Category: Reviews (Page 109 of 200)

BLACK NAIL CABARET Bête Noire

22 June 2018 /

Ok, so BLACK NAIL CABARET have never sat on the brighter side of synthpop.

Not devoid of melody however, their monochromatic approach to electronica revels in minimalistic use of gizmos, positioning the one-time London domiciled Hungarians somewhere in the shadowed corners of the synth bubble.

Emese Illes-Arvai who partnered with Sophie Tarr in 2008, debuted with a surprising version of Rihanna’s ‘Umbrella’, giving it the darker, edgier spin. Two and a half albums later (each gathering the pair wider and wider audiences), Tarr left, enabling Illes-Arvai to partner with her husband to drag ‘Dichromat’ over the finish line.

With BLACK NAIL CABARET continuing on and now fully established into the scene, they release a three song EP ‘Bête Noire’, this time going for the throat.

The title song, accompanied by the very poignant video directed and storyboarded by Emese hersele, is described as “a distorded mirror, where people are rising against a faceless dictator, to no avail” has been inspired by the current political situation in Hungary.

The flick sees Emese and her black clad followers, joined by a disgruntled factory worker in order to break the establishment. The heavy vibrating synth rises to parallel stomping EBM, with its gyrating qualities, leading to the punch line “I think I wanna kill you, but I believe in peace, bitch!”

The duo go for socialist connotations both in the video and the song’s lyrics (“If I march against you, I think I’ll have an army”), entering the dictator’s chambers, which strongly resemble the style of any communist headquarters, trying to look for something to provide a sign. Instead, they seem to fail…

The evident calm comes with ‘Lorraine’. We’ve had ‘Veronica’ and now ‘Lorraine’, the one who’s “always been so kind to my heart”, and now is experiencing her own tragedy over a melodic beat with gritty synth elements, which turn out to be not so calming after all. The production is concluded with the instrumental ‘Eleven’ which beautifully sums up the three piece outing with delicate dose of intricate sounds, gently piercing he surface with unearthly aspects and unusual sci-fi ingredients.

BLACK NAIL CABARET are surely on the roll with the new release, which heavily pierces through the sea of calmness with the punchy ‘Bête Noire’ and dwindles down through ‘Lorraine’ to the delicate blanket of ‘Eleven’.

Now, for the new album please…

‘Bête Noire’ is available as a download bundle from https://blacknailcabaret.bandcamp.com/album/b-te-noire

http://www.blacknailcabaret.com

https://www.facebook.com/bncband/

https://twitter.com/Black_Nails

https://www.instagram.com/bncband/

Text by Monika Izabela Trigwell
22nd June 2018

ARP Zebra

21 June 2018 /


ARP is back with a new eleven track instrumental album entitled ‘Zebra’.

The moniker of New York based multi-instrumentalist Alexis Georgopoulos, things have been quiet for ARP over the last couple of years, although there was a collaborative album with Jefre Cantu-Ledesma under his own name. ‘The Soft Wave’ in 2010 proved to be ARP’s breakthrough release and featured the wonderful kosmische melodies of ‘High Life’, the  beauty of ‘Summer Girl’ and the progressive clustered sonics of album opener ‘Pastoral Symphony_ I. Dominoes II. Infinity Room’.

2013’s ‘More’ ventured into primarily song based territory and Georgopoulos’ own Eno-esque green world with ‘Judy Nylon’ coming over as the ultimate homage to the art rock of ‘Here Come The Warm Jets’. The cassette album ‘Inversions’ from 2016 explored ambient via Moog and violin, as well as arpeggio driven rhythmic trance.

Never one to sit still and keen not to brand himself with any particular style, Georgopoulos continues his aural exploration and like the zebra itself, his latest work sees him revelling in contrast and duality, using a wider spectrum of musical colours than previously.

With the minimalistic air of Terry Riley and Steve Reich, the gorgeous ‘Halflight Visions’, held together by a marimba arpeggio and some tinkling Fener Rhodes, sets the scene for ‘Zebra’.

Meanwhile the African flavoured ‘Nzuku’ continues use of the marimba derived backbone with a live percussive swing, guitars and an assortment of buzzy synths for a jam of extended cosmic jazz. Using tribal drum mantras, ‘Flourescences’ and ‘Folding Water’ both continue on the theme.

The combination of sweeping synths and marimbas gives ‘Parallelism’ a distinctly spacey vibe while the two minute long ‘Ozu’ adds flutes and string bass to the soundtrack. At nearly nine minutes, the piano laden ‘Reading A Wave’ ventures into avant jazz and perhaps overindulges.

Utilising the Fourth World tremors of Jon Hassell and Brian Eno, ‘Fiji’ combines a variety of textures including snatches of double bass, shimmering string machine and bleepy electronics for a pleasingly hypnotic ride to the terminus.

Eclectic to say the least but less instantly engaging and melodic than ‘The Soft Wave’, ‘Zebra’ sees Georgopoulos continue his path towards jazzier territory.

Those who preferred the pan-European overtures of ‘The Soft Wave’ might be disappointed, but those in for the long haul on the ARP journey will appreciate the ambition, the musicianship and the masterful quality of its production.

‘Zebra’ is released by Mexican Summer on 22nd June 2018 in double vinyl LP, CD + digital formats

http://www.studioalexisgeorgopoulos.com

https://www.facebook.com/arpsoundss/

https://twitter.com/arpsounds

http://www.mexicansummer.com/artist/arp/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Shawn Brackbill
21st June 2018

ROMO NIGHT RECORDS Vol 1: A Collection Of The New Brat Pack

19 June 2018 /

Sweden is one territory where without doubt, some of the best synth based music has emerged.

With the standard set back in the day by PAGE, LUSTANS LAKEJER, ELEGANT MACHINERY, THE MOBILE HOMES and COVENANT, the tradition has continued via THE KNIFE, KITE, KARIN PARK, IONNALEE and DAILY PLANET. But a few years ago, some strange things were happening within the Swedish electronic music community as it began to eat itself… a number of promoters, purveyors and performers were observed to be going through some kind of an existential crisis, unsure whether synthpop was a dirty word and success was a sin of principle.

Thankfully, one faction who are very much of the view that the synth is not dead is Romo Night Records, a label born out of a long standing club night founded in Gothenburg by Tobbe Lander and Tony Ersborg. Their roll of honour has included hosting the likes of THE HUMAN LEAGUE, KARL BARTOS, MESH, CLIENT and S.P.O.C.K amongst others.

Their first fruit of labours is ‘Romo Night Records Vol 1’, a collection of unreleased material from a variety of new acts and veterans. Fittingly enough with the latter, Eddie Bengtsson of PAGE appears under the pseudonym of Jeddy 3 on ANYMACHINE’s ‘To See A Man Like Me Go Down’ for a sombre number that is laced with the darker side of early OMD in its gothic overdrones.

It’s unusual to hear Bengtsson in English, so when another voice normally heard in English sings in her native Swedish, it’s something of a revelation as Helena Wigeborn’s new project GLAS proves.

The stunning TRAIN TO SPAIN frontwoman actually speaks English with a delightful Edinburgh accent from having lived in the city for several years and ‘Hjärta’ is marvellous slice of sparkling midtempo synthpop which allows her vocal to breathe within the backing.

Another superb highlight is ‘The Pattern’ by HILTIPOP who impressed with a solo late afternoon live set at Electronic Summer in 2015. Dark but accessible via a lattice of hypnotic arpeggios, SEM Hilti Johansson was a member of the YAZOO influenced ALISON and does not compromise on the hooks despite his gloomier vocal outlook. He is definitely an artist to watch.

No synth compilation would be complete without a melodic instrumental work and that is provided by RELIEF with the brilliant ‘Trough The Wires’ which even throws in an unexpected key change.

Elsewhere and unsurprisingly, DEPECHE MODE influences are omnipresent and can be heard on SISTER ELECTRA’s ‘The Quiet Room’ where the Basildon sound is given a female twist by Luna Joyce, while ‘Nasa’ from STRANGE TALES mines the earlier era and comes over like a cross between THE MOBILE HOMES and CAMOUFLAGE.

‘Romo Night Records Vol 1’ though is not all exclusively synths; NORTHERN LONER in their use of live instruments alongside their stabbing electronics have obviously listened to a lot of classic SIMPLE MINDS on ‘Break In Two’, but the track is spoilt slightly by a stilted drum track and the vocals being too loud. Meanwhile PARK & NATUR stick out like a sore thumb with the indie guitar afflicted ‘Mörka Sidan’.

NEO NURSES add plenty of creepy detuned electronic noises to their gothic demeanour on the enjoyable ‘A Crown Of Thorns To Keep Me Warm’ and cut from a similar opaque cloth, UNCREATED provide some chromatic mystery with the resonances of a deep male choir on ‘We Never Met’.

Subtitled as “A collection of the new brat pack” complete with artwork referencing ‘The Breakfast Club’, could this be Sweden’s 21st Century answer to the ‘Some Bizzare Album’? Of course, that compilation unearthed DEPECHE MODE, SOFT CELL, BLANCMANGE, THE THE and B-MOVIE.

Whereas it is too early to assess its potential, ‘Romo Night Records Vol 1’ as a first compendium does a good job of keeping synthpop alive and making that crucial link between past and present, something which other platforms have failed to accept, thus imploding in its self-inflicted confusion.

As the respected Factory Records biographer and historian James Nice said: “I have no problem at all with something new being imitative, as long as it’s good” – good music and good songs, synthpop or otherwise is really all that matters.

‘Romo Night Records Vol 1’ (V/A) is available as a clear vinyl LP with download key only from http://rnr.lupp.se/product/rnr001/

http://www.romonightrecords.com

https://www.facebook.com/tobbeorama/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
19th June 2018

KID KASIO & KAL-Q-LUS One Chance

18 June 2018 /

The video for the final single from KID KASIO’s 2015 ‘Sit & Wait’ album has an interesting back story as mainman Nathan Cooper told ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK:

“Back in 1991, Lewisham Council ran a ‘Search For A Video Star’ competition.

The idea behind the initiative was to provide a platform for young local performers to showcase their talent and foster a sense of community between local musicians and the beleaguered council, who had recently had their arts funding slashed.

The ‘video’ angle set the contest apart from your run of the mill talent showcase, and tied in neatly with the launch of a local cable TV station, which was scheduled for later in the year (it never happened).

Woolworths had got on board, and a futuristic looking booth was erected in the Riverdale shopping centre and the whole affair advertised in the pages of the local Newshopper. I turned up one sunny summer morning in that July of 1991 with my friend KAL-Q-LUS clutching a cassette demo of a song we had recently recorded.

It took some persuading to let the engineer put our tape into the overdubbing machine, as most people turning up that day had been encouraged to sing over popular hits of the time, but after 20 renditions of RIGHT SAID FRED’s ‘I’m Too Sexy’ and BEVERLY CRAVEN’s ‘Promise Me’, I think he was secretly quite pleased to be hearing something different.”

“We stepped inside the booth and stood in front of the green screen as the sound of our scratchy demo drifted over the speakers. It was a shame that my mum, who had accompanied us on the day, insisted that my young cousin Toby joined us in the booth. In hindsight though it was Toby’s dancing that really stole the show that day.

As we exited the booth we were asked to choose a backdrop for the video that would be super imposed onto the green behind us. We chose a random series of acid house style patterns called something like ‘future rave’ and we headed home excitedly clutching a VHS tape of our masterpiece. The following week the local paper printed a Top 10 of what they deemed were the best performances from the weekend of the booths stay at the Riverdale centre. We didn’t make the Top 10…”

Now some of the facts in this story may not be entirely true… but as the late and much missed Tony Wilson of Factory Records fame once said: “When forced to pick between truth and legend, print the legend”. Directed by Ed Crofts and filmed at the synthtastically equipped Fiction Studios in Central London, this tongue-in-cheek video certainly helps perpetuate this KID KASIO myth.

Special thanks to Nathan Cooper

‘One Chance’ is from the album ‘Sit & Wait’, both are available via the usual digital platforms

http://www.kidkasio.com/

https://www.facebook.com/kidkasio/

https://twitter.com/KidKasio

https://www.instagram.com/kidkasio/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
18th June 2018

JOHAN BAECKSTRÖM Utopia

13 June 2018 /

In 2015, ace Swedish synthesist Johan Baeckström made a call to arms, declaring that the ‘Synth Is Not Dead’. And now in 2018, he presents his ‘Utopia’.

Baeckström first came to prominence with DAILY PLANET, the synthpop duo he formed with Jarmo Ollila who released their debut album ‘The Tide’ in 1996. After a hiatus of 18 years, they returned with the album ‘Two’ while Baeckström began a parallel solo career a year later. Titled ‘Like Before’, his album captured the synthpop prowess of Vince Clarke at his finest, while adding that melancholic but uplifting Scandinavian vibe, particularly within the environmental message of the title track and brilliant songs such as ‘Running Away With Me’, ‘Come With Me’ and ‘Tonight’.

While Baeckström’s vocal capability recalled Andy Bell, the appeal of ‘Like Before’ wasn’t so much because it sounded like classic ERASURE, but down to the brilliance of his songwriting and the engaging qualities of the long player’s synthtastic production. But from the off starting with the ‘Utopia’ title song, the first impression that comes across on this sophomore offering is things are a slight bit darker and grittier. Despite that, there’s a rousing chorus and percolating sequences to savour as Baeckström points out the futility of seeking that perfect future.

Brighter pacier electronic tones make their presence felt on ‘Homeless’, although the metaphoric possibilities of the title reflect on the gloomier uncertainties that currently embroil the world. A near namesake of the DEPECHE MODE hit, ‘The World Through Your Eyes’ utilises a synthetic noise backbone in a steadfast tempo that has weightier thoughts and deeper resonances emanating from its core.

Continuing those deeper resonances, ‘Better Stories’ uses minimalistic expression at its heart, allowing Baeckström’s soulful vocal to shine before a multi-layered build as per the Altered take on DEPECHE MODE’s ‘Any Second Now’. But the mood takes yet another turn when ‘I Can Read Your Mind’ delightfully goes into full YAZOO mode with its melodic circuitry and precise digital drums.

Imagining a dream collaboration between Vangelis and Vince Clarke, ‘Cassini’ is a wonderful instrumental that is swathed in filmic intrigue. And without a vocal present, it showcases that like Clarke, Baeckström has a place for every single musical part where individual lines and counter melodies give the impression of chords and sweeps for a spacious end result.

Adopting a more frantic pace, Baeckström rallies everyone to ‘Ask Them Why’, while ‘Blood Red Moon’ is understandably sombre as he bids his goodbyes to a loved one, despite some sonic sweetening. An orchestrated sequence of synths, influenced at points by Wendy Carlos, takes proceedings ‘Into The 80’s’ with Baeckström’s post-modern take on Canadian rocker Nick Gilder’s 1979 thoughts on that future decade.

The bouncy ERASURE-ish superpop of ‘Silence’ pleas for restraint despite the party atmosphere, highlighting the contrast of light and shade that lingers simultaneously throughout this ‘Utopia’. Closing with ‘Blinded’, the soaring swaying ballad lets a young choir girl named Lina innocently offset the drama of its electronic interplay.

In hard times, people get nostalgic and through its composition of sound, ‘Utopia’ does as the ninth track suggests and makes references to the past. However, whereas ‘Like Before’ was very much about escape embroiled in optimism, ‘Utopia’ is much more of a reality check, darker and perhaps less immediate, but still pristinely crafted and textured. For all that, the spirit of ‘Utopia’ is hardly ‘Black Celebration’, although it adopts its attitude of being realistic rather than pessimistic.

Johan Baeckström uses his many analogue machines to turn his well-written songs into appealing and emotive synthpop, proving indeed that the synth is not dead. This is a fine and accomplished second album by the man from Karlskoga that gets better with each listen.

Instruments used on ‘Utopia’: Akai AX-73, ARP Odyssey, Arturia Minibrute, Crumar Bit One, Dave Smith Instruments Prophet 08, DB Noise Can, Korg Mono/Poly, Korg MS-20, Korg Volca Bass, Moog Little Phatty, Minimoog, Roland Jupiter 6, Roland Juno-106, Roland SH-09, Sequential Circuits Pro-One, Waldorf Streichfett, Yamaha DX7 and Yamaha CS-10

‘Utopia’ is released by Progress Productions in CD and digital formats, available direct from https://johanbaeckstrom.bandcamp.com/album/utopia-2

https://www.facebook.com/bstrommusic/

https://twitter.com/bstrommusic

https://www.instagram.com/johanbaeckstrom/

http://www.progress-productions.com/product/johan-baeckstrom-utopia/

https://open.spotify.com/album/43qhyXv3PcMvVaVK1jsqSv

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Helene Shippey
13th June 2018

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2017 ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK | Email: [email protected]
Privacy Policy

Up ↑