Between avant-garde, art pop and experiment: visionary to eccentric of the British exceptional duo.
Already at the youth, the singer/songwriter Kevin Godley and LOL Creme got to know each other, who were involved in various amateur bands in the area of Manchester in various amateur bands from the late fifties. They also presented themselves as inseparable after their spectacular departure at the British Art Pop Quartet 10cc. In the BoxSet Parts of the Process: The Complete Godley & Creme, your frequent intricate career path is drawn up using 105 tracks on eleven CDs. All seven studio albums including a disc with non-album tracks and 7-inch versions, a bonus disc with extended mixes and a 28-page booklet with an essay by Liam Newton, the author of the biography “10cc-The Worst Band in the World”.
In October 1977 the excited triple vinyl debut Consequences (3.5 stars) appeared, with 111 minutes length a fairly ambitious concept: half avant-garde, half-abysmal radio play, which, like a cooperation of 10CC with Monty Python, the Moody Blues from the middle creative phase and the Bonzo Dog DOO-BAND Less linear moments of the Firesign Theater. The British comedian Peter Cook took over all voices of the various characters, the record company Phonogram enabled the participation of the jazz icon Sarah Vaughan.
The bar was quite high for Godley & Creme
The monumental work also appeared in slimmed -down versions, for example as a musical excerts from conequences (1977) and Music From Consquences (1979), which did not increase the acceptance on the part of the public. Godley & Creme asserted themselves as bizarre anti-hero and original innovators in insider circles as well as the burgeoning punk and new wave movement. However, there could be no question of former successes such as 10CC, which were still present in the charts in the charts. The bar was quite high for Godley & Creme.
With seven songs and almost 35 minutes of play, the L (1978) (4 stars), which was recorded with Roxy Musics Multi -Instrumentalist Andy Mackay, marked the departure from the bulky opulence of the predecessor. Stylistically clearly based on Zappa plants such as over-nite sensation and apostrophe, 10CC also shimmered through: an amalgam from jazz fusion and art pop with the help of the latest electronics. The duo achieved a respectable success with the more accessible Freeze Frame from 1979 (5 stars). Sounding innovative thanks to Eventide Harmonizer and Drum Machines, Roxy Musics Phil Manzanera and Paul McCartney participated, the single “An Englishman in New York” also reached the charts in this country.
Godley & creams avant-garde pop was actually ahead of its time in 1980
Godley & Cremes Avantgarde pop was actually ahead of his time in 1980, catchy rap vocals and electronic sounds from the Fairlight CMI made ISMISM (5 stars), titled Snack Attack in the USA. Which was also due to single dropouts such as “Under Your Thumb”, “Wedding Bells” and “Snack Attack”, which were mainly bumped into oven in Great Britain. The time finally seemed ripe for electronic experiments and postmodern gimmicks, but despite the successful singles “Samson” and “Save a Mountain for Me”, the high -quality successor Birds of Prey (4 stars) from 1983 was more of an insider tip.
The History Mix Volume 1 (4 stars) generated the global charts hit “Cry” in 1985, with eccentric remixes of 10cc and their former band Hotlegs, the two proved again as a newer-increasingly also apart from music. Godley & Creme has long been considered innovative video clip directors, on the one hand for their own works, on the other hand for acts such as Frankie goes to Hollywood, The Police, Culture Club, Duran Duran, Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush. When Goodbye Blue Sky (3 stars) was hardly noticed in 1988 despite promising decoupling such as “A Little Piece of Heaven” and “10,000 Angels”, the previously inseparable separate ways.
Was that? Not entirely: Creme joined the Art of Noise synth pop band in 1998, Godley continued his work as a video producer. What remains? An over -ordinary work in the truest sense of the word, which is adequately recognized on Parts of the Process: The Complete Godley & Creme. But also of an oven beard: spinning ideas and advanced sounds may advance pop culture as a whole – but Godley & Creme did not always succeed.
You can find out which albums were published in February 2025 via our monthly publication list.