Author: electricityclub (Page 13 of 441)

“I don’t like country & western, I don’t like rock music… I don’t like rockabilly! I don’t like much really do I? But what I do like, I love passionately!!”: CHRIS LOWE

“Good taste is exclusive”: NICK RHODES

Vintage Synth Trumps with RICHARD BARBIERI

11 March 2026 /

Photo by Martin Bostock

Richard Barbieri is best known from his work with JAPAN and PORCUPINE TREE but despite having been a recording artist since 1978, his new studio album ‘Hauntings’ is only the fifth long playing solo release of his long career.

After 5 albums with JAPAN, Richard Barbieri worked with all his former bandmates David Sylvian, Mick Karn and Steve Jansen with a close creative partnership being developed with the later, both as an experimental instrumental duo and in a more song-oriented project called THE DOLPHIN BROTHERS.

There was a brief JAPAN reunion as RAIN TREE CROW in 1991 but when that ended amid acrimony, Jansen, Barbieri and Karn formed JBK, issuing a number of albums on their own Medium Productions label between 1993 and 2001. During that time, the trio were invited to be live musicians to back NO-MAN, the art pop duo comprising of Tim Bowness and Steven Wilson in 1992. Significantly, Barbieri would continue to work with both and joined Wilson’s progressive rock band PORCUPINE TREE in 1993.

Deepening the dark immersion of its predecessor ‘Under A Spell’ from 2021, ‘Hauntings’ sees Barbieri present a diverse double collection influenced by a nostalgia for the past and future, and for things that didn’t happen, with questions as to what is real and what is simulation. Alongside the electronic sound sculptures of Barbieri are a renowned international cast of musicians including Morgan Ågren (drums and percussion), Percy Jones (bass guitar) and Luca Calabrese (trumpet).

Richard Barbieri sat down with ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK for a round of Vintage Synth Trumps to talk about the ideas behind ‘Hauntings’ and his close encounters of the synthesizer kind…

The first card is the ARP 2600, does that trigger any thoughts?

I did have a go at one in the studio when we were making JAPAN’s second album ‘Obscure Alternatives’. That was probably just before I got my own modular, the Roland System 700 Lab series. The ARP 2600 had a similar kind of layout, semi-modular… I used it on a track called ‘Deviation’, some kind of noise and sequency thing! I was well fascinated by it but it always looked quite ugly to me and still does… I don’t know why but I’m still not drawn to the look of it. It’s not clear, you’ve got all these faders and things, but it doesn’t tell you exactly what’s going on. I don’t warm to it. I think Steven Wilson of PORCUPINE TREE got a reproduction one…

Of course, the ARP 2600 has got an amazing history to it, it’s on so many records but those metal sliders and the way it was laid out didn’t draw me in…

Deviating slightly, you mentioned when we last spoke in 2017 that your Oberheim OB-X disappeared back in the day… did you ever think about replacing your OB-X with something like the XPander or newer editions of like the OB-X-8 or copies such as the UB-Xa by Behringer?

The OB-X was too much in the ball park of the Prophet 5 to be honest… to me, they are fairly similar. Yes, the OB-X has that slightly thicker sound, it’s a bit warmer but in terms of having a polyphonic synth, I’m happy enough with the Prophet.

Artistically, did losing the OB-X end up being a positive in that you had to investigate a new instrument and using different techniques?

Yeah, it breaks my heart now losing stuff, especially my Wurlitzer electric piano, I don’t know what happened to that! But in those days, there wasn’t this emotional attachment to the instruments, they were tools, there to do a job. You would give away a synth to someone or let them borrow it. So it was very much wanting the technology of the times and it was more about what it could do for you than actually fetishising over it! But now, it’s all nostalgic, it’s all about the feelings and emotions.

Next card and it’s an EDP Wasp Deluxe… did you ever consider this as a possible purchase before you acquired the MicroMoog?

No, it never was… I know people who speak lovingly about the Wasp… are they the ones with the touch sensitive keyboard?

The Deluxe had a proper keyboard but the standard one had this touch sensitive strip…

I was more drawn to the Moog name and the MicroMoog was the cheapest one. In hindsight, I’m glad I got that and not a Minimoog because it’s got a lot more programming possibilities and more routing. I love it! *laughs*

Your new record is called ‘Hauntings’ and your previous one was called ‘Under A Spell’, what has brought you musically into the supernatural world?

Lockdown started that whole thing of introspection and thinking a lot about things. It meant we couldn’t go out and do much, so everything became internalised. Also my age, it’s the age when you start thinking about your life, where you are and how you’ve got to this point. It brought all these new feelings into my mind which were haunting me. I’ve called them ‘Hauntings’ but they are feelings of nostalgia, things from the past and things that didn’t happen. When you have very vivid dreams, you have recurring dreams, you go to places you’ve never really been to in real life and there’s people you’ve never really met but they’re very real to you in that moment.

So it was playing around with that reality and how much can you bend the two realities… are we part of some simulation where it’s possible that other realities exist in a parallel dimension? I was getting all kind of heavy with that and there was also this nostalgia for the future, for a future that might not happen. So it was quite intense feelings that were influencing this music.

How did the opening ‘Hauntings’ track ‘Snakes & Ladders’ develop?

Funnily enough, that track is not built on any particular concept or feeling or nostalgia, it has a definite musical theme to it. I gave it the title because to me, when you listen to it, it’s a lot of crescendos and falls. Trying to visualise the track, it looked to me like a ‘Snakes & Ladders’ board where you’re getting these musical ascending parts and then suddenly there’s this drop and you fall down the ladder or slide down the snake. So that was a very vivid thing of rise and fall. There’s a slight time travelling concept in there as well, so you could look at it falling into different time lapses.

You mentioned this sort of “imagined nostalgia” and “imagined future” but also real nostalgia and haunting stuff, it made me think of when you did the telephone ring on ‘The Tenant’… it’s imitating a telephone ring but it’s not what a telephone ring sounds like… is this part of the subconscious nostalgia creeping in?

It’s a sound design thing, this album has more sound design than any other album that I’ve made. The specific thing you’re talking about on ‘The Tenant’ was my interpretation, in fact a very good copy, of the Tannoy signal that they used to have at Charles De Gaulle Airport… so every time there was an announcement, you would have this little rise and fall of these electronic digital notes. I did it with a Polymoog where you have a slider to slide through an octave thing. I just did that to recreate this sound that fascinated me.

But on this new album, there’s a lot of sound design, like on ‘Victorian Wraith’ and ‘1890’, they are based in the Victorian era. ‘Victorian Wraith’ is a recollection of a child I used to see, I used to see apparitions in my room, maybe many children do… and suddenly you stop seeing them. Your parents say you’ve had a fever but I could see these ghosts walking around my room although I wasn’t scared. They were wearing this Victorian attire, it was a very vivid image so that influenced ‘Victorian Wraith’.

The other track ‘1890’ is a sound design piece around that time, that’s one of my recurring dreams which I go back to, it’s obviously from that Victorian era in London and there’s lot of fog and mist, it’s got a dark grainy atmosphere and it’s all connected around the river near Big Ben and the Houses Of Westminster. I got a sample of the very first chimes of Big Ben from 1890, it was made on a wax cylinder or something and I’ve got an announcement on the radio of those first chimes, I put that in as well as a lot of old radio broadcasts that I had coming and going. That, mixed with a storm recording I had of really heavy rain and thunderstorms, really worked perfectly together. It just created this whole thing that I go though in my dreams. I managed to provide a sound version of what I visualise.

Another card and it’s the ARP Axxe… you used to use an ARP Solina didn’t you?

Yes I did, and an ARP Omni… David and I used the ARP Omni, it had a lovely sound, there’s a voicey choir sound that worked really well. The ARP Axxe? No, that would have been a choice at the time, did you go ARP or did you go Moog? So there was the choice between the ARP Odyssey or the Minimoog. Because I went the Moog route, that was my monosynth and it wasn’t a time where you could just easily afford to go through all the stuff.

Photo by Steve Jansen

You’re known for “mixing your own colours”, how did you become more interested in sound design as opposed to just being a “keyboard player”?

Well! It was not being able to play keyboards very well! *laughs*

I think you do yourself down, you can play a lot better than you make out… *laughs*

I think there’s been periods where I wasn’t too bad for a while but I think now I’m on the decline! *laughs*

Was getting into sound design like an Eno-inspired thing?

Yeah, Brian Eno showed the way that you could use abstract sound and put that in the context of pop music…

There’s a track on the album called ‘Reveille’ which is very ‘Another Green World’, was that a conscious intent?

I’ll take that as a compliment, that particular track is just 2 channels, a stereo live recording of this new synth I’ve been playing with of late, the Solar 42f. It’s a drone synth…well, it’s more than that but it’s quite incredible really. I can’t compare it to much, it’s just something all out there on its own. But you can get a lot of things going on at the same time. I just got this little thing going and it created this sound world, it reminded me of the sun coming up. Sometimes, the real simple minimal things are the best.

Photo by Debbie Zornes

The ‘Hauntings’ album is not just minimal things, there is some quite boisterous and uptempo stuff like ‘Anemoia’ which is playing with drum ‘n’ bass rhythms?

Yes, it is and it did have an original drum ‘n’ bass programmed pattern throughout but I really wanted a drummer to be playing it. There was a Swedish drummer who I was looking at for a long time, Morgan Ågren who although he’s a very technically gifted rock jazz player, he also has a sensibility towards electronic music. I could tell with his videos and all these little things he was doing to create his percussive sound worlds, it was really interesting to me.

So I thought it would be great to have a drummer playing a drum ‘n’ bass pattern, to give it that feeling and when it goes into that second section of the track, that’s a combination of the drummer then reverting to percussion and the electronic drum ‘n’ bass programme kit coming through more strongly. I think that worked well.

How did you become interested in drum ‘n’ bass?

I liked SQUAREPUSHER and APHEX TWIN, I also liked that quite extreme Jungle drum ‘n’ bass but I also played a lot with a band called THE BAYS, an improvisational band led by Andy Gangadeen, he’s the drummer with CHASE & STATUS. He’s very into drum ‘n’ bass and electronic rhythms, he has an electronic kit and vibes off all kinds of loops and stuff. So I did a lot of live shows with them, it’s was all improvised dance music, Jungle drum ‘n’ bass with a little bit of techno.

You mentioned you worked with a Swedish drummer, you’ve worked with a Swedish saxophonist Lisen Rylander Löve and your first album production was a Swedish band LUSTANS LAKEJER on their 1982 album ‘En Plats I Solen’. You did a tour in 2017 with them performing that album…

It was the 35th anniversary of ‘En Plats I Solen’, we’d always been in touch anyway, I’d seen some of the LUSTANS LAKEJER guys over the years and it seemed like a great idea to go out and play that album, they thought “let’s go and invite the producer”…

Although you didn’t produce the pre-album single ‘Diamanter’, it was the track that won you over to take the producer role and you got to perform that buzzy solo live…

Yes, it was a different one each night, basically it was noise solo and some nights, I would just lean on the keyboard with my elbow, twist a few knobs and just have a drink! *laughs*

That was fun, I love those guys… what I love about them is that they SO 80s, they haven’t tried to update or reimagine themselves at all, they’re strictly 80s! They slap on all the make up before they go on stage, all the synths playing the right sounds from that era and it’s great!

I actually got to see LUSTANS LAKEJER in Malmö near the end of 2019 and they’ve got this new late teen fanbase who go to gigs dressed like front man Johan Kinde from that era…

Yeah! *laughs*

The next card is a Yamaha CS-60… have you flirted with Yamaha equipment before?

Yes, I played a CS-80 and a CS-60, , I’d put them in the Top 5 of synths of all time, so lovely. It was in a studio in Sweden, a guy who collects a lot of vintage stuff and they couldn’t get me away from them! So beautiful and very expressive, just different… they’re a world of their own. I’ve never owned either one unfortunately, I wish I did. If I could, I would love to get one of those. But the Yamaha I do own is a CS-01… and that sounds amazing! *laughs*

So Steven Wilson’s never hired a CS-80 for you to use in PORCUPINE TREE?

Actually, that’s not a bad idea! Of course, there is good emulation available!

John Foxx has done this Vintage Synth Trumps interview format before and he did the photo on the cover of the PORCUPINE TREE album ‘Lightbulb Sun’, do you know how he got involved?

It must have been somebody who knew someone else! It was a case of the photo John Foxx took was actually of his son, and it was exactly right for the title… I wish I knew, you’re gonna have to ask Steven Wilson because I can’t really tie that all together, it’s quite weird.

But as a coincidence, I’ve been working with Steve D’Agostino, he’s just mixed the surround sound for ‘Hauntings’ and I’ve known him a while… so he’s now worked with every member of JAPAN! I was the last one to complete the set! *laughs*

He worked with Mick Karn on DALI’S CAR, he remixed David Sylvian’s ‘Manafon’ in surround and he worked with Steve Jansen and John Foxx on the album ‘A Secret Life’.

It’s all very incestuous isn’t it? *laughs*

Yeah! Amazing! *laughs*

Photo by Steve Jansen

I don’t know if you have been misquoted but you once remarked that the YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA sounding parts on ‘Tin Drum’ were all David Sylvian while you did the weird interesting stuff, is there any truth in that?

Well, it’s not to say that David’s parts were interesting! *laughs*

A lot of his parts on ‘Tin Drum’, I can hear similarities to the YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA album ‘Technodelic’; what’s weird about that is that both albums were released at the same time so it’s almost by osmosis, this exchange of ideas and influence that went on at that time. I would say my sounds were probably a bit more off-the-wall and possibly a bit stranger…

Haunting? *laughs*

Haunting, there you go! Yeah! *laughs*

The next card is the Roland Juno 106?

I’m very associated with Roland, but I didn’t have any of the early Jupiter or Juno series, anything like that. I’ve got the big Roland System 700 and I used the Space Echos, all that kind of stuff. But it wasn’t until later with the V-Synth that I really got involved with Roland again. Before that, there was the D-50, David Sylvian and I used D-50s for the ‘In Praise Of Shamans’ tour in 1988. He did some great D-50 stuff on a track called ‘Pop Song’, all that weird scale-straight micro tuning stuff going on in the background. I used the D-50 until quite recently, but the V-Synth all the time.

Photo by Sheila Rock

On ‘Pushing The River’ by THE DOLPHIN BROTHERS, there were those synthetic brass bursts, was that sound design or sampling?

It was a pattern that I came up with on a Casio SK-1!! It sounded like an EARTH WIND & FIRE or Phil Collins type of brass section and we decided to go with that. I think we might have used a bit of the original sound as well. Sometimes, these sorts of things, you just sample something and it’s just got a melody that’s gonna work. These Casio lo-fi samplers are very collectable now! *laughs*

Ah, next card is a Polymoog which I know you’ve used a few times…

Yeah! I used it in that interim period between ‘Obscure Alternatives’ and ‘Quite Life’ where I didn’t really have an established set-up as such. At the beginning, I had the Wurlitzer piano, the MicroMoog and the Solina string synth as well. Then I got the System 700 which did all the abstract and sequencer-driven stuff. I didn’t have a set-up until we came to ‘Quiet Life’ so at the time, when you walked into studios, there was always stuff around, they had all kinds of kit there or you could hire stuff in.

There was a Polymoog and I started to use it a lot during that period. It was very user friendly, it was quite inspirational, you could get interesting things going quite quickly. I do like the Moog stuff a lot, it’s not accurate, it’s not forensic. The Prophet is forensic in that the filter is so musical and you can make such tiny incremental moves on it to obtain real interesting tones. The Moog is just a big thick thing, the filter just opens and closes, you lose all the bass in it when you open it. But it’s this huge textural sound which I’ve always quite liked. I’m thinking of getting this new Moog called the Muse, it’s a new 8 voice polysynth, it’s like the be-all-and-end-all of Moog products, I think it’s amazing.

You did the JAPAN track ‘Life Without Buildings’ as JBK with Steven Wilson live in 1997, what made you pick that one?

Well, mainly because it was instrumental! There’s only a little bit of vocals in the middle which we knew the audience would sing! *laughs*

It just made sense, it would have been odd to do a JAPAN song with somebody else singing, especially if me, Steve and Mick were up there. It’s such a great track and went down so well live, it was epic and immense. We had Theo Travis on flute and saxophones, Steven Wilson was doing the melodic parts, it was great! I wish we’d done more of those shows really, it was a good band.

What’s next, are you playing live with this new album or going onto your next recorded work?

I think I’m going to promote it with listening events, that I think is a nice way to get people involved, do some informal gatherings, we can do some nice studio surrounds for playback as it’s in Dolby Atmos or some intimate vinyl lounge playbacks, maybe get someone to interview me and do a Q&A with the audience. People like to come to that as much as a gig sometimes.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its sincerest thanks to Richard Barbieri

Special thanks to Ben Pester at Pester PR

‘Hauntings’ is released on 10th April 2026 in CD, CD + Bluray, red or black double vinyl and digital formats by Kscope, pre-order via https://richardbarbieri.lnk.to/Hauntings

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https://richardbarbieri.bandcamp.com/

Vintage Synth Trumps is a card game by GForce that features 52 classic synthesizers, available from https://www.juno.co.uk/products/gforce-software-vintage-synth-trumps-2-playing/637937-01/

Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
11th March 2026

EVERY UK HIT SINGLE: 1980

7 March 2026 /

From Chart Toppers To Cult Classics When Music Ruled The Airwaves

In 1983, Stephen Morris from NEW ORDER said to Smash Hits: “If you believe in the charts, then you might as well believe in fairies” but occasionally, those fairies could sprinkle some magic dust.

‘Every UK Hit Single: 1980’ aims to tell “The story of 1980 – every hit, every memory, one unforgettable year in pop: 370 singles, 225 artists, 25 chart toppers!”. Putting things into wider perspective, those numbers are still small considering the amount of record releases in any given year during a time when there was no streaming, no downloading, no social media and even no CD!

Author Richard West has a lifelong fascination with popular music and realised his dream of chart entries as a member of progressive metal bands THRESHOLD and OBLIVION PROTOCOL with recognition across Europe and the UK’s specialist listings. He even published a memoir ‘Maybe A Writer: My Life in Threshold’ that traced his journey from his teenage years living by numbers following the charts to becoming a recording artist.

‘Every UK Hit Single: 1980’ is the first volume in a series documenting every Top 40 entry with the intention of covering 1981 and beyond. The format is chronological with two paragraphs on each single, one factual and one of trivia. What it does lack however is opinion, so this is more of a reference book.

Despite the popularity of Gary Numan in 1979, synth-based pop music was still fledgling as far as being a regular chart proposition was concerned. However, Japanese Technopop trio YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA would score a surprise No17 hit with their 1978 electronic cover of American composer Martin Denny’s 1959 exotica instrumental ‘Firecracker’, mistitled as ‘Computer Game (Theme From The Invader)’.

Although the original could be seen as an early form of cultural appropriation using every pentatonic cliché in the book, Haroumi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi and Ryuichi Sakamoto took it back and gave the tune authenticity. Their treatment acted as a symbol of the Far East’s advancement in affordable technology which was crucial to the rise of the synth.

While 1980 would establish its own electronic legacy, the man born Gary Webb was already being seen as heading down the dumper with both ‘We Are Glass’ and ‘I Die: You Die’ failing to secure the top spot after ‘Are Friends Electric?’ and ‘Cars’ both hit No1 the year before.

Considered his nearest rival artistically at the time, Numan’s biggest influence John Foxx was fresh out of ULTRAVOX but the fact that his even more dystopian electro pieces like ‘Underpass’, ‘No-One Driving’ and ‘Burning Car’ were even entering the Top 40 was nothing short of amazing and indicative of the adventurous eclectic nature of 1980.

Meanwhile the newly regrouped ULTRAVOX now fronted by Midge Ure got the Top 40 entry that was not even close during their Foxx-era with ‘Sleepwalk’ but while it was a breakthrough, it wouldn’t be until the title track of the parent album ‘Vienna’ was a single in 1981 that they would become chart fixtures.

Despite the critical acclaim for the likes of THE HUMAN LEAGUE, JAPAN and SIMPLE MINDS, it was a young duo from Merseyside who would steal their thunder as far as the Top 40 was concerned; ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK were notable for being one of the rising wave of warmer synthesizer acts but while extremely melodic and rhythmic, their lyrics on ‘Messages’ and more significantly ‘Enola Gay’ had darker overtones. Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys would end 1980 as the biggest selling artist in the Virgin Records group despite being signed to one of its subsidiaries Dindisc.

One often forgotten synth-driven band who actually managed three Top 40 single entries in 1980 was NEW MUSIK; led by Tony Mansfield, like a certain Trevor Horn with BUGGLES, he figured he would have more influence in the studio rather than being on ‘Top Of The Pops’. He would go on to produce a No 1 for Captain Sensible while also working with the likes of AZTEC CAMERA, NAKED EYES and A-HA. Meanwhile at the start of 1980, Vangelis debuted in the UK Top 40 with YES frontman Jon Anderson and the gorgeous ‘I Hear You Now’.

Sadly, Ian Curtis was never to have a Top 40 hit in his lifetime as ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ would posthumously get a No13 hit for JOY DIVISION. But surviving members Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris with new member Gillian Gilbert would have that chart fairy dust sprinkled on them several times as NEW ORDER.

Although the New Romantics were being talked about as the rising youth movement, it would be the man who sold the world and seeded the whole party in the first place that would use it for an artistic renaissance; David Bowie was taken to The Blitz by club regular and RCA label assistant Jacqueline Bucknell to cast members of the clientele including its “face” Steve Strange for the video of his new single ‘Ashes To Ashes’.

While the song reached No1 and Bowie himself would move on, others from The Blitz knew their time had come. SPANDAU BALLET would release ‘To Cut A Long Story Short’ towards the end of year to herald a fresh aspirational mindset in pop while issued a few weeks later, ‘Fade To Grey’ by the Steve Strange-fronted VISAGE wouldn’t hit big until the start of 1981 but would become the biggest selling single in West Germany of that year.

1980 though was not really about the emergence of warmer and dancier synthesizer sounds. The year was dominated by ska with the likes of THE SPECIALS, THE BEAT and MADNESS scoring at least 4 Top 40 hits each but perhaps unbelievably and reflective of every generation needing its dose of imagined nostalgia, rockabilly band MATCHBOX scored 5 Top 40 hits!

1980 is often best remembered for 3 No1s for BLONDIE, 2 No1s for THE JAM and 2 No1s for ABBA, with consistent charts runs for the likes of THE POLICE, QUEEN and ROXY MUSIC while disco provided chart toppers for Fern Kinney and Kelly Marie. Without even mentioning Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, mods, rockers or the new wave of British heavy metal, this was a year of musical diversity and ‘Every UK Hit Single: 1980’ documents that.

‘Every UK Hit Single: 1980’ is published by Eightspace in paperback

https://everyukhitsingle.com

https://www.facebook.com/everyukhitsingle

Text by Chi Ming Lai
7th March 2026

MESH The Truth Doesn’t Matter

2 March 2026 /

It’s been 10 years since the last MESH album ‘Looking Skyward’…

The duo of Mark Hockings and Richard Silverthorn continue to be a live draw in Europe while the former has been busy with his BLACKCARBURNING solo project. But the world has changed considerably since ‘Looking Skyward’ and now ‘The Truth Doesn’t Matter’ in this is the age of post-factual lies.

As if to make up for their recorded absence of nearly a decade, the new MESH album contains a whopping 16 tracks which capture the dark undertone of muddled political viewpoints that allow fascism to be normalised and empathy to be treated as the enemy.

Photo by Guido Braun

On the opening title song, “The truth doesn’t matter if no-one gets hurt” could be a catchphrase from that vile orange Mussolini and the song provides a stark statement on the present state of geopolitical affairs. Fast and frantic as the heavens open with heavy rainfall, ‘A Storm Is Coming’ needs no explanation in the fierce tension expressed lyrically and musically. Moving onto something moodier and more personal, ‘I Lost a Friend Today’ reflects on loss…

With a determined stance, ‘Trying to Save You’ is a MESH banger with futurepop inflections that will become a live favourite while featuring the delectable voice of Mari Kattman, ‘Bury Me Again’ is a steadfast epic which gets an eerie angelic ending. ‘I Bleed Through You’ provides more emotive propulsion in another classic MESH anthem, as does ‘Kill Us With Silence’ which does electro rock far better than DEPECHE MODE have done in the last 20 years… there, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK has said it AGAIN!

With stabbing synths and a rumbling triplet, the cut and thrust metaphors of ‘Exile’ could be seen on personal or political levels, but if taken as the latter, there are questions on the rise of far right extremism as the turmoil is observed in isolation. Following that rousing highlight, there is another as MESH get into an 808 STATE on the rousing ‘Everything As It Should Be’ with a simple but effective synth solo to boot in “the path of least resistance”.

The more sparsely orchestrated ‘Hey Stranger’ is offset by wonderfully bubbling arpeggios for one of those sad MESH ballads while with an acoustic strum amongst the sequences and string machines, ‘Not Everyone Is Lonely’ heads towards the home straight with the message to “don’t get left behind”. The closing mandate is to ‘Be Kind’ and “enjoy their success when you are not at your best”; this is Hockings’ clarion call to his ‘Friends Like These’ to avoid “the judgement of crowds”.

Every type of MESH track is gathered on ‘The Truth Doesn’t Matter’; there’s the fast ones, the anthemic stompers, the emotive slowies and the instrumental interludes ranging from the dramatic cinematics of ‘Polygraph’, the rhythmic computer speech-laden ‘1031030’ and the brooding spy drama of ‘Cipher’ which could be mistaken for present-day Gary Numan. There is a lot of MESH to take in on this new body of work, but fans will be extremely happy with what is on offer with the double opus that is ‘The Truth Doesn’t Matter’.

‘The Truth Doesn’t Matter’ is released by Dependent Records on 27th March 2026, formats include limited edition boxset signed by MESH, hardcover 2CD artbook including exclusive 9 track bonus CD The Full Truth, gatefold black vinyl double LP and standard CD – pre-order from https://spkr.store/collections/mesh

MESH 2026 live dates include:

Oberhausen Kulttempel (2nd April), Berlin Huxleys (3rd April), Hamburg Docks (4th April), Leipzig Felsenkeller (5th April), Prague Lucerna Music Bar (6th April), Munich Backstage (7th April), Frankfurt Batschkapp (9th April), Cologne Carlswerk Victoria (10th April), Hannover Pavillon (11th April), Bristol Trinity (1st May), London 229 (2nd May), Sheffield Corporation (3rd May), Malmö Plan B (14th May), Gothenburg Musikens Hus (15th May), Copenhagen Viften (16th May), Taunton Electric Summer (30th August), Liberec Dům Kultury (7th November)

https://www.mesh.co.uk/

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
2nd March 2026

KARL BARTOS Interview

25 February 2026 /

Photo by Katja Ruge

Karl Bartos needs no introduction to electronic music aficionados as a member of the classic KRAFTWERK line-up; he co-wrote acknowledged electronic classics such as ‘The Model’, ‘The Robots’, ‘Neon Lights’, ‘Computer World’, ‘Numbers’, ‘Computer Love’, ‘Tour De France’ and ‘The Telephone Call’.

Born in 1952, Karl Bartos studied at the Robert Schumann Conservatory in Düsseldorf before joining KRAFTWERK for their US tour in 1975 after the success of ‘Autobahn’; working alongside Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider and Wolfgang Flür, he featured on the pioneering albums ‘Radio-Activity’, ‘Trans-Europe Express’, ‘The Man Machine’, ‘Computer World’ and ‘Electric Café’.

As well as playing the iconic elektronisches schlagzeug pads first widely seen in the UK on the BBC show ‘Tomorrow’s World’, Bartos also used other customised electronic instruments such as the Vibrolux electronic vibraphone and the Triggersumme percussion sequencer.

Leaving KRAFTWERK after years of work on ‘The Mix’ for which he was not credited, he formed ELEKTRIC MUSIC, releasing the album ‘Esperanto’ in 1993 which featured the original version of the brilliant ‘Kissing The Machine’ with Andy McCluskey on lead vocals that was later included in reworked form on the 2013 OMD album ‘English Electric’.

Collaborations with Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr for the ELECTRONIC album ‘Raise The Pressure’ and a psychedelic rock-infused number ‘The Moon & The Sun’ with OMD for their more conventional ‘Universal’ long player followed in 1996; the various influences from these British sojourns led to the 1998 six string driven ‘Electric Music’ album which Bartos would describe as “guitar pop out of the computer”.

Photo by Gaby Gerster

But Bartos would return to electronics for his debut solo album proper ‘Communication’ in 2003. He acted as a guest professor in Auditory Media Design at the Berlin University of the Arts between 2004 to 2009 before formulating his second solo album ‘Off The Record’ which came out in 2013. His most recent music project has been a present day soundtrack to ‘The Cabinet of Dr Caligari’, the 1920 German Expressionist silent horror film directed by Robert Wiene.

His autobiography ‘The Sound Of The Machine – My Life in KRAFTWERK & Beyond’ was published in English in 2022 by Omnibus Press and among the interesting factoids contained within was that the inspiration for the ‘Numbers’ beat was a Cliff Richard recording called ‘Do You Want To Dance?’; almost everything about the creative process at Kling Klang from an eyewitness point of view was contained in this book.

With a remastered version of ‘The Sound Of The Machine’ recently published with a new foreword by music academic Dr Leah Kardos, Karl Bartos kindly entertained a career spanning chat with ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK

You have published a remastered edition of your book ‘The Sound Of The Machine’, are there any specific differences with this new version. How was it to write, from the original German transcript through to translation into English?

After the book’s publication in Germany, I began revising the text with the English translation in mind. Many sections had been cut and I’ve now reinserted them elsewhere. Meanwhile, I had also analysed my time with KRAFTWERK and, for example, added the paragraph ‘Progress as a Shining Promise’ to Chapter 16. Digitisation was one of the decisive reasons for the end of our creative community.

When we then worked on the translation with the fantastic Katy Derbyshire, several other things came to light that I had noticed in the other language. And my magnificent editor, David Buckley, brought another expertise. It wasn’t really work for me, but rather very educational and a great pleasure. Yes, I’m happy with Omnibus Press’ remastered edition. And, of course, I love the profound foreword. Dankeschön, Leah Kardos.

You are still performing your contemporary soundtrack to ‘The Cabinet of Dr Caligari’ live, what fascinated you about this film and how did you find composing to moving images and a storyline?

The industry of killing machines was invented then. For the first time, a war was fought with modern weapons: machine guns, tanks, airplanes, flamethrowers, chemical weapons, and much more – everything that scientists had developed. The film reflected the horrors of World War I. It was a sensation at its premiere in Berlin in 1920. It was considered a new art form. Reproducible – made for the masses. The new medium of film combined the expressionist worldview with psychoanalysis and the mystical ghost world of Romanticism.

Composing functional music was an enriching experience. But I didn’t just compose music, but also integrated all the sounds of the narrative world into the music. That’s why my partner, sound director Mathias Black, and I called it narrative film music.

Your debut solo album ‘Communication’ was reissued in 2025 by Bureau B, but it sort of got lost when it was first released in 2003. How was the reception to it 22 years later on its now prescient themes?

Yes, I’ve been living with this album for a while now. I can’t say much about the reactions to the reissue yet. A friend from England wrote to me that it’s difficult to determine the order of my music releases anyway. The events of September 11th deeply shook me at the time, and I wanted to focus on the power of images.

How do you look back on the making of 2013’s ‘Off The Record’ and how it brought some of your past into the present? Are there any more “secret acoustic diary” entries that can be developed?

During my professorship at the Berlin University of the Arts, the idea for an autobiography gradually matured. My pocket diaries, scores, and audio diary were all kept close together. Yes, I often write things down. Perhaps because I want to know how I think.

‘Ohm Sweet Ohm’ remains an underrated classic, it is very emotional and human in its realisation with your “knitting needle schlagzeug” being among the key components, how did your pop mind and classical training take to this new technology and sound when in the studio for the ‘Radio-Activity’ album?

The 1970s were a decade of avant-garde music. And Düsseldorf was an artistic centre for all directions of the avant-garde. As a student, one was very involved in experimentation. Compositions for percussion generated quite a lot of buzz. Steve Reich played at the Kunsthalle in Düsseldorf in the early 1970s. That was an enlightening experience. I also studied Stockhausen’s ‘Zyklus for a Percussionist’ and, with the percussion ensemble, Carlos Chávez’s ‘Toccata for Percussion Instruments’. It was also around that period that I first heard pieces from John Cage’s ‘Imaginary Landscape series’. It was an amazing time, living and learning amidst the sounds of music.

But bear in mind: even in the 60s, THE BEATLES had one foot in the avant-garde of sound art. The recording sessions for ‘Radio-Activity’ were cool and the atmosphere was great. I remember thinking to myself that it was a good mix of pop and avant-garde. That was then.

In today’s capitalist, computerised world, however, many are more concerned with content management than with music. We once imagined this digital world and translated it into music. But yesterday’s future is now the past. Many people love this retro-futurism. That’s fine with me. Nostalgia is very potent. However, nostalgia should not degenerate into retro-perplexity. Because art, by its very nature, enters into a dialogue with the world. And as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney recently said in a different context in Davos: ‘Nostalgia is not a strategy.’

Before MIDI, you had the customised Vibrolux electronic vibraphone which you used on ‘The Hall Of Mirrors’, how did you find using to it compared to an acoustic one?

It was rather basic, but it could control a synthesizer, and that was the point.

You came up with the bassline of ‘Metropolis’ while the percussion was sequenced for the first time, how do you see your role as a musician changing at the time?

When I was young I‘d played in pop bands and in classical music, for example in modern ensembles and opera. From the beginning, I felt that composing came naturally to me. Since I never saw myself as a drummer in the traditional sense of pop music, I had no reservations about automating the rhythm. I somehow liked the anonymity of a formula. Similar to the bar lines in musical notation, which represent the pulse, it is the framework that holds the music together. After all, we wanted the quantification to aestheticise the logic of the machine. Essentially, I’m an artist who just happens to be a musician.

One of your new tools in the reconfigured Kling Klang for 1981 was the Triggersumme, what was that like to use and what possibilities did it open up?

It involved the automation of a beatbox with the ability to make variations ‘on the fly’. In fact, the synchronization of the analog sequencer and the Triggersumme for controlling percussive sounds was an ingenious unit. The engineer Hajo Wiechers has done an excellent job. Unfortunately, we weren’t aware of how beneficial this technique was for merging our creativity.

Isn’t it strange that after our 1981 world tour, we didn’t perform live again with our classic line-up until 1990. Progress was a shining promise, and our belief in technology clouded our vision. The digital hysteria of those years diverted our attention from people to machines, and the machines, in turn, blocked our view of what we should have been doing. Because up to that point, all our music had been created through the interplay of our creativity. And the creation was supported by a few music boxes.

Our group of artists then became a digital business model. It is really remarkable how many things we’ve experienced as a result of technological progress are now being repeated in information society worldwide. I view the invasion of artificial intelligence with great concern. I’m not afraid of technology, but of people and their intentions.

The ‘Computer World’ tour saw you playing more keyboards but do you have a favourite synthesizer of all time?

I still own two Minimoogs. Yes, this machine was truly brilliantly designed by Mr Bob Moog. I also have a digital plug-in. Most of the time, we end up with distortions in the digital hall of mirrors. But I think the Moog plug-in turned out well too.

What is your favourite drum machine or rhythm unit?

I’m afraid I can’t help you here. I believe the analog sequencer and Triggersumme of Hajo Wiechers had the ability to awaken creativity and be receptive to inspiration.

Digital synthesis and sampling entered the fray on ‘Tour De France’, how did you view these sonic developments?

Every work of art has two faces: one looks to the present, the other to eternity. I believe that we were too focused on the present during this phase. From a top-down perspective: Technology isn’t all that important for the creation of music. We know that with a few colourful building blocks, children can let their creativity run wild. But we can’t imagine life without technology either. The most important inventions for music were notation, the metronome tempered tuning and the circle of fifths, the fortepiano, and sound recording.

But there’s one more! The idea of automating music on a timeline has been around for a very long time. In the past, people used a cylinder to pluck a comb made of metal tongues of different lengths, thus producing sounds. Essentially, this very clever principle has been transferred to the computer. Anyway, what’s important is the emotion that the music contains and can communicate.

How did you come to sing the lead vocal on ‘The Telephone Call’, had you presented it as a complete song?

Yes, I came up with the lyrics and the melody, I seem to remember. That was a long time ago and isn’t so important to me anymore. I’d have to look that up in my autobiography…

Your music has been very influential and in 1992, you were asked to remix ‘Planet Rock’ which appropriated the ‘Numbers’ beat and brought things full circle… what was your reaction when you first heard it in 1982?

I forgot. I’d have to look that up in my autobiography too… meanwhile, the rhythm has been used over and over.

When you started ELEKTRIC MUSIK, you opted not to front it as such and left the lead vocals primarily to Lothar Manteuffel and guest Andy McCluskey, had your first lead vocal with ‘The Telephone Call’ not provided the confidence you needed?

That’s a good question. My main goal was to have a roof over my head. Others could be here too. That’s why I used the name of my music publishing company Electric Music for the band. By mistake it turned out as ELEKTRIC MUSIC. At the time, I wasn’t sure whether I should use my own name for the product. I have been working under my own name for a long time now, like in classical music.

When Andy showed up I gave him a little melody and a few chords, which were called ‘Loreley’ back then, and he turned it into a song ‘Kissing The Machine’. I certainly hadn’t expected lyrics about artificial intelligence in 1993. That was a blast, of course.

And I had written ‘TV’ in 1987, shortly after ‘Electric Café’ / ’Techno Pop’. At that time I was following the work of Marshall McLuhan and Neil Postman because I felt that with ‘Radio-Activity’ we had missed the point regarding the topic of media. And when I finally got the record deal for ELEKTRIC MUSIC, I was forced to write the album in no time at all. Some days I’ve been working 16 hours. The guys where mixing one track at the studio and I was at our place, the Klangwerkstatt, composing / arranging the next song. So Lothar Manteuffel of RHEINGOLD was getting the job to sing ‘TV’. Because I worked overtime to compose and produce the album.

Was the cover of ‘Baby Come Back’ for the NME ‘Ruby Trax’ collection some fun and light relief from your past?

Yes, that’s true. Andy McCluskey suggested the title for our contribution during a dinner at Wolfgang’s place. Emil was there too and Lothar. We had a wonderful time; it was one of those nights.

How true is the legend that you inspired Andy McCluskey to conceive ATOMIC KITTEN?

Oh yeah, I don’t even remember where it was… Düsseldorf, Liverpool, Dublin, Los Angeles? We were just throwing some ideas for the next OMD album into the computer. Andy was in his element, and we tried out a few things that didn’t necessarily sound like OMD. At some point during the session, I asked him if he’d ever written music for other artists. I was thinking of the golden age of songwriting in Tin Pan Alley, or its modern-day counterpart, the Brill Building. I later learned that he’d looked into it. Andy is incredibly talented, but of course, everyone knows that.

You did productions for INFORMATION SOCIETY, THE MOBILE HOMES, VIENNA and FLATZ while among your collaborations were OMD and ELECTRONIC… do you ever wish you did more as a producer? Is there anyone you would have liked to have worked with?

That was a long time ago. The collaborations with Bernard and Johnny, or Andy, were outstanding and completely different.

Today I no longer feel the urge to produce music for other artists. I produce for myself when I compose. For me, nowadays much of the production process revolves around the measurable side of the world. It has a lot to do with technical applications and physics. My mindset is far too abstract for that. I achieve the best results when I play with the elements of music like a child, without any intention or goal. Just for the sake of playing. Sometimes I manage to get into that state…

Photo by Chi Ming Lai

An interesting by-product of working with Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner in ELECTRONIC was you returned to Germany “with a Rickenbacker strapped to your back” which took you into an unexpected direction?

The computer is an extremely powerful production tool. Unfortunately, the device itself, and the digital copy of the world, is very time-consuming. The Silicon Valley people have understood how they can shift a significant part of the work onto the customers. That happens everywhere. There’s a lot of fairy dust being sprinkled around. The business model of digital companies isn’t exactly in love with traditions. However, I’m an artist who feels at home in traditional European culture. We’ll see what the new world order will bring about in terms of art.

That’s why I’m glad I have a few old acoustic instruments in the house. No dirty tech, outdated operating systems, updates, algorithms, feedback loops, AI hallucinations and no looney tech billionaires with their feudal-sounding visions for human kind, the planet and even space.

While working on ‘Caligari’, I composed some of the music for my upcoming electronic album acoustically. As always, it’s primarily about listening, feeling, playing, and thinking. I didn’t record anything for a long time, but made handwritten notes, just like during my musical studies or at Kling Klang Studio. The golden trail, so to speak. That way my subconscious is constantly adding to what’s already there. Or it’s about reducing what’s already been achieved. When I then transfer the music to the computer’s timeline, the musical elements have already developed a life of their own. Music, after all, originates from life.

But of course, I sometimes start with a blank timeline. Ha, the void! I should really write a short piece about creativity sometime. It’s like this: inspiration doesn’t arise when you hope for it, but only during the work itself.

Which are your 5 favourite pieces of your own work?

I’m afraid I can’t answer that question. I don’t know. For me, life in music is like breathing.

Photo by Philipp Rathmer

What is next for you?

I hope that one day I will release my next electronic album. A long-cherished wish of mine, the re-recording of ‘Esperanto’ (1993) is also planned. There are so many unheard melodies and musical elements from the early 1990s and before that I would love to come to life.

Will you ever perform your KRAFTWERK co-writes and solo “pop” material live again, as it’s been a while since you’ve done that?

I don’t know yet. Igor Stravinsky once said, in essence, that music is a speculation with sound and time. The live music business is also about speculation – nothing is certain until the tickets are sold.

But my music is constantly being performed live. My former musician friend is touring the world with his show. He seems to be omnipresent. You know, I don’t regret anything. But I also don’t forget anything. And I’m really grateful and happy that people don’t stop listening to our songs. That means a lot to me. I believe our music will outlive us. And that’s not too bad, is it?

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its grateful thanks to Karl Bartos

Special thanks to Sean Newsham at Bureau B and Bettina Michael

The Karl Bartos solo albums ‘Communication’, ‘Off The Record’ and ‘The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari’ are all available via Bureau B at https://www.bureau-b.com/artists/karl-bartos

‘The Sound Of The Machine’ is published as a remastered paperback edition by Ominbus Press

http://www.karlbartos.com/

https://www.facebook.com/OriginalBartos

https://www.instagram.com/karlbartosofficial/

https://www.youtube.com/@karlbartos/videos

https://open.spotify.com/artist/5tJ5CFnO4JQmLXaarEyHKt

Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
25th February 2026

IAMX Artificial Innocence

21 February 2026 /

Having thought about England before moving to Berlin and then relocating to Los Angeles, Chris Corner continues his unconventional creative public therapy as he embarks on another European tour as IAMX.

Following up 2025’s ‘Fault Lines²’ jaunt, IAMX will embark on the ‘Artificial Innocence’ tour with the title song now released to streaming platforms having originally been part of the tour-exclusive 4 track CD and vinyl EP ‘UNMASK’. It marks a transition towards Corner’s next chapter and his darker alternative electronic sounds.

With an exhilarating array of modular pulses acting as the backbone and penetrated by Corner’s signature soaring vocals, the ‘Artificial Innocence’ title plays on the term “AI”. Reflecting lyrically on submission, control and emotional emptiness in a number that is heavy yet also fragile, at the end Corner confesses “I have extraordinary needs!”

Evoking Corner’s DIY art punk spirit, ‘Artificial Innocence’ has a stark monochromatic video accompaniment made using an iPhone, transforming it from effectively a B-side into a tense darkwave anthem that stands as its own starring statement in varying shades of grey.

Filmed in the Southern California desert, it sees contortionist and performer Katy Mikelle with Corner on a journey that is sensual, visceral and intense in its deviant sexual hedonism with a series of fast cut cinematic lovebites.

‘Artificial Innocence’ is released on all the usual online platforms

IAMX 2026 live dates include:

Leipzig EoNLY Festival (14th March), Gdansk Parlament (16th March), Budapest Dürer Kert (18th March), Bucharest Control Club (20nd March), Belgrade Dorcól Platz (21st March), Zagreb Močvara (22nd March), Ljubljana Orto Bar (24th March), Milan Legend Club (25th March), Bratislava Trnko (27th March), Krems Stadtsaal (28th March), Eindhoven Effenaar (31st March), Cologne Die Kantine (1st April), Zurich Der Schwarze Ball (3rd April), Mannheim MS Connexion (4th April), Hildesheim M’era Luna (8th–9th August), Manchester Infest (21st–23rd August), Oberhausen UNITY Festival (18th–19th September), Berlin UNITY Festival (2nd–3rd October)

https://iamxmusic.com/

http://www.facebook.com/IAMXOFFICIAL

https://www.instagram.com/iamx/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
21st February 2026

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