202 Machine

[discodjinn]

Does anyone know where 202 Machine were from? "Get Up" features Jocelyn Brown but the production sounds non-US...

[STEPHEN L FREEMAN]

I know the US 12", on Fire Sign Records, came before Canada's Lotus/Unidisc release.
And the song was Produced "for Fire Sign Ltd/BMI", which all points to an original US production.

[RetroRuss]

I played this record on Monday night's show! A quick scan at: http://www.discomusic.com/records-more/6089_0_2_13_C/ does indeed to suggest this is a US release. Great tune from 1979, I remebered it from the clubs in London.

[discodjinn]

Well I'm thrown by the mix on the flip side called "Import Version."

[remicks]

Well I'm thrown by the mix on the flip side called "Import Version."

Where it was recorded ...don't know ... but apparently it was making the rounds in Europe first , in 1979... before showing up on Fire Sign in its restructured US version in '81....the difference being in their middles -
the import version (Germany) is more organic sounding featuring bongos and whistle blowing , & echoey vocals and an orgy of PING PING s :

IMPORT

in the non-import version - that break has been pulled out entirely, replaced with more of the core song accentuated with a jazzy keyboard accompaniment :

US

if you don't know this song by heart ....
you were likely not a a TROC regular circa 1981 ....,. (rolling eyes, tongue)


******

[discodjinn]

A label listing "Import Version" and a release date in Italy and now, you say, Germany in 1979, a full two years ahead of the US/Canadian release... something says European production to me. Jocelyn Brown's vocals were pasted to other Euro productions, like Change.

I agree this is a hot recording and am surprised it has such a mysterious history. Loeb and Arnell were rock producers and I wonder if they "produced" Get Up the way the Weisses "produced" Players Assocation and other acts on SAM, and Jacques Petrus "produced" High Fashion et al.

[PierreConstantin]

I think that the original version is from Italy (Baby records, 1979).
I've always wondered why they had such a strange name: on some pictures a girl is with two guys, one on each side and they both make the sign "two" with their fingers. OK, but what's the meaning of "202 machine"?

[PierreConstantin]

[BrunoRepublic]

The Baby Records release indicates it was licensed from Fire-Sign though.

As for what it means... "202" is one of the area codes for Washington DC, isn't it? It pre-dates Roland's MC-202, so it can't be a reference to that.

[PierreConstantin]

The Baby Records release indicates it was licensed from Fire-Sign though.

As for what it means... "202" is one of the area codes for Washington DC, isn't it? It pre-dates Roland's MC-202, so it can't be a reference to that.

Thanks for the info about the area code.

I don't think Fire Sign Ltd. really existed beyond being just a name. They put that on the record so people can think the recording is from the U.S. and not Europe (and that is in a way important for Europeans). Lies are not that uncommon on record sleeves: on the first Sheila B. Devotion's English album we can read it was recorded in London when it was actually recorded in Paris.
And Fire Sign wasn't either a real record label: the couple of records released under that name in 1981 just prove they were obscurities for dj's. and the name didn't had any importance. Anyway, the original 202 Machine 12" is from 1979 and it's not the one released under the label Fire Sign in 1981.

I still think the original comes from Baby records for another reason too: all the records released by this company are produced in Italy by them. Baby records didn't distribute records from other companies.

But of course I don't have more "real" information than you do on this mysterious release by 202 Machine. .

[PierreConstantin]

202 Machine, The — Get Up (Rock Your Body)

"They are Billy Arnell, Juanita Gordon and Steve Loeb. This 1981 track was their only recording which is on Fire-Sign Limited Records. This 12" single was produced by Arnell and Loeb and written by the group. It was first released in Italy on a 1979 7-inch on Baby Records. The arrangement of this song just yells, "Sleazy"; pounding at dancers who can't help but feel dirty and sweaty with it's all-encompassing, driving beat."

Taken from*http://clamsonahalfshell.blogspot.co.../202%20Machine

[BrunoRepublic]

There are two different versions of the Fire-Sign 12" though, one with a different b-side called "Only". Both have the same cat #.

AFAIK, it first got released in the US and Italy in 1979, then got remixed in Germany in 1980, and then got reissued in the US (and worldwide) with the "import version" in 1981.

Fire-Sign was a real label, albeit a very small one. The songwriters for "Rock Your Body" have a few other writing credits, mostly for rock productions.

I still think the original comes from Baby records for another reason too: all the records released by this company are produced in Italy by them. Baby records didn't distribute records from other companies.

Not entirely true; they released recordings by Alphaville and Max Berlins.

[SandraDee]

Jocelyn Brown's vocals were pasted to other Euro productions, like Change.

& Cerrone.