The 2016 ELECTRI_CITY_CONFERENCE had the bonus of a second Mark Reeder interview conducted by ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s Chi Ming Lai.
The scheduled speaker Martyn Ware had unfortunately been taken ill, so Reeder kindly stepped in. The day before, he had already spoken in his charmingly fluent Mancunian lilted German about ‘B-Movie: Lust & Sound In West Berlin 1979 – 1989’.
In this insightful documentary, he narrates about the music, art and chaos of the divided city before its infamous wall came down. Now best known as a remixer, MARK REEDER relocated to Berlin after he left Manchester in 1978 to explore his passion for German electronic music such as KRAFTWERK, NEU! and TANGERINE DREAM.
His enlightening hour long chat covered topics such as his time as Factory Records German representative, living in Berlin, his MFS trance label and working with acts such as JOHN FOXX, PET SHOP BOYS, DEPECHE MODE, MARSHEAUX, BLANK & JONES, QUEEN OF HEARTS and NEW ORDER.
The discussion formed part of the 2016 ELECTRI_CITY_CONFERENCE’s weekend long programme of talks and live music to celebrate Düsseldorf’s electronic music legacy. Also participating were Daniel Miller, Chris Liebing, John Foxx, Steve D’Agostino, Rusty Egan, Chris Payne, Eric Random, Jimi Tenor and Jori Hulkkonen.
Mark Reeder’s remix collections ‘Five Point One’ and ‘Collaborator’ are released by Kennen and Factory Benelux respectively
‘You Keep Me Running Round & Round’ is an original film by Playworks.tv exploring the life of Irish electronic music enthusiasts during the fledgling days that corresponded with the Synth Britannia revolution across the water. It recently won an Award of Merit from IndieFest, while it has been nominated for the ‘Best Music Documentary’ category at UKMVA 15.
In 1982, BLANCMANGE released their debut album ‘Happy Families’ and thirty years later, it was re-imagined as ‘Happy Families Too’. The documentary centres on the recollections of a number of men (…and yes, they are ALL men 😉 !) from the Dublin electronic scene attending BLANCMANGE’s first ever gig in the Irish capital during the subsequent tour.
It is the story of their journey, waiting three decades to see one of the bands who helped ignite their love of electronic music. The synth heads gathered include personnel from assorted local acts such as EMPIRE STATE HUMAN, POLYDROID, KUBO, THE CASSANDRA COMPLEX and CIRCUIT3. And they are all a passionate bunch who can tell their drum machines from their tape recorders, unlike some so-called electronic music journalists.
Their entertaining monologues are inter-dispersed with excellent live footage of BLANCMANGE from that Dublin gig, with ‘Feel Me’, ‘Blind Vision’, ‘Waves’, ‘Living On The Ceiling’ and ‘I Can’t Explain’ all figuring. The fact that the songs featured are all in full-length form is one of the documentary’s major strengths. This is a relief after all the song butchering and fast editing that has occurred in Channel 4 music programmes aimed at attention deficit inflicted youngsters over the last few years.
In 1982, there was very little electronic music in Ireland. Rock was God with the nation focussed on U2, THIN LIZZY or traditional music. It was a time when there was no YouTube and very few people even had a VHS recorder. So finding an electronic pop record imported from the UK was the Saturday adventure for a discerning synth inclined teenager.
Around this time, BLANCMANGE had just signed to London Records and began recording the songs that would eventually form ‘Happy Families’. While ‘Living On The Ceiling’ was to become the hit that brought BLANCMANGE into many teenagers’ homes, the pivotal track was its predecessor ‘Feel Me’.
On how the song came about, Neil Arthur told ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK: “Stephen Luscombe came round with this cassette and on it was this rhythm which was the backing of ‘Feel Me’. It was a great bassline and we blasted it in the studio through these big speakers and I did this kind of ad-lib vocal. I had this idea that went ‘feel me now – feel the pain – feel the strain’… simple rhyming, repetitive words”.
One key point made in ‘You Keep Me Running Round & Round’ is that synthpop is about synthesizers, and that there is no other music form that has such a broad spectrum of possibilities within one track.
It ultimately has a sensibility that not only encompasses shiny pop but also the avant-garde and is often coupled with dark lyrical matter. “With the line ‘Your hand’s in the pocket – pocket of a friend’, it was just to get people thinking that the song was going one way but then to say ‘what do you feel?’, ‘what do you think?’… for me, it’s just a song to be interpreted or misinterpreted any number of ways” remembered the BLANCMANGE frontman, “It’s like ‘Here comes a love song – there goes a banister’, what could it be? It could be a sexual reference, it could be a reference to relationship intensity. It’s not exactly a very melodic vocal line so the intensity had to build throughout. On reflection, I always thought it was more David Byrne than Ian Curtis, but there was never any intention”
Using synthesizers was about control as well and not needing a drummer! Arthur recalls: “We didn’t own any of the synths we used for ‘Happy Families’. We hired a Roland Jupiter 8, an ARP sequencer and a Korg MS20 plus a Linn LM-1 Drum Computer which Stephen and I programmed up”.
And it was also about unlimited creativity and unconventional thinking: “The catch on the bassline of ‘Feel Me’ is having that pick-up on the sixteenth beat coming into the one… that was the thing that got me when Stephen came in with that. It was put together with a TR808 initially using the cowbell as the trigger to the synth. That was replicated using the Linn with the bass part being the Jupiter and Korg. David Rhodes’ E-bowed guitar melody is doubled with a keyboard”
But of course, many in the documentary did not have access to this kind of technology at first, but the use of cheaper synths as a starting point allowed for punk’s DIY ethic to be applied. It was the same for BLANCMANGE before they were signed and the approach they had to take for their first release ‘Irene & Mavis’.
“Everything then had been recorded on a Sony cassette machine; we had another cassette machine purely for playback with decent speakers on it” recalled Arthur on those fledgling days, “We would take a line-out and feed it into a mono input and do the other track live at the same time. Or we would overdub by playing in the room and having the backing track playing from the extension. We combined that and a borrowed 4 track machine with varispeed on it”
The one term that keeps reoccurring in ‘You Keep Me Running Round & Round’ is “synthpop”… yes, that’s synthpop, pop songs with synthesizers, NOT “dance” or “electronica”! There is an unashamed embracement of synthpop by all concerned. Now while the Acid House and dance revolution is briefly touched upon towards the end and helped make electronic music credible enough for music hacks to want to write about it, it largely took songs out of the equation. And let’s face it, those club-oriented excursions were generally pointless without the use of substances!
But course, with the return of the synthesizer in an avant pop context, it’s not about harking back to the past, but looking forward to the future. On reworking ‘Feel Me’ for 2013, Neil Arthur said to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK: “My new version is more stripped down. There’s so many VST plug-ins you can put on top of things. Unless your ideas are good, it’s not worth it. I tried to remember what it was like in that room when I first heard that rhythm Stephen had put together. David came in to play his great guitar on it again. The vocals are my daughter, myself and a vocoder… I wanted to keep it really simple. Hopefully it still works. At least doing ‘Happy Families Too’, I wasn’t going to tear myself apart over the songs… they are written for better or for worse”
In all, ‘You Keep Me Running Round & Round’ is an enjoyable hour of music history, presented in a refreshing, intelligent manner. Indeed it is the antithesis of those ‘I Love The 80s’ type cheesefests that often portray synthpop in the worst way possible, as something to be derided and mocked. In fact, it would make rather good viewing on BBC4.
With thanks to Patti Carbonell, Poppy Seekins and Tone Davies at Playworks.tv
Additional thanks to Neil Arthur and Peter Fitzpatrick
Finnish duo VILLA NAH have returned after a five year hiatus.
With their recently released second album ‘Ultima’, Juho Paalosmaa and Tomi Hyyppä have reminded the general public as to why they wowed audiences who saw them open for OMD in 2010. However, despite the acclaim, the childhood friends faded from view after that tour.
During the break, Paalosmaa formed SIN COS TAN with ‘Origin’ co-producer Jori Hulkkonen and excellent songs such as ‘Trust’, ‘Calendar’, ‘Avant Garde’, ‘Moonstruck’ and ‘Love Sees No Colour’ filled the void left by VILLA NAH.
While their debut album ‘Origin’ was prime crystalline synthpop, ‘Ultima’ undoubtedly comes over as a more varied and mature musical statement. There are fewer club friendly tempos but this has been offset by a comparatively sunny disposition on songs like ‘Love Chance’ and ‘Life Is Short’, as well as an abundance of dreamier atmospheres like on the beautiful grown-up lullaby ‘Proxima’.
Despite their new found optimism, VILLA NAH’s inherent melancholy remains while their technical prowess is as sharp as ever. Juho Paalosmaa and Tomi Hyyppä chatted about the genesis of ‘Ultima’ and its influences, both musical and technical.
How does it feel to have recorded together again after a gap of 5-6 years?
Juho: Feels good! We had met on numerous occasions over the years, but became active again in our studio in 2015 when the majority of ‘Ultima’ was recorded. It helps a lot that we’ve been friends since kids, as there’s always that connection. Five or six years can feel like a long time for many, but after a 30 year long friendship, it’s not that bad.
What was the impetus to renew the partnership?
Juho: A number of reasons. We never really buried the idea of recording again – it was always likely to happen. It just had to feel spontaneous, natural. I think it also helped that no-one was really expecting us to release anything anymore. Working under the radar made things fun again, it gave us a free creative space with no rush to anything. On a more personal level, there are also some songs on this record that had haunted me for a very long time; songs like ‘Mistakes’ and ‘Heaven’. I simply needed to get them out, and they played a big part in forming what would become the overall feel of ‘Ultima’.
Jori Hulkkonen is again involved on the production side. But he is also involved in SIN COS TAN… so for the uninitiated, how would you explain the musical and compositional differences of VILLA NAH?
Juho: For the uninitiated, I’d describe the differences of VILLA NAH and SIN COS TAN with one word: atmosphere. VILLA NAH has more of a romantic, softer, at times naivistic quality to it. SIN COS TAN on the other hand is colder, more cynical, and the songs have a harder, more modern edge to them.
As far as songwriting process goes, in SIN COS TAN, me and Jori write songs either collaboratively, separately, or just jam them out together in the studio. So the songwriting is pretty much a 50/50 job in SIN COS TAN, but Jori stays in charge of production and especially mixing. I usually just lie on the couch at that point and complain about the lack of reverb…
With VILLA NAH, the songwriting is fully my responsibility, while Tomi handles the engineering and often the percussive side of things. A key difference between ‘Ultima’ and our debut ‘Origin’ was the mixing. This time Tomi had all the mixing duties, which gave ‘Ultima’ a very distinct, warm sound. I think it sounds lovely.
‘Ultima’ sees a more atmospheric, filmic side to VILLA NAH compared perhaps to ‘Origin’ with?
Juho: Well, I find that ‘filmic’ sensibilities have always been present in our music, it’s pretty much inescapable. I’m a big cinephile and think of melodies in very visual terms, usually even describing them as scenes in an imaginary film or a play. But with ‘Ultima’, I specifically wanted to make my own interpretation of a dream-pop record.
Dreams have been a constant inspiration with VILLA NAH, the worlds they inhabit and how they’re fuelled by our memories and experiences. So yeah, that certain atmosphere was very important to get across on ‘Ultima’. And I’m happy if it did.
The dance influenced rhythms that were a characteristic of ‘Origin’ are less prominent on this album, is that just a part of getting older?
Juho: There’s a few reasons for it. First off, I had worked on several records with Jori in SIN COS TAN where there were a lot of dance tracks. In fact, our latest EP ‘Smile. Tomorrow Will be Worse’ was comprised only of more club orientated stuff. Also, some earlier songs I had done as demos for VILLA NAH – tracks like ‘Trust’ and ‘Limbo’ – went to SIN COS TAN, as they felt more in tune with what we were doing with Jori at that time.
So when it came to ‘Ultima’, I wanted to explore a softer and calmer atmosphere. Getting older certainly plays a part in it too, but also the world we inhabit: things feel pretty insane in 2016 in a lot of ways… and I personally like the idea of having a relatively gentle, unabrasive pop record in the middle of it. It’s almost like a quiet manifest against all the glowstick parties and warmongering out there.
‘Stranger’ was a perfect song to return with. How did that emerge and what is it about?
Juho: I was heavily into JOHN MAUS when we made that, I think we both were. The off-kilter vibe of his music was definitely an influence – even though the end result sounds nothing like him. ‘Stranger’ is a play on words; how somebody you’ve known can turn stranger over the span of time… and end up as a complete stranger in the process. I don’t think it’s a track I would’ve written as a 20 year old. It requires some years of age and experience to really understand how time can change people, including yourself.
What’s the story behind the composition of ‘Spy’ and the ‘Spy vs. Spy’ computer game?
Juho: Bit of a long story this one… when we were little kids, me and Tomi had a mutual bond with the characters of ‘Spy vs. Spy’. Tomi subscribed to a comic magazine called ‘MAD’ which featured the amazing cold war influenced cartoons of Antonio Prohías called ‘Spy vs. Spy’. And I had a Commodore 64 computer at home with a game called ‘Spy vs. Spy’ – based on the very same cartoon by Prohías.
This game had a 20 second loop of music which played throughout nonstop. You’d think it’d be infuriating to listen to, but instead it was just really hypnotic. So hypnotic that it stayed in my brain ever since. Fast forward to 2008, and I wrote a VN track based around the game’s lead melody.
In the process of picking out tracks for our debut ‘Origin’, ‘Spy’ was one contender. I don’t remember why it didn’t get picked, but I do recall Jori loving it… so on ‘Ultima’, we really didn’t want to leave it out again. Before we could proceed, however, we needed to track down Mr. Nicholas Scarim, the man behind the theme music’s ingenious composition. Soon enough, we found ourselves corresponding with Mr. Scarim. We humbly presented him our interpretation and were happy to hear that Nick really loved the track and gave us his approval!
The rhythm programming on ‘Mistakes’ is unusual in many respects for an electronic pop record, what was it inspired by?
Juho: ‘Mistakes’ was a track that had existed for many years, in various forms, most of them ringing in my head like an obsession. The rhythm track also changed a lot in the process – it was initially much more straightforward, too much so. Jori introduced the idea to make it more contemporary, which gave the song a more compelling twist.
Tomi: Got to give credit to Jori Hulkkonen for saving that song. It was one those songs that was completely lost in the endless swamp different versions and styles, so it definitely needed outside intervention to become finished.
‘Love Chance’ and ‘Life Is Short’ might remind some UK audiences of CHINA CRISIS. Is that a coincidence or do you have an appreciation for them?
Juho: True story… the first time I heard of CHINA CRISIS was from Andy McCluskey when we supported OMD back in 2010. Andy mentioned to me that our sound reminded him of CHINA CRISIS, and I was genuinely like “Wow, really?” (and simultaneously thought “Who? Gotta write that down!”). I didn’t know the band, so it must’ve been a happy coincidence…
Subsequently I did find the music of CHINA CRISIS later on. And fortunately liked what I heard. Some of their stuff had a similar vibe to things I adore, like the poppiest work of YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA and their solo efforts; chorus vocals sung in laid-back unison, where the emphasis being on the song’s instrumentation contra to the leading vocal melody. This is something I wanted to explore as well, with ‘Life Is Short’ and ‘Love Chance’ being precisely the songs on ‘Ultima’ where you can hear that. So yeah, I really don’t object to this comparison – even if really, it is more of a coincidence.
The album sees more prominent use of guitar, are there any particular guitarists or styles that influenced how the instrument would work for VILLA NAH?
Juho: Way before we started doing music with synths, we played with more traditional instruments. I still write music with either keys or a guitar. But I don’t regard myself as a proper guitarist by any means.
Guitars can help a song with its groove – in the stuff we make it’s not always necessary, but with the right song it can work nicely and give it another dimension.
Tomi: Guitar is actually an annoyingly difficult instrument to blend in properly with synths, the way you play guitar versus synths is so different, so guitar melodies clash easily with synth melodies in a bad way. Then again, it is a matter of skill, haha! I’d like to mention John Frusciante here, he’s been my favourite guitarist for a long time and in recent years, he has been going nuts with synths.
Have you changed any of your technological approaches with ‘Ultima’, like with hardware synths versus softsynths, vintage analogues versus modern ones?
Tomi: I have to admit that I’ve pretty much grown out of the analogue synth hype. Actually I’ve always just wanted instruments that sound good, the technology itself has not been the reason for example to buy analogue synth classics. They’re classics because players have found the good sounding, simple and straightforward instruments. So on the hardware side, we did use quite a lot of digital synths and it was also a bit of an exploration of a new tech-territory.
My favourites at the moment are older wavetable synths, they are honestly digital rather than being “virtual”-something. I have to admit that I’m not really a fan of modern analogues, they lack the murkiness or mud of the old ones. I like mud, though the new Prophet-6 is pretty amazing sounding.
And when it comes to soft synths, I did use them mostly for layering and supporting uses etc. The problem for me with the soft synths is that I like to record things in a pretty old fashioned way and that is something I cannot do with the software. For example overdubbing, using hardware effects / running signals through guitar amps is hard or boring to do with softsynths, since you lack the proper interaction with the instrument and other hardware.
Your favourite songs on ‘Ultima’?
Juho: It’s funny, I don’t really have one particular favourite. I tend to view the record as a whole, and I think the songs emphasise that: there’s less immediate tracks – they’re all meant to complement one another and sort of slowly creep in over time. Perhaps the tranquillity of ‘Proxima’ is something that I really like, but again that’s probably because it’s right after the intense crescendo of ‘Stranger’.
Tomi: ‘Clockwork’, ‘Proxima’ and ‘Heaven’ are my favourites. I think they are the most atmospheric pieces on the record. I’m hoping that ‘Heaven’ finds its audience, it’s a beautiful song. ‘Clockwork’ and ‘Proxima’ are both quite minimalistic yet deep and full of feelings, these were also my favourite tracks to mix / produce.
Who do you think ‘Ultima’ will appeal to?
Juho: Hopefully to anyone who still has the capacity to listen to a full LP of what I regard as traditional pop. It’s not a party album really, so I think it demands a little more time and individual attention. It’s a combination of quite dreamy and melodic synth tracks with a lot of romantic themes. If those as a concept sound at all appealing, then please proceed to ‘Ultima’ territory.
What’s next for VILLA NAH? Will you tour ‘Ultima’?
Juho: We’ve been playing some record release shows here in Finland and try to stay active in our studio in the meantime. Plenty of tracks are still unreleased, plenty more get born all the time. We’re having fun. At the end of the day, that’s really what matters.
Tomi: Yeah, aside from the ‘Ultima’ related gigs, we’ll be spending time in the studio as it also works as a safe haven from the real world, keeps us sane.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to VILLA NAH
Special thanks to Tom Riski at Solina Records
‘Ultima’ is released by Solina Records in vinyl and digital formats
A Short Conversation with Adam Cresswell and Alice Hubley…
Behind the persona of RODNEY CROMWELL is London based synth aficionado, Adam Cresswell. His debut long player ‘Age Of Anxiety’ was a concept album chronicling his problems with depression and anxiety that had affected his life and creative muse. It became an unexpected cult favourite in 2015, with a post-punk template echoing the spectre of acts such as SECTION 25 and NEW ORDER.
However, Cresswell is a seasoned hand, having been part of synth duo ARTHUR & MARTHA with Alice Hubley. They released an album ‘Navigation’ in 2009 but disbanded a year later; Hubley went on to form the indie band COSINES while Cresswell took a musical break.
Several of the RODNEY CROMWELL songs began as ARTHUR & MARTHA recordings, so it was wholly appropriate that the pair reunited for RODNEY CROMWELL’s inaugural gig last summer. One of the highlights of the set was ‘Black Dog’, a pulsing part duet with Hubley embellished with the beauty of Cresswell’s Hooky bass.
Performing together on several occasions since with guitarist Richard Salt, the band have even revived ‘Autovia’, a synthetically motorik soundtrack ideal for motorway journeys north of Watford Gap that was the key song on ARTHUR & MARTHA’s debut.
With RODNEY CROMWELL’s upcoming appearance on SATURDAY 5TH NOVEMBER alongside MARSHEAUX and KID KASIO, both Adam Cresswell and Alice Hubley kindly chatted to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK during a break in rehearsals.
‘Black Dog’ started as an ARTHUR & MARTHA track, is it the best song NEW ORDER never recorded?
Adam: Oh! I wouldn’t go that far, the best song NEW ORDER never recorded was ‘Let’s Go’, but they did finish it in the end…
Alice: …maybe some of THE KILLERS songs as well! *laughs*
Adam: ‘Black Dog’ is knowingly NEW ORDER-ish anyway… it was about my safe space, it was about going through a bad period but wanting to be reminded of the music that made me feel good about things.
Alice: I can’t remember recording the vocal!
Adam: It was one of those one-take wonder jobs!
Alice: I’m such a pro! But there so many records today that are over produced, having something that’s a little bit rough around the edges is kind of nice now.
The acclaim for ‘Age Of Anxiety’s means you’ve toured together as RODNEY CROMWELL, how have the dates you’ve played gone so far? Any strange occurrences you can report?
Alice: You got to learn about the joys of Justin Bieber!
Adam: Yes, we watched a lot of Justin Bieber videos with some bad wine in Liverpool! *laughs*
Alice: It’s just been nice hanging out with Adam; we had not really seen each other since we stopped doing ARTHUR & MARTHA. Before when we toured, he only had a Smart car so we couldn’t take friends with us. Now he’s upgraded and has four seats in his car.
Adam: The RODNEY CROMWELL gigs now feel much less pressured than with ARTHUR & MARTHA.
How do you think the live environment has changed?
Adam: I think it’s harder to get gigs now… maybe that’s because electronic music’s not as fashionable, because back in the mid-noughties, it was on the back of Electroclash and that hipster thing!
Alice: We did lot of good shows in Shoreditch at the Old Blue Last and stuff in that electro scene alongside cool acts like LO-FI FNK and PLASTIC OPERATOR. In the last year we’ve mostly played indie scene events, we’ve not really had the chance to play with other synth bands.
What advice would you give to anyone aspiring to use vintage synths live in the 21st century?
Adam: Get a tuner Alice! *laughs*
Alice: I have a Korg MS10 and a Roland Juno 60… we used to use MicroKorgs in ARTHUR & MARTHA, but I look at them and shudder! I can’t deal with them anymore!
Adam: When we did ARTHUR & MARTHA, we were rocking up with the Moog and a MicroKorg because it was more convenient. But other every other band seemed to be using MicroKorgs too, but just the presets! I hate it! I wiped all the sounds!
Alice: YES! We can’t play ARTHUR & MARTHA stuff because Adam wiped all the sounds, I spent ages programming that sh*tty little instrument! He had obviously forgotten the blood, sweat and tears I went through! That was like an end of an era! *laughs*
Adam: We would upgrade if we ever did ARTHUR & MARTHA again.
So how do you perform ‘Autovia’ in RODNEY CROMWELL now?
Adam: Oh, we do it totally differently because Alice used to play the clarinet while I played the Moog. But now we’ve dropped the clarinet and we do it with MS10, Moog and guitar to give it that added HARMONIA feel.
Alice: It’s a bit more of a synth jam, more droney… I like to make the most awful sound I can on the MS10 which is always a lot of fun.
Adam: It’s become our experimental track in this live set. For the last 2-3 minutes of that song, we just wig out!
Sort of like STEREOLAB meets NEU! ?
Adam: TOTALLY! Maybe it’s a reaction to bands whose synths aren’t even plugged in where there’s nothing improvised and they don’t add anything new to what they do… we go the opposite and take it as far away from the record as we can…
Alice: I really like it when bands do that, like HOT CHIP always reinvent their songs…they’ll still be playing ‘Boy From School’ but they’ll do it in a different kind of feel every time you go and see them.
Adam: With RODNEY CROMWELL as opposed to ARTHUR & MARTHA, we’ve tried to bring something of the live band back to the sound, it’s about us enjoying it. Using analogue synths and a load of effects pedals brings in all these variables, things wobbling in and out.
Who came up with ‘Autovia’?
Adam: That was me! I was on tour with my previous band SALOON in Spain and I saw the word ‘Autovia’ on the road; it sounded a bit like ‘Autobahn’ and so I wrote a song called that. Most of it was recorded in the downstairs toilet of my house! I did the first half of it with SALOON and it was going to be a B-side to a single that never happened, so I took it to ARTHUR & MARTHA.
The ex-SALOON members call it my ‘Ceremony’, in that it’s a song I took from one band into the next. It was just a 4 minute ploddy pop song, but Alice came along and added the last three minutes to it with the clarinet and it mutated into something more epic.
How did Alice end up singing on it?
Alice: I just like singing, I was listening to a lot of OMD, SECTION 25 and SAINT ETIENNE… originally, I was meant to join SALOON…we met when we were 12 when our bands at the time were on the same bill! My band were called THE SEVEN INCHES! We kept in touch and was moving to London but SALOON broke up before I moved. So me and Adam talked about doing a two-piece, Adam had more of a bank of songs ready and ‘Autovia’ was in the first set we did live.
Adam: She connected with the song straightaway.
Alice: Adam didn’t really sing much initially. ‘Kasparov’ on ‘Navigation’ was the first song Adam did sing, I kind of had to talk him into it, partly because he made it sound more like THE POSTAL SERVICE. He was always in the background with SALOON even though he wrote a lot of the songs.
Adam: For the video, we borrowed my mum’s car so that we could take the film director down. We had no plan whatsoever! We just drove to the Isle of Sheppey, set-up in this playground and stuck a green sheet in the back of the car. These kids were kicking a ball at it while we were filming! *laughs*
What’s next for each of you with your various projects?
Adam: There’s a new RODNEY CROMWELL single ‘Fax Message Breakup’ which has some really cool remixes on it by HOLOGRAM TEEN, CHRIS FRAIN, AUW and THE LEAF LIBRARY. We’re doing a London warm-up gig with RÉMI PARSON. And next year will see if I can actually write another album.
Alice: COSINES have just released an EP called ‘Transitions’ and are finishing the second album. If you like RODNEY CROMWELL and ARTHUR & MARTHA, you may like COSINES… it’s guitary but there’s still a lot of synthesizers and keyboards on it. I think with the new album, we’re experimenting with new sounds and doing things a bit differently.
The scene COSINES play in is a lot more guitar based and a lot of it is people that I’ve known for the last 15-20 years. I don’t really know enough about the electronic music scene at the underground level, but everyone I’ve met has been very nice and whenever we play gigs, I get people coming up to me and saying nice things about ARTHUR & MARTHA.
Adam: In the indie scene, nobody says nice things! They just look at their shoes! *laughs*
Alice: It’s kind of passive / aggressive… they’ll smile at you and then say something nasty about you online *laughs*
Is an ARTHUR & MARTHA release possible?
Adam: I’ve got the concept of an album in my head *laughs*
Alice: Every so often, Adam tries to get me to do something, I don’t know… never say never!
RODNEY CROMWELL ‘Fax Message Breakup’ EP is released on 11th November 2016
RODNEY CROMWELL ‘Age Of Anxiety’ and ARTHUR & MARTHA ‘Navigation’ are available on major download platforms and CDs are available via http://www.happyrobots.co.uk/#!botshop/luv44
Midge Ure and Rusty Egan first became friends as members of THE RICH KIDS back in 1977.
The pair went on to form VISAGE with Steve Strange following their growing interest in synthesizers and electronic rhythms, inspired by the likes of KRAFTWERK, GIORGIO MORODER and NEU! The music formed part of the soundtrack to the Bowie Nights that eventually found a home at The Blitz Club.
And now following its audio premiere during Rusty Egan’s DJ set opening for Michael Rother at Under The Bridge in London, it can be confirmed that Midge Ure has contributed lead vocals and guitar to the song ‘Glorious’ from The Blitz Club legend’s debut upcoming solo album ‘Welcome To The Dancefloor’; it was composed by Ure with Egan and Chris Payne who co-wrote ‘Fade To Grey’, a German No1 for VISAGE in 1981. The album will additionally feature vocals from luminaries such as Peter Hook and Tony Hadley.
Midge Ure kindly took time out from his tour of the US to chat to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about this brand new collaboration.
What did you think when you were presented with the ‘Glorious’ demo’?
I liked the music, Chris Payne and Rusty had done a great job but I didn’t think the song / melody / lyrics were strong enough, so I rewrote all of that in my studio.
How did you go about transforming the track?
I stripped the demo down to the basic track, edited it down into a more ‘song like’ format and started working on a glorious melody. I added the main melodic synth line and layered guitars over it, ending with the ‘hopefully’ uplifting solo over the outro.
Was how developed ‘Glorious’ the same as when you worked on ‘Fade To Grey’?
Yes, very similar where the track was inspiring but needed a vocal line to lift it beyond the level it was at.
Photo by Gabor Scott
What’s it like to collaborate with Rusty again for the first since ‘The Anvil’, albeit virtually?
Rusty is a very talented guy. Remember the two of us put VISAGE together back in 1978 because we were both inspired by the electronic music coming out of Europe, Germany in particular. We had similar tastes back then, so working on his album has been a good thing.
Have you had a chance to hear any of the other tracks on ‘Welcome To The Dancefloor’ yet?
Not yet, but he has great contributors with Hooky and Tony Hadley. It shows the respect Rusty has in the music world.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its grateful thanks to Midge Ure
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was prime crystalline synthpop, 
undoubtedly comes over as a more varied and mature musical statement. There are fewer club friendly tempos but this has been offset by a comparatively sunny disposition on songs like ‘Love Chance’ and ‘Life Is Short’, as well as an abundance of dreamier atmospheres like on the beautiful grown-up lullaby ‘Proxima’.
from The Blitz Club legend’s debut upcoming solo album ‘Welcome To The Dancefloor’; it was composed by Ure with Egan and 
is released via Black Mosaic in CD, deluxe 2CD, vinyl and download formats
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