champignon-la-naus-e-extrait

[flankingmanoeuvres]

[aljamadiscs]

(Staubgold)

[musiquesmodernes]

(Staubgold)

1ère collaboration entre Cougouyou Music, Jean-Bernard Bassach (Aljama disc) et Greg Boogaloo: "Attention L'Armée" de ATARPOP 73 & Le Collectif Le Temps Des Cerises (réédition en vinyle déc. 2017 - restauration sonore : François Berchenko).

[aljamadiscs]

(Staubgold)

[dustedmagazine]

Vivien Goldman – Resolutionary (Songs 1979-1982) (Staubgold)

Vivien Goldman has been many things over the course of her 61 years: writer, broadcaster, educator, moderator, PR officer, backup singer, the list goes on. She gained notoriety for tracking the developments of reggae, dub and punk in London for NME, Melody Maker and Sounds at the turn of the 1980s. Her achievements include penning Bob Marley’s first biography, and passing on her knowledge as an adjunct professor of punk and reggae at NYU and adjunct of musical cultures and industry at Rutgers. She’s even hosted an “Ask the Punk Professor” column for BBC America. 

What has gotten less attention over the decades is her music. Staubgold boss Markus Detmer has been a longtime admirer —  he cut a Flying Lizards white label in 1995, presumably when Piano wasn’t distributing The Secret Dub Life of The Flying Lizards to Germany — and with the new compilation Resolutionary, seeks to shed further light on Goldman’s contributions to a thrilling period both for its protagonist and her surroundings.

Though billed as a Goldman compilation, Resolutionary is actually credited to three different groups: Vivien in solo form (“Launderette,” “Private Armies,” “P.A. Dub”), The Flying Lizards (“Her Story,” “The Window”), and Chantage (“Same Thing Twice,” “It’s Only Money,” “Tu M’Fais Rire”). Her vocals feature prominently in each and you don’t really notice a drastic shift in sound quality or jarring stylistic transitions across these eight songs, which makes for a focused snapshot of the artist. 

The Flying Lizards came first chronologically but 1981’s “Launderette” smartly starts the collection off as it’s probably her best-known song (not to mention one that’s been sampled by Madlib for “Filthy” on the essential Beat Konducta, Vol. 1-2). Anchored by George Oban’s funky bass line, Goldman’s soprano tells a simple tale of laundromat love gone awry (“Seems like I can’t get away from you / even in the launderette,” she sings on the chorus, adding dismissively, “…You always were untidy”). 

That marriage of high (her vocals) and low (bass) is a recurring motif in these songs. Working with a palette influenced by frequent producer Adrian Sherwood, members of Public Image Ltd. during their heady Metal Box peak (John Lydon produced “Launderette” after hearing the demo), and dub and reggae scene staples like Prince Far I, Goldman took on the politics of gender and romance head-on. “Private Armies” is a self-professed nuclear war anthem, for example, and “Her Story” is an attack on the patriarchy. Perhaps the most disturbing track, however, is “The Window,” a plaintive piano refrain setting the bedrock for Goldman’s chorus (“I don’t want to let him in / I wish he wasn’t twice my size”). 

The three Chantage tracks feature the most radical directions. Goldman had moved to Paris by 1982 and was absorbing the African diaspora’s musical culture alongside fellow singer Eve Blouin, with whom she shared a flat. “Same Thing Twice” features soukous guitar and steel drums, easily the breeziest, most lighthearted song present. The influence comes through strongest on “It’s Only Money,” a capitalist critique featuring Romani violin and a steel drum breakdown over a calypso rhythm that differs from the earlier half-speed dub zone-outs indicative of her time in London. “Tu M’Fais Rire” (“you make me laugh”), Resolutionary’s last song, functions nicely as an acapella outro. 

Listening to a period interview with Goldman appended as a separate track on Resolutionary is generous but inessential. Vivien’s points regarding resistance (“I always find it very difficult to get angry”), violence and gender (“Men would rather blow up the world than relinquish their power”) are covered quite clearly in her music. Her voice resonates both in projection and in vision. And though it may be true that Vivien Goldman has spent much of her time fighting for the world, in the music she made, it is every bit as clear that she fought just as hard for herself at the same time. It was never a binary. 

Patrick Masterson

[miniwilderness]

(Staubgold)