Tag: Blancmange (Page 10 of 16)

A Short Conversation with BLANCMANGE

12 September 2017 /

To say that Neil Arthur is in the most prolific stage of his career would be an understatement.

Since BLANCMANGE returned in 2011 with ‘Blanc Burn’, there have been a further three long players ranging from the dark pop of ‘Semi Detached’ and the beautiful instrumentals of ‘Nil By Mouth’ to the raw minimal experimentation of ‘Commuter 23’. And this is without the recent retrospective box set ‘The Blanc Tapes’ and Arthur’s side projects as FADER with Benge and NEAR FUTURE with Jez Bernholz.

September 2017 sees the arrival of the eighth BLANCMANGE long player ‘Unfurnished Rooms’; co-produced by Benge and featuring contributions from renowned guitarist David Rhodes and the towering figure of John Grant, ‘Unfurnished Rooms’ is loosely based around the theme of feeling of being lost in a dream. As Arthur sings on the title track “no amount of online shopping will cover for the loss”.

Neil Arthur kindly spoke to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about ‘Unfurnished Rooms’, working with John Grant and his thoughts on the new LCD SOUNDSYSTEM album…

The ‘Unfurnished Rooms’ title song is a great opener, is that a metaphor for this world of joyless hedonism that society appears to be living in?

You know what I’m like, I prefer there to be less explanation as to what the lyrics may allude to, so that it leaves ambiguity. It would be like if I was a film maker, before you sat down and watched it, I told you what happened at the end! *laughs*

I like people to make their own minds up and obviously, we are all able to observe what’s happening around us, but some of the stuff that goes on in your head, only you know about and it can take you a long time to fathom that out! So it’s not just a metaphor, the idea of unfurnished rooms can mean unfinished work or a journey as well.

I noticed there are what appear to be Linn LM1 drum sounds on ‘Unfurnished Rooms’, how do you go about constructing a track these days?

This album, I worked on a laptop… I write on guitar or synths and put everything onto either Logic or Ableton, it was sort of half and half. I used a variety of VSTs and a few old synths to make my noises and plus some guitar. I was fortunate enough to work with Benge over the last couple of years including the FADER album and we thought it would be a really good idea for Benge to replace the VST sounds on the drum parts and rhythm sections with the real thing or analogue synth sounds.

Benge has got the real equipment and not only is he a fantastic programmer, engineer and producer, but he’s also a good drummer… he played it all in so there’s a bit of movement there too. But there’s still VSTs on there and my guitar as well as David Rhodes, who’s done much better guitar than I can manage.

So where does FADER end and BLANCMANGE begin, what are the rules of engagement?

They are very different beasts despite both of us being involved. For example, the FADER album ‘First Light’ started with Benge sending me backing tracks and I responded by adding vocals and a few melody lines; after a few exchanges, we then got together in the studio to mix it.

With BLANCMANGE, I write the music and record most of the parts. But in this case, I took the album to Benge and we took it apart to replace the VST rhythms with the real deal and mixed it, so there’s a fundamental difference.

‘Anna Dine’, what a brilliant title, what inspired the wordplay and the song?

I’ve always enjoyed a bit of wordplay. In the first line, I’m finding space in between the normal things to write about *laughs*

Everybody, no matter who they are, those months which take up quite a bit of their time, all those bits joined together for me make a kind of existence. I’m very interested in that mundane aspect of those insubstantial moments, because if there wasn’t a space, there would be nothing to hold us all together.

‘Gratitude’ unleashes some aggression…

I had this groove going that I thought was a bit like ‘Honky Tonk Women! So I was mincing around thinking I was Mick Jagger! *laughs*

I remembered seeing LCD SOUNDSYSTEM on TV and James Murphy was bashing away on this cowbell and it really made me laugh, I thought “there aren’t enough cowbells in songs”; so I had this cowbell thing going! So in all the darkness that can be going on with BLANCMANGE, I was having fun with this music.

This idea of a few simple lines came together about how I was feeling about things and it just came out. If people need a reference, it’s a bit like how I feel when I sing ‘I Can’t Explain’, sometimes it’s good to get it out of your system.

And on the other side of the coin, there’s the sedate Eno-esque ‘In December’…

I don’t sleep well so if I can’t, I get up and do something like write. It was absolutely pouring it down outside although it wasn’t particularly cold, so I opened the doors and recorded the sound of this rain and I just started thinking about the seasons passing.

In terms of it sounding Eno-esque, there’s no intention but thinking about the stuff we did on ‘Irene & Mavis’, you end up trying to fit in somewhere and one of the big influences was ENO & CLUSTER without a doubt, as well as things off ‘Another Green World’ and ‘Evening Star’ with Fripp… when David Rhodes came along to do some guitar, he wanted to try some E-Bow over the top.

It was a feeling I had, lines like “January, don’t p*ss me off, you’re just a June in a mask”, I’m having a bit of fun with the lyrics because the depths of winter can be quite difficult to deal with for some people, I just wanted to write about it.

How did John Grant end up on ‘Don’t Get Me Wrong’?

It was through my manager Steve Malins, he manages WRANGLER and they were doing some stuff with John to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Rough Trade at The Barbican. Steve got talking to John who asked who else he looked after and Steve mentioned BLANCMANGE… it turned out John was a big fan and really knew his stuff.

John’s got such a fantastic voice and great songs so when I heard about this, I thought “I wonder…”, so Steve passed this song ‘Don’t Get Me Wrong’ onto him and John said it would be an honour, which was flabbergasting to me! He did this piano part and sang along with the chorus with this beautiful backing, so it was an absolute delight when I got it back.

I love the line in ‘Don’t Get Me Wrong’ that goes “you look so well… in your online profile”… what’s your take on using the web now for music promotion, but also how it practically rules people’s lives?

How long can you keep your phone in your pocket for? *laughs*

This might answer your question; we were playing in Leeds with HEAVEN 17 and I came on stage. A lot of people were there which was great, but quite a few were watching us through their screen, these little screens! I just said “Watch us”, not in a conceited way, “Don’t watch that! I mean hold it there but don’t look at it”! I’m not immune cos I fall foul of it as well, the problem is that phones are now capable of so much, I write and record lyrics on it, I use it was a torch… I wish in a way I just had a phone that you could just call or text.

But we’re in this post-modern world and it’s quite interesting how social media works. It’s a fantastic way of communicating with people who are interested in your music or finding out about other types of music. But because everything’s accessible immediately, everybody’s got contact… so for example, if you bought a record in the 1970s-1980s, what would you do if there was something wrong with it?

…I’d take it back to the shop!

Ok, so you’d take it back to the shop… so somebody buys a record now, and I think this is quite funny, I get people contacting me! I think it’s lovely and most people know I enjoy a chat and online, I answer a lot of the stuff.

So you get someone going “I bought this off Amazon and two CDs are damaged”… I mean, I’m sorry that they are, but I thought for a moment, and I’m not saying I’m comparing myself to him… could you imagine in the ‘70s if I’d had bought Brian Eno’s album and I contacted him to say my record’s scratched?? *laughs*

But this is the modern world isn’t it? Everyone is contactable and 99% of it is fantastic, and that comment did tickle me.

BLANCMANGE are out on tour this Autumn. Now you’ve been back a few years, have you a photo-fit of today’s BLANCMANGE fan and have worked out a live set that can keep you and the audience happy?

I could to a certain extent, what I noticed on the last tour particularly was the audience is changing in that there’s a younger element, whereas when we restarted, it was people who had seen us first time round. We’ve still got those people thankfully and there are inquisitive people from a different generation who are interested in electronic music.

As for keeping people happy, I’m obviously going to promote the new album, but I wouldn’t be doing the new album if it wasn’t for the fact that I’d done all that music with Stephen years ago. So of course, I’d be giving them some blasts from the past. The other thing is since 2011, there’s been more material released than there was first time round. We have a very different audience now and we’re not going to get in the charts, it’s a different world.

I’m not trying to play the game, I’m writing songs that I want to write. Stephen and I did that all those years ago, but we were a lot younger and that’s what we wanted to do. Now what I want to do, I’ve opened the dark door and hopefully, there’s some people who’ll get some pleasure from the stuff that’s old and new. I’ve got to be honest to myself and do what I feel, first and foremost; hopefully, people will come along for the ride.

You have BLANCMANGE, NEAR FUTURE and FADER on the go, plus had the box set and deluxe reissues… how do you manage to juggle so many balls?

Well, I’ve got a very good manager and I think I’m driven. I had the opportunity to work with Benge which was fantastic and I’m looking forward to doing more. We had to work out “how do we finish that and get it released?”, make sure the boxed set was running to schedule and leave a space to get ‘Unfurnished Rooms’ out, so that was time management really. I’m happy when I’m busy. So Jez Bernholz and I have been exchanging files to finish off the NEAR FUTURE album which will be due next year. I’m keen to move forward all the time.

What are your thoughts on the new LCD SOUNDSYSTEM album ‘American Dream’?

I’m a big fan, I’d heard a few songs earlier in the year and was wondering how they were going to fit together in an album and when I heard it in its entirety, I really enjoyed it and thought it was bloody great. It will be on again without a doubt. It’s fantastically referential, it references so much. James Murphy is a very clever man, there’s the Eno connection, the Frippertronics side of things, TALKING HEADS is in there, there’s a bit of everything and he even references himself which is quite remarkable *laughs*

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its sincerest thanks to Neil Arthur

Special thanks to Steve Malins at Random Management

‘Unfurnished Rooms’ is released by Blanc Check on 22nd September 2017 in CD, vinyl and digital formats, pre-order from http://blancmange.tmstor.es/

BLANCMANGE 2017 live dates include:

Brighton Concorde 2 (5th October), London 229 (6th October), Southend Chinnery’s (19th October), Southampton The 1865 (20th October), Darwen Library (25th October), Newcastle Boiler Shop (26th October), Edinburgh La Belle Angele (27th October), Glasgow Audio (28th October), Bristol The Fleece (2nd November), Nottingham Rescue Rooms (4th November)

BLANCMANGE also play ‘The Tour of Synthetic Delights 2’ with HEAVEN 17, dates include:

Sheffield Foundry (10th November), Liverpool Hangar34 (11th November), Hull Welly (17th November), Manchester Academy 2 (18th November), Coventry Copper Rooms (24th November), Norwich Waterfront (25th November)

http://www.blancmange.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/BlancmangeMusic

https://twitter.com/_blancmange_

Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
12th September 2017

BLANCMANGE The Blanc Tapes

3 July 2017 /

Daniel Miller referred to BLANCMANGE affectionately as “the maiden aunts of electronic music”, while Moby considers them “possibly the most under-rated electronic act of all time”.

They came to prominence towards the end of the second generation of Synth Britannia. Their first EP ‘Irene & Mavis’ came out in 1980 before ‘Sad Day’ was chosen by Futurist DJ Stevo for inclusion on his influential ‘Some Bizzare Album’ which also showcased DEPECHE MODE, SOFT CELL, THE THE and B-MOVIE in 1981.

Following support slots with JAPAN and DEPECHE MODE, Neil Arthur and Stephen Luscombe signed to London Records. Releasing their now classic album ‘Happy Families’ in Autumn 1982, it featured their breakthrough hit single ‘Living On The Ceiling’ while ‘I Can’t Explain’ remains one of the most blistering album openers of the era! Fusing the rhythmic dash of TALKING HEADS with the intensity of JOY DIVISION plus the melodic framework of OMD and YAZOO over the top, Arthur and Luscombe won critical admiration and respectable sales for their debut.

On the back of further hit singles in ‘Blind Vision’ and ‘Don’t Tell Me’, the second brilliantly titled long player ‘Mange Tout’ became the duo’s biggest seller in 1984. Having first featured on ‘Living On The Ceiling’, the Indian musicians Pandit Dinesh on tablas and Deepak Khazauchi on sitar were given greater prominence on the album, while another surprise came with their brilliant cover of ABBA’s ‘The Day Before You Came’. This was considered an odd but daring decision at the time. But with ABBA now fully absorbed into mainstream popular culture and the ‘Bollywood’ sound very much part of modern pop, ‘Mange Tout’ could be considered a cultural prophecy…

However, with synthpop now no longer in-vogue, there was a lukewarm reception for the third album ‘Believe You Me’ released in 1985, despite good crossover songs such as ‘Why Don’t They Leave Things Alone?’ and ‘Lorraine’s My Nurse’. This was leading to a blanc burn out and reflected in the electro-funk of ‘22339’ with a proclamation from Arthur that “I feel like I’m losin’ my mind”. Ultimately, it led to Arthur and Luscombe calling it a day in order to protect their friendship following a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 1986.

Edsel Records release the first three BLANCMANGE albums as expanded 3CD editions which are also compiled as a deluxe 9 disc set entitled ‘The Blanc Tapes’. The bonus discs gather together B-sides, BBC radio sessions, live material and previously unreleased demos and it is these that will be of most interest to BLANCMANGE fans. Meanwhile, the horribly unsympathetic liner notes by Alan Robinson that adorned the 2008 Edsel reissues have now been replaced by commentary from Neil Arthur.

From their first John Peel Session included in the deluxe ‘Happy Families’ extras, ‘I Would’ is dark and menacing while ‘Running Thin’ is toned in resignation; both now actually sound more like BLANCMANGE in the 21st Century than anything from the first three London long players. The original downtempo ‘Sad Day’ is also present while the lost demo ‘Melodic Piece’ is a marvellously elegant instrumental that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on ‘Nil By Mouth’, the voxless BLANCMANGE album issued in 2015. Meanwhile, the organ laden ‘Black Bell’ is an enjoyably creepy lo-fi demo, but ‘Holland’ springs a major surprise with some prominent guitar in the vein of THE CARS!

The ‘Mange Tout’ bonuses include a stark electronic demo entitled ‘How Time Became The Tide’ which is nothing like anything on its parent album, thanks to its science fiction vibe. The claustrophobic and psychedelic ‘If You Want To Be Hip’ is also very different but again, points to how BLANCMANGE are now, rather than then.

Photo by Deb Danahay

The number of unreleased demos from the ‘Believe You Me’ sessions circa 1985 indicates how prolific BLANCMANGE had become. Although they were now considered a mainstream pop act, the moodier, spacey experiments inspired by the earlier days of BLANCMANGE continued with recordings such as ‘A Remedial Course’, another instrumental that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on ‘Nil By Mouth’.

But on the other side of the coin and revealing some of Neil Arthur’s crooner tastes, there’s a fun ‘Switched On Nashville’ styled cover of ‘Gentle On My Mind’, a Grammy Award winning standard previously recorded by Dean Martin and Glen Campbell. The summery ‘Scream Down The House’ gets rescued from B-side obscurity, but the remaining song demos are perhaps not as enticing as the various instrumentals, although Arthur uses some interesting electronic pitch treatments on his voice for ‘Reach Out’.

As for the live material gathered across the three packages, they quite simply document a band getting bigger and bigger as the venues step up from the little BBC Paris Theatre to Hammersmith Palais to Hammersmith Odeon (where “Bowie killed Ziggy”) in the space of less than three and a half years!

Whether you really need seven versions of ‘Blind Vision’ or six of ‘Feel Me’ is debatable, although the Martyn Ware produced demo of the former captures the rather sombre origins of what was to become a dancefloor smash. Whatever your view, they’re all here and nothing compared to the twelve takes of ‘Promised You A Miracle’ that came with the deluxe edition ‘New Gold Dream’ put out by SIMPLE MINDS!

As its predecessors ‘Blanc Burn’, ‘Semi Detached’, Nil By Mouth’ and ‘Commuter 23’ have indicated, the soon-to-be released ‘Unfurnished Rooms’ continues BLANCMANGE’s exploration into the darker themes and colder sounds that signify a return to the art school roots of their original demos unveiled on ‘The Blanc Tapes’. While Stephen Luscombe has been unable to be involved since ‘Blanc Burn’ due to ill health, Neil Arthur continues to fly the flag.

It’s interesting to think that the 21st Century incarnation of BLANCMANGE has now produced more albums than the original one. And that is something to celebrate… a pint of curry anyone?

With thanks to Steve Malins at Random Music Management

‘The Blanc Tapes’ is released by Edsel Records, while ‘Happy Families’, ‘Mange Tout’ and ‘Believe You Me’ are each available as separate 3CD deluxe editions from 4th August 2017. Pre-order via the Official Blancmange Store at https://blancmange.tmstor.es/cart/product.php?id=33045

The new album ‘Unfurnished Rooms’ is released by Blanc Check on 22nd September 2017

BLANCMANGE 2017 live dates include:

Brighton Concorde 2 (5th October), London 229 (6th October), Southend Chinnery’s (19th October), Southampton The 1865 (20th October), Darwen Library (25th October), Newcastle Boiler Shop (26th October), Edinburgh La Belle Angele (27th October), Glasgow Audio (28th October), Bristol The Fleece (2nd November), Nottingham Rescue Rooms (4th November)

BLANCMANGE also play ‘The Tour of Synthetic Delights 2’ with HEAVEN 17, dates include:

Sheffield Foundry (10th November), Liverpool Hangar34 (11th November), Hull Welly (17th November), Manchester Academy 2 (18th November), Coventry Copper Rooms (24th November), Norwich Waterfront (25th November)

http://www.blancmange.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/BlancmangeMusic

https://twitter.com/_blancmange_

Text by Chi Ming Lai
3rd July 2017

FADER Interview

10 June 2017 /


FADER is a new collaboration between Neil Arthur of BLANCMANGE and Benge, best known for his synth work with WRANGLER and JOHN FOXX & THE MATHS.

The FADER album ‘First Light’ showcases the strengths of both involved, whilst evoking a purist analogue electronic sound that harks back to the first wave of Synth Britannia when acts like THE NORMAL brought technology into the punk ethos.

Neil Arthur and Benge kindly spoke to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about their methods of collaborating, influences and threw in a bit of tech talk along the way.

How, when and why did you both hook up together musically?

Neil: We were introduced to each other by our manager Steve Malins. I’d heard Benge’s work with WRANGLER, JOHN FOXX and his own work. Steve mentioned Benge had some ideas he’d put together initially while he was out in LA. He started sending over the tracks and I started writing lyrics. I quite liked the idea of receiving all this info, having only met Benge once briefly.

Benge: Yes I had decided to move to LA for a few months and set up a little studio there. I rented out my studio in London to some friends and with the proceeds I rented a small space up in the hills, got onto eBay to buy a few choice pieces of analogue gear, and spent every day writing tracks. Some I put out myself and some got used with WRANGLER, but I had a whole bunch of tracks that fitted together as a body of work, but it lacked something… that’s where Neil casually stepped in!!!

Did you have a shared musical manifesto for the album before starting?

Benge: Originally when I was writing in LA, I had a sound in my head I was trying to get out. It was inspired by the edgy city-type sounds of some of my favourite films such as ‘To Live & Die In LA’, ‘Assault On Precinct 13’ etc. There is a weird undercurrent in that place that got under my skin. Also living in a new city on your own is a strange experience and I think some of that came out in the backing tracks too. I think Neil’s lyrics picked up on these things without us really discussing them. I am very happy with the result.

Neil: No. Well maybe an unspoken one – all instruments must be analogue. That extended as far as possible to the artwork design. Once we came up with a design, Benge wanted the type to be set from the typewriter he owns. It took a while but we got there.

 

The press biog that accompanies ‘First Light’ suggests that you mainly worked separately on the album, was that the case and how did that pan out?

Neil: Yes, Steve sent the files he’d received from Benge. I in turn sent my efforts back via Steve. I think it worked well, in terms of getting the album finished, fitting in other commitments etc.

‘Check The Power’ is a haunting tale about OCD, is this subject matter that is close to home for either of you?

Neil: Yes, it’s happening now. There was a time when aspects of OCD controlled my life. Not just my life but those around me too sadly.

The trusty Linn Drum makes a welcome reappearance on ‘Check The Power’, is there a certain amount of nostalgia attached to this device for you now?

Neil: The Linn Drum is there because Benge chose to use it. I like the Linn and use it on my own work, it doesn’t really carry nostalgia though, that is unless I get misty eyed and wistful.

MemeTune studio has such a large collection of synthesizers and drum machines, how do you go about choosing which ones to use on certain tracks?

Benge: When Neil started sending over his vocal ideas, I was very excited because I could hear how far he was taking the tracks, into this new place that I could not have imagined. At that stage we started adding a few synth parts and rhythmic developments, and worked on the arrangements. We tried to keep the new parts simple to fit with the idea of this weird edginess that had developed.

Neil, did you ever at any point get studio envy about Benge’s synth armoury?

Neil: I was running around like a child in a sweet shop, unable to take it all in and honestly, there wasn’t time to absorb everything. The emphasis was on getting the mixes done, so we could get down the pub. I hope to return, to his studio and the pub!

Benge, was your approach to working with Neil different to (say) JOHN FOXX and if so, in what way?

Benge: I do tend to work in a similar way with people I collaborate with, in the sense that I like to have some fairly strong frameworks for tracks to start with. One problem with having a lot of options available in the studio is knowing where to start a piece. If there isn’t a strong backbone to work around, you can end up spending hours going round in circles. Although it’s still fun going round in circles sometimes.

Photo by Ed Fielding

In comparison with your work with WRANGLER or JOHN FOXX & THE MATHS, FADER sounds much more musically upbeat and melodic, was this a refreshing approach to take?

Benge: We tried to keep the tracks as simple as possible and I think this helps the album sound fresh. We also wanted the album design and artwork to keep true to a fairly minimalist approach.

There’s a strong undercurrent of THE HUMAN LEAGUE Mk1 running through this album, if you could choose a Desert Island Disc track from them, what would it be and why?

Neil: ‘Being Boiled’. I saw their first show in London and was immediately hooked. The Fast EP is wonderful. Although the song that I used to look forward to them performing was ‘You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling’. Mr. Ware has quite a voice!

‘3D Carpets’ sounds a bit like if ‘Faith’-era THE CURE had ditched guitars altogether, what are your viewpoints on mixing guitars with electronics?

Neil: It wasn’t even considered with FADER. With BLANCMANGE, it’s there just like any other instrument, if it fits and serves the purpose I’d use it.

With ‘First Light’, do you feel that you’ve almost arrived full circle with the sound that you started on the first BLANCMANGE ‘Irene and Mavis’ material?

Neil: No, this is more sophisticated technically, where ‘Irene and Mavis’ is really lo-fi and DIY. There’s not a synth to be seen or heard on that EP. The nearest we got was the rhythm unit on ‘Outro’, when we borrowed Mark Cox of MASS and REMA REMA’s unit. I think it was a Roland Rhythm Arranger TR66. The rest was home found or made instruments, a cheap guitar, an organ and echo unit.

Is there any point when the seed of an idea comes to either of you where you think “Oh, this will be great for…” or are you always focussed on the project in hand?

Neil: Lyrics sometimes come along that end up in a pile marked “use somewhere else”. In general, I reacted to what Benge was sending me, although a few like ‘Liverpool Brick’ were written prior to hearing the music.

Benge: I definitely put tracks aside and save them up in categories and compilations – that’s just how this album came about, except I didn’t know at the time that Neil would be working on them too!

BLANCMANGE have been occasionally well known for their covers for ABBA through to CAN and CHIC, were you not tempted to include an electronic re-interpretation on ‘First Light’?

Neil: No, that wasn’t going to happen from my point of view. I was very happy to work on the ideas Benge sent over to me.

Can we expect future collaborations between you both and will there be any live shows to back up the release?

Neil: We did mention a FADER 2 album in conversation. Live shows, no.

Your album opener ‘3D Carpets’ was inspired by Hunter S. Thompson’s ‘Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas’. TEC has it from reliable sources that Johnny Depp spent $3 million firing Thompson’s ashes out of a cannon perched 153 feet on top of a hill! Do either of you have an exotic request that could match this once you’ve both shuffled off this mortal coil?

Neil: Something pretty much like that, but from lower down, if Mr Depp is ok with it.

Benge: I wonder if Mr Depp can write that off against tax?

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its sincerest thanks to Neil Arthur and Benge

Special thanks to Steve Malins at Random Music Management

‘First Light’ is released as a CD and download by Blanc Check Records on CD, vinyl LP and download on 23rd June 2017, pre-order from https://fader.tmstor.es/

https://www.facebook.com/WeAreFader/

https://twitter.com/WeAre_Fader

Text and Interview by Paul Boddy
10th June 2017

FADER First Light

31 May 2017 /

‘First Light’ is the debut album from FADER a synth superduo (if you will) featuring Neil Arthur from BLANCMANGE and Benge, best known for his work with WRANGLER and JOHN FOXX & THE MATHS.

The obvious thing to do here is to compare ‘First Light’ with the last couple of WRANGLER albums and Benge’s work with John Foxx. What strikes immediately is that with Neil Arthur on board, this is a much softer and more melodic sound. Opening track ‘3D Carpets’ (inspired by Hunter S. Thompson’s ‘Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas’) evokes the early sound of THE CURE around the ‘Faith’ period, where analogue synths slowly started to permeate into the Crawley band’s sound.

Unsurprisingly there are no real drums here though, but there is something in the sound of ‘First Light’ that has an independent post-punk feel to it – JOY DIVISION can be heard in places too. At first glance, ‘Check The Power’ seems like a PUBLIC ENEMY-inspired title, but the lyrics soon reveal itself as a song written from the perspective of an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder sufferer. The musical soundbed is beautifully melodic, all interlocking monosynths and an LFO filtered bassline.

The repetition in Arthur’s lyric perfectly mirror the compulsive necessity to re-check the seemingly mundane objects in a house before leaving it, the door (is it locked?), the power (is it off?) etc. The use of the Linn Drum (which became iconic on THE HUMAN LEAGUE’s ‘Dare’ and early BLANCMANGE releases) helps gives ‘Check the Power’ its synthpop heritage which works perfectly here.

Whereas John Foxx and Stephen Mallinder’s vocals with Benge’s other projects are both deliberately dystopian and detached, Arthur’s here are refreshingly human and display a beautiful sensitivity and fragility.

The closest comparison would be with the YAZOO albums, arguably the first time that vocals with real emotion had been combined with cold electronics. ‘I Prefer Solitude’ is a case in point; centred around cyclical ‘Autobahn’ era KRAFTWERK monosynths, the song’s lyric “I’ve never been lonely, I prefer solitude” perfectly create the mental picture of someone that is quite happy with their own company and shuns socialising… possibly a metaphor for some synth players? Who knows?

Title track ‘First Light’ is a driving / pulsing song with the pitch-shifted echoed vocal sound that Robert Smith favoured on ‘Pornography’, maybe not as melodic as its predecessors, but still with enough subtle hooks to bear up to repeated listens.

Both ‘Liverpool Brick’ and ‘Launderette’ are drum-less tracks based around haunting synth parts, again displaying a human side to counterpoint the electronics featured throughout.

‘Guilt, Doubt & Fear’ is built around a hypnotic rhythmic bed which recalls ‘Warm Leatherette’; its three note descending synth part is pared down to an absolute minimum and provides a perfect backing for the song’s more improvised ARP Odyssey-sounding lead. At only 2 minutes 45 seconds, the song leaves you wanting more which can only be a good sign…

This is undeniably one of the strongest albums that Benge has featured on in recent years; the combination of Arthur’s kitchen sink drama vocals with a cold, but melodic synth underscore has created (in places) something truly magical.

There are plenty of stand-out tracks to revisit here and fans of synthpop will find much to adore. The only criticism that could be levelled is the lo-fi vocal production doesn’t always do Arthur’s vocals utmost justice, but for those seeking a sound which harks back to that of Daniel Miller’s THE NORMAL and the first incarnation of THE HUMAN LEAGUE, this is hard to beat.

‘First Light’ is released by Blanc Check Records on 23rd June 2017 in CD, vinyl LP and download formats, pre-order from https://fader.tmstor.es/

https://www.facebook.com/WeAreFader

https://twitter.com/WeAre_Fader

Text by Paul Boddy
31st May 2017

25 FAVOURITE SYNTH INSTRUMENTALS Of The 21ST CENTURY

25 April 2017 /

Today, electronic instrumental music is everywhere, but often in the form of tedious dance tracks with no tunes all over Beatport and social media.

Luckily, there are still exponents of the classic synth instrumental, and thanks to the rise of the Synthwave sub-genre, there is currently a sympathetic environment for more esoteric and melodic musical offerings. The key to a good instrumental is it either has to be very melodic to make up for the lack of vocals or very unobtrusive so that while the music is interesting enough to be listened to, it can also be ignored. Thus a Eurorack modular tutorial cannot credibly count as a valid release… 😉

As a follow-up to TEC’s 25 SYNTH INSTRUMENTALS Of The CLASSIC ERA, with a limit of one track per artist, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK presents its 25 FAVOURITE SYNTH INSTRUMENTALS Of The 21ST CENTURY in chronological and then alphabetical order…

SYSTEM F Insolation (2000)

While Dutch producer Ferry Corsten hit paydirt with international club hits such as ‘Out Of The Blue’ and ‘Cry’ as SYSTEM F, the debut album pointed towards the Trance’s link to electronic pop. As well as a brilliant collaboration with Marc Almond entitled ‘Soul On Soul’, the long player included the beautifully majestic classic instrumental ‘Insolation’ which took a breather from the usual four-to-the floor format.

Available on the album ‘Out Of The Blue’ via Premier

http://www.ferrycorsten.com/

PPK ResuRection – Perfecto Edit (2001)

PPK were a Russian trance duo comprising of  Sergei Pimenov and Alexander Polyakov. The original melody of ‘ResuRection’ came from Eduard Artemyev’s synthesized theme from the epic 1979 Soviet movie ‘Siberiade’ which won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. Easily mistaken for Jean-Michel Jarre, the thrusting seven minute ‘Perfecto Edit’ in particular was like an exuberant rocket launch set to music.

Originally released by Perfecto Records, currently unavailable

http://promodj.com/ppk

LADYTRON Turn It On (2002)

With a piercing synthphonic riff, scat vocoder, robotic bass and a rigid programmed beat, ‘Turn It On’ saw LADYTRON take a bleep forward with an attempt at a KRAFTWERK track for the 21st Century via Liverpool, Glasgow and Sofia. But as it headed towards its final third, it detoured back to Liverpool and turned into ‘Electricity’ in a cheeky homage to Merseyside’s original electronic trailblazers OMD.

Available on the album ‘Light & Magic’ via Telstar

http://www.ladytron.com/

FROST Klong (2003)

A Norwegian electronic duo consisting of Aggie Peterson and Per Martinsen, FROST released their second album ‘Melodica’ to a positive response, thanks to some production assistance by RÖYKSOPP on two tracks. The beautiful Arctic serenity of ‘Klong’ featuring local trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær alongside layers of gorgeous crystalline synths was one of the album’s highlights that easily outdid anything by GROOVE ARMADA and didn’t rely on using samples either.

Available on the album ‘Melodica’ via Frost World Recordings

https://frostnorway.com/

MYLO Emotion 96.8 (2004)

‘Destroy Rock & Roll’ was the debut album by Scottish DJ Myles MacInnes that alongside DAFT PUNK and BASEMENT JAXX, summed up the sample laden dance music that was prevalent at the time. Produced on a computer in his own bedroo, the album’s best track however was the more downtempo, Moby-esque richness of ‘Emotion 96.8’ with its beautiful sweeping synth melodies and unobtrusive rhythm structure.

Available on the album ‘Destroy Rock & Roll’ via Breastfed

http://www.mylo.tv/

ORBITAL Pants (2004)

With a hypnotic Motorik rhythm, pulsating bleeps and spacey whirs driving a moodier template along the lines of cult German experimentalists EMAK, Phil and Paul Hartnoll continued their primarily instrumental template on their ‘Blue Album’, although SPARKS contributed vocals to a totally unrelated track called ‘Acid Pants’. The brothers split shortly after the long player’s release, but returned in 2009 to play The Big Chill Festival.

Available on the album ‘Blue Album’ via Orbital Music

http://orbitalofficial.com/

MOBY Homeward Angel (2005)

From ‘Hymn’ to ‘First Cool Hive’ to ‘A Seated Night’, the man born Richard Melville Hall is a master of the instrumental. The solemn ‘Homeward Angel’ closed Moby’s sample-less song-based ‘Hotel’ album with a solemn yet uplifting slice of mood music that was incongruous with the main act. Since leaving Mute in 2008, his more recent self-released albums such as ‘Destroyed’ and ‘Innocents’ have displayed this more esoteric quality.

Available on the album ‘Hotel’ via Mute Records

http://moby.com/

RÖYKSOPP Alpha Male (2005)

A ten minute instrumental epic, ‘Alpha Male’ came from RÖYKSOPP’s under rated second long player, a collection of music that saw Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland moving away from the chill-out climes of ‘Melody AM’ into much darker sonic territory. The track’s lengthy ambient intro was interrupted by a mighty metronomic beat and the sort of progressive synth overtures that would have made Jean-Michel Jarre proud.

Available on the album ‘The Understanding’ via Wall Of Sound Records

http://royksopp.com/

JOHN FOXX Kurfurstdendam (2006)

Since his musical return in 1997 with ‘Shifting City’, John Foxx has practically had albums coming out of his ears in song-based, ambient and soundtrack formats, both solo and in collaboration with other artists. The spacey mechanical Schaffel of ‘Kurfurstdendam’ came from an imaginary soundtrack he called ‘Tiny Colour Movies’, inspired by a friend’s birthday screening of a private film collection comprising of random surveillance clips and offcuts from Hollywood.

Available on the album ‘Tiny Colour Movies’ via Metamatic Records

http://www.metamatic.com/

SISTA MANNEN PÅ JORDEN Space-Elevator (2007)

Few acts actually genuinely sound like their name… SISTA MANNEN PÅ JORDEN, which translates as “the last man in space”, is the solo project of Swedish synthpop trailblazer Eddie Bengtsson, he of PAGE and S.P.O.C.K fame. The frantic ‘Space-Elevator’ with its swimmy string synths and Sci-Fi derived melody acted as an effective Moroder-esque interlude on his excellent sixth album ‘Tredje Våningen’ and also featured ‘Allt Är Klart’ which borrowed off the ULTRAVOX instrumental ‘Alles Klar’.

Available on the album ‘Tredje Våningen’ via Energy Rekords

http://www.moonbasealpha.space/

TENEK Ice Fields (2007)

Borrowing the distinctive bassline from SIMPLE MINDS’ 1981 single ‘Love Song’, TENEK put together this lively instrumental for their debut EP. With a modern mechanical groove coupled to their trademark synth rock, the almost funky ‘Ice Fields’ became an early live favourite, although the duo have focussed on more song based adventures for their three albums to date, ‘Stateless’, ‘On The Wire’ and ‘Smoke & Mirrors’.

Available on ‘EP1+’ via https://tenek.bandcamp.com/album/ep1

http://www.tenek.co.uk/

KLEERUP Hero (2008)

In 2007, Andreas Kleerup, producer and one-time drummer for THE MEAT BOYS, undertook his first mainstream collaboration with fellow Swede Robyn. The success of ‘With Every Heartbeat’ led to the recording of his self-titled debut album which featured a number of brilliant instrumentals. ‘Hero’ was its perfect start and with a solid bassline and strong choral timbres, it had the vibe of how OMD might have sounded if they had formed in the 21st Century.

Available on the album ‘Kleerup’ via EMI Music

http://kleerup.net/

DAFT PUNK Tron Legacy – End Titles (2010)

While most of the ‘Tron Legacy’ soundtrack was orchestrated by Joseph Trapanese, DAFT PUNK’s spiky electronics and drum machine were kept in alongside the epic strings for the end titles of the sequel to the 1982 movie ‘Tron’. There were nods to Wendy Carlos who composed the original film score, with Thomas Bangalter focusing on the heroic themes while Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo was more inclined to generating the darker elements.

Available on the soundtrack album ‘Tron Legacy’ via Walt Disney Records

https://www.daftpunk.com/

047 Kanpai! (2011)

Forming in 2001, Swedish duo 047 began their chiptune experiments thought a mutual appreciation of vintage video games. But after their debut long player, Peter Engström and Sebastian Rutgersson began to incorporate melodic song based elements and vocals into their music. The end results led to the impressive second album ‘Elva’, but they celebrated their chiptune influenced roots with the jolly YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA salute of ‘Kanpai!’

Available on the album ‘Elva’ via Killing Music

http://www.047.se/

MARSHEAUX Now & Never (2012)

‘The E-Bay Queen Is Dead’ was collection of rarities from the MARSHEAUX archives. While Marianthi Melitsi and Sophie Sarigiannidou have done a fair number of cover versions in their time, they are not really known for doing instrumentals. But the electro-boppy ‘Now & Never’ was a very promising wordless demo that Vince Clarke would have approved of; as one of his former DEPECHE MODE colleagues once sang: “words are very unnecessary…”

Available on the album ‘The E-Bay Queen Is Dead’ via Undo Records

http://marsheaux.com/

SOFT METALS Hourglass (2012)

Fusing Detroit techno with more European experimental forms, Patricia Hall and Ian Hicks’ second SOFT METALS album ‘Lenses’ featured the fabulous instrumental ‘Hourglass’. As Hall put it: “I really wanted to write lyrics for that one, but was never quite satisfied with what I came up with. I decided it would be better to let that one be an instrumental. I think it holds up on its own. It’s nice to give the listener a chance to interpret its meaning on its own rather than direct them with words”.

Available on the album ‘Lenses’ via Captured Tracks

https://www.facebook.com/SOFTMETALS/

VILE ELECTRODES The future through a lens (2013)

Anais Neon and Martin Swan’s tribute to ‘Assault On Precinct 13’, ‘The future through a lens’ was a moody but booming instrumental that began their excellent debut longer player of the same name, which later netted a Schallewelle Award for ‘Best International Album’ in 2014. With their vast array of analogue synthesizers and exquisite taste for sound textures, it won’t be too surprising if VILE ELECTRODES aren’t offered some soundtrack opportunities in the near future.

Available on the album ‘The future through a lens’ via
https://vileelectrodes.bandcamp.com/album/the-future-through-a-lens

http://www.vileelectrodes.com/

TODD TERJE Delorean Dynamite (2014)

Although making his name within EDM circles, the Norwegian producer born Todd Olsen paid a musical tribute to ‘Back To The Future’ and its futuristic gull-wing doored Delorean DMC-12 car with this suitably driving Synthwave instrumental. Unlike other so-called dance producers, Terje is conversant with electronic music history and possesses a wry sense of humour, as evidenced by the witty wordplay of track titles like ‘Inspector Norse’ and his own DJ moniker.

Available on the album ‘It’s Album Time’ via Olsen Records

http://toddterje.com/

BLANCMANGE Cistern (2015)

After the first phase of BLANCMANGE, Neil Arthur and Stephen Luscombe worked within the TV and film industry, scoring soundtracks and incidental music. Although best known for his voice, Neil Arthur’s instrumentals have been a continual form of expression. The brilliant ‘Cistern’ comes over like an imaginary Bond Theme for a retro-futuristic world. The wordless wonder that is the parent album ‘Nil By Mouth’ is an unsung masterpiece.

Available on the album ‘Nil By Mouth’ via Blanc Check

http://www.blancmange.co.uk

RODNEY CROMWELL Baby Robot (2015)

Adam Cresswell’s sombre vocals and the darker lyrical themes on his debut Rodney Cromwell album ‘Age Of Anxiety’ took a breather with the bright and breezy ‘Baby Robot’. With sweet synthesizer melodies, pretty glints of glockenspiel and a bouncy beatbox, the instrumental was inspired by birth of his son. “Yes, ‘Baby Robot’ is the one track on the album that’s 100% upbeat as it is about the experience of being a father” he gleefully said.

Available on the album ‘Age Of Anxiety’ via https://happyrobotsrecords.bandcamp.com/

http://www.happyrobots.co.uk/

DARKNESS FALLS Thunder Roads (2015)

While Danish duo DARKNESS FALLS are better known for their melancholic Nordic vocals and neo-gothic overtones on songs like ‘The Void’, the dark synthy instrumental ‘Thunder Roads’ proved to be one of the most striking tracks on their second album ‘Dance & Cry’. With a punchy drum machine mantra and menacing reverberant sequence, it was augmented by guitar screeches and sombre six string basslines reminiscent of JOY DIVISION and THE CURE.

Available on the album ‘Dance & Cry’ via Fake Diamond Records

http://darknessfallsmusic.com/

JEAN-MICHEL JARRE & BOYZ NOISE The Time Machine (2015)

Jean-Michel Jarre’s first album for since ‘Teo & Tea’ in 2007 was a two volume opus entitled ‘Electronica’; it features collaborations with a number of synth pioneers and modern day dance artists including BOYZ NOISE aka Berlin DJ Alexander Ridha. This climactic track took on a new life as the set closer on the French synth maestro’s ‘Electronica’ world tour, with a lasered 3D visual feast that required no special glasses! BUT BEWARE OF FLASHING IMAGES! 😉

Available on the album ‘Electronica 1 – The Time Machine’ via Columbia Records

http://jeanmicheljarre.com/

JOHN CARPENTER Utopian Façade (2016)

The horror film king recorded his ‘Lost Themes’ series in collaboration with his son Cody and his godson Daniel Davies as standalone pieces, without the pressure of having to put the music to moving images. The second volume was completed on a tighter schedule to accompany a world concert tour and thus replicated some of the challenging moods in his soundtrack work with tracks like ‘Utopian Façade’ recalling his classic movie soundscapes.

Available on the album ‘Lost Themes II’ via Sacred Bones

http://www.theofficialjohncarpenter.com/

KYLE DIXON & MICHAEL STEIN Stranger Things (2016)

Dixon and Stein are members of the Texan group SURVIVE and their accompanying music to ‘Stranger Things’, a cross between ‘ET’, ‘The Goonies’ and ‘Alien’, sent electronic music fans into online meltdown with its use of vintage analogue synths. With a soundtrack influenced by the horror flicks of Dario Argento and of course John Carpenter, the one minute opening title music to the acclaimed drama series said all that was needed to be said in its brooding dissonant tones.

Available on the soundtrack album ‘Stranger Things – Volume 1’ via Invada Records

https://www.facebook.com/survivesurvive/

TINY MAGNETIC PETS Klangfarben (2016)

As would be expected from a title like ‘Klangfarben’, this vibrant instrumental from Dublin trio TINY MAGNETIC PETS is an enjoyable homage to Germanic music forms, with a loose percussive feel that still maintains that vital degree of Motorik. A word meaning “soundcolour”, it refers to a technique whereby a musical line is split between several instruments, rather than assigning it to just one instrument, thereby adding timbre and texture to proceedings.

Available on the EP ‘The NATO Alphabet EP’ via https://tinymagneticpets.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Tiny-Magnetic-Pets-69597715797/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
25th April 2017

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