Tag: Depeche Mode (Page 13 of 16)

DEPECHE MODE Live In Berlin DVD

20 November 2014 /


The long awaited DEPECHE MODE ‘Live In Berlin’ DVD has just been released in the UK on Sony Music.

Contained in rather inconspicuous box, resembling more a CD than a DVD, it was very hard to find in UK stores even just a day after release.

This confirms the long proven fact, that, while the rest of Europe is busy holding rather popular DVD release parties, and their media shops are filled with the newest DEPECHE MODE release, the UK music stores struggle to put the DVD on the shelves, having to look for it for 30 minutes in the stock rooms, giving the preference to stuffed characters from ‘Frozen’.

No hope for change here then that the UK music industry cannot recognise its biggest export, a band who sold almost two and a half million tickets on this ‘Delta Machine’ tour.

The package is certified 12, as it promises to “contain moderate sex references”… “Oooohhhhh” say the female DM fans, who cannot wait for Dave Gahan’s booty shake and his half naked, sweaty, gyrating body. There are five discs included in the release, including ‘Live In Berlin’ DVD, ‘Alive In Berlin’ DVD, ‘Live In Berlin’ soundtrack CD 1 and 2 and ‘Delta Machine’ 5.1 Blu-ray Audio disc.

Anton Corbijn who is the man responsible for the film yet again, says in his quote on the back of the package that “‘Alive In Berlin’ is a record of DEPECHE MODE visiting Berlin for two concerts and the impact it has on fans following the band. Berlin is a special place in the hearts of DEPECHE MODE. Likewise, DEPECHE MODE has a strong following in the German capital and the film tries to capture the highlights of these concerts as well as that special connection through interviews with fans and bands alike”.

There is also a 16 page booklet with stage drawings by Anton and photos of the band live. The first DVD is a film of the performances from the O2 World Forum in Berlin on 25th and 27th November 2013 by Anton Corbijn. 21 songs run over 130 minutes of footage and the oh-so familiar DEPECHE MODE butterflies in the stomach cannot be avoided upon seeing the Mute logo at the beginning, only this time it is shown after the Sony banner…

Indeed, with the very first sounds of ‘Welcome To My World’ and seeing the band just about to get on stage, the feeling grows with a promise of something amazing about to happen. The DEPECHE MODE live set up are the iconic trio plus two session musicians, piano and synthesizer player Peter Gordeno and the drummer Christian Eigner. The pair have been with the band for a while now and seem to constitute the staple DM live diet.

The sound is very balanced and visually the film is much easier to watch, then, say the ‘Touring The Angel’ DVD, which frankly, was impossible to follow due to poor editing and peculiar framing.

Even with the first notes of ‘Welcome To My World’, one can hear the clarity of the recording, to the point where sounds are heard that seemed to have skipped the ear during the shows; a promise of a rather exhilarating viewing experience indeed.

Dave Gahan, who himself admits that he takes on a different persona live, floats onto the stage floodlit with red and blue lights, greeted with familiar fan screams to the beefy synth sounds. It’s a beautifully executed first track from ‘Delta Machine’, and (yeah) Dave’s jacket comes off. ‘Angel’ follows, and it is here where one could question its suitability as a live track, especially with slowish ‘Welcome To My World’ preceding. Peter Gordeno stated in ‘Alive In Berlin’, that the gigs start moody and then take nice pace; this is indeed a very slow start with rather good, yet still measured ‘Walking In My Shoes’.

For many, the gig still doesn’t begin properly yet. Pleasant, yet still on the stagnant mode, ‘Precious’ starts with only the dog related projections to get you going (cat lovers yawn with boredom). However, overdrumming by Eigner (does he get paid by each time he hits the over-sized kit?) spoils the song altogether.

“Finally!” you hear the fans scream, upon hearing the first pulses of the iconic ‘Black Celebration’ and watching Dave undo his waistcoat; fantastic lighting and moods lift all around. And then… it NEVER starts! By far the worst live version of this superb song, it is great disappointment and a bit of a shock that such a hit could be turned into a plodder.

Just when you’re about to fall asleep, ‘Should Be Higher’ comes on, which Dave himself describes in the ‘Alive In Berlin’ film as one he loved to perform live, as it became “chunkier” for him than the album version, something he had wanted to achieve during the ‘Delta Machine’ recordings. Fiery projections and exquisite vocals by Gahan lift the mood instantly and make the fans hope that there may be a gig after all. Indeed the audience reacts rather responsively to his interactions.

A few balloons in the air mark the start of ‘Policy Of Truth’ (stop those drum rolls Eigner, this isn’t a rock concert!), a legacy of few last tours and a good laugh for the audience. Everything seems more up tempo and the crowd seem more engaged with this one. The projections remain plain compared with previous DM live tours. Corbijn admitted the set was simple for DM, yet still costly for touring, but DM manager Jonathan Kessler always found the projections an important part of the Mode extravaganza. Yet this time, they’re more subdued.

Dave is off on a break, with Martin coming on for his solo set. ‘Child Inside’ is a beautiful, atmospheric track with decent piano played by Gordeno and those vocals can easily extract tears from female part of the audience, transcending them into a floaty, soft mood, directed by Mr Gore’s amazing voice. ‘But Not Tonight’ is the second “Martin song” and is being warmly greeted by the genius loving crowd. Some take it as an opportunity to get a beer however, to only return for “Dave’s tracks”.

Dave comes back on stage to support his buddy and gets the crowd going again. But the next tune is another lethargic one. This time it’s ‘Heaven’, sluggishly dithering and making one wonder why songs like this are included in the set. Martin mentioned that in rehearsals the band try out what’s good for live performances. Luckily ‘Soothe My Soul’, which comes next, is! The Gahan-Gore connection comes alive during the faster tracks. Dave states that he felt connected with Martin on stage and they worked very well together. The chemistry between the two has always been apparent, but for Gahan, this tour was special. It does show during the faster tracks, although Gahan seems to be loving his Eigner collaboration too, the latter drumming excessively again towards the end of the track.

A rather interesting, fresh version of ‘A Pain That I’m Used To’ follows, with beefy bass guitar played by Gordeno. This track is very representative of what Gahan says in one of the interviews with Corbijn, that the tour had a hvery celebratory feeling, where he had enjoyed the performances more then ever before and where feeling of completing something was apparent.

Peculiar on stage Tai Chi from Fletch opens ‘Question Of Time’, which thanks to Eigner sounds rockier than necessary. Eigner himself admits that he doesn’t have a structure of playing and every gig is different. Many DM fans would indeed agree that less is more in this instance and some would love to see the drummer gone altogether. “Never mind”, the fans scream, ‘Enjoy The Silence’ comes on, and being a huge crowd pleaser, this exceptional track is fully enjoyed by the audience and the band themselves.

Marvellous projections of scantily clad ladies being squeezed into the Delta triangles fuel the mood of this significant tune. The break in the song has become somewhat legendary, being different during each tour; this time it’s very guitary and (again, too) drummy. Dave’s vest comes off to Martin’s guitar with more of Eigner banging away.

All recognise ‘Personal Jesus’, but the plodding intro is rather annoying and becomes tedious after a minute or so before exploding into the tune that the fans love. The crowd are fully responsive with arms up in the air at those very crucial moments, watching Gahan bigger then Jesus himself. “Berlin sing!” Dave shouts out and Berlin does sing before Dave says goodnight for the first time.

Everyone knows, however, that the encore is imminent. And what an encore it is; an excellent rendition of ‘Shake The Disease’ sung by the voice man, Mr Gore plus the most sensually satisfying version of GOLDFRAPP’s remix of ‘Halo’, it being no second-rate sister to its original. Gahan has described it as “sparse and vocally challenging”, and he’s clearly up to the challenge with exquisite vocals and Martin finally taking his position behind a keyboard. Projections have been based in Berlin itself, with a BJORK look-a-like model wandering the streets of this amazing city. It’s a very, very effective follow-up to Martin’s song.

The beat is up again instantly with the ever-so-crowd-pleasing ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’, sounding camp and being quintessential early Vince Clarke era Depeche. The audience are loving it, although uncertain about Christian Eigner’s drumhead antics and Andrew Fletcher’s laughable synth solo, which he gets it wrong more than right. And the balance on this DVD has been clearly altered to hear the crowd more over Fletcher’s keyboard ability!

‘I Feel You’ evolves slowly, being another DM live favourite, but what’s this? The projections are clearly done by a rap loving, hip hop fanatic who has never heard of DEPECHE MODE… it all resembles an iPod advert rather than resonating with the song. This totally pulls the audience away from the mood of this tune and makes them want recollect some more suitable visuals accompanying the track during the previous tours, like the one during ‘Touring The Angel’, with a tasteful glimpse of breast!

‘Never Let Me Down Again’ constitutes another live DM staple, by no means insignificant, but sounding rather sluggish at times though. It still gets the crowd going with the, now iconic, hands up in the air cornfield wave, started by Gahan 25 years ago in The Rose Bowl Pasadena during the ‘Concert For The Masses’.

‘Goodbye’ closes the concert, making many fans wonder whether this actually is a “goodbye” from the band. Dave thanks the Berlin audience, appreciating the fact they’ve always been there for them. Even in the Berlin Wall times when no band wanted to cross The Iron Curtain, DEPECHE MODE travelled to Eastern Europe. Fletch muses “we took gambles in our career particularly to go and play Eastern Europe as we knew we had fans there”.

The whole DVD experience is pleasant but it’s a bit slow, as if it’s middle aged music for middle aged people. Fletch seems to think they did not have one bad show on the tour; fans’ opinions tend to differ with TEC’s Chi Ming Lai disliking the Birmingham gig and many people criticising Munich. The question arises – “Do they still have it in them?”. Well, DEPECHE MODE definitely still have it, Dave was on top form and vocally the strongest in years while the shows were generally superbly organised.

However, there’s a distinct feeling of live DM being over-produced, lacking soul and trying their hardest to be the rock band they are not. The fans, who have grown to love the kings of electronica, do not want to listen to Eigner sweating his boxer shorts off as if he’s in SLIPKNOT, or listening to over inflated ego of Peter Gordeno…

No, they come to watch those Basildon lads who made it big, thanks to hard work, correct management and all the other things that used to constitute the good, old DEPECHE MODE. They want to listen to Martin Gore, who is a self confessed addict of everything music and who told his friends to shoot him if he ever started to collect anything music unrelated.

They want to watch the best frontman there is – Dave Gahan, who seems to be getting better and better each tour. They even want to try and understand what Fletch’s position is within the DM machine, apart from occasional kung-fu moves or banana cravings on stage. Will they ever get that again? Who knows? For now, the DVD and many photos and videos is all they have to remember this iconic tour.

There is some uncertainty however, as to why the concert has not been released on Blu-ray? As for ‘Alive In Berlin’, when the short interviews are extracted, you’re left with the gig, which you get anyway on the main DVD, and ‘Delta Machine’ album which everyone has had for over a year. Just like with the ‘Sounds Of The Universe’ Box Set, this comes across as a money grabbing exercise, with Kessler rubbing his hands together again saying “we’re gonna make lots of money, a load of money”!

Still, every self respecting DEPECHE MODE fan will have ‘Live In Berlin’ on their shelf, occasionally watching it and reminiscing about the good times. This writer certainly will.

‘Live In Berlin’ is released as a 5 disc DVD / CD / Blu-ray Audio deluxe boxed set by Sony Music

http://www.depechemode.com

http://www.facebook.com/depechemode

Text by Monika Izabela Goss
Live Photos by Keith Trigwell
20th November 2014

A Beginner’s Guide To BRIAN ENO

24 July 2014 /

The vast career of electronic innovator and ambient godfather Brian Eno has crossed genres, styles and instrumentation.

Ranging from his solo work with his use of simplistic keyboards and snake guitar to major rock productions and motivational techniques such as his famous ‘Oblique Strategies’ cards, Eno’s theories and thought processes have shaped the pop, rock and avant garde worlds.b“Anything that’s strong enough will stand up to any amount of analysis” Eno said profoundly.

While starting out in art rock with ROXY MUSIC as an EMS VCS3 wielding non-musician, a car accident in early 1975 left him temporarily immobile in a hospital bed. Ever the thinker, it allowed him to explore the possibilities of environmental music. Inadvertently, he had discovered the sub-genre of ambient.

One of his best known early compositions of this type was the short instrumental title track of his 1975 opus ‘Another Green World’ which combined voxless and vocalled tracks in equal measures; the track later became the opening title theme to the BBC2 arts programme ‘Arena’. He focussed on this wordless aesthetic, producing acknowledged ambient classics such as ‘Music for Airports’, ‘Thursday Afternoon’ and ‘Neroli’. His recent album ‘Lux’ on Warp Records continued this quality tradition.

Following his acclaimed solo album ‘Before & After Science’ in 1977, he largely steered clear of conventional vocal led material until 2005’s excellent ‘Another Day On Earth’. However, he maintained a presence within the pop and rock sphere as a producer with ULTRAVOX! and later acts such as DEVO, TALKING HEADS, U2 and JAMES.

“Being a record producer is the best form of cowardice. Producers often get praised but they have to do a really bad job for anyone to criticise them” he said of his occasionally hands-off approach, “The way I work is to try to find out what isn’t being done that ought to be done. Sometimes that means somebody ought to make the tea. Sometimes it means somebody ought to re-write the whole bloody song”. Such is Eno’s magic, he even managed to steer COLDPLAY into making their most bearable track ‘Viva La Vida’! Eno’s influence in the studio has been significant, even when not actually behind the desk.

While often miscredited as the producer of David Bowie’s Berlin trilogy ‘Low’, ‘Heroes’ and ‘Lodger’, he was paramount in directing Bowie’s train of thought towards a new school of pretension beyond conventional rock ’n’ roll. The result was half instrumental tracks such as ‘Sound & Vision’ and doomy neo-classical electronic pieces such as ‘Sense Of Doubt’, while both the ‘Low’ and ‘Heroes’ albums were conceptualised into vocal and instrumental sides.

Other Eno collaborators have included HARMONIA, LARAAJI, ICEHOUSE and  SUEDE as well as John Cale, Jah Wobble,  Leo Abrahams, Jon Hopkins and Karl Hyde among many. Scouse pranksters HALF MAN HALF BISCUIT even sent up this artistic rite of passage in a song called ‘Eno Collaboration’. Eno’s catalogue is far too extensive to summarise in a short synopsis.

So what material would serve as an introduction to his varied career as a recording artist, producer, remixer and collaborative muse? Here are eighteen affectionately chosen examples. As with all previous Beginner’s Guides by ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK, the list is not definitive, presented in chronological order and limited to one track per moniker, project or artist. The intention is to act as an oblique strategy to inspire further investigation…

ROXY MUSIC Ladytron (1972)

roxy_music-ladytron-1972‘Ladytron’ was a gloriously arty adventure; the inclusion of otherworldly sonic manipulations on Andy MacKay’s oboe and sax alongside Eno’s striking VCS3 sourced electronics signalled a futuristic vision that was later to reveal itself in the New Romantic scene. But Eno’s tenure in ROXY MUSIC wasn’t to last; tensions had been running high at Roxy gigs. Following Roxy’s second album ‘For Your Pleasure’, Eno was gone!

Available on the ROXY MUSIC album ‘The Early Years’ via Virgin Records

http://www.roxymusic.co.uk

ENO Back In Judy’s Jungle (1974)

Eno’s solo debut ‘Here Come The Warm Jets’ followed a trashy energetic guitar style inspired by THE VELVET UNDERGROUND, but his sophomore offering took in more esoteric approaches and an interest in Chinese Communism. The skippy waltz of ‘Back In Judy’s Jungle’ with percussion by Phil Collins headed towards the 38th Parallel as an infectious guitar melody (borrowed from a Korean folk tune) took hold alongside whistles and electronic effects.

Available on the ENO album ‘Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)’ via Virgin Records

http://eno-web.co.uk/

FRIPP & ENO Evening Star (1975)

evening starProg rockers KING CRIMSON shared management with Roxy and Eno; their guitarist Robert Fripp made his first collaboration with Eno in 1973 on ‘(No Pussyfooting)’. Comprising of two long spiky improvisations, it used a live tape loop technique christened Frippertronics which allowed Mr Toyah Wilcox to layer guitar sounds. This was put to good use on ‘Evening Star’ which had more melodic components in comparision and gentle harmonics.

Available on the FRIPP & ENO album ‘Evening Star’ via Opal Records

http://www.robertfripp.com

DAVID BOWIE Warszawa (1977)

david-bowie-low‘Warszawa’ was named after the Polish capital city but captured the post-war tensions in West Berlin without the need for lyricism. At Hansa Studios where ‘Low’ was being mixed, the soldiers in the East Berlin watch towers could look into the windows of the building! Tony Visconti’s production enhanced the drama between Bowie’s enigmatic wailing over Eno’s Minimoog and Chamberlain keys. This formed part of an all instrumental suite on the album’s second side.

Available on the DAVID BOWIE album ‘Low’ via EMI Records

http://www.davidbowie.com

ULTRAVOX! My Sex (1977)

Using Eno’s Minimoog with a knob marked with a sheep sticker to indicate it made woolly sounds, Billy Currie’s classical sensibilities combined with John Foxx’s detached dissatisfaction on ‘My Sex’. Despite being accorded joint billing with Steve Lillywhite and the band in the ‘Ultravox!’ album’s production credits, drummer Warren Cann later revealed that Eno had only worked on four tracks and was not quite the accomplished studio technician the band hoped he would be!

Available on the ULTRAVOX! album ‘Ultravox!’ via Universal Music

http://www.metamatic.com

http://www.ultravox.org.uk

ENO MOEBIUS ROEDELIUS The Belldog (1978)

While the 1976 sessions with cult German band HARMONIA featuring Michael Rother of NEU! remained unreleased until 1997, collaborations with two of the collective Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius aka CLUSTER proved to be more successful. With a wonderful ambient collection ‘Cluster & Eno’to their name, their second album  ‘After The Heat’added Eno’s contemplative voice to the experimentation, the best of which was the gentle sequencer led beauty of ‘The Belldog’.

Available on the ENO MOEBIUS ROEDELIUS album ‘After The Heat’ via Bureau B

http://www.dietermoebius.de
‎
http://www.roedelius.com

BRIAN ENO 1/1 (1978)

musicforairportsWith ‘Music for Airports’, No1 in his Ambient series, the concept had been to create soothing pieces for inducing calm in those who had a fear of flying. Unlike ‘Music For Films’ which consisted of short musical fragments, ‘Music For Airports’ comprised of four extended sketches utilising piano, synths and vocal tape loops. ‘1/1’ was a magnificent 17 minute calling card that was “ignorable as it is interesting”.

Available on the BRIAN ENO album ‘Music for Airports’ via Virgin Records

http://brian-eno.net

JON HASSELL & BRIAN ENO Delta Rain Dream (1979)

fourth world poss musicsStrangely enigmatic, Hassell’s muted avant garde trumpet playing and use of Prophet 5 processing in partnership with Eno on ‘Delta Rain Dream’ from ‘Fourth World Vol 1 Possible Musics’ provided a backdrop for a type of percussive primitive futurism where it was envisaged what indigenous tribes would have done if a solar powered synthesizer had been dropped in at the beginning of time and become their instrument of choice.

Available on the JON HASSELL & BRIAN ENO album ‘Fourth World Vol 1 Possible Musics’ via Virgin Records

http://www.jonhassell.com

HAROLD BUDD & BRIAN ENO First Light (1980)

The_Plateaux_of_MirrorEno had produced and issued Budd’s ‘Pavilion Of Dreams’ on Obscure, but didn’t directly collaborate on a full album project with the American self-taught pianist until ‘The Plateaux Of Mirror’; ‘First Light’ was typical of an Eno collaboration where the musician of the partnership was allowed to breathe and build tension before Eno’s magical layers of synthesizer appeared in the final quarter. The approach could be compared to Eno choosing a tie for Budd’s shirt and suit…

Available on the HAROLD BUDD & BRIAN ENO album ‘The Plateaux Of Mirror’ via Virgin Records

http://haroldbudd.com

TALKING HEADS Crossed Eyed & Painless (1980)

talking heads-remain in light‘Once In A Lifetime’ may have been the hit but ‘Crosseyed & Painless’ was the key track from ‘Remain In Light’, TALKING HEADS’ third album with Eno. Incorporating funk rhythms alongside assorted instrumentation modulating around a very basic repetitive chord structure, there was tension within the dance as David Byrne preached like an inebriate evangelist. The credit “All songs written by David Byrne, Brian Eno and Talking Heads” infuriated the other band members.

Available on the TALKING HEADS album ‘Remain In Light’ via WEA Records

http://www.talking-heads.nl/

BRIAN ENO & DAVID BYRNE Regiment (1981)

My_Life_in_the_Bush_of_GhostsRecorded during ‘Remain In Light’, ‘My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts’ was the playroom that nearly drove TALKING HEADS apart. This influential album used taped speeches by personalities of assorted faiths effectively as lead vocals. Featuring the found voice of Lebanese mountain singer Dunya Yusin, ‘Regiment’ was mildly funky and its assortment of rhythmical clarity, synthetic atmospheres and sustained guitar textures proved to be a forerunner of JAPAN’s ‘Tin Drum’.

Available on the BRIAN ENO & DAVID BYRNE album ‘My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts’ via Nonesuch Records

http://davidbyrne.com/

BRIAN ENO, DANIEL LANOIS & ROGER ENO Deep Blue Day (1983)

eno-Apollo-The ‘Apollo’ album was a soundtrack to a documentary film about the mission to the moon. Its intention was to react against the newsy manner of space travel presented by most TV programmes of the day with its fast cuts and speeded up images. Feelings of weightlessness were captured among the collection’s aural clusters and atmospheres. ‘Deep Blue Day’ with its accessible countrified twang from Lanois was used in the infamous ‘toilet’ scene of the film ‘Trainspotting’.

Available on the BRIAN ENO album ‘Apollo’ via Virgin Records

http://daniellanois.com/

U2 The Unforgettable Fire (1984)

U2theunforgettablefireIt seemed a most ludicrous union at the time… the flag waving over earnest rock group teaming up with the thoughtful, ambient egghead! With Bono and Co doing their best ‘New Gold Dream’ period SIMPLE MINDS impression, ‘The Unforgettable Fire’ captured the harrowing trauma of Hiroshima in layers of Yamaha DX7 and Fairlight as Eno pushed the Irish quartet into a more esoteric mind process to counter their bombastic tendencies.

Available on the U2 album ‘The Unforgettable Fire’ via Island Records

 

http://www.u2.com

MICHAEL BROOK Hybrid (1985)

Michael Brook HybridBrook was a studio engineer who could see the possibilities of stretching out the timbres and textures of the electric guitar. His experiments led to his development of the Infinite Guitar. Co-produced by Eno, ‘Hybrid’ was the first album to fully exploit this instrument and the title track very much followed the percussive possible musics of Eno’s ‘Fourth World Vol 1 Possible Musics’ collaboration with Jon Hassell. This wasn’t entirely surprising as Brook had played live with the duo in 1981.

Available on the MICHAEL BROOK album ‘Hybrid’ via Virgin Records

http://www.michaelbrookmusic.com

JAMES Sometimes (1993)

James sometimesAfter their ‘Seven’ album, JAMES were accused of heading down the U2 route so in a replicant move, Booth and Co secured the services of Eno for ‘Laid’, which was released in Autumn 1993. While driven by frantic acoustic guitar, the lead single ‘Sometimes’ benefitted from Eno’s input by steadily building and adding glistening ambient synths. A most gloriously harmonic vocal section towards the conclusion appeared for yet another lift when it was least expected… pure Eno!

Available on the JAMES album ‘Laid’ via Mercury Records

http://www.wearejames.com

DEPECHE MODE In Your Room – Apex Mix (1994)

depeche-mode-in-your-room-apexUsing the percolating bass sequence and chilling stabs from the original album version plus slices of Martin Gore’s backing vocal, Eno’s Apex Mix of ‘In Your Room’ was almost Zen-like in its meditative qualities. Legend has it that while Martin Gore was playing this version in his car, he had to turn it off as it was sending him to sleep! In true Eno style, the backing built slowly and made the most of the song’s inherent tension.

Available on the DEPECHE MODE CD single ‘In Your Room’ via Mute Records

http://www.depechemode.com/

BRYAN FERRY Wildcat Days (1994)

Bryan-Ferry-MamounaThe first co-write between the two former sparring partners with perhaps some nostalgic lyrical reference to the fledgling days of ROXY MUSIC, ‘Wildcat Days’ was the best track from Ferry’s arduous ‘Mamouna’ project, the original sessions of which had started as far back as 1989! Lots of weird noises, detuned swoops and a seasoned supporting cast including Andy MacKay, Chester Kamen and Steve Ferrone combined for this marvellous slice of electronic art funk.

Available on the BRYAN FERRY album ‘Mamouna’ via Virgin Records

http://www.bryanferry.com

BRIAN ENO & J PETER SCHWALM From This Moment (2001)

eno_drawnFor his project with German DJ and percussionist Schwalm, Eno took a more rhythmically colourful approach to his ambient philosophies that coincided with the emergence of chill-out rooms within the club scene. Certainly, ‘Drawn From Life’ possessed more accessible entry points for those who maybe found works such as ‘Music For Airports’ too sedate. The album’s opener ‘From This Moment’ was great soundtrack music, bolstered by live percussion and strings.

Available on the BRIAN ENO & J PETER SCHWALM album ‘Drawn from Life’ via Virgin Records

http://jpeterschwalm.webnode.com/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
24th July 2014

A Short Conversation with BRIAN GRIFFIN

7 May 2014 /

Brian Griffin is the renowned photographer whose work captured the inventive spirit of post-punk and Synth Britannia.

His numerous subjects have included DEPECHE MODE, ULTRAVOX, OMD, SPANDAU BALLET, THE PSYCHEDELIC FURS, TALK TALK, ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN and THE TEARDROP EXPLODES as well as Billy Idol, Howard Jones, John Foxx and Bryan Ferry. Although perhaps not as well known as his contemporary Anton Corbijn, Griffin’s work is no less iconic and some would say, more focussed if far out…

The sleeve of ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN’s ‘Heaven Up There’ which featured his photograph of the band on a windswept Porthcawl Beach in South Wales was voted ‘Best Album Cover’ in the 1980 NME Readers’ Poll, while his image for DEPECHE MODE’s ‘A Broken Frame’ adorned the front cover of Life Magazine’s ‘World’s Best Photographs 1980-1990’ supplement.

Reflective of Griffin’s interest in socialist iconography which continued into DEPECHE MODE’s next album ‘Construction Time Again’, it projected the band’s musical interregnum without being too blatant. As Dave Gahan said to Richard Skinner on Radio1 at the time “Y’know, we didn’t want to be obvious and have a frame with a bit missing!”

While most of Griffin’s front cover photographs have become part of folklore among music enthusiasts, one that still provokes polarising debate is the sleeve of DEPECHE MODE’s debut ‘Speak & Spell’. Brian Griffin kindly discussed ‘Speak & Spell’, along with assorted anecdotes about his other work and what he would do on a DEPECHE MODE album cover today…

How did you become involved with Mute Records?

My photographic agent David Burnham held the lease on a shop in Seymour Place. Daniel Miller and Mute Records moved in on the ground floor. David Burnham did what agents do and showed Daniel my portfolio, with the rest being history.

What was the brief when you were asked to do the cover photo for DEPECHE MODE’s ‘Speak & Spell’?

From memory it was totally open. Although with the cover featuring a swan that cannot be the case. I personally would love to know what made me come up with that crazy idea.

What were the other concepts you considered before arriving at the swan in a bag pic?

Not doing the cover, because DEPECHE MODE was hardly my favourite band at the time.

Was using a photo of the band on the front cover of ‘Speak & Spell’ ever an option like had been done with your photo of ULTRAVOX for ‘Vienna’?

Never. A photograph by me was definitely required.

I personally love the ‘Speak & Spell’ sleeve, but it got a mixed reaction including from the band? What do you think of it now?

It’s right out there, but at the time it was regarded as being one of the worst album covers of recent years. I was at the time, certainly in some other space, maybe outer space!!

Did you feel at all aggrieved when the first CD issue of ‘Speak & Spell’ came out with just a small detail of the swan’s head and neck on the artwork?

Designers trying to give original images a modified twist always do my head in. Obviously the designer, whoever he or she is, is a load of crap.

You did all the album cover photos for DEPECHE MODE up to ‘Black Celebration’, which one is your favourite sleeve and why?

The imagery that I produced for both ‘A Broken Frame’ and ‘Construction Time Again’ I’m immensely proud of and to me, they are of equal merit. However the image choice for ‘Construction Time Again’ was poor by the decision makers, there being far better alternative choices.

The iconic photo used on ‘A Broken Frame’ ended up on the cover of Life Magazine’s ‘The World’s Greatest Photographs 1980-1990’ supplement and even on biscuit packaging in Greece. Where did the rumour that the woman in the photo was Daniel Miller in drag come from?

I haven’t heard that one before! It’s certainly not true.

Your worker images for ‘Construction Time Again’ are very interesting. Back in the day, I thought it was studio work superimposed but you and the musclebound model actually went to The Alps!

Yes, my assistant and his brother the model flew to Switzerland and we even took the sledgehammer with us from Rotherhithe London.

You also took portrait photos of DEPECHE MODE as well as artists such as ULTRAVOX, OMD and TALK TALK. How do look back on that whole Synth Britannia era?

At the time I was a great Krautrock fan like Daniel Miller and I found all these English bands not that interesting, although great photographic opportunities. Now I realise I was wrong and narrow-minded, for listening to them today they produced some great stuff.

Your portrait photos often featured an interesting use of props ie board games with DEPECHE MODE, a pool table with SPANDAU BALLET, chairs and ropes with OMD?

Back then you had to be so inventive. My studio was full of props from various shoots, with budgets low, we would just create ideas from whatever was at hand.

A number of artists you photographed like DEPECHE MODE, ULTRAVOX and ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN went on to work with Anton Corbijn as well… is that a coincidence?

Not really, for he was always hanging around waiting to pounce. Eventually I lost the bands to him.

You have an online shop that includes prints of your DEPECHE MODE photographs and many others. How did you decide upon which outtakes to put into the public domain and were there any interesting legal processes you had to go through to enable them to be sold?

With regards to the outtakes, they had been buried away 32 to 37 years.

It was now time for the fans to see them. I went through no legal processes, for it is such a positive gesture for everyone involved.

If you were photographing for a DEPECHE MODE album cover today, what sort of imagery would you be looking to use?

I would produce an image that would form a trilogy with ‘A Broken Frame’ and ‘Construction Time Again’.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Brian Griffin

A selection of Brian Griffin’s iconic photographs can be viewed and purchased from his website at http://www.briangriffin.co.uk/

Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
7th May 2014

DEPECHE MODE 101 25 Years On: A Short Conversation with ALAN WILDER

13 March 2014 /

It was the document that put DEPECHE MODE into the big league. But while ‘101’ affirmed the Basildon boys’ status into Trans-Atlantic Stadium Monsters, it also symbolised the end of the synth wars…

The battle of Synth Britannia had now been won but with no fight left, the journey had come to an end. And at the post-Live Aid roundabout, DEPECHE MODE had to take a different course to survive and maintain their new found prosperity.

So they got rockier and bluesy to fatten the sound for those huge venues while Dave Gahan’s stage gestures got more provocative and more physical as he had the cover the width of the stage. Even Fletch’s arms aloft gestures became a key part of the bigger show. This ultimately culminated with the pseudo-rock explosion of ‘Songs Of Faith & Devotion’ and its corresponding self-destructive tour. But all that was to come later…

Released 25 years ago in the UK on 13th March 1989, the ‘101’ double album and accompanying film directed by acclaimed filmmaker D A Pennebaker was aimed squarely at telling onlookers-at-large that DEPECHE MODE were no longer those fey synthpoppers in need of a good tailor, but a band with the potential to do battle with U2, who coincidentally had their own film ‘Rattle & Hum’ out in the same year.

While a popular live draw stateside in 1988, DEPECHE MODE had only previously headlined arena sized venues on America’s two coasts. The popularity of British post-punk acts among white American teenagers thanks to the Anglophile soundtracks of John Hughes films like ‘The Breakfast Club’, ‘Pretty In Pink’ and ‘Some Kind Of Wonderful’ was at an all time high. SIMPLE MINDS had nailed a US No1 with ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’ from ‘The Breakfast Club’ while OMD had hit the Top5 with ‘If You Leave’ from ‘Pretty In Pink’.

Indeed, Depeche’s American label Sire had attempted to relaunch them in this Hollywood centred environment by having their B-side ‘But Not Tonight’ as the theme to a largely forgotten teen movie ‘Modern Girls’. The song flopped which proved to be a blessing, especially when looking at the later career trajectories of SIMPLE MINDS and OMD following their initial post-John Hughes flushes of success…

To capitalise on the momentum of increasing US album sales of the album ‘Music For The Masses’ and their most successful American tour yet, they elected to play a ‘Concert for The Masses’ at the 70,000 capacity Pasadena Rose Bowl on 18th June 1988. The 101st and final show of their ‘Music For The Masses’ tour, it was a risky strategy at the time as the band had achieved only one Top 40 single ‘People Are People’ in the US.

But the buzz around the band, especially from the listenership of the influential college friendly radio stations such as KROQ indicated that DM’s newly Devoted American fanbase would make the special trip to witness what was effectively their own musical Superbowl.

Recorded around backstage antics and a road trip following a group of fans on their way to the show inter-dispersed with concert footage from various shows, it was to establish DEPECHE MODE as a credible worldwide force, particularly with dissenters in the UK press who had always been resistant and cynical to their worldwide success.

The result of the release of ‘101’ was that even neutrals in the UK, who had bought the odd album or single in the past, were astonished to find synthpop classics such as ‘Everything Counts’ were now being aired to the masses in all the world’s stadiums… at least that was the perception. Jim Kerr of SIMPLE MINDS was quite bemused at their newly acquired status, retrospectively commenting to Word Magazine in 2006: “Who would’ve thought Depeche Mode plink-plonking away would play in stadiums?”

As a profile building exercise for DEPECHE MODE, ‘101’ was a big success but its legacy also had an effect on Mode’s contemporaries. Rather than opening doors, ‘101’ inadvertently shut them to others. Having been Vince Clarke’s original inspiration to take up the synthesizer and eventually launch DEPECHE MODE, main support act OMD could only watch in awe as their apprentices wowed the massive crowds night after night.

It must have been demoralising to Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys despite their own, not unsubstantial success in Europe. But in the rush to break America, OMD may have had a Top 5 US single to their name, but they could not (and have never been able to) attract the Devoted loyalty which Messrs Gahan, Gore, Fletcher and Wilder had steadily built and enjoyed. They could only go one way after this and looking back, their split in 1989 was predictable!

Supporting proceedings that night in Pasadena was Thomas Dolby who also had to rethink his own artistic aspirations. Despite a Top5 US hit single to his name, he had his own struggles with pressure for more hits from his various record labels. As a solo act, he could not split with himself but after his 1992 album ‘Astronauts & Heretics’, he effectively retired from the music industry.

Working in Silicon Valley on music integration software for the brave new world of the internet with great success and developing the polyphonic ringtone engine for Nokia along the way, he only returned to music in 2006 and supported DEPECHE MODE again at London’s Hyde Park that same year.

By the time of the more organic but still primarily electro album ‘Violator’, DEPECHE MODE had overtaken all their peers, and this symbolism was highlighted when they played at Dodgers Stadium in August 1990 to conclude the North American leg of the ‘World Violation’ tour. The support act were ELECTRONIC, a supergroup made up of refugees from NEW ORDER and THE SMITHS plus both PET SHOP BOYS thrown in for good measure! Messrs Gahan, Gore, Fletcher and Wilder had now become the UK independent scene’s biggest post-punk success story.

One of the protagonists at the Pasadena Rose Bowl on 18th June 1988 was of course, Alan Wilder. In an exclusive interview for its 25th Anniversary, he kindly answered some questions about ‘101’ and discussed its legacy…

In hindsight, the ‘101’ film, while good for DEPECHE MODE’s profile at the time, appeared to focus on some of the wrong things ie there’s too much footage of the fans on the bus, not enough actual music?

Even though Don Pennebaker had previously made music concert films (David Bowie at Hammersmith Odeon for example), he is primarily a documentary filmmaker.

This was appealing to us although it is debatable whether the pre-determined set-up of the group of bus people (collected and auditioned a la ‘Big Brother’) is not an inferior form, as opposed to entering an already existing situation and truly being a fly on the wall. After all, Reality television has little to do with reality.

Once commissioned and given a fairly free reign, Pennebaker looked at his options and decided to make a film about what he considered to be the most (perhaps the only) interesting factors of the DM phenomenon. The fact that Don had not really even heard of the group, let alone any of its music, gave him an outsider’s perspective and he soon realised that he wasn’t likely to glean any pearls of wisdom from the band members. As individuals, we were not deep-thinking angst-driven people with massive world insight. His decision to focus on the fans was probably the right one.

In its defence, it shouldn’t be forgotten that we’ve all been saturated with the kind of voyeurism that Reality TV has spewed forth into our consciousness for more than two decades, but in 1987 this was an unusual and precarious approach. Nobody knew what would transpire or whether it would be of any interest at all.

I’d go as far as to say the idea was somewhat groundbreaking as it clearly pre-dates all that MTV malarky which most people consider to be where the Reality craze got started. Also, the naivety and carefree exuberance with which the bus protagonists go about their adventures has a charm which could probably not be repeated today, given the knowing self-promoting instincts from most who take part in these ventures now, along with the predictable audience consumption, moral judgements and salacious anticipation of all things about to fall apart.

This kind of format has not only become hugely popular but also the centre of heated discussions about tabloidisation, media ethics, privacy and the representation of the real. At the time, I felt short-changed by ‘101’ as I wanted the band itself to be explored more profoundly, preferably by someone who had knowledgeable insight into the music, our working practices and what we (albeit sometimes clumsily and naively) were generally trying to do.

Pennebaker didn’t pretend to understand the band at all – he made no bones about that fact – but, with hindsight, he did manage to make a piece which says something about the era and I think, allied to the fact that it holds no pretentions (unlike some rock docs of the period – err… hummm… ‘Rattle and Hum’), it stands the test of time. Having said that, I find the film at best curious rather than ‘deep’.

The fanbase connection with the band appeared to be what was trying to be highlighted on ‘101’. For example, the crowd has been mixed in very loudly on the live footage and audio whereas a good number of live albums of the time would neutralise the audience noise?

I feel to highlight the fanbase connection was fair enough. After all, this is the real crux of the DM fascination – how “four Walters from Basildon” (to quote an early single review) could form the source of nothing short of a worldwide phenomenon, the nature of which is quite perplexing, way out of proportion for a pop band – a strange, bizarre and enduring religion which has been demonstrated again more recently in Jeremy Deller’s film ‘The Posters Came From The Walls’.

Is that right about the crowd levels? I haven’t listened for a long time to the album but the film soundtrack may be even more that way. Again, I haven’t watched the film for many years and it’s possible that the Pennebaker crew had some extra control over that music-to-crowd balance. My memory though is that we controlled the music mixes and so the album balance would have been the decision of those of us who mixed the tracks.

‘101’ symbolises DEPECHE MODE’s entry to the wider international stage but perhaps also, the end of Synth Britannia as of those support acts who played that day in Pasadena, OMD split up soon after while Thomas Dolby retired from the music industry a few years later. It was as if DM had set a bar that their peers couldn’t hope to reach… any thoughts on that?

I’m not sure that DM’s ‘success’ would have had any negative bearing on other electronic artists. If anything, the expectation of positive reverberations and opening of doors would have been more likely. A lot of it was luck for DM though, coupled with plenty of donkey work touring in the US leading up to the big (and unexpected to such a degree) explosion. It seems the timing was right for that kind of music where genres were being choked by mainstream rock radio as a huge cult level of other music listeners were being shafted.

We benefited from a kind of breaking of the dam which finally gave way, resulting in those stations almost being forced into recognising and playing the newer UK artists of the time – such as The Cure, The Smiths, New Order, DM and many other groups which had been, up until then, considered ‘alternative’ or ‘cult’ in the states. I can’t hazard a guess about the examples you cite or speculate as to why some acts may have failed to capitalise. I do know that there is never a correlation which one should assume between the quality of a band / artist compared to the amount of people who turn up to their concerts. It’s a funny old game…

 

With that in mind and with DEPECHE MODE established publically with ‘101’ as a ‘stadium act’, had the development into a more organic, rock / bluesy sound to suit those types of venues been a conscious move in order for DM to maintain that position with ‘Violator’ and ‘Songs Of Faith & Devotion’?

Subconsciously there may be an element due to the nature of the venues and larger (more distant) crowds needing to be serviced. Dave, I’m sure, would have welcomed the more ’rocky’ approach to release and enhance his own stage performances. But ‘Violator’ is still a very electronic album when you listen to it now, and its less electronic elements, rather than derived from stadium experiences, were mainly influenced by the wave of hip hop and rap music which permeated the scene at that time. The methods of those artists employing more left-field sampling techniques left a significant mark on both myself and Flood.

We were attracted to the inherent feel of played drum loops for example rather than precisely programmed rhythm from machines or individual drum samples. This ‘looping’ was taken much further with ‘SOFAD’ of course – an album style conceived mainly because we didn’t want to just repeat ‘Violator’ despite its success. That would have been seen as stagnation and some of us at least were very wary of that.

You did not appear in the interviews or commentary for the bonus features on the ‘101’ DVD reissue, why was that?

A surprising amount of pressure was put on me to take part in the ‘director’s commentary’ idea, mainly from Daniel Miller and Pennebaker himself. But I didn’t feel I had some exciting anecdotes or anything particularly insightful to add for the reissue. I’ve never enjoyed the commentary concept – frequently empty and often unnecessarily demystifying (I like to retain something for the imagination). The ‘101’ film is not exactly complicated and doesn’t contain any technical issues which needed explaining either. It speaks for itself.

Even though, on paper, the idea of a group and director ‘talkover’ maybe could have worked – i.e. jogging each other’s memories etc – I just knew that putting four rock band members together in a room to randomly comment would result in silly giggling, talking over each other and the spouting of mainly nonsense. And that filled me with dread.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its sincerest thanks to Alan Wilder

The DEPECHE MODE ‘101’ film and uninterrupted Pasadena Rose Bowl concert highlights are available as a 2DVD package via Mute Records. The ‘101’ 2CD live album is still available

For information on Alan Wilder’s RECOIL and his other projects, please visit http://blog.recoil.co.uk/

DEPECHE MODE’s own recollections of that June day in Pasadena can be found at http://archives.depechemode.com/specials/june_18_1988.html

Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Anton Corbijn
13th March 2014

25 SONGS THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN SINGLES

19 February 2014 /

The concept of the single in the past has been to present an artist’s most immediate work for mass consumption and appreciation, often as a trailer for an album or compilation.
Like it or not, many acts’ best songs have been released as singles. They often reach an audience who would not normally be interested in the tribulations of a much longer journey.

Looking back throughout pop history, many pinnacles of a group’s career have been exclusively single releases; THE WALKER BROTHERS ‘The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore’, THE BEATLES ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, IAN DURY & THE BLOCKHEADS ‘Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick’ and THE JAM ‘Going Underground’ are a number of examples.

Today’s culture of individual track downloading now makes virtually every song in existence a single. However, a fair number of recordings which have become standards within live sets and have become a key part of a band’s history have never been accorded a single release. Such were some bands’ standings in their heyday that many were potential hits.

So here are 25 synth friendly songs which ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK felt should have been given singular status. Listing tracks not released as 45s or CD singles in the UK with a limit of one song per artist moniker, they are arranged in chronological and then alphabetical order.

GARY NUMAN Metal (1979)

With Minimoog riffage in abundance, ‘Metal’ would have made a perfect follow-up to ‘Cars’ and in hindsight, been less of a public anti-climax than the brave, but misguided release of ‘Complex’, as great a song as it is. Full of dystopian resignation with references to “liquid engineers” and chilling vox humana courtesy of the Polymoog, ‘Metal’ was Sci-Fi musicality at its best. Even NINE INCH NAILS covered it and nearly 35 years later, it is still part of the Gary Numan live set.

Available on the GARY NUMAN album ‘The Pleasure Principle’ via Beggars Banquet Records

http://www.numan.co.uk/

JOHN FOXX A New Kind Of Man (1980)

“I want to be a machine” cried JOHN FOXX as far back as 1977 on the first ‘Ultravox!’ album. Starting off side two of ‘Metamatic’, the former Dennis Leigh realised his mechanised JG Ballard inspired electro theories and went up to the next level with ‘A New Kind of Man’. Is it about genetically modified humans or homo superiors? Who knows? But the chilling Elka string machine and frightening detuned synthetics made it a distinctly new kind of song in a brave new world.

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

http://www.metamatic.com/

JAPAN Swing (1980)

JAPAN found a refuge at Virgin Records who released their fourth album ‘Gentlemen Take Polaroids’. One of its best numbers was ‘Swing’ which combined David Sylvian’s muzak travelogue with Richard Barbieri’s Oriental synth textures. It was probably one of the last times JAPAN were fully as one. Guitarist Rob Dean made a full contribution before being forced out while the rhythm section of the late Mick Karn and Steve Jansen were amazingly fluid over the drum machine bossa nova.

Available on the JAPAN album ‘Gentlemen Take Polaroids’ via Virgin Records

http://www.nightporter.co.uk/

JOY DIVISION Isolation (1980)

OK, so JOY DIVISION never took singles from their albums but what if they had? This would have been a contender. Featuring an ARP Omni and an early version of the Simmons drum synthesizer, ‘Isolation’ was the most electronic track JOY DIVISION ever recorded although Hooky’s bass ensured there was a gritty punk rock edge. When NEW ORDER reformed for the first time in 1998, a drum ‘n’ bass flavoured rework of ‘Isolation’ was part of the live set.

Available on the JOY DIVISION album ‘Closer’ via WEA Records

http://joydivisionofficial.com/

THE HUMAN LEAGUE The Things That Dreams Are Made Of (1981)

Optimistic and aspirational, ‘The Things That Dreams Are Made Of’ is the key song from ‘Dare’ and was a metaphor for THE HUMAN LEAGUE’s then pop ambitions. Gloriously spacious and delightfully catchy, each synthesizer voicing has its place while Phil Oakey gives full justice to Adrian Wright’s shopping list of life’s pleasures to a perfect Linn Drum clap track. It certainly deserves to be played live more often… “New York – ice cream – TV – travel – good times”

Available on THE HUMAN LEAGUE album ‘Dare’ via Virgin Records

http://www.thehumanleague.co.uk/

KRAFTWERK Computer World (1981)

Hooky, catchy and futuristic, ‘Computer World’ with its Speak & Spell voices and infectious four note theme was an ideal KRAFTWERK single if ever there was one. However, the perky and novelty laden ‘Pocket Calculator’ was chosen to trail the parent album. It is unlikely ‘Computer World’ could have hit the top of the charts like ‘The Model’ did, but such was the song’s popularity, the native variant got released as a limited run remixed maxi-single in Germany.

Available on the KRAFTWERK album ‘Computer World’ via Mute Records

http://www.kraftwerk.com/

OMD She’s Leaving (1981)

It was a tricky call between ‘She’s Leaving’ and ‘Radio Waves’, but the North-by-North West melancholy of the former won over the upfront Germany Calling salvo of the latter. A wonderful synthetic cross between JOY DIVISION and Paul McCartney, ‘She’s Leaving’ was pencilled in as the fourth single from OMD’s huge selling ‘Architecture & Morality’ but was vetoed by the band.  However, when ‘She’s Leaving’ did come out as a single in the Benelux region, it flopped.

Available on the OMD album ‘Architecture & Morality’ via Virgin Records

http://www.omd-messages.co.uk/

SOFT CELL Secret Life (1981)

As proven by their covers of ‘Tainted Love’, ‘What?’ and later on during their 21st Century comeback ‘The Night’, SOFT CELL always had a love of the UK’s Northern Soul scene. Its influence would seep into their own compositions like ‘Secret Life’. Marc Almond’s narrative on a philanderer’s hypocrisy was an apt reflection of suburban life while Dave Ball’s solid use of keyboards provided a suitably accessible but gritty sub-Tamla soundtrack.

Available on the SOFT CELL album ‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret’ via Universal Music

https://www.softcell.co.uk/

DURAN DURAN New Religion (1982)

The perfect balance between art and pop, ‘New Religion’ was a key highlight from DURAN DURAN’s ‘Rio’ album. “A dialogue between the ego and the alter-ego”, Simon Le Bon’s conflicting schizophrenic voices added tension in the bridges before a classic Duran chorus. With an ambient intro that JAPAN would be proud of, it then moved at breakneck speed through the quintet’s other influences like Bowie, Roxy, Moroder and Chic with speed being the operative word.

Available on the DURAN DURAN album ‘Rio’ via EMI Records

http://www.duranduran.com/

SIMPLE MINDS New Gold Dream (1982)

A huge song with two drummers drumming as well as lashings of Jupiter 8 and a marvellous bass engine, ‘New Gold Dream’ and its parent album highlighted an ambitious streak in SIMPLE MINDS akin to their Virgin label mates THE HUMAN LEAGUE when they released ‘Dare’ the year before. Already six minutes in length, an extended mix was released as a 12 inch single in Italy while as a sample on URSURA’s ‘Open Your Mind’, ‘New Gold Dream’ became a club hit in 1993.

Available on the SIMPLE MINDS album ‘New Gold Dream’ via Virgin Records

http://www.simpleminds.com/

VISAGE The Anvil (1982)

With its heavy metronomic beat sans hi-hats, ‘The Anvil’ was Steve Strange’s tale of a night out in New York’s notorious club of the same name. But that wasn’t all, Billy Currie’s screaming ARP Odyssey and Dave Formula’s brassy synth riff completed the excursion. Rusty Egan said: “For me, ‘The Anvil’ was the lead track, ‘The Anvil’ in German (‘Der Amboss’), the 12-inch remixes, all that which I did with John Luongo was for me, the single. But the record company didn’t support that!”

Available on the VISAGE album ‘The Anvil’ via Cherry Pop

http://www.visage.cc/

YAZOO Midnight (1982)

Showcasong one of the best Alison Moyet vocals, Vince Clarke’s minimal programmed backing gave her plenty of space to let rip with raw emotion on ‘Midnight’ . Back in those days, Mute Records usually only took two singles from an album so with ‘Only You’ and ‘Don’t Go’ already accorded singular status from ‘Upstairs at Eric’s’, a 45 was never likely. But it sort of belatedly became a single when it was sampled and manipulated by REX THE DOG for ‘Bubblicious’ in 2008.

Available on the YAZOO album ‘Upstairs At Eric’s’ via Mute Records

http://www.yazooinfo.com/

BLANCMANGE Game Above My Head (1983)

Originally the B-side to ‘Waves’, ‘Game Above My Head’ signalled the more disco based direction Neil Arthur and Stephen Luscombe later trod on ‘Blind Vision’ and ‘That’s Love, That It Is’ with American producer John Luongo. Merging the busy Linn Drum patterns that characterised BLANCMANGE’s debut ‘Happy Families’ with a funkier outlook, ‘Game Above My Head’ was included on their second LP ‘Mange Tout’. Today, the song remains a constant in the live set.

Available on the BLANCMANGE album ‘Mange Tout’ via Edsel Records

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

HEAVEN 17 Five Minutes To Midnight (1984)

HEAVEN 17’s most underrated track and referencing The Doomsday Clock, ‘Five Minutes To Midnight’ followed on from ‘Let’s All Make A Bomb’ to highlight the absurdity of Mutually Assured Destruction. Using and abusing the Fairlight CMI, the ‘Protect and Survive’ styled civil defence announcements, deathly whoops and a doomy orchestral crescendo bring a frightening finality as the song suddenly stops… “Hot as a furnace – wing to wing contact! AARGH!”

Available on the HEAVEN 17 album ‘How Men Are’ via Virgin Records

http://www.heaven17.com/

HOWARD JONES Equality (1984)

‘Equality’ exploited new MIDI technology like the Prophet T8 and Yamaha DX7, combining it with a Jupiter 8 and Pro-One; “it was one of those ones that really suited my live rig” said Howard Jones With its poignant human rights message, whether ‘Equality’ would have made a better single than ‘Pearl in the Shell’ is a moot point, but the song was released as a single in South Africa as a commentary about Apartheid.

Available on the HOWARD JONES album ‘Human’s Lib’ via Cherry Red Records

http://www.howardjones.com/

ULTRAVOX White China (1984)

Despite their use of synthesizers, it was rare that ULTRAVOX went the whole sequencer route. They did so with this song about the impending 1997 handover of the British Colony of Hong Kong to Red China. The lyrics captured a sense of pessimism over a bouncy electro disco soundtrack influenced by ‘Blue Monday’. Slated for release as a single in the UK, ‘White China’ had a special extended mix prepared but Chrysalis Records preferred the more obvious ‘Dancing With Tears In My Eyes’.

Available on the ULTRAVOX album ‘Lament’ via EMI Records

http://www.ultravox.org.uk/

A-HA Scoundrel Days (1986)

A-HA were perceived as a teenybop group in their heyday, but their Nordic melancholic depth was apparent even on their only UK No1 ‘The Sun Always Shines On TV’. “Cut my wrist on a bad thought” is a superb piece of second language expression that no native speaker could have come up with. Morten Harket veers from a semi-spoken growl to a full voice salvo for the terrific chorus while Pål Waaktaar’s twanginess adds some edge to Magne Furuholmen’s glacial synthetic atmospheres.

Available on the A-HA album ‘Scoundrel Days’ via WEA Records

http://a-ha.com/

PET SHOP BOYS Tonight Is Forever (1986)

Mistakenly announced as a new single on ‘The Tube’, ‘Tonight Is Forever’ is one of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe’s best early compositions. From its blipping intro with an odd starting snare drum to the magnificently euphoric chorus, it captured the excitement of a fleeting romance on a night out in clubland. With its sombre synth brass riff and a wonderful middle eight, it was later covered by Liza Minelli in an orchestral arrangement for her PET SHOP BOYS produced album ‘Results’.

Available on the PET SHOP BOYS album ‘Please’ via EMI Records

http://www.petshopboys.co.uk/

NEW ORDER Mr Disco (1989)

‘Your Silent Face’ may be one of NEW ORDER’s best songs, but it was unlikely to have got radio play as a single with its “why don’t you p*ss off?” quip! Meanwhile, ‘Mr Disco’ was the club friendly Mancunians in their Italo prime, complete with holiday romance lyrics and tongue-in-cheek syndrums. Some fans were dismayed by its resemblance to PET SHOP BOYS, but Bernard Sumner went and founded ELECTRONIC, aided and abetted by Messrs Tennant and Lowe!

Available on the NEW ORDER album ‘Technique’ via WEA Records

http://www.neworder.com/

DEPECHE MODE Halo (1990)

One of DEPECHE MODE’s greatest moments, Alan Wilder said: “From memory, the drums were sampled from LED ZEPPELIN’s ‘When the Levee Breaks’ (but secondhand from a rap record)… For the end choruses, there are some string samples which I think were derived from Elgar. One of my techniques is to find sections of classical strings and transpose / stretch these, then add my own samples, in order to formulate new and unusual arrangements”.

Available on the DEPECHE MODE album ‘Violator’ via Mute Records

http://www.depechemode.com/

ELEKTRIC MUSIC Kissing The Machine (1993)

Undoubtedly, ‘Kissing The Machine’ is Andy McCluskey’s finest song without Paul Humphreys as an OMD band mate. It also featured one of Karl Bartos’ greatest melodies. Recorded for his first project after leaving KRAFTWERK, Karl Bartos said “He suggested we do something together and I was up for it… We picked some cassettes and finally I found the opening notes of ‘Kissing The Machine’. A month later he sent me a demo…He wrote the whole song and the lyric and the robo voice” 

Available on the ELEKTRIC MUSIC album ‘Esperanto’ via SPV Records

http://www.karlbartos.com/

ERASURE Because You’re So Sweet (1994)

The closing track on the ‘I Say I Say I Say’ album produced by HEAVEN 17 and BEF’s Martyn Ware, ‘Because You’re So Sweet’ was a pretty ballad representative of the maturer approach taken by Andy Bell and Vince Clarke for their seventh long player. Featuring ERASURE’s trademark sequences, there was also the self-imposed restriction of no drum machines being used, so that all the album’s percussive templates were created using synths and driven by sequencers.

Available on the ERASURE album ‘I Say I Say I Say’ via Mute Records

http://www.erasureinfo.com/

MOBY First Cool Hive (1997)

There were eight singles from 1999’s ‘Play’ but for 1995’s ‘Everything Is Wrong’, Mute Records were more restrained with just five! Surprisingly, this vivid instrumental missed out on singular distribution. One of the highlights from the genre hopping MOBY long player, the looping bass sample of ‘First Cool Hive’ was like an update of ‘Empires & Dance’ era SIMPLE MINDS while female voice samples and beautiful synth strings gave it a mysterious ENIGMA-tic touch.

Available on the MOBY album ‘Everything Is Wrong’ via Mute Records

http://www.moby.com/

LADYTRON Discotraxx (2001)

‘Mu-tron’ may have opened the LADYTRON  debut album ‘604’ but the pulsating salvo at the start of ‘Discotraxx’ signalled the album’s intent… the return of the synthesizer as an instrument of value and integrity, not as a novelty to mock the past. From the moment Mira Aroyo deadpans in Bulgarian and Helen Marnie’s sweet but resigned voice kicks in about “the boy I know”, a new dawn is heralding for electronic pop.

Available on the LADYTRON album ‘604’ via Nettwerk Records

http://www.ladytron.com/

GOLDFRAPP Lovely 2 C U (2005)

The surreal concept was Kate Bush does THE HUMAN LEAGUE on this buzzy percussive extravaganza, one of the more under rated songs in Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory’s canon. The sub-TOM TOM CLUB meets PRINCE electrofunk is aided by Charlie Jones’ treated bass runs over the zooming synth hooks and chunky riffs. Interestingly despite its immediacy or maybe because of it, ‘Lovely 2 C U’ has rarely made it into the GOLDFRAPP live set.

Available on the GOLDFRAPP album ‘Supernature’ via Mute Records

http://goldfrapp.com/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
28th February 2014

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