‘Fixion’ is the fourth album from Copenhagen-based producer Anders Trentemøller and rather than being an overtly electronic work, it draws from the gigging band sound of the artist with live bass and guitar at times prominent in the overall mix.
To even a casual listener, ‘Fixion’ would simply not exist if it weren’t for the template laid down by Manchester legends JOY DIVISION.
The sound which latterly went on to inform that of THE CURE with their magnum opus ‘Disintegration’
What TRENTEMØLLER has done though is infuse the distinctive guitar/bass sound of these artists with electronics and overlay them with a selection of female vocalist including Jehnny Beth from UK post punk act SAVAGES and longtime collaborators Marie Fisker and Lizbet Friske.
Opening track ‘One Eye Open’ has a bassline which is a slowed-down dead-ringer for JOY DIVISION’s ‘Shadowplay’, even the key is the same. In an era where an artist can potentially face major legal action for just templating the overall vibe and sound of a song (see the ‘Blurred Lines’/ Marvin Gaye case), it will be interesting to see if the lawyers come knocking regarding this work.
The brooding majestic sound and production of the backing track (including some nifty Linn Drum programming) isn’t however quite matched by the vocal melody, with Marie Fisker’s contribution never quite holding the listener’s attention throughout.
‘Never Fade’ is based around a “Never fade, never look down” vocal refrain; added to this are appropriately epic synth strings which are combined with a Robert Smith sound-a-like guitar sound. What takes the song away from being a straight pastiche are the downtempo electronic house drums, 4/4 kick and outro closed/open hi-hat pattern.
First single ‘River In Me’ is pretty sprightly in comparison with much of the material here, an interesting hybrid of uptempo drum machine mixed with live bass and the sort of hollow sampled synth riff that wouldn’t have been out of place on DEPECHE MODE’s ‘Construction Time Again’. Jehnny Beth from SAVAGES contributes vocals and the song is an undoubted highlight here if only because it raises the BPM and energy level.
‘Redefine’ has some great synth sounds and production touches, but again melodically isn’t a strong enough song to make you want to especially revisit it. ‘November’ is the longest track here, a beautifully atmospheric instrumental, full of washy synths, stereo-panned sound effects and reverbed guitars; whilst ‘Circuits’ is the only other track apart from ‘River In Me’ to break out of the overall downtempo sound of the album.
With TRENTEMØLLER providing the theme music to the AMC series ‘Halt & Catch Fire’, it is no surprise that in many places, ‘Fixion’ comes across as a soundtrack to a dark, imaginary thriller – the music is often textural rather than melodic and tends to feel like it should lurk sinisterly in the background rather than demanding your full attention.
It’s hard not to compare ‘Fixion’ with THE CURE’s ‘Disintegration’; both consist of mainly downtempo songs but whereas the latter had the soul-bearing mid-life crisis lyrics and vocals of Robert Smith as a focal point, the former lacks a comparable cohesion. Despite sounding appropriately epic and using all the right frames of reference, ‘Fixion’ never hits the heights of Smith and Co’s acclaimed career highlight despite being enjoyable as a late-night listening soundscape-based piece of work.
TRENTEMØLLER is undoubtedly highly talented as a producer/remixer and in many circles is seen as THE musician to produce a future work by DEPECHE MODE, but here it is nigh on impossible to listen to ‘Fixion’ without referencing the ghosts of other works and musicians.
‘Fixion’
http://www.anderstrentemoller.com/
https://www.facebook.com/trentemoller/
https://trentemoller.lnk.to/Fixion
Text by Paul Boddy
Photo by Sofie Nørregaard
18th September 2016
was not included on the debut FAD GADGET long player ‘Fireside Favourites’ that came out a few months later, but it helped establish Mute Records’ credentials as an early champion of independent electronic music.
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was a worthy transitional recording although where Foxx headed next was the more romantic and band oriented textures of ‘The Garden’.
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was not a hit on its original release, but the world belatedly caught up when a remixed reissue reached No11 in 1982.
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was the posthumous hit single that documented the relationship turmoil which JOY DIVISION’s lead singer Ian Curtis was facing prior to his suicide. The initial attempt at recording had been much faster and tighter, but producer Martin Hannett slowed the band down and suggested Curtis take on a more Sinatra based drawl. The looser end result added further poignancy.
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was the first release from THE BLUE NILE and the esoteric template that later emerged on ‘A Walk Across The Rooftops’ was already omnipresent. Rawer and more aggressive than songs like ‘Stay’ and ‘Tinseltown In The Rain’, this was a fine opening gambit from the enigmatic Glaswegian trio who had met at university. Originally self-released, the single was picked up by RSO who promptly folded after its re-release.
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co-produced by Mike Hedges was an interim 45 prior to the doomfest of ‘Pornography’. The band’s potential for success now looked like a real threat as The Raincoat Brigade seeked out a successor to JOY DIVISION. But in late 1982, THE CURE lightened up for the first of their fantasy singles, ‘Let’s Go to Bed’.
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. The multi-lingual phrases highlighted an expanding world market while Glenn Gregory provided commentary on how personal relationships were like business transactions.
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, a song that had not been originally included on their second album ‘The Friends Of Mr Cairo’. Jon Anderson’s lyrics were almost spiritual while the widescreen sonic backing from his Greek chum complimented the mood. Vangelis himself was about to enter his most high profile period with ‘Chariots Of Fire’ and ‘Blade Runner’.
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being appended to the album.
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effectively bookended Marc Almond and Dave Ball’s imperial pop period which had started with ‘Tainted Love’. Another song that came via the Northern Soul scene, it was originally recorded by Judy Street and had more than a passing resemblance to ‘Always Something There To Remind Me’. The recording was quickly disowned and was to be SOFT CELL’s last Top10 single before the duo entered much darker musical territory and on the path to ‘Mr Self Destruct’.
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allowed Clarke to put his new Fairlight CMI through its paces, while a gospel flavour came from SYLVIA & THE SAPPHIRES.
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was a cynical attempt to ensure DURAN DURAN got a UK No1. Nick Rhodes made it clear the song was not going to be on the next album while completely different versions featured on the 7 and 12 inch formats. This synth laden single featured that dreadfully unforgettable line “You’re about as easy as a nuclear war”!
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featured a charming four way call-and-response vocal while the huge use of portamento on the lead synth line fooled buyers into returning their singles to the shops thinking it was warped!
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was considerably less harsh than his band’s pioneering electronic body music. Although not featured on Görl’s first solo album ‘Night Full Of Tension’, ‘Mit Dir’ did much to help lighten his mood considerably that he was attempting synthpop with EURYTHMICS’ Annie Lennox on songs like ‘Darling Don’t Leave Me’.
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was a brilliantly glorious statement with Billy Currie’s OSCar interventions being its undoubted musical highlight.
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was the bridge between the industrial flavoured synthpop of ‘Some Great Reward’ and the darker aesthetics of ‘Black Celebration’. Much more accomplished than the more throwaway standalones like ‘It’s Called A Heart’ and ‘But Not Tonight’ which followed, ‘Shake The Disease’ continues to be performed live at DM shows in a less interesting stripped down form with Martin Gore on lead vocals.
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became an unexpected American No1 on the back of the movie’s success and took Jim Kerr and Co into the stadiums of the world.
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, a one-off for London Records. Engineered by Dan Lacksman of TELEX, it featured a sonic passage that would have made Trevor Horn proud. Lines such as “I’ve been thinking we’ll get back together again someday – your hair will be some weird color by then…” reminded European audiences of how quirky SPARKS could be.
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actually follows a chord progression very similar to ‘Enola Gay’. Interestingly, the song failed to enter the Top40 on its release in the UK.
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is one of the Mancunian’s combo’s more underrated singles. With a synth riff borrowed from Shannon’s ‘Let The Music Play’, it successfully combined some gritty rock energy to a solid Italo disco backbone featuring a great sequenced bassline.
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was a throbbing Moroder-inspired disco tune that borrowed counter-melodies from Donna Summer’s ‘Love’s Unkind’. Independent labels such as Mute and Factory were more likely to indulge in releases that weren’t specifically tied in to albums, and it proved to be a perfect move to maintain ERASURE’s profile while they were preparing their next plan of action.
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. It all seemed so camp and ridiculous in the video when Neil Tennant was singing it wearing a Stetson, but then in 1992, out popped Bono doing something similar on their ‘Zoo TV’ tour!
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album was another key recording which featured electronics within an experimental rock context. Meanwhile PINK FLOYD famously took an EMS Synthi AKS with its built-in digital sequencer into the stratosphere for ‘On The Run’ from 
.
, its intro and chorus ARP Odyssey synth riff being one that wouldn’t have felt out of place on an OMD song. The piece itself was an anti-paean to an airport, one which had cruelly flown the lead vocalist Andy McMaster’s love interest away from him, and the addition of ABBA-esque pianos sealed its fate as a one of a kind single for the band.
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. THE DROYDS reworked it as a wonderfully deadpan, fully electronic interpretation, revealing it as the true slice of synthpop it was always destined to be.
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with its tender bass playing and percussive grandeur was the band’s most complete recording to date. But it was given a limited run of 1578 copies by French art label Sordide Sentimentale, before a wider re-release.
in an appearance which one could imagine Phil Oakey watching and thinking, “hmm, this is a good idea!”
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. With prominent sequencer patterns to simulate a typewriter and detached deadpan vocals, this oddball experiment confused fans of WINGS and THE BEATLES. Self-produced, the single was issued on 12 inch to accommodate a 10 minute B-side ‘Secret Friend’ and failed to chart.
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was written by the singer to parallel the biblical story of Genesis, but with machines taking over on the final day. Produced by Tony Visconti, synths are used effectively throughout to echo the content of the song and whilst the look of the film may not have dated so well, the lyrics to ‘Eighth Day’ still feel relevant and paint a picture of a future world slowly pulled apart by developing technology.
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also showcased some impressive electronics. Although not a huge UK hit when released as a single (only reaching No.44), ‘Johnny & Mary’ with its hypnotic synth bassline and narrative-driven lyrics got a new lease of life in 2015 with BRYAN FERRY providing vocals in a more down-tempo incarnation featuring on TODD TERJE’s 2015 debut ‘It’s Album Time’.
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came as a surprise with its hi-hat driven drum machine and primarily electronic instrumentation. The song echoed KRAFTWERK’s ‘Trans-Europe Express’, with its rhythmic nature tying in with the train journey narrative of the lyric. An epic ghost story set to a synthpop template, the duo became more established as promo video directors for artists including VISAGE and DURAN DURAN.
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with its Numanesque detachment was one of the highlights.
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came about after the aborted fourth BUZZCOCKS album; producer 
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respectively. The latter topped the UK charts in 1981 after successfully jumping on the coat tails of the first wave of British synth acts.
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arguably started the tit-for-tat war with NEW ORDER, its octave synth bassline and machine-like kick drum blatantly templating ‘Blue Monday’. ‘The Walk’ had all the ingredients for perfect synthpop with its sawtooth hook and off the wall lyrics.
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. The similarity to the Roland TR808 rhythms heard on ‘Planet Rock’ and NEW ORDER’s ‘Confusion’ can be explained by Baker refusing the let anyone tamper with his beloved machine.
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. Building in a similar fashion to ‘In Your Room’ by DEPECHE MODE, the story of a young man with a mother fixation, longing for a prostitute, took an unexpected genre twist with Phil Collins’ creepy laugh inspired by Grandmaster Flash.
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had been tense, due to writer and bass player John Deacon’s insistence that the guitar solo had to be played on a Roland Jupiter 8 by session musician Fred Mandel. For its single release, the Linn Drum driven song was extended to include more synth in the intro and the bridge after the solo, emotively enhancing the less synthy album cut.
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was Cohen’s commentary on terrorism where “there are no alibis or no compromises”. Contrasting with a soulful bridge from Anjani Thomas, it made Cohen’s vocal even more resonant.
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hilariously rip-off DEAD OR ALIVE’s ‘You Spin Me Around’. If this track had gone anywhere remotely near the charts, some sort of legal action would surely have ensued. The song judged on its own merits is an uber-catchy piece of synthpop work with some pretty filthy lyrics.
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with its double-entendres easily pushed all the necessary synthpop buttons.. The promo video itself went on to prove itself a little too controversial with a scene involving two gay characters being bashed with baguettes getting cut, resulting in singer Jimmy Pop offering to “…give any gay man two tickets to the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical of his choice if he could describe exactly who’s going to become violent based on that scene”.
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, co-produced by Stuart Price, that THE KILLERS came up with a true synthpop anthem. A soaring rework of the ALPHAVILLE’s ‘Forever Young’, the thundering motorik dancebeat confused their more rock-inclined fanbase, as did the Hunter S Thompson referencing refrain of “are we human or are we dancer?”.
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was their most synth-dominated single to date, although a pure electronic fix of the song was provided by the fantastic TIESTO remix. The decision to “go synth” didn’t go without ramifications though, with lead guitarist Chris Urbanowicz departing in 2012 citing the band’s “future musical direction” as his reason to bail from the outfit.
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, produced with Biggie Viera of GUS GUS, showcased an artist unafraid to embrace a polar opposite style and actually pulling it off successfully.
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directed by James Nice is released by LTM
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