Emerging Chinese singer / songwriter Diner Liu is the latest artist to follow bands such as STOLEN and Re-TROS to make a breakthrough in the West.
Born in China but also living and studying in Hong Kong and London, like Fifi Rong who collaborated with YELLO, Diner Liu is a cross culture kid.
In 2021, she released her eerie alternative rock driven debut EP ‘Inevitable’ on China’s leading independent music label Modern Sky. The second EP ‘Cassini’ sees her working with Berlin-based Mancunian Mark Reeder and his long time studio partner Micha Adam.
Having been inspired by ‘Blue Monday’, Diner Liu’s post-punk sound has been embellished by pentatonic textures and a greater use of electronic dance elements, hence the invitation for the NEW ORDER connected Reeder to be at the production helm. Influences range from PJ Harvey to traditional Chinese music with Patrick Cowley sitting in between.
With a greater but not exclusive use of synths, it is fitting that this sophomore work was conceived around the 2017 Cassini–Huygens space research mission to the planet Saturn. At the conclusion of its mission, the probe deorbited and burned up in the gas giant’s upper atmosphere. Written in London, Beijing and Berlin, Diner Liu was inspired by the mission’s parallels to her own personal health; having suffered from an extremely rare disease called LGESS, she eventually lost her uterus before she was 24.
Despite her mental and physical battles dealing with the situation, she saw that her life journey and music career were only just getting started. So just as the Cassini probe eventually burned up around Saturn, she saw a new chapter beginning, realising that “starting a family might not be the ultimate goal of my life.”
The best track on ‘Cassini’ comes with the rhythmic ‘大星’ (‘Big Star’) which takes on a wonderfully cosmic air that comes dressed with Guzheng, a Chinese zither that even SPANDAU BALLET once used on the experimental ‘Innocence & Science’ from 1982’s ‘Diamond’ album.
Meanwhile, the colder ‘Cassini’ title song is a steadfast slice of Sci-Fi electro featuring Mark Reeder’s trademark synthbass pulse over a bangy offbeat, with the hypnotism enhanced by the enigmatic vocals as the closing mutant metallic textures provide the cerebral sensations.
The remainder of the EP offers variations on modern post-punk augmented with live guitar and drums. ‘Athena’ musically recalls JOY DIVISION but proceedings are progressively paced up into an exotic throbbing trance while with synthy swoops and a tinkling motif, ‘Circle Of A Down’ captures a mysterious Middle Eastern flavoured vibe from Diner Liu’s angelic tones contrasting with the inherent sense of foreboding. The percussion-less ‘Exile’ is shaped by six string and ivories, but the downbeat doom of ‘Midnight Panorama’ takes an unexpected turn into dreamy electro which is reminiscent of Kid Moxie.
With a stylistic blend and commentary on the uncertainties of life, its extinction and its rebirth, this EP captures a dark romantic consciousness as all good gothically inclined journeys should. Life can be fulfilling outside of the expected conventions.
‘Cassini’ is released by Modern Sky and available now on the usual online platforms
Based in London and Berlin, MINIMAL SCHLAGER began in 2020 during the pandemic.
Remotely, they developed a brand of synth heavy dreampop that was debuted on their ‘Voodoo Eyes’ EP in 2021; it included an unusual dark electro-disco take on JOY DIVISION’s ‘Disorder’.
With no songs carried over from ‘Voodoo Eyes’, Argentine sibling duo Alicia Macanás and Francisco Parisi have recorded their first album ‘Love, Sex & Dreams’ in Berlin with producer Robbie Moore whose credits have included THE IRREPRESSIBLES and PEACHES.
The MINIMAL SCHLAGER name dates back to when Macanás first moved to Berlin and was a reaction to her German friends who considered that the domestic melodic pop form of Schlager was not worthy; so she came up with the concept of “Minimalistic Schlager”.
Opening ‘Love, Sex & Dreams’, ‘Nana Del Caballo Grande’ packs a punch with a sombre electronic bassline and a reverberant calling in their native tongue for a “Lullaby of the Big Horse”, before a Rachmaninov mini-piano concerto cocooned in shoegaze appears.
Following on, ‘Before’ captures strident moods and airy vocals but despite their moniker of minimalism, this is a densely produced affair. As discussed in the brief studio banter beforehand, ‘Forbidden Fruit’ is ghostly with an ominous octave shift thrust and alluring “little girl lost” enunciations that wouldn’t sound out of place on a David Lynch film soundtrack.
Sounding like it could have come straight out of the Italian Do It Better playbook with a delicious feline quality, ‘Rush’ is gorgeous Europop escapism, tingling with joy in its disco vibes and electrifying synth solo. With a message of resilience and hope, it is a song that gets high on life.
Possibly even better, ‘Submission’ is a more of a new wave number with subtle guitar, glistening synths and a rhythmic bounce that sets it apart from the other songs. While it is all very is sexy, the chorus is exhilarating as “For a second, I know I can win!”
After that slice of optimism, ‘Fate’ returns to the album’s earlier introspection as “it’s so over” but Macanás remains enticing in her delivery, especially in the more major key chorus that get instrumental support from some higher range keys despite the cacophony of distortion underneath.
Buzzing but pretty, ‘Glow’ provides a seductive uplift as the title suggests, although the gnarled keyboard lines offset any illusions that perhaps something is maybe on the cards.
Almost electroclash in its frantic construction, ‘Euphoria’ verges on Miss Kittin territory in its semi-spoken expression. And when it dynamically jumps up a gear halfway into an angelic chorus trapped within a wall of strung and synthetic sound, it is enthralling.
‘Ridiculous’ pars things down with a disntinctly metronomic backbeat as Macanás laments while “crying over spilled milk every day” because it was “too ridiculous to save” and “it took me a while to know”. Taking things right down, the organ-led ‘Prayers’ acts as a haunting closer and at times, comes over like an indie Fifi Rong.
Delightfully delicious with a good number of excellent songs in different colours and different shades, ‘Love, Sex & Dreams’ is a wonderful debut album that does exactly what is says on the tin! Artful, alluring and enchanting, this is the modern spirit of la nueva ola.
VH x RR is the collaborative project of American-based pairing Von Hertzog and Rob Rowe.
Von Hertzog is best known as a producer and the studio guru behind The Social Club complex, while Rob Rowe was the singer of CAUSE & EFFECT who had four albums and numerous EPs to their name. Rather like two astronauts in separate spaceships but on the same mission, the pair have still yet to actually meet in person, with Hertzog operating his complex outside Philadelphia while the English-born Rowe works from his home studio in Seattle.
In 2020, the duo opened their account with ‘The Persistence Of Memory’ EP, the first of their Cosmos Trilogy themed around the wonders of the universe which was followed up the following year by ‘A Sky Full Of Ghosts’. The final segment ‘On the Shoulders of Giants’ now hits the airwaves and takes its name from the book by the late great Stephen Hawking celebrating the history of physics and astronomy. It’s an expansion of the steadfast musical and lyrical imagery that illustrated the first two EPs.
The strident ‘Shattered Bones’ opens ‘On the Shoulders of Giants’ with a brooding widescreen mood and RR even vocally expresses tinges of Jim Kerr from SIMPLE MINDS in a midtempo statement on the fragility of existence in this collapsing world.
‘Slipped’ is no less cheerful in its weary expression of loss, something that Rowe has had tragic experience of. But it glistens despite the melancholy in the anguished delivery and within the layered harmonisation, there’s a glimmer of hope. With a thrusting octave shift, the anthemic ‘Heavenly Outline’ takes the pace up very slightly although this is not exactly a hands-in-the-air experience, its message is to take chances and overcome fears because you only live once.
Driven by a throbbing engine room, ‘The Undertow’ in an absorbing cosmic adventure while on sister song ‘The Fray’, a vintage drum machine backbeat is the core of a spacey never ending story seeking light and love; Hertzog himself sees these two songs as “yin and yang”. Closing with an unexpected but subtle percussive mantra, ‘Don’t Let Go’ closes ‘On The Shoulders Of Giants’ with a flash of optimism to counter that darkness that has lingered over a trilogy that has dug into the human condition via its inter-galactic metaphors.
The concept is as much metaphysical as it is existential and as VH x RR have stated, “Ideas do not exist in a vacuum. They are the result of, and informed by, the past”. While the songs, the singing and the production cannot be faulted, if there is a criticism, then it is that the protracted midtempo nature of this EP and the trilogy may be heavy going for some listeners.
Despite that, there are some excellent tracks and existing followers of Von Hertzog and Rob Rowe will cherish this latest VH x RR release with its emotional intensity and felicitous sonic easel to compile themselves a full length album from these three bodies of work.
Martyn Ware is best known as a member of HEAVEN 17 and a co-founder of THE HUMAN LEAGUE but he also found success as a producer, helming hit singles for Tina Turner and Terence Trent Darby as well as SCRITTI POLITTI and ERASURE.
‘Electronically Yours Vol1’ is the autobiography of Martyn Ware that covers up to the end of 1992. Following his formative years pioneering the cause of the synthesizer in pop music, he was experiencing leaner times.
But thanks to a BROTHERS IN RHYTHM remix of ‘Temptation’ that was gaining traction in clubland, interest in HEAVEN 17 was re-energised and plans for what became the 1996 comeback album ‘Bigger Than America’ and their first UK tour fell into place… but that is another story intended for ‘Electronically Yours Vol2’.
Born in 1956, Martyn Ware grew up in a council house in the Socialist Republic Of South Yorkshire. His father was a devout trade unionist, so the availability of libraries, education for all, affordable accommodation, free healthcare via the NHS, loyalty to community and the security of mutual care are values that Ware stands for in the possibilities of making the world a better place for all.
Ware has often been accused of being a “champagne socialist” but why shouldn’t everyone be able to make a good life for themselves and taste the finer things, why should it only be the preserve of the greedy in their robbing pursuit of cash as part of their “divide and rule” power trip? Fair taxes provide opportunity for all, but sadly as Ware states, the “I’m all right Jack” and “Pulling the ladder up” mentality has become the dominant attitude as betrayal in the pursuit of social mobility takes hold.
This treacherous attitude is particularly prevalent in the children of Commonwealth immigrants; members of that second generation such as Priti Patel, Rishi Sunak, Kemi Badenoch, Suella Braverman, Kwasi Kwarteng, Bim Afolami and James Cleverly ignorantly forget to look in the mirror as they push forward the heinous racist policies of the current Conservative government without a hint of irony! As the song says, ‘We Don’t Need This Fascist Groove Thang’!
Photo by Gered Mankowitz
Those who proclaim that music and politics should not mix forget that music IS politics; synthpop pickers may be shocked to learn that songs like ‘Enola Gay’, ‘I Travel’, ‘African & White’, ‘Everything Counts’, ‘Blue Emotion’, ‘White China’, ‘Two Tribes’, ‘Equality’, ‘State Of The Nation’, ‘Suburbia’ and ‘The Circus’ all had political sentiments. Ware despairs at how HEAVEN 17 were seen as heroes of the vile yuppie culture that emerged as the government of Margaret Thatcher were flogging off the family silver.
The suited ponytail image was a send-up while the titles of the first two HEAVEN 17 albums ‘Penthouse & Pavement’ and ‘The Luxury Gap’ were direct statements on the emerging class divide. Meanwhile, the nuclear paranoia of The Cold War and the Wild West mentality of the US president Ronald Reagan who wasted millions on the ‘Star Wars’ project fuelled creativity no end with the stark warnings of ‘Let’s All Make A Bomb’ and ‘Five Minutes To Midnight’ among the resulting masterpieces.
To give context to the period, even BUCKS FIZZ’s seemingly innocent 1982 nursery rhyme No1 ‘The Land Of Make Believe’ was as co-writer Pete Sinfield put it “a virulent anti-Thatcher song” while ‘Mistletoe & Wine’ began life as an ironic socialist protest song from the musical ‘Scraps’ about “the unfeeling middle classes” before being tweed up by Cliff Richard for Christmas 1988. Even THE HUMAN LEAGUE were not free of political sentiment as ‘Dreams Of Leaving’ from 1980’s ‘Travelogue’ discussed the plight of refugees escaping a genocidal regime, a point sadly still in the news 42 years on and illustrated in HEAVEN 17’s live presentation of the song in 2021.
While politics looms within ‘Electronically Yours Vol1’, inspired by Peter Hook’s NEW ORDER memoir ‘Substance’, a quarter of the book is brilliantly devoted to a track-by-track analysis of every released recording that Martyn Ware was involved in by THE HUMAN LEAGUE, HEAVEN 17 and BEF, the production umbrella of Ware’s that helped relaunch the career of Tina Turner. When Ware left THE HUMAN LEAGUE to sign as BEF with Virgin Records, the option was for six albums per year and it seems almost unbelievable now that between Spring 1981 to Spring 1982, Ware together with fellow League refugee Ian Craig Marsh delivered four! In these notes, Ware is enjoyably matter of fact, celebrating his artistry when appropriate but also critical when required, especially about the ‘Pleasure One’ and ‘Teddy Bear, Duke & Psycho’ period between 1986 to 1988 where he took his eye off the ball with regards HEAVEN 17.
“We are THE HUMAN LEAGUE, there are no guitars or drums played on this record!”; with this manifesto, Ware, Marsh and striking front man Philip Oakey set out to conquer the world with their “synthesizers and vocals” ethos. But the route to success was not smooth and partly self-inflicted.
Ware is very candid about Ver League’s bloody mindedness for their art which makes for entertaining reading. So you get acclaim for your independently released debut single ‘Being Boiled’, played on Radio1 by John Peel and signed by Virgin Records, what do you do next? Issue ‘The Dignity Of Labour’, a conceptual electro-industrial instrumental EP inspired by Yuri Gagarin!?! Then for your major label debut 45, you put out a disco number under a pseudonym! Then you get the opportunity to open for TALKING HEADS in support of your first album ‘Reproduction’ but decide to outconceptualise David Byrne & Co by presenting a taped show accompanied by slides while the band will not be on stage but mingling with the audience and signing autographs!?!
This was all too much for TALKING HEADS’ management who threw THE HUMAN LEAGUE off the tour and the final two London dates featured OMD as the opening act! Later in May 1980, the two groups were to debut on the same edition of ‘Top Of The Pops’ and OMD were to steal a march with ‘Messages’ eventually reaching No13 while THE HUMAN LEAGUE’s cover of ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll’ hit a high of No46!
Tensions were running high within THE HUMAN LEAGUE with pressure from Virgin Records to get a hit, an ironic situation as OMD were signed to Dindisc, an independent boutique label that was funded by Virgin, and were to become the biggest sellers of 1980 within Richard Branson’s music empire.
Something had to change and while Martyn Ware’s split with Philip Oakey is now more than well documented, what ‘Electronically Yours Vol1’ reveals is Ware’s conflicts with THE HUMAN LEAGUE’s Visuals Co-ordinator Adrian Wright. Oakey had wanted Wright to become a full-time member and equal partner, something that Ware felt was illogical as Wright made no musical contribution and could perform his role offstage. So when Wright showcased his presentation before the planned 1981 European tour, Ware felt the images had no thematic connection with the music, leaving our hero to conclude Wright was “at least part full of Art Bullsh*t”.
What happened next is pop history and while Ware and Oakey maintained a bitter rivalry that was to last several years, both Sheffield lads did good. Ultimately the gamechanger in his life as “it’s never a bad thing to be a wingman to a better-looking friend”, Ware praises Oakey’s lyrical contribution and credits him as being a factor in pursuing a career in electronic music, thanks to his love of Wendy Carlos, Isao Tomita and Annette Peacock. Today of course, that best mate role is taken by HEAVEN 17 front man Glenn Gregory and that flag is still flying 41 years after ‘Penthouse & Pavement’.
Meanwhile Ian Craig Marsh, often the forgotten man of the period is singled out by Ware as a key conceptualist, master of bespoke synthetic rhythms and creator of weird alien noises. Ware believes Marsh’s disappearance from the public eye in 2006 had its roots in HEAVEN 17’s eventual mainstream success and that he became more and more withdrawn due to depression, something that was not apparent or talked about back in those heady days… his presence is still much missed.
As far as musician autobiographies go, ‘Electronically Yours Vol1’ is a straightforward book to consume. Using intelligent but accessible language, Martyn Ware gives an enjoyable insight onto the creative process without being too technical. Passionate and honest, if you want to gain an insight into the background of some of the greatest works from that innovative ‘Synth Britannia’ era, then look no further…
‘Electronically Yours Vol 1’ by Martyn Ware is published by Little Brown as a hardback book, e-book and audio book, available from the usual bookshops and online retailers
Norwich-based Gemma Cullingford made her full-length debut as a solo artist with ‘Let Me Speak’, an album that gained unexpected acclaim and was subsequently shortlisted for Loud Women’s Hercury Prize.
Beginning her musical career as a member of KAITO, Gemma Cullingford has more recently been part of post-punk funk duo SINK YA TEETH. The form that her solo work takes is slightly different, relying more on electronic instrumentation as a consequence of lockdown, although assorted live embellishments appear in the shape of bass, flute and guitar.
‘Tongue Tied’ is the rather swift follow-up to ‘Let Me Speak’ and it is easy to see that Cullingford has been a something of a creative roll with it being a much more assured affair despite its title. Opening proceedings, the propulsive mutant Moroder of ‘Accessory’ provides a cutting chorus and cerebral textural guitar from Phil Searchfield for a slice of paranoia, although the message to cut ties from toxic people is positive and defiant.
Shyness is nice but the ‘Tongue Tied’ title track exudes a glorious Walking On Thin Ice’ art disco vibe and a playful allure. Just as good is the PET SHOP BOYS influenced ‘New Day’ which utilises an unusual structure with spoken vocal verses and a synthy instrumental chorus, the vocals wonderfully veering between Sarahs Nixey and Cracknell. Speaking of the latter, ‘Holding Dreams’ blends icy synths, hypnotic live bass and wispy vocals in a wonderfully catchy number that SAINT ETIENNE would be proud of.
With a few baggy vibes, ‘Bass Face’ exploits some ACR funk motifs alongside Cullingford’s flute in an aesthetic connection to ‘Let Me Speak’ but at a much steadier pace, ‘Mechanical’ offers a detached, almost robotic diversion but the minimal approach is made unexpectedly seductive by a hushed vocal. Moody and hypnotic, ‘Red Room’ moves between contralto and higher semi-spoken tones while the backing is busy but uncluttered in an electro-glam SCISSOR SISTERS homage.
The enjoyable ‘No Fail’ goes fully into deeper house vibes but cut from a similar cloth, the more experimental expletive laden ‘Chronicle of Sound’ is less essential despite its array of boisterous electronics, choppy six string and rolling percussion.
Standing apart from the rest of the album, ‘Daisy’ provides short glitchy 6/8 art piece cover of the music hall standard to close.
Overall, ‘Tongue Tied’ is an album that exudes comfort and confidence to provide a delightful and danceable listening experience despite its anxious introspection. Gemma Cullingford brings her experience, versatility and musicality into a fine home-made electronic pop record to reinforce her capabilities as a solo artist.
Brighton Residents Records (2nd September), Norwich Arts Centre (8th September)*, Ipswich Smokehouse (9th September)*, London Dalston Shacklewell Arms (10th September)*, Manchester Talleyrand (17th September)+, Bristol Crofter’s Rights (29th October)+ *with Alice Hubble +with Rodney Cromwell
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