“Synthesizers can be explored and explored, and the music that can be made with electronic instruments is infinite in its breadth. KRAFTWERK may have said ‘we are the robots’, but anyone need only listen to Trans-Europe Express and compare it to most of the turgid, boring guitar-based rock that has been produced over the last 30 years to realise that electronic music can be deeply emotional. And anyone who says electronic music is not real music is just too simple-minded for our patience I’m afraid!”: MIRRORS
2010 saw the return of the male synthpop act, smart boys with their toys and their nods towards the classic era of Synth Britannia. Leading the way were VILLA NAH and MIRRORS who both fused quality songs with vintage sounds and crisp contemporary percussive frameworks. The two units were obviously pressing the right buttons as both opened as special guests to OMD. As a continued sign of their undoubted potential, both were also were invited to support THE HUMAN LEAGUE; an opportunity which unfortunately neither act was able to fulfil due to prior scheduling commitments.
Coming from Finland, VILLA NAH released one of the best long players of the year in ‘Origin’, while closer to home, Brighton-based MIRRORS’ forthcoming album ‘Lights And Offerings’ is likely to be one of the musical highlights of 2011. Meanwhile HURTS, the enigmatic Mancunian duo who many predicted for major success in 2010, rattled the cages of the style over substance brigade.
Whilst the cinematic grandeur displayed in their best songs like ‘Wonderful Life’, ‘Stay’ and ‘Sunday’ was simply outstanding, they did occasionally walk a fine line with their milder paced material, sounding occasionally like TAKE THAT backed by ULTRAVOX. Despite confusing some listeners, their album ‘Happiness’ was an enormous grower and their live shows won over many new fans, especially on the continent where artful intelligence is a highly regarded attribute.
Interestingly, TAKE THAT themselves released their album ‘Progress’ with Stuart Price aka LES RYTHMES DIGITALES at the producer’s helm. Featuring a strong electronic flavour, there was also a song called ‘Eight Letters’ based on ‘Vienna’ which resulted in the rather unusual credit ‘written by Barlow / Donald / Orange / Owen / Williams / Ure / Cross / Cann / Currie’!
Attracting cult followings in 2010 were DELPHIC and CHEW LIPS. DELPHIC captured the Factory Records aesthetic of the mutant disco pioneered by NEW ORDER and A CERTAIN RATIO, but were unable to attract mainstream recognition probably due to their reliance on grooves and jams rather than actual songs… they can only get better with time.
CHEW LIPS are YEAH YEAH YEAHS with synths and while they had several brilliant numbers in their cannon, not all were included on their rather short debut album ‘Unicorn’. This didn’t allow them to play to their strengths on record although this was fully exploited in their live show. Again, they will learn.
And not wishing to get wholly involved in the main skirmish, THE SOUND OF ARROWS maintained a low profile while recording their debut album in London but delivered some impressive concert showcases of their lush Nordic musicality. Their optimistic and aspirational ‘Disney meets Brokeback Mountain’ tone may be the fresh approach to electropop in 2011.
Kookiness was the order of the day with the raven haired beauties MARINA & THE DIAMONDS and EMILIE SIMON. Marina Lambrini Diamandis kept the spirit of SPARKS alive with some fe-Mael intuition on her superb debut ‘The Family Jewels’ while EMILIE SIMON crossed the channel for some ‘one girl and her synth’ shows to fill the gap left by the absence of LITTLE BOOTS in 2010.
As could have been expected after the promotional lash of last year, Victoria Hesketh took a break before starting work on her new album. Hertfordshire’s SUNDAY GIRL could be the next lady-in-waiting providing she can expand on the very promising material like All The Songs and Stop Hey! that was premiered in the latter part of the year.
Meanwhile LA ROUX toured the world and recorded a ‘Stones cover ‘Under Your Thumb’ for the ‘Sidetracked’ influences DJ mix compilation before giving old mate SKREAM the iTunes bonus track Saviour for a dubstep rework as Finally and guesting with CHROMEO. However, Elly Jackson appears to have forgotten that No.1 rule of not biting the hand that feeds you by exclaiming “… I don’t want to make synth music for the rest of my f*cking life!” and declaring the electropop genre “over”!
In the battle of Synth Britannia, OMD released their first collection of new material for 14 years while THE HUMAN LEAGUE delayed their full album return until 2011. THE HUMAN LEAGUE have the backing of electronic music guru Mark Jones’ Wall Of Sound label and thus far have played a ‘less is more’ approach. Despite not having an official website until this year, some clever viral marketing sent interest in their single ‘Night People’ sky high and provided good business for their now almost traditional Christmas UK tour.
While OMD’s ‘History of Modern’ album had several outstanding tracks worthy of comparison with past glories, it was confusingly launched with an Aretha Franklin mash-up that wasn’t on the final tracklisting and a nauseating Britpop pastiche as lead single. Ironically one of the statements made in its sleeve notes was “Modern is not… Oasis”!
It was as if audiences who had traditionally been sceptical of the whole synthesizer axis were now being targeted.
However, electronic pop’s spiritual homeland of Germany welcomed OMD back like one of their own and respectable business for ‘History of Modern’ was generated.
A-HA though are proof that consistently high quality new material is still a possiblity 25 years after your commercial heyday with the focus of their final album ‘Foot Of The Mountain’ very much on their synthesizer roots. In late 2010, they bid farewell with a final tour and a superb double CD compilation called ’25’ which featured not only their hits but the best of their much under valued album tracks.
Photo by Tracey Welch
Among the acts celebrating their legacies, HEAVEN 17 enhanced their reputation no-end by participating in a brilliant BBC6 Music collaboration with “the falsetto from the ghetto” LA ROUX. And if that wasn’t enough, they had not one but two BBC TV programmes featuring their highly regarded album ‘Penthouse & Pavement’ including their triumphant Sheffield Magna gig.
HOWARD JONES didn’t look a day older, proving that a vegetarian diet and a clean living spirituality was the key to eternal youth! He played ‘Human’s Lib’ and ‘Dream Into Action’ in full for the first time at Indigo2.
Former sparring partners ULTRAVOX and JOHN FOXX played very different types of live shows in 2010. ULTRAVOX almost went back to basics with the retrospective ‘Return To Eden 2’ tour while JOHN FOXX curated an audio/visual extravaganza at the Short Circuit Festival featuring a deluge of analogue synths and some new material to a mixed reception.
DEPECHE MODE completed their ‘Tour Of The Universe’ and capped it all with a special show at the Royal Albert Hall for The Teenage Cancer Trust where Alan Wilder was reunited with the band for the first time in 16 years during the encore of ‘Somebody’. It was an emotional night for many including the band. Does this lay out the foundations for, if not a reunion, at least some future work together?
GOLDFRAPP returned with ‘Head First’, a mid-Atlantic AOR styled electronic romp that had echoes of Laura Branigan and Olivia Newton-John. Some found it uninspiring but what could not be denied was the catchiness of the tunes. Given time, it will become a future guilty pleasure.
Meanwhile LADYTRON prepared a career spanning compilation Ladytron ’00-10′ to reinforce their reputation as one of the key electronic based acts of the last decade but they began the year contributing a pair of excellent bonus tracks to Christina Aguilera’s album ‘Bionic’ in ‘Birds Of Prey’ and ‘Little Dreamer’.
Swedish songstress Robyn continued her feisty independent spirit by releasing her ‘Body Talk’ trilogy and the excellent single ‘Dancing On My Own’, while both Lady Gaga and Kylie kept electronically produced pop in the mainstream consciousness.
Across the water, New York’s THE GOLDEN FILTER added a crisp vibe to the electronic dancefloor via some dreamy Scandinavian influences and frantic tribal percussion while their neighbours THE HUNDRED IN THE HANDS brought a mechanised twist to new wave on their self-titled debut. And for the perfect after party soundtrack in the Big Apple, ARP provided some gorgeous modern day ambience with the album ‘The Soft Wave’. Meanwhile, another North American based duo LOLA DUTRONIC relaunched their brand of dreamy Gallic flavoured electro-lounge pop with the ‘Musique’ EP.
Elsewhere internationally, the vivacious SHH became the latest in a line of Argentine musicians basing themselves in London for an assault on the UK and European market while Texans HYPERBUBBLE brought their own ‘bionic bubblepunk’ with the impressive ‘Candy Apple Daydreams’. MARSHEAUX had a quiet year, only releasing a cover of BILLY IDOL’s Eyes Without a Face for an Amnesty International compilation.
Promising newcomers VILE ELECTRODES steadily gained fans on the London club circuit with their mix of fetish porn and analogue synths while following some line-up changes, THE VANITY CLAUSE finally released their first album ‘Fractured’. And the quirky Sheffield based duo THE CHANTEUSE & THE CLAW unleashed a superb debut single in ‘Are You One?’.
Overall in 2010, the spark generated by the new generation of synthesizer acts and the willingness of others to incorporate more electronic sounds into their work accounted for yet another productive year with the heritage acts also getting the cultural recognition they fully deserved. Ever supportive, The Guardian even featured a piece on the older incarnation entitled Forgive Us Our Synths which interestingly was almost two years after their prophetic Slaves To Synth article hit the public consciousness.
There were more quality albums and live shows of interest to the electro fan than in many years past with acts such as MIRRORS, VILLA NAH and HURTS fulfilling the role of worthy successors to the classic Synth Britanniageneration. Hopefully, other acts will be following in their footsteps. In fact, despite being ignored by the BBC Sound Of 2011 and New To Q listings which appear to have been locked into some evil parallel universe where good taste does not seem to reside, “… fey, gay, pseudo-intellectualsynth b*llocks” still rules!
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK Contributor Listings Of 2010
STEVE GRAY
Best Album: TENEK On The Wire
Best Song: HURTS Unspoken
Best Gig: DEPECHE MODE at London Royal Albert Hall
Best Video: MIRRORS Ways To An End
Most Promising New Act: MIRRORS
CHI MING LAI
Best Album: VILLA NAH Origin
Best Song: MIRRORS Ways To An End
Best Gig: HEAVEN 17 at Sheffield Magna
Best Video: HURTS Wonderful Life
Most Promising New Act: THE SOUND OF ARROWS
RICHARD PRICE
Best Album: HURTS Happiness
Best Song: OMD History Of Modern (Part I)
Best Gig: THE HUMAN LEAGUE + HEAVEN 17 at Galway Festival
Best Video: HURTS Stay
Most Promising New Act: MIRRORS
JOHAN WEJEDAL
Best Album: PAGE Nu
Best Song: POLAROID MILITIA Astana My Hero
Best Gig: PAGE at Gothenburg Synthklubben
Best Video: VILE ELECTRODES Deep Red
Most Promising New Act: THE GIRL & THE ROBOT
On a cold Autumn evening in a packed Hammersmith Apollo, something unusual was happening; Alison Goldfrapp was having fun!
The fairy godmother of modern electro has always cut a striking if static on-stage persona but tonight, it was if the thigh booted ice queen of yore had melted.
Like LADYTRON’s Mira Aroyo on their ‘Velocifero’ tour, Ms Goldfrapp totally loosened up, just as ERASURE’s Andy Bell once suggested she should.
So after a start which included darker, more artful selections like ‘Voicething’, ‘Crystalline Green’ and ‘You Never Know’, there was a breakout of smiles, dancing and even acknowledgements of the audience. While she has not turned into KYLIE MINOGUE, tonight saw a more relaxed and confident Alison Goldfrapp, someone who was now comfortable in their own aura.
There could be a variety of factors contributing to this but one almost certainly is the uptempo material from the ‘Head First’ album that dominates the middle part of this show. Tailor made for the sheer dynamics of live performance. A song like ‘Dreaming’ may be gorgeously layered Eurodisco, but the bouncy FM synth rock numbers ‘Alive’, ‘Believer’ and ‘I Wanna Life’ make the audience punch the air and join in the choruses.
‘Rocket’ is another case in point, a wonderful slice of Trans-Atlantic pop with Italo refrains a la LAURA BRANIGAN. The gorgeous middle eight is just angelic while the near lyrical banality of the chorus is utter genius.
Honorary Frappers Charlie Jones, Angie Pollock, Davide Rossi and new drummer Daisy Palmer all contribute a strong visual presence, with Pollock and Rossi taking to keytars in mock-VAN HALEN parody during this lively section of the show.
Rossi is a total musical all-rounder, swapping between violin, synths and guitar while Pollock backs up on keyboards and backing vox, looking every bit the glam vamp. Marching around the stage in neo-militaristic fashion, Ms Goldfrapp’s crazy curly locks billow in the artificial wind like some live action remake of the cult cartoon ‘Crystal Tipps & Alistair’ and her black tinsel-covered outfit does the same.
The glam era is very much at the root of the GOLDFRAPP aesthetic and even on the mid-paced material, this influence is prevalent. The fantastic ‘Number 1’ is a ROXY MUSIC number transported into the 21st Century, while the wonderful ABBA inspired singalong of ‘Head First’ would do Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny and Annifrid proud.
Throughout the set, the rhythm section remains rock solid. Jones, son of LED ZEPPELIN’s John-Paul cooly textures and jazzes up proceedings as appropriate on his bass while despite having a full acoustic kit at her disposal, Palmer sticks mostly to a punchy electronic percussion pad but comes to the fore when the power is needed.
An extended electronic work out of ‘Ride A White Horse’ meets the crowd’s approval while ‘Ooh La La’ and ‘Strict Machine’ are effectively turned full-blown T-REX tributes with as usual, the latter’s ‘We Are Glitter’ intro threatening to turn into RAH BAND’s ‘The Crunch’! And not forgetting ‘Train’, this doesn’t disappoint either as a filthy slice of Teutonic schaffel!
Indeed, the sheer volume is a pleasant surprise tonight. It even paradoxically helps the quieter numbers in the encore like ‘Black Cherry’ and the superb ‘Lovely Head’ with Ms Goldfrapp’s spine tingling electronically assisted banshee wails.
GOLDFRAPP gigs have often been too quiet in the past, thereby encouraging talking in the audience and provoking the culturally challenged who simply cannot get their heads around the more esoteric GOLDFRAPP material. This evening, the loudness sees them all thankfully silenced, even when she tackles these songs dressed like a Meringue!
Tonight, people saw the real Alison Goldfrapp, the girl with the Olivia Newton-John fixation.
If she had only performed the early B-side ‘UK Girls’ featuring its chorus lifted from ‘Physical’, then the circle would have been completed and everything would have been perfect. Other than that, it was GOLDFRAPP’s best ever live set. Despite all the flirtations with folk and film-noir, Ms Goldfrapp is actually a purveyor of some guilty pleasures.
‘Head First’ is released by Mute Records/EMI music
Sarah Blackwood has been a striking presence on the music scene since 1995.
First as the singer of DUBSTAR, she scored hits with lush Stephen Hague produced kitchen sink dramas such as ‘Not So Manic Now’, ‘Stars’ and ‘No More Talk’. Following three albums ‘Disgraceful’, ‘Goodbye’ and ‘Make It Better’ on Food Records and increasingly muted interest from a public still drunk on ‘Cool Britannia’, DUBSTAR disbanded and in 2002, Sarah was recruited to front female synthpop duo TECHNIQUE.
The brainchild of multi-instrumentalist Kate Holmes, TECHNIQUE’s superb ‘You & Me’ was massively popular in the Far East via a cover version by Chinese songstress Coco Lee. They had been booked to support DEPECHE MODE in Europe when original singer Xan Tyler went AWOL.
Somewhere in Leipzig of what became a 15 date tour with Basildon’s finest, Kate and Sarah chose the name CLIENT and adopted a musikarbeiter approach in the tradition of KRAFTWERK’s ‘The Man Machine’. They also initially shunned using their real names, choosing to be mysteriously referred to as Client A and Client B in a ‘1984’ inspired Orwellian twist.
Photo by Corinna Samow
Signed to Mute Records via the Toast Hawaii imprint curated by DEPECHE MODE’s Andy Fletcher, CLIENT released two well received albums ‘Client’ (2003) and ‘City’ (2004). With their eponymous manifesto, they announced “Client… satisfaction guaranteed… innovate never imitate… we aim to please… .at your service”. This impressed all the right people and they were invited to play prestigious supports slots with electronic godfather KARL BARTOS.
Achieving greater success in Europe than in the UK with their own brand of gritty electro, CLIENT signed to German label Out Of Line who issued their last two albums ‘Heartland’ (2007) and ‘Command’ (2009) on the continent.
Meanwhile back home, they established their own Loser Friendly label and a fashion line. In the interim during 2008, Sarah issued a Client B solo EP ‘Acoustic At The Club Bar Dining’ which featured former DUBSTAR bandmate Chris Wilkie. Included were stripped down versions of both DUBSTAR and CLIENT songs plus covers of NEW ORDER’s ‘True Faith’ and THE SMITHS’ ‘Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before’.
Playing live shows with both CLIENT and DUBSTAR in Europe throughout 2010, Sarah Blackwood aka Client B gave a highly insightful interview to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK over coffee about her influences, her career so far with her two acclaimed bands and women in electro…
How did you first get into electronic pop music and who inspired you?
I can remember the first I saw KRAFTWERK on ‘Top Of The Pops’. I can’t remember how old I was, but I remember my dad getting hold of me and dragging me in front of the TV going “listen to this, this is fantastic” and that’s one memory that kinda sticks in my head. And the other one was seeing Grace Jones with a cigarette in her mouth… she’s not really electronic but she’s just that glacial sort of cool, I thought was she was the coolest thing ever.
When you’re kids and you’re all growing up, you all share music and my mates were really into Lionel Richie and Whitney Houston and I was like “it’s alright” . And then PET SHOP BOYS ‘West End Girls’ hit and I was like “Oh! That’s me!”. And friends who realised I liked PET SHOP BOYS said “you might like THE CURE, THE THE, DEPECHE MODE” and I got into it through all that.
But I love all sorts of music, not just electronic. But it’s more electronic that pushes my buttons, cos I was a real rock girl when I was growing up. I liked LED ZEPPELIN and things like that, I used to hang out in rockers’ pubs and now I just can’t listen to it! Just completely OD-ed on 70s excessive guitar!
And that was the whole thing about DUBSTAR, Chris Wilkie’s guitar playing was so restrained but on tour, he was sometimes “I’m so miserable, I just want to do a Jimmy Page solo just to let out all my fury! I need some catharsis”. But he just doesn’t play like that cos he’s such a modest guy that he wouldn’t play like that anyway!
I think it’s sometimes difficult to get guitarists to hold back, they’re quite egocentric.
Yeah, but Chris is not like that, he was so understated and I was always trying to push him forward in DUBSTAR but he was very low in the mix. This time I’ve gone more Chris driven.
You’ve heard this guitarist joke haven’t you? What have premature ejaculation and a guitar solo got in common? You know when it’s coming and there’s sod all you can do about it!!
Ha! Ha! I mean it’s just like that dinosaur sort of… y’know, Jimmy Page playing bloody guitar with a bow! It’s just like making noise, it’s not even clever! It’s just… UGH! Not that it’s anything against Jimmy Page cos he was a childhood idol and all that, but so was Madonna!
You been spotted at recent YAZOO and HEAVEN 17 gigs? Are the bands of your youth still something that you’re very passionate about?
Yeah, they’re part of your fabric of your growing up. For me it would be ABBA I think, I was a massive ABBA fan. I suppose they’re more pop than electronic, but that song Madonna did ‘Nothing Really Matters’ on ‘Ray Of Light’, it’s so ABBA it’s just wonderful. And the new Sophie Ellis-Bextor song ‘Bitter Sweet’, that’s so ABBA, the harmonies! It’s what I grew up with, ABBA and THE BEATLES.
You joined TECHNIQUE in 2001 for the DEPECHE MODE tour, were you singing songs like ‘You & Me’ from the Pop Philosophy mini-album?
Yeah, that’s a great song!
I’d love to hear a recording of you singing it.
That’s a good idea! And ‘Quiet Storm’, that was a really good one!
Photo by Corinna Samow
When CLIENT first started in 2002, the musical landscape was quite different and you were fighting a battle for the synthesizer with LADYTRON, MISS KITTIN and GOLDFRAPP.
We didn’t know all this was going on. Me and Kate shut ourselves away and just started making music together. Then we took it to our publisher and he just went “Have you listened to MISS KITTIN?” and we went “No, who’s MISS KITTIN?”, “Have you listened to LADYTRON?” and we went “Who are they?” And it was like, “oh my god”, there’s something going on out here and we felt like we were just treading in the water.
And then all the electroclash struck with a vengeance and suddenly it was PEACHES because GOLDFRAPP hadn’t actually embraced the scene at that point, they were still doing ‘Felt Mountain’, which I think really was better. I love Alison Goldfrapp’s voice, it’s great but I don’t like it when it’s all about the sound as opposed to what she’s singing about. I don’t like singers who don’t pronounce the words properly!
When you heard all about these girls, did you ever feel any kind of affinity with them like you were sisters in arms?
Yeah, I mean like the LADYTRON girls. I was a bit disappointed with them on tour cos they weren’t that friendly, but then I realised they’d been sat on a bus for three months and we hadn’t! They didn’t really want to socialise. I thought they were so cool and I was a bit starstruck by them I guess! The lads were really friendly. But then I could see it from their point of view; when you’re felling like, really mucky and you’ve been on a bus for three months, it’s just horrible!
But the landscape has changed now…
I think we’ve paved the way but to be honest, people are seeing it as a fashion thing again, that women in electronic music is yet another passing fashion and it isn’t I’m afraid! WE’RE HERE TO STAY!!
What do you think of the recent bunch electropop girls like LITTLE BOOTS and LA ROUX that you helped open the doors for?
I really admire them, they have far more balls and self awareness than I had when I was their age and that helps to make them good songwriters. I’m in awe. Go girls!!
What did you think their albums?
The LITTLE BOOTS one I liked and LA ROUX, I went “oh god, it’s an 80s pastiche”, but actually it’s the LA ROUX one I’m still playing. I think she’s really got it and she’s made my DJ set. I also love LADYHAWKE.
And what do you think of the new crop of boys like MIRRORS, HURTS and VILLA NAH?
I’ve heard HURTS, it’s like JOY DIVISION meets PET SHOP BOYS so they can’t go wrong but I can’t find anything! It’s so difficult to know about music these days. I just go on iTunes and Spotify and let it lead me. That’s quite exciting, but I always end up at THROBBING GRISTLE somehow!!
CLIENT are well known for their sexy Cold War Chic. Where did the original inspiration for the uniform look come from?
Cold War Chic… oh, I like that!
Basically, it started because we didn’t know what to wear on tour with DEPECHE MODE and we just thought “we’re not trying to upstage them, we just want something that will blend us in, we don’t want to look the height of fashion, we don’t want to spend too much money and we want to feel like everyone”. Plus if they threw anything at us, we wanted it to be something that was sort of disposable so we thought of the uniforms!
It was then kind of the Miss Moneypenny thing; secretary, sexually frustrated, all repressed because I had a very religious upbringing. Kate was like “God, your childhood sounds just like ‘Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit'”! I mean it wasn’t… my poor mum and dad, no it wasn’t! But it was kind of religious!
With the uniforms, it felt like we were going to work in the music industry and it’s a play on that as well. “Cheap cotton outfits” as Brix Smith-Start kindly observed! She came on tour with us and was so much fun. She has since re-invented herself as a successful style guru but she was one of the first iconic girl bass players… sod all the grunge girls, Brix was there first and so cool in THE FALL.
Photo by Corinna Samow
CLIENT’s success in Germany continues and you seem much happier with Out of Line Records there. Why do you think you’re more appreciated in the spiritual home of modern electronic music than in the UK?
People in the UK perceive electronic music as cheating I think. They like to see the blood sweat and tears and guitar music is seen as more emotionally honest… striking a chord on the heartstrings haha!!! I don’t think people can appreciate the skill in electronic music… it’s more of a behind the scenes construction as opposed to an in-your-face performance and because we have no real tradition of electro, I think they think we all mime!!!!
It’s not until people like Kylie and Madonna use electronic music and really hit producers that people see it as integrated in pop music. But the actual women doing electronic thing, it still seems to people to be a fashion thing and it isn’t! People just can’t seem to take it seriously. They either want to put you in the pop box or they want you to be guys in drainpipe jeans with a drug problem playing guitar… sort of four chords and the truth kind of thing!
I don’t think people can really get their heads round women doing it for themselves, running their own record label or running their own management or running their own merch business which is what me and Kate do. Y’know; doing our own DJ-ing, production, all that!
One thing I’ve experienced on fan forums and talking to supposed electro fans on the scene is they can’t seem to accept women on synthesizers. One person compared women doing electro to straight men doing show tunes or white men doing rap! Have you experienced that kind of prejudice?
I think in the UK, yeah! People don’t take you seriously because they think there’s a bloke behind the scenes pulling all the strings. And they think guys are writing the songs! We do have a bit of help with the programming from Joe Wilson from SNEAKER PIMPS. He is brilliant, his drum programming is absolute genius. A lot of people didn’t get songs like ‘Son Of A Gun’ until they hear it live. That drum loop is just superb!
All of SNEAKER PIMPS are doing alright for themselves aren’t they? Kelli Ali’s solo, Chris Corner is IAMX and Liam Howe is producing MARINA & THE DIAMONDS.
Yeah, Chris Corner is so good. His voice is incredible, he leaps around on stage and people think that he’s miming because he doesn’t miss his pitch. All I have to do is clap my hands above my head and my pitch is like… everywhere, let alone dancing!
Oh, I didn’t know that was Liam was producing MARINA & THE DIAMONDS, good for him.
How do you think the internet has helped sustain CLIENT’s profile and fanbase internationally?
Without the internet, we’d be nothing. We really embraced it. CLIENT were one of the first bands to get on MySpace. We just went for it because we saw it as a marketing tool as opposed to something to be shoved under the carpet and be scared of.
But it does p*ss me off with all the illegal downloading because how are we supposed to survive? Never would I have thought there would be someone talking in the House of Parliament for musicians but this guy from BIG COUNTRY just said “Imagine if we just opened the doors to HMV and come and take what you want?”
Photo by Corinna Samow
You’re working with Steve Hillier and Chris Wilkie again as DUBSTAR with a cover of THE PASSIONS ‘I’m In Love With A German Filmstar’ being your first release as part of a project for Amnesty International Catalunya. How did this come about and how will this develop alongside CLIENT?
Somebody approached Steve and he said to me and Chris “do you fancy doing this?” and we were like “OK”. So we all had to go away and think of what songs we wanted to do. I’d just done this thing for Kirsty MacColl with Mark Nevin who wrote with her. And he asked me to sing some songs when it was a tribute for Kirsty on her birthday.
So I did that and that was the scariest gig of my life because her ex-husband Steve Lillywhite was there. My knees were just shaking. I’m a fan myself and I think she’s very underrated, as a lyricist she’s just amazing. What a f*cking tragedy!
So I said I’d love to do ‘New England’ or ‘There’s A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis’. Chris wanted to do ‘Under My Thumb’ because he loves THE ROLLING STONES. Steve said why don’t we do THE PASSIONS? And this is where the three of us come from. So Steve did this backing track but it was a really good song to sing. We played it to THE PASSIONS and they really liked it as well.
Is there any more DUBSTAR stuff coming up?
Yeah, that kind of got us back together because we had a false start. We’ve done a few more songs and demos. We’ll just see what happens. It so difficult because which way do you turn? Do you take them to a major or just do it yourself on the internet? We’re just getting a body of work together and we’ll think about playing live and see what unfolds rather than trying to force anything. We’ll see if anything comes to us.
I saw you in DUBSTAR in Cambridge supporting ERASURE in 1996. You didn’t look very happy?
Really? I remember that gig… bloody hell, I was terrified! No, I was never happy! DUBSTAR songs were always very hard to sing. And Steve did confess to me two weeks ago that he use to make them deliberately hard for me as a sort of game! *laughs*
That bit in ‘I Will Be Your Girlfriend’, “I’m the person with a plan” … I mean bloody hell! Incredible strain on the voice! Just having to jump around! I get so frustrated by my lack of range. The things I want to do with my voice, it’s just AAAGH! Can’t do it! Just really drives me insane! I think my voice is just there to sing words to cynical love songs!
Then in 2003, I saw CLIENT supporting Karl Bartos and I remember being pleasantly surprised how happy you were on stage. You were winking to the crowd and smiling which never seemed to be the case with DUBSTAR?
No, it was always quite fraught in DUBSTAR. There was always some trauma going on and we were all hungover because we did an awful lot of drinking in those days! Another reason DUBSTAR never did too well because we were never properly managed. We had six managers in seven years and the time we did really well, we were managed by Food Records.
I loved a DUBSTAR B-side called ‘Unchained Monologue’…
We always took a lot of care with the B-sides. One we did called ‘View From Here’ should never have been a B-side. ‘Unchained Monologue’ was me and Steve at our most cynical!
With CLIENT and DUBSTAR, you’ve done a lot of cover versions from acts as varied as Billy Bragg, Billy Idol, PET SHOP BOYS, Gary Numan, NEW ORDER, THE SMITHS, Adam Ant, Astrud Gilberto and Charles Aznavour. Of course, ‘Not So Manic Now’ was a cover too, it was originally by BRICK SUPPLY. You must have a very diverse record collection?
Yes, I’ve got all sorts. I like 60s Garage, cheesy house is a guilty pleasure. I like Country music; Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Hank Williams!
Where did THE LIBERTINES collaborations with CLIENT on City come from? As an electro fan, I found that alienated me.
Well, Kate’s husband Alan McGee was managing The LIBERTINES. Carl Barat and Pete Doherty really liked us. They called me ‘Sarah Bapples’ because I was quite fat in DUBSTAR and had quite big boobs.
Ha! Ha! I tell you who’s got enormous boobs… MARINA & THE DIAMONDS! They are f*cking huge!
Lucky girl… so’s Alison Goldfrapp! She’s got great legs! *laughs*
DUBSTAR launched right in the middle of guitar-led Britpop explosion with a polished synthesized sound. Often in your career, you do seem to find yourself regularly in the face of adversity from the real music police. Is the acoustic thing possibly motivated by a need to prove yourself?
Yes, I just think a good song will work if you can do it acoustically. Just like ‘I’m In Love With A German Film Star’, me and Chris did that acoustically at a club in Cologne. The acoustic gigs are just something to keep my hand in.
You’ve sung with some electro legends such as Gary Numan on ‘Redirected Mail ‘with DUBSTAR and DEPECHE MODE’s Martin Gore on ‘Overdrive’ with CLIENT…
I have actually! A lot of the new DUBSTAR stuff is being done on GARY NUMAN’s electric piano that Steve bought off him. I was in Manchester when we recorded Redirected Mail but Steve and Chris actually went down to Gary’s and sat and had ham and chips with him. They had a right laugh and had a really good time.
And then the Martin Gore one, that came about because Andy Fletcher played him some demos and Martin said he liked ‘Overdrive’. So Kate said to me “You’ve got lovely handwriting, you write him a letter” so I wrote him a letter going “Dear Martin… “*laughs*
And the next thing we knew, Martin had this newly set-up studio and recorded himself. The thing is, when we mixed the two vocals together, that was a moment! I didn’t know how it was going to work but when you heard it, it was like “woo!”… it was a bit spine tingling really!
BBC6 Music recently arranged live collaborations for LITTLE BOOTS with Gary Numan and LA ROUX with HEAVEN 17. You’ve kind of “done it before” but is there anyone who you’d like to perform with, either as CLIENT or DUBSTAR?
I think most of them are dead actually! I’m a massive admirer of Janis Joplin. Anyone who can just open their mouth and sing in two octaves is just incredible. Bjork is amazing, but sometimes it gets on my nerves… f*cking sing properly!!
Actually, Stephen Hague always said me and Barney Sumner of NEW ORDER would be good together. I think his voice is just raw and honest. And that honesty I admire far more than vocal gymnastics!! With CLIENT, the song kind of formulates as it’s going along and that’s a really exciting process. I like flying by the seat of my pants and you’re just making stuff up. I like that reaching for something but it’s not quite formed.
I hate it when emotion is perceived as vocal dexterity. It’s like w*nky guitar solos to me! I can’t bear that, it’s just showing off and it’s not about the song. You read the lyrics and you appreciate the lyrics and you just try and convey them in a way that’s sincere, and mean it. And I think that’s what singing’s about. It’s not about “hey, listen to me, I can sing in top C and then in E flat.”
Photo by Corinna Samow
You’ve toured with MARSHEAUX in 2007 who are also your Out Of Line label mates. How was that tour and how do you like the concept of forming an all-girl electro supergroup with them?
All in the uniforms? They’re lovely! They sort of copied us, but it was the biggest form of flattery because they’re such lovely girls! It’s nice to think I’ve inspired something! We do love MARSHEAUX, it was a really nice tour actually that!
I remember the guy from the agency came back and there was like MARSHEAUX in various states of undress; there was me, Kate and Charlotte Heatherley from ASH in various states of undress, and there was our web designer Corinna Sanow and her girlfriend having a massage in the corner! And the guy walked in and he was like “oh my god”… he must have thought it was like Sodom and Gomorrah or something! He was just like “bloody hell!”*laughs*
You just painted a really amazing picture for me there… this supergroup has got to happen!! Can I have a backstage pass? So tell us about your brilliant collaboration with William Orbit entitled ‘White Night’. What’s going to happen with that?
I don’t know, we put it on Soundcloud. It got put out on his album but not with me. Ironically, it was a song that Brix Smith-Start sang as well, she did a version of it. It was written by one of William’s really good mates and we had an afternoon working together… he looked at my notebooks and said “ooh, they’re very full of pain!”, I was like “oooh, brilliant!”. It was so lovely but he’s so in demand!
But I do think eventually, we should do something together because just his way of production. DUBSTAR were always massive fans but BLUR got to work with William on 13 because we said “please can we work with William Orbit?” and Andy Ross of Food Records said “yeah-yeah-yeah but you’re not ready for an album but BLUR are!”. And then William was going to do us and Madonna stepped in… that was ‘Ray Of Light’! And DUBSTAR split!
Was that just a natural parting of ways? Musical or personal differences?
I think at the time, me and Steve weren’t getting on at all! We were both really jealous of each other. He was jealous of me singing and I was jealous of him being able to write songs! And the two things were just… we’ve made friends again now and everything but like he said to me the other day, he’d deliberately try and make the songs difficult as a kind of test which I think is quite hilarious actually. It’s very sweet of him to admit it… he was like “what the f*ck was I doing, making you jump from that to that?”
I was neurotic on tour with DUBSTAR. I get a bit like that with CLIENT as well but as soon as you get nervous, your neck tenses up, your vocal chords tense up so you’ve got to stay as unstressed as possible and just focus. On tour, it starts the moment you wake up that you’ve got to perform! Whatever happens during the day, that is the end goal so everything lead up to that.
What’s immediately happening next for you?
I am DJ-ing throughout UK and Europe. I have just finished some gigs supporting Alan Wilder’s RECOIL project. I’m doing some writing, some acoustic gigs with Chris… in fact the next one is June 6th in Hamburg at a book launch for Ian Curtis. I think it’s going to be a really lovely event.
What are your current favourite songs or albums, electronic or otherwise?
I bribe and bargain myself into running with the promise of listening to music!
So at the moment, I’m listening to Jermaine Stewart’s ‘We Don’t Have to Take Our Clothes Off’!! It’s a brilliant song! I’ve got Roisin Murphy ‘You Know Me Better’, SNEAKY SOUND SYSTEM ‘Cancer City’, ‘Romeo’ by Donna Summer, ‘Physical Attraction’ by Madonna. Also some CHROMEO mixed by Tiga. That’s my running playlist for today!
There’s also a great song I like by a French girl named SOKO called ‘I’ll Kill Her’. It’s a girl and a guitar, check that out, it’s great! It’s how Kate Nash should have been!
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its sincerest thanks to Sarah Blackwood
GOLDFRAPP have always shed skins with every album. Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory are almost like a modern day EURYTHMICS, changing styles as they please and making the audience work for their enjoyment whether they approve of the new direction or not!
From their moody cinematic debut ‘Felt Mountain’ to the futurist electro-glam of ‘Black Cherry’ and the X-Certificate Kylie of their biggest commercial success ‘Supernature’, even fans were a little shocked when folktronica album ‘Seventh Tree’ hit the shelves.
Coming over like Sandy Denny crossed with Britt Ekland in ‘The Wicker Man’, the album was an unexpected success despite the drastic change in direction.
But for ‘Head First’, there’s yet another path. Alison Goldfrapp recently came out in her relationship with ‘Nowhere Boy’ film editor Lisa Gunning and this appears to have provided her an emotional release, a metaphoric weight off her shoulders. ERASURE’s Andy Bell once remarked that Ms Goldfrapp was “a sweetheart but really needs to loosen up” and it would appear that this joyous union has resulted in the most up GOLDFRAPP album ever.
In common with Annie and Dave’s appropriately titled ‘Be Yourself Tonight’ LP which exposed more Stateside influences, ‘Head First’ shows hints of MTV styled AOR with Irena Cara-era Giorgio Moroder, Laura Branigan and Olivia Newton-John being the most instant references. That Da Neutron-Bomb is an influence however should not be a complete surprise as GOLDFRAPP interpolated her classic hit ‘Physical’ into their own B-side ‘UK Girls’ as far back as ‘Felt Mountain’ in 2000.
Alison obviously has a taste for guilty pleasures and probably in a desire to show Gaga, Boots and Roux a thing or two, she’s let rip with the synths again to reclaim her disco queen crown. But add in some power chords while trying not to say VAN HALEN and for the first time, GOLDFRAPP are actually sounding retro! More Oberheim than Korg, ‘Head First’ has precious little agenda with yesterday’s tomorrow.
First single ‘Rocket’ has the synthetic brassy stabs of ‘Gloria’ and the wonderfully banal lyrics like “Woah-oh-ohh! I’ve got a rocket! Woah-oh-ohh! You’re going on it!” recall the Italo disco genre which was such a big influence on the Laura Branigan sound. The middle eight is gorgeous and you can read what you want into any sexual innuendo! Several other tracks like ‘Believer’ and ‘I Wanna Life’ are enjoyable FM pop but typical of the Americanised anthemic sound attempted on ‘Rocket’. In a strange way, GOLDFRAPP are going back to their cinematic roots. Only the soundtrack is for the montage dance scene of a Brat Pack movie or ‘Flashdance’ rather than a Cold War spy drama!
‘Alive’ recalls ELO’s ‘I’m Alive’ from Da Neutron-Bomb’s ‘Xanadu’, a film so awful it was rechristened ‘Xanadon’t’! But this does sound like it could be a new song for the extended directors cut. The synth solo is big and fat; it’s GOLDFRAPP, just not as we know them! The stand-out track is ‘Dreaming’ which walks tall because it’s the most European of the set. There’s a beautiful high-register chorus alongside the chunky arpeggios, swimmy ARPs and real strings. It’s a slice of quality Eurodisco with an updated take on French electronic acts such as CERRONE and SPACE (not the talentless Scouse chancers!)
The title track is pure ABBA! Even the “I am your visitor” lyric points to their final album being one of Alison and Will’s muses. Will Gregory pays tribute to Benny Anderson with some classic keyboard runs while the belting multi-layered harmonies are Alison doing her best Agnetha and Annifrid. Alison loosens up further on ‘Shiny and Warm’, whispering along to fat bass pulses and a stuttering Lindyhop that makes this a more electronic cousin to ‘Satin Chic’ from ‘Supernature’.
A GOLDFRAPP album wouldn’t be a GOLDFRAPP album without the usual plethora of slower moods. There’s the staccato ‘Hunt’ which is like their own ‘Deep Honey’ driven by a live drum beat and the neo-accapella ‘Voicething’ which is dominated by Alison’s abstract vocal stylings on top of a minimal electronic backing track. It’s doesn’t quite scale Matterhorn heights in the way ‘Felt Mountain’ did but it’s a lovely closer.
Short and sharp, ‘Head First’ doesn’t outstay its welcome and works as an album. GOLDFRAPP have been the epitome of cool in the 21st Century but are they in now danger of thawing? ‘Head First’ is a very immediate, fun recording but whether it will become a classic, only time will tell.
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is released by Mute/EMI Records
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