Iron Blu - Monday Is O 'Well It's Actually A Bit Banging This Week' K Ransom Note Mix

Music

While it’s true that usually we ask the contributors for our usual ‘Mondays Are OK’ mixes to eschew their usual Doof Doof / Uhntz Uhntz stylings and provide us with something somewhat more laconic to ease us in to our respective weeks, it would appear that today’s contributor didn’t get the memo.

However, in fairness to Iron Blu, asking him to move away from his “usual style” is a bit of a misnomer in itself, when you consider his is a career that spans thirty plus years and which has taken in everything from Kosmische, Synth Pop, Ambient and the jacking House and Techno on display in today’s mix.

So, for one week prepare to be thrown, rather than eased, in to the auspices of Monday and all of its horror and promise;

Good morning! Jumping straight in, a brief look at your huge CV has your connection with electronic music starting around 1980. So in the interests of starting at the beginning. What or who were The Naked Lunch, and what was your involvement?

Naked Lunch were/are an electropunk band that started at the tail end of 1979. I was an original member playing Minimoog and backing tape along with Tony Mayo (the vocalist/lyricist) and we built up the band at this time to the five piece it was/is, gigging all around London and the southeast through 1980 till the band imploded in 1981 (it is back in full effect now but with only two original members). Very early on in our existence we met Stevo who was a jobbing DJ playing what is now called coldwave (that term did not exist then). We hung out together a lot and we helped him compile the famous Some Bizzare Album. We were a major part of the scene in London (and indeed the UK). It would be easier to list who we did not gig with to be honest!

So, if you started in 1980, how old does that make you now?

Old enough to know better.

So what do you want to be when you grow up in that case?

Engine driver?

Your label, Flight Recorder, seems to have a very vintage and purist feel to the electronics on display. I’d suggest that the current resurgence in interest for things like Acid House, Horror Soundtracks and EBM has allowed you to work with genres that you obviously know better than most, but what other sounds have you flirted with in the 30 or so years between starting out and starting your label?

When punk kicked off here in Newcastle (pre-1980) I was heavily into that and as postpunk came into existence with the emerging bands like Cabaret Voltaire/early Human League/Vice Versa etc (even bands from the States like Pere Ubu and The Residents) it allowed me to combine my life long passion for electronic music with a beat!

After Naked Lunch imploded, us remaining members started writing and playing a kind of darker electropop under the name of Boys Own (we even toured with Yazoo in 1882 for a fortnight – bloody marvellous fun).

I discovered electrofunk coming out of New York around this time and that changed this new waver’s musical outlook. In the mid 80s I was listening to a lot of stuff like Sisters Of Mercy, New Order, Suicide, Was Not Was, Japan, Fashion (a massive mishmash of creativity) and attending the KitKat Club in Bayswater (google it!) but I wasn't making any music myself 'cos I was somewhat, er, sidetracked by stimulants and the opposite gender.

Then house music kick started me back into writing music again and I bought a bit of gear and have continued to this day. I had stuff out on labels like HOS, Global Underground, Phil Perry's Full Circle and (my proud moment) on Morgan Khan's Streetsounds.

So what was the thinking behind todays mix. It’s a bit banging, isn’t it?

Some of the tunes that I’m feeling currently plus the odd curveball. Would have been easy to do a Blu-fest, but that is a bit obvious init.

Ok, now to the workplace satisfaction section:

Would you rather work a day shift or a night shift?

Day shift.

Manage a bad team, or be managed by a bad boss?

The first.

Performance related pay, or a bigger basic for all?

Bigger basic plus bonus.

Regular holidays, or a long hot summer?

Life is a holiday.

Act as the mediator to your people under the yoke of your reptilian overlords, knowing that living conditions will improve, but you’ll always ultimately be slaves….

Or as the leader of humanities last ditch resistance, knowing that many innocents will perish, but you may win your freedom?

Er….the second one.

Tea or coffee?

Coffee wins.

Musically, what do you have coming up in the immediate future?

Track on new Trame compilation on MinimalRome.

Track on a new label called Remote Influence out of Greece (compilation called Reconstructing Thessaloniki).

Couple of 12”ers coming on Magic Waves (under assumed names).

EP coming on Slow Motion (or subsidiary thereof – not sure). Covers of the old Hard Corps single Je Suis Passee.

Who were your earliest musical influences?

Joe Meek, John Lennon, ‘krautrock’.

And who is inspiring you now?

Sumerian Fleet really does it for me – the Just Pressure LP is IMMENSE.

If you had a motto, what would it be?

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Simple really.

Today’s mix also coincides with the official vinyl release of his Cold Harbour EP on LBL, which features 2 remixes (on as a digital exclusive) from Mr Mark E, all of which you can find here at Juno.