THE CHRIS GARLAND ARCHIVE: BACKTRAX 1977 - 2008

When I was first asked to compile an 'archive' of my past musical activities I initially said no, indeed I had always resisted offers to 'reform/re-mix/re-record/re-visit’ anything from the past. Not because I did not feel that some of it was very good and stood up well to the test of time, but because I had an aversion to ‘backtracking’- cover versions (even my own) and particularly re-forming old bands which seemed and indeed still seems to me to be abject fakery that either serves to feed the ego and or delusions of grandeur of the artists involved, or is simply a desperate attempt to make some much needed cash!

The last few years has seen a flood of names from the past desperately trying to re-create the 'instant karma' and vitality of their youth. All (not some but all), seemed and indeed looked like dodgy old second hand car salesman in shiny suits or equally dodgy blokes from cover bands performing their old material. This includes people I once loved like ABC & HEAVEN SEVENTEEN, HUMAN LEAGUE and even people like THE GANG OF FOUR, THE SLITS, NEW ORDER and THE BUZCOCKS, (all of whom should have known better) joined the 'geriatric beat party'!

What none of these people and many more seem to have realized, is that the music, the sound, look, style, 'creative karma', is an expression of a wonderful magical moment in time! You cannot go back twenty or thirty years later and re-create it! This is just fakery! The original recordings can be listened to and enjoyed forever, and indeed re-discovered by each new generation! but any attempt to re-create the music or indeed the style either by the original artists or by people who were possibly not even born at the time, is a sad third rate unimaginative parody and fake, however cleverly and professionally it is done and packaged. There is far too much retro around, and it is boring and dull, the point it to create the future! (It’s called creativity and imagination) Not mindlessly copy the past!

It seems that to many people have just the one idea and continue churning out increasingly lackluster versions of it forever! Or, failing to have a style of their own they just imitate other peoples and try to pass it if as their own, which is very much the current state of ‘pop’ culture! Artists of course like the eternally magnificent KRAFTWERK, never split up or indeed reformed they just continued as the timeless and inspiring 'MENSCH MACHINE' they are!

As for myself! having been asked about five or six years ago to re-form U-BahnX for a TOUR OF JAPAN I refused, the money of course and the ‘cult like style icon’ adoration, would of course have been attractive! But! Ilona & I no longer were the people who did that, nor did we think, feel, or look like that! Equally important is the fact that again, what we did then reflected a moment in time, as have all the things I have selected for this ‘audio time machine’.

So this has been a musical history spread over thirty years, it has I must say been quite journey for me, revisiting both good and not so good memories. I have obviously been selective about what is featured here, some things I would like to have included are not featured as I know longer have the tracks/masters or indeed know where they are. However perhaps other things will turn up and can be included at a later date. Looking back on me, in those days, hmmmm! I'm not sure! Certainly a very different person (one hopes) to the one I am today! And probably more convinced about myself than I should have been! Anyway, I hope this 'history lesson' is interesting and entertaining, it certainly has been for me!