Category: Reviews (Page 52 of 199)

PAGE Fakta För Alla Göteborg DVD

24 April 2021 /


An observer in a music documentary once stated “Oh God, from Sweden? Pop? How can that work?”

But the Scandinavians are having the last laugh these days, having produced some of the best electronic pop of the last decade or more and certainly surpassing much of the derivative fare emerging from the UK and Germany, two nations who were the trailblazers but have since been left behind.

However, this pop domination would not have been possible without those Swedish acts inspired by the likes of Messrs Hütter, Schneider, Bartos, Flür, Numan, Foxx, Marsh, Ware, McCluskey, Humphreys and Clarke. One of those was acts was PAGE; the classic incarnation of Eddie Bengtsson and Marina Schiptjenko released their first single ‘Dansande Man’ in 1983.

In October 2019, they performed at Gothenburg’s Sticky Fingers venue for their first concert video presentation ‘Fakta För Alla Göteborg’. Produced by Swedish friendly media and culture platform Cold War Night Life, ‘Fakta För Alla Göteborg’ comprises of footage captured by a combination of professional camera operators and audience members, coupled to a supremely fine-tuned and well recorded live sound.

More recently Bengtsson has been re-exploring the post-punk synth innovations of TUBEWAY ARMY and this ethos to “Numanize” the sound of PAGE is reflected in a setlist drawn primarily from material released since their 2010 reunion. The ‘Fakta för alla’, ‘Det är ingen vacker värld men det råkar vara så det ser ut’ and ‘Nu’ albums are represented although only one song from the 2014 long player ‘Hemma’ is present.

In a sea of vertical neon tubes, strobes and a misty mauve tinge to the stage lighting, Bengtsson and Schiptjenko come armed with a Little Phatty and Sub 37 respectively to indulge in a delightful battle of the Moogs with oscillators set to stun.

The ‘Fakta för alla’ song and ‘Kloner’ see Bengtsson enthusiastically getting into the Moog with his soloing while the ‘Tracks’ inspired ‘Start’ from the 2018 EP of the same name showcases one of the best adaptations of the machine music era of Gary Numan for the 21st Century. Meanwhile, the stark heart murmur of ‘Blöder du?’ adds a touch of mood to the Moog but the more Vince Clarke derived ‘Som ett skal’ provides some respite from the Numan mining, as does the delightfully catchy ‘Kom så andas vi’, the latter  from the 2010 comeback album ‘Nu’.

The pacey ‘Lägger av’ makes the most of Bengtsson expressive stage persona in his engagement with the crowd, while ‘Ett SOS’ provides some glam Schaffel relief, showcasing another of PAGE’s musical influences. Having only played 21st Century material, the duo finally concede with something from their dim and distant past in the encore with the chanty ‘Förlåt’ from 1995’s ‘Glad’, supplemented by another album favourite ‘Står i din väg’.

And that final pair of songs highlights that if there is a fault with ‘Fakta För Alla Göteborg’, it’s the lack of earlier material and hits with ‘Dansande Man’ being the most noticeable absentee. Also with the emphasis on promoting ‘Fakta för alla’, the Numan-esque buzzes and whirs do at times get tiresome.

But synth hooks galore, Schiptjenko’s wonderful smile, Bengtsson’s animated delivery and a variety of camera angels, the energy of a show is projected in successfully bursts if confined by the limitations of the small screen.

As with most concert videos, you have to have been there or one before to truly appreciate the spectacle, as an independent synth duo on a small stage can only do so much despite the number of cameras of various capabilities on hand. Saying that, as a document to remind us all why concerts are very special events, ‘Fakta För Alla Göteborg’ does a fine job and will be greatly appreciated by PAGE aficionados.

‘Fakta För Alla Göteborg’ is released through Cold War Night Life as a limited edition bundle that combines a Vimeo streaming licence with a physical package comprising a DVD with extra features; a numbered photo book; and a unique Polaroid photograph of the band; it will be available for pre-order from https://hotstuff.se/page/x-7640

The unlimited streaming licence on Vimeo is available from 30th April 2021 at https://vimeo.com/ondemand/faktaforallagoteborg

https://www.facebook.com/PageElektroniskPop

https://www.instagram.com/page_svensk_pop/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
24th April 2021

VILE ELECTRODES The Vanished Past

22 April 2021 /


The breathtaking new video by VILE ELECTRODES for their 2016 song ‘The Vanished Past’ highlights that despite having not released an album in five years, they are still one of the best independent synth acts in the UK.

Their most recent album ‘In The Shadows Of Monuments’ was a bleak affair containing just under an hour of unnerving electronica and it closed with the potent cinematic drama of ‘The Vanished Past’.

With a mighty militaristic drum climax to end the seven minute cinematic epic, alongside the haunting forlorn vocal of Anais Neon after the fifth minute is the familiar but ghostly voice of Andy McCluskey. The avant pop approach of VILE ELECTRODES is reminiscent of early OMD and it was McCluskey’s love of ‘Deep Red’ which closed their debut long player ‘The future through a lens’ that led to the duo being invited to support the German leg of the ‘English Electric’ tour in 2013.

“Not everything is as it seems” and returning to the scene of the ‘Deep Red’ video of 2010, the fitting visual accompaniment for ‘The Vanished Past’ took advantage of a low tide calm sunrise on the picturesque South English coastline at St Leonards near Hastings.

“It really was a gorgeous morning!” said Anais Neon, “I wish we’d taken a tripod and planned some of the shots a bit more, but it was pretty spur of the moment, so we just kind of winged it, wandered and waded!”. On the spiritual and aesthetic connection with ‘Deep Red’, she added “It was the closer on our first album and has a video on the same beach at sunset, so a sunrise video for the second album closer seemed fitting!”

While VILE ELECTRODES have continued to maintain a discrete live presence, opening for Nordic acts APOPTYGMA BERZERK and LAU NAU, new material from Anais Neon and Martin Swan is still eagerly awaited and while a third album is in the works with songs such as ‘Drive’, ‘We Are A Prism’ and ‘The Kill The Cure’ already premiered in a concert setting, no release date has yet been confirmed.

‘The Vanished Past’ is from the album ‘In The Shadows Of Monuments’, available as a single CD or special double CD editions via http://vileelectrodes.bigcartel.com/

The download version of the album is available from http://vileelectrodes.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-shadows-of-monuments

http://www.vileelectrodes.com/

http://www.facebook.com/vileelectrodes

http://vileelectrodes.blogspot.com/

https://twitter.com/vileelectrodes

https://www.instagram.com/vileelectrodes/

https://open.spotify.com/album/1Bbn9XPxGx4akSPJbdQIOF

Text by Chi Ming Lai
22nd April 2021

KANGA You & I Will Never Die

18 April 2021 /


Hailing from Los Angeles, Kanga DuChamp has cultured a sound which manages to musically straddle industrial, synthwave and pop genres whilst meeting somewhere in the middle.

As well as being an artist, Duchamp has developed a sideline career in working on film soundtracks (focusing on the horror genre) including ‘The Conjuring’ and ‘Insidious’ franchises. With early support in her career from Gary Numan and previous production work from Rhys Fulber of FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY, KANGA has developed a sound which draws from a variety of themes including angst, melancholy and sexual fetishism, but shot through with an unmistakable pop sensibility.

Following 2019’s ‘Eternal Daughter’ EP, ‘You & I Will Never Die’ sees KANGA teaming up with producer Justin McGrath (NIN / TOOL) and distribution via a new label Artoffact. After the two minute ‘Preface’, ‘Home’ hits the ground running with a pulsating synth bass that recalls French synthwave artist PERTURBATOR and this leads neatly into the single ‘Godless’.

KANGA is quoted as saying that ‘Godless’ was “really satisfying compositionally, I felt like I got my masochistic Catholicism to dance”; the track documents a toxic relationship with lyrics about “loving you but you’re making me sick” and “I wanna believe so bad it’s gonna put me in a body bag”. Although lyrically dark, the track is melodic with blippy chorus synths coasting above driving effected guitars and a comparison made that this is a female NIN isn’t a million miles off.

‘Brother’ is lyrically the most twisted track on ‘You & I Will Never Die’; recounting a romantic relationship where KANGA herself was cast as a sister to the protagonist in the title. The artist herself seemed less worried about the controversy the incestuous lyrics might provoke; “Brother was intense. Everyone loved the instrumental but when I added those lyrics I had a handful of people say ‘no one is going to play this in a club.’ F*** that, I bet they will! Where’s everyone’s sense of humour?? Listen to the story, don’t get caught up in the disgust!”.

After the midpoint break of ‘Interlude’, ‘Moscow’ is the second single from the album and follows a similar musical pathway to the earlier tracks but the 4/4 kicks are thankfully more broken down and this does provide some sonic relief.

‘Say Goodbye’ stands out with its 909 drums, anthemic chorus and background vocal sampling / bass sound which deviates from most of the other songs on ‘You & I Will Never Die’. The intro to ‘Waiting’ is the most overtly NIN-sounding part on ‘You & I Will Never Die’ and the track features a more dynamic production approach. If a listener was to pick any song which lingers after the album has finished then ‘Waiting’ would be the one; less linear in approach with a vocal which wanders less predictably rather than steadfastly hitting the 4/4 beat. The sound design with sampled guitar plucks and JAPAN-esque synth sounds combines to produce the highlight track on the album.

Consuming ‘You & I Will Never Die’ as a whole, it sometimes feels that KANGA is striving to hone that one perfect song which defines her ‘sound’, to the point where many of the tracks have a tendency to blur into one another. Most feature the same driving 4/4 kick, 16 beat sequencer bass and vocal production style; this lack of variety is a shame as DuChamp is an undeniable talent but ‘You & I Will Never Die’ doesn’t quite seem to build on the momentum created by her debut and ‘Eternal Daughter’.

That said, ‘You & I Will Never Die’ is not a bad album, it’s immaculately produced with a stunning cover design, but lacks that certain je ne sais quoi which would help mark it as a classic.

‘You & I Will Never Die’ is released by Artoffact Records and as a CD or download from
https://kanga.bandcamp.com/album/you-and-i-will-never-die

https://www.facebook.com/kangakullt/

https://twitter.com/KANGAkult

https://www.instagram.com/k.a.n.g.a/

https://open.spotify.com/album/5IQ63F8M5jYE4wNT13lJOE

Text by Paul Boddy
18th April 2021

WE ARE REPLICA Miami

15 April 2021 /


Arty dark synth duo WE ARE REPLICA are back with a new video for the song ‘Miami’, a highlight from their debut long player ‘Cleared Vision’.

“After the music was written and recorded I thought it sounded like Miami and improvised the first verse whereas the other verses came together the day after”, said Martin Kinz, the German half of WE ARE REPLICA about the song, “There is no particular meaning to the words. It’s all about matching sentences, that eventually become poetry. The chorus was written a bit later, and has more of a message, as in ‘every day’s a holiday’ is a state you can choose, that’s why we go on to ‘choose to go Miami’”.

“We wanted to show the apparent fake of a place like Miami, designing a set to create an atmosphere with plastic which represents the vibe of this kind of world” recalled Nadège Préaudat in her deep Gallic tones, “It could be found in many places but Miami sounded like a good example for this stereotype.”

“We wear masks and similar outfits to show the lack of individuality where everyone in society has to fit in. The real paradise that Miami is in many people’s minds is projected into a safe with a poison apple.” she clarified on the concept of the striking visual accompaniment, “Like the words of the song, the video is very abstract and we did not want to tell a story, so the viewer or listener can create their own meaning. The use of hands signifies the obstacles that we come across in day to day life. We finally face the truth by washing off the masks.”

Sharing the vocals, ‘Miami’ is musically a mix of post punk and pop with a rather suitable psychedelic influence. to confirm Kinz’s analysis that “our sense of reality is only in our heads”.

“The shoot was very DIY and the shots really came about quite organically. My take on the song is that it’s quite nonsensical in a way, but it’s like Miami becomes this fantasy place” director Tamsin Kavanagh remembered on the realisation of the video, “Thanks to Jorge’s amazing make up, and Ieva’s styling, Mart and Nadège became a bit like two aliens to me, that seem a bit out of place in the world, but then really come alive in the inner world, so the contrast between these two felt important.”

It proved to be an interesting experience technically for Cavanagh too: “All of the outside shots are quite smooth – shot with a stabiliser, and there is not a lot of movement. But then the inside shots (made possible by The Steamship PS allowing us to use their amazing space), that were shot in the basement, is where they really come alive, and I shot a lot of these with no stabiliser to accentuate that sense of dynamism and letting go. Similarly with the lighting – outside we made use of the natural lighting, which was quite stark compared with the colour gels I used inside- so it was a contrast between cold and warm, static and dynamic.”

‘Miami’ is from the album ‘Cleared Vision’, available as a download direct from https://wearereplica.bandcamp.com/album/cleared-vision

https://wearereplica.blogspot.com/

https://www.facebook.com/wearereplica/

https://www.instagram.com/we_are_replica/

https://soundcloud.com/wearereplica/

Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Pauline Mongarny
15th April 2021

GIRL ONE & THE GREASE GUNS A Figure In The Underpass

5 April 2021 /


Formed in late 2012, the mysterious GIRL ONE & THE GREASE GUNS released seven singles, one full length long player ‘Night Of The Living Electrical Appliances’ and a farewell mini-album ‘Transmissions From The Glass Factory’.

Utilising raw recording techniques, just about in-tune synths and a slightly off-key girly voice, they captured a wonderful sound that evoked memories of paraffin heaters beating the chill. But with no band photographs or live appearances, before any pesky kids could unmask their true identities, GIRL ONE & THE GREASE GUNS disbanded.

The new “Best Of” album ‘A Figure In The Underpass’ captures their intrigue in one handy place.

Opening the collection with 2015’s ‘The Shatterproof Man’, despite the John Foxx-esque title and the detuned synth backing, it still sparkles with pretty melodies like early OMD meeting THE RONETTES while following it on the compilation is the enjoyably squiggly unorthodox pop of ‘(It’s A) Warning Sign (Blue Lights)’.

Ultra-violence and JG Ballard were among the recurring dystopian influences in GIRL ONE & THE GREASE GUNS, but the Farfisa-tinged ‘Hitting The Brick Wall’ managed to be quite bouncy despite its title, although ‘The Voices In The Walls’ captured the spectre of Big Brother and the surveillance society.

One of the band’s final recordings ‘Destination Yesterday’ exploited metallic sequencers, detuned synths and those characteristic nonchalant female vocals that gave the anonymous combo cult appeal and with that in mind, the feisty ‘Suburban Robot’ recalls the magic of early ‘604’ era LADYTRON while amusingly, ‘Bashed, Beaten And Broken (Trip The Switch)’ with its South Yorkshire lass twang sounds like THE HUMAN LEAGUE during their Fast Product era fronted by Susanne Sulley!

When GIRL ONE & THE GREASE GUNS occasionally laid off the aural harshness to reveal a softer side, they could be eerily magical. With its beautiful atmospheric quality smothered in icy synth strings and grainy vox samples, the marvellous ‘No Longer Spellbound’ from 2014 imagined if ‘Twins Peaks’ set was in The Lake District.

Their most powerfully overt electronic pop single came with the sweet but sinister ‘Good Morning, Mr X’ as Sissy Space Echo, Warren Betamax, Charles Bronson Burner and Bruce LeeFax bid adieu in 2019. Meanwhile, ‘Forever Seems So Long’ was almost wasted as its B-side, featuring the sort of mighty swooping detuned synths that would make OMD proud. But around that same period, another single ‘Turn It Around Again’ transported the Wall Of Sound into the cold greyness of Northern England.

Reflecting being recorded in “a freezing cold structure in the middle of a timber yard”, 2013’s ‘Jessica 6’ remains GIRL ONE & THE GREASE GUNS’ greatest moment; a tribute to the cult Sci-Fi favourite ‘Logan’s Run’ and the alluring character played by Jenny Agutter, the reverbed post-punk cacophony laced with icy Yamaha string machine still comes over like THE PIPETTES fronting an OMD assisted JOY DIVISION.

Despite being capable of melody, GIRL ONE & THE GREASE GUNS couldn’t help their progressive mechanical desolation and their third single ‘(Here Come) The Catastrophe Machines’ is basically ‘Nag Nag Nag’ but more violent! As ‘(She Sits) In The Freezer’ captures further winter discontentment, ‘A Figure In The Underpass’ closes with the dysfunctional indie synthpop of ‘Driving Without Headlights (Once Again)’.

Superseding and improving on the earlier compilation ‘The Strange Little Lies That Humans Draw In the Dust’, ‘A Figure In The Underpass’ gathers twenty tracks on the CD. But although the download offers another five, a number of notable tracks are omitted with the superb cover of THE BLANCHE HUDSON WEEKEND’s ‘Noise & Fury’ being among the more immediate GIRL ONE & THE GREASE GUNS recordings that are missed.

With a manifesto to “thrive on causing confusion with a mixture of pure synthpop and more experimental electronic sounds”, GIRL ONE & THE GREASE GUNS certainly had fun with their DIY noise fest and they leave this enjoyable compilation which acts as an unintentional soundtrack for the frosty climate of the strange times that the world finds itself in.

‘A Figure In The Underpass’ is released as a CD and download by Next Phase : Normal Records, available direct from https://girloneandthegreaseguns.bandcamp.com/album/a-figure-in-the-underpass

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Girl-One-And-The-Grease-Guns/440754999339179

Text by Chi Ming Lai
5th April 2021

« Older posts Newer posts »

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

Up ↑