“I don’t like country & western, I don’t like rock music… I don’t like rockabilly! I don’t like much really do I? But what I do like, I love passionately!!”: CHRIS LOWE
US independent label Dais Records are on a roll with a roster now including acts such as KITE, TR/ST, ADULT. and DRAB MAJESTY; the latest signing is Los Angeles-based multimedia artist Geneva Jacuzzi.
With a detached Eurocentric poise reminiscent of Gina X, her oeuvre includes not just music, but performance art, live theatre, installations, set design, costume, makeup and set decoration. Her full length debut came in 2010 with ‘Lamaze’ which was assembled from various lo-fi recordings and demos made over the years. Featuring the eerie synthpop of ‘Casket’ and the dysfunctional disco lento of ‘Cannibal Babies’, her second more polished long player ‘Technophelia’ followed in 2016.
‘Triple Fire’ is her third full-length album which she has primarily written and produced with the additional input of a cast including Roderick Edens and Andrew Briggs. It is something she has described “as a hit parade of wildcard synthpop and sly post-apocalyptic camp” as well as “the record that’s going to save mankind”. While all these cheeky proclamations are in the name of art, what Geneva Jacuzzi does definitely possess is catchy hooks in her own surrealist world.
With chunky New York disco influences, the opening salvo ‘Laps Of Luxury’ presents propulsive art pop in the sultry vein of Jyl. More detached but revealing some squawky guitar, ‘Art Is Dangerous’ is Geneva Jacuzzi’s joyous celebration of the art community and its potential for cultural subversion.
Produced by Andrew Clinco of coldwave exponents and label mates DRAB MAJESTY, ‘Speed Of Light’ is jagged and more nonchalant vocally while displaying an enigmatic demeanour, ‘Nu2U’ introduces a deep groove. Brilliantly catchy, ‘Dry’ is alluring danceable synthpop but although it goes weirdly discordant halfway through, it works as it highlights the song’s lyrical gist about dating disconnection following being ghosted.
In ‘Scene Ballerina’, there are cascading modular lines and even jazz piano inflections over the strong rhythmic centre while ‘Take It Or Leave It’ provides glorious new wave pop. ‘Keep It Secret’ adds mystery and a chill to an offbeat bounce with a feline touch recalling Eartha Kitt.
With a vintage drum machine backbone and understated vocals sections duelling with a bizarre gothic backdrop, ‘Rock and A Hard Place’ is oddball and fun in the manner of Lene Lovich, before ‘Bow Tie Eater’ gets some electro funk in to provide another flavour.
The playful ‘Heart Full Of Poison’ parties like its 1983 and could be a synthier Cyndi Lauper but then there’s a sax break to authenticate that desired effect. ‘Yo-Yo Boy’ provides a moody conclusion to ‘Triple Fire’ with cascading synths and Geneva Jacuzzi’s vocal both appropriately soothing.
With Geneva Jacuzzi herself saying the album is “Funny, sexy, sad, scary, witty, hopeful, menacing. Eventually it deconstructs, turns into a party, and then ends sweet and soft”, ‘Triple Fire’ is enjoyably quirky in its delightfully odd mix of accessible electronic pop and energetic art chaos.
Hailing from Vancouver in Canada, ACTORS keyboardist Shannon Hemmett has developed her more synth focussed solo project LEATHERS in parallel.
Not completely divorced from the main band family, ACTORS frontman Jason Corbett acts as producer and collaborator, just as Daniel Hunt did with Helen Marnie on her solo work during the LADYTRON hiatus. Meanwhile, bassist Kendall Wooding and drummer Adam Fink have acted as part of the LEATHERS live set-up
Although primarily synth-led and more immediate melodically, LEATHERS is pop music with darker sensibilities seeded by a love of the imperial phase DEPECHE MODE long players ‘Black Celebration’, ‘Music for the Masses’ and ‘Violator’. Like the excellent debut EP ‘Reckless’ in 2021, the ‘Ultraviolet’ album has been recorded over several years with all the songs released previously as standalone singles online or as part of that first EP.
Shannon Hammett said to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK: “The idea was to develop LEATHERS in the background while ACTORS toured and continued to release its own material as well. With this more gradual timeline, I was able to develop my songwriting, and my confidence as a performer in real world situations with ACTORS.”
With songs co-written with Corbett, she said “Melodies are important to Jason and I as songwriters, so I imagine some of that comes from our love of 80s era songwriting where strong melody is a key ingredient”. The end result is 10 fine synth-oriented tunes which possess go on a journey to search for the truth between fantasy and reality.
With a dreamy motorik drive and a chilling backdrop of synth drones, ‘Ultraviolet’ acts as a fine opener but much more ominous, the combination of octave bass motifs, drones and bursts of guitar gives ‘Highrise’ a gothic disco action offset by spoken and sung vocals. Utilising a straight four ostinato, the disquieting ‘Crash’ highlights the dark appeal of danger and hypnotises with “no more questions, no more lies”; using lyrical inspiration from JG Ballard and THE NORMAL’s ‘Warm Leatherette’, the thrill is to “Crash the car, survive the wreckage, feel the fear, under the steel”.
Set to a pulsing rhythmic swing, ‘Fascination’ fixes onto the LEATHERS ident of spoken and sung vocals over spy drama resonances. Proceedings are taken down for ‘Day For Night’, an introspective synth-laden ballad with the occasional six and four string intervention that allies it to the moody atmospheres of CHROMATICS and structurally comes over like a dreampop version of MAZZY STAR.
Recalling BLONDIE’s ‘Call Me’ reworked for darkwave dancefloors, ‘Divine’ is a delightful schaffel where Hammett plays dominatrix and “rules do not apply”. ‘Phantom Heart’ though is fiercer and perhaps not that far removed from ACTORS with Hemmett being more contralto to suit with melodic bass guitar flitting in. But ‘Daydream Trash’ is a wonderful outlier, a summery new wave pop tune recalling LA trio CANNONS with an electronic groove that is “100 in the shade” and could have easily come off the soundtrack of a John Hughes film.
First emerging in 2022, the sparklingly breezy ‘Runaway’ remains gorgeous escapist synthpop to elope to before proceedings conclude with ‘Mary’, a reflective ‘Twin Peaks’ styled ballad about “a girl I knew” that brings guitar and piano into the mix.
The only song missing is the brilliant LEATHERS breakthrough song ‘Reckless’, but the fact that the ‘Ultraviolet’ album more or less stands up without it is a reflection of the quality of this collection. If you love ethereal romantic synthpop with sumptuous vocals and sinister twists in that classic Lynchian fashion, then this record is for you.
Since releasing their first EP in 2008, Sweden’s KITE have steadily grown in stature with fans including Vince Clarke.
After six acclaimed numbered EPs, the most recent being ‘VI’ in 2015 and live appearances in Germany, China and North America, the enigmatic pairing of Nicklas Stenemo and Christian Berg were on the cusp of a huge international breakthrough having been “Sweden’s best kept pop secret”.
While the striking Stenemo is a charismatic front man capable of the occasional high kick, the more reserved Berg paints a Rick Wakeman-like figure in charge of his multiple keyboard stacks; the latter comparison is quite apt as the ‘KITE On Ice’ spectacular at Stockholm’s Avicii Arena in February 2025 has already sold out.
However, with their first record label seemingly intent on playing at arrested development with their prize asset (something that other acts on that same label subsequently suffered from) and then a stress related illness afflicting Stenemo in 2017, KITE had to cancel activities and their inevitably career stalled.
After a period of recovery and recuperation, KITE made their triumphant live return in 2019 with a three night residency at Stockholm’s Slaktkyrkan. As momentum was steadily regained, the duo released ‘Tranås/Stenslanda’ in 2020, their first new material since ‘Demon & Shame’ in 2017; another five singles have since followed.
Now after prestigious appearances at the Royal Swedish Opera, the Dalhalla open air amphitheatre and the Amphi Festival, with European + US tour dates arranged for 2024, it is timely that KITE finally release their first full-length studio album on the American independent label Dais Records. As their seventh body of work and following on from the numbered series of EPs, the appropriately titled ‘VII’ contains music from their seven most recent singles released over the past seven years.
Four of the tracks were co-produced with Benjamin John Power, best known as Scared Bones artist BLANCK MASS and a founder member of experimental electronic duo F*CK BUTTONS. Despite being more associated with a much heavier aggressive instrumental sound as exemplified by his own ‘D7-D5’ and ‘Death Drop’, Power appears to have relished pushing a couple of his own pop buttons.
‘VII’ starts with an extended drone intro that may initially confuse listeners, but ‘Remember Me’ is a strident lengthy opening salvo, as if a return to innocence. It documents a battle for hope and resilience born out of “the struggle” of the worldwide pandemic that morphs into an exhilarating epic.
Another pandemic song, ‘Changing’ refers to a “Destination unknown / Without a vision”; reminiscent of ‘I Can’t Stand‘ from the ‘V’ EP, it owes its rumbling backbone to BLANCK MASS. Continuing the theme, ‘Hand Out The Drugs’ provides a huge wonderwall of synthesizers, throbbing beats and full of majestic melodies, it’s another BLANCK MASS co-production which captures the longing for fun and escapism in a locked-down world.
Named after the two small towns in the historical Swedish province of Småland that Berg and Stenemo respectively grew up in, ‘Tranås/Stenslanda’ possesses a lush introspection. And when an emotionally charged Stenemo hits the high notes and responded to by Berg’s gorgeous swirling synth, there is a melancholic grit that is also strangely uplifting in a manner that Scandinavians always seem to excel at. It celebrates the liberating escape that music provides with the profound line “now headphones can cover that hurt”.
A song about “the war between energies”, ‘Don’t Take The Light Away’ places Stenemo’s wounded croon over a tide of stabbing strings, galloping percussion and surging bass, the chanted chorus simultaneously coming over desperate yet triumphant.
Dominated by a melodic stabbing riff, the celebratory pop rave of ‘Teenage Bliss’, sees KITE explore youthful innocence and reminiscences, recalling their earlier songs like ‘Ways To Dance’ and ‘Jonny Boy’. The dynamic combination of KITE and BLANCK MASS is wonderfully hymn-like, with Stenemo’s bittersweet revelation that “life is not like your first kiss…”
Now if Ennio Morricone composed music for Nordic Noir dramas, it would sound like ‘Demons & Shame’. Shaped by a ritualistic drum mantra and brooding bass drones, it confronts the despair that life occasionally throws up while pursuing visions and dreams as Stenemo screams his frustration over Berg’s epic soundscape.
Then like a slice of Nordic gospel, ‘Glassy Eyes’ confronts the turmoil of existential anxiety while befitting its title, ‘Bocelli’ is almost operatic, sombre yet impassioned with backing from the symphonic school of Vangelis.
The hypnotic ‘Bowie ’95’ takes in midlife angst where you are “Supposed to know politics when you’re 46” but are “some light years away from this”; it was 1995 that David Bowie regained his artistic credibility with the ‘1.Outside’ album co-produced by Brian Eno after his ‘Glass Spider’ sins. With an intense BLANCK MASS assisted wall of sound, it is a call to return to self-expression rather than continuing to satisfy others to one’s own detriment.
Self-produced by KITE with Daniel Fagerström, ‘Panic Music’ is fierce. But while the neo-gothic textures are present and correct, Christian Berg further explores his fascination for electronic drones and swoops while there is also the surprise of a guitar solo in the middle eight.
Almost acapella at its start, ‘Losing’ is shaped by doomy piano chords to accompany an anguished vocal from Stenemo in deep harmony with Henric de la Cour as they see “dark skies on the rise”. As immense rhythms and synthetic sweeps creep in, the haunting canvas is dominated with fraught ad libs from Anna Von Hausswolff.
Originally recorded as the love theme to Titus Paar’s dystopian action thriller ‘The Perfect Weapon’ starring Steven Seagal, ‘Hopelessly Unholy’ is aesthetically cinematic, making fine use of traditional orchestrations arranged by Jonas Valfridsson. There is the emotive air of Hans Zimmer in the majestic arrangement, although a fading metronomic pulse of synth coming over like a tracking beacon provides an offset.
Photo by Jonas Andersson
As the wall-of-sound mood piece ‘Hum Hum’ closes proceedings, the question must be asked whether this collection of seven singles works as an album? Documenting a period of trials and tribulations for a duo who have endured an existential crisis, then ‘VII’ does the job and tells a story via its aural diaries. Nicklas Stenemo and Christian Berg are now back where there should have been.
In that time, KITE’s sound has got bigger and more ambitious, so naturally it is time to experience their mystic wonderland within bigger and more ambitious settings. Across its 70 minutes, ‘VII’ more than showcases the power and the glory of KITE.
‘VII’ is released on 9 August 2024 by Dais Records as a double vinyl LP in a variety of colour combinations, CD and download, available via https://found.ee/kitevii
KITE 2024 US + European dates include:
Richmond VA Fallout (28 August), Baltimore MD Metro Gallery (29 August), Brooklyn NY Murder of Crows Festival (30 August), Boston MA Middle East Upstairs (31 August), Berlin Hole 44 (18 September), Bielefeld Forum (19 September), Hamburg Reeperbahn Festival (20 September), Copenhagen Vega (21 September), Dortmund JunkYard (24 September), Cologne Gebäude 9 (24 September), Frankfurt Nachtleben (25 September), Nuremberg Club Stereo (26 September), Prague Futurum Bar (27 September), Atlanta GA The Masquerade Altar (9 October), Tampa FL Absolution Festival (10 October), San Francisco CA DNA Lounge (11 October), Los Angeles Cold Waves LA Showcase (13 October), Portland OR Star Theater (15 October), Chicago IL Beat Kitchen (16 October), Austin TX Elysium (17 October), Dallas TX Tassel (18 October), Minneapolis MN Ground Zero (19 October), Madison WI Crucible Madison (20 October), London Downstairs at the Dome (21 November)
At the start of 1978, disco and AOR was still ruling the airwaves.
ABBA had released ‘The Movie’ which reinforced their success of previous years while the UK charts became dominated by songs from the film ‘Grease’ which helped facilitate a rock ‘n’ roll flavoured revival led by bands like SHOWADDYWADDY, DARTS and RACEY!
Punk had peaked with THE SEX PISTOLS’ Johnny Rotten rhetorical statement “Ever Get the Feeling You’ve Been Cheated?”. However, punk’s ethos was mutating into a form of power pop under the guise of new wave with BLONDIE, BUZZCOCKS and THE BOOMTOWN RATS. One epic opus that captured the public imagination was ‘Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the World’; featuring synthesizer work from Ken Freeman, it complimented the album’s orchestrated rock with an alien science fiction edge.
Although first released in Autumn 1977, ‘Supernature’ by Cerrone belatedly became a Summer 1978 Top10 hit in the UK singles charts, indicating that after ‘I Feel Love’, ‘Oxygène’, ‘Magic Fly’, ‘Sound & Vision’ and ‘Trans-Europe Express’, electronic pop music had potential longevity and was not a novelty.
A new DIY art pop form was emerging as the independently produced singles ‘Warm Leatherette’ by THE NORMAL and ‘Being Boiled’ by THE HUMAN LEAGUE were released to an unsuspecting public but despite not troubling the mainstream due to their limited audience reach, they were to have a wider impact.
Meanwhile, as punk band TUBEWAY ARMY were preparing to record their debut long player, their leader Gary Numan tried a Minimoog that had been left behind from a previous studio session. It was to be an epiphanal moment as he decided that electronics would become a future part of his sound.
According to a recent Ace Records podcast hosted by Pete Paphides, his guest Bob Stanley said that Minimoog belonged to reggae legend Dennis Bovell who was working on a song he had just written called ‘Silly Games’. When it stalled a No2 sung by Janet Kay, in a bizarre coincidence, the single that was to stop it from getting to No1 in Summer 1979 was recorded in the same Gooseberry Studios in London’s Chinatown… it was ‘Are Friends Electric?’!!!
Here are 20 albums which ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK sees as contributing to the electronic legacy of 1978. They are listed in alphabetical order with a restriction of one album per artist moniker…
ASHRA Blackouts
Featuring “Sequencer, Keyboards and a lot of guitar” with the recommendation that “this record should be heard comfortably”, ‘Blackouts’ was Manuel Göttsching’s second album as ASHRA and while it did not quite have the total cosmic magic of its predecessor ‘New Age Of Earth’, it was a satisfying record. ‘Midnight On Mars’ set the scene while there was another wonderful 20 minute end piece in ‘Lotus Part I-IV’.
AUTOMAT were Romano Musmarra and Claudio Gizzi who released just one album. Stating “in the beginning there was the machine – the survival and the organization of the planet depended upon the machine – the future and the past depended upon the machine – …the past? But who wanted the machine?”, the key track was the eponymous three part electronic prog disco opus that would have made Giorgio Moroder proud. Meanwhile ‘Droid’ showed the Italian duo were also fans of Vangelis.
‘Automat’ was originally released by EMI Italiana, currently unavailable
BRIAN BENNETT Voyage (A Journey Into Discoid Funk)
The drummer for THE SHADOWS since 1961, Brian Bennett worked on theme music on the side and became inspired by the emergence of electronic disco from the likes of Giorgio Moroder and Marc Cerrone. Described as “A Journey Into Discoid Funk”, ‘Voyage’ was a cosmic affair with jazz and funk influences. Highlights included ‘Pendulum Force’, ‘Ocean Glide’ and ‘Chain Reaction’ while one track ‘Solstice’ was later sampled by rappers Kanye West and Nas.
Inspired by ‘Star Wars’, French space disco combo DROIDS were best known for their underground hit ‘(Do You Have) The Force’ in 1977. Included on it, their only album ‘Star Peace’ came the following year with material written and played by Yves Hayat using Moogs, ARPs and Oberheims. It was an enjoyable electronic romp with groovy tracks like ‘Be Happy’ and ‘Shanti Dance’ to take on fellow countrymen SPACE.
Fronted by Klaus Dinger from NEU! while also featuring his brother Thomas on percussion and Hans Lampe on drums, the second long player LA DÜSSELDORF ‘Viva’ was self-produced and their most successful album. There was the magnificent 20 minute madness of ‘Cha Cha 2000’, but the album also yielded the beautifully epic ‘Rheinita’, a glorious instrumental that became the blueprint for OMD’s ‘Architecture & Morality’ album.
Following aborted sessions with cult German band HARMONIA featuring Michael Rother of NEU! alongside Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius of CLUSTER, Brian Eno continued collaborations with the latter pair. With a wonderful 1977 ambient collection ‘Cluster & Eno’ to their name, their second album ‘After The Heat’ added Eno’s contemplative voice to the experimentation, the best track of which was the gentle sequencer led beauty of ‘The Belldog’.
This double album was released at the start of 1978 before TANGERINE DREAM took their vocal prog rock misstep with ‘Cyclone’. ‘Era Of The Slaves’ was a particular delight in the Berlin School vein with Edgar Froese channelling his creative energies wonderfully following the departure of Peter Baumann. Overall, ‘Ages’ was lively, as exemplified by ‘Nights of Automatic Women’ while ‘Children’s Deeper Study’ displayed a brighter tone.
The follow-up to the massively successful ‘Oxygène’, ‘Équinoxe’ was conceived as representing a day in a person’s life. As well expanded multitrack recording, ‘Équinoxe’ benefitted from the use of the customised Matrisequencer 250 designed by sound engineer Michel Geiss. The album’s eight parts were rich in melody, rhythm and in places neo-gothic grandeur. It confirmed Jean-Michel Jarre was not to be just a one-hit wonder.
By 1978, the classic KRAFTWERK line-up of Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Wolfgang Flür and Karl Bartos were at the height of their powers with ‘Trans Europe Express’ becoming an unexpected favourite on the New York dancefloors. ‘The Man Machine’ contained the belated hit single ‘The Model’ while there was also the Giorgio Moroder-inspired ‘Spacelab’ and ‘Metropolis’. With ‘The Robots’, the Das Quartett reinforced they were Musikarbeiter.
Having left TANGERINE DREAM and inspired by the success of ‘I Feel Love’, Peter Baumann produced Italian artist Leda on her album ‘Welcome To Joyland’. Applying his sequenced knowhow into a more song based format, highlights included the title song and the Giorgio Moroder aping ‘Future’. Something of a curio in his portfolio, it became a pointer to the pop based direction he launched in 1981 with ‘Repeat Repeat’.
‘Midnight Express’ was a graphic prison drama directed by Alan Parker who wanted electronic accompaniment in the style of ‘I Feel Love’ for a key scene in the film. Enter Giorgio Moroder who, assisted by Harold Faltermeyer, did just that with the mighty ‘Chase’. Meanwhile, the moody main theme and with its exotic overtones all but invented synthwave. Moroder would win his first Oscar for “Best Original Score”.
‘Midnight Express’ is still available via Casablanca Records / Universal Records
Richard Pinhas was a member of French rock band HELDON who became fascinated by the possibilities of experimental electronics. Inspired by sci-fi writers Michel Jeury and Frank Herbert, the ‘Chronolyse’ title suite was split into seven waves of cerebral minimalism reminiscent of Terry Riley and Philip Glass. But there was a volte face in ‘Paul Atreïdes’, a noisy half hour jam with his HELDON band mates that took up an entire side.
The only album by the tragic figure of Wolfgang Riechmann, ‘Wunderbar’ was an elegant and ultimately fragile collection with a fine balance of electronic technology and real instrumentation where none of the elements were overdone. The resonant melancholy of its content became even more poignant once it is learnt that he was murdered in Düsseldorf just weeks before its release by Sky Records in August 1978.
After the success of ‘Flammenden Herzen’ set Michael Rother off on the path to becoming Germany’s answer to Mike Oldfield, his second solo album ‘Sterntaler’ saw a greater use of synths for melody lines as on the uplifting title track. ‘Orchestrion’ was more of a layered guitar symphony but the moody textures of ‘Sonnenrad’ would later become the inspiration for ULTRAVOX’s ‘Dancing With Tears In My Eyes’.
‘Sterntaler’ is still available via Grönland Records
Conrad Schnitzler had been a member of TANGERINE DREAM and KLUSTER before going solo. ‘Con’ was produced by Peter Baumann. While much of the album was unsettling soundscapes like ‘Electric Garden’ and ‘Black Nail’, ‘Ballet Statique’ was his most accessible piece and up there with the best of minimally structured German electronic music. Meanwhile ‘Zug’ did as the title suggested with its locomotive rhythm collage.
After his 1977 masterpiece ‘Mirage’, Klaus Schulze was by now well into what many consider his imperial phase and planting the seed for New Age in the process. For the ambitious double opus ‘X’, drums by Harald Grosskopf and strings were incorporated into “Six Musical Biographies” in honour of figures such as philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, King Ludwig II of Bavaria, composer Friedemann Bach and ‘Dune’ author Frank Herbert.
Having had a worldwide hit with ‘Magic Fly’, ‘Just Blue’ was the third album by France’s SPACE and the last featuring original writer Ecama, the pseudonym of Didier Marouani. With proggier inflections and more vocal phrasing, this album did not hit the highs of ‘Magic Fly’ but this was still a good record. The title song had catchy synth hooks while ‘Final Signal’ brought in fretless bass and ‘Secret Dreams’ got all new age.
Best known for 1974’s pioneering ‘Snowflakes Are Dancing’ which reinterpreted Debussy, Isao Tomita was applying his Moog modular craft to Prokofiev and Sibelius for an ambitious concept album subtitled “A Musical Fantasy of Science Fiction”, there was even an adaptation of ‘Close Encounters Of The Third Kind’. As befitting a record about ‘The Bermuda Triangle’, it was dark and experimental in places with a fabulous palette of sound design.
Working with the legendary Conny Plank for their third album ‘Systems Of Romance’, ULTRAVOX became more texturally powerful thanks to the ARP Odyssey of Billy Currie, Chris Cross’ EMS Synthi AKS and new guitarist Robin Simon. Despite leader John Foxx leaving to go solo, ‘Slow Motion’, ‘Quiet Man’, ‘Dislocation’ and ‘Just For A Moment’ were a harbinger of things that were to come with a certain Gary Numan taking notes.
‘Systems Of Romance’ is still available on ‘The Island Years’ via Caroline Records
YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA was intended as one-off project for producer Haruomi Hosono with Yukihiro Takahashi and Ryuichi Sakamoto; all three already had solo careers. Their self-titled debut was noted for its use of the then-new Roland MC8 Micro-Composer progammed by Hideki Matsutake. The trio became standard bearers for Japanese technopop with the hit single ‘Firecracker’, also known as ‘Computer Game’.
Tim Bowness expresses his nowness with a summer album release entitled ‘Powder Dry’.
Cutting his teeth in PLENTY and then NO-MAN with Steven Wilson, the multi-instrumental singer / songwriter has also worked with the likes of Richard Barbieri, David Torn, Phil Manzanera, Roger Eno, Peter Hammill, Gavin Harrison, Saro Cosentino, David Rhodes, Colin Edwin and Peter Chilvers over the years.
While the gothic synth-driven first single ‘Rock Hudson’ is inspired by the iconic Hollywood star, it also doubles as a paranoid ode to online discourse. ‘Powder Dry’ possesses an urgency not previously heard on a Tim Bowness record. 16 tracks speed through its restless 40 minutes with a dark mood looming as a result of Bowness revisiting his passion for the post-punk and electronic pop acts of his teens.
His eighth solo album, ‘Powder Dry’ sees Bowness entirely write, produce and perform a full-length album on his own for the first time. But post-production reinforcements arrive in the form of Steven Wilson (also his partner in the popular podcast series ‘The Album Years’) who contributes its stereo and Surround Sound mixes as well as acting as a sounding board during that process.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK chatted to Tim Bowness about the genesis of ‘Powder Dry’ and much more…
The new album is different in so many ways from previous releases, not least that it is a truly solo effort. Was this a conscious decision or did it just ‘happen’?
Musically, it was entirely an instinctive process. I let what I automatically came up with dictate the directions. ‘After Butterfly Mind’, which was a very energising album, everything seemed to come to a sudden standstill and I only co-wrote around four or five pieces over an 18 month period. All were fine, but nothing felt particularly fresh.
During this lull, Brian Hulse (my fellow PLENTY band member and solo collaborator) suggested that I do everything myself for the first time. I always write and demo songs for my releases (and NO-MAN’s), but bar a few Bandcamp downloads I’ve never had the confidence to make a purely solo release. Generally speaking, I get much better musicians than me to flesh out the music!
Once I’d decided to go it alone, everything fell into place very quickly. From the first piece I wrote for the album (‘When Summer Comes) to the last (‘Summer Turned’), I felt a real sense of excitement and discovery writing the music. The melodies and ideas flowed and I tried not to get in the way of them.
What was the approach to writing and recording? Did you set time aside or was it more organic?
Organic. If I had a feeling or an idea, I tried to capture it as best I could. Once I was caught up in the process of writing the album, things moved rapidly. I wrote 26 pieces overall, most of which seemed quite distinct from one another both in terms of emotional content and musical style. I genuinely think that the finished album is my most eclectic and unfettered release, and the 10 tracks I dropped from it explored even more directions.
What equipment was used and was it recorded at home?
It was entirely recorded at home and, for convenience, I used my cheapest equipment. Partly because it was easy to set up and lying around, and partly (in the case of the guitar, anyway) because it had a unique quality.
The only extravagance was that I used about five microphones (an sE, a Shure, a couple of Rødes, a Neumann etc) for the vocals. I’d often sing the songs through different mics to gauge which worked better for particular songs. By the end of the album, I was using two microphones exclusively (the Neumann and the recently released Røde NT1 Fifth Generation).
On a few songs, I recorded an electric guitar acoustically through a microphone and then processed the recordings through virtual pedal boards. Lo-fi!
Did you miss the collaborative aspect of recording and as a solo piece was there more pressure on you?
I love collaborating and will continue to work with other musicians, but I can’t say I did miss it during the making of ‘Powder Dry’.
I felt a sense of freedom creating the album and while I’m without doubt the worst musician I work with, I found that my musical ignorance meant that I explored a lot more territory than I usually do. Often when I’m collaborating, musicians tend to present me with what they think will suit my voice. As such, the sonic and emotional palate can be more limited than what I come up with myself.
I didn’t feel any pressure, but the album was a real mixture of instinct and obsessive attention to detail. As you probably know, the recording process can be quick but the editing of vocal, guitar and keyboard takes can be exhausting and time-consuming (as can be the selection of sounds). The final 5% of any piece tends to eat up 99% of the time spent making it.
In the press release accompanying the album, you cite the likes of JOY DIVISION and THE CURE as influences on this release though I hear the likes of Momus throughout too. Did revisiting these artists during The Album Years podcast reignite something in you (The angry not so young man!?)
I think I realised a while back, that I’m still angry and unresolved in some ways and that that anger still makes its way into my music. Living in such a divisive and perilous time as we currently are doing also feeds in to this.
Momus’ work in the late 1980s and early 1990s was a big inspiration to the early NO-MAN. Particularly his ability to make ugly themes beautiful and accessible.
I was a big fan of the creative Post-Punk and electro-pop scenes between 1978-1984. As with Psychedelic / Underground / Progressive / Fusion / Progressive Soul music of the late 1960s/early 1970s, there was a real sense of artists expanding Rock’s vocabulary and accidentally discovering new sonic worlds. People like Bowie, Donna Summer, Kraftwerk and Eno had paved the way and established artists like Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush and Bill Nelson innovated in ways that equalled the young bucks such as JAPAN, COMSAT ANGELS, MAGAZINE and THE CURE, so it was an exciting time to be a teenager.
The tracks are all shorter than perhaps many of your fans would expect / like and in places are quite noise filled / punky. Was this what you felt was appropriate given the album themes of “ideological extremism, eco-apocalypse, and the all-too human quest for love in a time of crisis”?
It must have been!
In truth, the pieces came out the way they did and I just went with the flow of ideas. In most cases, the lyrics were a response to the music. I mostly write words to the melodies (which, in turn, spring from the music), though I do have a large file of phrases, titles and lyric ideas that I also draw from.
‘Built To Last’ and ‘Idiots At Large’ fall into the eco-apocalypse category and the music and lyrics work well together in both cases, I feel. Despite being ugly as hell, the final blast of ominous noise on ‘Built To Last’ was a delight to create. I was very pleased that Steven asked me how on earth I achieved the guitar sound (which is more like a distorted multi-tracked foghorn than an instrument!).
There are some moments of respite from the gloom. ‘Lost / Not Lost’ is as close as I’ve come to a euphoric love / lust song in years.
How did you get inspired to write a song about Rock Hudson, is there something in his tragic story that makes him perfect foil for the Tim Bowness world?
A definite yes to that. He was a commanding presence who did some great work (‘Seconds’ being my personal favourite). His dual life and the compromises he made in order to maintain a career in Hollywood was certainly a source of inspiration. Significantly, he was also the person who humanised AIDS for a generation (bringing in more funding and understanding as a result of publicising his diagnosis).
As a kid, I liked a number of his films and TV appearances. Knowing later that he did many under duress added a poignancy to his legacy as well as my enjoyment of his work.
Steven Wilson mixed the album and also acted as your sounding board. How did that second ‘task’ manifest itself?
Well, Steven was very encouraging right from the start. When I told him about what I was doing, he said (like Brian) that it was something I should have done a long time ago. Steven’s view was that my demos tended to be less polite and more adventurous than what ended up on my albums.
When I’d nearly finished the album, SW asked to hear the music. He was very complimentary and started mixing straight away. His positive response encouraged me to finish everything off.
He was a sounding board in that he commented on the tracks he liked the most and made me stick to the album just being me. He also edited a few tracks differently. So, he added a cut and paste coda to one track, truncated a couple of others, shifted where the backing vocals were on another etc. On a couple of the songs he went further, but I rejected those as I felt they weren’t operating in the spirit of the purely solo album that we’d both decided it should be.
You’ve been playing live sporadically over the last couple of years and the sets you have performed are not the usual fare one would expect, like at the ‘Butterfly Mind’ album launch in 2022, you played nothing from the actual album for example! How do you go about putting a live Tim Bowness set together?
I always work to the strength of the musicians I’m playing with. I’ve never been interested in replicating albums on stage as, for me, the live experience should be something unique, expressive and spontaneous. I select material that I think will suit the players.
The current live band I have is incredibly powerful and very different from most line-ups I’ve worked with (very ‘whisper to a scream’ in terms of dynamics). No piece is ever performed in the same way. While I do play solo and new work, it’s been a delight to breathe new life into NO-MAN pieces like ‘Housekeeping’ and ‘Sweetheart Raw’ that haven’t been played live for decades.
You have a number of different formats available for the release. Is this an expectation you have to meet now and how do you keep it ‘fresh’?
That was a record company decision. I’d have probably kept things to CD / Blu-Ray and vinyl if allowed. That said, I still like the cassette format and coloured vinyls are lovely to have and to hold.
The album is still sacrosanct for me and I always work to the classic 35 to 45 minute limits of the traditional physical LP. I feel it’s the ideal length for the music I make. It took me 30 attempts to get the sequencing right and I ended up dropping a couple of my favourite songs from the sessions.
As for freshness, it may seem weird at this stage of my career, but I approach everything as if it’s the first time I’ve ever done it. For me, this could even be a debut album.
On that subject, the recent NO-MAN retrospective ‘Housekeeping’ was very well received. How pleased were you both with that and will there be a second set covering the later releases?
Really pleased as it’s music that still means a lot to both of us. Yes, we hope that there will be a second set covering a later period of the band’s music (though licensing might be an issue with some albums).
The continuing success of ‘The Album Years’ podcast must be gratifying. Yours and Steven’s knowledge of the music covered is frankly at times staggering. Do you need to rein one another in at points or is that all done in the edit?
It’s pretty much all in the edit. We tend to talk for hours and then edit ourselves down ruthlessly. If anything, the show doesn’t contain the true extent of our listening. Then again, when people complain about us not covering certain albums / artists, I often feel as if we don’t know enough!
The success has been very welcome and unexpected as has been the knowledge that certain artists have sold things off the back of the podcast (Godley & Creme and Peter Hammill, in particular).
What’s next for you? Will you be looking to tour this release?
Hopefully. There’ll be a date or two, plus a live album with Butterfly Mind. I’ve been writing new pieces on guitar of late, but I’ve no idea what they’ll become. I do have an idea – and some lyrics – for a follow up to ‘Lost In The Ghost Light’ (another love letter to the dying art of the album!) plus a desire to make a very quiet album that drifts into total silence. Outside of that, hopefully there will be some more PLENTY, NO-MAN and Bowness / Chilvers as well as a single with marvellous Julianne Regan.
While I’m really happy with where my music is at the moment (both live and in the studio), I don’t feel optimistic about the industry as a whole or about my carrying on making albums in the long-term. We’re living in a time where music has lost its value. Music is suffering as a consequence, along with 99.9% of musicians. There are still idealistic / interesting artists out there if you’re prepared to look, of course. That said, I sometimes don’t know how long I can positively carry on making music in such hostile commercial conditions.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Tim Bowness
Additional thanks to Simon Glacken at For The Lost
‘Powder Dry’ is released by Kscope on 13 September 2024 in pink and yellow coloured vinyl LP editions alongside a bonus CD edition with 5.1 surround sound DVD included. Standard black vinyl LP and standard CD editions will also be available – information at https://burningshed.com/store/timbowness
Tim Bowness plays Prog The Forest at The Fiddler’s Elbow, Camden, London NW5 3HS on 1 December 2024
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