A pivotal, early release of electronic new wave, this
single oddly gained more notoriety for its B-side, "Warm
Leatherette." Amidst jolting zaps, pops, and blipping skips, Daniel Miller
robotically intones about the pleasures of car crash as foreplay: "A tear
of petrol is in your eye/The hand brake penetrates your thigh/Quick; let's make
love/Before you die." The track sounds like a darkly cartoonish version of
a malfunctioning dot matrix printer: clinically pristine, minimal, and
sinister. A brief flash that caused countless ripples, it sounds just as fresh four
decades after its creation. "T.V.O.D." is no slouch either,
commanding the tube owner to cut to the chase and stick the aerial antenna into
their arm.
Ripped by some lovely person to MP3 @ 320kbps
The Normal; T.V.O.D./Warm Leatherette 7”
A. T.V.O.D.
B. Warm
Leatherette
I think Warm Leatherette was based on J.G. Ballard's 1973 novel, "Crash," which was about the sexual fetishization of car crashes, with the protagonist attempting to die in a wreck with Elizabeth Taylor.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds very likely DRaftervoi. I've seen J.G. Ballard's name linked with lots of music as an influence over the years.
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