Track Listing

1. So Far So Real - Gray
2. K Pasa-Pop I - Kid Creole & the Coconuts, Coati Mundi
3. Desire - Tuxedomoon
4. Cavern - Liquid Liquid
5. Blonde Redhead - DNA
6. Sax Maniac - James White & The Blacks
7. I'm a Doggy - Marvin Pontiac
8. Contort Yourself - James White & The Blacks
9. Drum Mode - Gray
10. Closet - Lydia Lunch
11. Palabras con Ritmo - Jean Michel Basquiat, , , Coati Mundi
12. Bob the Bob - The Lounge Lizards
13. Tangita - Pablo Calogero
14. Mr. Softee - Kid Creole & the Coconuts
15. Cheree - Suicide
16. Detached - DNA
17. 15 Minutes - Chris Stein
18. Copy - Plastics
19. New Day - Walter Steding & The Dragon People
20. 81 - Melle Mel
21. Beat Bop - K Rob, , Rammellzee
22. Downtown [Trailer][*][Multimedia Track]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #153641 in Music
• Released on: 2007-11-06
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Enhanced, Soundtrack

Amazon.com
What a fantastic trip down memory lane this is! As its title suggests, Downtown 81 is mostly set in New York's East Village and Lower East Side in the early '80s; the movie follows Jean (played by then-unknown painter Jean-Michel Basquiat) through blasted streets looking like war zones and in clubs pulsing with ear-melting music. The CD careers from post-punk abrasion (DNA's "Blonde Redhead" and "Detached"), to proto-electronics (Suicide's "Cheree," Plastics' "Copy"), to Latin- and disco-tinged danceathons that make contemporary would-be funksters sound downright pallid (Kid Creole & the Coconuts with Coati Mundi's "K Pasa-Pop I"). And then there's James Chance's "Sax Maniac," which bring both approaches together in a skronky, funky explosion. The most famous melody here may well be the bass line from Liquid Liquid's "Cavern," which was famously sampled on Grandmaster Flash's "White Lines." The intensity is often furthered by the fact that some of these are live versions, and the quality level is really high throughout. A great collection for fans of inventive, hard-to-classify music, and a worthy complement to Soul Jazz's New York Noisecompilations. --Elisabeth Vincentelli

Customer Reviews

Incredible, essential
You'd be hard pressed to find latin funk mingling with art rock, electro, hip hop and ambient in today's East Village. This album is a brilliant collection of a unique, pre-Juliani/Disney New York City moment where art, music, fashion, and the scene came together in a vibrant pastiche of sounds, attitudes and colors.

All the tracks are worth listening to and are completely varied but still cohesive. Standouts are the Kid Creole and Coati Mundi tracks, which put early Talking Heads into perspective, Suicide's "Cheri" (sexy Jesus & Mary style dirge), and DNA's post punk freakout song Blond Redhead.

Check out the movie too. It's a brilliant, slightly cheesey and strange time capsule, more about mood and vibe than plot. The filmmakers were unwitting witnesses to the last great art movement in NYC.