Few sounded like Grace Jones way back in 1981. In fact for all the shifts, styles and sound mutations at work altering the listening landscapes (changes still felt and as relevant today in so much as were most of takes its cue) during the heady period 1979 – 81, Jones’ ’Nightclubbing’ still sounded as though it was an alien visitor speaking in a musical tongue light years ahead of its time.
To say it was a defining moment in pop is to understate it. ‘Nightclubbing’ was, is and always will be a year zero in the art of the cross over – that freewheeled and encompassed a multi lingual hybrid of sound to draw from the eras sonic palette and weave from it a seductive spin that was both colourfully enriched and at times strangely menacing and was cultured in dance (Studio 54), electro (Numan), minimalism (Devo), post everything, c-81, new romantic, funk (Talking Heads / Gang of 4), tango and dub.
An album then that looked back, forward and beyond. Island records will later this month reposit the album back into the critical eye line with an expanded deluxe set that’ll see this legendary release beefed up into an exhaustive 2 disc set on both CD / blu ray and vinyl to feature long out of print rare extended mixes as well as a unique previously unreleased studio take of Tubeway Army’s ‘me I disconnect from you’ which will enter ear space a week early in readiness for RSD14 wherein it’ll come pressed up on a limited 12 inch backed by the long version of ‘Feel Up’ – goes without saying that we’ve fired off the requisite begging missives – so for now – here’s Ms Jones doing bad things on ‘If You Wanna Be My Lover’……
