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1977's "Pop Muzik" by M... How'd they DO that?


rasputin1963

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Do you love the 1978 record "Pop Muzik" by M as much as I do?

 

It's just so clever. And gee, is it ever TIGHT! In fact, I wonder, just how did they get that mix so incredibly tight?

 

It sounds like the kind of tight rhythm that Kraftwerk would achieve only in the mid-80's... you know, where every voice in the mix is ticking along in flawless synchronization.

 

I didn't know that studios had the hardware to create such tight-tight synchrony in 1978... [Though the YouTube blurb sez this record was a UK hit in April 1979, I know for a fact my friend in England had sent me an advance preview of this single exactly a year earlier].

 

What gives? Do any of you know the inside story of this single?

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Ramp driven sequencing is infinitely tighter than MIDI, if gear is in good condition. It's not necessarily an analog vs. digital thing, ramp sequencing can be done also in digital domain, using sync ramps in audio format, it's MIDI that is sloppy by nature. :)

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...and then the very cool vocal and guitar work were layed down. Cleverly timed guitar tremolo and machine gun vocal delivery. That is a very cool tune, and one that made me break my "no disco" vow back then. Bad Girls double album was the other.

 

What made Pop Musik work so well was how the tightness of the backing track played into the idea of the lyric. How fads could be so fun. Everyone's doing it! Step in time! Do the mash potato. Everybody!

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You could do all sorts of pulse-based clock stuff back then, including sample and hold.

 

Interesting you should mention this as I was just listening to it the other day (yeah, i like it too!) and wondered whatever happened to "M," although according to the YouTube page, some of the people involved went on to become Level 42.

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Interesting you should mention this as I was just listening to it the other day (yeah, i like it too!) and wondered whatever happened to "M," although according to the YouTube page, some of the people involved went on to become Level 42.

 

 

[carson]I did not know that[/carson]

 

Now that I know that, I went back and listened to it, and damn, that's got to be Phil Gould on drums! Distinctive hi-hat. Sounds like Wally Badarou on sax, as well; I would not be surprised if that's Mark King on bass, too.

 

Oh, hell...the more I listen, the more I'm convinced that's the entire original lineup of Level 42 on that track.

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Ray Parker's song "Ghostbuster" uses the same turn around as "Pop Muzik" by Robin Scott; I wonder how he got away with that.


.

 

 

Didn't Ray Parker get successfully sued by Huey Lewis because he stole that riff from "I Want A New Drug"?

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7th - 4th tonic is not exactly an amazingly original riff...

 

 

It certainly was enough originality in it to recognize where I heard that in another song, and kurfu knows a third song with that groove, and funny wise are all three version hits.

 

It's almost like that riff in "Take My Breath Away" by Georgio Moroder performed by the band Berlin, which was use numberous times before and as far back as to the 16th century, and each time it was a hit. Does anyone remember the hit "Rain And Tears" by the band Aphrodites Child?

 

Of course all re-profiled, recalculated and re-perceived last night by stranger.

 

.

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It certainly was enough originality in it to recognize where I heard that in another song, and kurfu knows a third song with that groove, and funny wise are all three version hits.


It's almost like that riff in "Take My Breath Away" by Georgio Moroder performed by the band Berlin, which was use numberous times before and as far back as to the 16th century, and each time it was a hit. Does anyone remember the hit "Rain And Tears" by the band Aphrodites Child?


Of course all re-profiled, recalculated and re-perceived last night by stranger.


.

 

....and all those songs sound like "He's So Fine" by The Chiffons to me.... ;)

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