Not only is a deluxe edition of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Liverpool prepped for February 2011, but another vault-clearing compilation is on the way from the ZTT label. Zang Tuum Tumb and The Art of the 12" is two discs' worth of rare or unreleased dance cuts from the best acts to ever grace the roster from 1983 to 1989 or so: Frankie, Propaganda, Art of Noise, 808 State and plenty more. It's also got a handful of those distinctively ZTT short tracks that ended up on the odd single from time
The Zang Tuum Tumb label, which gave us some of the most experimental but accessible pop from the U.K., has been going strong all year with reissuing material from 808 State to Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Here are a few of their latest vault offerings ready to go, in case you've missed them. The synth-pop pioneers Propaganda will see a 25th anniversary edition of their debut LP, A Secret Wish. This two disc set includes the original album plus rare and unreleased remixes. (Thanks as always to
Prince's influence has been discussed far and wide, from fashion to music videos to the actual, Hendrixian quality of his guitar playing. But it's always unusual when the mercurial purple genius decides to directly contribute to another artist's canon, particularly since one really never knows where he's going to end up next. What follows is a chronological list of ten of Prince's most interesting "guest appearances." Half of them are actual guest appearances, the other half either songs he
The Art of Noise usually gets lumped into that U.K. '80s esoterica category that a lot of their early labelmates on ZTT (Frankie Goes to Hollywood, 808 State, The Buggles and so on) seem to be in. Their sound was hip, catchy and weird, they say, and maybe a bit too much so for their own good. This is kind of funny, particularly because it's kind of wrong. The Art of Noise were indeed hip, catchy and weird. Their early work on ZTT, like the sample-heavy "Close (To the Edit)" and "Beat Box," set