RIP Richard H Kirk

[River Don]

Dunno if you saw this BST.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/sep/21/cabaret-voltaire-richard-h-kirk-dies-aged-65

Only 65.

[BillyStubbsTears]

I did. That's a shock. One of the main men gone.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Still a massive regret of mine that I never saw the Cabs live.

Astonishing career he had. Nag Nag Nag was harder and earthier than anything that Joy Division made. And transitioning from that, to an experimentalism with electronic sounds that led to classics like Sensoria when most contemporaries were just using synths to make bubble gum pop. And then, having set the foundations of House and Techno music, to come up with a track like Easy Life, showing Chicago and Detroit that Sheffield did it better than them.

Easy Life was just showing off. Stewart Lee once cracked a joke where he said "Never judge a book by it's cover, as my grandad used to say. Which is why he lost his job as the Chairman of the Shropshire Book Cover Judging Society." Then he turned to the camera and said, "See! I CAN do jokes, I just choose not to because it's too easy." That's what Easy Life felt like. "See! We CAN do the very best chilled, laid back House music. We've just chosen not to because it's too easy."

Massive, massive loss.

[River Don]

That's interesting BST.

I remember Easy Life, I bought the album it was on.

I think it was 1990 and at that time RHK was becoming involved with Warp records, they signed him up as a solo artist. I've still got the first double LP he put out on Warp. I always assumed his input along with Rob Mitchell that created the clean, excessively bass heavy sound of early Warp. I maintain it was those records that set the blue print for all future baseline British music from Jungle to Ronie Size, The Streets, Grime, the lot.

Anyway, back to Easy Life. I think it borrowed from Bradford outfit - Unique 3 The Theme.

For me The Theme is the darkest, strangest techno record ever. Obviously inspired by Detroit  and Jamaican dancehall music. Warp wanted to sign Unique 3 but didn't manage it. A great shame because I think they would have developed their career as they did their great rivals. Leeds based Nightmares on Wax.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a-ABu-Mfn5Y