Author: electricityclub (Page 7 of 417)

“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

“Good taste is exclusive”: NICK RHODES

A Short Conversation with HARALD GROSSKOPF

27 September 2024 /

German music veteran Harald Grosskopf has lived a wonderfully busy life, working with noted fellow countrymen like Klaus Schulze, Manuel Göttsching, Eberhard Kranemann, Udo Hanten, Lutz Ulbrich, Steve Baltes, Thorsten Quäschning and Axel Heilhecker.

As well as the drumming for of WALLENSTEIN, THE COSMIC JOKERS and ASH RA TEMPEL, he is a respected solo artist whose 1980 debut album ‘Synthesist’ is now held up as an exemplary electronic work of the period; fans of the record have included Andy McCluskey, Mark Reeder and Jean-Michel Jarre.

Turning 75 this October, Harald Grosskopf celebrates the occasion by publishing his German language autobiography ‘Monsieur Séquenceur’ and releasing a brand new album ‘Strom’ on Bureau B. The album title translates from German as “electricity” and fuses his classic melodic synth sound with the virtual tools of today for a fully charged body of work.

Harald Grosskopf kindly spoke to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about the genesis of both his book and latest music creation…

The last time we spoke, it was for the expanded 40th Anniversary edition of ‘Synthesist’ in 2020, are you happy with how it was received?

Oh yes! The limited edition was sold out in weeks.

This new album ‘Strom’ has been a while coming, how did you decide it was time for a new solo creation?

I have to go into great detail to answer this question. I am a musician, and standing still is not part of my concept. Making music is a great passion that has grown throughout my life. Finally being able to work independently in my own studio is a privilege I had to wait a long time for until it finally became a reality in 2007.

After my first solo album ‘Synthesist’, the music industry sharply declined in the 1980s, and analog studios around the world closed in large numbers. I couldn’t afford the necessary recording equipment, and the few remaining studios were expensive. When the first Atari computers with built-in MIDI hit the market, things slowly started to pick up again. But it wasn’t until the late 1990s, when it became possible to record analog audio signals with relatively affordable music software, that things really began to move forward.

In the beginning I had virtually no experience, firstly with computers and secondly the complex subject of music software. The next step was to teach myself, step by step, and to create a physical space where I could work undisturbed. A studio. It always takes me quite a while to be emotionally satisfied with a track. Thank God I’m not under any commercial production pressure.

After producing an album with KRAFTWERK founder Eberhard Kranemann in 2018, and after we toured in England and performed in China, I began to focus on my solo work again. This led first to a remix album of my second solo album ‘Oceanheart’ (Sky 1985), ‘Oceanheart Revisited’. After that, I began working on the ‘Strom’ album. The entire album was mixed and mastered in an analog studio on reel to reel tape before digitalized again to get an analog feeling.

The title is ‘Strom’ which in English means “electricity”, does it share any conceptual heritage with ‘Synthesist’?

Well, I can’t change who I am. I never work with a musical concept. I always approach things emotionally. That means, unconsciously, there may be references to ‘Synthesist’. However, I certainly don’t try to repeat myself and always allow new experiences to influence my work.

‘Bureau 39’ has already been issued online as a trailer to ‘Strom’, you have your classic sweeping synth sound on it, are you still using your old synths or have you gone for virtual?

I haven’t owned any analog equipment for a long time. I never had a large collection of it anyway. I like the quick access that music software and virtual instruments offer. This way, I can always stay in the flow of spontaneous creativity without wasting time on wiring synths and dealing with tons of processing tools. That doesn’t mean I condemn analog synths. I just don’t use them. It also makes traveling easier. I don’t need to carry much to get to the stage!

‘Blow’ is quite fierce in places?

Deep in my heart, I am still a drummer. Physical intensity is a characteristic of drumming. That’s what drives me to make tracks like these.

There is a sharp use of rhythm on this album, as can be heard on ‘Später Strom’, had there been a particular approach? Did you manually trigger on a kit and quantise or was it all mouse and screen?

Always a mix of handmade drum loops and mouse editing.

‘After The Future’ and ‘Um Pah Pah Uh’ are quite experimental and almost do away with melody, featuring unsettling voices?

I have always seen it as a reminiscence of the early days of electronic music—Stockhausen, Pierre Schaeffer, Oscar Sala, etc, to include a little bit of this direction in my solo albums to keep it alive, without falling into banal copying.

What inspired the feel of ‘Stylo Kraut’?

That began in 2018 when I did a small tour of England with Eberhard Kranemann. We were invited by John Simpson, the CEO of Dubreq Ltd in Hastings, which reissued the legendary Stylophone Mini Synthesizer from 1967 in 2007, to perform a concert in Hastings. John provided us with this little synth buzzer, the Gen X-1 model. As a thank you, I produced this track, which I continued to expand and modify in the studio over time. It is, therefore, a small monument of reverence to this tiny, magical music machine, which was already honored by John Lennon, David Bowie, and KRAFTWERK in the past.

‘Stromklang’ wouldn’t sound of place in a club, doing you feel any affinity to techno or dance culture?

I wouldn’t have a problem if my music were played in techno clubs. I first came into contact with this music when techno reached its peak in the mid-1990s. That was probably due to my age. I was approaching 50 and hadn’t been going to clubs for a long time, so this culture more or less completely passed me by until then.

Steve Baltes, a young musician whom I invited to join us on two of our ASHRA Japan tours, played me tracks that gave me goosebumps. I like this music because it resonates with my drummer’s heart, physical and simple intensity. That has certainly influenced my music-making unconsciously. However, I’m far from making techno, as generally, I don’t care about other music at all when I’m in my studio.

How have you adapted your creativity to today’s equipment and music consumption environment?

Out of necessity, I turned to creating music with computers almost 30 years ago because, as I hinted earlier, I couldn’t afford studio equipment or expensive studio costs. The rapid technological development of digital recording tools and virtual synthesizers is breathtaking. However, I am open to all techniques. For example, I mixed my last albums on magnetic tape in the studio of my friend Tobias Stock before we digitally rendered the tracks for CD and vinyl. As a result, even the CD now sounds very analog.

Over 25 years, Tobias has assembled a top-class analog studio in mint condition, which leaves nothing to be desired, and he maintains it at the highest level in his role as an electronic engineer and musician. The next step will be working with various AI tools. However, I definitely won’t be creating ‘prompt-to-music’ at the push of a button. The rejection of AI as a creative tool strongly reminds me of the incompetent reactions to the emergence of the first synthesizers in the late 1960s, early 1970s. Klaus Schulze always responded to these technology sceptics with irony: “Since when do violins grow on trees, or pianos in fields?”

How did the idea for a book come about? Did you keep diaries or has everything been recounted from memory?

I never kept a diary. About 30 years ago, I started writing down my memories sporadically, without any intention of ever publishing them. It was more for reasons of therapeutic self-reflection. Over time, when I shared stories from my life with friends and acquaintances, I kept getting asked why I didn’t publish them. When my label, Bureau B, became economically involved with Ventil Publishing Company, and I told Gunther Buskies, the CEO of Bureau B, about my writings, everything started falling into place.

Since I originally had around 700 pages, and no one would read such a long biography, we worked with a professional editor to condense it to an acceptable length. And now, the time has come. The version, which until now has only been available in German, will be released in parallel with the ‘Strom’ album. I’m working on an English translation.

Did you have a particular memory that was jogged by a conversation or research that for various reasons, you had forgotten about?

Writing takes longer than quickly recalling images, feelings, and dialogues. When you sit down to write down memories, you have to hold the image of the memory in your mind until you’ve formulated it. This apparently has the effect of bringing back seemingly long-forgotten content, which suddenly becomes alive again, and you can hardly stop yourself from holding it in your mind in order to get it down on paper or hammer it into the computer. It could happen that I sometimes wrote for 6 or 7 hours without a break. A phenomenon that others have also reported to me.

So, would you agree that if you can remember recording with THE COSMIC JOKERS, then you weren’t actually there??? 😉

Of course, memories can deceive us, and surely our brain alters our memories as well. Memories are always fragmented and sometimes hazy. Now to your question: Yes, I can recall those Cosmic Couriers sessions in Dieter Dierks’ studio, half a century ago fairly well.

Two of your most esteemed colleagues Klaus Schulze and Manuel Göttsching are sadly no longer with us, has this had any bearing on how you have approached the book or the album?

No, because I had already written everything related to the two of them during their lifetimes.

What is next for you?

The mastering of the next solo album, titled ‘Glitches Brew’, which will be released in the second half of 2025 on Bureau B. Two more albums featuring collaborations with other artists are also completed. We are still looking for a label for one of these albums. The second one of this kind will be released in March 2025 on the English DIN label. I am not yet allowed to reveal the title and protagonists. Additionally, I am already working on a third solo album and video projection materials for future live performances.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its sincerest thanks to Harald Grosskopf

Additional thanks to Sean Newsham at Bureau B

‘Strom’ is released by Bureau B on 18 October 2024 in CD and vinyl LP formats, available from https://shop.tapeterecords.com/records/bureau-b/

Download available from https://haraldgrosskopf.bandcamp.com/

Harald Grosskopf’s memoir ‘Monsieur Séquenceur’ is published in German by Ventil Verlag, available from https://www.ventil-verlag.de/titel/1967/monsieur-sequenceur

https://www.haraldgrosskopf.de/

https://www.facebook.com/Harald-Grosskopf-121526524593386/

https://www.instagram.com/harald_grosskopf/

https://open.spotify.com/artist/1yejR2Tszo9sGMXtmuq07K

Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Markus Luigs
27 September 2024

GENEVA JACUZZI Interview

24 September 2024 /

Photo by David Zuckerman

Geneva Jacuzzi is an artist whose oeuvre includes music, live theatre, installations, set design, costume, makeup and set decoration.

Released recently by Dais Records, ‘Triple Fire’ is her third full-length album, following her official debut  ‘Lamaze’ in 2010 and 2016’s ‘Technophelia’. Based in Los Angeles, Geneva Jacuzzi brings a collaborative approach to ‘Triple Fire’ while vocally she continues to recall the delightfully odd mannerisms of Gina Kikoine, Lene Lovich and Jyl.

Quirky and fun, ‘Triple Fire’ presents a hit parade of playful avant pop and sly post-apocalyptic camp across 12 songs, each possessing an immediate if occasionally chaotic burst of energy. Geneva Jacuzzi spoke to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about her artistic process and her take on the state of the modern world…

You’re an artist with many facets, what attracted you to making music and particularly electronic music?

When I moved to LA at 18, I was fortunate to meet some incredible people who were true music heads, a little bit older, record collectors, book collectors, philosophy quoters, tellers of stories, owners of 10,000 rare obscure books and records kind of people leftover from the 80s and 90s art and music scenes who co-mingled with the hipsters of LA. Mind you, this is the early 2000s, no YouTube or internet music so prior to that, the only electronic music I had heard was 80s pop and disco (which I loved but always felt so produced and unattainable)

Then all of the sudden I was exposed to early CABARET VOLTAIRE, THROBBING GRISTLE, KRAFTWERK, LEGENDARY PINK DOTS, CHROME, HARDCORE DEVO, THE STRANGLERS, early CURE and HUMAN LEAGUE, WIRE, KRAUTROCK, SUN RA, CAN, THE HOMOSEXUALS, LOS MICROWAVES, PALAIS SCHAUMBURG, DER PLAN, DAF and Kate Bush. It all blew my mind because I had never heard anything like it before. But the minimal synth was what really hit my core at the time. I think because it was so simple, my little brain was like “I can make this” so I tried it… and was hooked.

I didn’t have money to buy gear but I would run thrift store keyboards through pedals to manipulate sound and sometimes friends would loan me synths and I would spend hours just designing sounds. I had no intention of being a musician. I was just playing around and challenging myself… for fun and escape. It became a compulsion. I think my lack of musical skill combined with a passion for sound manipulation and inclination towards pop melody started to yield interesting results and I discovered I had a knack for composition.

Did you have an epiphanal moment with a synth, and if so, with which one?

My first real synth I experimented with was a Sequential Prophet One and I feel really fortunate to have had a friend who loaned me one for a couple of years. I remember jamming on it and turning knobs without any knowledge of what does what until I got to the point where the synth would make no sound and I had to figure out WHY?? It literally forced me to learn about what each knob is doing. But it was a great way to learn. It was like being lost in a foreign city with no map and you have to go around asking for directions and looking at the position of the sun and buildings until one day, you just know where you are and how to get to where you wanna go instinctually.

Your first official album release ‘Lamaze’ in 2010 was a collection of 4 track and 8 track recordings as well as demos, what inspired you to issue them “as seen” rather than polish them up?

Honestly, I didn’t think I had any other way of polishing them up. I didn’t own a computer and the songs were accidents trapped in tape so recreating them in a studio didn’t seem like an option. It’s not like I had a record advance or money to go into the studio either. I was just experimenting with music and then eventually someone wanted to press it on vinyl. I’m pretty sure at the time, I thought they sounded perfect as is. It didn’t occur to me to fix or change anything. It’s like having a kid with a crooked nose. What, are you going to take them to a plastic surgeon at age 6? I suppose you could but that would be weird. And what if the kids face grew and the fake nose stayed small? It would just be a bad idea.

Your second album ‘Technophelia’ took a few years and was much more of a produced record, how do you look back on its gestation?

That’s so funny. I recorded Technophelia on GarageBand and the vocals were done with the little microphone above the screen on my white MacBook. Not kidding. But I never used soft synths. I think Chris Coady levelled up the sound in mixing though. He’s a total boss.

I don’t know why the record took so long. Now that I think about it, all of my records take a long time. Not that I’m sitting and working on them for years or anything. I’m just recording songs and playing shows and making art and living life and things come together when they come together. I’ve never been one to wait for ideal situations before I do things. I’ve got my paws in lots of different projects and things come together when they do. My new record coming out is the first in 8 or 9 years but only because I was working on video projects and live performances for a few years. Then I came back to the music again only in the last two years.

The songs on ‘Technophelia’ ranged from synthpop like ‘Casket’ to dysfunctional disco like ‘Cannibal Babies’, could these be now seen as blueprints for where you are now with ‘Triple Fire’?

A little bit, yes. Except I had originally planned to do something totally different. Then when I got started, it sounded like the same kind of stuff that I’ve done in the past. Which is cool but not very interesting to me. I think I realized that I have my way of doing things and if I expect different results, I need to start including different people.

‘Technophelia’ was just me in my room and ‘Triple Fire’ was me with my friends. I brought in other producers and songwriters to collaborate on this record. My friends Roderick Edens and Andrew Briggs who have a great band REPTILE TILE in Virginia Beach. The three of us worked on the majority of the tracks together and it was fun blending skills and styles. Also worked with Josh da Costa on a track and Andrew Clinco from DRAB MAJESTY produced a track as well. This was my first time collaborating like this and it was really fun for me to move out of my comfort zone.

Many of your musical influences appear to be European?

It’s true. Love me some kraut and Italo disco. I don’t know what drew me towards that part of the world. Perhaps there is a depth to it that reflects a culture or history that Americans have yet to achieve. But many American bands like CHROME and DEVO hooked me as well. I think because there is a sense of humor and self-awareness that pokes fun at the insanity of America that I can really appreciate. After all, I am American and I am f*cking insane.

Quite a bit of time has passed since ‘Technophelia’, so has there been any changes in your creative and recording process for ‘Triple Fire’, be it from tech developments or collaborative opportunities?

It’s all about collaboration. ‘Technophilia’ was the peak of my loneliness’. Which I find beautiful but you can only go so far on your own before you start sounding repetitive. I also don’t feel the need to prove anything as far as my musical abilities go. I could of course become a better musician but I don’t think that song writing is about musical skill. It’s about sublimating a moment in time or an experience. ‘Triple Fire’ was me expanding into a collaborative space (which, honestly is a huge challenge for me because I never ever felt comfortable doing that in the past), Roderick has an amazing studio in Virginia Beach that we recorded at so having access to all of those synths also expanded the sound quite a bit. Andy brought in a bundle of synth racks so we had a bountiful bank of sound to choose from. It was such a fun experience working on this record.

‘Art Is Dangerous’ celebrates the subversive potential of all art, what inspired you make such a statement?

Funny enough, it was an accident. Roderick (who co-wrote) misread something on the TV screen one night after our recording session and yelled out “ART IS DANGEROUS?!?!” We looked at each other and both knew that it would be the title to the track that we were working on. Then the lyrics started flowing. I co-mingle with the art world and it was fun to play around with the absurdity of it all. Industry, ego, sensationalism, commodification, celebrity. The bridge vocals are all clichés. “All is fair in love and war”, “All that glitters isn’t gold”!

Cliché is a big theme on ‘Triple Fire’. We have songs like ‘Rock and a Hard Place’, ’Take it or Leave it’, I felt like pop music relies heavily on simplicity and stupid lyrics so I thought it would be interesting to go all in on using the most mundane phrases of the English language to describe something mysterious and deep.

You’ve said ‘Dry’ is about being ghosted after a date but is there a wider metaphor?

There always is lol. “Set it and Forget it” is a catch phrase from a 1990s infomercial selling a mechanical appliance. I suppose I felt that the modern approach to love via technology sort of mechanizes the magical. Not to say we are being dehumanized by dating apps or anything lol… But shopping for love on a cell phone can definitely alter amount of value we place on our human interactions thus creating a tricky landscape for a type of love that celebrates coincidence and the sweetness of imperfection. I’m an over thinker so when I get my heart broken by my cell phone, I tend to find the absurdity of it all and can’t help but see how funny it is when the mere chime sound of a text message is enough to ignite a Pavlovian flood of emotions… or in this case… No text message!

How did Andrew Clinco come to produce ‘Speed Of Light’? How was his approach compared with your own and was there something you learnt that you will continue with your own productions?

Andrew and I have been friends for years and have collaborated on different projects and bands in the past so when I told him I was making a new record and hoped to work with him on something, he was super down. I’m pretty sure he sat down one night with me in mind and cooked up the track to ’Speed of Light’. When I heard it, it was a definite “Yes!” And I heard the vocals / lyrics in my head almost immediately. I recorded the demo vox then we finished it up together in his studio.

Andrew is one of those special kind of humans that can do everything… but unlike me, he does it quickly and has some incredible production tricks up his sleeve that I have yet to master. He is a machine who compulsively makes music non-stop and I witnessed the effects of his skill with production. It’s almost effortless and our personalities really get along so it was super fun and easy to work together. When it comes to collaborating, it’s important to pick the right people. I’m fortunate to have friends like Andrew who are incredibly talented and funny who totally get it.

Is there a key track or favourite on ‘Triple Fire’ which summarises what you were hoping to achieve on this album?

It changes. ‘Art is dangerous’ and ‘Dry’ feel the most “Geneva Jacuzzi” but I definitely strayed from the box with tracks like ‘Heart Full of Poison’, ‘Rock and a Hard Place’ and ‘Keep it Secret’ which I love. But ‘Bow Tie Eater’ , ‘Nu2U’ and ‘Yo-yo Boy’ are secret favorites. I wish they were singles. ‘Laps of Luxury’ is also a strong track and I’m really excited for it to come out with the release.

Who is ‘The Scene Ballerina’? Has this “main character syndrome” become worse since the advent of social media influencers or has it always been one of those social diseases particularly prevalent in the entertainment industry?

I think everyone knows a “Scene Ballerina”. That person who loves to make it all about themselves and craves drama. It’s so funny, I never really thought to write about those sorts of people but Andy and Roderick invented the term and we just ran with it for fun. I wasn’t expecting it to be a single but it ended up so poppy and fun that it made the cut. I don’t think that social media has anything to do with it. There have been Scene Ballerinas since the beginning of time. It’s just a weird personality type. So silly and obnoxious.

Before ‘Lamaze’ was released, MySpace was the social media of choice while Facebook and Twitter were beginning to gain traction but now, there’s TikTok and algorithms prioritising reels on Instagram… do you find this aspect overwhelming or does this all slot in nicely with your artistic ethos?

Yeah, it took me two and a half hours yesterday just to announce a show because I had to log into 20 different apps and tag everyone lol. So yeah, that can be overwhelming but I’m not ungrateful!!! Social media, like anything else has its pros and cons. It’s just bigger and faster. You can reach more people but good luck holding anyone’s attention. I think every artist over the age of 25 has a love-hate relationship with it because it’s real / not real and emotions and expectations get tangled up into algorithms and AI. I find it to be neutral in the artistic sense. Good and evil depending on how you look at it. I think it’s just an energy, like money. Best to not overthink it and play with the fun of it all. Because as much as I like to talk shit about it, my Instagram feed is full of probably the funniest memes on the planet and I find it deeply entertaining at times so there you go. I’m a tool like everyone else.

Walter Gropius said “Today’s luxuries are tomorrow’s norm” but has the world become more culturally ignorant despite it getting smaller due to the indirect consequence of smart tech becoming ubiquitous?

Great question! It’s such a fascinating phenomenon. Things getting smaller when everything gets bigger. Or slower when the world speeds up. Isn’t it crazy to think that art and music looked and sounded sooooo drastically different between the 1960-1980 verses 2004-2024. I think technology is creating the illusion of things speeding up but everyone is oddly slowing down as a result. At least as far as culture goes. And when it comes to ignorance? I don’t know if people are more ignorant as much as they place less value on things because of the amount of accessibility we have to it all at any given time with little effort and little investment.

Yeah, everything is going to shit but it’s always been going to shit. I think the pendulum swings but now the swing will be more subtle and unconscious / abstract. I believe that we will start to crave a deeper and more meaningful connection to things and each other which will tip things over in time. It will never be like how it was in the past. I’m rambling here. Probably not making any sense but I do believe it is the duty of the artist to keep making art regardless of it all and to strive to be authentic. Otherwise humanity is lost.

Have you any fears as an artist with the advent of AI and seemingly more conservative attitudes being shouted out louder than ever?

So much of that is outside of my scope. But I think about it often. I’m fascinated by it all.

Back to the pendulum, it will always swing left and right as long as we believe in the binaries of good and evil. Duality processors lol. I’m convinced AI is nothing more than parasitic intelligence or a self-cannibalising mechanism of the collective unconscious feeding back and eating itself alive.

What are your hopes? Can music, art and chaos energy save mankind?

Music and Art is the only thing that can. It is the only thing that has this far. Without it we would have destroyed ourselves thousands of years ago.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Geneva Jacuzzi

Additional thanks to Frankie Davison at Stereo Sanctity

‘Triple Fire’ is released by Dais Records in various vinyl LP, CD + digital formats, available from https://found.ee/TripleFire

https://www.genevajacuzzi.com/

https://www.facebook.com/genevajacuzziofficial/

https://x.com/genevajacuzzi

https://www.instagram.com/genevaxjacuzzi/

Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
24 September 2024

MOBY Live at London O2 Arena

21 September 2024 /

Photo by Zoran Veselinovic

Celebrating 25 years of his multi-million selling album ‘Play’, Moby delivered a mighty greatest hits set in front of a packed house at London’s O2 Arena.

The vegan musician who has also been a proud environmental and animal rights activist had not toured for over 10 years when Barack Obama was still President of the United States. The world has changed considerably since then and not for the better. So it was timely, having kept a lower profile in recent years, that Moby should return to performing in Europe and give 100% of the tour’s profits to local animal rights organisations while also expressing his reasoned viewpoints.

At the time of the release of ‘Play’ on Mute Records in 1999, Moby was at a career crossroads following the commercial failure of the guitar driven statement ‘Animal Rights’. Believing it was going to be his last ever album, the man born Richard Melville Hall had nothing to lose and began experimenting with vocals sampled from songs by the blues and gospel singers Bessie Jones, Boy Blue and Vera Hall taken from the 1993 box set ‘Sounds of the South’ of field recordings collected by ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax. The contrast between these spiritual vocalisations and Moby’s electronica backdrops provided an unexpected emotional centre which resonated with the wider public. With all 18 tracks made available for commercial licensing, ‘Play’ notched up 12 million worldwide sales.

Photo by Zoran Veselinovic

Despite the focus on ‘Play’, the evening began formally with the uplifting gospel rave of ‘In My Heart’. Eschewing the use of the album’s samples, the live vocals from the deep voiced Choklate and the silky soulstress Nadia Christine Duggin recreated the various phrases or were expressed in glossolalia where studio editing had created a unique language.

With an accomplished backing band of keyboards, bass and drums, as well as cello and violin in a nod to his recent orchestrated reworkings albums ‘Reprise’ and ‘Resound NYC’, Moby was happy to let his vocalists take centre stage. Although the man himself was mostly on guitar, he ventured occasionally to synths and congas, as on his breakthrough techno banger ‘Go’. With its dreamlike quality recreating the ‘Laura Palmer’s Theme’ sample from ‘Twin Peaks’ on strings and synths alternating with the old skool rave action, it was mighty but had proceedings peaked too soon?

Photo by Zoran Veselinovic

Luckily they hadn’t, as ‘Bodyrock’ and ‘Find My Baby’ maintained the show’s early momentum. Things were taken down nicely with the surprise inclusions of the inspirational ‘Almost Home’ from 2013’s ‘Innocents’ and the mournful ballad ‘When It’s Cold I’d Like to Die’ off 1995’s ‘Everything Is Wrong’, both beautifully sung by Nadia Christine Duggin. Meanwhile, ‘In This World’ was a reminder that although ‘18’ was considered a less consistent version of ‘Play’ on its release in 2002, this song was equal any of the best tracks from it.

With Nadia Christine Duggin and Choklate having done the vocal heavy lifting so far, Moby took to the mic for ‘Porcelain’ (which perhaps surprisingly he said was nearly left off ‘Play’), an uptempo revamp of ‘We Are All Made of Stars’ and the sinister machine throb of ‘Machete’. Like a modern day Nina Simone with a touch of sartorial flamboyance, support artist Lady Blackbird offered superb renditions of ‘Walk With Me’ which she had resounded with Moby in 2023 and an outstandingly emotive ‘Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?’.

Photo by Chi Ming Lai

There was the unexpected but welcome addition of the elegiac instrumental ‘Everloving’ from ‘Play’; having been used in many animal rights campaigns, before the rendition, Moby announced that the charities that profits from the UK leg of the tour would go to The Humane League UK, Plant-Based Universities, The Animal Law Foundation, Earth Percent (Brian Eno’s climate organization) and The Jane Goodall Institute.

Effectively now seen as the signature theme to the ‘Bourne’ series of films, Moby’s tale of regret ‘Extreme Ways’ provided another rousing highlight while concluding the main act, ‘Honey’ provided fitting bounce. Returning to the stage for the first encore donned in a white stetson, Moby and his talented ensemble indulged in a fun acoustic cover of ‘Ring of Fire’ as made famous by Johnny Cash, prompting audience singalongs both for the chorus and the trumpet solo.

Despite giving encouragement to Americans to vote for Kamala Harris to defeat Donald Trump and save democracy, ‘Lift Me Up’ unfortunately stalled in its new stadium rock incarnation but victory was snatched back with a glorious ‘Natural Blues’ voiced by Choklate.

Photo by Chi Ming Lai

Deciding not to indulge in the pretence of walking off for the second and final encore, the 2 hour show climaxed with the “sound system rocking” to the happy hardcore of ‘Feeling So Real’ and the avant techno frenzy of ‘Thousand’ which saw Moby stood on a podium to absorb the exhilaration of the sped up drum machine and the cheers of the crowd.

This was a triumphant return for Moby, if it can be called that. He continues to make music and is a leading exponent of modern ambient while he released a brand new album ‘Always Centered At Night’ earlier this year featuring guest vocal collaborators including the late Benjamin Zephaniah, Gaidaa, Akemi Fox, Choklate and Lady Blackbird; although the latter was not performed, it is a worthy addition to a tradition. But tonight was not about Moby promoting his new works but using his most recognised music and his platform to help further the causes close to his heart.

Special thanks to Sarah Pearson and Alix Wenmouth at Wasted Youth PR

‘Always Centered At Night’ is self-released and available as a vinyl LP or CD and via the usual platforms

http://www.moby.com/

https://www.facebook.com/mobymusic

https://www.instagram.com/moby/

https://open.spotify.com/album/6Q9F246p5fOQzz8tts4ylS

Text by Chi Ming Lai
21 September 2024

BACK TO NOW: NOW 1981 Yearbook with ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK

16 September 2024 /

Hosted by self-confessed pop rambler Iain McDermott, ‘Back To NOW’ is a podcast that celebrates all things related to the variously compiled world of pop, how our favourite compilation albums shaped our lives and now fondly stand as time capsules for our own musical journeys.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s Chi Ming Lai and Ian Ferguson were extremely pleased to be invited as guests on ‘Back To NOW’ and opted to choose the 2022 release of the ‘NOW ‘81 Yearbook’ 4CD set and its companion 3CD set of “Extras”. One of the reasons it was chosen was because, as described by the Now Music official website , “it was a watershed year for pop with new British artists emerging from the ashes of punk and disco by way of the New Romantic movement”

1981 saw key albums by ULTRAVOX, SIMPLE MINDS, HEAVEN 17, THE HUMAN LEAGUE, JAPAN, NEW ORDER, OMD, DEPECHE MODE and SOFT CELL as well as Gary Numan and John Foxx, released within a 10 week period that Autumn. The year also saw the return of KRAFTWERK and Jean-Michel Jarre after an absence of 3 years while DURAN DURAN issued their self-titled debut long player.

Among the discussion points in this episode are how the affordability of synthesizers was changing the musical landscape, Midge Ure was becoming particularly ubiquitous as a producer, ABBA’s ‘The Visitors’ album and how progressive rock elements were seeping into the sounds of the year. This was the year 1981 B.C.C. – before CULTURE CLUB!

Of course, the ‘Now That’s What I Call Music’ series did not exist at the time so there is room for chat about the compilations of the period, in particular K-Tel’s ‘Modern Dance’ of 1982 which provided a near-definitive snapshot of electronic pop of 1980-1981. Featuring DEPECHE MODE, THE HUMAN LEAGUE, OMD, VISAGE, HEAVEN 17, JAPAN, SIMPLE MINDS, LANDSCAPE, FASHION and THE CURE, Radio1 DJ Peter Powell declared that ‘Modern Dance’ was “The best of total danceability, the sounds of modern dance, on one LP!”.

The trio also  get to discuss what songs are missing on ‘NOW ‘81 Yearbook’ and ‘NOW ‘81 Yearbook’Extra’ be it be to licensing or artist veto, and in a year when quite a few brilliant songs did not actually get chart recognition, they each choose their three tracks which they would like to have been included.

The broad church of the UK singles charts at that time meant that it was not all good, with easy listening Radio 2 tunes, soppy Motown ballads and medley records dispelling the rose-tinted myth often portrayed by today’s internet radio DJs that the 1981 charts was full of synthpop! This becomes one of the talking points, as does the fact that heavy metal, rock ‘n’ roll, soul, jazz funk, disco, reggae, ska, post-punk, AOR and mainstream pop sat significantly alongside the New Romantics and Futurists.

1981 was a dazzling 12 months where the decade began to take shape and form an identity that remains with us today. Grab some blank tapes, switch off one of the 3 channels on your TV and join us as we head back to a glorious year in pop, 1981.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Iain McDermott

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
16 September 2024

BILL LEEB Model Kollapse

15 September 2024 /

Vancouver is a rainy city in the shadow of Grouse Mountain with beautiful views. Its citizens like to eat pancakes at Sophie’s Cosmic Café and cycle around UBC, while wearing clothes from Mountain Equipment Co-op or Patagonia.

The furthest point any Canadian could have been from the European bases of PORTION CONTROL and FRONT 242, it’s an unlikely cradle for the development of industrial electronics. Nevertheless, SKINNY PUPPY was born there, in a perfect storm of sequencers and hair spray. FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY broke through the membrane when Bill Leeb left to make music in a different vein.

With a changing cast that mostly revolved around Leeb and Rhys Fulber, FLA put less of a focus on gothic theatrics than SKINNY PUPPY. The band’s sound owed more to Neal Stephenson than Vincent Price. Cybernetics, media, and power complexes became themes around which intense electronic sounds were built.

Leeb and Fulber have also spent time in the mainstream as DELERIUM – a project that allows them to explore their interests in ambient and epic synth work. The Left Coast’s natural beauty is clearly impressed into the project, along with influences from Jean-Michel Jarre, Klaus Schulze and TANGERINE DREAM.

Leeb has just released his first solo album. ‘Model Kollapse’ sits between the intensity of FLA and the fluidity of DELERIUM. With guest vocals from a fellow Vancouverite, Shannon Hemmett (ACTORS, LEATHERS), and contributions from DELERIUM collaborator Mimi Page and Jason Corbett (ACTORS), it adds textures that don’t sit neatly in either bucket. It is also a deeply personal collection of songs, assembled during a period of transition for Leeb.

“All I ever wanted was to be with you” goes a line on ‘Muted Obsession’. Is it a statement of regret or an argument for forgiveness? The urgent bass line doesn’t resolve the question, but it is sophisticated dark poptronica. It butts up against ‘Simulation’ which is spiked with the essence of PORTION CONTROL. The material on ‘Model Kollapse’ combines the feel of classics from the Industrial bins at Vancouver’s Odyssey Imports with the lessons of a lifetime on global stages.

Photo by Bobby Talamine

You can detect the influence of FRONT 242 in ‘Terror Forms’ and NITZER EBB in ‘Infernum’ but these are not derivative tracks. They are built on the rhythmic foundations of EBM, but the edifice is a cathedral of reverb, distortion, and insistent vocal lines. Leeb’s stylings infuse the material with classic FLA definition and intensity.

‘Model Kollapse’ sounds a warning about the encroachment of technology on our lives. A description of the tendency of AI systems to fall apart when exposed to their own outputs, the term highlights that we take the good with the bad. A rainy winter in North Vancouver, contemplating the passing of friends and discomfort about the growth of Big Data could lead you there. So could 52 minutes in the company of the resulting album.

‘Model Kollapse’ is released by Metropolis Records in vinyl LP, CD + digital formats, available from https://frontlineassembly.bandcamp.com/album/model-kollapse

https://bill-leeb.com/

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Text by Simon Helm
15 September 2024

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