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Kylie Minogue song about a typeface

Kylie Minogue song about a typeface

77 comments

·March 25, 2025

munificent

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.

cmrdporcupine

Damn I miss the 90s.

CapitalistCartr

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

the_hoffa

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

interludead

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

JKCalhoun

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

robin_reala

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.

re

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...

wileydragonfly

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

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

larodi

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

zoklet-enjoyer

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

larodi

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.

null

[deleted]

nluken

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.

bee_rider

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?

nine_k

(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.

petercooper

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.

twic

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

aequitas

> 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

romanhn

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

sho_hn

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.

bigiain

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

striking

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

bernds74

You should be so lucky.

twic

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

BugsJustFindMe

It's a song lyric joke.

iechoz6H

AKA The stalking song

Eduard

Gut ja

thih9

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

_whoDis

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

hnlmorg

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).

stavros

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

ruuda

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-...

toast0

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

havblue

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

bigger_cheese

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.

bee_rider

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

chriscrisby

That was a cool button though

bigiain

I just used the reader mode button...

zem

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

dylan604

To the point King Charles is a fan

LeonB

King co-wrote the song!

(Carole King that is)

wewtyflakes

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

ge96

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

imp0cat

Same for Towa Tei.

ChrisMarshallNY

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.

ahazred8ta

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

interludead

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

type0

bigiain

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.

MrMcCall

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 :-)

ac50hz

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.

MarcelOlsz

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

trollied

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

MarcelOlsz

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

MarcelOlsz

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.

rbanffy

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

ainiriand

One can only dream!

thomastraum

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"