Category: Reviews (Page 163 of 200)

XAN TYLER Stop The Clock

2 September 2015 /

xan tyler-03

Xan Tyler is perhaps best known as the vocalist of cult synthpop duo TECHNIQUE.

Together with multi-instrumentalist Kate Holmes, their concept was a female PET SHOP BOYS crossed with NEW ORDER. The pair had two minor hit singles ‘Sun Is Shining’ and ‘You & Me’ in 1999, both under the auspices of acclaimed producer Stephen Hague. Having worked on a variety of projects since then, Tyler released an electro-acoustic hybrid EP ‘Into The Blue’ at the end of 2014.

Produced by Stuart Crossland,Xan Tyler told ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK “I’ve always listened to wide mix of different music and I wanted to make something that reflected my varied tastes”. One of the key songs ‘Stop The Clock’ has just had a brand new video created by Alice Emily Baird to accompany its sublime beats and beautiful dreamy vocals.

Recalling the more recent synth tinged work of HANNAH PEEL’s ‘Fabricstate’ EP, ‘Stop The Clock’ is perfect listening for the onset of Autumn. “I’m aware that the tracks are all quite different from each other” said Tyler about the songs on her recent EP, “but I think there is a thread running through them that ties them together. My voice and writing style alongside Stuart’s incredible production… I think it works, hopefully others will too”.

xan tyler-into The Blue‘Stop The Clock’ from the ‘Into The Blue’ EP is available at https://xantyler.bandcamp.com/

http://xantyler.com/

https://www.facebook.com/XanTylerMusic

https://twitter.com/XanTyler

https://soundcloud.com/xan-tyler

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photo by Kelly McIntyre
2nd September 2015

KOVAK Modern Lovers

31 August 2015 /

The second album from Brighton based pop combo KOVAK, ‘Modern Lovers’ has been a long time coming.

‘Killer Boots’, the first single from the revamped KOVAK line-up emerged in 2012 and coincided with some well received support slots with TOYAH. Other singles ‘Living The Dream’ and ‘Radiate’ came along and got BBC Radio2 airplay.

But a combination of record company politics and the birth of singer Annelies Van de Velde’s first child put things on hold, until now.

Finishing the album with noted studio hand Andy Gray contributing synths, the Bray brothers Karl and Darran have crafted an immediate new wave disco record that recalls BLONDIE and GIORGIO MORODER. Released independently, titles like ‘I Love The Dance Floor’ and ‘International Dance Party’ only go to signify the uptempo escapist intent of ‘Modern Lovers’.

Produced by Dom Beken, it all begins with the pleasant steadfast title track with Annelies’ rich optimistic vocal over choppy rhythm guitar and pulsing synth. But the bouncy Eurodisco of their past few singles makes its presence felt on the effervescent ‘Catchy Monkey’, a fine tune that nicely crosses over into the New Romantic tradition.

Beginning with sequencers, ‘I Love The Dancefloor’ turns slightly into FRANZ FERDINAND while Annelies waxes lyrical about the joys of a good old fashioned night out. ‘International Dance Party’ amusingly features a rap by Karl Bray over a syncopated backing track that would make DURAN DURAN proud with some rock inflected disco. Continuing the rock disco fusion, with the thumping drums and and whirring synth on ‘Just Another Man’, Annelies’ sexy allure comes over like Debbie Harry with a nod towards ‘Atomic’ as a fitting in-joke reference.

On ‘Who Is She?’, Annelies’ jealously runs deep but conversely, the following ‘Radiate’ is more celebratory. Driven by a tingling metallic sequence and sweetened by her angelic vocals, ‘Radiate’ does what it says on the tin. It’s very SAINT ETIENNE Goes To Munich and still stand-outs as a classic song that blends a dreamy hook with crisp production and a danceable beat.

A bit of glitterball stomp enters the equation with ‘Swing Song’ coming over like Chrissie Hynde fronting DEEP PURPLE, while the funkier ‘Little Bit Of Luck’ takes on the album’s most soulful stance. The neo-acoustic ballad ‘Tower Blocks’ makes an apt closer, and provides some sonic variation to showcase KOVAK’s diversity that covers many bases without losing the band’s core ident.

Missing from the album though are the previous singles ‘Killer Boots’ and ‘Living The Dream’. While this is a shame, it doesn’t detract from the fact that this collection is a good pop record. While ‘Modern Lovers’ may party like it’s 1979, the modern discothèque sheen only enhances the album’s fun and classic approach.

With thanks to Andy Hollis at 74 Promotions

‘Modern Lovers’is released by 74 Music on 7th September 2015 as a download and numbered CD. Please visit https://www.kovak.co.uk for more information

https://www.facebook.com/OfficialKovak

Text by Chi Ming Lai
31st August 2015

DIE KRUPPS V – Metal Machine Music

22 August 2015 /

The rusting hulk of a vehicle on the album cover of ‘V – Metal Machine Music’ is set against a desolate/post-apocalyptic ‘Mad Max’ style wasteland 

It gives an idea as to what one might expect from the new DIE KRUPPS long player. Following the more electronic-based ‘Machinists of Joy’, it’s a return to a sound which indelibly influenced RAMMSTEIN and several other metal / electronic hybrid bands. The crunching twin guitar riffs are back up in the mix and in most cases, Ralf Dörper‘s synth/sequencer programming (regrettably) takes more of a back seat in the musical proceedings.

The shift back to a more guitar-oriented sound is possibly an attempt to reclaim the throne of a genre that DIE KRUPPS undeniably pioneered, especially as RAMMSTEIN are currently on a hiatus to allow lead vocalist TIL LINDEMANN to promote his solo album. With ex-drummer Volker Borchert returning to the fold and the addition of guitarist Steve Roemhild, the overall concept of ‘Metal Machine Music’ is a far more live and rocky sounding one.

The prelude ‘Die Verdammten’ is a doomy and Teutonic sounding introduction to the album with filtered gothic foreboding strings and hard hitting guitars heralding bad things looming on the horizon… ’Kaltes Herz’, the first proper song on the album, is a high octane thrash with driving synth bass at its heart, its delayed Koto intro lulling the listener into a false sense of security. Double A-sided single ‘Battle Extreme’ (vocalled in English) is another competent / fast BPM industrial metal track with very little to distinguish it from the previous one, although some later high pitched synth squeals provide a bit of welcome respite from the angry guitars.

‘Fly Martyrs Fly’ (the other side of the single) is the most electronic sounding track so far, LFO-filtered synths mixed with an EBM bassline contrast with guitars which are a little further back in the mix this time. There is also the addition of some welcome electronic drum textures mixed in with the live percussion. Lyrically, halfway through the track, it becomes apparent that the song is based around the Germanwings Flight 9525 air disaster where the co-pilot of the plane locked his captain out of the cockpit before setting it on a fatal trajectory into a nearby French Alps mountain. News reports of the event are recreated using speech synthesis in the middle section of the song, before the crunching guitars and sequencers return.

‘Road Rage Warrior’ musically and sonically reinforces the album cover’s ‘Mad Max’ theme and is probably the most original sounding track on the album in that it doesn’t steadfastly stick to the generic Industrial Metal template. Sounding more like THE PRODIGY gone metal in places, it weirdly includes the frantic / trippy sequencer part from PINK FLOYD’s ‘On The Run’ early on in the piece. Although a brave attempt, the sung title hook in the middle eight doesn’t quite cut it against the more antagonistic / shouty vocals.

‘Alive in a Glass Cage’ is the standout melodic cut on ‘V – Metal Machine Music’ – with a properly sung lyric throughout, it introduces a softer sound to the album and with the exception of its middle eight guitar riff, relies more on melody than aggression. Also present are echoes of NEW ORDER’s ‘This Time of Night’ in the bass synth and the vocals of Andy LaPlegua from COMBICHRIST’s side project ICON OF COIL – it would have been fruitful for this sound to have been explored more on this album, if only to provide respite from some of the less subtle in-your-face guitar-oriented songs. The appropriately named ‘Kaos Reigns’ ups the tempo even further, with frantic double-kick drums and guitars to match. When eventually joined by several cross-panned synths, the track leaves you exhausted and breathless by the end…

In a way, one could feel aggrieved for DIE KRUPPS in the way in which RAMMSTEIN took their sound, ramped it up several notches (with added pyrotechnics), ran with it and became a global, multi-million-selling act. But as in many cases, sadly often the musical innovators don’t always get their just rewards and recognition.

If you are fan of big metal guitars and live drums mixed with bass synths you will ADORE this album, it certainly reinforces DIE KRUPPS (alongside MINISTRY and NINE INCH NAILS) as THE pioneers of the Industrial genre. But those seduced by the electronic textures that ‘Machinists of Joy’ offered may come away feeling disappointed with the emphasis on metal rather than machine in ‘V – Metal Machine Music’.

‘V – Metal Machine Music’ is released as a CD, deluxe 2CD and download via Oblivion on 28th August 2015

DIE KRUPPS play The Garage in London on Wednesday 16th September 2015, please check the website for other dates

http://www.diekrupps.de/

https://www.facebook.com/diekruppsofficial

Text by Paul Boddy
22nd August 2015

KITE Up For Life

12 August 2015 /

Despite having released six EPs since 2008, Malmö synth duo KITE have tended to be overlooked internationally.

Nicklas Stenemo and Christian Berg’s 2013 EP ‘V’ offered layers of exuberant sounds and Stenemo’s passionately rugged vocals on mournful but anthemic electropop like ‘The Rhythm’ and ‘Dance Again’. There were also the sub-Wilder production treatments on ‘Wishful Summer Night’ and ‘I Can’t Stand’ which brought some enticingly devotional tension into proceedings. Full of brooding sadness but attached to a glimmer of hope, KITE’s most recent release ‘VI’ came out in April.

Undoubtedly their best body of work yet, opening it was the magnificent progressive synth epic ‘Up For Life’. A sublime contender for song of the year, the two-part nine minute masterpiece has just been accorded the live video treatment with footage recorded at Stockholm’s Debaser Medis. Lasers and flashing lights ahoy…

The parent ‘VI’ EP is a majestic collection of dark but melodic synthpop. The frantic energy of ‘It’s Ours’ with its killer synth bassline and barrage of Simmons drums is another choice track from the EP and shows how modern electronic pop should be done.

With the cinematic atmospheres of ‘True Colours’, the metallically mighty ‘Count The Days’ and the spacey Sci-Fi vibes of ‘Nocturne’ also figuring on ‘VI’, KITE are further proof as to what’s so special about Sweden. At the current rate of trajectory, the ‘VII’ EP should be out of this world.

‘Up For Life’ is from the ‘VI’ EP released by Progress Productions. It is available as a CD or download via the usual online outlets

https://www.facebook.com/KiteHQ

http://www.progress-productions.com/artist.php?id=8

Text by Chi Ming Lai
12th August 2015

ANDY BELL Variance – The Torsten The Bareback Saint Remixes

6 August 2015 /

Andy Bell is… Torsten The Bareback Saint.

Andy Bell would sound divine performing a telephone directory or reading out the train schedule. The voice, second to none, has dominated UK synth and pop scene for years, thanks to his 30 year involvement with Vince Clarke under the ERASURE umbrella.

Having released solo projects before, starting with the exquisite 2005 ‘Electric Blue’, followed by ‘Non Stop’ and ‘iPop’, Bell came back in 2014 with über controversial ‘Torsten The Bareback Saint’. The release of Bell’s solo project nearly coincided with ERASURE’s own release of their most recent, highly critically acclaimed ‘The Violet Flame’ in September 2014.

For Bell, ‘Torsten The Bareback Saint’ has been “the biggest challenge of (his) career so far”. After all, it is not just a straightforward album with catchy, poppy songs a-la his previous endeavours. All the songs were written for Bell by Barney Ashton (lyrics) and Christopher Frost / Simon Bayliss (music).

The whole concept was a soundtrack to a theatre show of the same name, where Bell was playing an age-defying polysexual. The show headlined at The Assembly during the 2014 Edinburgh International Fringe Festival for two weeks and proved extremely popular with the audiences. The production and its soundtrack is a highly dramaturgic song-cycle of memories from a life of hedonistic individual, whose semi-immortal being is filled with experiences of passing time.

The opening verse on the album can easily cause moral concern, of the so-called religious conmen. For the rest of us, it rings the tone of the production as being honest, open and not scared to shock. The album flows with amazing ERASURE-esque rhythms and cinematic productions, seeing Bell sing through Torsten’s history from his school years, through wanting to be a star while working at the local bingo, seeking his sexuality, trying out new things and being robbed, with his bike stolen by his female lover in ‘Fountain Of Youth’.

Next, he’s having his heart broken by a random gay partner “from a sauna” in ‘The Boy From The Sauna’ and experiencing romantic love on a weekend away in ‘Weston-Super-Mare’. There’s also witnessing the perverse behaviour of his alcoholic father and withdrawn, abused mother, being lovers with a boy from Brazil, contemplating the “gay thing” in ‘This Gay Thing Isn’t Working’, to considering suicide in ‘As I Prepare To Take My Life’, upon realisation that dreams cannot be achieved.

The songs flow beautifully and singularly would make no sense, with the exception of the opulent, magnificent ‘I Don’t Like’, which is showing off Bell’s massive vocal talent and stands out as a single material by itself. Twenty two sequential tracks fill the production which paints a beautiful, yet sad story of an individual desperate to be loved, one way or another, by whoever, no matter of what sex or background.

The ‘Variance’ remix album contains five versions of ‘Weston-Super-Mare’, re-fashioned purely for fun. Some vocals have been re-recorded with lyrics changed and the whole production has more of an ERASURE feel to it, which will appeal to the die-hard synth-pop fans of the duo. The last remix of the song, ‘Industrial Soundscape Mix’, appears to have elements of CABARET VOLTAIRE and EINSTURZENDE NEUBATEN built into it.


There’s also a poppy take on ‘Bingo Hall Baby’, a stunning Radio Remix of ‘I Don’t Like’ and ‘Fountain Of Youth’, as well as a promotional medley of ‘Torsten The Bareback Saint’, giving the listener a taster of what the production is all about.

Love or hate ANDY BELL, it has to be admitted that the brave artist has an endless talent and has been, for years, the shining icon of the gay brotherhood for a reason. Outspoken, in your face and daring, Bell has taken on a challenge, which he has clearly excelled in. Haters will hate, but it has to be admitted that the artist has outdone himself once again.

‘Variance – The Torsten The Bareback Saint Remixes’ is released by Cherry Red on 4th September 2015 as a CD and download.

Pre-order at http://www.cherryred.co.uk/discography/andy-bell-variance-the-torsten-the-bareback-saint-remixes/

http://www.andybell.com/

https://www.facebook.com/officialandybell

https://twitter.com/AndyBell_info

Text by Monika Izabela Goss
6th August 2015

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