30 years working on their respective ongoing music projects, Vince Clarke (Erasure / Yazoo / Depeche Mode) and Martin L. Gore (Depeche Mode) come together for the first time since 1981 as VCMG to release a brand new album preceded by a series of EPs.
VCMG is the fruit of initially tentative discussion and subsequent enthused collaboration where Vince and Martin, both influential as pioneers in electronic music, get to exercise their lifelong love of the genre as the techno inspired VCMG.
As Vince explains: “I’ve been getting into and listening to a lot of minimal dance music and I got really intrigued by all the sounds… I realised I needed a collaborator… so it occurred to me to talk to Martin.”
Says Gore: “Out of the blue I got an e-mail from Vince just saying, ‘I’m interested in making a techno album. Are you interested in collaborating?’ This was maybe a year ago. He said, ‘No pressure, no deadlines,’ so I said, ‘OK’.”
The writing and recording of the album was done in a typically unique way with the pair working alone in their respective studios, communicating only via email, exchanging files until the album was ready. It was in May 2011 that the pair met for the first time to discuss the project when they both performed at Short Circuit presents Mute festival in London.
The album (title to be announced soon) was produced by Vince Clarke and Martin L. Gore and mixed by the influential Californian electronic artist Überzone / Q and will be released in the spring of 2012.
The first release is an EP entitled Spock. EP1 / SPOCK features remixes from Edit-Select, aka Tony Scott, the UK DJ / producer and founder of EditSelect Records whose previous remix credits include Speedy J, Death In Vegas and Gary Beck; Regis, British techno musician Karl O’Connor (member of the Sandwell District collective and co-founder of Downwards Records); DVS1, Brooklyn based producer Zak Khutoretsky; plus XOQ, the alter ego of Überzone / Q, who mixed the VCMG album.
EP1/SPOCK has been available initially as a global exclusive on Beatport on 30 November, and then on all DSPs from 12 December with the 12” release following on 19 December 2011. EP1 / SPOCK TRACKLIST Spock – Album versionSpock – Edit Select RemixSpock – Regis RemixSpock – DVS1 Voyage Home RemixSpock – XOQ Remix
Gary Numan is a unique breed of electronic animal. Relentless in output and evolution of sound in a career now going into its 33rd year, to describe Numan as a tour de force of electronic music is not hyperbole. One of the most reassuring things about Crack’s conversation with Numan is that despite his position as an elder statesman of the electronic music community, he maintains a humble and honest approach to crafting music. With the ticking clock of age against him and his time as a musician, he has adopted an attitude which is stripped-down and unmuddied. Previous variables such as fashion, attitude and the self-consciousness of youth which can clutter the creative process inevitably wither with age, leaving Numan a carefree open book, able to express himself with a degree of nonchalance. The style and image conjured by Numan throughout his rise to prominence influenced countless 80s fashionistas, emanating a coldness and detachment that perfectly complimented the methodical nature of the synth arrangements employed on first two solo records, The Pleasure Principle (1979) and Telekon (1980). Numan became a pin-up for the era. However, it’s the man’s ability to remain varied and contemporary that has seen him leave many of his 80s electronic peers in the shade with a career has maneuvered with the decades. Dalliances in straight-up pop music, experimental electronica and hard rock spread across 18 albums have made Numan more than qualified to contextualise music in its broadest sense, but it’s the vigour and enthusiasm with which he does this that makes him such an endearing character. You get the impression that if Numan is ever to extinguish his creative fire, he will do so kicking and screaming, and based on latest offering, Dead Son Rising, it will be a significant loss. On this new album, smouldering industrial rock suggests a pairing off of influences with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, who open cites Numan as a significant influence on his work. Dark machinery clatters and is married with brooding undertones that sees Numan return to his austere best. As opposed to his aloof creative persona, Numan in person is warm, welcoming and congenial, a fact kept under wraps by the degree of mysticism that has always run alongside his music.Ladies and gentleman: Mr Gary Numan.
So how did the new record come about?
"It actually started out as a load of out-takes that I’d put to bed for a while. I listened back to them and thought ‘blimey, these are quite good.’ So what started out as a load of filler material ended up being a brand new album. Because of that it’s much more varied. I’m actually writing a book, a science-fiction book which I’ve been working on for the last 10 years. Every day I write out little notes for it and try to develop the story. It’s become a never ending thing. I hope it’ll finally see the light of day at some point. But some of the ideas from that have bled into this record. There are also more conventional themes that have gone into it, such as the fact I had a massive falling out with a close friend of mine a while back, which unfortunately has got worse as time has gone on. Normally when I do an album I have a pretty clear idea where I want it to go, and all the songs musically and lyrically fit in that direction. But I think because of the way it came about and ambled along, being fitted together from these bit parts, it’s a little more varied than my normal record".
So has anyone else been involved?
"While I would say this record is still very much Gary Numan, it’s much more of collaboration. It’s the first properly collaborative album I’ve ever done. In my opinion, it should have gone out as a Gary Numan and Ade Fenton album, but he didn’t think that was a good idea, so it’s gone out as a Gary Numan album".
Was he quite happy to sit in the background and not take credit for anything?
"I’m certainly at pains to make it clear when I’m talking to people that it’s very much a collaboration, though it is true they are all my melodies, all my chord structures. The fact they have gone on from there with Ade showcases the fact they should be labeled as co-written; he’s done more than a producer should do".
So have the songs morphed and changed significantly from what you intended?
"Well, this was meant to be a bit of filler between my last album, Jagged, and the new album I was due to release next year, Splinter. There is a big gap, so the idea was to pop something out that wouldn’t take up too much of my time or interfere too much with what I was doing with Splinter. It’s strange, because when I came back to this music a year and a half later, it was exactly the same, Ade had done nothing to it. So I think it was a confidence thing. You get a bit down on something and your confidence plummets and everything you listen to sounds like shit. Then you hear it again a year and a half later in a different frame of mind and suddenly it sounds alright".
Is that to do with your personal situation at that particular time distorting the quality of music that had been produced?
"I don’t know really, because for quite a while now career-wise, things have been great. I have a much better relationship with the media than I had before. I have lots of people doing cover versions and sampling my stuff and talking about me. From a confidence point of view I should’ve been riding high. I can’t imagine what else it was though. It just doesn’t make any sense for me at all".
Over the years the regularity of your releases has remained ever consistent. You seem to be a workhorse. What keeps you going at such a pace?
"For me it was always a hobby that became something else. I was chatting to someone else the other day and they were saying that if they didn’t think they had an audience to play to they wouldn’t do it. I just couldn’t understand that. Surely you loving doing it, and having an audience should be the icing on the cake. From my point of view if I didn’t have an audience to play this stuff to, I’d still do it, because first and foremost I like it. The fact that I’m able to take the music out on tour and play it in front of people is the most amazing piece of luck. From an incentive point of view, or a desire point of view, getting motivated doesn’t seem to be a problem at all. I’ve really, really wanted to make records and record songs since I was 18 or 19. Your goals and ambitions just change".
So is making a new album a relatively pain-free process for you then?
"I actually find touring more enjoyable at the moment. I find the thought of being stuck in a room on my own for a month recording an album a little bit daunting".
You just finished a tour where you were performing your debut album The Pleasure Principle in its entirety, so are you looking forward to be touring the new album?
"I got into touring the retro album very begrudgingly. It wasn’t really top of my list of things I wanted to do. When I tour normally, I do very little older stuff, which causes a bit of friction between myself and the older fans who want to hear as much of the older stuff as possible. I don’t want to be tied down to doing a Greatest Hits set. It became a real issue for some fans, so I said how about if I do all the songs from one album so I can avoid diluting my conventional tour. It seemed that if I did that then some of the fans would get off my back. So I did one for my 50th birthday and my 30th anniversary of being in the music business. Then the 30th anniversary of The Pleasure Principle came along so I did that one. So I just try to pop these things in once in a while".
Do these tours afford you a bit of breathing space then?
"It’s a great compromise to keep the older fans happy. The Pleasure Principle thing got a bit out of hand and ended up going all round the world when it was only meant to be a handful of shows in the UK. I won’t be doing any of that for quite some time. It is very nice to be coming back and have something new out. We’re doing the September and December mini-tours to promote this and then in the new year Splinter is coming out which I’m really excited about. Then for the bulk of next year we are going to be primarily touring the world doing Splinter and Dead Son Rising. We’ll be doing that for the next couple of years I reckon".
So are those old album gigs made up of older people then?
"Not at all, the demographic is really split. One thing I didn’t realise is that a lot of the younger audience haven’t heard of this material before. It was 60-70% kids under-25 who know the album because it’s a big part of my history, but they haven’t ever heard any of the songs live. It’s also because people like Trent Reznor talk about it being a particularly large influence on them. So you’ve got people coming along who weren’t even born when the record was released. I thought it would be all about 55-year-old people reminiscing about their youth but it wasn’t like that at all, so I had to stand corrected there".
As you’ve got older do you still find yourself drawn to keeping abreast of modern music and modern fashions, or has this got less important to you as you’ve got older?
"It’s easier than it’s ever been, especially with the internet. If you follow fashion then it’s easy enough. You can just pick up a magazine and find out what the latest trends are. But to be honest, I actually don’t give a shit about fashion. Although I did fashion shoot for All Saints yesterday! (laughs) But in all seriousness, I really don’t care about that I look how I look. Keeping up with it all isn’t difficult, finding something you like really is. It’s always been like that. Take 1979 when I first started having success: look at the Top 40 then, and I only liked about two of the records in there. It’s exactly the same today. The chart in 1979 was full of utter shite. Very few things in the chart last for a long time and that’s what makes it such a scary business".
What is it about you that has meant you’ve been able to have such a good run, and sustained such success over an extended period of time? You’re quite a rare breed. How have you survived in such a credible way?
"I’ve always believed you’re only as good as your next album, and you can never have a career based on past glories. It’s obvious, but you always have to continue doing something new and something interesting. I’m not saying I’ve always done that, cause I’ve put out some pretty dodgy albums in my time. It is always my intention, however, to go into the studio and do something I’ve never done before, and come up with some sounds that no one has ever heard before. The reason I got into electronic music in the first place was because it seemed to have an unlimited potential for creating new sounds. I love guitar-based things, but they are inherently limiting to some degree. In electronic music we are lucky as there is always new technology so the potential is neverending. The thought of going in and repeating the same sounds used before seems pointless to me. I juts don’t get it. It’s like entering a Formula 1 race on your bicycle, it’s fucking pointless. I also just don’t get some people who have long careers that mellow and start doing ballads, and it gets bland and middle-of-the-road. You end up saying ‘what on earth happened to you?’ My music for the last 10 years has got heavier and heavier each album that I’ve made. I’m quite proud of that, and I think I still do enough interesting things to keep them coming back. There are probably people who sell more than I do, but that’s probably because they’ve done more ballads".
So who in the main is Gary Numan enjoying at the moment and musically, who has had the biggest influence on you over the years?
"I love Battles, with whom I recently did a single. I love them because I can’t place them. I love everything about what they do and it was great to work with them. Nine Inch Nails will always be a massive influence for me, as will Ultravox when I first started. Depeche Mode too are a huge part of my world and changed my way of looking at music".
Finalmente arriva, o meglio torna, in Italia. Da questa sera, 6 dicembre, il "fenomeno" Zola Jesus approda nel Bel Paese con la sua voce possente che ricorda la migliore Siouxie o Elisabeth Fraser dei Cocteau Twins. Qualche improvvido, forse per via del look, l'ha etichettata come "una Lady Gaga post-punk". Tant'è. Da questa sera, si potrà assistere all'attesa messa in scena di Zola Jesus - vero nome: Nika Roza Danilova, di origini russe-americane - e del suo terzo album già di culto "Conatus" e dopo il divampante singolo apripista "Vessel" e sulla scorta di "Night" di qualche tempo fa. Se sentite tremare la terra, non sarà alcun cataclisma, quanto la sua voce che sembra nascere dalla viscere, dall'oscurità, pronta ad esplodere e a far diventare i ghiacci cristalli, per poi librarsi su ali di farfalla (come nel video di "Vessel"). Stasera ZJ sarà al Magnolia di Milano, il 7 dicembre al Covo di Bologna, l'8 al Circolo degli Artisti di Roma, il 9 al New Carocol di Pisa. Vivamente consigliata.
Uno dei concerti più emozionanti mai visti per esecuzione, intensità, bravura degli strumentisti e riusciti (ri)arrangiamenti...Oltre all'indiscussa capacità di Annie Lennox e Dave Stewart (quest'ultimo lo si veda nell'assolo di chitarra di "Here comes the rain"), menzione speciale per l'armonicista/sassofonista Jimmy "Z" Zavala (guardate cosa fa negli assoli di "There must be an Angel")...Il dvd del tour è vivamente consigliato sotto l'Albero di Natale...!
(ANSA) - ROMA, 22 NOV - I Simple Minds hanno annunciato un breve e intenso tour in venue di dimensioni ridotte, dove proporranno solo del materiale dai loro primi cinque importantissimi album in due ore e mezza di show davvero da non perdere. Un tour che partira' dal Portogallo il 14 febbraio e che sbarchera' a Milano (all'Alcatraz) il 28 febbraio.
Simple Minds are pleased to announce a very rare and exciting opportunity to see them perform material from their first five albums at intimate venues, in February and March 2012. As a Member at Simpleminds.com you have access to these special tickets before general release on Friday 25th November. Read on to find out more! These landmark shows, lasting over two and half hours, will be part of a 16-date European tour beginning in Portugal on 14th February with the first UK shows taking place at Birmingham Academy and in the band's hometown of Glasgow, at Barrowlands, on 24th and 25th February respectively, with the final UK shows of the tour at London's Roundhouse (3rd March) and the Manchester Ritz the following evening. The band will exclusively play five songs from each of their first five albums - Life In A Day, Real To Real Cacophony, Empires and Dance, Sons and Fascination/Sister Feelings Calling and New Gold Dream (81, 82, 83, 84), which celebrates its 30th anniversary next year - which were released in a prolific period from 1979 to 1982. These five albums have had a massive cultural impact from the time of their release during the birth of the new wave electro scene in the late 1970s, through the dance revolution of the '80s and '90s, to the music of the Manic Street Preachers and the recent sound of The Horrors' Skying album, making them five of the most vital albums of the post-punk period and the last 35 years.
"This is the set that so many who appreciate Simple Minds have been begging us to play and finally this is that one-off chance to see it." Jim Kerr.
Roma, 22 nov. (Adnkronos) - A sei anni di distanza dall'ultimo album "Aerial" esce oggi il nuovo lavoro di studio di Kate Bush "50 Words For Snow". Il disco, che contiene sette brani inediti sul tema della neve, in pieno clima di strenne musicali in vista del Natale, e' pubblicato dall'etichetta di proprieta' della stessa cantante, la Fish People ed e' distribuito da EMI Music. Un lavoro di classe, contemporaneo negli arrangiamenti e senza tempo nella sintesi di voce e suggestioni letterarie. E con una sorpresa: un meraviglioso duetto con Elton John. "50 Words For Snow" e' una raccolta di canzoni della durata complessiva di sessantacinque minuti ed e' stato definito dal The Guardian come "Un album inaspettatamente straordinario, un magnifico sogno contemporaneo". La tracklist dell'album si apre con "Snowflake" e prosegue con i brani "Lake Tahoe", "Misty", "Wildman", "Snowed in at Wheeler street" (feat Elton John), "50 Words for snow" e "Among angels".
Click here to pre-order "50 Words For Snow" from your nearest retailer now: PRE-ORDER “50 Words For Snow” will feature seven brand new tracks set against a background of falling snow. The total running time is 65 minutes.
Best known as the surrealist auteur behind "Eraserhead," "Twin Peaks" and "Blue Velvet," David Lynch is one of America's most acclaimed film directors. Having long written and performed music for his films -- often in collaboration with others, most notably composer Angelo Badalamenti and Polish pianist Marek Zebrowski -- this fall sees the three-time Academy Award nominee make his debut as a solo recording artist. With the release Tuesday of his debut studio album, "Crazy Clown Time," on Sunday Best Recordings/PIAS, Lynch talks to "Billboard" about his hatred of singing, fear of performing live and working with the late Mark Linkous.
You recently curated a week-long music showcase at Paris' Club Silencio (a venue modeled on one featured in Lynch's 2001 film "Mulholland Drive"). Was it an enjoyable experience? It's been incredible. Do you want to hear the bands that came? I started out with The Kills, followed by Au Revoir Simone and Kitty Daisy & Lewis. Followed by Gary Clark Jr, a bluesman from Austin, Texas. Followed by Dirty Beaches, [who sings] American rockabilly in the most dreamlike way. And then it ended up with Lykke Li and she did an incredible show. It was a real good week and the club is really fantastic. It's got a great, great feel and people are happy in that club.
How does it feel to begin a solo music career aged 65? I'm finding it really good. I'm not touring. I'm not playing live. It's a studio experience... I've been working on music through the years and it's Sunday Best Recordings which came along and wanted to get the music out. Their enthusiasm was what really catapulted it coming out.
Most of the songs on "Crazy Clown Time" originate from studio jams, correct? That's the technique that was used more often than not. I [would] say probably a 20 to 25-minute jam is 97% garbage. Maybe in that three percent there is something there and that becomes the fuel for the next steps, which lead to the finished song. An example of that is [album track] "Speed Roadster." That track came out of a jam when my guitar was just making a sound that was thrilling to me. It started making the sound of a speed roadster... a night time dream that was sparkling in the piney woods.
How did you approach sequencing the album? Are there similarities with editing film? Exactly. I'm not sure if these days people really sit down and listen to an album start to finish but if they do, you want to have the correct sequence. So you live with the sequence, you think intellectually and emotionally to get a line, then you test it and live with it for a while. Maybe rearrange a few things and then you've got a sequence that feels good should someone sit down and listen to it start to finish.
You've formerly described yourself as a self-taught non-musician. Have you got more proficient through making this album? No. No. No. I can play it once. I can find a thing and it's very, very much like accidents that occur. We all know exceptionally great musicians in the world. I can't play like them. I find a way of getting something that thrills me on the guitar. I don't play them in a normal way. I started playing a guitar just to make sound FX and that method of playing kind of led to how I work in music.
Twelve of the 14 tracks on "Crazy Clown Time" feature your vocals. Is singing something that you have always done outside of the recording studio? No. The opposite of that. Zero. I hated the idea of singing. I never wanted to sing. Ever. [But] I started getting kind of infatuated with this high voice and singing [about] these characters. I don't know quite how it happened. The only person I sing in front of is Dean [Hurley, studio engineer and key collaborator on the album]. I sometimes sing a little bit to Emily, my wife, but I'm even embarrassed singing in front of her.
Are there any plans to perform the record live, at all? In the future it could be possible. I think emotionally I'm not quite ready to do that and technically [I'm] even further away.
Do you plan to do another record or is "Crazy Clown Time" a one-off? I always love making music in the studio, so we'll see how this goes but definitely they'll be more music. Whether it goes out into an album or not, I don't know. Let's see if people like "Crazy Clown Time."
You worked with Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse's Mark Linkous on the 2010 "Dark Night of the Soul" album. What are your strongest memories from that time? A great, great happiness and fondness. Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse became my friends because of that and they actually really did me a huge favor allowing me to sing on that [record]. It kind of gave me more confidence and it worked out so well... I was looking forward to really having a great long time friendship with Sparklehorse and then he ended up taking his life which was just a huge giant catastrophe and sadness. I really feel bad about that part of the story.
Director: Arnold de Parscau Cinematography: Jonathan Bertin, Antoine Bon Actors: Elia Blanc, Jean-Christophe Bouvet, Brigitte Aubry, Sarah Barzyk. Almost 450 were entered into the competition to create the official music videos for David Lynch's single 'Good Day Today / I Know'm released on Sunday Best Recordings www.sundaybest.net This fantastic video directd by Arnold de Parscau was chosen by David Lynch as the winner for Good Day Today from a shortlist of 10 finalists.
The eighties gave us supermodels, and they gave us Duran Duran. Fast-forward to 2011 and they’re all making headlines again. The band recruited five über-supers for a video for “Girl Panic!,” its new single off the album All You Need Is Now, released earlier this year. In the nine-minute clip directed by Jonas Akerlund (the Grammy Award winner behind Lady Gaga’s “Telephone”) and made in collaboration with Swarovski Elements, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Eva Herzigova, Helena Christensen, and Yasmin LeBon play Simon, John, Nick, Roger, and an “anonymous guitarist,” while the real members of the group appear as bellhops, waiters, chauffeurs, and paparazzi. Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana even make cameos as Harper’s Bazaar U.K.’s guest editors during a photo shoot scene, images from which can be found in that magazine’s actual December issue. “It’s all daft stuff, but it’s fantastic daft stuff,” says John Taylor in a “making of” video that Style.com is debuting exclusively here. Check back on Tuesday, November 8, for our interview with Nick Rhodes and the complete music video.
This Friday 4th November, Graham Smith and Chris Sullivan will be hosting an evening soirée geared around the forthcoming book ‘We Can Be Heroes’ at The Society Club in Soho. I’ll have polished up my frames and be exhibiting a few prints and Chris will be telling his ribald tales:
The Society Club 12 Ingestre Place, on the corner of Silver Place, which is off Lexington Street, Soho, W1F OJF. Prints will be on sale. It’s early 7-10pm
Afterwards Chris will be Djing classic club tunes from 1976 – 84 at the The Aviary Bar – 17 Little Portland Street, Oxford Circus, London W1W 8BW from 10 till 3:00am (http://www.theaviarybar.com/). Both venues are free to get into – so dig out your espadrilles and book yourself a baby sitter now!!!!
"We Can Be Heroes" is only available from www.unbound.co.uk/books/we-can-be-heroes
Graham was an essential cog in Spandau Ballet’s early pioneering days. He was the band’s original graphic designer and was responsible for the initial performance posters and record sleeve designs. He also happened to capture those days on camera. And now 30 years later he is producing his first photographic book of those heady days.
Chris Sullivan has written a brilliant and hilarious main text and Robert Elms has contributed an introduction. Our very own Gary Kemp has written a foreword along with Boy George and Steve Strange.
Talking about Jessica 6 and Nomi Ruiz (see the Post down under), here it is the article of "Interview" about their brand new album "See the light" (out now), the premiere of "Prisoner of Love" video and their astonishing video "White Horse"...It seems Soft Cell's "Non stop erotic cabaret" meets Andy Warhol...Enjoy!
Not everyone will admit to loving disco. But deep inside, everyone loves soul-searing, bass-thumping, sex-appeal-oozing disco à la Summer's "I Feel Love," which is what Jessica 6, and its frontwoman Nomi Ruiz, serve up in heaps. And smartly, the sensuality that pervades the band's debut album See The Light is as present in the band's visuals as it is in sound. Ruiz is simply a bombshell, and J6's gritty, red-drenched videos put her front and center. (Bandmates and production team Andrew Raposo and Morgan Wiley make their presence known in acid-house synths and basslines.) Her seductive performance and voice even caught the attention of the man behind one of the most captivating stage performers in the world: Gaga stylist Nicola Formichetti. For their new video "Prisoner of Love," Formichetti does put Ruiz in a baroque, high-necked, crystallized piece by The Blondes, but for the most part, he lets her captivate in simple outfits, like a black crop-top or a white tank. (Her two-toned nails, however, are pretty eye-catching.) Halfway through the Marco Ovando-directed video, Ruiz's friend and collaborator Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons appears, adding a warm timbre and throaty roundness to Ruiz's breathiness. But this isn't a repeat of Hercules and Love Affair's 2008 synthy rave tribute hit "You Belong" (in which Hegarty supplies Ruiz's backing vocals); "Prisoner of Love" is a more organic affair, with Hegarty crooning while Ruiz purrs, and the two engaging in a vocal tête-à-tête until crescendo. On top of vocal layers, there are Ruiz layers too, with the singer's silhouette providing a window to her bandmates, Hegarty, and Ruiz herself. Check out the exclusive here, and rest assured that underground dance music divas are just as sexy as their '70s predecessors.
JESSICA 6'S DEBUT, SEE THE LIGHT, IS OUT NOW. THEY'LL PLAY WITH HOLY GHOST! THIS SATURDAY AT BOWERY BALLROOM. FOR MORE ON THE BAND, VISIT THEIR MYSPACE.
Welcome back Boots! Little Boots has been busy recording her second studio album and we're super excited for it! Aww man! Just now, like less than a half hour ago she dropped this brand new mixtape filled with good, good stuff. Oh Land, Madonna, The Magician and Eli Escobar featuring the astonishing Nomi Ruiz of Jessica 6 (one of the best and peculiar voices of the last decade, believe me)! Also, she's embarking on an international DJ tour in November and early december. If you're in Paris, Berlin, New York, L.A, San Francisco, Tokyo, Beijing or London - check her out! Shake Until Your Hearts Break at the very end must be a new Boots track too. Love this mix edition (listen to this at high standard, please)! SHAKE UNTIL YOUR HEART BREAKS MIXTAPE by LittleBoots
Articolo tratto da Vogue.it In un periodo dove la retromania per gli anni 80 ha invaso la scena musicale, dalla mainstream a quella indie, Andy Bell e Vince Clarke, gli Erasure, non potevano non tornare a farsi sentire con il nuovo album: Tomorrow’s World (Mute), proprio loro che del synthpop britannico sono i pionieri. Il rientro del duo è avvenuto un mese fa sul palco del Short Circuit presents Mute, alla Roundhouse di Londra. Coincide con il venticinquesimo compleanno della loro carriera, il cui esordio risale al 1986 con l’album Wonderland come nuova reincarnazione di Vince Clarke, che aveva alle spalle progetti come Yazoo, di recente riesumato in coppia con Alison Moyet, e Depeche Mode su tutti. «Se si vanno a contare le band di musica elettronica in classifica fra gli anni 80 e l'inizio dei 90, non ce n'erano molte in realtà. Oggi sono il 90%. Trovo la nuova scena elettronica emozionante, ma non parlerei di nostalgia solo perché si suonano dei sintetizzatori come allora» afferma Vince Clarke, che in 25 anni con gli Erasure ha centrato 40 hit single e venduto 25 milioni di dischi.
Registrato tra Londra, New York, Los Angeles e il Maine, dove oggi vive Clarke, e anticipato dal singolo When I start to (Break it all down), Tomorrow’s World arriva a quattro anni dal precedente album di studio The light at the end of the world ed è stato prodotto da Frankmusic, nuovo pupillo della scena dance, già al servizio di Ellie Goulding, Lady Gaga e Pet Shop Boys. «Abbiamo scelto lui perché ha un approccio diverso alla musica, lavora ai synth con una sensibilità unica. Produce un suono molto più intenso e pieno del nostro, un vero e proprio wall of sound. Nei passati album tendevamo invece ad avere un atteggiamento più minimal. Credo che Tomorrow’s World sia un buon compromesso fra suoni analogici e synth, si avvicina molto a lavori come Erasure, del 1995, e Loveboat mescolati insieme a Chorus».
Alla tournée attualmente in Usa con Frankmusic, segue il tour che fino a fine novembre porta gli Erasure nei teatri e club europei.
I guess you could say that Blondie have a very street-wise glamour but they're also a band for romantics. Are you a romantic person at heart?
DH: Personally? Hmmmm. I don't know. I probably have a good imagination but I don't know if I'm a true romantic. But I do like romance. I don't know, it's a word that's been so mistreated. I mean, what is romance?
As I've only heard three of the songs off the album I had to make some guesses about the other tracks based on title alone. Does 'D-Day' stand for 'Debbie-Day'?
DH: YES! [punches air] But I really wrote it because I thought, if I play it over here it will be like [blows air through lips] … you know… it'll go down really well.
And there's 'The End, The End'. Now I'm kind of hoping this isn't The Doors song played twice in a row.
DH: That was a collaborative effort with this guy Ben Phillips and he had this idea about finding someone that you wanted to be with until the very end. So I guess that is a very romantic idea. He gave me this idea of what it was about and then we fleshed out the lyrics.
'Wipe Off My Sweat' sounds rather saucy…
DH: That's because it is [laughs]. It's in Spanish: 'Kiss me, kiss me, she has a tattoo on her skin where only he can see it…' And then when they're dancing she says: 'Kiss me, wipe off my sweat, don't stop, don't stop for anything.' It's simple and direct.
I'm also intrigued by the idea of 'China Shoes'.
DH: That's a ballad. Mid-tempo. It starts off, 'Cheap china shoes, tie on my feet, all man-made fabric worn out and beat, from pacing the floor, from walking the street. You fly over Brooklyn, back in a week.' So it's about someone leaving and you want them to come back. And then the chorus is, 'I left a note in the back page of your book, volumes away but it's worth a good look. Remember me, remember that you're mine, remember me when you get to the last line.'
You are a romantic! When I think of Blondie, I think of a pop group who had equals and contemporaries in the worlds of art, writing, photography, etc. I wonder if that's something that's missing from today's pop scene? How important was it for you to know people like William Burroughs and Andy Warhol?
DH: Really important. They were such great influences. It might be a little bit different in New York, because of the area — because everything is located so closely together and it's very easy to jump into the art world, to jump into the music scene, into the photography scene. It's all compacted together. Maybe that's why it happens. It seems kind of natural.
Do you think this concentration of people and ideas causes a continuum? When I think of The Velvet Underground I can see that there are clear lines through to Television, Suicide, Blondie, Sonic Youth…
DH: Yeah. Oh yeah. Well, I hope so…
Were The Velvet Underground still playing when you moved to New York?
DH: They were. Actually, the first time I saw them was one of the best shows I have ever seen. I didn't have a clue who they were. I used to go to this place — a big room called The Balloon Farm… [laughs] Well, it was the psychedelic period, right? So we went in this place, which was like a former Ukrainian nursing home, and it was The Velvet Underground playing live with Nico. The stage set and colours were designed by Andy Warhol who was also doing the lights. It was beautiful. And you know, Moe Tucker on drums was fucking great. And you could just wander in and watch them.
In a way you got the whole drug thing out of your system before you started Blondie. I was wondering how you got into heroin — was it just that there was a lot of it about?
DH: It was the time. It was all over the place. At first we felt that it might have been political [to take heroin]. Yeah, I know… [giggles and shakes head] It was everywhere and it really had a lot to do with the end of Vietnam and the fallout from that. What's that airline they talk about bringing everything in on? Air America. That's how the junk came in. It was very noticeable; it was everywhere.
A hundred and fifty years before Blondie, the popular perception of anyone female singing for their supper would have been that she was a prostitute. Do you think the music industry has ever got past seeing its female talent in terms different to commodities that could be sold or traded with?
DH: We are all commodities and I don't think it's necessarily just women. That was the game, you know? It outlived itself, didn't it?
Do you feel more in control now that the music industry is shrinking rapidly and is pretty much crippled in comparison to the monolithic thing that it used to be?
DH: No. No. Not necessarily. I mean, commerce and art have always had difficulties co-existing from the very beginning. I'm sure there were problems back when they were building the pyramids. I feel, perhaps, under the same amount of pressure to write another 'Heart Of Glass'. We're more in control of the creative end, yes, but it's not really fair for us because we've been around for a while and I think we have our thing figured out. And if we make a Blondie album we make a Blondie album. You know what that is. We've done our experimentation, basically. We've set up a framework that has a broad field of reference musically and we play with that. That is what our format is. The industry makes it hard to get a record out. It's like that for everyone. I mean, how many big artists are there? There are 10 or 20 major artists out there now and those are the ones who have big record deals.
You've said that the Plastic Letters album was about death. I was wondering how you dealing with Chris's illness in 1983 affected your view of your own mortality?
DH: I think that, up until that time, I had a lot of what you would call 'childish ways' and then the idea of taking complete responsibility for my life and not seeing it as just sheer fate or luck really hit home. Then, BAM! I knew death. I knew it right then. And I think everyone should know it. Everyone should know it, because we aren't really taught that, are we? We're not taught it and it's the total truth. I don't really want to talk about Chris getting ill today, but there are a few pictures of the last tour we did [in 1982] that I saw recently. I hadn't really seen them for a long, long time and I was so shocked. He must have gone down to 120lbs. It was just… horrible.
I guess you must get asked this quite a lot, but I'm interested in knowing what you put the bond between you and Chris down to. Because it is a very strong bond that transcends physical relationships. It goes beyond that.
DH: Yeah, it does. I think we just had a meeting of the minds…. Maybe it's because we've both got such accepting natures and we have a lot of room for a lot of different kinds of people and different dispositions and things like that. We both have a temper, though.
What do you think would have happened if you had changed the band's name to Adolf Hitler's Dog?
DH: The label would have dropped us. I loved that name, though. It's really funny, isn't it? Do you want to help me finish this salad?
This article originally appeared in The Stool Pigeon. For all things Pigeon, go here
(ANSA) - ROMA - David Sylvian annuncia un tour europeo nel marzo 2012, la prima serie di concerti per l'artista dal 2007. Intitolata ''Implausible Beauty'', la tournee' prevede quattro appuntamenti in Italia: il 1 marzo al Gran Teatro Geox di Padova, il 2 al Conservatorio di Milano, il 4 all'Auditorium Parco della Musica in Roma e il 5 al Teatro delle Celebrazioni di Bologna. I biglietti per i concerti italiani, organizzati da Barley Arts, saranno in vendita da venerdi' 23 Settembre. Per le date a Padova, Milano e Bologna le prevendite sono sul sito Ticketone.it e nei punti vendita connessi; per quanto riguarda Roma, nel circuito Lottomatica (Listicket.it). David Sylvian, idolo pop a cavallo degli anni '80 con i suoi Japan e in seguito artista dalla poetica complessa, ha continuato a coltivare un percorso talvolta lontano dalle logiche di consumo del mercato musicale, ma sempre di altissimo livello artistico. Album come ''Gone To Earth'' e ''Secrets of the Beehive'', composti all'inizio della sua carriera solista, sono attuali tanto quanto i progetti ''Rain Tree Crow'', sostanzialmente una reunion dei Japan in chiave adulta all'inizio degli anni '90, e ''Nine Horses'' del 2005, sempre a fianco del fratello Steve Jansen, passando per ''Dead Bees on A Cake'', fino alle piu' recenti sperimentazioni sonore con vari collaboratori di musica contemporanea, fra i quali Ryuichi Sakamoto (gia' suo compagno musicale in varie occasioni), Masakatzu Takagi e Dai Fujikura, il musicista elettronico austriaco Christian Fennesz e altri, sfociate in ''Blemish'', ''Manafon'' e nel piu' recente ''Died In The Wool '', il suo lavoro piu' recente, uscito nel maggio 2011.
In a feature that originally appeared in The Stool Pigeon, John Doran talks to Debbie Harry about the history of Blondie, heroin, reggae and New York City. Debbie Harry photographed by Rebecca Miller.
Unusually for a bona fide pop icon, Debbie Harry was already 33 when Blondie released their UK breakthrough album Parallel Lines in 1978, and had even turned 34 when 'Heart Of Glass' was a colossal debut hit in the US a year later. In pop terms, the dynamic core of the group — Harry and her then boyfriend, the guitarist Chris Stein — were already neighing skittishly in the shadow of the glue factory when they hit paydirt. And this ascent to fame goes from being improbable to downright astonishing when you cast your eye over Harry's full CV. It seems unlikely that anyone attempting to tread in her footsteps would have any kind of life left to live by their mid-thirties.
Born on July 1, 1945 in Florida to parents who gave her up for adoption, Debbie Harry grew up in suburban Jersey, where she spent her time formulating plans of escape and daydreaming that Marilyn Monroe was her biological mother. In 1965 she moved to New York City, clicking naturally with the bohemian set, and joined the whimsical folk rock group The Wind In The Willows. Their one album on Capitol, released in 1968, was produced by Artie Kornfeld, who was determined to earn some of that hippy dollar. The year after the record flopped, he got his wish, becoming the musical booker for Woodstock. Harry, meanwhile, became a barmaid at Max's Kansas City in Manhattan where she met Andy Warhol and his retinue, served drinks to Janis Joplin and had sex with glam rocker Eric Emerson in a phone booth.
As the 60s began to sour, so did her experiences. She got hooked on heroin. She married a millionaire but left him a few months later. She became a Playboy Bunny. She moved into a Harlem drug den with a dealer and his armed gang. She eventually crawled out of New York, her life in shreds, only to get lured back by the advent of glam rock. Inspired by hanging out with the New York Dolls at the Mercer Arts Center she ended up forming her own group, The Stilettos, in 1972. A year later Stein watched the group and was so impressed he ended up joining. Although they never made it, this band were essentially part of New York punk's first wave along with other CBGB's house acts Television, Suicide and Wayne County. In 1974 Harry and Stein quit to start afresh and what was originally Angel And The Snakes became Blondie; the nomenclature derived from the name that lascivious New York drivers yelled out of their car windows at her.
They were not overnight sensations. Many rough edges needed to be sanded off before they became household names. By the time they released their first single in June 1976, the live song 'Sex Offender' became the 7" 'X Offender', for example. But Blondie were never going to fit into the narrow punk orthodoxy. Like The Clash, they were part of rock'n'roll's lineage, reflected by their nods to 50s culture and their dalliances with multiple new and classic forms of pop music, unconcerned if it made them look like dilettantes or not. And the rest of their music? Well, they barely released a bad single during their original seven-year existence, from the serrated punk of 'Rip Her To Shreds' and the clipped new wave of 'Denis' to the downtown disco hip hop of 'Rapture' and the shiny calypso reggae of 'The Tide Is High' via the unimpeachable pop statements of 'Union City Blue' and 'Atomic'.
Despite clearly possessing pop genius, the group were often dismissed as 'mere' teeny boppers and have never really garnered the kind of critical plaudits that might have been theirs had they looked like dough-faced brewers from Carlisle and sung about signing on. Harry, in particular, was always at pains to point out in interviews that Blondie were a group, rather than just her with a backing band, and after finding out that they shared a name with the favourite pet of the 20th Century's most reviled dictator, they threatened to change their name to Adolf Hitler's Dog by means of protest.
Toward the tail end of the group, heroin reared its ugly head again and the band fizzled out in 1982. Then, the following year, Stein was laid up by the life-threatening and rare autoimmune disease pemphigus. Blondie gave way to make room for his recuperation and Harry's solo career.
Although no longer a couple, Harry and Stein still share an intense bond — she is godmother to his two daughters — and they still work together continuously. This year the Blondie name has been revived once again for the pair (along with original drummer Clem Burke and newer recruits) to release their ninth album, Panic Of Girls. We join her for lunch to talk heroin, New York and why we should be taught about death at an early age.
I've enjoyed listening to the three songs I've heard from the new album and I was blown away by how modern it sounds. But then I guess Blondie has always had a very close relationship with current trends in dance music. Debbie Harry: Yeah, we've always been very urban.
Is a Panic Of Girls a collective noun — you know, like a pride of lions? DH: [laughs] A panic. Yeah. I hadn't thought of that.
What does the title refer to, joking aside? DH: It's a line from one of the songs, which is about a street person who is predicting the end of the world. It's something that came out as just a rhyming line but, I don't know, it just seemed great when I said it.
The character of the mother doesn't really crop up in rock & roll that much but she seems to appear in your songs quite a lot. DH: Really? You think so?
In 'Hanging On The Telephone'. In 'Golden Rod'. In 'Mother' on this album… DH: Oh, mother, right. Well, Jack Lee [of The Nerves] wrote that ['Hanging On The Telephone'], so we can't be held responsible. Mother used to be a club in New York that I loved going to. It was the kind of place where they would have a theme and you would have to dress accordingly or you wouldn't get in. It was a really great fun night for me on a Tuesday. It was mainly people from the city — it wouldn't be like a Bridge and Tunnel thing. There was a good bar that you could drink in, another room with a dancefloor and stage where they put on shows… I performed in some of them. It was an off-the-wall kind of joint. There was also a basement with other music and video screens that had these loops playing that [visual artist] Rob Roth used to make up. When they closed I was sort of, 'Wow! What am I going to do on a Tuesday night now?'
Do you still live in New York? DH: Uh huh.
When I think of New York in the late 70s and early 80s, I think of Blondie as being a quintessential band for the time and place; that you would have fitted in, in all the different New York strata — uptown, downtown, rich, poor, arty, punk rock, disco, hip hop. DH: Uh huh. [Her nouvelle cuisine-sized meal arrives. She eyes the waiter sternly.] That's it? [sighs] Do you want some of this?
No, I'm good thanks. When you first moved to New York around the time you first started working in Max's, what was the city like?
DH: I guess it was not as crowded as it is now; not so many new apartment buildings in it, and a lot of old buildings. The rents were low. The city government was bankrupt. There were always strikes. It was kind of great — chaotic and dangerous.
Did it feel like the artistic spirit of New York was very accessible? Because didn't you meet Andy Warhol and the Factory crowd quite easily? DH: It was a small world, basically. It was an enclave. The Downtown world really meant something. I think it's always going to be like that because it's such a small area. Everyone in New York is forced to know each other. There are new apartment buildings that have increased the population and a lot of people that would normally have moved to a nicer area at one time can now live downtown and be comfortable in a nice apartment, whereas it used to be just flats and brownstones and tenements. So that nature of it has all changed.
Do you think that 'zero tolerance' changed the musical spirit of the city? DH: 'Zero tolerance'?
When I first went to New York, it was in 1992 and I didn't go back for over 10 years. In the intervening time, something happened — the city felt safer but it had also changed in negative ways as well. I can only speak as a tourist. DH: It felt like Cleveland or Cincinnati, right? You know, I feel the same way about it.
Can I ask why you chose to cover Sophia George's 'Girlie Girlie' for the album? DH: It's a great song. I don't think it was ever played in the States. But it was a big hit in the UK, right?
I must admit, until I heard your version I'd always presumed that the Sophia George was criticising a male suitor for being too camp: “Young man, you're too girlie girlie." I didn't listen very carefully. DH: [laughs]
Obviously given this and 'The Tide Is High', you're no stranger to reggae. Did you ever go to Jamaica? DH: No! I hate the Caribbean! I like the music but I hate the islands. I just don't like them.
Too hot? Too girlie girlie?DH: There are a couple of reasons. I don't really like being on an island that's that small and I don't really like the separation between the people who live there and the people who go there. That really disturbs me.
You're advised to stay within the compound of your hotel and not go wandering around Trenchtown, or wherever, on your own, right? DH: Yeah. Part of the reason I would want to visit a place like that would be the religion and the churches — the local culture. As you say, you're not really encouraged to move beyond your boundaries.
What was your introduction to reggae like? Where did it come from? DH: Hmmmm, I don't know exactly. I think I'd been hearing it for a long time. But I know that Chris came to London when there was a big reggae scene. I think it was in 1972 and when he came back he was really high on this reggae groove…Do you want some of this salad?
No thanks. On 'Girlie Girlie', I love the fact that there's a diss on there to a woman who sells cigarettes on a roundabout. Amazing. But talking of the song's wayward ways, are you a monogamist and have you always been? DH: A monogamist? Mmm. Ha ha ha! I guess I have been. Dating is such a drag, don't you think? It gets really horrible and complicated. I have gone out with different guys at the same time but that was a long time ago. But now I just have friends so it's not quite the same, but it gets really complicated. Doesn't it?
"White Elephant" appears on Ladytron's forthcoming full length album, Gravity The Seducer, in stores September 12 (UK) / September 13 (US). Hear more music from Gravity The Seducer: http://snd.sc/kavzOy
Reserve your copy of Gravity The Seducer:
iTunes: http://www.itunes.com/ladytron CD on Amazon (US): http://amzn.to/jgX0q1 LP on Amazon (US): http://amzn.to/kXihkK Signed CD (Euro): http://bit.ly/nN8zgE Signed LP (Euro): http://bit.ly/pcCX7X CD on Amazon (Euro): http://amzn.to/n1D2BT LP on Amazon (Euro): http://amzn.to/r89D7F
Pazzi, altro che spiagge affollate, creme solari e beach-volley...Questo weekend prendete il primo volo per Londra a celebrare musica, moda, cultura e design degli anni '80 (ma non solo). Tra gli artisti eighties-wave presenti: Adam Ant, Thomas Dolby, Alan Wilder (ex Depeche Mode), Mirrors...
Vintage Festival 2011 will be taking place over the Friday 29th until Sunday 31st July at a new home at London's Southbank Centre. The 21 acre South Bank site will be transformed into a Vintage wonderland.All the wonderful clubs, bands, fashions, art, and design, film, shops, vintage retailers, dance lessons, makeovers, workshops that made Vintage 2010 so memorable will be there along with some cool new Thames boat party surprises.This annual family friendly music and fashion led celebration of creative British cool from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s & 80s. The festival will feature music, fashion, art and design, film, comedy, burlesque, and food.
Line-upAdam Ant, Thomas Dolby, Robin Gibb, Percy Sledge, Sandie Shaw, Alan Wilder, Mirrors, Booker T., David McAlmont, The Jim Jones Revue, Andrej Havelka & His Melody Makers, John Miller Orchestra, The Jive Aces, Fargo, Trio Manouche, DC Fontana, Dr Robert, Chris Dale, Speed and Pid, George Power, Norman Jay, Terry Farley, Jay Strongman, Mike Pickering, Graeme Park, A Guy Called Gerald, Craig Charles, Jon Da Silva, Greg Wilson, Noel Watson, Sean Rowley, Ashley Beedle, Horse Meat Disco, Disco Bloodbath DJs, and many more. For the line-up details as available please click here.
TicketsTickets for Friday, Saturday or Sunday are priced at £60, with a day + Vintage revue show pass priced from £75. To buy tickets, click here.The festival will be housed in The Royal Festival Hall, The Hayward Gallery, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room, The British Film Institute, the shops, restaurants and bars and the Thames Embankment itself.Vintage on the South Bank features an inspirational line-up of world renowned bands, DJs, collectors from each decade as well as current bands and brands inspired by Britain's rich creative heritage.
Vintage will feature a line-up of catwalk shows, hands on creative experiences with a gathering of over 200 of the finest purveyors of vintage clothing, accessories, and homewares in a Vintage Marketplace running for hundreds of metres along The Thames.Visitors can have their hair + make up done in a iconic style, can take part in fashion, design and art workshops and the best dressed get their chance to strut their stuff on the Vintage Catwalk.By night the whole of the Southbank complex will be transformed into a series of evocative set dressed venues, complimented by a flotilla of party boats, cruising The Thames on a summer evening specialising in genres from funk, to electro swing.The British Film Institute will also host three days of 20th century classic and iconic movies, Public Information films and documentaries.Vintage at Goodwood is the brainchild of designers Gerardine and Wayne Hemingway. The South Bank is this year also celebrating the 60th anniversary of the 1951 Festival of Britain.More information will be here when available.
For the last 30 years or so, goth has been the most durable of musical genres. Loved and ridiculed in equal measure, in its refusal to die it has come to resemble any number of vampire movies where the antagonist simply cannot be stopped despite all manner of stakes, garlic and crucifixes. Yet bizarrely, as it came to mutate over the decades to cross-pollinate with any number of other genres – techno, industrial and metal have all felt the chill hand of goth resting on their shoulders – several of its key players have come to reject the genre like a parent disinheriting an errant child. The Sisters Of Mercy’s Andrew Eldritch will flee from the word with the haste of a bloodsucker making its way back to its coffin before the first rays of the rising sun, while The Cure’s Robert Smith is probably too cuddly to qualify as one despite a following that suggests otherwise. Not so Peter Murphy. The erstwhile Bauhaus vocalist – sharp of cheek and pouting of lip – is only to happy to admit to his part in goth’s formation. Combining sacrilegious and blasphemous subject matter with S&M imagery and a high sense of camp and drama, Bauhaus were one of the first bands to use punk as a launchpad to somewhere else. Their brief reign of terror lasted less than five years but the imprint they left behind is still visible to this very day.
Now based in Istanbul, Murphy has just released his ninth solo album entitled, er… Ninth. Soon to be touring the States, Murphy returns to Europe after the summer, just in time for those long evenings to start drawing in…
From your vantage point of a lifetime of experience, how do you view the younger version of yourself who was just starting out in Bauhaus?
Peter Murphy: Well, with all modesty, when I think back, when we started writing songs in that mobile classroom I knew that I’d made it already. I remember everything because I have an elephant’s memory, and my memories of our farewell show in ’83 [at Hammersmith Palais] are particularly vivid and quite personal, in a sense. Having burnt our fires around the world, I was burnt out, really.
Can you remember what the catalyst was that moved you into music?
PM: From early on, I would whistle. I was more vocal than intellectual at school. I remember always whistling on that dreary walk to school, and there was music everywhere in my Catholic school. But there was music at home, too - more vocal music in a sense, but what really grabbed me was when I watched cheesy television shows like The Golden Shot and they’d always have these visiting stars singing a song here and there. And I used to think, 'I can do that!' I don’t know where that came from, but when I was at a concert I always knew that I’d rather be onstage than being down in the audience. But there was pivotal moment when I was about 14, and we were driving home from seeing relatives. It was night time and I was nodding off on the back seat with my head in my arms, and I just shot up with a great sense of urgency and said, 'I’m going to be a singer!' And that was that. They just turned round and said, 'Right. Go back to sleep.'
How important was the high drama of Catholicism, such as Masses, to the development of Bauhaus stage act?
PM: Tangentially, [guitarist] Daniel Ash and I were the Catholics and the other two [bassist David J and drummer Kevin Haskins] were the miserable, selfish Church of England heathens. When we first started touring, Daniel and I would stay in a bed and breakfast and their parents got them hotels. It was really pathetic. Daniel and I brought the psychodrama to the band, and I would exorcise a lot of that repressed psychodrama that had been left over from Catholicism. Personally, I used to really enjoy Mass and the hymns and there was a great contemplation of the Anti-Christ. I really enjoyed it but I also wanted a shag, which is why I went into a band, I guess. My passion, really - which came out in the first album, In The Flat Field - was escaping the flat fields of the mundane; the escape from the working class ghetto of the 'jobs for life' mentally and its forced ignorance. That reflected in the Church’s idea of hierarchical supremacy where the priests would say, 'Listen to me. We mediate between you and God; you just get on with it.' There was a lot of that that came out in the music.
The Tapeaters, named after a naughty tape recorder, is a Russian electro pop / electro funk duo formed in 2009 by Vadim (vocals, gtr., synths ) and Dmitri (synths, talkbox). The Tapeaters’ sound is formed by the warmth of vintage synths, funky vibes, layered airy vocals and talkbox combined together. The band first got noticed in september, 2009 after the release of their first EP ‘Keep on Dancing’. This record was a combination of 7 tracks with catchy melodies, bouncy groves and the atmosphere of a slightly melancholic happiness. The title track ‘Keep on dancing’ still remains the most listened to. Inspired by positive feedback The Tapeaters didn’t wait long and released their second EP ‘Watch your Step’ in november. In 2010 The Tapeaters toured Russia, Ukraine, Belorussia and played at the biggest russian music festival alongside The Horrors, Pantha Du Prince, Autokratz and many more. This experience proved that the band is great both on records and live. This was also the year when the collaboration between The Tapeaters and the Colombian design agency Monocromo began. The brilliant designers brought the band’s visual concept to a new level by working on the concept for the releases, their cover art for the releases and the website. Later that year the band signed a record deal with a Boston based label OMG! Recordings. The first single ‘Oh My’ was released in august with remixes from Moscow producer Kimouts and Boston duo Nightriders, and was named in the 10 must hear indie-dance tracks on Beatport. It was followed by ‘Satellite’, that contained a dreamy funky original track and incredible remixes from Lifelike, Xinobi and Ghosts of Venice. Two weeks later The Tapeaters released their debut album ‘Visions’, consisting of 13 tracks. The Tapeaters are working on their second LP.
Let's find out the differences between the look of the 2009 Patrick Wolf's video "Hard Times" and old cult "Fade to grey" by Steve Strange's Visage...80's never die!
Forse non tutti sanno che i Blow Monkeys si son riuniti (o riformati, che dir si voglia) nel 2008 fino a pubblicare un album a gennaio 2011...Qui trovate la loro biografia: http://www.theblowmonkeys.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=61&Itemid=260. La notizia più recente è che parteciperanno al popolare Guilfest di Guilford (nel Surrey inglese), dal 15 al 17 luglio, con altre reunion-band quali gli Echo and the Bunnymen, Adam Ant, oltre ai sempreverdi Erasure. Se volete fare un salto (di Manica), qui il cartellone: http://www.guilfest.co.uk/index.php. Di seguito l'hit che ha reso famosi i BM negli '80, "Digging Your Scene" e "Steppin' Down", tra gli ultimi sorprendenti single dei giorni nostri.
The remaining Live CD recordings of Simple Minds at Bedgebury Pinetum & Forest, Hampton Court Palace and Cannock Chase Forest are selling out fast! For your chance to get these CDs, before they are all snapped up, follow the link below to the special Concert Live page. Click here for the Live CD'sClick here to listen to snippets of the songs right now.
Some tickets are still available for the shows below:
During the 1980s, Mute was a remarkable Janus of a record label, looking on one side towards the electronic experimentation in releases via Diamanda Galas, Einsturzende Neubauten, NON and Laibach, and on the other to the furthering of synthpop via Erasure and Depeche Mode. Erasure, though, were never mere two-dimensional synth chart toppers - instead, their history is full not only of sublime catchy one-off singles like 'Who Needs Love Like That?', 'Ship Of Fools' and 'Love To Hate You', but terrific albums (especially The Innocents, Wonderland and The Circus, and camp, theatrical stage performances that were a high water mark in 80s pop's fight against that decade's conservatism. It's no surprise, then, that Andy Bell's Baker's Dozen selection is a list of very classy pop stretching from post punk (Blondie, Talking Heads, Siouxie & The Banshees), electronic pioneers (The Human League, Japan, Yazoo), including Lene Lovich, Donna Summer, Kirsty MacColl and Kate Bush, before coming up to date with Ladytron and Miss Kittin & The Hacker. Hit the image below to explore Andy Bell's choices, and his reasons for the selections.
Blondie - Plastic Letters Already their second studio album, they had scored hit singles with 'Denis Denis' (I first heard that on my Grandad's window cleaning round) and the sublime 'I'm Always Touched By Your (Presence Dear)', still one of my favourites to this very day. As a whole album, it sounds like a spy movie soundtrack with 'Contact In Red Square' and 'Kidnapper'. Highlights for me include 'I'm On E' and 'Love At The Pier'. The very definition of late 70s New York pop art and punk glamour; Deborah Harry, for me, will remain forever the Queen of New Wave.
Lene Lovich - Flex I became an instant fan of Lene's after the quirky chart hits 'Lucky Number' and 'Say When', I quickly became a fan of the Stiff Label's Roster through Lene and Madness and Kirsty MacColl. This was her second studio album, completely bonkers but as soon as I heard ‘Bird Song’ on the radio I rushed out to buy the 12 inch and subsequently the EP 'You Can't Kill Me' and the album flex. 'Angels', the second single, reminds me of Del Shannon's 'Run Away' and I remember reading that the weird album cover was shot inside a vat at the Guinness factory; I suppose it could be described as a Buddhist album. We were later on to meet and collaborate with Lene on don't 'Kill The Animal's', a song for PETA.
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Kaleidoscope I had been a rather reluctant punk as a teenager, finding the whole movement too aggressive for a Peterborough gay boy, so this I suppose more commercial offering from Siouxsie was much more up my street - and consequently, as with all my favourite teen angst albums, I learnt all of the songs inside out and backwards. Siouxsie has an incredible voice and was one of my first live concerts, alongside Joe Jackson. We were later to bump into her at Sire Records in NYC but I was too nervous and shy too say 'Hi'.
Talking Heads - Remain In Light The likes of which I had never heard before - white soul boy funk - it was a great album for a party soundtrack and hash joints. I just love the mad percussion and pseudo African backing vocals, though I don't have a clue what Mr. Byrne is singing about.
The B-52s - The B-52s Obviously we gravitate to those we love, and I suppose the B52's did all the groundwork for the campy disco rock a la Scissor Sisters that followed decades later. They are true originals and may have been the soundtrack to a John Water's movie. I lost count of the amount of times I danced to ‘Rock Lobster’ and tried to learn the who's who list of names on 52 Girls. The brilliant thing about being a pop musician is that you get to meet all of your teen idols. We toured with The B52's and I stayed in Woodstook at Kate Pierson's Lazy Meadow's Silver-line Caravan site, where I consequently felt the drums of an Indian pow wow coming up through the water of the river through my feet (which I often hear on the intro to ‘A Little Respect’ but it isn’t actually part of the music… spooky!).
Kate Bush - This Woman's Work Volume One Part of a deluxe boxed set of Kate's work right up until Experiment IV, the woman is an absolute genius and I just love this collection of B-sides, Christmas singles etc. 'Under The Ivy' and 'The Empty Bullrin'’ just break my heart. I love Kate's vocals laid bare, often better than the finished studio versions - just piano and her. Also, please check out the bootleg Cathy's Home Demos: it's staggering. It’s worth the price simply for ‘December Will Be Magic Again’ and ‘Lord Of The Reedy River’ (which I didn't realise was a Donovan song). I am haunted by Kate's opening line "I fell In Love With a Swan", that's where the swan bike for 'Phantasmagorical Entertainment' came from and, of course, 'Ride A White Swan' by Mr Bolan.
Kirsty MacColl - Kite The most undersung songwriting genius ever in British pop. I had the privilege of hanging out with Kirtsy on a number of occasions and I have to say, she was the bomb. We usually got into trouble somewhere along the line. She couldn't understand why she wasn't more popular and nether could I, but this album kinds of explains it really. Songs like '15 Minutes'… she kinda knew that pop would eat itself, and she was too talented and beautiful for the fickle superficial pop world. 'Don't Come The Cowboy With Me Sonny Jim' needs to be covered by a mega country artist. The backing vocals on 'Dancing In Limbo' are sublime and 'Le Foret De Mimosa' makes me cry.
Ladytron - 604 Sounds like a post Chernobyl Fallout album very similar musically to early Lene & Pet Shops. I love 'The Way That I Found You', 'Commodore Rock' and 'Playgirl'. I don't know what it is about them but I love her voice and dead pan delivery - there's a hint of 60's Lynne Redgrave from Smashing Time & loads of mid 80's references. Which leads me neatly to...
The Human League - Dare What a fucking record! If you hadn't been introduced to synthesisers via Kraftwerk or Soft Cell, then this was the album that would do it. This was another that became the soundtrack to my teenage life. Knew it inside out and what a relief that boys could finally wear makeup. There's not one dud track on here and the non-singles are best, except 'Love Action', which is pure class. The League are the reason that electronic music has been kept alive.
Miss Kittin & The Hacker - First Album I first heard 'Frank Sinatra' when Erasure where recording the album Erasure in 1994 at the Strongroom in Shoreditch East London, which has now become metrosexual electro Grand Central. I love her completely nonchalant don't give a fuck attitude on Hollywood Star, it kind of reminds me of my pre-Erasure work with Pierre Cope - very minimal. On 'Frank Sinatra' she sounds like a Russian Mafia gangster that would kill you stone dead. They're also brilliant live.
Yazoo - Upstairs At Eric's This is when I fell in love with the genius Mr. Clarke & Alison's amazing voice. I could see why they thought she was a black gospel singer in the Detroit/Chicago House clubs. 'I Before E Except After C' kinda fucks your head up, and it's very indicative of what it's like to work with Vince. 'Winter Kills' is bleak and heart bracingly sublime all at the same time.
Japan - Quiet Life 'Quiet Life' is one of the most beautiful tracks Giorgio Moroder ever created, and together with the voice of the uber-glamourous Dave Sylvian, is like heaven on a stick. The cover of 'All Tomorrow's Parties', dare I say, is better than the original.
Donna Summer - Once Upon A Time Speaking of Giorgio Moroder, you have to give it to the guy. What a brilliant team, him and Donna. From the very opening 'Once Upon A Time’, this is a kind of a mini-musical and completely sums up the studio 54 NYC disco era in one fell swoop. This record could actually turn a straight man gay - especially the trilogy 'Now I Need You', 'Working The Midnight Shift' and 'Queen For A Day' It must have cost an absolute fortune to record with all the brass and string arrangements, but this is Donna at her absolute post 'I Feel Love' best. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall.
"Memories fade but the scars still linger,
I cannot grow,
I cannot move,
I cannot fell my age,
The vice like grip of tension holds me fast,
Engulfed by you,
What can I do,
When history’s my cage...
Look foward to a future in the past".
