ian1

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Member Since: 7/1/2003
Total Mixes: 46
Total Feedback: 35

Other Mixes By ian1

MP3 Playlist | Theme

1 9 8 1 | Disc 01 | Fire

Artist Song
A Certain Ratio  Do the Du (12" version) 
New Order  Chosen Time 
Fad Gadget  Make Room (Edit) 
Fun Boy Three  The Lunatics Have Taken Over the Asylum 
Bauhaus  Of Lillies & Remains 
David Byrne  The Red House 
Creatures  But Not Them 
Maximum Joy  Stretch (Edit) 
Raybeats  Calhoun Surf 
Vivien Goldman  Launderette 
Lounge Lizards  Do the Wrong Thing 
Josef K  Heart of Song 
David Thomas  Crickets int he Flats 
B-52s  Give Me Back My Man (Remix) (Edit) 
Robyn Hitchcock  Grooving on a Inner Plane 
INXS  Stay Young 
Neon Judgement  Concrete (NY, Stoney Wall Doll) 
Massacre  Subway Heart 
Talking Heads  Houses in Motion (Edit) 
The Specials  Ghost Town (Edit) 
Tom Tom Club  Genius of Love 
Wire  Midnight Bahnhof Cafe 
Family Fodder  Emergency 

Comment:

This is one disc from a 10-disc "boxed set" mix of music released in 1981. I've been working on it off and on for over a year, from about August, 2003 to October, 2004. I don't even want to tally the amount of time and money I've spent--hundreds of hours, probably, and possibly thousands of dollars. I didn't set out to make such a massive set--I had in mind something more like 4 discs. But the more I started culling from my collection, the more stuff I realised I had to include. Eventually I decided I'd just go for it--make a mix anybody who got a copy wouldn't forget, and would hopefully spend a lot of time with. 396 tracks, 350 bands, 21 hours.
I made a website for the mix: http://www.clockwatching.net/~vroom/ian/1981/
The following are the "liner notes" from the set's 32-page booklet:
1 9 8 1
My first idea of how to introduce this set was to start with a question: "what do we do when we realise Pandora's box is never going to shut?" I wanted to persuade you that the music heard on this set provides one answer to that question: if our belief in fundamental order is shaken, we resolve to make a beautiful mess. I wanted to argue that a lot of this music is part of a lineage of noble "outrT" and progressive popular art made by people trying to restore hope and meaning amidst derelict shells of classicism, modernism, and post-modernism. I would also have tried to say something pithy regarding the historical context of this music, about how the shattering of the notion of monolithic cultures made music like this possible, and necessary; and about Thatcher, Reagan, suburbs, post-industrial economics, the dole, the rise of fundamentalism and yuppiedom and anti-disco rockism.
But the truth is, I was in diapers in 1981. As far as outrT music is concerned, I have less than a decade of experience with the stuff. I "know" about as much about music as could be expected of any musically obsessed twenty-four year old. What I mean is: I still function musically primarily on passion, not knowledge. I'm confident about my abilities to put together a good mix for just about any tastes; do a decent radio show; and hold my own with young know-it-all record clerks in Chicago. But I don't know enough to write cool, authoritative, impressively linernotish liner notes. The fact that I know all this music after-the-fact or "second hand" should not affect the quality of the music; an attempt to give you the storytelling goods secondhand would probably do a disservice to the story.
I admit that a portion of these tracks are undeniably dated (if charmingly so,) and will probably trigger nostalgia even if you've never heard them. Progressive (in pop terms) as these tracks were at the time, they established the paradigm for the infamous "sound of the 80s," and by extension the cartoonish aesthetic currently revered by college students too young to actually remember the decade. The majority of the music of this particular 1981, however, would set a fire were it released today; the paradigm they operated within (or without) was expansive enough that a lot of the best "progressive" music is still exploring it today (in just the way that many of these bands can be said to have been working in virtual homage to Can or the Velvet Underground).
For some of you, there is little new to you here. For a good many, this may be all the "post-punk" you'll ever want. I don't need to change your life, I just want to play you some music; so if you enjoy any of it, my effort has been worthwhile. It is my secret hope, however, that for a few of you, this will be another step toward deep, passionate addiction to music you might not have known existed. Music does not truly exist without both passionate playing and passionate listening; you make music out of noise by listening well.
Ian Manire
25 October, 2004

Feedback:

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Instru Mental
Date: 12/12/2004
This is all very impressive. I admire the time and energy put into this, although your fixation on this one year seems a little odd. This music is too old for me (growing up-wise), too, although I was a long way from diapers in '81, but it's still not music that appeals to me all that much. Bravo, though, on this undertaking. I'm sure there will be some here who will herald this series as great.
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boomom
Date: 12/13/2004
i'm one of the lucky bastards who owns the whole set. ian's come up with a marvel here.
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laura.witkowski
Date: 12/13/2004
Well, I think this is awesome -- worth drooling over, in fact... I think a lot of amazing stuff came out of the very early 80's, and apparently you do too!!
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p the swede
Date: 12/13/2004
good year for music
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Eric Schmuckler
Date: 12/13/2004
i graduated college in '81 so this is mother's milk to me. still haven't heard a bunch of this stuff, but as punk turned new-wave and post-punk, it was a glorious time. even for the types of obsessives you meet here, this is impressive. respect is due.
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valis
Date: 12/14/2004
I'm with Eric, on every count.....
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12vman
Date: 12/14/2004
This is outstanding.
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Moe
Date: 12/14/2004
Outstanding indeed! I wasn't wearing diapers in 81, but I did look pretty good in my OP shirt during my junior year in high school. Anyway, you've compiled an amazing collection. I'd be impressed if it was even one disc. Good to see some familiar names (Marine Girls, Aztec Camera, Altered Images) sharing space with obscurities (Lemon Kittens, Family Fodder and Maximum Joy). Bring on 1982!
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Royce
Date: 12/16/2004
Looks like it would sound like amazing fun. The Family Fodder retrospective is a recent favorite of mine. I've always felt like Fun Boy Three was a criminally underappreciated act. I was at a club last night and the DJ played Do the Du; sadly, no one danced.
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kelsey q
Date: 12/23/2004
i LOVE this. i'm a bit of a fellow traveler, too young to have actually been there and lucky enough to get to rediscover this stuff. you've set me off scrabbling to find all this now...