Track of the Week: The Normal: Warm Leatherette (1978)
"I wanted to express the idea that electronic music was the real punk rock and that punk rock was really pub rock, sped up." Daniel Miller
Bored by punk rock but inspired by Kraftwerk and avant-garde electronic music, as soon as the price of synthesizers fell, Daniel Miller bought himself a Korg 700 analogue synthesizer and a Revox B-77 tape machine and recorded the 'Warm Leatherette'/'T.V.O.D.' 7 inch single in his living room. None of the record labels he took it to were interested in releasing it, so Miller created his own record label to put it out on, under the name The Normal. Almost 30 years later, The Normal have not followed up their only single, but the reverberations of its two songs are still being felt in the world of electronic music, and Miller's label, Mute Records, releases records by a whole range of experimental artists.
'Warm Leatherette' was inspired by J. G. Ballard's cult novel 'Crash', which is about a dark subculture of people who fetishize car accidents. Miller was a big fan of the book, and had even started work on a prototype screenplay for a film adaptation with some of his friends. The song's lyrics deal specifically with the idea of deriving sexual pleasure from a car accident: 'A tear of petrol / Is in your eye / The handbrake / Penetrates your thigh / Quick - let's make love / Before you die' contains some of the key images from the novel, expressed with a brutality that Ballard himself would have been proud of. The whole thing is made even more disturbing by Miller's deadpan delivery. The music adds to the seediness of the whole proceedings - minimal electronic beats with repetitive synthesizer noise over the top. The single kick-started the post punk electronic movement, with Cabaret Voltaire and The Human League following The Normal's lead and creating some of the most innovational music in pop music history. To this day, 'Warm Leatherette' sounds great, and hasn't dated in the way a lot of early electronic music has. The song's emphasis on the programmed rhythm has proved prescient, linking it to all types of modern electronic dance music - Miller even claimed back in 1978 that one day, dance music would be nothing but the rhythm, something that seems more and more likely to happen. Others would take Miller's musical vision to fruition, and Miller himself chose to run Mute Records rather then continue making music himself. Mute Records today holds an impressive roster of artists, ranging from Einsturzende Neubauten and Nick Cave through to modern post punks The Liars and reissuing essential experimental music from Can and Throbbing Gristle. For this we can thank Daniel Miller's dedication to experimentation, innovation and independence, something that was apparent in The Normal's one release all those years ago.
Bored by punk rock but inspired by Kraftwerk and avant-garde electronic music, as soon as the price of synthesizers fell, Daniel Miller bought himself a Korg 700 analogue synthesizer and a Revox B-77 tape machine and recorded the 'Warm Leatherette'/'T.V.O.D.' 7 inch single in his living room. None of the record labels he took it to were interested in releasing it, so Miller created his own record label to put it out on, under the name The Normal. Almost 30 years later, The Normal have not followed up their only single, but the reverberations of its two songs are still being felt in the world of electronic music, and Miller's label, Mute Records, releases records by a whole range of experimental artists.
'Warm Leatherette' was inspired by J. G. Ballard's cult novel 'Crash', which is about a dark subculture of people who fetishize car accidents. Miller was a big fan of the book, and had even started work on a prototype screenplay for a film adaptation with some of his friends. The song's lyrics deal specifically with the idea of deriving sexual pleasure from a car accident: 'A tear of petrol / Is in your eye / The handbrake / Penetrates your thigh / Quick - let's make love / Before you die' contains some of the key images from the novel, expressed with a brutality that Ballard himself would have been proud of. The whole thing is made even more disturbing by Miller's deadpan delivery. The music adds to the seediness of the whole proceedings - minimal electronic beats with repetitive synthesizer noise over the top. The single kick-started the post punk electronic movement, with Cabaret Voltaire and The Human League following The Normal's lead and creating some of the most innovational music in pop music history. To this day, 'Warm Leatherette' sounds great, and hasn't dated in the way a lot of early electronic music has. The song's emphasis on the programmed rhythm has proved prescient, linking it to all types of modern electronic dance music - Miller even claimed back in 1978 that one day, dance music would be nothing but the rhythm, something that seems more and more likely to happen. Others would take Miller's musical vision to fruition, and Miller himself chose to run Mute Records rather then continue making music himself. Mute Records today holds an impressive roster of artists, ranging from Einsturzende Neubauten and Nick Cave through to modern post punks The Liars and reissuing essential experimental music from Can and Throbbing Gristle. For this we can thank Daniel Miller's dedication to experimentation, innovation and independence, something that was apparent in The Normal's one release all those years ago.
posted by Jonathan Thornton at 2:45 pm
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