8 Tracks: Turzi’s 8 Tracks Of C

Turzi's latest album C went down a treat in the office, his off-the-wall sounds really pricked up our ears and got us tuning in. Given the title of the album there was only ever going to be one theme that we gave Turzi for his selection of 8 tracks. So sit back, relax and indulge yourself in these 8 Tracks of C – narrated by the selector himself;

C was the name of the train line that went from Versailles to Paris. I used it a lot when the teenager I was was in need for a "new dimension".

What was this new dimension? "The sound of C", 'a new sound for a new dimension' (Confetti's slogan). As a Belgium new beat leader they haven't been as respected as bands like Cybotron or C&C music factory who were supposed to be leaders of the electronic scene at that point of the 80s… But for me, 'This is the sound of C" or 'C in China', or maybe 'Cocaine' by THE MAXX, are almost as important in the electronic influenzia, as could have been 'Cyborg' (Klaus Shultze) or 'Computerwelt' (The Beach Boys of Dusseldorf), or Cosmic Jokers, another useless producer band. Because, yes, they had some producers over there but they also ran some really good libraries. For example: Coloursound, who welcomed the rest of the non-accepted song of Joel Vandroogenbroeck (Brainticket) of my hero Alessandro Alessandroni (the whistler and guitarist of Ennio Morricone, the Maestro).

As my speech goes from Belgium to Germany, let's emphasize the fact that Cluster were at the beginning of my intention to try to and build a studio with machines that all run together in quite an (in)algorythm rythym, just running all together… Making strange moosak in order to be listened to on motorways to create mortal accidents. I mean, in the "Collision Drive" sense of mister Alan Vega.

I just cannot forget CAN. I must admit that this was the band that got me into music in a serious way… It just blew my mind and led me to start (for the third time) a band when I was in my twenties. At this time eveybody discovered the pleasure of the MPC and computer controlled trip hop while I decided to dive into guitars, human basslines and Chimpanzee drumming. They had a song called 'Vitamin C', isn't it another coincidence?

Let's cross boundaries and spend some time in the country which welcomed us as if we were a native child: FranCe.

There's also some good stuff here in the Cheese Country, let's start with Camembert Electrique, one of the best Gong albums. What about Christophe who is (apart from being an Alan Vega fan) an Italian born lady singer? He made some tracks that I consider as being "classics" for me ('Rock Monsieur', 'La petite fille du 3è', 'La Route de Salina'). What about Catharsis, a medievally/prog/baroque (un)muscled band? They just arrived too late, misunderstood by the froggies and the others. It's sad, they had good rythms, good intentions, but their curly hair made them go to the dustbin and, at a time when you eaters of jellies, lovers of Elizabeth, just fell in love with the punk movement. But I must admit that your country and mine crossed together another time for another good thing: Monsieur Jean-Jacques Burnell and his Euroman Cometh album.

There was another thing in here that could have changed the world of music if only it crossed the Channel: Catherine Ribeiro and Alpes. They just lived in a community (as Gong did) in the Alps, building their own instruments like the Cosmophone and the percuphone. I love them because of this and it's way better than your soft machine or (so-trained musicians) King Crimson etc…

You also have some good stuff on the other side of the Channel, like Cabaret Voltaire (fucking B side of the Safety Zone EP, it continues to blow me inside – another 808 "Can"-ish track, only the Brits have the secret for that-).

You also have a really good label: Creation. I must confess that I grew up with Alan Moulder's production and that I've been really obsessed by his production for the early Boo Radleys/Ride stuff, thanks to the reverse reverb coming from the SPX Yamahas.

But the real music I like is Italian. I'm really impressed by Stelvio Ciprianni, another of Morricone's bastard sons who understood the thing in his own way. By the way, "Le Clan des Siciliens" is my favorite Morricone soundtrack. We made a cover called 'Allah Delon' on our first LP which was named A.

Let's drink a glass of Chablis, or Côte de Beaune… hum…

On 'Check your head', the Beastie Boys would have said "humm, it does go well with the chicken".

The Beastie boys, aren't they from the other-other part of the Channel, or even the ocean?

Maybe we should go there and speak about.. about what? About who? Does the American really exist?

Let's start with Cosmic Slop, Funkadelic's album, or maybe Captain Beefheart who vocoded the blues sound… I don't speak about jazz here: John Coltrane or Don Cherry should just shut their lips up, even if they spread the violence from their saxophones, I prefer the guitars of the Count Five, the derives of the Red Crayola. It makes me wanna drive a vintage listening of Creedance Clearwater, sharing some with John Cale, crying on the grave of JJ Cale hearing the music of John Carpenter, or maybe burning all the Chick Corea LP with Cybotron on my headphones.

Turzi's album C is out now.