British musician and producer
Rusty Egan was the resident DJ at Blitz, a short-lived but vastly influential London club that nearly single-handedly launched the New Romantic movement. Attempting to provide a more positive, hopeful, and colorful alternative to punk's angst and the oppressive political climate, the club had a strict dress code that made creative, stylish clothing a necessity, and the music aimed to transport the audience to different locations, with a view to the future.
Rusty Egan Presents... Blitzed! is an extensive selection of club favorites, almost serving as a greatest-hits collection of the early new wave era, but going far beyond and including obscurities, oddities, and curiosities from several genres. Of course, the innovations of synth pop are well-represented, with classics by
the Human League,
OMD,
Tubeway Army, and
John Foxx all making necessary appearances. There's also plenty of crossover between disco and new wave, from an extended 12" version of
Blondie's "Heart of Glass" and
the Slits' cover of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" to the pioneering electro-disco of
Giorgio Moroder and
Cerrone, as well as some great lesser-known cuts like
Shock's "R.E.R.B."
Egan actually co-produced the
Shock track, and he was in
Skids and
Visage, who are also present. Recognizing Germany's influence on new wave,
Kraftwerk are represented by a rare promo edit of "Radioactivity" and the German-language version of "Showroom Dummies," and there are inclusions from
Klaus Dinger's
La Düsseldorf,
Roedelius and
Moebius with
Brian Eno, and
Wolfgang Riechmann, who was tragically murdered before his only album, the fascinatingly eerie
Wunderbar, was released. Two
Throbbing Gristle tracks and
Cabaret Voltaire's "Nag Nag Nag" acknowledge the birth of industrial music, and inclusions by
the Cure and
Joy Division point to the impact of the early goth scene, but the set doesn't dwell on darker, gloomier moods. There are holdovers from the glam era as it mutated into other things (
Sparks,
Mick Ronson,
Roxy Music), plus a few seemingly left-field choices that make more sense in context, like a windswept
Billy Cobham drum solo or
Lulu's cover of
Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World." There's also some unabashed goofiness, like
Rinder and Lewis' epic disco cover of "Willie and the Hand Jive" and
Silicon Teens' minimal synth rendition of "Memphis Tennessee."
Lou Reed's "Perfect Day," an ideal after-hours send-off, is saved for the final track. ~ Paul Simpson
