“It’s a scary world out there”; words you can hear far and wide all across the globe, but when you enter the world of NIGHT CLUB, it can get scarier still.
For the twisted, dirty and sick, look no further than the bombastic American duo, where Emily Kavanaugh rules the roost with her aggressive vocal style, sugar coated at times, but don’t be fooled… introducing the second album from the unusual twosome, which follows the acclaimed ‘Requiem for Romance’, NIGHT CLUB are on tour with none other than the mega Gods of heavy electronica, COMBI (f**king) CHRIST.
And from the onset, the heavily pitch shifted vocals on the first single ‘Candy Coated Suicide’ glide and slide over the gritty pop, tainted by dirt, which can be visually verified by the kinky video depicting rather unsavoury looking bunnies (yes, costume bunnies, and not so cute like Chandler in ‘Friends’), as well as a teddy bear in chains and cuffs. As Kavanaugh describes: “like if an 8 year old and her stuffed animals discovered LSD and went on a solid 4 day bender”. Say no more…
But the whole affair starts with the ominous ‘Beware!’, a delicate fairy tale which can fool one into thinking all is glossy and pink. Oh no, it isn’t! The title track hits with the expected force, and even though the vocal is candy sweet a la Britney, the tone is what it says it is on the tin (even the kids choir will confirm it), and hey, after all “they only love you if you swallow”.
With the NIGHT CLUB world being a tad ‘Schizophrenic’, it’s no wonder it sounds like Spears’ ‘Toxic’ at times. It’s so LA baby! ‘Your Addiction’ hits with a majestic synth boom, which canvasses that sexy voice to perfection. Kavanaugh can make anything dirty and kinky after all, and she does it with style. If LADY GAGA made it big with ‘Do What You Want’, NIGHT CLUB will make it huge with ‘Blood On Your Blade’, with its multitude of style shifts and wealth of influences.
In the meantime, ‘Therapy (Get High)’ spells out the need for drugs, where instead of the instant arrest, Kavanaugh is given a prize. A perfect alternative pop song, even if you won’t play it to your kids. And although she doesn’t really have many friends, as she points out in ‘Therapy’, she is graced with an ‘Imaginary Friend’. And that goes something like vintage DM, so there!
As for the bloodsucking monsters, ‘Vampires’ shows off the vocal wizardry from the Princess Of Darkness, as even with the life being sucked out of her, she’s still the coolest. Still, she will ‘Survive’ as she calms things down towards the end with a single piano substituting the synth for a while, leading the follow-up opus to its conclusion.
And what’s the conclusion? ‘Requiem for Romance’ was good, ‘Scary World’ is scarier and better. Way to go Mr Brooks, and welcome back Miss Kavanaugh. Again, you haven’t disappointed.
The long awaited synth collaboration between the East and West of the United States is finally here.
HELIX marks the musical marriage between the Rhode Island songstress Mari Kattman and the man behind everything ASSEMBLAGE 23, Seattle-based Tom Shear.
Kattman, previously of DAY TWELVE and MARI & THE GHOST, debuted with her personal signature sound on a rather fetching long player, ‘Hover’, where she collaborated with Matt Echo. The record settled in a genre of its own and turned many musical heads, including Shear’s.
It wasn’t the first time that his compass pointed East, as the pair had worked together on his side project SURVEILLANCE, where Kattman provided her vocal skills on ‘Husk’ from ‘Oceania’. Tom Shear needs no introduction within the hard core lovers of electronica; being the musical, lyrical and vocal supplier of ASSEMBLAGE 23, which continuously provides top shelf synth offerings, appreciated not only by those “on the verge of collapse”.
It is therefore imaginable that such collaboration is bound to bring miraculous effects and show yet another side to the Seattle based producer. And indeed the new approach comes out on their debut ‘Twin’, especially with the opening ‘Widescreen’, where floatingly gentle melody creates the base for Kattman’s vocal journey further East.
If she’s out to snake whisper, she certainly succeeds, for ‘Anymore’ ushers a change of mood ear worthy a repeat play time. Subtly subdued, yet containing multiple layers of instrumentation courtesy of Shear, it provides an excellent canvas for the voice reminiscent that of Sharleen Spiteri’s. The power of ‘Bird Of Prey’ accents itself in this uptempo gem, where Shear goes vintage musically and on production, while Kattman channels her inner MADONNA, just like MECHA MAIKO had done on her debut ‘Mad But Soft’ couple of months back.
If you’re expecting ‘Kicking & Screaming’ to do what it says on the tin, you’ll be in for a disappointment. This piercing semi-ballad has plenty of subtle power, that’s best served with the addition of darkness, and perhaps it doesn’t prepare for the corker that is ‘Expensive Things’. Here Shear does what Shear does best: takes that beat and twists it into something amazing, adding a pinch of heavy synth and a dollop of ear teasing percussion, interloping with regularly appearing arpeggios and nudges of beats paying homage to vintage DM via ‘Shout’.
This could be a hard act to follow but ‘We Are’ does a good job regardless, changing the feel into a modern offering of off-beat hipster styles, leading into the school disco of ‘Like A Drug’. What SPECTRA PARIS did on ‘Retromachine Betty’, Mari Kattman does here; enhanced by electrifying guitar, fast paced rhythm and plenty of pink and fluffy synths.
While ‘I May Be Wrong’, HELIX keeps going and now Shear joins Kattman on vocals to make it right. This middle of the road track provides a delicate easy listening experience; star gazing and romantic, making Shear sound a tad like Peter Heppner, which is always a good move.
But the ripe beats return suddenly on ‘Live In My Heart’. And what a fast pleasure that is! Kattman goes quirky with her vocal provision and Shear shows he can do the club feel very well. Pure ASHBURY HEIGHTS on steroids, riding on Space Mountain, getting stoned… hang on, that’s LA based NIGHT CLUB… you get the idea!
As all good things have to come to an end, ‘The Beautiful Unseen’ ushers the wrap for the album. Slightly slower, deeper and marvellously executed, where the piano paves the way for the haunting voice and pointed synth, this closing track leaves plenty of thinking space and hope for continuation.
It comes as no surprise that Shear can deliver musically, it’s also not news that Kattman is a valid artist on her own, but those two twinned together provide higher levels of musical enjoyment.
While the debut offering from HELIX may feel like a mixed bag for some and too demure for others, let’s not forget that musical knowhow is deeply ingrained in the pair, and for their first full album as a newly found partnership, ‘Twin’ provides heaps of listening pleasure.
And if it’s too mainstream for you, go and indulge in ASSEMBLAGE 23 instead. Either way, you won’t miss out on the good thing.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK once described NIGHT CLUB as sounding like “Britney fronting NINE INCH NAILS”. Now requoted by a number of other media outlets, that description appears to have stuck.
The Los Angeles based duo of Emily Kavanaugh and Mark Brooks impressed with a trilogy of fine EPs and produced the soundtrack to the acclaimed animated Comedy Central cop show ‘Moonbeam City’ featuring the voices of Rob Lowe and Elizabeth Banks, before finally releasing a full-length album ‘Requiem for Romance’ in Summer 2016.
Currently touring Europe with aggrotech exponents COMBICHRIST and horror rocker WEDNESDAY 13, NIGHT CLUB release their second long player ‘Scary World’ in late August, which develops on the sharp synth rock template of its predecessor.
With the triple header hitting selected cities the British Isles, NIGHT CLUB will also be headlining two August shows of their own in Sheffield and London.
NIGHT CLUB stopped for a chat just as they landed in the British Isles…
It is indeed a ‘Scary World’, have political events at home been a subliminal influence on the album? Is it making you ‘Schizophrenic’?
Yes, the political environment in the US is definitely making us nervous. Our new LP is sort of influenced by that but also very influenced by our own internal anxiety. It became apparent to us when we started writing this record that we both had a lot to say about the subject of anxiety. We have both suffered from that condition and the words just started to seep out of us. The album sort of morphed into an opus about mental illness and coping with it. By the time we finished the record, we ultimately realized that it’s about the scary world inside and outside of all of us. It’s also a warning to those younger than us about the road ahead.
This album is a natural progression of ‘Requiem For Romance’ but more refined without losing any edge?
Yeah, ‘Scary World’ is definitely a natural progression from ‘Requiem’. Sonically speaking, ‘Requiem’ was when we really discovered our sound. The new album is just a more advanced version of ‘Requiem.’ We spent a lot of time on this one and poured our souls into it. We would say ‘Scary World’ is an advance in our lyrical songwriting just as much as our last record was an advance in our sound.
The title song is a case in point, you’re playing around with the pitch shifting with the vocals but have created your own kids choir to give the track an eerie resonance?
Yeah, we’ve been experimenting with vocal effects for a while now but that choir is an actual kid’s choir! They are called the MUSYCA Children’s Choir of Los Angeles. They were amazing to work with and helped give the song its eerie resonance. It was a total PINK FLOYD moment to have them on our record.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK can hear a bit of your inner Joan Jett creeping out on that one and the first single ‘Candy Coated Suicide’?
Well, there’s nothing wrong with that is there?
Pitch shifting is a more interesting way of manipulating vocals with technology than using autotune?
Yes, definitely. We got tired of the vocals being one dimensional. So we started layering the vocals and fucking them up to create something new and original. Just for the record, all of the vocals on all of our records are Emily, we just like to tweak them to expand the sonic palette.
Sonically this album has been another step forward, there’s a great energy to ‘Vampires’ and some fabulous synth sounds?
Yes, we decided when we started recording this album to delete all the old sounds and build all new synth sounds from scratch. It gave the new LP its own identity and soul. We wish people on the radio would do the same.
Both ‘Therapy (Get High)’ and ‘Your Addiction’ have some interesting lyrical gists?
Yeah, both those songs are very personal. ‘Therapy’ is really about feeling trapped by your anxiety and wanting to be free, while ‘Your Addiction’ is sort of like ‘Dear Enemy pt. 2’. That one fell together quickly and has a very personal vendetta behind it. In fact it’s about the same person as ‘Dear Enemy’.
What’s ‘Blood On Your Blade’ about, you could imagine Michael Jackson doing a song like this in his ‘Dangerous’ phase?
That song is about feeling used. Without giving up their identity, the song is about someone who pulls you into their world and sucks from you creatively without giving anything back. Once they get what they need from you, they move on. You’re just blood on their blade.
Did you have an ‘Imaginary Friend’ when you were younger? And is the song a reflection of the vapid online connections where people will prioritise over “not upsetting” a virtual relationship with someone they’ve never met over loyalty to a personal friend of many years?
That song is really about fake relationships that we’ve both encountered in Los Angeles.
It comes from the frustration of thinking that you are friends with someone only to find out that you’re just a stepping stone for whatever they needed at the moment.
Is your philosophy still “Keep your friends close and your enemies in your songs”?
Ultimately we write songs about everything we’re going through, so instead of being angry about things that have happened to us we channel it into our music. There’s nothing more impactful than having a friend turn into an enemy. It’s also very satisfying every time you play that song live.
The closing number ‘Survive’ doesn’t offer any respite, this album is quite full on!
That song ended up being the perfect ending to the album. It lyrically evolved into a message that became the answer to the themes that ‘Scary World’ brought up. Ultimately, the world (illness) may stand in your way but it’s your job to navigate around it and survive.
How has the COMBICHRIST + WEDNESDAY 13 tour been going? The match is wonderfully odd, yet fitting at the same time?
The tour has been going great. We’re in Europe currently and the shows have been amazing. Lots of people have coming out, and we’re definitely being introduced to a new audience we’ve never played to before. The tour line-up is an eclectic mix of different styles, yet it somehow works. It’s also been really cool to see people singing along to our songs in countries we’ve never been to.
What about the reactions of the predominantly rock-oriented audiences, could they get their heads round a synthpop duo with no guitars and no drums?
Overall, the audiences have been awesome and supportive. It takes them a few songs to figure us out but then they realize that we’re just as heavy even with only synthesizers.
By the end of the set, their reaction is overwhelming. It’s a great challenge for an electronic duo to play before and after loud rock bands (with drums, guitars etc). Ultimately, it just makes you better and ups your game.
So what are your hopes, fears and plans for ‘Scary World’?
We hope that people embrace and love this record as much as we do. We worked hard on it. We’ll also be embarking on a pretty exciting Fall tour that we can’t talk about yet, so we’ll definitely be playing more of these songs live. Also more music videos to come…
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its sincerest thanks to NIGHT CLUB
Additional thanks to Tracy George at TAG Publicity
‘Scary World’ is released by Gato Blanco on 24th August 2018, available on the usual digital platforms
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK once described NIGHT CLUB as sounding like “Britney fronting NINE INCH NAILS”.
Now re-quoted by some other media outlets, that description appears to have stuck. With their second album ‘Scary World’ on the way, NIGHT CLUB have a mind bending visual accompaniment to go with its lead single ‘Candy Coated Suicide’.
‘Alice In Wonderland’ author Lewis Carroll had a disorder which caused him to have hallucinations about shrinking and chatting to anxious leporids, but what would he have made of this video to ‘Candy Coated Suicide’?
Described by singer Emily Kavanaugh as “like if an 8 year old and her stuffed animals discovered LSD and went on a solid 4 day bender”, the self-directed video sees her cavorting with two synth playing rabbits as well as a teddy bear with chains and cuffs being two of the prominent accessories.
The song itself is an excellent second cousin to ‘Pray’ from NIGHT CLUB’s debut long player ‘Requiem for Romance’ and ‘She Wants To Play With Fire’ off the ‘Black Leather Heart’ EP.
However, the abundance of pitch shifted vocals ensures ‘Candy Coated Suicide’ possesses a slightly devilish quality, while instrumentalist and producer Mark Brooks has added a grittier rock dynamic that makes its presence felt in the bridge to compliment the dysfunctional pop aesthetic.
Currently touring North America with aggrotech exponents COMBICHRIST and horror rocker WEDNESDAY 13, the triple bill hits Europe in the summer including dates in Dublin, Belfast and Glasgow. But while they are in the British Isles, NIGHT CLUB will also be headlining two August shows in Sheffield and London.
‘Candy Coated Suicide’ is released by Gato Blanco and available via the usual digital platforms
The new album ‘Scary World’ is released on 24th August 2018
NIGHT CLUB 2018 live dates include: Dublin Tivoli (7th August)*, Belfast Limelight (8th August)*, Glasgow Garage (9th August)*, Sheffield Mulberry Bar (10th August), London Hoxton Stag’s Head (11th August)
“The medium of reinterpretation” is still very much present in the 21st Century.
There have been albums of cover versions from the likes of SIMPLE MINDS, ERASURE, MIDGE URE and CLAUDIA BRÜCKEN celebrating their influences, as well as numerous various artists collections paying tribute to particular acts.
However, a newish phenomenon of covering an entire album has appeared in more recent years, something which MARSHEAUX, BECKY BECKY and CIRCUIT 3 have attempted on works by DEPECHE MODE, THE KNIFE and YAZOO respectively.
On the other side of the coin in recognition of the cultural impact of the classic synth era, the Anti-Christ Superstar MARILYN MANSON covered SOFT CELL’s cover of ‘Tainted Love’ but added more shouting, while DAVID GRAY took their own ‘Say Hello Wave Goodbye’ and turned it into a lengthy Dylan-esque ballad.
There has also been a trend for girl groups to cover songs from the period with GIRLS ALOUD, THE SATURDAYS and RED BLOODED WOMEN being among those introducing these numbers to a new younger audience.
So as a follow-up to the 25 Classic Synth Covers listing, here is ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s selection taken from reinterpretations recorded from 2000 to the present day, restricted to one song per artist moniker and presented in chronological order.
SCHNEIDER TM va KPTMICHIGAN The Light 3000 (2000)
Morrissey was once quoted as saying there was “nothing more repellent than the synthesizer”, but if THE SMITHS had gone electro, would they have sounded like this and Stephen Patrick thrown himself in front of that ten ton truck? Germany’s SCHNEIDER TM aka Dirk Dresselhaus reconstructed ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ to a series of minimal blips, blops and robotics to configure ‘The Light 3000’ with British producer KPTMICHIGAN.
A breathy Euro disco classic made famous by sultry Spanish vocal duo BACCARA, Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory’s take on this cheesy but enjoyable disco standard came over like The Cheeky Girls at The Nuremburg rally! Now that’s a horrifying vision! All traces of ‘Yes Sir I Can Boogie’ apart from the original lyrics were rendered missing in action as the stern Ms Goldfrapp played the role of the thigh booted dominatrix on this highly original cover.
When BLACK BOX RECORDER went on hiatus, Sarah Nixey recorded a beautifully spacey cover of JAPAN’s Ghosts with INFANTJOY whose James Banbury became her main collaborator on her 2007 debut solo album ‘Sing Memory’. Meanwhile the duo’s other member was none other than ZTT conceptualist Paul Morley. A POPULUS remix appeared on the ‘With’ revisions album while MIDI-ed up and into the groove, Nixey later also recorded THE HUMAN LEAGUE’s ‘The Black Hit Of Space’.
Of this mighty industrialised cover, Ralf Dörper said: “When I first heard ‘The Anvil’ (‘Der Amboss’) by VISAGE, I thought: “what a perfect song for DIE KRUPPS” – it just needed more sweat, more steel. And it was not before 2005 when DIE KRUPPS were asked to play a few 25-year anniversary shows that I remembered ‘Der Amboss’… and as I was a big CLIENT fan at that time, I thought it would be a good opportunity to ask Fräulein B for assistance in the vocal department”.
Available on a self-released CD single for the band’s 25th anniversary tour, currently unavailable
Comprising of Aggie Peterson and Per Martinsen, FROST have described their music as “upbeat space-pop”. Much of their own material like ‘Klong’, ‘Alphabet’ and ‘Sleepwalker’ exuded a perfect soundtrack for those long Nordic nights. Meanwhile their ultra-cool cover of OMD’s ‘Messages’ embraced that wintery atmosphere, while providing a pulsing backbone of icy synths to accompany Peterson’s alluringly nonchalant vocal.
In this “Pink Floyd Goes To Hollywood” styled rework, Claudia Brücken revisited her ZTT roots with this powerful and danceable version of Roger Waters’ commentary on music business hypocrisy. ‘Have A Cigar’ showed a turn of feistiness and aggression not normally associated with the usually more serene timbres of Claudia Brücken and Paul Humphreys’ ONETWO project. But by welcoming pleasure into the dome, they did a fine cover version.
Budapest’s BLACK NAIL CABARET began life as an all-female duo of Emese Illes-Arvai on vocals and Sophie Tarr on keyboards, with their first online offering being a darkwave cover of RIHANNA’s ‘Umbrella’. Already very synthy in the Barbadian starlet’s own version, it showcased their brooding form of electro which subsequently impressed enough to earn support slots with COVENANT, DE/VISION and CAMOUFLAGE while producing three albums of self-penned material so far.
Liverpudlian easy listening crooner Michael Holliday was the second person to have a UK No1 written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, the first being Perry Como with ‘Magic Moments’. His second UK No1 penned by Earl Shuman and Mort Garson was a romantic guilty pleasure. CHINA CRISIS pledged their Scouse Honour with this jaunty synth / drum machine driven rendition of ‘Starry Eyed’ layered with reverbed synthbass warbles and harmonious vocals from Messrs Daly and Lundon.
LITTLE BOOTS gave a dynamically poptastic rendition of Giorgio Moroder and Freddie Mercury’s only collaboration from 1984, retaining its poignant melancholic quality while adding a vibrant and danceable electronic slant. The recreation of Richie Zito’s guitar solo on synths was wondrous as was the looser swirly groove. While Blackpool-born Victoria Hesketh didn’t have the voice of Mercury, her wispy innocence added its own touching qualities to ‘Love Kills’.
Yuck, it’s Chris Martin and Co but didn’t Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe do well? Merging possibly COLDPLAY’s best song with the synth riff from their own Latino disco romp ‘Domino Dancing’, ‘Viva La Vida’ was turned into a stomping but still anthemic number which perhaps had more touches of affection than PET SHOP BOYS‘ marvellous but allegedly two fingers Hi-NRG rendition of U2’s ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’. So altogether now: “Woah-oh, ooh-ooah!”
No strangers to raiding the Bowie songbook having previously tackled ‘Fame’ in 1981, DURAN DURAN however blotted their copy book with their 1995 covers LP ‘Thank You’. They refound their stride with the return-to-form album ‘All You Need Is Now’ but just before that, this superb reinterpretation of ‘Boys Keep Swinging’ reconnected them to their New Romantic roots with washes of Nick Rhodes’ swimmy Crumar string machine, held down by a danceable beatbox and John Taylor’s syncopated bass runs.
This frantically paced cover of controversial neofolk band DEATH IN JUNE was recorded for the LADYTRON ‘Best Of 00-10’ collection and purposely uncredited. The antithesis of the midtempo atmospherics of ‘Gravity The Seducer’, this cutting four-to-the-floor romp was the last of the quartet’s in-yer-face tracks in a wind down of the harder ‘Velocifero’ era. With the multi-ethnic combo subverting the meaning of ‘Little Black Angel’, it deliberately bore no resemblance to the acoustic laden original.
‘The Eternal’ from ‘Closer’, the final album by JOY DIVISION, was one of the most fragile, funereal collages of beauty ever committed to vinyl. But in 2011, the mysterious Brighton based songstress GAZELLE TWIN reworked this cult classic and made it even more haunting! Replacing the piano motif with eerily chilling synth and holding it together within an echoing sonic cathedral, she paid due respect to the song while adding her own understated operatic stylings.
On their only album ‘Lights & Offerings’, MIRRORS revealed an interesting musical diversion with this haunting take of a rootsy country number originally recorded by Karen Dalton. Written by the late Dino Valenti of psychedelic rockers QUICKSILVER MESSENGER SERVICE, ‘Something On Your Mind’ was a touching ballad with its tortured yearning suiting the quartet’s pop noir aspirations. Ally Young said: “It was very nice for us to be able to apply our aesthetic to someone else’s song.”
Indie stoners THE XX had a minimalist approach to their sound which Andy McCluskey said was “really quite impressive”. This bareness made their material quite well suited for reworking in the style of classic OMD. ‘VCR’ had Paul Humphreys taking charge of the synths while McCluskey dusted off his bass guitar and concentrated on vocals. McCluskey added: “People go ‘how did OMD influence THE XX?’… but have you listened to ‘4-Neu’? Have you listened to some of the really simple, stripped down B-sides?”
Available on the EP ‘History Of Modern (Part I)’ via Blue Noise
As I SPEAK MACHINE, Tara Busch has been known for her haunting and occasionally downright bizarre live covers of songs as diverse as ‘Cars’, ‘Our House’, ‘The Sound Of Silence’ and ‘Ticket To Ride’. For a JOHN FOXX tribute EP which also featured GAZELLE TWIN, she turned ‘My Sex’, the closing number from the debut ULTRAVOX! long player, into a cacophony of wailing soprano and dystopian synths that was more than suitable for a horror flick.
Available on the EP ‘Exponentialism’ (V/A) via Metamatic Records
French theatrical performer Valerie Renay and German producer Sebastian Lee Philipp are NOBLESSE OBLIGE. Together, they specialise in a brand of abstract Weimer cabaret tinged with a dose of electro Chanson. Their lengthy funereal deadpan cover of THE EAGLES’ ‘Hotel California’ highlighted the chilling subtext of the lyrics to its macabre conclusion! The synthesizer substitution of the original’s iconic twin guitar solo could be seen as total genius or sacrilege!
I AM SNOW ANGEL is the project of Brooklyn based producer Julie Kathryn; her debut album ‘Crocodile’ was a lush sounding affair and could easily be mistaken as a product of Scandinavia were it not for her distinctly Trans-Atlantic drawl. Already full of surprises, to close the long player, out popped a countrified drum ‘n’ bass take of BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN’s ‘I’m On Fire’! Quite what The Boss would have made of it, no-one is sure but it was quietly subversive and it certainly delivered the unexpected.
Available on the album ‘Crocodile’ via I Am Snow Angel
Reinterpreting any Bowie number is fraught with the possibility of negative feedback and MACHINISTA’s take on ‘Heroes’ set tongues wagging. Recorded as the duo’s calling card when experienced Swedish musicians John Lindqwister and Richard Flow first came together, electronic pulses combined with assorted synthetic textures which when amalgamated with Lindqwister’s spirited vocal, produced a respectful and yes, good version of an iconic song.
Available on the album ‘Xenoglossy’ via Analogue Trash
Comprising of frisky vocalist Emily Kavanaugh and moody producer Mark Brooks, NIGHT CLUB simply cut to the chase with their enjoyable electronic cover of INXS’ ‘Need You Tonight’. Here, the familiar guitar riff was amusingly transposed into a series of synth stabs before mutating into a mutant Morse code. It wasn’t rock ‘n’ roll but we liked it! Purists were horrified, but history has proved the best cover versions always do a spot of genre and instrumentation hopping.
The MARSHEAUX reworking of DEPECHE MODE’s second album ‘A Broken Frame’ shed new light on Martin Gore’s first long form adventure as songwriter and affirmed that numbers such as ‘My Secret Garden’ and ‘The Sun & The Rainfall’ were just great songs. But ‘Monument’ was an example of a cover outstripping the original and given additional political resonance with the economic situation close to home that the Greek synth maidens found themselves living in at the time of its recording.
Needing to be heard to be believed, this rather inventive and charming cover of THE CURE’s ‘Close To Me’ by Belgium’s favourite passengers METROLAND utilised a selection of male and female computer voice generators to provide the lead vocal, in a move likely to upset the majority of real music purists. Meanwhile, the hidden melodies shone much more brightly than in the goth-laden original, thanks to its wonderful and clever electronic arrangement.
One of DAILY PLANET’s main inspirations was cult UK synth trio WHITE DOOR, who released just one album ‘Windows’ in 1983. So when their chief synthesist Johan Baeckström was needing tracks to include on his ‘Like Before’ EP, the almost choir boy overtures of ‘Jerusalem’ was a natural choice for a cover version. Of course, this was not the first time Baeckström had mined the WHITE DOOR back catalogue as the more halcyon ‘School Days’ adorned the flip of his debut solo single ‘Come With Me’.
Forming in 2016, seasoned vocalist Gene Serene and producer Lloyd Price’s combined sound delightfully borrowed from both classic synthpop and Weimar Cabaret on THE FRIXION’s self-titled EP debut. From it, a tribute to The Purple One came with this touching take of his ‘Under The Cherry Moon’, highlighting PRINCE’s often hidden spiritual connection to European pop forms and recalling ‘The Rhythm Divine’, YELLO’s epic collaboration with Shirley Bassey.
Moody electronic duo KALEIDA first came to wider attention opening for RÓISÍN MURPHY in 2015. Covers have always been part of Christina Wood and Cicely Goulder’s repertoire with ‘A Forest’ and ‘Take Me To The River’ being among them. KALEIDA’s sparse rendition of NENA’s ‘99 Luftballons’ earned kudos for being very different and was included in the soundtrack of the Cold War spy drama ‘Atomic Blonde’, hauntingly highlighting the currently relevant nuclear apocalypse warning in the lyric.
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, especially with the opening ‘Widescreen’, where floatingly gentle melody creates the base for Kattman’s vocal journey further East.
featuring the voices of Rob Lowe and Elizabeth Banks, before finally releasing a full-length album 
and ‘She Wants To Play With Fire’ off the 
EP.
is released by Gato Blanco and available via the usual digital platforms
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