Customer Reviews

London

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One night during the late '80s, I saw Greater Than One's "I Don't Need God" video and was hooked. I immediately started hunting record stores for cassettes--not so easy in those days, before search engines and online shopping became ubiquitous--and the first one I found was "London." I loved it just as much, even without the track I was looking for. If you like YMO, Kraftwerk, Emergency Broadcast Network, and/or Negativland, I'm pretty sure you'll like this band too. Greater Than One is pretty versatile. Their music ranges from simple, joyful, goofy dance music to heady, intense, philosophical works that would probably make great soundtracks for subversive propaganda films. Hey, anything that can excersise my mind and my body simultaneously is fine by me! If you don't know Greater Than One (or its other incarnations, such as Church of Extacy, GTO, or S.O.L.O), this CD would make a great introduction--and if you do know them, I would guess you probably know most of the tracks on "London" anyway and if you're reading this, well, you've found it.

A rare gem of hypnotic industrial electronica. Listen to this loud in a dark room, let your mind go where it takes you.

i bought this record when it came out, and just now, listening again for the first time in almost 20 years, i'm wow-- really good stuff, even better than i remember, and probably much better than i was even capable of appreciating at the time. Lysergic Techno? check.

Greater Than One is an English pop/techno/gabba band founded by husband and wife Lee Newman and Michael Wells in 1985. They released many albums under this name, and also under the names Tricky Disco, GTO, John + Julie, Church of Extacy, Signs of Chaos, T.D.5, Salami Brothers, Killout Squad, Technohead and L.E.D.. Only a few of their singles were commercially successful. Since Newman's death on August 4, 1995 from cancer, Wells continues to release music under some of these names, and also as The Man and S.O.L.O.
1 Greater Than One
2 GTO
3 Church of Extacy
4 Technohead
5 Signs Ov Chaos
6 The Man
7 Signs of Chaos
8 S.O.L.O.
In 1985, Newman and Wells met at the Royal College of Art in London, formed Greater Than One, and released their first album Kill the pedagogue on cassette. During the late 1980s they organised art installations and exhibitions accompanied by their own music: "When the whole audience were in, we started a soundtrack ... war sirens and searchlights. This was designed to disorientate the audience, throwing them into an unexpected nightmare. After the shock, Islamic chanting began which then changed to Song For England, during which we came onstage wearing illuminous skull masks...". They formed their own label Kunst=Kapital and released four further albums under this alias between 1987 and 1990.
Their first hit single was the trance record Pure as GTO on Chrisalis Records, a club hit around Europe, closely followed by Tricky Disco as Tricky Disco on Warp records, which peaked at number 14 in the UK charts in July 1990.
They used many aliases because, releasing so much material, they feared the press wouldn't write about it all, if they knew it all came from the same band. As Newman said, "if you give them a Tricky Disco one week and then a John and Julie two weeks later and GTO a month later they'll write about all of it".[3] Their aliases also allowed them to release different types of material on different record labels. The single Double Happiness as John and Julie appeared on XL Records; the 1993 Tip of the Iceberg album as GTO appeared on REACT, and the 1995 album Headsex as Technohead appeared on Mokum Records.
1995: Technohead
Headsex contained their biggest hit, I Wanna Be a Hippy. It was accompanied by a video featuring three Gabbers, wearing "Party Animal" t-shirts and carrying inflatable hammers, chasing a hippy on a bicycle around a park. It reached number 1 in 12 different countries including Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland, and number 6 in the UK in February 1996. Two Technohead follow-up singles, less intense than the material on Headsex, followed in 1996; Happy Birthday reached number 18 in April and the next single Banana-na-na reached number 64 in October.
Wells has recorded many singles and three more albums since, including two new Tricky Disco singles.
Greater Than One
Lay Your Penis Down (CS) (1985)
Kill the Pedagogue (CS) (1985)
All the Masters Licked Me (LP) (1987)
Trust (LP) (recorded 1987 as the first attempt of All the Masters Licked Me)
Dance of the Cowards (1988)
London (1989)/*Rare and out of print.
G-Force (1989)
Index EP (1991)
Duty + Trust (CS) (1991 - recorded 1987/1988)
GTO/ Tip of the Iceberg (1993 - Age Of Chance "One Thousand Years of Trouble" /12" Vinyl LP - Age Of Chance "Crush Collision" /12" Vinyl EP - A;Grumh "Mix Yourself" /Rare Belgian 12" Vinyl - SNUB TV Vol.2 /VHS