Today, 41 years ago, Siouxsie & The Banshees released their debut album Scream!
The Scream is the debut album by Siouxsie and the Banshees. It was an almost instant commercial success, peaking at No. 12 on the UK Albums Chart and was recorded in only one week and mixed in three during August 1978. The album was released on 13 November 1978 by Polydor. Before the album's release, the band had developed a strong reputation as a live act, and had achieved a Top 10 UK single with "Hong Kong Garden”, a track which did not appear on the original album, but was added not much later to most others issues of Scream.
Upon release, The Scream was widely acclaimed by critics. It was also a commercial success, peaking at No. 12 in the UK Albums Chart. The album is regarded as a landmark of post-punk.
Late 1977 and early 1978, Siouxsie and the Banshees received major press coverage but failed to secure a recording deal. A fan undertook a graffiti campaign in London, spraying the walls of the major record companies with the words "Sign the Banshees: do it now".[2] Polydor finally signed them in June.
J. G. Ballard and William Burroughs provided the reference points for the lyrics of The Scream.
Since its release, The Scream has received a number of accolades from the music press. NME rated it at No. 57 in their "Writers All Time 100 Albums" list in 1985. Uncut magazine placed it at No. 43 in their list of the 100 greatest debut albums. It was featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
The Scream placed the group among the pioneers of post-punk, as Robert Smith of the Cure said:
"When The Scream came out, I remember it was much slower than everybody thought. It was like the forerunner of the Joy Division sound. It was just big-sounding."
Joy Division's Peter Hook, who saw the band in concert in Manchester in 1977, said about The Scream: "Siouxsie And The Banshees were one of our big influences, The Banshees first LP was one of my favourite ever records, the way the guitarist and the drummer played was a really unusual way of playing."
The Scream had a strong impact on other musicians. Massive Attack covered and sampled "Metal Postcard (Mittageisen)" on their song "Superpredators (Metal Postcard)" in 1997.
Sceam LP - Tracklist
| A1 | Pure | 1:50 |
| A2 | Jigsaw Feeling | 4:38 |
| A3 | Overground | 3:48 |
| A4 | Carcass | 3:50 |
| A5 | Helter Skelter | 3:48 |
| B1 | Mirage | 2:46 |
| B2 | Metal Postcard (Mittageisen) | 4:16 |
| B3 | Nicotine Stain | 2:56 |
| B4 | Suburban Relapse | 4:10 |
| B5 | Switch | 6:50 |
Movement is the debut album by New Order, released on 13 November 1981 by Factory Records. The album was produced by Martin Hannett who also produced the previous Joy Division albums and releases. At the time of its release, the album was not particularly well-received by critics or audiences, only peaking at number 30 on the UK Albums Chart. However, retrospective critical reception has been very positive.
After the suicide of Joy Division's singer Ian Curtis in May 1980, and the subsequent shock for those surrounding him, remaining members Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris elected to carry on, albeit under a new name – New Order. With the exception of two songs, "Ceremony" (first played live at Joy Division's very last gig, a bit more than two weeks before Curtis's death) and "In a Lonely Place" (unreleased, but demoed in the studio), all the material played would be new.
A couple of songs on Movement stem from the initial songwriting session the band undertook in the summer of 1980.
Bernard Sumner took the main vocalist role with Peter Hook as back-up though the latter sang lead on "Dreams Never End" and "Doubts Even Here”.
Musically the album situated in between Joy Division's post-punk sound and the synth-pop style that would happen to define New Order and influence pop music for decades".
In 2008 and 2015 the album was remastered and released in different formats (Digital/CD/12”).
References to Ian Curtis appear on the songs "ICB" (rumored to be an acronym for 'Ian Curtis Buried', but confirmed by Peter Hook in a 2013 interview) and "The Him".
The album cover was designed by Peter Saville and is based on a poster by the Italian Futurist Fortunato Depero.
The shape created by the top three lines is an 'F' (lying on its back), which refers to Factory Records/Factory Communications Limited and the bottom two lines create an 'L' (lying on its front), the Roman numeral 50, the original catalogue was FACT 50.
Movement - Tracklist
| Dreams Never End | 3:13 |
| Truth | 4:37 |
| Senses | 4:45 |
| Chosen Time | 4:07 |
| ICB | 4:33 |
| The Him | 5:29 |
| Doubts Even Here | 4:16 |
| Denial | 4:20 |
You might have heared it already... The legendary British EBM band NITZER EBB are touring Europe again! The band will be performing together with their original members David Gooday & Simon Granger.
Alongside with the return of the band a Box set with their work from 1982-2010 was released by Pylon Records as well as a double vinyl release of their compilation album 'Body Of Work'.
Our partners of BodyBeats Productions are proud to host this legendary band (once again) for an EXCLUSIVE BELGIAN 2019 CLUBSHOW at the wonderful venue De Casino, St-Niklaas, Belgium on WEDNESDAY 20 NOVEMBER.
Next to NEB's tour support LIEBKNECHT, local Belgian NU-EBM heads of THE JUGGERNAUTS will be spicing up the night with even more beats en bleeps!
Over 30 years after making their debut, legendary industrial post-punk band The Cassandra Complex have finally rereleased their classic self-produced first album Grenade in a newly remastered version on digital streaming and download services.
The Cassandra Complex are based around the nucleus of principal songwriters Rodney Orpheus (vocals, computer) and Andy Booth (guitar, keyboards), with the addition on this album of John Marchini (bass, saxophone), Keith Langley (percussion) and Jez Willis (bass, keyboards) [the last of whom would later go on to form Utah Saints].
“I had started off listening to a bunch of early 70s synth rock stuff , like Kraftwerk, Hawkwind, Suicide, Can, and Bowie’s Berlin albums, then got into early industrial acts like TG and Cabaret Voltaire, and combined that with punk influences we loved like Buzzcocks, Joy Division, and Gang of Four,” says Orpheus, the Northern Ireland-born singer of the band. “We ended up with a synthesis of all of those disparate elements on a record that sounded quite unlike anything else around at the time, especially on the UK scene.”
Despite getting little reaction in their homeland, the album quickly achieved critical and commercial success in the growing goth/alternative music scene in Europe, selling over 20,000 copies for their small independent label, with the band doing multiple sold-out tours in support of it.
“We were never really happy with the version that came out on the original record. At the time we just didn’t have the money or the technology to make it sound the way we envisaged it,” says Booth, “But now we can finally release it the way it sounded in the studio when we recorded it.”
In recent years, both Orpheus and Booth have become significant players in the background of the modern music biz: Orpheus as a producer and technology designer, and Booth as a music lawyer. However in 2019 they have once more been touring successfully with The Cassandra Complex, playing to thousands of fans at festivals in Germany, Belgium, and Spain.
AMPHI FESTIVAL 2020 releases third band wave with Mesh, Zeromancer & many more
XVI. AMPHI FESTIVAL 2020
25. & 26.07.2020 – COLOGNE | TANZBRUNNEN
THIRD BANDWAVE WITH MESH, ZEROMANCER AND MANY MORE
Autumn is here! While you are curious to learn more about which bands are joining the 2020 line-up next, it has been their goal to invite a number of established Amphi heroes alongside a considerable amount of artists, who haven't appeared on Amphi's stages just yet. Today, cumulated in a full-on third wave, they raise the curtain for:
MESH + ZEROMANCER
NACHTBLUT + FROZEN PLASMA
CAT RAPES DOG + DUPONT + STURM CAFÉ
THE FOREIGN RESORT + DER FLUCH
PERFECTION DOLL
All in all, 36 bands have been confirmed so far. Stay tuned for more, as the fourth and supposedly final wave will follow soon!
Original Amphi Festival tickets and "Amphi/E-tropolis 2020" combi-tickets are exclusively available at Amphi Shop, www.amphi-shop.de!
Additional festival information is as always to be found at www.amphi-festival.de or www.facebook.com/amphifestival. Also feel free to join us at www.instagram.com/amphifestival!
Confimed artists so far:
VNV NATION + EISBRECHER
OOMPH! + THE BIRTHDAY MASSACRE
DIARY OF DREAMS + SUICIDE COMMANDO + SOLAR FAKE
MESH + AESTHETIC PERFECTION + ZEROMANCER + SHE PAST AWAY
LETZTE INSTANZ + IN STRICT CONFIDENCE + STAHLMANN + NACHTBLUT
FROZEN PLASMA + ROME + HELDMASCHINE + EMPATHY TEST + SONO
MINUIT MACHINE + CAT RAPES DOG + RROYCE + DUPONT + STURM CAFÉ
SCARLET DORN + CHEMICAL SWEET KID + WISBORG + THE FOREIGN RESORT
JOY DIVISION UNDERCOVER + DER FLUCH + JOHNNY DEATHSHADOW
SCHWARZSCHILD + BRAGOLIN + ALIENARE + PERFECTION DOLL
+ many additional artists & supporting programme coming soon
