The queue outside to get a good spot to see Los Angeles band CANNONS play London’s Heaven stretched to almost the entire length of Villiers Street.
Formed in 2013, the trio comprising of Michelle Joy (vocals), Ryan Clapham (guitar) and Paul Davis (keyboards + bass) released their first EP ‘Up All Night’ in 2014. They have been on an upward trajectory since the release of their 2017 debut album ‘Night Drive’. Indeed, the Heaven gig was a consequence of an upgrade from Lafayette in Kings Cross due to public demand.
While CANNONS might have started off sounding a bit like NO DOUBT meeting STEELY DAN, subsequent albums ‘Shadows’ and ‘Fever Dream’ reinforced the more pop indiewave aesthetic like CHROMATICS but with a sunnier disposition. In support of their new long player ‘Heartbeat Highway’, CANNONS’ impressive recent run of sold out headlining shows have included a European sojourn. For these dates, support came from NINA & RADIO WOLF.
Known as “The Queen Of Synthwave”, this was NINA’s welcome return to the London stage after 5 years. Meanwhile for RADIO WOLF aka Oliver Blair, this was his first London appearance since 2018 when he was a de facto member of PARALLELS. However, the Canadian guitarist and producer could be seen as something of a London scene veteran having been in HOTEL MOTEL, a band which also featured Italians Do It Better artist Jorja Chalmers in its line-up.
When NINA & RADIO WOLF took to the stage to a packed venue, the first striking observation was the new raunchier thigh length booted presence of NINA. Alongside her leather jacketed partner, there was a sound to match as showcased from the start with ‘Tokyo Cowboy’. While guitar was a dominant component over the synthwave of her previous work, gritty pulsing electronics formed the backdrop to suit the more sinister mood exemplified by titles such as ‘Psychotic’ which was possessed by a guitar riff not far off DEPECHE MODE’s ‘I Feel You’.
NINA & RADIO WOLF gave space for their recently issued two singles ‘My Dark’ and ‘Bluesbreaker’, the former being a wide ranging accessible slice of darkwave while the latter pulled the surprise of harmonica. Open to other influences such as the frantic machine rhythms of early COCTEAU TWINS single ‘Peppermint Pig’ on ‘To See You’, NINA & RADIO WOLF have cultivated a distinct sound that proved to be a perfect warm up for the headline act.
Live, CANNONS are augmented by drummer Ben Hilzinger and while they are very a tight band that specialises in what they call “future boogie”, Michelle Joy was the visual focus and cheer leader for audience interaction. With a dreamy sexy voice that can be compared to Gwen Stefani, Susanna Hoffs and Ruth Radelet, she also has an engaging personality that enhances her appeal.
Opening with the ‘Heartbeat Highway’ title song, it was a pointer to the less synth layered sound of the new album compared with its predecessor ‘Fever Dream’; but from the latter, ‘Bad Dream’ displayed the synthier platitudes that helped CANNONS achieve that wider breakthrough. Back to the new record, ‘Loving You’ brought whistles and a groove while not a cover, ‘Talk Talk’ from ‘Shadows’ took the pace down as ‘Can You Feel My Heart’ entered into Hall & Oates blue eyed soul territory.
The pairing of ‘Hurricane’ and the glorious ‘Ruthless’, both from ‘Fever Dream’, was perfect with the latter coming with a massed beckoned “F*CK YOU” to round off the catchy choruses. Meanwhile, ‘Come Alive’ recalled another CHROMATICS influenced act R.MISSING in its enigmatic allure.
The optimistic electronic pop of ‘Crush’ returned the focus to ‘Heartbeat Highway’ but revisiting ‘Fever Dream’ again, ‘Purple Sun’ played with synth reggae before the main section of the set closed with ‘Fire for You’ which featured in a 2020 episode of the Netflix comedy-drama series ‘Never Have I Ever’ and boosted CANNONS’ international profile.
Following the encore of the breezy ‘Desire’ from ‘Heartbeat Highway’ and 2015 standalone single ‘Evening Star’, CANNONS left behind many smiling faces. Like with NATION OF LANGUAGE, there are signs of a similar trajectory as they too went from Lafayette to Heaven previously. With the enthusiastic reception at this show, there is no doubt that when CANNONS return to the UK, it will not just be at a bigger venue in London but part of a whole tour.
CANNONS new album ‘Heartbeat Highway’ is out now as a vinyl LP under exclusive license to Columbia Records
NINA and RADIO WOLF have teamed up to create two fiery back-to-back singles ‘My Dark’ and ’Bluesbreaker’.
The two first met while touring together on the US West Coast. Known as “The Queen Of Synthwave”, NINA was promoting her first solo album ‘Sleepwalking’ while RADIO WOLF, better known to his parents as Oliver Blair was performing as a member of Canadian synthpop band PARALLELS with whom he would later release a soundtrack of songs for the film ‘Proximity’ on Lakeshore Records.
Collaboration is at the heart of both NINA and RADIO WOLF; the former’s most recent releases were with Ricky Wilde and Kid Moxie while the latter’s portfolio includes work with Sarah Blackwood, Kelli Ali and a then-unknown Jorja Chalmers when they were members of the new wave trio HOTEL MOTEL.
Created, recorded, produced and mixed in a custom-built home studio in Berlin, ‘My Dark’ and ’Bluesbreaker’ both encapsulate a dark romantic spirit to make a fine follow-up to NINA’s previous two RADIO WOLF productions ‘Carnival Night’ and second version of ‘I’ll Wait’.
As well as the release of two new songs, NINA and RADIO WOLF will be busy in March as they open for CANNONS when the American indiewave band venture over to Europe for selected dates in Berlin, Cologne, Paris, Amsterdam and London. The Berlin-resident couple spoke to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about their recent comings and goings…
Both of you have been making music individually and in collaboration with others over the years, but was coming together to make music with each other just a natural process?
RADIO WOLF: We connected on tour. NINA and PARALLELS were performing in the US together (me as a de facto member of PARALLELS). I could tell right away that NINA had so much more to her than what she was already known for and I wanted to help her bring that forward. She has an incredible voice and beautiful way of writing dark yet romantic lyrics. She shared my desire to make music that is more conceptual and genre-fusing and we bonded very quickly. When we first started recording demos, things got exciting very fast and we pretty much wrote an album’s worth of songs in one month. We just fit.
NINA: When I heard RADIO WOLF’s ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Forever’, I knew there was something special about him. Nobody had impressed me with the fusion of Electronica and Rock guitar quite like that before. On tour, he actually remixed one of my songs: ‘Automatic Call’, which was never released by the label. Still, I was blown away when I first heard it and how he reinvented the song, especially with his treatment of my voice. It may become some kind of “bootleg” one day. I love how we sound together and the world we’ve created.
How does your creative dynamic operate and how might it differ from others you have worked with?
RADIO WOLF: Not all artists who collaborate, even those with huge mutual respect, want to step very far from their oeuvre. And that’s all right. It’s our mutual desire to experiment and break free from rigid musical genres that is the key to our harmony. Also we read one another in an intuitive way – there’s a natural rhythm in our creative movements. If I start the process with a song or instrumental, NINA runs with it and adds to it in ways I often wouldn’t imagine, which turns into a back-and-forth flow of creativity.
NINA: We’re both very instinctive and rarely over-think our process, often giving our best ideas right upfront. RADIO WOLF tends to leave my very first moment with the music uninterrupted—He doesn’t interfere at all. Unless he writes the song from the beginning, he’ll only inspire an idea or put a concept on the table for me to play with. Other times, I’ll come to him with an idea or song and he’ll work on developing it. We have a great understanding of one another. It’s almost psychic.
What influences do you have in common for this collaboration but also, what things did one like but perhaps the other really wasn’t so keen on? 😉
RADIO WOLF: The influences we share are quite diverse and not what some would expect, which is the most fun aspect of us coming together. It’s how we mix it up and make it all our own. Our influences range from David Lynch, Roy Orbison, and Jimi Hendrix to TANGERINE DREAM, DEPECHE MODE and GOLDFRAPP… to name only a few! There’s also the influence and ethos of the jukebox single – that ‘jukebox spirit dimension’ as I call it. Because the consensual rocketing off from our usual orbit into more adventurous territory was a fiery entry point for NINA and me, we worked hard to create the harmony needed to make the music—we just kept fine tuning to create the perfect hybrid sound of our imaginings. There was little we disagreed on once we got into this zone.
NINA: We have the same taste, especially in our mutual love for electronic music and rock ‘n’ roll. I was so excited when Oliver started referencing his favourite artists because they were all so different. I hadn’t met anyone who was influenced by such a wide range of music before. He’s just like me! We really enjoy experimenting with electronic technology and strange modular sounds as it gives us a lot of freedom; evoking our “cinematic minds”. However, it’s our love for the raw feeling that rock ‘n’ roll inspires that really motivates the heart and soul of our music. I always feel like my true self when listening to Rock ‘n’ Roll and the Blues. That wild at heart feeling you get when the old records come on… Wow! I believe we’re channelling this feeling in the sonic world we’ve created. In terms of one of us not liking the other’s influences, well, when I feel the need for a blast of ABBA, Oliver cranks up THE PRODIGY as loud as he can. Cheeky!
Could ‘My Dark’ and ‘Bluesbreaker’ be seen as an old fashioned single with an A-side and B-side or is this more a double A-sided release?
RADIO WOLF: Double A-Side… That’s the idea!
NINA: Damn right! I think we should do this more often…
How did ‘My Dark’ develop?
RADIO WOLF: NINA’s vocals can be very sensual so with that in mind I created an instrumental that felt sexy and dark. It had a badass vibe right from the start. On hearing it, NINA said “let’s call this song ‘My Dark’” and I knew we’d be creating a kind of revelatory anti-love song about the dark side of relationships. Adding spacey guitars give it an even more uncanny feel.
NINA: Yes, we both felt like creating something quite heavy and I wanted to let out my inner femme-fatale. I was so inspired when I first heard RADIO WOLF’s instrumental, so I started singing along and writing lyrics to it very quickly. We completed the track together – RADIO WOLF’s really good at placing words and melodies where they shine the most. We both wanted to capture my intimate side as well by using spoken-word that builds to a passionate vocal climax. I think the song is special because it’s very moving as a dance track yet provocative like a sex scene in a movie.
‘Bluesbreaker’ has a rugged sound that might surprise some… and what? Harmonica? Is that virtual or real? 😉
RADIO WOLF: We love our rugged tones! It all started with the main guitar riff; I recorded it on New Year’s Eve after finishing my production of NINA’s ‘I’ll Wait’. It was a way for me to unwind after working so intensely and I was playing around with my crunchy overdriven Fender tones. NINA joined in with her raunchy vocals and we wrote the lyrics on the spot. We both love Bo Diddley, so we incorporated a variation of his classic beat near the end and then thought… “Hmmm… Harmonica?”. Admittedly I’m not the best harmonica player but I ‘bluesed it up’ in my own way with a real harmonica knowing I would customise it with SFX to give it that spacey, otherworldly twist.
NINA: RADIO WOLF originally wanted me to play the harmonica but I could tell that he was so passionate about it, I convinced him to record it. I wanted to focus on my vocal style and create a dreamy rock blend. I always wanted to make a Blues-inspired track. This one’s more of a hybrid and I like that! We’re mixing genres and trying things that are unexpected. This is what our team-up is all about. It’s conceptual Pop, Art Rock, Heavy beats, and Dreamscapes all rolled into one… Plus a hell of a lot more!
How was playing on stage for the first time together on the dates opening for DE/VISION last Autumn?
RADIO WOLF: It felt amazing! DE/VISION are such a cool band and the fans are the best! I’m so happy that they all loved the new songs and embraced NINA’s reimagined versions of beloved classics. It gives us motivation to update a few more…
NINA: I loved seeing the boys again. They are such veterans and inspire me every time. I’m not gonna lie, it was a really big jump into cold water for us, as everything was new and we hadn’t been on stage for 4 years. My nerves went up the roof on the first show, but by the third one, I felt very at home.
And then there was the Johnny Jewel gig…
RADIO WOLF: That one was special. It was very intimate; just NINA and I. We played only new and unreleased songs, which was pretty risky but it worked like a charm! Everyone had a great time and Johnny even jumped into the crowd and filmed us. Our performance resonated with a very dark yet romantic mood, which I think he liked. He’s a super sweet guy, incredibly talented and very supportive. Johnny’s performance was particularly inspiring as we share many of the same influences. We bonded later over Mario Bava films and Guy Bourdin photography.
NINA: We adore Johnny! What a talent. His performance was exciting and we’d love to play more shows with him and Megan à la DESIRE. Megan is a great artist as well and a really cool person.
What’s next for you together, is there an album on the way and more gigs?
RADIO WOLF: We’ve already booked a lot of shows and there’s more to come, so we’re really busy. The album is in the works and we keep adding songs. It’s very difficult to scale it all down—maybe there’ll be more than one so stay tuned!
NINA: We’re going to release more singles before we drop the album. We have so many songs! We really want to explore more with our sound. The album will certainly open things up and shed new light on both of us. We’re putting a lot of love and care into it and I can’t wait to share what we’ve created together with the world.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to NINA & RADIO WOLF
NINA & RADIO WOLF open for CANNONS on the following 2024 dates:
Berlin Franz Club (13 March), Cologne Club Volta (15 March), Paris Le Maroquinerie (16 March), Amsterdam Tolhuistuin (17 March), London Heaven (19 March)
The vehicle of Berlin-based Canadian musician Oliver Blair, RADIO WOLF’s new ‘Night Light’ EP aims to invoke a “cinema of the mind”.
Blair’s CV has included a stint in New Wave trio HOTEL MOTEL with Italians Do It better signing Jorja Chalmers and guesting as a guitarist with CLIENT under his KINDLE moniker. More recently, he collaborated with fellow Canadians PARALLELS to produce songs for the Sci-Fi movie ‘Proximity’, the directorial debut of Emmy Award-winning visual effects artist Eric Demeusy.
The debut RADIO WOLF EP ‘Rock N Roll Forever’ came out in 2017 and featured an illustrious cast of vocalists including Sarah Blackwood of DUBSTAR and former SNEAKERS PIMPS’ singer Kelli Ali as well as PARALLELS’ Holly Dodson and HOTEL MOTEL front woman Marika Gauci. But ‘Night Light’ is very different; for starters, it is entirely instrumental and constructed exclusively during the late hours of the night.
Blair says he felt an “inner glow” of inspiration while composing and producing these tracks. Having “scored to picture” on the award winning soundtrack to ‘Proximity’, the pieces of music on ‘Night Light’ are more contemplative “mind-pictures”.
Music for insomniacs, ‘Sleepless’ naturally plays on a grainy ambience, with sonic clusters and sweeps building inside an aural cocoon. But ‘The Lost Tape’ comes with bells in a dawn temple with atmospheric six string texturing in the vein of Robin Guthrie, reminiscent of the COCTEAU TWINS instrumentalist’s 2007 album ‘Before The Day Breaks’ with the late Harold Budd.
The haunting synth dominated beauty of ‘On-Screen Death’ recalls the floating passages Moby’s ‘Hotel Ambient’ while imagining a nocturnal journey in rainfall, the ‘Night Light’ title track takes in the influence of synthwave with sombre bass pulses, a minimal drum sample framework and a sparing FM friendly guitar intervention.
Primarily electronic and possessing the sort of musicality that can be expected from Blair, ‘Night Light’ provides an immersive snapshot into his synaesthesia and imagination to score without pictures.
The ‘Night Light’ EP is released digitally on the usual platforms
“It’s such a strange day, in such a lonely way” sang NEW ORDER on ‘Truth’ in 1981.
The coronavirus crisis of 2020 put the entire live music industry into limbo as concerts were postponed and tours rescheduled.
The situation was affecting everyone with several musicians like Bernard Sumner, Andy McCluskey, John Taylor and Sarah Nixey publicly stating that they had contracted the virus. Even when all pupils returned to schools in the Autumn, there was a ban on indoor singing in English classrooms. It was an indication that out of all professional fields, the arts was going suffer the most.
To make up for the absence of live shows, online streamed events become popular. Two of the best live online gigs were by Swedish veterans LUSTANS LAKEJER from the KB in Malmö and Sinomatic techno-rockers STOLEN with Lockdown Live From Chengdu. Not strictly a lockdown show but available for all to view on SVT was a magnificent live presentation of KITE at the Royal Opera House in Stockholm recorded in late 2019 combining synthesizers, orchestra and choir, proving again why Nicklas Stenemo and Christian Berg are the best electronic duo in Europe.
Concluding his ‘Songs: From the Lemon Tree’ series, Bon Harris of NITZER EBB presented a wonderful set of four electonic cover versions including songs made famous by Joan Armatrading, Connie Francis and Diana Ross. Meanwhile among independent musicians, Dubliner CIRCUIT3 led the way with an innovative multi-camera effected approach to his home studio presentation and Karin My performed al fresco in a forest near Gothenburg.
Taking the initiative, ERASURE did a delightful virtual album launch party for their new album ‘The Neon’ on Facebook with Vince Clarke in New York and Andy Bell in London, talking about everything from shopping to classic synthpop tunes.
Other streamed forms of entertainment came via podcasts and among the best was ‘The Album Years’ presented by Steven Wilson and Tim Bowness. Their knowledgeable and forthright views on selected years in music were both informative and amusing. It was interesting to note that at the end of the 1976 episode, the pair nominated ‘Oxygène’ by Jean-Michel Jarre as the most important album of that year while for 1979, it was ‘The Pleasure Principle’ by Gary Numan.
Many artists who had scheduled releases in 2020 went through with them, although in some cases, there were the inevitable delays to physical product. But a few notable acts couldn’t help but abuse the situation, notably a certain combo from Basildon.
There were already “quality control issues” with the lavish ‘MODE’ 18 CD boxed set, but there was uproar even among the most hardcore Devotees with the ‘Spirits In The Forest’ release. The cardboard packaging was reported to be flimsy and prone to dents, while there was continuity errors galore as Dave Gahan rather cluelessly and selfishly wore different coloured outfits over the two nights in Berlin that the live footage was filmed under the direction of Anton Corbijn.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, there was an Anton Corbijn official illustrated history of DEPECHE MODE entitled ‘DM AC’ in the form of a coffee table photo book published by Taschen which retailed at €750; even though it was signed by Messrs Gahan, Gore and Fletcher, the price tag was a mightily steep. The increasingly ironic words of “The grabbing hands grab all they can…” from ‘Everything Counts’ were not lost on people, who are people, after all!
But Andy Fletcher did provide the most amusing and spot-on quote of the year; during DEPECHE MODE’s acceptance speech into that dinosaur institution The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, when Dave Gahan remarked to his bandmates that “I dunno what the hell I would have been doing if I didn’t find music to be quite honest…”, the banana eating handclapper dryly retorted “YOU’D HAVE BEEN STILL STEALING CARS DAVE!”
There were lots of great albums released in 2020 and Berlin appeared to be at the creative centre of them.
There was ‘LP II’ from LINEA ASPERA who made a welcome return after eight years in hiatus and the playful debut by ULTRAFLEX, a collaborative offering from Berlin-based Nordic artists SPECIAL-K and FARAO which was “an ode to exercise, loaded with sex metaphors badly disguised as sports descriptions” .
The DDR born Jennifer Touch told her story with ‘Behind The Wall’ and resident New Yorker DISCOVERY ZONE was on ‘Remote Control’, while Lithuania’s top pop singer Alanas Chosnau made ‘Children of Nature’, his first album in English with Mark Reeder, who himself has lived in the former walled city since 1978; their collected experiences from both sides of the Iron Curtain made for a great record with the political statement of ‘Heavy Rainfall’ being one of the best songs of 2020.
Synth-builder and artist Finlay Shakespeare presented the superb angst ridden long player ‘Solemnities’ with its opener ‘Occupation’ tackling the social injustice of unemployment. A most frightening future was captured in musical form by New York-resident Zachery Allan Starkey who saw his home become a ‘Fear City’, while WRANGLER got themselves into ‘A Situation’.
SPARKS discussed ‘The Existential Threat’ and ‘One For The Ages’ while pleading ‘Please Don’t F*ck Up My World’ on their eclectic 25th album ‘A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip’, just as NIGHT CLUB reflected what many were thinking on ‘Die Die Lullaby’ with ‘Miss Negativity’ looking to ‘Die In The Disco’ while riding the ‘Misery Go Round’.
ASSEMBLAGE 23 chose to ‘Mourn’ with one of its highlights ‘Confession’ illustrating what DEPECHE MODE could still be capable of, if they could still be bothered.
But it was not all doom and gloom musically in 2020. With the title ‘Pop Gossip’, INTERNATIONAL TEACHERS OF POP did not need to do much explaining about the ethos of their second album and drum ‘n’ synth girl GEORGIA was happily ‘Seeking Thrills’.
Veterans returned and 34 years after their debut ‘Windows’, WHITE DOOR teamed up with the comparative youngster Johan Baeckström for ‘The Great Awakening’, while CODE made a surprise return with their second album ‘Ghost Ship’ after an absence 25 years.
‘The Secret Lives’ of German duo Zeus B Held and Mani Neumeier illustrated that septuagenarians just want to have fun. Along with Gina Kikoine, Zeus B Held was also awarded with Der Holger Czukay Preis für Popmusik der Stadt Köln in recognition of their pioneering work as GINA X PERFORMANCE whose ‘No GDM’ was a staple at The Blitz Club in Rusty Egan’s DJ sets.
Incidentally, Rusty Egan announced that Zaine Griff would be joining him with Numan cohorts Chris Payne and David Brooks in a live presentation of VISAGE material, although the announced dates were postponed, pending rescheduling for 2021.
Swiss trailblazers YELLO were on ‘Point’ and continuing their occasional creative collaboration with Chinese songstress Fifi Rong, while one time YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA collaborator Hideki Matsutake returned as LOGIC SYSTEM and released a new long player ‘Technasma’, his project’s first for 18 years.
It was four decades since John Foxx’s ‘Metamatic’ and Gary Numan’s ‘Telekon’, with the man born Gary Webb publishing ‘(R)evolution’, a new autobiography to supersede 1997’s ‘Praying To The Aliens’. Meanwhile, the former Dennis Leigh teamed up with former ULTRAVOX guitarist Robin Simon plus his regular Maths collaborators Benge and Hannah Peel for the blistering art rock statement of ‘Howl’ as well as finally issuing his book of short stories ‘The Quiet Man’.
2020 saw a lot of 40th anniversaries for a number of key albums including ‘Vienna’ by ULTRAVOX, ‘Travelogue’ by THE HUMAN LEAGUE and ‘Closer’ by JOY DIVISION.
Back in 1980, it was not unusual for bands to release two albums in a calendar year as OMD did with their self-titled debut and ‘Organisation’, or JAPAN did with ‘Quiet Life’ and ‘Gentlemen Take Polaroids’.
It appeared to be a tradition that BLANCMANGE were adopting as Neil Arthur delivered the acclaimed ‘Mindset’ and an enjoyable outtakes collection ‘Waiting Room (Volume 1)’.
PET SHOP BOYS and CERRONE proved they still liked to dance to disco because they don’t like rock, but the year’s biggest surprise came with THE SMASHING PUMPKINS whose single ‘Cyr’ crossed the templates of classic DEPECHE MODE with DURAN DURAN.
Interestingly, Gary Daly of CHINA CRISIS and Michael Rother of NEU! used sketches recorded many moons ago to inspire their 2020 solo creations, proving that if something is a good idea, it will still make sense years later. Veteran Tonmeister Gareth Jones released his debut solo album ‘ELECTROGENETIC’ having first come to prominence as the studio engineer on ‘Metamatic’ back in 1980, but Jah Wobble was as prolific as ever, issuing his ninth album in four years, as well as a run of download singles over lockdown.
ANI GLASS had her debut long player ‘Mirores’ shortlisted for Welsh Music Prize and OMD remixed her song ‘Ynys Araul’ along the way, while SARAH P. was ‘Plotting Revolutions’. NINA and a returning ANNIE vied to be the Queen Of Synthwave with their respective albums ‘Synthian’ and ‘Dark Hearts’, although Canadian synth songstress DANA JEAN PHOENIX presented her most complete and consistent body of work yet in ‘Megawave’, a joint album with POWERNERD.
RADIO WOLF & PARALLELS contributed to the soundtrack of the film ‘Proximity’ released on Lakeshore Records and from the same label, KID MOXIE made her first contribution to the movie world with the score to ‘Not To Be Unpleasant, But We Need To Have A Serious Talk’ that also featured a stark cover of ALPHAVILLE’s ‘Big In Japan’. Meanwhile gothwavers VANDAL MOON made their most electronic album yet in ‘Black Kiss’ and POLYCHROME got in on the kissing act too with their new single ‘Starts With A Kiss’.
It would be fair to say in recent times that the most interesting and best realised electronic pop has come from outside of the UK; the likes of TWICE A MAN explored the darker side of life, although TRAIN TO SPAIN used the dancefloor as their mode of expression, 808 DOT POP developed on the robopop of parent band METROLAND and ZIMBRU preferred disco art pop.
In Scandinavia, there was the welcome return of UNIFY SEPARATE (formally US) and HILTIPOP aka Magnus Johansson of ALISON who finally released some music in his own right; once he started, he didn’t stop with 9 releases and counting in 2020! APOPTYGMA BERZERK released ‘Nein Danke!’, their self-proclaimed return to “New Wave Synthpop” and out of that set-up sprang the very promising PISTON DAMP.
Within the PAGE camp, Eddie Bengtsson continued his Numan fixation on the ‘Under Mitt Skinn’ EP although his musical partner Marina Schiptjenko teamed up with LUSTANS LAKEJER bassist Julian Brandt to ride the Synth Riviera for a delightful second helping of their electro crooner concept cheekily titled ‘For Beautiful People Only’.
Over in Germany, U96 teamed up Wolfgang Flür while RENARD, the solo vehicle of Markus Reinhardt from WOLFSHEIM teamed with Marian Gold of ALPHAVILLE and Sarah Blackwood of DUBSTAR. DUBSTAR themselves released a striking corona crisis statement entitled ‘Hygiene Strip’ which saw reconfigured duo reunited with producer Stephen Hague. Meanwhile another poignant song on the topic ‘Small World’ came from SNS SENSATION, the new project by Sebastian Muravchik of HEARTBREAK. In lockdown, TINY MAGNETIC PETS recorded an entire album which they called ‘Blue Wave’.
Of course, 2020 was not full of joy, even without the pandemic, as the music world sadly lost Florian Schneider, Gabi Delgado-Lopez, Chris Huggett, Andrew Weatherall, Matthew Seligman, Dave Greenfield, Rupert Hine, Tom Wolgers, Harold Budd and Ennio Morricone.
An introspective tone was reflected the music of female fronted acts such as and ZANIAS, PURITY RING, WE ARE REPLICA, KALEIDA, LASTLINGS, NEW SPELL, WITCH OF THE VALE, REIN, BLACK NAIL CABARET, GLÜME, GEISTE THE FRIXION, FEMMEPOP and SCINTII. However, countering this, the optimism of RIDER, ROXI DRIVE and NEW RO presented a much brighter, hopeful take on life and the future.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK celebrated 10 years as a platform and affirming the site’s intuition about synth talent in anticipation of them achieving greater things, SOFTWAVE opened for OMD on the Scandinavia leg of their ‘Souvenir’ tour. The Danish duo became the sixth act which the site had written about to have become part of a tradition that has included VILLA NAH, MIRRORS, VILE ELECTRODES, METROLAND and TINY MAGNETIC PETS.
On a more cheerful note, S.P.O.C.K beamed down to Slimelight in London before lockdown for their first British live performance in 17 years. Meanwhile on the same night, LAU NAU and VILE ELECTRODES did modular sets at Cecil Sharp House, the spiritual home of English traditional music.
At that event, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK took delight in curating a DJ set comprising of John Cage’s 4’33” in variations by DEPECHE MODE, GOLDFRAPP, ERASURE, NEW ORDER and THE NORMAL from Mute’s Stumm433 boxed set. This defiant act of silence even caused a curious Jonathan Barnbrook to raise an eyebrow, this from the man who designed the artwork with the white square on David Bowie’s ‘The Next Day’ 😉
The final live event that ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK attended before the March lockdown was an informative lecture at Queen Mary University in London presented by noted cultural scholar Dr Uwe Schütte, in support of his book ‘KRAFTWERK Future Music From Germany’.
Also attending was Rusty Egan who held court at the reception afterwards by having a debate with another musician about the state of UK synth music. He then loudly beckoned ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK over and mentioned how the site was only interested acts that scored “9 out of 10” before admitting that a number of acts he supported only scored “6 out of 10”, with his reasoning being that if acts aren’t supported, then there will be no synth acts existing at all. After a decade in existence, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK remains proud that it is still extremely selective.
In 2020, the notion of reviews being needed to achieve a promotional profile underwent an existential crisis among media platforms. With streaming now being the main method of music consumption, why would anyone want to read a blog for an opinion about an album when they can just hit ‘play’ and hear the thing for themselves on Spotify, Amazon, Tidal or Bandcamp?
The sound of classic synthpop does live on happily in today’s mainstream via singles by THE WEEKND, DUA LIPA and even STEPS! In that respect, the trailblazing kings and queens of Synth Britannia from four decades ago did their job rather well.
From SUGABABES mashing-up ‘Are Friends Electric?’ for ‘Freak Like Me’ in 2002 to ‘Blinding Lights’ borrowing a bit of A-HA in 2020, the sound of synth is still strong.
It is up to any potential successors to live up to that high standard of Synth Britannia, which was as much down to the quality of the songwriting, as much as it was to do with the sound of the synthesizer. It is a fact that many overlook and if aspiring musicians could pay more attention to the song, instead of making the synthesizer the excuse for the song, then classic electronic pop music may still be around for a little longer and continue to evolve.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK Contributor Listings of 2020
“A young NASA JPL scientist is abducted by extra-terrestrials, but when no one believes his story, he becomes obsessed with finding proof, which leads him on a journey of discovery.”
That is the tagline for Sci-Fi thriller ‘Proximity’, the directorial debut of Emmy Award-winning visual effects artist Eric Demeusy, best known for his work on ‘Stranger Things’, ‘Tron Legacy’ and ‘Game Of Thrones’.
The film stars Ryan Masson who was in another Sci-Fi thriller ‘Involution’ and its cast also includes Highdee Kuan, Shaw Jones, Christian Prentice and Don Scribner. While the main orchestral soundtrack is scored by Jermaine Stegall, the songs have been provided by RADIO WOLF and PARALLELS, respectively the musical vehicles of Canadians Oliver Blair and Holly Dodson.
While Dodson has already released three albums as PARALLELS, Blair’s CV has included a stint with British New Wave trio HOTEL MOTEL (Italians Do It better signing Jorja Chalmers was a bandmate), guesting as a guitarist with CLIENT under his KINDLE moniker and playing keyboards with PARALLELS.
The debut RADIO WOLF EP ‘Rock N Roll Forever’ came out in 2017 and featured an illustrious cast of vocalists including Sarah Blackwood, Kelli Ali and HOTEL MOTEL singer Marika Gauci as well as Dodson herself. So developing the creative union between them was only natural.
Commissioned by Demeusy to come up with some sinister otherworldly songs counterpointed by a romantic celestial air for ‘Proximity’, Blair looked to Dodson to be their voice. “We fused celestial sounding electronica with the intimacy of the human voice and organic live guitar, having faith that our music would cohere to the film’s dual sense of otherworldliness and humanity” said Blair.
With both musicians heavily influenced by classic synthpop and new wave, it is perhaps not surprising that the resultant seven songs are being released by Lakeshore Records, home to the ‘Stranger Things’ soundtrack and the recent offering by KID MOXIE for the Greek film ‘Not To Be Unpleasant, But We Need To Have A Serious Talk’.
Opener ‘Break The Silence’ does what it says on the tin and comes over like ELECTRIC YOUTH but with much more bite thanks to its use of Holly Dodson’s more power diva capabilities and Oliver Blair’s guitar; it all stays on the right side of an AOR electronica hybrid if very close to its border.
Meanwhile ‘Pure Lies’ adopts the atmospheres of the ‘Twin Peaks’ theme ‘Falling’ and makes good use of lush vocal samples for its eerie dream-like state while reimagining it being covered by CHVRCHES. Speaking of the Glaswegian trio, ‘Let Me In’ could be Lauren Mayberry, Iain Cook and Martin Doherty with a sense of gothic foreboding rather than their usual Taylor Swift gone electro approach.
“Scored to picture”, the mini-album’s lead single ‘Lost Angel’ tells of a “Dark vision of Paradise” and lyrically captures the spirit of the ‘Proximity’ story while accompanied by some beautifully ringing synthetic chimes doubled with bursts of pitch shifted vocals. Hauntingly compelling, ‘Contact’ is a superbly widescreen ballad and if it wasn’t in a Sci-Fi film, it could so easily have been in chosen for a love scene in a Brat Pack movie from back in the day.
‘Journeys End’ is a rather fine tribute to ‘Space Oddity’ with Dodson sounding particularly angelic while fabulous synth melodies and complimentary live drumming by Nick Dodson enhance what is probably the mini-album’s highlight. Concluding Proximity’, ‘Homecoming’ adds some scratchy funk with a new wave twist to proceedings to provide a sparkly optimistic ending.
More than happy with these seven songs, Eric Demeusy said: “Oliver and Holly were a joy to work with; totally fresh and collaborative in spirit. Their songcraft talents and sophisticated production values created just the right sonic emotion for various sequences of the movie. I’d work with them again in a minute.”
‘Proximity’ will be embraced by the synthwave fraternity thanks to its association with Lakeshore Records, but its pop sensibilities and accompanying narratives will appeal to a wider audience. These are heartfelt songs possessing musicality and atmosphere that will certainly appeal to anyone who has enjoyed the previous releases by PARALLELS or RADIO WOLF.
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release. The cardboard packaging was reported to be flimsy and prone to dents, while there was continuity errors galore as Dave Gahan rather cluelessly and selfishly wore different coloured outfits over the two nights in Berlin that the live footage was filmed under the direction of Anton Corbijn.
came out in 2017 and featured an illustrious cast of vocalists including 
, Blair looked to Dodson to be their voice. “We fused celestial sounding electronica with the intimacy of the human voice and organic live guitar, having faith that our music would cohere to the film’s dual sense of otherworldliness and humanity” said Blair.
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