Saturday, May 3, 2008

The Empty Quarter - Delirium

This was almost a "someone beat me to it" post; Rho-Xs did indeed post it last June, but his download link has expired, so I can offer up my own rip, inferior though it probably is. Youth (ex-Killing Joke, represented on this blog so far by his recordings with Brilliant) and Ben Watkins (Juno Reactor) first teamed up to record an album called The Empty Quarter (soon here) in 1983 as the official soundtrack from the play Street Captives by Jonathan Moore. For their second collaboration, 1986's Delirium, they adopted The Empty Quarter as their band name. Like their first album it's all instrumental, but with a greater focus on rhythms. The beats run from tribal to industrial to gothic funk a la Brilliant (unsurprisingly) with several guest musicians filling out the sound. The full performing credits are:
Ben Watkins: keyboards, guitars, programming
Youth: keyboards, bass programming
Dave Heath: flute
Kate St. John: oboe, sax
Jake Le Mesurier: percussion, drums
Chris Bell: drums
'Mainframe'-John and Murray: Greengate programming
'Ranking Seymour': voice
Guy 'Thumb' Pratt: bass
This is one of several "techno-worldbeat" albums that came out in the late 80s/early 90s that in my opinion are classics. More albums in that category that other bloggers have posted are:

Anne Dudley and Jaz Coleman: Songs from the Victorious City
Eric Random and the Bedlamites: Ishmael
Saqqara Dogs: Thirst and World Crunch

But the point of this post is The Empty Quarter's Delirium: get it here or here.

10 comments:

John Molloy said...

Cool. Finally I can get hold of a copy of this thing... Only played on it one crazy evening back in 1984...

Fantod said...

John Molloy of Mainframe, glad I could be of service! I had a 5 Minutes 12-inch that I played a LOT, now I must hear it again. Hope I still have it...

elektro said...

Thank you very much for this post.
I am very grateful to you for this discovery, have just listened to the album and finish of buying it in ebay, I'm really happy whith this post, the third song Luscious Glory has been finally identified of my list of pending songs to identify, about several years that I was trying to identify this song without success, thanks.

In my discogs profile I have put a list with songs pending to ID of the same period (85-88), you can listen them here:

http://www.discogs.com/user/jordi242

Glory for your magnificent music blog, today I have discovered this blog, FANTOD UNDER GRASS, and it has turned into my favorite music blog so far, not for this post if not for the whole...

Cheers,

Jorge

Fantod said...

Thank you, I am glad you like my blog so much! I've had a listen to some of your tracks needing ID, but I only recognize one thing so far: track07-1986.mp3, from 2:15 to 3:15, is Richard Bone, I think, but I'm not sure what song. "Monster Movie," maybe.

Fantod said...

Aha! It is "The Quantum Hop" by Richard Bone, and it is on the album I posted here.

Fantod said...

javi chocolate a 1988 14-15.mp3 is a remix or dub version of a song by Flux from Uncarved Block.

elektro said...

WOW, thanks a lot for the info Fantod, confirmed, the track javi chocolate is the Flux song Nothing Is Not Done extracted and played pitched from the album Uncarved Block (1986), really incredible, thanks again.

For the track07-1986.mp3 I think that the "The Quantum Hop" by Richard Bone is similar but not the same... anyway a billion thanks for your effort and help, this unkown song for me might be a commercial megamix with songs like: New Order - Blue Monday, Stephen "Tin Tin" Duffy - Kiss Me and U.K. Vision - Lucifer's Friend and others that I can't recognize :-(

I have ordered a copy of Flux - Uncarved Block CD today. Blogs like this helps to the music business, at least I have bought already 3 discs of songs that I have discovered in your blog.

Cheers,
elektro80s

Fantod said...

I love that Flux album, let me know how you like it. Thanks for buying music!

Anonymous said...

Thanks very much indeed! I have both albums, but both are languishing, unplayed, a 1000 miles away.

Great to see Youth back in KJ. Also, catch up with his stuff with Transmission (Malicious Damage Records).

Jon D

iceolate said...

Hey, this album is cool. Thanks. I reposted in on my blog, with my commentary. I also posted some audio links, but it links back here. Let me know what you think

http://www.astropope.com/?p=1222