TINY MAGNETIC PETS were founded in 2009 in Dublin by Paula Gilmer on vocals and Sean Quinn in charge of electronic sound wizardry.
They were joined by Eugene Somers to take care of the percussion side of things and blossomed into a serious act, recognised by the likes of OMD, Michael Rother and Rusty Egan. A debut album and a couple of excellent EPs later, TINY MAGNETIC PETS, named after the collectible Japanese toy, gathered a significant interest with fans of krautrock, classic synthpop and Berlin-era Bowie.
Manufacturing their unusual sound to sit somewhere in between and to cater to the eclectic tastes of the more discerning lovers of pop, they have returned with their second full length album ‘Deluxe/Debris’, with Gilmer and co promising to deliver their best work to date, a “perfect soundtrack for complicated times”.
Kicking off with ‘Lost My Guiding Light’, which starts off with gentle pop sounds like MADONNA’s ‘Drowned World’, it slowly blossoms onto a warming blanket of the perfect musicality, encapsulating dreamy Badalamenti styled guitar, married with the clever use of trumpets and effortless vocals.
Following on comes the epic ‘Semaphore’, which takes the listener onto an eclectic musical journey in its eleven minutes length. From the krautrock beats, through to the sublime guitar interventions, the grandness of the percussion, the breathiness of MARSHEAUX like vocals where Gilmer pleads “please don’t wake me from this dream” to an experimental ending à la APOPTYGMA BERZERK, it’s a symphony of what’s best in the world of TINY MAGNETIC PETS.
None other than Wolfgang Flür guests on ‘Radio On’, a Kraftwerkian excursion on which the Gilmer’s vocal is perhaps reminiscent of Natalie Imbruglia’s. Flür also features on the closing ‘Never Alone’, which transcends a breezy dreamlike state. ‘Cold War Neon’ Frenches it up a little with a female narration over a ballad of suspense, while ‘All Yesterday’s Tomorrows’ introduces a voice reminiscent of Kylie work over some superb synth.
‘Here Comes The Noise’ is presented in two disguises; the first, ‘Pink’ is a magnificent piece, massaging the tiredness away with its floaty quality, while ‘White’ gets the percussion involved, presenting the track as a dance outing over the delicious electronics. ‘Shadow Street’ works perfectly well as a modern day electronic bossa nova with its undemanding rhythm and the consistently marvellous vocal from Gilmer.
Experimenting further, ‘Cloud Sequence’ glides and glows eloquently with a further dose of undiluted musical intentions. It has to be said that TINY MAGNETIC PETS have hit the jackpot with ‘Deluxe/Debris’. Certainly the most interesting production to date from the Irish trio, encapsulating the best in retro and contemporary synthpopia.
Gilmer’s voice has shaped up to be one of the best female vocals of the genre, and the execution by Quinn showcases the knowhow of the good old fashioned songwriting, but in a modern style.
A perfect pop record for the most discerning of tastes. Go Ireland!
‘Deluxe/Debris’ is released by Happy Robots Records in vinyl, CD and download formats on 25th August 2017
TINY MAGNETIC PETS open for OMD on the Ireland + UK dates of ‘The Punishment Of Luxury’ 2017 tour:
Dublin Vicar Street (23rd October), Belfast Mandela Hall (24th October), Liverpool Empire (29th October), Bristol Colston Hall (30th October) , Southend Cliffs Pavilion (1st November), Ipswich Regent (2nd November), Cambridge Corn Exchange (3rd November), Leicester De Montfort Hall (5th November), Nottingham Royal Concert Hall (6th November), Sheffield City Hall (7th November), Reading Hexagon (9th November), Southampton Guild Hall (10th November), Guildford G Live (11th November), London Roundhouse (13th November), Bexhill Del La Warr Pavillion (15th November), Manchester Academy (17th November), York Barbican (18th November), Glasgow Royal Concert Hall (19th November), Birmingham Symphony Hall (21st November), Gateshead Sage (22nd November)
From Happy Robots Records, the stable that brought the world ARTHUR & MARTHA, RODNEY CROMWELL and HOLOGRAM TEEN, comes PATTERN LANGUAGE.
The debut mini-album ‘Total Squaresville’ offers an optimistic melodic take on the synth instrumental without going into full symphonic JEAN-MICHEL JARRE territory, while also avoiding some of the electronic dirges that often pass for avant-garde experiments in sound.
The man behind PATTERN LANGUAGE is Chris Frain from Boulder, Colorado who dabbled in indie-pop and prog-rock bands until a chance viewing of the BBC4 documentary ‘Synth Britannia’ reminded him that inventive music could be made just using synthesizers.
While partying like it’s 1978, albeit a party with only the host present, ‘Total Squaresville’ uses basic modern technology like an iPad, running apps such as the FunkBox drum machine, Moog Animoog and Genome MIDI sequencer to achieve its aims. Meanwhile, hardware like the Korg Volca, Waldorf Streichfett and Moog Little Phatty provide the tactile interplay.
Opening track ‘By the Time We Get There’ comes complete with cascading bass and straightforward synth melodies over clattering electronic percussion. Each element has its place in a retro-futurist fusion, perfect for dancing if you like to dance weirdly!
With a primitive drumbox shuffle, the moody minimalist piece ‘Deeply Recessed Windows’ recalls early HUMAN LEAGUE instrumentals with plenty of bend to add a Sci-Fi edge.
The oddball percussive template of ‘The Castellers’ glides along in waltz fashion, the rimshot processed to such effect that it resembles a castanet in outer space. The inventive programming proves again that rhythms do not have to be that inane 4/4 nonsense in dance music. Motorik rhythms shape ‘Squaresville’ in the manner of HARMONIA although the swirling interplay takes it to another world.
Meanwhile on ‘A Pattern Language’, the superbly sequenced synthbass hops up and down the scale while coupled to a syncopated backbone that fizzes to a wonderful climax.
For the AIR-tribute ‘Les Choc De Etoilles’, treated electronic bongos melt with spacey Mellotron string vibes for a lunar lounge effect.
In his book ‘Retromania: Pop Culture’s Addiction to its Own Past’, Simon Reynolds commented that the minimal synth sub-genre consisted “of groups who would have been DEPECHE MODE or SOFT CELL if they could have come up with a tune!”, even suggesting that it was invented by record dealers to get rid of vinyl they couldn’t shift!
‘Total Squaresville’ is nothing like that! With a perfect title, its six tracks of enjoyable synth geekery sans voix successfully get round the weak point of many a minimal synth record sitting dormant at a record fair…
A Short Conversation with Adam Cresswell and Alice Hubley…
Behind the persona of RODNEY CROMWELL is London based synth aficionado, Adam Cresswell. His debut long player ‘Age Of Anxiety’ was a concept album chronicling his problems with depression and anxiety that had affected his life and creative muse. It became an unexpected cult favourite in 2015, with a post-punk template echoing the spectre of acts such as SECTION 25 and NEW ORDER.
However, Cresswell is a seasoned hand, having been part of synth duo ARTHUR & MARTHA with Alice Hubley. They released an album ‘Navigation’ in 2009 but disbanded a year later; Hubley went on to form the indie band COSINES while Cresswell took a musical break.
Several of the RODNEY CROMWELL songs began as ARTHUR & MARTHA recordings, so it was wholly appropriate that the pair reunited for RODNEY CROMWELL’s inaugural gig last summer. One of the highlights of the set was ‘Black Dog’, a pulsing part duet with Hubley embellished with the beauty of Cresswell’s Hooky bass.
Performing together on several occasions since with guitarist Richard Salt, the band have even revived ‘Autovia’, a synthetically motorik soundtrack ideal for motorway journeys north of Watford Gap that was the key song on ARTHUR & MARTHA’s debut.
With RODNEY CROMWELL’s upcoming appearance on SATURDAY 5TH NOVEMBER alongside MARSHEAUX and KID KASIO, both Adam Cresswell and Alice Hubley kindly chatted to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK during a break in rehearsals.
‘Black Dog’ started as an ARTHUR & MARTHA track, is it the best song NEW ORDER never recorded?
Adam: Oh! I wouldn’t go that far, the best song NEW ORDER never recorded was ‘Let’s Go’, but they did finish it in the end…
Alice: …maybe some of THE KILLERS songs as well! *laughs*
Adam: ‘Black Dog’ is knowingly NEW ORDER-ish anyway… it was about my safe space, it was about going through a bad period but wanting to be reminded of the music that made me feel good about things.
Alice: I can’t remember recording the vocal!
Adam: It was one of those one-take wonder jobs!
Alice: I’m such a pro! But there so many records today that are over produced, having something that’s a little bit rough around the edges is kind of nice now.
The acclaim for ‘Age Of Anxiety’s means you’ve toured together as RODNEY CROMWELL, how have the dates you’ve played gone so far? Any strange occurrences you can report?
Alice: You got to learn about the joys of Justin Bieber!
Adam: Yes, we watched a lot of Justin Bieber videos with some bad wine in Liverpool! *laughs*
Alice: It’s just been nice hanging out with Adam; we had not really seen each other since we stopped doing ARTHUR & MARTHA. Before when we toured, he only had a Smart car so we couldn’t take friends with us. Now he’s upgraded and has four seats in his car.
Adam: The RODNEY CROMWELL gigs now feel much less pressured than with ARTHUR & MARTHA.
How do you think the live environment has changed?
Adam: I think it’s harder to get gigs now… maybe that’s because electronic music’s not as fashionable, because back in the mid-noughties, it was on the back of Electroclash and that hipster thing!
Alice: We did lot of good shows in Shoreditch at the Old Blue Last and stuff in that electro scene alongside cool acts like LO-FI FNK and PLASTIC OPERATOR. In the last year we’ve mostly played indie scene events, we’ve not really had the chance to play with other synth bands.
What advice would you give to anyone aspiring to use vintage synths live in the 21st century?
Adam: Get a tuner Alice! *laughs*
Alice: I have a Korg MS10 and a Roland Juno 60… we used to use MicroKorgs in ARTHUR & MARTHA, but I look at them and shudder! I can’t deal with them anymore!
Adam: When we did ARTHUR & MARTHA, we were rocking up with the Moog and a MicroKorg because it was more convenient. But other every other band seemed to be using MicroKorgs too, but just the presets! I hate it! I wiped all the sounds!
Alice: YES! We can’t play ARTHUR & MARTHA stuff because Adam wiped all the sounds, I spent ages programming that sh*tty little instrument! He had obviously forgotten the blood, sweat and tears I went through! That was like an end of an era! *laughs*
Adam: We would upgrade if we ever did ARTHUR & MARTHA again.
So how do you perform ‘Autovia’ in RODNEY CROMWELL now?
Adam: Oh, we do it totally differently because Alice used to play the clarinet while I played the Moog. But now we’ve dropped the clarinet and we do it with MS10, Moog and guitar to give it that added HARMONIA feel.
Alice: It’s a bit more of a synth jam, more droney… I like to make the most awful sound I can on the MS10 which is always a lot of fun.
Adam: It’s become our experimental track in this live set. For the last 2-3 minutes of that song, we just wig out!
Sort of like STEREOLAB meets NEU! ?
Adam: TOTALLY! Maybe it’s a reaction to bands whose synths aren’t even plugged in where there’s nothing improvised and they don’t add anything new to what they do… we go the opposite and take it as far away from the record as we can…
Alice: I really like it when bands do that, like HOT CHIP always reinvent their songs…they’ll still be playing ‘Boy From School’ but they’ll do it in a different kind of feel every time you go and see them.
Adam: With RODNEY CROMWELL as opposed to ARTHUR & MARTHA, we’ve tried to bring something of the live band back to the sound, it’s about us enjoying it. Using analogue synths and a load of effects pedals brings in all these variables, things wobbling in and out.
Who came up with ‘Autovia’?
Adam: That was me! I was on tour with my previous band SALOON in Spain and I saw the word ‘Autovia’ on the road; it sounded a bit like ‘Autobahn’ and so I wrote a song called that. Most of it was recorded in the downstairs toilet of my house! I did the first half of it with SALOON and it was going to be a B-side to a single that never happened, so I took it to ARTHUR & MARTHA.
The ex-SALOON members call it my ‘Ceremony’, in that it’s a song I took from one band into the next. It was just a 4 minute ploddy pop song, but Alice came along and added the last three minutes to it with the clarinet and it mutated into something more epic.
How did Alice end up singing on it?
Alice: I just like singing, I was listening to a lot of OMD, SECTION 25 and SAINT ETIENNE… originally, I was meant to join SALOON…we met when we were 12 when our bands at the time were on the same bill! My band were called THE SEVEN INCHES! We kept in touch and was moving to London but SALOON broke up before I moved. So me and Adam talked about doing a two-piece, Adam had more of a bank of songs ready and ‘Autovia’ was in the first set we did live.
Adam: She connected with the song straightaway.
Alice: Adam didn’t really sing much initially. ‘Kasparov’ on ‘Navigation’ was the first song Adam did sing, I kind of had to talk him into it, partly because he made it sound more like THE POSTAL SERVICE. He was always in the background with SALOON even though he wrote a lot of the songs.
Adam: For the video, we borrowed my mum’s car so that we could take the film director down. We had no plan whatsoever! We just drove to the Isle of Sheppey, set-up in this playground and stuck a green sheet in the back of the car. These kids were kicking a ball at it while we were filming! *laughs*
What’s next for each of you with your various projects?
Adam: There’s a new RODNEY CROMWELL single ‘Fax Message Breakup’ which has some really cool remixes on it by HOLOGRAM TEEN, CHRIS FRAIN, AUW and THE LEAF LIBRARY. We’re doing a London warm-up gig with RÉMI PARSON. And next year will see if I can actually write another album.
Alice: COSINES have just released an EP called ‘Transitions’ and are finishing the second album. If you like RODNEY CROMWELL and ARTHUR & MARTHA, you may like COSINES… it’s guitary but there’s still a lot of synthesizers and keyboards on it. I think with the new album, we’re experimenting with new sounds and doing things a bit differently.
The scene COSINES play in is a lot more guitar based and a lot of it is people that I’ve known for the last 15-20 years. I don’t really know enough about the electronic music scene at the underground level, but everyone I’ve met has been very nice and whenever we play gigs, I get people coming up to me and saying nice things about ARTHUR & MARTHA.
Adam: In the indie scene, nobody says nice things! They just look at their shoes! *laughs*
Alice: It’s kind of passive / aggressive… they’ll smile at you and then say something nasty about you online *laughs*
Is an ARTHUR & MARTHA release possible?
Adam: I’ve got the concept of an album in my head *laughs*
Alice: Every so often, Adam tries to get me to do something, I don’t know… never say never!
RODNEY CROMWELL ‘Fax Message Breakup’ EP is released on 11th November 2016
RODNEY CROMWELL ‘Age Of Anxiety’ and ARTHUR & MARTHA ‘Navigation’ are available on major download platforms and CDs are available via http://www.happyrobots.co.uk/#!botshop/luv44
HOLOGRAM TEEN is the solo project for Morgane Lhote, probably best known as the long-term keyboard player in respected indie act STEREOLAB; she featured on their seminal ‘Emperor Tomato Ketchup’ album and latterly went on to work with members of SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO.
Los Angeles-based Lhote describes her music as “electronic, motorik disco” and it’s the Kosmische / Krautrock elements in these tracks that help set them aside and stand out from the typical instrumental synth pack.
Opening track ‘Marsangst’ is a quirky mix of choppy DEADMAU5-style synths, blippy sequencers and lo-fi modular electronic percussion. A third of the way through the piece goes on a trippy percussion-based detour with echoed vocals and the sort of pitch-descending Moog sound that TOMITA favoured on his seminal ‘Snowflakes Are Dancing’ album. Cramming a bucketful of ideas into its six minute running time helps the track retain its momentum throughout and the mainly major chord vibe makes the track very hard to dislike.
‘Hex These Rules’ starts off with a ‘Blue Monday’ influenced kick drum pattern and resonant synth bass before evolving into a cheeky Balearic-influenced disco piece, all hand claps, “oohs” and funky octave bass. Evoking the sound of the influential Spanish Suara record label, the coolest features here are the lo-fi piano and early clipped Kosmische sounds which when set to a disco beat, conjure up images of a young Ralf Hütter drinking Sangria and shaking his stuff in a Barcelona nightclub.
‘Scratches en Series’ revolves around an analogue step sequencer part and 808 snare, rimshot and cowbell percussion. Although it was Lhote’s intention with the track to pay homage to acts such as THE SUGARHILL GANG, the piece actually ends up recalling the work of UK duo ULTRAMARINE and their album ‘Every Man & Woman is a Star’. Some light-hearted scratching and vocal sampling keep the playful nature of the track going and again the abundance of ideas mean that ‘Scratches en Series’ never outstays its welcome.
The wonderfully-titled ‘Franmaster Glash’ closes the EP with an electro-influenced drum pattern, filtered hi-pass octave PWM bass and a discordant synth line. Clocking in at just over four minutes, the track effortlessly flies by and the mix of early synthpop and ‘Street Sounds’ electro is a wonderful combo.
In terms of an overall contemporary comparison, the work of Nordic producer Todd Terje would be a good starting point here.
The mix of early German keyboard work, analogue sequencers and scattershot percussion mean that there is plenty to love and repeated listens reveal new elements each time. In an age when it is far too easy to produce soul-less and lazy, overly repetitive synth-based music, this HOLOGRAM TEEN EP bucks that trend. It also brings a welcome element of light-heartedness which is a real breath of fresh air and quite possibly ushers in a brand new genre… electro-Krautrock.
‘Marsangst’ is released as an extended four track digital EP by Happy Robots Records
The name of RODNEY CROMWELL is comparatively new to electronic pop music.
But the man behind the persona, Adam Cresswell is a seasoned hand, having previously released an album ‘Navigation’ as part of oddball synth duo ARTHUR & MARTHA with Alice Hubley in 2009.
But a number of personal circumstances led to ARTHUR & MARTHA disbanding. While Hubley went on to form cult indie band COSINES, Cresswell laid low, at least until 2015. He re-emerged as RODNEY CROMWELL with ‘Age Of Anxiety’, a concept album of sorts chronicling his problems with depression and anxiety that had affected his life and creative muse.
The honesty apparent in Cresswell’s dissonant vocal styling, alongside crisp electronics and acoustic instrumentation, has made ‘Age Of Anxiety’ an unexpected favourite of both critics and online radio outlets. Echoing the spectre of acts such as SECTION 25 and NEW ORDER, songs like ‘Black Dog’ and ‘You Will Struggle’ embody the album’s concept perfectly.
Ever the synth enthusiast, he accepted ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s invitation to a round of Vintage Synth Trumps.
Your first card is the Yamaha CS60, does that mean anything to you?
Absolutely not… I always regarded Yamaha as people who made motorbikes! I’ve never owned a motorbike, I’ve only ever been on one once and it scared the sh*t out of me! I bought a Yamaha 4-track… when I got my student loan, I went out and spent it all on a Yamaha MTX4. And that is where I learnt to be a producer, by recording to tape.
4 tracks, it’s very limiting so you learn to be disciplined. I used to record 3 tracks and then bounce them all down to the fourth, and then start again. You’d be making a record using the same process they made ‘Sgt Pepper’ with, but you’re doing it in your own bedroom! *laughs*
Are you one who relishes equipment restrictions to provide the artistic drive?
Yes! To be honest, whenever I see a photo of people in a roomful of analogue synthesizers and loads of gear, I’m thinking “are you throwing in gear to fill a hole in your creativity!?”.
I have got 4 synths… 5 if you count the MicroKorg, which I don’t! And I’ve used them on the last three albums I’ve made, not because I’m a cheapskate but those 4 synths have become my sound. I like working within the limitations of what they can do. I say limitations, but the possibilities of just one half-decent analogue synth are almost limitless anyway! I love the fact you can plug it in, turn it on and it’s never quite the same as last time! It makes it interesting playing live with them.
Have you ever seen one of these, a Jen SX1000?
I saw one of those in the music shop at the end of my road last summer. I went in to buy a cable and there was a Jen SX1000… I was going to buy it, but my wife said “no, you’ve got enough synths in the house!”*laughs*
Next card, it’s a Moog Prodigy…
It’s a good synth, I always liked the white buttons on it but I don’t have a Prodigy, I have a Moog Rogue. They’re a bit similar in that they’re in the entry level bracket… all my synths are in the entry level bracket!
Were they like the Casiotones of their day?
That’s a bit too demeaning… my synths are a Moog Rogue, a Moog Opus3, a Korg MS-10 which is my stage synth and an ARP Quartet which has the string sound on it. I bought them all within 2 years. They all get the job done and they are my sound.
Why did you get a Rogue instead of a Prodigy?
Oh, this was in the days before the internet, and you would buy whatever you saw in a shop or the small ads. My mum phoned me up one day after looking in catalogue and said “Oh, I know you’re looking for a Moog Prodigy, but this shop in Croydon says it has got a Moog”. I drove over and there on the top shelf above rows of horribly plastic digital synths was this Rogue with a chip on one key, so it looks like it’s got a broken tooth! *laughs*
They got it down and dusted it off… it was like when GARY NUMAN discovered synths, it made this massive great noise and I thought “I’ve got to have that!” – it took a month’s wages to buy the thing and that’s really where it all started for me.
So was that in your early indie phase?
Yes, I was in a band called SALOON and I took this Moog through to ARTHUR & MARTHA as well. In fact I haven’t done a gig without the Rogue since 1998 and I can’t imagine getting onstage without it, it’s part of the family. We’ve been through an awful lot together from leaving it in the road and almost losing it the first day I took it to a recording studio, to climbing down a mountain in Spain in the dead of night with it.
What’s its main characteristic?
It’s got a dirty sub-bass all the way up to glass shattering whistles and pops. But what I most like about it is you can throw it about and bring a bit of drama to the stage performance; you can’t get out of little plastic digital synths… you know, twisting the filters, throwing the switches in an overly dramatic way.
Live though, you are a good mix of analogue and digital sequences via the laptop…
The reason we use a laptop on stage is I won’t ever work with a drummer again! Not because I have anything against drummers personally, but that whole lifting drum kits into the backs of vans… I’m too old for all that! *laughs*
Using sequencers can be a little restricting but equally, life is too short for too much freeform synth jamming, I just want to be playing pop music. I like the live thing to be controlled in terms of sequenced songs, but with the opportunity for some level of improvisation which the analogue synths bring, because they never sound the same… sometimes, I wish they were more the same, but you go with it.
A good example of your analogue / digital live mix is on ‘Black Dog’. How did the track musically come together in the studio?
I was playing with my brother’s Korg Prophecy, I hit a key and it made this pulsing sequencey noise and when I played another key, it sounded like a sequenced pattern. The song was made up by playing those sequences live… it sounded just about in time!
It reminds me of NEW ORDER and SECTION 25…
Funny you should say that! When you hit those notes and they sound a little bit like ‘Temptation’, you’re going to go with it aren’t you? *laughs*
What’s very characteristic about your sound is although you love synths, acoustic textures such as glockenspiel and melodica have always been part of your world, as well as the more traditional guitar and bass… what was your ethos behind this?
That’s a very good question… I think they just suit the mood. It’s nothing more than that, it just sounds right. I love electronics, but I like things that bring something else to it. One of the bands that switched me on back in the day was STEREOLAB, they had electronics but also glockenspiel and horns or whatever. I literally play what’s knocking about in the house. We have a glockenspiel that sounds pretty good so I use that, and I have a decent a bass guitar. I just use whatever, although there’s not much guitar on ‘Age Of Anxiety’ because I’m a terrible guitar player…
You prefer the bass?
Yes, I was a bass player for 6 years; I used to play in a Peter Hooky kind of style because I wanted people to know I was a songwriter too. So much of the time I would add a melodic counterpoint on the bass to go with the vocal lines. When it came to ‘Age Of Anxiety’, I was just enjoying myself playing the bass for the first time in years… I cranked the tone knob up, whacked on a bit of chorus and it sounds like Peter Hook! I thought “Sod it! Why not?”
Considering the album is called ‘Age Of Anxiety’ and about your experiences, fronting RODNEY CROMWELL must have been a challenge. What were your coping strategies?
To be honest with you, it has been a way of me showing to myself that I am able to cope. I can stand up in front of people and perform, I’ve always been quite good at that. It’s the other things… just don’t ask me to travel to a gig through The Blackwall Tunnel. I don’t like flying either!
But I have to do it, especially if people are listening to the record and coming up to me saying “I love what you’re doing, I suffer from anxiety and it’s really helped me”; I can’t then say “don’t talk to me” and huddle up in the corner, that’s not going to help them!
It’s been a very weird year becoming a front person in a musical act. I’m a middle-aged bald guy, I’m supposed to be at the back where nobody looks at you, not at the front with people throwing their underwear! *laughs*
How would describe the music environment from the time with ARTHUR & MARTHA in 2009 to today as RODNEY CROMWELL?
2009 was a very difficult period in terms of musical promotion because of the financial crash; for one people were very reticent about investing. We had ‘Navigation’ in the can for a least a year before it came out, with labels saying they would put it out and then not committing, and we missed the boat when things like LA ROUX and LITTLE BOOTS were happening.
People didn’t know what the right model was at all, they didn’t know whether to put out vinyl, CD or downloads. They didn’t know how to promote things, whether it should be blogs or newspapers and stuff like that. Distribution companies didn’t know what they were doing… we had two distribution companies, one doing the CD and one doing the digital! It was a very funny period! So that’s why we started our own record label Happy Robots because we got so fed up and thought we could do a better job ourselves.
Now it seems to be a bit different, in that blogs and websites are very much a big part of the model. You’re going to get a lot more traction on a specialist outlet like ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK, than a bigger general music platform or the Daily Express.
In terms of distribution, people realise there’s no money in it anymore, so let’s not be deluded about it, you don’t press 1000 copies if you’re a new artist, you press 300 and hope for the best! Do I think it’s better or worse? I don’t know! I think things are more straightforward now in that it’s more clear cut. It’s easier to get a handle on the right thing to be doing and what isn’t. I mean, I never thought I’d play another gig again after ARTHUR & MARTHA ended, but if I want to sell CDs, I’ve got to go out and do some gigs.
Another card? A Roland SH-2… have you ever wanted a Roland?
No, not really! I think I’m a Moog snob *sniggers*
Me and my guitarist do have Boss pedals, which are built by Roland of course… I have five of them and one Moog guitar pedal and of all those, which is the one that plays up and doesn’t work? It’s not the blooming Boss is it! Hahahahaha! So maybe Roland is the way forward for me!
‘Cassiopeia’ is a great title, did you have a Casio? How do you see them in the pantheon of accessible technology and how it changed the landscape?
I think Casios are great, I love the Casiotones. The very first RODNEY CROMWELL track which I wrote in 2002 for a ‘Lord Of The Rings’ compilation was just the MS-10 and a Casiotone. They’re great for kids as well. My kids have got a Casio, but they just hit the Autosong thing and thump it a bit…
…I think a few bands do that! *laughs*
Casiotones are really cheap in boot fairs!
You have been a strong advocate of the instrumental with tracks like ‘Baby Robot’ and ‘One Two Seven’, there’s not enough of them on albums today… discuss?
I would have loved to have done a whole instrumental album to be honest, because of that whole not putting yourself forward as the singer, but I can’t help but gravitate towards vocals, lyrics and being pop, although there’s nothing better than a really good instrumental. With ARTHUR & MARTHA when that started, I thought we were mostly going to be instrumental, doing that ADD (N) TO X thing, sort of noisy and experimental, throwing synthesizers around all over the place.
Although your vocals are quite sombre, your synth melodies are quite bright and pretty like on ‘Baby Robot’?
Yes, ‘Baby Robot’ is the one track on the album that’s 100% upbeat as it is about the experience of being a father.
Some of the synth sounds even on ‘Black Dog’ are quite bright?
Yeah… the thing is, if you’re making a song about anxiety, if you’re not going to make the melodies hummable and the synths sound bright and happy, you’re just going to make a Goth record! And I don’t want to make a Goth record! *laughs*
Yes, you end up sounding like THE WAKE!
Exactly… although I like THE WAKE! *laughs*
It’s only recently since I’ve remixed other people that I’ve consciously realised that I have a formula, which is major key with an upbeat disco tempo.
The most favourite synth you’ve owned and why?
The Rogue is my favourite, but the ARP Quartet gets used more these days because it does great piano melody lines as well as the big string sound. This album is probably more MS-10 than it is Rogue. The Rogue is great for live or whatever… but this question is a bit like asking “what do you like about your Black & Decker Workmate?”… the MS-10 is a really good tool, to me it’s a workhorse, and it gets the job done.
But with the Rogue, there is more of an emotional connection there… we’re special buddies who is like your best mate who you see every couple of months, you don’t need to talk to each other but you know what each other are thinking.
The synth you’ve most wanted but never had, that use could use musically as opposed to having ornamentally?
I’d love to have one of those British Synthis like the AKS, they look and sound stunning., I remember Barry 7 from ADD (N) TO X throwing one about on stage. The VCS3 is cool too, I remember SONIC BOOM playing a gig with his EXPERIMENTAL AUDIO RESEARCH project with two of those on stage, going up and down the filters, it was just noise! I used to have a T-shirt with ‘Putney’ written on it, nobody got it… apart from me. The EMS Synthi 100, DELIA DERBYSHIRE and the BBC RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP… it’s the daddy of synths, one of the greatest bits of British Engineering. I also like the Wasp and the Gnat in their black and yellow.
How was it to reunite with Alice Hubley again playing live? I understand ‘Autovia’ is now part of the set?
It was brilliant, we’ve realised what good mates we are and she’s a really good synthesist, it’s great because she hasn’t been really using analogues in the COSINES live set. A few weeks ago we thought we’d dig out ‘Autovia’. When we hit the droney groove at the end, I felt like I was in NEU! It was just the best moment, it’s great to be working with somebody who is on the same wavelength, even though she loves TAYLOR SWIFT! *laughs*
How do you see the future of synthpop?
I hope it doesn’t become a retro thing… what I was trying to do with this record was to use retro gear, but use it in a forward looking way, in the same way that ‘I Feel Love’ did, it was about making records that sounded like the future. I think with that sort of instrumentation, you can still do that. But nobody has quite cracked it yet. I like the stuff that’s uplifting like CHVRCHES, but it’s about bringing enough new to the party, to bring the sound forward.
My thought is, it’s the people who are getting into CHVRCHES now, who will be inspired to make a synthesized form of music in the future…
I agree, and they’re the only band really who are at the right level to be inspiring a new generation. I really hope that happens. I think there’s a lot of good stuff going on, but we need young blood coming up and showing us old timers how it’s really done.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Adam Cresswell
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The debut mini-album ‘Total Squaresville’ offers an optimistic melodic take on the synth instrumental without going into full symphonic 
uses basic modern technology like an iPad, running apps such as the FunkBox drum machine, Moog Animoog and Genome MIDI sequencer to achieve its aims. Meanwhile, hardware like the Korg Volca, Waldorf Streichfett and Moog Little Phatty provide the tactile interplay.
, Simon Reynolds commented that the minimal synth sub-genre consisted “of groups who would have been DEPECHE MODE or SOFT CELL if they could have come up with a tune!”, even suggesting that it was invented by record dealers to get rid of vinyl they couldn’t shift!
is released as an extended four track digital EP by Happy Robots Records
and ARTHUR & MARTHA 
are both available in CD or download formats direct from Happy Robots at
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