80s HITS: Silicon Soul

RECORD TURNOVER 80s HITS #234

Today I have a recent discovery for you that came from an unusual direction. A streaming service threw this weird 2024 album by an ‘Edwiin Augustine’ at me. I immediately thought it sounded very 80s and after doing some research I found out it’s essentially the same record as an album by Silicon Soul from New York. This record is called Pouti and is listed as having come out on in 2003, and this one is also available on streaming platforms. So I’m assuming the ‘new’ upload is an attempt by the artists to circumvent some rights issues.

Now, there’s not a whole lot of info about Silicon Soul online, but they have a really old website that seems to have been updated some time in 2007. This tells us that the group was a duo formed in SoHo by musician Kenneth L. Schafer Jr. and Olgalyn Jolly, who was a musical artist on Broadway who toured around the world.

The page links some reviews that are long gone from the internet except one in German. From there I learnt a bit about the pair, who met in New York in 1980. K.L. Schafer (also recording solo as Dr. O Zone) had started building electronic instruments at 13 and studied electronic music in Rhode Island. Together with Jolly (also known as Jolly III) they recorded and released ”Who Needs Sleep Tonight” on their own label B.B. Tech Enterprises in 1981. Obviously people know about this obscure record because it goes for 100€ on discogs.

It received some attention on its 10th anniversary when DJ Hell remixed it and released on his label Disko Bombs. It makes a lot of sense when you hear it, because it has elements of early techno in its sound – just like Anne Clark’s ”Our Darkness” from a few years later.

Apparently the reissue meant that Silicon Soul appeared live again on the New York art scene, supporting a young Moby or even collaborating with Thurston Moore. What discogs doesn’t tell you is that their album Pouti was actually released in 1987 (also on their own label) and was most likely recorded in the intervening years since their debut 12”. The 2003 version in other words, is a reissue on Disko B.

It was preceded in 2002 with an acid techno release of edits of ”Beat Box Brain” from the same album, however with the track now called ”You Should Know How I Feel”. This got a release on Disko B as well in 2004, along with new remixes. Around this time I’m guessing Silicon Soul created the website, which includes a blog and some video shows with 3D animated versions of the band members. These are actually hilarious.

The site lists a couple of forthcoming releases from the duo, so they were probably working on new music. One was ”an electro-reggae oratorio performed at Knitting Factory” which sounds amazing. Unfortunately these never seem to have materialised. It might’ve been a problem for them with the name, because of the well-known house duo from Scotland called Silicon Soul. They had a big hit in 2001, but they’re arguably not active anymore.

Jolly is now busy as a knitwear designer, an interest she picked up while on tour in Japan in 1983. She says ”between gigs, I studied draping, pattern making, machine knitting technology and design at Parsons School of Design and the Fashion Institute of Technology, at home in New York City”. Still based in SoHo, she is the founder of the O! Jolly! brand .

Their 1987 record should be pure gold for fans of 80s producers like Lena Platonos and the output of Minimal Wave Records.