Best known as the front man of Belgian electronic trailblazers TELEX, Michel Moers releases what is only his second solo studio album ‘As Is’.
Together with Dan Lacksman and Marc Moulin, TELEX were the ultimate passively subversive pop group, whether it was by performing a funereal robotic cover of ‘Rock Around The Clock’ on Top Of The Pops while Moers was reading a newspaper or entering the 1980 Eurovision Song Contest to send up the whole charade with the sole intention of coming last!
When TELEX went into hiatus after their 1988 album ‘Looney Tunes’, the dryly humorous Moers released his solo debut ‘Fishing Le Kiss’ in 1991. Although the trio reunited, with the sad passing 2008, TELEX were formally retired.
After 33 years, Michel Moers has admittedly that working on music alone has been a challenge in the absence of his late bandmate and while continuing jobs in photography and architecture, he made music on Sundays like a painter. Recorded primarily using Logic, the songs have been developed over several years and although Moers continues with his distinctive cynical surrealism, one change in approach has been a more direct lyrical expression.
Like with TELEX, ‘As Is’ is multi-lingual while the mood is reflective. Representative of this is ‘Les Gens Sont Affligeants’, a rework of a song that actually appeared on Moers’ debut. Translated as “People Are Disappointing” because let’s face it, they are, with deep chanson resonances offset by arpeggios, it is sad that individualistic entitlement is still very relevant today.
The single ‘Microwaves’ features Claudia Brücken on lead vocals for a more straightforward slice electronic pop with solid bass and icy synth lines that come over like PROPAGANDA meeting TELEX. With dead pan and treated vocals in unison, ‘Potentially (Love-Hate)’ is like a spacey commuter train ride that makes an ideal backdrop for the frustrations expressed; the psychedelic overtones provide an interesting twist while the closing synth work is fantastic.
Declaring “we are only human, curious by nature”, ‘New Friend’ is solemn yet strangely heartfelt while ‘Beau-Triste’ offers sci-fi Charles Aznavour. Upping the pace with splashes of subtle percussive noise, ‘Keske Tu Veux?’ sees sparkly pulsating electronics come into play to contrast the low vocal nonchalance and what’s this? Kerranging rock guitar? In an almost resigned state wondering where the child in himself has gone, ‘Back To Then’ featuring the additional voice of fellow Belgian DAAN continues with the guitars although in a more understated manner alongside the electronics.
The absorbing ‘Pixels’ brings in an appealing synthetic cacophony over a steady metronomic beat but the throbbing ‘R.E.M.I.X’ is a fabulous slice of arty machine dance music where Moers laments aspects of his past, wishing he could “remix my life” just as Karl Bartos did on ‘Without A Trace Of Emotion’ in 2013. To close and translated as “You fall asleep”, ‘Tu T’endors’ is bare to the bone, an airy atmospheric lullaby embroiled in a drifting melancholy before a closing chime of guitar.
While delightfully astute and thoughtful, attentive effort is required from the listener but this makes ‘As If’ all the more satisfying in these days of disengaged music consumption. With this album, you can become invested and involved. Describing where the album belongs in the modern world, Moers himself says “it would be on the living room table”.
Over the five years since its inception on 15th March 2010, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK has aimed to highlight the best new music within the electronic pop world.
But with so much music and only a finite allocation of time, songs have slipped under the radar occasionally, or perhaps only received a glancing mention. However, a bit of time and distance can reveal if these recordings really are actually lost gems and whether the site missed the boat. So here are 30 songs from the cover the period between March 2010 to December 2014 which are worthy of rediscovery.
They have been released as physical product or purchasable / free downloads and are listed in chronological and then alphabetical order.
YVY DEMINA Alley of Aces (2010)
Sounding like night meeting day with an omnipresent gothic allure, Yvy Demina has been making music since 2007 but despite having songs on compilations, so far she has yet to have a release in her own right. A debut EP scheduled for July 2009 never materialised but the excellent ‘Alley Of Aces’ crept out on the ‘Zwischenfall – A New Decade Vol. 01’ compendium which also featured XENO & OAKLANDER. No more has been heard since…
Available on the compilation album ‘Zwischenfall – A New Decade Vol. 01’ (V/A) via Real Voice Of Underground
Seductive, Weimer Cabaret styled electropop with a rich, layered atmosphere, ‘Sternentanz’ was a gloriously vibrant song from this promising German songstress. But aside from three mixes of ‘Sternentanz’ and another track titled ‘Kein Weg Zu Weit’ on the single release, that was it. Lylee’s website has long since gone offline so despite Google, there appears to be no extra information on her whatsoever… so a song and artist truly lost.
Available as a LYLEE single via Batleth Records, extended version available on the compilation album ‘electropop.5’ via Conzoom Records
Sick of female fronted synthpop? Well, tough! We want “synths with balls” cry the electro fraternity still stuck in their shouty, chauvinistic cauldron! But as the feminist synth combo TIKKLE ME put it on their song ‘Remind The World’: “I’ve got no balls you see… I’ve already checked!”. This Swedish collective certainly made a positive impression with some thought provoking lyrics on their feisty self-titled debut album and have tunes too!
Available on the TIKKLE ME album ‘Tikkle Me’ via Gaphals
047 Featuring LISA PEDERSEN Everything’s Fine (2011)
With some rich Scandipop in the vein of Robyn courtesy of guest vocalist Lisa Pedersen, ‘Everything’s Fine’ showed that Swedish electronic duo 047 could produce quality song based material. Sebastian Rutgersson and Peter Engström started out as a chiptune act before expanding their sonic template on their second album ‘Elva’. It is territory they’re continuing in with the much anticipated follow-up, currently being recorded.
Available on the 047 album ‘Elva’ via Killing Music
JOHAN AGEBJÖRN & LE PRIX featuring LAKE HEARTBEAT Watch The World Go By (2011)
Johan Agebjörn is better known as a member of cult Swedish duo SALLY SHAPIRO, but for his debut solo album, he brought in a number of guest vocalists like QUEEN OF HEARTS for ‘Casablanca Nights’, a rather danceable electronic pop album. ‘Watch The World Go By’ was an uptempo highlight with a longing, melancholic vocal from Janne Kask of LAKE HEARTBEAT that was treated to the point of being almost feminine.
Available on the JOHAN AGEBJÖRN album ‘Casablanca Nights’ via Paper Bag
Produced by FRANZ FERDINAND’s Alex Koupranos, CITIZENS! ‘True Romance’ had a hint of HOT CHIP collaborating with Vince Clarke about it. Catchy and quirky, it was released in late 2011 and even had a slight passing resemblance to the CCS remix of Lykke Li’s ‘Little Bit’. From a so-called indie band, ‘True Romance’ had a fresh, synth assisted approach that didn’t involve too many guitar interventions.
Available on the CITIZENS! album ‘Here We Are’ via Kitsuné
HIGH PLACES are a duo based in Brooklyn. Dark but danceable, Mary Pearson’s half spoken / half wispy vocals on the haunting ‘Year Off’ are unearthly. As a percussive mantra takes hold, the cacophony of synthetic sound produced by musical partner Rob Barber only enhances the cerebral experience of this magnificent track, with an electronic bassline solid enough to knock your head on.
Available on the HIGH PLACES album ‘Original Colors’ via Thrill Jockey Records
While quite obviously derived from THE KNIFE and the hanutronica mood of the times, ‘Mother Protect’ was a great brooding tune from NIKI & THE DOVE. Malin Dahlstrom had a menacing growl that strangely sat between Karin Dreijer and Cyndi Lauper on this doom laden percussive rattle. The pair had potential and while THE KNIFE go to Eurovision of ‘DJ, Ease My Mind’ was another good tune in their cannon, they lacked consistency and the debut album ‘Instinct’ was not quite as impressive.
Available on the NIKI & THE DOVE EP ‘The Drummer EP’ via Sub Pop
Full of European melancholy, ‘Darkest Days’ did what it said on the tin and appeared on the ‘Electropop.6’ compilation. The vehicle of French producer Peter Rainman whose remixed for artists on labels such as Dependent, A Different Drum and Out Of Line, to date this has been his last offering as SPLENDOR PROJEKT. It is often quite puzzling how some musical ventures never get beyond a few released songs, while other less satisfactory acts keep going on and on…
Available on the compilation album ‘electropop.6’ (V/A) via Conzoom Records
Patrick Wolf once claimed to have had his image and act nicked by LA ROUX, but he seemed to do alright for himself as a kind of 21st Century’s answer to Marc Almond. With the synthetically accessible Richard X remix of ‘This City’, he actually came over like the lost Glaswegian band H20 through a Eurodisco filter. If Wolf actually stopped worrying about having his thunder stolen and actually did more stuff like this, he might then be able to outstrip LA ROUX.
Available on the PATRICK WOLF single ‘In The City’ via Hideout Recordings
Hailing from Portland, CHROMATICS were one of the brace North American electronic acts who appeared on the ‘Drive – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack’ with their song ‘Tick Of The Clock’. ‘Kill For Love’ from their fourth album of the same name could have been THE JESUS & MARY CHAIN if they were a female fronted synth band. With a lo-fi, punkier edge to their sound, CHROMATICS straddle several camps and bring a unique template to the alternative music table.
Available on the CHROMATICS album ‘Kill For Love’ via Italians Do It Better
Gothenburg’s Ulrika Mild is COMPUTE whose first two releases ‘This’ and ‘The Distance’ impressed with their wispy DIY synthpop. Since then, she also found time to record a fabulous cover of ‘Goodbye’, written by Paul McCartney and first recorded by Mary Hopkin, for a tribute CD that also featured Swedish veterans PAGE with a great electro version of SLADE’s ‘Coz I Luv You’. Known for taking her time over things, COMPUTE’s third release is still eagerly awaited.
Available on the compilation album ‘The Seventies Revisited’ (V/A) via Friends of Electronically Yours
After A-HA disbanded in 2010, Morten Harket sat again in that awkward artistic hinterland where he has the voice and the cheekbones, but is more challenged in the songwriting department. The spritely ‘Scared Of Heights’ written by Espen Lind, a mentor on the Norwegian version of ‘The Voice’, recalled the best of A-HA’s classic singles with Harket’s trademark falsetto allowed to let rip. However, Harket is unlikely to ever escape A-HA…
Available on the MORTEN HARKET album ‘Out Of My Hands’ via Island / Universal Music
While bandmate Sean McBride was busy with his MARTIAL CANTEREL solo project, XENO & OAKLANDER’s Liz Wendelbo took a parallel busman’s holiday and contributed string synths and vocals to some tracks recorded by Xavier Paradis of AUTOMELODI fame. Perhaps lighter than XENO & OAKLANDER and more obviously in key, ‘Rien À Paris’ captured Wendelbo’s Gallic charms in a manner than was Francoise Hardy rather than her usual Jane Birkin.
Available as a LIZ & LASZLO single via Visage Music
The act that influenced CHVRCHES, Edmonton duo PURITY RING combined synths and glitch techniques with a clattering, off-kilter drum machine backbone. Megan James’ vocals aren’t that far off Lauren Mayberry’s sweet tones but while ‘Belispeak’ was a good tune full of invention and atmosphere, overall PURITY RING have perhaps lacked the pop oriented immediacy and focus of their Glaswegian contemporaries. Where they head next in the light of this will be interesting…
Available on the PURITY RING album ‘Shrines’ via 4AD
The enticing project of NEW PONY CLUB’s Lou Hayter and Jean-Benoît Dunckel from AIR, ‘So Long My Love’ was a wonderfully motorik number with hypnotic drum machine, brash synth effects and sexy nonchalance all thrown into the bargain. Such an interesting combination had so much potential, but the resultant self-titled album released in 2013 lacked the vibrancy of this calling card and was sadly a disappointment.
Available on the TOMORROW’S WORLD album ‘Tomorrow’s World’ via Homebase
Released on Sweden’s Labrador Records who launched THE SOUND OF ARROWS, ‘Stop Taking My Time’ was proof that a danceable electronic tune didn’t have to be a journey into death by four-to-the-floor or longer than five minutes. With Karolina Komstedt’s dramatically assertive vocal and a bursting bassline, CLUB 8 showed in a crisp 180 seconds that glorious, uplifting synthpop could still have an impact.
Available on the CLUB 8 album ‘Above The City’ via Labrador Records
Like fellow Mancunians HURTS, DELPHIC were hailed as one of the great hopes for electronic pop! Their debut album ‘Acolyte’ showed what they could be capable of, if they could only turn their extended jams into songs. But the follow-up ‘Collections’ disappointed with a misguided excursion into rap. The launch single ‘Baiya’ though was a cracker, combining the anthemic pomp of MUSE with the rhythmical overtures of PRINCE.
Available on the DELPHIC album ‘Collections’ via Polydor Records
Ghostly are the innovative label founded by American electronic musician Matthew Dear and home to electro-punksters ADULT and . Their roster also includes a number of interesting acts like London-based FORT ROMEAU. The project of producer and DJ Michael Greene, ‘Stay True’ takes on a pulsating electro influence, but is allowed to breathe and progress with the space permitted by the length of the piece.
Available as on the FORT ROMEAU EP ‘Stay / True’ via Ghostly Records
ISAAC JUNKIE featuring GLENN GREGORY Something About You (2013)
Having toured both ‘Penthouse & Pavement’ and ‘The Luxury Gap’, HEAVEN 17 really needed to record new material to maintain their credibility. It could be argued that this collaboration with Mexican producer Isaac Junkie and Glenn Gregory went part of the way in kick starting that. A marvellously trancey electronic dance tune, the only thing that stops ‘Something About You’ from being perfect is the way Mr Gregory’s vocals have been processed and distorted.
Available on the ISAAC JUNKIE featuring GLENN GREGORY single ‘Something About You’ via Isaac Junkie Records
Like MARSHEAUX crossed with Polly Scattergood, the dream laden chillwave of ‘Oostende’ showcased what COCTEAU TWINS might have sounded like had they been a synth duo. Comprising of the gorgeous afflicted voice of Sarah P. and the mysterious RΠЯ, KEEP SHELLY IN ATHENS hailed from the Greek capital, but sounded like they’d emerged from a frozen Fjord in Narvik. Sarah P. departed in 2014, but KEEP SHELLY ATHENS continue with new singer Myrtha.
Available on the KEEP SHELLY IN ATHENS album ‘At Home’ via Cascine
Despite having released their five EPs in five years, this Swedish duo have tended to be overlooked. There was a two year wait for KITE’s most recent EP ‘V’, but it was worth the wait when Nicklas Stenemo and Christian Berg offered some fine, if mournful electropop in the shape of ‘The Rhythm’. With layers of exuberant synth sounds and Stenemo’s almost chant like vocals full of brooding sadness but with a glimmer of hope, the next EP ‘VI’ is set for a Spring 2015 release.
Available on the KITE EP ‘V’ via Progress Productions
NATTEFROST Featuring MICHEL MOERS Will I Get To Your Heart? (2013)
NATTEFROST is Danish musician Bjørn Jeppesen whose tenth album ‘Futurized’ encompassed many of the spacey elements of yesterday’s tomorrow that fans of Jean Michel Jarre and KRAFTWERK would enjoy. Featuring as a guest vocalist Michel Moers of Belgian synth subversives TELEX, his Gallic nonchalance on ‘Will I Get to Your Heart?’ is particularly good with sequenced percussive effects and rich synth sweeps providing some old fashioned synthpop.
Available on the NATTEFROST album ‘Futurized’ via Sireena Records
MULU featuring RUSSELL MAEL David – FROZEN SMOKE Remix (2013)
SPARKS have never been an exclusively synthpop act but being more orchestrated these days, it is rare to hear the magnificent nuances of Russell Mael on an electronic track in the 21st Century. This rather good collaboration with MULU remained strangely unreleased until dance act FROZEN SMOKE threw caution to the wind and let their synth dominated remix with its meaty snare sounds out. Singer Laura Campbell sounded totally glorious next to the younger Mael.
Originally available as a free download via Soundcloud, currently unavailable
Art rockers NIGHT ENGINE are possibly the most interesting guitar driven band to come out of the UK for some time. What separates them is their use of whirring synths. The rousing ‘Give Me A Chance’ fuses David Bowie and TALKING HEADS before digressing into a punchy end section which would conscript the quartet into TUBEWAY ARMY. And this is without mentioning that lanky vocalist / guitarist Phil McDonnell has that menacing air of Thin White Duke about him too.
Available on the NIGHT ENGINE EP ‘Night Engine’ via Demand Vinyl / Something In Construction
Mining the heritage of Italo disco, enigmatic Greek singer / songwriter TAXX aka Taxiarchis Zolotas successfully combined atmospherics, propulsive bass sequences and a solid electro beat on the immensely catchy ‘Is It Love?’. With a moodiness reminiscent of PET SHOP BOYS, but with spacey buzzes and a harder kick, TAXX’s homage to the club based sub-genre was a worthy excursion into classic European pop.
Available on the TXX single ‘Is It Love?’ via Undo Records
TRENTMØLLER featuring SUNE ROSE WAGNER Deceive (2013)
Anders Trentemøller made a name for himself remixing DEPECHE MODE’s ‘Wrong’. He succeeded not only with a far superior interpretation but highlighted shortcomings in DM’s production department. The muted synth trumpets and spacey swirls of ‘Deceive’ driven by an incessant drum machine made for a positively nocturnal atmosphere . And when crossed with an eerie vocal turn by Sune Rose Wagner, it all came over brilliantly like DM meeting DEATH IN VEGAS.
Available on the TRENTMØLLER album ‘Lost’ via In My Room
YOUNG GALAXY are a synthy dream pop band from Montreal whose core nucleus are married couple Catherine McCandless and Stephen Ramsay. Their fourth album ‘Ultramarine’ was recorded in Sweden. Complex and challenging, although of a much darker haunting template than would normally be associated with SALLY SHAPIRO, ‘In Fire’ was given a brighter treatment that made things more accessible.
Available on the YOUNG GALAXY album ‘Ultramarine’ via Paper Bag Records
Hailing from Canada, ELECTRIC YOUTH’s collaboration with COLLEGE entitled ‘A Real Hero’ was included on the ‘Drive’ soundtrack in 2011. Their debut album ‘Innerworld’ finally came out in Autumn 2014 and one of its highlights was another collaboration, this time with ROOM8 called ‘Without You’. The bridge and chorus are particularly tremendous. Now if this electronic ditty had come out 30 years ago, there is no doubt it would have ended up in a Brat Pack movie.
Available on the ELECTRIC YOUTH album ‘Innerworld’ via Last Gang Entertainment / Secretly Canadian
Pitch shifted to an almost asexual resonance, EMIKA delivered a wonderfully unique cover of one of Bowie’s best known tunes. The stabbing synth melody only vaguely sounds like it may have been derived from the original ‘Let’s Dance’. Describing it as “A new time-travel, gender twisting experiment in honour of one of my favourite artists…”, DURAN DURAN’s ‘Union Of The Snake’ sounds more obviously like a cover of ‘Let’s Dance’ than this does 😉
Available on the CD ‘David Bowie – Recovered’ (V/A) free with Rolling Stone Germany – May 2014
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captured Wendelbo’s Gallic charms in a manner than was Francoise Hardy rather than her usual Jane Birkin.
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