The Normal

“Warm Leatherette” b/w “t.v.o.d.” (Mute)
by Nik Rainey

If you’re after a less daunting bit of dystopian proto-electro, lookie here: In honor of Mute Records’ 20th anniversary, the label’s first-ever single, “Warm Leatherette” b/w “t.v.o.d.” by The Normal (nom de studio of Mute majordomo Daniel Miller), is being re-released. Well worth your coin, too: The a-side (later junked by Grace Jones) makes a nice minimalist percolator-pop song out of J.G. Ballard’s Crash 1/40th the time it took Cronenberg to make the same point, while the flip (this is old folks’ jargon, kiddies – there’s no need to turn the CD over) celebrates couch-potatodom years before Black Flag had their first TV party and drew the cathode-tube-as-opiate comparison way ahead of the Beatnigs/Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, and again, far more succinctly. Nice use of the rotary channel-changing dial as percussion device to boot. (Another oldster thing – I don’t even think I remember those too well…)