Hailing from Vancouver in Canada, ACTORS keyboardist Shannon Hemmett has developed her more synth focussed solo project LEATHERS in parallel.
Not completely divorced from the main band family, ACTORS frontman Jason Corbett acts as producer and collaborator, just as Daniel Hunt did with Helen Marnie on her solo work during the LADYTRON hiatus. Meanwhile, bassist Kendall Wooding and drummer Adam Fink have acted as part of the LEATHERS live set-up
Although primarily synth-led and more immediate melodically, LEATHERS is pop music with darker sensibilities seeded by a love of the imperial phase DEPECHE MODE long players ‘Black Celebration’, ‘Music for the Masses’ and ‘Violator’. Like the excellent debut EP ‘Reckless’ in 2021, the ‘Ultraviolet’ album has been recorded over several years with all the songs released previously as standalone singles online or as part of that first EP.
Shannon Hammett said to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK: “The idea was to develop LEATHERS in the background while ACTORS toured and continued to release its own material as well. With this more gradual timeline, I was able to develop my songwriting, and my confidence as a performer in real world situations with ACTORS.”
With songs co-written with Corbett, she said “Melodies are important to Jason and I as songwriters, so I imagine some of that comes from our love of 80s era songwriting where strong melody is a key ingredient”. The end result is 10 fine synth-oriented tunes which possess go on a journey to search for the truth between fantasy and reality.
With a dreamy motorik drive and a chilling backdrop of synth drones, ‘Ultraviolet’ acts as a fine opener but much more ominous, the combination of octave bass motifs, drones and bursts of guitar gives ‘Highrise’ a gothic disco action offset by spoken and sung vocals. Utilising a straight four ostinato, the disquieting ‘Crash’ highlights the dark appeal of danger and hypnotises with “no more questions, no more lies”; using lyrical inspiration from JG Ballard and THE NORMAL’s ‘Warm Leatherette’, the thrill is to “Crash the car, survive the wreckage, feel the fear, under the steel”.
Set to a pulsing rhythmic swing, ‘Fascination’ fixes onto the LEATHERS ident of spoken and sung vocals over spy drama resonances. Proceedings are taken down for ‘Day For Night’, an introspective synth-laden ballad with the occasional six and four string intervention that allies it to the moody atmospheres of CHROMATICS and structurally comes over like a dreampop version of MAZZY STAR.
Recalling BLONDIE’s ‘Call Me’ reworked for darkwave dancefloors, ‘Divine’ is a delightful schaffel where Hammett plays dominatrix and “rules do not apply”. ‘Phantom Heart’ though is fiercer and perhaps not that far removed from ACTORS with Hemmett being more contralto to suit with melodic bass guitar flitting in. But ‘Daydream Trash’ is a wonderful outlier, a summery new wave pop tune recalling LA trio CANNONS with an electronic groove that is “100 in the shade” and could have easily come off the soundtrack of a John Hughes film.
First emerging in 2022, the sparklingly breezy ‘Runaway’ remains gorgeous escapist synthpop to elope to before proceedings conclude with ‘Mary’, a reflective ‘Twin Peaks’ styled ballad about “a girl I knew” that brings guitar and piano into the mix.
The only song missing is the brilliant LEATHERS breakthrough song ‘Reckless’, but the fact that the ‘Ultraviolet’ album more or less stands up without it is a reflection of the quality of this collection. If you love ethereal romantic synthpop with sumptuous vocals and sinister twists in that classic Lynchian fashion, then this record is for you.
Since releasing their first EP in 2008, Sweden’s KITE have steadily grown in stature with fans including Vince Clarke.
After six acclaimed numbered EPs, the most recent being ‘VI’ in 2015 and live appearances in Germany, China and North America, the enigmatic pairing of Nicklas Stenemo and Christian Berg were on the cusp of a huge international breakthrough having been “Sweden’s best kept pop secret”.
While the striking Stenemo is a charismatic front man capable of the occasional high kick, the more reserved Berg paints a Rick Wakeman-like figure in charge of his multiple keyboard stacks; the latter comparison is quite apt as the ‘KITE On Ice’ spectacular at Stockholm’s Avicii Arena in February 2025 has already sold out.
However, with their first record label seemingly intent on playing at arrested development with their prize asset (something that other acts on that same label subsequently suffered from) and then a stress related illness afflicting Stenemo in 2017, KITE had to cancel activities and their inevitably career stalled.
After a period of recovery and recuperation, KITE made their triumphant live return in 2019 with a three night residency at Stockholm’s Slaktkyrkan. As momentum was steadily regained, the duo released ‘Tranås/Stenslanda’ in 2020, their first new material since ‘Demon & Shame’ in 2017; another five singles have since followed.
Now after prestigious appearances at the Royal Swedish Opera, the Dalhalla open air amphitheatre and the Amphi Festival, with European + US tour dates arranged for 2024, it is timely that KITE finally release their first full-length studio album on the American independent label Dais Records. As their seventh body of work and following on from the numbered series of EPs, the appropriately titled ‘VII’ contains music from their seven most recent singles released over the past seven years.
Four of the tracks were co-produced with Benjamin John Power, best known as Scared Bones artist BLANCK MASS and a founder member of experimental electronic duo F*CK BUTTONS. Despite being more associated with a much heavier aggressive instrumental sound as exemplified by his own ‘D7-D5’ and ‘Death Drop’, Power appears to have relished pushing a couple of his own pop buttons.
‘VII’ starts with an extended drone intro that may initially confuse listeners, but ‘Remember Me’ is a strident lengthy opening salvo, as if a return to innocence. It documents a battle for hope and resilience born out of “the struggle” of the worldwide pandemic that morphs into an exhilarating epic.
Another pandemic song, ‘Changing’ refers to a “Destination unknown / Without a vision”; reminiscent of ‘I Can’t Stand‘ from the ‘V’ EP, it owes its rumbling backbone to BLANCK MASS. Continuing the theme, ‘Hand Out The Drugs’ provides a huge wonderwall of synthesizers, throbbing beats and full of majestic melodies, it’s another BLANCK MASS co-production which captures the longing for fun and escapism in a locked-down world.
Named after the two small towns in the historical Swedish province of Småland that Berg and Stenemo respectively grew up in, ‘Tranås/Stenslanda’ possesses a lush introspection. And when an emotionally charged Stenemo hits the high notes and responded to by Berg’s gorgeous swirling synth, there is a melancholic grit that is also strangely uplifting in a manner that Scandinavians always seem to excel at. It celebrates the liberating escape that music provides with the profound line “now headphones can cover that hurt”.
A song about “the war between energies”, ‘Don’t Take The Light Away’ places Stenemo’s wounded croon over a tide of stabbing strings, galloping percussion and surging bass, the chanted chorus simultaneously coming over desperate yet triumphant.
Dominated by a melodic stabbing riff, the celebratory pop rave of ‘Teenage Bliss’, sees KITE explore youthful innocence and reminiscences, recalling their earlier songs like ‘Ways To Dance’ and ‘Jonny Boy’. The dynamic combination of KITE and BLANCK MASS is wonderfully hymn-like, with Stenemo’s bittersweet revelation that “life is not like your first kiss…”
Now if Ennio Morricone composed music for Nordic Noir dramas, it would sound like ‘Demons & Shame’. Shaped by a ritualistic drum mantra and brooding bass drones, it confronts the despair that life occasionally throws up while pursuing visions and dreams as Stenemo screams his frustration over Berg’s epic soundscape.
Then like a slice of Nordic gospel, ‘Glassy Eyes’ confronts the turmoil of existential anxiety while befitting its title, ‘Bocelli’ is almost operatic, sombre yet impassioned with backing from the symphonic school of Vangelis.
The hypnotic ‘Bowie ’95’ takes in midlife angst where you are “Supposed to know politics when you’re 46” but are “some light years away from this”; it was 1995 that David Bowie regained his artistic credibility with the ‘1.Outside’ album co-produced by Brian Eno after his ‘Glass Spider’ sins. With an intense BLANCK MASS assisted wall of sound, it is a call to return to self-expression rather than continuing to satisfy others to one’s own detriment.
Self-produced by KITE with Daniel Fagerström, ‘Panic Music’ is fierce. But while the neo-gothic textures are present and correct, Christian Berg further explores his fascination for electronic drones and swoops while there is also the surprise of a guitar solo in the middle eight.
Almost acapella at its start, ‘Losing’ is shaped by doomy piano chords to accompany an anguished vocal from Stenemo in deep harmony with Henric de la Cour as they see “dark skies on the rise”. As immense rhythms and synthetic sweeps creep in, the haunting canvas is dominated with fraught ad libs from Anna Von Hausswolff.
Originally recorded as the love theme to Titus Paar’s dystopian action thriller ‘The Perfect Weapon’ starring Steven Seagal, ‘Hopelessly Unholy’ is aesthetically cinematic, making fine use of traditional orchestrations arranged by Jonas Valfridsson. There is the emotive air of Hans Zimmer in the majestic arrangement, although a fading metronomic pulse of synth coming over like a tracking beacon provides an offset.
Photo by Jonas Andersson
As the wall-of-sound mood piece ‘Hum Hum’ closes proceedings, the question must be asked whether this collection of seven singles works as an album? Documenting a period of trials and tribulations for a duo who have endured an existential crisis, then ‘VII’ does the job and tells a story via its aural diaries. Nicklas Stenemo and Christian Berg are now back where there should have been.
In that time, KITE’s sound has got bigger and more ambitious, so naturally it is time to experience their mystic wonderland within bigger and more ambitious settings. Across its 70 minutes, ‘VII’ more than showcases the power and the glory of KITE.
‘VII’ is released on 9 August 2024 by Dais Records as a double vinyl LP in a variety of colour combinations, CD and download, available via https://found.ee/kitevii
KITE 2024 US + European dates include:
Richmond VA Fallout (28 August), Baltimore MD Metro Gallery (29 August), Brooklyn NY Murder of Crows Festival (30 August), Boston MA Middle East Upstairs (31 August), Berlin Hole 44 (18 September), Bielefeld Forum (19 September), Hamburg Reeperbahn Festival (20 September), Copenhagen Vega (21 September), Dortmund JunkYard (24 September), Cologne Gebäude 9 (24 September), Frankfurt Nachtleben (25 September), Nuremberg Club Stereo (26 September), Prague Futurum Bar (27 September), Atlanta GA The Masquerade Altar (9 October), Tampa FL Absolution Festival (10 October), San Francisco CA DNA Lounge (11 October), Los Angeles Cold Waves LA Showcase (13 October), Portland OR Star Theater (15 October), Chicago IL Beat Kitchen (16 October), Austin TX Elysium (17 October), Dallas TX Tassel (18 October), Minneapolis MN Ground Zero (19 October), Madison WI Crucible Madison (20 October), London Downstairs at the Dome (21 November)
After a trilogy of EPs ‘y?’, ‘</3’ and ‘it feels like thunder’, Anglo-French singer-songwriter Julia-Sophie Walker releases her debut album ‘forgive too slow’.
It’s been a long artistic journey for her having almost attained mainstream major label success as a member of rock band LITTLE FISH. But when that collapsed and an attempted reconfiguration as the more cerebral CANDY SAYS stalled, Julia-Sophie became disillusioned with the draining roller coaster of the music industry. Retreating into an independent DIY environment, to create music for the sake of making music, ‘forgive too slow’ is a deeply personal reflection on past relationships.
With her anguished vocals, these gently emotive songs combine traditional composition and experimental sound synthesis. The trip starts at ‘2am’ but as subtle beats stutter, ‘i was only’ heads into a haunting self-appraisal of life and longing, given extra poignancy by the addition of Gallic prose. Also an intense number, ‘lose my mind’ has these buzzy rumbles and skippy rhythms that illustrates its title.
A marvellous avant pop set piece, ‘numb’ is a striking statement with mantric rumbles before a frantic gallop takes hold where sung and spoken passages alternate with a fractured intensity. ‘falling’ to a minimal backdrop and eerily forlorn, this all recalls Emika as the train gathers pace, while ‘comfort you’ has contrasting moods with frantic beats and heavy drones sitting next to parts that are almost acapella.
‘just us’ is smothered in the otherworldliness of GOLDFRAPP’s ‘Felt Mountain’ and is even shoegazey in places, but comparative relief comes with ‘wishful thinking’ which is more like a catchy electronic pop song.
As she wants things to be ‘better’, there are signs of resignation as the beats get harder. Closing with the emotive longing of ‘telephone’, overtones of I AM SNOW ANGEL are captured on this rich ballad where gentle glassy texturing ably illustrate her fragility.
While this record is sad and despondent in the way that the late Françoise Hardy always seemed, Julia-Sophie does have hope on the horizon in her style of absorbing avant pop. One moment these songs can be ambient, then rhythmically skippy, then airy pop while sung in English and then spoken in French, each presents its own world weary character connected by Julia-Sophie’s fraught narrative.
Julie-Sophie said in an interview with ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK: “Finishing and releasing ‘forgive too slow’ feels quite exposing. This album delves deeper into the complexities of relationships than anything I’ve done before, exploring themes of self-destruction, tenderness, love, and emotional struggles.”
This is what happens when people ‘forgive too slow’ and become trapped in their past, but does Julia-Sophie solve her woes? Maybe not yet and while she remains embroiled in pain, catharsis comes in this musical life laundry. Swathed in an intriguing electronic sound, her understated fulfilment combines emotional unease with an airy beauty for some satisfying thoughtful listening.
Julia-Sophie plays London Dalston Victoria on Wednesday 31 July, Oxford Common Ground on Thursday 1st August and Oxford Truck on Saturday 3 August 2024
Unlike “New Romantic”, “New Pop” was a term that never truly stuck… it was coined by Paul Morley, then a polarising writer for NME. It was used to describe forward thinking music that, while rooted in post-punk, was accessible and looked to overthrow rockist conventions by unashamedly blending a variety of styles.
The acts who found themselves considered as part of this movement included THE CURE, SIMPLE MINDS, OMD, JAPAN, CHINA CRISIS, THE HUMAN LEAGUE, SOFT CELL, HEAVEN 17, EURYTHMICS, TEARS FOR FEARS, A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS, FUN BOY THREE, SCRITTI POLITTI, THE STYLE COUNCIL, ALTERED IMAGES, DEXY’S MIDNIGHT RUNNERS, MONSOON, THE TEARDROP EXPLODES, ABC, HAIRCUT 100, THE PALE FOUNTAINS, EYELESS IN GAZA, BLUE RONDO A LA TURK, RIP RIG & PANIC, JOBOXERS, THE HIGSONS and even THE STRANGLERS.
This was a broad church that many would not have granted a common association but that was the point. Even in what appeared to be traditional band formats, new technology meant synths emulated brass sections or funk basslines while drum machines took the place of conventional sticksmen and it could all be recorded in a DIY fashion with portastudios and the like.
New Pop was about the aspirations of those disenchanted with the Winter of Discontent and then the Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher to pick up musical instruments without any formal training. The intention was to be heard, whether in the clubs, on the radio or in the charts. The ever dependable Cherry Red present ‘Heaven Sent – The Rise Of New Pop 1979-1983’, a 4CD collection compiled by the team who curated the ‘Musik Music Musique’ sets.
Of the artists that ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK would appreciate, there are fine choices that are off the beaten track away from obvious hits; THE HUMAN LEAGUE are represented by the excellent ‘Boys & Girls’ which was the first single after the departure of Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh while the latter pair’s HEAVEN 17 contribute the locomotive snap of ‘I’m Your Money’. OMD have ‘Red Frame / White Light’, the lightweight ditty about the 632 3003 phonebox which served as their office in their formative years.
But synthpop was taken to the next level with the gritty social commentary of ‘Bedsitter’ proving that SOFT CELL were more than a one hit wonders and could chart with self-written material. A sign of how angst ridden youngsters were expressing their existential and political concerns to music came with fine debut offerings respectively from TEARS FOR FEARS and CHINA CRISIS but while ‘Suffer The Children’ and ‘African & White’ were not Top40 hits, they were hints of their mainstream success to come.
A year before they subverted the singles chart with ‘Party Fears Two’, ASSOCIATES were peddling the more challenging ‘Q Quarters’ while on THE CURE lightened up with ‘Let’s Go To Bed’ in the first of their fantasy singles trilogy that would later include ‘The Walk’ and ‘The Love Cats’. And prior to DEAD OR ALIVE becoming a HI-NRG disco act, they were a brooding goth band with ‘The Stranger’ in its original Black Eyes Records incarnation as wonderful evidence of that.
Maturer acts who made an impression during this period like M, THE BUGGLES and NEW MUSIK are all present and correct with their biggest hits while one song that deserved to be a hit was the bizarre but brilliant techno-swing of ‘An Englishman In New York’ from 10CC refugees Kevin Godley and Lol Creme.
Capturing two acts in transition, fresh after departing THE TOURISTS, EURYTHMICS get served by their first German influenced single ‘Never Gonna Cry Again’ while the 7 inch single edit of ‘The Art Of Parties’ by JAPAN and its brass-fuelled exploration of more rhythmic territory makes a rare digital appearance.
The epitome of New Pop has often been seen to be ABC with ‘Poison Arrow’ and with the band plus assorted session musicians tracing the pre-programmed guide track helmed by Trevor Horn with live instrumentation, modern production was born where funk, soul and orchestrations could sit alongside the mechanised synthpop that had achieved a wider breakthrough in 1981.
With New Pop, funk was often a constituent and FAD GADGET’s ‘Make Room’ brought that in spades alongside the synth, while COLOURBOX had a cross of electronics, funk and reggae in ‘Shotgun’, although both were perhaps too idiosyncratic to crossover to wider audiences.
There’s also the inclusion of the first Thomas Dolby single ‘Urges’ co-produced by XTC’s Andy Partridge and the boxed set’s title song ‘Heaven Sent’, Paul Haig’s excellent take on SIMPLE MINDS ‘I Travel’ polished for the New York dancefloor by producer Alex Sadkin; to have the former JOSEF K frontman and his song originally written for the band in this position is fitting as Paul Morley had designated Paul Haig“the enigmatic fourth man” in a quartet of New Pop saviours which also included Billy Mackenzie, Jim Kerr and Martin Fry.
The delight in these boxed sets is to rediscover music that has been largely forgotten over time and one is ‘Dance Sucker’, an electro-funk stomper by SET THE TONE; a combo featuring one-time SIMPLE MINDS drummer Kenny Hyslop, it was he who taped the track ‘Too Through’ by BAD GIRLS off Kiss FM in New York that inspired the band to write ‘Promised You A Miracle’; SIMPLE MINDS themselves feature with the underrated ‘Sweat In Bullet’ from 1981.
One nice surprise is THE UNDERTONES’ synth flavoured ‘Beautiful Friend’ where they appear to have actually got THE HUMAN LEAGUE in to advise them while Pauline Murray with THE INVISIBLE GIRLS are delightfully rousing with the Martin Hannett produced ‘Dream Sequence 1’. Another fine inclusion is Edinburgh’s TV21 and their Mike Howlett produced single ‘All Join Hands’ with its combination of sequencers and strings.
By 1983, THE STRANGLERS had shed their more aggressive tendencies with the pretty ‘European Female’ but harking back to those days, Hazel O’Connor’s cover of their ‘Hanging Around’ begins as an enigmatic Casiobeat cover with the ‘Breaking Glass’ star trying to be Grace Jones before morphing into a more routine reinterpretation with synth and sax. And speaking of Grace Jones, her reggae cover of JOY DIVISION’s ‘She’s Lost Control’ has to be heard to be believed.
One hit wonders from THE FLYING LIZARDS, DEPARTMENT S and THE PASSIONS add to the fun but some of the inclusions have not aged well. ‘The House That Jack Built’ by Paul Weller protégée Tracie Young is frankly dreadful while the embarrassing ‘John Wayne Is Big Leggy’ by HAYSI FANTAYZEE only gets a free pass because Kate Garner and Jeremy Healy comically subverted Top Of The Pops by performing this song about anal sex with unambiguous actions to boot!
Not everything on ‘Heaven Sent – The Rise Of New Pop 1979-1983’ will satisfy the majority of listeners but what cannot be denied about most of the inclusions is that they are largely inventive and exciting. It is a period to savour because what then comes after is the bland sophisti-pop and cod soul meanderings of SADE, SIMPLY RED, GO WEST, SWING OUT SISTER, HUE & CRY, CURIOSITY KILLED THE CAT, WET WET WET and LIVING IN A BOX with their far more musically conservative (with a small ‘c’) disposition.
Patricia Wolf is one of the emerging talents in electronic ambient music having begun her career in the acclaimed synth duo SOFT METALS.
Based in Portland, in early 2022 she released her debut album ‘I’ll Look For You In Others’, a bittersweet work documenting a period of bereavement, heartbreak and disconnect. The swift follow-up ‘See-Through’ was one of the best records in the genre that year and offered a more hopeful and joyous approach which led her to a place of life embracing lightness.
Combining modern and natural worlds, one key aspect in the music of Patricia Wolf is her use of field recordings and this shapes her new album ‘The Secret Lives of Birds’ more than previously. Having recorded various bird songs and calls, curiosity led her to become a bird watcher and conservationist; this record reflects this passion. While the music is very beautiful at times, there are darker moments of angst and sadness driven by concern. The end result is like a soundtrack for an as-yet-unmade wildlife documentary.
Photo by Edward Pack Davee
Self-explanatory and with synthetic droplets simulating contact calls, ‘The Secret Lives of Birds’ title piece sets the scene for the album. A range of gentle and sharper arpeggios represent ‘The American Dipper’ as windy sweeps glide into the backdrop while ‘Rufous Hummingbird Dive Display’ swoops and hovers as the influence of the late Ryuichi Sakamoto pays a visit.
Inspired by the wonder of its title, ‘Starling Murmuration’ captures these swirls and patterns in the sky through a cleverly constructed pattern of seemingly randomised textures and passages. Over a backdrop of delightful quacks, ‘Greylag Geese Through the Listening Sculpture at Tjörnin’ offers tonal reflection alongside metallic creaking in its aerial movement before ‘Bewick’s Wren’ presents a sound sculpture of minimal synth passages
Photo by Gina Roberti
‘Golden-Crowned Sparrow’ has something of a serene quality along with ‘The Ptarmigan and the Gyrfalcon’ although the latter is shaped by deeper ominous tones of loss in the web of life and the fable of these two birds in Icelandic folklore. ‘Mourning the Varied Thrush That Struck a Window and Died’ documents Patricia Wolf’s own personal experience of a bird hitting a window at her house and dying shortly after; embroiled in heartbreak, this is a haunting emotive piece.
‘Nocturnal Migration’ comes swathed in an airborne wash while reminiscent of CLUSTER & ENO’s ‘One’, Wolf utilises the Nuetone AI plugin tool on one of her field recordings to illustrate the depressing spectre of a future world where wildlife has gone extinct in its natural habit. Then rising high in the air, ‘Soaring’ has density as natural wave upon synthetic wave glistens and builds to conclude.
Patricia Wolf’s creative mission is to use music to “make people more sensitive to the world and maybe a little more careful with it”. An album to savour, ‘The Secret Lives of Birds’ is a fabulous thought provoking work with a variety of emotions that has a sense of purpose.
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