Tag: Technomancer

TECHNOMANCER The Outsider EP

5 July 2018 /


What do ZONE TRIPPER, LABORATORY 5 and TECHNOMANCER have in common? Simple, it’s the EBM / Futurepop producer Alyxx J Digre and her supercharged world of synthpopia.

Based in Sarpsborg, Norway, the Lady Of Darkness has always been into synths and guitars, and hell bent on making it big in the music industry, she kept perfecting her producing skills until she hooked up with Per Aksel Lundgreen (ANGST POP, APOPTYGMA BERZERK, CRONOS TITAN, CHINESE DETECTIVES, SHATOO) to produce ‘Ødipus Rex 2012’.

2013 saw the first album by TECHNOMANCER, and the continuous remixes with Lundgreen, but Digre also likes to work with the legendary Stephan Groth from APOPTYGMA BERZERK. And indeed, both electro kings are featured on the newest release from the cold Norway girl; ‘The Outsider’, where we are seeing a four song tribute to the acts that TECHNOMANCER and Co consider valid.

Previously released, ‘The Outsider’ is taken from ‘A Tribute To PSYCHE’ and ‘I’ve Got A Sister In The Navy’ comes from ‘Heredity – A Tribute To RATIONAL YOUTH’. Additionally we are served newly recorded cover versions of ULTRAVOX’s ‘Sleepwalk’ and a vintage DM classic ‘Puppets’.

The opening ‘Puppets’ features the synth magician Groth of APOP who eagerly participated; “I would love to be a part of this” he said, “I know just what to add”. Groth came up with additional synths and vocals as they agreed that “Depeche Mode have been done to death, but the idea was to do a cover of them from the time they were really good, and get that old feeling back!” – and they sure did.

ANGST POP features on the RATIONAL YOUTH favourite ‘Sister In The Navy’ and with its catchy hooks, is a classic return back to the synthesizer’s heyday. ‘Sleepwalk’ retains the classic ULTRAVOX vibe with an almost robotic voice and doesn’t go far from the original, which became the first single from the ‘Vienna’ album. Softly updated to a faster version it simply works.

PSYCHE’s cult hit ‘The Outsider’ takes a second viewing with a faster paced, busier rhythm, with added guitar and gritty synth, which detract from the super dark original, keeping in with the gloomy moods all the same.

Whether you like covers or not, TECHNOMANCER did their homework here, paying homage to in their minds, the greatest synth acts during their golden age, and if the whole thing manages it with APOP stamp all over it, then all the better!

‘The Outsider EP’ is released by Subculture Records and available via the usual digital platforms or direct from https://technomancer.bandcamp.com/album/the-outsider-ep

http://www.technomancer.no

https://www.facebook.com/technomancermusic/

Text by Monika Izabela Trigwell
Cover Artwork Photography by Petra Rönnholm
Live Photo by Steven Stieng
5th July 2018

The Best TECHNOMANCER & ANGST POP Remixes

21 March 2017 /

Sub Culture Records is a Norwegian label founded by Per Aksel Lundgreen, whose motto goes “what you call culture, we call crap”…

Their artists have included MARTYN BAILEY, TRAIN TO SPAIN, former YELLO member CARLOS PERÓN, iEUROPEAN, DELAYSCAPE, SLEEP MUSEUM, MACHINISTA and TECHNOMANCER, to name but a few.

The label is no stranger to compilations, having just unveiled their latest, ‘The Best TECHNOMANCER & ANGST POP Remixes’ featuring a plethora of artists reworked in a Per Aksel Lundgreen approved manner.

The man himself has a long history within electronica genre, having co-founded YAZOO inspired covers act CHINESE DETECTIVES and played with APOPTYGMA BERZERK, while promoting many synth related acts and running his own project CRONOS TITAN.

ANGST POP is his own moniker too, and many remixes on the compilation have been mastered by Lundgreen as well. Indeed, a multitude of known and adored synth acts have been featured here. ROBERT MARLOW’s ‘Smile’ opens the collection, followed by excellent take on DIE KRUPPS’ ‘Robo Sapien’, with metallic, EBM loaded beats perfect for feet stomping and head bobbing. NITZER EBB had to be present here as well, with a superb version of ‘Once You Say’.

Lundgreen’s brother from a different mother, Stephan Groth aka APOPTYGMA BERZERK, finds his place here with ‘Major Tom’; a cover of PETER SCHILLING’s nod towards Bowie, it’s here wrapped up in a melodic candy.

‘Darkest Hour’ by ANNE CLARK is a true highlight, strong, arty and full of attitude.

SHATOO, an act in which Per is also involved are featured here a few times with ‘Dangertown’, ‘Floodlights’, ‘Nothing That I Wouldn’t Do’ and ‘One Night Love’, the latter undoubtedly fit for Eurovision.

Meanwhile, ‘Som Ett Skal’ from PAGE is very ethereal and ear pleasing, while TOUCHING THE VOID dazzle with ‘Obsession’. TECHNOMANCER’s own ‘Electronic Warfare’ clashes with ANGST POP’s ‘Ødipus Rex 2012’ and SPEKTRALISED continue to ‘Learn & Teach’. CARLOS PERÓN closes this remix album with a bang on his ‘Der Komtur’.

While Lundgreen muses about releasing a single with TECHNOMANCER, he has been heavily concentrating on the production and remix work for other artists. He’d love to take CRONUS TITAN to Germany and his dream is to write a movie soundtrack under the same moniker. Until then, we have this extensive remix album to fall back on.

‘The Best TECHNOMANCER & ANGST POP Remixes’ is available from Sub Culture Records at https://subculturerecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-best-technomancer-angst-pop-remixes

http://www.subculture.no/

https://www.facebook.com/norwegiansubculture/

Text by Monika Izabela Trigwell
21st March 2017

Heresy: A Tribute To RATIONAL YOUTH

20 August 2016 /


Montréal’s RATIONAL YOUTH were founded in 1980 by synth enthusiasts Tracy Howe and Bill Vorn.

Along with PSYCHE and MEN WITHOUT HATS, they were among the trailblazers for electronic music in Canada, a country that has more recently produced acclaimed acts such as GRIMES, PURITY RING, AUSTRA, TR/ST, ELECTRIC YOUTH and LOLA DUTRONIC. Vorn had a Roland System 100M while Howe used equations to programme sequencers. Later joined by Kevin Komoda, RATIONAL YOUTH quickly made an impression and supported OMD at Auditorium Le Plateau in March 1982.

Shortly after, the trio released ‘Cold War Night Life’, possibly the first ever Canadian synthpop album. A big seller in their home country despite being an independent release on YUL Records, it was later to be a cult favourite in Sweden where its influence was readily felt in their modern domestic electronic scene.

RATIONAL YOUTH

Photo by Kevin Komoda

Indeed, the 1997 RATIONAL YOUTH reunion concert with Howe and Vorn took place in Lund, Sweden. Now Cold War Night Life, the online magazine of electronic music and culture, has curated ‘Heresy: A Tribute To RATIONAL YOUTH’, a collection of the Canadian synth pioneers’ best-known songs, interpreted by artists from the UK, Sweden, Australia, Norway, Germany and Canada.

Going against the trend of Spotify and downloads, the package is gathered on two vinyl LPs and a 12 inch EP, all contained in a trifold sleeve, plus two accompanying CDs mirroring the vinyl, reflecting Cold War Night Life’s philosophy that “albums are to be touched, read and heard”.

The 12 inch EP features a brand new track ‘This Side Of The Border’ from RATIONAL YOUTH themselves. Now comprising of Tracy Howe and his wife Gaenor, it is classic RY featuring Howe’s characteristically direct, overwrought lyricism but with added midlife angst. The track itself premiered earlier in the year on the comeback six song mini-album ‘Future Past Tense’ released by Artoffact Records.

Perhaps not surprisingly, one of the highlights from ‘Heresy’ is PSYCHE’s take on ‘Ring The Bells’ from the ‘Cold War Night Life’ debut. The clattering 808 beat and elegantly haunting sweeps combined with Darrin Huss’ mournful vocal provide an atmospheric reworking that betters the original. It is also a recording that reflects the decades long kinship between RATIONAL YOUTH and PSYCHE.

Meanwhile on two further songs from ‘Cold War Night Life’, Sweden’s JOHAN BAECKSTRÖM acquits himself well with a blippy version of ‘Saturdays In Silesia’ in the vein of ERASURE while MACHINISTA don’t disappoint on a meaty ‘City of Night’, applying their enjoyable template of THE CURE gone synthpop with a rock ’n’ roll edge.

Speaking of rock, PROJECT GRUDGE do exactly as their moniker suggests on ‘Beware The Fly’, while ROSSETTI’S COMPASS expands on the JOY DIVISION doom pop of ‘Coboloid Race’ by adding a more prominent, metronomic beat in splendid ‘Isolation’.

KORD featuring the vocals of Annie Gylling provide some ADULT. entertainment while ‘Dancing On The Berlin Wall’, although the arrangement itself isn’t that radically different from RATIONAL YOUTH’s.

Although the collection is dominated by songs from ‘Cold War Night Life’, other tunes in RATIONAL YOUTH’s catalogue are represented. Swedish synth project DEN DÄR KILLEN offer a frantically paced ‘In Your Eyes’ from 1985’s ‘Heredity’, but the excellent arrangement is perhaps marred by some ambitious amateurism in the vocal department. TECHNOMANCER join forces with ANGST POP for ‘I’ve Got A Sister In The Navy’ which appropriately sounds very ‘Top Gun’, while PROCEDURE’s ‘Close To Nature (No TDM Mix)’ acts as a squelchy dystopian instrumental interlude.

However ‘Heresy: A Tribute To RATIONAL YOUTH’ does suffer from track duplication, with TOUCHING THE VOID doing ‘Ring The Bells’, CANDIDE also performing ‘City of Night’ and INDEPENDENT STATE attempting ‘Beware The Fly’; all are subsequently overshadowed by PYSCHE, MACHINISTA and PROJECT GRUDGE respectively and although RATIONAL YOUTH have a small catalogue, this repeating of songs is unnecessary in hindsight.

That aside, what this tribute album successfully does is reacquaint electronic music enthusiasts to the catalogue of RATIONAL YOUTH. Time has been kind to their work and it certainly deserves reappraisal. So, anyone fancy a ‘Holiday In Bangkok’?

‘Heresy: A Tribute To RATIONAL YOUTH’ is released by Cold War Night Life as a triple vinyl + double CD set, available from http://www.stormingthebase.com/various-heresy-a-tribute-to-rational-youth-3lp-vinyl-2cd/

http://www.coldwarnightlife.com

https://rational-youth.com/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
20th August 2016

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