“Always get behind people” so the saying goes, but that’s because it’s the best position to stab those very people in the back… 😉
From their recently released album ‘Enforced Fun’, the new SPRAY single reflects on this current political climate.
The mischievous Lancashire duo of Jenny McLaren and Ricardo Autobahn are best known for being behind THE CUBAN BOYS, whose ‘Cognoscenti Vs. Intelligentsia’ topped John Peel’s end of year ‘Festive 50’ in 1999.
“We’re rarely this obtuse in songs – we prefer to state clearly a thing that is happening, make fun of it, then repeat to fade” says Autobahn, “But we’ve long since been irritated by the childishness and low-brow infantilisation of politics, and that irritation became ‘It’s The Night Of The Long Knives, Charlie Brown’”. The song has now been honoured with a promo video directed and edited by Louise Lee.
While there are references to the cartoon character created by Charles M Schulz, there are also points of inspiration closer to home: “Having read our grandparents old ‘Giles’ annuals from the 50s and 60s, SPRAY are aware it’s not a new thing… but the ‘Boris’-isation of personality politicos, the pre-scripted jibes and the laser-guided aiming of *all* conversations to a specified soundbite is starting to grate”.
Whether it’s politics, media, TV or music, dumbing down to the lowest common denominator appears to be a sad fabric of this they who shout loudest world.
“Stuff isn’t getting done, people are hurting because our elected representatives are too busy cracking wise on Twitter.” reflects Autobahn, “We hate the sneering, the posturing, the points-scoring. So much energy and time is wasted. The line from our song, ‘Turn mistakes into a scandal – an error to conspiracy’, sums up our feelings about the misdirected one-upmanship of Organised Politics these days.”
While this is valid social commentary, it is also tinged with humour because otherwise, if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry! The uplifting club flavoured vibes of ‘It’s The Night Of The Long Knives, Charlie Brown’ help set that tone. In many ways, this could be a story from The Daily Mash with electronic accompaniment.
Autobahn concludes: “The song essentially, broadly and vaguely is sung from the perspective of a jaded spin doctor who, like SPRAY, knows nothing can be done to change anything, ever. It’s also a lot of silly pop nonsense, but we’ve been surprised by how prescient a couple of the lines have been. ‘Wait for everybody to fall’ could have been May’s campaign slogan, and could be Corbyn’s as well. It’s a miracle there’s progress at all.”
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to SPRAY
‘It’s The Night Of The Long Knives, Charlie Brown’ is released as a download bundle with a selection of remixes via Banoffeesound; the Bandcamp version features an exclusive bonus B-side
The album ‘Enforced Fun’ is available as a CD and download
The American town of Providence in Rhode Island is the home of MARI KATTMAN.
Mari, previously of DAY TWELVE and MARI & THE GHOST, had become a sought after voice, following her collaboration with SURVEILLANCE, a side project from ASSEMBLAGE 23’s Tom Shear. Her marked vocals on ‘Husk’ from SURVEILLANCE’s album ‘Oceania’ earned her a well-deserved interest and rapid following.
Recently Mari has joined forces with composer Matt Echo and under the umbrella of MARI KATTMAN, they release their first album, ‘Hover’.
‘Heart Over Mind’ opens the long player with high pitched guitar and seductive, yet measured vocals from Mari, enveloped within a production ASHBURY HEIGHTS wouldn’t be ashamed of.
The atmosphere shifts with ‘Skin’, a gritty synth gem of a more serene nature, like an aphrodisiac, finding its way into the bloodstream of breathy, surreal soundscape. Vocally layered with Mari’s chameleon renditions, it leads into ‘The Tide’. Further subdued, arty and ready to burst… yet, it never does. The intricate suppression of this track is the essence of eloquent beauty in it, whereas ‘Hunter’ heralds a musical digression, involving heavier electronica and haunting vocals.
‘Hearts On Fire’ is possibly the finest creation on the album, rendering influences ranging between De/Vision and Grimes and everything in between, whether with or without Mari’s realisation.
The Berlin Love Parade ringing synth awakens in ‘Reanimator’. This bouncy and flamboyant mixture of layered club sounds rounds up the excellent vocal, encapsulating the soul of techno packaged into a perfect electro track.
‘Numb’ floats above all with atmospheric production similar to one of the excellent John Fryer’s. The ethereal, enchanting textures wrap around the dreamy, floaty vocal, leading into the darkness of the unknown.
The “unknown” is ‘Invisible’. Further references to ASHBURY HEIGHTS, mixed with the feel of German techno clubs again, cross referenced to Americana Noir; the melting pot of genres, put together to entice and excite. ‘Full Of Light’ closes the opus with the fastest tempo of fascinating layers of off beat drums, synths and that delicate, yet powerful voice of Mari.
What does Mari teach us? Well, that she refuses to rest on her laurels and continues to make the best music she can. Accompanied by the skilled Matt Echo, the pair have produced a record, which could easily be classed as genre creating. ‘Hover’ is fresh, full of energy where required and docile where necessary and, all in all, a capable manufacture, proving that East Coast of America can deliver in the electronic field in bunches.
‘Hover’ is released in a variety of physical and digital formats on 19th July 2016, pre-order from https://marikattman.bandcamp.com/
“In the City Mix” she said, “I overlayed trap beats with glitchy and robotic vocals to help bring the song’s melody to life while also depicting the inevitable merging of technology and nature.”the closing song on her recently released ‘Desert’ EP.
The project of songwriter and producer Julie Kathryn, the haunting tension of ‘Losing Face’ accentuates a variety of electronic and organic colours, echoing the aesthetics of another hybrid songstress FIFI RONG.
A muted chop’ n’ chuck provides the percussive backbone while an eerie soundscape is steadily configured as Kathryn succumbs to lust. “You’re different when you’re on top of me… how I hate the state I’m in” she paradoxically reflects, as bubbling detuned synth swirls and acoustic guitar penetrate the foreboding atmosphere in the vein of ‘Felt Mountain’ era GOLDFRAPP.
The monochromatic video itself sees Julie Kathryn give a pole dance interpretation of ‘Losing Face’ with choreography and coaching by Chloette Gotye. The result is both stark and sexy, while totally complimenting the empowered sentiments of the song and the parent EP’s “subtle complexities of desire, passion and longing”.
Busy with both I AM SNOW ANGEL and FEMALE FREQUENCY, 2016 is turning into a fine year of artistic fulfilment for Julie Kathryn.
‘Losing Face’ is from the ‘Desert’ EP, available as a download via the usual digital outlets
Combining electronics and frenzied digital drums with live bass, ‘River In Me’ is the first single from TRENTEMØLLER’s upcoming fourth album ‘Fixion’, out in September. Vocals are provided by Jehnny Beth of the acclaimed indie band SAVAGES.
Best known for his superb club remix of DEPECHE MODE’s ‘Wrong’, it well and truly outstripped the rather ploddy original.
The dynamic edge of ‘River In Me’ has more than highlighted the short sightedness of the Basildon combo in not employing Anders Trentemøller to work on their new, as-yet untitled album.
Generally a remote collaborator, ‘River In Me’ is an unusual TRENTEMØLLER recording in that the SAVAGES frontwoman came to his home studio in Copenhagen to lay down the vocals. The end result naturally possesses a Gothic intensity but remains vibrant and melodic, with Beth’s Siouxsie-like tones complimenting the hybrid synth laced soundscape. Some have complained that ‘River In Me’ is not dark enough compared with TRENTEMØLLER’s previous work, but it is his most immediate song yet with a fine balance of accessibility and mood.
Directed by Åsa Riton and Andreas Emenius, the promo video for ‘River In Me’ filmed in Northern Sweden offers some appropriately icy aesthetics as a backdrop to the mysterious Nordic Noir love story.
The working relationship between Anders Trentemøller and Jehnny Beth began when the Dane mixed SAVAGES breakthrough album ‘Adore Life’. Beth said to Uncut earlier this year “he was not a traditional rock ‘n’ roll mixer, he was coming from electronic music, but with extensive guitar music knowledge”.
That should have confirmed TRENTEMØLLER’s credentials for working with DEPECHE MODE but alas, it is rumoured James Ford of SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO has got the job.
Having recently produced FLORENCE & THE MACHINE, ARCTIC MONKEYS, FOALS and MUMFORD & SONS, Ford’s work with the latter in particular would have no doubt sealed the deal for the rockcentric Dave Gahan.
However, all is not completely lost… if DEPECHE MODE are not going to have TRENTEMØLLER as a producer, then they should at least put him behind the desk to sort out the final mix. After all, he did a good job with ‘Wrong’.
“I told a TV Crew it was ‘an absolute fallacy that we tell people what to wear and do’. Guess what? I lied. That was exactly what we did.”: TOM WATKINS
‘Let’s Make Lots of Money: Secrets of a Rich, Fat, Gay, Lucky Bastard’ is the frank autobiography of Tom Watkins, the Pop Svengali best known for managing PET SHOP BOYS, BROS and EAST 17.
Co-written with Matthew Lindsay, the title is provocative. But then, Watkins has always been that kind of a personality. Called “A big man with a loud voice” by Neil Tennant, his high profile as a manager came with a bolshy ability to extract favourable deals, whether it was for his various charges or himself; it is rumoured that Watkins took 20% commission on gross income from PET SHOP BOYS and BROS.
With his earlier success founding the design agency XL, it could be argued that Watkins helped shaped an era in modern pop. Watkins first met the future PET SHOP BOYS vocalist at Marvel Comics, before Tennant moved on to become Deputy Editor of pop rag ‘Smash Hits’ in 1982.
In the book, he recalls gleefully about hearing how Tennant got into an argument with then-NME journalist Paul Morley at the launch party of Dave Rimmer’s book ‘Like Punk Never Happened: Culture Club and the New Pop’, and settled the dispute by kicking the belligerent scribe in the shins!
Watkins was to cross paths himself with Morley. Having spent his younger years as a design student, later working under Terence Conran and Rodney Fitch, he eventually established XL.
Their artwork adorned the sleeves of KIM WILDE, OMD, NIK KERSHAW, WHAM! and most famously Zang Tuum Tumb (ZTT), the label founded by Paul Morley, Trevor Horn and Jill Sinclair with which THE ART OF NOISE and FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD shot to stardom. XL were later to employ a junior designer named Mark Farrow.
Of his relationship with ZTT, Watkins says Trevor Horn was “an adorable space cadet” while Paul Morley was patronising, rude and miserable. Back in 1983, there was no Google so eager to learn, Watkins asked what Zang Tuum Tumb actually meant; Morley’s sneering answer was “It’s the sound the snare drum makes” before sniggering at him. So when Watkins eventually found out about its origins with the Italian Futurists, he felt humiliated, with the assertion that “Only a real prick ridicules someone for asking a question…” – Watkins had the last laugh though when Sinclair and Horn commissioned him to design the interior of Sarm West Studios.
In hindsight, the two brash characters were unlikely to have ever got on and Watkins concedes now “Maybe Zang Tuum Tumb was supposed to be like the sound of a drum machine as well. Maybe I was just being a big, pretty diva…” – but the strange thing is today, even with Google to hand, there are still music journalists who can’t tell their tape recorders from their drum machines.
It was under the XL umbrella that Watkins began his professional relationship with PET SHOP BOYS, designing the sleeve of the original Bobby Orlando produced version of ‘West End Girls’ released by Epic Records in 1984.
But after it flopped and PET SHOP BOYS were dropped, Tennant asked Watkins to manage them, impressed by his FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD associations. Watkins loved ‘West End Girls’ and in particular, a sweeping piece of grandeur entitled ‘Jealously’ which Tennant had written in response to a friend who had resented the time he was spending with musical partner Chris Lowe.
Watkins happily accepted, safe in the knowledge that WHAM! and JAPAN manager Simon Napier-Bell had already declined to listen to a demo tape Tennant had given him containing ‘Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots Of Money)’, ‘West End Girls’ and ‘It’s A Sin’.
One of Watkins’ best lines in the book is “you can’t make chicken soup out of chicken sh*t” and he was well aware that a unique selling point was vital to an act’s success. Reflecting one of the issues that could be applied to today’s UK electronic music scene, EMI A&R man Dave Ambrose told Watkins of GIGGLES, his previous foray into band management: “There isn’t anything wrong with them. But there’s not a lot right with them either”.
Despite having some killer songs, Watkins now had the dilemma of how to sell PET SHOP BOYS visually. The first PSB gigs in 1984 at Brixton Fridge and in Luxembourg saw Tennant trying to do his best Bowie impression, while Lowe gyrated and pelvic thrusted his keyboard; neither were particularly comfortable with their actions.
Meanwhile as the “mean (if hardly lean) bullsh*t machine”, Watkins went back to Dave Ambrose with ‘West End Girls’ as the perfect show reel. The man who had signed SEX PISTOLS, DURAN DURAN and TALK TALK to EMI welcomed PET SHOP BOYS into the empire.
Tennant departed ‘Smash Hits’ and at his leaving party, his colleagues presented him with a mocked-up front cover which read: “HOW I LEFT BRITAIN’S BRIGHTEST MAGAZINE TO FORM MY TRAGIC POP GROUP, WENT DOWN THE DUMPER AND ASKED FOR MY JOB BACK” – little did they know that Tennant would grace their front cover within nine months!
Watkins’ attempts to get PET SHOP BOYS to “sex it up” fell on deaf ears though. Tennant and Lowe wanted to be enigmatic; they exuded a Northern contrariness that was the antithesis of DURAN DURAN, SPANDAU BALLET and WHAM! Still not entirely convinced, Watkins recalls the horror of seeing their first ‘Top Of The Pops’ appearance in late 1985: “They don’t do anything. How are people going to go for this?” – but go for it they did!
Despite realising he had a phenomenon on his hands, Watkins did exert his management veto on a few occasions, notably when the duo had the rather pretentious idea of issuing a manifesto called ‘Two In A Million’ to the UK press in Italian! His defensive response in these situations was to become his catchphrase “What would Edna in Huddersfield think?”; but quite what Edna made of the 1988 art movie turkey that was ‘It Couldn’t Happen Here’ is debatable.
PET SHOP BOYS’ dialectic of “east / west. Posh / rough. Irony / sincerity. Pop / anti-pop” led to what Tennant himself would later call their imperial phase, which included four UK chart topping singles and a US No1 in ‘West End Girls’. But despite their seemingly unstoppable success, Watkins’ assessment is that ‘Domino Dancing’ with its AIDS narrative and sexually ambiguous promo video was what stalled Tennant and Lowe’s Stateside momentum.
Just one listen to the ‘Discography’ singles collection is a timely reminder of what PET SHOP BOYS achieved under Watkins’ stewardship. But his contract was not renewed and while he states in the book he was gutted at the time, Watkins admits that he has missed working with Tennant and Lowe, even though in his words: “Unlike Neil Tennant, I could mould Matt Goss and his brother with complete control”.
And so it was that Watkins continued on, looking after ELECTRIBE 101 whose high point was supporting DEPECHE MODE on the ‘Violator’ tour. Fronted by Billie Ray Martin, they split due to good old-fashioned musical differences, but Watkins found success masterminding the careers of BROS and EAST 17, before eventually both acts imploded too.
Misguided self-delusions of talent plagued the former, particularly as Watkins co-wrote all of the BROS hits with producer Nicky Graham under the pseudonym of The Brothers. Indeed, the episode was amusingly documented by PET SHOP BOYS on ‘How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously?’.
Meanwhile the low brain cell count of Brian Harvey sealed the fate of EAST 17. Some have considered band management to be akin to looking after children and whatever one’s feelings on Watkins, he certainly earned his commission dealing with these Primadonnas.
Undeterred, Watkins persevered with FAITH, HOPE & CHARITY, 2WO THIRD3, NORTH & SOUTH, DEUCE, THE MODERN and even an animated character named KULKARNI who couldn’t answer him back! However, while these acts were not themselves successful, they did spawn TV presenter Dani Behr, songwriter Richard ‘Biff’ Stannard and retro flavoured electro artist KID KASIO, so he must have spotted something…
But the pop world was changing and now occupied by reality TV talent shows (Watkins amusingly describes ‘The X Factor’ as like “a Nuremberg Rally on pink drugs”!), bland indie rock and brainless dance music, Watkins’ loud and proud approach no longer had a home. For him, that was it as far as the music business was concerned.
While not for everyone, ‘Let’s Make Lots of Money: Secrets of a Rich, Fat, Gay, Lucky Bastard’ is an amusing and entertaining account of an excessive, yet innovative period when mavericks were embraced and the bland were shunned. In today’s world, the opposite is true.
The music industry is not what it was and while Watkins is a polarising character whose career path has been seemingly driven by a combination of shouting, artistic nous, lust and low self-esteem, he has certainly achieved much more than most.
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“Always get behind people” so the saying goes, but that’s because it’s the best position to stab those very people in the back… 😉
Whether it’s politics, media, TV or music, dumbing down to the lowest common denominator appears to be a sad fabric of this they who shout loudest world.
‘It’s The Night Of The Long Knives, Charlie Brown’ is released as a download bundle with a selection of remixes via Banoffeesound; the Bandcamp version features an exclusive bonus B-side
with choreography and coaching by Chloette Gotye. The result is both stark and sexy, while totally complimenting the empowered sentiments of the song and the parent EP’s “subtle complexities of desire, passion and longing”.
EP, available as a download via the usual digital outlets
has more than highlighted the short sightedness of the Basildon combo in not employing Anders Trentemøller to work on their new, as-yet untitled album.
singles collection is a timely reminder of what PET SHOP BOYS achieved under Watkins’ stewardship. But his contract was not renewed and while he states in the book he was gutted at the time, Watkins admits that he has missed working with Tennant and Lowe, even though in his words: “Unlike Neil Tennant, I could mould Matt Goss and his brother with complete control”.
is published on 7th July 2016 in hardback by Virgin Books
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