Category: Live Reports (Page 29 of 37)

FEATHERS Live At Birthdays

4 February 2014 /


FEATHERS have been called the female DEPECHE MODE since the release of their first single ‘Land Of The Innocent’ and the parent long player ‘If All Now Here’ in the first half of 2013.

It has all been predominantly the work of Austin based singer / songwriter Anastasia Dimou, formally of PJ HARVEY inspired rockers CRUEL BLACK DOVE who in their time recorded a cover of THE PSYCHEDLIC FURS’ ‘Love My Way’ for ‘The Vampire Diaries’ soundtrack.

Featuring a more programmed technological template, FEATHERS impressed immediately and as a result, a live band was recruited from among Dimou’s friends in the Texas area. Support slots with ROBYN, SOFT METALS and LITTLE BOOTS followed but after a one-off gig with DEPECHE MODE at SXWS last March, FEATHERS were invited to support Basildon’s finest on the first European leg of their 2014 dates.

With the move to arenas and a once in a lifetime opportunity in front of a massive audience, a new band was assembled. So in came occasional FEATHERS guitarist Destiny Montague and Shirley Ho from CRUEL BLACK DOVE on bass. Meanwhile Christine Aprile, who had appeared on the ‘Land Of The Innocent’ video, joined on keyboards. Only token male Jon Minor on drums remained from the previous live line-up. For FEATHERS, the pressure was now on.

DEPECHE MODE fans have not been known for their sympathy towards support acts; MIRANDA SEX GARDEN for example were pelted with missiles during the 1993 ‘Devotional’ tour but feedback for FEATHERS on this ‘Delta Machine’ jaunt was generally positive.

At Birmingham’s LG Arena, they had to take to the stage early at 7.00pm with only The Devoted hardcore present in the moshpit while caught out punters made their way in.

But from the moment they started, they were greeted with polite and gradually louder applause as the venue began to fill. Interestingly, Birmingham was the city where FEATHERS sold the most CDs so they must have made some kind of impression.

To coincide with the conclusion of their DEPECHE MODE sojourn, FEATHERS played a one-off gig at Birthdays in London’s hipster capital Stoke Newington. Repeating their DEPECHE MODE support setlist, they opened with ‘Fire In The Night’, a surefire 6/8 stomper in the mould of ‘Soothe My Soul’ carefully chosen to snare The Devoted.

The almost similar sounding but more SUZI QUATRO aping ‘Believe’ came third but sandwiched between them was the funky electro disco of ‘Soft’. Frantic and catchy with its staccato voice and slap samples along the lines of the single mix of ‘Behind The Wheel’, ‘Soft’ was a handy card to play with its rich uplifting hooks and inherent danceability.

But while the obviously DM friendly material made its appearance earlier on, the more interesting aspects of FEATHERS were still to come. ‘Welcome Possession’, the last track on ‘If All Now Here’ strangely appeared midway through the set but slotted in perfectly. A transient epic of moody cinematics, Dimou gave it some lungs like LADY GAGA lost in a desert while the coda veered into expansive NEW ORDER ‘True Faith’ territory.

Throughout the show, Dimou flexed her larynx in a hushed but brooding manner that was highly seductive. While some of the textures were familiar, FEATHERS revealed their USP when the other three female band members’ Trans-Atlantic background voices kicked in alongside Dimou’s dreamy lead. With a predominantly electronic lattice, it is this vocal element of FEATHERS that really distinguishes them from any number of DEPECHE MODE influenced acts.

On the elastic groove laden ‘Dark Matter’, proceedings were bolstered by Destiny Montague’s rhythmical six string while the crisp chime sample was mixed so high and sharp that it almost decapitated the first three rows! As heard on the soundtrack of the latest ‘Grand Theft Auto’ game, its industrialised R’n’B overtones provided a interesting take on contemporary pop music.

Another electronic disco number ‘Familiar So Strange’ kept the momentum going but it was the new song ‘Wild Love’ that stole the show.

With its trancey widescreen presence and mighty chorus, Christine Aprile’s falsetto counterpoints maintained the otherworldly atmosphere within the club friendly vibe. It is possibly their most accessible song yet with its European dance influences and euphoric hypnotism.

To finish a short but dynamic set, the marvellous ‘Land Of The Innocent’ with its ‘Ice Machine’ arpeggio intro held the audience’s attention with the artful enigma of AUSTRA and the darker menace of LADYTRON. The three part harmonies from Montague, Ho and Aprile came to the fore and complimented Dimou’s gorgeous tones beautifully.

Successfully highlighting the more uptempo and immediate songs in FEATHERS’ small catalogue, the set however was not entirely flawless.

A cramped stage and therefore unfamiliar positioning of Dimou’s synth meant she missed cues on both verses of ‘Soft’ but her slip-ups certainly didn’t dampen her enthusiasm.

If this lady can survive nine dates on a DEPECHE MODE tour in front of some of the most partisan concert audiences in the world, she can survive just about anything.

Overall, The Sisters Of Night gave a wondrously impressive performance that was full of presence, empowerment, enchantment and vulnerability.

As FEATHERS build on the promise of ‘If All Now Here’ and gain more experience on the world’s stages, they can only get better. Now considering how good their debut actually is, that is one mouth watering prospect.

‘If All Now Here’ can be downloaded via Bandcamp, Amazon or iTunes. CD copies are still available, please check for availability

The ‘Only One’ EP is available as a download from http://feathers.bandcamp.com/album/only-one and the usual online outlets

http://www.feathers.fm/

https://www.facebook.com/feathersmusic

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Chi Ming Lai and Richard Price
4th February 2014

KARL BARTOS Live In Cologne

28 January 2014 /

Karl Bartos kicked off his 2014 ‘Off The Record’ tour with an impressive audio / visual presentation in Cologne’s Live Music Hall.

Although Düsseldorf is where KRAFTWERK and their iconic Kling Klang studio were and are still based, the more vibrant city of Cologne 30km down the road was where the classic line-up of Bartos, Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider and Wolfgang Flür used to hang out when they aspired to more relaxed surroundings.

Indeed, it has been rumoured that their jaunts to local clubs inspired songs such as ‘The Model’ and the amusingly ironic ‘Sex Object’. And although now resident in Hamburg, for Herr Bartos, this was a spiritual homecoming of sorts with many long time friends in the audience including former band mate Wolfgang Flür.

Since leaving the band in 1990, Bartos has remained a beacon of hope for KRAFTWERK enthusiasts frustrated by the drought of fresh, new material following 1986’s ‘Electric Cafe’.

Exorcising his Kling Klang ghost, he utilised musical ideas gathered during his period with KRAFTWERK for ‘Off The Record’, his first album since 2003’s ‘Communication’. Despite its links to his past, ‘Off The Record’ is a fully realised, modern electronic album.

And for those who missed out on seeing KRAFTWERK’s art space retrospectives, KARL BARTOS’ show was the perfect alternative. “Forget about technical nostalgia in 3D” said the press release, “instead tune into LiveCinema: 90 minutes of music and film – rhythmical, modern, intelligent”.

By coincidence, this opening night coincided with KRAFTWERK being given a Lifetime Achievement Award at The Grammys. As the first German act to be bestowed such an honour, German TV station WDR were very much in evidence at the venue to celebrate this monumental occasion on home soil.

Opening with an anglicised take on ‘Numbers’, Bartos’ live presentation was a well executed affair based around three personnel on stage including himself, regular studio partner Mathias Black and visuals director Robert Baumanns. As well as their own roles, each took turns at vocodered vocals and voice triggered effects to provide some powerful triple robot action that reverberated around the venue.

Robots in harmony? You’d better believe it! ‘Numbers’ segued naturally into ‘Computer World’ to enormous cheers. ‘The Camera’ followed and herein lies Bartos’ trump card compared with his former colleagues at Kling Klang.

His solo material retains those classic elements but still pushes through a vibrant, futuristic feel. KRAFTWERK’s last offering ‘Tour De France Soundtracks’ was rhythmically weak, as the combo’s previous percussive driving force, Herr Bartos ably demonstrated where all that intuitive nous went!

‘Das Modell’ came surprisingly early in the set and was accompanied not just by a projective backdrop of beautiful women but some endearing archive footage of Bartos and Flür doing their musikarbeiter thing.

Despite not being part of his former band’s recent 3D concert retrospectives, Bartos has often commented that he is spiritually still on stage with them every night as he co-wrote all those classic tracks post-‘Trans Europe Express’.

So as Bartos was Hütter’s main collaborator between 1978 to 1986, his own set was punctuated by a selection of KRAFTWERK tracks, updated and made powerfully crisp over the big speakers.

Karl Bartos told ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK in February 2013: “Well, since I have co-written many of the hits, I always had too many of them for just one concert. The real problem was to sort out the redundant tracks”. This allowed the show to retain all those songs’ original melodic appeal without negating the show’s fresh outlook.

Known for his strong aversion towards the death by 4/4 pounding of modern electronic dance music, Bartos also avoided the poor techno restylings like those presented on ‘The Mix’. But it wasn’t just about the past as highlights from ‘Communication’ were also represented, alongside most of the ‘Computer World’ album plus ‘The Robots’, ‘Trans Europe Express’, ‘Tour De France’ and a bilingual version of ‘Neon Lights’.

The renditions of the Kling Klang era material were kept to a handy single edit size and free of noodling, thus emphasising Bartos’ more pop based sensibilities. Those ideals were on display in the accompanying visuals for ‘Interview’ where Bartos’ diverse musical interests such as THE BEATLES, THE WHO and BB KING were there for all to see.

Although NEW ORDER were not pictured, they certainly came over musically on the autobiographical ‘Life’ where Bartos countered tradition by moving to the right hand side of the stage over to a lone mic stand. Away from the safety net of his keyboards, he took on a pose not dissimilar to Bernard Sumner.

The ‘Off The Record’ showcase did not actually begin until about two thirds into the show and it began with the blasting ‘Atomium’ to start the five song suite.

Using the giant model of an iron crystal erected for the 1958 World’s Fair in Brussels as symbolism for the rise and fall of atomic power in Europe, the stabbing synth tones rattled over a stomping 7/4 time signature as the themes first touched on with 1975’s ‘Radio-Activity’ concept were re-explored.

The serene ‘Nachtfahrt’captured atmosphere of the rainy night in Cologne perfectly while the spectre of Kling Klang loomed heavy over ‘Without A Trace Of Emotion’. Already a superb electropop piece on its own instrumental terms, Bartos’ lyrics reflected his professional dilemma… not matter what, he will forever be associated with KRAFTWERK in the same way as Alan Wilder will be with DEPECHE MODE!

The clip of Bartos’ showroom dummy Herr Karl looking lost wearing a cycling helmet amusingly said it all. But this lifetime sodality must be seen as a complement as similarly since Wilder left DEPECHE MODE, KRAFTWERK have lacked that something since Bartos departed.

Ultimately, it is for this reason that Messrs Bartos and Wilder deserve greater recognition for their continuing adventures in their solo work.

Meanwhile, a now highly relaxed Bartos grinned sheepishly from behind his synth complex during ‘Rhythmus’ as its mixed parentage of ‘Numbers’ and ‘Computer World’ Kling Klang-ed forth. The buzz fest of ‘Musica Ex Machina’ though was a pivotal point of the evening, its passage accompanied by a video of assorted headphoned listeners of various demographics. Featuring a short cameo from Herr Bartos himself, the film eventually focussed on a pretty young lady lost in those electro rhythms.

Perhaps not by coincidence, a pretty young lady from Brazil was at the front of the stage, vibing off the sounds and happily dancing her heart out. She even took time for a few selfies with Herr Bartos in the background, such was her enjoyment of proceedings. And this ultimately summed up the cross generational and cross gender appeal of Das Klassik Düsseldorfer Quartett.

As Wolfgang Flür alluded to in his autobography ‘I Was A Robot’, KRAFTWERK didn’t just appeal to geeky men but to women as well. Certainly, one unexpected observation was the number of females of a younger disposition in attendance at Live Music Hall with several waiting enthusiastically to meet Die Herren Bartos und Flür after the show.

As the show drew to its close, ‘Pocket Calculator’ not only featured a reset rhythmical template but also footage of Herr Bartos showing off his impressive synthesizer inventory. The eagle eyed would have spotted with a Stylophone, Korg MS20, Minimoog rack mount, Farfisa Professional piano, ARP Odyssey and that iconic elektronisches schlagzeug unit. It certainly had the gear nerds in attendance foaming at the mouth.

For the encore, there was the pleasant surprise of ‘TV’ from Bartos’ first post-KRAFTWERK project ELEKTRIC MUSIC. Again, he took to the right of the stage away from his synths on this cult classic from the same ‘Esperanto’ sessions that produced ‘Kissing The Machine’ recently reworked by OMD for ‘English Electric’. It was a wonderful way to finish as a sampled “Auf Wiedersehen…” echoed to a fade.

The  show was a perfect multi-media history of electronic pop that celebrated the innovation of the past while moving forward musically. Yes, the sounds are meatier, the technology more versatile and the tools much simpler to operate.

But what remains are the melodies, the traditions and the soul… yes, the soul! It may be an unusual way to describe things related to KRAFTWERK but tonight, this couldn’t have been truer.

‘Off The Record’ is released by Bureau B on CD and vinyl

The ‘Off The Record’ tour continues at the following venues:

Nürnberg Festsaal K4 (29th January), Berlin Postbahnhof am Ostbahnhof (30th January), Hamburg Gruenspan (31st January), Copenhagen Amager Bio (1st February)

http://www.karlbartos.com/

http://www.bureau-b.com/karlbartos.php

Text by Chi Ming Lai
28th January 2014

THE REST IS NOISE – 19 eighties: the rhythm of a decade

2 December 2013 /

Photo by Mark Allan/BBC

The decade you either love, or love to hate…

The Southbank Centre’s year long ‘The Rest Is Noise’ festival concluded its musical journey through the 20th century with a special event entitled ‘19 eighties: the rhythm of a decade’ which saw classical meet synthpop. Broadcast live by BBC Radio3, the evening was hosted by journalist, cultural commentator and ZTT strategist Paul Morley in the company of the BBC Concert Orchestra.

Featuring the work of contemporary composers such as Andrew Poppy, Sir John Tavener, Steve Martland and Michael Nyman as well as tracks from THE ART OF NOISE and the synthpop era arranged in a special orchestral suite by Anne Dudley, it was billed as “a one-off documentary soundtrack to the decade you either love, or love to hate”.

It is well documented how ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK feels about that decade, or rather how it has been generalised. While some of the greatest and most innovative pop music ever produced came from between 1980-1989, the decade also gave rise to some of the worst.

So to have lazy journalists glamourise about how it was one wonderful party for all is not only ignorant, but extremely insensitive to those who suffered in the era.

Music was often an escape for these troubles and for every pioneer who pursued artistic values as a reaction to the system, like today in our X-Factor / Heat magazine driven society, there were corporations and aspiring celebrities prepared to go to the lowest common denominator in order to get rich quick.

But the biggest gripe ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK particularly has is how the synthesizer has been marginalised as a by-product of that era, only be used now as an instrument to reflect nostalgic intent or mock rather than pushing boundaries and encouraging forward thinking. Comments from unenlightened observers who think of Alison Moyet’s ‘the minutes’ album as being “80s sounding”, rather than a songwriter’s experiment in modern electronica, are an example of the imbecilic attitude at large.

So it was apt that to start the evening in the foyer of Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, HEAVEN 17 and BEF’s Martyn Ware gave a talk entitled ‘A Journey In 20 Synths’.

The Nile Rodgers of Synth Britannia was joined by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop’s Peter Howell with the pair leading an informative and lively discussion about the electronic music decade. Interestingly, most of the chat focussed around equipment from the decade before.

It all started with an instrument that was first launched in 1971, the Stylophone 350s. Ware commented that he thought he was Brian Eno when he got one. Next up was the EMS Synthi 100, one of those huge telephone exchange beasts that have gone down in legend; Howell recalled it had a knob called ‘Option4’ which wasn’t actually connected to anything and often used by members of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop to trick difficult TV producers into accepting their soundtracks by offering tweaks in their presence… ”Oh! Hang on, it just needs some more Option4”!

Ware then gleefully talked about the Korg 700s and Roland System 100, the two synths which effectively helped realise his post-punk musical vision. First manufactured in 1974 and 1975 respectively, these two were the rhythmical powerhouse of THE HUMAN LEAGUE’s first single ‘Being Boiled’ in 1978.

Affection was also bestowed on Roland’s Jupiter 4 from 1978 (described by Ware as his “dream synth”) and the Linn LM1 which Ware said was the “best drum machine ever”.

Asked by a member of the audience whether he liked Oberheim gear, Ware commented that he was not a big fan of American synths as they were designed for musicians, with the filters not being particularly extreme enough for experimentalists. Howell highlighted that one of the beauties of synthesizers was being able to change timbre and tones mid-composition, thus enabling the creation process to be taken into a direction that would not have been possible using acoustic instruments such as guitar or piano.

After adding that he had three Roland TB303 Basslines which were all stolen from the studio because they were pocket sized, Ware groaned as the subject headed towards digital synths of the period.

The Roland D50 from 1987 provoked an interesting debate with Howell in favour of its possibilities while Ware bemoaned the fact that he traded in his Jupiter 8 for a Yamaha DX7!!! Howell then admitted that he used the DX7 as a controller keyboard for the recent Radiophonic Workshop live shows. But both agreed that with FM synthesis, everyone fell into the preset trap and started to use the same sounds… the result inevitably being that pop music became much more homogenised in the latter part of the decade.

Following a comment that the Korg M1 was the worst synth ever designed, Ware walked over to fire up the Roland System 100 and Korg 700s he had brought with him to demonstrate to the receptive audience.

Using the original patches from ‘Being Boiled’, the familiar industrialised rhythm poured from the expanded System 100 driven by its 104 sequencer module. After some temporary 103 Mixer glitches, Ware stood behind the Korg 700s for a run through of the song’s distinctive bass riff

TheKorg 700s’ dual oscillators rumbled the plush confines of the Queen Elizabeth Hall. It was an entertaining and accessible presentation with Ware and Howell articulating their thoughts without too much technical talk in a humourous manner.

Photo by Mark Allan/BBC

And so onto the main event; Paul Morley introduced the evening’s proceedings as “using words and music to summon up memories of that decade, to eradicate some others” and “to try and work out what the hell happened there…”

The ‘rhythm of a decade’ concert itself began with ’32 Frames For Orchestra’, a piece conceived by one time ZTT artist Andrew Poppy as “merging Beethoven with The Velvet Underground”.

In an onstage chat with Morley, Poppy reflected a spirit of adventure that shared an affinity with the innovators of Synth Britannia before taking to the piano himself for a rendition of ‘Almost The Same Shame’. There then followed touching tributes to the recently departed composers Sir John Tavener and Steve Martland. The solemn tranquillity of Tavener’s ‘The Lamb’ captured the sadness of the era eloquently while Martland’s powerfully rhythmic ‘Remix’ represented how he felt classical music could be given a broader audience, a stance reflected in his commitment to music education and as a curator of the short lived Factory Classical label.

Celebrating THE ART OF NOISE and ZTT’s 30th Anniversary, an announcement came forth via Morley in his usual, wittily provocative style: “thirty years after our first record ‘Into Battle’ which was neither an album nor a single, which was really a series of musical movements in the abstract, each of which lasted different lengths from the quite short to the fairly long, the time has perhaps come for a reunion… this is our reunion, hidden in the middle of something else altogether!”

Photo by Mark Allan/BBC

The orchestral premiere of THE ART NOISE’s debut 1983 EP ‘Into Battle’ specially arranged by Anne Dudley was a delight, coming over at times like a lost Bond film soundtrack. The EPs two best known tracks ‘Moments In Love’ and ‘Beatbox’ each had their component parts reinterpreted by classical instruments as “memory of a memory”; the distinctive bassline of ‘Beat Box’ was represented by French horns while the iconic vocal samples of ‘Moments In Love’ had their places taken by an ensemble of violins.

After the interlude, classical music’s link to synthpop was emphasised further before the Grand Finale with a recital of Michael Nyman’s ‘Chasing Sheep’. Itself based on Purcell’s ‘Prelude to Act III, Scene 2’ from ‘King Arthur’, it was recently used by PET SHOP BOYS as the basis of their ‘Love Is a Bourgeois Construct’. A duo with links to many involved in THE ART OF NOISE including Anne Dudley, plus of course Trevor Horn and JJ Jeczalik, all were in attendance for this spirited evening. Engineer Gary Langan was in the audience too, making it a full reunion of THE ART OF NOISE in spirit if not performance.

Photo by Mark Allan/BBC

To conclude the concert, Anne Dudley took to the piano for the much anticipated ‘rhythm of a decade’. While Paul Morley narrated his musings on Thatcher’s Britain, he was accompanied by an orchestral soundtrack arranged by Dudley… and what a soundtrack! Beginning with her own familiar intro to ‘Two Tribes’ before segueing into the beautiful pentatonic melodies of ‘Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence’, there then followed a significant number of synth classics transcribed for everyone’s listening pleasure.

From the dystopian shrills of ‘Underpass’ and ‘Fade To Grey’ to the euphoric club tunes of ‘Pump Up The Volume’ and ‘Pacific State’, each had been carefully chosen by Dudley for their distinctive riff laden elements to complement the dynamics of Morley’s monologue.

The biggest surprise came with a blast of SOFT CELL’s ‘Sex Dwarf’ while ‘Mad World’, ‘Situation’, ‘Love Action’, ‘True Faith’ and ‘Blue Monday’ all figured in proceedings alongside more conventional numbers of the period such as ‘Back To Life’, ‘Let’s Dance’, ‘Ghost Town’ and ‘Running Up That Hill’. It all worked together marvellously for what was slowly emerging effectively as a spoken word art piece accompanied by music.

Overall, Anne Dudley’s orchestral interpretations were a great success, much more so than say OMD’s hit and miss experiment with the Liverpool Philharmonic immortalised on the ironically titled ‘Electricity’ DVD. As for Morley’s narration, for those who have loved his commentary over the years, this was perfect entertainment but for those who have found him an irritant, this would have been an intrusion to the music.

The evening was a triumph that reflected on that decade as not being the cheesefest it has often been portrayed as by the media and the public at large.

The fact that these synthesizer tunes (which have often been derided as not being real music) have been able to be orchestrated by one of modern pop’s most successful arrangers is a testament to their value and integrity. Yes, the rhythm to a decade but also a rhythm to many more…

Special thanks to Victoria Taylor and Camilla Dervan at the BBC

http://www.annedudley.co.uk/

http://www.ztt.com/

http://martynwareblog.blogspot.co.uk/

https://www.peterhowell-media.co.uk/

http://www.theradiophonicworkshop.co.uk/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
2nd December 2013

GARY NUMAN Splinter Live At The Roundhouse

17 November 2013 /

On a crest of an artistic wave right now is Gary Numan.

In a career which has seen more highs and lows than many people can care to remember, his new album ‘Splinter (Songs From A Broken Mind)’ has seen him put together his most significant body of work since 2000’s ‘Pure’. But it has been a difficult realisation with recording having started on ‘Splinter’ 7 years ago.

Battling with relationship problems, depression and a mid-life crisis, eventually he pulled through. Gary Numan said “we’ve come out of it stronger than ever… I found because of all the sh*t we’d gone through, I had a huge amount of things to write about”. The resultant journey has led to songs which possibly could stand up as being among some of the best of his career. Numan readily admitted though: “they’re not the happiest of tunes to be really honest, but it all came from a very difficult time! Food for creativity!”

Whether it’s a new found relaxed state of mind from being confident in his musical abilities again or moving to the sunnier climes of Los Angeles, Gary Numan is on mighty form at The Roundhouse in London. Intense yet relaxed, there’s a focus in the performance, the material and the presentation of the ‘Splinter’ show. The film projections have gone, replaced by a huge LED lightshow that enhances the more electronic but heavy aura of ‘Splinter’, relying more on surreal standpoints to stir the imagination rather than literal illustrations.

Gone too is the sluggish material from the one dimensional ‘Jagged’ album of 2006 which often ground Numan’s live sets over recent years to a halt. The opening salvo of ‘I Am Dust’ is a magnificent statement of intent for the evening. The sound is crisp, powerful and dynamic.

Following on with the evergreen ‘Metal’, this highlight from 1979’s ‘The Pleasure Principle’ sounds like it could have been written last year. Its toughened stance even sees Numan venture behind an Alesis Quadrasynth and replicate the NINE INCH NAILS arrangement of the song with its extended ‘M.E.’ based climax.

More material from ‘The Pleasure Principle’ comes in the shape of ‘Films’. But on ‘Splinter’ songs such as ‘Everything Comes Down To This’ and ‘Here In The Black’, the reinvigorated Numan is headbanging vigorously and snarling like it is the last gig of life! Meanwhile, ‘The Fall’ returns in its ‘Dead Son Rising’ form thankfully after the ill-advised sojourns into remix variants while the industrialised attack of ‘Pure’ rouses the crowd.

But it’s the newer material from ‘Splinter’ that is of a less obvious rockist nature which really impresses. The title track’s Arabian demeanour breathes with space, beauty and melody while the orchestration on ‘The Calling’ takes Numan’s music into wonderfully expansive cinematic territory.

Interestingly, ‘Down In The Park’ sits within this part of the set and while Numan is not recreating the eras of ‘Replicas’ and ‘The Pleasure Principle’, the fact that material from this 1979 era blends so seamlessly with ‘Splinter’ and its songs from a broken mind indicates why this 2013 album has gained so many plaudits.

The show continues bravely into ‘Lost’, a stark number that sees Numan bear his soul. Stripped to just piano and voice in its first couple of verses, it is moving to the nth degree with its humanity and vulnerability. Numan is quite visibility choked in a manner than hasn’t been seen he performed ‘Please Push No More’ on the ‘Micromusic’ DVD of his 1981 farewell Wembley concert. But then Numan almost steals defeat from the jaws of victory with ‘We’re The Unforgiven’.

It creates an unnecessary lull to the show when it might have been more prudent to blast ‘Who Are You?’ into action; it is the key track from ‘Splinter’ that is missing tonight. But it’s only one lull and three quarters into the set… not bad when your consider how some Numan shows over the last few years have had four or five!

It all gets back on track however with the blistering anthemic rocker ‘Love Hurt Bleed’ and the brilliance of the 1980 single ‘I Die: You Die’. Closing the main set with the heartfelt, blippy cacophony of ‘A Prayer For The Unborn’ which is only spoilt by the first distortion of the evening, this performance is a triumph for Gary Numan.

For the encore, Numan inevitably dusts off the two UK No1s which turned him into the first synth superstar back in 1979. Not surprisingly it has to be said, ‘Cars’ sounds really out of place, even in slightly goth-ed up form. ‘Are Friends Electric?’ however never ages and has the audience chanting along like a religious ritual. But for the conclusion, it is the brooding but beautifully dramatic ‘My Last Day’ that closes, a fine soundtrack to see in the apocalypse if ever there was one, with the vox humana synths providing a most chilling musical spectre.

Free from the ballast of ‘Jagged’ and incorporating the best elements of ‘Replicas’, ‘The Pleasure Principle’, ‘Telekon’, ‘Pure’ and ‘Dead Son Rising’, the ‘Splinter’ show was Numan back to his best. The dynamic and tempo variation plus the return of more electronics all appear to have done the trick… everything comes down to this!

Special thanks to Duncan Clark at 9PR

‘Splinter (Songs From A Broken Mind)’ is released by Mortal Records / Cooking Vinyl

GARY NUMAN tours Europe in 2014. Dates include:

Leuven Het Depot (13th February), Amsterdam Melkweg The Max (14th February), Cologne Luxor (16th February), Hamburg Docks (17th February), Dresden Reithalle Straße E (19th February), Vienna Szene Wien (22nd February)

http://www.numan.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/GaryNumanOfficial

https://twitter.com/numanofficial

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Steve Gray
17th November 2013

BLANCMANGE Happy Families Too Live in London

16 November 2013 /

The concept of an album being revisited and restyled for a live setting is now a regular staple of the professional circuit but can be controversial.

In 2008, GARY NUMAN gave an industrialised makeover to his classic ‘Replicas’ which delighted some but alienated many others, so much so that when Mr Numan undertook his 30th Anniversary tour of ‘The Pleasure Principle’ a year later, it was note-to-note faithful, right down to the absence of guitar as on the original.

Since their return in 2011, BLANCMANGE have been very much about looking forward with frontman Neil Arthur focussing on material from the comeback album ‘Blanc Burn’ during live shows and even daring to omit their much loved ABBA cover ‘The Day Before You Came’. But this year has seen a slight change of heart with Arthur now comfortable with BLANCMANGE’s legacy as shown by a willingness to play at the ‘Rewind Festival’ in Henley.

Tonight, BLANCMANGE journeyed back to their recorded beginnings by airing their highly regarded debut album ‘Happy Families’. But rather than go through the practice of recording the show via the Live Here Now process and issuing it on the night, warts ‘n’ all, Neil Arthur has gone through the unusual process of re-recording the album as a memento for fans attending the shows. Not surprisingly, it’s been retitled ‘Happy Families Too’

Much loved by people unless their name was Julian Cope, the original ‘Happy Families’ album was produced by Mike Howlett and featured then new kit such as the Linn Drum Computer and Roland Jupiter 8.

The Linn in particular was a star of the album with busy digital claps and congas manifesting themselves in a way that a trained percussionist would never have dreamed of attempting. But while ‘Happy Families’ is as a result, an album very much of its time, it also gives it a unique and sparkling charm.

Thus Neil Arthur’s concept for ‘Happy Families Too’ was to realise the starker vision that Arthur and his BLANCMANGE partner Stephen Luscombe had envisaged when writing the songs with more basic approaches. After all, the version of ‘Sad Day’ for the now iconic ‘Some Bizzare Album’, which also launched DEPECHE MODE, SOFT CELL, THE THE and B-MOVIE, was just a Minipops rhythm unit, a borrowed Wasp synth, a battered string machine and Arthur’s countrified guitar.

While Arthur has used VSTs for the sounds to keep it very much in the present, it’s the more minimal approach that has been the key.

Bearded and in a floral shirt, Neil Arthur was as down-to-earth as ever but giving it his all. First up, there was ‘Lose Your Love’, the lost second single from 1985’s ‘Believe You Me’ album. On a mission to ensure the show was not just about nostalgia, highlights from BLANCMANGE’s comeback album ‘Blanc Burn’ formed the initial part of the set. Several of the audience were actually heckling for the more recent material such as ‘The Western’ and ‘Drive Me’, both of which are certainly on a par with the best of anything Neil Arthur and the sadly absent Stephen Luscombe have recorded.

But as well as the newer songs like ‘By The Bus Stop @ Woolies’ (accompanied by archive news reel of Arthur’s hometown of Darwen in Lancashire) and ‘Ultraviolent’, there were also the ‘Happy Families’ era B-sides ‘Game Above My Head’ and ‘Running Thin’. It was particularly nice to hear the latter, a number that has only ever been recorded as a John Peel Session but now to be properly recorded and included on the deluxe edition of ‘Happy Families Too’ slated for 2014.

Focussing on ‘Happy Families Too’ in tracklist order for the second half of the show, ‘I Can’t Explain’ was as enthrallingly ferocious as ever but with the added tension and bite of live guitar. Swapping positions as Neil Arthur’s on-stage straight man with regular percussionist Pandit Dinesh (who only actually played on one ‘Happy Families’ song), it was David Rhodes who was on virtually all of ‘Happy Families’ that returned to the BLANCMANGE fold.

A regular sideman of PETER GABRIEL and JAPAN’s live guitarist on their ‘Tin Drum’ tour, his virtuoso expertise varied from the E-bowed strings on ‘Waves’ to the Spiders/Ronson power chords replacing the Hawaiian zing of ‘Wasted’. Arthur himself took to lead six string for ‘Sad Day’ in a rework that almost returned to the ‘Some Bizzare album’ take, referencing ENO and his ‘Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)’ long player, in particular ‘The Fat Lady Of Limbourg’ and the beautiful title track.

‘Living On The Ceiling’ required no introduction and even featured an audience chant-along of its main Middle Eastern motif at the song’s conclusion as Arthur held the mic on its stand out into the crowd. ‘Feel Me’, ‘I’ve Seen The Word’ and ‘God’s Kitchen’ are already enjoyable regulars in the usual BLANCMANGE live set, so positive reaction to those was not to be unexpected.

But the premiere of ‘Kind’ as part of 21st Century BLANCMANGE was highly welcomed, its sub-JOY DIVISION tension and percussive ferocity providing a fitting companion to ‘I Can’t Explain’ played earlier. Returning to encore with the vocoder layered ‘Radio Therapy’ and a stomping ‘Blind Vision’, it was a wonderful evening of post-modern artistry and entertainment that celebrated history rather than pandered to nostalgia.

And as if to make that point further, ‘Don’t Tell Me’ and ‘The Day Before You Came’ were bravely left out of the evening’s proceedings. No-one seemed to mind though as the throng around the merchandise stall to purchase CDs of ‘Happy Families Too’ and meet the big man at the end of the night proved. Yes, it was one big happy family 🙂

‘Happy Families Too’ is released on Blanc Check Records. A deluxe edition will be issued in 2014 featuring a new version of ‘Running Thin’, Vince Clarke’s remix of ‘Living On The Ceiling’ and much more.

http://www.blancmange.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/BlancmangeMusic/

Text and Photos by Chi Ming Lai
16th November 2013

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