Category: Lost Albums (Page 7 of 14)

Lost Albums: BETH DITTO EP

14 October 2017 /


Not an album at all of course, but Beth Ditto’s self-titled four track EP from early 2011 showed what she was capable of when presented with a juicy electronic soundtrack away from the funk laden punk of GOSSIP.

Following their first collaboration ‘Cruel Intentions’ on SIMAN MOBILE DISCO’s album ‘Temporary Pleasure’ in 2010, the dance duo of James Ford and Jas Shaw acted as producers on this brilliant solo EP. Their ethos allowed Ms Ditto’s very present personality to shape the character of the tracks without detracting from the inherent dancefloor mood.

The result was four tracks that successfully crossed over into both GOSSIP’s indie punk audience and SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO’s more club inclined crowd. Opening track ‘I Wrote The Book’ was a close cousin of ‘Cruel Intentions’ and pulsed in a marvellous Detroit techno fashion that was immediate.

‘Goodnight Good Morning’ was driven by a solid groove and that would be the word that would ably describe this EP. Despite all the technology used to craft these four numbers, they possessed a warm humanity while the music itself retained a sparkling New York vibe.

‘Open Heart Surgery’ was driven by white noise percussion and a bassline reminiscent of THE HUMAN LEAGUE’s early work and while not frantic in tempo, it did begin like a dreamboat collaboration between Da League and Donna Summer.

The EP ended with ‘Do You Need Someone?’; digital claps took the lead while Ms Ditto’s passionate yearning added soul to the sparkling electronic groove. The melodic Polymoog-like tones of KRAFTWERK towards the song’s close were a marvellous aesthetic touch. Throughout the four songs, Ditto’s voice was rich, emotive and powerful.

On the evidence of this EP, a solo career in electronic dance music could have beckoned post-GOSSIP. She would have made a most perfect disco diva and certainly later offerings by GOSSIP like the suitably titled ‘Move In My Direction’ indicated that could be the case.

Alas, her debut solo album ‘Fake Sugar’ ventured into Ditto’s Southern rock roots, but at least this electronic EP existed as an indicator of what could have been. It also showed how James Ford could not be blamed for the lemon that was DEPECHE MODE’s ‘Spirit’ 😉

‘Beth Ditto’ is still available as a CD EP or download via Deconstruction Records

https://bethditto.com/

https://twitter.com/oBETHoDITTO

http://gossipyouth.com/

http://www.simianmobiledisco.co.uk/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
14th October 2017

Lost Albums: S.P.O.C.K Five Year Mission

9 August 2017 /

During their ‘Star Trek’ careers, both William Shatner and the late Leonard Nimoy made various excursions into the musical world with mixed responses. Nimoy gave the world ‘The Ballad Of Bilbo Baggins’, while Shatner’s melodramatic cover of Elton John’s ‘Rocket Man’ had to be heard to be truly believed.

But one noted musical offshoot inspired by the long running franchise were a bunch of Swedes who traded under the moniker of S.P.O.C.K

Alongside bands such as PAGE, ELEGANT MACHINERY and SISTA MANNEN Å JORDEN, they were to become key players in the Swedish electronic pop scene. The project started in 1988 when Eddie Bengtsson of Svenske synth trailblazers PAGE put together some ‘Star Trek’ themed songs for his friend Finn Albertsson to perform at his birthday party; another friend Alexander Hofman provided the vocal accompaniment.

Calling themselves MR SPOCK, the performance was well-received and unexpectedly led to further local live bookings with Bengtsson now also incorporated into the line-up. Formal approaches were made to Paramount Pictures to use the name of the Vulcan Science Officer, but unable to reach agreement with the studio giant, the trio opted to call themselves STAR PILOTS ON CHANNEL K, otherwise abbreviated to S.P.O.C.K.

Releasing their debut single ‘Silicon Dream’ in 1990, the S.P.O.C.K crew adopted character personas with Hofman, Bengtsson and Albertsson calling themselves Android, Captain Eddie B Kirk and Cybernoid respectively to fully immerse themselves into their conceptual vision.

1992 saw the release of their signature song ‘Never Trust A Klingon’ on Energy Rekords. A frantic robotic synthpop number with a hypnotic dance feel, Hofman’s detached but theatrical vocal style told the message loud and clear. A magnificent blip splurge in the middle eight was further enhanced with samples of Captain James Tiberius Kirk from ‘Star Trek III: The Search for Spock’.

‘Never Trust A Klingon’ bordered on nerdiness, but presented with a straight face and accompanied by a brilliant synthetic backing track, it strangely came over as a work of genius even with lines about “evil barbarians” who “if you ever give them a helping hand… can be sure they’ll chop off the arm”. Klingons on the starboard bow? THE FIRM’s 1987 novelty hit ‘Star Trekkin’ this most certainly wasn’t and ‘Never Trust A Klingon’ became an alternative club favourite in both Sweden and Germany.

The parent long player ‘Five Year Mission’ appeared in 1993. Predominantly based around the cult of ‘Star Trek’, it began by exploring the ‘Neutral Zone’ in a steadfast ERASURE-ish recollection of a mission where the USS Enterprise responded to a distress call sent from the no-man’s land dividing The Federation from The Klingon Empire.

Continuing the Trekkie theme, ‘Mr Spock’s Brain’ utilised Android’s processed Numan-esque drone with some enjoyably daft lyrics, while the bleeps and chattering drum machines on ‘Charlie X’ accompanied the story of a disturbed teenager who appeared in a first season episode causing mayhem aboard the Enterprise while stalking one of the female crew members. But it was a story that could be related to any aspect of society, not just in outer space.

The deadpan drama of ‘Black Hole’ saw the USS Enterprise trying to get more warp speed to prevent being sucked into oblivion, while ‘Edge Of Forever’ with its distinctive tones of mechanical vocal expression was great spacey Eurocentric synthpop.

Despite the concept of ‘Five Year Mission’, not all the tracks were based around ‘Star Trek’ but most were still Science Fiction based. ‘Space Race’ borrowed from Vince Clarke-era DEPECHE MODE and S.P.O.C.K were later to pay tribute to Basildon’s most famous sons when they recorded ‘Ice Machine’ for the Svenske DM tribute ‘Sometimes I Wish I Was Famous’.

Meanwhile ‘E-Lectric’ celebrated future technologies in a typically Kling Klang fashion and the HG Wells inspired ‘Time Machine’ told of a trapped time traveller whose survival supplies were running on empty.

‘Five Year Mission’ ended appropriately enough with ‘Last Man On Earth’, a dystopian doomscape about machines taking over the earth. “The robots are now out of control” muttered Android dispassionately in a tone that could have easily come from TUBEWAY ARMY’s ‘Replicas’.

S.P.O.C.K’s music could on first impression be seen as bordering on parody. But expanding on the sly deadpan humour of KRAFTWERK and combining it with Bengtsson’s melodic synth laden compositions, S.P.O.C.K’s music possessed enough authentic weight to complement Hofman’s amusing wordplay.

In a period when the UK had more or less given up on synthpop and Britpop was rearing its ugly head, Sweden and Germany were still keeping the genre alive on ‘Planet Earth’. Rather fittingly, the inter-galactic adventures of S.P.O.C.K would later lead them to reinterpret that same titled DURAN DURAN track for the ‘To Cut A Long Story Short’ synthpop covers collection in 1995 alongside ELEGANT MACHINERY and PAGE.

In the end, everyone comes back down to earth…

‘Five Year Mission’ was released as a CD by Energy Rekords

http://www.subspace.se/spock/

https://www.facebook.com/StarPilotOnChannelK

Text by Chi Ming Lai
9th August 2017

Lost Albums: THE DOLPHIN BROTHERS Catch The Fall

19 June 2017 /


After JAPAN split at the end of 1982, vocalist / songwriter David Sylvian and bassist Mick Karn set to work collaborating with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Midge Ure respectively as well as preparing solo albums.

Meanwhile, drummer Steve Jansen and keyboardist Richard Barbieri partnered up for the JVC commissioned instrumental work ‘Worlds In A Small Room’ released in Spring 1985 to accompany a documentary on the Space Shuttle Challenger.

But for their song-based project, the more reserved pair named themselves THE DOLPHIN BROTHERS.

Gathering together an ensemble of noted guest musicians including Phil Palmer, David Rhodes, Danny Thompson, Matthew Seligman, Robert Bell and Martin Ditcham, they issued a long player entitled ‘Catch The Fall’ in Summer 1987 on Virgin Records.

The album was co-produced by Yoshifumi Iio who had worked with Yukihiro Takahashi of YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA and in particular, the brilliant interim single ‘Stay Close’ with Jansen in Autumn 1986. It was this duet in which Jansen debuted as a vocalist, so it naturally fell to the young sticksman to undertake vocal duties for THE DOLPHIN BROTHERS.

With a Sylvian-esque brow raised, the atmospheric ‘Catch The Fall’ title song with complimentary double bass from Danny Thompson sounded like it could have been a collaboration between TALK TALK and JAPAN. With the sparse percussive textures never overwhelming the proceedings, Clive Bell’s khene and crumhorn successfully added a touch of ethnic mystery.

Resembling ‘Goodbye Is Forever’ by the Simon Le Bon and Nick Rhodes arty DURAN DURAN side project ARCADIA, ‘Shining’ with its slapped digital bass sounded a little forced, although Barbieri’s synths offered some aural familiarity to connect listeners to ‘Tin Drum’ as did Matthew Seligman’s fretless bass, coming together like JAPAN with an added pop sensibility.

The accessibly dynamic ‘Second Sight’ picked up on Jansen’s Takahashi influences and grooved like a good Ferry styled pop tune should with some fabulously produced drums. With the mellow mood of later era CHINA CRISIS, Jansen offered his best Sylvian impersonation on ‘Love That You Need’, a track that could have been mistaken for his brother if it wasn’t for Suzanne Murphy’s girly refrain. Barbieri’s synths aided the possible case for mistaken identity.

The directly upbeat ‘Real Life, Real Answers’ was an obvious cousin of ‘Stay Close’ and as pop as ‘Catch The Fall’ would get, capturing a combination of acts that had been influenced by JAPAN such as ICEHOUSE and LUSTANS LAKEJER who furthered the template in their own home territories of Australia and Sweden respectively.

With a wonderfully clean sound, this is a truly underrated jewel from the canon of Jansen and Barbieri. Taking things down, the laid back ‘Host To The Holy’ displayed eerie Barbieri synths with a lilting percussive mood from Jansen in the vein of TALK TALK’s ‘Happiness Is Easy’.

Comprising of primarily piano and vocals with only partial augmentation from synths and double bass, ‘My Winter’ was reminiscent of the more organic material on Sylvian’s ‘Secrets Of The Beehive’, but with less of a hazy demeanour. The closing ‘Pushing The River’ delivered Jansen’s best vocal of the set, while Barbieri’s gorgeous artful textures and synthetic brass helped the song come over like what a JAPAN track might have sounded had the band continued recording into 1983.

Compared with David Sylvian and Mick Karn’s solo work or the JAPAN comeback as RAIN TREE CROW in 1991, ‘Catch The Fall’ was pop music, but of the more sophisticated variety. However, in the compact disc era from which it emerged, the market was saturated with comparable acts such as TEARS FOR FEARS, TALK TALK, THE BLUE NILE and CHINA CRISIS.

While featuring good songs that were well played and programmed as well as cleanly produced, what ‘Catch The Fall’ perhaps lacked was some of the sound design and innovation found on ‘Tin Drum’ or subsequent records that Jansen and Barbieri would go on to record with each other and separately in later years. This could have been due to the prevalent preset trap with the digital technology of the time, or an effort to appease Virgin Records to produce a marketable, commercial record. However, the running order might not have helped the flow of the record while ‘Real Life, Real Answers’ would have made a better single than ‘Shining’ in the quest to attract potential purchasers.

Alas, ‘Catch The Fall’ did not sell, so Jansen and Barbieri departed from the label they had been with since 1980’s ‘Gentlemen Take Polaroids’ and the songwriting world, to return to more independently minded experimental climes, most notably as JBK with Mick Karn via their own Medium Productions set-up. While THE DOLPHIN BROTHERS only made one album, ‘Catch The Fall’ has stood up well thirty years after its making.

For those JAPAN fans who may have found the improvisational nature RAIN TREE CROW something of a disappointment and may have given up on the various members’ solo projects after 1984, this album is worthy of investigation.

It may not be Jansen and Barbieri’s best work, but it is very good all the same.

‘Catch The Fall’ was released by Virgin Records and now available digitally via the usual outlets

http://www.stevejansen.com/

http://www.richardbarbieri.net/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Sheila Rock
19th June 2017, updated 13th July 2022

Lost Albums: SPLEEN UNITED School of Euphoria

14 November 2016 /

Denmark’s SPLEEN UNITED somehow never quite managed to break through the glass ceiling of widespread electronic music popularity.

Being blessed with the kind of misrepresentative band name which conjured images of a third division UK punk band arguably didn’t help their cause either. Consistently producing music of an equal quality to their nearest counterparts RÖYKSOPP, the band produced three albums and although have not technically split up, ended up smashing all of their equipment at their final show at the Northside Festival in 2013.

‘School of Euphoria’ was the follow up to 2011’s ‘Neanderthal’, which in itself was the somewhat muted sequel to the sparkling electro-pop debut of ‘Godspeed Into The Mainstream’. What sets ‘School of Euphoria’ apart from its two predecessors is the influence of Acid House – the Roland TB303 Bassline looms large across the whole album and most of the material is an adrenaline rush of electronic dance, with a wealth of other retro gear being deployed to give the work a retro but cohesive feel.

First track ‘Days of Thunder’ is a full-pelt statement of intent with its stabbing synth and vocal samples leading into an opening 303 and vocal attack of lead vocalist Bjarke Niemann – combining melancholic melodies and squelching analogue synths it very much sets the template for a good two thirds of the album.

If you unwrap the layers of ‘Misery’, featuring a surprising guest vocal appearance from Gitte Nielson, (better known as Sylvester Stallone’s ex Brigitte), you’ll find the DNA of ORBITAL, with Roland TR909 drums, more stabbing synths and some funky electronic Latin percussion.

A drum breakdown leads into what is undoubtedly the centerpiece of the album ‘Sunset to Sunset’, another melancholy-filled dance track, but with an unpredictable jerky/syncopated synth riff bouncing around the verse of song which is a hymn to club culture. Fans of the early works of HARDFLOOR and Chicago House pioneers such as MR. FINGERS will ADORE the way the track busts out into a fully-fledged Acid track which might just have you going through your wardrobe looking for that faded smiley t-shirt you used to wear down to Shoom.

Interestingly, ‘Sunset to Sunset’ formed an epic 24 hour live improvisational piece that the band performed at Roskilde Festival. SPLEEN UNITED rehearsed in Sydhavn, Copenhagen beforehand and the edited highlights featured in a video with a Parental Advisory for its vintage synth porn overload…

The last minute and a half of the track is a chilled comedown which leads into the first downtempo track of the album ‘Simplicity’ – hinging around a hypnotic ‘I want simplicity back, you can have simplicity back’ vocal, the omnipresent 303 is still there in the background, but overlayed with fierce monosynths. Following a similar format to its preceding track, ‘Simplicity’ breaks down to a beautiful floating out, with more cut-ups of the vocal helping wind the track down to its conclusion.

The structure of the next few tracks craftily template elements of the second side of KRAFTWERK’s ‘Computerworld’ album, where pieces blend into each other and themes reappear in an almost ‘megamix’ format. ‘Pi’ takes deconstructed snippets of ‘Days of Thunder’ and ‘Euphoria’ before flowing into ‘Bright Cities Keep Me Awake’, then ‘Groundspeed’ and the acidic ‘Mu’.

‘Loebner’ (named after music journalist Lars Löbner Jeppesen) is based around a large sample of THE FLAMING LIPS track ‘Do You Realize??’ with its “Everyone you know someday will die” hookline. The only track on the album to feature mainly live drums, the song breaks into another 303 workout before the FLAMING LIPS sample makes a reappearance at the end of the piece.

Spleen Utd

‘Suburbia’ (not to be confused with the PET SHOP BOYS song) is all syncopated synth house riffs and returns to a welcome song format after the preceding primarily instrumental pieces. The mantra “Love is just a buzz, just a buzz you can’t get” is repeated throughout. ‘School of Euphoria’ was certainly the sign of a band with confidence to go full tilt and change direction with their sound.

If you are the kind of person that likes their electronic music tinged with a throwback dance element, then it’s hard to go wrong with this album. Because songs such as ‘Days of Thunder’ and ‘Sunset to Sunset’ utilise such a classic analogue synthesizer and drum aesthetic, they have a timeless feel to them and this work, alongside SPLEEN UNITED’s previous two albums, are certainly worthy of re-investigation.

Vocalist Bjarke and Kasper Nørlund have since gone on to pursue a different (lighter) direction with the band LIGHTWAVE EMPIRE with Bjarke being quoted as saying that gloomy and dark music “wasn’t his thing” and that he wanted to make “happy music”; if this is a permanent shift, then this is a significant loss to contemporary electronic music.

Bands that can perform synthetic music live in a challenging way utilising hardware effectively are few and far between and SPLEEN UNITED were one of the few (alongside SOULWAX and their contemporaries BATTLE TAPES) that made this type of sound a viable live proposition; for many they will be greatly missed.

‘School Of Euphoria’ was released by Copenhagen Records

http://www.spleenunited.dk/

https://www.facebook.com/spleenunited/

Text by Paul Boddy
14th November 2016

Lost Albums: KARL BARTOS Communication

19 March 2016 /

It seems strange now, but when ‘Communication’ was released in 2003, it was Karl Bartos’ return to electronica, following the ill-fated guitar driven excursion ‘Electric Music’ of 1998.

‘Communication’ was effectively Herr Bartos’ first solo album after the ELEKTRIC MUSIC project with RHEINGOLD’s Lothar Manteuffel, which had started promisingly in 1993 with the well-received ‘Esperanto’.

Frustrated by the drought of new material following ‘Electric Café’, Bartos had generally been seen as a beacon of hope for KRAFTWERK enthusiasts. But just as ‘Communication hit the shelves, an elephant entered the room in the shape of his former band; they released their first album of new material since 1986 in the shape of ‘Tour De France Soundtracks’.

With Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider finally delivering neu Kling Klang Produkt 2003, fans and press predictably focused their attention on KRAFTWERK. It was a shame because ‘Tour De France Soundtracks’ was rhythmically weak and lacklustre, a sanitised fascmile of the greatness KRAFTWERK had been.

Much better was ‘Communication’, an overlooked collection of fine electronic pop. At the time, Bartos said the album was “about the way images shape our view of the world and how electronic media is going to change the contents of our culture”. Like ‘Computer World’ before it, the prediction came true. Thus ‘Communication’ is possibly even more relevant today, than it was then.

The album began magnificently with ‘The Camera’, a surefire updating of ‘The Robots’ for the new Millennium. Certainly Bartos’ trump card compared with his former colleagues at Kling Klang was the ability to retain recognisable classic elements such as the elastic bassline and Polymoog piano signatures, while still thrusting through a vibrant, futuristic outlook.

This template continued “in Bild und Ton” on the much darker ‘I’m The Message’. Powerful and robotic, yet held down by a sinister electro-funk groove, it kicked in a manner that 21st Century KRAFTWERK couldn’t. Some screeching synths and a pulsating hypnotism provided extra tension.

The social commentary of ‘15 Minutes Of Fame’ co-written with electro producer Anthony Rother was Bartos demonstrating his pop nous; for all of KRAFTWERK’s innovations in sound, other than ‘The Model’, they never really did songs. With its octave shifting backbone and melodic patterns, ‘15 Minutes Of Fame’ took its lead from NEW ORDER.

Herr Bartos had publically declared on several occasions that the Mancunians were his favourite band and their more guitar based side came over musically in ‘Life’, possibly an autobiographical statement on him fleeing the Kling Klang nest. Hearing some Hooky bass reimagined on synths made for interesting listening.

With plenty of vocoder in abundance, ‘Reality’ was more synthetically mechanical and abstract in the vein of a less frantic ‘Overdrive’ from ‘Esperanto’. Meanwhile, ‘Electronic Apeman’ took that template into more robotic pop territory. Using some superb lead synth lines, in hindsight the track wasn’t that far from ‘Nachtfahrt’ on 2013’s ‘Off The Record’, highlighting a spiritual connection between the two long players.

‘Cyberspace’ held a steadier vibe with sombre string tones as a contrast to the largely uptempo nature of ‘Communication’, before it was back to business as usual with the cascading sequences and thrusting schlagzeug of ‘Interview’. Following on, the percussive crash of ‘Ultraviolet’ contained the amusing line “I’ve got to return some video tapes” to time capsule ‘Communication’ as a definite 2003 release! The ambient tone poem of ‘Another Reality’ acted as an ideal closer to the energetic album, sparingly employing the vocal glitch cut-up techniques Bartos pioneered on ‘Lifestyle’ from ‘Esperanto’.

Despite the artistic superiority of ‘Communication’ over ‘Tour De France Soundtracks’, the album did not capture wider public appreciation. While KRAFTWERK gaining all the press and fan attention didn’t help, personnel changes and cost-cutting measures at his then-record label Home, a Sony Music subsidiary, also hindered the promotion and distribution of the album.

With the timely remaster of ‘Communication’, some of Karl Bartos’ best work will hopefully be acknowledged and people will realise how key he has been to the pioneering legacy of his former band.

As the man who co-wrote many of KRAFTWERK’s best known songs such as ‘The Model’, The Robots’, ‘Computer Love’, ‘Pocket Calculator’ and ‘Tour De France’, Karl Bartos deserves greater recognition for his achievements and STILL producing great music.

‘Communication’ is reissued with the bonus track ‘Camera Obscura’ by Trocadero Hamburg on 25th March 2016 in CD, vinyl LP and digital formats

http://www.karlbartos.com/

http://trocadero-home.com/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Marion von der Mehden
19th March 2016

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