Category: Reviews (Page 59 of 201)

PAGE Aska EP

7 January 2021 /

A new companion release to ‘Under Mitt Skinn’ which came out in Summer 2020, PAGE issue their third EP in six months entitled ‘Aska’.

The trailblazing Swedish duo of Eddie Bengtsson and Marina Schiptjenko have been fairly prolific of late and partying like it’s 1979. In acknowledgement of Synth Britannia, TUBEWAY ARMY and early ULTRAVOX have been very much the key influence in the recent work of PAGE, most notably with the ‘Start’ EP and the long player ‘Fakta För Alla’.

In defence of his nostalgic but affectionate ethos, Bengtsson said to Zero Magazine: “Since neither Numan nor Foxx engage in that type of electronic pop anymore, PAGE is allowed to do it instead!”

Mixed by Richard Flow of MACHINISTA who ably assists PAGE into realising themselves as a retro-futuristic post-punk electronic band, Bengtsson added “All the music is made on synths, but I try to emulate different instruments and create the illusion that ‘here is a bassist, here is a drummer and here is a keyboardist’”.

A second cousin to ‘Saint Anastase’ from the ‘Under Mitt Skinn’ EP, ’Stefansplatz’ is an enjoyably progressive instrumental opening in the vein of THE HUMAN LEAGUE when Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh were at the synthesizer helm. But tackling the sensitive subject of burn out, the ‘Aska’ title song sees service resumed in the Vox ‘N’ Foxx department.

The delightful ‘En Kamera Ser’ though is quirky elektronisk pop bursting with synth hooks, echoing a more Motorik ‘Ett SOS’ and the nostalgic technological observations of KRAFTWERK where cameras were once tactile entities of their own, not a side function in a phone alongside bank accounts.

‘Hög Som Jag’ celebrates the joy of music that is classic PAGE, while ‘Bara Tryck På Play’ pays homage to TUBEWAY ARMY’s ‘Bombers’ or THE STRANGLERS’ ‘(Get A) Grip (On Yourself)’ where listeners are free to choose, depending on their thinking.

To close the main act, PAGE take out full Numanoid membership on ‘Jag Var Så Nära’ as the dark but melodic adventure mines the glory that is ‘I Die: You Die’.

Using tracks originally featuring on its predecessors, ‘Aska’ is supplemented by a poppier remix of ‘Ta det som en man’ by SOCIAL AMBITIONS and a punk cover of ‘Under Mitt Skinn’ from ATTENTAT, but the best bonus comes from DATAPOP who adopt a minimal machine approach to ‘Panik’ that turns it into ‘Home Computer’.

Twinned with ‘Under Mitt Skinn’, ‘Aska’ forms a combination album that becomes reality via a limited vinyl edition that presents these sessions as a body of work with a clear vision. “Good music should be given all the time, attention and concentration it deserves!” says Bengtsson as he remains creatively in the Moog. After all, it is all just a matter of pleasure and principle.

‘Aska’ is released by Energy Rekords as a CD EP, available direct from https://hotstuff.se/en/cd-page-aska-ep-foldout-digipack-cd-limited-edition-500-copies-ercd176/79017

The ‘Aska Under Mitt Skinn’ combination vinyl LP is available direct from https://hotstuff.se/en/lp-page-aska-under-mitt-skinn-limited-edition-300-copies-vinyl-only-erlp177/79018

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photo by Simon Helm
7th January 2021

WE ARE REPLICA Cleared Vision

4 January 2021 /

It was something of a sign for 2020 when WE ARE REPLICA’s first attempt at a full length album was lost when a feral cat got into their studio over the New Year holidays and urinated all over their computer!

But the London-based Franco German dark synth duo of Nadège Préaudat and Martin Kinz soldiered on and now have ‘Cleared Vision’.

“We always liked heavy music as much as electronic music and therefore often use synths like electric guitars” said Kinz while Préaudat affirmed “That helps to capture emotions in its rawest state”.

So it is something of a pleasant surprise amongst all the intensity from life in isolation during a difficult 2020, WE ARE REPLICA have introduced an enchanting avant pop element to their sound. With a muted down aggression towards the mindset that the album’s title suggests, is this possibly some optimism finding its way in through the back door?

‘Only The Best’ brings in some piercing noise but there is a refinement to provide some accessible punky synth. ‘Miami’ though unexpectedly offers a comparatively sunny disposition with Kinz almost perky like a German Eno, although Préaudat offsets all that but even she sounds less intense compared to WE ARE REPLICA’s previous work.

‘Sanitize Me’ is kind of business as usual though and will connect with anyone affected by the lockdown. It may be a bit too close to home, but it is an honest statement and Préaudat is still strangely sexy despite the doom and gloom. Some relief comes from a delightful closing section of cascading keys.

Previous singles ‘Parallele Universen’ and ‘Angel’ feature lyrics in German and French respectively as a homage to Neue Deutsche Welle and French New Wave. But the language is no barrier, acting more like additional instrumental elements.

‘Parallele Universen’ nods towards Robert Görl and sees Kinz in previously unheard territory actually singing. Meanwhile despite the sinister discomfort of ‘Angel’, Préaudat is wonderfully alluring with her deep Gallic tongue. Like Siamese Twins thanks to their common concept, they are separated by the brooding ‘Opus 5’ which is more abstract like a schizophrenic gothic art piece.

Kinz and Préaudat have a deadpan exchange on the creepy and monotone ‘For Whom The Dove Cried’ for the most foreboding and experimental track on ‘Cleared Vision’, before the mantric drone-laden ‘Isolated Star’ screeches with sharp synth lines and a steadfast rhythmic lattice over a concluding eight minutes. Heavy music for heavy times, ‘Cleared Vision’ is like life, up and down and up before descending into a mental breakdown after a pop focussed start.

This album won’t be for everyone but in its enigmatic expression and artful sound sculpture, it reflects our strange dark times. There is light at the end of the tunnel, but whether that light is an escape the other side or a truck heading towards you is another story!

‘Cleared Vision’ is available as a download album direct from https://wearereplica.bandcamp.com/album/cleared-vision

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Pauline Mongarny
4rd January 2021

STEPHEN MORRIS Fast Forward: Confessions Of A Post-Punk Percussionist – Volume II

23 December 2020 /


As the title suggests, ‘Fast Forward: Confessions Of A Post-Punk Percussionist – Volume II’ is the second book by Stephen Morris, best known as the drummer of JOY DIVISION and NEW ORDER.

Together with Ian Curtis, Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner, he co-founded JOY DIVISION. With the untimely death of Curtis in May 1980, the remaining trio continued as NEW ORDER with the addition of Morris’ girlfriend and now-wife Gillian Gilbert. Stephen Morris’ first book ‘Record Play Pause: Confessions of a Post-Punk Percussionist – Volume I’ demonstrated his abilities as an engaging storyteller.

While Peter Hook’s ‘Substance’ was an informative in-depth look inside NEW ORDER, it was not unsurprisingly tinged with bitterness and anger. Meanwhile, Bernard Sumner’s ‘Chapter & Verse’ was a good read but the story was expressed in very straight manner, perhaps in an attempt not to upset anyone.

Morris though laced his account with humour and entertaining dry wit, with his narrative of growing up in the North West of England being particularly amusing and relatable.

So when the human drum machine released an audio book of ‘Record Play Pause: Confessions of a Post-Punk Percussionist – Volume I’, it was like the story of JOY DIVISION being told on ‘Jackanory’, the BBC children’s television series conceived to stimulate an interest in reading. Morris’ eager-to-please if occasionally sarcastic manner was captured like a spoken word art piece.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK interviewed Stephen Morris in March 2011 and many of the topics from that conversation are expanded on in ‘Fast Forward: Confessions Of A Post-Punk Percussionist – Volume II’, as well further observations on the politics behind being in a band and its inherent hierarchy that inevitably places the singer at the top.

Despite his own existential crisis and possibly doing himself out of a job with all the incumbent new technology that manifested itself into the evolving sound of NEW ORDER, it was Morris who ultimately had the patience to read the manuals and persevere as an early adopter of video, drum machines and computers.

There are trailblazing tales of grappling with the Powertran 1024 Note Composer home-built from a kit by Bernard Sumner and customised by the band’s electronic boffin Martin Usher.

First used on the ‘Temptation’ B-side ‘Hurt’, it had to be programmed and operated in hexadecimal! Morris also recalls his life changing experience watching Stevie Wonder demonstrate the Linn Drum Computer on ‘Old Grey Whistle Test’, before eventually plumping for the slightly cheaper Oberheim DMX.

But as he points out, “I always found the record and erase buttons a little too close together for comfort!”. The original programme for the iconic digital drums on ‘Blue Monday’ were indeed wiped, but not as persists in legend, by Morris tripping on the DMX mains lead.

Meanwhile, describing his own factory setting as “dubious”, Morris amusingly recalls how the Arthur Baker collaboration ‘Confusion’ was an apt title as the band set off to New York to record with the producer without any gear and without any ideas ready, not even a bassline.

‘Movement’ producer Martin Hannett fell out with Factory Records when the label and NEW ORDER opted to open The Haçienda club rather than buy a Fairlight, but the band did try out the computer music instrument for a week with mixed results. Although the session produced the seed of an idea that became ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’, the band instead opted to stick with their Yamaha sequencer, drum machine and rack mount combination.

NEW ORDER had something of a lucky escape not to be stuck with what quickly became a technological white elephant. However, the taxman along with the well-documented financial woes of Factory Records and The Haçienda were things that couldn’t be escaped, with the cash mostly passing through NEW ORDER’s bank account like quicksilver almost as soon as it was earned.

The most cynical about the initial idea of The Haçienda in the first place, Morris felt a return ticket on the Titanic was a better bet and his fears were justified when he was initially declined entry on its opening night. It would take the drummer several years to even get a complimentary drink at the establishment he co-owned, while Gillian Gilbert’s sister Kim was able to get on the guest list by pretending to be her!

But Morris is an endearing character who accepts his lot, especially the joys of making music and being in a successful band. However as NEW ORDER got bigger, he was still not being recognised despite his face being on the ‘Low-Life’ album cover and the tour’s corresponding AAA passes. Hilariously recounting being refused entry into venues that NEW ORDER were performing at, at Factory Records’ Festival of the Tenth Summer with THE SMITHS at Manchester G-Mex, Morris only got into the former railway station by saying he was his near namesake Steven Morrissey!

Photo by Trevor Key

Despite being a self-confessed man who sits on the fence and turns whichever way the wind blows, Morris is very honest in his frustration about his fellow band members. He recalls being particularly bemused by Peter Hook’s solo project REVENGE which was supposed to be striking a blow for “real guitar music” as a reaction to NEW ORDER’s “synthesized sequenced sh*t”, but ended up sounding nothing like MOTÖRHEAD and instead used… yes, you’ve guessed it, synthesized sequenced sh*t!

Morris and Gilbert bought a 200 year old farm near Macclesfield and settled into domestic bliss with a home studio, doing TV soundtrack work and their own solo project THE OTHER TWO. And in this section, readers cannot help but laugh out loud when our hero discovers that the 10 mile shooting range of his newly acquired ex-British Army Abbot FV433 self-propelled gun will make Bernard Sumner’s house in Alderley Edge an easy target!

NEW ORDER went into hiatus after the lukewarm ‘Republic’ album in 1993, but against the odds, they reunited in 1998. There were triumphant shows at Manchester Apollo and Reading Festival in the summer, although the quartet were less than impressive at Manchester Arena for the ‘Temptation’ dance event before New Year’s Eve.

But the death of long standing manager Rob Gretton in 1999 and the departure of Gillian Gilbert for family reasons changed the dynamic of NEW ORDER considerably. Ultimately, that left a power struggle between Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook to fester, with Morris stuck in the middle and unable to referee.

Perhaps surprisingly, ‘Fast Forward: Confessions Of A Post-Punk Percussionist – Volume II’ ends in 2007 just as Peter Hook announces to the world that NEW ORDER have split up, all while Bernard Sumner is in the middle of the Atlantic on his yacht. By this time though, Morris had more pressing things to worry about such as his wife’s critical illness and the well-being of his family.

But in March 2011, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK asked Stephen Morris about the unsatisfactory manner in which NEW ORDER ended. His reply was surprising and in hindsight, gave clues as to what was to come. “I never say never really. I personally after ‘Republic’, I thought that was it, I really did” he quipped, “And then something happens and all of a sudden, you’re back doing it again for another 10 years!”

Gillian Gilbert returned to the NEW ORDER fold for a well-received comeback concert in October 2011 at Le Bataclan in Paris and the band have been more or less on the road ever since. Signing to Mute Artists, the band’s ninth album ‘Music Complete’ in 2015 was a far better record than its two predecessors ‘Get Ready’ and ‘Waiting For The Sirens’ Call’, re-establishing NEW ORDER as a credible creative force.

As Morris concludes, “the band that raised itself from the ashes of JOY DIVISION raised itself from the ashes of NEW ORDER”, but “that’s a whole other book. Maybe one day…”

‘Fast Forward: Confessions Of A Post-Punk Percussionist – Volume II’ is published in hardback by Constable

NEW ORDER play Manchester Heaton Park on 10th September 2021 and London O2 Arena on 6th November 2021

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
23rd December 2020

DANZ CM Idea of You

16 December 2020 /

She’s the artist formally known as COMPUTER MAGIC and ‘Idea of You’ is her first single under her new moniker of DANZ CM.

Behind the music is Danz Johnson whose first album proper ‘Davos’ came out under the name COMPUTER MAGIC in 2015. She said on social media: “In the beginning I didn’t know what to call myself. I was so uncomfortable in my own skin, was so sure no one would believe it was just one person making the music…”

New York-based producer added “I wanted to change it because I outgrew COMPUTER MAGIC. I outgrew the shy bedroom pop girl a long time ago. COMPUTER MAGIC might mean something different to you, but to me it represents a skin that I need to shed.”


Capturing a sombre electronic disposition, ‘Idea of You’ develops on the darkness that was apparent on the last COMPUTER MAGIC album ‘Danz’ with its self-referencing title a pointer of things to come. It is all quite distinct from the enjoyably escapist ‘Obscure but Visible’ EP and its utterly charming highlight ‘Lonely Like We Are’.

With her stark statement that she’s “Gotta step back to put things in perspective” summing things up, in the collaborative video for ‘Idea of You’, Danz Johnson and director Matthew James Reilly set off to the desolate location of Death Valley in Nevada to see our heroine take on the role of The Girl Who Fell To Earth.

While recording ‘The Absurdity of Human Existence’, her upcoming first album as DANZ CM, Danz Johnson launched her ‘Synth History’ platform celebrating musicians who have embraced the sound of synthesizers in their work. To date she has interviewed Pete Townshend, Suzanne Ciani, James Murphy, Rick Wakeman, Vince Clarke, Dave Smith and many more.

She then began a crowdfunding campaign to expand ‘Synth History’ into a podcast series and the first acclaimed episode in Summer 2020 discussed the pioneering legacy of Wendy Carlos.

‘Idea of You’ is available now via digital platforms and is from the forthcoming album ‘The Absurdity of Human Existence’ released on 12th March 2021 by Channel 9 Records

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
16th December 2020

WITCH OF THE VALE Commemorate

14 December 2020 /

Erin Hawthorne and Ryan Hawthorne are WITCH OF THE VALE, an unsettling electronic duo from the serene shores of Loch Lomond and the remote Outer Hebridean Isles.

Signing to Cleopatra Records, a well-known North American goth industrial imprint, they reissued a number of Gary Numan albums in the US at one time and are still the only label to have succeeded in officially licencing post-‘Autobahn’ material for a KRAFTWERK best of compilation in 1992 entitled ‘The Model’.

Like a mid-to-downtempo offering to Pagan spirits, ‘Commemorate’ combines misery with beauty, evoking confused but uplifting emotions of hope in an atmosphere where all is not quite as it should be… so real life then and very fitting with many isolated from the life they have previously known.

A debut album is effectively a relaunch, an opportunity to reach a wider audience but with the kudos that the long playing format accords. To that end, WITCH OF THE VALE have included the best material from their first three EPs and supplemented those eight tracks with four new songs and bookending instrumental themes. However, most of this previously released material has undergone some sonic fine tuning, but it’s all been fulfilled without altering the spiritual essence of the originals.

From their debut EP ‘The Way This Will End’, the unsettling ritualistic overtures and drone laden backdrop of ‘Fever’ and the textural rumbles of ‘Your Voice’ are threaded by an enticing high register gothique with folk inspired stylings. The poignant ‘The Way This Will End’ title song is included also, with a beautiful music box quality complimented by pensive strings that capture a wonderful melancholic airiness. It is all very sad but never depressing.

Of the new material featuring on this impressive debut, the ‘Commemorate’ title song provides the most intensely percussive flavour, throwing in industrial swoops and references to self-loathing in the manner of NINE INCH NAILS, but with a sinister feminine beauty. ‘Undressed’ sonically emulates any number of intros from Gary Numan’s apocalyptic ‘Savage’, although the soundscapes take a Nordic pop twist thanks to Erin Hawthorne’s treated delivery.

The brooding fatalistic doom of ‘Crash’ is offset by another angelic vocal that makes the words “I might be smiling but I hate you on the inside…” even more foreboding, while the clattering of a grandfather clock pendulum acts as a ghostly backbone to the eerily sparse ‘The Sky & The Sea’.

The rain swept ‘Death Dream’ maintains the solemn mood, while the four songs from the ‘Trust The Pain’ EP complete the commemorative picture. ‘Trust The Pain’ itself remains serene yet uncertain as ‘The Ghosts Won’t Know’ dresses gentle piano with a widescreen chill but with haunting harp-derived sounds for a divine celestial mood, ‘Suffocation’ displays an affinity with the understated Swedish songstress Karin My.

But as with its parent EP, WITCH OF THE VALE’s unusual gothic cover of Lana Del Rey’s ‘Gods & Monsters’ still stands out, transporting the gritty sleazy American original to the ominous location of ‘The Wicker Man’ for their most likely crossover recording.

Timeless and captivating, WITCH OF THE VALE offer something unusual with ‘Commemorate’ while connected to traditional, thereby producing something quite extraordinary and of another world.

In a short period of existence which has seen them open for ASSEMBLAGE 23, SOLAR FAKE, CLAN OF XYMOX and LINEA ASPERA as well as playing Infest 2019, their trajectory has been pointing up and the quality of this debut will ensure it will stay that way for a bit longer.

‘Commemorate’ is released as a download album by Cleopatra Records, CD issued on 20th February 2021, both are available direct from https://witchofthevale.bandcamp.com/album/commemorate-2

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
14th December 2020

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