Anyone into the early 808 State records might like to know about Biting
Tongues, the really tight & crisp funk group that Graham Massey used to
have. They released a few records, most mixable of which I'd say are
FAC 134 "Trouble Hand" 12" EP (1987?)
- check out 'Panorama' - a tight fast techno beat by drum kit, phased
bass guitar and some distant background horns that are used again on some
Ex:cel tracks
FAC 188 "Compressor" 12" EP (1988?)
- b-sides are progressive latin funk, very dark, weird sax
- a side 'compressor' is very mixable, dead-tight drums & percussion
of latin funk with weird sampled chant
I would say that the mixing, compression and general recording quality of
these EP's in particular is *better* than the UTD/90 LP I have.
These records show that Massey had a musical maturity before 808 State,
but was really not able to integrate it masterfully until Ex:cel
There is a cool Biting Tongues video collection that came out; the last
few tracks/videos are the best, combining the relentless tight funk drums
with a lot of rhythmically-timed video loops in a center frame of the
screen, behind which other imagery is playing. Pretty hypnotic...
The last thing Biting Tongues did was a atmospheric percussion/tape/horns
soundtrack called "Feverhouse". It seems like no one else (except A
Certain Ratio) were exploring those syncopated rhythms like Biting
Tongues; perhaps this was a bit of a dead end... sure glad that Graham got
into drum machines at that point. I heard that we went into a studio
where a bunch of drum machines that had been left programmed by Adrian
Sherwood were lying around and that sort of started his interest....any
verifications of this hearsay?
solenoid@europa.com <------+