Erasure

Erasure (/ᵻˈreɪʒər/) are an English synthpop duo, consisting of singer and songwriter Andy Bell and songwriter and keyboardist Vince Clarke. They formed in London, and entered the music scene in 1985 with their debut single "Who Needs Love Like That". Following the release of their fourth single "Sometimes", the duo established itself on the UK Singles Chart and became one of the most successful artists of the late 1980s to mid-1990s.

From 1986 to 2007, Erasure achieved 24 consecutive Top 40 hits in the UK, while having three Top 20 hits in the US (on the Billboard Hot 100): "A Little Respect", "Chains of Love", and "Always". By 2009, 34 of their 45 singles and EPs (of which 8 out of the 45 were not chart eligible in the UK) had made the UK Top 40, with 17 climbing into the Top 10. At the 1989 Brit Awards, Erasure won the Brit Award for Best British Group.

The duo are most popular in their native UK and mainland Europe (especially Germany, Denmark and Sweden) and also in South America (especially Argentina, Chile and Peru). To date, they have sold over 25 million albums worldwide. The band is also popular within the LGBT community, for whom openly gay Bell has become a gay icon.

Erasure (artform)

Erasure is a form of found poetry or found art created by erasing words from an existing text in prose or verse and framing the result on the page as a poem. The results can be allowed to stand in situ or they can be arranged into lines and/or stanzas. Erasure is a way to give an existing piece of writing a new set of meanings, questions, or suggestions. It lessens the trace of authorship but requires purposeful decision making. What does one want done to the original text? Does a gesture celebrate, denigrate, subvert, or efface the source completely? One can erase intuitively by focusing on musical and thematic elements or systematically by following a specific process regardless of the outcome.

Here is a nonce example using text from the November 2003 version of the English Wikipedia Main Page:

Several contemporary writer/artists have adopted this form to achieve a range of cognitive or symbolic effects.

Examples

Doris Cross appears to have been among the earliest to utilize this technique, beginning in 1965 with her "Dictionary Columns" book art. d.a. levy also worked in this mode at about the same time.

Erasure (logic)

In mathematical logic, a logical system has the erasure property if and only if no subset of the propositions can be added to another subset of the propositions to refute a consequence.

For instance, if proposition A means "the store is open from 8:00 to 22:00" and proposition B means "except Tuesdays", the system AB does not have erasure.

See also

Rain (Anthony Callea song)

"Rain" is the second song released by Australian Idol series two runner-up Anthony Callea, and features on his self-titled debut album Anthony Callea (2005). It was released as a double A-side set features the song plus his recording of Simon & Garfunkel's song "Bridge over Troubled Water", which he performed on Australian Idol.

The CD single for the song was released as a three-track standard version with the B-side "Don't Tell Me". It was also available for a short time as a limited edition collector's 2CD tri-gatefold set with a second B-side, "Wanna Be the One".

Track listing

Charts

"Rain" / "Bridge Over Troubled Water" debuted at #1 in Australia and remained at #1 for two weeks.

Ola Svensson version

In early 2006, Swedish singer Ola Svensson covered the song and released it as his debut single. Following his participation in Idol 2005, the single debuted at #1 on the Swedish singles chart and remained there for three consecutive weeks.

Rain (2006 film)

Rain is a 2006 film directed by Craig DiBona. The screenplay was written by Andrew Neiderman, based on the novel by V. C. Andrews. It premiered at the Palm Beach International Film Festival, although it did not receive further domestic distribution.

Plot

A talented young pianist named Rain (Brooklyn Sudano) is attacked by a vicious street gang which kills her sister. The gang sets out to find Rain while she hides in the care of a woman who is her natural grandmother. Rain was put up for adoption because the father of the baby was black and the mother was from a rich white family. Her adoptive mother (Khandi Alexander) sends her back because she is in danger for having witnessed her adoptive sister's murder.

Cast

Availability

The film is available to watch on such sites as Netflix to both rent and to watch on their online streaming option.

Rain (SWV song)

"Rain" is a 1998 single released by the group SWV. The musical backing track is based on Jaco Pastorius's "Portrait of Tracy." First heard in 1997 on the group's third album Release Some Tension, the song was released as a single the next year. It peaked at number 25 on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and number 7 on the US Hot R&B Singles chart. Singer Tyrese appeared in the song's music video. He would later sing the hook on "Pullin' Me Back", a song by rapper Chingy, which sampled "Rain." Smooth Jazz musician Norman Brown covered the song on his 1999 album, Celebration. Toronto based producer duo Team Majestic Music, also sampled "Rain" for their song "Let It Fall."

Track listing

US Promo

US CD

UK CD