Throwback Thursdays Retro Video Project Presents; Jass

The Throwback Thursdays Retro Video Project presents, Jass;

I don't actually know very much about this band but their music is perfect for soundtracks. Jass were apparently a Shefield based band from the early to mid 1980's and part of the same scene as Cabaret Voltaire and Clock DVA and they tread similar ground to the Cab's circa "Three Mantras" and "Red Meca" era. Albeit in a more minimalistic and trance-like way. One of their tracks ("Trap Drip Drop") also shows some influences from Steve Reich's tape-loop works "Come Out" and "It's Gonna Rain". Their entire recorded output seems to consist of an album of demos recorded in 1985-86 and a live album from 1987 and that's it. Needless to say the videos I made are the only ones for this band. Incidentally the group's name comes from the original 1900's spelling of the of the word "jazz".

JASS ~ "OLD FILM LIFE";


For this video I used an early French Pathe film "Sculptures Moderne" which features some crude stop-action animation.

JASS ~ "FRONTIER JUSTICE";


This one uses another Pathe stop-action film.

JASS ~ "SUNKEN SOLDIER BONES";


For this track I used a 1960's silent op-art short made for the Fluxus Art Collective by George Maciunas.

JASS ~ "TRAP DRIP DROP";


This track uses another art film made in the 1960's for Fluxus, this one a series of performance art films made by Frenchman Ben Vautier

JASS ~ "UNTITLED LIVE TRACK NO.2"


This track off the live album uses another film by Ben Vautier although this one is essentially a home movie

The Throwback Thursdays Retro Video Project Presents; Simple Minds

More from my Throwback Thursdays Retro Video Project. This week; Simple Minds.

I know everybody remembers them from "The Breakfast Club", "Don't You Forget About Me", and that terrible hit album they followed it up with, blah, blah blah. But they had actually been around for several years by that time having recorded six fine albums full of atmospheric, almost cinematic songs (including several instrumentals) that naturally lent themselves to silent film. At least I always thought so.

SIMPLE MINDS ~ "PLEASANTLY DISTURBED";


The epic closer off their 1979 first album "Life In A Day" mashed up here with a 1915 film "The Portrait", based on a Nikolai Gogol story directed by Polish director Władysław Starewicz, who would later be better known as a pioneer in stop action animation. This little known film is one of the first real horror films and was an obvious influence on the later German Expressionist films especially the classics "The Student Of Prague" and "Faust".

SIMPLE MINDS ~ "REAL TO REAL";


A song off the 1980 second album "Reel To Real Cacophony" using an odd French farce "The Magic Prisoners", which experiments with backwards projection to show some prisoners apparently falling upstairs and breaking into jail.

SIMPLE MINDS ~ "SCAR";


Another song off the second album using a using a short art film, "Tails" from 1976, by Paul Sharits. This film spliced together the faded, underdeveloped ends of other films, hence the title. I used this same film for songs by Cabaret Voltaire and Siouxsie & The Banshees but couldn't decide which version I liked better so I kept them all.

SIMPLE MINDS ~ "CACOPHONY";


An instrumental off the second album using a 1907 film "En Avant Le Musique" by Spanish director (albeit working in France) Segundo De Chomon, a contemporary of George Melies whose style he built upon.

SIMPLE MINDS ~ "VELDT";


Another instrumental off the second album using yet another Segundo De Chomon film "Les Lanatiques" from 1908.

SIMPLE MINDS ~ "FILM THEME";


Yet another instrumental from the second album, this time using some newsreel footage from Edison Studios of an gas refinery explosion from the early 1900's.

SIMPLE MINDS ~ "KANT KINO";


Another track off of "Reel To Real", this time an instrumental, using an early (1902) stop action film "The Destruction Of The Star Theatre" by Edward Armitage

SIMPLE MINDS ~ "ROOM";


Another track from "Empires & Dance" using a 1969 performance art film by Ben Vautier

Next time; More Simple Minds.