Category: Reviews (Page 40 of 200)

FIAT LUX Twisted Culture

1 November 2021 /

Lost but found, before 2019, there were no FIAT LUX albums but there is now a third.

Reflecting the weightier matters of the world, ‘Twisted Culture’ is about “living life as best you can, no matter what is thrown at you” according to the nucleus of Steve Wright and David P Crickmore. Their only previously released body of work had been the six song ‘Hired History’ EP in 1984 on Polydor Records. The lack of a hit single saw their intended debut album ‘Ark Of Embers’ short-sightedly shelved by the label in 1985. However, Cherry Red came to the rescue and issued a double CD package containing both works in 2019.

This coincided with the release of ‘Saved Symmetry’, an album of completely new 21st Century material recorded after FIAT LUX reformed to celebrate the 35th anniversary of their formation. Despite the worldwide pandemic, FIAT LUX kept busy recording the follow-up, with Will Howard taking over as the third FIAT LUX member on sax and woodwinds from the sadly missed Ian Nelson who passed away in 2006.

The bittersweet ‘(How Will We Ever) Work This Way’ opens ‘Twisted Culture’ with some catchy grown-up new wave disco although lyrically, it captures the zeitgeist. Building towards a burst of slinky sax from Will Howard, ‘Cul De Sac’ uses a sparse arrangement for its colourful backdrop.

Unusually for FIAT LUX, ‘Basement City Living’ is something of a frantic avant dance adventure which swirls, wobbles and even features a drop! There’s unsettling pitch shifted voices lingering too but when Crickmore’s bass signature kicks in, despite the unorthodox backing and Wright’s spoken and screamed contribution, this can only be FIAT LUX.

As a possible relative of ‘Basement City Living’, ‘Tighter’ uses similar pacey electronic qualities although is more fully formed as a song, possessing both rock accents and trancey gothic moods. It’s odd but enjoyable for those who “only came here for fun”. At the other end of the spectrum with predominantly piano and clarinet, ‘The Night We Should Have Met’ is a classic Olde English FIAT LUX ballad with a wonderful Barber shop quartet round to finish.

With its pulsing bass, synth sweeps and E-Bow in the vein of one-time FIAT LUX producer Bill Nelson, ‘Hope’ is a glorious set-piece over seven minutes. Bubbling with vintage synth, ‘It Wasn’t Supposed To Be Now’ is another number in the classic FIAT LUX vein, all uptempo with a chorus reminiscent of Marc Almond and Frippish guitar solos, although all that tension is offset by bursts of slinky sax.

Sax led and adopting a steadfast drum machine backbone, ‘Breathe You In’ offers a sensitive love ballad before continuing at a similar pace, ‘This Is Your Lifetime’ sees acoustic guitar and Bansitar combine for a muzakal song of hope. With a warm harmony of voices, it ends the album on an encouraging note despite the ‘Twisted Culture’ of the past few years.

Those who enjoyed ‘Saved Symmetry’ will appreciate ‘Twisted Culture’. Meanwhile those who were less enticed by its emphasis on mood may find the more uptempo and experimental numbers that feature on its successor appealing enough to return to the distinctly different path of FIAT LUX. In many ways, ‘Twisted Culture’ is the stronger and more varied collection.

‘Twisted Culture’ is released by Splid Records through Proper Music Distribution on 5th November 2021 in CD and digital formats, pre-order from https://www.propermusic.com/

http://www.fiat-lux.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/Fiatluxofficial

https://twitter.com/fiatluxofficial

http://www.splidrecords.co.uk

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photo by Andy Hollingworth
1st November 2021

ALI RENAULT Nawce Blizzard

29 October 2021 /

Margate-based producer and DJ Ali Renault has been releasing music since 2003, but he is perhaps best known as being a member of the Italo-flavoured electronic pop duo HEARTBREAK with Sebastian Muravchik.

After HEARTBREAK went into hiatus in 2011, Ali Renault released his debut self-titled album and has since followed up with a variety of dance 12” singles and EPs including on his own Cyber Dance Records and Vivod imprint. With HEARTBREAK having reformed and set to release a second album in 2022, he releases ‘Nawce Blizzard’ in memory of the late Chester DJ Pete Mangalore with whom he co-founded the Human Shield Record Company.

On the opener ‘Northdown Acid’, a sinister bass pattern penetrates in sync with dirty phat beats within a grey-stoked backdrop. While faster paced, ‘Imminent Salad’ is less intense and exhibits more of a club groove with spacey strings providing atmosphere and texture. But with an elegiac ambience, ‘Peter Summoning’ is Ali Renault’s musical tribute to his late friend.

Deeper in mood, the lengthy ‘Forbidden Mind’ moves in slower motion but having played this 33RPM release at 45RPM by accident, it actually kicks quite well at the faster tempo like Lil’ Louis!!! Reverberating with a pulsing hypnotism, ‘Nawce Blizzard’ presents an electronic chill as the title suggests over stuttering rhythms, but the infinite motorbike engine in the run-off groove will catch listeners out… only it’s not a motorbike but a pitch shifted cat purr!!

Ali Renault said “It’s been an emotional ride getting this together and feels right to be drawing a line under it finally…”

An absorbing mini-album of IDM, ‘Nawce Blizzard’ is adorned with charming foggy windswept imagery that illustrates its contents, a respectful beat-driven reflection and remembrance of a departed friend.

‘Nawce Blizzard’ is released by Vivod as a 12” vinyl EP and download, available from https://www.phonicarecords.com/product/ali-renault-nawce-blizzard-ep-vivod/176708

Digital variant available at https://alirenault.bandcamp.com/album/nawce-blizzard

https://www.facebook.com/Ali-Renault-134906283231577

https://twitter.com/VivodAli

https://www.instagram.com/ali_renault/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
29th October 2021

UNE Spomenik

27 October 2021 /


Mark Radcliffe and Paul Langley are the North West English electronic duo UNE.

While producer and Haçienda veteran Langley was signed to Rob’s Records, Radcliffe is best known as a respected BBC broadcaster who currently presents ‘The Folk Show’ on Radio2; but despite this, the Lancastrian has always championed the likes of NEW ORDER, PET SHOP BOYS, THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS, UNDERWORLD and ORBITAL on his more mainstream radio stints with Stuart Maconie and Marc Riley over the past 30 years, so was looking for a new musical challenge after years of writing on acoustic guitar.

Radcliffe and Langley met in a pub in Knutsford and began walking their dogs together, bonding over Manchester City and Factory Records. Langley became Radcliffe’s DJ tour manager and in their downtime, Langley played Radcliffe his electronic sketches and imagining a different film for each song, he came up with lyrics.

Their debut album ‘Lost’ was released in 2019 and following on as a natural musical progression, their second album ‘Deux’ was issued only a few months ago; its opening track ’Devilled’ featured bluesy guitars, funky drum loops and legendary punk-poet John Cooper-Clarke while there was also pumping club numbers such as ‘Gemini’, ‘Folie’ and ‘Grandmaster’.

But their third album ‘Spomenik’ is quite different, described as “a solid stark electronic album, still maintaining melody amongst the machines”. Using the Serbo-Croat word for “Monument” as its title, but referring to monoliths specifically commissioned by Marshal Tito in the former Yugoslavia, the icy album is inspired by these mysterious brutalist structures built under the spectre of the Cold War, one of which adorns the front cover artwork.

In a departure for UNE, ‘Spomenik’ is issued by Spun Out Of Control, a boutique music label specialising in actual and imagined synth-based soundtracks from new composers such as Hattie Cooke who released her instrumental suite ‘The Sleepers’ through them.

Primarily instrumental in concept, the 11 tracks comprising ‘Spomenik’ are presented as a seamless listening experience.

Following an intimidating ‘Opening Fanfare’ from an Cold War era Eastern Bloc broadcaster, with a melody straight out of the OMD hook book, ‘Podgarić’ could be outtake from ‘Dazzle Ships’ although Radcliffe’s boxed vocal identifies that it isn’t.

‘Kozara’ perhaps points to the more dreamlike instrumental tones of 808 STATE crossed with KRAFTWERK. But the Cold War tension of the album comes to the fore with ‘Kadinjača’, something that the starkly treated vocals with references to The Doomsday Clock and the chilling melodic presence particularly hammer and sickle home.

Meanwhile, the spacey moods of ‘Ostra’ act as an extended interlude in the manner of Klaus Schulze while ‘Niš’ offers more of a dramatic Vangelis presence before ‘Barutana’ enters more midtempo territory with “abstract expressions”. But in an about turn, ‘Kosmaj’ is much sparser with a gentle cacophony of electronics progressing into a beautiful run of arpeggios and understated rhythms reminiscent of METROLAND or KOMPUTER.

With “futures misunderstood” and what “the machine dictates”, ‘Tjentište’ is inherently gloomy with a sombre melody and resigned vocals. A more minimal and short reprise of ‘Podgarič’ comes before it all concludes with a ‘Closing Fanfare’.

‘Spomenik’ is an intriguing autumnal blend of OMD, KRAFTWERK and Haçienda-era club music that reflects the anxieties and moralities from a time not that long ago, but which are making their presence felt again in the world’s political landscape. Abstractly expressionistic like the monuments the album celebrates, while Radcliffe’s vocal expression might not be to everyone’s taste, the emotive synthetic backdrop cannot be faulted.

‘Spomenik’ is released by Spun Out Of Control as a silver or permafrost splatter vinyl LP and download, available from https://spunoutofcontrol.bandcamp.com/album/spomenik

https://www.unemusic.com/

https://www.facebook.com/wereUNE

https://twitter.com/weareUNE

https://www.instagram.com/weareune/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
27th October 2021

ROBIN HATCH T.O.N.T.O.

25 October 2021 /


T.O.N.T.O. is an acronym for “The Original New Timbral Orchestra”. It contains a customised collection of Moog III, ARP 2600, Oberheim SEM, EMS and Serge modules connected to a central brain designed by its esteemed mastermind Malcolm Cecil.

T.O.N.T.O. featured on the music of TONTO’S EXPANDING HEAD BAND, the duo consisting of Cecil and producer Robert Margouleff. Impressed by their debut record ‘Zero Time’, Stevie Wonder hired the pair as producers and used the system to record classics like ‘Superstition’ and ‘Living For The City’ while The Isley Brothers put it to good use on ‘That Lady’.

Sequencers, drum machines, digital sound-generation circuitry and MIDI control were later added to the system which was sold by Cecil in 2013 and relocated to the National Music Centre in Calgary where it remains in use following a four year restoration programme by the late John Leimseider.

Made using the T.O.N.T.O. synth complex, the same titled album is the fifth solo body of work by the Toronto-based neoclassical composer and multi-instrumentalist Robin Hatch. Also previously a touring keyboardist for Canadian alternative rock band OUR LADY PEACE, she wears many hats thanks to her eclectic artistic interests.

Her first experimentation with synths came on her second album, the Wendy Carlos influenced ‘Hatch’ comprising of improvised instrumentals. Having issued piano works on either side, her fourth record ‘Noise’ was an avant synth record that featured vocals and drum machine with occasional inclinations into pop.

The entirely instrumental ‘T.O.N.T.O.’ was written and recorded by Hatch during a four day residency just before Malcolm Cecil passed away at the age of 84. This album is dedicated to him and the legend of his electronic creation lives on in this work.

For Robin Hatch, ‘T.O.N.T.O’. is a conscious attempt to exorcise deep seated baggage, a self-imposed multitimbral catharsis to transmute painful ugly experiences like psychosis, post-traumatic stress, delusion and hallucinating voices into cosmic horror electronica.

Opening with a cascading arpeggio, the spacious ‘Buttercups’ comes from the Wendy Carlos school of classically influenced synth construction, pure vintage interplay laced with appealing vibrato and bend.

Named after the Terry Gilliam film and featuring Eric Slick on drums and Leland Whitty on sax, ‘Brazil’ offers some jazz fusion to showcase another aspect of Robin Hatch’s eclectic headspace. But ‘Airplane’ takes shape around a more avant soundscape, utilising the talents of doom metal violinist Laura Bates of VOLUR alongside the synthetic strings and hypnotic generative blips.

A tongue-in-cheek reference to the duet by James Taylor and Carly Simon, ‘Mockingbird’ rumbles and hooks over a subtle Maestro and CR78 drum machine backbone with contributions from Nick Thorburn of ISLANDS & THE UNICORN. But despite the use of T.O.N.T.O. alongside a Yamaha CS80, an Atari chiptune synth, Roland Jupiter 4 and Korg M1, Hatch goes computer with a Fairlight VST chipmunk voice sample to add some Enya-inspired atmospherics to the chorus.

The bouncy ‘Inspector’ featuring drummer Lowell Whitty makes use of an otherworldly texture that sounds like a flute being played down the bottom of a hundred foot well while ‘My Lucid Mind’ returns to more Wendy Carlos inspired climes with a cacophony of spacey sounds, some seemingly appearing and random but cleverly arranged for an experimental ear-enlightening whole.

‘Rest Stop’ brings in a LinnDrum Computer and staccato bass lines as grainy strings that sound trapped inside an iPod on speaker mode penetrate through for an engaging oddball passage of electronics. ‘The Standoff’ has a retro-futuristic Tudor presence with its electronic approximations of harpsicord in harmony with Joseph Shabason’s processed ambience to head down the home straight before the very short sinking art piece ‘Water’ closes the collection.

‘T.O.N.T.O.’ is a wonderful delightfully odd experience that is accessible on many levels, despite its melancholic cerebral dynamic. Independently conceived, realised and released, ‘T.O.N.T.O.’ showcases even more facets of Robin Hatch’s talent. Now, what will she do next?

Synthesizers used: T.O.N.T.O., Yamaha CS-80, Oberheim Four Voice, RMI Explorer, ARP Solina

‘T.O.N.T.O.’ is released by Robin Records on 29th October 2021 as a CD, vinyl LP and download, pre-order from https://robinhatch.bandcamp.com/album/t-o-n-t-o

https://twitter.com/robinhatch

https://www.instagram.com/robin__hatch/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Stephanie Montani
25th October 2021

DURAN DURAN Future Past

22 October 2021 /

Celebrating forty years as recording artists, DURAN DURAN release their fifteenth studio album ‘Future Past’, a “live for the moment” reference of how something today can become a cherished memory in times to come.

Simon Le Bon, John Taylor, Roger and Nick Rhodes’ previous album ‘Paper Gods’ was a disappointment, especially after the return to form of the Mark Ronson produced ‘All You Need Is Now’ released in 2011. With the latter’s own 2007 predecessor ‘Red Carpet Massacre’ (with its contributions from Justin Timberlake and Timbaland) being as underwhelming as ‘Paper Gods’, will ‘Future Past’ see DURAN DURAN regain their groove?

The credits certainly indicate some potential with two tracks produced by electronic disco maestro Giorgio Moroder. But the majority of ‘Future Past’ has been helmed by British producer Erol Alkan of BEYOND THE WIZARDS SLEEVE fame. Also contributing guitar on most tracks is Graham Coxon of BLUR who might be seen as an unusual collaborator, but Britpop anthem ‘Girls & Boys’ was to all intents and purposes, a DURAN DURAN homage.

Certainly the chiptune inspired ‘More Joy!’ is reminiscent of former glories, its syncopated disco poise capturing DURAN DURAN at what they do best and with hypnotic electronics offset by a wonderful bass guitar run and chants by Japanese rock band CHAI, it exhilarates in a manner that is greatly appreciated.

Meanwhile, Giorgio Moroder lends his deft touch to ‘Beautiful Lies’ and ‘Tonight United’. With early DURAN DURAN songs like ‘Planet Earth’ and ‘Careless Memories’ having owed more than a debt to the Italian’s influence, the two songs deliver what is expected and that is no bad thing. The more immediate of the pair, ‘Beautiful Lies’ is a cousin to ‘Being Followed’ from ‘All You Need Is Now’ while ‘Tonight United’ swoops and rouses in a slightly funkier manner.

Sonically, the Moroder produced tracks have a clarity and power over the Erol Alkan produced offerings which suffer in places from the percussive harshness that seems to plague modern music, with recordings by acts such as BLANCK MASS and AVEC SANS being recent examples. ‘Invisible’ particularly falls victim to this and it would have been interesting to hear how Mark Ronson might have handled it as there is a good chorus in there!

Ronson does appear on guitar for ‘Wing’, a cinematic tune with Bond theme characteristics but this too is ruined by the drum sounds, although they are less obtrusive than on ‘Invisible’. More pleasing to the ear is the pumping and self-acknowledging ‘Anniversary’ which offers hints of ‘The Wild Boys’, ‘Girls On Film’ and ‘Save A Prayer’ like Easter eggs in an ode to four decades of friendship.

Following in the footsteps of Kelis, Ana Matronic, Janelle Monáe, Kiesza and Lindsay Lohan, Swedish songstress and Max Martin collaborator Tove Lo features on the introspective ‘Give It All Up’ which is enjoyable enough with an uplifting chorus and some soothing orchestrations, but ‘Hammerhead’ with drill rapper Ivorian Doll sees DURAN DURAN fall into prey to their often misguided desire to be current and contemporary.

Arranged to be epic, the ‘Future Past’ title track is a bit laboured while ‘Nothing Less’ sees Saffron Le Bon duetting with her father on a pleasant enough ballad. But for those preferring something of a more contemplative and arty vein, the lengthy drum machine driven ‘Falling’ sees David Bowie’s longest standing band member Mike Garson present his famed jazzy ivory runs to close.

Although a mixed bag, ‘Future Past’ is a vast improvement on ‘Paper Gods’, although it doesn’t hit the consistent heights of ‘All You Need Is Now’. There are enough good tracks in the classic DURAN DURAN mould to keep long standing fans of the band happy, with those likely to be live favourites as the band host on their belated Ruby anniversary parties around the world.

‘Future Past’ is released by Tape Modern / BMG to all digital platforms as well as being available as a CD, limited edition deluxe hardback book CD with additional tracks, coloured vinyl LP and cassette

http://www.duranduran.com/

https://www.facebook.com/duranduran

https://twitter.com/duranduran

https://www.instagram.com/duranduran/

https://open.spotify.com/album/7GyGHJ1jv0v2Sa0pcgs4fD

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photo by John Swannell
22nd October 2021

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2017 ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK | Email: [email protected]
Privacy Policy

Up ↑