It was almost six years to the day that LADYTRON last played London when their lead singer MARNIE made her debut performance as a solo artist at Hackney’s spacious but intimate Nordic themed venue Oslo.
Releasing her first solo album ‘Crystal World’ on the prestigious Belgian label Les Disques Du Crépuscule in 2013, the collection illustrated the pop credentials of the classically trained Glaswegian, whose tastes were always a bit more ABBA and TAYLOR SWIFT than THROBBING GRISTLE. Her second long player ‘Strange Words & Weird Wars’ recently issued by the London based Disco Piñata is a natural successor to ‘Crystal World’, adding even more big choruses and prominent guitar into the mix.
Opening the evening with ‘The Hunter’, this marvellous Scandi-tinged widescreen concoction could be considered the prime synthpop single that LADYTRON never quite got round to making. Meanwhile the dreamily driven ‘Alphabet Block’ maintained the initial momentum.
Augmented by Sarah Stanley on keyboards, computers and guitars plus drummer Peter Kelly with possibly the LOUDEST snare in London, if not the world, MARNIE herself had a new Korg Minilogue with its distinctive wooden-look base for company.
The glorious ‘We Are The Sea’ recalled CHVRCHES and along with the bouncy ‘G.I.R.L.S.’, they affirmed MARNIE’s importance as a role model to aspiring female musicians; at times during the set one could imagine her as Lauren Mayberry’s big sister.
While earlier songs such as ‘Sugarland’ from ‘Crystal World’ possessed more surreal lyrical imagery, the newer ones like ‘Lost Maps’, ‘Invisible Girl’ and ‘Heartbreak Kid’ are far more direct and personal.
Trying not to burst into total laughter whenever her uncle in the audience started heckling her, MARNIE exuded a down-to-earth demeanour than may not have always been apparent as a member of LADYTRON.
Accompanied by gorgeous synth lines, ‘Summer Boys’ was all about unrequited love and holiday romances, while the punchy rallying cry of ‘Electric Youth’ rounded off the main part of the show to highlight the optimistic ethos of MARNIE’s solo work.
Unfortunately ‘Bloom’, one of the best songs on the new ‘Strange Words & Weird Wars’ album, was dropped from the encore, but there was the expansive nautical adventure of ‘Submariner’ to compensate.
All-in-all, it was an entertaining and engaging performance from MARNIE that delighted the enthusiastic crowd. Bearing in mind some of the epic LADYTRON sets of the past, it could have done with being a bit longer. But it’s perhaps always best to leave people to want more.
And tonight they did…
With thanks to Paul McCallum at A Badge of Friendship
Based out of New York State, producer, label owner and songwriter Danz Johnson is COMPUTER MAGIC.
A Japanophile or “shinnichi” as the locals like to put it, Johnson actually released her first album ‘Scientific Experience’ as a Japan only release in 2012. A prolific musician, a series of EPs filled the interim period before her 2015 long player ‘Davos’ reached Stateside retailers. From it, songs like ‘Fuzz’ and ‘Give Me Just A Minute’ recalled the early adventures of LADYTRON, while ‘Hudson’ hinted more at the leanings of DUBSTAR.
COMPUTER MAGIC’s self-explanatory ‘Obscure But Visible’ EP released last year has been hailed as her best body of work yet and it has been given a promotional boost thanks to a fabulous video for the vibrant synthpop of ‘Been Waiting’.
Directed by Anise Mariko of mikineko productions with animation from Abi Laurel, the futuristic giddy innocence of ‘Been Waiting’ is superbly captured in this visual accompaniment, which more than illustrates Johnson’s love of the Far East,
Of the remaining tunes from ‘Obscure But Visible’, STEREOLAB fans will delight in the vibey ‘Dimensions’ and wispy naivety of ‘Lonely Like We Are’… in fact, listening to these two songs, it is actually quite difficult to identify Johnson as American! Meanwhile, the short but sweet lo-fi Latin romp of ‘New Generation’ springs a surprise before the more indie sounding ‘Gone For The Weekend’.
It’s a light-hearted, varied collection of songs without a doubt and a fine introduction to the appealing kooky world of COMPUTER MAGIC.
‘Obscure But Visible’ EP is released by Channel 9 Records as a 10 inch vinyl EP, cassette and download
Helen Marnie has established herself as a solo artist with her magnificent first opus ‘Crystal World’, which having been recorded in Iceland, had a feel of cold and serene, yet volatile atmosphere.
Of course, better known as the front face of LADYTRON, Marnie’s own sound will always be compared with that of the band which made her popular, but her musicianship runs deep. Having studied classical piano at the Royal Scottish Academy Of Music & Drama and music at the University Of Liverpool, Marnie is a songwriter and instrumentalist in her own right.
Having been remixed by names like Mark Reeder and Stephen Morris, Marnie quotes KATE BUSH, MARIA CALLAS, CHVRCHES and GRIMES as her favourites. And now her long awaited second album ‘Strange Words & Weird Wars’ announces itself with the first single ‘Alphabet Block’. A burst of pure pop, sounding like a cross between MEL C, KYLIE MINOGUE and GRIMES, the song is deliciously melodic with the addition of that candied voice, all the ready to challenge pop and electronic charts alike.
‘Bloom’ ushers a decent dose of synth in, while continuing to be a hook laden gem… so why haven’t we sent Marnie to do the Eurovision again? Meanwhile ‘G.I.R.L.S’ bears the signs of the synth revival girls LA ROUX and LADYHAWKE.
From girls to boys, ‘Summer Boys’ brings in slower paced commodities of dreamy electronica and classic pop, but where are Don Henley’s ‘Boys Of Summer’? Back onto girls, ‘Invisible Girl’ pays homage to the classic pop of the late 20th Century, combined with something LADY GAGA wouldn’t be ashamed of. Meanwhile, ‘A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night’ brings back the feel of the tracks John Fryer used to produce during the shoegazing era.
‘Electric Youth’ stands out with a perfect pop utilisation à la TIFFANY or even DEBBIE GIBSON. With ‘Little Knives’, Marnie is as close as she can get to GRIMES; it’s a grown up CHVRCHES inspired track, which in places could have been a LADYTRON piece. However, it’s quite clear here that the darker influences of LADYTRON never originated with Marnie.
‘Lost Maps’ is simply stunning; urgent, yet patient, full bodied, yet uncomplicated. It’s an instant hit. The long player is wrapped up with ‘Heartbreak Kid’, which beefs up the synths and extends Marnie’s vocal abilities, genuinely showcasing the lady’s capabilities.
What can Marnie’s solo project be described as? It’s like LADYTRON, minus the darkness or gothica, but with an added genuine love of pop music, often in a Scandinavian style.
However this is not a happy clappy record; under the aura of sweetness, there are real issues, but they’re freshly packaged and positively delivered. This is a worthy body of work from the Scottish songstress.
With thanks to Paul McCallum at A Badge of Friendship
Today, electronic instrumental music is everywhere, but often in the form of tedious dance tracks with no tunes all over Beatport and social media.
Luckily, there are still exponents of the classic synth instrumental, and thanks to the rise of the Synthwave sub-genre, there is currently a sympathetic environment for more esoteric and melodic musical offerings. The key to a good instrumental is it either has to be very melodic to make up for the lack of vocals or very unobtrusive so that while the music is interesting enough to be listened to, it can also be ignored. Thus a Eurorack modular tutorial cannot credibly count as a valid release… 😉
As a follow-up to TEC’s 25 SYNTH INSTRUMENTALS Of The CLASSIC ERA, with a limit of one track per artist, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK presents its 25 FAVOURITE SYNTH INSTRUMENTALS Of The 21ST CENTURY in chronological and then alphabetical order…
SYSTEM F Insolation (2000)
While Dutch producer Ferry Corsten hit paydirt with international club hits such as ‘Out Of The Blue’ and ‘Cry’ as SYSTEM F, the debut album pointed towards the Trance’s link to electronic pop. As well as a brilliant collaboration with Marc Almond entitled ‘Soul On Soul’, the long player included the beautifully majestic classic instrumental ‘Insolation’ which took a breather from the usual four-to-the floor format.
PPK were a Russian trance duo comprising of Sergei Pimenov and Alexander Polyakov. The original melody of ‘ResuRection’ came from Eduard Artemyev’s synthesized theme from the epic 1979 Soviet movie ‘Siberiade’ which won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. Easily mistaken for Jean-Michel Jarre, the thrusting seven minute ‘Perfecto Edit’ in particular was like an exuberant rocket launch set to music.
Originally released by Perfecto Records, currently unavailable
With a piercing synthphonic riff, scat vocoder, robotic bass and a rigid programmed beat, ‘Turn It On’ saw LADYTRON take a bleep forward with an attempt at a KRAFTWERK track for the 21st Century via Liverpool, Glasgow and Sofia. But as it headed towards its final third, it detoured back to Liverpool and turned into ‘Electricity’ in a cheeky homage to Merseyside’s original electronic trailblazers OMD.
A Norwegian electronic duo consisting of Aggie Peterson and Per Martinsen, FROST released their second album ‘Melodica’ to a positive response, thanks to some production assistance by RÖYKSOPP on two tracks. The beautiful Arctic serenity of ‘Klong’ featuring local trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær alongside layers of gorgeous crystalline synths was one of the album’s highlights that easily outdid anything by GROOVE ARMADA and didn’t rely on using samples either.
Available on the album ‘Melodica’ via Frost World Recordings
‘Destroy Rock & Roll’ was the debut album by Scottish DJ Myles MacInnes that alongside DAFT PUNK and BASEMENT JAXX, summed up the sample laden dance music that was prevalent at the time. Produced on a computer in his own bedroo, the album’s best track however was the more downtempo, Moby-esque richness of ‘Emotion 96.8’ with its beautiful sweeping synth melodies and unobtrusive rhythm structure.
With a hypnotic Motorik rhythm, pulsating bleeps and spacey whirs driving a moodier template along the lines of cult German experimentalists EMAK, Phil and Paul Hartnoll continued their primarily instrumental template on their ‘Blue Album’, although SPARKS contributed vocals to a totally unrelated track called ‘Acid Pants’. The brothers split shortly after the long player’s release, but returned in 2009 to play The Big Chill Festival.
Available on the album ‘Blue Album’ via Orbital Music
From ‘Hymn’ to ‘First Cool Hive’ to ‘A Seated Night’, the man born Richard Melville Hall is a master of the instrumental. The solemn ‘Homeward Angel’ closed Moby’s sample-less song-based ‘Hotel’ album with a solemn yet uplifting slice of mood music that was incongruous with the main act. Since leaving Mute in 2008, his more recent self-released albums such as ‘Destroyed’ and ‘Innocents’ have displayed this more esoteric quality.
A ten minute instrumental epic, ‘Alpha Male’ came from RÖYKSOPP’s under rated second long player, a collection of music that saw Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland moving away from the chill-out climes of ‘Melody AM’ into much darker sonic territory. The track’s lengthy ambient intro was interrupted by a mighty metronomic beat and the sort of progressive synth overtures that would have made Jean-Michel Jarre proud.
Since his musical return in 1997 with ‘Shifting City’, John Foxx has practically had albums coming out of his ears in song-based, ambient and soundtrack formats, both solo and in collaboration with other artists. The spacey mechanical Schaffel of ‘Kurfurstdendam’ came from an imaginary soundtrack he called ‘Tiny Colour Movies’, inspired by a friend’s birthday screening of a private film collection comprising of random surveillance clips and offcuts from Hollywood.
Few acts actually genuinely sound like their name… SISTA MANNEN PÅ JORDEN, which translates as “the last man in space”, is the solo project of Swedish synthpop trailblazer Eddie Bengtsson, he of PAGE and S.P.O.C.K fame. The frantic ‘Space-Elevator’ with its swimmy string synths and Sci-Fi derived melody acted as an effective Moroder-esque interlude on his excellent sixth album ‘Tredje Våningen’ and also featured ‘Allt Är Klart’ which borrowed off the ULTRAVOX instrumental ‘Alles Klar’.
Borrowing the distinctive bassline from SIMPLE MINDS’ 1981 single ‘Love Song’, TENEK put together this lively instrumental for their debut EP. With a modern mechanical groove coupled to their trademark synth rock, the almost funky ‘Ice Fields’ became an early live favourite, although the duo have focussed on more song based adventures for their three albums to date, ‘Stateless’, ‘On The Wire’ and ‘Smoke & Mirrors’.
In 2007, Andreas Kleerup, producer and one-time drummer for THE MEAT BOYS, undertook his first mainstream collaboration with fellow Swede Robyn. The success of ‘With Every Heartbeat’ led to the recording of his self-titled debut album which featured a number of brilliant instrumentals. ‘Hero’ was its perfect start and with a solid bassline and strong choral timbres, it had the vibe of how OMD might have sounded if they had formed in the 21st Century.
While most of the ‘Tron Legacy’ soundtrack was orchestrated by Joseph Trapanese, DAFT PUNK’s spiky electronics and drum machine were kept in alongside the epic strings for the end titles of the sequel to the 1982 movie ‘Tron’. There were nods to Wendy Carlos who composed the original film score, with Thomas Bangalter focusing on the heroic themes while Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo was more inclined to generating the darker elements.
Available on the soundtrack album ‘Tron Legacy’ via Walt Disney Records
Forming in 2001, Swedish duo 047 began their chiptune experiments thought a mutual appreciation of vintage video games. But after their debut long player, Peter Engström and Sebastian Rutgersson began to incorporate melodic song based elements and vocals into their music. The end results led to the impressive second album ‘Elva’, but they celebrated their chiptune influenced roots with the jolly YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA salute of ‘Kanpai!’
‘The E-Bay Queen Is Dead’ was collection of rarities from the MARSHEAUX archives. While Marianthi Melitsi and Sophie Sarigiannidou have done a fair number of cover versions in their time, they are not really known for doing instrumentals. But the electro-boppy ‘Now & Never’ was a very promising wordless demo that Vince Clarke would have approved of; as one of his former DEPECHE MODE colleagues once sang: “words are very unnecessary…”
Fusing Detroit techno with more European experimental forms, Patricia Hall and Ian Hicks’ second SOFT METALS album ‘Lenses’ featured the fabulous instrumental ‘Hourglass’. As Hall put it: “I really wanted to write lyrics for that one, but was never quite satisfied with what I came up with. I decided it would be better to let that one be an instrumental. I think it holds up on its own. It’s nice to give the listener a chance to interpret its meaning on its own rather than direct them with words”.
Available on the album ‘Lenses’ via Captured Tracks
Anais Neon and Martin Swan’s tribute to ‘Assault On Precinct 13’, ‘The future through a lens’ was a moody but booming instrumental that began their excellent debut longer player of the same name, which later netted a Schallewelle Award for ‘Best International Album’ in 2014. With their vast array of analogue synthesizers and exquisite taste for sound textures, it won’t be too surprising if VILE ELECTRODES aren’t offered some soundtrack opportunities in the near future.
Although making his name within EDM circles, the Norwegian producer born Todd Olsen paid a musical tribute to ‘Back To The Future’ and its futuristic gull-wing doored Delorean DMC-12 car with this suitably driving Synthwave instrumental. Unlike other so-called dance producers, Terje is conversant with electronic music history and possesses a wry sense of humour, as evidenced by the witty wordplay of track titles like ‘Inspector Norse’ and his own DJ moniker.
After the first phase of BLANCMANGE, Neil Arthur and Stephen Luscombe worked within the TV and film industry, scoring soundtracks and incidental music. Although best known for his voice, Neil Arthur’s instrumentals have been a continual form of expression. The brilliant ‘Cistern’ comes over like an imaginary Bond Theme for a retro-futuristic world. The wordless wonder that is the parent album ‘Nil By Mouth’ is an unsung masterpiece.
Adam Cresswell’s sombre vocals and the darker lyrical themes on his debut Rodney Cromwell album ‘Age Of Anxiety’ took a breather with the bright and breezy ‘Baby Robot’. With sweet synthesizer melodies, pretty glints of glockenspiel and a bouncy beatbox, the instrumental was inspired by birth of his son. “Yes, ‘Baby Robot’ is the one track on the album that’s 100% upbeat as it is about the experience of being a father” he gleefully said.
While Danish duo DARKNESS FALLS are better known for their melancholic Nordic vocals and neo-gothic overtones on songs like ‘The Void’, the dark synthy instrumental ‘Thunder Roads’ proved to be one of the most striking tracks on their second album ‘Dance & Cry’. With a punchy drum machine mantra and menacing reverberant sequence, it was augmented by guitar screeches and sombre six string basslines reminiscent of JOY DIVISION and THE CURE.
Available on the album ‘Dance & Cry’ via Fake Diamond Records
JEAN-MICHEL JARRE & BOYZ NOISE The Time Machine (2015)
Jean-Michel Jarre’s first album for since ‘Teo & Tea’ in 2007 was a two volume opus entitled ‘Electronica’; it features collaborations with a number of synth pioneers and modern day dance artists including BOYZ NOISE aka Berlin DJ Alexander Ridha. This climactic track took on a new life as the set closer on the French synth maestro’s ‘Electronica’ world tour, with a lasered 3D visual feast that required no special glasses! BUT BEWARE OF FLASHING IMAGES! 😉
Available on the album ‘Electronica 1 – The Time Machine’ via Columbia Records
The horror film king recorded his ‘Lost Themes’ series in collaboration with his son Cody and his godson Daniel Davies as standalone pieces, without the pressure of having to put the music to moving images. The second volume was completed on a tighter schedule to accompany a world concert tour and thus replicated some of the challenging moods in his soundtrack work with tracks like ‘Utopian Façade’ recalling his classic movie soundscapes.
Dixon and Stein are members of the Texan group SURVIVE and their accompanying music to ‘Stranger Things’, a cross between ‘ET’, ‘The Goonies’ and ‘Alien’, sent electronic music fans into online meltdown with its use of vintage analogue synths. With a soundtrack influenced by the horror flicks of Dario Argento and of course John Carpenter, the one minute opening title music to the acclaimed drama series said all that was needed to be said in its brooding dissonant tones.
As would be expected from a title like ‘Klangfarben’, this vibrant instrumental from Dublin trio TINY MAGNETIC PETS is an enjoyable homage to Germanic music forms, with a loose percussive feel that still maintains that vital degree of Motorik. A word meaning “soundcolour”, it refers to a technique whereby a musical line is split between several instruments, rather than assigning it to just one instrument, thereby adding timbre and texture to proceedings.
Italian quartet HIDDEN PLACE came into being in 2004 and have since gathered a sizeable audience within the followers of electro wave trends.
Antonio Losenno, Fabio Vitelli and Giampiero Di Barbaro are the three culprits responsible for the music, while the lyrics and vocals fall into the ownership of Sara Lux.
Having released a few albums like the excellent ‘Fantasia Meccanica’ in 2007 and a compilation of their body of work over ten years; this annum sees the release of another long player, ‘Nero Schwarz’.
‘Nero Schwartz’ is a retrospective collection of tunes sounding not too dissimilar from the works of KIRLIAN CAMERA, another Italian band fronted by the songstress Elena Alice Fossi; also known as Spectra Paris, she recently featured on John Fryer’s BLACK NEEDLE NOISE album ‘Before The Tears Came’.
Sara Lux’s vocals are frosty and laced with cold, indifferent exterior, especially when backed with gentle sounding, ethereal guitar on tracks such as ‘Picture Hall’ or ‘Histoire D’Amour’, both reminiscent of the riffs from JOY DIVISION or early DURAN DURAN. ‘Nei Versi Di Prevert’, which had previously been released as a 7″ single, strikes as an enjoyable concoction of LADYTRON and early MARSHEAUX.
‘Without Time’ strikes with cold electronica, while ‘Window Sill’, this time in English, rings unusual connections with Polish new wave band MAANAM.
The darkness continues with ‘Alexander Strasse’; Lux’s vocal clearly leading the mood into the gloomier of directions, while the musical elements of the greatest synthy decade are fully palpable.
‘Nero Schwartz’ equally embraces the good old age of synthesis with avant-garde references. The album is both arty and sophisticated with frosty feel of the icy new wave. As far as Sara Lux’s voice goes, some will find her vocal tedious, others will marvel at its stability and glacial clarity. One thing is certain, however, the Italians aren’t doing too badly at the electronic game.
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It was almost six years to the day that LADYTRON last played London when their lead singer MARNIE made her debut performance as a solo artist at Hackney’s spacious but intimate Nordic themed venue Oslo.
The glorious ‘We Are The Sea’ recalled CHVRCHES and along with the bouncy ‘G.I.R.L.S.’, they affirmed MARNIE’s importance as a role model to aspiring female musicians; at times during the set one could imagine her as Lauren Mayberry’s big sister.
Accompanied by gorgeous synth lines, ‘Summer Boys’ was all about unrequited love and holiday romances, while the punchy rallying cry of ‘Electric Youth’ rounded off the main part of the show to highlight the optimistic ethos of MARNIE’s solo work.
With thanks to Paul McCallum at A Badge of Friendship
reached Stateside retailers. From it, songs like ‘Fuzz’ and ‘Give Me Just A Minute’ recalled the early adventures of 
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