Out via Bureau B on February 9th is the all new Karl Bartos (former member Kraftwerk) soundtrack “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” which includes narrative film music and sound design for Robert Wiene’s classic 1920 psychological thriller. The film comes digitally restored in 4K by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Foundation.

Musician and writer Karl Bartos has long been an admirer of Weimar-era culture. During his time in Kraftwerk, he helped create the stunning track ‘Metropolis’, directly inspired by a band viewing of the classic 1927 Fritz Lang film of the same name. The original orchestral music composed for “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” by Giuseppe Becce had long been lost and in 2005, after watching the film, Bartos imagined what it would be like, to create an entirely new one in the 21st Century in his home studios in Hamburg.

“The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” is his first piece of film music and sound design. The release is planned on double vinyl and digipak CD.

Now with crystal clear images, digitally restored by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Foundation, the film is visually the best quality it has ever been, and now comes with Bartos’ soundtrack.

About Karl Bartos

Born in Germany in 1952, sound, music and culture have been a lifelong fascination for Karl. He studied at the Robert Schumann Conservatory in Düsseldorf, played at the Deutsche Oper and was in several experimental bands before he joined Kraftwerk for their Autobahn tour of the US in 1975. He co-composed tracks and performed with the band until 1990 and is featured on the seminal albums “Radio-Activity” (1975), “Trans-Europe Express” (1977), “The Man-Machine” (1978), “Computer World” (1981), “Electric Café” (1986) and “The Mix” (1991).

After leaving Kraftwerk, he first formed the band Elektric Music (2 albums in 1993+1998), collaborated with Bernard Sumner (New Order), Johnny Marr (The Smiths) for their Electronic band project and with Andy McCluskey (OMD), and released two well-regarded solo albums (2003 & 2013).

In 2021, Karl Bartos was awarded the Early Influence Award / Kraftwerk as a member of the ‘classic line-up’ and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His autobiography “The Sound of the Machine – My Life in Kraftwerk and Beyond” was published in 2022 worldwide.

Below is the original film, albeit in less good quality for reference.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Andy Rourke, bassist of The Smiths, has passed away at the age of 59. The news was shared today (May 19) by his former bandmate, Johnny Marr, via social media. According to Marr, Rourke’s passing was the result of an extended battle with pancreatic cancer. The last time Rourke played on stage was at Maddison Square Garden in September 2022 with his band.

Marr posted this on Twitter: “We are deeply saddened to report the passing of Andy Rourke after his prolonged battle with pancreatic cancer. Andy will be cherished for his kindness and beautiful spirit by those who personally knew him, and his exceptional musical talents will be remembered by music enthusiasts. We kindly ask for privacy during this difficult period.”

Rourke is primarily recognized for his role as the lead bassist for The Smiths from 1982 to 1986, and then again from 1986 to 1987. He contributed to all four of The Smiths’ studio albums: ‘The Smiths’ (1984), ‘Meat Is Murder’ (1985), ‘The Queen Is Dead’ (1986), and ‘Strangeways, Here We Come’ (1987).

Beyond The Smiths, Rourke co-founded and performed with supergroup Freebass, which included Peter Hook of New Order and Mani of the Stone Roses. He also recorded with The Pretenders for their 1994 album ‘Last of the Independents’, and collaborated with Killing Joke, as well as Moondog One, featuring former Oasis guitarist Bonehead.

Rourke and Marr met when they were 11 years old, bonding over music at their school. After graduating, Rourke co-founded The Smiths in Manchester in 1982, along with Marr, Morrissey, and drummer Mike Joyce. Johnny Marr: “Andy and I initially connected as schoolboys. We quickly became inseparable, spending our time studying music, enjoying ourselves, and striving to become the best musicians we could be.” Marr and Rourke would maintain their friendship after The Smiths disbanded.

Various musicians and music industry professionals have publicly expressed their condolences following Rourke’s death including Stephen Street, The Smiths’ producer, and fellow bassists Mat Osman from Suede and Tom Chapman from New Order.

Stephen Street wrote: “I am so saddened to hear this news! Andy was a superb musician and a lovely guy. I haven’t been able to read any other news about details yet but I send my deepest condolences and thoughts to his friends and family. RIP.”

Suede bassist Mat Osman: “A total one-off – a rare bassist whose sound you could recognise straight away. I remember so clearly playing that Barbarism break over and over, trying to learn the riff, and marvelling at this steely funk driving the track along.”

New Order bassist Tom Chapman: “A true inspiration to me and the reason I moved to Manchester to be a musician. One of the best bass players to come out of Manchester. If it wasn’t for him I probably wouldn’t be in New Order today. My thoughts go to his family and friends.”

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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In an open letter addressed to his former The Smiths’ colleague Johnny Marr, Morrissey has made a call for his former bandmate Johnny Marr to “stop using my name as clickbait”.

Morrissey: “Would you please stop mentioning my name in your interviews? Would you please, instead, discuss your own career, your own unstoppable solo achievements and your own music? If you can, would you please just leave me out of it?”

And he adds: “You know nothing of my life, my intentions, my thoughts, my feelings. Yet you talk as if you were my personal psychiatrist with consistent and uninterrupted access to my instincts. We haven’t known each other for 35 years – which is many lifetimes ago. (…) When we met you and I were not successful. We both helped each other become whatever it is we are today. Can you not just leave it at that? Must you persistently, year after year, decade after decade, blame me for everything … from the 2007 Solomon Islands tsunami to the dribble on your grandma’s chin?”

Morrissey then ends the open letter by writing: “There comes a time when you must take responsibility for your own actions and your own career, with which I wish you good health to enjoy. Just stop using my name as click-bait. I have not ever attacked your solo work or your solo life, and I have openly applauded your genius during the days of ‘Louder than bombs’ and ‘Strangeways, here we come’, yet you have positioned yourself ever-ready as rent-a-quote whenever the press require an ugly slant on something I half-said during the last glacial period as the Colorado River began to carve out the Grand Canyon. Please stop. It is 2022, not 1982.”

In a response on Twitter Johnny Marr simply says: “An ‘open letter’ hasn’t really been a thing since 1953, It’s all ‘social media’ now. Even Donald J Trump had that one down. Also, this fake news business… a bit 2021 yeah? #makingindiegreatagain”

The source of all the commotion…

By the time “Strangeways, Here We Come” was released in September 1987, The Smiths had split. The breakdown has been primarily attributed to Morrissey’s irritation with Marr’s work with other artists and Marr’s frustration with Morrissey’s musical inflexibility. Marr particularly hated Morrissey’s obsession with covering 1960s pop artists such as Twinkle and Cilla Black, saying in 1992: “That was the last straw, really. I didn’t form a group to perform Cilla Black songs.” In a 1989 interview, Morrissey cited the lack of a managerial figure and business problems as reasons for the split.

In 2008, Marr resumed contact with Morrissey and Rourke while remastering the band’s catalogue and in September of the same year, Morrissey and Marr met in Manchester and discussed the possibility of reforming the band. The two kept in contact over the next four days and decided to exclude Joyce from any prospective reunion and to wait until after Marr completed his commitments to the Cribs. Communication between the two abruptly ended while Marr was touring in Mexico with the Cribs and the topic of a reunion was never brought up again.

In June 2009, Marr told an interviewer on London’s XFM, “I think we were offered 50 million dollars for three … possibly five shows.” He said that the chances of a reunion were “nothing to do with money” and that the reasons were “really abstract”.

Marr said that he did not hear from Morrissey again until a brief email correspondence in December 2010.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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The Electronic Sound magazine is celebrating its 50th issue with a special vinyl package when you sign up to the magazine’s Bundle Subscription: 2 Karl Bartos tracks, “Without A Trace Of Emotion” and “Vox Humana”, packaged in a gatefold sleeve with a free poster, featuring the single’s sleeve artwork together with the entire text of the interview Karl Bartos gave in 2013 when the magazine launched.

The 2 tracks are taken from the Karl Bartos album “Off the Record”, his second solo effort released on 15 March 2013, through Bureau B records. It featured Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner as guest contributors and was Bartos’ first solo album in ten years, though the material on Off the Record predates that on 2003’s “Communication”. Speaking of which, do you own this “Communication” fanbox?

Bartos left Kraftwerk in August 1990, reportedly frustrated at the band’s slow progress in their activities due to the increasingly perfectionist attitude of founding members Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider.

More info here.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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A few days ago Jean-Marc Lederman – the man who worked with numerous bands including Fad Gadget, Gene Loves Jezebel, The Weathermen, Front 242, Julianne Regan, Jacques Duvall and Alain Bashung – posted the above picture about him playing with The The. We asked Jean-Marc how that happened.

SL: How did Jean-Marc Lederman end up with The The at The The Marquee gigs in 1982?

JM: The year was 1982 and I was living in London, tired of the belgian music scene. I had moved there shortly after my service in the Belgian Army, gee talk about a waste of time (do you see me as good proctection against the Russians ? Case closed).

Matt had heard my EP “Statistics Mean Nothing When On The Wrong Plane” and he reached out to me through a mutual friend. He told me about the residencey gigs The The had planned 4 thurdays in a row at the Marquee, the legendary London club.

So, I went to a rehearsal and it was real anarchy: everybody banging on petrol tanks à la Einsturzende Neubauten. Jim Thirlwell was there, Zeke Manyaka was playing the drums and Thomas Leer was playing some synths. We both had a Roland Jupiter 4 so we ended up using his. I remember telling them to stop banging the drums and start working the songs…

SL: And how did the gigs itself go?

The gigs were well announced and The The was quite the talk in London so the place was really packed. I was very nervous, I hate playing live as this is definitively not one of my strong points, and waiting backstage was tense. We had a set cut in several parts with some guests. I was starting the show, we all head to wear balaclavas and an early version of “Giant” was the first song, if I recall correctly . Marc Almond was a guest on the first concert, and so was Richard Kirk from Cabaret Voltaire (or was it Malinder ? It’s so long ago…).

We had more or less the same set for the 4 thursday residency shows and it was a bit strange to have to come back to the same place but it was quite common in the UK for bands to have a serie of shows week in week out at the time apparently.

SL: So all in all, how would you describe it?

JM: A great experience. Next week, I’ll tell you how and when Matt and Johnny Marr beat me at soccer-table but I won a Depeche Mode silver disc in the process (laughs).

Side-Line also covered Jean-Marc Lederman’s ‘13 Ghost Stories’.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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The Smiths’ “The Queen Is Dead” was first released in the summer of 1986 and was the third studio album by the Smiths. Guitarist Johnny Marr wrote several songs that would later appear on “The Queen Is Dead” while the Smiths toured Britain in early 1985, working out song arrangements with bassist Andy Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce during soundchecks. The album was produced by Morrissey and Marr, working predominantly with engineer Stephen Street, who had engineered the band’s 1985 album, “Meat Is Murder”.

It will now be re-released as a newly mastered and expanded version on 20th October.

The 3CD/1DVD box set (available here) features the 2017 master of the album; additional recordings featuring demos, b-sides and alternative versions; the “Live In Boston” album recorded at the Great Woods Center For The Performing Arts on 5th August 1986; and a DVD featuring the 2017 master of album in 96kHz / 24-bit PCM stereo and “The Queen Is Dead – A Film By Derek Jarman”.

The demos and B-sides included are “The Queen Is Dead” (full version), “Frankly, Mr. Shankly” (demo), “I Know It’s Over” (demo), “Never Had No One Ever” (demo), “Cemetry Gates” (demo), “Bigmouth Strikes Again” (demo), “Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others” (demo), “The Boy with the Thorn in His Side” (demo), “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out” (take 1), “Rubber Ring”, “Asleep”, “Money Changes Everything”, “Unloveable”.

The 5LP box set of the reissue (available here) features the 2017 master of the album, additional recordings and the “Live In Boston” recording. For those who just want to stick to the normal reissue, there is also this 2CD set.

Here’s the video for the documentary (before it was remastered for the DVD inclusion that is).

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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The English indie act The Charlatans are to release their new album on May 26th through BMG. “Different Days” is the bands’ 13th album and was self produced at the band’s studio in Crewe.

For this new album, the core quartet of vocalist Tim Burgess, bassist Martin Blunt, guitarist Mark Collins and keyboard player Tony Rogers, opened their doors to allow contributions from an array of friends from Paul Weller and Johnny Marr to crime writer Ian Rankin and writer/actress Sharon Horgan. Also included are former Verve drummer Pete Salisbury, Anton Newcombe from Brian Jonestown Massacre and Stephen Morris of New Order.

The album will be available on 12” vinyl, CD, cassette and limited edition clear 12” vinyl featuring five exclusive 7” singles.

“Different Days” is the follow-up album to “Modern Nature” released in 2015.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Never heard of Mexrrissey? Well, today you will. This Mexican band brings Spanish-language re-workings of Morrissey songs and they have now announced a new single, “Entre Más Me Ignoras, Más Cerca Estaré” (“The More You Ignore Me,
The Closer I Get”) and UK tour for 2017.

To be released 27th January, “Entre Más Me Ignoras, Más Cerca Estaré” is taken from the band’s debut album “No Manchester”. “No Manches” is a Mexican slang phrase meaning “No Way” or “Are you kidding me?”, for the album title it has received a British touch by adding the ‘er’.

To coincide with the release of the single, Mexrrissey will embark on a five-date ‘Don’t Mention the Wall’ UK tour in January 2017, you can check the dates right here (and also order your tickets).

The live line-up of Mexrrissey for their UK tour will consists of DJ and producer Camilo Lara, founder of the electronic music project Mexican Institute of Sound (M.I.S.), Chetes (Zurdok) on guitar, Jay De La Cueva (Moderatto /Titán) on bass, Ceci Bastida (Tijuana No) on keyboards, Alex Gonzales on trumpet (Twin Tones) and Ricardo Najera on drums (Furland).

Here’s a live version of the upcoming single.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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