With the beautiful, dramatically expressive voice, which has dominated the UK electronic scene for some 30 years, mainly under the umbrella of ERASURE, as well as his solo releases dating back to 2005, ANDY BELL likes to take on new enterprises.
While the wait for 2014’s ‘The Violet Flame’ was gearing up fans of the powerful duo for something spectacular, Bell was well underway being Torsten, an age-defying polysexual, in the first stage of the Torsten productions. Barney Ashton, the poet and writer responsible for Torsten, first approached Bell six years ago, having the idea of the show in mind; the show with a character perfect for the voice of ERASURE.
Being a lover of challenge, Bell keenly accepted the invitation, having previously played a part of ‘Montesor’ in ‘The Fall Of The House Of Usher’ opera by Peter Hammill. Loving the leftfield, off-off Broadway types of productions, which are less commercial, but often more like 1960s British black and white movies, the artist embraced the über controversial role of the tortured individual, trapped in his semi-immortality and bad luck in relationships.
Indeed, for Andy it had been “the biggest challenge of (his) career so far”, and being Torsten does not mean he would “necessarily get on with him, if I met him”. The first production, ‘Torsten The Bareback Saint’, was “sporadic, psychotic, quite confusing to people” according to the man himself, with stories from Torsten’s childhood, school years, his job in the local bingo, his lovers of both sexes, his alcoholic father and submissive, abused mother and, above all, his fragile mental state.
‘Torsten The Beautiful Libertine’ paints a clearer picture of the character, with more insight into his background and how he was shaped while growing up. To Bell himself, it’s “much more song oriented”, where “Barney definitely has found a rhythm”, where he loves being Torsten, “even more now that he’s becoming slightly unhinged, unravelling before our very eyes… he is putting everything into perspective and copying… just”.
‘Statement Of Intent’ pretty much describes the entire story of the semi-immortal, in an honest, crude and straight forward manner, before ‘Beautiful Libertine’ comes in with a gentle piano canvassing further excerpts from Torsten’s experiences since he was 15, ‘Loitering With Intent’.The gleeful revenge on a lover, who “stole respect from young man just like me” is the prevailing theme of the track, where Torsten is keen to “trash (his) f***ing face”.
The conclusion is that ‘This Town Needs Jesus’, where sexual perversions prevail everywhere one looks, with almost medieval approach to sexuality and where drugs and money can buy anything, where ‘The Slums We Loved’ project the basic needs of anyone: from the poorest, through the working class (with individuals like ‘Lady Domina Bizarre’), to the rich (‘Bond Street Catalogues’).
The song cycle continues to flow further, expanding into the flowery descriptions of vulgarity and obscenity, which is ultimately laced with the basic need to be loved and approved in the Bowie-esque ‘I’m Your Lover’ or ‘I Am The Boy Who Smiled At You’. Torsten’s mother did accept his sexuality, understanding that one cannot help “where love falls” in the super synthy ‘We Were Singing Along To Liza’, something that gave him the ultimate content and comfort.
Just like ‘I Don’t Like’ from the first production, ‘My Precious One’ stands alone, as an endearing love story, Torsten manages to “retain a certain naïveté in spite of these experiences. (He) bears witness to these scars”
The endless talent of ANDY BELL continues to shine; part two of Torsten’s story is as thought-provoking, as it is shocking. The tale of a man, who “finds himself in extraordinary circumstances”, having outlived many friends and lovers and plunging further into the state of melancholy and bittersweetness, is sung with poise, nativity and hope; a hope that there is something left for the tragic character after all.
Where ERASURE takes precedence above all, this may just be the role of Bell’s life-time, perhaps?
The ‘Torsten The Beautiful Libertine’ show plays at the Above The Stag Theatre, Arch 17, Miles Street, London SW8 1RZ until 27th March 2016; please visit www.abovethestag.com for more information
Not to be confused with the Latin rock band discovered by Sergio Mendes, MACONDO were a synthpop duo from Grays in Essex.
Comprising of Wayne Clements and his sidekick Vickie, their only album ‘Up Here For Thinking, Down There for Dancing’ was released in 2003 by Ninthwave Records, an American independent specializing in electronic pop founded in 2001 as part of Lexicon Magazine, originally an ABC fanzine that morphed into a more general platform featuring synthpop and new wave.
Ninthwave Records issued a number of new artist compilations including ‘Electricity’ which featured SUBVERSION, a synthpop act who included THE KILLERS’ Brandon Flowers as one of its members. It also handled the North American release of HEAVEN 17’s 2005 album ‘Before / After’, as well as curating tribute albums to OMD and YAZOO.
Take in the context of the period; the new millennium had begun and with the post-Britpop hangover, there was effectively no electronic music unless it was club focussed. Synthpop acts couldn’t get arrested and although LADYTRON released ‘604’ in 2001, it was done independently via their own Invicta H-Hi imprint. Even after they had achieved some critical success and signed a record deal, their second album ‘Light & Magic’ in 2003 was released in the USA first by Emperor Norton.
Wayne Clements had established his own synth imprint Lucky Pierre which later released a great compilation ‘Robopop Volume 1’ featuring CLIENT, VIC TWENTY, WHITE TOWN, KOMPUTER, EMPIRE STATE HUMAN and BAXENDALE.
But overall, it was a frustrating period for electronic music of a more pop focussed bent. It seemed North America were the saviours of synthpop, so it was no great surprise that MACONDO ended up signing to Ninthwave.
Some of that frustration came across on ‘Up Here For Thinking, Down There For Dancing’, an amusing collection of synthpop that brightened up the synthetic sky with its humour, wit, sadness, and disappointment.
On the opening number ‘Something’s Got to Happen Soon’, NEW ORDER collided with ERASURE via a wonderfully nonchalant vocal and some pretty, sparkling melodies. Lyrics like “I wanted to change my life and I was going to start today but then I got up late, there’s always tomorrow…” captured the essence of the proud pronouncements that people now make online, that ultimately wither away as unrealised ideas through lack of focus or just plain laziness. Undeterred, Wayne then declared ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ but he did.
Following on, the brilliant ‘Saturday Boys’ encompassed that very English attitude to being skint and therefore, uncommitted and unambitious; who doesn’t know someone like that? It’s the ultimate anti-aspiration song about “doing nothing to enhance our reputation…”
With hints of FRAZIER CHORUS, the brilliantly titled honesty of ‘Live Life To The Min’ also accurately captured this state of apathy in a life where “I don’t go out when I can stay in…” – indeed, who really gives a f*** about apathy?
The charming ‘Local Boy’z’ with its deliberately off-key vocals reflected on the small town mentality revolving around the M25 with the conclusion “it never occurred to us that we could leave…” while ‘Club Supper’ brought Vickie into the vocal mix with a break-up duet within a 6/8 Clarke inspired synthfest. Another swung ERASURE-ish number ‘He’s Got A Gun’ poked fun at the wannabe criminal underworld.
Within the shuffling midtempo backbone of ‘Disappointed’ and its Western theme harmonica solo was a great tune, while highlighting that ‘Up Here for Thinking, Down There for Dancing’ wasn’t just built around a single pace, there was the softer, more downbeat narrative of ‘What If He Doesn’t Show?’ and the closing cascading resignation of ‘Game Over’.
‘Up Here For Thinking, Down There For Dancing’ was a promising, quirky debut, and although there was a download remix collection ‘Down There For Dancing’ in 2004, other than an outtake ‘It Couldn’t Be Further From The Truth’ featuring Vickie on lead vocals appearing on the ‘Electricity 2’ sampler, that was it from MACONDO.
Another Lucky Pierre compilation ‘Robopop – The Return’, in association with production duo MANHATTAN CLIQUE and their label Planet Clique, did appear in 2006; on it were GOLDFRAPP, THE KNIFE, TIGA, MATINEE CLUB, ROBOTS IN DISGUISE and LORRAINE. But there was the surprise inclusion of MACONDO with a previously unreleased track called ‘CCTV’, again with Vickie on lead… it raised hopes of another album, but it was not to be.
Like their fellow ironic synthers YOUNGER YOUNGER 28s and BAXENDALE, MACONDO were an amusing aural relief to the landfill indie of the times, although unlikely to have been massively successful even in the current electro friendly climate. But they would have had some friendly faces around in this internet age.
Wherever they are now, whether they are section managers at Asda, designing logos for big corporations or writing comedy scripts for the BBC, Wayne and Vickie’s sub-FRAZIER CHORUS melodic pop and witty social observations are greatly missed.
It’s been 30 years since ERASURE emerged onto the UK synthpop scene. DEPECHE MODE co-founder Vince Clarke joined forces with Andy Bell and as the saying goes, the rest is history.
Numerous albums later, the 1989 Brit Award winning duo have gone from strength to strength. Both have always been busy outside of ERASURE with their side projects.
There’s been Andy’s opera appearances, collaborations with IN VOX, BRITISH ELECTRIC FOUNDATION, SHELTER, various DJ and solo work. Meanwhile Vince has produced for other artists, co-written with old DM band mate Martin Gore as VCMG and much more; they continue to dedicate their time to ERASURE at clockwork intervals, turning out marvellous albums which are not just popular with the electronica fanatics.
The boy with heavenly voice, Andy Bell remains very demure, unassuming and laid back, ignoring the fact that he remains one of the best voices of any genre and that, to many, he is simply a god. Most recently, he has played an immortal polysexual in ‘Torsten The Bareback Saint’, a role Andy himself has described as one of the biggest challenges of his career which has also since spawned ‘Variance – The Torsten The Bareback Saint Remixes’.
Having very successfully introduced audiences into the crazy, sad and wonderful life of Torsten, ANDY BELL chatted to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about life, Torsten, ERASURE and what is in store for the über talented man that he is…
Who came up with the concept for ‘Torsten The Bareback Saint’?
I think it was Barney Ashton, he’s a poet and a bit of a playwright really, and I think he is just coming up with those ideas all the time, you know… I’m not really sure how long he had the character in mind for Torsten. He first came up to me about five years ago. I went to the Kerrang Awards in London, it was to give Daniel Miller a prize for Mute Records. Barney was at the same table and we did briefly meet each other before, but we started talking.
He said “oh, I have this idea for this character called Torsten and you would be ideal to play the character… is it something you’d be interested in?”, and I said “sure”. A couple of years later, he sent me a couple of songs for the first episode, ‘Torsten The Bareback Saint’ and I was really blown away with the songs. I think Barney is really a genius, he’s yet to be discovered, I think…
The song-cycle was first performed during two closed shows in July 2014, first for family and friends, and the second to ERASURE fans. Which one went down better?
To be honest, I can only remember the second one: lots of my mates were there, I was so nervous at the first one, I probably erased it out of my mind!
The second night went very well, I was more settled in, but it is quite nerve wrecking with your friends in the audience, people that you know. The venue was small and they were really close, and ERASURE fans expect ANDY BELL, but Torsten isn’t ANDY BELL… you can’t talk in between the songs or give them your cheeky grin or anything like that as you have to stay in character, so that was quite strange. It was like working in a library! I made more mistakes on the first night.
The full show ran for two weeks in Edinburgh during August 2014, how did that go? Was there a different feel for each performance?
Audiences weren’t that big, there were so many shows during the festival: four thousand shows, I think. So, it was quite hard, the acts were being rotated. Before us, there was a South African dance choir, and a play after us, so we had to get the stuff off very quickly. I think we made a mistake in the promotion material, as we chose to show the back of my head.
I think if we had shown my face, maybe more people would have come, even ERASURE fans didn’t know I was up there, many people didn’t know I was up there. It felt like a secret gig almost.
The most we had was about 25-30 people on one night, the best night. Otherwise we would have 5 people, so it was quite strange to be doing it to not that many people. It was really testing because it does take guts doing the show and even if it was empty, you’d still have to do it. You’d have to do it to an empty room, as that was the part of us being up there.
The context and content of the album, and the show are very brave, was the reception what you had expected?
I think some of the ERASURE fans were quite scared, because it’s very personal, and although it’s not me, it seems very personal. One guy came to see us from Manchester, as he was thinking of putting the show on in a theatre in Manchester; a gay guy, and he didn’t like it at all… I think it was because some of the references are so close to the bone, so truthful, that I think some people can’t cope with them. It’s not all happy clappy and saying the gay life is fabulous at all.
Is cabaret a style you had been previously well familiar with?
Cabaret is not a style I was familiar with, but I am a really big fan of Kurt Weill’s ‘The Threepenny Opera’, and that version of the cabaret I saw with Alan Cumming in New York. Cyndi Lauper was in there as well. I really like that leftfield, off-off Broadway kind of stuff, nothing that’s too commercial. I think ‘Torsten The Bareback Saint’ fits into that really well. To me, it reminds me of those British black and white movies that came out in the early 60s; very cutting edge, I think it was called ‘A Taste Of Honey’ with a girl getting pregnant… it was more like the original ‘Coronation Street’ before it all went glam.
The idea of polysexuality can be difficult for some to understand and / or accept. Do you think the show’s audience fully accepted the concept?
I don’t know, it is really a strange thing, I’m playing a character and because I’m gay myself, people think that maybe Torsten is only gay, and it is strange when I’m referring to having had female lovers. I have only had one girlfriend in my life, so there’s not really an awful lot that I can relate to. I have got transsexual friends, and they have a really tough life. I couldn’t really imagine what it must be like having a relationship with someone like that, as it must be really, really tough, and there are lots of psychological things going on. I think Torsten is quite complex, I don’t necessarily think we would get on, if I met him. As a gay man, I don’t think he would fancy me as he’s too complicated.
The idea of a song-cycle is certainly more suited for a soundtrack to a production, do you feel it helps the story more, rather than individual, unconnected songs would achieve?
I think the song-cycle was just the order in which the songs were recorded, that was the running order of the album really… it was changed for the show, but it’s something that came out organically, something that was in Barney’s mind. It’s the same with Part 2, ‘The Beautiful Libertine’, which for me is much more song oriented, and gives you much more of an insight into Torsten’s background, how his character was shaped, when he was growing up. The introduction to Torsten was quite sporadic, psychotic, quite confusing to people, as it was a little bit all over the place. With the second one, Barney has definitely found a rhythm.
Would you like to be Torsten?
He’s really brave, I really hope for the best for him. But he’s made some really terrible life choices with the people he’s met, and they put him through hell, which now is reflecting on him. I don’t think he really likes the fact that he is living forever, he’s 108 and not growing old, I don’t think he really likes that eternal youth idea. I think that’s quite torturous for him, and in the end he may be celibate or decide he doesn’t want to have any more partners, as it’s too painful for him to see them coming and going all the time.
Having songs written for you outside of ERASURE, how did it feel?
It was really lovely, very flattering… at first I was a bit weary, Barney said he’d heard this opera that I did with Peter Hammill called ‘The Fall Of The House Of Usher’, which was in about 1990… I just played a small part in that, he was called ‘Montresor’, and he was a very naive character, so it suited my personality. Barney had said that he had had me in mind while writing the ‘Torsten The Bareback Saint’ and sometimes you think “people may just be saying that”, but then when I heard the songs, read the material, I could see lots of parallels.
Probably things that happened to Barney in his life, I can really relate to, by being a gay man, and being on the gay scene early on in the mid-80s and that kind of feeling of when you get rejected quite a lot and you’re not very confident… you just hang around the periphery of the club, but you don’t really feel part of it.
The timing of the album and stage production nearly coincided with the release of ‘The Violet Flame’, weren’t you afraid your solo project may tread on ERASURE’s toes?
It’s quite tough to juggle these things, usually ERASURE takes precedence. We book out a period of a year and a half when we are planning for ERASURE, but I thought “I can’t keep doing that, I’d like to do things in tandem”. Just to be a creative person, you need to add different strings to your bow. It is really exhausting, but I really love the challenge. I do writing with other people like DJ Dave Aude, so it’s always tricky, but I’m not one of those people who plans things years in advance, I just do things as they come, whenever I can fit them in really….
Would the idea of immortality appeal to you, as you could fit in all those things?
Well, I suppose so. With finding out about being HIV positive, and when my long term partner died, even though we weren’t together anymore, it definitely makes you feel like you wanna cram all this stuff in, as…
Time is running out…
YES! Yes, yeah…
You described the project as the most challenging ever in your career? Having completed it, was it so?
It’s given me so much, and I’m so looking forward to doing part two, and we are doing a workshop on the last week of September and first week in October. I’m really, really looking forward to that, as I was kind of a half-baked actor when I was younger, in youth theatre and stuff like that, only like an outside school hobby… but it’s something that has always been on the periphery. It’s giving me so much. With the frustration in something like making music, and maybe not getting such a wide audience as you used to have, my satisfaction comes from doing things like ‘Torsten’.
On the subject of ERASURE, you have been band mates with Vince for a very long time, how do you keep things fresh?
By doing other things, working with other people… I’ve just finished 10 dates in South America on my own, trying to get a show going on my own, we have these two amazing drag queen dancers, live drummer and a keyboardist, and we do use some of Vince’s ERASURE backing tracks, because that is what people want to hear as well. We beef them up and I also have my solo stuff in there. But I think Vince really likes it as well, he’s always said he thinks I’m fearless. I don’t think he realises how much nerves I get, I just like doing these things and go and stand on the edge of precipice and see what happens.
Any plans with ERASURE in the near future, apart from the 30th anniversary releases?
I think we are going to write, there’s nothing yet, but we talked about it and had a meeting. I said to Vince that I’d love for him to do almost like a concert piece on his own, just do music on his own, like a symphony or something, and I can just listen to the music and see if it inspires me in any way. Just to add choirs and things like that.
Aren’t you missing your über cool costumes you used to wear during ERASURE’s live shows? Like for ‘The Tank, The Swan and The Balloon…’
Yeah, I loved wearing the Victorian lady’s outfit, top hat and stuff, but it’s one of those things you can’t do all the time… I find it a bit weary when you get those artists and they get a new look every week. It just depends on my mood, the tour and the vibe you want to give off. How surreal you want it to be, it’s not that I’ve stopped, it’s just… sometimes it’s just easy to wear jeans and T-shirt.
Did you achieve what you set out for ‘The Violet Flame’, say in comparison with ‘Tomorrow’s World’?
Vince and I think it could have been a bit more deeper, more housey, club style… it was still quite three minute pop songs, but we think it could have been a bit more experimental I suppose…
Vince reworked a lot of older classics for ‘The Violet Flame’ tour, which song did you enjoy performing the most?
I think maybe ‘Star’, it had this real tribal beats intro and we managed to get the flavour of being in a club. That was the vibe we were going for. In the beginning, we wanted to have a DJ booth above the stage, with me dancing underneath, but it would have been very expensive, so we stayed on the same surface.
Have you ever fancied bursting into ‘A Little Respect’ on the tube yourself?
No, I like being incognito, when nobody knows who I am. I prefer being not so well known… before, I used to yearn it, but I think you grow out of it. In 1992, after the ABBA thing, it went massive, I was walking in Hampstead, where we lived, and everybody was looking at me and I found it really embarrassing and thought “can you make it stop?”! Vince gets very embarrassed, he’s very not bothered, his ego is way beyond that.
Having conquered the Torsten challenge, what’s in store now for Andy Bell?
I think it’s just developing the character more and getting to know him, I don’t think I really know him that well yet. With the second part ‘The Beautiful Libertine’, I can get to know him a bit more and maybe like him a bit more. After that there’s part three, I hope it won’t end for Torsten. I’m looking forward to doing the shows, it’s going to be next March in London.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Andy Bell
Special thanks to Matt Ingham at Cherry Red Records
Andy Bell would sound divine performing a telephone directory or reading out the train schedule. The voice, second to none, has dominated UK synth and pop scene for years, thanks to his 30 year involvement with Vince Clarke under the ERASURE umbrella.
Having released solo projects before, starting with the exquisite 2005 ‘Electric Blue’, followed by ‘Non Stop’ and ‘iPop’, Bell came back in 2014 with über controversial ‘Torsten The Bareback Saint’. The release of Bell’s solo project nearly coincided with ERASURE’s own release of their most recent, highly critically acclaimed ‘The Violet Flame’ in September 2014.
For Bell, ‘Torsten The Bareback Saint’ has been “the biggest challenge of (his) career so far”. After all, it is not just a straightforward album with catchy, poppy songs a-la his previous endeavours. All the songs were written for Bell by Barney Ashton (lyrics) and Christopher Frost / Simon Bayliss (music).
The whole concept was a soundtrack to a theatre show of the same name, where Bell was playing an age-defying polysexual. The show headlined at The Assembly during the 2014 Edinburgh International Fringe Festival for two weeks and proved extremely popular with the audiences. The production and its soundtrack is a highly dramaturgic song-cycle of memories from a life of hedonistic individual, whose semi-immortal being is filled with experiences of passing time.
The opening verse on the album can easily cause moral concern, of the so-called religious conmen. For the rest of us, it rings the tone of the production as being honest, open and not scared to shock. The album flows with amazing ERASURE-esque rhythms and cinematic productions, seeing Bell sing through Torsten’s history from his school years, through wanting to be a star while working at the local bingo, seeking his sexuality, trying out new things and being robbed, with his bike stolen by his female lover in ‘Fountain Of Youth’.
Next, he’s having his heart broken by a random gay partner “from a sauna” in ‘The Boy From The Sauna’ and experiencing romantic love on a weekend away in ‘Weston-Super-Mare’. There’s also witnessing the perverse behaviour of his alcoholic father and withdrawn, abused mother, being lovers with a boy from Brazil, contemplating the “gay thing” in ‘This Gay Thing Isn’t Working’, to considering suicide in ‘As I Prepare To Take My Life’, upon realisation that dreams cannot be achieved.
The songs flow beautifully and singularly would make no sense, with the exception of the opulent, magnificent ‘I Don’t Like’, which is showing off Bell’s massive vocal talent and stands out as a single material by itself. Twenty two sequential tracks fill the production which paints a beautiful, yet sad story of an individual desperate to be loved, one way or another, by whoever, no matter of what sex or background.
The ‘Variance’ remix album contains five versions of ‘Weston-Super-Mare’, re-fashioned purely for fun. Some vocals have been re-recorded with lyrics changed and the whole production has more of an ERASURE feel to it, which will appeal to the die-hard synth-pop fans of the duo. The last remix of the song, ‘Industrial Soundscape Mix’, appears to have elements of CABARET VOLTAIRE and EINSTURZENDE NEUBATEN built into it.
There’s also a poppy take on ‘Bingo Hall Baby’, a stunning Radio Remix of ‘I Don’t Like’ and ‘Fountain Of Youth’, as well as a promotional medley of ‘Torsten The Bareback Saint’, giving the listener a taster of what the production is all about.
Love or hate ANDY BELL, it has to be admitted that the brave artist has an endless talent and has been, for years, the shining icon of the gay brotherhood for a reason. Outspoken, in your face and daring, Bell has taken on a challenge, which he has clearly excelled in. Haters will hate, but it has to be admitted that the artist has outdone himself once again.
‘Variance – The Torsten The Bareback Saint Remixes’ is released by Cherry Red on 4th September 2015 as a CD and download.
Artist collaborations can be seen in several ways.
They are either a chance to take the best elements of great bands to form an even greater supergroup, or as has happened in many cases, there is a watering down of prime concepts which results in a fragmented mess of little interest to anyone.
So here are 25 artist collaborations that actually worked; the list is restricted to one song per main act, defined as being the one who released the parent album.
That means PET SHOP BOYS, who have been among the most ubiquitous and willing of conspirators, get to appear as themselves and as guests of ELECTRONIC and David Bowie while NEW ORDER’s Bernard Sumner appears as part ELECTRONIC as well as also moonlighting for THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS and Philip Oakey of THE HUMAN LEAGUE gets in there twice as a guest.
Over more recent years, there appears to have much more freedom for artists to collaborate, notably with SPARKS recently unveiled collaboration with Glasgow based art rockers FRANZ FERDINAND, named rather straightforwardly FFS. And this is reflected by this list here which has a bias towards new millennium recordings, although ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK is pleased to say, this is a Calvin Harris free zone 😉
SYLVIAN SAKAMOTO Bamboo Houses (1982)
David Sylvian and Ryuichi Sakamoto were making their artistic presence felt outside of JAPAN and YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA, and having collaborated on ‘Taking Islands in Africa’, another project was always on the cards. ‘Bamboo Houses’ expanded on the electro-acoustic textures of ‘Tin Drum’ over a catchy percussive framework courtesy of Steve Jansen. Sylvian delivered his usual mournful vocal but Sakamoto’s monologue and marimba gave the track ethnic authenticity.
‘After A Fashion’ was a blistering sonic salvo that crossed the best of JAPAN’s rhythmical art muzak with ULTRAVOX’s ‘The Thin Wall’. However, it stalled at No39 in the UK singles charts and sadly, there was to be no album. But Karn later played on Ure’s ‘Remembrance Day’ in 1988 and Ure briefly joined JBK, the band formally known as JAPAN sans David Sylvian for an aborted project in 1992 that resulted in two songs ‘Cry’ and ‘Get A Life’. Sadly Karn passed away in 2011.
Available on the MIDGE URE album ‘No Regrets’ via Music Club Deluxe
Very much seen as the odd couple, the duo’s promotional photos captured the curly haired jazz funk aficionado with The Iceman! Bill Sharpe was pianist with jazz fusion group SHAKATAK. Together with their drummer Roger Odell, they had written a piece of computerised electrofunk that needed a vocal. Engineered by Nick Smith who had also been working with Gary Numan, he suggested that the former Mr Webb would be ideally suited to the futuristic backing.
Available on the SHARPE & NUMAN album ‘Automatic’ via Cherry Pop
LES RITA MITSOUKO & SPARKS Singing In The Shower (1990)
In France, LES RITA MITSOUKO became unlikely pop stars thanks to danceable hit singles such as ‘Marcia Baïla’ and ‘C’est Comme Ça’. Vivacious singer Catherine Ringer and oddball instrumentalist Fred Chichin were influenced by the eccentric overtures of SPARKS and with a moniker in a similar vein to their ‘Kimono My House’, an artistic union was inevitable. With the two duos “feeling dirty and feeling clean”, the catchy ‘Singing In The Shower’ was a hit in Europe.
Available on the LES RITA MITSOUKO album ‘Marc & Robert’ via Virgin France
ELECTRONIC featuring PET SHOP BOYS The Patience Of A Saint (1991)
‘The Patience Of A Saint’ from ELECTRONIC’s debut was undoubtedly the highlight of that album. Featuring the involvement of both PET SHOP BOYS, the witty exchange between Bernard Sumner and Neil Tennant was accompanied by a gorgeous backing track of drum machine, swimmy string synth and minimal guitar. The song was premiered in front of 60,000 people when ELECTRONIC supported DEPECHE MODE at Dodger Stadium in August 1990.
Available on the ELECTRONIC album ‘Electronic’ via Warner Music
Following the departure of founder member Martin Price, ‘Gorgeous’ was 808 STATE’s first album as a three piece. Featuring early mash-up experiments based around UB40, THE JAM and JOY DIVISION, one of the wholly original compositions though was ‘Moses’, a rare electronically backed outing by ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN’s Ian McCulloch. Sounding like NEW ORDER with a Scouse snarl, the unusual but enjoyable partnership was the highlight of the album.
Available on the 808 STATE album ‘Gorgeous’ via ZTT Records
ELEKTRIC MUSIC featuring ANDY McCLUSKEY Kissing The Machine (1993)
Recorded for his ELEKTRIC MUSIC project after leaving KRAFTWERK, Karl Bartos’ collaboration with OMD’s Andy McCluskey featured one of his best melodies synth melodies. 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’”. With fabulously surreal lyrics about a love affair with a sexy robot, it became a cult favourite. OMD resurrected the song in 2013.
Available on the ELEKTRIC MUSIC album ‘Esperanto’ via SPV Records
John Lydon had shown himself to be open to collaboration following 1984’s ‘World Destruction’ as TIME ZONE with electro rap pioneer Afrika Bambaataa. But ‘Open Up’ with the then relatively unknown dance duo LEFTFIELD came as something of a surprise. Lydon was suitably angry as he reflected on the tensions of his adopted home with a screaming “Burn Hollywood, burn!” over an intense electronic soundtrack.
Available on the LEFTFIELD album ‘A Final Hit’ via Sony Music
DAVID BOWIE featuring PET SHOP BOYS Hallo Spaceboy (1996)
BLUR’s Alex James once remarked that having a PET SHOP BOYS remix was like having your dog being taken for a walk, but then, when it came back, it was a different dog! PET SHOP BOYS certainly re-produced this Bowie/Eno composition from ‘1.Outside’ into a much more commercial proposition, even utilising the cut-up technique to decide which words Neil Tennant would sing. Reaching No12, ‘Hallo Spaceboy’ became Da Dame’s biggest UK hit since ‘Jump They Say’ in 1990!
THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS featuring BERNARD SUMNER Out Of Control (1999)
‘Out Of Control’ was THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS’ sonic template actually fulfilling its potential within a song based format with Bernard Sumner as the willing conspirator. ‘Out Of Control’ had everything from a bombastic backbeat and cerebral sequences to bizarre lyrics, especially when Sumner resigned that “maybe my moustache is too much…”. The association with Sumner continued when they produced NEW ORDER’s terrific ‘Here To Stay’.
Available on THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS album ‘Singles 93-03’ via Virgin Records
SYSTEM F featuring MARC ALMOND Soul On Soul (2001)
Ferry Corsten had a huge international hit in 1999 with ‘Out Of The Blue’ under his SYSTEM F moniker. It highlighted the spiritual connection between synthpop and trance so to substantiate the link further, the Rotterdam based producer recruited Marc Almond to guest on the blinding ‘Soul On Soul’ for a spirited, club friendly workout. This all tied in nicely with SOFT CELL’s comeback album ‘Cruelty Without Beauty’ in 2002.
The Dumbarton born TALKING HEADS frontman was back in the mainstream limelight for the first time since the band disbanded in 1991 with this superb online collaboration with British DJ duo X-PRESS2. David Byrne gave his best afflicted ‘Psycho Killer’ meets ‘Once In A Lifetime’ warble for what became a No2 UK chart hit. He later reworked ‘Lazy’ with orchestral embellishments for his 2004 solo long player ‘Grown Backwards’.
Available on the X-PRESS2 album ‘Muzikizum’ via Skint Records
‘Reload’ was a welcome relief after DEPECHE MODE’s paradoxically titled ‘Exciter’. The brief sojourn with Dutch producer Tom Holkenborg aka JUNKIE XL proved once and for all how well Dave Gahan’s voice worked on uptempo electronic dance tracks. He may be more interested in MUMFORD & SONS these days, but frankly, over a lively synth laden backbone is where he sounds best. The ‘Radio JXL: A Broadcast from the Computer Hell Cabin’ album also featured Gary Numan!
Ms Lauper was heading towards a career renaissance with her excellent ‘Bring Ya To The Brink’ album in 2008 so her collaboration with ERASURE in 2007 was quite timely. A soulful slice of Trans-Atlantic synthpop, ‘Early Bird’ was an enjoyable duet between her and Andy Bell that turned out to be the one of the more memorable tracks that emerged from ERASURE’s rather lukewarm ‘Light At The End Of The World’ sessions.
Available on the ERASURE EP ‘Storm Chaser’ via Mute Records
LITTLE BOOTS featuring PHILIP OAKEY Symmetry (2009)
At the time ‘Symmetry’ was unveiled, THE HUMAN LEAGUE had not released any new material since 2001. With a fabulous chorus, this was the nearest thing to a new HUMAN LEAGUE track with Victoria Hesketh doing her best Susanne Sulley impression. So when it was Phil talking, it was magic. “Tell me your dreams and I’ll tell you all my fears” he announced, as they complimented each other in a way that had not really even been heard on a League record before.
Available on the LITTLE BOOTS album ‘Hands’ via 679 Recordings
MY ROBOT FRIEND featuring ALISON MOYET Waiting (2009)
MY ROBOT FRIEND aka Howard Rigberg created the song ‘We’re The Pet Shop Boys’ in honour of Messrs Tennant and Lowe, who subsequently covered it by way of a reverse compliment. Rigberg went recruited Alison Moyet for her first purely electronic adventure since the YAZOO days on ‘Waiting’. This welcome union with its off-kilter synth sounds alongside her voice no doubt helped ignite her interest in working within the genre again, the result of which was 2013’s ‘the minutes’.
Available on the MY ROBOT FRIEND album ‘Soft-Core’ via Double Feature/Worried Rainbow
PET SHOP BOYS featuring PHILIP OAKEY This Used To Be The Future (2009)
‘This Used To Be The Future’ was a dream trioet that featured Neil Tennant, Philip Oakey and Chris Lowe. With Lowe singing as opposed to just speaking, this triumphant celebration of yesterday’s tomorrow saw Oakey deadpan disappointedly that things didn’t quite turn out how Raymond Baxter predicted on ‘Tomorrow’s World’! He finally resigns himself and at grunts“AMEN!”.
RÖYKSOPP featuring ROBYN The Girl & The Robot (2009)
The centrepiece of RÖYKSOPP’s third album ‘The Girl & The Robot’ was perhaps the culmination of Robyn’s steady rise as a truly independent female artist. Despite having gained success in 1997 with the R’n’B tinged ‘Show Me Love’, her superiors at BMG reacted negatively to her new electropop aspirations inspired by THE KNIFE. Frustrated, she bought herself out of her contract and set up her own Konichiwa Records, giving her the freedom to work with whoever she wanted.
Available on the RÖYKSOPP album ‘Junior’ via Wall Of Sound / PIAS
BLANK & JONES featuring CLAUDIA BRÜCKEN Don’t Stop (2010)
The German dance duo had previously worked with Miss Brücken on ‘Unknown Treasure’, a most gorgeous electrobeat ballad from 2003. ‘Don’t Stop’ was a progression on that but with a wider texture pallet and more abstract electronic overtones. Despite being less song based and having been collaborated on seperately from Blank and Jones, vocally it is classic Claudia with its spoken verse and sexy ice maiden delivery in chorus.
CRYSTAL CASTLES featuring ROBERT SMITH Not In Love (2010)
Re-recorded for single release, Alice Beer took a breather to allow guest Robert Smith from THE CURE to take lead vocals on ‘Not In Love’, a dark but accessible number from CRYSTAL CASTLES’ second album. Smith more than fitted in with the Canadian duo’s aggressive and occasionally chaotic electronic template on this frantic uncovering of a song originally recorded by obscure Toronto new wave combo PLATINUM BLONDE.
Available on the CRYSTAL CASTLES featuring ROBERT SMITH single ‘Not In Love’ via Last Gang/Fiction Records
MOTOR featuring MARTIN L GORE Man Made Machine (2012)
MOTOR’s electro stomper ‘Man Made Machine’ featured vocals by DEPECHE MODE’s Martin Gore in a collaboration which came over a bit like a camp IGGY POP. Gore certainly sounded a touch nervous and uneasy, luring over the duo’s brand of harder edged schaffel techno which only enhanced its appeal. Incidentally, the same titled parent album also featured guests such as GARY NUMAN, BILLIE RAY MARTIN and NITZER EBB’s Douglas J McCarthy.
Not content with producing MARSHEAUX and collaborating with OMD on ‘Helen Of Troy’, Greek duo FOTONOVELA released a more song based second album featuring a number of prominent international vocalists entitled ‘A Ton Of Love’. One of the numbers ‘Our Sorrow’ featured James New from the much missed MIRRORS. In the vein of classic OMD, New’s majestic vocal touching the heartstrings, the wonderful melancholy was perfect, soulful electronic pop.
Available on the FOTONOVELA album ‘A Ton of Love’ via Undo Records
Foxx and Hulkkonen had worked together previously on various one-off songs like ‘Dislocated’ and ‘Never Been Here Before’ but had never before attempted a body of work with a conceptual theme. When the two found some collaborative time together, the result was ‘European Splendour’, an EP with a grainier downtempo template than before. The lead track ‘Evangeline’ was full of depth, coupled with an anthemic chorus.
Available on the JOHN FOXX & JORI HULKKONEN EP ‘European Splendour’ via Sugarcane Records
SIN COS TAN featuring CASEY SPOONER Avant Garde (2013)
SIN COS TAN’s Jori Hulkkonen first found fame as part of TIGA & ZYNTHERIUS back in 2001 at the height of the Electroclash movement. ‘Avant Garde’ saw Casey Spooner from the scene’s flag bearers FISCHERSPOONER make a guest appearance on the duo’s second long player ‘Afterlife’. The track itself though was more like THE CURE produced by PET SHOP BOYS with Spooner providing a suitably cynical snarl to contrast Juho Paalosmaa’s impassioned lost boy cry.
Available on the SIN COS TAN album ‘Afterlife’ via Solina Records
iEUROPEAN featuring WOLFGANG FLÜR Activity Of Sound (2014)
Although Wolfgang Flür’s last full album project was as YAMO with ‘Time Pie’ back in 1997, there was this marvellous electronic number entitled ‘Activity Of Sound’, recorded in collaboration with iEUROPEAN. The project of Dublin based artist Sean Barron, the additional female monologue was provided by Barron’s wife, Izabella. The track sees Herr Flür quoting an archive interview with the late avant garde composer John Cage to a soundtrack of hypnotic synthetic bliss.
Available on the iEUROPEAN featuring WOLFGANG FLÜR download single ‘Activity Of Sound’ via Subculture Records
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, in association with production duo MANHATTAN CLIQUE and their label Planet Clique, did appear in 2006; on it were GOLDFRAPP, THE KNIFE, TIGA, MATINEE CLUB, ROBOTS IN DISGUISE and LORRAINE. But there was the surprise inclusion of MACONDO with a previously unreleased track called ‘CCTV’, again with Vickie on lead… it raised hopes of another album, but it was not to be.
was released on CD by Ninth Wave Records
and 
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