Recently the electronic music world lost one of its truly great luminaries. Mark Shreeve was one of my all-time heroes from the moment I discovered his work; while his very early work on cassette owed a lot to the Berlin school, his 1983 LP Assassin was a massive jolt of adrenaline to a sleepy genre, and its followups Legion and Crash Head took things completely over the top, with roaring synths and guitars, screaming leads, massive drums, and sound effects and samples straight out of horror-movie nightmares. From co-writing Samantha Fox’s first hit “Touch Me” to a set of five library-music albums whose tracks have appeared on movie and television soundtracks worldwide to his 1995 magnum opus Nocturne, Mark was an original, and his death at 65 was a shock to us all.
When I recently eulogized Mark on my Facebook feed, I received a very kind note from Ashok Prema, the owner of Champagne Lake, the label that had released Mark’s live album Collide. Recorded at the EMMA Festival in 1994, it premiered some tracks from Nocturne and included many old favorites and a couple of songs never heard elsewhere. Ashok generously contributed Collide to our library, and to celebrate Mark’s addition to the RadioSpiral pantheon, tonight I will play the concert in its entirety.
I also received thanks from Mark’s old friend Ian Boddy, a highly successful electronic musician in his own right who had worked with Mark in the duo ARC. Ian granted permission for me to select from the ARC discography on his DiN Records label for tonight’s show, and I chose Radio Sputnik, a live ARC performance from the Alfa Centauri festival in 1998.
Each concert is a bit over an hour long, and while I will keep my voiceovers minimal (and have removed my theme music for tonight), the show will still run a bit long. I hope you’ll join me in celebrating the all-too-short life of an amazing musician with some truly kick-ass music.
Come join the conversation in our Discord, visit us in Second Life, or just listen in. We start at 6 PM SLT / PST. See you then!
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