Sunday, February 8, 2009

Nort - G.O.D.A.M.B.


Sheffield's mighty "industrial funk" movement of the 80s fizzled out by the end of that decade. Cabaret Voltaire went house and then split up; Eric Random went AWOL; Chakk and Workforce disintegrated; and the band that best embodied the whole genre, Hula, disbanded despite securing a US record deal with Wax Trax. Hula's catalog has thankfully been reissued in digital form in recent years, but here is a related item that has not. Nort was Hula's drummer, and he put out a solo album in 1988 on Ediesta Records, Games Of Dance And Muscle Blood, usually listed in acronym form as G.O.D.A.M.B. Nort provides drums, percussion, voice, tapes, samples, bass guitar, treatments, sequencers, and keyboards, and is supported by a rather large cast of musicians:
  • Justin Bennett - drums, percussion, violin, samples, treatments, keyboards
  • D. I. Anii - drums
  • D'Silva - saxophone, keyboards
  • Sara - Voices
  • Alan Fisch - samples, treatments
  • Barry Harden - bass guitar
  • Dave Heppinstall - keyboards, voice, treatments, percussion
  • Sarah Morrell - trumpet
  • Alan Russell - guitar
  • Phaedre Selmes - voices
  • Phil Wolstenholme - kazoo

It's not quite a Great Lost Hula Album, but about half of it could be: the opener "It's A Dream" could almost fit on Voice, the short "Luther's Scream" sounds like Murmur-era Hula, and there are a couple ambient tracks that would sound at home on Hula's improvised Shadowland LP. Three other rhythm-oriented tracks are in the distinctive Sheffield funk vein but are more akin to Workforce's uptempo "Back in the Good Books." Which leaves a few tracks of odds and ends somewhere between ambient and rhythmic. G.O.D.A.M.B. is thus an essential record for, well, anyone who follows this blog! Get the vinyl rip here or here.

Nort has been active in two bands of late, Yonni and The Cherokees. He has also published an autobiography, A Kill Ease, through Lulu.com.

The cover of G.O.D.A.M.B., while it has some interesting elements, is a bit of a mess. It was designed by Metroviral Visuals, which was Anthony Bennett, now a respected sculptor (and MBE awardee) whose bronze tribute to Beatrix Potter now stands in Bowness-on-Mere.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ooh ! Holy shit, never thought I'd get to hear this. Anything even remotely connected to Hula has to be godlike. Thanks very much indeed.

DJ PIGG said...

Thanks!

I met Nort a couple of years ago. Nice bloke even if he was a little scared of my friend, his stalker from Seattle!

Anonymous said...

so happy to find this - I was friends with Nort in the 80s - great guy - he did a lot of film work including things like the video for Chakk's Timebomb. He's still active as a drummer too.

Could you post the Hula Discography ?

Crash The Driver said...

Hey Fantod Under Glass,

Congrats on being mentioned by Simon Reynolds in The Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/feb/13/mid-1980s-revival

We've added you to our list of blogfriends over at The Same Mistakes and hope you'll come check us out:

http://samemistakesmusic.blogspot.com/

Cheers!

Crash The Driver

Fantod said...

Hello, glad everyone's enjoying this nugget.

Crash: It's nice to get a nod from Simon Reynolds, even if he does say I am "laying the groundwork for the hipsterisation of...the bad music era." Now that's a quote for my tombstone! Your blog is great, thanks for the link and I've added you to my list.

Re Hula: I try not to compete with legitimate in-print releases, so I won't be posting any Hula. Their catalog has been reissued digitally and is available from emusic, itunes, Napster, Cherry Red, etc.

DJ: Nort has a stalker?!

Anonymous said...

I knew Nort from before all this Hula business. He was always a great guy when you met him round Sheffield at various places like The Broadfield, The Limit, The Saddle and everywhere else we'd call in for a swift half.
We sure had some fun back in those days when the likes of Human League, Cabaret Voltaire, Artery, The Ultimate, Thompson Twins, Molodoy, The Push, and even Def Leppard were mere dots on the landscape.
Wonder if anyone would remember The Wrecking Crew (I mean the ORIGINAL Wrecking Crew not the later wanabees) with Chris, Paul and LazerBil. Demolotion Kings, not the explosive kind. You name it, they did it.

LazerBil said...

The Wrecking Crew!! Woo-hoo!
You name it, we did it.... and in some classic ways too! From the outset, our only aim was to get wrecked and have fun via any path known. Live life to the max, and then some more!!
Guess what? I'm still here, not so much to tell the tale, or say 'I'm still here'. I'm still here and still doing it.
Someone's even got my correct name spelling too. Single L not double.

Nort really was everywhere, like everyone else. The old saying always proved right. If you're not in a band from Sheffield, you know someone who is. That's how we were. Everyone know everyone else, via someone.
Great times.

Anonymous said...

re-up please!