The system

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The System was an American synthesizer funk band from the 1980s.

Mic Murphy

Mic Murphy was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, grew up in New York, and formed his first group, Mic & The Soul Shakers , at the age of 14 . From the beginning, Mic used his own songs and avoided the usual starting program of bands to replay the tracks of other people: "Of course I was influenced by others too, my first own songs sounded like those of the Jackson Five."

During his time at Queens College, Mic played in a variety of groups: “Queens Jamaica is like the Village, it's the black rock and roll corner. A lot of musicians committed here, only then it was difficult to get recognized. People like Prince and Rick James weren't in sight yet. The black rock and roll clique focused on Jimi Hendrix and Sly & the Family Stone . "

Five years before he formed The System with David Frank , Mic was the musical head of the group Sass , in which he began to sing and play the guitar, self-taught as before . First record attempts with Sass preceded an intensive studio work, during which Mic also belonged to the vocal group on the gold LP of Change The Glow Of Love . Instead of earning a living as a taxi driver or furniture salesman, Mic survived the following time in a kind of universal apprenticeship in the music industry. He was a roadie, sound man, tour manager and tried as a producer: "In the end, the decision for the artistic and against the commercial side of the industry was an easy one for me."

David Frank

David Frank approached The System in other ways. Born in Dayton, Ohio, he began taking piano lessons at age seven. A year later, his family moved to Weston, a suburb of Boston . After leaving school, David studied at the renowned Berklee College of Music. "When I was younger, I actually wanted to be a classical pianist."

But then he supplemented the classic studies with excursions in rock. “Back then, psychedelic music was popular. My father bought me a Farfisa organ, which of course I immediately painted in fluorescent colors. ”As in Mic's first bands, David only played his own songs.

When Mic got into rock and roll, David focused on R&B and funk : "As white boys we played black music." David moved to New York by 1980 and initially struggled to get into the entrenched New York studio scene. So he began to play with club bands in New Jersey and worked for various live shows by other artists.

Mic was also in the audience at one of these gigs: “There was this keyboard player in the corner. Looked like an Ivy League , but he played crazy things. Then it clicked for me. "

And The System began.

The system

Mic and David started working together in May 1982. Without much agreement, they immediately found a common wavelength, or better, a common musical pulse. Her debut It's Passion was made within three days . Released shortly afterwards on Mirage Records, the song became a club hit in New York and Los Angeles and spread nationwide from there.

Working on the first LP Sweat became a pleasure for Mic and David. If one had an idea, the other found the right arrangement. If David said he was now writing an R&B piece, Mic would think of a rock shredder. And meanwhile the concept for joint appearances was ready.

The System can also be seen in the 1984 film Beat Street . They appear alongside Tina B, Brenda K. Starr and many others at the Roxy casting with Paul Pesco and Khris Kellow. The song for it was Baptize The Beat from the Beat Street soundtrack.

In 1984 the second LP called X-Periment came out, which contains songs like I Wanna Make You Feel Good or Lollipops And Everything . In the same year they contribute to the soundtrack of the hit film Beverly Hills Cop - I'll definitely get the title Rock 'n' Roll Me Again . The duo gained more and more popularity and produced many songs and even entire albums for some performers. These included British artists such as Howard Johnson or Phil Collins, American artists such as Angela Bofill, Evelyn "Champagne" King or Jeff Lorber, as well as Japanese artists such as Toshiki Kadomatsu or Takeshi Itoh.

The 1985 disco-funk single The Pleasure Seekers can be seen as one of the band's most innovative tracks, thanks to the intensive use of the new digital synthesizer technology (cf. Yamaha DX-7 and Roland D-50 ) of the 1980s was coined. This new sound was later used for example in the song Sussudio (1986) for Phil Collins. The System celebrated their greatest chart success in 1987 with the album Don't Disturb This Groove and the single of the same name. They made it to number 1 on the R&B charts and number 3 on the US pop charts.

In 1988 the single Coming To America was released for the soundtrack of the Eddy Murphy film of the same name , released in Germany under the title The Prince from Zamunda .

In 1989 the album Rhythm & Romance was released, from which tracks like Have Mercy or Midnight Special were decoupled.

In 1991 Mic Murphy released his first solo album Touch , on which David Frank was also represented. The System dissolves in the following years. In 2000 they came together again for the album ESP , which, however, could not build on previous successes.

In summer 2009 the album Unreleased Unleashed will be released online. It consists mainly of demos that were recorded for the album ESP , but never finished or published. The song Hole In My Love and the remix of You Are In My System were taken from the ESP album. Sonic Fire served as the b-side of several singles on I Wanna Make You Feel Good in 1984 . The unreleased track She Said Yes seems to be from the same year.

Members

  • Michael Murphy (vocals, guitar, songwriting)
  • David Frank (keyboards, synthesizers, songwriting)
  • Paul Pesco (guitar, songwriting)
  • Khris Khellow (keyboards, synthesizers)
  • Ben Bartson (drums, percussion)

Discography

  • 1983: Sweat (LP / CD) Mirage
  • 1984: X-Periment (LP / CD) Polydor
  • 1985: Pleasure Seekers (LP / CD) Mirage
  • 1987: Don't Disturb This Groove (LP / CD) Atlantic
  • 1989: Rhythm & Romance (LP / CD) Atlantic
  • 2000: ESP (CD) Town Sound
  • 2009: Unreleased Unleashed (Download) Science Lab

Singles / decouples

  • 1982: It's Passion
  • 1982: You Are in My System
  • 1983: Tu estas en mi systema (Spanish version of You Are in My System )
  • 1983: Sweat
  • 1984: Baptize the Beat
  • 1984: I Wanna Make You Feel Good
  • 1984: Promises Can Break
  • 1985: I Don't Run from Danger
  • 1985: The Pleasure Seekers
  • 1985: This Is for You
  • 1987: Come As You Are (Superstar)
  • 1987: Don't Disturb This Groove
  • 1987: House of Rhythm / Groove
  • 1987: Nighttime Lover
  • 1988: Coming to America
  • 1989: Have Mercy
  • 1989: I Wanna Be Your Lover
  • 1989: Midnight Special

production

  • 1983 - Attitude - Pump the Nation
  • 1983 - Attitude - I Wanna Get to Know You Better
  • 1983 Attitude Love Me Tonight
  • 1983 Attitude We Got the Juice
  • 1983 Attitude If You Could Read
  • 1983 - Attitude - It's Good for Me
  • 1983 - Attitude - We're Going Off
  • 1983 Howard Johnson My Way
  • 1983 Howard Johnson Jump into Fire
  • 1983 Howard Johnson Let's Take Time Out
  • 1983 Howard Johnson Missing You
  • 1983 Howard Johnson Much Too Much
  • 1983 Howard Johnson You're the One I've Needed
  • 1983 Howard Johnson Let This Dream Be Real
  • 1983 Howard Johnson Everywhere I Go
  • 1984 - Dr Otto & His Patients - The Beef
  • 1984 - Kamikaze - Tokyo Rose
  • 1984 Angela Bofill Let Me Be the One
  • 1984 - Angela Bofill - Can't Slow Down
  • 1984 Angela Bofill Who Knows You Better
  • 1984 - Angela Bofill - You're Always There
  • 1984 - Angela Bofill - Getting into Love
  • 1984 - Angela Bofill - No Love in Sight
  • 1984 - Angela Bofill - Love Me for Today
  • 1984 - Angela Bofill - This Is the Start
  • 1984 Chaka Khan This Is My Night
  • 1984 - Evelyn "Champagne" King - I'm So Romantic
  • 1984 - Evelyn "Champagne" King - So in Love
  • 1985 - Person To Person - High Time
  • 1985 Person To Person Love on the Rebound
  • 1985 - Person To Person - Turning Back the Pages
  • 1985 - Person To Person - Reputation
  • 1985 - Person To Person - Right from Wrong
  • 1985 - Person To Person - Still on My Mind
  • 1985 - Person To Person - Poison Street
  • 1985 - Person To Person - 4 AM
  • 1985 - Person To Person - Running Out
  • 1985 Annabella Lwin Don't Dance with Strangers
  • 1985 - Jeff Lorber - Best Part of the Night
  • 1985 - Jeff Lorber - Step by Step
  • 1985 - Jeff Lorber - On the Wild Side
  • 1985 - Jeff Lorber - Every Woman Needs It
  • 1985 - Jeff Lorber - Groovacious
  • 1985 Jeff Lorber This Is the Night
  • 1985 - Jeff Lorber - Pacific Coast Highway
  • 1985 Jeff Lorber It Takes a Woman
  • 1985 Jeff Lorber When You Gonna Come Back Home
  • 1986 - Annabella Lwin - High Powered Girl
  • 1986 - Pauli Carman - Dial My Number
  • 1986 - Pauli Carman - Lose Control
  • 1986 - Pauli Carman - Flashback
  • 1986 - Pauli Carman - Big on Pleasure
  • 1986 - Phil Collins - Sussudio
  • 1987 - Dance Like A Mother - Love or Lust
  • 1987 - Angelica Chaplin - Best of You
  • 1987 - Angelica Chaplin - Anyone Else
  • 1987 - Nona Hendryx - Too Hot to Handle
  • 1987 - Nona Hendryx - Drive Me Wild
  • 1989 Radiant Catch the Glow
  • 1989 - Radiant - Something's Got a Hold on Me
  • 1989 - Radiant - Gimme
  • 1989 - Radiant - Don't Go
  • 1989 - Radiant - Body Heat
  • 1989 - Radiant - Happy Birthday
  • 1989 Radiant Faith
  • 1989 - Radiant - I've Got This Feeling
  • 1989 - Radiant - Let's Go All the Way
  • 1989 - Radiant - World of Dreams
  • 1989 Radiant Nobody Kills Me
  • 1989 - Takeshi Itoh - Uptown Saturday Night
  • 1989 - Takeshi Itoh - Cowbell
  • 1989 - Takeshi Itoh - Always Together
  • 1989 - Takeshi Itoh - Bounce Back
  • 1989 - Geoffrey Williams - Lipstick
  • 1989 - Geoffrey Williams - Prisoner of Love
  • 1989 - Toshiki Kadomatsu - Okinawa
  • 1989 - Toshiki Kadomatsu - Reason
  • 1989 Ashford & Simpson Comes with the Package
  • 1990 - Dupont - Jealous
  • 1990 - Dupont - Music
  • 1990 Dupont Piece of the Rock

Others

  • Mic Murphy worked for producer Jacques Fred Petrus for a while (Change, The Ritchie Family, High Fashion, BB & Q. Band)
  • Around 1981/1982 David Frank was the keyboardist of the funk band KLEEER
  • Mic Murphy can be heard on the LP / CD A Little Love A Little Wine / New Harlem Funk by a studio band called Flowchart
  • Mic Murphy released his first and only solo LP called Touch in 1991
  • The 1987 single Don't Disturb This Groove has been sampled or covered by the Backstreet Boys , Victoria Beckham and 2Pac

Web links