SONG OF THE DAY

“Once You Got Me Going” by Debby Black­well (The Blank Gen­er­a­tion — Blank Tapes NYC 1971 — 1985, Strut Records, 2010).

LINKS

• Ama­zon link to the album
• Vil­lage Voice arti­cle on album release, March 9th, 2010

PRESS RELEASE FROM STRUT RECORDS

The first ever album ret­ro­spec­tive of one of New York’s most revered of all pro­duc­ers, Bob Blank, this album traces the his­tory of his inde­pen­dent stu­dio, Blank Tapes, one of the city’s most impor­tant cre­ative dens dur­ing the vibrant arts scene of the mid-‘70s to mid-‘80s.

Blank started out in New York in 1973 as a gui­tarist before pro­duc­ing one of the first 12″ disco records in ‘75 – Jimmy Sabater’s ‘To Be With You’. He opened his own Blank Tape stu­dios a year later. He quickly became an essen­tial port of call for New York’s diverse artis­tic com­mu­nity, hon­ing the freeform, anar­chic visions of August Dar­nell, Cristina and Lydia Lunch for ZE Records and, with pro­duc­ers Patrick Adams and Greg Carmichael, help­ing to shape the sound of many disco clas­sics. Musique, Inner Life, Instant Funk and Sal­soul Orches­tra all recorded clas­sics at Blank Tapes. Arthur Rus­sell also recorded much of his most cel­e­brated disco-related out­put at the stu­dios under pseu­do­nyms Dinosaur L, Indian Ocean and Felix, as well as ‘Wax The Van’ with Blank’s wife, Lola. Other reg­u­lars at Blank Tapes included Latin pro­ducer Tito Rodriguez, whose Cha­ranga 76 and Eddie Palmieri record­ings with Blank would receive Grammy nominations.

These days, Blank has forged a very dif­fer­ent career, record­ing sound-alike tracks for library music and karaoke. He has also devel­oped a suc­cess­ful career in ball­room danc­ing, land­ing national senior titles with part­ner Martha Estevez in 2006 and 2007.

Strut, in the label’s first col­lab­o­ra­tion with Bill Brew­ster and Frank Broughton’s DJ His­tory, cel­e­brate Blank’s time at Blank Tapes with an exclu­sive com­pi­la­tion, cov­er­ing the many facets of his work. We fea­ture the very first track ever recorded at the stu­dio, Mil­ton Hamilton’s ‘Crys­tal­ized’, anthems includ­ing Fonda Rae’s ‘Over Like A Fat Rat’ and lesser known Blank clas­sics from the vaults from Debby Black­well and Mikki.

The pack­age fea­tures an exten­sive inter­view with Bob Blank about his career in music, by Bill Brew­ster, along­side rare archive pho­tos from Blank’s per­sonal archive.

For more infor­ma­tion visit: www.theblankgeneration-blanktapes.com

What press says.…
“A per­fect snap­shot of one cor­ner of New York’s vital cre­ative com­mu­nity.” The Wire

“A unique tal­ent and a unique point in the life of New York.” Clash

“Every now and then, a com­pi­la­tion arrives that com­mands far more than its fair share of air­play on the Esquire stereo. The first ever album ret­ro­spec­tive of one of New York’s most revered of all pro­duc­ers, Bob Blank, is one of those rare albums.”

“If you were a young, out-of-pocket group look­ing for qual­ity record­ing and pro­duc­tion work, there was one go-to stu­dio and one in-house pro­ducer to rely on — Bob Blank and Blank Tapes.” xlr8r

VIDEO OF THE DAY