''The Techno Rose of Blighty'' is the debut album by British

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

group

Fluke Fluke may refer to: Biology * Fluke (fish), a species of marine flatfish * Fluke (tail), the lobes of the tail of a cetacean, such as dolphins or whales, ichthyosaurs, mosasaurs Mosasaurs (from Latin ''Mosa'' meaning the 'Meuse', and Greek ...

, released in 1991. The name is based upon '' Blighty'', being slang for

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

; and parodies the title of the song " The Yellow Rose of Texas"; it is also ironic, as the album is not particularly

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...

-based. The album was re-released as LP edition in 1993 at Circa Records with bonus tracks.

Overview

Before forming Fluke, Jon Fugler and Mike Bryant had played in two punk bands together named The Leaky Radiators and The Lay Figures. The third member of Fluke, Mike Tournier, was introduced to the group when he undertook work on a collaboration with Fugler entitled "Skin". It soon became clear that all three shared musical tastes, having a shared interest in the acid house scene and the more experimental electronic sounds of Cabaret Voltaire and Giorgio Moroder.''Six Wheels on My Wagon Inlay Sheet'', "Fluke are: Mike Bryant, Mike Tournier, Jonathan Fugler, Julian Nugent". Fluke's first single, released in 1988, was a white label vinyl entitled "Island Life", pressed on a clear blue 12" vinyl record. Although a commercial failure, as well as being very different in sound to the band's later works, the group persisted and released another two white label vinyls: "Thumper!" () in 1989 and "Joni/Taxi" in 1990, a song that sampled

Joni Mitchell Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell ( Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian-American musician, producer, and painter. Among the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitchell became known for her sta ...

's " Big Yellow Taxi". The attention that these records received gained the band a record deal with Creation Records with whom they released their first CD single "

Philly Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

" in the same year. In the following year, Fluke released their first album, ''The Techno Rose of Blighty'', swiftly followed by the single " The Bells" and a live album entitled '' Out (In Essence)''. For the release of ''Out (In Essence)'', Fluke abandoned their deal with Creation Records and signed instead with Circa Records, an offshoot of

Virgin Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...

. All tracks on ''Out'' came from ''The Techno Rose of Blighty'' and were recorded live at Destination Moon, an

acid house Acid house (also simply known as just "acid") is a subgenre of house music developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago. The style is defined primarily by the squelching sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synthesiz ...

party held at the

Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

’ manor house.''One Little Indian Records'', ''Fluke Biography''
link
. At this time it was also considered somewhat of a pioneering step for an electronic band to record a live album with band member Jon Fugler commenting, "Nobody believed a dance band could play live. It was a time when you didn’t know if the computer would last the whole show." At this early stage in their career, the band realized that they would experience the greatest artistic freedom if they had their own recording studio and took it upon themselves to obtain their own premises. This was an asset which, according to Fugler, proved invaluable in coordinating the "wider pool of people — musicians and friends — that we draw on to help".

Track listing

# "Philly" – 7:06 # "Glorious" – 5:53 # "Cool Hand Flute" – 3:54 # "Joni" – 5:15 # "Easy Peasy" – 4:09 # "Phin" – 6:30 Bonus tracks from 1993 LP edition # "Jig" - 5:03 # "Taxi" - 4:10 # "Coolest" - 2:50 A 2-disc set consisting of this album and '' Six Wheels on My Wagon'' was released, featuring all nine tracks of this album on one disc and ''Six Wheels'' on the second.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Techno Rose Of Blighty, The Fluke (band) albums 1991 debut albums Astralwerks albums