levasseur@morgan.DEC (01/04/85)
A couple of things:
I recieved Bronski Beat's "Age of Consent" and Frankie Goes to Holly-
wood's "Pleasure Dome" LP's from friends as Christmas gifts. I had al-
ready purchased the 12" single of "Small Town Boy" but had never heard
anything else done by B.B. I have to admit that the more I listen to
Age of Consent, the more I like the album. The group has managed to in-
tegrate disco/rock, jazz and blues; successfully in one giant stereo
LP. "Love and Money" has one of the hottest sax accompanyments I've
heard in quite a while (I've always been a sucker for a hot saxaphone.
Some of the synthesizer work reminds me of stuff done by Tangerine
Dream. All in all a very worthwhile LP indeed! A British pen/keyboard
pal on the DECnet tells me B.B. has other releases in the U.K. Can any-
one fill me in?
I found Frankie a little loud for my tastes. They seem to have squeezed
the optimum amount of modulation into the record grooves; to the point
of distortion. It would probably sound great on a c.d. I enjoyed the
disk with "Pleasure Dome","Relax", and "War" more than the second disk,
which I never play. One thing concerns me about their MTV concert app-
earance New Year's Eve. I wasn't able to see it but a few gay friends told
me it was pretty outrageous; especially "Relax" They were concerned that stra
MTV viewers might get the wrong idea about gays from the performance. Pretty
whorey stuff.
I notice a bit of discussion going on about disco. One of my hobbies is
mixing disco tapes for friends. I think that disco has vastly improved since
the early days of Donna Summer et all. There is much more of a variety now
than the classic thump thump thump of the mid 70's. It's a lot harder to
mix (matching beats) but much more listenable in long stretches. The gay
clubs have been the most innovative (as they always have been) in keeping
the music alive by introducing new material. I first heard "Small Town Boy"
in a gay disco in September. Maybe disco isn't quite the right term for
dance rock!
Ray