Tag: Daniel Miller (Page 1 of 7)

2024 END OF YEAR REVIEW

27 December 2024 /

Image by Simon Helm

Me? Definitely Won’t Be! Join the #SynthResistance

When ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK came into being in March 2010, synth was still on a recovery path and it seemed PET SHOP BOYS were the only act continuing to fly the flag successfully having been awarded the BRIT Award for ‘Outstanding Contribution To Music’ the previous year.

While DEPECHE MODE and SIMPLE MINDS had released albums in 2009, their latest material showed few signs of their imperial phases. BLANCMANGE, NEW ORDER and SOFT CELL had not yet returned, ULTRAVOX were still to release ‘Brilliant’ despite a well-received live return and while THE HUMAN LEAGUE were regulars on the live circuit, they had not issued a new album for 9 years. Meanwhile OMD and DURAN DURAN were in a state of creative flux having released disappointing albums in ‘History Of Modern’ and ‘Red Carpet Massacre’ respectively.

However in 2024, most of these acts are performing to sizeable audiences and while ULTRAVOX may have called it a day in 2013, Midge Ure continues to tour with songs from ‘Vienna’, ‘Rage In Eden’, ‘Quartet’ and ‘Lament’. For these heritage acts, the concert circuit is now very lucrative and a testament to their music still standing up after several decades and most importantly for longevity, appealing to new and younger audiences.

Photo by Chi Ming Lai

But for new synth music generally, particularly in Britain, it appeared to be in decline although these signs had been very apparent over the past few years. One thing that has been significant about ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s 30 SONGS OF 2024 was that on only 4 occasions was there full or part representation from the nation that seeded Synth Britannia… how the mighty have fallen! And when Taylor Swift is doing better electronic pop songs than most, then there’s a real problem!

First time around during 1994 to 1997, Britpop had as good as killed off the synth and with the news of the OASIS live reunion in 2025 grabbing all the headlines, it looks as though history is repeating itself. But everything is cyclical and there was a backlash against guitar bands after the new millennium began. There is hope yet but while a MIRRORS reunion is unlikely any time soon, it takes darkness to appreciate the light so anything is possible 😉

2024 was a year fraught with uncertainty and this was reflected musically. With ongoing political tensions in their homeland and having spoken out against the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, MOLCHAT DOMA relocated from Belarus to Los Angeles. Their excellent fourth album ‘Belaya Polosa’ channelled the anxiety and fear of that journey into exile and literally saw the trio change from sounding like JOY DIVISION to sounding like NEW ORDER. But have they walked from the frying pan into the fryer?

Released back in March before the US Elections, one of the best albums of 2024, ‘Masochist’ by NIGHT CLUB became a dystopian prophecy come true. Emotions were summed up by the inclusion of ‘The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum)’, a cover of the song by FUN BOY THREE. Written as a metaphor to the dangerous posturing games played by “The Cowboy” Ronald Reagan in 1981 during The Cold War, today the even crazier orange face is back followed by his flock of mindless MAGA sheep…

‘If You Tolerate This, Then Your Children Will Be Next’ sang MANIC STREET PREACHERS and more than ever in the UK, it is important to stand against the retarded racist scum getting behind the neo-fascist posturings of that pompous grifter Nigel Farage to cover up for their own life failings. Add in a crackpot billionaire who inherited blood money made during the vile South African Apartheid regime, playing a real life Dr Evil by throwing his cash into the far right and supporting the new Nazis in Germany of the AfD, and the world is in a very precarious position right now. Quoting Midge Ure who recently gave new live renditions of the ironically monikered RICH KIDS’ sadly relevant 1978 anti-Nazi anthem: “NEVER AGAIN DO I WANT TO HEAR THE SOUND OF MARCHING MEN!”

Anglo-German duo KALEIDA experienced an existential crisis due to the pressures of parenting and the shifting patterns of life. But Christina Wood and Cicely Goulder managed to make their long distance creative partnership work again and their reward was their third album ‘In Arms’. As the title suggested, it has been an impassioned battle capturing 3 years of artistic perseverance and reinforced their sense of purpose.

On a more personal level, Anglo-French artist Julia-Sophie delved deeper into the complexities of relationships by exploring themes of self-destruction, tenderness, love and emotional struggles. This is what happens when people ‘forgive too slow’ but swathed in an intriguing electronic sound, her understated fulfilment combined emotional unease with an airy beauty for some satisfying thoughtful listening for another of the best albums of 2024.

Photo by Chi Ming Lai

With the onset of climate change but still those in denial despite the scientific proof, Patricia Wolf conceived ‘The Secret Lives of Birds’. Having recorded various bird songs and calls, curiosity led her to become a conservationist and while her music was very beautiful at times, there were darker moments of angst and sadness driven by concern. Birds and their behaviour have been a creative haven for artists of a more ambient persuasion and Masayoshi Fujita continued his avian fascination on his new work ‘Migratory’.

Loula Yorke presented her new ‘Volta’ and the wonderful opener ‘It’s been decided that if you lay down no-one will die’ acted as a bittersweet meditation on overwhelm, an emotion many were feeling. For Finlay Shakespeare, his creative journey appeared to have taken its emotional toll and ‘Directions Out Of Town’ reflected turbulent times and was touted as possibly his last album. Meanwhile Polish producer ZAMILSKA summed feelings up with the impassioned ‘United Kingdom Of Anxiety’ as another exile from Belarus CHIKISS captured this moment ‘Between Time & Laziness’.

Photo by Thomas Stelzmann

While a new PET SHOP BOYS album was always on the cards and they duly delivered with their fifteenth ‘Nonetheless’, Michael Mertens and Ralf Dörper starting a new chapter of PROPAGANDA was perhaps on not on anyone’s bingo card at the start of 2024. Featuring the sultry vocals of Thunder Bae, PROPAGANDA presented an eponymous long player to signify a fresh start with the closing cover ‘Wenn Ich Mir Was Wünschen Dürfte’ being a key highlight.

There were several key esoteric releases in 2024; Gareth Jones and Daniel Miller released their third volume of ‘Electronic Music Improvisations’ as SUNROOF while Heiko Maile and Julian DeMarre offered ‘Neostalgia’, leaving Jori Hulkkonen with some ‘Hurt Humour’. And like a greeting from wherever he is now in the universe, Klaus Schulze had ‘101, Milky Way’ posthumously released in a continuation of his vast electronic legacy.

In 2024, there were albums released where 90 to 100% of the content comprised of previously released singles; one of those was the debut album by LEATHERS, the side-project of ACTORS keyboardist Shannon Hemmett which explored her love of dark electronic pop. Another was the appropriately titled ‘VII’ by Swedish duo KITE which was their seventh body of work containing music from their seven most recent singles released over the past seven years, gathering the power and the glory of their ambition.

Using a similar strategy,  R. MISSING finally released an album ‘Knife Shook Your Hand’ after years of embracing a scattergun standalone song approach which at times was frustrating to follow, especially with today’s now widely embraced Netflix-led home and mobile entertainment methodology of “binge watching” TV series.

Photo by Volker Maass

CAMOUFLAGE finally took their ‘Rewind To The Future & Goodbye’ tour on the German road with a show look backing on four decades. Meanwhile celebrating 45 years of BLANCMANGE, ‘Everything Is Connected’ was a new career-spanning collection supported by a tour where Neil Arthur supported himself with his collaborative side project THE REMAINDER. Celebrating 25 years of the multi-million selling ‘Play’, Moby delivered a mighty greatest hits set in front of a packed house at London’s O2 Arena as well as highlights from that album.

Midge Ure aired his catalogue of his greatest hits and with so many ULTRAVOX songs part of the set, it was difficult not to think of his departed bandmate Chris Cross who passed away this year. Another sad loss in 2024 who had connections to ULTRAVOX and their former leader John Foxx was the iconic photographer Brian Griffin; his other subjects included DEPECHE MODE, OMD, SPANDAU BALLET and TALK TALK.

With 16 tracks speeding through its restless 40 minutes, ‘Powder Dry’ saw Tim Bowness revisiting his passion for the post-punk and electronic pop acts of his teens, having opened for the solo Billy Currie version of ULTRAVOX and worked with members of JAPAN while in his first band NO-MAN with Steven Wilson; of course the latter has been behind the spate of new remixes of ULTRAVOX for their series of lavish boxed sets.

A number of veterans returned after long new release absences. Michel Moers, best known as the front man of Belgian electronic trailblazers TELEX released what was only his second solo studio album ‘As Is’ and had Claudia Brücken guest on its lead single ‘Microwaves. Meanwhile after several years in the making, Harald Grosskopf presented ‘Strom’, translated from German as “electricity”.

Across the Atlantic, Los Angeles-based multimedia artist Geneva Jacuzzi gave a detached Eurocentric poise reminiscent of Gina X and her third album ‘Triple Fire’ was an enjoyably delightful mix of accessible electronic pop and energetic art chaos. Comprising of North America’s alternative music power couple Tom Shear and Mari Kattman, HELIX took their fans to an ‘Unimaginable Place’ as another US based couple XENO & OAKLANDER further refined their precise yet spirited productions for their eight album ‘Via Negativa (in the doorway light)’.

Newer North American acts making a splash were IMMORTAL GIRLFRIEND and Canada’s MINDREADER while Los Angeles-based duo DIE SEXUAL finally brought their erotic charge to the stage opening for the likes of IAMX and LEÆTHER STRIP. But the most promising act emerging stateside were Haute & Freddy.

Photo by Tim Darin

For the past few years, Alison Lewis has focussed on her ZANIAS solo venture but she was back playing live with Ryan Ambridge as LINEA ASPERA in the summer with the pair having been quietly writing and recording new material together. Having found TikTok fame performing synthwave styled covers, DREAMKID released his second album ‘Daggers’ to capitalise on his social media traction while both exploring much darker climes, CURSES and CZARINA released their third full length albums.

In Europe, Belgian duo METROLAND released their sixth album ‘Forum’ as well as simultaneously maintaining their solo projects 808 DOT POP and LECTREAU. In Sweden, Johan Agebjörn was a very busy man releasing EPs with Yota and Mikael Ögren while also announcing he has a work-in-progress with NINA; the Queen of Synthwave’s own musical partnership with RADIO WOLF was developing nicely, with a European tour opening for CANNONS giving the couple a chance to showcase their darker sound.

As the summer ended, IONNALEE ambitiously issued her new album simultaneously in English and Swedish while Norwegian neighbours PISTON DAMP declared there were “No Points For Trying” as they launched the more pessimistic instalment of their twin volume ‘Mastermind’ album venture.

Photo by Joanna Wzorek

Presenting the second volume of their ‘Midnight Confessions’ series, ITALOCONNECTION were back with their vintage but modern style of Italo disco while Greco-German trio DINA SUMMER showed that good electronic dance music with a grittier impassioned outlook was alive and well in Berlin. Also based in the former divided city, Polish DJ and producer CHARLIE emerged as one of the promising new stars on the Italo-Proto scene.

Retrospective sets can often compile another time, another place as exemplified by releases this year from Bryan Ferry, Peter Baumann and NO-MAN proved. But the best one came from FRANK CHICKENS whose ‘Ninja Legends 1983-1989’ captured them in their quirky prime, especially on the collection of BBC radio  sessions which made it an essential purchase. On the book front, ‘1984: The Year Pop Went Queer’ was among the best.

The desire to revisit the past became a major thing in 2024, as exemplified by the frenzy surrounding the sale of tickets for the OASIS reunion shows which were among the first in the UK to employ the dreaded but perfectly legal scam of dynamic pricing. But the need to see any band years past their commercial peak with the likelihood of a less accomplished performance than before, be it vocally, musically or energetically, was a head scratching prospect. The music world has been trying to make up for lost time and money since 2021 but the post-covid gig bubble may have now burst.

With ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK having seen many bands back in the day at their best, the shows now available with a hint of nostalgia may not have been universally appealing as they were to those who were too young or not even born to have attended first time around. But paradoxically thanks to the dearth of new quality music, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK found itself listening to podcasts of old people talking about old music! So it was an honour to be invited by host Iain McDermott to chat about our favourite year in music 1981 for his wonderful ‘Back To NOW’ podcast centred around the noted compilation album series.

‘The Album Years’ hosted by Steven Wilson and Tim Bowness remarked that “talking about music IS the new music” and on the most knowledgeable, passionate and humorous podcasts, hosts were able to express their opinion and say a record or an artist was “sh*t” without immediate fear of social media retorts while also praising where praise was deserved!

But during a recent edition of ‘The Small Town Boys’, Clark Datchler of JOHNNY HATES JAZZ remarked that while music critics back in the day could be “cynical” and “nasty”, today they are at the other extreme and “sycophants now” with “hardly any criticism of records released” – this everything is brilliant mentality has undoubtedly led to an acceptance of mediocrity and a lack of perspective in a monoculture of medium pleasure.

With those forthright and articulate expressions key to their success, live presentations of these podcasts in theatres and arenas are becoming increasingly popular and profitable thanks to lower overheads, especially when compared to concerts.

Among ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s favourite music podcasts in 2024 were ‘Word In Your Ear’ presented by former Smash Hits and Q editors David Hepworth and Mark Ellen, ‘Electronically Yours With Martyn Ware’ and ‘The Giddy Carousel of Pop’ discussing the history of Smash Hits. But best of all was the more general podcast ‘The Rest Is Entertainment’ hosted by Richard Osman and Marina Hyde which is part of Gary Lineker’s Goalhanger Podcast empire also behind ‘The Rest Is Politics’, ‘The Rest Is History’, ‘The Rest Is Money’, ‘The Rest Is Classified’ and ‘The Rest Is Football’; one suspects the popular socially conscious former footballer will not miss the BBC the way it will miss him 😉

If 2023 was something of a strange year, 2024 might have actually been stranger. There is a glimmer of hope for the future, but the signs are already there that things may get worse, be it socially, politically, environmentally or culturally… sometimes, people really do deserve what they get!

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s 2024 playlist ‘The Great Bleep Forward’ containing over 235 tracks from the year can be listened to on Spotify at https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4xMrAkCbeWvUmTfrN6i6Gu

Text by Chi Ming Lai
27 December 2024

A Beginners Guide to KOMPUTER – FORTRAN 5 – I START COUNTING & Friends

22 October 2024 /

“We are the perfect pop band” said KOMPUTER in 1998 on their debut album ‘The World Of Tomorrow’.

Comprising of Simon Leonard and Dave Baker, KOMPUTER emerged in 1996 as a response to OASIS ripping off THE BEATLES; “We decided that someone should rip off KRAFTWERK, so we did, and the name we chose was KOMPUTER” . said Baker, “Subsequent releases were less obviously KRAFTWERK influenced and still do!”

But some were not into the concept with one observation being remembered by Baker written in a review of a 1996 show at The Garage in London: “My memory of that Garage gig is a very animated and upset young man in an ill-fitting jumper, spilling Tuborg about the place, screaming at the top of his voice, ‘WHAT IS THE FACKING POINT?!’”

Simon Leonard had released experimental music in 1979 as FILE UNDER POP with the Rough Trade single ‘Heathrow’ and as AK PROCESS with the self-explanatory ‘Electronic’ on Output Records. Meanwhile Dave Baker played keyboards in a band called SONS OF CAIN; “I had no creative input except for keyboard parts” he recollected, “I got increasingly fed up and walked off stage one night in the middle of a gig and left the band!”

Baker and Leonard had met at Middlesex Polytechnic in 1982 and bonded over a love of pop. With Baker’s own first experiences of synth sounds coming from ‘Switched On Bach’, then Tomita’s ‘Snowflakes Are Dancing’ and ‘Autobahn’ coupled with Leonard’s experience of having already released electronic music, it was only natural that they would become a synth duo.

Named after the coming-of-age drama thriller starring Jenny Agutter, they became I START COUNTING, signing to Mute Records in 1984. “Some of the synths we started with are still in use” Baker told ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK, “Roland 100M modular system, Roland VP330, Korg MS20. A little later the Roland SH101 twins arrived, then the Yamaha CS30. When we started as I START COUNTING we used a Roland MC 4 sequencer, then an MC500, followed by Atari based sequencing. We started using Ableton Live as KOMPUTER.”.

Despite I START COUNTING opening for ERASURE on their 1987 European tour, the musical landscape was changing. The new music that Leonard and Baker were making fell under the spell of techno as the dance music revolution took hold. So in 1990, “for a fresh, initially anonymous start and a new dancey direction”, the duo became FORTRAN 5.

FORTRAN 5 was of a more collaborative umbrella, working with a variety of artists including Thrash from THE ORB, DJ Colin Faver, Neil Arthur, Jocelyn West, Katharine Blake, Larry Graham, Rod Slater of THE BONZO DOG DOO-DAH BAND and Derek Nimmo. Samplers became the order of the day. Baker remembered “the original Mute studio above Rough Trade in Kings Cross had an Akai S612, then we got our own Greengate DS3 sampler, followed by the Akai S900 and S1000, followed by an Emu E5000 which is still in use”.

Despite their first live appearance in while at London’s Electrowerkz in 2019, currently “KOMPUTER is resting but may revive any time” said Baker, “Meanwhile I continue to release material as LONELYKLOWN. I have also just re-released my OOO EEE OOO album ‘Burning Through Time’ on CD and digital. All my solo music is available from my Bandcamp at https://davethekeys.bandcamp.com/ “

Material from their three main incarnations was combined in 2011 for the release of ‘Konnecting…’ and while all these different monikers and side projects could be a challenge to follow, they served a purpose; “Because we refreshed our musical identity once in a while” said Baker, “we re-evaluated our working methods and priorities regularly”

So with commentary from Dave Baker himself, here is ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s 20 track Beginners Guide to the KOMPUTER axis and its many konnections…

AK-47 Stop! Dance! (1981)

Named after the assault rifle by Soviet small arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov, AK-47 was another solo moniker of Simon Leonard. A lively slice of minimal synth with the vocodered phrases that referenced the weapon, ‘Stop! Dance!’ was released a year before Leonard met David Baker – “Simon was working with other people when I joined but they gradually stopped contributing, leaving the two of us. We were friends, DJ-ed and discussed music before we started working together.”

Available on the compilation boxed set ‘Musik Music Musique 2.0 1981 – The Rise Of Synth Pop’ (V/A) via Cherry Red Records

I START COUNTING Letters To A Friend (1984)

The first I START COUNTING single was produced by Daniel Miller. ‘Letters To A Friend’ was “Our first release on Mute” reminisced Baker of the charmingly deadpan English pop tune with a bright glassy backdrop that sounded like it was recorded in a church. It was “demoed on a Portastudio at Simon’s stepmum’s in Hampstead. Programmed on Daniel’s Synclavier at his mum’s in Decoy Avenue. Musically inspired by a CULTURE CLUB song, lyrically autobiographical”.

Available on the I START COUNTING / FORTRAN 5 / KOMPUTER compilation ‘Konnecting…’ via Mute Records

I START COUNTING Still Smiling (1985)

Also produced by Daniel Miller and with the metallic resonances of ‘Some Great Reward’ era DEPECHE MODE, the bouncy ‘Still Smiling’ was “Almost a sequel to ‘Letters To A Friend’” recalled Baker, “The B-side was ‘There Is Always The Unexpected’ which foretold our future experimentation! Simon and I have both always loved and admired the Daniel Miller and Flood’s extended remix of this. Adrian Sherwood did an amazing one too”.

Available on the I START COUNTING / FORTRAN 5 / KOMPUTER compilation ‘Konnecting…’ via Mute Records

I START COUNTING Ra! Ra! Rawhide (Rasputin) (1988)

Using an edited JFK quote “Communism is the wave of the future” on the artwork while turning Frankie Laine and BONEY M into a musical Frankenstein’s Monster, Dave Baker recalled this early example of a mash-up (before the term existed) as: “A biting piece of political satire bookending the American cowboy classic ‘Rawhide’ and the classic Russian anthem ‘Rasputin’, which so inspired LADY GAGA. There was a scathing review by Mark E. Smith somewhere”.

Originally released on the I START COUNTING single ‘Ra! Ra! Rawhide (Rasputin)’ via Mute Records, currently unavailable

FORTRAN 5 Heart On The Line (1991)

‘Heart On The Line’ was an airy part spoken-part sung folky number with a blissful electronic dance backdrop number was that deserved to be hit when the UK charts was full of rave-driven novelty material that was far inferior. “The original demo sampled the intro from the BLONDIE song ‘X Offender’” said Baker, “Vocals by two of MIRANDA SEX GARDEN (we helped produce their first single in return). Remixes by Vince Clarke, Moby and Justin Robertson!”.

Available on the album via the I START COUNTING / FORTRAN 5 / KOMPUTER compilation ‘Konnecting…’ via Mute Records

FORTRAN 5 featuring DEREK NIMMO Layla (1993)

A superb eccentric upper class reading of ‘Layla’ that saw “Derek doing Derek”, Eric Clapton’s worldwide hit (which incidentally he DID NOT play the signature riff for, that was actually Duane Allman!) was turned into classic English poetry over bouncy electronic backing – “Derek Nimmo was a famous 70s comedy actor” Baker remembered, ”We actually got him in the Mute studio to record this. He was very entertaining and humble!”

Available on the album via the I START COUNTING / FORTRAN 5 / KOMPUTER compilation ‘Konnecting…’ via Mute Records

FORTRAN 5 VP330 (1995)

Named after the Roland Vocoder Plus VP330, Baker said “That VP330 has been through a lot but it still works perfectly. Bought new 1979/80, toured around UK and Europe, on loan to Studio Mute for a few years, now part of my home studio set up. A few of the keys have melted patches where Simon rested cigars”. Using the VP330’s distinctive if less realistic synthetic choirs, the track had an eerie KRAFTWERK resonance in a sign of things to come.

Available on the FORTRAN 5 album ‘Avocado Suite’ via Mute Records

JOHN CAME Ink Tank (1995)

Rumoured to have been ERASURE in disguise, John Came was actually a Leonard and Baker side project where a singular persona was adopted to create the illusion of a lone frontman. Baker remembered that the sinister robotised ‘In Tank’ was “The only track on the album ‘Rhythmicon’ with vocals. These were produced by a custom made talking box, which required painstaking and time consuming programming. We made a brilliant video on Super 8 film”.

Available on the JOHN CAME album ‘Rhythmicon’ via Mute Records

KOMPUTER Valentina Tereshkova (1996)

Embracing the “K” word and mining ‘The Model’ while speeding it up, this was a tribute to the first female Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova. But Baker recalled how the song could have come out quite differently: “An original demo was made with Claudia Brücken, with completely different melody and lyrics. The eventual lyrics were inspired by BONEY M’s sometimes biographical style. An anonymous, instrumental 12” was also released”.

Available on the KOMPUTER album ‘The World Of Tomorrow’ via Mute Records

KOMPUTER Terminus – Memory Man (1998)

The highlight of the debut KOMPUTER album as ‘Terminus Interminus’ with its strong ‘Trans-Europe Express’ in outer space vibe, ‘Terminus’ came in a number of variants without the original’s transport narration. A remix by German DJ COSMIC BABY was chosen to be the single but Baker preferred “An excellent mix by the very talented Mr Daniel Miller” as Memory Man which provided a frantic electro tension not present on the other versions.

Available on the I START COUNTING / FORTRAN 5 / KOMPUTER Digital Deluxe album ‘Konnecting… (B-Sides And Rarities)’ via Mute Records

KOMPUTER Kompaktor (2002)

Taking a far more abstract experimental approach on the second KOMPUTER long player, ‘Kompaktor’ was “Inspired by the sounds of a large rubbish crushing machine on Old Spitalfields Market, where Simon and myself worked for many years. It made very loud creaking, wailing sounds like some gigantic elephant or something. From the album ‘Market Led’ which used many samples from both the market and discarded records we reused”.

Available on the KOMPUTER album ‘Market Led’ via Mute Records

KOMPUTER My Private Train (2003)

Compiled by Wayne Clements of Essex duo MACONDO, ‘Robopop Volume 1’ was possibly the closest thing to the ‘Some Bizzare Album’ in the 21st Century. ‘My Private Train’ dated from ‘The World Of Tomorrow’ sessions and was “Never given a standalone release” as Baker recalled, “it was included on a synthpop compilation. I still really like this song. A video was made on a train journey we made between London and Scotland to play at a festival”.

Available on the compilation album ‘Robopop Volume 1’ (V/A) via Lucky Pierre Recordings

KOMPUTER Headphones & Ringtones (2007)

After the pure KRAFTWERK homage of their debut and the experimental sampling of its follow-up, the third KOMPUTER album ‘Synthetik’ explored the brave new world of virtual synths. ‘Headphones & Ringtones’ was an impassive but witty observation on how music consumption had changed in the 21st Century. “The title came from a line from another song, ‘Night Bus’, which was demoed but never released” said Baker.

Available on the album via ‘Synthetik’ via Mute Records

ERASURE Victim Of Love – KOMPUTER Mix (2009)

Having already remixed ERASURE previously as FORTRAN 5 with their ‘Lay All Your Love On Me (No Panties Mix)’, Leonard and Baker were back again with a new take on ‘Victim Of Love’ for the companion piece of the expanded ‘Total Pop! The First 40 Hits’ collection: “I just listened to it for probably the first time since making it and thought it sounded very good” said Baker, “I think the idea was to make it sound more ERASURE than ERASURE”.

Available on the ERASURE compilation album ‘Pop Remixed’ via Mute Records

OMD The Right Side? (2010)

‘The Right Side?’ was the closer of the ‘History Of Modern’ album featuring new vocals, lyrics and melody from Andy McCluskey who had an idea based on ‘Looking Down From London (Metroland)’ after hearing the KOMPUTER remix; “Andy from OMD rang me to ask permission to use our track. Of course we agreed. We were very surprised and pleased with the resulting song, which basically kept our original intact as the basis”.

Available on the OMD album ‘History Of Modern’ via Blue Noise

BLANCMANGE God’s Kitchen – KOMPUTER Remix (2014)

With ‘Happy Families Too’, Neil Arthur wanted to approach BLANCMANGE’s classic debut album using modern technology with updated references like “I’ve just been shopping… online!” on ‘Kind’. The bonus tracks were remixes by Vince Clarke who reworked ‘Living On The Ceiling’ and KOMPUTER who did ‘Cruel’ and ‘God’s Kitchen’; “This is really very good” said Baker of the latter, “I don’t remember anything about making it at all!”

Available on the album BLANCMANGE album ‘Happy Families Too’ via Blank Check

DAVE THE KEYS The Lights Of The Pub (2020)

“My first solo release for the first Lockdown Christmas of 2020”, Baker had envisaged ‘The Lights Of The Pub’ “as a ‘Fairytale Of North London’, it was a tribute to all the pubs standing empty at this time, remembering festive seasons of the past and looking forward (hopefully) at future ones. It specifically referenced The Lamb on London’s Holloway Road, where I play piano every Thursday and raised funds for a Crowdfunder in aid of the pub”.

Available on the single ‘The Lights Of The Pub’ via https://davethekeys.bandcamp.com/track/the-lights-of-the-pub

KOMPUTER Spacer (2020)

From a charity collection comprising of 22 cover versions, it featured an enjoyable Komputerised take on the 1979 Sheila B Devotion disco classic complete with dreamy vocoder. Baker said ‘Spacer’ was “One of very few cover versions we have ever done, released on a compilation in aid of a Crowdfunder for The Lamb pub. The original is one of my favourite ever 12 inch singles, with genius production from Nile Rogers and Bernard Edwards of CHIC”.

Available on the compilation album ‘Hatful Of Holloway’ (V/A) via Lamb Ade at https://smarturl.it/hatful-of-holloway

OOO EEE OOO Summer 20 (2021)

Taken from the OOO EEE OOO album ‘Burning Through Time’ released on limited edition cassette only in 2021 and re-released on CD and digital in July 2024, Baker added “This is my favourite track on the album, including snatches of radio noise and speech as well as field recordings from local walks in Queens Wood, Highgate. I like to think it conjures up an atmosphere of being suspended in time in an endless summer”.

Available on the OOO EEE OOO album ‘Burning Through Time’ via https://davethekeys.bandcamp.com/album/burning-through-time

LONELYKLOWN Everything I Try To Do Is Wrong (2022)

Waste not – want not, ‘Everything I Try To Do Is Wrong’ was “actually a rejected KOMPUTER song. During Lockdown I would walk to Simon’s flat in Crouch End every Friday and exchange ideas. I would give him a USB stick with audio on and he would give me handwritten lyric ideas. This was a combination of verses Simon wrote and a chorus idea I’d had a while ago. Simon didn’t think the resulting song was really KOMPUTER so I asked if I could have it”.

Available on the LONELYKLOWN EP ‘Wrong X4’ via https://davethekeys.bandcamp.com/album/wrong-x4

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Dave Baker

https://komp46.wixsite.com/komputer

https://www.facebook.com/KomputerOfficial

https://www.instagram.com/komputerdave/

https://twitter.com/komputerdave

https://linktr.ee/lonelyklown

https://open.spotify.com/artist/1gEqsqT3mT13pTcUhEyzzs

Text by Chi Ming Lai with thanks to Simon Helm
22 October 2024

A Beginner’s Guide To GARETH JONES

1 April 2024 /

Gareth Jones was born in Lancashire and while he played a number of instruments as a youngster, his interest soon turned to music technology with the purchase of a tape recorder.

He gained his formal training at the BBC and began working as an engineer in various recording spaces including Pathway, a small 8 track studio in North London which was frequently used by Stiff Records and where THE DAMNED recorded ‘New Rose’ in 1976. It was there that he worked on MADNESS’ debut single ‘The Prince’ in 1979. But it was his work with former ULTRAVOX front man John Foxx and his 1980 long playing debut ‘Metamatic’ that was to be his breakthrough.

This led to work producing esoteric acts such as TUXEDOMOON and TAUCHEN-PROKOPETZ; it was while working with the latter on the 1983 ‘DÖF’ record in Vienna that it was suggested that Jones mix the album at Hansa Tonstudio in West Berlin. At the time, it was the most high-tech complex he had ever worked in and prompted to his relocation to die Mauerstadt.

Many British bands began recording and mixing in Berlin as the exchange rate made things highly cost effective. It was while Jones was engineering the recording of the third DEPECHE MODE album ‘Construction Time Again’ at John Foxx’s own studio The Garden in Shoreditch that he proposed mixing the record in Berlin. He had been initially reluctant to work with DEPECHE MODE who he considered lightweight but was eventually persuaded by Foxx to become their Tonmeister.

Gareth Jones was a pioneer in the use of state of art digital equipment including the NED Synclavier and AMS digital delays; among his techniques was using the big ballroom at Hansa to capture atmospheres created by sounds being played through large amplifiers which were then recorded with microphones, creating a huge cavernous sound.

Although chiefly known for his work with synths and sampling, Jones also worked with more guitar driven bands such as WIRE, THE HOUSE OF LOVE, INSPIRAL CARPETS and MOGWAI as well as dark lord Nick Cave. After the fall of The Iron Curtain, Jones later returned to London where he remains today at his current base theArtLab within The Strongroom complex in London.

Having fought cancer in 2008, he continues to produce, mix and compose with a third SUNROOF album with Daniel Miller currently in progress. Meanwhile Jones had also provided his expertise and guidance to emerging studio personnel via the Red Bull Academy.

With a restriction of one track per album project and in chronological order, here are 20 tracks which form ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s Beginner’s Guide to the innovative career of Gareth Jones.

JOHN FOXX Plaza (1980)

Having departed ULTRAVOX, when John Foxx recorded his debut solo record, Gareth Jones was the engineer at Pathway, a studio known for its reggae sessions. While the aim was a starker vision of electronic music, both Foxx and Jones absorbed dub influences where things would be stripped back but one sound given all the power. As well as the surprise hit single ‘Underpass’, this aesthetic suited the dystopian ‘Metamatic’ opener ‘Plaza’.

Available on the JOHN FOXX album ‘Metamatic’ via Metamatic Records

http://www.metamatic.com/

TUXEDOMOON Incubus (1981)

Impressed with the sound of ‘Metamatic’, TUXEDOMOON had originally sought John Foxx to produce their next album ‘Desire’ but unavailable, he put the American art rockers in touch with Gareth Jones. “Gareth was brilliant, fabulous” said the band’s Blaine L Reininger, “He was able to teach us; kind of organise us”. On one of the highlights was  ‘Incubus’ which used the same Roland CR-78 Compurhythm used as on ‘Metamatic’.

Available on the TUXEDOMOON album ‘Desire’ via Crammed Discs

https://www.tuxedomoon.co/

JOHN FOXX Dancing Like A Gun (1981)

With a second album and studio both named ‘The Garden’, Gareth Jones was again working with John Foxx to realise both. After the colder overtures of ‘Metamatic’, Foxx had thawed out considerably after a holiday in Italy and as a result, traditional instrumentation returned. ‘Dancing Like A Gun’ contradicted its “Oppenheimer waltzing” line but blended synth with art rock to recall ‘Quiet Men’ from his ULTRAVOX days.

Available on the JOHN FOXX album ‘The Garden’ via Metamatic Records

https://www.facebook.com/johnfoxxmetamatic

DEPECHE MODE Two Minute Warning (1983)

Working alongside Daniel Miller who continued as producer, Gareth Jones had DEPECHE MODE sampling found sounds around the-then derelict surroundings of Shroreditch to create a new sonic template in pop. Songs like ‘Everything Counts’, ‘Pipeline’ and ‘More Than A Party had socio-political themes while the Alan Wilder composed ditty ‘Two Minute Warning’ reflected the heightened Cold War angst of the time.

Available on the DEPECHE MODE album ‘Construction Time Again’ via Sony Music

https://www.depechemode.com/

FAD GADGET Collapsing New People (1984)

Frank Tovey had been intrigued by the sound of German industrial band EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN whose name translated into English as “collapsing new buildings” and their use of industrial equipment and found objects. So while recording at Hansa, he got Gareth Jones to record a large printing press nearby as the basis for a loop rhythm that became ‘Collapsing New People’, one of the best FAD GADGET singles.

Available on the FAD GADGET album ‘Gag’ via Mute Records

https://www.instagram.com/fadgadgetofficial/

BLAINE L REININGER Mystery & Confusion (1984)

For his first second solo album, Blaine L Reininger was reunited with Gareth Jones at the production helm. Using Roland’s portable pre-MIDI holy trinity of the TB-303 Bassline, the SH-101 monosynth and the TR-808 Rhythm Composer synced via a customised cable, its highlight was the cinematic synthpop of ‘Mystery & Confusion’ which saw the TUXEDOMOON leader exude a distinct Eurocentric spirit.

Available on the BLAINE L REININGER album ‘Night Air’ via Les Disques du Crépuscule

https://lesdisquesducrepuscule.com/blaine_l_reininger.html

PALAIS SCHAUMBURG Beat Of 2 (1984)

An influential Neue Deutsche Welle band from Hamburg, PALAIS SCHAUMBURG were on the bill with DEPECHE MODE at the 1981 Mute Night at the London Lyceum. Their members included Thomas Fehlmann who went on to join THE ORB as well as produce ERASURE and experimental producer Holger Hiller. The percussive ‘Beat Of 2’ turned out to be their final single and was produced by Gareth Jones alongside Inga Humpe.

Available on the PALAIS SCHAUMBURG album ‘Parlez-Vous Schaumburg?’ via Mercury Records

http://palaisschaumburg.com/

HUMPE HUMPE Yama-ha (1985)

A slice of quirky Neue Deutsche Welle from sisters Annette and Inga Humpe, ‘Yama-ha’ was produced by Roma Baran who had worked on Laurie Anderson’s ‘O Superman’. The “shopping list” synth and sample number listing a number of Japanese tech and vehicle manufacturers was remixed by Gareth Jones. Incidentally the B-side ‘Memories’ was produced by Conny Plank. In the UK, the duo was known as SWIMMING WITH SHARKS.

Available on the HUMPE HUMPE album ‘The Platinum Collection’ via Warner Music Group Germany

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063561587623

EINSTURZEN NEUBAUTEN Yü-Gung (1985)

With their early albums characterised by harsh shouting and screaming, when Gareth Jones was brought in to work with EINSTURZEN NEUBAUTEN, it was to provide a sense of order to the West Berlin group’s experimental metal-bashing. Using sampling technology to provide an avant-dance palette to accompany Blixa Bargeld’s fierce chant of “FÜTTER MEIN EGO”, the sinister rhythm was inspired by the sound of chopping up speed!

Available on the EINSTURZEN NEUBAUTEN album ‘Halber Mensch’ via Potomak

https://neubauten.org/

BRONSKI BEAT Hit That Perfect Beat (1985)

Featuring new BRONSKI BEAT singer John Jøn Foster following the departure of Jimmy Somerville, ‘Hit That Perfect Beat’ was a frantically paced HI-NRG track helmed by Adam Williams of THE SELECTER who had been co-producer on EURYTHMICS’ singles ‘The Walk’ and ‘Love Is A Stranger’. Impressed by his work for DEPECHE MODE, Gareth Jones did the final mix which replicated the pumping presence of ‘Master & Servant’.

Available on the BRONSKI BEAT album ‘Truthdare Doubledare’ via London Records

https://www.facebook.com/bronskibeatband

DEPECHE MODE Stripped (1986)

Rising from Tonmeister to co-producer during ‘Some Great Reward’, Jones continued in the role for ‘Black Celebration’. By now, Martin Gore’s songs had got bleaker and Bleaker. Inspired by German film director Werner Herzog, Daniel Miller wanted a dystopian intensity and the album to be lived, a feeling which ramped up when the band finished the album in Berlin. ‘Stripped’ was the “remarkable” single that heralded this darker direction.

Available on the DEPECHE MODE album ‘Black Celebration’ via Sony Music

https://www.facebook.com/depechemode

MINISTRY Just Like You (1986)

Having debuted with the synth-oriented ‘With Sympathy’ album in 1983, by 1986 MINISTRY had become more abrasive with industrial elements creeping into their sound. Engineered by Gareth Jones but produced by Adrian Sherwood of On-U Sound, the beat driven ‘Just Like You’ featured a Fairlight CMI which mainman Al Jourgensen had been able to acquire as a part of the deal with Sire Records.

Available on the MINISTRY album ‘Twitch’ via Rhino Records

https://ministryband.com/

NITZER EBB Let Your Body Learn (1987)

Founded by Bon, Douglas McCarthy and David Gooday, with their musical premise of “muscle and hate”, NITZER EBB took the seed of DAF to develop a danceable industrial finesse. While Phil Harding of PWL fame produced and mixed most of their debut long player released by Mute, Gareth Jones and Daniel Miller teamed up to remix their energetic single ‘Let Your Body Learn’ which had bee originally independently issued in 1986.

Available on the NITZER EBB album ‘That Total Age’ via Mute Records

https://www.nitzerebbprodukt.com/

ERASURE Blue Savannah (1989)

After his DEPECHE MODE Berlin trilogy, Gareth Jones remained in the Mute family and began a long-standing working relationship with ERASURE. The concept of ‘Blue Savannah’ was Roy Orbison doing electronic pop. As co-producer with Mark Saunders, he provided an uncluttered backdrop to showcase the soaring optimism of what was to become one of the most universally loved songs by Andy Bell and Vince Clarke.

Available on the ERASURE album ‘Wild!’ via Mute Records

https://www.erasureinfo.com/

IRMIN SCHMIDT Gormenghast Drift (1991)

When Mute Records licensed the CAN back catalogue in 1990 via their manager Hildegard Schmidt’s Spoon imprint, there came the opportunity to work on new solo recordings with their keyboard virtuoso Irmin Schmidt. With Gareth Jones as co-producer, while there were vocals and contributions from bandmates Jaki Liebezeit and Michael Karoli, the closing instrumental ‘Gormenghast Drift’ was an atmospheric delight.

Available on the IRMIN SCHMIDT album ‘Impossible Holidays’ via Spoon Records

https://mutebank.co.uk/collections/irmin-schmidt

ERASURE Grace (1995)

An attempt at prog synth which Andy Bell referred to as ‘Bright Side Of The Sun’, the seventh ERASURE album saw Gareth Jones and Thomas Fehlmann work together as producers on the ambitious if flawed self-titled opus. While there was the brilliant under rated single ‘Fingers and Thumbs (Cold Summer’s Day)’, there were also beautiful emotive neo-classical moments such as ‘Grace’ among the highlights.

Available on the ERASURE album ‘Erasure’ via Mute Records

https://www.facebook.com/erasureinfo

BOYTRONIC Living Without You (2002)

The 21st Century incarnation of BOYTRONIC saw the return of original frontman Holger Wobker. The anthemic ‘Living Without You’, which was one of two songs produced by Gareth Jones for the parent album ‘Autotunes’, utilised an impressive array of instrumentation including electronics, filmic orchestrations and rock guitars as well as Wobker’s impassioned vocals.

Available on the BOYTRONIC album ‘Autotunes’ via Strange Ways Records

https://www.facebook.com/BoytronicOriginal/

MESH No Place Like Home (2006)

When it suggested that MESH work with Gareth Jones, the band were initially reluctant because of the inevitable DEPECHE MODE comparisons. But Rich Silverthorn remembered “He was a really nice guy. We spent about 10 days locked in eating Chinese food, laughing and mixing ‘We Collide’”. Of the six tracks Jones mixed, ‘No Place Like Home’ proved to be one of the most poignant songs of MESH’s career.

Available on the MESH album ‘We Collide’ via Dependent Records

http://www.mesh.co.uk/

GARETH JONES Safe Travels (2020)

On the milestone of his 65th birthday, Gareth Jones’ released ‘ELECTROGENETIC‘, his first album under his own name. Most of the tracks began as improvisations around a modular patch, then crafted in a blend of humanity and electronics. While in Detroit, he developed the subtle rhythmic pulse and absorbing keyboard overtures of ‘Safe Travels’, one of several poignant tracks commemorating his recently passed mother and mother-in-law.

Available on the GARETH JONES album ‘ELECTROGENETIC‘ via Calm + Collect

https://www.instagram.com/garethgeniusjones/

SUNROOF 1.8 – 2.3.19 (2021)

A studio collaboration between Gareth Jones and Daniel Miller, while this project mostly produced covers such as ‘Hero’ for ‘A Homage to NEU!’ in 1998 and assorted remixes, SUNROOF started playing live shows and finally released a debut long player ‘Electronic Music Improvisations Vol1’. It featured a collection of improvised modular experiments recorded in 2019, of which the energetic ‘1.8 – 2.3.19’ was the most immediate.

Available on the SUNROOF album ‘Electronic Music Improvisations Vol1’ via Mute Artists

https://mute.com/artists/sunroof

Text by Chi Ming Lai
1 April 2024

ASPRA Presents: Play For Tomorrow Vol1

27 February 2023 /

Best known as one half of the Greek synthpop duo MARSHEAUX, Sophia Sarigiannidou launched her solo project ASPRA in 2022

Her first single was ‘Velvet’, an electronic rework of the 4AD cult shoegaze duo THE BIG PINK while on the flip was another cover in ‘Anoint’, a song originally by John Peel favourites THE FIELD MICE. While these choices were unexpected, it did point to Sarigiannidou’s own leftfield tastes. There was also two fabulous collaborations with veteran electronic composer Lena Platonos, prosed unexpectedly en Français.

“I started going to the neighborhood record store and asking them to write me tapes. I bought the ‘Machines’ compilation LP. The disc starts with ‘Messages’ by OMD. What a shock that was… within 3 minutes so many different tunes alternated, one better than the other.” she said, “Through this record, I discovered Fad Gadget, Gary Numan and John Foxx! That afternoon the living room of the house in Thessaloniki was transformed into a window into a future era! It was written everywhere that ‘the synthesizer is the sound of the future’. Mine certainly was!”

Compiling a collection of rare and less obvious post-punk and synth tracks in the spirit of ‘Machines’ from 1977-1985, ‘ASPRA presents: Play For Tomorrow Vol.1’ sees Sarigiannidou offer a snapshot into her creative outlook with songs that four decades on have shown themselves to be “timeless jewels that you can play for today or play for tomorrow…”

While OMD are among the better known acts in the selection with the wistful ‘Of All The Things We’ve Made’ along with ULTRAVOX’s superb ‘Just For A Moment’, the others are more obscure but no less essential. Complimenting these two choices, ‘Karussell’ by Michael Rother of NEU! highlights the German musician’s influence on the aural aesthetics of both.

With wispy vocals and joyfully handled keys, Chris & Cosey’s wonderful ‘October (Love Song)’ was the antithesis of their parent group THROBBING GRISTLE and covered by MARSHEAUX in Greek for their debut album ‘E-Bay Queen’ in 2004. Another highlight is the TB303 driven cinematic synthpop of ‘Mystery & Confusion’ by TUXEDOMOON leader Blaine L Reininger which exudes a Eurocentric spirit as per its title and deserves wider recognition.

But the collection begins with the spacey avant folk of ‘UFO Report No.1’ by THE GADGETS, a track recorded in 1979 and featuring a very young pre-THE THE Matt Johnson. Despite its dour vocal delivery, 1982’s ‘Love Disgrace’ from Italian duo AMIN PECK is immensely catchy with its pulses, chops and glorious synth lines. Meanwhile New Zealand’s CAR CRASH SET earn their place with ‘Fall From Grace’ where deep sombre vocals contrast with a sparkling but gritty mechanical roll over 8 minutes.

Mute Records founder Daniel Miller finds two of his productions included; the dystopian minimal synth of ‘Music To Save The World By’ was the B-side from a one-off single on Cherry Red Records by the little known Alan Burnham while planting the seed of KOMPUTER, ‘Still Smiling’ by I START COUNTING has an innocent charm with those distinctive metallic tinges circa 1985. From that same year, French trio RUTH are eccentric but stylish on their debut single ‘Polaroïd/Roman/Photo’ crossing the detached with the playful while another curveball is thrown when the muted brass kicks in.

Α new wave duo with hints of THE VELVET UNDERGROUND but with a heated Italian vibe rather than the Götterdämmerung of Nico, CHRISMA’s ‘Black Silk Stocking’ was a 1978 single was produced and co-written by Vangelis’ brother, Nikko Papathanasiou. THE BUGGLES maybe best known for ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ but the duo of Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes actually made a second album ‘Adventures In Modern Recording’ in 1981; from it, ‘On TV’ is enjoyably oddball while employing exotic Eastern flavours not unlike LANDSCAPE.

Last but not least THE ELECTRONIC CIRCUS’ spirited anti-war anthem ‘Direct Lines’ is sadly still relevant 42 years after its release. In what turned out to be a one-off project led by Gary Numan keyboardist Chris Payne, the resigned hopelessness is captured by the vocals of Penny Heathcote, frontwoman of Brighton band CORVETTES who themselves only issued one single.

‘Play For Tomorrow Vol.1’ is a superb compilation that will appeal to long standing music fans who love discovering music from the imperial pioneering phase of electronic pop that may have fallen under the radar back in the day.

Sophia Sarigiannidou has done a fantastic curation job and it will be interesting to see how these influences might permeate into the soundscapes of the eventual debut ASPRA album.

‘Play For Tomorrow Vol.1’ is released as a CD, available from https://deejaydead.de/en/aspra-presents-play-for-tomorrow-vol-1-limited-cd-digipack-2022 and https://www.poponaut.de/various-artists-play-tomorrow-limited-edition-p-22006.html

https://www.instagram.com/thisisaspra/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
27th February 2023

TELEX Interview

3 February 2023 /

Photo by Frank Uyttenhove

Belgian synth trio TELEX are to release a new box set of their studio albums on Mute this Spring.

Their 1979 debut album ‘Looking For Saint-Tropez’ featured three unusual and striking electronic reinterpretations of rock ‘n’ roll through the ages including ‘Rock Around The Clock’, ‘Twist À St. Tropez’ and ‘Ça Plane Pour Moi’. Pre-dating SILICON TEENS, the fictional teen synth band devised by Daniel Miller, the new partnership with Mute is highly fitting with the one-time apprentice providing a new home for the sorcerer.

As well as ‘Looking For Saint-Tropez’, the ‘TELEX’ box set will also contain ‘Neurovision’ (1980), ‘Sex’ (1981), ‘Wonderful World’ (1984), ‘Looney Tunes’ (1988) and ‘How Do You Dance?’ (2006); all the albums have been remastered and newly mixed from the original tapes by band members Dan Lacksman and Michel Moers.

The Brussels-based threesome of Michel Moers, Dan Lacksman and Marc Moulin were already experienced hands when they formed TELEX in 1978. But they trailblazed and subverted during their imperial phase, crossing paths with SPARKS and YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA along the way. Representing Belgium at the 1980 Eurovision Song Contest, their bouncy song ‘Eurovision’ with its deliberately banal lyrics sending up the whole charade featured a Situationist performance that puzzled most watching on TV but delighted many others.

Recognised as techno, house and synthpop pioneers thanks to seminal tracks such as ‘Moscow Diskow’ and ‘Haven’t We Met Somewhere Before?’, TELEX were to later remix DEPECHE MODE and PET SHOP BOYS. But after Marc Moulin sadly passed away in 2008, TELEX were formally retired.

Blessed with another opportunity to present their impressive legacy to a new generation and established music fans who may have missed them first time round, Michel Moers and Dan Lacksman spent a joyful hour chatting to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about their time as TELEX…

TELEX joining the Mute family is quite appropriate isn’t it, like it was meant to be?

Michel: It should have been earlier… *laughs*

We had a very long contract so when we could get out of it, the first thought was “Mute is the best”; so we tried and it was the right move, we didn’t ask anybody else. The next day, we received an email from Daniel Miller saying “yes OK, let’s talk”.

Dan: We couldn’t believe it because it was our dream. “What would be the best company to reissue the albums?” and of course it was Mute. It’s great.

Michel: We loved ‘Warm Leatherette’, it was like a punch! Then SILICON TEENS came after TELEX, but at the time I wasn’t aware it. KRAFTWERK were a big influence but as “The Belgian KRAFTWERK” (*laughs*) with Belgian humour and cartoons, it was more related to our environment and personalities. English humour is better known around the world.

Dan: Belgian humour quite is surreal, similar to Monty Python which was very popular here because it was completely absurd. Also there are two cultures in Belgium, the French one and the Dutch one. It’s a mixture of both. I am French speaking but my grandfather was Flemish so I can feel both sides in me and a lot of Belgian people, especially in Brussels, they are a mixture of cultures.

Michel: In Belgium, we are much closer to English humour than French humour.

There are new mixes of the albums but what do you mean by that, as that might ring alarm bells for some, like dance remixes etc? *laughs*

Dan: It’s not every title, it’s about 60%… when we first started to remaster, some of the mixes we were listening to and thinking “it’s a pity, there is too much reverb” or whatever. But then the idea came to try a new mix but sounding similar to the original. So we decided to try one and if we don’t like it, we don’t do it! But it worked very well, so well that finally we listened to every album and we decided which titles we thought were ok for mastering and which ones we should attempt a new mix. And so that’s what we did.

Michel: So it’s new mixes, NOT “remixes”, that is more related to dance… the main thing we did was to take tracks away…

Dan: …to simplify…

Michel: The first album was our main reference and we probably didn’t succeed after because there were so many new machines to try… so with these new mixes and less tracks, the six albums are more a whole, you can really feel more of a thread….

Dan: All the songs are original, we didn’t replace anything, the vocals are all the original ones and no cheating, well…

Michel: …sometimes calibrating my timing or my pitch! *laughs*

Dan: The bass was played manually in those days, no sequencer which is why it was grooving, Marc had an incredible groove but sometimes, there were parts we replaced but very few really…

How did ‘Moscow Diskow’ come together, the idea of going to a club behind The Iron Curtain?

Michel: The original idea was to make lyrics, French words that English or American people were using, like “fantastique”. It was putting all these words together, some more personal ones like my girlfriend was called a “French Garçon” and things like that. It came together with the idea of a train…

Dan: So I thought, what about the hi-hat, it would be the train, a steam train which would be a completely surrealistic concept. So I started from there and added a kick drum and claps, there is no snare and I did the “woo-woo” sound with two oscillators and an envelope controlling the pitch. It was done very fast. We didn’t specify a 130 tempo, it was just a knob, like “what about this?”. We had to first record the drums on three tracks before we could do the keyboards as always, it was very spontaneous. It came like this, et viola!

Michel: At the time, the Moscow graphics were very well used, we liked to play with clichés… if we were writing the song now, we would choose another town…

‘Rock Around The Clock’ is TELEX’s only UK hit and the ‘Top Of The Pops’ performance is still great performance art… but it crossed over, even my mother liked it!

Michel: We also did a cover of ‘La Bamba’ and it is also slower than the original like ‘Rock Around The Clock’ so that old people can even dance to it *laughs*

The idea was to show who TELEX were, as people would know the original and hear the difference. It was an easier way to show who we are and that the audience may like an original song of ours. TELEX were like making a “History of Music”, so ‘Rock Around The Clock’ is rock, ‘La Bamba’ is South America, ‘Dance To The Music was black music…

Were you surprised to get the call to be on ‘Top Of The Pops’?

Michel: No, because maybe the reason we were asked was because they had a new Quantel machine to make new kinds of images and special effects. We were probably the only band around at that time with electronics where they could make these images that had not been made before. So it was more for them to play with their machine *laughs*

Dan: The rule on ‘Top Of The Pops’ at that time for international artists was that everything had to be live, but they wanted to experiment with this machine. So the day before, we went to the BBC and they filmed us to prepare some effects that they would insert the next day when we were performing, they were running the effects in sync and then they would put the live image and some effects, so when we did the “da-da-da” and the picture swirling, it was great, it true that it fits with the music.

Was it your idea to read the newspaper or the ‘Top Of The Pops’ director? *laughs*

Michel: It wasn’t the director, his reaction was “Are they bored? They don’t want to be there” *laughs*

No, we liked sometimes to use the anti-cliché of pop music you know… in pop music, everybody is smiling and moving, so the idea was to do the contrary. One of the main comedy characters we liked was Buster Keaton…

Dan: …he never smiled!

Michel: So we thought, “what would he do?”… you didn’t dance, just *does swaying arm movement*

Dan: NO! *laughs*

PET SHOP BOYS did the newspaper thing in 2009, I don’t know if they got the idea from you?

Michel: They also don’t dance… at the end of ‘Eurovision’, I take a picture of the audience but now, everybody has an iPhone and is taking the picture so it’s funny. The idea was reversing the process.

So ‘Rock Around The Clock’ saw you covering an old song, you also covered an quite new song at the time ‘Ça Plane Pour Moi’ and Dan, you have a connection because you did the synths for Plastic Bertrand on ‘Tout Petit La Planète’? Was this cover deliberate because of your connections?

Michel: Well, it was to please our producer as it was the same record company *laughs*

Dan: But we thought it would be funny to do as it was a very fast track, to make it slower and add vocoder…

Michel: It was part of that “History of Music” idea, add some punk plus it was the only way you could make people understand the words! *laughs*

As the box set shows, TELEX became notable for their cover versions, which were your favourites and which songs do you wish you had recorded?

Michel: There are two that have not been released sung by me but they are probably not TELEX enough… my idea would be to keep the backing and have someone who sings well! *laughs*

With people who sing well, what they sing is usually boring to me. Maybe it’s not the same in England but over here, it’s for radio but the singers sound like…

Dan: …that’s maybe because of the voice program that is everywhere and it’s just physical performance, it’s not singing anymore… like why? Maybe people are just accustomed to it, even if it is out of tune, it doesn’t matter but when you stick Autotune on, you have no more feeling.

When you did ‘On The Road Again’ in 2006, had you been aware of ROCKETS’ version which similarly used vocoder?

Dan: I was not aware…

Michel: I was aware after… the idea of ‘On The Road Again’ was simply because we were making a new record after so many years of silence. Now I know the ROCKETS version but it was a few weeks after our version came out, Italian TELEX fans were sending me pictures of these guys full of blue. Often the same things can be produced all around the world without realising, like the invention of the telephone, we didn’t know.

So ‘Eurovision’, did the song come first or was it TELEX entering Eurovision that inspired it?

Michel: The song was written for Eurovision, but the idea was to make a photo of what it is, people being well-dressed and at that time there were borders… well, there are borders now! *laughs*

But the idea was all these borders were open for one night and after that, they would close and anyway, the image would go through armoured cables so it was like war. At that time, Peter Gabriel had written about something similar on ‘Games Without Frontiers’ and also Robin Scott as M with ‘Pop Musik’; in fact, we met him at Cannes before the contest and asked him whether he would be interested in making lyrics for us, but he said “I’ve done that already with ‘Pop Musik’”, so I finally did it myself.

Was there a selection competition back home?

Michel: Yes, we had one, there were 10 contestants and we won the competition… but when we were asked by the record company, we thought they were crazy, it was not what we really wanted to do, it was not our music. We thought about it for 2 weeks and said “let’s go for it” as it would be like the epitome of pop music.

So the country was behind you?

Michel: Maybe not the country, but the people at radio and TV on the jury liked it. But all the other competitors were very normal… *laughs*

Dan: Boring, nothing special… we were completely different…

So they were more like The Singing Nun, Dana or Nicole type of entry?

Dan: EXACTLY!

Michel: But The Singing Nun would have had a chance! *laughs*

I am already imagining in my head the idea of TELEX covering The Singing Nun song ‘Dominique’! *laughs*

Michel: In fact, Dan and Marc did it!!

Dan: We did an electronic version with Soeur Sourire, it was a complete flop! *laughs*

So back to Eurovision, how were you choreographing your performance and moves?

Michel: The moves began before because there were normally three rehearsals and we couldn’t achieve one. There was a rule that everything you hear had to be seen, so all the instruments. So if you hear a drum, there should be a drummer. But everything we had was in three Moog modules so there was nothing to see, that was the first argument in the first rehearsal. Then the other argument was about electricity!

Dan: Yes, they didn’t like us because everything was supposed to be live which was not correct, because they said we could come with a backing tape, but everything on tape must be on stage! Simple! So like with ABBA, it was a backing tape, they didn’t play for real but the voices were real. So for us, it was the same thing, we sent a tape but the “drums” I made with the Modular Moog, so you don’t see a drum, you just hear “drums”.

When we were starting rehearsals, the director says “STOP! I hear a drum, where is the drum?” So I had to explain the drum sound was made with this instrument. “OK, we don’t see anything” he said, but I asked if they gave us some electricity, we could push a button and see the sequencer going on… “OH NO! NOT POSSIBLE!” but the director asked if the singer could push a button and fake it. So Michel just pushed a button, nothing happens on the Moog, no wire, nothing so it was completely… and then the song went on and Michel couldn’t hear himself…

Michel: The real time, I couldn’t hear myself, I don’t know if they did it on purpose but I couldn’t hear the three backing singers so my voice is a bit stressed, that’s it! *laughs*

And then?

Michel: Just before our turn on stage, we met Johnny Logan…

Dan: He won by the way…

Michel: I said “I’m sure you are going to win” and he replied “If I win, it’s good for me but if you win, it will be good for music”, that was so nice.

So you wanted to win, or come last but how did you actually feel when Portugal gave you those points? *laughs*

Michel: It was very mixed in our mind… we were chosen to go and then our British and American record companies thought we would win! It was the 25th Anniversary of Eurovision and we heard they would like to change the rules… so they changed the rules to a public vote, so this was very difficult for us! At the same time, we could feel we couldn’t win and it took some years to recover some balance! *roars of laughter*

Dan: We didn’t take it especially seriously, but we were surprised that everybody else was so serious, it was almost a pity to see the two young girls Sophie & Magaly from Luxembourg completely destroyed and crying when they didn’t get points. We were sitting, we had nothing and understood “OK”, so we hoped we were last. And then suddenly Portugal gave us 10 points! WHY? And then Royaume-Uni give us one point (this is why the first box set is called ‘Belgium… One Point’) and Greece three points! We were not last and it was a poor group from Finland… everyone was very serious and we were a bit apart.

Michel: All the organisation was very strict, it was like being in an airport which I understand… we didn’t win but in the long run, people remember us and every year, we have 30 seconds of fame…

Dan: …because of the strange stuff that happened on Eurovision…

Yeah, I’m one of the guilty ones who keeps posting up the ‘Eurovision’ clip… *laughs*

Dan: You’re not the only one!

I don’t know if you are aware when ABBA won in 1974, the UK gave them nil point!

Michel: There’s a lot of politics now…

Dan: It’s more difficult than ever, you have the two semi-finals and then you have the final, it’s getting very completely crazy.

‘The Man With The Answer’ from ‘Sex’ seems to show an affinity with YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA featuring the late Yukihiro Takahashi, did you feel a connection with any of the other electronic music acts?

Michel: At that time, no, we didn’t listen much to each other… it’s really funny but maybe we were a bit shy but we were on the same stage in Paris with YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA on TV and we didn’t speak to each other which was stupid… but finally Harumi Hosono came to the studio to make a cover of our song ‘L’Amour Toujours’ with a Japanese singer Miharu Koshi.

Dan: Just an anecdote with Harumi Hosono, it was incredible because he could speak only Japanese, no English, no French; there was a French guy living in Tokyo to translate but he didn’t need him because for the work, we understood each other perfectly because it was the same equipment, the same way, it was fantastic, he would programme the sequencer and find the sounds, we were very close technically, those three days were really incredible.

Michel: It could be astonishing that we don’t really relate to your question because Belgium is so small and we were all working apart, we had other jobs, it’s not like having a success all around the world, we couldn’t live on just music. So we were not really part of an electronic scene like London where we would have to go out every night or even in Belgium because even if we were invited somewhere, we wouldn’t go. Also, we were a bit older than most people because we had done things before musically, so we didn’t have the same needs or same way to live. But Belgium is, well, was an island… *laughs*

But one act that you did connect up with was SPARKS. Was bringing them in to collaborate on lyrics on the ‘Sex’ album part of a conscious effort on TELEX’s part to be more international and accessible like on ‘Haven’t We Met Somewhere Before?’ and ‘Long Holiday’?

Dan: It was a coincidence because I was working with a Belgian singer called Lio with Marc Moulin at the same time as TELEX, she was an incredible big success and she was doing TV everywhere in the world. Once in Paris, she was on the same programme as SPARKS. Then Russell Mael proposed that she make her next album in English and offered to write the lyrics. So they arranged to work at my studio in Brussels but Lio never came! We were recording the ‘Sex’ album at the same time so we met, they listened to the album and proposed some English lyrics…

Michel: I had made some French lyrics that I couldn’t make work in English so it was ok.

Dan: So Russell and Ron stayed in Brussels, coached Michel with the singing and they liked the city and came back to make their own albums. They would take the tram to the studio and people would recognise them, so they would sign autographs and it was great, they really liked it *laughs*

Michel: The SPARKS tram! *laughs*

I always thought ‘Haven’t We Met Somewhere Before?’ should have been a hit single in the UK…

Michel: We didn’t write songs to be hits, it’s nice when it comes but we did things we wanted to hear.

In the UK, there was this strange thing of the ‘Sex’ album being released as ‘Birds & Bees’ with different tracks including a new single ‘L’ Amour Toujours’; you did two versions of ‘L’ Amour Toujours’ and I preferred the earlier one on ‘Birds & Bees’ over the reworked ‘Wonderful World’ version…

Michel: I think there are even more versions… *laughs*

At that time, we felt that song could be a hit and maybe we were searching for a way to make it more clear and that’s why there are different versions, maybe we didn’t make the right one. That’s the song Harumi Hosono made with Miharu Koshi. There are maybe 5 or 6 versions on the tapes… sometimes we lost our way because there were so many new machines… that was his fault! *laughs*

Dan: We experimented a lot…

Michel: So compared to KRAFTWERK, we didn’t make as many new songs and they made remixes… they also had a strong image, we didn’t really care about showing ourselves… someone once asked us after the 2006 album ‘How Do You Dance?’, “why do you make music like DAFT PUNK?”…

By ‘Wonderful World’, the digital technology had taken hold, how did you find working with it? ‘Raised By Snakes’ is good but it could be any variety of acts at the time?

Dan: It’s funny you mention ‘Raised By Snakes’ because it’s a pre-sampler track. I didn’t have the Fairlight yet there is this chord; I remember that we had the idea to put on this chord all the time so I put it manually into the multi-track. We put the chord on a quarter inch tape and I had a zero lock and a return button, so to record it, I played the multi-track, then I sent the chord “ding” and then I returned to zero ready for the next time. So it would have been more easier with a sampler but it was just before, it’s funny. Of course, the result is the same.

With the Fairlight from 1983 plus the Synclavier, these were the first digital synthesizers and it was impossible not to have one… on top of TELEX, I had my studio SYNSOUND and people came to me to put electronic sounds on their records so I had to have the whole palette. That’s why I kept buying these novelties at the desespoir of my wife *laughs*

Which were your favourite synths?

Dan: Well, I would say it’s the Oberheim OB6, it’s quite new but it’s the one I use the most because every time, the sound is so inspiring, it’s completely analogue and so it’s great. It’s polyphonic also so you can do almost anything. But of course if you want a real good bass, there is nothing like the Minimoog and if you want some more sophisticated analogue sounds, there is nothing like the Moog Modular, they are all complementary.

Michel: Don’t ask me! *laughs*

I made demos but I don’t go into the final thing, I must confess, I just use Logic now… I’m more interested in composing, but of course it is important to use the right sound.

Dan: I use plug-ins too.

And what was the synth or piece of equipment that was most disappointing, the one didn’t meet expectations?

Dan: It’s easy, the Simmons drums because I could do better sounds with the Moog Modular. It’s not good enough, you only had one envelope and with this envelope, you can control the pitch and the length of the sound. But you would need two envelopes to make it good, one for the pitch and the other for the filter for example which you can even do on a Minimoog! I bought a module and five pads because it was quite popular at the time. The pads are in the attic, they are beautiful by the way, but I almost never used it.

What are your own TELEX career highlights?

Michel: To me, it’s really the first album ‘Looking For Saint Tropez’ because we made music that was really fitting with what was on the market, the idea was so simple, not many things were polyphonic. So for me it was the best period, discovering things and after, it was trying to find the same enthusiasm with new things. But our first album and single ‘Twist A Saint Tropez’…

Dan: … it was very spontaneous… Marc asked me one day “what about making an electronic group together?” and it was great idea. And then we needed a singer, and Marc reminded me of this singer Michel Moers who we worked together with. So we had a rendez-vous in my studio to try something, what can we do? And then Marc and Michel said “Maybe let’s take a French song and make it completely electronic? Oh what about ‘Twist A Saint Tropez’ by LES CHATS SAUVAGES?”; so we switched on everything and then in one day, we finished the track. I did a quick rough mix and put it on a cassette because Marc was seeing a friend who was working for RKM Records. It was played to the boss Roland Kluger and the next day we had a contract! It was so quick!

Michel: The nice thing about all this is that although we made a cover, we prevented ourselves from listening to the original, it was a cover made from our memory. That’s why it’s so different. This is why it’s important for me, it was an exciting period.

What are the highlights of your career Dan?

Dan: What career? *laughs*

It was always great to work… in the beginning, we were discovering, then we were experimenting so some days were a bit, I would say, disappointing but the next, we would listen back and think “that’s great” because sometimes you would be thinking too much or whatever. Before TELEX, I did some records on my own but I never liked it frankly, I am not extrovert so I prefer to be in the studio. TELEX was perfect as it was something we did together, but it was something made in the studio so that we don’t have to make concerts. Later, I had a lot of work with other artists at my studio, synthesizers were really popular so I was working every day.

Dedicated to the memory of Marc Moulin 1942-2008

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Michel Moers and Dan Lacksman

Special thanks to Zoe Miller at Zopf PR

The ‘EP3’ playlist featuring ‘We Are All Getting Old’, ‘Spike Jones’ and more can be heard at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_n6rRiB3JzRz_QRBSuil91EYmczVfjGiMA

The ‘TELEX’ box set is released by Mute as a 6 piece set in coloured vinyl LP and CD variants on 14th April 2023, pre-order from https://mute.ffm.to/telex_boxset

https://mutebank.co.uk/collections/telex

https://www.facebook.com/ThisIsTelex

https://www.instagram.com/this_is_telex/

http://danlacksman.be/

https://www.facebook.com/danlacksmanmusic

https://www.facebook.com/explusguests

http://www.marcmoulin.com/

https://open.spotify.com/artist/6PzO2zYVuLxLwhZJfnP1Wj

Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
3rd February 2023

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