Category: Reviews (Page 112 of 200)

IAN BURDEN Hey Hey Ho Hum

18 May 2018 /

Ian Burden is best known for his tenure in THE HUMAN LEAGUE between 1981 and 1987, contributing songwriting to some of the band’s most iconic songs including the singles ‘The Sound Of The Crowd’,  ‘Love Action’ and ‘Mirror Man’.

His releases since then have been sporadic to say the least, but have resulted in one solo album ‘Loot’ released in 1990 and a collaboration with another ex-League contributor Russell Dennett as DEEP DOWN CRAZY in 1995 with ‘A Swim in the Ocean’.

‘Hey Hey Ho Hum’ sees Ian Burden adventurously tackling every single musical element himself; from synths, guitar, bass and drum programming through to lead vocals. The album has also given Burden a chance to dust down some of his old League-era analogue synthesizers, but also combine these with some newer Korg equipment including their Minilogue and Volca range.

‘In Those Dreams’ kicks of the album with some analogue synth sweeps before settling into a jangly guitar synth rock hybrid track; Burden’s vocals are very much in the mould of Syd Barrett and reinforces his love of all things English Prog Rock.

Continuing in this vein, the album is mixed as a continuous listening experience with each track having a bridge into the next. ‘Let The Devil Drown’ starts with a filtered sequencer part and some downswept synths and is probably the most catchy earworm track here; the “It’s Raining” vocal part soon lodges itself in your head despite the vocal being mixed a bit on the low side.

‘Stand Down’ showcases Burden’s love of dub reggae with a skanking guitar vibe and a descending piano part. ‘Hanging Around’ (not THE STRANGLERS song) and ‘Where To Start’ reinforce the concept album feel with their repeated “Hey, hey, ho…” lyrics which re-appear throughout. ‘Where To Start’ has an almost waltz feel but combined with a lush atmospheric cycling synth pad which is one of the stronger musical elements here.

Another reggae-influenced piece ‘Another Day’ starts off like a MADNESS out-take before soaring synth pads thankfully take the track into a more stripped down direction with some nice TANGERINE DREAM-style Juno textures throughout. ‘Stay in Tune’ enters with a Floydian VCS3-style synth sequence and some minimal vocals; “Stay in tune, it’s not the end…”

The album ends with ‘Thy Kingdom’ which is arguably the strongest musical track here, Burden’s characteristic bass drives the song along at full pelt with some Gilmouresque guitar gliding over the top.

The main charm (and falling down) of ‘Hey Hey Ho Hum’ is that exists in a total vacuum; at the album launch Burden admitted that he’s not followed contemporary music for ages and as a result the album doesn’t try to reference any musical trends from the last 30 years, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Burden must be given credit for doing a PRINCE and taking on all of the musical roles here, but with this element of control and lack of an external producer, it has exposed some failings. In the hands of the right producer, Burden’s vocals could have been showcased more, but in most tracks they are buried in the mix. This is a shame as there is an appealing world-weary Englishness to the lyrics and delivery, but this hasn’t hit its full potential here.

There are some nice synth textures throughout, the musicianship is uniformly excellent and much fun can be had in searching out the almost subliminal touches of THE HUMAN LEAGUE. All in all, a brave album, maybe not what you would expect, but certainly worth a listen and investigating if you like a bit of Progressive Rock with electronic textures.

With thanks to Matt Reynolds at Savage Gringo

‘Hey Hey Ho Hum’ is released by Rutland Artspace Limited in continuous and tracked CD formats as well as a download

http://www.ianburden.uk

https://www.facebook.com/ianburdenofficial/

https://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/ian-burden-hey-hey-ho-hum

Text by Paul Boddy
18th May 2018

NEAR FUTURE Ideal Home

15 May 2018 /

Neil Arthur and Jez Bernholz are NEAR FUTURE, a project featuring the BLANCMANGE front man and the Brighton based artist who also co-founded the Anti Ghost Moon Ray art collective that spawned GAZELLE TWIN , ROSEMARY LOVES A BLACKBERRY and ANNEKA.

Their debut album ‘Ideal Home’ has been several years in the making, constructed through the modern medium of remote collaboration, although the pair have shared a stage on numerous occasions, notably on BLANCMANGE’s Semi Detached’ tour.

With both Arthur and Bernholz being vocalists as well as musicians, the pair experiment with voice-derived textures in NEAR FUTURE perhaps more than with their other work. Opening with the delightfully sombre ‘Ideal Home’ title track, it is a fractured number which takes a detached dual vocal into Eno-produced TALKING HEADS territory with a gently tribal rhythmic feel and asks “should I be full of regret?”

Meanwhile, ‘Field This’ is centred around a hypnotic bass mantra and a bleeping backbone surrounded by an impressionistic fourth world choir, as Arthur points to a period “pre-Madonna” while surreal lyrics recall “I remember when you were freshly peeled” before asking to “try semaphore”.

‘Overwhelmed’ captures shrill strings cocooned in an aural cavern with a claustrophobic Neil Arthur lead vocal that while recognisable, is quite different from anything by BLANCMANGE. The appropriately titled ‘Thought Terminating In Your Night’ sees Arthur’s voice raw and exposed before an eerie metronomic backdrop builds around him. The instrumental ‘Come And Play’ adopts a quite menacing atmosphere of synthetic chorals.

Based around a repetitive synth line, the spoken word art piece ‘Dawn’ features a skewed Bernholz reciting images of “coffee headaches” over sustained guitar sweeps and a building percussive rumble alongside uneasy thoughts of “teeth that felt like glassware”. But there’s the most amazing and chilling lead shimmer on ‘Gap In The Curtain’; driven by a primitive drum box, it comes over slightly like a contemplative OMD reimagining ‘Sad Day’… yes “you couldn’t make it up”.

Another spoken-word piece ‘Kites Over Waitrose’ is almost poetry over electronic backing with some exotic acoustic sounding Oriental textures where Arthur talks of the “scattering masses”, before closing with the sub-drone drama of ‘Bulk Erase’. Laced with a melancholic droll where “so much needs fixing but so little time”, Arthur takes the Eno-esque atmosphere into his own green world for “one thing at a time”, with the closing synthesized heartbeat echoing ULTRAVOX’s ‘Just For A Moment’.

‘Ideal Home’ is a fine debut record from NEAR FUTURE, and it’s one that sits well next to Neil Arthur’s BLANCMANGE and FADER as well as Jez Bernholz’s own brand of eccentric pop. It’s an extremely prolific period for Neil Arthur and with another BLANCMANGE album ‘Wanderlust’ on the way in the Autumn, there will be even more escapist expressionism to come.

‘Ideal Home’ is released by Blanc Check Records on 25th May 2018, available in vinyl LP and CD formats, pre-order from https://nearfuture.tmstor.es

A NEAR FUTURE live show plus Q & A with Neil Arthur and Jez Bernholz takes place at The Institute of Light, 10 Helmsley Place, London E8 3SB on Thursday 6th September 2018

https://www.facebook.com/futureisnear/

https://twitter.com/_nearfuture

Text by Chi Ming Lai
15th May 2018

FIFI RONG Attack

4 May 2018 /


Is it game over, or does it merely begin for the multitalented Beijing born experimental synth songstress?

FIFI RONG has continued gathering interest thanks to her fresh musical approach, quirky instrumentalism and angelic voice.

And her latest EP ‘Awake’, which was aired right after her successful appearances with Swiss masters YELLO during their recent European tour, proves that the artist continues to explore various audio visual paths.

“’Awake’ is about waking up to the truth after you have hypnotised yourself and deconstructing the paradoxes of human nature: subordination and rebellion, pain and joy, self-limitation and liberation”, says Rong who never sticks to the set prescriptions and bends genres to what mood she may be in.

From the ‘Awake’ EP, ‘Attack’ comes packaged with an animated video of a computer game of Nicktendo (the name derived from Rong’s collaborator on this track, Nick Ford), where the future world is destroyed and humans and mutants are at war. Rong, depicted as the Queen sends her robot army to fight the aggressors, but all her soldiers end up dead. All but one, who continues to slay the monsters console game style.

Loaded with ATARI and AMIGA vintage sounds, Manga graphics and all sorts of odd distorted noises, Rong continues to play with techno, drum ‘n’ bass and electronica as you DON’T know it.

Still managing to keep the whole thing melodic and tasty, the audience wonders which weapon she may choose to use. Although the video ends with her fall, this can only be the triumph for Rong, who tirelessly continues to wow with her musical know how and doesn’t shy from bending the genre.

Go Fifi, ATTACK!

‘Attack’ is from the ‘Awake’ EP which is available via the usual digital platforms

http://www.fifirong.com/

https://www.facebook.com/fifirongmusic/

https://twitter.com/fifirong

https://www.instagram.com/fifirong/

Text by Monika Izabela Trigwell
4th May 2018

BRIAN ENO Music For Installations

29 April 2018 /

“If you think of music as a moving, changing form, and painting as a still form, what I’m trying to do is make very still music and paintings that move. I’m trying to find in both of those forms, the space in between the traditional concept of music and the traditional concept of painting”: BRIAN ENO

‘Music For Installations’ is a multi-album collection of new, rare and previously unreleased tracks from BRIAN ENO, recorded since 1986 for use in his art installations experimenting with light and video which have taken place all over the world including Russia, China and Australia.

It was an concept that was first realised on ‘Thursday Afternoon’ in 1984, an 82 minute audio / visual presentation comprising of video paintings of actress Christine Alicino which were filmed in a vertical format, so that they had to be viewed using a television turned onto its side. In a strange way, Eno foresaw the advent of smart phone videos which are now presented online in this fashion, rather than in the more traditional landscape format.

Spread out over 6 CDs or 9 vinyl albums if you prefer the lengthy mood (which is essential in effective ambient music) to be broken by having to flip the record, the various works gathered on ‘Music For Installations’ are for the most part equal to Eno’s best ambient opuses like ‘Discreet Music’, ‘Music for Airports’, ‘Apollo’, ‘Neroli’, ‘Lux’ and ‘Reflection’.

On CD1, ‘Kazakhstan’ recalls the serene beauty of ‘Reflection’, but there are more synthesizer sweeps than most might be used to with Eno. ‘The Ritan Bells’ does as it says on the tin with beautiful ringing reverbed tones reminiscent of ‘Neroli’ but using sharper accents. ‘Five Light Paintings’ is darker and more sombre with a nautical aura like Jarre’s ‘Waiting For Cousteau’ or Eno’s own ‘Dunwich Beach, Autumn, 1960’ but extended over 20 minutes. Concluding CD1 with ‘Flower Bells’, this develops on ‘The Ritan Bells’ but with more sustain and acoustic sounding textures.

‘77 Million Paintings’ (which takes up the whole of CD2) will be familiar to Enoists as ‘Ikebukuro’ from 1992’s ‘The Shutov Assembly’, but tripled in length with manipulated distortion and robot larynx added. CD3’s two offerings are on the more placid side; ‘Atmospheric Lightness’ has much less happening than the other pieces of ‘Music For Installations’ with it being much more minimal and impressionistic, while its sister ‘Chamber Lightness’ drifts along like a sound painting.

With CD4, the soothing ‘I Dormienti’ is not dissimilar to ‘Neroli’ boosted with cascading piano runs and vocal samples. The three part ‘Kites’ suite features gently ringing aural sculptures, although the slightly longer third variant adds environmental atmospheres and generative voices.

The surprise comes with CD5 which is fragmented like ‘Music For Films’. With a rhythmic base, the opening track ‘Needle Click’ is quietly tribal and by modern Eno standards, comparatively uptempo with a gorgeous synth melody making it almost like VANGELIS.

Indeed, this collection of shorter pieces is lively, with the arpeggio laden ‘Light Legs’ being more akin to soundtracks like ‘Stranger Things’. Meanwhile piano and guitar make their presence felt respectively on ‘Flora and Fauna / Gleise 581d’ and ‘New Moons’. ’Hopeful Timean Intersect’ even features acoustic six string within the pensive tension, while there’s some unexpected choral assisted drama in ‘Delightful Universe’.

CD6 offers up the unsurprisingly spacey ‘Unnoticed Planet’ while both ‘Liquidambar’ and ‘Sour Evening’ are starkly minimal, although the latter brings some shimmering qualities to the wavetable. Bringing proceedings to a close, the sub-18 minute ‘Surbahar Sleeping Music’ is almost atonal and unsettling in places.

For most people, this lavish boxed set is probably too much Eno, but then it is not aimed at them. However, for his many admirers and fans, ‘Music For Installations’ will be loved, cherished and smelt as a highly essential collector’s item.

‘Music For Installations’ is released worldwide by Universal Music on 4th May 2018 as a 6 CD super deluxe limited edition numbered box set including 64 page Plexiglass cover book, 9 LP super deluxe edition vinyl box set with 64 page book plus download key or 6 CD standard edition box set with 64 page book, available from https://www.enoshop.co.uk

http://www.brian-eno.net/

https://www.facebook.com/brianenomusic/

https://twitter.com/BrianEnoMusic

Text by Chi Ming Lai
29th April 2018

RODNEY CROMWELL Rodney’s English Disco EP

24 April 2018 /

‘Rodney’s English Disco’ is RODNEY CROMWELL’s first new body of work since his critically acclaimed debut album ‘Age Of Anxiety’ in 2015.

Although its themes were heavy, the album was perfect those who like their synthpop lo-fi but with tunes. With four new songs plus some accompanying remixes, a sombre mood continues to loom in his discothèque, perfect fodder for his battered armoury of Moog, Korg, Roland and ARP synths accompanied by a Boss DR-55 rhythm box.

Driven by a meaty electronic bassline and metronomic backbone, the marvellous vocoder-laden ‘Comrades’ has a really chilling Cold War atmosphere, bathed in an ensemble of sweeping synth oboes and cosmic string machines. Rich with melody and a panoramic resonance, RODNEY CROMWELL surreally captures the sound of Giorgio Moroder played through a Soviet Foxtrot submarine intercom system.

Continuing the solemn Cold War metaphors, ‘Barbed Wire’ adds live bass and guitar to the crisp template in a take on JOY DIVISION if Stephen Morris had actually been a drum machine, as supposed to trying be one, the end result coming over like one-time Factory Records signings THE WAKE. Meanwhile, the neo-instrumental ‘Technocrats’ throws in some piercingly creepy organ chords and a stuttering vox machina sample robotically repeating the title.

There’s a bit of an early OMD feel on ‘Dreamland’, a bitter reflection on domesticity and failed relationships with a life of Chinese remedies, herbal teas, taking Diazepam and going to Homebase now over.

“Why did you have to leave? We had such a charmed life!” mourns Rodders amongst the catchy burst of synthetic rimshot and haunting strings.

The winter of discontent backing is made even more malcontent by some Hooky bass, although a surprise is sprung with a warm cascading synth line to close…

‘Rodney’s English Disco’ happily and robotically wallows in its misery. Oddly, one can be quite happy dancing to something quite miserable.

‘Rodney’s English Disco’ EP is released by Happy Robots Records in a 7”+CD combo, available from https://www.happyrobots.co.uk/product-page/rodney-cromwell-7-cd-rodney-s-english-disco-bot12

Pre-order the download version which is released on 25th May 2018 from https://rodneycromwell.bandcamp.com/album/rodneys-english-disco

RODNEY CROMWELL continues the ‘Ohm From Ohm’ tour with THE FRIXION, NATURE OF WIRES and VIEON, dates include: London The Islington (10th May), Coventry In Music & Arts (11th May), Southend Railway Hotel (12th May) – tickets available from http://www.ohmfromohm.co.uk

https://www.happyrobots.co.uk/rodney-cromwell

https://www.facebook.com/rodneycromwellartist/

https://twitter.com/robot_rocker

https://www.instagram.com/robot_rocker/

https://www.facebook.com/happyrobotsrecords

https://twitter.com/Happyrobotsrecs

https://www.instagram.com/happyrobotsrecords/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
24th April 2018

« Older posts Newer posts »

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

Up ↑