Tag: Blancmange (Page 9 of 15)

MR NORMALL Interview

3 October 2017 /


The Amazing Adventures Of Mr Normall have gained a loyal cult following within the post-punk and electronic music world.

With a handshake, big smile, good guy profile, the Finnish music fan’s charming photographs with members of SPARKS, JAPAN, ULTRAVOX, BLANCMANGE, HEAVEN 17, DEPECHE MODE, VISAGE and MARSHEAUX among many, have endeared visitors to his website chronicling his travels.

After appearances in a number of promo videos including Kim Wilde and BEF’s cover of ‘Every Time I See You I Go Wild’ , Mr Normall was more recently cast as the star of the silent art movie ‘Nuntius’.

The film with its live soundtrack by Jimi Tenor and Jori Hulkkonen has played to audiences around the world, with Mr Normall occasionally joining the musicians with on stage cameos at selected performances.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK had the pleasure of catching up with Mr Normall for another chat about his continuing amazing adventures…


Since ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK last spoke to you in Spring 2011, your fame spread far and wide in some unexpected places. Richard Barbieri wanted his photo taken with you, what was the story here?

Oh yes… that was a surprise and very positive one. We had been friends on Facebook for some time, but I had no idea that he knew who I was or that he had paid any attention to me. Then last December – all of a sudden – he tags me and comments “it’s my ambition to have a photo with you”.

Of course it was humour, but I was very pleased nevertheless. JAPAN is my No 1 favourite band and to be sort of acknowledged by one of them was very cool. Mr Barbieri had his wish come true three months later in Birmingham where I went to see him play live. Richard Barbieri is a first-class artist and a very nice person.

You were also recognised by someone in 2014?

I did speak with Jonathan Ross at the SPARKS aftershow at the Union Chapel in December 2013 but he didn’t recognise me, I would have been really surprised if he did. The subject of our chat was ULTRAVOX. He prefers the John Foxx version of the band.

Do you think this recognition all escalated after Jori Hulkkonen asked you to appear in the ‘Take Me To Your Leader’ video for PROCESSORY?

In Finland, a few people did comment about the music video when meeting me but I don’t remember it happening anywhere else. However, I’m certain that ‘Take Me To Your Leader’ video made Mr Normall better known, even if I haven’t got much feedback about it.

The music video was done and released in spring 2011. I was really hoping to see it on TV back then, but it was just about that time when music videos disappeared from TV altogether.

The idea on me appearing on Jori Hulkkonen’s music video started actually almost a year before at the night when ULTRAVOX was playing live in Jori’s home town of Turku. After the gig was over, I and several other people – including Warren Cann – went to the unofficial ULTRAVOX after party at the club called Dynamo. There I told Jori, that if he’s interested to feature me on a music video in the future, I’m game. Few months later Jori contacted me about the subject and the result was ‘Take Me To Your Leader’ music video.

I must tell you this… after the ULTRAVOX gig in Turku when we arrived at the Dynamo club, I had a really good “Steve Strange moment”: The gig venue was quite far from city centre, so we took a big taxi to get the posse to the club. When we got to the Dynamo, I was walking in first and Warren Cann right behind me.

The DJ was playing ‘Fade To Grey’ by VISAGE and at that moment I felt just like that bit on the VISAGE music video tape where Steve Strange arrives a club in Paris and ‘Fade To Grey’ is playing in the background. That was THE way to enter to the club.


Of course after this, Jori and his musical partner Jimi Tenor asked you to appear in their film ‘Nuntius’, this had an interesting concept?

Jori Hulkkonen and Jimi Tenor had talked about making a film, but I suppose they didn’t have clear idea what it should be about. In July 2013 I met both of them at the Turku Modern festival and said that I would like to be in their film if they were interested.

The big idea was to make a silent film that would be shown only with live soundtrack by Tenor and Hulkkonen themselves. The film and its music would never be released in any format or be ever available online. Live performances only.

First days of filming ‘Nuntius’ were in May 2014. We started the car journey from Central Finland where I live and drove next to the Russian border in South-East Finland. The destination was an amazing place called Parikkalan Patsaspuisto (Parikkala sculpture park). We stopped to film where ever the scenery looked right. As far as I know, there wasn’t any actual plot ready when we started.

The only rough plot in the beginning was that “I’m being sent from one place to another to get something from there” and the genre is going to be Sci-Fi, perhaps something à la Tarkovsky.

What was filming like for you?

Those first two days of filming in May 2014 were the most fun and memorable for me. Maybe because it was a new situation and the realisation that this is really happening. Also the car journey itself with Jimi, Jori and Marjaana was fun.

There was three more filming days in 2014 and they were mainly done in an art studio in Helsinki. The studio is very high inside and it has a round platform which moves up and down, and also rotates. The studio was made in 1950s and it was made for the sculptor Kalervo Kallio, who was a son of Finland’s President Kyösti Kallio. The studio is the setting for the “other place” where Mr Normall is being sent somewhere else to get something. I would have never spent time at this special place if it wasn’t for ‘Nuntius’.

In May 2015, there were two days of filming in Helsinki for the second version of ‘Nuntius’. Those shoots were done at several locations. The latest shoots were just recently in July 2017 when we filmed around Estonia over three days.

It was much like the first shoots three years earlier because also this time we drove around the country and stopped where scenery was suitable to be filmed. There are strange ex-military places in Estonia that have been deserted after the Russian Army left them when Estonia got independent. Those were exciting days and I definitely wouldn’t had ever visited those places without ongoing ‘Nuntius’ production.

I don’t know yet what will become of all the new shots; will it be the third version of ‘Nuntius’ with a lot of new stuff or will they became a whole new entity à la ‘Nuntius – Part 2’ or something like that?


You made a new friend named Louis while riding a motorcycle?

Louis the dog was only one year old, but he was already a real pro. There was one shot with Louis which could have ended badly… I was driving a sidecar motorcycle in a tunnel in Helsinki and Louis was sitting in the sidecar. It was a public road and there was other traffic too. The shot had to be done several times and if Louis had jumped out of the sidecar, he might have been hit by a car.

He had a collar and a leash was around my arm, but I’m not sure what would have happened if Louis wanted to jump out of very loud old motorcycle. Luckily he was very cool all the time and it seemed like he knew what we were doing.

I saw Louis again last year and he wouldn’t stop barking at me. I’m not sure what he meant by that.

‘Nuntius’ has taken you around the world with you making cameos while Jori and Jimi are performing. Which locations or events have you found most interesting? Any funny stories?

I have attended several ‘Nuntius’ shows in Finland and also few abroad. Berlin was special because that day was also Jimi Tenor’s 50th birthday, so that evening at the Lido was also his birthday party.

The Sonar Festival 2015 in Barcelona: ‘Nuntius’ was on Saturday afternoon and DURAN DURAN played at the festival the same night. There was my big chance to meet them but it didn’t happen. Barcelona in June is hot even late in the evening and I was wearing a heavy 3-piece suit. Not the best possible choice when everyone else had T-shirt and shorts.

The most important ‘Nuntius’ performance for me has been the one in Düsseldorf in October 2016 where it was a part of the ELECTRI_CITY_CONFERENCE. ‘Nuntius’ was the last item of the two day conference – or rather a festival of electronic music – and right before it, the stage was occupied by John Foxx and co for their ‘Evidence Of Time Travel’ performance.

What made this particular ‘Nuntius’ showing so special was that there was several of my favourite artists in the audience, as well as friends whom I have seen at gigs before. Jori summed it up very well: “The audience wasn’t big but it was a good quality audience”.

I have been watching John Foxx on my TV screen hundreds of times and now he was watching me on the big screen. Surreal.

One more special memory… my first – and so far only – visit to Berlin was in March 2015. After arriving to the city and finding my hotel, I went out to have my first ever walk in Berlin. Kreuzberg was only few minutes away so I went that way. Soon I saw some gig posters on a wall – not THE wall – and among them was the special ‘Nuntius’ poster made for the evening’s show. My first time in this big city and when I step out of my hotel there’s a poster featuring a photo of me. It was a unique and strange moment for a visitor from the Finnish countryside.

You’ve made a number of other appearances in videos and photoshoots, are there anymore in the offing?

We are likely to do more shots for ‘Nuntius’ later this year but that’s all. It would be nice to feature in a music video again, especially by an artist that I like. It would be great to experience that again.


Peter Hook had an amusingly and typically Mancunian response when you introduced yourself to him in Düsseldorf?

What was it that he said? I think his kind reply was “there’s nothing normal about you” when I introduced myself. I disagree, of course 😉

Tony Visconti has just about seen it all, so what was your encounter with him like?

I did meet him briefly a few times when HOLY HOLY played live in London and Sheffield during September 2014. I was also at the ICA to listen to Tony Visconti and Woody Woodmansey talk about making the album ‘The Man Who Sold The World’. Both of them were very friendly and didn’t mind signing a few Bowie CD sleeves for me. Getting records signed is a good excuse to approach an artist and it gives you a moment to have a brief chat.

MIRRORS were your favourite new synth act but sadly they are no more. Is there anyone you’ve listened to who you would you rate today?

I suppose you mean new or relatively new acts? Hannah Peel makes good music with often unusual and interesting arrangements. One new band that I like is TINY MAGNETIC PETS. I’ve been listening to their new album on Spotify quite a lot.


Your portfolio has grown over the last few years, but is there anyone left you would still like to meet and be photographed with?

I have met quite a few artists but there are still many of my “official favourites” that I haven’t met yet. With some it’s already too late, but for those still in this dimension I would say David Sylvian and DURAN DURAN are the most important not-yet-met-artists.

Then there’s several others like one ex-member of KRAFTWERK whom everyone else seems to have met but not me. I’m not done yet with these ‘Close Encounters Of The Third Kind’.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Mr Normall

http://www.mrnormall.net/

https://twitter.com/MrNormall

Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
Photos courtesy of Mr Normall
3rd October 2017

BLANCMANGE Unfurnished Rooms

21 September 2017 /

Following the collaborative project with Benge as FADER, this relationship is perpetuated with the John Foxx sideman tackling production duties on the new BLANCMANGE album ‘Unfurnished Rooms’.

The eponymous album opener is an intriguing mixture of guitar textures, interlocking monosynths and Linn Drum programming. Neil Arthur’s vocals convey a real sense of loss and a brilliant chanting “search, search!” helps tie the whole piece together. Always one for incorporating ‘kitchen sink’ drama lyrics into his songs, Arthur’s killer line here is “…no amount of online shopping will cover the loss”.

‘We Are The Chemicals’ is an understated, but ultimately catchy track, with a lyric which sounds part news report and part early HUMAN LEAGUE with a “…chemical spillage on a trading estate in Altrincham” forming the centrepiece for the song. Arthur himself provides guitar on the track and a simplistic square wave synth and early Roland JP-style arpeggiator fills in the mid-range on the piece. The track’s beauty lies in that it doesn’t try too hard and in its concluding 50 seconds hits a wonderful, but still low-key climax with some additional soaring keyboard parts.

‘Share it Out’ starts out like a sped-up long distance cousin of MARTHA & THE MUFFINS New Wave classic ‘Echo Beach’ before Arthur’s flanged psychedelic vocals are joined by an early Roland drum machine combo and heads off in an entirely different direction altogether. Very hypnotic and almost ambient in places, ‘Share It Out’ utilises the kind of Eastern melodic scale that made ‘Living On The Ceiling’ such a successful culture-splicing track.

The downtempo ‘Wiping the Chair’ utilises a combination of NEW ORDER-style guitars and OMD-influenced synth textures and is a highlight here; low-key in its delivery, Arthur delivers an emotional song about reuniting with a long-lost friend asking them to “Come back soon”. ‘Anna Dine’ has a wickedly catchy chord progression and features the kind of interlocking monosynth work that made the early DEPECHE MODE and YAZOO albums sound so effective, it also has another classic brutalist Arthur line in “I’ve taken the earth wires from most of your plugs”. ‘In December’ is another atmospheric slow tempo track and another highlight here; with an ambient soundscape aesthetic which drifts over the listener effortlessly.

With its combo of squealing guitar riff-age and discordant modular electronics ‘Gratitude’ takes its cues from NINE INCH NAILS to the point where one could imagine Trent Reznor taking the lead vocal on this track. An angry-sounding Arthur really lets loose here and it provides a welcome rise in tempo on the album.

The song which is most highly anticipated here is the collaboration with John Grant; the closing 8 minute piece features Grant on backing vocals and piano. ‘Don’t Get Me Wrong’ winds the tempo back down again and despite a hooky chorus line, doesn’t quite match some of the earlier highlights on ‘Unfurnished Rooms’.

With the current OMD album setting an extremely high bar for how an electronic record should sound sonically both mix and mastering-wise, the only drawback with ‘Unfurnished Rooms’ is the imagining of how it would sound with a bigger and more expansive production job. Some of the elements of the album feel like they would benefit from more layers (especially Arthur’s vocals) and a finer attention to detail.

For many listeners though, ‘Unfurnished Rooms’ will be fine addition to the BLANCMANGE canon and Arthur’s wonderfully personal songwriting skills show no sign of diminishing anytime soon.

‘Unfurnished Rooms’ is released by Blanc Check on 22nd September 2017 in a CD, vinyl LP and digital, available from http://blancmange.tmstor.es/

BLANCMANGE 2017 live dates include:

Brighton Concorde 2 (5th October), London 229 (6th October), Southend Chinnery’s (19th October), Southampton 1965 (20th October), Darwen Library (25th October), Newcastle Boiler Shop (26th October), Edinburgh La Belle (27th October), Glasgow Audio (28th October), Bristol The Fleece (2nd November), Nottingham Rescue Rooms (4th November)

BLANCMANGE also play ‘The Tour of Synthetic Delights 2’ with HEAVEN 17, dates include:

Sheffield Foundry (10th November), Liverpool Hangar34 (11th November), Hull Welly (17th November), Manchester Academy2 (18th November), Coventry Copper Rooms (24th November), Norwich Waterfront (25th November)

http://www.blancmange.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/BlancmangeMusic

https://twitter.com/_blancmange_

Text by Paul Boddy
21st September 2017

A Short Conversation with BLANCMANGE

12 September 2017 /

To say that Neil Arthur is in the most prolific stage of his career would be an understatement.

Since BLANCMANGE returned in 2011 with ‘Blanc Burn’, there have been a further three long players ranging from the dark pop of ‘Semi Detached’ and the beautiful instrumentals of ‘Nil By Mouth’ to the raw minimal experimentation of ‘Commuter 23’. And this is without the recent retrospective box set ‘The Blanc Tapes’ and Arthur’s side projects as FADER with Benge and NEAR FUTURE with Jez Bernholz.

September 2017 sees the arrival of the eighth BLANCMANGE long player ‘Unfurnished Rooms’; co-produced by Benge and featuring contributions from renowned guitarist David Rhodes and the towering figure of John Grant, ‘Unfurnished Rooms’ is loosely based around the theme of feeling of being lost in a dream. As Arthur sings on the title track “no amount of online shopping will cover for the loss”.

Neil Arthur kindly spoke to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about ‘Unfurnished Rooms’, working with John Grant and his thoughts on the new LCD SOUNDSYSTEM album…

The ‘Unfurnished Rooms’ title song is a great opener, is that a metaphor for this world of joyless hedonism that society appears to be living in?

You know what I’m like, I prefer there to be less explanation as to what the lyrics may allude to, so that it leaves ambiguity. It would be like if I was a film maker, before you sat down and watched it, I told you what happened at the end! *laughs*

I like people to make their own minds up and obviously, we are all able to observe what’s happening around us, but some of the stuff that goes on in your head, only you know about and it can take you a long time to fathom that out! So it’s not just a metaphor, the idea of unfurnished rooms can mean unfinished work or a journey as well.

I noticed there are what appear to be Linn LM1 drum sounds on ‘Unfurnished Rooms’, how do you go about constructing a track these days?

This album, I worked on a laptop… I write on guitar or synths and put everything onto either Logic or Ableton, it was sort of half and half. I used a variety of VSTs and a few old synths to make my noises and plus some guitar. I was fortunate enough to work with Benge over the last couple of years including the FADER album and we thought it would be a really good idea for Benge to replace the VST sounds on the drum parts and rhythm sections with the real thing or analogue synth sounds.

Benge has got the real equipment and not only is he a fantastic programmer, engineer and producer, but he’s also a good drummer… he played it all in so there’s a bit of movement there too. But there’s still VSTs on there and my guitar as well as David Rhodes, who’s done much better guitar than I can manage.

So where does FADER end and BLANCMANGE begin, what are the rules of engagement?

They are very different beasts despite both of us being involved. For example, the FADER album ‘First Light’ started with Benge sending me backing tracks and I responded by adding vocals and a few melody lines; after a few exchanges, we then got together in the studio to mix it.

With BLANCMANGE, I write the music and record most of the parts. But in this case, I took the album to Benge and we took it apart to replace the VST rhythms with the real deal and mixed it, so there’s a fundamental difference.

‘Anna Dine’, what a brilliant title, what inspired the wordplay and the song?

I’ve always enjoyed a bit of wordplay. In the first line, I’m finding space in between the normal things to write about *laughs*

Everybody, no matter who they are, those months which take up quite a bit of their time, all those bits joined together for me make a kind of existence. I’m very interested in that mundane aspect of those insubstantial moments, because if there wasn’t a space, there would be nothing to hold us all together.

‘Gratitude’ unleashes some aggression…

I had this groove going that I thought was a bit like ‘Honky Tonk Women! So I was mincing around thinking I was Mick Jagger! *laughs*

I remembered seeing LCD SOUNDSYSTEM on TV and James Murphy was bashing away on this cowbell and it really made me laugh, I thought “there aren’t enough cowbells in songs”; so I had this cowbell thing going! So in all the darkness that can be going on with BLANCMANGE, I was having fun with this music.

This idea of a few simple lines came together about how I was feeling about things and it just came out. If people need a reference, it’s a bit like how I feel when I sing ‘I Can’t Explain’, sometimes it’s good to get it out of your system.

And on the other side of the coin, there’s the sedate Eno-esque ‘In December’…

I don’t sleep well so if I can’t, I get up and do something like write. It was absolutely pouring it down outside although it wasn’t particularly cold, so I opened the doors and recorded the sound of this rain and I just started thinking about the seasons passing.

In terms of it sounding Eno-esque, there’s no intention but thinking about the stuff we did on ‘Irene & Mavis’, you end up trying to fit in somewhere and one of the big influences was ENO & CLUSTER without a doubt, as well as things off ‘Another Green World’ and ‘Evening Star’ with Fripp… when David Rhodes came along to do some guitar, he wanted to try some E-Bow over the top.

It was a feeling I had, lines like “January, don’t p*ss me off, you’re just a June in a mask”, I’m having a bit of fun with the lyrics because the depths of winter can be quite difficult to deal with for some people, I just wanted to write about it.

How did John Grant end up on ‘Don’t Get Me Wrong’?

It was through my manager Steve Malins, he manages WRANGLER and they were doing some stuff with John to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Rough Trade at The Barbican. Steve got talking to John who asked who else he looked after and Steve mentioned BLANCMANGE… it turned out John was a big fan and really knew his stuff.

John’s got such a fantastic voice and great songs so when I heard about this, I thought “I wonder…”, so Steve passed this song ‘Don’t Get Me Wrong’ onto him and John said it would be an honour, which was flabbergasting to me! He did this piano part and sang along with the chorus with this beautiful backing, so it was an absolute delight when I got it back.

I love the line in ‘Don’t Get Me Wrong’ that goes “you look so well… in your online profile”… what’s your take on using the web now for music promotion, but also how it practically rules people’s lives?

How long can you keep your phone in your pocket for? *laughs*

This might answer your question; we were playing in Leeds with HEAVEN 17 and I came on stage. A lot of people were there which was great, but quite a few were watching us through their screen, these little screens! I just said “Watch us”, not in a conceited way, “Don’t watch that! I mean hold it there but don’t look at it”! I’m not immune cos I fall foul of it as well, the problem is that phones are now capable of so much, I write and record lyrics on it, I use it was a torch… I wish in a way I just had a phone that you could just call or text.

But we’re in this post-modern world and it’s quite interesting how social media works. It’s a fantastic way of communicating with people who are interested in your music or finding out about other types of music. But because everything’s accessible immediately, everybody’s got contact… so for example, if you bought a record in the 1970s-1980s, what would you do if there was something wrong with it?

…I’d take it back to the shop!

Ok, so you’d take it back to the shop… so somebody buys a record now, and I think this is quite funny, I get people contacting me! I think it’s lovely and most people know I enjoy a chat and online, I answer a lot of the stuff.

So you get someone going “I bought this off Amazon and two CDs are damaged”… I mean, I’m sorry that they are, but I thought for a moment, and I’m not saying I’m comparing myself to him… could you imagine in the ‘70s if I’d had bought Brian Eno’s album and I contacted him to say my record’s scratched?? *laughs*

But this is the modern world isn’t it? Everyone is contactable and 99% of it is fantastic, and that comment did tickle me.

BLANCMANGE are out on tour this Autumn. Now you’ve been back a few years, have you a photo-fit of today’s BLANCMANGE fan and have worked out a live set that can keep you and the audience happy?

I could to a certain extent, what I noticed on the last tour particularly was the audience is changing in that there’s a younger element, whereas when we restarted, it was people who had seen us first time round. We’ve still got those people thankfully and there are inquisitive people from a different generation who are interested in electronic music.

As for keeping people happy, I’m obviously going to promote the new album, but I wouldn’t be doing the new album if it wasn’t for the fact that I’d done all that music with Stephen years ago. So of course, I’d be giving them some blasts from the past. The other thing is since 2011, there’s been more material released than there was first time round. We have a very different audience now and we’re not going to get in the charts, it’s a different world.

I’m not trying to play the game, I’m writing songs that I want to write. Stephen and I did that all those years ago, but we were a lot younger and that’s what we wanted to do. Now what I want to do, I’ve opened the dark door and hopefully, there’s some people who’ll get some pleasure from the stuff that’s old and new. I’ve got to be honest to myself and do what I feel, first and foremost; hopefully, people will come along for the ride.

You have BLANCMANGE, NEAR FUTURE and FADER on the go, plus had the box set and deluxe reissues… how do you manage to juggle so many balls?

Well, I’ve got a very good manager and I think I’m driven. I had the opportunity to work with Benge which was fantastic and I’m looking forward to doing more. We had to work out “how do we finish that and get it released?”, make sure the boxed set was running to schedule and leave a space to get ‘Unfurnished Rooms’ out, so that was time management really. I’m happy when I’m busy. So Jez Bernholz and I have been exchanging files to finish off the NEAR FUTURE album which will be due next year. I’m keen to move forward all the time.

What are your thoughts on the new LCD SOUNDSYSTEM album ‘American Dream’?

I’m a big fan, I’d heard a few songs earlier in the year and was wondering how they were going to fit together in an album and when I heard it in its entirety, I really enjoyed it and thought it was bloody great. It will be on again without a doubt. It’s fantastically referential, it references so much. James Murphy is a very clever man, there’s the Eno connection, the Frippertronics side of things, TALKING HEADS is in there, there’s a bit of everything and he even references himself which is quite remarkable *laughs*

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its sincerest thanks to Neil Arthur

Special thanks to Steve Malins at Random Management

‘Unfurnished Rooms’ is released by Blanc Check on 22nd September 2017 in CD, vinyl and digital formats, pre-order from http://blancmange.tmstor.es/

BLANCMANGE 2017 live dates include:

Brighton Concorde 2 (5th October), London 229 (6th October), Southend Chinnery’s (19th October), Southampton The 1865 (20th October), Darwen Library (25th October), Newcastle Boiler Shop (26th October), Edinburgh La Belle Angele (27th October), Glasgow Audio (28th October), Bristol The Fleece (2nd November), Nottingham Rescue Rooms (4th November)

BLANCMANGE also play ‘The Tour of Synthetic Delights 2’ with HEAVEN 17, dates include:

Sheffield Foundry (10th November), Liverpool Hangar34 (11th November), Hull Welly (17th November), Manchester Academy 2 (18th November), Coventry Copper Rooms (24th November), Norwich Waterfront (25th November)

http://www.blancmange.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/BlancmangeMusic

https://twitter.com/_blancmange_

Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
12th September 2017

BLANCMANGE The Blanc Tapes

3 July 2017 /

Daniel Miller referred to BLANCMANGE affectionately as “the maiden aunts of electronic music”, while Moby considers them “possibly the most under-rated electronic act of all time”.

They came to prominence towards the end of the second generation of Synth Britannia. Their first EP ‘Irene & Mavis’ came out in 1980 before ‘Sad Day’ was chosen by Futurist DJ Stevo for inclusion on his influential ‘Some Bizzare Album’ which also showcased DEPECHE MODE, SOFT CELL, THE THE and B-MOVIE in 1981.

Following support slots with JAPAN and DEPECHE MODE, Neil Arthur and Stephen Luscombe signed to London Records. Releasing their now classic album ‘Happy Families’ in Autumn 1982, it featured their breakthrough hit single ‘Living On The Ceiling’ while ‘I Can’t Explain’ remains one of the most blistering album openers of the era! Fusing the rhythmic dash of TALKING HEADS with the intensity of JOY DIVISION plus the melodic framework of OMD and YAZOO over the top, Arthur and Luscombe won critical admiration and respectable sales for their debut.

On the back of further hit singles in ‘Blind Vision’ and ‘Don’t Tell Me’, the second brilliantly titled long player ‘Mange Tout’ became the duo’s biggest seller in 1984. Having first featured on ‘Living On The Ceiling’, the Indian musicians Pandit Dinesh on tablas and Deepak Khazauchi on sitar were given greater prominence on the album, while another surprise came with their brilliant cover of ABBA’s ‘The Day Before You Came’. This was considered an odd but daring decision at the time. But with ABBA now fully absorbed into mainstream popular culture and the ‘Bollywood’ sound very much part of modern pop, ‘Mange Tout’ could be considered a cultural prophecy…

However, with synthpop now no longer in-vogue, there was a lukewarm reception for the third album ‘Believe You Me’ released in 1985, despite good crossover songs such as ‘Why Don’t They Leave Things Alone?’ and ‘Lorraine’s My Nurse’. This was leading to a blanc burn out and reflected in the electro-funk of ‘22339’ with a proclamation from Arthur that “I feel like I’m losin’ my mind”. Ultimately, it led to Arthur and Luscombe calling it a day in order to protect their friendship following a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 1986.

Edsel Records release the first three BLANCMANGE albums as expanded 3CD editions which are also compiled as a deluxe 9 disc set entitled ‘The Blanc Tapes’. The bonus discs gather together B-sides, BBC radio sessions, live material and previously unreleased demos and it is these that will be of most interest to BLANCMANGE fans. Meanwhile, the horribly unsympathetic liner notes by Alan Robinson that adorned the 2008 Edsel reissues have now been replaced by commentary from Neil Arthur.

From their first John Peel Session included in the deluxe ‘Happy Families’ extras, ‘I Would’ is dark and menacing while ‘Running Thin’ is toned in resignation; both now actually sound more like BLANCMANGE in the 21st Century than anything from the first three London long players. The original downtempo ‘Sad Day’ is also present while the lost demo ‘Melodic Piece’ is a marvellously elegant instrumental that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on ‘Nil By Mouth’, the voxless BLANCMANGE album issued in 2015. Meanwhile, the organ laden ‘Black Bell’ is an enjoyably creepy lo-fi demo, but ‘Holland’ springs a major surprise with some prominent guitar in the vein of THE CARS!

Photo by Paul Slattery

The ‘Mange Tout’ bonuses include a stark electronic demo entitled ‘How Time Became The Tide’ which is nothing like anything on its parent album, thanks to its science fiction vibe. The claustrophobic and psychedelic ‘If You Want To Be Hip’ is also very different but again, points to how BLANCMANGE are now, rather than then.

The number of unreleased demos from the ‘Believe You Me’ sessions circa 1985 indicates how prolific BLANCMANGE had become. Although they were now considered a mainstream pop act, the moodier, spacey experiments inspired by the earlier days of BLANCMANGE continued with recordings such as ‘A Remedial Course’, another instrumental that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on ‘Nil By Mouth’.

But on the other side of the coin and revealing some of Neil Arthur’s crooner tastes, there’s a fun ‘Switched On Nashville’ styled cover of ‘Gentle On My Mind’, a Grammy Award winning standard previously recorded by Dean Martin and Glen Campbell. The summery ‘Scream Down The House’ gets rescued from B-side obscurity, but the remaining song demos are perhaps not as enticing as the various instrumentals, although Arthur uses some interesting electronic pitch treatments on his voice for ‘Reach Out’.

As for the live material gathered across the three packages, they quite simply document a band getting bigger and bigger as the venues step up from the little BBC Paris Theatre to Hammersmith Palais to Hammersmith Odeon (where “Bowie killed Ziggy”) in the space of less than three and a half years!

Whether you really need seven versions of ‘Blind Vision’ or six of ‘Feel Me’ is debatable, although the Martyn Ware produced demo of the former captures the rather sombre origins of what was to become a dancefloor smash. Whatever your view, they’re all here and nothing compared to the twelve takes of ‘Promised You A Miracle’ that came with the deluxe edition ‘New Gold Dream’ put out by SIMPLE MINDS!

As its predecessors ‘Blanc Burn’, ‘Semi Detached’, Nil By Mouth’ and ‘Commuter 23’ have indicated, the soon-to-be released ‘Unfurnished Rooms’ continues BLANCMANGE’s exploration into the darker themes and colder sounds that signify a return to the art school roots of their original demos unveiled on ‘The Blanc Tapes’. While Stephen Luscombe has been unable to be involved since ‘Blanc Burn’ due to ill health, Neil Arthur continues to fly the flag.

It’s interesting to think that the 21st Century incarnation of BLANCMANGE has now produced more albums than the original one. And that is something to celebrate… a pint of curry anyone?

With thanks to Steve Malins at Random Music Management

‘The Blanc Tapes’ is released by Edsel Records, while ‘Happy Families’, ‘Mange Tout’ and ‘Believe You Me’ are each available as separate 3CD deluxe editions from 4th August 2017. Pre-order via the Official Blancmange Store at https://blancmange.tmstor.es/cart/product.php?id=33045

The new album ‘Unfurnished Rooms’ is released by Blanc Check on 22nd September 2017

BLANCMANGE 2017 live dates include:

Brighton Concorde 2 (5th October), London 229 (6th October), Southend Chinnery’s (19th October), Southampton The 1865 (20th October), Darwen Library (25th October), Newcastle Boiler Shop (26th October), Edinburgh La Belle Angele (27th October), Glasgow Audio (28th October), Bristol The Fleece (2nd November), Nottingham Rescue Rooms (4th November)

BLANCMANGE also play ‘The Tour of Synthetic Delights 2’ with HEAVEN 17, dates include:

Sheffield Foundry (10th November), Liverpool Hangar34 (11th November), Hull Welly (17th November), Manchester Academy 2 (18th November), Coventry Copper Rooms (24th November), Norwich Waterfront (25th November)

http://www.blancmange.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/BlancmangeMusic

https://twitter.com/_blancmange_

Text by Chi Ming Lai
3rd July 2017

FADER Interview

10 June 2017 /

FADER is a new collaboration between Neil Arthur of BLANCMANGE and Benge, best known for his synth work with WRANGLER and JOHN FOXX & THE MATHS.

The FADER album ‘First Light’ showcases the strengths of both involved, whilst evoking a purist analogue electronic sound that harks back to the first wave of Synth Britannia when acts like THE NORMAL brought technology into the punk ethos.

Neil Arthur and Benge kindly spoke to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about their methods of collaborating, influences and threw in a bit of tech talk along the way.

How, when and why did you both hook up together musically?

Neil: We were introduced to each other by our manager Steve Malins. I’d heard Benge’s work with WRANGLER, JOHN FOXX and his own work. Steve mentioned Benge had some ideas he’d put together initially while he was out in LA. He started sending over the tracks and I started writing lyrics. I quite liked the idea of receiving all this info, having only met Benge once briefly.

Benge: Yes I had decided to move to LA for a few months and set up a little studio there. I rented out my studio in London to some friends and with the proceeds I rented a small space up in the hills, got onto eBay to buy a few choice pieces of analogue gear, and spent every day writing tracks. Some I put out myself and some got used with WRANGLER, but I had a whole bunch of tracks that fitted together as a body of work, but it lacked something… that’s where Neil casually stepped in!!!

Did you have a shared musical manifesto for the album before starting?

Benge: Originally when I was writing in LA, I had a sound in my head I was trying to get out. It was inspired by the edgy city-type sounds of some of my favourite films such as ‘To Live & Die In LA’, ‘Assault On Precinct 13’ etc. There is a weird undercurrent in that place that got under my skin. Also living in a new city on your own is a strange experience and I think some of that came out in the backing tracks too. I think Neil’s lyrics picked up on these things without us really discussing them. I am very happy with the result.

Neil: No. Well maybe an unspoken one – all instruments must be analogue. That extended as far as possible to the artwork design. Once we came up with a design, Benge wanted the type to be set from the typewriter he owns. It took a while but we got there.

The press biog that accompanies ‘First Light’ suggests that you mainly worked separately on the album, was that the case and how did that pan out?

Neil: Yes, Steve sent the files he’d received from Benge. I in turn sent my efforts back via Steve. I think it worked well, in terms of getting the album finished, fitting in other commitments etc.

‘Check The Power’ is a haunting tale about OCD, is this subject matter that is close to home for either of you?

Neil: Yes, it’s happening now. There was a time when aspects of OCD controlled my life. Not just my life but those around me too sadly.

The trusty Linn Drum makes a welcome reappearance on ‘Check The Power’, is there a certain amount of nostalgia attached to this device for you now?

Neil: The Linn Drum is there because Benge chose to use it. I like the Linn and use it on my own work, it doesn’t really carry nostalgia though, that is unless I get misty eyed and wistful.

MemeTune studio has such a large collection of synthesizers and drum machines, how do you go about choosing which ones to use on certain tracks?

Benge: When Neil started sending over his vocal ideas, I was very excited because I could hear how far he was taking the tracks, into this new place that I could not have imagined. At that stage we started adding a few synth parts and rhythmic developments, and worked on the arrangements. We tried to keep the new parts simple to fit with the idea of this weird edginess that had developed.

Neil, did you ever at any point get studio envy about Benge’s synth armoury?

Neil: I was running around like a child in a sweet shop, unable to take it all in and honestly, there wasn’t time to absorb everything. The emphasis was on getting the mixes done, so we could get down the pub. I hope to return, to his studio and the pub!

Benge, was your approach to working with Neil different to (say) JOHN FOXX and if so, in what way?

Benge: I do tend to work in a similar way with people I collaborate with, in the sense that I like to have some fairly strong frameworks for tracks to start with. One problem with having a lot of options available in the studio is knowing where to start a piece. If there isn’t a strong backbone to work around, you can end up spending hours going round in circles. Although it’s still fun going round in circles sometimes.

In comparison with your work with WRANGLER or JOHN FOXX & THE MATHS, FADER sounds much more musically upbeat and melodic, was this a refreshing approach to take?

Benge: We tried to keep the tracks as simple as possible and I think this helps the album sound fresh. We also wanted the album design and artwork to keep true to a fairly minimalist approach.

There’s a strong undercurrent of THE HUMAN LEAGUE Mk1 running through this album, if you could choose a Desert Island Disc track from them, what would it be and why?

Neil: ‘Being Boiled’. I saw their first show in London and was immediately hooked. The Fast EP is wonderful. Although the song that I used to look forward to them performing was ‘You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling’. Mr. Ware has quite a voice!

‘3D Carpets’ sounds a bit like if ‘Faith’-era THE CURE had ditched guitars altogether, what are your viewpoints on mixing guitars with electronics?

Neil: It wasn’t even considered with FADER. With BLANCMANGE, it’s there just like any other instrument, if it fits and serves the purpose I’d use it.

With ‘First Light’, do you feel that you’ve almost arrived full circle with the sound that you started on the first BLANCMANGE ‘Irene and Mavis’ material?

Neil: No, this is more sophisticated technically, where ‘Irene and Mavis’ is really lo-fi and DIY. There’s not a synth to be seen or heard on that EP. The nearest we got was the rhythm unit on ‘Outro’, when we borrowed Mark Cox of MASS and REMA REMA’s unit. I think it was a Roland Rhythm Arranger TR66. The rest was home found or made instruments, a cheap guitar, an organ and echo unit.

Is there any point when the seed of an idea comes to either of you where you think “Oh, this will be great for…” or are you always focussed on the project in hand?

Neil: Lyrics sometimes come along that end up in a pile marked “use somewhere else”. In general, I reacted to what Benge was sending me, although a few like ‘Liverpool Brick’ were written prior to hearing the music.

Benge: I definitely put tracks aside and save them up in categories and compilations – that’s just how this album came about, except I didn’t know at the time that Neil would be working on them too!

BLANCMANGE have been occasionally well known for their covers for ABBA through to CAN and CHIC, were you not tempted to include an electronic re-interpretation on ‘First Light’?

Neil: No, that wasn’t going to happen from my point of view. I was very happy to work on the ideas Benge sent over to me.

Can we expect future collaborations between you both and will there be any live shows to back up the release?

Neil: We did mention a FADER 2 album in conversation. Live shows, no.

Your album opener ‘3D Carpets’ was inspired by Hunter S. Thompson’s ‘Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas’. TEC has it from reliable sources that Johnny Depp spent $3 million firing Thompson’s ashes out of a cannon perched 153 feet on top of a hill! Do either of you have an exotic request that could match this once you’ve both shuffled off this mortal coil?

Neil: Something pretty much like that, but from lower down, if Mr Depp is ok with it.

Benge: I wonder if Mr Depp can write that off against tax?

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its sincerest thanks to Neil Arthur and Benge

Special thanks to Steve Malins at Random Music Management

‘First Light’ is released as a CD and download by Blanc Check Records on CD, vinyl LP and download on 23rd June 2017, pre-order from https://fader.tmstor.es/

https://www.facebook.com/WeAreFader/

https://twitter.com/WeAre_Fader

Text and Interview by Paul Boddy
10th June 2017

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