Saturday, March 14, 2009

Playlist tribute to the film I sooooo want to see

The thumping ARTERY song "Into the Garden" is filling the house with music as I type this entry.
It's the first song on a "MADE IN SHEFFIELD" iTunes playlist I am toying with this morning, before I head to work.
Once voted "fourth best record of 1981" by listeners of the iconic John Peel radio show, "Into the Garden" offers an excellent introduction to the Sheffield music scene of the late 70s and early 80s.
"The track weaves disparate, mystical lyricism with a tribal, thudding bass line and slow, daunting beats," wrote the SHEFFIELD TELEGRAPH in a story published last month.
"MADE IN SHEFFIELD" the film
documents the rise of the influential post-punk movement in the English steel-making city.
My playlist includes many of the bands featured in the film, including Cabaret Voltaire, Clock DVA, The Com-Sat Angels, The Human League (before they split into the more pop-oriented bands Heaven 17 and The Human League), punk band 2.3 and Vice Versa -- the electronic band that evolved into ABC.
"A fascinating history of the Sheffield scene... The most important musical city in Europe... Conclusive proof that there was always more to Sheffield than Joe Cocker," David Buckley wrote in his four-star review in MOJO.
I have yet to find the documentary anywhere near here, so I have to settle for the playlist for now.