Fortran 5 was an electronic music band active during the 1990s.
The band were made up of members David Baker and Simon Leonard, who had previously worked together on the music project known as I Start Counting. Around 1990, they had begun recording new material, and realised that the new music had a different sound compared to their previous electropop style. They decided to rename their project Fortran 5 in order to give their new dance/techno style a fresh start. The new project also involved the duo collaborating and working with a number of other artists. These included Kris Weston of The Orb, and Rod Slater from Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.
Edsel is pleased to announce the release of a comprehensive Five Star box set, which has been personally curated by DENISE PEARSON. Five Star were managed by their Father, Buster Pearson who harboured the idea that his talented children could be the UK's 1980s version of an older Jackson 5. Following an appearance on BBC One's Pebble Mill in 1983, Five Star signed to RCA Records then spent 1984 honing their craft and performing at numerous club PAs around the country…
The Ultimate Christmas Album, Vol. 5 collects more pop and rock holiday tunes, this time venturing further into the '70s and '80s with songs like Paul McCartney & Wings' "Wonderful Christmastime," Hall & Oates' "Jingle Bell Rock," and Barry Manilow's "It's Just Another New Year's Eve." The collection still features traditional pop chestnuts, including Dean Martin's "A Marshmallow World," Johnny Mathis' "The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)," and Andy Williams' "Sleigh Ride," but this volume's overall feel is more contemporary than classic. Other highlights include Manhattan Transfer's "A Christmas Love Song," the Waitresses' "Christmas Wrapping," the Tokens' "Little Drummer Boy," and the Jackson 5's "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus." If The Ultimate Christmas Album, Vol. 5 isn't necessarily the most coherent volume in the series, it's certainly one of the most interesting.
Canadian brass rock band Lighthouse were formed in Toronto 1969. Unusually, the band leader Ronn "Skip" Prokop was a drummer, he has played previously with artists such as Janis Joplin, Carlos Santana and Al Kooper before forming his first band The Paupers. Of these, the Kooper connection is probably the most significant, as the music of Lighthouse is based around a solid brass section and big arrangements, similar to those of Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago.
Prokop's ambitions were made clear from the outset when the first line up of Lighthouse had no less than 11 members. The were quickly picked up by RCA Victor, who release the bands self titled debut in 1969. Further albums followed quickly, but the punningly titled "Peacing it all together", their third release, would see the end of their relationship with RCA…
Konnecting… is a 15-track collection of electro-pop sings bringing together for the first time the works and three guises of electronic pioneers David Baker and Simon Leonard - I Start Counting, Fortran 5, Komputer.
Konnecting… tracks the duo's output from the first Mute release, Letters To A Friend (I Start Counting, 1984, produced by Daniel Miller), through to the club hit, Heart On The Line (Fortran 5, mixed by Vince Clarke), the Midnight Cowboy sampling Time To Dream (1993, Fortran 5) through to Komputer's paean to Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space (Valentina, 1997) to the very British electronic pop/folk music of Headphones And Ringtones and Like A Bird, from Komputer's 2007 release, Synthetik.