If there’s one thing I know about the hated eighties, it’s that absolutely no one I knew could abide synthpop. Oh, some of us may have locked our doors and listened to it in the privacy of our own homes, confessing to doing so one meant being labeled a Eurofop and drummed out of our social circle.

But while my friends and I despised the genre and were disheartened by the prospect of its conquering the world, A Flock of Seagulls were a kind of consolation prize. Them we could laugh at. Mike Score’s gull wings haircut cracked us up, and the little dweeb in the sunglasses was funny too.

But lately I’ve been wondering if there might have been more to A Flock of Seagulls than Michael Score’s iconic topiary coiffure, so I picked up a copy of the band’s 2006 VH1 Classic best-of compilation We Are the ‘80s and gave it a spin. And much to my chagrin, I discovered their music isn’t as bad as all that.

Just as I’d suspected, I found A Flock of Seagulls’ species of MTV-friendly Europop to have all the soul of an automatic car wash. But despite my social clique’s dismissal of the group’s synth-heavy dance music as bloodless as your average cyborg, there must have been a thumping heart in there somewhere, a point A Flock of Seagulls drove home in “Heartbeat Like a Drum.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Brian Eno releases Film Music 1976–2020—his first-ever collection of music from his film and television soundtrack oeuvre digitally on November 13, 2020, and on 2LP and 1CD on January 22, 2021. Spanning five decades, this release features classic Eno compositions and includes some lesser-known gems and seven previously unreleased tracks.

​Eno’s long-standing affair with film goes all the way back to 1970 with his soundtrack to Malcolm Le Grice’s short experimental film Berlin Horse. In 1976 he followed this with Sebastiane and a long-forgotten Greek b-horror film, Land Of The Minotaur AKA The Devil’s Men. This led to an unstoppable momentum largely initiated by the release of Music For Films. Early classic Eno film moments include “Prophecy Theme” from David Lynch’s Dune, “From The Beginning” from Dario Argento’s Opera, “Force Marker” and “Late Evening In Jersey” from Michael Mann’s Heat, “Under” from Ralph Bakshi’s Cool World, and his moving cover of William Bell’s soul classic, “You Don’t Miss Your Water,” in Jonathan Demme’s Married to The Mob.

His 1978 studio album, Music For Films was a loose compilation of material recorded between 1975 ~ 1978. It was intended as a conceptual soundtrack for imaginary films, and only the last track, “Final Sunset” was written for an actual film. It proved to be a fruitful project with nearly every piece on the album going on to be used in future films, including several of Derek Jarman’s, the remake of Jean-Luc Goddard’s Breathless, John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, and Todd Hayes’ Safe.

Eno again explored this approach with U2 as Passengers on their collaboration album, Original Soundtracks 1. Four of the tracks from the album were used in films prior to release: “Beach Sequence” and “Your Blue Room” in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Beyond the Clouds, “Miss Sarajevo” in an eponymous documentary about a beauty pageant held in the midst of besieged ‘93 Sarajevo, and “One Minute Warning” in Mamoru Oshii’s Japanese animation classic, Ghost in the Shell. Another track, “Always Forever Now” later appeared in Heat.

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“My first introduction to the world of music was searching through my dad’s modest record collection.”

“I was a four-year-old who thought I wanted to be an astronaut or scientist at the time. My father was a casual music fan who came from a highly-gifted musical family. His stash of vinyl largely consisted of classics like The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Kinks, The Beach Boys, and lots of folk music. His taste in folk ranged from Leo Kottke to Buffy Sainte-Marie. I loved the harmonies of The Beach Boys, The Everly Brothers, and all of the folk groups. What really excited me was the raw guitar tones of The Beatles and the other rock groups.

In particular, I was drawn to The Beatles Rubber Soul. Something about the way the band looked on the cover resonated with me before I even heard the music. It inspired me to ask my dad for a “Beatles haircut,” which he happily gave me himself using a Tupperware bowl as his guide.

Back then my dad told me John Lennon had been assassinated some time ago. When I looked at the smoke-filled picture of him on the back cover of Rubber Soul he seemed other-worldly—almost like he sent that photo back from the great beyond. I asked my dad if that photo was taken after he had been shot. My dad just shook his head, probably not sure how to respond to such a ridiculous question.

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Living through a time in which live performance on a grand scale is more or less impossible, Matt Beckley is hanging in there. He’s a gifted guitarist and songwriter, but his creative interests truly lie in music production, so it’s no wonder his talents are faring well during the current pandemic, rather than being inhibited by an inability to tour.

The son of rock legend Gerry Beckley of America, Matt was a part of the professional world of popular music since birth. He grew up on the floors of recording studios in Los Angeles in awe of his father’s artistic prowess and the magic of making music, while at the same time understanding the realities of the recording artist’s vocation and its tangibility. While some young people exposed to such a situation might take it for granted or rebel against it, Matt possessed the intelligence and inherent artistic impulse to desire knowledge and experience, knowing he held an innate ability and interest to add something new to the ongoing legacy of recorded music.

Which is exactly what he’s done thus far in his career. Matt Beckley’s been involved in an astounding amount of number-ones and chart toppers from our era’s most successful pop singers. This is no coincidence; he understands what a listener seeks from “a voice” and the indefinable something that goes into the making of a recording star. Katy Perry, Kesha, Avril Lavigne, Leona Lewis, Britney Spears, and Camila Cabello (including her single “Havana” which reached one billion streams on Spotify in 2018) are just a few of the vocalists who Matt has produced.

In a fun, lively, and appropriately audiophilic conversation with Matt Beckley, we learn more about the earliest moments of his journey into music production, his familial influences and personal inspirations, and his knack for being behind some of the most successful pop singles of recent times.

Were there projects that you were involved in leading up to 2020’s pandemic? Did you have creative plans that were affected by all of this?

Clearly everything live was shut down. And there’s work that I’ve had to turn down because we just can’t do anything in a studio right now. But I got really lucky—right around the beginning of this, a friend of mine started doing this kind of film project that needed original music and he asked if I would score it, which is something I’d like to do more of. It’s kept me really busy.

We’re all just looking for shit to do while we’re holed up. The industry is shut down, but in a lot of ways, a lot of what we do is pretty isolated anyway. Everyone’s doing the best they can to stay busy. But anybody that does what is predominantly live is hosed. And the other irony is, that if you’re going to release a record, you can’t promote it. Nobody can tour. So in a way, for somebody like me who is mostly behind the glass these days—I’m sad that I can’t do my bar gig that I would do every month with friends to stay sharp—but I’m doing OK, you know. I consider myself very lucky, but I try to remain cognizant of the people who are suffering greatly.

Do you recall a particular moment in your artistic upbringing when you knew production was one of your primary musical interests—when you realized you had a knack for it?

I’m not a particularly good singer and I’m an OK player. It became one of those things of “we don’t really want to go see your band… but can you work on a record?” My dad is constantly working. So I grew up on the floor of studios; even when it was the converted garage, it was still a studio and I would watch him. He’s a very, very underrated producer. In fact, my mom was told by George Martin “Gerry needs to get off the road and really be a producer because he’s got a knack for it.”

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I watched a documentary about Nick Drake last week. It featured a bunch of folkie types spouting all kinds of flamdoodle about what made Drake’s guitar playing so unique. I’m sure many members of the musical fraternity found this technical brouhaha illuminating, but seeing as how I’m a guy who has difficulty distinguishing an acoustic guitar from a tuba, the documentary’s cumulative effect was to render me insensible.

I admit to never having much listened to Nick Drake, mostly because he sounded to me like an oh so sensitive soul singing about so sensitive stuff expressly designed to make my hardened heart cringe. In fact the only Drake song I’d ever heard before listening to Pink Moon was its title track, which Volkswagen used in an ad a while back. I really liked the song, even if I thought its opening line went, “I saw it written in the soy sauce.”

But seeing as how my girlfriend is always telling me what a poetic genius and doomed romantic figure Drake is, I finally broke down and gave his third and final LP, 1972’s Pink Moon, a listen. And turns out I love it, despite the fact that it’s the work of an oh so sensitive soul singing about oh so sensitive stuff designed to make my hardened heart cringe. Just goes to show you it’s impossible to know if you like something until you’ve actually listened to it. Which may sound like Philosophy 101 to you, but comes as something of a revelation to me.

Pink Moon followed on the heels on 1971’s lavishly orchestrated Bryter Layter, and its failure to make a dent on the pop charts led a disheartened Drake to say to hell with it and strip things down to voice, guitar and piano. The results are stark, in large part because Drake chose to work with a palette limited to varying shade of grey. And unlike Bryter Layter, Pink Moon is an intensely private affair. A writer for Melody Maker complained that the music on Pink Moon “hides from you,” which is precisely what I love about it. What I hear when I listen to Pink Moon is Nick Drake playing to an audience of Nick Drake, making you, the listener, an eavesdropper.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | “Shah’s film crackles with a raucous energy. Weaving together music, politics, animation and history, White Riot carries a punk infused swagger that is infectious…Shah’s documentary will not only please those unfamiliar with the punk scene, but also those looking for stories of average people challenging the status quo.” —Courtney Small, POV Magazine

​Britain, late-1970s. The country is deeply divided over immigration. The National Front, a far-right and fascist political party, is gaining strength. And countering this was Rock Against Racism (RAR), a movement that swept across the U.K. and Europe and culminated in a 100,000+ person march and a legendary concert event—Woodstock meets the March on Washington, punk-style. Capturing this incredible moment in time when music changed the world is the award-winning documentary White Riot from director Rubika Shah.

Expanding on her documentary short White Riot: London, Shah’s energizing film charts the rise of Rock Against Racism (RAR), formed in 1976, prompted by “music’s biggest colonialist” Eric Clapton and his support of racist MP Enoch Powell. The brisk, informative White Riot blends fresh, engaging interviews with RAR staff and musicians with archival footage to recreate a hostile environment of anti-immigrant hysteria and National Front marches.

As neo-Nazis recruited the nation’s youth, RAR’s multicultural punk and reggae gigs provided rallying points for resistance. The campaign grew from “Temporary Hoarding,” the movement’s fanzine to 1978’s huge antifascist concert in Victoria Park, featuring X-Ray Spex, Tom Robinson, Steel Pulse and, of course, The Clash, whose rock star charisma and gale-force conviction took RAR’s message to the masses. White Riot chronicles this “extraordinary fusion of culture and politics that changed society for the better.” (Jackson Caines, Glass Magazine).

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Trafalgar Releasing announced today that Stevie Nicks, two time Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, legendary Grammy winning recording singer/songwriter supreme, will debut Stevie Nicks 24 Karat Gold The Concert, which will be released for two nights only on October 21 and 25 at select cinemas, drive ins and exhibition spaces around the world. With this film Nicks, long considered one of the most iconic live performers, provides music fans with a virtual front row seat to the magic Stevie brings to the stage in concert.

​The film features a set-list of fan favorite Nicks songs from her solo career and as a member of Fleetwood Mac including “Rhiannon,” “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” “Edge of Seventeen,” “Stand Back,” “Landslide,” and more as well as rare gems from her platinum selling catalog. The film also reveals intimate storytelling and inspirations for some of the most famous and timeless songs and lyrics in music history which to this day remain part of the soundtrack to the lives of generations of music lovers. Directed and produced by Joe Thomas during Nicks’ fabled 67 city sold out 24 Karat Gold Tour, filming and recording took place in Indianapolis and Pittsburgh in 2017.

“The 24 Karat Gold Tour was my all-time favorite tour. I not only got to sing my songs but I was able to tell their stories for the first time. I love having the opportunity to share this concert with my fans. From me to you – 24 Karat Gold,” Said Stevie Nicks.

Kymberli Frueh, SVP for Programming and Content Acquisitions for Trafalgar Releasing said, “We are thrilled to collaborate with BMG and Stevie Nicks’ team on this landmark global cinema event which is sure to delight fans. Stevie’s legendary career has spanned over four decades, creating legions of fans across the generations. Her 24 Karat Gold concert tracklist features some of her greatest solo hits as well as Fleetwood Mac classics.”

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Following in the great rock and roll tradition of crafting unrequited love songs, Ora Violet have returned with the story of a man in love with a woman who was born a man.

The ambiguous rock newcomers deliver on the promise of their previous single, landing a sonic boom of fresh rock and roll that fuses early ’70s proto punk of The Stooges and The Modern Lovers with the contemporary versatility of The Raconteurs and Queens of the Stone Age.

It’s a wily blend that defies easy categorization and an intentional move on the part of the band. “Sometimes normality, no matter how peaceful it may appear, needs to be disturbed,” they assert. “We don’t need to wear a label that when scanned will shunt us forward to the applicable box. If you want a label, just start with ‘Delicious.'”

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Rock and roll was a relief after the rigor of Henry Cow.

​That was one of the thoughts in Anthony Moore’s brain in late 1975. Of course, leaving Henry Cow had meant the dissolution of the band he’d founded, Slapp Happy, as the two groups had essentially merged over the previous year. Still, there was plenty yet to do with music, and with Anthony’s propensity for odd left turns, a solo career in the pop world seemed like a fine option to follow upon his adventure in soundtracks for experimental films, tape-based modern composition and avant-pop and experimental rock. For “the troubadour with Revoxes,” this venture into playing guitar and singing in a professional context was a new thing.

To access the pop life, Anthony signed a solo deal with Virgin – cutting sessions with producer Peter Jenner (Kevin Ayers, Roy Harper, Edgar Broughton Band) and some of Britain’s new generation of progressive musicians facilities like Abbey Road, Air and Richard Branson’s Oxfordshire getaway, The Manor. While the stars didn’t align back in the day, (the fantastic sounds recorded for OUT didn’t see release until a CD issue of the late 1990s), we’re finally making those historic recordings on vinyl with the long-lost original artwork restored.

Kicking it off with a tricky asymmetrical keyboard riff reminiscent of Eno’s Tiger Mountain phase and a belting Cale-esque vocal recounting the macho adventure narrative tone of that era’s Dylan and Roger McGuinn, “Stitch In Time” floats essential elements of the mid-70s British art-rock boom with dreamy pop effervescence.

It’s been worth the 44-year (!) wait to get Anthony’s full vision restored to OUT – an absolute lost chapter from mid-’70s, proto-new wave Britain, bringing to mind the bright and subversive sounds of Wyatt, Ayers and so many other trail-blazers from that time while providing a worthy precursor to Anthony’s celebrated 1979 LP, Flying Won’t Help.