This is an attempt at a new blog. As anyone who knows me know that I love obscure music. I'm a huge music fan, and I love to discover new music. But what is almost an obsession for me are lesser known artist who may have dropped off the face of the planet, or even worse, existed but no one is aware of them. As you can imagine I'm a huge Discogs geek, and I can browse the database for hours. Anyway I just want to use this as a simple blog to highlight some of the more obscure music that's out there. And also kind of give some background based on whatever research I've one.
Band Name: Liquid Heat
Years active: Appears to be from 1986 to 1989
Music Type: 80s synth pop, some disco, and dance
Labels: Atlantic Records, then later HDH (Hollad-Dozier-Holland)
Song presented: Face to face
So I discovered this dynamic duo as I discovered most obscure acts. Basically by browsing the "Rare And Obscure Music" blog. Their old blog not their new one (that has groups like Xscape as rare, wtf). I ran into this description and saw the album cover, and I thought "expendable 80s pop and R & B" group. R & B back in the 80s went through a rough period, and this album was a reflection of that. Trying to of course stay current with the synth pop at the time. This album is extremely 80s, almost to a fault.
This group is incredibly hard to research, as the two vocalist Linda K. Holland and Leslie Cole don't have a very extensive body of work. Not only that, I can't find any trace of either one of them on social media. However there are some clues littered. Linda K. Holland shares the same namesake as the production team Holland-Dozier-Holland. So I'm imagining that she was related to that production team in some way.
I don't have the entire album, only hearing what little is on youtube or other video sites. But anything I've heard from this album is incredibly solid. Yes the synth pop is extremely cheesy, but it takes me right to 1986. However songs this handcuffed to the decade generally have an issue being fondly remembered after the era has passed, which is unfortunately.
Anyway, they were on Atlantic Records, which is a decent sized label. And they had a solid production team. So it's a bit of a mystery as to why this album really didn't do anything. I'm willing to bet that Linda K. Holland relationship to the Holland family has a lot to do with it. You will find on Discogs that she contributed to writing majority of the songs. The other girl, Leslie Cole made almost no contributions to the album.
They also released a single called "Nice Girls" in 1989, and that had the HDH Record label on it. Which is a tell tell sign that Linda K. Holland was related to the family. HDH being the record label that was formed by the production team. So there does seem to have been a slight push to get Linda K. Holland group out there. However I can only imagine the issue may have been it was a "group" instead of a solo career. I can't imagine that much creative control for a group that seemed to have mostly been created in a studio would have gone over well. So who knows what personnel issues went on with this.
This is too bad, because the production was good. And the songs are very very catchy.
