Tag: OMD (Page 22 of 23)

ANDY McCLUSKEY Interview

30 January 2011 / electricityclub

In 2007, OMD reformed to play a series of concerts focussing on their most successful album ‘Architecture and Morality’ and their much-loved catalogue of singles such as ‘Electricity’, ‘Messages’, ‘Enola Gay’ and ‘Sailing On The Seven Seas’.

Featuring the classic line-up of Andy McCluskey, Paul Humphreys, Malcolm Holmes and Martin Cooper, although the shows had an obvious nostalgic element, it was always the intention to eventually release new material.

In 2010, this finally happened with the release of ‘History Of Modern’, a 13 track collection of songs that captured elements of OMD’s past, present and future. Since its release, ‘History Of Modern’ has seen OMD re-established as a relevant pioneering force that has influenced a variety of new synthesizer powered acts like KLEERUP, MIRRORS, VILLA NAH and MARSHEAUX as well as less likely alternative bands such as THE XX, in much the same way that OMD were inspired by KRAFTWERK.

Incidentally, one song on the album which gave an affectionate nod to the Düsseldorf Fab Four came in the form of ‘RFWK’, the title of which was made up from the first initials of the four classic line-up members Ralf, Florian, Wolfgang und Karl.

Following a successful jaunt around the UK and Europe in the Autumn of 2010, the ‘History Of Modern’ tour will soon be heading Stateside. While finalising arrangements for the territory that gave them one of their biggest international hits in ‘If You Leave’, OMD’s leader Andy McCluskey took time out to speak about how the campaign was progressing and where he hopes OMD will head next.

Now you’ve had time to reflect, how do you think things have gone with the ‘History Of Modern’ album and tour?

The general consensus within the band is that the tour was our favourite since we reformed, possibly because we are now comfortable that we know how to do it and the audience still likes us. It was wonderful to be playing some new material, it felt like the tour was relevant and it slotted so well into the setlist. The only downside was my bloody knee which I’m still in the process of rehabilitating. The reviews for the gigs were fabulous.

The album was received wonderfully as well which is quite remarkable if you compare it with the reception to many of our previous albums, even the ones that are now considered classics! It’s now sold over 100,000 and counting which is not too bad. I was reliably informed that it has sold more in Europe that either of the last two DURAN DURAN albums *laughs*

‘History Of Modern (Part I’) looks like it’s become a live favourite?

Yes, I would say in terms of live favourites, ‘History Of Modern (Part I)’ and ‘Sister Mary Says’ went down very well like it was a hit single from years ago; it was incredibly well received live considering the bitching that was done about it prior to the album’s release. I think that ‘New Holy Ground’… people never go bananas at the end of a slow quiet song, but the feedback has been that it slotted into the kind of ‘Statues’ / ‘The Beginning And The End’ section after ‘Maid Of Orleans’ really well.

Why was ‘History Of Modern (Part I)’ not originally chosen as the lead single?

The radio stations in the UK and Germany were offered four tracks; ‘If You Want It’, ‘Sister Mary Says’, ‘History Of Modern (Part I)’ and ‘New Babies: New Toys’. Most of them came back and said either “we can’t choose because they’re all good” or ‘If You Want It’. So we went with ‘If You Want It’ just because the radio stations said they’d play it… and then most of them failed to play it which was a bit frustrating *laughs*

I think ‘Sister Mary Says’ in particular was the obvious second choice and judging by the support we had from Radio2, maybe we should have gone with that first, I don’t know. ‘History Of Modern (Part I)’ now as the third single, it’s probably a bit late. We have struggled everywhere except Radio2 in the UK to get airplay. There’s this perception that OMD are “a heritage act and they play live, their fans will buy the album but we’re not going to play it our radio station because we only play classic hits or current hits, we’re not going to play something new by OMD!”, I think ‘History Of Modern (Part I)’ will probably struggle at radio.

‘If You Want It’ was dropped during the tour? Was there any reason for that?

Yes, it was an absolute tw*t to sing in its original key!

The melody line and chorus are in quite a high octave register, are you able to tell me who it originally written for?

Err! NO! I’m not going to tell you! *laughs*

It’s very high, it sounds great in that key on the recording but doing it live… we did it in Brighton and it was hard to sing. And as an encore, it just felt like you wanted something people knew better. So we swapped it over with ‘Walking On The Milky Way’. The dilemma we’ve got now is we’ve got a setlist that works and finishing with ‘Walking On The Milky Way’ and ‘Electricity’ bloody well works just as closing the main set with ‘Enola Gay’ works.

But we put ‘If You Want It’ back in for Germany and we dropped it down two semi-tones… it was a lot easier to sing but it didn’t sound as good, that was the problem. It didn’t soar quite as well. So it was a problem to play live.

There’s only one other song we’ve shifted the key in and that was ‘The Native Daughters Of The Golden West’ for the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra show because some of the vocals are just so high. But I am quite proud of the fact I think I must be one of the only men of my age who still sings songs in the original key. If you ever go onto YouTube and look at bands singing old songs, it’s in an awfully low key!! *laughs*

‘Save Me’ effectively launched the History Of Modern campaign but appeared to confuse some of the audience, especially with it being a mash-up of ‘Messages’ with Aretha Franklin and not being included on most versions of the album? What do you think now?

Difficult to say, I still think it’s a brilliant piece of music. I can see the argument that if you’re trying to re-establish yourself as a credible current record making act, possibly a mash-up is not the most credible way to relaunch yourself. However, everyone who heard it who wasn’t a die-hard OMD fan just went “that’s a hit!”.

People wanted to play it, but the cool people and the fans were largely reluctant about it so in the end, as we weren’t going to release it as a single, we chose to hold it off the album and have it as a bonus thing on iTunes. However, the Americans insisted they wanted it on their album. And if you want my opinion, I think it should still be released as a single in the summer or something.

Germany appears to be as responsive as ever to OMD, more so than the UK. Why do you think that is?

Several reasons, we have always had a strong following in Germany. We probably get even more radio play of the old songs in Germany than we do in the UK. But for this campaign, there were two elements that really helped us. As soon as Rough Trade / Good To Go in Germany heard the album, they came straight in with a big offer of an advance to secure the album so we could put together an independent promotion team.

Strangely enough, most of them have previously worked promoting DEPECHE MODE. And they then made contact with Pro-SiebenTV in Germany who offered us a deal to put together a massive TV campaign which gave us huge TV advertising with a major station on prime time… that certainly helped.

‘New Babies: New Toys’ is probably the nearest you’ve come to ‘Radio Waves’ and the motorik aesthetic of that NEU! / LA DÜSSELDORF axis for a while. You wrote ‘4-Neu’ which was your first love song to a German band. How influential have they been to the OMD sound in the past?

I think ‘Electricity’ was probably our first love song to a German band. As I said to Karl Bartos and Wolfgang Flür, ‘Electricity’ was really just ‘Radio-activity’ sped up and they said “yes, we know!” *laughs*

I am a huge fan of that driving motorik thud… yes, you’re right, ‘New Babies: New Toys’ probably is the closest we’ve come back to it. It’s been an element that we’ve had for years; ‘Radio Waves’, ‘Genetic Engineering’, ‘The New Stone Age’. Just occasionally, we do something that drives straight down the middle in a kind of linear fashion.

Have you heard that lost unreleased ‘Neu! ’86’ album that was reworked by Michael Rother and issued recently?

No, I haven’t managed to listen to it because I’ve been away so consistently, I haven’t managed to update my laptop… my iTunes store hasn’t worked for several months! Most of last year was just mental, I’ve forgotten how busy you are when you’re pretending to be a popstar, AND a husband and a father at the same time! *laughs*

So what did you think of it?

I thought some of it was just brilliant, there’s a track on there called ‘Euphoria’ which sounds like a lost OMD demo but of course, there was a couple of those mad Klaus Dinger sound collage things!

Ah!

So did you yourself have any reservations about resurrecting unreleased material such as ‘Sister Mary Says’, a song that was recorded for ‘Universal’ in 1996 or ‘The Future, The Past, and Forever After’ which was rooted in the ‘Sugar Tax’ era?

No I didn’t because I thought the songs were really strong. There are a few elements on ‘History Of Modern’ which I knew in advance were going to p*ss people off; like the hi-hat programming sounded like the Alesis HR16 drum machine from 1991… perish the thought! But to be perfectly honest, by calling the album ‘History Of Modern’, it gave ourselves the right to do that. I’m very happy with ‘History Of Modern’ considering it was a clearing of the decks album, it was getting us started again. Paul and I have described this is our John The Baptist album… it’s the one that speaks of the one who will come after! *laughs*

… back to the old religious imagery again! *laughs*

Yes! It was a very strong album but both Paul and I are excited now about the prospect of a new album. We’ve used up all the stuff we’ve had lying around. It was good stuff but stylistically, maybe a few people can moan that “it wasn’t early 80s, it was early 90s”… shock, horror! I think ‘Sister Mary Says’ is f*cking great but if there’s one song on the album that I sometimes blow hot and cold over with, it’s ‘The Future, The Past, and Forever After’.

But speaking of modern, there was a throbbing, almost feminine electro dancefloor vibe on ‘Pulse’. How did the GENIE QUEEN members Abi Clancy and Anna Ord come to be involved?

That song is sort of a semi-cover version. It was originally given to me for GENIE QUEEN, that’s how they come to be on it. And I always loved it. The GENIE QUEEN girls cut some vocals on it and then it never got used for them and it was lying around, I just kept coming back to it. So I threw away all of the verse vocals, redid my own verse vocals in what my wife calls ‘the dirty phonecall song’ and I kept Anna and Abi in it.

The Danish girl was off the original demo that was sent to me. Essentially in a very modern and thieving way, I robbed somebody else’s song and turned it into our own.

What did you think of some fans reaction to it?

I think we can still p*ss people off!

Have you thought about getting another girl group to do it, because there’s possibly a hit single there if it was done by the ladies?

Yes, I think you’re right. I’ve actually got a few other tracks lying around that I would like a girl group to do, but having been through ATOMIC KITTEN, GENIE QUEEN and helping other young artists get established, just about the last f*cking thing I want to do in the world is to try and sell an act or songs to a record label. It fills me with horror, I have nothing but disdain for 95% of people in the music industry.

The mistake I made with GENIE QUEEN was, I should have just released it myself. The amount of time and money I spent on it, I should have gone straight in with ‘What A Girl Goes Through’, made a single and video, had a hit and then had people begging me to sign them!

‘New Holy Ground’ probably represents what is great about classic ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK as opposed to OMD. On the new songs you have written with Paul Humphreys, how have your collaboration methods changed from when you were doing it at The Gramophone Suite? And do you intend to work in this more collaborative manner in the future.

The initial way we worked, I have to be honest and both would agree, it wasn’t terribly effective. We thought we could solve the problem of the geography by sending files through the internet. It works but it’s just too slow. And I think Paul would admit as well that you need to stay on his case. Left to his own devices, he always got something else to do. I think we’ve discovered that the ideal way for us to work is for me to demand he’s in the same room as me. And that way, things happen a lot more quickly. And there’s a spark and chemistry as we patently discovered with ‘New Holy Ground’.

With ‘Green’, it was one you did sending files across?

I played him that song in its original demo when he came to my studio. He said it was a good song but we both agreed the music was pants. So he said “send me the vocal and I’ll rework the backing track” and he did a brilliant job. There is one other song I’ve got that I might do with Paul that has a great lyrics but the backing track doesn’t quite work. I think ‘Green’ worked because there was already a blueprint in the sense that we had a vocal and arrangement that worked, but Paul had to come up with a backing track that would tie the whole thing together. But it’s quite a slow process working with Mr Humphreys.

The demo of ‘Green’ actually had that movement on the lovely end section that was influenced by ROXY MUSIC’s ‘If There Is Something’.

Yes, which we decided to keep. What we basically did on that one, we just cut the demo tape and flew the stereo track onto the end of ours and just put overdubs on it! It’s a brutal piece of editing! *laughs*

What is it about the early ROXY MUSIC stuff with Brian Eno and later, the ‘Stranded’ album that makes them so special for you?

I think the pure energy of the uptempo songs and the pure melancholy of the slower songs. I think the reformed ROXY MUSIC that came back with ‘Manifesto’, ‘Flesh and Blood’ and ‘Avalon’, it’s was beautiful and very slick, but it took me a while to get my head round it. But it was almost like a different band, because everything they did before was completely different. It was like they’d turned into STEELY DAN! It was almost two different bands, even more so than early OMD and 90s OMD!

I have a soft spot for ‘In Every Dream Home A Heartache’, that is so clever, so well done. It’s so touching and so raw.

I liked the raw honesty of what BRYAN FERRY used to do. People raved to me about his new ‘Olympia’ album and I did get it. Apart from the single ‘You Can Dance’ and the very last track ‘Tender Is The Night’, I thought the rest of it sounded like a bunch of out-takes from ‘Avalon’ but with lyrics where Bryan really couldn’t be a*sed!

Will you be checking ROXY MUSIC out on this ‘For Your Pleasure’ 40th anniversary tour?

I might try and go to that. But if he plays any of ‘Olympia’, I’ll be going to the bar! I’m a huge Ferry and Roxy fan but I was disappointed. I guess in the same way everyone was nervous when ‘History Of Modern’ came out, you want it to be great and then if you hear something and it isn’t, you’re like hmmm!

There were some KRAFTWERK inspired synthesizer tunes on the album. How did you get the vintage Vako Orchestron choral sound on ‘The Right Side?’

It actually a mixture of a Mellotron, a Roland string and an actual CD-ROM sample of female sopranos, the same ones that were used on ‘Sister Mary Says’. It’s a mixture of the three that creates the harmonic blend that actually works.

What did Karl Bartos and Wolfgang Flür think of ‘RFWK’?

Karl loved the old synthy sound and was quite flattered. And Wolfgang, I never found out because he came to the Cologne gig and we didn’t get to meet him afterwards because he found the gig was so hot and full that he ended up feeling ill and leaving! Unfortunately, something similar happened to Karl Bartos as well. The gig in Hamburg was so full, he and his partner Bettina couldn’t get in, they were listening to it from the foyer and after a few songs they just thought “b*llocks” and left! *laughs*

So unfortunately, both of them came to the gigs and I didn’t get to see them because they couldn’t get into the venues properly!

This was one of the problems with the German tour, some of the gigs were not quite sold out while others were over sold! The gig in Leipzig, there were 300 people who had to spend the whole gig in the foyer! Next time, we’ll be having someone clicking numbers on the door!

Wolfgang Flür has said his book ‘I Was A Robot’ and the ‘Synth Britannia’ documentary about how the young OMD came backstage at The Liverpool Empire in 1975 to tell KRAFTWERK that they had shown you the future. Is this actually truth or just legend?

It’s legend! I was the only one who saw them play at The Liverpool Empire. And I didn’t go backstage. I was 16, I wasn’t going to be hanging about backstage! And also, they were building the Mersey Rail underground at the time and I had to get the bus back so I couldn’t hang around. The first time I met them was 1981 at the Zeche Club in Bochum, Germany so it’s an apocryphal urban myth. Wolfgang sort of got his story mixed up there! *laughs*

So should the KRAFTWERK brand continue on and record new material?

My thing is KRAFTWERK will always be God to me as far as I’m concerned, But if Ralf Hütter is going to do an album that sounds like ‘Vitamin’ and ‘Aerodynamik’, then I’m not interested. The problem for me with Ralf Hütter is he’s distilled his concept of KRAFTWERK to the point where it’s like distilled water, it has no taste. It was all the vagaries of the human playing and not so perfect electronic instruments that gave the earlier albums a real humanity.

If you listen to them now, you can feel the human touch on them as we’re so accustomed now to programmed music. I’m sure they wished they weren’t, that they were programmed by robots in the first place. The more Ralf gets to his ‘nirvana’, the worse the music is unfortunately.

With that in mind, can you therefore relate to why some OMD fans may have been disappointed with ‘History Of Modern’?

I can see why a few tracks would be not what they wanted because I know the hardcore fans wanted something that sounded like the first four albums and nothing else. So I can understand why some of the songs didn’t tick all their boxes. However, I think that if Ralf Hütter released something that sounded like ‘Vitamin’ but had a f*cking great lyric and melody, I would lap it and I wouldn’t sit there going “there’s the hi-hat programming that was on the reworked Mix album which I didn’t really like in 1991…”

I thought some of the nit picking was excruciatingly anal and said much more about them than the quality of the music that was on the album. And I’m sorry, I think that anything less than 4 out of 5 stars is b*llocks.

‘History Of Modern’ is better than almost all the albums OMD have ever done apart from the first four. I was very comfortable with the album and I think most people recognised that, regardless whether you thought it was a real Korg or a Pro-Tools version, or right or wrong hat! I thought the songs were brilliant and for middle aged men, I think it p*ssed over most people’s comeback albums.

I’m entirely unrepentant Chi, I think it was a f*cking great album, especially when you consider it was the first one we’d done in how many? years. If KRAFTWERK made an album like ‘History Of Modern’, I would be over the moon. Yeah, I might decide that this particular track isn’t my favourite but I would die for KRAFTWERK to do something as good as I believe ‘History Of Modern’ is.

How do you think the support acts VILLA NAH and MIRRORS went down with the OMD faithful?

I thought they were both great, very well received and rightly so.

It was really nice that both acts included samples of ‘Messages’ into their songs during their sets.

NO! YOU’RE KIDDING ME?

VILLA NAH had it on the end of ‘Ways To Be’ and MIRRORS had it running through ‘Ways To An End’…

Well! I’m freaked out now because I don’t remember hearing any of that but to be perfectly honest, when you’re backstage, the sound isn’t that clear!

You weren’t too keen on some of the female electro artists like LA ROUX and LITTLE BOOTS who found fame in 2009. But you’ve found a bit of love for ROBYN. And what do you think of 2010’s generation of male electronic based acts like HURTS or DELPHIC?

HURTS and DELPHIC are ok. I like Stay by HURTS but in some respects, HURTS sound a bit to me like a millennial boyband with synthesizers, although a lot of the album doesn’t sound as simple and as spartan as ‘Wonderful Life’. DELPHIC? I’m sorry but they don’t quite press my buttons either.

But the more I listen to the ROBYN stuff… I’ve gone backwards now and I’ve fallen in love with ‘Konichiwa Bitches’ from the ‘Robyn’ album which I really wasn’t that bothered about. And the video is funny as f*ck! And of course, I’ve started doing a bit more homework because I’ve been sat here. And I’ve now become a huge fan of KLEERUP who she did ‘With Every Heartbeat’ with.

KLEERUP’s album is brilliant. If there’s anyone who’s got the OMD sound nailed for the 21st Century, it’s him!

Yeah, I think so. Basically, the vocal melodies on his songs are like they’re derived from synth melodies so they have that sort of OMD sound. It’s often a clear, often slow developing vocal melody. I’m very slow off the mark, just literally in the last week I’ve started listening to KLEERUP. I absolutely love it and even to the point of wondering about whether or not we should be doing some work, or some mixing or producing.

So in hindsight then, do you think that Mike Crossey was the best choice to mix ‘History Of Modern’? Although he has had enormous success, his track record ie RAZORLIGHT, THE FOALS, THE KOOKS didn’t indicate an empathetic ear for electronic based pop music. Could ‘History Of Modern’ have sounded better with say either KLEERUP or FOTONOVELA (who produce MARSHEAUX) behind the studio desk?

I suspect you might be right. I think Mike improved the mixes he was given.

He fattened them out, got some better effects, got a better balance. I think Mike’s dilemma was he had me hovering over his shoulder! I think it might be better to give something to somebody and say “do your version of it” and then we’ll spend time adjusting to whether we think it works or not. Because that was the other thing with Mike, we didn’t really have time to allow him to go off, he was just mixing what we gave him.

Maybe we should think about being a bit more pro-active with people like KLEERUP and the FOTONOVELA boys, and saying “we like what you do, we’re not far away from each other so just do something like that”. But they’ve both got very different sounds; FOTONOVELA have got a much more crystal clear digi-analogue sound… very bright, very wet. KLEERUP has got a much more grungy electro sound which is quite interesting actually because I quite like the lo-fi-ness of some of his drum sounds. But they’re absolutely incredibly present loud lo-fi drums… it’s not distant sh*t drums, it’s right in your face!

You and Paul did quite a few promotional live sets as a duo recently which harked back to the Eric’s days and you both appeared to be very comfortable with the format. Have you considered touring in this guise, perhaps in territories where OMD may a following but not have a particularly large foothold? I’m thinking in America…

I think the feeling is if we’re a band, we’re a band. We generally only do the two piece thing when that’s really just not practical like in-stores or a charity concert where we can turn up and do a short gig. I don’t think the two of us and a laptop would really want to do a full hour and a half OMD set, it wouldn’t be right. But obviously we could tour places like Japan and Australia, and probably not lose the kind of money we would do if we took the whole band. Y’know, we’ll think about it.

You’re touring North America in March. How important is it for OMD to play the USA again?

I don’t think we treat it like The Holy Grail like people used to. Paul Humphreys always says: “We broke America, but America broke us!”. I think we’re realistic about it, but it seems right that we finally get to go and play in America. We’re doing this with the band and crew on a sleeper bus, no lights, no PA, just house systems, whatever they’ve got. No LEDs, no projections, just pure and simple. Here’s the band, here’s the audience, here’s the music… GO!

Having spent the last three and a half years playing so successfully, I would love to tour the whole world. I want go to Asia, Australia and South Africa again. And I want to go to places in Europe that we don’t seem to be able to get into. And I want to go to South America. It pains me not to be touring the world but it’s purely and simply the financial logistics of taking the whole band and the crew, and what the local promoters are prepared to pay. You’re absolutely right… if me and Paul went, we could do it for peanuts and OMD as a two-piece could tour the world. But it just seems wrong, there would be two versions of OMD publically.

Your cover of Mercury winners THE XX’s ‘VCR’ has been premiered on Soundcloud, but you’ve recorded a magnificent version of ‘Shelter’ as well…

I think ‘Shelter’ is even better than ‘VCR’! It beautiful because it’s got that suspended choir chord that sounds like KRAFTWERK and the piano. It’s been quite interesting learning THE XX’s songs because when you listen to them, your initial impression is they’re quite meandering and unfocussed.

But once you get past the ‘stoner’ presentation that they have, they actually have quite simple, specific arrangements. They are arranged, they have a format but the sheer minimality of it is really quite impressive. I have to say it took me quite a few listens to get into THE XX. It was a bit like I had to acquire the taste.

But having stripped down and analysed their songs, strangely enough I think it’s going to have a good influence on OMD because things like ‘New Holy Ground’, ‘VCR’ and ‘Shelter’ have encouraged us to be confident in the quality of the minimal work again. People go how did OMD influence THE XX… but have you listened to ‘4-Neu’? Have you listened to some of the really simple, stripped down B-sides?

What were they recorded for?

The record company thought it would be very cool to ask THE XX to do a mix for us. Of course, everybody and their dog last year wanted THE XX to do a mix for them. The NME were planning to do a covers compilation album of THE XX’s songs so the band said “if you cover one of our songs, we’ll do a mix for you” in a reciprocal deal. We did ‘VCR’ which I loved playing the bass on and then they went “Oh God, not ‘VCR’… everyone’s doing ‘VCR’!” so we did ‘Shelter’. So that’s why we did two of their songs, but the album never happened.

So will ‘Shelter’ be the B-side of ‘History Of Modern (Part I)’?

No, ‘VCR’ is one of the B-sides… ‘Shelter’ we have got up our sleeves for future reference to tease people with. I’m glad you loved it, ‘VCR’ is good but ‘Shelter’ is f*cking gorgeous!

And what next for OMD?

We have the North American and German dates. A lot depends on this American tour… if its successful, we may go back in the Autumn.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Andy McCluskey

‘History Of Modern (Part I)’ is released on 28 February 2011 as a limited edition 4 track 10 inch vinyl single and an extended CD EP which includes all the previous ‘History Of Modern’ period B-sides. Both formats also feature OMD’s cover of ‘VCR’.

The album ‘History Of Modern’ is still available

OMD’s 2011 North American tour includes:

Toronto Phoenix Concert Theatre (5 March), Montreal Le National (6 March), Boston Paradise Rock Club (7 March), New York Webster Hall (8 March), Washington DC 9:30 Club (9 March), Chicago Park West (12 March), Atlanta The Loft (14 March), Houston House of Blues (16 March), Dallas Granada Theatre (20 March), Denver Bluebird Theater (22 March), Salt Lake City The Depot (23 March), Los Angeles The Music Box (25 March), San Francisco Mezzanine (26 March)

They also play the following German dates in 2011:

Erfut Thueringerhalle (22 June), Leipzig ParkbÜhne (23 June), Dresden Elbufer (26 June), Cologne Tanzbrunnen (1 September), Hamburg Stadtpark (2 September), Bochum ZMF (4 September), Berlin IFA Sommergarten (5 September), Schwerin Freilchtbuehne (6 September)

https://www.omd.uk.com/

https://www.facebook.com/omdofficial

https://twitter.com/OfficialOMD

Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
30th January 2011

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s 30 SONGS OF 2010

30 December 2010 / electricityclub

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK came into being on 15th March 2010 following the HEAVEN 17 aftershow party at Sheffield Magna.

The year also saw the release of a new album by OMD in ‘History Of Modern’, their first since 1996 while there was a long awaited single by THE HUMAN LEAGUE. Meanwhile there was the emergence of new acts such as VILLA NAH, MIRRORS, THE SOUND OF ARROWS and HURTS.

At the end of 2009 when LITTLE BOOTS and LA ROUX heralded a renaissance in the sound of the synth, KRAFTWERK’s Ralf Hütter said to Mojo Magazine: “From all our work comes inspiration. We have been very lucky because the music we envisioned, the ideas we had of The Man-Machine and electro music, have become reality and technology has developed in our direction… and electro is everywhere!”

In a tremendous year for all things electro, here are our 30 songs of 2010 in alphabetical order by artist:

CHRISTINA AGUILERA & LADYTRON Birds Of Prey

In 2008, there was much talk of Christina Aguilera going electro and collaborating with LADYTRON. The two finished tracks ‘Birds Of Prey’ and ‘Little Dreamer’ were relegated to bonus track status on her album ‘Bionic’, with the latter only on iTunes. ‘Birds Of Prey’ softens the percussive noise that dominated ‘Velocifero’ with Ms Aguilera showing some great vocal restraint herself, with an almost hypnotic Middle Eastern feel.

Available on the album ‘Bionic (Deluxe Edition)’ via RCA

http://www.christinaaguilera.com/

http://www.ladytron.com/

ARP High Life

ARP is New Yorker Alexis Georgopoulos who crafts gorgeous contemporary kosmische musik for the 21st century. ‘The Soft Wave’ was a glorious work and from it, ‘High Life’ was a cute instrumental with beautiful synth strings dominated by the spectre of KRAFTWERK and CLUSTER. Minimal guitar adds texture to the pulsing accompaniment, recalling other German heroes such as Michael Rother and Manuel Göttsching.

Available on the album ‘The Soft Wave’ via Smalltown Supersound

http://www.studioalexisgeorgopoulos.com/ARP

AU REVOIR SIMONE Tell Me (Un Autre Monde Remix by MIRRORS)

Although AU REVOIR SIMONE have a wispy girls next door demeanour, this remix by MIRRORS recrafts the originally bare ‘Tell Me’ into a dense apocalyptic ditty which makes Erika Forster, Annie Hart and Heather D’Angelo sound almost suicidal! With its heavy synthetic percussive backbone, this is definitely dance music from another world! Like an alternative gothic disco soundtrack to Sofia Coppola’s ‘The Virgin Suicides’!

Available exclusively as a download on the album ‘Night Light’ from Juno:
http://www.junodownload.com/products/au-revoir-simone-night-light/1582186-02/

http://aurevoirsimone.com

BRIGHT LIGHT BRIGHT LIGHT Love Part II

Shimmering Emulator type strings, pulsing sequences and a rousing chorus make this a very immediate slice of synthesized pop. BRIGHT LIGHT BRIGHT LIGHT mainman Rod Thomas reworks the template of ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ and gives it a bit of a sensitive new man outlook. ‘Love Part II’ is NEW ORDER’s disco music for lager louts taken back to its slightly camper Italo roots. Not one for those who wear football shirts to the pub!

Available on the single ‘Love Part II’ via Popjustice Hi-Fi

http://www.brightlightx2.com/

THE CHANTEUSE & THE CRIPPLED CLAW Are You One?

Assisted by I Monster’s Dean Honer who also co-produced THE HUMAN LEAGUE’s Night People, THE CHANTEUSE & THE CRIPPLED CLAW’s first single ‘Are You One?’ has Candie Payne’s very classic pop presence coupled with Adrian Flanagan’s eccentronic backing. It wonderfully sounds like Sandie Shaw being backed by a BBC Radiophonic Workshop collaboration with Lalo Schifrin!

Available on the single ‘Are You One?’ vai Arms Controller

https://myspace.com/chanteusenthecrippledclaw

CHEW LIPS Rising Tide

Usually dealing in a brand of “8-bit Casiotone drone-disco” sounding like YEAH YEAH YEAHS with synths, CHEW LIPS look like OMD being led by Debbie Harry! And they take the OMD thing further here with their best track ‘Rising Tide’. The haunting piano, precise drum machine and bass with sparkling synth-harp runs and a spirited vocal come together nicely to build up to a rousing crescendo.

Available exclusively as a download on the album ‘Unicorn’ from iTunes.

http://chew-lips.com

DELPHIC Halcyon

Here are the young men of DELPHIC, continuing the electronic dance / rock fusion pioneered by the legend of Factory Records. The backing is pure NEW ORDER and reinforced by a great klanky guitar solo which would do Bernard Sumner proud. Now, if DELPHIC could just develop things into great pop songs like ‘Halcyon’ rather than some of the prolonged jams and grooves that dominate their debut album ‘Acolyte’.

Available on the album ‘Acolyte’ via Polydor

https://www.facebook.com/delphicmusic/

THE GOLDEN FILTER Look Me In The Eye

With their melodic and glacial electronic disco, you’d think they were Scandinavian, but THE GOLDEN FILTER consist of an Aussie in Penelope Trappes and a Yank in Stephen Hindman. Penelope’s vocals have an uplifting quality on the chorus while still retaining a distant chill but the counter melodies compliment the danceable twists. A little I Feel Love creeps in during the chorus to give a wonderful dancefloor adrenalin rush.

Available on the album ‘Voluspa’ via Brille Records

http://www.thegoldenfilter.com/

GOLDFRAPP Dreaming

As the title suggests, this is gorgeous and dreamy with a distinct European flavour from the enjoyable album ‘Head First’ which perhaps is more focused on mid-Atlantic AOR. Alison’s voice still resonates as one of the best in the business and back to being accompanied by primarily electronic instrumentation which is where it belongs. The pulsing sequences and string machine washes of ‘Dreaming’ make this perfect dancefloor material.

Available on the album ‘Head First’ via Mute Records

http://www.goldfrapp.com/

HELL featuring BRYAN FERRY U Can Dance

Mr Ferry has certainly been astute in recognising how much of an influence he’s been on younger musicians and accepting collaborative opportunities with modern dance luminaries such as HELL and GROOVE ARMADA. DJ HELL provides U Can Dance’ with some hard electronic backing, complimenting Ferry’s trademark vocals. Ferry recorded his own Roxy styled version for his solo album ‘Olympia’.

Available on the single ‘U Can Dance’ via International Deejay Gigolo Records

https://www.facebook.com/DJHellOfficial/

http://www.bryanferry.com/

JORI HULKKONEN Man From Earth

Hypnotic in the spirit of Giorgio Moroder crossed with Arthur Baker and featuring the guest vocals of Jerry Valuri who first collaborated with Jori Hulkkonen on his 2005 album ‘Lo-Fiction’, this dark club track’s spacey rolling sequences make this almost like a dancefloor take on THROBBING GRISTLE’s ‘Hot On The Heels Of Love’ before launching into a bit of New York electro disco in an unexpected middle section!

Available on the album ‘Man From Earth’ via Turbo

http://www.jorihulkkonen.com/

THE HUMAN LEAGUE Night People

After Philip Oakey’s collaborations in 2009 with LITTLE BOOTS and PET SHOP BOYS, THE HUMAN LEAGUE returned with the lead track from their forthcoming album ‘Credo’ sounding very electronic and very modern. Punchy with an elastic bassline and chanting chorus, the lyrical couplet “leave your cornflakes in your freezers, leave your chocolates and your cheeses…” shows Mr Oakey hasn’t lost his touch for off-the-wall symbolism. So “Join us now my friends we hail you!”

Available on the single ‘Night People’ via Wall of Sound

http://www.thehumanleague.co.uk/

HURTS Stay

HURTS have been certainly accused of style over substance. ‘Wonderful Life’ looked like being a one-off but luckily they have some other magnificent songs to back up their European art house film via the Weimar Republic persona. With ‘Stay’, the heartfelt intensity of the lush arrangement captures the understated but epic sophistication. With the symphonic grandeur of ULTRAVOX fronted by the melodic sensibilities of TAKE THAT, is this a ‘Vienna’ for the early 21st Century?

Available on the album ‘Happiness’ via Major Label

http://www.informationhurts.com/

HYPERBUBBLE Candy Apple Daydreams

From the album of the same name, Texan duo HYPPERBUBBLE have an almost cartoon-like take on synthpop in the vein of that great lost combo VIC TWENTY who released only one single on Mute. ‘Candy Apple Daydreams’ is fun and quirky with Jess as the electro Emma Peel and Jeff as the obedient robotic version of John Steed.

Available on the album ‘Candy Apple Daydreams’ via Bubblegum Records

http://www.hyperbubble.net/

KATJA VON KASSEL Lies

Electro Weimar Cabaret is the easiest way to describe the music of Katja von Kassel. Lies’ features strong traditional European influences like French accordions and ‘Vienna’ piano but also has hints of Grace Jones ‘I’ve Seen That Face Before’. Not entirely surprising as both songs are routed in the same dance… the tango. LADYHAWKE collaborator Alex Gray’s intricate production alongside Katja’s magnificently deep vocal presence is like the “1930’s meets the future”.

Not yet released, view on Vimeo

https://www.facebook.com/KatjavKassel/

LCD SOUNDSYSTEM I Can Change

From what appears to be the only electronic based act that the real music purists positively fawn over, this is a superbly guitar free number that sounds like ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN mashed up with Gary Numan and early DEPECHE MODE. The wonderfully wobbly synths and steady drum machine beat take the lead in the poptastic style of Vince Clarke while James Murphy’s vocal hits a soaring falsetto after initiating a ‘Mac The Mouth’ tribute.

Available on the album ‘This Is Happening’ via DFA

http://lcdsoundsystem.com/

LOLA DUTRONIC Best Years Of Our Lives

LOLA DUTRONIC are a duo who adapt classic Anglo-Gallic pop with modern electronic arrangements. ‘Best Years Of Our Lives’ borrows from the more recent past with quite obvious references to OMD, ERASURE and even PULP. It’s cutesy pop, perhaps reminiscent of prime SAINT ETIENNE and Lola’s accent is just alluring!

Available on the EP ‘Musique’ via Red Star

https://www.facebook.com/LOLA-DUTRONIC-80232595392/

MARINA & THE DIAMONDS Oh No!

Using a bit of Fe-Mael intuition, Marina Diamandis adds eccentricity to some catchy keyboard led pop helmed by the ubiquitous Greg Kurstin. “I have become my own self fulfilled prophecy” she proclaims before she screams up two operatic octaves taking a nod towards classic SPARKS while the coda turns into a Cossack dance! Frankly, this is brilliantly bonkers!

Available on the album ‘The Family Jewels’ via 679 Recordings

http://www.marinaandthediamonds.com/

KYLIE MINOGUE All The Lovers

Aided by Stuart Price at the mixing helm, ‘All The Lovers’ was Ms Minogue’s best single since the KRAFTWERK-tinged ‘Slow’ is euphoric Euro-disco with some wonderful synthetic tones, especially on the solo. There’s something for everybody here in this fabulous pop song. But what a shame about the parent ‘Aphrodite’ album though.

Available on the album ‘Aphrodite’ via EMI Music

http://www.kylie.com/

MIRRORS Ways To An End

MIRRORS hail from Brighton, the UK capital of hedonism but their intense and artful approach to dancing is very different to the ‘hands in the air’ culture of their home base. Synthetic chill and pulsing effects dominate this brilliantly uptempo electro number. Rhythmically this recalls TALKING HEADS ‘Crosseyed & Painless’ while the claustrophobic production is very post-punk, wonderfully dense but melodically dramatic. A brilliant introduction to The World of MIRRORS.

Available on the single ‘Ways To An End’ via Skint Entertainment

https://www.facebook.com/theworldofmirrors/

OMD New Holy Ground

In the true innovating spirit of their classic era, the sparse percussive framework of ‘New Holy Ground’ is merely the sound of footsteps. This is the nearest they have come to the lost B-side and fan favourite ‘The Avenue’. The wonderful piano line and virtual choirs contribute to the beautiful melancholy that characterised OMD’s best work where Paul Humphreys concentrated on the musical backbone while Andy McCluskey provided the narrative focus.

Available on the album ‘History Of Modern’ via Blue Noise

http://www.omd.uk.com/

WILLIAM ORBIT featuring SARAH BLACKWOOD White Night

In period which has seen a flurry of solo activity and the reformation of DUBSTAR, the lovely Sarah BLACKWOOD took time out to work with on a track from his album ‘My Oracle Lives Uptown’. Although a version without her ended up on the final tracklisting, her take was offered as a free download in 2010. More accessible than some of CLIENT’s recent offerings but more purely electronic than DUBSTAR, this was a priceless pop gem from our Sarah which lyrically was “full of pain”.

Originally available as a free download

http://www.williamorbit.com/

ROBYN Dancing On My Own (Radio version)

More bittersweet heartbreak from Ms Carlsson, this is driven by wonderful, edgy electronics while the simultaneous dancing and mourning reflects the vulnerability everyone experiences in the loss of love. Solemn synthetic disco at its best from the feisty, independently spirited Swede who is slowly turning into a modern day GINA X PERFORMANCE.

Available on the album ‘Body Talk’ via Konichiwa Records

http://robyn.com/

SHH Wonderful Night

Euphoric sensualism captured in three and a half minutes, the chunky pulsing sequences to a solid dance beat and a rousing chorus add a blissful optimism full of Latin spirit. ‘Wonderful Night’ is bouncy danceable electropop that does what it says on the tin. As their own mission statement announces, it’s “Electronic pop, Buenos Aires style!”

Available on the album ‘Gaucho Boy’ via Sin Dormir Records

https://www.facebook.com/Shhsounds/

THE SOUND OF ARROWS In The Clouds

Described as “the HURTS you can dance to” and “Disney meets Brokeback Mountain”, the opening lines “I’m going to work my way out of this town, I’m going to be someone and know who I am” of ‘Into the Clouds’ are quite a mission statement. THE SOUND OF ARROWS are a duo based in Stockholm presesnting dreamy widescreen synthpop, swathed in beautiful Nordic melancholy. Their musical subtlety is an essential and enlightening listen.

Aavailable on the single ‘Into The Clouds’ via Labrador Records

https://www.facebook.com/thesoundofarrows/

SUNDAY GIRL Stop Hey!

Following up SUNDAY GIRL’s previous two singles ‘Four Floors’ and her cover of ‘Self Control’, ‘Stop Hey!’ saw overdriven drum sounds and a piercing trebly riff dominate this piece of icy Eurocentric electro, sounding not unlike Ellie Goulding with a 20 cigarettes a day habit backed by MIRRORS and MGMT! This was kooky and stylish avant pop that hinted at something much darker going on in Jade Williams’ mind.

Available on the single ‘Stop Hey!’ via Geffen Records

http://www.wearesundaygirl.com

TAKE THAT Flowerbed

No, this isn’t a misprint! The hidden track on the reunited Manchester boy band’s Stuart Price produced opus ‘Progress’ is an electronic gem. In a rare lead vocal for Jason Orange, he comes over all apologetic in the manner of Al Stewart over a dreamy backing track that possesses the glacial Scandinavian quality of ROYKSOPP with a sprinkling of Eno-esque textural ambience. Beginning with soothing vocoder before building to a percussive climax, this is simply quite beautiful!

Available on the album ‘Progress’ via RCA

http://takethat.com/

TENEK Blinded By You

TENEK have successfully smoothed off some of their more industrial edges to deliver their most immediate and accessible song yet. A rousing chorus and a structure not dissimilar to THE HUMAN LEAGUE’s ‘The Things That Dreams Are Made Of’, there are further synth anthems galore on their album ‘On The Wire’ with nods to the MTV-era of TEARS FOR FEARS and A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS. “Heartbeat? Get down!” Synthetic dance rock at its best.

Available on the album ‘On The Wire’ via Toffeetones

http://www.tenek.co.uk/

VILE ELECTRODES Deep Red

VILE ELECTRODES are a colourful trio consisting of Anais Neon, Loz Tronic and Martin Swan who formed due to an unhealthy obsession with analogue synthesizers and fetish porn. ‘Deep Red’, a title inspired by Dario Argento’s ‘Profondo Rosso’, is a gorgeous seven and a half minute synth ballad that comes over like CLIENT fronting classic OMD… tremendously dramatic stuff in the vein of Statues and Stanlow!

Not yet released, view on YouTube

http://www.vileelectrodes.com/

VILLA NAH Remains Of Love

Have you ever heard Gary Numan almost jaunty? The fantastic ‘Remains Of Love’ is the poppiest thing that the former Gary Webb never recorded. Juho Paalosmaa is next to crying in the wonderful chorus but it almost sounds like Numan on prozac over Tomi Hyyppä’s crystalline melodies. With that all important air synth factor, VILLA NAH took the important elements of classic electronic pop and connected it to sharp, complimentary dance rhythms.

Available on the album ‘Origin’ via Keys Of Life

https://www.facebook.com/villanah/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
30th December 2010

2010 END OF YEAR REVIEW

28 December 2010 / electricityclub

The Year Of Transistors

“Synthesizers can be explored and explored, and the music that can be made with electronic instruments is infinite in its breadth. KRAFTWERK may have said ‘we are the robots’, but anyone need only listen to Trans-Europe Express and compare it to most of the turgid, boring guitar-based rock that has been produced over the last 30 years to realise that electronic music can be deeply emotional. And anyone who says electronic music is not real music is just too simple-minded for our patience I’m afraid!”: MIRRORS

2010 saw the return of the male synthpop act, smart boys with their toys and their nods towards the classic era of Synth Britannia. Leading the way were VILLA NAH and MIRRORS who both fused quality songs with vintage sounds and crisp contemporary percussive frameworks. The two units were obviously pressing the right buttons as both opened as special guests to OMD. As a continued sign of their undoubted potential, both were also were invited to support THE HUMAN LEAGUE; an opportunity which unfortunately neither act was able to fulfil due to prior scheduling commitments.

Coming from Finland, VILLA NAH released one of the best long players of the year in ‘Origin’, while closer to home, Brighton-based MIRRORS’ forthcoming album ‘Lights And Offerings’ is likely to be one of the musical highlights of 2011. Meanwhile HURTS, the enigmatic Mancunian duo who many predicted for major success in 2010, rattled the cages of the style over substance brigade.

Whilst the cinematic grandeur displayed in their best songs like ‘Wonderful Life’, ‘Stay’ and ‘Sunday’ was simply outstanding, they did occasionally walk a fine line with their milder paced material, sounding occasionally like TAKE THAT backed by ULTRAVOX. Despite confusing some listeners, their album ‘Happiness’ was an enormous grower and their live shows won over many new fans, especially on the continent where artful intelligence is a highly regarded attribute.

Interestingly, TAKE THAT themselves released their album ‘Progress’ with Stuart Price aka LES RYTHMES DIGITALES at the producer’s helm. Featuring a strong electronic flavour, there was also a song called ‘Eight Letters’ based on ‘Vienna’ which resulted in the rather unusual credit ‘written by Barlow / Donald / Orange / Owen / Williams / Ure / Cross / Cann / Currie’!

Attracting cult followings in 2010 were DELPHIC and CHEW LIPS. DELPHIC captured the Factory Records aesthetic of the mutant disco pioneered by NEW ORDER and A CERTAIN RATIO, but were unable to attract mainstream recognition probably due to their reliance on grooves and jams rather than actual songs… they can only get better with time.

CHEW LIPS are YEAH YEAH YEAHS with synths and while they had several brilliant numbers in their cannon, not all were included on their rather short debut album ‘Unicorn’. This didn’t allow them to play to their strengths on record although this was fully exploited in their live show. Again, they will learn.

And not wishing to get wholly involved in the main skirmish, THE SOUND OF ARROWS maintained a low profile while recording their debut album in London but delivered some impressive concert showcases of their lush Nordic musicality. Their optimistic and aspirational ‘Disney meets Brokeback Mountain’ tone may be the fresh approach to electropop in 2011.

Kookiness was the order of the day with the raven haired beauties MARINA & THE DIAMONDS and EMILIE SIMON. Marina Lambrini Diamandis kept the spirit of SPARKS alive with some fe-Mael intuition on her superb debut ‘The Family Jewels’ while EMILIE SIMON crossed the channel for some ‘one girl and her synth’ shows to fill the gap left by the absence of LITTLE BOOTS in 2010.

As could have been expected after the promotional lash of last year, Victoria Hesketh took a break before starting work on her new album. Hertfordshire’s SUNDAY GIRL could be the next lady-in-waiting providing she can expand on the very promising material like All The Songs and Stop Hey! that was premiered in the latter part of the year.

Meanwhile LA ROUX toured the world and recorded a ‘Stones cover ‘Under Your Thumb’ for the ‘Sidetracked’ influences DJ mix compilation before giving old mate SKREAM the iTunes bonus track Saviour for a dubstep rework as Finally and guesting with CHROMEO. However, Elly Jackson appears to have forgotten that No.1 rule of not biting the hand that feeds you by exclaiming “… I don’t want to make synth music for the rest of my f*cking life!” and declaring the electropop genre “over”!

In the battle of Synth Britannia, OMD released their first collection of new material for 14 years while THE HUMAN LEAGUE delayed their full album return until 2011. THE HUMAN LEAGUE have the backing of electronic music guru Mark Jones’ Wall Of Sound label and thus far have played a ‘less is more’ approach. Despite not having an official website until this year, some clever viral marketing sent interest in their single ‘Night People’ sky high and provided good business for their now almost traditional Christmas UK tour.

While OMD’s ‘History of Modern’ album had several outstanding tracks worthy of comparison with past glories, it was confusingly launched with an Aretha Franklin mash-up that wasn’t on the final tracklisting and a nauseating Britpop pastiche as lead single. Ironically one of the statements made in its sleeve notes was “Modern is not… Oasis”!

It was as if audiences who had traditionally been sceptical of the whole synthesizer axis were now being targeted.

However, electronic pop’s spiritual homeland of Germany welcomed OMD back like one of their own and respectable business for ‘History of Modern’ was generated.

A-HA though are proof that consistently high quality new material is still a possiblity 25 years after your commercial heyday with the focus of their final album ‘Foot Of The Mountain’ very much on their synthesizer roots. In late 2010, they bid farewell with a final tour and a superb double CD compilation called ’25’ which featured not only their hits but the best of their much under valued album tracks.

Photo by Tracey Welch

Among the acts celebrating their legacies, HEAVEN 17 enhanced their reputation no-end by participating in a brilliant BBC6 Music collaboration with “the falsetto from the ghetto” LA ROUX. And if that wasn’t enough, they had not one but two BBC TV programmes featuring their highly regarded album ‘Penthouse & Pavement’ including their triumphant Sheffield Magna gig.

HOWARD JONES didn’t look a day older, proving that a vegetarian diet and a clean living spirituality was the key to eternal youth! He played ‘Human’s Lib’ and ‘Dream Into Action’ in full for the first time at Indigo2.

Former sparring partners ULTRAVOX and JOHN FOXX played very different types of live shows in 2010. ULTRAVOX almost went back to basics with the retrospective ‘Return To Eden 2’ tour while JOHN FOXX curated an audio/visual extravaganza at the Short Circuit Festival featuring a deluge of analogue synths and some new material to a mixed reception.

DEPECHE MODE completed their ‘Tour Of The Universe’ and capped it all with a special show at the Royal Albert Hall for The Teenage Cancer Trust where Alan Wilder was reunited with the band for the first time in 16 years during the encore of ‘Somebody’. It was an emotional night for many including the band. Does this lay out the foundations for, if not a reunion, at least some future work together?

GOLDFRAPP returned with ‘Head First’, a mid-Atlantic AOR styled electronic romp that had echoes of Laura Branigan and Olivia Newton-John. Some found it uninspiring but what could not be denied was the catchiness of the tunes. Given time, it will become a future guilty pleasure.

Meanwhile LADYTRON prepared a career spanning compilation Ladytron ’00-10′ to reinforce their reputation as one of the key electronic based acts of the last decade but they began the year contributing a pair of excellent bonus tracks to Christina Aguilera’s album ‘Bionic’ in ‘Birds Of Prey’ and ‘Little Dreamer’.

Swedish songstress Robyn continued her feisty independent spirit by releasing her ‘Body Talk’ trilogy and the excellent single ‘Dancing On My Own’, while both Lady Gaga and Kylie kept electronically produced pop in the mainstream consciousness.

Across the water, New York’s THE GOLDEN FILTER added a crisp vibe to the electronic dancefloor via some dreamy Scandinavian influences and frantic tribal percussion while their neighbours THE HUNDRED IN THE HANDS brought a mechanised twist to new wave on their self-titled debut. And for the perfect after party soundtrack in the Big Apple, ARP provided some gorgeous modern day ambience with the album ‘The Soft Wave’. Meanwhile, another North American based duo LOLA DUTRONIC relaunched their brand of dreamy Gallic flavoured electro-lounge pop with the ‘Musique’ EP.

Elsewhere internationally, the vivacious SHH became the latest in a line of Argentine musicians basing themselves in London for an assault on the UK and European market while Texans HYPERBUBBLE brought their own ‘bionic bubblepunk’ with the impressive ‘Candy Apple Daydreams’. MARSHEAUX had a quiet year, only releasing a cover of BILLY IDOL’s Eyes Without a Face for an Amnesty International compilation.

Promising newcomers VILE ELECTRODES steadily gained fans on the London club circuit with their mix of fetish porn and analogue synths while following some line-up changes, THE VANITY CLAUSE finally released their first album ‘Fractured’. And the quirky Sheffield based duo THE CHANTEUSE & THE CLAW unleashed a superb debut single in ‘Are You One?’.

Overall in 2010, the spark generated by the new generation of synthesizer acts and the willingness of others to incorporate more electronic sounds into their work accounted for yet another productive year with the heritage acts also getting the cultural recognition they fully deserved. Ever supportive, The Guardian even featured a piece on the older incarnation entitled Forgive Us Our Synths which interestingly was almost two years after their prophetic Slaves To Synth article hit the public consciousness.

There were more quality albums and live shows of interest to the electro fan than in many years past with acts such as MIRRORS, VILLA NAH and HURTS fulfilling the role of worthy successors to the classic Synth Britanniageneration. Hopefully, other acts will be following in their footsteps. In fact, despite being ignored by the BBC Sound Of 2011 and New To Q listings which appear to have been locked into some evil parallel universe where good taste does not seem to reside, “… fey, gay, pseudo-intellectual synth b*llocks” still rules!

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK Contributor Listings Of 2010

STEVE GRAY

Best Album: TENEK On The Wire
Best Song: HURTS Unspoken
Best Gig: DEPECHE MODE at London Royal Albert Hall
Best Video: MIRRORS Ways To An End
Most Promising New Act: MIRRORS

CHI MING LAI

Best Album: VILLA NAH Origin
Best Song: MIRRORS Ways To An End
Best Gig: HEAVEN 17 at Sheffield Magna
Best Video: HURTS Wonderful Life
Most Promising New Act: THE SOUND OF ARROWS

RICHARD PRICE

Best Album: HURTS Happiness
Best Song: OMD History Of Modern (Part I)
Best Gig: THE HUMAN LEAGUE + HEAVEN 17 at Galway Festival
Best Video: HURTS Stay
Most Promising New Act: MIRRORS

JOHAN WEJEDAL

Best Album: PAGE Nu
Best Song: POLAROID MILITIA Astana My Hero
Best Gig: PAGE at Gothenburg Synthklubben
Best Video: VILE ELECTRODES Deep Red
Most Promising New Act: THE GIRL & THE ROBOT

Text by Chi Ming Lai
28th December 2010

DER DEUTSCHE FAKTOR

8 December 2010 / electricityclub

“From all over the world comes inspiration. We have been very lucky, because the music we envisioned, the ideas we had of The Man Machine and electro music, have become reality and technology has developed in our direction… and electro is everywhere”: Ralf Hütter, KRAFTWERK

Despite the resurgence of sophisticated electronic pop in 2010 with its own new classic sounding acts such as HURTS and MIRRORS plus the long awaited return of OMD and THE HUMAN LEAGUE, it would appear that British ears are still largely oblivious to the distinct musical quality on offer.

However, across the Channel in mainland Europe, the artful sound of the synthesizer is being embraced again, especially in electronic music’s spiritual homeland of Germany. So why is this? Is it ‘Der Deutsche Faktor’?

Is Germany more likely to accept synthesized pop presented in a stylish, modernistic manner purely because of its own electronic tradition? And is it really all down to KRAFTWERK? But then if that is the case, why has the majority of the best electropop been produced in the UK where its cultural significance is still mostly ignored by critics and public alike?

The British have always had a strange attitude to its own cultural intelligencia, be they musicians, composers, film makers, artists or writers. The ordinary public somehow see having ideas, values and style as being pretentious or elitist while traits like ignorance and shallowness are somehow embraced. Britain has always looked towards its American cousins for trends in popular music and the street credibility of the scruffy drug fuelled rocker or the expletive laden misogynistic urban spokesman is always somehow seen as more preferable.

But with a heritage of classical and contemporary art all of its own, Europeans didn’t take so kindly to American influences such as rock ‘n’ roll and rhythm ‘n’ blues being brought over in the second half of the 20th Century.

In Germany, this post-war reaction was even stronger. Despite the apparent freedoms compared with their compatriots in the East, Die Bundes Republik was effectively an occupied territory and this provoked a backlash within the student population.

At its extremes, this meant the brutal violence of the Baader-Meinhof gang and Red Army Faction. But on the other side of the coin, young Germans were inspired to be creative either in film as with Wim Wenders, Werner Herzog and Rainer Fassbinder, in art as with Anselm Kiefer and Sigmar Polke, or in music. The Germans have always had a history of self-definition through art and music has often been the centrepiece.

So eschewing blues scales, acts such as CAN, TANGERINE DREAM, CLUSTER, NEU! and KRAFTWERK looked towards the avant-garde traditions of Karl-Heinz Stockhausen for their inspiration and used new instruments such as electronic keyboards, synthesizers and rhythm units to create a whole new German aesthetic.

Although these all acts used electronics in some form, it was KRAFTWERK who in 1975 first fully embraced making music exclusively in this manner, eventually adopting a Gilbert & George demeanour of short hair, suits and ties. Their new pioneering musical form featuring a strict percussive base and an accessible melodicism in the European classical tradition was the antithesis of what had come previously via the North Atlantic.

However, despite KRAFTWERK’s influential success internationally, along with their fellow exponents of this experimental music, they were largely ignored in their homeland.

The instrumentalist nature was simply too abstract for some and although innovative, very rarely did Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Wolfgang Flür and Karl Bartos write actual pop songs. That was the mantle that the UK was about to take up.

David Bowie and Brian Eno were among the first British artists to adopt these new Mitteleuropa colours with the albums ‘Low’ and ‘Heroes’ each featuring fine examples of their collaborative zenith during an inspired sojourn in West Berlin. As a result, one of the focal points of this expanded interest became The Blitz Club in London where their resident DJ Rusty Egan played this neu musik von Deutschland at its regular ‘Bowie Nights’. Similar scenes were developing throughout post-punk Britain.

Although artists such as ULTRAVOX, TUBEWAY ARMY and THE HUMAN LEAGUE used KRAFTWERK as an important reference point and had synthesizers dominating their sound, the first British act to aspire to KRAFTWERK’s retro-futurist blueprint was ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK. Alongside their suitably clean and tidy presentation, OMD subconsciously put a pop element into the Kling Klang quartet’s electronic template. There was now an emotive lyrical focus incorporated into what had been perceived as the mechanical chill of Teutonic electronic music… the morality with the architecture if you will.

OMD’s music ultimately connected with Germanic ears who traditionally loved strong musical melodies and precise rhythmical frameworks. At its worse, this could mean embracing folk laden schlagermusik but as a positive, opening up to songs sung in a plethora of languages. The eventual result was ‘Maid Of Orleans’ reaching No1 in Germany and becoming the country’s biggest selling single in 1982; this at a time when the West German market was the largest in the world after America and Japan.

A precedent had already been set in 1981 when via The Blitz Club, VISAGE’s ‘Fade To Grey’ reached No1. Although ‘Maid Of Orleans’ and ‘Fade To Grey’ were both Top 10 hits in Britain, neither song has been held with the high regard and cultural gravitas that they both are in Germany.

‘Fade To Grey’ was recently voted ‘Song of the Decade’ on the prestigious German music show ‘Hit Giganten’ while it was an invitation to perform ‘Maid Of Orleans’ on a celebratory edition of RTL’s ‘Ultimative Chartshow’ in 2005 that was the beginning of the current OMD reunion. Often less judgemental and commercially orientated than the UK, the German market also later allowed other synthesizer acts such as DEPECHE MODE and PET SHOP BOYS to achieve significant success. And more recently, British electro acts such as MESH and CLIENT have been more welcomed here than at home.

Fast forward to 2010 and with the release of their new album ‘History Of Modern’, OMD’s musical legacy in the spiritual homeland of electronic music led to an innovative record deal with Saturn, one of Germany’s leading technology superstores, and a promotional schedule predominantly concentrating on that territory. With the majority of the European tour focused on Germany too, OMD have managed to recapture the hearts of an audience that still recognises intelligent artistic integrity whatever the age of the performer and doesn’t get into debates about how real music doesn’t use synthesizers, or how thoughtful presentation is arty!

In 2010, Germany has again shown itself to be more discerning. The magnificent ‘Wonderful Life’ by Manchester duo HURTS stayed at No2 for several weeks while the song struggled to reach No24 in Britain where they were accused of style over substance. Theo Hutchcraft and Adam Anderson’s ‘Bros Go To Bavaria’ imagery and cinematic grandeur have obviously struck a chord.

Attending HURTS’ show in Cologne, Lola said: “I was surprised that so many people went to see them. I came to the venue just a half hour before doors opened and I didn’t expect so many people to be outside waiting. So I was late and ended up standing behind a gang of very tall people. I couldn’t see that much, but the music was fantastic of course! I loved the charming nature of their performance and their way of communication with the audience. It’s beautiful pop music, I like it”

Following the success of HURTS, one UK act now set to crack the German market are MIRRORS who have strong KRAFTWERK and OMD based principals. The quartet comprises of James New, Ally Young, Josef Page and James Arguile. OMD’s Paul Humphreys had already witnessed their potential: “I went to see them in Camden at Proud. They’re lovely blokes and I was absolutely blown away by them. Their songs are brilliant.”

Playing as support to OMD on their European tour, MIRRORS have been able to showcase their majestic electronic pop-noir such as ‘Hide & Seek’, ‘Fear Of Drowning’ and ‘Into The Heart’ to a crowd that was almost tailor made for them.

However, when asked about this in the summer, their singer James wasn’t getting too presumptuous: “We’ll have to up our game won’t we? I don’t know. It’s going to be really interesting to see how Germany reacts to it. I have every hope that they’re going to really like it.”

And like it they did. Lola attended three shows including Cologne and Hamburg to report:“Support bands often have problems to get enough respect, especially if the crowd is waiting for the main act. But not MIRRORS… the Germans loved them! I’ve heard from a lot of people that they were absolutely delighted with them. It’s not only because of their influences like KRAFTWERK, OMD or any other band. I listened to some tracks before the tour thanks to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK and their great taste in music. I expected a fantastic support act for OMD but I must admit MIRRORS were more than that. Their music is emotional, melodic, epic, intelligent and also powerful and fresh. Well, simply beautiful!”

“Of course the crowd loved MIRRORS!” added Nella who saw the band’s appearance in Hannover, “Great mixture, they had a KRAFTWERK-feeling mixed with Andy-dancing, CHINA CRISIS-singing and HURTS-looking. They will surely be a successful band. They really did a good job… first time ever I thought at a concert: ‘oh, sad, the support act has finished? I want to hear and see more!’ They got lots of applause”. She wasn’t alone in that feeling: “I also heard some ‘Zugabe’ chants after MIRRORS left the stage” remembered Lola.

Photo by Lars Diegmann

In Stuttgart, Lars was also impressed: “I think most of the audience really did like the MIRRORS. We stood in front of stage but we could see the concert hall was well filled as they started to play. Most reactions were very positive. It was a small but very effective stage show. Very charismatic guys, it was fun to watch them make music. Powerful and moving electro-pop with a small theatrical touch… stoic and minimalist. They sound like KRAFTWERK should sound in 2010”.

MIRRORS’ stage presence and presentation are key factors in their appeal: “I was so fascinated by the way Ally played his synthesizer and James’ passionate dancing… I was having flashbacks of Ian Curtis! Oh, and I forgot to mention his excellent voice. Very cool performance!” recalled Lola, “I’m really looking forward to seeing them back in Germany as a main act.” Asked why she thought MIRRORS and also HURTS had got into the heart of the Germans, Lola smiled and gave a Teutonically direct answer: “It’s because Germans like good music!”

But they also connected with the audience: “I’m sure their tour EP sold very well, especially with the autographs they gave at the same time. So everybody had the chance to talk to them. Very nice! I also met them backstage after the Cologne concert. They are such nice and good-looking guys! Those guys are just amazing, adorable and very talented.”

So is the intelligent sartorial elegance of acts like MIRRORS and HURTS more likely to appeal to the Germans? “Possibly…” Lola replied, “but I myself must admit, I like their smart style”

Of their European jaunt, James New from MIRRORS said: “This tour with OMD has been a complete revelation for us. For the most part, our journey in the UK has been fantastic but in Germany and Europe the reaction to our music has been genuinely overwhelming. People’s enthusiasm has only fed our own and I think we would all say that these past shows have been the best of our career so far.”

OMD’s Andy McCluskey himself remarked enthusiastically during the tour: “MIRRORS are doing brilliantly… good guys and really great music.” However, with the way MIRRORS have been impressing, there clearly appears to be a changing of the guard happening right before German eyes.

This was reflected by OMD’s drummer Mal Holmes who amusingly said: “MIRRORS do OMD better than OMD do OMD… they look and sound great!” Lola summed things up by saying: “I must admit, I will always love OMD’s music. But it seems that MIRRORS could be their worthy successors.”

Just as when THE HUMAN LEAGUE’s Philip Oakey appeared on stage with LITTE BOOTS at Heaven in 2009 and HEAVEN 17 performed with LA ROUX on BBC 6Music, the electro torch is steadily being handed over. Synth Britannia’s elder statesmen are playing their part in helping the youngsters take electropop into the next generation.

In the meantime, HURTS have reached No2 with their ‘Happiness’ album and will reinforce their success by touring Germany again in 2011. The pair even commented: “we’ve been in and out of Germany like it’s our back garden”.

And with a superb debut album ‘Lights & Offerings’ ready to be released by Skint Records early next year, MIRRORS look set to gain a foothold in mainland Europe. Whether the UK wakes up and decides to join in the party with its EU neighbours remains to be seen.

Text by Chi Ming Lai
8th December 2010

MAL HOLMES Interview

31 October 2010 / electricityclub

OMD drummer Mal Holmes has been musically associated with founder members Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys since THE ID.

The Wirral post-punk band showcased songs such as ‘Electricity’, ‘Red Frame/White Light’, ‘Julia’s Song’, ‘The Misunderstanding’ and ‘Radio Waves’ that were to later become part of synthpop folklore. When THE ID split in 1978, Holmes continued to drum for local bands and worked as burger chef during the day. Meanwhile McCluskey and Humphreys formed OMD, releasing ‘Electricity’ on Factory Records in 1979…the rest is as they say, is history. But it was while supporting Gary Numan as a duo accompanied by Winston the TEAC tape recorder that the limitations of employing such a rigid backing track in live performance became apparent.

So expanding to a quartet for a club tour in early 1980, DALEK I LOVE YOU’s keyboardist Dave Hughes and Mal Holmes were recruited. Almost instantaneously, there was a looser, more frantic feel to OMD’s live sound with Holmes’ crunchy electronic percussion and sparing live drums providing a particularly unique aural framework. Holmes had already guested on the recorded version of ‘Julia’s Song’ from the OMITD album but eventually became a studio regular, contributing to OMD’s first hit ‘Messages’ before playing on the Organisation album featuring ‘Enola Gay’.

Around this time, Dave Hughes left OMD to form GODOT so another guest musician from the debut album, saxophonist Martin Cooper joined to play synthesizers to complete the now classic OMD line-up which later went on to enormous success with the album ‘Architecture & Morality’ in 1981.

Holmes’ sharp, complimentary drumming style which mixed acoustic and electronic percussion over tight pre-programmed rhythms helped the unlikely commercial proposition of Maid Of Orleans become the biggest selling single of 1982 in Germany.

Rewarded with equity for his loyal service to OMD from 1983’s ‘Dazzle Ships’, ironically he played on only three of its tracks while the album itself was a commercial flop, only gaining artistic recognition in later years.

Although OMD started to adapt a more conventional sound from 1984 with Holmes having a greater role in the albums ‘Junk Culture’, ‘Crush’ and ‘The Pacific Age’ that followed, strained relations following their American success led to the classic line-up splitting with Holmes joining Humphreys and Cooper in THE LISTENING POOL who released their only album ‘Still Life’ in 1994 and McCluskey continuing solo as OMD.

The classic OMD line-up reunited for a successful tour in 2007 which has led to the release of a new album History Of Modern, supported by an Autumn tour which sees OMD’s position as synthesizer pioneers reinforced by their choice of new OMD influenced acts VILLA NAH and MIRRORS as support.

Always a favourite of the fans, a banner at a gig once proclaimed “MAL IS GOD!” – just before the soundcheck for the opening show in Brighton, Mal Holmes spoke to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK to give an interesting insight into being a drummer in an electronic pop band and the artistic conundrums that it throws up…

On the earlier OMD tours, you played what always looked like a drum kit that had bits of it nicked on the way to the gig. How into the electronic ethos were you, especially as Paul and Andy wanted their percussive framework to be as anti-rock as possible?

I was playing before with them in THE ID as your regular rock drummer. I was really a drummer’s drummer at that time; I loved Billy Cobham, Phil Collins in GENESIS, Richie Hayward out of LITTLE FEAT. So when I first joined OMD, I’d been coming from THE ID so we were playing Electricity and some of those early songs on a regular kit which my bother bought me when I was 16, this Tama kit. THE ID spilt up, OMD get together and it must have been about 6-10 months before I came back in.

It was clear they were into that KRAFTWERK electronic vibe. Paul Collister, the manager was an electronics boffin with Paul Humphreys being at Riversdale College in Liverpool doing it as well. The idea was we wouldn’t have a regular drum kit, we would have an electronic drum kit but you couldn’t go to the shop and buy one, there was nothing around. So I was really excited I was going to have a new kit that nobody would have seen built by Paul Collister and Paul Humphreys. I remember I was a roadie for the band before I joined and I was hanging out with them with the view of going on the road with this new electronic drum kit.

This drum kit never took shape basically, I remember pushing Paul Collister saying “you’re building this thing, so what is it?” and he’d go “oh, I’ve got to get the circuit boards, I’ve got to the get transistors, I’ve got to get the pads…” – so eventually, a couple of days before we go on the road, Paul Collister comes up with this electronic drum kit that he’s made which is a couple of practice pads with crystal microphones inside and leads to circuit boards for snare and hi-hat etc.

There was a kick drum that was hacked together which was like an ‘on-off’ switch and a foot pedal!! So we rehearsed and we took it out for the first show and it was clear that it wasn’t going to work… everything was moving round the stage!! I’d press the kick drum and before I knew it, it was two yards in front of me! I’d hit the snare drum and it wasn’t triggering!! I hit the crystal microphone inside the pad and smashed it to bits, it just wasn’t going to work! *laughs*

So what happened next?

What had to be done was I needed to bring in from my old kit, the kick drum, the snare drum and the hi-hat. That then became the basis of my kit to this day actually! The other stuff like the ‘white noise’ pads stayed with us because they weren’t being used so much through the set and they couldn’t stick constant hitting like the real hi-hat could do. I just complimented what was going on with the ’white noise’.

I did embrace the electronic kit, I loved the idea of playing that but the functionality of it and playing it, the original one we had in OMD just couldn’t handle what was going to happen when we were taking it on the road. So two or three days into the tour, that’s when it became a hybrid. But I wasn’t allowed cymbals, they were a complete no-no! We didn’t use any cymbals until ‘Crush’! So many people like the road crew said “I don’t know what’s wrong with your drum kit but it looks really different! NO CYMBALS, THAT’S IT!”

How did you respond to the challenge of playing along to pre-programmed backing tracks as opposed to going first and leading a song the way a traditional drummer does?

It didn’t bother me, I embraced it more than anything else because around that time just after THE ID, DALEK I LOVE YOU were coming up on the scene and I did a few sessions with them. It was clear that the beatbox started being a major part of what was going on musically with drummers in the North where I was anyway. I didn’t batter an eyelid, I thought it was natural progression as to where we were going to be going.

I just fell into that path really and it set me off in a different direction. If I hadn’t taken that path, with the electronics and the drum machines, and being a real drummer’s drummer lover, I would have gone in a completely different direction with the way I play. Now, I’m pretty happy with what I do, I’ve got my own style. The electronic side has laid down the foundations of what I actually became as a drummer.

In the early days, it was Andy and Paul who did the rhythm programming. When did you first actually get to do drum machine programming on an OMD recording?

I didn’t do a lot of programming of drum machines really. First time anything was written in the drum department was in THE ID so the first time ‘Electricity’ was ever played to my knowledge, it was me playing it on a kit when we came in as a seven piece. And the same for some of the songs that went onto the first album.

For ‘Organisation’ on ‘Enola Gay’, it was me playing on top of Andy’s beatbox and then we moved onto ‘Architecture and Morality’, the guys had The Gramophone Suite studio. I was listening to BRIAN ENO so the likes of ‘Maid Of Orleans’ came about because of a track that Phil Collins played on in this little skippy 6/8 beat, it’s really light!

Yes, Back In Judy’s Jungle from ‘Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)’? The song’s got also that almost pentatonic instrumental line that has a similar feel to ‘Maid Of Orleans’… it’s from a Korean folk song!

There you go! That’s where my original idea for it came from. With ‘She’s Leaving’, we got hold of some Pearl syndrums and we were all messing around in the control room with little white noises and stuff like that. The majority of the drum programming would always be done by Andy or Paul. My part would be to lay down on that. I did some Linn Drum programming on ‘Junk Culture’ but it was mostly playing on top of the Fairlight and the Linn Drum.

You’re credited with ‘bass synthesizer’ on ‘Architecture & Morality’, can you remember what you did?

Really? I think I did and I think it was… God, there you go! *laughs*

I think it was something incredibly simple, a bass drone or something like that! It was on a Roland SH2 and I wouldn’t have a clue what track it was! I know it’s a really small part and I said something like “C’mon, I want to play keyboards on this”, and Andy or Paul would’ve said “PRESS THAT!” and so I did! It wouldn’t have been a bass part, it would have been the simplest thing!

I heard a story about you learning to play bass, did you ever get into any other instruments?

No, not really. It’s taken me until the explosion in MIDI and computer technology for me to get involved with programming. If anything now, I know my way around a keyboard and pretty hot on Pro-Tools and Logic and all that. But I just stuck with doing what I did with OMD in the drum department.

Did you ever have any dilemmas in the studio as to when the drums should be live or programmed? Were there any intense discussions that you can remember?

No, not at all. It would be what Andy, Paul or the producer wanted but I would throw ideas into the pot. At the time, the drum machines could only do what drum machines were doing, they were squared off and put into a corner, you knew what you’re going to get out of it, a TR-909 or a CR-78 or whatever. It was putting the other colours on top of that if we needed a particular beat or whatever. I had a whole array of different bass and snare drums, and different toms and percussion stuff so we had a host of different colours to choose from in the studio. So I always saw the kit and what I was putting on top as more colouring than being a traditional drummer.

Whenever we did drum sessions, generally everything would be put down individually. So the kick drum would be put down by itself, the snare drum would be put down by itself etc. Sonically, it was going to sound better because you’ve not got any spill going on. And easy really… it was a lot easier for me to do at the time because it took us hours to get hooked up in the studio anyway with SMPTE time code and CV clocks to have everything running. I don’t even remember playing to a click-track because they didn’t really exist in those days. I was playing along to the actual beatbox. It was technically easier to actually put down everything individually on top.

It gave OMD a really unique, clean sound…

It is unique because when you put drums down individually, it stops you playing what a drummer would play…you can’t naturally play a part, come off, do a snare drum fill, the hi-hat stops, the kick drum plays something natural and then you do a fill onto a cymbal. That doesn’t happen because you are just concentrating on one foot or one hand. And you play something completely different. Plus the fact the OMD stuff was so rigid, there’s no give away, there’s no groove tempo where things are a little bit behind the beat or a bit in front of the beat to give a feel…that didn’t exist. It was completely ‘on-the-beat’! You can’t do a fill that is ’off-the-beat’ because you will really notice it’s out of time. That inherently changes the sound and changed the nature of how a drummer would play on top of it.

What did you think of first commercially available electronic drum kits like the Simmons SDSV which was co-designed by Richard James Burgess? Did you use that on the ‘Dazzle Ships’ tour?

Yes I did. But again, I stuck to a real kick, snare and hat, and used Simmons toms. I thought it was a great, fantastic piece of kit when it came out because we’d failed to make our own.

This was just a whole new world to me, so I really embraced that. I thought it was a bit limiting, I was expecting a little bit more out of it, but it was great and really the start of the electronic drum kit thing. I loved the SDSV and the SDSVII which had an EPROM blower which could blew my own sounds onto the chips.

Any physical side effects from hitting that riot shield material on the Simmons?

It was difficult to play because you’d really feel a shock in your arm when you were hitting it and you’d feel that after the show.

What’s your live set-up now? What would you say are the advantages of an electronic kit live as opposed to an acoustic one?

I’m now using a Roland TD-20 for the electronic toms and the cymbals. As I said, I still have the same set-up because with a real bass drum and real snare drum, the physics of what happens when you hit a drum is you are physically moving air into a microphone diaphragm down wires into a PA speaker. That for me is the only way I’d want to play because I can throw all my weight into it. The same with the snare drum and the hi-hat, I can physically really hit them as hard as I can. The drums I use are really big drums. The bigger and longer the drum, the more air it’s going to move.

But the rest of the stuff: the toms, the cymbals and the white noise things; again, clarity of sound from my point of view is really important. I wouldn’t want to use acoustic toms because you need microphones and then I’ve got more spill, I’ve got the spill of the snare drums going down the tom microphones on stage. If I’m using real cymbals, I’ve got overhead mics and we have more spill. So the definition of the kit just starts to deteriorate all the time. But if I have a real kick, snare and hat and everything else is electronic, you can really turn the kick and snare drum really loud and you’ve not got the spill of everything else coming through there. With regard to the toms, I’m not a big tom player so they just have to capture what song I’m playing.

‘Crush’ and ‘The Pacific Age’ were probably the two albums where you had the greatest physical part in. What was your favourite period of OMD musically?

My favourite period of OMD musically was ‘Architecture & Morality’ because of my involvement and how creative I was being at the time, using the kit differently. I love to play regular pub drummer type of stuff but I’d rather try different things, sounds and colours and see what sound I can get on a kit. I think you can really notice on an album… if I try tuning a snare drum, putting it in a different room, put different mics in, then no-one has heard that sound before. And in a very subtle way on an album, that works rather than going to a generic CD and getting another 808 snare on it.

What are your favourite songs to play live, past or present?

We’re doing ‘Bunker Soldiers’ and I love it! It’s just so great to play, it’s so simple and I enjoy playing that. So on this tour, my favourite to play is ‘Bunker Soldiers’, me and Martin have got a great groove going on, it’s really sweet! ‘Maid Of Orleans’ is good to play but even now, when I hear that click track, I concentrate so hard for that song because it’s so bloody simple and it’s so easy just to go and make a mess of it!

What was the motivation to play a song like ‘Bunker Soldiers’ from the first album on this tour? How did the idea come about?

When we first went to rehearsals in 2007, we didn’t really know what we were going to be playing although we knew we were going to be doing the hits thing and all the rest of it.

But Martin and I were saying “the reason why we’re here is because the first three albums were f***ing great, so why don’t we revisit some of the old stuff?” I remember saying in the rehearsal room to Andy “listen, what about ‘Bunker Soldiers’?” and him saying to me “No, we don’t want to do that!” – so three years on, Andy comes up to us and goes “Paul and I are thinking of doing ‘Bunker Soldiers’” *laughs*

The motivation was just to have fun, it wasn’t really “let’s go and hit up the back catalogue”. It wasn’t a particularly heavy song to programme. Because bearing in mind when we go into these rehearsals, the keyboard programming’s got to be done, the old tapes have got to be revisited for Pro-Tools and it’s a big technical thing to get everything right for it, it takes a long time.

Whereas ‘Bunker Soldiers’, it’s basically Andy – bass guitar; Martin – bass synth, Paul – melody, me – kick, snare and white noise; so it’s a very easy thing for us to do. In rehearsals, we literally just went through it in one go and Martin knew what the bass was, his old settings and stuff like that; Paul redid the high end sequence part that we put onto Pro-Tools and that was it. It was a very simple song to put together but I really love it.

You once remarked how you loathed ‘Sailing On The Seven Seas’… so how do you psych yourself up to get through a song that you’re not that into?

I did, yeah! It’s strange because there’s a lot of songs I could say that about. I’m not too big on playing the second part of OMD, the 90s songs. But they’re good songs, ‘Sailing On The Seven Seas’ is a great thing to play as a drummer.

When I started to play it, it became something else to me. I really enjoyed playing it so I don’t really see the song as how I did in those days because now, I’m so involved in performing it. I look at the song slightly differently. Particularly live to the record, they’re always different in the drum world with OMD.

How do you approach some of the new material from ‘History Of Modern’ that you’re playing live on this tour?

It was the same with ‘Sister Marie Says’. I listened to it on the album and thought it was pretty standard stuff and the same with ‘New Babies:New Toys’. But you take the album drums away and you put me there to do it… although Andy will always keep on at me with “WHY DON’T YOU PLAY THE KICK DRUM LIKE THE ALBUM, WHY DON’T YOU etc etc?”… he’s on at me all the time! And he quietens down and I’ll go back to the way I play it *laughs*

I changed the parts on some of them so ‘Sister Marie Says’ now, it chugs and trashes along but it’s just different for me now that because I’m playing it… not so much that I’m part of it but I think I make it work more musically. I think that’s probably something I became with OMD is a musical drummer, a very simple drummer but a very musical drummer. I listen to what the melody is, I won’t say a statement on the kit until it needs to say something before the chorus that’s coming. I won’t over play, I’ll under play. I compliment it.

This album, I didn’t have too much to do with the drums or programming on it. But now we’ve moved into taking it out on the road live, I play what is completely natural for me which is musical. And after Andy stops giving me ear ache about it, he just sits back and goes “that sounds really good doesn’t it?” and I’m thinking “yes, it sounds really good… but I’m playing something really different!” *laughs*

Did it take you long to learn ‘If You Want It’?

No, it didn’t take me long to learn any of them to tell you the truth! *laughs*

I did pfaff around with the bass drum of ‘If You Want It’ actually, it’s a slightly different part that I’m playing. It’s quite a nice thing to play. I would have like to have been more involved in the album, I think I could have made things a little bit more musical in the drum department.

Was there any reason why you weren’t really involved in the album?

Things have moved so quickly since we got back together in 2007, we all wanted to do it and loved it. Commercially it’s completely different to how it was when we were on Virgin. And deadlines and the way the album was put together, it’s just been a natural progression. I don’t think there’s any bad reason why I wasn’t involved. A lot of the songs were written before we got back together in 2007 so those parts were already down, the drum parts were already programmed on Pro-Tools and stuff like that. And you know for me, a drum part isn’t just like somebody going “there’s a snare drum on a ‘2’ and a ‘4’, there’s a kick drum on a ‘1’ and a ‘3’, 16 notes with a hi-hat etc etc”. I don’t go with that sort of idea. But the momentum just moved on so quickly.

What about what you’re doing next? Will there be more releases on your label Finmusic?

Finmusic has become more of a digital aggregator in the sense that I’m putting stuff on-line for whoever really. Running it as a label was difficult because it was unfair to artists as I didn’t have the marketing budget. If you’re going to be a record label, you’re going to need marketing budgets. But I’m a label in the sense that I’m registered, I’ve got ISRC, bar codes and accounts with all the digital dealers etc.

It’s also a bit of a headache dealing with artists… I’m an artist myself so I know what it’s like to be in that seat but just to keep them happy and spend enough money and try to take them to where they are! Anyone that’s ever come to me, I’ve always tried to help and put them in the right direction.

And I’ve done that with many people who you wouldn’t really know but they’ve had successful careers writing music for Simon Cowell programmes or they’ve been on the road here and there. So Finmusic exists so that if someone wants to get their music on iTunes, they can come to me. It’s not going to cost them any money and I’ll sort it out but we’ll take a commission for doing it. So I have a few hundred tracks out there now.

After I was ill with my heart attack and got back together with the band, ever since advances in technology with programmes on the Mac and stuff like that, I’ve wanted to do some music myself. So the last 18 months, I’ve been coming up with some crazy ambient things and I’ve got half a dozen pieces that I’d really like to get out on my own merit, but not on the back of OMD or the Mal Holmes name either.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to MAL HOMES

OMD’s ‘History Of Modern’ tour includes:

UK – special guests VILLA NAH
Nottingham Royal Centre (Nov 1), Glasgow Concert Hall (Nov 2), Liverpool Arena (Nov 4), Ipswich Regent (Nov 5), London Hammersmith Apollo (Nov 7), Birmingham Symphony Hall (Nov 8)

Europe – special guests MIRRORS
Cologne E-Werk (Nov 11), Hannover Capitol (Nov. 12), Leipzig Haus Auensee (Nov 13), Stuttgart Theaterhaus (Nov 15), Munich Tonhalle (Nov 16), Berlin Tempodrom (Nov 18), Hamburg Docks (Nov 19), Luxembourg Den Atelier (Nov 21), Brussels Ancienne Belgique (Nov 22), Amsterdam Paradiso (Nov 23), Le Casino De Paris (Nov 25)

http://www.omd.uk.com

https://www.facebook.com/omdofficial/

https://www.malholmes.com/

Text and Inteview by Chi Ming Lai
31st October 2010

Tag: OMD (Page 22 of 23)

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