On this day, 31 years ago, the Scottish electro band The Shamen conquered the fist position on the UK independent single charts (27 July 1991) with “Move Any Mountain”, where it stayed for 5 consecutive weeks. Although initially released under the title ‘Pro>gen’, in 1989 the song was re-released in the UK on 15 July and got remixed by numerous various artists. It also became The Shamen’s first top-ten single, in the regular UK Singles Chart reaching as high as number 4.

Move Any Mountain (Pro>gen 91)

Move any mountain, move any mountain
I will not fail nor falter, I shall succeed
My perception is altered, I do believe
Faith is so strong now nothing shall bar my way
Firm conviction is no fiction
This is my day

I can move move move any mountain
I can move move move any mountain
I can move move move any mountain
I walk so tall, ascending I stand so high
Earth below me revolving above the sky
I feel no fear to be here is oh so fine
Shining brightly, like sunlight inside my mind

Well you know that any mountain is capable of moving
The Shamen and the new generation who are proving
You can be what you want to be
Let your soul and your body and your mind be free
Well never mind, we all are that
And going all the way is where I'm at
With delivery smooth like water from a fountain
That's why I can move any mountain

Move any mountain
I can move move move any mountain
I can move move move any mountain
I can move move move any mountain
I can move move move any mountain

Move any mountain
Move any mountain

Future feeling, new sensation
Body is rocking and the mind is reeling
And rolling race changing motion
Flowing like a river into the ocean
Better get yourself ready for the new vibration
My vision, one nation, one tribe
One day'll come the might to move any mountain

Move any mountain
Move any mountain
I can move move move any mountain

I walk so tall, ascending I stand so high
Earth below me revolving above the sky
I feel no fear to be here is oh so fine
Shining brightly, like sunlight inside my mind

I can move move move any mountain
I can move move move any mountain
I can move move move any mountain
I can move move move any mountain
I can move move move any mountain
I can move move move any mountain

I can move move move any mountainSongwriters: Colin Gilbert Angus / Richard West / Will Sin

Pro-Gen © Tairona Songs Ltd

DISCOGS

In July 1980 Cabaret Voltaire, initially composed of Stephen Mallinder, Richard H. Kirk, and Chris Watson, released their second studio album ‘The Voice Of America’ following their 1979 ‘Mix-Up’ LP. Influenced by the dada movement, which is where they got their name, Cabaret Voltaire once again displays their craftsmanship of magnetic tape manipulations and how noisy, abrasive, and unpleasant an album can be. Many consider them as one of those bands who invented the industrial aesthetic. Sonically, although somewhat similar, it doesn't pack the same punch as the all-out assaults on 'Mix-Up', but there's this persistent creepy atmosphere.

Nevertheless The Voice Of America was an interesting progression from 'Mix-Up' and a precursor to what came later.

'Voice Of America' was reissued by the Grey Area of Mute Records on Vinyl, CD and Cassette in 1990. In 2002 the album was re-mastered and re-released by Mute.

The Voice Of America - LP/CD ROUGH 11

DISCOGS

Industrial band, Kevorkian Death Cycle is revived from a seven-year sleep with the release of Collection:Injection 01, the first EP in a three-part series of releases that resurrects their classic anthology album, Collection For Injection.

Released in 1996, Collection For Injection was the culmination of a particularly experimental and exploratory four year period for the band. Songs like “Veal” and “Send Me The Machine” helped to broaden the listener base due to the songs' chaotic, thrashing beats, and the bleak, dystopian lyrical content.

The present landscape under the Covid pandemic inspired founding members, Ryan Gribbin and Roger Jarvis to revisit their 1996 anthology's raucous perversity through a modern lens. Its themes of a society deeply fractured with violence, health crises, political extremism, division, religious fascism, and hatred are just as relevant today as they were thirty years ago.

The resulting release series begins with the EP, Collection: Injection 01 and includes four modern machinations: “Man Made”, “Send Me the Machine”, “Spring Heel Jack”, and “Veal”.

Aiding in the band's resurrected body of work are Rob Robinson of The Order of the Static Temple, and Sean Whitman of A Brilliant Massacre. Both artists are on the Negative Gain Productions roster and bring heir extensive composition and production knowledge to the project, twisting and revising particular songs from Collection For Injection to bring them into the contemporary consciousness.

Collection:Injection 01 is available NOW on all digital platforms including Bandcamp.

More About Collection:Injection 01:

“Man Made”: A track that looks into the weakness and frailty of the human body undergoing a serious illness, and the way in which society shuns the sick among us. The AIDS epidemic was raging during the original composition of the song. COVID having worked its way into the general population and the chaos it brought upon the world was present in the minds of Ryan and collaborator Sean Whitman as they worked on the updated version.

“Veal”: Initially inspired by Ryan’s interest in environmentalism, it speaks to an apathetic world without the will to cease a critically destructive path forward.

“Spring Heel Jack”: A song that speaks to severe mental illness; the struggle to accept one’s illness and the helplessness one feels while attempting to heal and move forward.

“Send Me The Machine”: A cold and bitter track, is again inspired by the vulnerability and desperation of a sick social environment and the individuals trapped within it.

www.facebook.com/KevorkianDeathCycle

On this day, 39 years ago, The Cure performed their single ‘The Walk’ on BBC's Top Of The Pops (July 22nd 1983). Initially released as a stand-alone single in July 1983, it almost immediately became the title track of a six-track 12” EP.

The song became The Cure's biggest UK hit to this point, peaking at #12, and their first entry into the UK top 20.

At the time of recording The Cure was briefly reduced to the two founding members Robert Smith and Lol Tolhurst following the departure of bassist Simon Gallup following the end of the band's previous tour in support of the album Pornography (1982).

Created using relatively new electronic equipment, the Oberheim OB-8 synthesizer and DMX drum machine, the genesis and recording of the track - though not the release date - predates New Order’s Blue Monday. Similarities between the tracks are likely the result of experimentation with similar equipment.

This ‘just out of the box’ experimentation is best illustrated by listening to the opening of ‘The Walk’. The synth note that gives the track its distinctive discordant feel was the result of a stubborn piece of keyboard programming the band found impossible to remove.

The Walk

I called you after midnight
Then ran until I burst
I passed the howling woman
And stood outside your door

We walked around the lake
And woke up in the rain
And everyone turned over
Troubled in their dreams again

Visiting time is over
And so we walk away
And both play dead then cry out loud
Why we always cry this way?

I kissed you in the water
And made your dry lips sing
I saw you look
Like a Japanese baby
In an instant I remembered everything, everything, everything

I called you after midnight
Then ran until my heart burst
I passed the howling woman
And stood outside your door

I kissed you in the water
And made your dry lips sing
I saw you look
Like a Japanese baby
In an instant I remembered everything, everything, everything

Take me for a walk
Take me for a walk
Let's go in the water
Take me for a walk

Songwriters: Robert James Smith / Laurence Andrew Tolhurst
© Universal Music

DISCOGS > 7”

DISCOGS > 12” EP

Today, exactly 42 years ago, Joy Division released their second and final studio album, Closer. It was released on 18 July 1980 on the renowned UK label Factory Records exactly two months after the tragic suicide of lead singer Ian Curtis (18 May 1980). Today, Closer is still considered as one of the major releases of the New-Wave and Post-Punk era.

The songs on Closer were drawn from two distinct periods. The earlier guitar-driven compositions like Atrocity Exhibition, A Means to an End, Colony, Passover and 24 Hours were written during the latter half of 1979. The other songs like Isolation, Decades, The Eternal and Heart and Soul were written in early 1980 and included more prominent use of electronics and synthesizers.

Regarding the album's lyrical content, Bernard Sumner recollected: "We'd go to rehearsals and sit around and talk about really banal things. We'd do that until we couldn't talk about banal things any more, then we'd pick up our instruments and record into a little cassette player. We didn't talk about the music or the lyrics very much. We never analyzed it”. Bernard also remembers Ian Curtis saying he was feeling strange because “he felt like all his words were writing themselves. He also said that he had this terrible claustrophobic feeling that he was in a whirlpool and being pulled down, drowning."

Closer was recorded between 18–30 March 1980 at Britannia Row Studios in London. It was produced by Martin Hannett. His production has been highly praised by the music press. However, as with their debut album, both Hook and Sumner were unhappy with Hannett's work. Peter Hook later complained that the track "Atrocity Exhibition" was mixed on one of his days off and when he heard the final product was disappointed that the abrasiveness of his guitar part had been laden with effects and toned down. He wrote; "I was like, head in hands, oh fucking hell, it's happening again. Unknown Pleasures number two... Martin [Hannett] had melted the guitar with his Marshall Time Waster. Made it sound like somebody strangling a cat, and to my mind, absolutely killed the song. I was so annoyed with him and went in and gave him a piece of my mind but he just turned around and told me to fuck off."

The album cover was designed by Martyn Atkins and Peter Saville, with a photograph of a Italian tomb on the sleeve. Designer Peter Saville commented that he, upon learning of singer Ian Curtis's suicide, expressed immediate concern over the album's design as it depicted a funeral theme, remarking "we've got a tomb on the cover of the album!"

Closer as a 12” vinyl album reached No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart. The Album was also chosen as Album of The Year by NME and is still placed highly in various top 10 lists like Best Album of the 80s (Slant Magazine, Pitchfork Magazine, Q magazine, …) and number two on Sonic Seducers “10 key Goth albums”. It got 10/10 review scores by Akk Music, NME, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone album guide, Select, Spin Alternative Record Guide, Uncut and the Encyclopedia of Popular Music

By 1982, the album had sold over 250,000 copies worldwide.

Shortly after this release the remaining members chose New Order as their new and future band name.

Closer
Side A

1. Atrocity Exhibition
2. Isolation
3. Passover
4. Colony
5. A Means to an End

Side B
6. Heart and Soul
7. Twenty Four Hours
8. The Eternal
9. Decades

All songs written by Ian Curtis, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris and Bernard Sumner.