In which Allen Ginsberg drops in on the Clash during the Combat Rock sessions, the mike gets opened and he slam dances Metropolis, enlightens the populous. And so on, off into a mid-tempo ramble on the hungry darkness of living. Whatever evils were going down in 1981 – nobody in this crowd was looking the other way.
Ryuichi Sakamoto started out inspired by Kraftwerk, and by 1988 would have an Academy Award in his pocket for his soundtrack work. Somewhere in between, he found himself messing around with such cool and cutting edge western musical friends as Adrian Belew (the new guy at King Crimson), and Robin Scott (the guy who sang that Pop Muzik song). The album was called Left-Handed Dream and it’s definitely one of those lost gems.
“Spring 1980. I first hear of a band called Joy Divison. Apparently, they’re like a new wave Doors. Which is all I need to hear. I head down to Quintessence Records prepared to pay big bucks for an import. Except, ‘Sorry,’ says the guy at the counter, ‘we’re sold out since the main guy killed himself.’ Ouch. Less than a year later, we start to hear New Order, the band that rose from those ashes – cool and eerie and sounding exactly like the future.” (Philip Random)
“The Clash dub out a cover of a Dr. John song (which was itself a cover) concerning a junkie friend, wobbling around, making a mess of things. Not unlike the album Sandinista in general (and I mean that in the best possible way). Six sides of pretty much everything imaginable (and more) stumbling madly in all directions making it one of the essential albums of the decade in question, because the 80s were that kind of time, the world was in that kind of mess. It was our duty to stumble.” (Philip Random)
Randophonic 