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Osborne: Records That Shaped My Life :: Ann Arbor producers goes from d'n'b to deep house and disco

By URB Photography by N/A

05/15/08 :: URB web

Osborne's debut album "Osborne" for Spectral Sound is a celebration of all that is good in American house and techno music: past, present and future. This lego-sculpting, electron microscope-owning, Japanese speaking über-producer puts this joy of life and the art of making into his music.

Rhythm Heritage - Theme From S.W.A.T (1975)
I bought this 7" when I was about 3 years old. I loved the music more than the actual show. The only part I would watch is the intro with all the SWAT fellas jumping out of the van; guns and funk!
A couple of years later I bought the "Theme from CHiPs" by Corniche and played it all the time. A lot of the copies were messed up so I had to buy three from K-Mart until I found one that didn't skip. Now CHiPs I really liked and watched all the time. I had a Panasonic cassette player that I would hang on my handlebars playing music and my friend and I would ride side by side through the neighborhood doing curb jumps. Adam 12 and Emergency were great as well; I never cared for Starsky & Hutch.

Electric Light Orchestra - Discovery (1979)
This was maybe the first record where I really appreciated the packaging. The girl with the "Simon"-looking thing running through the desert seemed like there was a deeper story there. Even though the music didn't seem to relate to the cover Jeff Lynne's over-the-top production made the whole package larger than life. The string arrangements are great, the drums on "Don't Bring Me Down" are out of control, and the vocoder on "Horace Wimp" was the best thing I had ever heard!
I actually have cassettes of me around '77 playing "Mr Blue Sky" from the Out of the Blue LP along with disco records and talking in between. At some points I even play a recorder or something on top. Of course I also had the clear green "Telephone Line" 45; I love my soft rock.

The Cure - Boys Don't Cry (1979)
I didn't buy this record until probably 1983 or so. After this I just went Cure-crazy and bought anything I could get my hands on. Oddly enough (since I was a kid), I didn't really relate to the gloominess I just thought they made some great pop songs. I think I also needed to fill a void after I stopped collecting Duran Duran records, haha.

Talking Heads - Once In a Lifetime (1980)
I bought this and Devo's "Whip It" at the same time. I had gone to my friends house and I saw both of the videos on TV. I don't know if there was cable yet or what program it was on. Both of these bands looked like they were out of their minds and the music was incredible so I had to have them immediately. I had heard "Mongoloid" by Devo before this but I remember thinking it was a novelty song because it was playing on some radio show like Dr. Demento.

New Order - Everything's Gone Green (1981)
This is a single my dad bought with me. I guess we co-own it, haha. I loved the pop bits to New Order and the hint of electronics made it even more interesting, a bit dark and futuristic. Ever since this record every New Order release goes straight to my dad after I've listened to it.

Dead Kennedys - Plastic Surgery Disasters (1982)
My friend Nick Houle turned me on to them around '87 because we were all skating around this time and would bring a boombox wherever we went. He had given me a lot of Dead Kennedys tapes and I wasn't all that into them but when I heard this I totally "got" it. This had to also be some of the first music that made me start thinking and pay attention to what was being really being said.

Art of Noise – Beat Box (1983)
I was buying and taping TONS of music to breakdance to around this time. I went to this record store in Jackson, Michigan because my friend had found a 12" of Herbie Hancock "Rockit" there that was longer than the version I had... so I had to get it, obviously. Around this time I'd go to the store and buy any 45 or 12" that seemed interesting. I remember I bought it thinking it might be a cover of Run DMC's "Beat Box" whose LP I had just bought and that was my favorite track on there at the time. It turns out it was just an incredible original track. Having "Moments In Love" on the flip is a nice bonus, too.

Egyptian Lover - Egypt, Egypt (1984)
The gold label one on Freak Beat was the one I had. All four tracks are killer. I talked my dad into buying this, a cassette of Cybotron "Clear" LP, and the 12-inch of Doug E Fresh "The Show" because he had heard the Egyptian Lover track on a Wizard (Jeff Mills) radio show I had taped and was breakdancing to. The Doug E. Fresh record was one of the first with the "Parental Advisory" and it was printed right on the label so my dad had to listen to it first and give me the OK.

Word Of Mouth feat DJ Cheese - King Kut (1985)
I used to hear The Wizard play this every night and ran right out and scooped it up along with Pumpkin "King of the Beat" (also on Profile). I only had one Fisher turntable so around this time was when I started trying to do tape-edits. Really this entry could be anything around this time: Twilight 22, Newcleus, Aleem, Planet Patrol, etc. because every Wizard mix was just so great.

808 State - Pacific (1989)
This really did it for me as far electronic music. There was a lot of house and electro I liked up to this point but this was the first thing I had heard that made me wish I could make music like that. Afterwards I tracked down every 808 State release in every format I could find but nothing had the impact on me like that first EP and this track in particular. A total classic and an obvious choice but it can't be denied. Of course, there's million more records I'm leaving out...