Category: Transmissions (Page 1 of 7)

2025 END OF YEAR REVIEW

14 December 2025 /

50 years from KRAFTWERK appearing on the BBC’s ‘Tomorrow’s World’ to perform ‘Autobahn’ and demonstrate the future of music, as Ralf Hütter remarked at the start of the 21st Century, “electro is everywhere” and can now be made on your mobile phone!

And while the KRAFTWERK brand continues to be fronted by the 79 year old Hütter with an extensive UK tour pencilled in next year, 2025 saw the sad passing of Synth Britannia heroes Dave Ball and Stephen Luscombe, while there was also the loss of COVENANT associate Andreas Catjar-Danielsson, NITZER EBB frontman Douglas J McCarthy and Gary Numan’s brother / former live band member John Webb. Outside of the genre, cult film director David Lynch, BLONDIE drummer Clem Burke, veteran diva Marianne Faithfull, The Prince Of Darkness Ozzy Osbourne and Head Beach Boy Brian Wilson were among those who left this mortal coil.

Musically in 2025, Mari Kattman became the alluring gothic club queen she always had the potential to be on her best album yet ‘Year Of The Katt’. She headed a strong feast of feisty releases from Ela Minus, Marie Davidson, Zanias, Jennifer Touch, Charly Haze, Ani Glass, Emmon, Minuit Machine and Compute alongside those by the female fronted DLINA VOLNY, CAUSEWAY, DINA SUMMER, AUSTRA, NNHMN and PARADOX OBSCUR.

Among the new talent making a good impression were Spike, Shears and Hannah Hu who is currently working on her first album with Dean Honer of I MONSTER. Having already released a couple of albums, on the ascendancy was self-styled Californian “retro electro artist” Sophie Grey who was joined by Trevor Horn during her live cover of ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ while supporting Sting at the London Forum.

On the gentler side of electronics, Patricia Wolf and Loula Yorke came up with their fabulous respective instrumental offerings ‘Hrafnamynd’ and ‘Time Is A Succession Of Such Shapes’. There was also the return of LADYTRON as well as Alison Goldfrapp, Claudia Brücken and Kim Wilde. Going back to glitzy electropop on her new record ‘Mayhem’, Lady Gaga did an impression of Taylor Swift doing YAZOO on one of its highlights ‘How Bad Do U Want Me?’; meanwhile Taylor herself appeared to have turned into Los Angeles trio CANNONS on ‘The Fate Of Ophelia’, the synthy opening song of her 12th album ‘The Life Of A Showgirl’.

Photo by Oliver Blair

Swedish producer Johan Agebjörn proved to have one of the most prolific years in his music career with not only collaborations with R.MISSING on ‘Fakesnow’ and NINA on ‘Hush Hush Baby’ but also a new SALLY SHAPIRO album ‘Ready To Live A Lie’ and a solo long player ‘Southern Forest’; all this while holding down his day job as a psychotherapist! Another releasing two albums in 2025 was Paul Statham although one was a collection of archive recordings for what could have been the intended 1982 debut album by B-MOVIE entitled ‘Lost Treasures’; the other was a second record from his dark country project THE DARK FLOWERS featuring Jim Kerr of SIMPLE MINDS whose most recent single ‘Your Name In Lights’ had been co-written by Statham.

Impressively, SPARKS got ‘MAD!’ and then ‘MADDER!’ while undertaking a huge world tour with Ron Mael still tap dancing at 80 years of age during the drum solo of ‘No1 Song In Heaven’ and Russell Mael able to hit many of those high notes at 77. As ERASURE made a tentative return with a series of special UK fan club shows to celebrate their 40th anniversary, Andy Bell toured his solo album ‘Ten Crowns’ with KNIGHT$ not doing himself any harm being the opening act on the German leg ahead of a new album ‘Supernatural Lover’ out in early 2026.

After a few years of recorded absence, former TANGERINE DREAM members released long awaited albums with Peter Baumann from the classic line-up issuing the esoteric ‘Nightfall’ while Jerome Froese, son of co-founder Edgar, came up with the guitartronica of ‘Sunsets In Stereo’. Playing with the atonal atmospheres of early TANGERINE DREAM in places, the dark cerebral concept of ‘The Ray Bradbury Chronicles’ by Levente was worthy of investigation.

With their keyboard player Christian Berg now something of a modern day Rick Wakeman, KITE established themselves as a major world force with a spectacular show on ice at Stockholm’s Avicii Arena which saw special guest Nina Persson of THE CARDIGANS skating with the Helsinki Rockettes while singing their mighty collaboration ‘Heartless Places’.

Tom Shear released one of his most impressive and on-point albums as ASSEMBLAGE 23 in ‘Null’ while UNIFY SEPARATE didn’t mince their words on their ‘Heavy Meta’ EP. While Tobias Bernstrup kept the dark Italo flame alive with ‘Shadow Dancer’, Berlin continued to remain a force in underground club culture with two of its leading exponents Franz Scala and Kalipo presenting well-received long players that worked on the home hi-fi as well as on dancefloors. On the more poptronica front, Eddie Bengtsson finally stopped trying to “Numanise” his sound and came up with ‘Inget Motstånd’, a record in the more classic PAGE vein.

While synthwave appeared to be dead (as the controversial blog Iron Skullet declared in 2019), the influx of generic darkwave was a major blight on electronic music in 2025. The major label supported Mareux and his second album ‘Nonstop Romance’ had any potential painfully ruined by overused deliberate distortion to make it sound like it was recorded down a drainpipe.

Meanwhile PORCELAIN DANCER seemed to be the Rob Newman parody of Robert Smith as seen on ‘The Mary Whitehouse Experience’ resurrected only several octaves lower; his live performance provoked unintentional laughter from those who arrived early to see KORINE in London!

DEPECHE MODE released 4 songs that were originally deemed not good enough to put on their 2023 album ‘Memento Bori’ to append the live album accompanying their Mexico City concert film ‘M’. But 2025 was notable for a number of figures in the British DM fan community who were coming out with particularly repugnant far right views, seemingly oblivious to the decades of lyrical messages from the two remaining mixed race band members!

But there was hope in the darker side of synth with A THOUSAND MAD THINGS; with his haunted demeanour while navigating young manhood as a tortured outsider, William Barradale’s doomed romantic delivery reminiscent of Billy MacKenzie and Trevor Herion made him undoubtedly the most promising UK act since MIRRORS; his debut 5 song EP ‘Cry & Dance’ was one of 2025’s best bodies of work. This more than made up for ‘Dance Called Memory’, the extremely dull fourth album from NATION OF LANGUAGE which was anything but memorable…

After looking back at 1981, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK were pleased to be return to the variously compiled podcast ‘Back To NOW’ to discuss the ‘NOW 1982 Yearbook’ with genial host Iain McDermott and Ian Wade, author of ‘1984: The Year Pop Went Queer’. While general music and culture podcasts such as ‘Back To NOW’, ‘Word In Your Ear’, ‘The Rest Is Entertainment’, ‘The Rockonteurs’, ‘SoundPower’ and Miranda Sawyer’s new offering ‘Talk 90s To Me’ were highly engaging listens, specific broadcasts focussed on synth and electronic music were usually weak, suffering from poor hosting and ham-fisted background research. But when a professional presenter was involved, synth-oriented chats could be enlightening as the appearance of John Foxx on ‘The Adam Buxton Podcast’ proved, despite the annoying jingles that accompanied it.

Featuring commentary from PET SHOP BOYS’ Neil Tennant, the BBC’s retrospective look at the collapse of EMI called ‘Music Money & Mayhem’ showed once again that when those who know nothing about music get involved in the music business, it will end in tears. Looking at the story of the history of Beggars Banquet label in its first series and featuring Gary Numan in its opening episode, ‘States Of Independence’ documented how creative enthusiasm from the heart can actually thrive.

So where are the audiences for live electronic music these days? Certainly, if the full houses for Marie Davidson, Geneva Jacuzzi, Loscil and KITE in London’s club-sized venues were anything to go by, the crowds are out there. This was not the case for some other acts on the circuit at new, cult and one-hit wonder level who were struggling to get above half capacity or had downsized considerably since their perceived highest profile. However, new music night Release Me managed to get very good attendances for their evenings in 2025 with the premise that all acts must perform previously unreleased material; this focus on their events being about the music with announced requests to not talk during sets was a fresh and very welcome approach.

Photo by Tom Casey

Elsewhere, the retro business did prosper with reunions, exhibitions, summer hits shows, classic album tours, deluxe reissues of albums that were never that good in the first place and notable records re-released in yet another expanded set for the 5th or 6th time! There were those trying to exploit the fading nostalgia of those heady romantic times, writing memoirs that left out so many important facts omitted that there were grounds for inclusion in the “fiction” section.

Then there were others releasing overlong collections with an average track length of between 6-8 minutes that no-one asked for nor desired… filtering and editing is such an important aspect to producing music so there was no excuse for these veterans! Some even sent out unmastered music files to review outlets, blissfully unaware that the sound quality might actually be mentioned, only to get stupidly angry about it when highlighted due to their own numbskull promotional abilities; it’s a funny old entitled world…

The positive and negative of modern day music consumption is growth CAN happen organically in its own internet powered niche. But with the fragmentation of promotion with social media actually being a choice despite wider protestations, even the AXS newsletter listing the acts soon to be playing the 20,000 capacity O2 arena in London provoked cries of “WHO?”; but that is how it is now and it needs to be accepted. Why should a Boomer or Gen X-er know about the bright young thing headlining Glastonbury?

However, you CAN create your own musical universe today, not listen to radio, create your own playlists and exclude as appropriate. After all, as Nick Rhodes from DURAN DURAN once remarked: “Good taste is exclusive” –  nobody should have to like what you like and neither should what somebody else likes appeal to you… niche interests are fine.

There is no doubt fandom has become more tribal and is now akin to away game support for football teams. But as a result, it has therefore got more toxic, with some fans getting ridiculously angry on socials about old less-than-positive reviews that David Hepworth, Mark Ellen, Ian Cranna, Dave Rimmer, Tom Hibbert or Neil Tennant might have written for Smash Hits 43 YEARS AGO!! “Bet he regrets that…” someone will quip smugly but the reality is, if there is a review that a writer will regret, from the experience of ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK, it will usually be the one that is too gushing with praise!

The gist of Smash Hits during its imperial phase that coincided with Neil Tennant’s tenure as Assistant Editor was it was a magazine which treated “pop” as the most “important” thing in the world while simultaneously highlighting how “ridiculous” it was too, with references to “the dumper”, “summer colds” and the “tongue sarnie”… often dismissed as a “teen mag”, a good number of teenagers could see through the up-itself pretentions of the NME so relished the more amusing and knowing “scribblings” of the Smash Hits team!

The wider public forgets that it might likely have the benefit of 4 decades of hindsight as well as weekly if not daily plays of a record in the first few years of its possession. While it has always been associated with “free speech”, “opinion” or “freedom of expression”, one of the problems with social media is the narcissistic self-seeking of validation as part of the main character syndrome that afflicts many in this modern world…

With tours in 2026 for KRAFTWERK, OMD, PET SHOP BOYS, CHINA CRISIS, HEAVEN 17, THOMPSON TWINS’ Tom Bailey, BLANCMANGE and Midge Ure among many, there is certainly plenty to keep people busy. Just don’t think everyone else will necessarily share in your passion; as time goes on, there will be a lot more of those who won’t have a clue what you are going on about…

U2 once asked “how long must we sing this song?”; so to end a divisive year where evil men with racist views have been casually normalised, the message outlined in 1981 by a trio of philosophers from South Yorkshire must continue to be repeated loud and clear: WE DON’T NEED THIS FASCIST GROOVE THANG! #FuckFarage #FuckReformUK #FuckTommyRobinson #FuckFlagshaggers #FuckTrump

A Time Called Then: ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s Oh 2025 Playlist is at https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1xXptdmcHAvXnXni6hjVnA

Text by Chi Ming Lai
14th December 2025

BACK TO NOW: NOW ‘82 Yearbook with Ian Wade + ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK

25 July 2025 /

Hosted by PopRambler Iain McDermott, ‘Back To NOW’ is a podcast that celebrates all things related to the variously compiled world of pop and how our favourite compilation albums shaped our lives and now fondly stand as time capsules for our own musical journeys.

Chi Ming Lai of ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK was honoured to be invited back to Back To NOW after his debut appearance in 2024 about the ‘NOW ’81 Yearbook’. On this new episode, he joins Ian Wade, author of ‘1984: The Year Pop Went Queer’, to discuss the ‘NOW ’82 Yearbook’ 4CD set and its companion 3CD set of “Extras”.

The start of 1982 saw a continuation of the amazing Autumn of 1981 with the third singles from albums by SOFT CELL, OMD and JAPAN all hitting the Top5 while the synthesizer pioneers who were ahead of their time like KRAFTWERK and THE HUMAN LEAGUE saw tracks first released in 1978 become Top10 Hits with ‘The Model’ notably dropping down the charts before getting to No1. There were chart breakthroughs for SIMPLE MINDS and ASSOCIATES while YAZOO, CHINA CRISIS, BLANCMANGE, A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS and TALK TALK impressed with their debut long players.

However later in the year, there was a backlash against the synthesizer as exemplified by the Musicians Union tabling a motion to ban synthesizers from recording and live performance. Meanwhile musically, the fiddle and banjo romp of ‘Come On Eileen’ by the Celtic soul incarnation of DEXY’S MIDNIGHT RUNNERS becoming the biggest selling single of 1982 in the UK gave indicators that public may have had enough of all things electronic.

But you cannot halt progress and advances in music technology like the Linn Drum Computer and the Fairlight CMI were to become the perfect tools for producers like Trevor Horn and Tony Mansfield to continue adventures in modern recording with DOLLAR, ABC and SPANDAU BALLET as well as Captain Sensible and Mari Wilson among the beneficiaries. Meanwhile DURAN DURAN truly became the teenyboppers band of choice with their ‘Rio’ album eventually going platinum but if the year before had been 1981 B.C.C. – before CULTURE CLUB, then the end of 1982 saw the emergence of the two Georges, O’Dowd and Michael.

Of the year, the Now Music official website said: “1982 saw the first huge hits from a wealth of new artists including CULTURE CLUB, WHAM! and TEARS FOR FEARS, as well as an incredible line-up from artists who had established their chart presence in the prior 18 months and would produce some of the greatest tracks of the decade; DURAN DURAN, SPANDAU BALLET, ABC, HAIRCUT 100, SOFT CELL, THE HUMAN LEAGUE, and a newly solo Adam Ant.”

In a lively conversation, Iain McDermott, Ian Wade and Chi Ming Lai cover topics as diverse as the importance of Smash Hits in their coverage of pop, predict the possible inclusions for the upcoming NOW ‘Vault ’82’ collection and the unlikely trio of chart toppers from West Germany, thus proving that despite it being the country that seeded innovative electronic music, its cheesy home-grown Schlagermusik could also unexpectedly crossover as grandparents bought their one single of the year!

As Smash Hits Editor David Hepworth said in their end of year review, there were “no patterns” to pop in 1982.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Iain McDermott

Tune into past episodes of ‘Back To NOW’ via https://linktr.ee/poprambler

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Text by Simon Helm
25 July 2025

2024 END OF YEAR REVIEW

27 December 2024 /

Image by Simon Helm

Me? Definitely Won’t Be! Join the #SynthResistance

When ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK came into being in March 2010, synth was still on a recovery path and it seemed PET SHOP BOYS were the only act continuing to fly the flag successfully having been awarded the BRIT Award for ‘Outstanding Contribution To Music’ the previous year.

While DEPECHE MODE and SIMPLE MINDS had released albums in 2009, their latest material showed few signs of their imperial phases. BLANCMANGE, NEW ORDER and SOFT CELL had not yet returned, ULTRAVOX were still to release ‘Brilliant’ despite a well-received live return and while THE HUMAN LEAGUE were regulars on the live circuit, they had not issued a new album for 9 years. Meanwhile OMD and DURAN DURAN were in a state of creative flux having released disappointing albums in ‘History Of Modern’ and ‘Red Carpet Massacre’ respectively.

However in 2024, most of these acts are performing to sizeable audiences and while ULTRAVOX may have called it a day in 2013, Midge Ure continues to tour with songs from ‘Vienna’, ‘Rage In Eden’, ‘Quartet’ and ‘Lament’. For these heritage acts, the concert circuit is now very lucrative and a testament to their music still standing up after several decades and most importantly for longevity, appealing to new and younger audiences.

Photo by Chi Ming Lai

But for new synth music generally, particularly in Britain, it appeared to be in decline although these signs had been very apparent over the past few years. One thing that has been significant about ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s 30 SONGS OF 2024 was that on only 4 occasions was there full or part representation from the nation that seeded Synth Britannia… how the mighty have fallen! And when Taylor Swift is doing better electronic pop songs than most, then there’s a real problem!

First time around during 1994 to 1997, Britpop had as good as killed off the synth and with the news of the OASIS live reunion in 2025 grabbing all the headlines, it looks as though history is repeating itself. But everything is cyclical and there was a backlash against guitar bands after the new millennium began. There is hope yet but while a MIRRORS reunion is unlikely any time soon, it takes darkness to appreciate the light so anything is possible 😉

2024 was a year fraught with uncertainty and this was reflected musically. With ongoing political tensions in their homeland and having spoken out against the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, MOLCHAT DOMA relocated from Belarus to Los Angeles. Their excellent fourth album ‘Belaya Polosa’ channelled the anxiety and fear of that journey into exile and literally saw the trio change from sounding like JOY DIVISION to sounding like NEW ORDER. But have they walked from the frying pan into the fryer?

Released back in March before the US Elections, one of the best albums of 2024, ‘Masochist’ by NIGHT CLUB became a dystopian prophecy come true. Emotions were summed up by the inclusion of ‘The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum)’, a cover of the song by FUN BOY THREE. Written as a metaphor to the dangerous posturing games played by “The Cowboy” Ronald Reagan in 1981 during The Cold War, today the even crazier orange face is back followed by his flock of mindless MAGA sheep…

‘If You Tolerate This, Then Your Children Will Be Next’ sang MANIC STREET PREACHERS and more than ever in the UK, it is important to stand against the retarded racist scum getting behind the neo-fascist posturings of that pompous grifter Nigel Farage to cover up for their own life failings. Add in a crackpot billionaire who inherited blood money made during the vile South African Apartheid regime, playing a real life Dr Evil by throwing his cash into the far right and supporting the new Nazis in Germany of the AfD, and the world is in a very precarious position right now. Quoting Midge Ure who recently gave new live renditions of the ironically monikered RICH KIDS’ sadly relevant 1978 anti-Nazi anthem: “NEVER AGAIN DO I WANT TO HEAR THE SOUND OF MARCHING MEN!”

Anglo-German duo KALEIDA experienced an existential crisis due to the pressures of parenting and the shifting patterns of life. But Christina Wood and Cicely Goulder managed to make their long distance creative partnership work again and their reward was their third album ‘In Arms’. As the title suggested, it has been an impassioned battle capturing 3 years of artistic perseverance and reinforced their sense of purpose.

On a more personal level, Anglo-French artist Julia-Sophie delved deeper into the complexities of relationships by exploring themes of self-destruction, tenderness, love and emotional struggles. This is what happens when people ‘forgive too slow’ but swathed in an intriguing electronic sound, her understated fulfilment combined emotional unease with an airy beauty for some satisfying thoughtful listening for another of the best albums of 2024.

Photo by Chi Ming Lai

With the onset of climate change but still those in denial despite the scientific proof, Patricia Wolf conceived ‘The Secret Lives of Birds’. Having recorded various bird songs and calls, curiosity led her to become a conservationist and while her music was very beautiful at times, there were darker moments of angst and sadness driven by concern. Birds and their behaviour have been a creative haven for artists of a more ambient persuasion and Masayoshi Fujita continued his avian fascination on his new work ‘Migratory’.

Loula Yorke presented her new ‘Volta’ and the wonderful opener ‘It’s been decided that if you lay down no-one will die’ acted as a bittersweet meditation on overwhelm, an emotion many were feeling. For Finlay Shakespeare, his creative journey appeared to have taken its emotional toll and ‘Directions Out Of Town’ reflected turbulent times and was touted as possibly his last album. Meanwhile Polish producer ZAMILSKA summed feelings up with the impassioned ‘United Kingdom Of Anxiety’ as another exile from Belarus CHIKISS captured this moment ‘Between Time & Laziness’.

Photo by Thomas Stelzmann

While a new PET SHOP BOYS album was always on the cards and they duly delivered with their fifteenth ‘Nonetheless’, Michael Mertens and Ralf Dörper starting a new chapter of PROPAGANDA was perhaps on not on anyone’s bingo card at the start of 2024. Featuring the sultry vocals of Thunder Bae, PROPAGANDA presented an eponymous long player to signify a fresh start with the closing cover ‘Wenn Ich Mir Was Wünschen Dürfte’ being a key highlight.

There were several key esoteric releases in 2024; Gareth Jones and Daniel Miller released their third volume of ‘Electronic Music Improvisations’ as SUNROOF while Heiko Maile and Julian DeMarre offered ‘Neostalgia’, leaving Jori Hulkkonen with some ‘Hurt Humour’. And like a greeting from wherever he is now in the universe, Klaus Schulze had ‘101, Milky Way’ posthumously released in a continuation of his vast electronic legacy.

In 2024, there were albums released where 90 to 100% of the content comprised of previously released singles; one of those was the debut album by LEATHERS, the side-project of ACTORS keyboardist Shannon Hemmett which explored her love of dark electronic pop. Another was the appropriately titled ‘VII’ by Swedish duo KITE which was their seventh body of work containing music from their seven most recent singles released over the past seven years, gathering the power and the glory of their ambition.

Using a similar strategy,  R. MISSING finally released an album ‘Knife Shook Your Hand’ after years of embracing a scattergun standalone song approach which at times was frustrating to follow, especially with today’s now widely embraced Netflix-led home and mobile entertainment methodology of “binge watching” TV series.

Photo by Volker Maass

CAMOUFLAGE finally took their ‘Rewind To The Future & Goodbye’ tour on the German road with a show look backing on four decades. Meanwhile celebrating 45 years of BLANCMANGE, ‘Everything Is Connected’ was a new career-spanning collection supported by a tour where Neil Arthur supported himself with his collaborative side project THE REMAINDER. Celebrating 25 years of the multi-million selling ‘Play’, Moby delivered a mighty greatest hits set in front of a packed house at London’s O2 Arena as well as highlights from that album.

Midge Ure aired his catalogue of his greatest hits and with so many ULTRAVOX songs part of the set, it was difficult not to think of his departed bandmate Chris Cross who passed away this year. Another sad loss in 2024 who had connections to ULTRAVOX and their former leader John Foxx was the iconic photographer Brian Griffin; his other subjects included DEPECHE MODE, OMD, SPANDAU BALLET and TALK TALK.

With 16 tracks speeding through its restless 40 minutes, ‘Powder Dry’ saw Tim Bowness revisiting his passion for the post-punk and electronic pop acts of his teens, having opened for the solo Billy Currie version of ULTRAVOX and worked with members of JAPAN while in his first band NO-MAN with Steven Wilson; of course the latter has been behind the spate of new remixes of ULTRAVOX for their series of lavish boxed sets.

A number of veterans returned after long new release absences. Michel Moers, best known as the front man of Belgian electronic trailblazers TELEX released what was only his second solo studio album ‘As Is’ and had Claudia Brücken guest on its lead single ‘Microwaves. Meanwhile after several years in the making, Harald Grosskopf presented ‘Strom’, translated from German as “electricity”.

Across the Atlantic, Los Angeles-based multimedia artist Geneva Jacuzzi gave a detached Eurocentric poise reminiscent of Gina X and her third album ‘Triple Fire’ was an enjoyably delightful mix of accessible electronic pop and energetic art chaos. Comprising of North America’s alternative music power couple Tom Shear and Mari Kattman, HELIX took their fans to an ‘Unimaginable Place’ as another US based couple XENO & OAKLANDER further refined their precise yet spirited productions for their eight album ‘Via Negativa (in the doorway light)’.

Newer North American acts making a splash were IMMORTAL GIRLFRIEND and Canada’s MINDREADER while Los Angeles-based duo DIE SEXUAL finally brought their erotic charge to the stage opening for the likes of IAMX and LEÆTHER STRIP. But the most promising act emerging stateside were Haute & Freddy.

Photo by Tim Darin

For the past few years, Alison Lewis has focussed on her ZANIAS solo venture but she was back playing live with Ryan Ambridge as LINEA ASPERA in the summer with the pair having been quietly writing and recording new material together. Having found TikTok fame performing synthwave styled covers, DREAMKID released his second album ‘Daggers’ to capitalise on his social media traction while both exploring much darker climes, CURSES and CZARINA released their third full length albums.

In Europe, Belgian duo METROLAND released their sixth album ‘Forum’ as well as simultaneously maintaining their solo projects 808 DOT POP and LECTREAU. In Sweden, Johan Agebjörn was a very busy man releasing EPs with Yota and Mikael Ögren while also announcing he has a work-in-progress with NINA; the Queen of Synthwave’s own musical partnership with RADIO WOLF was developing nicely, with a European tour opening for CANNONS giving the couple a chance to showcase their darker sound.

As the summer ended, IONNALEE ambitiously issued her new album simultaneously in English and Swedish while Norwegian neighbours PISTON DAMP declared there were “No Points For Trying” as they launched the more pessimistic instalment of their twin volume ‘Mastermind’ album venture.

Photo by Joanna Wzorek

Presenting the second volume of their ‘Midnight Confessions’ series, ITALOCONNECTION were back with their vintage but modern style of Italo disco while Greco-German trio DINA SUMMER showed that good electronic dance music with a grittier impassioned outlook was alive and well in Berlin. Also based in the former divided city, Polish DJ and producer CHARLIE emerged as one of the promising new stars on the Italo-Proto scene.

Retrospective sets can often compile another time, another place as exemplified by releases this year from Bryan Ferry, Peter Baumann and NO-MAN proved. But the best one came from FRANK CHICKENS whose ‘Ninja Legends 1983-1989’ captured them in their quirky prime, especially on the collection of BBC radio  sessions which made it an essential purchase. On the book front, ‘1984: The Year Pop Went Queer’ was among the best.

The desire to revisit the past became a major thing in 2024, as exemplified by the frenzy surrounding the sale of tickets for the OASIS reunion shows which were among the first in the UK to employ the dreaded but perfectly legal scam of dynamic pricing. But the need to see any band years past their commercial peak with the likelihood of a less accomplished performance than before, be it vocally, musically or energetically, was a head scratching prospect. The music world has been trying to make up for lost time and money since 2021 but the post-covid gig bubble may have now burst.

With ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK having seen many bands back in the day at their best, the shows now available with a hint of nostalgia may not have been universally appealing as they were to those who were too young or not even born to have attended first time around. But paradoxically thanks to the dearth of new quality music, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK found itself listening to podcasts of old people talking about old music! So it was an honour to be invited by host Iain McDermott to chat about our favourite year in music 1981 for his wonderful ‘Back To NOW’ podcast centred around the noted compilation album series.

‘The Album Years’ hosted by Steven Wilson and Tim Bowness remarked that “talking about music IS the new music” and on the most knowledgeable, passionate and humorous podcasts, hosts were able to express their opinion and say a record or an artist was “sh*t” without immediate fear of social media retorts while also praising where praise was deserved!

But during a recent edition of ‘The Small Town Boys’, Clark Datchler of JOHNNY HATES JAZZ remarked that while music critics back in the day could be “cynical” and “nasty”, today they are at the other extreme and “sycophants now” with “hardly any criticism of records released” – this everything is brilliant mentality has undoubtedly led to an acceptance of mediocrity and a lack of perspective in a monoculture of medium pleasure.

With those forthright and articulate expressions key to their success, live presentations of these podcasts in theatres and arenas are becoming increasingly popular and profitable thanks to lower overheads, especially when compared to concerts.

Among ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s favourite music podcasts in 2024 were ‘Word In Your Ear’ presented by former Smash Hits and Q editors David Hepworth and Mark Ellen, ‘Electronically Yours With Martyn Ware’ and ‘The Giddy Carousel of Pop’ discussing the history of Smash Hits. But best of all was the more general podcast ‘The Rest Is Entertainment’ hosted by Richard Osman and Marina Hyde which is part of Gary Lineker’s Goalhanger Podcast empire also behind ‘The Rest Is Politics’, ‘The Rest Is History’, ‘The Rest Is Money’, ‘The Rest Is Classified’ and ‘The Rest Is Football’; one suspects the popular socially conscious former footballer will not miss the BBC the way it will miss him 😉

If 2023 was something of a strange year, 2024 might have actually been stranger. There is a glimmer of hope for the future, but the signs are already there that things may get worse, be it socially, politically, environmentally or culturally… sometimes, people really do deserve what they get!

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s 2024 playlist ‘The Great Bleep Forward’ containing over 235 tracks from the year can be listened to on Spotify at https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4xMrAkCbeWvUmTfrN6i6Gu

Text by Chi Ming Lai
27th December 2024

BACK TO NOW: NOW 1981 Yearbook with ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK

16 September 2024 /

Hosted by self-confessed pop rambler Iain McDermott, ‘Back To NOW’ is a podcast that celebrates all things related to the variously compiled world of pop, how our favourite compilation albums shaped our lives and now fondly stand as time capsules for our own musical journeys.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s Chi Ming Lai and Ian Ferguson were extremely pleased to be invited as guests on ‘Back To NOW’ and opted to choose the 2022 release of the ‘NOW ‘81 Yearbook’ 4CD set and its companion 3CD set of “Extras”. One of the reasons it was chosen was because, as described by the Now Music official website , “it was a watershed year for pop with new British artists emerging from the ashes of punk and disco by way of the New Romantic movement”

1981 saw key albums by ULTRAVOX, SIMPLE MINDS, HEAVEN 17, THE HUMAN LEAGUE, JAPAN, NEW ORDER, OMD, DEPECHE MODE and SOFT CELL as well as Gary Numan and John Foxx, released within a 10 week period that Autumn. The year also saw the return of KRAFTWERK and Jean-Michel Jarre after an absence of 3 years while DURAN DURAN issued their self-titled debut long player.

Among the discussion points in this episode are how the affordability of synthesizers was changing the musical landscape, how Midge Ure was becoming particularly ubiquitous as a producer, ABBA’s ‘The Visitors’ album and how progressive rock elements were seeping into the sounds of the year. This was the year 1981 B.C.C. – before CULTURE CLUB!

Of course, the ‘Now That’s What I Call Music’ series did not exist at the time so there is room for chat about the compilations of the period, in particular K-Tel’s ‘Modern Dance’ of 1982 which provided a near-definitive snapshot of electronic pop of 1980-1981. Featuring DEPECHE MODE, THE HUMAN LEAGUE, OMD, VISAGE, HEAVEN 17, JAPAN, SIMPLE MINDS, LANDSCAPE, FASHION and THE CURE, Radio1 DJ Peter Powell declared that ‘Modern Dance’ was “The best of total danceability, the sounds of modern dance, on one LP!”.

The trio also  get to discuss what songs are missing on ‘NOW ‘81 Yearbook’ and ‘NOW ‘81 Yearbook Extra’, be it to licensing or artist veto, and in a year when quite a few brilliant songs did not actually get chart recognition, they each choose their three tracks which they would like to have been included.

The broad church of the UK singles charts at that time meant that it was not all good, with easy listening Radio 2 tunes, soppy Motown ballads and medley records dispelling the rose-tinted myth often portrayed by today’s internet radio DJs that the 1981 charts was full of synthpop! This becomes one of the talking points, as does the fact that heavy metal, rock ‘n’ roll, soul, jazz funk, disco, reggae, ska, post-punk, AOR and mainstream pop sat significantly alongside the New Romantics and Futurists.

1981 was a dazzling 12 months where the decade began to take shape and form an identity that remains with us today. Grab some blank tapes, switch off one of the 3 channels on your TV and join us as we head back to a glorious year in pop, 1981.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Iain McDermott

Tune into past episodes of ‘Back To NOW’ wherever you get your podcasts via https://linktr.ee/poprambler

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Text by Simon Helm
16th September 2024

2023 END OF YEAR REVIEW

18 December 2023 /

Photo by Jori Hulkkonen

Just as it looked like it would be safe to come out to play, there was uncertainty within the music industry again.

What had become the artists’ favourite platform thanks to its low commission and 0% Fridays, Bandcamp was taken over by Epic Games in 2022 but then following a move by employees to unionise, was sold to Songtradr who immediately dismissed half of its staff… in hindsight, despite its proclamation that this platform cared about the music, it looked like this had been yet another start-up by tech venture capitalists. Just as many acts dropped their own websites in favour of Facebook over a decade ago but were then trapped into sponsored posts to reach the majority of their own fanbase, online shops had been dropped for Bandcamp. So, things are back to square one as many consider a rebuild of their web presence.

Meanwhile, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino made a controversial declaration that concert ticket prices were generally too low and that artists could easily “charge a bit more”. While THE CURE notably refused to do this and capped their face value tickets at $20 for their US tour, the Live Nation sister outlet Ticketmaster applied excessive booking extras of more than $20 per ticket for a “service fee”, “facility charge” and “order processing”! With dynamic pricing in place at a number of high profile events and so-called VIP tickets on the rise (which didn’t actually include a meet ‘n’ greet but only a nearby bar and a lanyard), fans had their “FOMO” anxieties triggered and simply paid up!

Photo by Chi Ming Lai

Another artist who kept ticket prices low was Midge Ure who embarked on the successful ‘Voices & Visions’ tour after a year’s delay due to uncertainties over the Covid situation in 2022. Complimented by a straightforward but very effective light show and material from his second and third long players with ULTRAVOX ‘Rage In Eden’ and ‘Quartet’, it was a triumph. He was rewarded with a 70th birthday show celebrating his career at The Royal Albert Hall, which despite its plush surroundings was also kept affordable.

Who says an artist has no control over retail pricing? But one band who were shamelessly happy to charge more for concert tickets, more for merchandise and more for physical releases were DEPECHE MODE. For their first album and tour since the passing of co-founder Andy Fletcher in 2022, the remaining members played the death card with ‘Memento Bori’ and managed to plonk an even more underwhelming arena show into the stadiums of the world… at least the ‘Global Spirit’ tour featured risers!

With renowned UK venues such as Printworks and Moles closing down, as had already been highlighted by Juls Garat of US goth band PILGRIMS OF YEARNING via social media in 2022: “If you’re spending a kidney on DEPECHE MODE tickets and not attending a local show this weekend, I don’t wanna see you complaining that there’s no scene, local venues or new music anymore”. However, one seemingly oblivious Devotee said about the inflated ticket prices: “Really don’t know what the issue is. Happily paid £108.00 for a DM ticket. Would have paid more!!”. And therein lays the problem… DEPECHE MODE played a date at Stadion Wankdorf in Bern and that said it all! As the man who Devotees call a genius once wrote: “Some great reward will be coming my way…”

Photo by Chi Ming Lai

As The Devotees wallowed in their collective misery during 2023, the Stockholm Syndrome was stronger than ever. On the Bratislava leg at the National Football Stadium, one of The Black Swarm commented to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK: “I was there… I must admit, a bit disappointed… but I still love them!!!”. It was business as usual for DEPECHE MODE, with “business” being the operative word. It was reported that so much money had been sucked out of the European alternative music market in particular that a number of acts had to schedule their planned tours to 2024, while others who had made good albums worthy of attention in 2023 got lost in the sea of DM propaganda on the web.

Despite increased ticket prices at all levels, gig etiquette declined to the worst possible standards with the constant chatter and bad manners among some attendees. Surely if you have paid upwards of £30 or more for a show, you might want to pay more attention and enjoy it? ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK has never seen it this bad in the 43 years it has been going to concerts, but this entitled arrogance to talk extremely loudly about total bollocks is a undoubted legacy of Brexit and Covid which in combination has normalised a lack of social graces in gathered environments… and when challenged, these total numbskulls become aggressive, pitifully unaware that they are ruining the evening of those around them.

Meanwhile, there was another undesirable element who only go to gigs to post selfies and badly distorted footage on their socials… these were often the sort of people who actually hated the band back in the day, but after 40+ years realised they like the song on the Vitality or Waitrose advert so are sudddenly giving it the big “I AM” about being a fan… but BECAUSE they are only there for one song, they then treat the rest of the gig like they were out with their mates in the pub! 🤬

Photo by Chi Ming Lai

The best live shows of the year came from PET SHOP BOYS and DURAN DURAN with their arena extravaganzas full of hits, classic fan favourites and great staging. Among the album celebrations, CHINA CRISIS ran through their second long player ‘Working With Fire & Steel – Possible Pop Songs Volume 2’ on tour to celebrate its 40th anniversary and founder bassist Peter Hook took the first NEW ORDER compilation ‘Substance’ out on the road to coincide with its expanded 4CD reissue.

“Sweden’s best kept pop secret” KITE impressed with an imitate headliner for their debut London gig and later at Cologne’s Amphi Festival to a much larger crowd, while the return of Ollie Wride to the London stage at The Scala illustrated why he has potential to be the next synthwave artist to crossover into the mainstream.

Photo by Ed Miles

‘Time’s Arrow’, LADYTRON’s second album since their return from hiatus proved to be something of a disappointment while fairing slightly better with its anti-Brexit sentiments, ‘Bauhaus Staircase’ was touted as the final album from OMD; now kissing the strict machine, having previously been supportive of new electronic pop via ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK championed acts MIRRORS, VILLA NAH, VILE ELECTRODES, METROLAND, TINY MAGNETIC PETS and SOFTWAVE, their choice of art glam hipsters WALT DISCO as opening act on the UK leg of the 2024 tour was symbolic of the general poor state of modern synthpop ie pop music using synths, particularly within the narrow-mindset of Brexit Britain.

Although the UK was continuing to party like it was 1933, the incendiary language that Cruella Braverman was using was so extreme that she was even dismissed from fronting the Conservative Party new wave covers band A FLOCK OF SIEG HEILS… as a trio of poets from South Yorkshire once said: “BROTHERS! SISTERS! WE DON’T NEED THIS FASCIST GROOVE THANG!” ✊

Reflecting a wider issue, 2023 also saw ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK publish its fewest number of ‘Introducing…’ new artist articles since its inception in 2010 with only Brigitte Bardini and Madeleine Goldstein featured. There were a number of possible reasons…

Photo by Bella Salvatore

“The technology leads the art form and it always has” said veteran producer Steve Lillywhite on a recent Rockonteurs podcast, “if the technology allows you to reference other people’s records… you WILL do that!”. This was summed up by an Apple Mac advert featuring sample-based British pop singer PinkPantheress demonstrating how to have a hit by appropriating a topline from Kelly Rowland and plonking it into GarageBand before processing her voice through AutoTune and nabbing the intro of ‘Gold’ by SPANDAU BALLET… you said it yourself Miss Walker, IT SOUNDS LIKE GARBAGE!

While the accessibility, usability and sound quality of modern tech has totally democratised music making, as another veteran producer Stephen Hague put it to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK “it’s made it far too easy”, with the end result being familiarity and imitation rather than innovation. Now that an acceptable sound is able to be obtained fairly quickly on software such as GarageBand, the level of songwriting has generally declined in many genres. Artists abstain from putting in the hard work towards the actual songcraft because they think their track is already great, as it sounds like someone they’ve based it on!

However, the misuse of “synth” as a description reached a new nadir in 2023. There were those using “synth” or “synthwave” in their brand identity who proudly revealed via their Spotify Wrapped that their Top Genre was actually rock or made bizarre comments like “What I like most about synthwave is the guitar solos”. Meanwhile one artist declared they were synthpop because they had spent their youth “listening to too much Madonna”! But synth music as an enduring form is ultimately doomed when social media platforms using “Synthpop” in their idents think that guitar-based bands like BIG COUNTRY and COCTEAU TWINS are part of it, or compile acoustic playlists!! 🤦‍♂️

“Synth” has now somehow become is a general term for any retro-flavoured pop with an element of shiny artifice whether synthesizers have been used or not! These artists and “content creators” are now too young to understand what “synth” in music actually once meant and probably think the term is short for “synthetic” as in clothes and hair products, as opposed to “synthesizer”.

That said, 2023 was not all bad and there was a lot of excellent music. The song of the year was by the unlikely synth hero in glum rocker Lloyd Cole; while guitars made a more prominent but limited return on his album ‘On Pain’ following 2019’s electronically-dominated ‘Guesswork’, the standout song ‘The Idiot’ saw him provide a touching narrative on the relationship between David Bowie and Iggy Pop as they relocated to Berlin in 1976.

Swedish veterans PAGE took the Numanisation of their poptronica to its zenith by bringing in former imperial phase Numan band members Chris Payne and RRussell Bell on their new album ‘En Ny Våg’. Across the Öresund Bridge, Danish synthpop couple SOFTWAVE showed the world the ‘things we’ve done’.

Photo by George Tripodakis

Another music veteran Ricky Wilde teamed up with NINA to reveal their ‘Scala Hearts’; full of classic pop references and a modern sheen, this was the record Wilde had wanted to make for a few years but hadn’t been able to with his sister Kim. Its creative drive showed and this was also the best long player that NINA had been part of since she launched her solo career in 2011. In a busy year, NINA also found time to satisfy many a red blooded fantasy by collaborating with Kid Moxie on the ‘Lust’ EP released by Italians Do It Better.

The Finns were strong too, with Jaakko Eino Kalavi and Jori Hulkkonen producing two of the best albums of 2023. The former’s eclectic ‘Chaos Magic’ featured Alma Jodorowsky, Mr Silla and Jimi Tenor as special guests while the latter’s ‘There Is Light Hidden In These Shadows’ brought in John Grant, Ralf Dörper, Jake Shears, Jon Marsh, Juho Paalosmaa and Tiga.

While maintaining his front man role in MESH, Mark Hockings presented his solo project BLACKCARBURNING in long playing form and was ‘Watching Sleepers’. Also going it alone, Alison Goldfrapp squarely hit the dancefloor via ’The Love Invention’ with Kylie Minogue’s similarly glitzy ‘Tension’ as its companion. But with ACTORS still busy touring the world, the planned long playing debut from LEATHERS was yet to emerge but there were two new singles in the interim.

METROLAND and side project 808 DOT POP ambitiously released albums in five different formats with exclusive tracks on each between them simultaneously, in a move that had not been seen since 1978 when all four members of KISS released solo records on the same day. Much more discretely, ITALOCONNECTION came up with ‘Nordisko’ which comprised of Nordic pop disco covers. More ambient experiments were served by John Foxx, Vince Clarke, Patricia Wolf, Johan Agebjörn and the late Ryuichi Sakamoto, while putting those ethereal textures into song was Hinako Omori with her appropriately named second album ‘stillness, softness…’

Germany’s BEBORN BETON offered bleak commentary on the state of the planet with ‘Darkness Falls Again’ but encouraged everyone to be dancers in the dark while Chinese band STOLEN highlighted this ‘Eroded Creation’. Within their ‘Circle Of Doom’, NNHMN had pressing matters closer to home while ZANIAS emerged from her ‘Chrysalis’. FERAL FIVE confronted and worked with AI to declare ‘Truth Is The New Gold’ and Finlay Shakespeare tapped into his ‘Illusion + Memory’.

Photo by Tim Darin

Among the promising emergent acts with debut EPs were NEU-ROMANCER and DIE SEXUAL while German solo artists Jennifer Touch and Laura Dre added to their long playing portfolios, as did OHNOTHING and BUNNY X. Fronted by respectively by John Grant and Neil Arthur, CREEP SHOW and THE REMAINDER outlined the benefits of collaboration while CAUSEWAY joined forces with R. MISSING for the single ‘Wear The Night Out’.

Despite having plied their trade for over 50 years, SPARKS continued to be as eccentric as ever and even had Cate Blanchett appear in the video for ‘The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte’. With ‘*Happiness now completed’ and Dave Ball returning to the live fold after a period of serious illness, SOFT CELL effectively issued another new album featuring a significant number of previously unreleased tracks including covers of Giorgio Moroder and X-RAY SPEX to provide a much more satisfying listening experience than the parent ‘*Happiness not included’ record. Then there was the unexpected recorded return of CLASSIX NOUVEAUX with their ‘Battle Cry’.

Veteran acts who ceased active operations many years ago got worthy boxed set treatments; TELEX provided ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK with the funniest interview of the year in support of their self-titled retrospective on Mute while LANDSCAPE were comprehensively catalogued by Cooking Vinyl. Not to be left out, the trusty Cherry Red via their Lemon imprint showcased how underrated NEW MUSIK and their leader Tony Mansfield were, especially with the latter’s sound clearly audible in today’s pop acts such as THE WEEKND.

Despite the return of Q, the jury was still out on whether music magazines are still desirable aside from their CD and vinyl artefacts. Meanwhile, music-based social media dumbed down its engagement to cut ‘n’ paste Wikipedia snippets accompanying archive photos or artwork, pointless 26th anniversary posts and non-significant birthday celebrations to attract likes. Comments from the public such as “My favourite album… I wish I still had it!” and saying “Happy Birthday” when the platform wasn’t even connected to the artist concerned only highlighted further the continuing inane nature of online interaction. And this was without those irritating “POV” reels and reaction videos on TikTok and Instagram which were unfortunately prevalent!

The less said about the right wing gammon infested sh*t show that Twitter has become, the better but on the new Threads platform intended to take it on, PENDULUM’s El Hornet remarked “omg threads is full of music industry self help w*nkers making lists about things nobody asked abort! ABORT!” 🤣

With such platforms also seemingly centred around the exposure of flesh with photos “just for fun” be the subject a golfer, gamer, painter, baker, comedian, hairdresser, photographer, psychologist, racing driver, book reviewer, poet, dating coach or Lego enthusiast, is it any wonder that several music artists resorted to setting up OnlyFans accounts to sell nude photos!

With pun totally intended, in this challenging climate for exposure, some acts simply got a bit too big for their boots and were unbearably conceited on their socials with their bragging and frivolous chatter to appease a needy flock who hung onto their every word, desperate to be seen to be “friends” of wannabe stars while crowdfunding towards their spa weekenders and vet bills for their cat… it was therefore ironic that one of these acts declared “Music isn’t a competition!” when it appeared that another band might be taking away some of their limelight! Well, stop acting like it’s a 24 hour edition of ‘The Apprentice’ then!!! 🙄

On the other side of the coin, one too cool for school band took a strange attitude to promotion by refusing to accept questions about their influences while trying to come over like total originals. Despite their inspirations being blatant and obvious to hear, they had a misguided self-belief that they were somehow speaking a new language! But everybody knows they started out by purchasing the sheet music to ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ from a New York thrift store! 😆

A few years ago, a lone British artist was complained about the lack of press attention for their new admittedly good album, but then proceeded not to answer emails containing interview pitches. Artists need to engage, no matter how much they say they hate doing promotion, they can’t have it both ways. The days of RADIOHEAD not doing interviews to promote a new album and letting the music speak for itself are long gone…

With the world now making up for lost time since 2020, it would be fair to say that 2023 has been something of a strange year!

Text by Chi Ming Lai
18th December 2023

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