Tag: Metroland (Page 2 of 6)

808 DOT POP The Colour Temperature

24 May 2020 /


One thing that Belgian duo METROLAND never disappoint with is a finely tuned concept.

For his first solo album as 808 DOT POP, Passenger S has ventured towards the science of physics for ‘The Colour Temperature’.

Defined as a characteristic of visible light that has important applications in lighting, photography, videography, publishing, manufacturing, astrophysics and horticulture, colour temperature is part of everyday life and measured in units of kelvins.

In tribute to his eponymous constant, the opening ‘Planck’s H’ is electromagnetic action expressed musically for that very intellectual topic of quantum mechanics, although the absence of elektronisches schlagzeug might confuse some.

‘Illuminants’ really wouldn’t sound of place on a METROLAND album, while ‘Radiaton Laws’ chordially appears to be a clean mechanised reworking of NEW ORDER’s ’Temptation’.

The sequence-laden overtures of ‘The Tungsten Filament’ naturally glow but ‘Blackbodies’ is melodic robopop with a feminine twist featuring vocals from Noemi Aurora of goth electro duo HELALYN FLOWERS.

Now imagine if KRAFTWERK fronted by a girl and we are not talking about Kylie in the ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’ video here.

The bubbling ambience of ‘Kelvin (2700)’ acts an interlude before the perky ‘Thermal Contact’ provides rhythmic relief with its clattering drum machine and snaps of synthesized noise, as does ‘Ultraviolet’.

‘The White Tone Of Lamps’ provides another lecture over an electronic backdrop, but much better is ‘Incandescent (Iridium)’ which delightfully expresses itself in a manner of a Vince Clarke and OMD collaboration with the virtual vox humana lady oddly providing both the science talk and the alluring heat.

‘Thermodynamica’ takes on a shadier approach into aurally illustrating the properties of matter with its knowledge essential to the generation of nuclear power; the late Florian Schneider once said “nuclear power is like a knife; it can be used for slicing bread or to stab you in the back”. Therefore, it is fitting that ‘Inside The Light Bulb’ closes ‘The Colour Temperature’ utilising the synthesised speech sound design reminiscent of the KRAFTWERK legend.

While not a radical departure from the template of METROLAND, ‘The Colour Temperature’ will satisfy the ears of their fans as well as those who might like a bit of ORBITAL or KOMPUTER.

So until Passenger S and Passenger A come back together to consider their next thematic concept, it’s time to 808 DOT POP.

‘The Colour Temperature’ is released on 5th June 2020 by Alfa Matrix in CD and digital formats, pre-order from https://alfa-matrix-store.com/808-DOT-POP/808-DOT-POP-The-Colour-Temperature-CD

https://808dotpop.com/

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
24th May 2020

10 Years of ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK – STILL PUSHING THE ENVELOPE

16 March 2020 /

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK celebrates its tenth birthday and it really has been synthly the best.

At the HEAVEN 17 aftershow party for their triumphant gig at The Magna Science Park on 6th March 2010, following chats with Glenn Gregory, Martyn Ware, Paul Humphreys and Claudia Brücken, interview opportunities opened up. It was obvious there was gap waiting to be filled for a quality web publication that featured the best in new and classic electronic pop without having to lower itself to using the dreaded “80s” label.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK was it and became reality on 15th March 2010. Electronic pop music didn’t start in that Thatcher decade and certainly didn’t end there either. So there was even an editorial diktat which banned ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s writers from using the lazy”80s” term as a reference. Tellingly, several PR representatives said that one of the site’s main appeals was that it avoided the whole nostalgia bent that had been presented by both virtual and physical media.

At the time, kooky female fronted keyboard based pop like LA ROUX, LITTLE BOOTS, LADYHAWKE, LADY GAGA and MARINA & THE DIAMONDS were among those touted as being the future at the time. But it proved to be something of a red herring, as those acts evolved back into what they actually were, conventional pop acts. ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK preferred the sort of innovative synthpop as outlined in BBC4’s Synth Britannia documentary.

With the next generation of artists like MARSHEAUX, VILE ELECTRODES, VILLA NAH and MIRRORS more than fitting the bill, that ethos of featuring pop music using synthesizers stuck too.

Meanwhile, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s portfolio expanded swiftly with key personalities such as Rusty Egan, Sarah Blackwood, Richard James Burgess, Warren Cann, Chris Payne, Thomas Dolby, John Foxx, Andy McCluskey, Neil Arthur, Alan Wilder, Mark Reeder, Gary Langan, Jori Hulkkonen, Howard Jones, Mira Aroyo, Sarah Nixey and Hannah Peel among those giving interviews to the site during its first two years.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK has always prided itself in asking the questions that have never usually been asked, but which fans want to know the answers to. And it was with this reputation for intelligent and well researched interviewing that in March 2011, the site was granted its biggest coup yet.

Speaking to Stephen Morris of the then-on hiatus NEW ORDER, the drummer cryptically hinted during the ensuing chat that Manchester’s finest would return by saying “I never say never really”.

And that is exactly what happened in Autumn of that year and the band have been there since, as popular as ever and still making great music with the release of ‘Music Complete’ in 2015.

Monday 21st March 2011 was an interesting day that partied like it was 1981 when it saw the release of albums by DURAN DURAN, THE HUMAN LEAGUE and JOHN FOXX & THE MATHS. Also in 2011, Mute Records celebrated their influential legacy with a weekender also at London’s Roundhouse which culminated in ERASURE, YAZOO and THE ASSEMBLY performing in the same set.

Despite the ‘Brilliant’ return of ULTRAVOX, 2012 paled in comparison after such a fruitful year and several acts who were featured probably would not have gained as much coverage in more competitive periods. With pressure from outsiders as to what was hot and what was not, this was the only time ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK felt it was obliged to support a domestic scene.

But realising acts like HURTS and STRANGERS were actually just jumping on an apparent synth bandwagon and possessing more style than substance, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK decided to change tact and only featured acts it felt truly passionate about, even if it meant upsetting the wider synth community. The reasoning being that just because a band uses a synthesizer doesn’t mean it is good.

During this time, MIRRORS sadly disbanded while VILLA NAH mutated into SIN COS TAN. But the year did see the launch of CHVRCHES who stood out from the crowd with their opening gambit ‘Lies’.

With their Taylor Swift gone electro template, Lauren Mayberry and Co managed to engage an audience who didn’t know or care what a Moog Voyager was, to listen to synthpop!

2013 turned out to be one of the best years for electronic pop since its Synth Britannia heyday. What ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK achieved during this year would take up a whole article in itself… there were high profile interviews with Alison Moyet, Gary Numan and Karl Bartos while OMD released the album of the decade in ‘English Electric’. PET SHOP BOYS made up for their ‘Elysium’ misstep with ‘Electric’ while there was finally a third volume in BEF’s ‘Music Of Quality & Distinction’ covers series.

Although 2014 started tremendously with ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK being invited to meet Karl Bartos and Wolfgang Flür in Cologne, the year suffered next to the quality of 2013. The interviews continued, particularly with key figures from the Synth Britannia era including Midge Ure and the often forgotten man of the period Jo Callis who was a key member of THE HUMAN LEAGUE during their imperial phase.

But the year saw grandeurs of delusion at their highest. There was the clueless Alt-Fest debacle which saw the organisers play Fantasy Festival with no cash to underwrite the infrastructure to enable it to actually happen!

Sadly today, there are still egotistic chancers organising events with zero budget and the money from ticket sales being fleeced to fund their holidays. But these artificial factors are rarely considered and so long as there are lower league artists desperate to play for nowt and a misguided enhancement in profile that is often on a platform that provides minimal exposure anyway, then the confidence tricks will continue.

2015 saw the local emergence of Rodney Cromwell and Gwenno, while the majestic Swedish duo KITE proved that they were the best synth act in Europe with the ‘VI’ EP and their impressive live show. It was also the year when ERASURE front man Andy Bell gave his first interview to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK to offer some revealing insights.

Making something of a comeback after a recorded absence of nearly eight years, Jean-Michel Jarre presented his ambitious two volume ‘Electronica’ project which saw collaborations with a varied pool of musicians including Pete Townsend, Lang Lang, John Carpenter, Vince Clarke, Hans Zimmer, Cyndi Lauper, Sebastien Tellier and Gary Numan.

VILLA NAH returned in 2016, as did YELLO with Fifi Rong as one of their guest vocalists while APOPTYGMA BERZERK went instrumental and entered the ‘Exit Popularity Contest’. Riding on the profile generated from their ‘A Broken Frame’ covers album, MARSHEAUX released their biggest-selling long player to date, a two city concept in ‘Ath.Lon’. This was also the year that ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK first became acquainted with the analogue synthesizer heaven of Johan Baeckström, a modern day Vince Clarke if ever there was one.

2017 saw a bumper crop of great albums from the likes of I SPEAK MACHINE, LCD SOUNDSYSTEM, SOULWAX, IAMX, GOLDFRAPP and DAILY PLANET, while veterans such as Alison Moyet and Gary Numan produced their best work of the 21st Century.

However DEPECHE MODE unleashed their most dire record yet in ‘Spirit’, a dreary exercise in faux activism bereft of tunes. Salt was rubbed into the wound when they merely plonked an underwhelming arena show into a stadium for their summer London show. The trend was to continue later in 2019 as DEPECHE MODE just plonked 14 albums into a boxed set, while OMD offered an album of quality unreleased material in their ‘Souvenir’ package.

And with DEPECHE MODE’s sad descent into a third rate pseudo-rock combo during the last 15 years to appease that ghastly mainstream American institution called The Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame with guitars and drums, Dave Gahan in particular with his ungrateful dismissal of the pioneering synth-based material with which he made his fortune with, now has what he has always coveted.

And don’t get ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK started on the 2019 Moog Innovation Award being given to Martin Gore, a real insult to true synth pioneers if ever there was one, including Daniel Miller, Vince Clarke and Alan Wilder, the three men who actually did the electronic donkey work on those imperial phase DEPECHE MODE albums! Gore may have been a very good songwriter during that time, but a synth innovator? Oh come on!?!

With regards Synth Britannia veterans, new albums in 2017 from Richard Barbieri and Steve Jansen saw a revived interest in JAPAN, the band with which they made their name. Despite releasing their final album ‘Tin Drum’ in 1981, as a later conversation with one-time guitarist Rob Dean proved, cumulatively from related article views, JAPAN became the most popular act on ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK.

The return of SOFT CELL dominated 2018 with a lavish boxed set that was not just comprised of previously released long players, new songs, new books, a BBC documentary and a spectacular farewell show at London’s O2 Arena.

Meanwhile, adopting a much lower profile were LADYTRON with their comeback and an eventual eponymous sixth album. A Non Stop Electronic Cabaret saw Canadian veterans RATIONAL YOUTH play their first ever UK gig alongside PAGE and PSYCHE, but coming out of Brooklyn to tour with ERASURE was REED & CAROLINE.

EMIKA was ‘Falling In Love With Sadness’ and Swedish songstress IONNALEE showcased one of the best value-for-money live presentations in town, with a show that surreal imagined Kate Bush at a rave!

But from China came STOLEN, one of the most exciting bands in years who were then later rewarded for their graft with a European tour opening for NEW ORDER.

2019 was the year when synthwave graduates Dana Jean Phoenix and Ollie Wride were coming into their own as live performers, while electronic disco maestro Giorgio Moroder embarked on a concert tour for the first time with his songs being the true stars of the show.

Gary Daly of CHINA CRISIS gave his first interview to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK to tie in with his solo album ‘Gone From Here’, while a pub lunch with Mark White and Stephen Singleton mutated into an extensive chat about their days in ABC. Lloyd Cole adopted a more synthesized template on ‘Guessworks’ and Britpop went synth as GENEVA’s Andrew Montgomery formed US with Leo Josefsson of Swedish trio LOWE.

If ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK does have a proudest achievement in its first ten years, then it is giving extensive early coverage to VILLA NAH, MIRRORS, VILE ELECTRODES, METROLAND, TINY MAGNETIC PETS and SOFTWAVE, six acts who were later invited to open on tour for OMD. Partly because of this success, some of those who were less talented felt aggrieved despite feeling an entitlement to be featured. If an act is good enough, the fact that ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK hasn’t featured them should not matter, especially as other electronic and synth blogs are available. After taking its eye of the ball once before in 2012, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK maintained a trust of its own gut instinct.

Meanwhile, its stance has been tested by those shouting loudest who instantly champion what they perceive as the next big thing like sheep, without really looking ahead at a wider picture. However, TRAVIS on VSTs is just not ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s thing frankly…

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s participation in the annual ELECTRI_CITY_CONFERENCE in Düsseldorf for on-stage interviews with Rusty Egan, Chris Payne, Mark Reeder and Zeus B Held was another high profile engagement to be proud of. Then there were six live events and five rounds of hosting ‘An Audience with Rusty Egan’ in one of the most unenviable but highly entertaining refereeing assignments in music!

Other highlights over the last ten years have included ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s 2015 career retrospective on German trio CAMOUFLAGE being edited and used as booklet notes for the Universal Music sanctioned compilation CD ‘The Singles’.

As 2020 settles in, highly regarded artists within the electronic community continue to engage with ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK. Neil Arthur recently gave his seventh interview as BLANCMANGE and his tenth interview overall, taking into account his side projects FADER and NEAR FUTURE. Not far behind, Martyn Ware has also been a regular interviewee having spoken to the site on six occasions while Paul Humphreys has been interviewed no less than five times.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK is still pushing the envelope, continuing to reflect the interests of people who love the Synth Britannia era and have a desire to hear new music seeded from that ilk. With artists like ANI GLASS, IMI, KNIGHT$, NINA, MECHA MAIKO, GEISTE and PLASMIC among those on the cusp of a wider breakthrough, there is still more excellent music still to be created, discovered and savoured.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its sincerest thanks to everyone who has taken the time read any article on the site over the last ten years, it is greatly appreciated.

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Image Design by Volker Maass
16th March 2020, updated 29th January 2021

2018 END OF YEAR REVIEW

8 December 2018 /

2018 saw Jean Michel Jarre celebrate 50 years in the business and whether the world really needed another of his compilations, ‘Planet Jarre’ was probably one of the better collected representations of his work for casual admirers.

But not standing still and releasing his fourth new album in three years, ‘Equinoxe Infinity’ continued the story as the French Maestro tuned 70.

SOFT CELL made a totally unexpected return for a huge one-off farewell gig at London’s O2 Arena; and with it came a boxed set, the ‘Northern Lights’ single and other new recordings which have raised hopes for a new album.

From the same era, FIAT LUX announced plans for their debut album ‘Save Symmetry’ with an excellent lead track ‘It’s You’, while B-MOVIE came up with their most synth-propelled single yet in ‘Stalingrad’.

But one act who actually did comeback with a brand new album in 2018 were DUBSTAR; now a duo of Sarah Blackwood and Chris Wilkie, as ‘One’ they reminded audiences as to why they were the acceptable face of Britpop with their bridge to Synth Britannia.

IONNALEE finally released her debut opus ‘Everyone Afraid To Be Forgotten’ and her tour which included choice cuts from IAMAMIWHOAMI, proved to be one of the best value-for-money live experiences in 2018, one that was even endorsed by Welsh songstress Charlotte Church.

CHVRCHES offered up their third album ‘Love Is Dead’ and continued their role as international flagwavers for quality synthpop, while EMIKA presented her best album yet in ‘Falling In Love With Sadness’, an exquisite electronic record with a Bohemian aura.

JOHN GRANT was on an artistic roll both solo and in partnership with WRANGLER as CREEP SHOW with two new albums. However, he was beaten by Neil Arthur who managed three albums over a 12 month period as NEAR FUTURE and BLANCMANGE including ‘Wanderlust’, possibly the latter’s best body of work in its 21st Century incarnation.

It was a busy year for Steve Jansen with a new solo ambient work ‘Corridor’, the well-received vinyl reissue of JAPAN’s two Virgin-era studio albums and his epic, more organically flavoured band project EXIT NORTH with their debut long player ‘Book Of Romance & Dust’.

Sarah Nixey went on some ‘Night Walks’ for her best solo album yet, a wonderful collection of everything she had ever been musically all wonderfully rolled into one.

Meanwhile Tracey Thorn went back to the ‘Dancefloor’ with her ‘Record’ which content wise was right up there with some of Alison Moyet’s electronica output from the last five years.

Those who liked their electronic music darker were well served with NINE INCH NAILS, IAMX, KIRLIAN CAMERA and HELIX, but after experimenting with the single only format for a few years, Daniel Graves announced he was taking the plunge again with a new AESTHETIC PERFECTION album.

The Sacred Bones stable provided some quality releases from Hilary Woods, Zola Jesus and John Carpenter. Meanwhile, providing some fierce socio-political commentary on the state of the UK was GAZELLE TWIN.

Hungary’s BLACK NAIL CABARET offered some noirish ‘Pseudopop’ and promising Norwich youngsters LET’S EAT GRANDMA got more deeply into electronica without losing any of their angsty teenage exuberance on their second album ‘I’m All Ears’.

Less intense and more dreamy were GLASSHOUSE, the new duo fronted by former TECHNIQUE singer Xan Tyler.

Aussies CONFIDENCE MAN provided some wacky dancey glitz to the pop world and after nearly four decades in the business, Canadian trailblazers RATIONAL YOUTH finally played their first ever concert in London at ‘Non Stop Electronic Cabaret’ alongside dark wave compatriots PSYCHE and Numan-influenced Swedish poptronica exponents PAGE.

Sweden was again highly productive with Karin Park, Johan Baeckstrom and Val Solo while Norway took their own approach with FARAO, SOFT AS SNOW and ELECTRO SPECTRE setting their standard. Veteran Deutschlanders THE TWINS and PETER HEPPNER returned with new albums after notable recorded absences while next door in Belgium, METROLAND presented themselves as ‘Men In A Frame’.

While the new HEAVEN 17 album ‘Not For Public Broadcast’ is still to be finished, Glenn Gregory teamed by with live keyboardist Berenice Scott as AFTERHERE. Their long-time friend Claudia Brücken performed as xPROPAGANDA with Susanne Freytag and partnered up with one-time TANGERINE DREAM member Jerome Froese, releasing the ‘Beginn’ album in the process.

It was a year of interesting collaborations all-round with UNDERWORLD working with Iggy Pop, U96 linking up with Wolfgang Flür for an excellent single called ‘Zukunftsmusik’ and German techno pioneer Chris Liebing recruiting Polly Scattergood and Gary Numan for his Mute released album ‘Burn Slow’.

Based in Berlin, THE KVB offered up some brooding gothic moods with ‘Only Now Forever’ while Valerie Renay of NOBLESSE OBLIGE released her first solo album ‘Your Own Shadow’.

Highly appealing were a number of quirky Japanese influenced female artists from around the globe including COMPUTER MAGIC, MECHA MAIKO and PLASMIC. But there were also a number of acts with Far Eastern heritage like STOLEN, FIFI RONG, DISQO VOLANTE and SHOOK who continued to make a worthy impression with their recorded output in 2018.

Heavy synth rock duo NIGHT CLUB presented their ‘Scary World’ on the back of tours opening for COMBICHRIST and A PERFECT CIRCLE while also from across the pond, NYXX and SINOSA both showcased their alluring potential.

At the poppier end of the spectrum, Holger Wobker used Pledge Music to relaunch BOYTRONIC with their most recent vocal incumbent James Knights in an unexpected twist to once again prove the old adage to “never say never” as far as the music industry is concerned.

Meanwhile, Chris Payne co-wrote and co-produced the excellent ‘Walking In West Berlin’ EP with KATJA VON KASSEL while also revealing plans for an autobiography and opening for his old boss…

The surprise album of the year was Chris Catrer with his ‘Chemistry Lessons Volume One’ while using a not dissimilar concept with their second album ‘Hello Science’, REED & CAROLINE took their folk laden synthpop out on a US tour opening for ERASURE.

IMMERSION provided a new collection of their modern Motorik as SHRIEKBACK, FISCHERSPOONER, THE PRESETS, HEARTBREAK and QUEEN OF HEARTS all made comebacks of varying degrees with audiences still eager for their work.

Steven Jones & Logan Sky harked back to the days when Gary Numan and OMD would release two albums in one year by offering ‘Hans Und Lieselotte’ and ‘The Electric Eye’ in 2016. Those veteran acts themselves celebrated their 40th anniversaries by going orchestral, something which SIMPLE MINDS also did when they opted to re-record ‘Alive & Kicking’ for the ’80s Symphonic’ collection although Jim Kerr forgot how a third of the song went!

With SIMPLE MINDS also performing a horrible and barely recognisable ‘Promised You A Miracle’ during BBC’s ‘The Biggest Weekend’, making up for the live joke that his former band have become was one-time bassist Derek Forbes with the album ‘Broken Hearted City’ as ZANTi with Anni Hogan of MARC & THE MAMBAS fame.

Other former members of high-profile bands were busy too with Ian Burden, formally of THE HUMAN LEAGUE returning with the Floydian ‘Hey Hey Ho Hum’ while A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS reformed briefly for an orchestral re-run of their catalogue.

With the release of their second album ‘Kinetik’, EKKOES handed over THE HUMAN LEAGUE support baton to SHELTER who came up with their best body of work yet in the more introspective shades of ‘Soar’

That darker approach manifested itself on singer Mark Bebb’s side project FORM with Keith Trigwell of SPEAK & SPELL whose debut long player ‘defiance + entropy’ also came out in 2018.

Having been championed by RÖYSKSOPP, Wales’ MAN WITHOUT COUNTRY returned with ‘Infinity Mirror’ while riding on the well-deserved momentum from opening for OMD, Ireland’s TINY MAGNETIC PETS embarked on their first headlining tour.

Representing North of the border were Ryan Vail and HANNAH PEEL, but hailing from Scotland were WITCH OF THE VALE who proved to be one of the most interesting new acts of 2018 having supported ASSEMBLAGE 23 on their most recent UK visit. There was a good showing from UK acts in 2018 with RODNEY CROMWELL, ANI GLASS, THE FRIXION and FAKE TEAK all issuing some excellent synth tinged songs for public consumption.

NINA’s long awaited debut album ‘Sleepwalking’ was a fine hybrid of synthpop and the currently fashionable Synthwave aesthetic; her live double billing with Canadian synthpopsters PARALLELS was one of the hottest tickets of the year.

The sub-genre was indeed making waves and there were some very enjoyable artists coming out of it like GUNSHIP, Dana Jean Phoenix and Michael Oakley.

However, the endless AOR excesses, moonlight sax breaks and highly unimaginative band monikers using numbers between 80 to 89 affixed to an archaic technology reference, illustrated by yet another neon sunset, VCR grid and Lamborghini, were becoming tiresome.

As Synthwave cynics, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s touch paper was being lit big time! The whole point of the synthesizer’s role during the Second British Invasion of the US was to fight against the insipid overtures of AOR like TOTO, CHICAGO and JOURNEY, NOT to make music coated with its horrid stench as THE MIDNIGHT did in 2018 with their long player ‘Kids’.

But there was naivety within some quarters too; electronic music did not begin in 2011 with ‘Drive’, an above average film with a good if slightly over rated soundtrack. However, its cultural influence has led to a plethora of meandering tracks made by gamer boys which sounded like someone had forgotten to sing on them; perhaps they should have gone back to 1978 and listened to GIORGIO MORODER’s ‘Midnight Express Theme’ to find out how this type of instrumental music should be done?

Many of the newer artists influenced by Synth Britannia that ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK has featured have sometimes been accused of being stuck in the past, but a fair number of Synthwave acts were really taking the soggy biscuit with their retro-obsession.

Rock band MUSE’s use of glowing artwork by Kyle Lambert of ‘Stranger Things’ fame on their eighth album ‘Simulation Theory’ sent sections of the Synthwave community into meltdown. There were cries that they had “stolen the aesthetics and concept” and how “it’s not relevant to their sound”!

But WHAM! had Peter Saville designed sleeves and never sounded like NEW ORDER or OMD, while electropop diva LA ROUX used a visual stylisation for ‘In For The Kill’ that has since been claimed by Synthwavers as their own, despite it being from 2009 when Ryan Gosling was peddling graveyard indie rock in DEAD MAN’S BONES 😉

This was one of the bigger ironies of 2018, especially as MUSE have always used synths! One of Matt Bellamy and co’s biggest musical inspirations is ULTRAVOX, indicating the trio probably have a better understanding of the fusion between the synthesizer, rock and classical music, as proven by the ‘Simulation Theory’ bookends ‘Algorithm’ and ‘The Void’, than any static laptop exponent with a Jan Hammer fixation.

It is interesting to note today how electronic music has split into so many factions, but there’s still the assumed generalisation that it is all one thing and that synthpop fans must also like Synthwave, Deep House, EDM, Industrial and those tedious beach chill-out remixes.

Back in the day and even now, some fans of THE HUMAN LEAGUE didn’t like OMD, DEPECHE MODE fans only liked DEPECHE MODE and rock fans had a token favourite electronic band.

Out of all the acts from the Synth Britannia era, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK had very little time for THOMPSON TWINS despite their huge international success, but their leader Tom Bailey’s 2018 solo recorded return ‘Science Fiction’ was warmly received by many.

Just as COLDPLAY and SNOW PATROL fans don’t all embrace ELBOW, it is ok to have preferences and to say so. Not liking the music of an artist does not make you a bad person, but liking everything does not make you a better person either… in fact, it shows you probably have no discerning taste! In 2002, SOFT CELL warned of a ‘Monoculture’, and if there is no taste differentiation in art and music, it will spell the end of cultural enhancement.

Taste is always the key, but then not everyone who loves chocolate likes Hersheys… and with that analogy, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK bids farewell to 2018 and looks forward to a 2019 that includes the return of TEARS FOR FEARS and the first full live shows from Giorgio Moroder, plus new releases by VILE ELECTRODES, KITE, VILLA NAH, I AM SNOW ANGEL and LADYTRON.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK Contributor Listings of 2018

PAUL BODDY

Best Album: MAN WITHOUT COUNTRY Infinity Mirror
Best Song: MAN WITHOUT COUNTRY Lafayette
Best Gig: TANGERINE DREAM at London Union Chapel
Best Video: THE SOFT MOON Give Something
Most Promising New Act: VOX LOW

IAN FERGUSON

Best Album: BLANCMANGE Wanderlust
Best Song: ELECTRO SPECTRE The Way You Love
Best Gig: OMD at Glasgow Kelvingrove Park
Best Video: NYXX Voodoo
Most Promising New Act: WITCH OF THE VALE

SIMON HELM

Best Album: DUBSTAR One
Best Song: PAGE Start (Poptronica Version)
Best Gig: DIE KRUPPS + FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY at O2 Academy Islington
Best Video: FIFI RONG Horizon
Most Promising New Act: ZANTi

CHI MING LAI

Best Album: EMIKA Falling In Love With Sadness
Best Song: FIAT LUX It’s You
Best Gig: SOFT CELL at London O2 Arena
Best Video: FAKE TEAK Bears Always Party The Exact Right Amount
Most Promising New Act: WITCH OF THE VALE

MONIKA IZABELA TRIGWELL

Best Album: GUNSHIP Dark All Day
Best Song: SHELTER Karma
Best Gig: IAMX at London Electric Ballroom
Best Video: JUNO REACTOR Let’s Turn On
Most Promising New Act: MECHA MAIKO

Text by Chi Ming Lai
8th December 2018

METROLAND Men In A Frame

19 April 2018 /

‘Men In A Frame’ is the new conceptual long player by Belgian duo METROLAND, celebrating the art form of photography.

Perhaps slightly confusingly, it does not contain ‘Man In A Frame’, their previous single release from earlier in 2018.

But “Have you ever dwelled on the numerous occasions where you became an anonymous ingredient of countless, randomly taken pictures? Regardless the occasion or location, people tend to participate involuntarily in these momentums, clueless or lacking any grasp on further processing or broadcasting”

That thus is the idea behind ‘Men In A Frame’… Passenger S and Passenger A joined forces with five Belgian professional photographers from an art co-operative called F-8 (pronounced as ‘Faith’) whereby each photographer carefully relinquished two unique pictures with enigmatic and occasionally cryptic titles for METROLAND to add electronic soundtracks to produce ten ‘Pictures To Listen To’; the collaboration between fine art and music ultimately acted as an exhibitive launch platform for the album.

The sumptuous Renault yellow packaging contains a well-presented booklet of each photograph along with accompanying prose by each of the five photographers Bert Daenen, Kristel Nijskens, Patrick Verbessem, Steven Colin and Caroline Tanghe plus additional commentary from METROLAND themselves.

Opening number ‘Concrete Witness’ offers a windy atmosphere that grows within its percolating arpeggios and rhythmic build, while ‘B-old’ starts well with those classic METROLAND beats and synth melodies over its seven minutes.

Something a bit different, the vibrant ‘Shades of Pale’ pulses away with hiccup voice generations, but is spoiled by the growling rock flavoured “shade of pale” sample. The synthetic bass rumble of ‘Proiezione 41-828’ is almost EBM with a penetrating metronomic Schaffel beat, while ‘La Macchia D’Acqua’ percussively uses more aggressive sounds than listeners may have been used to previously with METROLAND.

Beginning with Sakamoto-like textural passages, ‘The Speed Of Life III’ has drama in its steadfast rhythms with frantic arpeggios adding to the fun. The enjoyable ‘Creative Rose’ could be Karl Bartos collaborating with OMD, while the widescreen sweep accompanying the punchy and almost pentatonic ‘Trust’ is possibly the album’s best track.

Steadier with use of chipmunk vocal samples recalling Jan-Michel Jarre and his ‘Zoolook’ sample opus, ‘Hope’ exhibits a pretty melodic interface.

Closing ‘Men In A Frame’, ‘Next Choice’ electrifies with a hypnotic rhythmic backbone, the coda ringing and crashing in true METROLAND fashion with a clear female voice repeating “you have reached your destination…” – perhaps less immediate compared with previous METROLAND long players, what ‘Men In A Frame’ does have is development in its strength of conception, while maintaining the presentation standards of their back catalogue.

‘Men In A Frame’ is released by Alfa Matrix as a CD or download, available from https://alfamatrix.bandcamp.com/album/men-in-a-frame-bandcamp-exclusive-bonus-track-version

http://www.metrolandmusic.com/

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https://twitter.com/MetrolandMusic

Text by Chi Ming Lai
19th April 2018

Never Mind The Gap, Here’s METROLAND!

27 January 2018 /

Belgium’s favourite passengers METROLAND marked their fifth anniversary in 2017 with ‘12×12’, a lavish 4CD boxed set celebrating their career to date, with each disc following a distinct curative path.

The journey began when their mechanised synthpop impressed audiences via the debut long player ‘Mind The Gap’, a conceptual celebration of the London Underground.

Indeed, it impressed so much that unscrupulous Russians bootleggers attempted to pass off several tracks as new KRAFTWERK demos on eBay! This undoubtedly was a back-handed compliment, especially as METROLAND had fans who included Andy McCluskey and Rusty Egan. This led to remix commissions from both Synth Britannia pioneers.

Since that first album, the Mechelen duo have added two more works ‘Triadic Ballet’ and ‘Things Will Never Sound The Same Again’ to their catalogue, while a fourth is currently being recorded.

METROLAND kindly took time out from their studio for a chat about their new single ‘Man In A Frame’ and what they have planned for their first ever performance in the UK.

How do you think the ’12×12’ retrospective collection box has been received?

This 4-CD-compilation, a kind of best of or anthology, which ’12×12′ really is, was well thought over. We wanted to give something rare and new to the fans who have been following us since long, but also wanted to give a complete view of our trajectory so far for new fans. All in all, we did well and the reviews that we found online confirmed that.

METROLAND are prolific and amongst all the hits were the great B-sides and bonus tracks like ‘(We Need) Machines Without Romance’, ‘The Hindenburg Landing’ and ‘See You’, what do you get out of constructing these extras?

We are both musicians that were mainly inspired during the 80s, where a 7” single (on vinyl) would always contain an extra track, a so-called B-side.

For us, any single that we release, downloadable or not, has to have this B-side which gives us an opportunity to experiment with other structures or sounds or use songs we believe are just not strong enough to appear on a full length. Knowing that we always work in concepts, it is also logical to us that both songs are entwined within the concept we’re working on. It is as logical as saying 1 + 1 equals 2.

One track that was missing from the collection was your brilliant “has to be heard to be believed” cover of ‘Close To Me’ originally recorded by THE CURE?

Thanks for the compliment. ‘Close To Me’ was fun or even a challenge to make it like we did, by not singing anything ourselves, but only using sampled voices to complete the lyrics. It was a completely unexpected appearance where we opted to make it a METROLAND interpretation rather than a cover version.

Truth be told, it was part of the demo-and-rarities CD within the ’12×12′ compilation, but our label wanted to keep this cover version exclusively for THE CURE ‘A Strange Play’ tribute CD that they released. We toyed with the idea for a while to make a new version, but that idea was discarded as we had plenty of other goodies to choose from.

Obviously, METROLAND’s output forms distinct concepts within each of their parent albums, but which five individual tracks would you recommend to people listening to METROLAND for the first time and why?

First of all, ‘The Passenger’ as the electronics used there, and the message within, sets the core idea of METROLAND: electronics with no boundaries and we are all Passengers (notice the capital letter).

Secondly, ‘Thalys’, our most epic, yet minimal track, up to date. It is clearly our ‘T.E.E’, but it also marks the moment where influences from Düsseldorf started to wither.

Thirdly, though not a single, would be ‘3 Directors’ from the ‘Triadic Ballet’ album. It gives clear insight in our musical vision to use both melodies and obvious more aggressive bass lines. It’s also a bliss to play on stage.

Fourthly, the album title track of ‘Things Will Never Sound The Same Again’, as our music can go from happy to darker moody tracks, and this song is the far end of unhappy.

And finally ‘Cube’, as despite being an atypical song, it shows that METROLAND now and then dares to touch and explore unfamiliar grounds.

Which of the METROLAND long players do you still get a lot of satisfaction from?

Passenger A likes ‘Triadic Ballet’, as it’s still the album that has the most punch and pure electronics.

Passenger S still fancies all we did and cannot pick out one release he is particularly fond of. After each release you want to do better than the previous ones. That is the satisfaction we get.

‘Man In A Frame’ is the new single from METROLAND, what is at the centre of its genesis?

The title of the new single was actually the starting trigger about 2 years ago, but due to the album ‘Things Will Never Sound The Same Again’ that we created to commemorate Louis Zachert, our close friend and sound engineer that died too soon, and the fact that we existed 5 years in 2017 and made ‘12×12’, including a new track and video clip, the complete single and album was shifted severely.

The main idea in short, is that as an unknown person, a spot that can be ignored, you can be part of a photograph without knowing or without consent on so many locations and occasions. You are solely “a man in a frame” that travels the world without knowing where you end up. That sole moment, that sole focus, that static view. We built upon that idea to make the new album, to be released later in 2018.

What direction is the new METROLAND album heading in, is there anything you can reveal?

So our fourth album is called ‘Men In A Frame’… please notice the subtle change in the title of the ‘Man In A Frame’ single, so watch your writing.

The concept for the ‘Men In A Frame’ album is all about photography. The trigger was easy: a person never has a clue on how many occasions he ends up in a picture taken by someone else, getting framed (in the background by accidentally passing or being present) and ready to travel the world.

You should go and stand in your neighbourhood close to a monument and see for yourself how many times tourists take you home in that frame, thus the name of the album.

But the album is of course not just holding plain tourist pictures, like you might expect. For ‘Men In A Frame’, we co-operated with F-8, an art and photography collective of 5 professional photographers. They each provided us with 2 unique, arty pictures, gave each an apt title which we then used as inspirational trigger for our electronics. With some it was the picture itself, some the title or even sometimes it was the sentiment or interpretation of the artifact itself.

The result is an album with 10 tracks, that are, and to put it in the words of our label boss “epic and filmic”. As we were dealing with photography, we decided to extend the concept and asked each F-8 member to make promotional pictures of us, humble passengers, so we ended up being models in 5 totally different settings with a superb visual result.

During the creative process, we concluded that in fact we would be delivering 10 pictures that you can listen to. This triggered us to organize a vernissage with 2 goals: 1 is to bring the new album into the picture (pun intended), the other is to present all 10 album pictures in a highly qualitative medium, hanging on a wall, where the audience can use their smartphone to access the corresponding song that they can listen to with headphones.

So we will have an audience of listening viewers, which is unique, we think. This exposition will be called ‘Pictures To Listen To’. At his moment, we have already 1 expo like this planned, but we are conducting discussions with art exhibitionists to take this event to other big cities. That is on the art part.

Musically, we decided not to use any album track as a single, as it simply would not fit the concept of a song linked to a photograph anymore. Hence, we opted for a first single, called ‘Man In A Frame’, which was initially the first trigger for this concept altogether.

2017 has been a big year for electronic albums, so what are your thoughts on the year’s offerings by DEPECHE MODE, ERASURE, GOLDFRAPP, LCD SOUNDSYSTEM, OMD, GARY NUMAN and BLANCMANGE?

For Passenger A, that is a difficult and very personal question, to be honest, as it comes down to personal taste. Only OMD was convincing enough with some very good tracks, although ‘English Electric’ was more impacting. ERASURE and GOLDFRAPP was not the first disappointment. LCD SOUNDSYSTEM and GARY NUMAN were never on the radar at all, and BLANCMANGE needs a first listen.

For Passenger S, it is a personal matter of taste indeed, because he feels as an artist himself, he is not to judge albums in interviews. Every release by a band has got a certain place and meaning in their history and it needs to be respected for that. There will always be people / fans that like or dislike a release.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to METROLAND

‘Man In A Frame’ is released by Alfa Matrix on 2nd February 2018, download bundles including the B-side ’F-8’ plus remixes by THE FRIXION and MASCHINE BRENNT available from https://alfamatrix.bandcamp.com/

http://www.metrolandmusic.com/

https://www.facebook.com/metrolandmusic

https://twitter.com/MetrolandMusic

Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
27th January 2018, updated 7th February 2018

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