Gary Numan has had a rather busy few years, what with the successful releases of the highly personal ‘Splinter (Songs From A Broken Mind)’, as well as it’s not so identical twin ‘Savage (Songs from A Broken World)’, becoming his twentieth opus. From the more intimate and close to home to that of a much wider environmental reach, Numan covered all the bases proving that being the veteran of vintage electronica, one can achieve exceptional albums this far in their career… so yes DEPECHE MODE, it can be done after all those years!
Having portrayed the terrifying dystopian future on ‘Savage’, the world’s first synth pop star, is carrying on the forward momentum into 2018 with this Autumn seeing in the fresh EP entitled ‘The Fallen’.
For his most recent long player, Numan decided to crowdfund via Pledge, taking advice from none other than his (now) LA pal Chris Corner aka IAMX, thoroughly enjoying the idea of getting fans involved in the processes surrounding the making of the album and ‘The Fallen’ continues the themes from ‘Savage’, sharing the barren landscape of broken world and seeing Mr Webb still clad in protective clothing.
And following the uncertain view into the things to come, now we are told with some certainty that ‘It Will End Here’. The apocalypse is looming, as the anthemic chorus enters, progressing from the classic vocal wizardry Numan is well known for, rising steadily to smooth over the gothic crack which provide a vampiric quality to the tune.
‘The Promise’ offers gritty guitars alongside a very haunting vintage Numan-esque synth, filling the void between his most accomplished imperial work and the present eastern inspirations. The theme continues with a further dose of Persian connotations in a very mature, if slightly demure electronic ballad ‘If We Had Known’. Almost with a feeling of dread, the listener is transported into unknown lands and presented with, what ultimately is a stunning love song, but also a “goodbye to all my friends”.
Short and sweet as it is, ‘The Fallen’ bridges the gap between ‘Savage (Songs from a Broken World)’, continuing along the same musical path of inspirations from afar mixed with an enormous talent and synth know how, and what hopefully will be a new opus. Soon?
‘The Fallen’ EP is released in CD, tricolour 12 inch vinyl and digital formats by BMG
Cardiff St Davids Hall (12th November)*, Birmingham Symphony Hall (13th November)*, Newcastle City Hall (15th November)*, Manchester Bridgewater Hall (17th November)*, London O2 Shepherds Bush Empire (18th November)*, London Royal Albert Hall (19th November)*, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall (20th November)*, Prague Lucerna Music Bar (22nd November), Krefeld Kulturfabrik (24th November), Warsaw Progresja Music Zone (25th November), Berlin Huxleys (26th November), Roskilde Gimle (27th November), Odense Posten (29th November), Aarhus Train (1st December), Gothenburg Pustervik (2nd December), Oslo Rockefeller Music Hal (3rd December), Helsinki The Circus (5th December)
*with THE SKAPARIS ORCHESTRA + special guest Chris Payne
Championed by none other than Vince Clarke and signed to his Brooklyn-based VeryRecords, REED & CAROLINE have just completed a successful US tour with ERASURE.
Reed Hays and Caroline Schutz’s 2016 debut album ‘Buchla & Singing’ did what it said on the tin, combining tunes with electronic experimentation. But released in 2018, its follow-up ‘Hello Science’ is a much more on point as a distinct pop focussed offering suitable for live concert performances.
Marvellous quirky pop songs from the new album like ‘The Internet Of Things’ highlight the potential downfalls of modern society’s over-reliance on web-connected devices and home appliances, while there are also more personal moments like the stark eulogy of ‘Entropy’. It’s a reminder that it’s the juxtaposition of humans and electronics that made the best classic synthpop what it was and how synthesizers should never be the excuse for a song…
Now back home, Reed Hays kindly chatted to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about science, Buchlas, Orchestrons and his radio show with Vince Clarke…
What would you say is the creative dynamic of REED & CAROLINE?
We have always contributed our musicianship to each other’s works. When Caroline was working with her band FOLKSONGS FOR THE AFTERLIFE, I was playing cello on music she wrote. For REED & CAROLINE she is singing on songs I wrote.
How do you look back on your debut album ‘Buchla & Singing’?
I still like to listen to it, and we’ve performed some of the songs while we’ve been supporting ERASURE. The audiences have got misty-eyed during ‘John & Rene’, which is wonderful to watch.
How did the Buchla come to be the instrument of choice for REED & CAROLINE?
The Buchla spoke to me as soon as I heard my dad play a MORTON SUBOTNICK LP when I was a kid. I went to the only college in the US that would allow 18-year-olds to touch a Buchla. As soon as I made enough money from writing TV music, I started buying Buchla instruments.
The pattern over several years was that I would use the Buchla more and more and sell off my other analogue synthesizers. When it came to doing other music, apart from TV stuff, it felt most comfortable for me to do it solely on the Buchla.
You’ve added a Vako Orchestron to your armoury, where did you find that and what’s it like to use?
It came from the fabled Sound City studio in Los Angeles during a revamp a couple years ago. It’s only real appearance in the pop canon is on three KRAFTWERK albums, and I’m a huge fan of how it sounds. The crackly, low-bandwidth character of the instrument sounds like you’re peering at the future from the past.
You had sounds of your own customised and made into optical discs to use with the Orchestron, so who makes these then now?
Once I started searching for people who knew about Orchestrons, I discovered Pea Hicks who lives in San Diego. Pea has access to the old machinery that made discs for the Orchestron and its predecessor the Optigan.
What other synths or software are used in your recordings?
I pretend ProTools is a tape recorder. For synchronization, I feed 16th-note audio clicks into the Buchla’s Envelope Follower.
Your songwriting appears to come from a folk tradition which is something you have in common with Vince Clarke?
I like simple melodies and whatever chords make them speak the best. I like modal interchange as much as the next guy, but Vince once reminded me that ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ takes you on a journey with only three chords.
How did Vince Clarke and VeryRecords become interested in REED & CAROLINE?
My friend Mark Verbos of Verbos Electronic helped to produce an event in Brooklyn called ‘Machines In Music’. He asked me if I’d give a lecture about using old synths in new productions. Halfway through the lecture Vince walked in with a mutual friend, and we wound up having lunch. Later the friend played my song ‘Henry The Worm’ from what would become ‘Buchla & Singing’ for Vince, who decided it would be fun to release on his VeryRecords label.
What inspired the concept of ‘Hello Science’?
I grew up in a science and engineering town that also had a space museum so I was surrounded by it from an early age.
When I was little, there was a lot of idealism that science and technology would solve everyone’s problems. Now that I’m older, it’s less about a shiny future and more about science being discredited in these crazy modern times. Scientific concepts also make for convenient metaphors.
The ethical dilemmas behind technological progress with regards the backgrounds of some of those scientists must have provided an interesting background to write to?
Details of Operation Paperclip and the Dora Camp weren’t too public while I was growing up, but the concert hall where I played in the symphony orchestra did have a gigantic painting of Wernher von Braun.
Interestingly, the title song of the new album is all cello?
I took a small Buchla system and a cello to provide background music for an event that my painter friend Stephen Hall was involved in. When Vince heard a recording of it, he put it on the VeryRecords Soundcloud, and that set the stage for using cello on other projects.
I didn’t know how Vince would react if I did something entirely on the cello, so at the very end of ‘It’s Science’, there’s one chime note on the Buchla, just in case he didn’t like it.
‘Entropy’ was an intriguing number and sounded like it was influenced by the ’Dance’ album period of Gary Numan which people rarely highlight?
America’s introduction to synthpop was through Gary Numan on ‘Saturday Night Live’ at the very end of 1979. As a child, I was captivated. I hated the saxophones on ‘Dance’, but the pitch-shifted CR-78 drums were so cool. ‘Entropy’ was an opportunity to recreate that feel on the Buchla. I even made a polyphonic patch to mimic the Yamaha CP-30 electronic piano.
‘Dark Matter’ is a quirky little pop tune recorded with KITE BASE? How did that come together?
There’s a YouTube video called ‘Two Bald Blokes & a Buchla’ where Vince interviews me and the camera pans to some rock stars that our friend Elia Einhorn brought to the studio. One of the rock stars was Ayşe Hasan of SAVAGES.
Later on, while producing ‘Dark Matter’, I had a terrible time with the synth bass line. Everything seemed to slow down the track. Just when I wanted to scrap the whole song, I got a text from Ayse and her friend Kendra Frost that they were in New York. I set them up in the studio with two bass guitars and the rhythm track for ‘Dark Matter’.
It was amazing watching them work out parts for the song. For the verses Kendra played low notes and Ayse played high notes, and for the choruses they switched roles. To come up with parts they sang them to each other, “Da da da da”. That sounded great, too, so I got them on mic singing for the breakdowns in the middle and the end.
There seems to be a love / hate relationship with how technology has affected the world, ‘Digital Trash’ being a case in point which can be taken in many ways?
Vince kept gently asking me to join social media after we made the first album, so there I was on Facebook and Twitter ten years after everyone else. I’m sure my friends went through that “nothing dies on the internet” thing a lot earlier than I did.
‘Computers’ is another one, what’s that about?
Over the past couple hundred years, prominent male astronomers and rocket engineers had employed uncredited women to crunch the numbers. They were actually referred to as computers. The song wrote itself!
You’ve just finished touring North America with ERASURE, what was that like and how did you adapt you sound for the stage?
After we did a little club date in New York to celebrate the release of ‘Buchla & Singing’, Vince asked if we’d tour with ERASURE. Upon realizing he wasn’t kidding I wrote the ‘Hello Science’ album with performance in mind. The big departure from the recorded albums is that I sing the backup vocals through a Xils EMS-5000 vocoder plug-in. There’s a small Buchla cabinet with patches accessible by unmuting channels in the mixer module. There’s also a NS Design cello on a tripod.
Tell us about ‘The Synthesizer Show’… 😉
It’s the ideal venue to hear two grown men eating roasted peanuts while listening to VISAGE.
What’s next for REED & CAROLINE?
Caroline is going straight from the airport to her daughters’ school to sign people up for the Parent-Teachers Association. That’s as far ahead as we’ve planned!
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Reed Hays
Alison and Vince, Annie and Dave, Karin and Olaf… and to that list of trailblazing female / male electronic duos can be added Marina and Eddie.
PAGE have had a loyal cult following back home in Sweden since their 1983 debut single ‘Dansande Man’. The duo of Eddie Bengtsson and Marina Schiptjenko released their self-titled debut album in 1992 while their final first phase release ‘Helt Nära’ came out in 1998. In some territories though, PAGE are best known for a version of OMD’s Electricity’ from the 1995 synth covers album ‘To Cut A Long Story Short’ and their take on ‘Dreaming Of Me’ for the DEPECHE MODE tribute compilation ‘Sometimes I Wish I Was Famous’, both released on Energy Rekords.
As well as PAGE, Bengtsson had his ongoing solo mission SISTA MANNEN PÅ JORDEN and found fame with as one of the crew in S.P.O.C.K, while Schiptjenko joined Alexander Bard from ARMY OF LOVERS in VACUUM and then BWO.
PAGE’s most recent trilogy of albums ‘Nu’, ‘Hemma’ and ‘Det Är Ingen Vacker Värld Men Det Råkar Vara Så Det Ser Ut’ have affirmed their position as one of the Nordic region’s leading electronic pop pioneers.
But deep inside his pysche, Eddie Bengtsson has always been something of a Numanoid and the new ‘Start’ EP sees PAGE going the full machine music hog with the ultimate homage to the imperial years of the man born Gary Anthony James Webb.
With the news of a live return to London for PAGE in September alongside RATIONAL YOUTH + PSYCHE, Eddie Bengtsson spoke about space and the synthesizer frontier…
Space travel and Sci-Fi has always been an interest for you but what came first, this or music?
Sci-Fi came first, if we are talking electronic music. Science Fiction got me in to early electronic music. Early electronic music, like French Space-Disco and stuff sounded like Sci-Fi and the future to me. If we not talking electronic music, then it was music that came in to my life before sci-fi. I grew up during Glam&Glitter, so there is where my “musical roots” are, and you can hear that pretty often listening to PAGE.
Glam Rock has been a key influence in PAGE and you’ve even covered ‘Coz I Luv U’ by SLADE, is this an under-appreciated era of music?
I think it is an under-appreciated era of music amongst lovers of electronic music at least. Many Glam bands were early using synthesizers in their songs like THE SWEET and CHICORY TIP.
Did you grow up watching Gerry Anderson TV shows like ‘Thunderbirds’, ‘Joe 90’ and ‘Captain Scarlet’? The associated craft and vehicles were brilliant…
Swedish TV didn’t show an early Gerry Anderson, like ‘Stingray’, ‘Thunderbirds’, ‘Captain Scarlet’ or ‘UFO’ The first series they showed was ‘Space: 1999’, and then only 10 episodes, the episodes that the Swedish National TV thought was suitable for the Swedish audience!
So ‘UFO’ or ‘Space: 1999’?
If I have to choose, then it’s ‘Space: 1999’, but ‘UFO’ comes second on my list of best Gerry Anderson shows.
The ‘Start’ EP parties like it’s 1979, discuss! 😉
Well, I have listened to early electronic pop in the last few years. I made a “list” of what I still love and what still inspires me. I came to the conclusion that there are around nine or so albums that still sounds as cool and fresh as it did then, around 1978 – 1980.
Electronic pop music (and New Wave) doesn’t sound like that anymore, and I wanted to. The artists that are still around are way off the track from what I loved about them. So, I kinda tried to sound like I wish they still did, or did for more than one or two albums. It’s a silly thing to say, but I think I “found home”.
How important has Gary Numan been to you musically?
Lately, alot! Those three albums ‘Replicas’, ‘The Pleasure Principle’ and ‘Telekon’ are three of the best New Wave / electronic pop albums ever made. There also on my list of best albums ever. I think when they came out, that I didn’t really appreciate them for what they were. There was so much other stuff around, so I didn’t have the time to really LISTEN to them thoroughly. Right before our latest full length CD, I would listen to those three albums alot (and still do) and I discovered so much. Wonderful and perfect albums (and music).
The releases that came from Gary Numan after ‘Telekon’, starting with ‘Dance’ and then ‘Warriors’, I bought them when they came out but, they were really really bad. Gone was all the magic, the sound, the quality, everything. Last year when I sold most of my electronic vinyl collection, those two albums was not keepers. Actually, I had them on CD too and I threw them away. I don’t want to keep albums that I don’t like or have any connection to.
I like to remember Numan as he was, the music he made and how he looked (coolness), therefore I try to shut his new stuff out and therefore I didn’t go to his show when he played here is Sweden. That would have ruined the magic for me. Still… I do respect him as a musician and respect him for that he has fought hard and is still “going strong”.
You covered ‘Tracks’ in Swedish as ‘Spår’ and did a Numan tribute on ‘Utanför’ for your most recent album ‘Det Är Ingen Vacker Värld Men Det Råkar Vara Så Det Ser Ut’? What tricks did you use to pay homage to this imperial Numan sound?
Whenever I buy a new synth (though I have stopped doing that now, I bought probably my last one this Spring), one of the first things that I do is to “Numanize” it.
That means, that I listen to my favourite Numan tracks and try to make those sounds with my new synth. And later on, those are the sounds I use with PAGE.
I also listen to the production, the layers, the drums, the stereo panning, the harmonies. All that stuff fills me with inspiration. Then I mix that with the usual Eddie B touch… *laughs*
‘Stör Ej’ borrows from ‘Love Needs No Disguise’ which Numan did with his former backing band DRAMATIS for their ‘For Future Reference’ album. Were they an under rated band to you?
Oh yeah. DRAMATIS was very underrated. I think they contributed alot to Numan’s sound and arrangement on those three classic albums. And if you listen to ‘Dance’, it seems like that truth. Gary Numan, DRAMATIS, CUDDLY TOYS and Zaine Griff are my absolute favourites and the greatest of inspiration sources.
‘Nere För Räkning’ exposes more of an ULTRAVOX influence, although you have been here before with ‘Allt Är Klart’ as SISTA MANNEN PÅ JORDEN? How did this track come together?
Simple answer, I wanted to something that sounded like ULTRAVOX’s ‘Alles Klar’. Christer Hermodsson (the other part of SMPJ) is a big ULTRAVOX fan and really did a good work on that production and the solo.
With ‘Nere För Räkning’ , I don’t know really. Maybe I tried to mix ULTRAVOX and Numan there. But I don’t think the ULTRAVOX influence was intentional.
The Italo-styled remix of ‘Krasch’ by APOPTYGMA BERZERK is on paper unexpected but also simultaneously quite obvious… how did this union come about?
I never cared about APOPTYGMA BERZERK, because I knew what it was. Hard Electronica, stuff that I didn’t relate to at all. That was until… I got their latest album ‘Exit Popularity Contest’ from my friend and APOP-involvee Per Aksel Lundgreen. He gave it to me and said that should listen to it, because I might like it. And I was all “yeah right!”. What I later on heard in my car going home, totally blew me away! Wonderful electronic music and nothing at all like as had expected. It was electronic music that sounded if it was made in the early 70s and something that Jean-Michel Jarre would sell his soul for to be able to do today. It was obviously heavy inspired by, in my opinion, French early electronic music.
I just felt I had to write down and publish (on Facebook) my feelings about that record and it became in a sense a review of the album. Both Per Axel and Stephan Groth of APOP saw the “review” and from there on, contact was made. Stephan and I both realised that we have alot in common when it comes to preferences when it comes to electronic music. And, maybe there will come more out of this new friendship…
So how would you like PAGE to be described? Is it synthpop or is it poptronica or what?
I would say as I always do and have always done; PAGE is electronic pop music. But you can also call it poptronica if you want.
“Synthpop”, I don’t really know what that should be. Pop made on synthesizers?
If so then that genre is huge. Because most commercial contemporary pop music today is made solely using synthesizers.
What do you make of this Synthwave thing coming out of North America in the wake of ‘Drive’?
I don’t know anything about that at all.
The first and last time PAGE played live in London was 2014, how are plans coming together for a return?
There are plans. We are coming in September!
Photo by Simon Helm
How do you think PAGE have developed musically since the early days and then your comeback with ‘Nu’ in 2010, particularly in the creative dynamic between you and Marina?
I think the music has become less naive, both music wise and lyrics wise. I have grown older and that reflects in the music of course. I have also narrowed in what I do love about electronic music (and pseudo-electronic music) and with that has evolved the sound and the style of PAGE’s music.
Still, there is the element that people recognise and like. It’s not that we have changed altogether like most bands do. Marina does what she always has done, she is my creative feedback giver. She has always given me good honest feedback to the music and always given me advice on things musically.
Was there ever any likelihood that PAGE could have become more of a pseudo-rock band like DEPECHE MODE did?
No. We found our roots, evolved, grew up and matured right from the start (well, almost at least…)
You worked with MY GOD DAMN TERRITORY and transformed them into an electronic pop act?
Yeah, that was fun! They was originally something totally different. In start it was more like a “just for fun” thing when I made a redux of one of their songs.
But they liked it so much so, we continued the collaboration and it became what it is; Sweden’s coolest indietronica act. I still do reduxes for them and soon there will be a new single released.
You have started a project THE VOLT with Ulrika Mild aka COMPUTE, how is this progressing and can we expect an EP or album soon?
We did a follow-up to the single, but I think it’s temporarily (I hope) stuck in production “somewhere”.
Referencing ‘Lyssnade På Min Radio’ from the 2013 PAGE album ‘Hemma’, “They don’t play good songs on the radio anymore…”, do we need radio anymore or are streaming playlists the way to go?
Well, I Iike radio, just not the music that the huge stations play. Radio is good, because many people are hearing the same thing at the same time and that’s nice. There is always the joy in knowing that it’s not just you hearing this right now. But, maybe I’m old-fashioned and people today don’t think that way anymore. Everybody is an individualist, or like to think they are. Because what they have on their playlist is just what everybody else have on theirs, it’s just that they don’t hear it at the same time. Maybe I’m exaggerating here I don’t know, but that’s the way I feel that it is.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its grateful thanks to Eddie Bengtsson
The Count and Countess of Swedish electronic pop are back-back-BACK!
Eddie Bengtsson and Marina Schiptjenko initially came together in PAGE as far back as 1980, releasing their first single ‘Dansande Man’ in 1983. Since then, the pair have parted and reunited on a number of occasions although both continued to make sine waves at home and internationally.
Bengtsson had his ongoing solo mission SISTA MANNEN PÅ JORDEN but found fame with S.P.O.C.K while Schiptjenko joined Alexander Bard from ARMY OF LOVERS in VACUUM and then BWO. More recently as PAGE, the pair released an enjoyable trilogy of albums ‘Nu’, ‘Hemma’ and ‘Det Är Ingen Vacker Värld Men Det Råkar Vara Så Det Ser Ut’ which have affirmed their position as one of Sweden’s leading electronic pop pioneers.
Their latest EP ‘Start’ comprises of three new songs plus a remix by Norwegian EBM trailblazers APOPTYGMA BERZERK. Having already covered Gary Numan’s ‘Tracks’ in Swedish as ‘Spår’ and paid an initial Numanoid tribute on ‘Utanför’ for ‘Det Är Ingen Vacker Värld Men Det Råkar Vara Så Det Ser Ut’, PAGE have gone the full hog with the ultimate homage to the imperial years of the man born Gary Anthony James Webb.
The appropriately named ‘Start’ remembers a time before ‘Dance’ ever happened with buzzing Minimoog basslines and swirling Polymoog strings coming over like a mash-up of ‘Tracks’ and ‘Metal’. Yes, there are machine music overtures but there is melody too, a skilful trait often forgotten with vintage Numan.
Photo by Simon Helm
‘Stör Ej’ goes a step further and as well as borrowing from ‘This Wreckage’, it actually samples the Compurhythm pattern from ‘Love Needs No Disguise’ halfway through. But despite the familiar aesthetics, this is a song that stands up on its own with a fabulous retro-futuristic tone.
Best of all though is ‘Nere För Räkning’, an urgent slice of pulsing synthrock with a piercing vibratoed lead line akin to the keyboard acrobatics of Billy Currie from ULTRAVOX who was part of the Numan band for the UK leg of ‘The Touring Principle’.
Assisted by Per Aksel Lundgreen, Stephan Groth of APOPTYGMA BERZERK provides a redux of ‘Krasch’ from ‘Det Är Ingen Vacker Värld Men Det Råkar Vara Så Det Ser Ut’. Now while the union with PAGE may seem unlikely, APop’s most recent long player ‘Exit Popularity Contest’ was a wonderful instrumental retreat into the territory of Jean-Michel Jarre and NEU! It showed that Groth had as much of a sweet ear for electronic melody as PAGE, even if it was usually hidden by noise and aggression. With an Italo-derived octave shift bassline replacing the more rigid structure of the album version, APOPTYGMA BERZERK’s rework greatly improves on the original.
Yes, this EP does party like it’s 1979, but that familiarity helps it to possibly be one of PAGE’s most immediate and accessible bodies of work in their long career. If you have never checked out the work of Eddie Bengtsson and Marina Schiptjenko before, then this release is no better way to start…
Producer and remixer Richard Philips, better known as Richard X, began his musical career creating bootlegs or mash-ups.
This was an illegal creative practice of combining two existing and often incongruous records to make an entirely new track. The fusion of disparate elements, where often the vocals of one recording from a particular genre were placed over the instrumental backing from another.
This became a fashionable practice in clubs; Belgium’s 2 Many DJs were among one of the more notable exponents alongside Richard X. Influenced by THE HUMAN LEAGUE and KRAFTWERK in particular, Richard X’s first notable mash-up under the name GIRLS ON TOP was ‘I Wanna Dance With Numbers’ in 2001; it dropped Whitney Houston over KRAFTWERK and inspired by the apparent elitism of the electronica scene at the start of the 21st Century.
But it was when he placed ‘Freak Like Me’ by R ‘n’ B artist Adina Howard over TUBEWAY ARMY’s ‘Are Friends Electric?’ for a bootleg entitled ‘We Don’t Give A Damn About Our Friends’ that figures within the music business realised Richard X’s Frankenstein vision might have commercial potential. Ironically, one person who didn’t was Adina Howard herself who refused permission for her vocal to be used on an officially sanctioned release. Instead, the British female pop trio SUGABABES recorded a cover version of the mash-up produced by Richard X and the rest is history.
Since then, Richard X has been approached to work with many artists, but remains selective, declining most of what he is offered and often only working on individual tracks, thanks to his own artistic assertion that “I’ve always been about singles…”
Richard X created his own production umbrella Black Melody to oversee his work and even released a collection of demos by THE HUMAN LEAGUE as ‘The Golden Hour Of The Future’ which had been shelved by Virgin Records back in 1981. Meanwhile as well as ERASURE, NINE INCH NAILS, GOLDFRAPP, MIRRORS, SAY LOU LOU and NEW ORDER, his productions and remixes have encompassed artists such varied as Will Young, Roísín Murphy, Rachel Stevens, Sam Sparro, Tiga, Jarvis Cocker and Lana Del Rey.
As a result of often working on just singular tracks with artists, Richard X has a large and diverse portfolio; ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK lists eighteen of his most notable tracks, with a limit of one track per artist and presented in chronological and then alphabetical order…
SUGABABES Freak Like Me (2002)
When Richard X dropped ‘Freak Like Me’ over ‘Are Friends Electric?’, a crossover hit was just waiting to be unleashed… enter SUGABABES, modern pop’s equivalent of ‘Charlie’s Angels’. This was a period when Gary Numan was being sampled left, right and centre by the likes of BASEMENT JAXX and DJ Armand Van Helden, so this Diabolus In Musica urban hybrid helped bring him to a curious new audience.
A huge fan of THE HUMAN LEAGUE, Richard X continued his mash-up magic, albeit in a more reproductive manner. When the appropriately monikered LIBERTY X came knocking, he took inspiration from the various versions of ‘Being Boiled’ and put Chaka Khan’s electro-funk classic ‘Ain’t Nobody’ over the top, helped by the fact that both tunes ran at a very similar BPM of 103/104.
Available on the LIBERTY X album ‘Being Somebody’ via V2 Records
RICHARD X in collaboration with DEBORAH STRICKLAND-EVANS Lemon / Lime (2003)
Deborah Evans-Strickland was best known for her deadpan vocal on THE FLYING LIZARDS’ very unusual cover of ‘Money’. Richard X dragged her out of retirement for a bizarre reinterpretation of ‘Walk On By’ as well as the Trans-Commuter Express job spec art piece ‘Lemon / Lime’. Stern but strangely alluring in her posh Essex accent, she came over like the scary HR Manager who everyone is secretly attracted to.
Co-written with Hannah Robinson and based on real-life music industry anecdotes, Richard X’s GOLDFRAPP-styled production on ‘Some Girls’ saw Rachel Stevens playing a wannabe on pop’s casting couch. Driven by having his GOLDFRAPP remixes rejected, it was ‘Some Girls’ that first put the icy glam electro sound into the mainstream consciousness before GOLDFRAPP themselves.
Available on the RACHEL STEVENS album ‘Come & Get It’ via Polydor Records
“There is no you, there is only ME!” exclaimed an angry and provocative Trent Reznor on ‘Only’, but Richard X smoothed things down, brought forward the chorus and took it down the discotheque, albeit a dark gothic one! With a frantic marimba line added and an increased dance tempo, this was one of Richard X’s best crossover reworkings that still retained the original’s heavy spirit of frustration expressed as part of Reznor’s battle with alcoholism and substance abuse.
LUKE HAINES Off My Rocker At The Art School Bop – Richard X Mix (2006)
Once referred to as the Adolf Hitler of Britpop by the music press, Luke Haines’ memoir ‘Bad Vibes: Britpop & My Part In Its Downfall’ declared that BLUR’s Damon Alban deserved far more to be nominated for that title! An installation of danceable pop terrorism by THE AUTEURS and BLACK BOX RECORDER leader with a full fat electro mix by Richard X, this gleefully satirised the Shoreditch club scene with an attack on its array of poseurs.
PET SHOP BOYS Fugitive – Richard X Extended Mix (2006)
Although the ‘Fundamental’ album was produced by Trevor Horn, Richard X powerfully extended ‘Fugitive’ as a limited edition exclusive for the fittingly titled ‘Fundamentalism’ bonus album. PET SHOP BOYS’ own post-9/11 song, Neil Tennant recently revealed in the reissued booklet notes:“It’s about a terrorist, a terrorist whose ideology is that he believes that by killing the enemy he’s going to go to heaven”.
Having worked on-and off with Anne Lilia Berge Strand since 2004 including her breakthrough song ‘Chewing Gum’, ‘Songs Remind Me Of You’ was another fabulous tune from the Richard X / Hannah Robinson songbook. Filled with high octane electronic dance flavours, “How does it feel…to hear your songs on the radio?” asked the Norwegian songstress wispily with an exquisite devenir a gris lilt inside a spiky synthesized mix.
Available on the ANNIE album ‘Don’t Stop’ via Smalltown Supersound
Conceived as a jokey publicity stunt for the Italo disco flavoured Annie single ‘Anthonio’, Richard X used its backing track to create a brilliant tongue-in-cheek response to her tale of broken holiday romance. As a modern exponent of Italo, HEARTBREAK’s charismatic vocalist Sebastian Muravchik amiably played the role of the disimpassioned Latin lover. The B-side featured a cover of THE GLITTER BAND’s ‘Angel Face’.
Available on the ANTHONIO single ‘Annie’ via Pleasure Masters
With some slight similarities to Kylie Minogue’s ‘The One’ and recorded by SAINT ETIENNE for an updated singles compilation, ‘Method Of Modern Love’ was again written by Richard X with Hannah Robinson alongside Matt Prime. A long-time fan of the trio, it had only been intended for Richard X to remix ‘This Is Tomorrow’, but he ended up producing them as they opted for ‘Method Of Modern Love’ as a new single after hearing the demo.
A superb collection of soulful 21st century electronic disco, ‘Overpowered’ was the second solo album from Roísín Murphy who found fame with MOLOKO and struck big with the international club smash ‘Sing It Back’. The Richard X helmed ‘Parallel Lives’ penetrated with some steady and deep sub-bass, providing a nice bonus to an album where Murphy had gloriously sounded not unlike Lisa Stansfield fronting PET SHOP BOYS.
Available on the ROÍSÍN MURPHY album ‘Overpowered’ via EMI Records
DRAGONETTE Pick Up The Phone – Richard X Remix (2010)
DRAGONETTE were fronted by singer-songwriter Martina Sorbara and while ‘Pick Up The Phone’ was a summery upbeat tune, the Canadian popsters took a breather from their usual Euro-leaning sound with electric guitars subbing for the usual synths. But this made things perfect for a superior Richard X remix to stick back in all the electronic dance elements that the band were actually best known for.
Available on the DRAGONETTE album ‘Mixin To Thrill’ via Dragonette Inc
From ‘Head First’, the poppiest album in the GOLDFRAPP catalogue, the Richard X assisted ‘Alive’ allowed Alison Goldfrapp to explore her Olivia Newton-John fixation with a tune that recalled ‘I’m Alive’, a song by ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA for the film ‘Xanadu’. The synth solo was big and fat with power chords plus a great middle eight to boot. With references to Billy Joel as well, ‘Alive’ sounded slightly more Oberheim than Korg…
Available on the GOLDFRAPP album ‘Head First’ via Mute Records
THE HUNDRED IN THE HANDS Young Aren’t Young (2010)
Hailing from Brooklyn, THE HUNDRED IN THE HANDS possessed a sultry new wave fusion with occasional gothic overtones. Despite having aspirations to be more like Warp Records label mates BROADCAST, Richard X produced a number of key songs on their self-titled debut. ‘Young Aren’t Young’ was a dreamy NEW ORDER influenced number layered with Bernard Sumner styled frenetic guitar playing.
Sophie Ellis-Bextor once fronted an indie rock band called THEAUDIENCE. Yet another Richard X and Hannah Robinson co-composition, the glitterball sparkle of ‘Starlight’ utilised a Linn Drum led rhythm section and sweeping synth strings for a dreamy electronic pop concoction. Alluringly finding “heaven in the dark”, it was one of those catchy Kylie-esque summer holiday disco anthems.
Available on SOPHIE ELLIS-BEXTOR album ‘Make A Scene’ via EBGB’s
MIRRORS Into The Heart – Richard X Radio Mix (2011)
With a determined art for art’s sake concept for their ‘Lights & Offerings’ long player, the original sessions with Richard X were abandoned when MIRRORS chose to produce themselves, although he did contribute a Radio Mix for the reissued single ‘Into The Heart’; less intense and claustrophobic than the quartet’s album version, the majestic singalong proved that Synth Britannia influences were and still are nothing to be ashamed of.
Available on the MIRRORS single ‘Into the Heart’ via Skint Records
THE SOUND OF ARROWS are Stefan Storm and Oskar Gullstrand, a Swedish electronic pop duo described as “Disney meets Brokeback Mountain” and “the HURTS you can dance to” by Popjustice. Like PET SHOP BOYS fed with Fox’s Glacier Mints, the Richard X produced widescreen instrumental ‘Lost City’ was fittingly dramatic, although its main melodic theme may have been a bit too ‘Top Gun’ with synths for some listeners…
Available on THE SOUND OF ARROWS album ‘Voyage’ via Skies Above
Produced by Richard X, ‘The Violet Flame’ saw ERASURE return to form with their fourteenth album and express an infectious zest for the future with songs seeded via Vince Clarke’s pre-recorded dance grooves. With ‘Sacred’, this was another classic ERASURE pop tune, although the bizarre phrasal spectre of ‘Sweet Child O Mine’ by GUNS N ROSES could be found in the verse of Andy Bell’s vocal topline!
For the Mancunians’ first album of new material without estranged founder member Peter Hook, Bernard Sumner promised a return to electronic music. That was certainly delivered on with ‘Plastic’, a full-on throbbing seven minute electro number in the vein of Giorgio Moroder, solidly mixed by Richard X with blippy echoes of ‘Mr Disco’. Dealing with the issue of superficiality in relationships, it declared “you’re like plastic, you’re artificial…”
Available on the NEW ORDER album ‘Music Complete’ via Mute Artists
Produced by Richard X and Sunglasses Kid, a nocturnal warmth exuded from ‘Beyond Memory’, demonstrating how German songstress NINA’s pulsating electronic pop acted as a bridge between the sub-genres of synthwave and synthpop. With her vocals deliciously slicing the moonlit atmosphere with a superbly breathy chorus, ‘Beyond Memory’ reflected on the lifelong impact of past relationships.
Available on the NINA album ‘Sleepwalking’ via Aztec Records
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did what it said on the tin, combining tunes with electronic experimentation. But released in 2018, its follow-up 
is a much more on point as a distinct pop focussed offering suitable for live concert performances.
, 
and 
which have affirmed their position as one of Sweden’s leading electronic pop pioneers.
which had been shelved by Virgin Records back in 1981. Meanwhile as well as ERASURE, NINE INCH NAILS, GOLDFRAPP, MIRRORS, SAY LOU LOU and NEW ORDER, his productions and remixes have encompassed artists such varied as Will Young, Roísín Murphy, Rachel Stevens, Sam Sparro, Tiga, Jarvis Cocker and Lana Del Rey.
via Universal Music
via V2 Records
via Virgin Records
via Polydor Records
via Nothing Records
via Fantastic Plastic
via EMI Records
via Smalltown Supersound
via Pleasure Masters
via Heavenly Records
via EMI Records
via Dragonette Inc
via Mute Records
via Warp Records
via EBGB’s
via Skint Records
via Skies Above
via Mute Artists
via Mute Artists
via Aztec Records
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