Bullshit / Glass Finger / Luscious Glory / Thunder Box
Heart Of Darkness / Black Sage / Delirium / Full Throttle / Res-erect
Sitting somewhere vaguely between The Jonsun Crew, Tackhead and 23 Skidoo, The Empty Quarter release their second and superior LP. Have a listen of this material if you have any interest in proto techno or funky as fuck breakbeats. This LP is indeed a rare groove and a massive treat to the ears…
Text ripped from funderglass.blogspot
Ben Watkins is a British electronic music artist and producer, best known as being the principal member of the band Juno Reactor. He started making music in 1982. In the early 1980s, Watkins started out as part of the London based New Wave band The Hitmen, featuring Alan Wilder who would end up in Depeche Mode and Recoil. He also played in Empty Quarter with Martin “Youth” Glover a founding member and bassist of Killing Joke.
Three years after opting out of Killing Joke, dreadlocked bassist Youth teamed up with former Hitmen vocalist Ben Watkins (now also versed in keyboards, drums and guitar) to record The Empty Quarter, the official soundtrack from the play ‘Street Captives’ by Jonathan Moore. Recorded on the 26th & 27th August 1983 at Wave Studio. Forceful and musically intelligent, with layers of disembodied sound lunging and pulsing in and out, it’s a striking collection of dramatic, largely electronic instrumentals that bear some of Killing Joke’s fury, mixed with subtlety and artsiness. They adopted The Empty Quarter as their band name. Eighteen months later they followed up with Delerium, this time recorded in 5 days, more electronic, still instrumental, but with a greater focus on rhythms. The beats run from tribal to industrial to gothic funk a la Brilliant (unsurprisingly) with several guest musicians filling out the sound. Alas it didnt get the credit it was due. Ben Watkins went on releasing techno till this date under the moniker Jumo Reactor. Martin “Youth” Glover is an influential record producer and rejoined Killing Joke in 2002.
alistairliv
October 23, 2008 at 9:27 amJust listening to second side of this – ‘Heart of Darkness’ caught my eye since it is one of my fave books of all time (and inspired Apocalypse Now). I am enjoying the music. To compare / contrast found 23 The Gospel Comes to New Guinea on youtube which I used to have, but its faster. 23 Skidoo sound more like Amon Duul II. Empty Quarter more etherial. Hang on, that was just one track, this one (? which one) more solid.
Whatever, main point: this is damn good music.
smith3000
October 23, 2008 at 10:30 amNever ever heard of this before, so thanks for sharing. Will get on the download later. Looking forward to hearing this ..
chris
October 23, 2008 at 1:11 pmnever heard or even seen this LP before so looking forward to listening to it when i get home.
Love their “Crucial Lover” 12″ (think i first heard them on that ‘Funky Alternatives’ comp LP) and played that to death in clubs i’ve dj’d over the years.
Anti-Hero
October 30, 2008 at 9:29 amthe second part is available, but mp3 with the first side is no longer available on Mediafire. Can you please check this
Penguin • Post Author •
October 30, 2008 at 10:19 amChecked mediafire. Both mp3s are there and playable.
Anti-Hero
October 30, 2008 at 2:59 pmThanks Penguin it works now. Everything is very practical on your site.
tony
November 15, 2008 at 5:30 amThank you so much for this. I had and treasured this album a long time ago. They used to play ‘glass finger’ at this industrial/new wave dance club Medusa’s in Chicago. I love this album. It definitely has a place in music history.
Michael Bernier
June 25, 2011 at 9:20 pmHello, I had never heard of this record, thanks to you for posting this!!