A well-thought out, well-crafted album with plenty of adventure, space and mystery within its multi-genre cocoon, STOLEN’s ‘Fragment’ appealed to electronic, techno, prog and alternative rock enthusiasts alike.
Comprising of five Chinese musicians and a French VJ, STOLEN were founded in 2009 when three of their number were studying at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music. Their second album but the first with the Berlin-based production partnership of Mark Reeder and Micha Adam, the acclaim for ‘Fragment’ led to STOLEN opening for NEW ORDER on a six date European tour in 2019.
Further 2020 dates in Japan with the Mancunians were arranged but then the worldwide pandemic hit. While STOLEN have recovered to maintain their position as one of the most popular alternative bands in China, international momentum has stalled somewhat but now they present their ‘Eroded Creation’.
In circumstances that were very different to the making of ’Fragment’, the versatile sextet of Liang-Yi (vocals + synths), Duan-Xuan (piano, keyboards, sequencers + guitar), Fangde: (guitars + synths), Wu Jun Yang (bass Guitars + iPhone), Yu Yuan Feng Xiao Yuan (drums + percussion) and Formol (visuals + atmospheres) recorded the tracks in Chengdu but they were produced and mixed by Reeder and Adam in Berlin.
Opening with a song released earlier in 2022 by Alanas Chosnau and Mark Reeder on their ‘Life Everywhere’ album, STOLEN get to offer their vision of ‘The Void Empire’ with a deeper interpretation echoing ‘Ultra’ era DEPECHE MODE in its percussive loops and denser austere.
But making a mighty 11 minute statement, the segue of ‘Capture The Star’ into ‘Space Intruders’ is sonically magnificent: every element has its place from drums to guitar solos in this progressive Sinographic adventure. More sedate and sung in Mandarin with bubbling arpeggiators, chilling strings and melodic guitar, ‘Hibernation Pod’ could be a Chinese MUSE, especially when Liang-Yi hits some quasi-operatic falsetto tones.
With ominous bass pulses and Middle Eastern overtones, ‘Secret Agenda’ offers something more gothic as virtual orchestrations enhance the drama while ‘Shirt Of Darkness’ offers absolution in its chilly disposition that grows with every listen.
Much rockier though is ‘Never Believe’ although Liang Yi is himself vocally restrained to provide an interesting contrast to the tension.
However, the growly frontman lets rip on the techno rock of ‘Pay’ where the backdrop unexpectedly twists and turns and thrusts with a pulsing synth middle section suddenly interrupted by a burst of jagged metal!
With a prominent mechanised stomp, ‘Why We Follow’ comes in Mark Reeder’s Follow Me Remix and angrily makes its point, augmented by a blasting guest rap from PSY.P who made his breakthrough a member of the Chinese hip-hop collective HIGHER BROTHERS.
To a slight offbeat, ‘Pressure’ features some impeccable live elements in the drum breaks and enticing ivory runs reminiscent of David Bowie’s ‘I’m Deranged’. But as ‘Eroded Creation’ concludes, the sparse backdrop of ‘Waiting’ moves to the unexpected with a piano shaped ballad supported by understated embellishments from all of the band.
Developing on the propulsive grit and mystical cinematics of ‘Fragment’, STOLEN have made a fine and worthy follow-up in ‘Eroded Creation’. They continue not to be tied down to any particular style, using an amalgam of influences to create a cerebral elation in its mix of psychedelic-tinged rock and electronics. ‘Eroded Creation’ puts STOLEN back on track and is a reminder as to why NEW ORDER were so supportive of their endeavours.
For BIRMINGHAM ELECTRIC, communication is as good today as it’s always been.
The musical vehicle of Dutch-based American Andy Evans, his debut album ‘Communication’ captures the spirit of the classic synth era. But then, that is not entirely surprising as the songs which form it began as 4-track cassette demos written back in the day. Aided and abetted by Berlin-based producer Mark Reeder whose remix credits have included NEW ORDER, DEPECHE MODE and PET SHOP BOYS alongside his studio partner Micha Adam, new life has been breathed into those demos to provide a clean electronic pop sound.
The songs reflect the ups and downs of modern life but throughout, melodies and counterpoints are omnipresent, pointing to OMD, YAZOO and early DEPECHE MODE. The sombre moods of ‘Your Greatest Fear’ start proceedings but it is ‘Moving Target’ that provides the bouncy melodicism, sounding as if KID KASIO had signed to Vince Clarke’s Reset Records, with Evans’ polarising vocal style working well alongside some discordant synths.
With rich synth hooks over a classic electro-machine beat, ‘Stateless’ follows the same appealing path as ‘Moving Target’, although the lyrics could be viewed as trite in their rhyming strategy while the track could probably do with an edit. Imagining THE RONETTES reworked by OMD, ‘Circles’ has potential but is limited vocally and lyrically while ‘Television Hill’ offers that typical Reeder rhythmic thrust but suffers from repetition.
Pacing down slightly but gently pulsating, ‘How Do We End Up Here’ benefits from the robotised voice treatments. Despite sounding as if it is about to morph into ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’, ‘Radio Kootwijk’ makes use of wonderful symphonic strings but the flat vocal delivery lets down its possibilities. Similarly ‘The Jungle’ is a bit all over the place vocally despite its obvious enthusiasm.
A lament about industrialisation, ‘Light of The World’ utilises a Euro-triplet drive in Mark Reeder’s Illuminating Remix that differs from the earlier and looser single version while on the escape themed ‘Wall of Fire’, youngsters might refer to the template as synthwave.
‘Miss 4Chan’ echoes ‘Black Celebration’ with this interpolation highlighting how infectious and appealing DEPECHE MODE once were while ‘Remains Of The Day’ closes ‘Communication’ with a mournful ballad.
‘Communication’ is instrumentally strong and the production work by Mark Reeder with Micha Adam cannot be faulted. Although the album is mostly joyous, uplifting and rhythmic, Andy Evans’ vocal delivery may not be to everyone’s taste and although it is not that much different from other synth exponents of the past, his voice is left exposed in the cleaner and tighter sonic environment of today.
Rupert Hine sits in that group of producers whose work was all over the charts for several decades.
But unlike majority of his contemporaries (with the exception of a certain Mr T Horn), he was also a musician of note who produced some of the most engaging releases of the early part of that decade which are now being revisited in this excellent boxset from Cherry Red. A quick history lesson firstly. Hine’s career began in the 60s as one half of the folk duo Rupert & David, their debut release being a cover of ‘The Sound of Silence’ which featured a young session player called Jimmy Page on guitar… whatever happened to him I wonder?
This failed to set the heather on fire but the pair soldiered on into the next decade and their tenacity was rewarded when they signed to DEEP PURPLE’s Purple records label. Neither of the two albums released at the time were a commercial success but with the encouragement of Purple’s Roger Glover, Hine began his career as a producer.
An early taste of what would be an eclectic career behind the desk was signalled by the release of the single ‘Who Is The Doctor?’ which saw the then occupant of The Tardis, Jon Pertwee, reading a poem over the Doctor Who theme music. This was backed by incidental music from the Doctor Who story ‘The Sea Devils’ and anyone that has heard that will find it amusing when compared to the electronica that was to come in Hine’s solo career.
Throughout the decade, Hine worked not only as a producer but also with future PENGUIN CAFÉ ORCHESTRA leader Simon Jeffes writing advertising and television music which, by his own admission, paid the bills. At this time he was also picking up more and more production work and as always this was with a heady mix of artists from Murray Head to CAMEL. There was also CAFÉ JACQUES who featured future SIMPLE MINDS drummer Mike Ogletree, THE FIXX and his own band QUANTUM JUMP, best known for the surprise hit ‘The Lone Ranger’.
Moving on, we come to the subject of this release, the three Hine solo albums released between 1981 and 1983. The first thing that should be noted is these came out in a period that also saw him producing Canadian band SAGA and THE WATERBOYS as well as Jona Lewie and Chris De Burgh. As previously noted, it is an eclectic body of work for anyone over a whole career, let alone some 36 months.
1981’s ‘Immunity’ is, simply put, a masterpiece. Dark and brooding this early slice of electronica sits as an equal (and in places above) anything that was released by contemporary artists. Opening with ‘I Hang on To My Vertigo’, it’s clear from the outset that this is an artist that was keen to throw away rule book. This approach is discussed at length by co-producer Stephen W Tayler who remastered these three albums for the boxset.
Experimentation is to the fore on ‘Immunity’ with tape loops, heavily effected guitars, drum computers vocoders and synthesizers coming together to create an LP that followed the stated rule of “…if you’ve done something a certain way, find another way to do it…” to create something new.
Other highlights include the dreamlike sonic painting ‘Samsara, ‘Psycho – Surrender’ with its spiky percussion and ‘Misplaced Love’ which features Marianne Faithfull on vocals. The surprising thing, giving what was going on musically in the UK at the time, is that none of these tracks bothered the UK charts. This in itself would be a welcome re-release but the wealth of riches continues on the subsequent two discs.
1982’s ‘Waving Not Drowning’ is slightly more accessible in its structures and arrangements with songs like ‘The Set Up’ but no less adventurous in its execution. The dark lyrical themes of this release, written by long time Hine collaborator poet Jeanette Obstoj, cover subjects such as the many ways to you can be killed on ‘Sniper’ to apartheid on ‘House Arrest’.
‘The Curious Kind’ is the best single Gary Numan never released, the previously mentioned ‘Sniper’ is the type of track that would have gone down a storm at places like The Blitz with is driving bass and effected vocals whilst ‘The Outsider’ features orchestrations and choral arrangements played on a Synclavier and PPG Wave 2, highlighting perfectly how Hine was always at the forefront of technology.
Closing number ‘One Man’s Poison’, the most overtly rock song here, flies in the face of the approach taken by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush at the time and floods the close of the song with a multitude of ride and crash cymbals over a fabulous Philip Palmer solo.
Concluding this trilogy of solo releases is ‘The Wildest Wish To Fly’ which is the most pop of the three albums. The most striking aspect of this release is the vocal contributions from Robert Palmer. By a long chalk, one of the finest male singers to come of the UK, this is an interesting what might have been from a Hine produced Palmer release. Certainly to my ears, there are flavours of ‘Wildest Wish’ on both ‘Pride’ from the same year and the subsequent global behemoth ‘Riptide’.
That said, the album as a whole is massively entertaining. Opener ‘Living in Sin’ is a fabulous slice of dance pop whilst the title track cover the sort of source material the likes of UK band BIG BIG TRAIN excel at bringing into their music. This is the sound of an artist producing something special and clearly enjoying what he is doing.
The great pity is that these three albums are feted by those in the know, Kate Bush for example is a huge fan of ‘Immunity’, calling it “very special”, but the commercial success they deserved eluded them at the time. There is, when listened to in sequence, a clear sense of purpose and sonic footprint to these albums which highlight why, moving through the decade, Hine became such an in demand producer and continued that previously commented on eclecticism work with the likes of American starlets Tina Turner and Stevie Nicks as well as RUSH and most notably Howard Jones, all artists who recognised the unique stamp that Hine could put on their work.
These are essential albums for anyone that has an interest in the development of electronic music and one can only hope Cherry Red follow this with a similarly curated collection of what followed from the THINKMAN project.
Intended as a soundtrack to a post-truth world, Rodney Cromwell presented his second album ‘Memory Box’ in Spring this year.
While themed around selective memories, its closing track ‘The Winter Palace’ is about wanting to forget a lost love. Utilising motorik mechanisation as its backbone, there are shades of OMD and NEW ORDER within the glacial electronic soundscape while a glorious synth solo thrown in for good measure. Behind Rodney Cromwell is indie veteran Adam Cresswell, once of SALOON and ARTHUR & MARTHA, he tells his former beau: “I dream of you regardless, whether I am asleep or awake”.
Fresh off a number of prestigious live dates opening for BLANCMANGE, Adam Cresswell gave an explanation of ‘The Winter Palace’.
‘The Winter Palace’ is the track that many have singled out from ‘Memory Box’, what do you think is the key to its appeal?
I’ve no idea. It was only after people started telling me that it was “a beautiful song” that I realised it was any good. I’m never the best judge. But I am very glad people like it because I spent ages on it; I re-wrote the melody and lyrics three times, then I re-pitched the whole thing into a different key so I could sing it better and because I use knackered old synths, it meant I had to re-record almost everything from scratch.
As to why people like it, well, I guess we live in complicated times, perhaps its appeal is in its simplicity. I think we all want to escape out of the super complexity of our digitally driven lives sometimes. The song is essentially five chords – all vintage synths, no programming beyond the drum machine – so it might be new to 2022, but it’s a simple construction with a familiar sound. The synths may feel icy, but it’s actually a super-warm production that you can immerse yourself in, like a cosy blanket. And the lyrics are pretty universal too; it’s about obsessing over someone despite not really liking them. Most of us can relate to that.
Yes, can relate to that… so what is ‘The Winter Palace’?
Whatever you want it to be. I got the name from Lucy Worsley history show about the Russian tsars. It just sounded cool so I thought “I’ll have that”. It suited this song because I see the narrator as someone out in the cold with the object of his affection – or contempt – distant and unobtainable. It was originally called ‘Seemingly Infinite Sadness’ but that was a bit pretentious even for me.
How did the video concept come together?
Martin J Langthorne who plays synth in my live band and who was behind the whole ‘Memory Box’ design aesthetic directed it. I just asked Martin if he could put together something that looked like the record sleeve coming-alive. It’s a juxtaposition of concrete brutalism and the natural world; light and dark tones with explosions of colour. The concept was I suppose, to do something incredibly conceptual, while trying to pretend it’s simple and incredibly down to earth. Which is a nice summary of the whole Rodney Cromwell project.
You’ve been opening on selected dates for BLANCMANGE, how have you found the experience?
They’ve been brilliant; it was lovely playing to a really appreciative audience that really got what we do. And also playing in venues that can do justice to our lo-fi – but epic – sound was a breath of fresh-air.
I thought we were a pretty good fit with BLANCMANGE too because, obviously while they are super-professional and serious about giving a real great performance, there is often a wicked irreverence to what they do; one minute they’ll be playing an poignant synth ballad and the next Neil Arthur is making you laugh-out-loud singing about a lettuce. Our own irreverence though often falls into farce. On our first night I managed to lose my tour pass, and my hotel key and very almost the trousers I was wearing, so God knows what they thought of us.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its grateful thanks to Adam Cresswell
The phenomenon of the New Romantics can be said to have begun in Autumn 1978 with the foundation of a “Bowie Night” by Steve Strange and Rusty Egan at Billy’s nightclub in London’s Soho.
The youth movement that emerged aimed to find something new and colourful to escape the oncoming drabness in The Winter Of Discontent. Like Edwardian dandies meeting the Weimar Cabaret with extras from ‘Barbarella’ in between, they did a strange swaying arms dance, so as to not mess up their theatrical bouffanted hair. But after a disagreement with the owners of Billy’s, the pair moved their venture to The Blitz Club in Holborn.
Despite names such as Futurists, The Blitz Kids and The Movement With No Name, it was the term “New Romantics” coined by producer Richard James Burgess that became the widely used press description for this flamboyant group of outsiders. It was to eventually stick on anything from synthpop, art rock and peacock punk to Latin grooves, jazz funk and cod reggae provided the artist wore make-up, zoot suits, frilly blouses, smocks, headbands or kilts. Parallel club scenes developed at The Rum Runner in Birmingham, Crocs in Rayleigh near Southend and The Warehouse in Leeds from which DURAN DURAN, DEPECHE MODE and SOFT CELL respectively emerged.
To celebrate this era in popular culture, Cherry Red Records release an eclectic boxed set entitled ‘Music For New Romantics’. But while it contains some fantastic music, the tracklisting is a confused affair, having been originally conceived around comings and goings of The Blitz Club. It was here that Steve Strange acted as doorman and fashion policeman, while Rusty Egan was its resident DJ providing the soundtrack for a scene which became the catalyst for several bands including SPANDAU BALLET, CULTURE CLUB and VISAGE as well as assorted fashion designers, visual artists and writers.
Everything was centred around fashion-obsessed and some would say self-obsessed individuals; while the story about turning away Mick Jagger is well documented, one of the ironies of Steve Strange’s gatekeeping antics was that he refused entry to Chris Payne, then a member of Gary Numan’s band in 1979; Strange was to have his biggest hit with a song that Payne co-wrote entitled ‘Fade To Grey’ while another refused entry that evening was Ced Sharpley who played the drums on it!
Contrary to legend, the playlists of the various New Romantic establishments did not comprise exclusively of electronic music as those types of tracks were comparatively scarce at the time. So international synthworks from the likes of KRAFTWERK, YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA, SPARKS, SPACE and TELEX sat alongside soundtracks, punk, disco and relatable glam rock tunes by David Bowie, Brian Eno and Bryan Ferry.
Rusty Egan declined to be involved in the collection after initial discussions led to conceptual differences. In the absence of The Blitz Club’s resident DJ who is now planning his own curated collection, one of the regulars Chris Sullivan, who himself ran a similar but less electronically focussed night at Le Kilt in Soho, steps in to provide commentary while the set was put together by the team behind Cherry Red’s ‘Musik Music Musique’ synthpop series and ‘Electrical Language’ boxed set.
‘Music For New Romantics’ comes with three loosely themed discs with CD1 focussing on glam, art rock and early electronic disco while CD2 covers Synth Britannia and new wave. CD3 though is a hotch-potch of soul, funk and electro with SISTER SLEDGE and LIPPS INC being rather incongruous inclusions; with their hit songs being readily available on any ‘Night Fever’ type compilation, there were many more suitable alternatives that could have been considered.
But it is CD2 that most will revel in and the tracklist has no fault as a listening experience. Standards such as the eponymous song by VISAGE, SIMPLE MINDS ‘Changeling’, OMD’s ‘Electricity’, ‘Moskow Diskow’ from TELEX, THE NORMAL’s ‘Warm Leatherette’, JAPAN’s Giorgio Moroder produced ‘Life In Tokyo’, ‘Bostich’ by YELLO, ‘Being Boiled’ from THE HUMAN LEAGUE and THROBBING GRISTLE’s ‘Hot On The Heels Of Love’ are present and correct. But it was SPANDAU BALLET’s ‘To Cut A Long Story Short’ and LANDSCAPE’s ‘Einstein A-Go-Go’ that were to confirm that the New Romantics were able to hit the charts in their own right after Steve Strange’s cameo in Bowie’s ‘Ashes To Ashes’ video.
CD1 features scene heroes such as Iggy Pop, Lou Reed and Mick Ronson, but heroines come in the avant cabaret glamour of Nina Hagen with ‘TV-Glotzer’ and Grace Jones’ reinterpretation of Édith Piaf’s ‘La Vie En Rose’. The most welcome track on this disc though is RAH BAND’s ‘The Crunch’ which all but invented the sexy electro-Schaffel of GOLDFRAPP, while one obscure jewel is ‘The Ultimate Warlord’ by THE WARLORD. And when today’s synthwave fanboys go on and on ad nauseam about how influential the ‘Drive’ soundtrack is, then just throw ‘Chase’ by Giorgio Moroder from ‘Midnight Express’ at them!
Despite being a mess of styles, the highlights of CD3 are Marianne Faithfull’s terrorism commentary ‘Broken English’ and Gina X with the Quentin Crisp tribute ‘No GDM’ which both fit into the avant cabaret category. Although ‘M Factor’, the B-side of M’s ‘Pop Muzik’ was regularly played at The Blitz Club, ‘Everything’s Gone Green’ by NEW ORDER sticks out like a sore thumb… Peter Hook would likely scoff at being considered a New Romantic!
The move towards funk in the New Pop of late 1981 is reflected in ABC with ‘Tears Are Not Enough’ (full marks for using the CORRECT Steve Brown produced single version), HEAVEN 17’s ‘We Don’t Need This Fascist Groove Thang’ (in a rare radio version with the lyric “fascist god” changed to “cowboy god”) and TOM TOM CLUB’s ‘Genius Of Love’. But those who consider New Romantics to be discerning studious types into synth and new wave will find the likes of Coati Mundi and Don Armando extremely alienating; after all, it was THE HUMAN LEAGUE’s Phil Oakey who said to Smash Hits around this time “I hate all trends like all this Ze Stuff”!
When the New Romantic magazine ‘New Sounds, New Styles’ launched as a monthly publication in Summer 1981 after a promising launch edition, its content was confused with one angry punter later exclaiming via letter: “You’re meant to be a Futurist mag so leave all this Latin and jazz funk sh*t out of it!” – with the embarrassing novelty party act MODERN ROMANCE also being lumped in with the New Romantics, it was obvious the rot had now set in. Tellingly within a year, ‘New Sounds, New Styles’ folded…
From 1982, ‘Club Country’ by ASSOCIATES which notably highlighted the observations of Billy MacKenzie on what he saw as the posey vapid nature of The Blitz Club is a fitting inclusion. Meanwhile as the ‘Music For New Romantics’ essay writer, Chris Sullivan gets to include his own style over substance combo BLUE RONDO À LA TURK with ‘Klactoveesedstein’, a single that came in with a blank at No50 that same year!
Of course, Sullivan went on to establish Le Beat Route and The Wag Club because he loved salsa and was less than enthused about synthpop, highlighting that despite the New Romantics seeming to be a united voice of expression, like any movement, it had its factions. Not featuring in the set, it was another scene regular Marilyn who said on the recent ‘Blitzed’ Sky Arts documentary that “I hated the music, all that electronic crap” while Steve Strange imposed a ban on Gary Numan being played at The Blitz Club, thus prompting Mr Webb’s lines “These New Romantics are oh so boring” in the 1981’s ‘Moral’ and “I like romantics but I don’t like Steven” in 1982’s ‘War Songs’.
A range of key New Romantic godfathers are missing from Bowie to Eno although MOTT THE HOOPLE’s hit take on ‘All The Young Dudes’ makes up for the former while ROXY MUSIC’s ‘Do The Stand’ effectively covers off the latter. KRAFTWERK, YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA and SPARKS are also absent and of the lesser known cult figures, Wolfgang Riechmann undoubtedly deserved inclusion, while New Romantic staples such as ‘Hiroshima Mon Amour’, ‘RERB’ and ‘Magic Fly’ are more preferable to the likes of ‘Funky Town’ or ‘Ai No Corrida’.
Although only a single disc, 2006’s ‘Only After Dark’ compiled by Nick Rhodes and John Taylor of DURAN DURAN based around the music played at The Rum Runner, managed to feature Bowie and Eno as well as YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA and KRAFTWERK so did more with less. While ‘Music For New Romantics’ is flawed and will cause some head scratching, this set is a reminder of those more innocent aspirational times and a scene that DID actually play its part in changing the world.
The Blitz Club’s tenure was short and after vacating it, Steve Strange and Rusty Egan started Club For Heroes and then in 1982 came The Camden Palace; it was the UK’s first modern superclub; music and clubbing were never the same again, and it was not for the better. However, the New Romantics had made their mark.
An elitist movement that was exclusive at its core despite the protestations of some, one amusing modern day legacy of the New Romantics and the Blitz generation in particular is how some try to ride on the scene’s trenchcoat tails, despite the fact that even if they had been old enough to visit licenced premises back in 1980, they almost certainly would have not been allowed in, thanks to the door policy of the man born Stephen John Harrington.
Taylor Swift did a song in 2014 called ‘New Romantics’ and when you google “New Romantics” these days, it’s what often springs up at the top of the searches… but that’s another story 😉
‘Music For New Romantics’ is released by Cherry Red as a 3CD Clamshell Box Set on 25th November 2022
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To a slight offbeat, ‘Pressure’ features some impeccable live elements in the drum breaks and enticing ivory runs reminiscent of David Bowie’s ‘I’m Deranged’. But as ‘Eroded Creation’ concludes, the sparse backdrop of ‘Waiting’ moves to the unexpected with a piano shaped ballad supported by understated embellishments from all of the band.
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