“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
Bristol-based James McKeown has been releasing music in various guises since 2010.
But in 2017, he started an instrumental electronic project HAWKSMOOR which has since become his most prolific vehicle. The moniker was inspired by Nicholas Hawksmoor, an architect who worked alongside Christopher Wren and John Vanbrugh on the design of several buildings including St Paul’s Cathedral and Blenheim Palace while he also designed several London churches.
Known as ‘The Devil’s Architect’, it is fitting that Nicholas Hawksmoor’s musical namesake has been an exponent of hauntology which takes the idea that elements from a social or cultural past can return in the manner of a ghost. Having released the Ballardian ‘Concrete Island’ with THE HEARTWOOD INSTITUTE and the druidic Solstice celebration ‘Head Coach’ both on Spun Of Control in the past couple years, McKeown issues his first HAWKSMOOR album with the prestigious Sounds Of The Universe imprint Soul Jazz Records.
Entitled ‘Telepathic Heights’, as with previous HAWKSMOOR works, it is inspired by German pioneers such as CLUSTER, ASHRA, TANGERINE DREAM and NEU! Making use of a Moog’s Sub37 and DFAM drum machine as well as occasional guitar, the album opens with ‘Cycloid’, a fine engaging piece comprising of gritty percussive noise and manually manipulated drifts in the tradition of early KRAFTWERK, CLUSTER and the Fast Product period of THE HUMAN LEAGUE.
Floating over a rhythmic stutter, drones and repeated synth patterns shape ‘Nuclear Kites’ while utilising a subtle but speedy waltz beat, ‘Praxis’ offers abstract textures although its hooks help keep it from being totally obscure. The eerie resonances of the ‘Telepathic Heights’ title track do as instructed with minimal guitar providing additional harmonic tension inside a cavern of reverb, echoing elements of KRAFTWERK’s ‘Mitternacht’.
Retaining the six string and threatening at various point to turn into SUEDE, ‘Athanasia’ provides a less intense soundscape as a breather before ‘A Neural Interval’ provides a filmic interlude into the second half. ‘Synesius’ chills with subtle industrial elements but utilising E-bow, ‘The City Ships Of Alpha’ provides melodic focus to a flowing backdrop. ‘Dream Logic’ possesses an appealing iciness before providing what it says on the tin, ‘Abstract Machines’ closes the album with dystopian ambience.
With a particularly strong first half, ‘Telepathic Heights’ offers a heady but accessible listening experience. Its fresh but familiar soundtrack of electronic interventions will prove satisfying to enthusiasts of that classic Brain / Sky Records period of cosmic adventure, with the additional distinct touch of English discontent.
Berlin-based couple NNHMN released their debut album ‘Church Of No Religion’ in 2019.
Since then, there have been a number of EPs including most recently ‘For The Comfort Of Your Exstazy’ which featured the strong body breakthrough of ‘Omen’ and its poignant anti-war message stating the true nature of evil.
Continuing that encapsulation of these unsettling times, “non-humans” Lee Margot and Michal Laudarg present their new album ‘Circle of Doom’ where they adapt their dark electronic body style with more varied dance elements.
Making use of a trance laden backbone and icy futurepop hooks, the German language ‘Hungrige Liebe’ embodies a Mittel Europa detachment in its spoken word, chosen as it “fits best to the theme of love and death”. Much more techno in construction and “a meditation on love, evil, sin and redemption”, ‘Gloomy Heart’ throbs in triplicate but adds an eerie choral vibe over the enticing club friendly action.
The wonderful glory of ‘Soldier of Beauty’ is more serene but no less danceable with a particularly hypnotic bassline and the viewpoint that the only honest thing to fight for is peace. Meanwhile, the tension on ‘NRL’ can be cut with a knife, described by NNHMN as “the pursuit of a vision, both personal and musical. The transmission of a cosmic solitude opera station”; the voice manipulations and wobbling electronic bass boost what comes over like BOY HARSHER invading Gatecrasher.
Photo by Cristina Del Barco
At a more steadfast pace, if it wasn’t for the airy lead vocals and cavernous reverb treatment, ‘Tiger’ could be mistaken for TECHNOTRONIC and that is not meant in a negative way. The minimally structured ‘Lush Longing’ could be Miss Kittin fresh out of carbon freeze, but the syncopated stomp of ‘Schizophrenic Vitamine’ retains the mystery if not the standard of its preceding tracks. However, ‘Unreal’ cuts an exotic if unsettling tone as it manoeuvres into classic body mode.
In its existential commentary’, ‘Circle Of Doom’ “mirrors the state of the world we are living in” and does it with a haunted enigmatic sound. With a widened electronic palette, it acts as enjoyable and engaging dance music for the party where the enemy at the door could well be scarily knocking soon…
With the success of his ‘1980’ tour celebrating ULTRAVOX’s ‘Vienna’ album and his work as a member of VISAGE, Scottish music veteran Midge Ure finally got his long awaited ‘Voice & Visions’ adventure on the road.
Delayed in the wake of the worldwide pandemic, the second leg of the tour which had originally been arranged as the first part has been playing to appreciative crowds at packed theatres throughout the UK. Midge Ure will be 70 this coming October but he has shown no sign of wavering with his voice remaining intact, save a few very high notes which are discreetly worked around. Meanwhile, he continues to play guitar and keyboards with an enthusiasm that is obvious for all to see.
The concept of the ‘Voice & Visions’ tour was to air material from ULTRAVOX’s second and third Ure-era long players ‘Rage In Eden’ and ‘Quartet’; the former was the product of three months spent in the isolated countryside studio of German legend Conny Plank near Cologne, while the latter was a comparatively brighter affair with THE BEATLES producer George Martin at the helm which included a mixing sojourn in sunny Monserrat. These two very different approaches netted six Top 20 single in the UK. “This is the logical and emotional follow up to the 1980 tour” Ure said.
After a number of years performing acoustically and solo, Midge Ure introduced his Band Electronica concept in 2017 to perform full-fat renditions of the key milestones of his glorious musical career, some for the first time since the classic ULTRAVOX line-up reunion with Chris Cross, Warren Cann and Billy Currie that thrilled fans between 2009 to 2013. The format also provided another opportunity to hear some of best electronic pop of the Synth Britannia era in a live context.
With the live band comprising of long standing drummer Russell Field and the talented multi-instrument duo of Cole Stacey on bass, keyboards + guitar and Joseph O’Keefe on keyboards + violin, it was this trio who opened proceedings with a selection of songs that the two youngsters have recorded as INDIA ELECTRIC CO.
Presenting a modern take on traditionally-derived music forms, songs such as ‘Only Waiting’ and ‘Heimat’ showcased Stacey’s earnest vocal style and O’Keefe’s emotive violin playing with Field providing a variety of acoustic percussive colours. An enjoyable cover of Bruce Springsteen ‘I’m On Fire’ sprung a surprise with Stacey using mini-keys and Field taking to penny whistle while O’Keefe displayed another string to his bow with some six string dexterity.
The elegant ‘Parachutes’ had touches of folk and Americana while at the other end of the scale, ‘Lost in Translation’ saw synths and electronic arpeggios brought into the spritely equation. To close the INDIA ELECTRIC CO support set, ‘Statues’ brought mandolin loops, funk, jazz, classical and synth into an unusual but engaging hybrid of styles.
With an impressive 20 minute turnover time, Stacey, O’Keefe and Field returned to the stage to set the scene for Midge Ure’s arrival. Taking full advantage of their presence, the ULTRAVOX Mk2 front man launched into impassioned rendition of ‘Dear God’; the song he premiered at Wembley Stadium for the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert in 1988, its call for peace and unity was particularly poignant in relation to current world events.
Maintaining momentum, the rousing ‘If I Was’ was a reminder of his 1985 solo UK No1 single while the evergreen ‘Fade to Grey’ was another of his No1s, albeit in West Germany where the VISAGE song became the Bundesrepublik’s biggest selling single of 1981.
Ure’s solo career actually began in 1982 with a cover of Tom Rush’s ‘No Regrets’; originally an acoustic number by its author, it was a comeback hit for THE WALKER BROTHERS in 1976. While just simply a great song, his cover of a cover still possesses an icy resonance to compliment the bittersweet lyrics.
However, the audience at Cambridge Corn Exchange were there to hear ULTRAVOX songs and Ure duly delivered. There were the hits ‘The Voice’, ‘The Thin Wall’ and ‘Reap the Wild Wind’ but there was also ‘We Came to Dance’ which had not included in any of the 21st Century ULTRAVOX reunion shows. But many were there for the album highlights from ‘Rage In Eden’ and ‘Quartet’; ‘We Stand Alone’ was enhanced by Joseph O’Keefe’s chilling synth stabs while ‘I Remember (Death in the Afternoon)’ saw a THIN LIZZY style of twin guitar interplay between Ure and Stacey.
‘Your Name (Has Slipped My Mind Again)’ recalled the claustrophobic intensity of the ‘Rage In Eden’ album while on the atmospheric title song, Cole Stacey impressively nailed the Middle Eastern toned “noonretfa eht ni htaed… rebmemer i ho” phonetics of its haunting chorus. From the ‘Quartet’ album, the synth rock of ‘Mine For Life’ made its return since that particular tour which was preserved on the ‘Monument’ live artefacts.
Meanwhile the more frenetic ‘Serenade’ was another welcome inclusion as a song that had never been performed live until this ‘Voice & Visions’ tour. Finishing the main part of the set with ‘Hymn’ and ‘Visions in Blue’, the end of show crescendo may have been better served if the order of those two songs had been the other way around.
For the four song encore, there was the unexpected inclusion of the mighty electro-prog instrumental ‘Astradyne’ and of course ‘Vienna’ with duel ivories from O’Keefe and Stacey to provide a continuous piano passage that, due to physical practicalities, would have to be interrupted during ULTRAVOX renditions of “The Greatest No2 of All Time” as voted by BBC Radio2 listeners.
Concluding the evening with ‘Dancing With Tears in My Eyes’ and ‘All Stood Still’, this pair of cheerful ditties about Mutually Assured Destruction reflected the Cold War paranoia during which they were created in; as with ‘Dear God’ at the beginning of the set, that angst has scarily returned to today’s uncertain world. Critics used to consider ULTRAVOX pretentious and pompous but they offered intelligent and thoughtful real life observations and concerns.
A triumph all around, the ‘Voice & Visions’ show was complimented by a straightforward but very effective light show and crystal clear sound. This revisiting of Midge Ure’s back catalogue has got potential to run even further and ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK has its fingers crossed for a ‘Lament’ to ‘The Gift’ 1984-1985 based tour in the not too distant future 😉
And for those waiting for the DEPECHE MODE dig, to the idiotic Devotee who said that Martin Gore was a better guitarist than Midge Ure… err, no! 🤣
With thanks to Cole Stacey
ULTRAVOX ‘Rage In Eden’ + ‘Quartet’ are available via Chrysalis Records as deluxe boxed sets
Midge Ure 2023 festival appearances include:
Middlesbrough Let’s Rock the North East (10 June), Let’s Rock Leeds (17 June), Let’s Rock Scotland (24 June), Let’s Rock Exeter (1 July), Let’s Rock Shrewsbury (15 July), Forever Young 2023 (16 July), Rewind Scotland (23 July), Wickham Festival 2023 (6 August), Chepstow Castle (18 August), Let’s Rock Norwich (19 August), Oostende W-Festival 2023 (25 August)
INDIA ELECTRIC CO will be touring later in 2023, dates include:
Deepdale Festival (24 September), Manchester Band On The Wall (17 October), Glasgow Glad Cafe CIC (18 October), Cambridge Junction 2 (24 October), London Kings Place (25 October), Aylesbury Waterside Theatre (26 October), Totnes Barrel House (27 October), Lyme Regis Marine Theatre (28 October)
With his third album, Finlay Shakespeare has produced his most pop work yet in ‘Illusion + Memory’.
Released by experimental musician Luke Younger’s Alter label, ‘Illusion + Memory’ is the follow-up to 2020’s ‘Solemnities’ which came out on Editions Mego, the independent record company established by the late Peter Rehberg to champion underground electronic music.
A graduate in audio engineering and an independent musical device manufacturer via his Future Sound Systems, Finlay Shakespeare is above all, an electronic pop fan with a love of KRAFTWERK, THROBBING GRISTLE, THE HUMAN LEAGUE, ASSOCIATES, OMD and JAPAN that came via his parents’ vast record collection.
With a passionate heart for sonically immersive electronic pop, the vocal delivery of Finlay Shakespeare can be intense and anguished although ‘Illusion + Memory’ reveals a more romantic nature to his music.
He kindly chatted to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about the new approaches he took in the production of his new album, his revived enthusiasm for live work and a new project with Neil Arthur of BLANCMANGE…
How do you look back on ‘Solemenities’ and its reception?
I think I’ve come a long way since that record, but it’ll always be special to me as it was my last album where Peter Rehberg from Editions Mego had a direct involvement. The release time coincided almost perfectly with Europe going into lockdown, so I remember it being rather stressful for all involved. The actual subject matter of the album, at least at the time of writing, seemed pretty sensational to me, always thinking “this end of the world stuff won’t happen”, though what we’ve seen over the last few years has gotten very close. It’s quite bizarre.
Does ‘Illusion + Memory’ have a theme?
Not directly, it’s influenced by a bunch of different things I’m into. Somehow it’s come out as the most “song based” thing I’ve done so far, though that wasn’t a particular aim. I remember wanting to play with structure more deeply, but I’m unsure I really got that far with it, just getting distracted with sequencers instead!
Did you alter your equipment set up to inspire different ideas and approaches?
To a degree, yes… I was able to finish off a lot of DIY synthesizer projects over lockdown, so I ended up going back into the studio with a lot more equipment, particularly patchable analogue stuff. Parts of that equipment make an appearance on most tracks of the album in fact, so there’s perhaps a shift in sound palette thanks to that.
‘Theresa’ reveals a romantic side to you that hasn’t been heard before and has led to you adopting different vocal delivery styles?
Perhaps… the subject matter of Theresa is rather dark, but also relates to strength in the face of brutality. I thought the vocals should reflect that, and I’ve always been a fan of big overdubbed vocal sounds. I think I’ve also gotten a little more confident with using my voice – it’s something I’m always trying to push further.
The opener ‘Your Side of the River’ is like the ultimate homage to Synth Britannia, what is it actually about?
I don’t know! I had a few of the lyrics bouncing around in my head for years and it was time to turn them into something real. The musical elements also grew out of how I used to open the live set. Ironically I moved round the corner from a river after writing the song – I have to cross it on my way to work – so it all felt quite suitable.
‘Always’ appears to recall elements of Peter Gabriel’s 4th album but how did it come together?
‘Always’ began life by playing with the small Buchla system I had DIY’d over lockdown – that’s the first thing you hear in that track. I had this little arpeggiated thing going with the really lovely Buchla oscillator and recorded some of that, then came back to it weeks later. I remember trying to make the drums sound big but not overpowering – trying to mimic the style Liam Hutton has when he plays with BLANCMANGE in fact! Also trying to make my song structures more interesting, although still relatively simple.
Although the album has more of a song-based pop element, ‘Climb’ is the more experimental one…
Well, ‘Climb’ started as a test recording. I had been building some Serge modular equipment for some friends, and the sequence running through is a test of a programmer I built to complement the system. I knew I needed to do something with it, so the recordings made their way to the studio and were augmented by all sorts… there are a lot of toy Casio keyboards in that track!
Talking of experimentation, is that guitar making its presence felt about a third into ‘Ici’ which mutates over the various sections of its six plus minutes?
No guitar on that one, but a fair bit scattered throughout the rest of the record! That part in ‘Ici’ is a Yamaha string machine hooked up to a semi-broken Fender amp.
‘I Saw You’ could be considered classic Finlay Shakespeare, does this have its roots in earlier material you hadn’t used?
Nope! Akin to ‘Climb’, the sequence that runs through came from the programmer I built, but this time controlling a TTSH, the ARP2600 clone. I wanted that track to feel like it was filling up to the brim, eventually overflowing. Every part is a little out of tune with the next, and by the end the mix itself pretty much gets overdriven.
You play with Motorik rhythms on ‘Ready Ready’ with some rather nice synth tones, what was its inspiration?
It’s an absolute rip off of OMD’s ‘2nd Thought’! Lyrically, I had been reading a lot about numbers stations, and there was a theory that one of the automated voices might have come from an agent’s wife. I thought it would be interesting to write a song based around that – feeling at home through just a voice on the shortwave, when in fact you don’t know where you are and you could be in the crosshairs at any time and place. Sacha Baron Cohen’s ‘The Spy’ was another influence on this one.
Were you channelling your inner Vangelis on ‘Upcoming’?
Not quite, though of course I can hear the resemblance. If anything, I was going after a ‘Europe Endless’-esque top line. That part, once again, actually came from testing some equipment – a really cheap Alesis reverb that has this very evident echoing on long decay settings. You can hear that in the track from the offset, and that set the tempo of what became ‘Upcoming’.
A few years ago, you seemed to have become disillusioned with live work but you have been out and about performing again, most recently on a bill with Daniel Miller and Gareth Jones in their SUNROOF modular guise?
It’s tricky – I absolutely love playing live, but it’s becoming logistically and financially harder and harder to do so, especially in the UK. With Brexit, European promoters are understandably far more anxious to book any British acts. It’s a case of finding the right crowds at home too. Over the last year or so, it’s felt like I am finding an audience perhaps more suited to what I do, but there are still certainly times where I end up playing to the venue staff only. Getting people out of their homes to experience something that might be out of their comfort zone can be very difficult. The recent gig at Iklectik was easily one of the best UK experiences I’ve had though, particularly down south.
Your GOTO label has released some interesting stuff by people like Bella Unwin and the eponymous EP by LICKING ORCHIDS, is it progressing as you had hoped?
If anything it’s been somewhat overwhelming! I’m hugely grateful for the support the label’s received, and it’s great being able to put music I love into the world and share it with a wider audience. There’s more music in the pipeline, and really looking forward to seeing the roster grow.
What is next for you?
More recording – I already have the bones of an album that need fleshing out. The music is quite different I think, mainly because I’m trying to push my process and the equipment into different places. I also have some super exciting collaborative projects on the horizon – stay tuned!
One is THE REMAINDER; I was invited by Neil Arthur of BLANCMANGE to add some electronic elements and treatments to some tracks him and Liam Hutton had been working on. This slowly developed into a to-and-fro session sharing project that we made good progress on over the UK COVID lockdowns. At the point we realised we had an album up together, we found the time to meet at my studio in Bristol and get the whole thing mixed. As far as I understand, it’s been quite a long process – I only really came onboard halfway through, if not further in – so it’s quite an honour to be invited to work with Neil and Liam on all this! The album is called ‘Evensong’ and released 14th July 2023.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its sincerest thanks to Finlay Shakespeare
Finlay Shakespeare appears with Nik Void + Russell Haswell at Bloc in Glasgow on Wednesday 31st May 2023 and with Chain of Flowers + Beauty Parlour Clwb Ifor Bach in Cardiff on 1st June 2023
Unashamedly embracing high school nostalgia and John Hughes movies, BUNNY X’s 2021 debut album ‘Young & In Love’ was a straightforward pop statement that wouldn’t have been out of place on classic MTV.
But the duo comprising of Abigail Gordon and Mary Hanley are now sophomores and for the follow-up ‘Love Minus 80’, their thoughts have become more dystopian as Sci-Fi novels, films, television shows and interstellar romances take over as inspiration. BUNNY X have been here before with the 2018 single ‘Unknown Places’, so the second album presented an opportunity to delve deeper within a whole body of work.
“We knew pretty much at the outset that we wanted our next release to be much darker and more introspective than the debut record” said Abigail Gordon about the genesis of the second BUNNY X album, “but we honestly didn’t realize until we had a few songs done that we wanted to take things in a Sci-Fi themed direction.”
While not quite ‘Star Wars’ related, opener ‘Love Is An Empire’ sees BUNNY X continue their alliance with Don Dellpiero; derived from ‘Lights in the Sky’ on his first album ‘Born 1981’, it appears to indicate that the popwave vibes that flavoured ‘Young & In Love’ mean it’s business as usual for BUNNY X. However, ‘The Forever War’ is more mysterious; inspired by the military science fiction novel of the same name by Joe Haldeman, its subject matter tracing a love story between two soldiers attempting to find each other again after being separated in battle could be applied to current world events, adding further poignancy and tension.
Inspired by cyberpunk godfather William Gibson’s ‘Bridge’ trilogy, the narrative of ‘Breaking Away’ is presented as a “Song for Chevette & Rydell”, two recurring characters who navigate a desolate post-earthquake California. Based on another previously issued instrumental, this one was originated by the oddly monikered SELLOREKT / LA DREAMS.
Taking its lead from the ‘San Junipero’ episode of ‘Black Mirror’, the uptempo ‘Daydreaming’ offers thrust and drive akin to Robyn ‘Dancing On My Own’, all while haunted by the reality of unrequited love. Continuing the escapist rhythmic thrust and taking BUNNY X into another system, ‘The Darkest Place’ could be considered as a metaphor for more personal matters despite being themed around ‘The Expanse’ book series by James SA Corey.
Definitely not sci-fi inspired, ‘Something To Rely On’ touches on toxic relationships and the cacophony of percussive noise shows how such a palette can be utilised without having to bow down to painful overblown distortion. Meanwhile the ‘Love Minus 80’ title song explores futuristic sounds and bass rumbles in a catchy duet with THOUGHT BEINGS.
Heartfelt and emotive in its acceptance of defeat, the contrast with its icier textures gives ‘Good Love Gone Bad’ an otherworldy resonance in its themes of love, loss, betrayal and regret.
Concluding with ‘Chiba City Blues’ based on a second previously released SELLOREKT / LA DREAMS work titled ‘Without You’, this is a sister song to ‘Breaking Away (Song for Chevette & Rydell)’ as it returns to the writings of William Gibson. And just as the neo-metal guitar solo takes hold, everything just fades into cyberspace…
In ‘Love Minus 80’, the underlying sentiment is coping with the emotions and anxieties caused by confronting the many paths that can be taken. With producer GOSTEFFECTS providing the sonic continuity as he did on ‘Young & In Love’, BUNNY X’s second album is a satisfying listen that despite the darkness, points to love still being the key to everything.
‘Love Minus 80’ is released by Aztec Records, available as a CD, magenta neon vinyl LP, cassette + download from https://bunnyx.bandcamp.com/album/
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‘Telepathic Heights’ is released on 30 June 2023 by Soul Jazz Records as a CD or vinyl LP with download code, audio preview and pre-order available at https://soundsoftheuniverse.com/product/telepathic-heights
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