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Feature: Jack Foley
"DON'T mention the 'C' word," laughs Sally Rodgers,
the female half of A Man Called Adam, when quizzed on their current
favourite musical moniker.
Contrary to the people who keep phoning up their studio and
asking to speak 'to Adam', or the onstage announcer at an MTV
gig who introduced them as 'A Band Called Alan', the 'Man' is
actually a duo ... and before you ask, the name comes from a Sammy
Davis Junior film of the same name, the first blaxploitation film
no less.
With a CV that reads like a twisted history of yoof culture,
Sally and pensive partner (in rhyme alone, not romance!) Steve
Jones are the Fred and Ginger of dance music, having sailed their
Balearic boat across oceans of Acid Jazz, nu house, ambient, chill
out and now ... wait for it, ragga and country and western.
Yup, they're back with a collection of all their best bits, plus
some new babies (seven to be exact).
Wandering around their labyrinthine musical brains, in 2003,
you stumble across memories of ex-film maker, Steve, bang into
Eno and Bill Laswell at the age of 12, spinning electro at sixth
form discos, before playing accordion on a Brazilian production
of Rodgers' in 1987.
Meanwhile, Sally, a native of Redcar, had a childhood spent alternately
goggling at cabaret acts popping in from her parents Catholic
Working Mens clubs and rocking to The Beat when she wasn't on
underage scooter runs.
Answering a Melody Maker ad to sing with the 'catchy' The Expresso
7, Rodgers found herself in a studio with Jones and other band
member, Paul Daley (who left in 1990 to form some act called Leftfield).
Signing to Gilles Peterson's Acid Jazz label in 88, the trio
turned out classics like Techno Power (recently included
on New Yorks seminal So You Think You Know About House?
compilation) and, by 1990, the band were signed to Big Life, in
the Top 40 with Balearic anthem, Barefoot In The Head,
and their debut album, The Apple, was in the bag.
The rest of the decade saw them found their free thinking Other
label, in 1993, release the house classic, Que Tal America,
in 1996, compile the Real Ibiza albums and advertise everything
from All Bran to Alco-pops with their music ... and that was all
before breakfast!
In 1998, their Duende album cemented their hybrid fanbase
of pop, indie, dance and chill out goyens.
When Sally explains Duende means 'happy sad' in Spanish,
the title makes perfect sense for the strain of joyous melancholy
that has been a real state of being for the pair in the past.
"Making albums is part of our creative life, like a monkey
on your back," reasons Sally.
"We need to be emotionally progressive, but this is only
our third album in ten years.
"Then again, we love bands like The Blue Nile and Talk Talk
who make one every ten years!"
Thirteen years in and Sally and Steve have decided to try something
more exuberant with their new collection of chansons old and new,
All My Favourite, and that's partly down to Stings ex
manager Miles Copeland and his infamous annual publishing seminar.
Inviting AMCA, in 2001, to join an eclectic cast of characters
including midget pop act Hanson, Carole King, Roger Miller, Bare
Naked Ladies and Chris De Burgh, AMCA felt 'on the verge of a
big new adventure' spending time in the studio with these accomplished
artists.
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The resulting collaboration with
country and western artist Roger Miller (his dad wrote King Of
The Road!) Six More Days illustrates just how open-minded
dance music can be.
"We started out as a jazz act with no rules. During this
album we had a sticker on the wall saying no jazz," nods
Sally.
Now the pair are as likely to be influenced by Fridge or the
Aphex Twin as by crowd surfing at Ash gigs. Some of the jazz may
have gone, for now, but they still opt for a more musical approach
than many electronic acts having 'got bored of seeing bands using
sequencers' and turning out some exquisitely organic live gigs
from San Antonio to Singapore.
All My Favourite, then, is the sound of a buzzy Hackney
inner city studio mingling with songs about 'seagulls and shipwrecks
and our nearest neighbour the lighthouse keeper,' memories from
the duo's Cornish hideaway where they split their recording time.
Self-confessed culture whores, the album also includes a collaboration
with the 'Janet Jackson of South Africa', Brenda Fassie, a lady
who travelled to Hackney with her diplomatic passport personally
endorsed by Nelson Mandela and got on with 'funky white man' Steve
-vo-vo and Sally 'I like the way you dance' like a house on fire.
That's the beauty of AMCA, always throwing up a fireworks display
of sonic surprises and deviations from the norm.
"Who said country music and ragga don't work," questions
Sally?
"Let's push ourselves and try and be better."
Rounding up over a dozen years of memories, All My Favourite
recounts the sunsets, acid house raves, smoky clubs, strobe lights,
fields and cows, drum machines, violins, love-ins, tantrums, Bacardi,
thunderstorms, haystacks and smiles of 24-hour party people.
In an age of synthetic pop and bland ballads, it's a breath
of fresh air to find people can still write songs lyrically and
musically.
No one mixes up township riddims and Eighties hip hop flavours
like Sally and Steve on the trailblazing Earth Sings
while the hovering, haunting woodwind of Loves Forgotten or acoustic
guitar thrum of No Distance confirm their crowns as king
and queen of the Balearic beat.
The classics are here too. Sitting pretty alongside the new numbers,
the cloudbusting Estelle is guaranteed to fill the darkest
room with it's symphony of sunlight and the Latin swing of Yachts
will have you whooping 'oh whats this? I know this, it's off that
advert for umm...ohh...!!' before tangoing off round your living
room like Evita on Ecstasy.
The organic hammock house of Techno Powers never leaves DJ Harvey's
record box and Café Del Mar and chill out compilations
might never have happened if Barefoot In the Head and
Easter Song hadn't happened.
The glorious disco stomp of Que Tal America and Stay
With Me's funk house both have that mellow magic too, but
remind you that Sally and Steve still have a foot on the dancefloor
even if the others splashing about on a sun drenched shoreline
somewhere.
So when Sally proclaims, on Barefoot In the Head, 'we
are children of the night', you know A Man Called Adam still feel
that way and as she sings 'Thank God for second chances', on People
Rule, we all thank God for third albums! |
