Before coming up with his James Hardway and Technova aliases in the mid-90s, David Harrow had already been recording under his given name for about 15 years. According to
obscure.co.nz:
His first recordings were created in Berlin in 1981/1982 when he was working with a woman called Anne Clark. The sound they created was soon termed new beat or industrial and along with DAF they kick started the European electronic dance scene. When Harrow visits Germany today, he is still hailed "The Godfather Of Techno".
Later in the 80s and into the 90s, Harrow would collaborate heavily with Genesis P-Orridge, Jah Wobble, and Adrian Sherwood. He also recorded an EP with singer Peter Hope of Sheffield band The Box in 1985, posted
here. Often overlooked, though, is the solo album he recorded in 1983 for release on Red Flame/10 Records ,
The Succession. Harrow assembled quite a band for the occasion: John White, a.k.a.
U.V. Pop (!), on guitar and saxophone, Roger Quail (of
The Box and the original ClockDVA lineup) on drums and percussion, Gary Malkin on bass (who? can't find any more info on him), and Janice Chaplin (?) on backing vocals. Harrow is credited with vocals, keyboards, guitar, and percussion. He is obviously not very comfortable as a singer: he tries out several different singing styles throughout the course of the album, but none quite fit. His compositional and instrumental skills, on the other hand, are already fully developed even on this early record. The track listing is:
- A1 Introduction
- A2 Without Sin
- A3 Driving Force
- A4 Our Little Girl
- A5 Here
- B1 Kick
- B2 Still Optimistic
- B3 Civilised
- B4 Belief
Get the vinyl rip here or here. (Links removed at artist's request: look for reissues!)
As a supplement to the previous post of David Harrow's 1983 solo album, The Succession, here are a couple 12-inch singles from his 80s solo career. "Our Little Girl" is taken from The Succession and extended by about a minute via the rather abrupt insertion of a drums-and-slap-bass break; the B-side is the non-LP "Reflections." From 1984, on Ink Records, we have the "No Easy Targets" 12-inch. On "Targets" Harrow adopts Stephen Mallinder's recitative vocal style and adds a snarl to it which makes for his most effective vocal performance, in my opinion. Pinkie Maclure contributes backing vocals. The B-side, "Complete Control (Night-Time Sleaze)" is a long instrumental with samples of movie dialog, and bass played by Mik Corr. Get both vinyl rips zipped together here or here. (Links removed at artist's request: look for reissues!)
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