Big Music (Machinations album)

Last updated
Big Music
Big Music by Machinations.jpg
Studio album by
Released25 June 1985
StudioRhinoceros Studios
Genre Synthpop, New-wave, pop
Label White
Producer Julian Mendelsohn
Machinations chronology
Esteem
(1983)
Big Music
(1985)
The Big Beat
(1986)
Singles from Big Music
  1. "No Say in It"
    Released: August 1984
  2. "My Heart's On Fire"
    Released: May 1985
  3. "You Got Me Going Again"
    Released: August 1985
  4. "Execution Of Love"
    Released: November 1985

Big Music is the second studio album from Australian synthpop band Machinations. The album was released in June 1985 and peaked at number 20 on the Kent Music Report.

Machinations are an Australian synthpop band which formed in 1980. They reached the top 20 on the Kent Music Report albums chart with Big Music in 1985. Their top 30 hits on the related singles chart are "Pressure Sway", "No Say in It", "My Heart's On Fire" and "Do to You". By 1989 the group had disbanded. They briefly reunited in 1997 and then reformed in 2012.

Kent Music Report Australian music chart between 1974-1998

The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to 1988. After 1988, the Australian Recording Industry Association, which had been using the report under licence for a number of years, chose to produce their own listing as the ARIA Charts.

Contents

Background and Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [1]

Big Music is produced by Julian Mendelsohn who first worked with the band on the single "No Say in It" and who has worked with such British acts as Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Nik Kershaw and Art of Noise. Band member Fred Lonergan said "He was really great to work with [and] we wanted to record the album in November (of 1984) but after working with Julian we decided we would try and get him back out again. March (of 1984) was the earliest we could do it." Lonergan said "Variety is the keyword with this album. On the album we've got a reggae track, a ballad [and] a few dance tracks." [2]

Julian Mendelsohn is an Australian record producer, audio engineer and mixer.

No Say in It

"No Say in It" is a song recorded by the Australian synthpop band Machinations. It was released in August 1984 as the lead single from the band's second studio album, Big Music. The song peaked at number 14 on the Australian Kent Music Report, becoming the band's first top 20 single.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood British band

Frankie Goes to Hollywood were a British band formed in Liverpool, England in the 1980s. The group was fronted by Holly Johnson (vocals), with Paul Rutherford (vocals), Peter Gill, Mark O'Toole, and Brian Nash (guitar).

Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, declared that the group "[emerged] with the smoothest and most fully realised album of [their] career". [3] [4]

Ian McFarlane is an Australian music journalist, music historian and author, whose best known publication is the Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop (1999). As a journalist he started in 1984 with Juke, a rock music newspaper. During the early 1990s he worked for Roadrunner Records while he published a music guide, The Australian New Music Record Guide Volume 1: 1976–1980 (1992). He followed with two fanzines, Freedom Train and Prehistoric Sounds, both issued during 1994 to 1996. McFarlane's The Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop is described by the Australian Music Guide as "the most exhaustive and wide-ranging encyclopedia of Australian music from the 1950s onwards". Subsequently, he was a writer for The Australian and worked for Raven Records, a reissue specialist label, preparing compilations, writing liner notes and providing research. He fulfilled a similar role at Aztec Music from 2004 to March 2012. From July 2013 he has been a contributor to Addicted to Noise, writing a column.

Track listing

Side A
No.TitleLength
1."My Heart's On Fire"5:00
2."Predator"3:45
3."Jabber"3:50
4."Execution of Love"3:58
5."Spark"5:07
Side B
No.TitleLength
1."No Say in It"3:19
2."Don't Take Me"4:11
3."You Got Me Going Again"3:37
4."5 Minutes Black"3:33
5."The Letter"6:04

Charts

Chart (1985)Peak
position
Australia (Kent Music Report) [5] 20

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References

  1. "Big Music by Machinations". AllMusic . Retrieved 3 December 2017.
  2. Ferrington, Andrew (13 June 1985). "Machinations: all is under control". The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995). National Library of Australia. p. 19. Retrieved 4 May 2014.
  3. "The Machinations". whammo. August 2004. Archived from the original on 29 August 2004. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
  4. Jones, Rhys (4 June 2008). "Big Music from Machinations". RetroUniverse. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
  5. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives: Australian Chart Book. p. 186. ISBN   0-646-11917-6.