Tag: Ladytron (Page 3 of 8)

FRAGILE SELF Fragile Self

“Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness”: Sigmund Freud

Exploring states of mind from madness to creativity, FRAGILE SELF are a minimal electronic duo aiming to create dark pop music to communicate the detachment often felt within the human condition.

Anil Aykan and Jonathan Barnbrook are FRAGILE SELF, thoughtful visual artists with a strong sense of partnership in music through their previous work with personalities as diverse as David Bowie, John Foxx, Hannah Peel and Rihanna.

Like a musical thesis on psychotherapy, the self-titled album is released on the 120th anniversary of the first publication of ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’ by Sigmund Freud.

Aykan had an early flirtation with Black Metal with her handling the poetry, she comes over like an existentialist cross between MISS KITTIN and Mira Aroyo of LADYTRON which suits the brooding and ritualistic exploration that is FRAGILE SELF.

Mixed by Erland Cooper and shaped by modular synthesis, Jonathan Barnbrook said ”The thing that interests me most about it is the changing of electronic voltage that affects pitch, timbre and time. It is like you are playing with the building blocks of the universe. The same thing that makes the sound of drum, drives the human heart to beat or fires neutrons in the brain that define consciousness.”

With an incessant mechanical rhythm and stark vocal phrasing, the opener ‘I Loved Alone’ takes on the fierce aura of GAZELLE TWIN and a detached expression of feeling within the language.

Beginning with a recorded quote from Fritz Perls who coined the term ‘Gestalt therapy’, ‘This Is My Existence’ is brutal with Aykan exclaiming “memory is cancer”, Barnbrook’s doomily emulates his hero John Foxx with an eerie synth theme over a minimal structure.

The art funk of ‘Bertha’ is mutantly danceable, the deadpan vocalisation does recall MISS KITTIN but compliments the stark electronic backing, especially when Aykan percussively slips into German to recall the attitude of Berlin punks MALARIA!

The eponymous title track squelches with bass rumbles and electronic chainsaws while ‘Patients’ does possess some unsettling rhythmic fervour in a white noise barrage and talk of “broken histories” before going aggressively militaristic.

The noise attack on ‘Deperson’ is the darkest track on ‘Fragile Self’, swoops and gongs do battle over an industrial backbone in eine eintürzende Wand aus Tönen. The reverberant cerebral concept piece ‘Surrogate’ hints at Wendy Carlos and dark Jean-Michel Jarre; aesthetically schizophrenic, it is also something which also shapes the sinister arpeggio and chant laden ‘Leon’.

A syncussive pulse soundtracks the horror mood of ‘Need For Sanctuary’ with creepy Theremin-like qualities for a slice of vibrato laden avant-wave. ’Journey Taken’ though is a battle of machines in alternate quartet bursts in all frequencies before unsettlingly ending on the doom of church bells affirming Sartre’s view that “Hell is other people”.

The debut offering from FRAGILE SELF is an intense uneasy listen, but it is a well-crafted and yes, impeccably designed art statement. There’s aggression and agitation but it is aurally cathartic and rewarding.

So if the idea of MISS KITTIN collaborating with GAZELLE TWIN in an experimental electronic backdrop appeals, then this record will help highlight how “Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength”.


‘Fragile Self’ is released by Sugarcane Recordings / Daperson Society as a vinyl LP, CD and 480 page book with download code, available now direct from http://www.fragileself.com/vinylcdbookdownload

Download also available from https://fragileself.bandcamp.com/

http://www.fragileself.com

https://www.facebook.com/fragileself/

https://twitter.com/fragile_self

https://www.instagram.com/fragile_self/


Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Teri Varhol
11th November 2019

FRAGILE SELF Interview

Several years in the making, the first self-titled product from FRAGILE SELF is an ambitious statement on mental health and the human condition.

Released as a CD, vinyl album and a 480 page book which starts and ends with reconstructions of ‘before and after’ treatment for mental illness, the thoughtfully conceived project is the work of Anil Aykan and Jonathan Barnbrook.

The couple are best known for their iconic visual designs for DAVID BOWIE and JOHN FOXX. Among the subjects inspiring their music are Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis and Bertha Pappenheim, the first patient of psychotherapy.

While the music is by its nature, not an easy listen, over ten crafted electronic tracks, ‘Fragile Self’ is intense but ultimately compelling. Anil Aykan and Jonathan Barnbrook kindly chatted about their fragile selves…

How did FRAGILE SELF come about?

Jonathan: I love music, it’s the reason I design record covers, that emotional relationship between visuals and sound is something that has always fascinated me, so it got to the point where I felt that the next step to really push myself creatively was by controlling and experimenting with both music and visuals together.

Anil: FRAGILE SELF enabled me to communicate the things that are important to me, express parts of me which I believe others would find inadmissible. I have never had up until now a tool which has been so liberating. Even when I wasn’t actively making music I am inclined to sound; the expressive capacity of human voice; speaking words, tension in speech, muttered sentences, obsessively repeated words, speaking becomes singing… I always record or note down what I find interesting when I am on the bus or walk in the street.

The subject matter of the album – mental health is quite unusual, did you feel that electronic instrumentation was the most appropriate way to express this subject?

Anil: It is unusual subject matter, but I briefly studied Art Therapy, so I was naturally interested in the subject but the specific thing discussed in the songs is mental health in relation to creativity – how far do you go towards abnormality when you are being creative and at what point does it become madness? There is also the more classic side of the pain inherent in a love song. It is just that the love in the songs here is directed towards people who have mental disorders such as narcissism or borderline personality disorder. They are of course metaphors for any kinds of love though.

Jonathan: I’ve been obsessed with electronic music since about the age of 11. The thing that interests me most about it is the changing of electronic voltage that affects pitch, timbre and time. It is like you are playing with the building blocks of the universe. The same thing that makes the sound of drum, drives the human heart to beat or fires neutrons in the brain that define consciousness. Also you will guess of course, I share an interest with Anil in more unusual and extreme states of mind.

Who has influenced the music of FRAGILE SELF?

Anil: ‘Minimal Wave’ is a big influence, bands such as OPPENHEIMER ANALYSIS and DEUX. I also really like LADYTRON. COCTEAU TWINS are very important – not just because of the way Elizabeth Fraser uses her voice but also the way they played with language. English is not my first language so when I sing in English I feel I notice more the words as abstract sounds more – this is as important as the meaning of the lyrics I write.

Jonathan: You’ve probably guessed that I’m obsessed with JOHN FOXX, He creates quite experimental music but within the confines of ‘pop’ music and with a very singular view of the world, that’s inspiring for me. Also how could I not be influenced by Bowie, not just musically but also with the way he takes influences into his music from all areas of art.

Do you each have set roles?

Anil: I am responsible for all the lyrics and most of the melodies, drums etc, I used to be a drummer, so rhythm is very important to me.

Jonathan: I tend to centre more on the arrangements and sounds. I really like the technical side of electronic music, not just production but how you can for instance create complex sounds just using simple sine waves. I help a little on the words and also make some of the melodies, but the poetry and atmosphere are very much Anil.

You mention melodies, so is FRAGILE SELF very much ‘pop’ based as opposed to being experimental, because the ‘Minimal Wave’ sub-genre can be notorious for its lack of tunes?

Jonathan: It was important that the songs followed a traditional pop structure, but what we brought into that was quite avant-garde, be it sound generation or subject matter. So there is a lot of darkness and psychosis but it is contained within a format that we hope people find easy to access. Having said that after the album comes out we will be periodically releasing remixes – that are much more experimental which explore the psychology of the songs in a less structured form.

The inevitable question, have you gone the hardware or software route with FRAGILE SELF?

Jonathan: It’s interesting because we came to music from design, so we were very comfortable with using software for all of our creative works, however as we have progressed as FRAGILE SELF, particular on the later tracks, we have been using more and more hardware. Now we now have a huge Eurorack modular system which we experiment on a lot. A physical interface does make a real difference to the sounds you make and something generative like modular synthesis is really inspiring.

So as visual artists, how would you like to present your music?

Anil: For us the two absolutely go together, it’s not like we’ve finished the album and now it is onto the visual design. One influenced the other, the images changed the sounds we made, and the sounds had to have the exactly the right images to express them.

Jonathan: Actually It wasn’t like that in the beginning. Initially I was so desperate not to be dismissed as another “designer playing with his laptop”, that I didn’t want to do any visuals at all but it just developed naturally and we realised since we have control of the music and visuals this was the chance to do something quite pure, new and absolutely on our terms with the role the visuals had.

Anil: One of the album releases is a 480 page book and I think it is the best expression of FRAGILE SELF. It was a chance to show all of the influences on the songs, our thoughts around them. Where the lyrics are from. However we were quite careful not to say too often “this song is about this and this” but give a more poetic interpretation to give people room to create their own meaning and resonate in their own lives. That is very important.

The art funk of ‘Bertha’ interestingly utilises what sounds like a plucked sounding texture, how did the track come about?

Jonathan: There is a drastic change of sounds and rhythms throughout the song, I wanted to give it the feeling of classic German 1930s ‘cabaret’ like it was a theatrical event that you would see on stage where the performance would change melody or pace several times.

Anil: The song is about Bertha Pappenheim, one of the first patients of psychoanalysis, who was “treated” by Doctor Breuer and Freud. She was a highly intelligent and like all women at that time, she was repressed with no opportunity to be herself. She had a nervous breakdown at age 21 but emerged as a creative leader and social reformer eight years later. When I started making this song, I was in Istanbul, there must be an influence from being there. I think the best music scene of Turkey was the 70s funk that my father listened to. The juxtaposition of the heavy subject and funky groove just felt right for this song.

‘Patients’ does possess some unsettling rhythmic fervour?

Jonathan: The song uses lyrics taken out of a doctor’s handbook, so it was important that the singing had that unemotional, repetitive feeling that medical text has when dealing with things such as birth, death or madness. These are intense, hugely important events, but are treated in a very pragmatic way.

Anil: Our songs always start with a conversation between lyrics and drum beats – the emotion created between them and the way the change of rhythm can change the meaning. This is very different from the more conventional approach of drums providing a structure of the songs. To us they are everything, the melody and the development of the lyrics are usually a development or a variation of the rhythm.

To casual listeners, the deadpan vocalisation does recall MISS KITTIN but compliments the stark electronic backing throughout the album? Any thoughts?

Anil: I take your comment as a compliment! I find the tension between being very expressive with the voice and suppressing emotion in the voice really interesting. A lack of emotion can often just heighten the feeling when you are delivering lyrics which are full of pain or darkness. It can also have an interesting brutality which further pushes the emotion.

Jonathan: I love Anil’s voice. When we were recording the vocals it was very clear that Anil’s accent should come through. Meaning that if the words were not perfectly said, it added more authenticity about where Anil comes from and feeling to the songs. The accent and the deadpan vocals also the give the same feeling as when you hear NICO or GINA X PERFORMANCE – you immediately associate their accents with a certain dark psychology.

Which tracks are each your particular favourites on the album?

Jonathan: Well I really like the last 2 tracks, ‘Need For Sanctuary’ and ‘Journey Taken’, the way they end the album, they really do what I remember albums are supposed to do when you listen to them in their entirety – take you on a journey deeper into the psychology of the album. The dark sounds in particular on ’Need For Sanctuary’ are a sound palette I really love.

Anil: I like ‘Bertha’ – most because of the subject matter but also the sound. ‘Deperson’ is the most personal song on the album, after I recorded the lyrics I had to go out. When I was walking around I was still totally consumed by the music and the meaning of the words. I felt so alienated from my surroundings and saw the world in a very singular way. I think that is a good mark of creating a song that is honest and authentic.

Who do you think FRAGILE SELF will appeal to?

Jonathan: We don’t really know who the audience is, and in some ways it is important not to limit the project by worrying too much. Obviously there will be people who will be interested in the graphics work of the studio, but it is a serious attempt to show how visuals and music relate so we hope it will appeal to people outside that.

Anil: We might even get some psychotherapists interested too!

Is the concert aspect of presenting the work somewhere you would like to venture?

Anil: Definitely, we really want to see how people directly react to the music. Also being on stage and singing these songs is going to be a very emotional experience that I am keen to try.

Jonathan: It is another big project entirely though – how to translate all of this into a live form. Obviously people are expecting something visual from us on stage, so we are planning that right now, again something new and very exciting for us.


ELECTRICITY.CO.UK gives its grateful thanks to FRAGILE SELF

‘Fragile Self’ is released by Sugarcane Recordings / Daperson Society on 4th November 2019 as a vinyl LP, CD and 480 page book with download code, pre-order from http://www.fragileself.com/vinylcdbookdownload

Download also available from https://fragileself.bandcamp.com/

http://www.fragileself.com

https://www.facebook.com/fragileself/

https://twitter.com/fragile_self

https://www.instagram.com/fragile_self/


Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
2nd November 2019

KANGA Eternal Daughter

With the mix of the airy feel of MARSHEAUX and darker connotations of ZOLA JESUS, California based KANGA is no stranger to insidious sounds, having worked on the music for horror movies such as ‘Nightmare’, ‘The Devils Carnival II’, ‘Insidious III’, and ‘The Conjuring II’.

Kanga Duchamp creates an unforgettable symbiosis of hard and ethereal, wrapped in electronic soundscapes of Los Angeles.

She likes mixing pop into her darker electro roots, not because pop sells but because the good hooks make a good song.

Her 2016 self-titled album, featuring SKINNY PUPPY guitarist Matthew Setzer and mixed by Rhys Fulber of FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY, created a buzz that continues to fuel the energy pushing the Santa Ana artist out into the open with her new mini album ‘Eternal Daughter’.

As all good things come in small packages, and EPs as well as mini albums seem to capture the listeners’ attention more readily, KANGA decided to release a bite size provision, full of punchy tunes, which are leading her all the way to the Numan support slots.

‘Burn’ doesn’t disappoint from the onset, weaving in the elements of vintage LADYTRON alongside layered vocals a la Greek goddesses MARSHEAUX. All that wrapped around gritty synth, melodic hooks and a fast paced musicality.

None of that stops, with the Persian inspired sounds of ‘Daughter’. Here the bass is heavy, with cinematic progressions and very cleverly inserted metallic elements. The outcome is rather Numan-esque but somehow fresher and readier.

‘Run’ resembles the achievements of KANGA’s LA colleagues NIGHT CLUB, with the vocal similar of that of Emily Kavanaugh’s while ‘Cocaine’ fuels the electronic fire further with inspiration from the artist she often mentions in interviews and clearly takes a lot of musical advice from, NINE INCH NAILS. Their sound magician has clearly had a massive impact of KANGA’s musical direction, with many describing her as a “female Trent Reznor”.

The closing ‘Control’ is a coagulation of rough and ready eclectic mix of sounds, punctuated by melodic inserts, driven vocals and immediate femininity, bursting with energy and wielding the power of objectification.

With total musical freedom and steering clear from constricting pigeon holes, KANGA’s style is difficult to classify; it is supposed to be a darker electronica with popular music elements, but the outcome is so much more than that. She’s contemporary, unconventional and current, without being too quirky and audience limiting, self-indulgent to the point of becoming too niche.

KANGA is your new mainstream alternative and simply superb.


‘Eternal Daughter’ is available as a digital mini-album direct from https://kanga.bandcamp.com/

KANGA opens for Gary Numan on his (R)Evolution 40th Anniversary UK tour, further details can be found at https://garynuman.com/tours2/

https://www.facebook.com/kangakullt/

https://twitter.com/KANGAkult

https://www.instagram.com/k.a.n.g.a/


Text by Monika Izabela Trigwell
10th September 2019

RELIEF Futureproof

RELIEF is the project by Swedish instrumentalist Staffan Ericson who has most recently been a member of the mysteriously named LANDMARK 4:11.

While that project features vocals, RELIEF is retro-futuristic instrumental synthpop that uses samples from 50s commercials and Sci-Fi movies.

Recorded in Gothenburg over a three year period, ‘Futureproof’ falls into the current vogue for instrumental electronica, thanks to the popularity of Synthwave. But this is no Synthwave album, as it is far too dynamic, catchy and melodic to fall into that category.

The brilliant opener ‘Trough The Wires’, which originally premiered on the ‘Romo Night Records Vol 1: A Collection Of The New Brat’ compilation, sums up the album’s intentions as a melodic instrumental work which even throws in an unexpected key change. The following track ‘Say My Name’ with its harder bass arpeggio is like Jean-Michel Jarre with nothing to fear, while ‘The Gathering’ keeps the synthpop alive with a squelching rumble and the reminiscent air of LADYTRON and ‘Turn It On’ in particular.

‘Modern Life’ seems moodier but doesn’t let up with percussive magnetic overtones before ‘Shades and Light’ literally provides sparkly relief alongside the atmospheric electro-disco bounce of ‘In the Air’. ‘The Mercury Effect’ has a spikier cinematic drama while also in the filmic vein is ‘The Polygon’.

But ‘!= TheEnd’ is slightly more doom laden as per the title but is constructed with a lattice of electronic hypnotism. The more frantic ‘Arise’ veers towards proggier textures as the throbbing legacy of Giorgio Moroder looms on ‘Seconds of Eternity’. Ending on a dystopian note with understated vocoder, ‘Einbrush Aus Mintropstrasse’ can be seen as something of a KRAFTWERK tribute, ending in a barrage of sirens.

‘Futureproof’ shows itself as a well-produced album that focusses on melody and hooks rather than mood. Very immediate, it acts as a fine Nordic companion to Eric Random and his ‘Wire Me Up’ long player with some of the best instrumental electronic music released this year.


‘Futureproof’ is released by Plastic Men Records, available now as a download from https://relief-gbg.bandcamp.com/

https://open.spotify.com/album/5CNlrkkY4tRi7ufgmT9a7f?si=XZVyYJsGQp-sbSx0t_niAA


Text by Chi Ming Lai
8th September 2019

LADYTRON Ladytron

“LADYTRON are, for me, the best of English pop music. They’re the kind of band that really only appears in England, with this funny mixture of eccentric art-school dicking around and dressing up, with a full awareness of what’s happening everywhere musically, which is kind of knitted together and woven into something quite new…”

That what Brian Eno, the one-time member of ROXY MUSIC, whose first album featured a skilfully splendid and rather bizarre song ‘Ladytron’, said of the electronic quartet who named themselves after it.

Inherently joined by their passion for music, Bulgarian-born Mira Aroyo, Glaswegian Helen Marnie and Liverpudlians Danny Hunt and Reuben Wu create an eclectic mix of four strong personalities with four separate ideas that meet to create one sound.

The foursome performed for Brian Eno in Sydney Opera House, as well as in some obscure places not usually freely accessible to artists, like China or Colombia. Having had five successful albums over the years, this diverse group of musicians have gained massive audiences in Europe, Canada, the US, as well as South America.

As it’s been seven years since the group’s last offering of ‘Gravity The Seducer’, which presented atmospheric textures and sedate longing melodies, it was difficult to “predict the day” of LADYTRON’s comeback, but not creating another album “was never a possibility” according to Danny Hunt, “We knew we were going to do it eventually, but various things made it not come together as early as we imagined. Huge changes in our personal lives, and our locations – two of us moved across hemispheres. In mid-2016, we felt ready to move ahead and began writing and planning”.

In the meantime, Helen Marnie released two solo albums, with the second ‘Strange Words And Weird Wars’ seeing her adopt a very dreamy style, Hunt co-wrote and produced various artists, Wu dedicated himself to photography and Aroyo fuelled her passion for documentaries.

Now comes the long awaited ‘Ladytron’; suggesting quintessential LADYTRON as per the eponymous title, the long player was introduced by ‘The Animals’. Marnie described the track as “the first new song we had, and with it we went immediately into the studio with Jim Abbiss. He’s the producer who has really understood us the most.” Reminiscent of the more intense creations from ‘Velocifero’ and ‘Witching Hour’, the punchy number was remixed by Vince Clarke and offers a ubiquitous mix of continuous sound attack from the ever present synth, guitar and fast flowing vocal.

But ‘Until The Fire’ opens the album with a promise of fast pacing, forward pushing mixtures of electronic shoe gazing punchiness, creating urgency and need to return to the very sound LADYTRON was first known and loved for. ‘The Island’, however, reduces the momentum to a romantic, dreamy and very Marnie gem, which is a clear nod towards the more and more popular synthwave movement, of which “we are savages, we are savages”.

Enter the guitar on ‘Tower Of Glass’, providing a pop electronic anthem of tomorrow. This is what Eurovision should aspire for. ‘Far From Home’ is deliciously synthetic, dreamily hypnotic and comfortably “safe and sound”, even if lost somewhere beneath the stars; it’s the perfect electronic blanket to get wrapped up in, in order to feel secure.

That very security disappears with the harsher ‘Paper Highways’; a much dirtier, messier and hedonistically destructive product, it breaks down with unexpected shifts and dangerously edgy hooks. A modern protest song, perhaps?

Maybe it’s the time to ‘Run’ … and hide … and run… nothing is certain here; an amalgamation of strange sounds, unexpected entries and production à la GRIMES meets ZOLA JESUS at its finest. Maybe that’s no coincidence, because we are entering the ‘Deadzone’. Oh how scrumptious this one is; eastern inspired, forward-driving, mouth-wateringly poppy, synthyliciously gritty and hitting the spot with the right dose of melodic elements intertwined with haunting drivers.

‘Figurine’ coalesces the signature LADYTRON vocals and a new approach to synth; it’s futuristic yet vintage, soothing yet grippingly uncertain, a modern lullaby. In many ways LADYTRON ‘You’ve Changed’, in many you haven’t. You are certainly showing new, exciting directions; quite sexy in this case, like a veiled BLACK NAIL CABARET turned girly. ‘Horoscope’ spooks, while ‘The Mountain’ slows things down, with a more demure pace and downbeat tempo.

‘Ladytron’ is wrapped up with eloquently designed ‘Tomorrow Is Another Day’, which sustains the more consolidated reticent rhythm, PET SHOP BOYS ballad worthy, with another nod towards modernised synthwave. The sweet is mixed with sour, the fast mingles with slow and the gentle meets rough, what’s not to love?

Seven years it may have been, but LADYTRON certainly come back with a punch. Amongst tracks which could be described as quintessential work from the foursome, and at times sounding like lost tracks from ‘Velocifero’, there are hidden gems which sound modern and are quite superb.

Uniform? No…

Boring? Never…

Brilliant? Mostly…

LADYTRON-like? Oh yes…

All in all, a fantastic comeback, and a worthy entry into 2019.


‘Ladytron’ is released by !K7 in Vinyl LP, CD and digital formats on 15th February 2019

http://www.ladytron.com

https://www.facebook.com/ladytron/

https://twitter.com/LadytronMusic

https://www.instagram.com/ladytronmusic/


Text by Monika Izabela Trigwell
Photos by Maria Louceiro
4th February 2019

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