THE WEATHERMEN

EN

The story goes The Weatherman's music was put together by two Americans and those same musicians sent their music to many Belgian labels with the message of hoping to break through in the Belgian music scene. It is a fact that PIAS, Play It Again Sam!, responded, because since 1985 there have been quite a few releases by Jean-Marc Lederman (once a live member of Fad Gadget) and Bruce Geduldig (RIP, indeed also known for Tuxedomoon) by PIAS. Including their hit “Poison!” (published as a single by PIAS in 1987), probably the best known The Weathermen song among our readers.

The opening words are legendary: 'Hello? My name is Suzanna Stammer. You remember me, don't you? I used to go out with your drummer. I made his life miserable, and now I'll start on you! Oh, by the way you can call me Poison!' Satire and surrealism were never far away with The Weathermen and some illustrious people even claim the group started as a 'farce', which turned out to work well. “Poison!” is of course present on these releases from the PIAS40 series but The Weathermen was much more than this “painless poison”. Riding the popularity of electro wave and EBM, typical Belgian export products in those years, they supplemented their sound with influences from pop, even funk and disco.

“Deep Down South” was one of the first achievements at the Play It Again Sam! label and shows the seeds of a group that puts disco and pop in a contemporary (I'm talking about 1985) electro guise. “Old Friend Sam” (a nod to the label that took them under their wings?) also dates from the same year and emphatically goes outside the then current electro and EBM lines, with a kind of funky rhythm. But there was also “Bang!!” from 1989, EBM with a refined new beat touch which made this track a fantastic dance song with a melodious clubby pop sound poured over it, again with a kind of disco funk rhythm. Eclectic but it worked.

“Barbie And Ken” from the album “The Black Album According To The Weatherman” (PIAS, 1988), on which the hit “Poison” is featured, is much closer in sound to a group like Cat Rapes Dog but without guitars. Finally, “Let Them Come To Berlin”, from 1986 and taken from the 12” “This Is The Third Communique From The Weatherman”, is a nice textbook example of the electronic music the duo managed to produce in their first phase of life (until 1992). Difficult to pin down in one genre, slippery and fast, sometimes even a bit experimental but also danceable. The group later returned to the music scene briefly in 2003 with the album “Deeper With The Weatherman” (Urgence Disks).

This six-track vinyl compilation focuses on their magical 80s, where they were an outsider in the EBM scene but one that was appreciated and with “Poison!” left a lasting mark on this Belgian story. So it's time to get something from The Weathermen with this compilation if you haven't already!

Kurt INGELS
16/11/2023

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NL

U kan de Nederlanstalige versie van deze review HIER nalezen bij onze collega's van Dark Entries Magazine!

Kurt INGELS
16/11/2023

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