THE NORMAL – TV
OD/WARM LEATHERETTE (MUTE)
The Normal sound holds
up. It’s the minimalist noise of a
bratty lo-fi electronic artist combining an equal affection for Kraftwerk,
Suicide, sandpaper and crashing through the barriers in a most sonically assaulting
manner.
Over the years it
feels as if every electronic artist I have been friends with has covered “TV
OD”. In many ways it is just the
perfect track, simple but punchy, annoying and catchy, not least for the use of
demented repetition. It is a song that
could take years to construct but only minutes to learn.
The Normal was Daniel
Miller, the man who went onto formed Mute Records. Indeed in DIY punk fashion the label was set up specifically to
release this single. And the rest they
say is history. In many ways this seven
inch was pioneering.
Miller was heavily
influenced by the J.G. Ballard book Crash which he felt portrayed an accurate
glimpse of the impending future. Such
pessimism feels rife in these two songs that were intended to represent driving
through dense urban surroundings, an influence of motion that would have been
heavily felt particularly from Kraftwerk.
All in all he manages to describe the worst journey in the cheapest
family car. Also the notion of
television becoming all encompassing and corrupting is not necessarily that
fractured from the reality we have arrived at.
Miller was a man with early foresight.
Taking conventions to
new places, ultimately this is a celebration of talent and technique over
resources. To essentially celebrate
something as cheap and tacky as “Warm Leatherette” really is not a gesture of
high or mainstream ambition.
More extinguished than
distinguished, often the most importance is in the simple.
Thesaurus moment: now.
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