Venika – In The Fun

This record is absolutely bonkers. Has a strong industrial/EBM/electro feel but seems clearly in the Italo-Disco camp. Searing saxophone rips dripping in reverb and delay. Hard hitting snares and kicks. Vocals dripping in Italo emotion. Recommended.

Here’s a record you’ve probably never even heard of, much less heard. Technically, this is not even my record – it’s just on my racks for safe keeping. Back in the eighties, oh, how we used to hit the record stores. My pals and I all had the fever and we’d comb the bins at all the “right” stores, looking for the usual obsessions: Ultravox, OMD, Strawberry Switchblade. Sometimes it was a war of “who grabbed it first” if they only had one copy of that new import 12″ by Thomas Dolby. Still, we had fun back then. My friend Tom and I made a point of shopping together a lot after he got wheels: the infamous Mystery Machine II van.

One time we were in a store – I can’t which one now. It could have been Record City, or even Murmur Records. Tom pulled a 12″ by Venika; a woman neither of us had ever heard of before. Tom offered it for my inspection. A vaguely European model-type female, presumably Venika herself, adorned the cover. I pointed out that since it was issued on E’G Records; home of King Crimson, Eno, Fripp, Roxy Music, Bryan Ferry, and Killing Joke, it couldn’t be that bad! The odds were stacked in its favor. Way stacked in its favor. Being up for new kicks, Tom took the bait.

Fast forward many, many years, and I have the record on my racks. About ten years earlier, Tom had a stash of vinyl left after moving from point to point in his life [including England for a year] and his ex-roommate hadn’t been too careful in maintaining its integrity. I said let me grab what are intriguing obscurities for future digitization, and that way you know the records will be cared for to boot. I pulled the Venika single.

Sacre Coeur, what an amazing record this is. It’s badly sung, mixed, and recorded but I don’t care!!! It manages the rare trick of sounding awful, yet being wonderful. Why does it work for me? The lady’s full barreled vocal assault is packed with unfettered ion that knocks me off of my stool, that’s why. It sounds like it was made with just a saxophone, too much reverb and a Fairlight. Throw in a singer with more enthusiasm than technique [or talent] and make sure it’s engineered and produced by someone who has absolutely no idea how to make a record. Once you’ve done all of that, chances are you’ll have a mess instead of a record this compelling.

Honestly, this whole fershlugginer disc sounds like it was recorded, mixed, and mastered “in the red.” And like Howlin’ Wolf records from 55 years ago, it sounds thrilling! It’s a gut-bucket, torch song Italo-dance record!!!! The A-side is a four minute version and the B-side has a re-named, extended version of the A-Side; not remixed, just longer. Your guess is as good as mine as to why the title switch. Investigation has turned up little data on Venika. It’s suggested that she’s Italian. That makes a lot of sense. I’ve heard some Italian music that’s just sick with feeling, and let me tell you, enough feeling can overcome many obstacles in making a record; seemingly insurmountable obstacles like a lack of talent, originality, and technique. None of those traits are in evidence here, but like I said… I don’t care. I just wish there were a few more Venika records to listen to besides this one. In conclusion, I have to ask how in the hell did E’G put this record out?!? It is a complete anomaly for that label with no connections what so ever with their stable of artists! Was Venika David Enthoven’s mistress or something?!