| Call Signs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | July 2009 | |||
| Recorded | March 2008 - May 2009 | |||
| Genre | Electronica | |||
| Length | 45:11 | |||
| Label | Laughing Outlaw | |||
| Producer | Woody Annison | |||
| Black Cab chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| The Age |    |
| Sunday Herald Sun | |
Call Signs is the third studio album by Melbourne electronica band Black Cab, released in 2009.
Black Cab is a Melbourne based drone and electronica group. The band has released five full-length albums and two EPs.
Contents
The album evokes the atmosphere of the former totalitarian state of East Germany, set to a soundtrack of post-punk and atmospheric electronics. [3] In an interview, the band explained the album's sound was inspired by a rare Black Cab tour of Europe in May 2007. Travelling through the former East Germany in a van, vocalist Andrew Coates and guitarist James Lee were struck by the decrepit villages and rundown cities. At the same time they were reading Stasiland , Anna Funder's 2004 book about the vast state security apparatus that entangled millions of East Germans. [3] [4] Coates explained: "Stasiland really captured the mentality of living at a time when around 50 percent of East Germans contributed intelligence information, often about their neighbours. There was so much distrust and paranoia and it really interested us." [5]
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic, was a country that existed from 1949 to 1990, when the eastern portion of Germany was part of the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. It described itself as a socialist "workers' and peasants' state", and the territory was administered and occupied by Soviet forces at the end of World War II — the Soviet occupation zone of the Potsdam Agreement, bounded on the east by the Oder–Neisse line. The Soviet zone surrounded West Berlin but did not include it; as a result, West Berlin remained outside the jurisdiction of the GDR.
Stasiland by Anna Funder is a 2003 book about individuals who resisted the East German regime, and others who worked for its secret police, the Stasi. It tells the story of what it was like to work for the Stasi, and describes how those who did so now come to terms, or do not, with their pasts.
Anna Funder is an Australian author. She is the author of Stasiland and All That I Am and the novella The Girl With the Dogs.
The album featured Died Pretty vocalist Ron Peno on one track, "Ghost Anthems".
Died Pretty, sometimes The Died Pretty, are an Australian alternative rock band founded by mainstays, Ron Peno as its lead singer and Brett Myers as its lead guitarist and backing vocalist, in Sydney in 1983 – briefly as Final Solution. Their music started from a base of early electric Bob Dylan with psychedelic influences, including The Velvet Underground and Television. They were managed by John Needham, who is the owner of Citadel Records, their main label.
Ronald "Ron" Stephen Peno, who also performed as Ronnie Pop, is an Australian rock singer, he fronted Died Pretty, from 1984 to 2002, he was a member of early punk band the Hellcats (1976–77), and followed with the 31st and Screaming Tribesmen (1981).
The album was given a favorable reception in reviews, described as "a standout album of mood and moment" [2] and "a powerful work of post-punk atmospherics". [1] It featured in the list of the year's best albums by both the Melbourne Sunday Herald Sun [6] and Sydney Morning Herald. [7] and was shortlisted for the Australian Music Prize.
The Australian Music Prize is an annual award of $30,000 given to an Australian band or solo artist in recognition of the merit of an album released during the year of award. The award made by Australian Music Prize Ltd, a sole-purpose entity sponsored by a variety of music industry figures and record companies. The AMP was established in 2005.
