The following artist is so big, I can not put the spotlight on him for only one week. It is a musician whose work can not be measured by commercial success, but by his creative endeavors. I still haven't recovered from listening to some of his releases. Still, his contribution to the experimental music is not fully recognized. He deserves more spotlight. It doesn't matter that his discography is undeservingly lying in the shadows, my opinion is that his impact on music is equal to the impact of David Bowie, John Cale, Frank Tovey and Julian Cooper.
Somewhere in between, Colin Lloyd Tucker leaves his mark of audio-eccentric. He is no stranger to excursions to pop, but his avant-garde eclecticism is far more prominent, with the emphasis on bizzare lyrics. He started making music when he was 17 when he founded his first project Toybox. Self-titled debut album managed to survive up until this date beyond the conventions of specific record deal. Although many will analyze this as a typical problem of the author's opacity, Colin's unpredictability and artistic OCD are just an evidence of his ability to preserve his identity, free of commercial pressures.
The project Plain Characters spawned three singles (I Am A, Man In The Railings, and Menial Tasks) and one album (Invisible Yearnings) in the period 1978-1981 and grew into sporadic studio project The Gadgets. It was a trio comprised of John Hyde and the guy who formed The The, Mart Johnson. Colin was also shortly a member of The The, a band with volatile and fluid formations. The Gadgets never performed live. Their music was characterized by humorous arrangements and intelligent electronic minimalistic feats. Albums Gadgetree and Love, Curiosity, Freckles & Doubt sounded like radio-messages of a being from another planet. These records, soaked in darkness, were proclaimed classics in the domain of disco-lockdown, the scene Brian Eno, Bowie, Kraftwerk and Cabaret Voltaire also belonged to.
Vicissitude of electro-acoustic structures make you smile while simultaneously giving you an eerie feeling. The music sounds current, even though it was released in the 80s. Startling! I am pretty sure many have used these two albums as inspirations for their work, from Max Tundre and Beck to Bjork, The Knife and Echoboy.
The Gadgets' following record The Blue Album came out in 1983. Impressive shade of Tucker's vocal fluctuating between obscure-emotional to manic-theatrical combined with impeccable rhythm-section make The Blue Album an anthological piece. From the intro We Had No Way Of Knowing to Space In My Heart and mirthful The Juice of Love, you are left with a sombre feeling, even though the band claimed that this was their expedition to the pop music. Colin and Matt left the band, and John Hyde decided to turn it into well-produced, but less intriguing project.
Considering his enormous talent, many have tried to brand Colin into a purposeful pop-superstar. One of those people was Bryan Ferry's producer John Porter with whom Colin has maintained collaboration up until today. In rare situations, the compromise was ubiquitous, but that's not to say that Colin didn't find a way to incorporate subversity in his material. I mean, I can not think of a better example than The Boy Stutter, a song about a boy with speech disability who sleeps with his mother. One of Colin's endemic solo singles Head even became a hit song.
His new project after The Gadgets gained a cult status. Deux Filles was formed by Colin and another multimedia pundit, Simon Fisher Turner. The two have met in The The. Besides impressive music career in the 70s, Turney was also a semi-accomplished actor, but he is not the centerpiece of our spotlight. But the reason why I have mentioned his movie ventures is because part of Deux Filles repertoire was included in Jarman's collage movie Sloane Square/ A Room Of One's Own. Turner's penchant for classical music in thrilling combination with synthetic elements and white noise have given him the reputation of a remarkable music genius. His work suffuses from naive pop to hermetic rhythm and ambient-driven high-frequency experiments.
By taking identities of two enigmatic girls, Claudine Caule and Gemini Forque, Colin and Simon have forged a dismal, yet funny biography of two daughters. Wanna hear more about this hilarious duo? Stay tuned for part deux on next week's SundaySpotlight.
