1983’s ‘Rhythm Of Life’ was Edinburgh born singer / songwriter Paul Haig’s one and only attempt to crack the pop mainstream.
The former front man of the gloriously hip JOSEF K had tired of suffering for his art and not selling any records. Along with ORANGE JUICE and AZTEC CAMERA, JOSEF K were part of the Postcard Records roster than had been hailed ‘The Sound Of Young Scotland’. When their label mates signed to Polydor and Warners respectively, JOSEF K imploded with just one album ‘The Only Fun In Town’ to their name.
But wanting to work outside of the restrictive band format, Haig had aspirations to sign to a major label and make a record that could get radio play. Following the lead of acts such as HEAVEN 17 and ABC, Haig pursued a more soulful club friendly direction and recorded a beat box assisted version of SLY & THE FAMILY STONE’s ‘Running Away’ which was released by Belgian label Les Disques Du Crépuscule to great acclaim. One of Haig’s champions was NME’s Paul Morley who declared him “the enigmatic fourth man” in a New Pop quartet that also included Billy Mackenzie, Jim Kerr and Martin Fry.
The media hype led to the single reaching the top of the Independent Charts and a lucrative licensing deal for Paul Haig and Crépuscule with Island Records. With a large injection of cash, Haig could now make the modern pop record he desired and ultimately squash the cockroach that he felt JOSEF K had become. Venturing over to Sigma Sound in New York, he set to work with the producer of the moment Alex Sadkin to fashion a collection of sophisticated electronic dance tracks with nods to funk and disco.
However, this was every much the Antithesis to the frantic guitar driven angst that the raincoat wearing JOSEF K fans were used to. The resultant album was named ‘Rhythm Of Life’ after the conceptual collective that Haig had initially sought to work under post-JOSEF K but that ultimately mutated into a solo career.
The opening track and lead single was ‘Heaven Sent’, a superb reimagination of SIMPLE MINDS’ ‘I Travel’ for the New York dancefloor; it had also originally been one of the ever last JOSEF K tracks. With Haig sounding not unlike a growly Jim Kerr crossed with Lou Reed and Iggy Pop, ‘Heaven Sent’ reached the lower reaches of the UK chart and fuelled some cautious optimism for the next single ‘Never Give Up (Party Party)’. This was a superbly catchy number with a great chorus and glorious middle eight.
Highly percussive and lifted by some sub-ASSOCIATES rhythm guitar and big layered synth riffs, ‘Never Give Up (Party Party)’ showed great promise. But despite being visually bolstered by Haig’s smooth Italian suited look and a lavish pop video, it failed to be the hit Island desired. This soured relations with the label; “They wanted a pop image to sell… and they didn’t get one” said Haig later.
Around this time, Alex Sadkin’s productions for THOMPSON TWINS and DURAN DURAN were becoming massive hits and Haig’s work drew unfair comparisons along with accusations of a sell-out. Sadkin had worked with GRACE JONES and TALKING HEADS so Haig’s motives had been artistically driven and whatever, ‘Never Give Up (Party Party)’ was certainly a more superior song to either ‘Love On Your Side’ or ‘Union Of The Snake’.
However, while Haig wrote the songs, played guitar and programmed the drums, he became very much a puppet on his own album as assorted musicians including PARLIAMENT / FUNKADELIC’s Bernie Worrell (fresh from his work with TALKING HEADS on ‘Girlfriend Is Better’) and THOMPSON TWINS’ Tom Bailey were brought in to add the synthesized gloss. A third single ‘Justice’ was lifted from ‘Rhythm Of Life’; while less urgent and dancefloor based than its two predecessors, ‘Justice’ was full of tense drama and contained a fabulously freeform synth solo. But it failed to ignite further interest in the album.
Of the other tracks on ‘Rhythm Of Life’, the polyrhythmic ‘Blue For You’ and the oriental flavoured ‘Adoration’ (another track from the JOSEF K days) maintained the standard of the three singles while ‘Stolen Love’ pointed towards NEW ORDER’s Italo disco interests. However, as with any debut album, there was filler. But the excellent closer ‘Work Together’ pushed Sadkin’s experiences of working on TALKING HEADS’ ‘Speaking In Tongues’ to the fore with its pumping electro funk and soulful backing singers complimenting the fulsome groove.
Photo by Sheila Rock
The album did not sell well on its UK and European release and ironically for an album that was largely aimed at the American club market, Island Records then opted not to issue ‘Rhythm Of Life’ in the US. A 1984 mini-album ‘New York Remix’ of extended dance versions by Big Apple DJ Bruce Forest was belatedly made available and signified some of the original Trans-Atlantic intent. But in the end, Haig’s work got sadly got lost.
Undeterred by his experiences in New York, Haig opted for a harder but still electronic sound augmented by more guitars for his next album ‘The Warp Of Pure Fun’. It was headed by his greatest moment ‘The Only Truth’ which was co-produced by NEW ORDER’s Bernard Sumner. But when it came out as a single in 1984 and failed to be a hit, it led to Island severing their links with Haig and Crépuscule. The album was finally released independently in 1985 by Crépuscule.
Haig eventually signed to Virgin offshoot Circa and in 1989, he released the album ‘Chain’ which yielded ‘Something Good’, a minor hit in Germany. But after that, Haig maintained a lower profile while taking an interest in the dance scene.
He later worked with the late Billy Mackenzie of ASSOCIATES on what was to become the ‘Memory Palace’ posthumous album as well as presenting his acclaimed ‘Cinematique’ series of instrumental works. Still active, more recently in 2013, Haig released a new experimental electronic album ‘Kube’.
While patchy in places and very much of its time, ‘Rhythm Of Life’is an enjoyable listen that features some extremely high quality songs. A recent review on Amazon sums things up best: “If you’re looking to find some synthpop you may have missed back in the day this is a good place to start…”
‘Rhythm Of Life’ featuring the ‘New York Remix’ EP as a bonus is re-released as a remastered CD by Les Disques Du Crépuscule on 23rd June 2014
When ASSOCIATES appeared on ‘Top Of The Pops’ in March 1982 with ‘Party Fears Two’, it was the first time that many had experienced the kaleidoscopic vocal of Billy Mackenzie.
With the passion of an otherworldly Orbison crossed with David Bowie and Russell Mael, Mackenzie’s outlandish operatics with a four-and-a-half octave range made him a stand out character during the post-punk era, especially with his love of whippets.
With influences like early ROXY MUSIC, SPARKS, Philadelphia soul and jazz, he sounded like Mario Lanza on amphetamines with a modern majestic take on Weimar cabaret. But as his ASSOCIATES founding partner Alan Rankine experienced, Mackenzie’s personality quirks could make it difficult for him to channel his obvious talent.
With his notorious eccentricity and mercurial temperament, this inevitably led to the pair parting ways in late 1982 after just three albums. It could be argued that if Mackenzie had been prepared to play the pop game, could ASSOCIATES have been as big as A-HA?
Martyn Ware, who worked with Mackenzie on both BEF and post-Rankine ASSOCIATES recordings, said in 2011: “Everybody knows he was bonkers and had a particular take on things but musically, we fitted together very well. He lacked a little in terms of understanding the production process and how sound fitted together but what he lacked in that respect, he made up for in his arrangement ideas”.
Photo by Sheila Rock
Always a troubled soul, Mackenzie sadly took his own life in 1997 less than a year after the death of his mother. But his legacy has lived on as a key musical influence on Nordic acts such as BJÖRK and SIN COS TAN while songs such as ‘Club Country’ and ‘Party Fears Two’ have remained in the public consciousness, courtesy of covers by ONETWO and HEAVEN 17 respectively. Also, an upcoming single ‘Untouchable’ by Glenn Gregory and Stephen Emmer has been conceived as a tribute to him.
Scattered across more than ten full length albums, various collaborations and one-off recordings, what songs deserve to be on an imaginary compilation as an introduction to Mackenzie’s work?
Here are 18 songs which ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK have chosen to gather the sporadic genius of Billy Mackenzie. They are in the majority his most accessible recordings and also include a significant number of covers; but there are no apologies for that. The aim is to prompt further investigation into his vast catalogue by being simultaneously populist and elitist 😉
ASSOCIATES White Car In Germany (1981)
ASSOCIATES debuted with a fairly guitar dominated album ‘The Affectionate Punch’ but signs of a fascination towards the Neu! musik aus Deutschland came with the funereal pulse of ‘White Car In Germany’. The swirling electronics, cold atmosphere and treated percussion were intended to sound as un-American as possible. The lyric “Aberdeen’s an old place – Düsseldorf’s a cold place – Cold as spies can be” accurately captured post-war tensions under the spectre of the bomb.
With its iconic honky tonk piano line and sophisticated arrangement, ‘Party Fears Two’ was a magnificent song about dealing with the perils of schizophrenia, made all the more resonant by Mackenzie’s operatic prowess . It also kickstarted a brief period when ASSOCIATES subverted the UK charts with an avant pop approach that fitted in with the Synth Britannia template of the times. Emotive to the Nth degree, the original single version is still the best and total perfection.
Available on the ASSOCIATES album ‘Singles’ via WEA Records
BEF The Secret Life Of Arabia (1982)
Mackenzie’s version of ‘The Secret Life Of Arabia’ with BEF was even more eccentric and histrionic than Bowie’s original from ‘Heroes’. Featuring Britfunk exponents Jo Dworniak of I LEVEL and Neville ‘Breeze’ McKreith of LIGHT OF THE WORLD syncopating to Martyn Ware’s thunderous Linn Drum program and Roland VP-330 textures, it was one of two Mackenzie voiced tracks that formed ‘Music Of Quality & Distinction Vol1’ opus.
Available on the BEF album ‘1981-2011’ via Virgin Records
BEF It’s Over (1982)
This eccentric cover of the Roy Orbision evergreen ‘It’s Over’ closed ‘Music Of Quality & Distinction Vol1’ and featured among its guitarists Hank Marvin and John Foxx whose studio The Garden was the venue for the recording. Operatic extremes with a pop heart, Mackenzie was on top form as Martyn Ware’s beloved Linn Drum led an orchestral arrangement by John Barker that gave him plenty of room to indulge in his big theatrics without overplaying the emotion and despair.
Available on the BEF album ‘1981-2011’ via Virgin Records
ASSOCIATES Club Country (1982)
ASSOCIATES felt an affinity with the New Romantic movement but following a night out in The Blitz Club, Mackenzie and Rankine noted their perceptions of the scene’s vacuous nature via a musical outlet. ‘Club Country’ threw in vicious synthesizer lines, manic rhythm guitar and crashing treated drums. Mike Hedges’ layered production was key to the song’s impact. Kind of reflecting CHIC’s experiences at Studio 54, ‘Club Country’ was Synth Britannia’s very own ‘Le Freak’.
Available on the ASSOCIATES album ‘Singles’ via WEA
ASSOCIATES Gloomy Sunday (1982)
From ASSOCIATES’ debut single ‘Boys Keep Swinging’ onwards, Mackenzie was very much into reinterpretation. Poignantly, ‘Gloomy Sunday’ was a suicide song composed by Hungarian pianist Rezső Seress in 1933. With English lyrics by Sam M. Lewis, it was made famous by Billie Holiday in 1941. Updated with synthesized seasoning and a hypnotic bass backbone from Michael Dempsey, its genius lay in retaining the original’s impending doom.
Described as a “quasi-Neil Sedaka song”, ’18 Carat Love Affair’ was a fine example of ASSOCIATES’ supreme avant pop. Martha Ladly’s girlie shrill went hand-in-hand with the incessant synth riff in this tale about a gay affair that Mackenzie was trying to hide. But Rankine was uncomfortable with its overt poppiness, so it was instrumentalised as ‘nothinginsomethingparticular’ to end the ‘Sulk’ album. It ended up on the US version of ‘Sulk’ with a revised tracklisting.
Please note, the rare 1988 CD of ‘Sulk’ based on the US Edition is the only way that the original single version can be obtained digitally as the version on the ‘Popera’ collection, the remastered V2 edition of ‘Sulk’ and the later ‘Singles’ compilation is an inferior mix with half the synths and backing vocals missing!
Available on the ASSOCIATES album ‘Sulk (US Edition)’ via WEA Records
ASSOCIATES Those First Impressions (1984)
Continuing where BEF had left off but with more obvious use of synths, Martyn Ware produced this single for Mackenzie’s solo return as ASSOCIATES. It had the classic ASSOCIATES sound despite the absence of Alan Rankine who had left in late 1982 following Mackenzie’s refusal to tour the ‘Sulk’ album. But although it was a good song, some of the magic was missing. It could have been why ‘Those First Impressions’ narrowly failed to crack the UK Top40.
Originally a surreal psychedelic number by SIMON DUPREE & THE BIG SOUND, this was first recorded by ASSOCIATES in 1981 under the pseudonym of 39 LYON STREET with Christine Beverage on lead vocals. Mackenzie recorded a new version with himself on lead vocals in a more frantic arrangement for a BBC Radio 1 session in 1984 as part of a getting back on the horse process for ‘Perhaps’. These recordings captured an interesting interregnum in Mackenzie’s career.
Available on the ASSOCIATES album ‘The Radio One Sessions Vol. 2 1984 – 1985’ via Strange Fruit Records; 39 LYON STREET version available on the ASSOCIATES album ‘Singles’ via WEA
ASSOCIATES Waiting For The Love Boat (1984)
Mackenzie loved THE HUMAN LEAGUE so as well as working with Martyn Ware, he roped in ‘Dare’ producer Martin Rushent for several tracks on ‘Perhaps’. ‘Waiting For The Loveboat’ was the last song Mackenzie and Rankine actually wrote in their first phase together but it was solely credited to Mackenzie as part of their eventual divorce deal when they split in late 1982. ‘Waiting For The Love Boat’, though more glossy in sound, could have easily come off ‘Sulk’.
Available on the ASSOCIATES album ‘Singles’ via WEA
ASSOCIATES Breakfast (1985)
‘Perhaps’ was a comparative disappointment as an ASSOCIATES album after the wondrousness of ‘Sulk’, with many of the tracks suffering from being too long and too smooth. But one song which stood out was the epic string laden drama of ‘Breakfast’ produced by Martin Rushent. It is possibly Mackenzie’s greatest single moment, the melancholic piano motif setting the scene for an entire film noir in five minutes with its widescreen dramatics and mournful tension.
YELLO featuring BILLY MACKENZIE The Rhythm Divine – Version Two (1987)
Written in collaboration with YELLO, this immense brooding ballad became a European hit for the Swiss duo featuring the vocals of Dame Shirley Bassey. ‘The Rhythm Divine’ had been written as part of an ambitious project about Marilyn Monroe under the working title of ‘Norma Jean’. Mackenzie’s own vocalled version was released as a 12” single in its own right, while it was also due to be included on ‘The Glamour Chase’ album which WEA then refused to release for being uncommercial.
If there was a computer programme to produce a composite ASSOCIATES hit single, then it probably would have come with up ‘Fire To Ice’. With Mackenzie now free from all the hassles at WEA and finding a new home in Circa Records, ‘Fire To Ice’ acquitted itself well as a potential hit single following ‘The Glamour Chase’ debacle. But despite the fresh approach to a classic sound, ‘Fire To Ice’ failed to capture mass sales recognition needed to re-establish Mackenzie to a wider audience.
Available on the ASSOCIATES album ‘Wild & Lonely’ via Circa Records
YELLO Capri Calling (1991)
A smooth, sunset romance in collaboration with old friends YELLO, the title said it all. ‘Capri Calling’ was a most beautiful set piece that captured a gentle Mediterranean spirit. From YELLO’s ‘Baby’ album, a fair number of Mackenzie best songs post-Rankine were with Boris Blank and Dieter Meier. So it was a shame he never did a full album with the duo. The soaring ‘Baby’ title track which Mackenzie also did with YELLO later featured on his first solo long player ‘Outernational’.
Available on the YELLO album ‘Baby’ via Mercury Records
APOLLO 440 Pain In Any Language (1997)
Widely known to be the last song Mackenzie recorded, ‘Pain In Any Language’ was a sombre collaboration with APOLLO 440 which sounded fittingly like a lost ASSOCIATES track. This was an air of ethereal Cold War chic with synthetic cimbalom and windy sweeps for that epic Eastern European feel that Marc Almond often liked to strive for. Fittingly, APOLLO 440 played at the 2007 tribute gig at London’s Shepherds Bush Empire alongside BEF and ONETWO.
Posthumously released, this midtempo dance number was from a joint album Mackenzie had been working on with Paul Haig, another underrated Scottish talent. Lyrics such as “calling all nations, station to station” harked back to Mackenzie’s love of Bowie while his voice still had relevance in a modern club orientated world. Also from these sessions was a recording of EURYTHMICS’ ‘Here Comes The Rain Again’ which surfaced on the 2004 electro collection ‘Auchtermatic’.
Available on the HAIG / MACKENZIE album ‘Memory Palace’ via Rhythm Of Life
BILLY MACKENZIE Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth (2001)
Part of the ‘Wild Is The Wind’ covers EP issued by Rhythm Of Life, this heartfelt version of ‘Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth’ was close to equalling the fabulous SPARKS original. Stripped down to piano and strings with Mackenzie’s haunted falsetto at the centre, this was a fine reinterpretation. The posthumous ‘Transmission Impossible’ selection issued in 2004 ensured that more people could hear it.
BILLY MACKENZIE Boltimoore – Original JiiHoo Bootmix (2011)
The vocal from Mackenzie’s stark cover of Randy Newman’s ‘Baltimore’ from the ‘Wild Is The Wind’ EP was flown into a hypnotic bootleg dance track by ace Finnish producer Jori Hulkkonen. With deliberate incorrect spelling of our hero’s name to mask its illegal nature, this was a haunting ghostly return from the heavens to the dancefloor. Mackenzie would have loved it and had he been alive today, he would have almost certainly been working with Hulkkonen.
Available on the 12 inch vinyl release ‘Boltimoore’ b/w ’Ghouls’ via Kojak Giant Sounds
In a feature for NME, Paul Haig was labelled “the face and sound of 1982” by Paul Morley who also considered him the “enigmatic fourth man” in a quartet of New Pop saviours comprising Billy Mackenzie, Jim Kerr and Martin Fry.
Indeed Morley held Haig in such high regard that he instigated PROPAGANDA to cover ‘Sorry For Laughing’ which had been recorded by Haig’s former band JOSEF K. Now while Haig is generally only known by the post-punk cognoscenti, during the years between 1981-93 when he released music on the prestigious Belgian label Les Disques du Crépuscule, he produced some of the best electronic pop singles of the period.
And thanks to the intervention of former Crépuscule employee James Nice, not only has the label been resurrected (with synth girls MARNIE and MARSHEAUX being among the first releases), a compilation of Haig’s recordings with Crépuscule is now available and has naturally been titled ‘At Twilight’. The collection also includes his 1984 ‘Lost Album’.
PAUL HAIG had been the lead singer of JOSEF K, a guitar band with a frenetic pace who were to influence acts such as THE WEDDING PRESENT and FRANZ FERDINAND. Part of the Glasgow School on Postcard Records alongside ORANGE JUICE and AZTEC CAMERA, JOSEF K spilt after just one album ‘The Only Fun in Town’ in 1981. They were typical hipster favourites of their day; their stance of not wanting to be commercially successful and suffering for their art helped them gain a cult following.
But Haig had tired of these ideals and seeing his contemporaries ORANGE JUICE and AZTEC CAMERA sign to majors, he wanted to be part of the action and aspired to make pop records that could gain radio play. Inspired by acts such as NEW ORDER and HEAVEN 17, he began experimenting with electronica. In 1982, Haig signed to Les Disques du Crépuscule. He relocated to Brussels and released his first solo single, a self-produced cover of SLY & THE FAMILY STONE’s ‘Running Away’.
Although guitar driven, with its drum machine backbone and brassy synth solo, it was a sign of the more accessible direction Haig wanted to head in. These sessions were fruitful. From those, ‘Chance’ sounded like a mechanically propelled version of THE TEARDROP EXPLODES.
Meanwhile, a planned second self-produced single ‘Justice’ impressed enough that a distribution deal with Island Records was inked. With it came a sizeable advance to secure the services of a name producer. With ambitions to make a sophisticated album with an electronic dance sheen, the services of the late Alex Sadkin were secured and the release of ‘Justice’ was scrapped as the debut album ‘Rhythm Of Life’ was recorded at Sigma Sound in New York.
Sadkin’s productions for THOMPSON TWINS and DURAN DURAN from around the same period may have inadvertently thrown Haig into the commercial pop circus ring but prior to that, Sadkin had worked with Grace Jones and TALKING HEADS so the initial motives had been artistically driven. However, while Haig wrote the songs, he became very much a puppet on his own solo album as assorted sessioners including Bernie Worrell and even THOMPSON TWINS’ very own Tom Bailey added the funky synthesized overtones.
The first fruit of these labours was ‘Heaven Sent’ released in late 1982. It remains Haig’s only UK hit reaching 74 in late 1982 and had originally been written for JOSEF K. Vocally sounding like a growly Jim Kerr crossed with Lou Reed, its sweeping electro sound wasn’t unlike SIMPLE MINDS ‘I Travel’ reworked for The Danceteria. In fact, Kerr and Co’s ‘Sparkle In The Rain’ had been due to be produced by Alex Sadkin… who knows what could have happened had that became reality but whatever, ‘Heaven Sent’ was a fine introduction to Haig’s new instrumental template. The follow-up ‘Never Give Up (Party Party)’ was even better, highly percussive and boosted by some sub-ASSOCIATES rhythm guitar and big layered synth riffs fused to a catchy chorus and uplifting middle eight.
It showed great promise yet failed to dent the charts. It certainly deserved to, especially when compared with the less immediate ‘Union Of The Snake’ with which DURAN DURAN were vying for the No1 spot around the same time. Sadly, this is missing from ‘At Twilight’ but from the album, the enjoyable ‘Adoration’ makes an appearance.
A third single ‘Justice’ was lifted from ‘Rhythm Of Life’ and was supported with a club tour where Alan Rankine from ASSOCIATES joined his backing band along with ORANGE JUICE refugees David McClymont and Malcolm Ross. Less urgent and dancefloor based than its two predecessors, ‘Justice’ was full of drama nonetheless. The version on ‘At Twilight’ is the scrapped original version and although more basic than the Sadkin version, it still has a great keyboard solo.
Undeterred by his experiences in New York, Haig opted for a harder but still electronic sound augmented by more guitars for his next album. Alan Rankine was slotted in as producer but for what was to become the key track of Haig’s career, the production services of NEW ORDER’s Bernard Sumner were secured. With A CERTAIN RATIO’s Donald Johnson also joining them to record ‘The Only Truth’, the 12” version was seven and a half minutes of magnificent euphoric bliss with its blistering programmed drum box and meaty bass sequence augmented by funk laden slap. The final instrumental section of guitar and synth interplay was an outstanding 180 seconds all on its own!
Combining ‘Temptation’, ‘586’ and ‘Blue Monday’, ‘The Only Truth’ sounded like the best single NEW ORDER never recorded! It was yet another brilliantly catchy song from the pen of the Glaswegian. There were two further versions of ‘The Only Truth’ including a US Remix and the still strange sounding single edit.
Such has been the song’s impact, ‘At Twilight’ features all three… but this is totally unnecessary when ‘Never Give Up (Party Party)’ is missing from the collection and the original 12” remains the definitive version. However, ‘The Only Truth’ also failed to become a hit. Disappointed by the lack of chart action, Island Records took matters in their own hands and the album was denied a release. At a crossroads, Haig retained half of the recorded album while new material was added.
The second disc of ‘At Twilight’ features this Lost Album and while much of the material is familiar to Haig followers having been issued as B-sides, the tracklisting is an interesting listening experience. The ballad ‘One Lifetime Away’ has some wonderful widescreen Morricone-esque overtones.
Meanwhile ‘Big Blue World’ and the later ‘Heaven Help You Now’ with their sub-NEW ORDER sequenced vibes remain really good tracks. However, both suffer from comparison with ‘The Only Truth’. Among the bonus tracks on this disc, ‘The Executioner’, an at-the-time unreleased collaboration with CABARET VOLTAIRE is a wondrous gem while another track from the archives ’Change Of Heart’ is a great pulsating avant disco tune.
The reconfigured album ‘The Warp Of Pure Fun’ was finally issued in 1985 but by 1986, Haig had tired of label politics and signed to Virgin offshoot Circa for one last crack at pop stardom with the album ‘Chain’ in 1989. It yielded an excellent single ‘Something Good’ which was a minor hit in Germany.
With a follow-up beckoning, Haig took an interest in the dance scene that emerged following the onslaught of acid house. This seeded the recordings ‘I Believe In You’, ‘Flight X’ and ‘My Kind’ with dance producers such as THE CHIMES (featuring drummer James Locke from his 1984 live band), Mantronik and Lil Louis respectively. These authentic credible tracks of the period gained critical acclaim, but Circa stalled on releasing this fourth album. This led to Haig returning to Crépuscule to issue the resultant collection of songs as ‘Coincidence Vs Fate’ in 1993.
But after that, Haig maintained a lower profile, working with the late Billy Mackenzie on what became the ‘Memory Palace’ posthumous album and issuing his acclaimed ‘Cinematique’ series of instrumental works. Still singing today, more recently, he recorded adventurous covers of THE WALKER BROTHERS ‘The Electrician’ and JOY DIVISION’s ‘Atmosphere’ as well as issuing a new album ‘Kube’ last Autumn; but all these are another story…
While there are gaps, ‘At Twilight’ captures the synthpop prime of one of the UK’s forgotten talents. Its release deservedly puts PAUL HAIG and some of the best songs from the post-punk era back into the limelight. So Operation Twilight starts now…
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via BMG
via WEA Records
via Virgin Records
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via Circa Records
via Mercury Records
via Epic Records and the BILLY MACKENZIE album 
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which surfaced on the 2004 electro collection ‘Auchtermatic’.
via Rhythm Of Life
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