Category: Reviews (Page 1 of 206)

MICHAEL OAKLEY Prologue

18 May 2026 /

Michael Oakley has declared his third album ‘Prologue’ as a new beginning.

The Toronto-based synthwave artist released his last album ‘Odyssey’ in 2021 and while there were those tropical backdrops on songs like ‘Babylon’ and ‘Real Life’ alongside the textural strummed acoustics of the Steve Winwood-influenced ‘Wake Up’, what appeared to be missing was the “synth” in his “wave”.

In an aid to remedy that, Michael Oakley has declared ‘Prologue’ as being his most ambitious album yet. The title is deliberate, it isn’t a sequel or a continuation — it’s a declaration that something new is starting. Despite a “Welcome to The Pleasure Dome”, ‘Warriors Of The Wasteland’ is not a FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD cover but wears its ‘Rebel Yell’ influences on its sleeve in a song that easily could have being playing with the boys in ‘Top Gun’.

Co-written with James Meays of MISSING WORDS who also contributes guitar and past collaborator Ollie Wride, the vibrant Trans-Atlantic pop of ‘Memory Of You’ is signature Michael Oakley, as is ‘Falling Skyward’ with both songs showcasing maximised production standards, something that not always the case with acts using today’s tech. And with the superb ‘School’, Oakley somehow manages to successfully cross Haddaway and Robbie Williams with NEW ORDER and PET SHOP BOYS! It’s as if Peter Hook wandered into the recording of ‘What Is Love?’ while there are also backing vocals from popwave starlet Dana Jean Phoenix.

‘The Glory Years’ is more balladic and wouldn’t sound out of place on a Brat Pack Movie soundtrack but ‘World Of Promises’ has a darker percussive bite with a Middle Eastern promise that is running up that hill and adds another string to Oakley’s sonic bow. Meanwhile ‘Shot To The Heart’ targets the Schaffel with a “bang-bang-bang” in obeying the “laws of attraction”.

Holly Dodson of PARALLELS guests with her best Belinda Carlisle impression on the lively ‘Hurts Like Heaven’ and here the rhythms rumble and the orchestras stab for some supreme Europop to joyously party like it is 1993. Nothing to do with GUNS ‘N’ ROSES, the ethereal closer ‘Use Your Illusion’ actually sounds more like COCTEAU TWINS although Oakley stops short of attempting Elizabeth Fraser’s abstract glossolalia.

Michael Oakley’s own summary for ‘Prologue’ is to “Imagine what DEPECHE MODE’s ‘Violator’ album would have sounded like if it was produced by Trevor Horn”; now while that is not quite how the album actually sounds, the sense of ambition and willingness to develop is here.

Applying the euphoric sounds of European dance music and mixing it with the cinematic Americanised architecture of synthwave and his own assured singer-songwriter sensibilities, ‘Prologue’ is undoubtedly the best Michael Oakley album to date.

‘Prologue’ is released by NewRetroWave on 29th May 2026 in a variety of vinyl LP, minidisc, cassette and CD formats as well as digital, available from https://newretrowave.bandcamp.com/

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Guthrie Melchaide
18th May 2026

MIDGE URE A Man Of Two Worlds

8 May 2026 /

Side by side, Midge Ure is like a man from two worlds…

His first album of new material in 12 years, Midge Ure presents ‘A Man Of Two Worlds’ a double opus partly inspired by Ure’s own lockdown exploration of instrumental music when he was presenting ‘The Space’ on Scala Radio.

Over the decades, Ure has shown his prowess with instrumentals like ‘Astradyne’ and ‘Monument’ with ULTRAVOX, ‘The Dancer’ with VISAGE and solo with the B-sides ‘Mood Music’ and ‘Piano’, along with album tracks such as ‘Edo’, ‘Antilles’, ‘Monster’, ‘Wire & Wood’ and ‘Bridges’. One of his most widely heard instrumentals was ‘Rivets’, his collaboration with the late Chris Cross for a Levi’s TV and cinema commercial in 1983.

Ure’s first solo album ‘The Gift’ had actually originally been pitched as a split album of songs on one side and instrumentals on the other, like David Bowie’s ‘Low’. But the realisation turned out slightly differently. However, ‘A Man Of Two Worlds’ sees that concept coming to fruition comprising of two distinct halves; ‘World One: Music’ features eight instrumentals while ‘World Two: Songs’ contains eight new vocal tracks.

Despite the acoustic six string intro on ‘A Different View’, melancholic piano-based instrumentals with virtual string and vibe embellishments are what form this eight track suite. Composed with the keys triggered by a guitar synth, an instrumental that Ure first experimented with in 1984, these are slow brooding pieces that are not quite fully ambient or classical.

Photo by Toddevision

Haunted by the spectre of lockdown, ‘World One: Music’ is an elegiac soundtrack of remembrance. From the chamber recital of ‘The Space In-Between’ featuring Joseph O’Keefe of INDIA ELECTRIC CO on violin to the threadbare sparseness of ‘Blues & Greys’, while these works might not possess the echoing pastoral resonance of the late Harold Budd, Ure understands his sense of space and does not overload the arrangements to achieve the desired effect.

Using the melody of a lullaby that Ure used to sing to his children, the gently swung closer of ‘The Pictures You Carry With You’ gets closest to being lively. But that is not the point to this beautiful music, as exemplified by the haunting tones of ‘The Dimming Light’. While ‘World One: Music’ will not instantly be appreciated by everyone, this wordless wonder is a worthy string to the bow to the veteran Glaswegian.

Working again with Ty Unwin who produced and mixed ‘Orchestrated’, ‘World Two: Songs’ does what it says on the tin with compositions that came to Ure as the world came out of lockdown. “Where does hope go when it’s gone?” asks Ure but with a rousing chorus reminiscent of ‘You Move Me’, ‘Just Words’ reflects on the hurt and fears caused by the misguided in the loose talk of so-called opinion under the umbrella of free speech; the end result is epic. Swathed in synths and distinctly electronic in its percussive backbeat, the weary ‘World Away’ emulates the drama of Ure’s ULTRAVOX days and will delight those who have followed his career since joined Billy Currie, Warren Cann and Chris Cross.

Frustration over “stupid noise from smart devices” colours ‘Shouting To The Moon’ as it provides an electrifying highlight with sweeping synth solos and layers of guitars. But ‘Caught In The Middle’, Ure reflects on how he has become “split and divided” as “I’m only human after all” over cinematic orchestrations. The bursts of simulated fretless bass on ‘Ordinary Man (Previous Moments)’ could be seen as a musical eulogy to past collaborator Mick Karn of JAPAN, but proceedings are stripped right down to the ivories on ‘Somewhere Out There’ where Ure asks the listener to “imagine yourself in a world where they care”.

A call to action, ‘The Man Who Stole Your Soul’ is embroiled in despair despite its seemingly anthemic electronic rock backbone and crunchy guitars reminiscent of ULTRAVOX. In a time when divisive elements like to ‘Fan The Flame’, Ure takes aim at the “cruel selfish game” as he despairs at the Trumps, Farages and Putins with their axis of hate in a world that could do better and was once full of hope.

It’s been 41 years since Live Aid, 33 years since The Berlin Wall came down and 14 years since the London Olympics so Midge Ure could be forgiven for wondering “what the hell happened?” and it’s a question we could all ask ourselves. ‘A Man Of Two Worlds’ is a 72-year-old elder statesman calling for a return to a more compassionate era of decency… now THAT is the country you want back and THIS is the accompaniment for it!

‘A Man Of Two Worlds’ is released as a double vinyl LP and double CD by Chrysalis Records

Midge Ure 2026 UK tour dates include:

Bath Forum (8th May), Liverpool Philharmonic Hall (9th May), Leicester De Montfort Hall (11th May), Birmingham Symphony Hall (12th May), Oxford New Theatre (14th May), Plymouth Pavilions (15th May), Sheffield City Hall (18th May), Manchester Bridgewater Hall (19th May), Aberdeen Music Hall (20th May), Glasgow SEC Armadillo (22nd May), Edinburgh Usher Hall (24th May), London Barbican Hall (25th May), Reading Hexagon (26th May), Bournemouth Pavilion Theatre (27th May), Bradford Live (29th May), Nottingham Royal Concert Hall (30th May), Cambridge Corn Exchange (31st May), Southend Cliffs Pavillion (2nd June), Portsmouth Guildhall (3rd June), Milton Keynes Theatre (4th June), Gateshead Glasshouse (5th June)

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
8th May 2026

GREY DISCO Shades

6 May 2026 /

While B-MOVIE released an album comprised of lost and unreleased material titled ‘Hidden Treasures’ last year, a long player of new material has been conspicuous by its absence, the most recent being ‘Climate of Fear’ in 2016.

The band’s two constants Steve Hovington and Paul Statham have been busy though; the latter has continued with his “dark country” project THE DARK FLOWERS featuring The Anchoress, Gabriella Cilmi and Jim Kerr from SIMPLE MINDS but the former has been working with Roger Lyons of the big-beat act LIONROCK on the more post-punk GREY DISCO. Fusing a rock DNA with modern electronic textures, GREY DISCO attempt to balance grit and elegance on ‘Shades’ to make ”music for late nights, empty streets, dim lights or crowded rooms—equally suited to headphones or the dancefloor.”

Announcing that the album is “a soundtrack for the night with low-burning guitars and electronics”, opener ‘Vigil’ rocks with prominent bass guitar, synth and bombastic drums. But taking on a more throbbing backbone, the excellent ‘Paris’ is less aggressive and has the air of PET SHOP BOYS; but for Hovington’s growl, it is something of a “Princess Stéphanie” song and is appropriately in keeping with the GREY DISCO moniker.

‘Fool’s Paradise’ recalls filmic Britpop hopefuls RIALTO while ‘Just Wanna’ is much darker with sombre synthbass. The minimal goth of ‘Shadow Of A Dream’ possesses an intriguing mechanical mystery but the remainder of the album contains either frantic guitar tracks like ‘Renaissance Man’ and ‘World Inaction’ or intense linear set pieces like ‘The Wheel of Misfortune’.

‘Shades’ is more than likely to connect with B-MOVIE fans thanks to Steve Hovington’s angst-ridden instinct for melody and lyrical imagery, while Roger Lyons’ rhythmic sonic twists are a diversion from the proggier keyboard interventions associated with the band. Very much rooted in post-punk  with the benefit of 45 years hindsight, GREY DISCO will fit nicely in the interim until there’s a new B-MOVIE album.

‘Shades’ is released on 8th May 2026, available as a CD and download from https://greydisco.bandcamp.com/album/shades

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
6th May 2026

IAMX UNMASKED + IAMIXED

4 May 2026 /

With a run of prestigious IAMX live dates coming this Summer and Autumn, the long-running project of Chris Corner is making two releases previously only on sale physically at his live shows, available digitally for the first time.

The ‘UNMASK’ EP and ‘IAMIXED’ containing a selection of Reworks from the two ‘Fault Lines’ albums act as both reflection and transformation. Corner said of these releases “I’ve never been fully convinced by the idea of a final, perfect product. There’s a lot of material that was peripheral but still connected.”

‘UNMASK’ captures IAMX through B-sides, a rework and a recontextualised album track via 4 great songs that deserve a bigger audience. “Those tracks felt like orphans” Corner explained, “They didn’t belong to the ‘Fault Lines’ family, but they don’t feel like part of the next thing either”; first introduced in a 2025 music video and from ‘Fault Lines²’, the “ArtBleedsMoney Rework” of ‘Grass Before The Scythe’ sees Corner trapped waltzing in The Upside Down with a superbly anxious vocal performance to enhance the textural tension.

Already released to streaming platforms ahead of ‘UNMASKED’, an exhilarating array of modular pulses act as the backbone to ‘Artificial Innocence’. With “extraordinary needs”, the heavy yet fragile reflection on submission, control and emotional emptiness also comes in its earlier incarnation sans arpeggios; called the “UNMASK Mix”, it offers a scratchier noise ridden take that is no less emotive, but unlike much of the generic darkwave at present, the noise is used effectively and not overbearing while the piano adds an emotive contrast.

Also beautiful piano accompaniment, ‘Radical Self Love’ is the bard stripped bear with dramatic vocals before synths and drums steadily join in to provide a mighty climax. Then in the haunting ‘There Will Be Times When I Will Need To Hurt You’, there is a demonstration as to how dark anti-love songs are done.

On the album-length IAMIXED, a number of songs off the two ‘Fault Lines’ enter altered states through collaboration and reinterpretation. Grammy-nominated producer Ryan McCambridge as MIMETIC HEXES provides two of the highlights; ‘The Truth’ is dramatic and swathed in filmic mystery while keeping the vocals abstract while there is an icy percussive intensity to ‘Infinite Fear Jets’.

Corner himself presents an orchestral arrangement of ‘War Of Words’ and a dreamlike modular reinterpretation of ‘In Bondage’. ‘Disciple’ reworked by harshwave duo HOLY BRAILLE thumps and fuzzes is a threatening but accessible manner and in not dissimilar territory, there’s a swirling menace to emerging electronic artists DAMN THE WITCH SIREN’s take on ‘Thanatos’. Best of all though is ‘The X ID’ reworked by goth-popsters clubdrugs.

While these two releases might be a holding pattern in the wider scheme, the evolving creative journey of IAMX continues.

The ‘UNMASK’ EP and ‘IAMIXED’ are available on streaming platforms via Unfall Productions from 22nd May 2026 at https://iamx.bandcamp.com/music

IAMX live dates in 2026 include:
Thale Unter dem Himmel (31st July–1 August), Hildesheim M’era Luna (9th August), Leiria Extramuralhaus (21st August), Manchester Infest (21st-23rd August), Oberhausen UNITY (18th–19th September with VNV NATION), Berlin UNITY (2nd–3rd October with VNV NATION)

Tickets to all upcoming shows are available now at https://iamxmusic.com/pages/iamx-live

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
4th May 2026

BRITISH STEREO We Need Fiction

27 April 2026 /

There are times when one just wants a good old-fashioned melodic synthpop album…

In ‘We Need Fiction’, the debut album by duo BRITISH STEREO offers the surreal concept of Chris De Burgh fronting ALPHAVILLE with instrumental interludes by the late Vangelis.

Behind BRITISH STEREO are two cult musical figures; lead singer of the prog-rock group GRACE, Mac Austin formed WHITE DOOR during a hiatus with brother Harry and John Davies to release the more synthy ‘Windows’; it was produced by Andy Richards who would go on to work with Trevor Horn on a number of his productions including FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD. WHITE DOOR unexpectedly returned released a second album ‘The Great Awakening’ with the addition of a fourth member, Swedish musician and lifelong fan Johan Baeckström.

Meanwhile Phil Heeks has been producing retro-futurist electronica as THE BRITISH STEREO COLLECTIVE in a project that began as a series of faux TV and film theme compilations influenced by the likes of Jean-Michel Jarre and Vangelis as well as TANGERINE DREAM and KRAFTWERK. His work has been digitally stored by The British Library Sound Archive.

Heeks and Austin have joined forces as BRITISH STEREO for ‘We Need Fiction’, an album that has a 35 year timeline. The songs were originally recorded back in the day by Austin on a TEAC Tascam 144 4-track as demos intended for WHITE DOOR. In 2025, Heeks worked on isolating the vocals and extracting them before reconstructing the songs. Austin added additional vocals to his old vocal takes to create an interesting hybrid of now and then.

The end result presents a collection of songs, instrumentals and some impressionistic hybrids. With synth hooks galore, the very immediate ‘Mercy’ easily could have come off ALPHAVILLE’s ‘Big In Japan’ album and only Mac Austin’s progressive higher register tones in the vein of the man born Christopher John Davison give it away as not being the German combo led by Marian Gold.

Much more sedate but no less rich in synth melodics is ‘Beautiful You’ which sees Jane Bailey who sang lead vocals on THE BRITISH STEREO COLLECTIVE’s 2025 album ‘Marked to Kill’ taking on a harmonisation role alongside Austin that works a treat. She’s also takes the lead ad-libs on the elegiac interlude ‘Mausoleum’, but the mood changes swiftly with the Europop stomp of ‘People & Places’.

‘Hall of Mirrors’ is a completely new recording despite the song being rooted in WHITE DOOR’s past but it recreates the trio’s original bright widescreen sound with sharp Linn Drum rhythms and percolating soloing. The ‘We Need Fiction’ title track gets all boisterous and is reminiscent of Jean-Michel Jarre’s uptempo pieces while the melody is actually reminiscent of one of John Foxx’s lesser-known instrumentals ‘Swimmer 2’ which was the 12 inch B-side of 1981’s ‘Dancing Like A Gun’.

It segues into the balladic ‘Close Your Eyes’ which has a chorus that goes into full Schlager mode. Sung together by Austin and Jane Bailey, while this track will polarise, it would have won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1971. The album closing piano-centred variation without vocals ‘A Thousand Years’ affirms this as an international anthem and it is difficult not to imagine a flock of white doves emerging from a sporting event ceremony à la ‘Chariots Of Fire’.

What this album certainly does not lack is melody and well-delivered vocals. If you’re a fan of WHITE DOOR, ‘We Need Fiction’ does a fine job in providing an addition to the tradition. As Mac Austin himself reflected: ”I would never have imagined 35 years ago when we started this in a bedroom we would be releasing it in 2026.”

‘We Need Fiction’ is available as a CD or download from https://thebritishstereocollective.bandcamp.com/album/we-need-fiction-by-british-stereo

Clear vinyl LP edition available direct from https://fairsound.com/product/british-stereo-we-need-fiction/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
27th April 2026

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