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Buzzkunst
 
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Buzzkunst [Enhanced]

~ ShelleyDevoto, Howard Devoto, Pete Shelley
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
Price: £7.98 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Buzzkunst + Jerky Versions of the Dream + Magic, Murder and the Weather
Price For All Three: £21.94

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Product details

  • Audio CD (25 Feb 2002)
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Format: Enhanced
  • Label: Cooking Vinyl
  • ASIN: B00005UPLP
  • Other Editions: MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 67,063 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s

Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or view the MP3 Album.

Samples
Song Title Time Price
Listen  1. Can You See Me Shining? 3:31£0.69
Listen  2. Strain Of Bacteria 2:10£0.69
Listen  3. Deeper 2:53£0.69
Listen  4. Til The Stars In His Eyes Are Dead 2:57£0.69
Listen  5. On Solids 3:28£0.69
Listen  6. Self-Destruction 3:50£0.69
Listen  7. You Are Still There 3:13£0.69
Listen  8. God's Particle 2:34£0.69
Listen  9. A World To Give Away 3:59£0.69
Listen10. Stupid Kunst 3:15£0.69
Listen11. System Blues 3:02£0.69
Listen12. So There I Was 4:08£0.69
Listen13. Wednesday's Emotional Setup 2:48£0.69
Listen14. Going Off 3:46£0.69


Product Description

CD Description

This collaboration between Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley is the first time the pair have worked together since recording the first Buzzcocks EP, 'Spiral Scratch', in December 1976. 'Buzzkunst' owes more to Devoto's next band, Magazine, with an experimental atmosphere and heavy use of of synthesizers it is more 'krautrock' than punk rock.


About the Artist

Pretty much because of their approach - no big fanfares, no interest in rekindling the spirit of '76 - Pete Shelley and Howard Devoto, recording together for the first time in twenty five years, have made an album which sounds as new as the twenty first century and has the sure-footed originality which tends to mark out a classic. Musically, as Devoto's timeless vocal style slides as effortlessly as ever between playboy crooner, punk snarler and insidious troubador, ShelleyDevoto blend edgy electronica with primitive synthesiser beats, saxophone with speed guitars, expressionist drama with minimalist poignancy. You might be reminded of Bowie's instrumentals from the late 1970s, Donna Summer's 'Four Seasons of Love', Philip Glass, the melancholy pastoralism of Boards of Canada, Can or the early Human League. What makes buzzkunst so infectious, however, is the way it resolves these possible similarities into something entirely its own. Carrying lyrics of baroque intelligence, which tease, trouble and soothe, at times simultaneously, buzzkunst upholds Devoto's reputation as a songwriter who enjoys a considerable literary reputation. Fans will not be surprised to hear that he's checking ideas from Wittgenstein to Mona Hatoum, by way of particle physics. You might call buzzkunst a disco for the mind. Pete Shelley and Howard Devoto are two of the legendary figures in punk. Together they formed Buzzcocks in 1976, releasing the seminal EP 'Spiral Scratch' just as Devoto left to form his own group, the hugely acclaimed Magazine. Shelley and Devoto's initial brief collaboration revealed a creative chemistry which seemed to scorch the air around it, minting newness from the friction of opposed ideas: touting the convulsions of philosophy, for instance, in the form of a ram-raiding three minute pop song. With the released of buzzkunst, neither Shelley nor Devoto are remotely concerned with making a return to the past. This is neither a 'comeback! ' album nor a championing of punk history. 'Do us a bloody favour' says Devoto, to both these points. As Pete Shelley continues to tour and record with Buzzcocks, and Devoto works on his own musical and literary projects (writing and recording his autobiography, 'Insect!' for a start) their collaboration on buzzkunst has derived from the sheer enjoyment of working together in Shelley's front room. Whether this becomes a one-off for ShelleyDevoto remains to be seen, but like Iggy Pop's 'Kill City' or Fripp and Eno's 'No Pussyfooting', buzzkunst has the feel of a record which will mark an era. - Michael Bracewell.

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Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars 'Not Punk Rock' shock, 7 Jan 2002
By A Customer

Is that some kind of trouble across the room ...?

Beware reviews of this music that will surely begin 'when Howard Devoto left Buzzcocks ...'. Recorded in Howard and Pete Shelley's home studios, Buzzkunst delivers a musicological closure that brings full circle the DIY ethos of Buzzcocks' 1976 Spiral Scratch EP. There's the same blend of incisive musicality and intellect at work here that raised Spiral Scratch above the dull roar of the three-chord crowd. But this is not Punk Rock, nor like anything much that followed.

You can listen to Buzzkunst without knowing that its architects are two of British popular music's most influential living figures. Knowledge of Pete Shelley and Howard Devoto's back catalogues is not necessary to enjoy this very contemporary recording. However, the hints are there - the early Magazine feel of 'Til The Stars In His Eyes Are Dead [the single], the bubbly electro of Can You See Me Shining? recalling Pete's more exuberant moments from his 1981 Homosapien solo album. Buzzkunst proves admirably how the whole can be more than the sum of its parts. And it is an album of many parts - out and out fizzy pop, dark and angular sound schemes, filmic landscapes ... While music is credited to both artists, Shelley's genius is at work in marrying sonic textures and beats old and new and playfully evoking his influences, particularly the European ones such as Can. There are also oriental textures and found sounds, combining to make complex tapestries of interlocking sounds underpinned by contemporary rhythms. Devoto's lyrical input is typically sharp. Only he can pull off the line 'he is awash with competing theories' and make it sound like something anyone would say. This is the man who added intellect to the New Wave. His faculty for spinning the extraordinary out of the most mundane of situations sets him apart from all of his contemporaries.

Taken at face value, Buzzkunst is a cool, modern album that will entrance ShelleyDevoto aficionados as well as introducing their music to new audiences. While Buzzcocks and Pete Shelley have never really been away, Howard Devoto has spent recent years in self-imposed exile from the business of making music. This is a most welcome return. That he has chosen to do so in the company of his partner in punk pioneering is an extra gift. Buy this album and prepare to be surprised.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Top notch Devoto / Shelly, 5 Mar 2002
By A Customer
After hearing the starter track 'Can you see me shining' I just had to get this. Imagine the EXCELLENT 'Shot by both sides' mixed with Pete Shelly circa 'Homosapien'.

I forgot how good Howard Devoto's vocals were.

The two bonus video tracks are really worth playing. Not just fillers for once. Buy and enjoy!!

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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars You know the scene, 27 Feb 2002
By Mr. N. B. Cherry (Haverfordwest,, Pembrokeshire, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Sounds like Howard's solo/Luxuria period meets Pete's electronic period. Plenty of electronic beats and samples. Not much guitar. (Shame!) In fact, if it didn't say Pete Shelley on the cover, you would not know that he was there.

I'm not going to waste anyone's time with any theses on what Devoto's lyrics mean. Just listen and enjoy.

P. S. - Computer nerds will find two video tracks on the CD. Live, rough and ready, great fun.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but not up to par
I've enjoyed Howard's music for many years and have to admit never investigated Pete's output. On the strength of this album I probably won't either. Read more
Published on 4 April 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars A more than welcome return for Howard Devoto.
He sang on 'Spiral Scratch'. Then songs like 'Shot by Both Sides' & 'Permafrost'. Then he did OK albums like 'Jerky Versions of the Dream' and the 1st Luxuria album (not... Read more
Published on 30 Mar 2002 by Jason Parkes

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