Cosa resterááááááá....

Poco, eccetto i ricordi. E i ricordi sono selettivi, per quanto importanti (vedi post sotto).
Gli anni Ottanta sono uno dei concetti piú generici e aperto alle interpretazioni, come dire "amore" o "vita". Di conseguenza ognuno ha gli anni ottanta che si merita, o che si ricorda. Per me quel decennio fu pieno di fuoco creativo ed é ovvio che le mie memorie siano both passionate and vivid.
Fast forward to Marco&Clinton's party, last night. Gran divertimento, lotsa alcohol, but the eighties were shoehorned down people's throat. However, some outfits (our own) were great, pics to follow.
Dj Lap Lap produced a smart eighties mix that was intermittently appreciated by the crowd, because it was low on megahits and floorfillers. A staple of the mix was Frank Tovey, better known as Fad Gadget, who's one of my alltime favorites.

Tovey produced some at times simplistic crossover electro that melted noisy avantgarde, new technology, Berlin hardcore angst and very danceable synthetic basslines. Throwing on top of that some extreme body-art-style performance that often resulted in injury.
He died suddenly in 2002, of a heart attack, while he was attempting a comeback of sort. He was never huge but he was the very first artist to be signed to Mute Records and I guess that guaranteed some loyalty from the label that in the meantime had become hugely successful. La sua produzione piú mirata e riuscita e quella degli inizi, i primi singoli, le prime collaborazioni. Nel tempo e di album in album si avverte che l'ispirazione é sempre piú complessa ma raramente si distilla in un risultato che sia compatto e convincente, ma si sfrangia in rivoli di Cabaret e metallo industriale un po' troppo compiaciuti di se stessi.
A precious opportunity to appreciate Fad Gadget's work comes this month, with the release of a retrospective package from Mute.
The label let the fans pick the tracklist through an online poll, and the choice is, in my opinion, seriously biased. But the idea is good and the quality of the operation applause-worthy.
The video below is from some German pop show where Fad Gadget was obviously ill-suited to perfom, while trying nonetheless to pull his classic tar-and-feathers routine. The song "Collapsing New People" is his biggest chart hit. The metal banging is obviously inspired by German act Einsturzende Neubauten that incidentally translates into "Collapsing New Building". I also find amusing that, in the TV studio, the recreation of a junkyard becomes an unspoken advertisement for Perrier sparkling water. After that his career derailed into experimental country and western (fo'real!)