aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser
‘GIGS FROM YESTERYEAR, WHEN I WAS YOUNG + PRETTY AS A PICTURE’
# 06: Laika, Eupen, Belgium, 2000
Laika
Capitol, Eupen
Andy Tex Jones
Hello friends,
Little Loser is really showing me my boundaries with his picks, I must say! Just another gig which I only vaguely remember, although it took place not in the early 80s, but in 2000 – quite recent, you could argue.
Eupen is rather a nice little town located near the border in Belgium, quite why Tam Tam decided to celebrate their anniversary there and not somewhere in Aachen remains a mystery. Perhaps because of the venue – the Capitol was an old cinema, built in 1933 with a great interior and a stunning facade: just awesome, but these days flats have been built in, what a shame!
Let me explain: Tam Tam was – and still is in fact –the record shop of choice in Aachen when it comes to, let’s say, ‘off-mainstream’ vinyl. They always had cool employees, and one of them was Lota. I suppose only few people know Lota’s real name, I certainly don’t, although the two of us became DJ colleagues in a bar/club in Aachen in the late 90s. Lota was, unlike me, already rather a high class top-notch DJ at the time (easy when you get all the records from the shop and not having to rely on your small battered private collection), so whenever he had a more profitable engagement he would phone me up to ask me whether I was interested in his shift at the club – which, being always skint, I most often were, of course! Probably much to the dismay of the clients, who were looking for his hot house and trance newbies, but then had to indulge with me and the more listenable records I had heard on Peel instead.
Lota managed to strum up Andy Tex Jones to do a set at this party, and Jones was a real high calibre at the time. Even if you don’t know anything else by him, the one he did as half of Pussy 2000 should be familiar:
Pussy 2000 – ‘It’s Gonna Be Alright’ (’01)
Alright, let’s deal with the main act now: Laika. They took their name from the dog the Soviets shot into space and you could say that Laika’s distinct and wildly experimental fusion of different styles was somewhat without earthly precedent. Then again their style was not that new, because Laika were co-founded by Margaret Fiedler, but most probably the name won’t ring a bell with you. It should so though, because she sang in Moonshake.
They indeed loved their samplers, Moonshake, just listen to their wonderful ‘Eva Luna’ album: a very fine collision of breakbeats and guitar noise, dub to Krautrock to hip-hop – and you could well argue that Laika are in some way a derivative of Moonshake:
Moonshake – ‘Tar Baby’ (’92)
I forgot how great this is, so I’ll give you their first single as well, just as a reminder:
Moonshake – ‘Gravity’ (’91)
Now, I said Mrs. Fiedler-co-founded Moonshake, the other founder was in fact David Callahan, who, in order to close the circle, before creating Moonshake sang for The Wolfhounds – teammates on the famous NME C86-compilation:
The Wolfhounds – ‘Rule Of Thumb’ (’87)
But I digress, back to Laika now: In 1993 Margaret Fiedler stole Moonshake’s bassist, quit and founded Laika. True story: for quite some time I thought that Laika were the same combo as Laika & The Cosmonauts, the brilliant Finnish instrumental/surf rock band from the late 80s, and that they just got rid of The Cosmonauts in one way or another plus changed their style completely. I was wrong, of course:
Laika & The Cosmonauts – ‘Look! No Head! (’97)
Oh, come on then – since you’re asking:
Laika & The Cosmonauts – ‘Surfs You Right!’ (’90)
But now, without further ado, here’s some Laika for you:
Laika – ‘Shut Off/Curl Up’ (’97)
Laika – ‘Badtimes’ (’00)
Laika – ‘Breather’ (’97)
Laika – ’44 Robbers’ (’94)
All in all some fine music above, don’t you think?
Well, I do, so take care and enjoy,
Enjoy,
Dirk
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 