Category: Reviews (Page 101 of 199)

FARAO Pure-O

17 October 2018 /


Taking in more synthetic sonic ambitions, FARAO’s second album ‘Pure-O’ is a playful bleep forward while retaining an organic heart, mixing electronics with folk, R’n’B and minimalism.

Kari Jahnsen, the Berlin-based Norwegian songstress and multi-instrumentalist behind FARAO said: “The music that influenced me the most while writing the album is probably the Soviet electronic music I was discovering at the time. Light hearted melody lines combined with at times excessive arrangements, teaching me the importance of humour in music.”

Themed around “the curious dichotomy between beauty and destructiveness in sex and relationships”, ‘Pure-O’ also showcases Jahnsen’s new found interest in collecting Soviet-built analogue electronic instruments, among them a Formanta Polivoks duophonic, an Elektronika EM-25 string machine and an EMI Kvintet.

Meanwhile better known vintage equipment like a Korg Delta, Sequential Drumtraks, Yamaha CS15, various Casiotones, Roland SH2000 and Juno 60, Korg Vocoder and modern gear like the Moog Sub-Phatty and Waldorf Blofeld also make their presence felt.

The wonderfully uptempo ‘Marry Me’ with its chugging electronic backbone focusses on the spectre of romantic obsession, while the ‘Wild At Heart’ inspired ‘Lula Loves You’ blends Cold War aesthetics and breathy melancholic vocals.

The bass dominated ‘Get Along’ is more mysterious, with live drums doing battle with fabulous bursts of synths. But over a percussive shuffle, ‘Luster Of The Eyes’ develops into a bubbling synth fest despite first impressions.

Driven by machine rhythms and dressed with Autoharp, ‘Cluster Of Delights’ drops some orchestral stabs into its electro-disco vibes. Indeed, ‘Pure-O’ springs many aesthetic surprises, especially for those who enjoyed FARAO’s quirky folk-tinged 2015 debut long player ‘Till It’s All Forgotten’.

The synth indie of ‘Gabriel’ develops into something quite adventurous with its layers of vocals and a zither providing some of that Mittel Europa tension. However, taking things to groovier climes is the short instrumental interlude ‘Melodiya’ which ably demonstrates the capabilities of the Soviet-designed Polivoks.

On the rousing statement of ‘The Ghost Ship’, Jahnsen is focussed despite her forlorn little girl lost lyrics, the alluring vocal highs offset by the flava of R’n’B, like a Nordic styled TLC but boosted by vocoder. Going slightly Trip-Hop, ‘Triumph Over Me’ takes its inspiration from the sex-addicted lead character in the film ‘Shame’. The album ends with ‘Truthsayer’, a song dealing with the reality of how people become truer versions of themselves as they get older that goes delightfully berserk in its second half!

Clearly embracing a sense adventure by exploring both electronic and acoustic colours, ‘Pure-O’ is the work of an artist gaining a stable footing and ready to take a gallop. At this rate of artistic trajectory, FARAO will be up there with SUSANNE SUNDFØR in a few years.

‘Pure-O’ is released by Western Vinyl and Su Tissue Records on 19th October 2018 in CD, transparent vinyl LP and digital formats

https://www.farao.biz/

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https://www.instagram.com/faraomusic/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
17th October 2018

JOHN GRANT Love Is Magic

15 October 2018 /

 


For those familiar with JOHN GRANT’s previous body of work, from ‘Pale Green Ghosts’ onwards there started to be a bipolar nature to his music, swinging from electronic-based tracks being in the minority through to them now being the main focus of his latest work ‘Love is Magic’.

The choice of main producer and CREEP SHOW band mate Benge has obviously been a major factor in this synthetic shift.

This will either be a welcome move or could leave fans of Grant’s more acoustic-based material wondering what the hell has happened to the man who penned the downtempo AIR-esque songs such as ‘It’s Easier’ and ‘It Doesn’t Matter to Him’… Also rather tellingly, the cover to ‘Love is Magic’ pays homage to FAD GADGET’s ‘Gag’ album with Grant covered in feathers and striking an upwards pose (albeit wearing vintage Y-fronts and with a bird cage on his head).

Challenging album opener ‘Metamorphosis’ lurches wildly from minimalist 909 kick driven monosynths through to lush VANGELIS and CR78 textures, whilst Grant’s quirky alter-ego voice intones a randomised shopping list of lyrics: “Earthquakes, forest fires, hot Brazilian boys… yeast infection, synthesizers, demisemiquavers, who created ISIS?”

The eponymous ‘Love is Magic’ is a lot more accessible affair, with songwriting harking back to Grant’s earlier work; it’s debatable however whether the synthetic production really does the song proper justice though. The stabbed brass synth, oddly reminiscent of THE POLICE’s ‘Spirits in the Material World’ gives way to a tail-end chorus chord progression straight out of cheese-masters THE CARPENTERS’ songbook.

‘Tempest’ is all triplet delayed synths (which reference KRAFTWERK’s ‘Neon Lights’) and detuned saw bass / pads; the song itself however is pretty forgettable but does feature a rather wonderful outro comprised of 8 bit arcade sounds in a nod to the game featured in the title. ‘Preppy Boy’ takes its cues initially from FAD GADGET’s ‘Love Parasite’, although lyrically we are in SCISSOR SISTERS territory until a trademark Grant synth solo stamps a bit more individuality on the piece.

After the Donald Trump-baiting ‘Smug C*nt’, the tempo is raised for ‘He’s Got His Mother’s Hips’. Surely one of the more commercial tracks on ‘Love is Magic’ it features a welcome injection of live bass, funk and classic polysynths. Throughout the album, Grant’s lyrics are wonderfully witty, dark and as sharp as a knife; ‘… Mother’s Hips’ is a perfect example with the brilliant opener “I think Colonel Mustard did it in the billiard room / They say his salsa workshops / Are a harbinger of doom”.

‘Is He Strange’ harks back to Grant’s earlier work (albeit with a minimalistic electronic drum pattern rather than acoustic percussion) and a beautiful descending piano and Solina string synth line straight out of ‘Airport’ by THE MOTORS. The album ends with ‘Touch & Go’, an evocative mixture of rippling arpeggiators, piano and live drums.

JOHN GRANT has been quoted as saying “Each record I make is more of an amalgamation of who I am. The more I do this, the more I trust myself, and the closer I get to making what I imagine in my head.”

If that is the case then his musical metamorphosis is pretty much complete with ‘Love is Magic’; this work is poles apart from ‘The Queen of Denmark’ and could potentially lose him some fans as in the main, it is SO different to the musical aesthetic he started with.

There is no pandering to commerciality or laurel-resting here and the willingness to experiment means that ‘Love is Magic’ is not always an easy listen.

It is however a brilliant example of an artist who refuses to compromise and has the spirit of adventure to take listeners on an unpredictable musical journey throughout.

‘Love Is Magic’ is released by Bella Union in the usual formats

http://johngrantmusic.com/

https://www.facebook.com/johngrantmusic

https://twitter.com/johngrantmusic

https://www.instagram.com/johngrantofficial/

http://bellaunion.com/

Text by Paul Boddy
15th October 2018

SARAH NIXEY Night Walks

6 October 2018 /


Sarah Nixey first won the hearts of audiences as the lead singer of BLACK BOX RECORDER; 18 years since they got on ‘Top Of The Pops’ with ‘The Facts of Life’ and seven years since her last solo album ‘Brave Tin Soldiers’, Nixey is back with ‘Night Walks’.

A nocturnal body of work set in a metropolitan sub-world where everyone dodges the dangers of reality, the album was inspired by Nixey’s bouts of insomnia during a recovery from illness. She said “All the songs are set at night time and it felt like I was going on night walks when I was writing them”.

Co-produced by her husband Jimmy Hogarth, ‘Night Walks’ is a sophisticated amalgam of everything SARAH NIXEY has ever been musically, with a Roland Jupiter 8, Minimoog, Casiotone 701 and a Hammond M102 among the instrumentation used, all fed through Leslie amps and captured on a Studer tape machine. As a result, this record has air and presence, a quality missed on many modern day home studio digital recordings.

The album’s key song is the chromatic flavoured ‘The Zeppelin’, an observation on warfare where the characters are either at war with themselves or with each other. In typical SARAH NIXEY style, there is that impending if seductive sense of doom over the drone-laden backdrop…

However, beginning ‘Night Walks’, the neo-Motorik ‘Coming Up For Air’ discusses the delicate subject of teenage mental health illness and parental love, but touchingly acknowledges the pain while offering support and encouragement.

Meanwhile, ‘Burning Bridges’ is not a JAPAN cover but a lively offering of synthetic disco driven by clattering drum machine, which despite Nixey’s previous dalliances with electronic pop, comes as something of a pleasant surprise and with a timely socio-political message.

Also conveying socio-political concerns, the sparse but more guitar oriented ‘Merry England’ covers the gentrification of London and Brexit, with Nixey’s voice sounding particularly rich and assured.

Continuing a brilliant musical ‘Journey’, this appropriately named tune is like one of those glorious Eurocentric numbers that Marc Almond has often been so good at, laced with crystalline synths and gorgeously breathy vocal tones à la Jane Birkin.

Taking things down, the acoustically centred ‘Love Is Blue’ offers some Bohemian filmic drama before the short celestial spoken word title track. The throbbing sequencer filled ‘Dancing At The Edge Of The World’ is Nixey’s own ‘I Feel Love’ with a classic NEW ORDER digital drum machine template thrown into the mix, crossed with falsetto and deadpan speech.

At the complete opposite end of the spectrum and layered in Hammond organ and muted guitar within a brush filled rhythmic setting, ‘Neon Moon’ beautifully reflects what it says on the tin.

Harsher in tone and more reminiscent of BLACK BOX RECORDER, ‘Tiger Woman’ features a powerful statement about a woman who doesn’t have a care in the world, while similarly sharper with bluesy guitar motifs and loud bangy drums, Nixey asks people to ‘Follow Me’.

Closing with ‘The Planet Of Dreams’, an electric piano is joined by some six string accompaniment with the surprise of flute and E-bowed guitar alongside minimal sweeps of vintage synth, as Nixey divinely offers hope in these uncertain times.


“Mostly, I wanted to tell stories and create a little metropolitan sub-world where I could escape to, and my listeners could eventually come with me”, Nixey said of ‘Night Walks’, “It’s an album that’s supposed to be listened to in its entirety, which is possibly a big ask these days.”

Although having a mix of electronic and acoustic based tracks, ‘Night Walks’ exudes a satisfying sonic cohesion that will please anyone who has ever been interested in the Dorset-born songstress’ work; it is undoubtedly SARAH NIXEY’s best solo album to date. Former BLACK BOX RECORDER band mate Luke Haines once said how SARAH NIXEY “had the ability to make all men fall in love with her”… well, it is time to fall in love all over again!

‘Night Walks’ is released by Black Lead Records, available direct from https://music.sarahnixey.com/album/night-walks

http://www.sarahnixey.com/

https://www.facebook.com/sarahnixey/

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https://www.instagram.com/nixeysdarkroom/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
6th October 2018

GUNSHIP Dark All Day

5 October 2018 /


A trio consisting of Dan Haigh, Alex Westaway and Alex Gingell, GUNSHIP found their niche audience with the lovers of vintage gaming, flicks and sounds of the golden synth era and all things neon.

Their first ‘Gunship’ album, alongside the now famous animated quasi films made by the trio, created a stir enough for the band to collaborate with none other than JOHN CARPENTER.

‘Dark All Day’ is their second offering to wow audiences who favour the rockier take on synth, and the eponymous single certainly hits the spot.

With the punchy rhythm, sexy sax, courtesy of the one and only Tim Capello and enticing Dolores O’Riordan-esque vocal of the super sassy Lauren Henson aka Indiana, this truly ecstatic combination raises the bar and then some, accompanied by a clever video that mixes anime with real life red rain dancing.

‘Woken Furies’ introduces the electrifying atmosphere like an arcade gaming parlour meeting vintage SOUNDGARDEN… no wonder it feels like ‘Black Hole Sun’ when it’s dark all day!

The teenage dream fades as ‘When You Grow Up, Your Heart Dies’; a perfectly candied MECHA MAIKO style number. The sounds of DANA JEAN PHOENIX reverberate all over this one, making it a very retro track, leading into the heavier synth of ‘The Drone Racing League’, complete with stunning arpeggios that make it ‘Stranger Things’ worthy. ‘Rise The Midnight Girl’ brings an alternative feel with a more grungy sounding vocal, the sublime use of percussion and clever sequences. Feeling edgy, introverted and unguarded, preparing for ‘Trasher’ with its droning, mantric, truly trashy sound, incorporating a true likeness to AZZIDO DA BASS’ ‘Doom’s Night’.

From one explicit track to another, this time joined by the fabulous Kat Von D, who took her singing career to another level featuring on IAMX’s last opus and dropping by to grace his live performances during the ever successful ‘Alive In New Light’ 2018 tour. This time Kat with her ‘Black Blood Red Kiss’ serenades in a GARY NUMAN stylee, over a super cool dark romance, which could be the best track on ‘Dark All Day’. Wanting another twisted love story? She gives it here in bunches.

‘Time After Time’ brings back the memories of teenage nostalgia in a more than capable cover of Cindy Lauper’s classic. Not a fan of covers? This may as well change your mind; the version is superb and quite ERASURE-esque at times too!

With DURAN DURAN amalgamated with TEARS FOR FEARS on ‘Honour Among Thieves’, this reverberates with the classic feel of the leg warmers era, and ‘Symmetrical’ freshens up the senses with a crisp vocal and some youthful musical delivery.

Stella Le Page, also known by the name of Beau Corbeau, features on the perfect synth ballad ‘Art3mis & Perzival, while the kingdom of ‘Cyber City’ is reined with sheer power before ‘The Gates Of Disorder’ close.

What a follow-up to GUNSHIP’s debut long player! These guys certainly know how to spice things up with the choice of vocalists and artists who have been invited to collaborate on this production. It’s a grown-up, eclectic mix of good old synth and hard graft. Not as rocky as expected by the first single, and even more demure in places, it’s simply stunning.

There’s enough material here for two albums, and it can feel a little bit too long, with the listeners having the tendency to switch off at track 11, but there’s never enough of a good thing, right?

‘Dark All Day’ is released by Horsie In The Hedge in CD and digital formats

https://www.gunshipmusic.com

https://www.facebook.com/GUNSHIPMusic/

https://twitter.com/GUNSHIPMUSIC

https://www.instagram.com/gunshipmusic/

https://gunshipmusic.bandcamp.com

Text by Monika Izabela Trigwell
5th October 2018

EMIKA Falling In Love With Sadness

2 October 2018 /


Since releasing her third album ‘Drei’ on her own label in 2013, the Berlin-based Anglo-Czech musician EMIKA has been a fine example to those who aspire to be a truly modern independent artist.

Following her well-received crowdfunded 2017 classical symphony ‘Melanfonie’ with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, EMIKA returns to electronics with her best album to date entitled ‘Falling In Love With Sadness’.

Released on World Mental Health Day, the record is a concept album of sorts and a portion of proceeds will go to a UK-based mental health charity.

For the lady born Ema Jolly, it has been a journey of reflection on generations of family sadness as her most personal work to date. While this might be EMIKA’s most overtly synthpop adventure, ‘Falling In Love With Sadness’ is deep and thoughtful, with enticing melodic textures that possess an inherent gloominess that makes for great art.

Co-produced with Robert Witschakowski of German dance experimentalists THE EXALTICS and also featuring guitarist Chris Lockington, it utilises more straightforward rhythms with less emphasis on the threes which characterised ‘Dva’ and ‘Drei’.

‘Wash It All Away’ with an atmospheric air and some subtle guitar embellishment, it provides an opener with an easing cathartic effect. But ‘Could This Be’ launches the album into a pulsing Eurocentric stomp, a little bit like a modern electro take on ‘Gimme Some Lovin’ with EMIKA’s hushed vocal tones offset by sudden bursts of live percussion and spy drama inflections.

With the excellent first single from the album ‘Close’ laced in chromatic melancholy over a sparse and chilling backbone, ‘Run’ takes that template further with layers staccato voice manipulations over a deeply European electronic backdrop.

The pacey ‘Promises’ makes the most of EMIKA’s lower and higher vocal registers, providing an eerie cascading harmonic with some rumbling dubby tension and booming stabs driving Eastwards. There’s a glorious urgency about it, a solemn synthphony with spine tingling qualities.

The ringing riff of ‘Killers’ signals a more simmering avant set piece with building arpeggios smothering almost unintelligible whispers and words for that enigmatic quality before Ms Jolly exclaims “now you wanna f*ck me up!” even though “I get back up!”

Punctuated by white noise and processed guitar, ‘Falling (Reprise)’ sets the scene for ‘Falling In Love With Sadness’ featuring THE EXALTICS. A brilliant uptempo piece embroiled in haunting tension, this is avant pop at its best, hypnotically breathy and weirdly danceable, sweeping towards a solemn conclusion in a sea of voices.

Beginning in a bare bass laden manner, ‘Escape’ sees EMIKA saying she will “make this real” and picks up the rhythm, exploring New York electro but in an ultimately noirish manner.

But to close, EMIKA pulls a magnificent surprise with ‘Eternity’; while the bass sequence has a very electro body core, it is without the shouting and the Teutonic metal bashing. Although maintaining a frantic metronomic rigidity that is as good as clockwork, the forlorn manner of Miss Jolly’s delivery and the accompanying piano chords capture a beautiful hue which combine for an unusual but striking contrast.

A wonderfully bittersweet musical rhapsody laced with Bohemian melancholy, ‘Falling In Love With Sadness’ is a glorious sonic exploration into how sadness moves through people. “My music is about my life, what I see and feel, which I wish for, what I suffer from.” she said, “So when I look back or forward on my music, I’m really just reflecting about my life.”

The best electronic pop album of 2018? ‘Falling In Love With Sadness’ is without doubt one of the contenders and should belong on all turntables, digital devices, tape recorders and even CD players.

‘Falling In Love With Sadness’ is released by Emika Records in CD, vinyl LP and digital formats on 10th October 2018, available from https://emika-official.bandcamp.com/album/falling-in-love-with-sadness

http://emikarecords.com/

https://www.facebook.com/emikamusic/

https://twitter.com/emika_records

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Bet Orten
2nd October 2018

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