‘Demian’ is the third solo album from Helsinki based artist THE HEARING aka Ringa Manner.
The eager Finn composes, writes and co-produces her latest output, which follows the previous two ‘Dorian’ and ‘Adrian’, completing the trilogy of her ever evolving experimental sound.
Delving into a more polished sound, which cannot be easily pigeon-holed and which sits outside all genres, simultaneously being all genres in one, THE HEARING goes for the kill on her third long player.
From loop pedal experimentation to ‘Demian’, it is “the next evolution stage of a being, and the missing piece of an album trilogy. it’s the start of something new, and an end to something meaningful from before. it’s having your broken heart heal just in time for someone to break it all over. it’s crying for people living in nightmares, and for the deafening beauty of one’s own cosmic uselessness. it’s shielding your mind with a pillow fortress, but inviting everyone else in too.”
The opener ‘Loppu’ eases into the world of THE HEARING with delicate melody, which in no way prepares for ‘ICU’ with its tribal beats and vocals sounding like Björk meeting Ellie Goulding. A mixture of Scandipop and moderate techno enveloped in a light cloud of fluffy, carefree feeling leads into ‘Love=Prison’ containing eerie synthesised voices and a multi-elemental mish-mash of sounds and voices. With the insertion of brilliant club connotations and techno, this is a perfect modern rave tune.
‘Overtaking’, predeceased by its own interlude, represents a brand new take on drum n bass done a girly way. It’s weightless and uplifting, providing an endless amount of quirky vocal and capable programming.
The “pain of the world” or ‘Weltschmerz’ doesn’t feel like anything described on the tin.
It’s an uplifting number with poignant lyrics, approaching the issues from an observer angle, while ‘Jello’ with its interesting interlude presents the modern world with the help of various electronic elements and that processed male vocal again.
The inclusion of the above can be disappointing at times, since every Tom, Dick and Harry attempting music making on their Mac seems to make use of it, otherwise rendering the song useless. Still, it may as well appeal to younger audiences, who appreciate the saturation of any modern tune with some sort of synthesised voice. If this is the best you can do THE HEARING, make songs like ‘Best I Can Do’, which showcases your delicate vocal and a plethora of electronic magic instead.
Next comes in the eponymous track and here is where the listener gets invited to enter the charming forest of ethereal melodies presented over gentle choirs and spacious musicality, before ‘WYD’ (or ‘When In Doubt Repeat Those Words’) continues the demure landscapes, delicately painting a vision of calmness and peacefulness.
The closing ‘Just Like You’ is like watching tidal waves come in and drift out. A very filigree piece with stunning nature connotations, it shines like a beacon towards THE HEARING’s musical future. Although ‘Demian’ could be perceived as a mixed bag for some, it is predominantly filled with wonderfully moreish melodies and packed full of lovely vocals. Sitting somewhere between modern synth and plain pop, it is definitely youthful and appealing.
One thing for certain: it cannot be easily defined, so don’t try to label it, because it stands alone, no matter what genre you’re into.
‘Demian’ is released by Solina Records on 25th October 2019 in vinyl LP and digital formats
THE HEARING opens for CHASMS at London O2 Academy2 Islington on 10th December 2019
OMD have been a recording unit for 40 years; ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK has been attending their gigs for 39 of them!
A recent cartoon meme went “I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things” and that sums up OMD in a nutshell. The subjects in Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys’ music have included the suicide of a charismatic musician, the suicide of a woman who worked as a stripper because she had no other means of supporting herself, the racially motivated massacre of five innocent demonstrators by the Ku Klux Klan, the death of over 100,000 people by nuclear attack and most notably on two hit singles, the brutal execution of a teenage girl!
It’s been a glorious achievement so to celebrate their four decade anniversary, OMD have issued their ‘Souvenir’, a lavish deluxe boxed set containing 5CDs, 2 DVDs, a hardback book, a fold-out poster and a set of quality 10 inch silver-on-black art card reproductions of sleeves such as ‘Electricity’ and ‘Telegraph’.
However, for the more cautious consumer, the set is also available as a truncated 2CD 40 track singles collection concluding with the brilliant new song ‘Don’t Go’; a great grandchild of Klingklang and cousin of ‘Metroland’ from ‘English Electric’ refined for BBC Radio2 airplay, it captures the essence of OMD’s enduring electronic appeal. With crystalline melodies from Paul Humphreys and a spirited vocal delivery from Andy McCluskey attached to a hypnotic Synthanorma backdrop, it is a better career spanning trailer than ‘Dreaming’ was for 1988’s first greatest hits ‘The Best of OMD’.
As a definitive singles anthology, also included are the superior single mix of ‘Shame’ produced by Rhett Davies, the underrated wintery soundscape of ‘Never Turn Away’ and the pretty Pachelbel’s ‘Canon’ tribute ‘La Femme Accident’. However, the inclusion of everything means that although OMD released that sublime singles series of ‘Messages’, ‘Enola Gay’, ‘Souvenir’, ‘Joan Of Arc’ and ‘Maid Of Orleans’, they were also capable of total stinkers like ‘Stand Above Me’ and ‘If You Want It’!
While the singles are known by many, when assisting with the remastering of the first four OMD albums at Abbey Road, Paul Humphreys paid a visit to the huge EMI tape archive near Heathrow. While he was there to check and annotate the correct versions, he uncovered a treasure trove of shelved recordings and demos. The reels of vintage tapes were then baked to minimise risk of breakage and after some thoughtful listening and reminiscing, he compiled and painstakingly mixed a selection of unreleased songs and ideas to become ‘Unreleased Archive Vol1’
Paul Humphreys told ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK: “I found 22 tracks, some of which are full songs and some are just experiments that were never developed, but I had great fun mixing them. I mixed them only using FX and E’s that we would have used at the period, spring reverbs, crappy delays and Eventide Harmonisers. I had so much fun doing them and there are a couple of absolute gems in there! The big take away for me in this whole exercise was to see how we used to work, pre-computers.”
Although it was known that OMD had a number of unreleased songs in the vaults and several featured on the 2014 reissue of ‘Junk Culture’, the revelation that there was enough material to make up a 56 minute CD was a surprise.
“We basically used to lay down 5 minutes of one idea, then when we wanted a change of chord, we’d drop in the new section on different tracks, so on the desk we’d have to hand mute the first idea so they wouldn’t play together.” elaborated Humphreys on these memories, “But of course I can’t remember where to mute things now as I barely even remember the songs themselves, never mind what our vision was at the time, so I was left with a giant puzzle working out what tracks have to be on or off at certain points of the song…”
It all begins with the wonderful ‘Brand New Science’ recorded in 1981, a gloriously haunting and minimal slice of synthpop. The lyrics “there’s a brand new science, for a brand new world, with no moral codes and no big words…” actually appeared in the ‘Dazzle Ships’ tour programme of 1983, which begs the question as to how a recording of such quality was left off the parent album? However, a bizarre interview by McCluskey and Humphreys for BBC Radio1 with Richard Skinner from the period highlighted that other distractions may have come into play.
Although Andy McCluskey states in the accompanying notes that “it didn’t work”, ‘Dumbomb’ from 1986 with its wordplay, symphonic synthetic strings and Shakuhachi samples coupled to a rousing chorus is actually very charming, despite obviously needing more work.
Born to hand jive, the superb 1985 vintage of ‘Liberator’ sees OMD doing electro rock ‘n’ roll with a rhythmic backbone like a collaboration with BOW WOW WOW! It is certainly better than ‘Maria Gallante’ which was released from the same sessions as a B-side to ‘So In Love’ and beats hands down most of the contents on the eventual 1993 McCluskey steered long player that was actually called ‘Liberator’.
Fully formed songs from ‘The Pacific Age’ era such as ‘Cut Me Down’ and ‘Cajun Moon’ reveal their Fairlighted origins and a mish-mash of styles; the former features an oddball mix of LA DÜSSELDORF and jazz, while the latter showcases a love of PRINCE but oddly sounds like DURAN DURAN offshoot ARCADIA and their ‘Say The Word’, a song that appeared in the film ‘Playing For Keeps’ to which OMD also contributed an early version of ‘We Love You’.
From the musique concrète inspired experiments of the ‘Dazzle Ships’ period, ‘Radio Swiss International’ (affectionately referred to by OMD drummer Mal Holmes as “the ice cream song”) is coldly eerie with drifting synth drones and signal interference alongside the station call sign. Meanwhile of the earliest recordings from 1980, ‘Organ Ditty’ is just that, while ‘Ambient 1’ has the ringing melodic bones of 2013’s ‘Our System’ and the speedy ‘Unused 1’ was probably not developed due to its inherent similarity to the theme from ‘Stanlow’. Fairlight driven demos from the ‘Crush’ and ‘The Pacific Age’ sessions make up the majority of the actual songs on ‘Unreleased Archive Vol1’ and ‘Weekend’ shows potential; on closer scrutiny, it is actually not that dissimilar to ‘Final Song’ from 2013’s ‘English Electric’.
Understandably, not all the material is of such high quality but most of it is at least interesting. The motorik ‘Untitled 2’ from 1981 is undoubtedly a blueprint for ‘Genetic Engineering’, a song that itself influenced by Brian Eno’s ‘China My China’. But the kosmische template is taken further on ‘Guitar Thrash’ from 1982 which sees OMD emulating NEU! in a more blatant manner. Continuing the Brian Eno connection, ‘Violin Piece’ is a 1982 recording of yes, Andy McCluskey trying to master a violin that comes over like an audition for THE PORTSMOUTH SINFONIA.
1990’s ‘American Venus’ from when Humphreys and McCluskey were drifting apart musically sees the front man playing around with vocoder dressing, which is at least closer to what could be considered as sounding more like OMD than the Latin brass-assisted romp of ‘Dynamo Children’ which sees them amusingly mutate into MODERN ROMANCE! Then there’s also the 1990 waltz of ‘Flamenco’ laced with its Spanish and blues guitar samples. The bones of a percussive sketch come with 1984’s ‘Flutey’ before ‘Unreleased Archive Vol1’ closes with ‘Nice Ending’ which does exactly what it says on the tin with a choral typewriter collage constructed in 1981.
The labelling indicates there will be an ‘Unreleased Archive Vol2’ but what could be included on it? There is a Paul Humphreys song entitled ‘Suspicion’ which was discussed in the 1988 fan club newsletter, while McCluskey’s theme for the Danny Boyle directed political drama ‘For The Greater Good’ has yet to receive a formal release. Then there’s ballads such as ‘Kiss Of Death’ and ‘Twins’ which were left off ‘Liberator’ due to their more introspective outlook.
Meanwhile from the same time as they recorded THE XX’s ‘VCR’ in 2010, there is also known to be a cover of ‘Shelter’ in the can as well. Plus there is a synthpop take on ‘If You’re Still In Love With Me’ which was mooted as a single in 1993 but then re-recorded with a string quartet for 1996’s more organic and traditional ‘Universal’ album, plus a slowed-down house number called ‘Resist The Sex Act’.
Add in a superb audio document of the 1983 ‘Dazzle Ships’ live presentation (minus ‘Genetic Engineering’ which OMD got badly wrong on that final night of the tour at Hammersmith Odeon), BBC video material like ‘Top Of the Pops’ appearances and the once only broadcasted ‘ORS’ 1985 concert special from Sheffield City Hall plus the documentary ‘Crush The Movie’, ‘Souvenir’ is a worthy manageable package with a wealth of hard-to-get and unreleased material to satisfy OMD enthusiasts.
Yes, OMD have not merely plonked 13 albums into a boxed set… 😉
The ‘Souvenir’ 5CD + 2DVD deluxe boxed set is released by Universal Music
OMD Souvenir 40th Anniversary 2019 – 2020 European + UK Tour, dates include:
Belfast Ulster Hall (23rd October), Dublin Olympia (24th October), Nottingham Royal Concert Hall (26th October), York Barbican (27th October), Hull Arena (28th October), Gateshead Sage (30th October), Glasgow Royal Concert Hall (31st October), Manchester Apollo (1st November), Sheffield City Hall (3rd November), Liverpool Empire (4th November), Birmingham Symphony Hall (5th November), Leicester De Montford Hall (7th November), Bath Pavilion (8th November), Oxford New Theatre (9th November), Guildford G Live (11th November), Portsmouth Guildhall (12th November), Watford Colosseum (13th November), Cambridge Corn Exchange (15th November), Ipswich Regent (16th November), Bexhill De La Warr Pavilion (17th November), Bournemouth Pavilion (19th November), London Hammersmith Apollo (20th November), Rostock Stadthalle (25th November), Dresden Kulturpalast (26th November), Leipzig Haus Auensee (28th November), Berlin Tempodrom (29th November), Hamburg Grosse Freiheit 36 (30th November), Saarbrücken Saarlandhalle (2nd December), Stuttgart Leiderhalle (3rd December), Düsseldorf Mitsubishi Electric-Halle (5th December), Frankfurt Jahrhunderthalle (6th December), Krakow Studio (3rd February), Warsaw Progresja (4th February), Oslo Rockefeller Musichall (7th February), Stockholm Berns (9th February), Malmo KB (10th February), Copenhagen Vega (12th February), Brussels Ancienne Belgique (14th February), Utrecht Tivoli (15th February), Paris La Cigale (16th February)
Synth superduo FADER have followed up their 2017 debut album ‘First Light’ with a collection of slightly more minimal introspective songs appropriately entitled ‘In Shadow’.
Delicate in disposition, darker and moodier overtones exude with the spectre of insomnia a dominant factor.
Allowing more time for deeper thinking and worry, Neil Arthur’s lyrics play with the disturbed consciousness, while from his Memetune Studios in the Cornwall countryside, Benge concocts a minimal underground aesthetic to surround it.
With the frantic powertrain of ‘Always Suited Blue’ and its obvious state of the nation commentary, all appears business as usual for FADER but it’s something of a red herring. The phrase “the psycho in you, in me” is anger fuelled by a dislike of politicians, particularly the worldwide rise of the right wing.
Although upper mid-tempo, ‘Midnight Caller’ with its primitive drum machine is quite minimal, naturally nocturnal in air, sombre in its bass structure. Taking a steadier stuttering pace, ‘What Did It Say’ also follows the minimal path, with Arthur deep in thought, asking lots of questions and seeking lots of answers.
The solemn ‘Youth On A Wall’ with an electronic processed vocal template asking “why is everyone sick on TV?” features some fabulous buzzing reverberant synths which act as an appropriate backdrop to whatever is “fading from our view”. Taking to 6/8 time, ‘Whispering’ is stark and stripped with Arthur doing as it says on the tin, accompanied by haunting sweeps of synths.
With an ‘Aspirational’ lift, the second half screeches to life with wobbly squelches and dystopian counterpoints providing a Cold Wave air reminiscent of Eric Random and John Foxx. ‘Enemy Fighter’ diverts to a bit of drum n bass, even sounding hand played for a looser feel while swathed in mysterious electronic voice treatments. But the mood subsides on ‘Mindsweeper’ and the ‘In Shadow’ title track with sparing guitar appearing on the latter.
With a hypnotic arpeggio, ‘Every Page’ alters the palette and adopts some subtle metallic rattles next to sharp Klingklang percussion blips, but is very bare in its exquisite presentation, haunted by a recurring ghostly chant of “No1”. Closing with the pressure drop of ‘Reporting’, Arthur displays a total air of resignation like the aural equivalent of The Bends.
A by-product of the gloomy world that we currently live in, ‘In Shadow’ reflects an understated anger that will be seen by future generations as a time capsule capturing one of the most bizarre periods in modern British history, a time when the working classes backed disaster capitalists like turkeys voting for Christmas…
One of the definitions of ‘Obverse’ is “the opposite or counterpart of a fact or truth” and it is this intriguing title that heralds the arrival of the fifth studio album by Danish composer / producer Anders Trentemøller.
‘Cold Comfort’ which opens ‘Obverse’ is an epic languid downtempo piece which perpetuates TRENTEMØLLER’s obsession with the sound of UK post-punk; although this time there are major echoes of COCTEAU TWINS with SLOWDIVE vocalist Rachel Goswell’s ethereal vocals drifting Liz Fraser-like over a backing track which is heavily inspired by the Scottish trio.
Also present, as with much of TRENTEMØLLER’s work, is the grey spectre of ‘Faith’-era THE CURE with the intro owing a debt to ‘All Cats Are Grey’; a dynamic chorus shift with abrasive fuzz guitar stops the piece becoming a parody though. The last and frankly superfluous two minutes of the track go into waltz time and the piece dissolves into more of a soundscape than a song…
‘Church of Trees’ is an all-electronic instrumental which although pleasant enough, feels more like an interlude piece rather than something which should occupy the second track of an album and as such ends up being a momentum killer. ‘In The Garden’ features more vocals, this time from Lina Tullgren and placed over another sound-a-like backing track of THE CURE.
‘Foggy Figures’ is another instrumental, starting off ambient in nature with floaty chorused guitar and splashy ride cymbals before transforming into a breakbeat that is almost drum ‘n’ bass inspired for the piece’s final two minutes. The track is beautifully produced, but like the album opener, struggles to sustain interest over its seven plus minute length.
‘Blue September’ is less predictable in nature and not so in awe of the post-punk aesthetic. Frustratingly instead of bringing back Lisbet Fritze’s beautiful vocals, the track’s final two minutes go off on another synth excursion which again is functional enough, but wastes the song’s full potential.
There is another Lisbet Fritze collaboration here ‘One Last Kiss to Remember’ which raises the tempo a fraction and provides some welcome variety; along with ‘Blue September’, it’s one of the stronger pieces here if only because it’s shorter, more memorable and less self-indulgent.
‘Try a Little’ is the closest to a pop single on ‘Obverse’, it’s to the point, has a catchy chorus and is counterpointed by a Hooky-style melodic bass guitar line. To be honest, it’s the only track here that is melodically strong enough to stay with you after the album has finished. Outro ‘Giants’ ends ‘Obverse’ (unsurprisingly) in a gloomy fashion; a combination of the Mellotron experimentation of OMD’s ‘Architecture & Morality’ and Ennio Morricone’s score to John Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’.
The main problem with ‘Obverse’ is the lack of killer songwriting, without wanting to second-guess the gestation process of the album, it sounds like the backing tracks were created in advance and then the vocalists drafted in to vibe over the top. This can work well, but adversely it can mean that the song’s core can be woefully lacking, once stripped of all the production sheen and effects.
As ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK previously observed with TRENTEMØLLER’s previous work ‘Fixion’, the producer still remains in awe of his influences, to the point where once the post-punk guitars are removed, there is nothing here that provides any kind of original or signature sound.
It is immaculately produced and mixed, but at its very core is an emptiness and lack of originality or emotion which means that the listener isn’t compelled to return to ‘Obverse’ after a cursory listen.
‘Obverse’ is released by In My Room in the usual formats
This is the story of the classically trained German chanteuse who moved to Scandinavia and found success in a Danish girl group.
And when she made the move into creating something solo, she became inspired and sought the help of a Norwegian who lived in Berlin. Copenhagen resident Greta Louise Schenk found wider fame in her adopted home as a member of IDA RED.
But with her FARAO produced debut EP ‘Ardent Spring – Part I’, she has entered the dreamy synthpop universe also occupied by her Norsk collaborator where her angelic vocal tones can shimmer and shine.
Inspired by seasonal changes, Schenk said: “Spring to me is often where I take my time to think and where my head is filled with chaos and new ideas bloom. Especially the spring in Berlin and Copenhagen has inspired me – the very contrast between nature (which is constantly changing) and hard concrete (which pretty much remains as it is).”
Opening with the gorgeously wispy air of ’Spin’, the magnetic allure of Chinese singer FIFI RONG also looms. Meanwhile the filmic ‘Ardent Spring’ title song captures the delightful oddness and crystalline soundscapes of IONNALEE, although with a looser rhythmic backbone and in a more understated manner.
‘Bad Lovers’ plays with aspects of synthwave with electronic percussion and guitar making their presence felt, but the eerie choir sounds and layered voices keep proceedings distinctly Nordic, something not totally unsurprising with FARAO at the helm.
However ‘White’ pierces in a more sinister manner and counterpoints the dreamier trio of tunes that comprise the first half. With its chromatic overtones, hypnotic arpeggio and lightly swung rhythmic backbone, played by a loud rock band, this could be MUSE.
Driven by a subtle Motorik beat, the uptempo swirl of ‘Baby’ is fabulously cosmic pop that recalls ANI GLASS, another independently minded synth songstress with a girl group past. Closing with ‘Wilderness’, it beautifully captures the emotions of regret and turmoil while maintaining hopes and dreams, with Schenk expressing darkness and light in equal measures.
Kitsch, cool, weird and ethereal, this is an impressive debut body of work by GRETA; if this is what ‘Ardent Spring – Part I’ has to offer, then there is much to look forward to with ‘Ardent Spring – Part II’.
, a lavish deluxe boxed set containing 5CDs, 2 DVDs, a hardback book, a fold-out poster and a set of quality 10 inch silver-on-black art card reproductions of sleeves such as ‘Electricity’ and ‘Telegraph’.
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is released by Blanc Check Records on 25th October 2019 as a CD and download, pre-order from 
is the lack of killer songwriting, without wanting to second-guess the gestation process of the album, it sounds like the backing tracks were created in advance and then the vocalists drafted in to vibe over the top. This can work well, but adversely it can mean that the song’s core can be woefully lacking, once stripped of all the production sheen and effects.
, the producer still remains in awe of his influences, to the point where once the post-punk guitars are removed, there is nothing here that provides any kind of original or signature sound.
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