Title: Doot-Doot
Author(s): Freur
Publisher: CBS
Year: 1983
Maaaaaybe...
Did I then discover that it’s actually really good?
Yuuuuup™
Before making his directorial debut with Hellraiser, earlier still than authoring the screen adaptation of Rawhead Rex, Clive Barker wrote a film called Underworld, (also sometimes known as Transmutations). That film is...fine, I guess...but the reason I bring this up is that Underworld / Transmutations was scored by a quirky Welsh new wave band called Freur, of whom I’d never previously heard. I checked out their debut album, the goofily-named Doot-Doot, and fell in love with it instantly. If asked to describe the music, I’d be tempted to say that it feels like if XTC made an early Aphex Twin record. AFXTC.
(I didn’t say it sounds like that - it feels like that.)
Interestingly enough, the members of Freur would, after scoring the above-mentioned Clive Barker film, rename themselves Underworld and go on to become the seminal 90s dance group we all know and love.
We all know them and we all love them.
As a teenage Trainspotting obsessive, Underworld’s Born Slippy (Nuxx) has season tickets to my heart, and their album Beaucoup Fish was a significant touchstone in my own quest to make electronic music, so it’s both sweet and interesting to hear Karl Hyde’s distinctive vocal and lyrical stylings in this romantic post-punk context. I limit myself to one image per post here, but do yourself a favour and check out some pictures of the band. They were adorable.