It's 2020, which really sounds like we are living in the future now. In order to celebrate, let's enjoy this fantastic 1982 cut from MISSING PERSONS. Formed in 1980, it could be argued that the band were four decades ahead of their time.
Assembled around the main axis of Dale and Terry Bozzio ( singer and drummer respectively, who both met while working with prog legend Frank Zappa ), plus guitarist Warren Cuccurullo, Missing Persons had a strong following in LA, San Francisco and New York.
While much that was designated 'New Wave' came from art school cooperatives and avant-garde projects ( see Simon Reynold's magnificent book Rip It Up and Start Again ), the band were noted for having musicians with serious session-level chops.
Perhaps they were a band that never quite fitted in: They were too New Wave for the rock crowd, and too rock for the New Wave crowd, nevertheless, with some cool videos at the beginning of the groundbreaking MTV era, and Dale's distinctly risque presence, they notched up several Top 40 singles and a gold album in the US, before internal band strife and record company dissatisfaction caused the band to ultimately fizzle out.
Below: Dale in a classic CREEM centrefold, photographed by 80s legend Neil Zlozower.
Guitarist Cuccurullo went on to enjoy several hits in his fifteen-year career with Duran Duran, and has since released many solo albums ( as have other Missing Persons members ), while also curating several re-release and remix albums of his old band.
Here at Future-Rocker, we think Missing Persons should be given credit for their brief flash of brilliance, even though they were the wrong band at the wrong time. Now, in the era of Gaga and her followers, we can properly appreciate them.
Missing Persons Live at the US Festival, May 30th, 1983.
Claiming that this is merely a stunt for publicity purposes shouldn't fool you - you can be sure that cars coated in Vantablack will soon be requisitioned en masse by oppressive regimes and police forces, and perhaps even criminals and terrorists.
The paint is so dark and non-reflective that you can't tell whether you are looking at a solid shape or a void - only the presence of its lights and grille give away its shape and orientation; It will be idea for stealth purposes.
The manufacturers claim that commercially available vehicles will never be coated in Vantablack ( regular black is statistically the most accident-prone colour ), and that the pigment will instead be used in vehicle interiors, where non-reflective surfaces will help to make the instrumentation easier to read.
At Future-Rocker, we predict Vantablack will be applied to coats, jackets, military camouflage, kinky underwear ( very slimming ), shoes, James Hetfield's guitar collection, and indeed, the 30th anniversary special edition of Metallica's Black Album ( see below ).
NONE MORE BLACK:
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE ARTIST'S IMPRESSION OF METALLICA'S BLACK ALBUM
RENDERED IN VANTABLACK
Before: The classic album's original grey-on-black cover art
After: 'Exit Light', indeed - where the hell did it go?
SWITZERLAND'S CYBERNETIC ANSWER TO THE DOORS RETURN..!
Back in the late eighties and early nineties, The Young Gods were at the vanguard of industrial bands assimilating rock and metal into their sound, with genre-busting albums such as TV Sky and Only Heaven taking sonic innovation to new levels. Now they are back with these hypnotic new tracks..!
REPOSTING THIS FABULOUS CLIP TO COMMEMORATE RUTGER HAUER, ACTOR, WHO DIED TODAY
Ridley Scott's landmark - and career-defining - film BLADERUNNER, was not a hit when it was originally released in 1982. Too slow and ponderous for the action blockbuster crowd, it suffered from bad word-of-mouth arising from film-goers who had been led to expect a gung-ho action movie in the wake of Star Wars, and Scott's previous hit, Alien. It wasn't until late-night re-runs on TV, that it slowly began to gather momentum and attract a fanbase.
Things came to a head in 1990, when a 'workprint' of the film ( the original cut without the expository Raymond Chandler-style voiceover ) was accidentally released for a one-off cinema screening. The resultant positive response prompted the studio to re-release the 'director's cut', first on the arthousecinema circuit, and then later on home video. With its visually-arresting cinematography and art direction, and with a score by electronic music genius Vangelis, the film now rightly appears in all-time 'best movie' lists. Below is a beautiful edit of some of the film's key scenes, cut to a soundtrack of New Order's Blue Monday, assembled from cover versions by Orgy, Zook, Cliff Martinez and Chemical Brothers. If you haven't seen the movie, this will very much whet your appetite, and if you have seen it, what better way to have a quick refresher of Scott's singular vision of the future?
