Ok I admit this brings a smile to my face! Just saw this and had to post it.
From EM (Electronic Musician Mag portal?)

You EM guys never mention this duo, who really helped bring electro production to the mainstream in the early-mid 80s. It’s pretty clear that these guys helped open the gates for all synth production.

David Frank was more or less a one man band with an Oberheim DSX and DMX as well as a minimoog bass. Mic Murphy was the singer, although he was very much involved in the musical composition.

Very ahead of their time with their own hits like YOU ARE IN MY SYSTEM, DON’T DSTURB THIS GROOVE as well as sessions jobs on Chaka Khan’s I FEEL FOR YOU and Scritti Pollitti’s ABSOLUTE. The Pet Shop Boys and Madonna nearly started their careers with The System as their producers!

I found some guy had posted this at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/B000002IJR/ref=cm_rev_next/002-0182036-1033643?ie=latin1&customer-reviews.sort%5Fby=-SubmissionDate&n=5174&s=music&customer-reviews.start=11 :

“Not an overstatement. This is the ROAD manager from a “second tier” funk band (Kleeer). Michael Murphy was not even their manager! And that is not a well-connected major funk act (i.e. p-funk, commodores, earth, wind and fire, gap band, kool and the gang etc.) and the BACK-UP keyboardist, not even a full member of Kleeer; David Frank, was a little known session player who was only hired to play on the tour after playing a little on Kleeer’s previous album. David Frank a white guy trained in classical, with recitals as a child in Boston and playing in cover bands after high school moved to N.Y.C. to make it as a session musician. So how in the hell just because Michael “Mic” Murphy used to sing in church as a child can these guys meet on this Kleeer tour in 1983 and decide to make a band with no other members but the two of themselves and with only enough money between them for a 3-piece rack mounted electronic music unit called the Oberheim System how can this actually work?? FYI: The Oberheim System circa 1983 consisted of the DMX drum machine, the OBX keyboard, and a DSX sequencer to record your beats and keyboards tracks in. Well Dave had provided keyboard services to some guy a while earlier in exchange for free studio time so Dave and Mic took their oberheim system to the studio to finish a song Dave had started working on that he wanted his friend from the run-down warehouse where those aspiring for fame in New York’s entertainment industries had hung out and rehearsed. Affectionately called “The Music Building” this friend from the shabby old warehouse was named Madonna. Dave hoped now that she had just gotten a deal with Sire Records that he could write a song for her to record, and jumpstart his career as a songwriter. Well what Madonna heard didn’t fit into what they were working on for her album which was going to have a more “poppish” feel and his song called “It’s Passion” was more R&B oriented. So Dave recorded it with Murphy using the free studio time he had owed to him and Murphy took the studio tape the next morining after the allnight session to a duplication service to press a 12″ vinyl record of it. Mic figured he could take it to the D.J.’s at Danceteria and the Roxy to ask them to play it hoping that would create a “street-buzz” for their new “band”. The guy at the dupe service tells him: “Cool and why don’t you try Mirage Records the guy over there is looking to sign bands with a 12” club sound, we master a few of them Mirage club records here. Just drop the name Jerry Greenberg when you get over there.” So Mic takes it to this Greenburg guy and THAT SAME DAY after being up all night recording it they have a record contract. Well the song is a hit in the clubs so President of Mirage Jerry Greenburg fronts them the money to do an album, Greenburg has a distrubution deal with Atlantic Records, and the rest is as they say; history. The System go on to record incredibly inspired, smartly crafted, and exciting songs and albums for Mirage and Atlantic. Once successful and at the forefront of the Hi-Tech cutting edge R&B sound The System start to produce and work with other artists like Chaka Khan, Angela Bofill, Jeff Lorber, Robert Palmer, Phil Collins, Evelyn “Champange” King and others. Dave much later goes on to do some arrangements and session work for the Boy Bands in the 1990’s. He uses this opportunity to write a huge hit ballad for one of the bands; “The Hardest Thing” for 98 Degrees. He then continues to work in the very prosperous NEW POP milleu and composes and produces “Genie In the Bottle”, and “He Loves You Not” in his one of a kind inimitable “Funky Digital” keyboard style. Simply Incredible what The System makes you believe when the impossible is made real! The System will make you believe in yourself. Real “Love and Magic” is all up in their music. Buy every single thing they are associated with, you’ll get WAY more than your $10-15 bucks back out of it.”

Another great article here:
http://emusician.com/mag/emusic_bottle/

solitaryzen
One of the Coolest Member

Joined: 20 Feb 2007
Posts: 509
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 1:59 am (No subject)
Yes, I remember The System from the early 80’s. “You are In My System” was a great tune (covered by Uwe Schmidt on his Pop Artificielle album).
ahem
Cool Member
Thanks SZ

Any of you technobuffs care to comment on Frank’s somewhat pioneering use of the DSX sequencer and the Oberheim DMX? You have to admit, he helped bring forward the modern idea of the one man digital music machine.