Kylie Minogue song about a typeface | Hacker News Reader

Kylie Minogue song about a typeface

abcdinamo.com

257 pointsfauverism82 comments

A Japanese house producer ex-member of Deee-Lite making a house track about a techno typeface sung by Kylie Minogue is the most late 90s thing I can imagine. It's like a rave flyer spontaneously gained sentience.

Damn I miss the 90s.

Me too .. but at this point in our timeline it's not exactly for "nostalgic" reasons.

The Matrix setting their simulated society in the late Nineties as the optimum time seems prescient now.

The peak of human civilization, before robots took over.

Honestly, I kinda miss when pop culture wasn't afraid to get this weird

If you don’t know Towa Tei, you might recognise him from Deee-Lite (“Groove is in the Heart”). Personally, I prefer his side project Sweet Robots Against the Machine. But he’s also an excellent DJ, YouTube throws up a load of clips of him having fun on the decks.

Both Towa Tei and Minogue super futuristic if not cyberpunk before it even was a thing.

Kylie Minogue's first album was released 4 years after Neuromancer was published.

technically, you are right. whats more

"The word "cyberpunk" was coined by writer Bruce Bethke, who wrote a story with that title in 1980."

but this was not even as subculter, yet alone a thing people recognized. to me Neuromancer also marks the onset of cyberpunk culture, but Kylie Minogue was among the few artists such as Bjork, who seemed to be bold enough to explore it artistically.

> super futuristic if not cyberpunk

Probably closer to retro-futurism x club culture

You might also recognize a few samples from/shared with "Groove is in the Heart" (at 0:30 and 3:39) in "GBI (German Bold Italic)" (at 0:25 and 3:19). (Timestamps are for the YouTube music videos, which have short introductions not found on the album tracks)

https://www.whosampled.com/sample/8483/Towa-Tei-Kylie-Minogu...

https://www.whosampled.com/sample/426057/Towa-Tei-Kylie-Mino...

This story always cracked me up, but SEGA totally got away with it..

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/deee-lite-singer-loses-seg...

1. I find the actual typeface made for the track rather pretty. Definitely of an era, but given how in that era's graphic design is right now I'm surprised I haven't seen more of it out and about

2. Sadly the article neglects to mention Haroumi Hosono, whose vocals are also on the track. If you haven't checked out his work, either solo or with YMO, it's well worth a listen.

The site is too hard to navigate (I couldn’t find the reject cookies button, so there was a giant hand taking up half my screen). Do you happen to recall what the actual typeface was called?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GBI_(German_Bold_Italic)

(1) My respect towards Kylie Minogue, who I don't remember ever listening to, just got a boost. Maybe I should check out her other songs!

(2) The page has the most playful "Accept cookies?" control of what I've encountered so far.

Just be warned. You might find you can't get her out of your head.

You should be so lucky.

It's a song lyric joke.

Both are:

- Can't Get You Out of My Head: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Can%27t_Get_You_Out_of_My_He...

- I Should Be So Lucky: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Should_Be_So_Lucky

Oh damn. Haha.

I know you'll get to like it if you give it a chance now.

You can confide in me.

Gut ja

AKA The stalking song

Fun fact, if you recognize Nick Cave’s “Where the Wild Roses Grow”, then you have heard Kylie Minogue - she sang in the duet[1][2]. I remember being surprised when I learned about it.

This is also the “murder ballad” that the article refers to.

> In 1995 she collaborated on a murder ballad duet with Nick Cave

[1]: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lDpnjE1LUvE

[2]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_the_Wild_Roses_Grow

The album was also called "murder ballads", as it contained murder ballads.

Great song though I’m surprised you didn’t immediately recognise her voice in it.

There’s a few an interesting tracks on that album. I quite liked “Death is not the end”, which I think was the last track on Murder Ballards and also features Kylie (amongst a few others).

Nick Cave encouraged Kylie to read hear lyrics at a public poetry reading. She got up and read I should be so lucky. I respect her for that

I could imagine how surreal that would be, having the neighbours soap star turned #1 music star, reading at your local poetry jam.

Kylie Minogue is, as far as pop music goes, awesome. Her stage shows are fantastic, and you should see the massive mobile server park and crew of nerds that runs it all. Pushing the envelope of stage shows as a product for sure.

If anybody now anybody, summoning someone on her tech team to tell us about what goes on would be really great.

Could you please provide some examples about this?

There's a documentary called "White Diamond", filmed alongside her prep for her "Showgirl: Homecoming" (the previously-cancelled leg of her "Showgirl" tour, after she had to interrupt it for cancer treatment). Much of it is of course focused on Minogue herself and her battle with the disease & return to form, but it also has behind the scenes content on how the show itself is put together, including some footage in the server room.

I've seen similar reporting here and there in TV coverage of her show prep and so on, after an accidental viewing of "White Diamond" made me an interested party.

Kylie Minogue is the only female artist who had a #1 album in the UK in five consecutive decades (!), something even Madonna didn't manage to.

Edit, the article says “across”, not a #1 album in every decade. In the 90s she only reached #4.

https://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyle/thats-crazy-kylie-...

In the 90s she was busy being in movies and video games (including the acclaimed Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game)

And in 2007, a Doctor Who episode featuring the Titanic... In space!

That Doctor Who episode was my introduction to the serie. <3

Too bad the playful “Accept cookies” button didn’t have a “no” option.

I just used the reader mode button...

That was a cool button though

Her music video directed by Michel Gondry is worth a look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63vqob-MljQ

For 2001 it has a rather striking effect. Kylie is walking around a circular area in Paris over and over and everything multiplies each time she completes a loop. It's a very clever effect given the technology of the time. By the end of the video there are five Kylies walking around loosely interacting with each other and the world in odd ways.

Wow. I know the song but have never seen the video. So creative and mesmerizing.

That's Gondry at his most Gondryesque. There are connected themes in some of his other music videos:

The Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S43IwBF0uM

The Chemical Brothers - Let Forever Be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5FyfQDO5g0

Daft Punk - Around The World https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0HSD_i2DvA

The White Stripes - The Hardest Button To Button - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4dx42YzQCE

> The White Stripes - The Hardest Button To Button - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4dx42YzQCE

(it's my birthday today, so I think I'm allowed to post a)

'Simpsons did it': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUx3kDnT-p8

chances are you have at least heard "the locomotion" without knowing who sang it - I remember that song being played everywhere!

To the point King Charles is a fan

King co-wrote the song!

(Carole King that is)

As an Australian I've have repressed childhood trauma from being forced to dance to Kylie's "The Locomotion" over and over again in Primary school, it was the Macarena of it's time...

She collaborated with Nick Cave in the mid 90's which was a massive hit, it was all over radio at the time.

Confide in Me is one of her best, but she has quite a few reliable pop hits. She also did a song with Nick Cave that is worth a listen.

Never thought I would see Kylie Minogue on HN; what a nice surprise.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41562904

Same for Towa Tei.

I just can't get Roboto my head...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Fw2Labli4k

I have a friend that's a retired music industry exec, and he loves it when I send gems I get from here, to him.

Sharing it.

Before Southern Cross, there was Seven League Boots https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNEpFrOWooE

Always cool when something from HN sparks nostalgia or uncovers a gem

Papyrus (SNL) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVhlJNJopOQ

Papyrus 2 (SNL) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8PdffUfoF0

Helvetica - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zis-1z8jc60

Sadly, that live version is the only one I can find streaming anywhere. The album version (which I have on CD) uses a sample of a dot matrix printer to play the part that the brushed snare does on that live version.

Holy shit! I've never seen those before. Thanks for the literal LOL.

Ryan Gosling is such a great comedic actor.

And the handle-comment synergy is chef's kiss :-)

More typeface-related fun:

Neutra Face: An Ode On A Typeface (parody of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face")

https://youtu.be/xHCu28bfxSI?t=18

Behind the Typeface: Cooper Black

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZmdf8A9Ex8

Maybe one day she’ll be moved to sing by the simple elegance of my take on the classic 3278-2 terminal font.

One can only dream!

Dream we must.

And then there are the similarities, both video and song, between Can’t Get You Out Of My Head and Doll on a Music Box/Truly Scrumptious from the UK musical/movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang… There was a mashup floating around somewhere, years ago. Probably lost.

I will find this for you if it takes me a year. Bookmarked this comment.

It’ll be on soulseek. Most forget it exists.

I'm hitting up all my sources and activating my music-finding sleeper agents. Soulseek as a last result but it's probably there.

How is it possible that I can't find this. I found my dads highschool friends garage band from eastern europe from 1960 on my trackers but can't find this.

Google hits for last-century-modern.ttf appear completely unrelated. But I guess that album/track name is a bit self referential? (there's also a remix LCM following the pattern of the earlier GBI)

This reminds me of the tweet where someone said their favourite font was "Ariana Grande".

I thought of The Concretes song, Fiction. The only song I knew that referred to a font ("This font should be bold.").

https://youtu.be/x-403FWsujw

This song is in my library, completely forgot about it, thanks for bringing it back to me.

Some other artists I can recommend with similar specific Japanese vibes, Denki Groove and Yellow Magic Orchestra are really good.

great subject let down by an annoyingly weak article that focuses on memes for whatever reason.

another great unexpected music x font crossover is gucci mane tweeting about "Times New Roman"

"Whitney Mallett on That Kylie Minoque x Towa Tei Track"

Has the author misspelled Kylie's surname in the article heading or am I missing something?

It's the submitted title on HN. Her name is correct in the article itself.

an absolute classic... love towa tei <3

I had no idea a song like GBI even existed, let alone that it came with its own font!

Product market fit. Kylie has it.

This title really sounded like it was going to be about Suno.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com