Ulrika Mild says “I’m just a girl standing in front of a machine asking it to go ‘bleep bloop’…”
Under her alias of COMPUTE, she is one of the best kept secrets in Swedish electronic pop. Releasing her first EP ‘Dance With Me’ in 2004, longer form releases subsequently beamed forth with ‘This’ in 2009 and ‘The Distance’ in 2012.
COMPUTE went into hiatus as Mild raised a family with only occasional collaborations such as THE VOLT in 2016 with Eddie Bengtsson of PAGE and the more band-centric AMUSI in 2022. Then unexpectedly, 2023’s ‘the proper dimensions of a load bearing structure’ offered the first COMPUTE album for 11 years.
In 2025, Ulrika Mild has now entered a comparative roll; first came ‘NKI’, a summer protest record sung in Swedish pointing downward in its social criticism and honesty. But as the year comes to its conclusion, there is a new COMPUTE mini-album ‘The Pitch’, comprising of 6 new tracks in a return to expression in the English language.
Often afflicted by self-doubt and occasionally expressing her despair at releasing any new music at all, there is always hope and a captivating playfulness whenever Ulrika Mild gets behind her microphone and laptop. It is time to ”computify” again and for ‘The Pitch’, Mild has brought in external help for the first time with AMUSI bandmate Khyber Westlund coming in to mix and co-produce.
With a central theme of failure and loss running throughout ‘The Pitch’, ‘Close To Me’ is an impressively pensive song, embroiled in emotive tension both vocally and musically which does not forget the all-important hooks. Taking to honky tonk ivories for its intro, ‘Make It Right’ bursts into squelchy octave shifts and uplifting vocals for a delightfully odd sonic adventure. Elsewhere, the mightily percussive ‘Fail’ bursts with swooping avant synthpop stylings and creative distortion as our heroine fills the room with her Nordic expressionism.
More hypnotically bass-driven, ‘The Markings’ is glorious Scandi-synth with strange disconcerting noises, big beats, bubbling effects and plenty of melody sitting in harmony. With tasteful soprano operatics and held together with a thump and a throb, ‘Morning Still Comes’ journeys over to the Arctic horizon while switching to a more rhythmic crunch, the speedy arpeggiated mood of ‘Waking Hours’ sees Mild ominously ponder when “all this will one day be over…”
Dark without being totally doom-laden and utilising a more dynamic backbone than previous releases, ‘The Pitch’ is a satisfying melancholic body of work that continues the recent COMPUTE tradition to reflect the looming existential fears that threaten the modern world.
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.
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…
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
Sometimes ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK does wonders what century it is living in?
One individual complained on social media that there were far too many women in ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s 30 SONGS OF 2024 earlier this year; well they really are out of luck because this time round, only 8 out of the 30 songs listed are of an entirely male preserve as in 2025, the female side of synth was strong.
As in the past, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK continues to curate its end of year summary around songs rather than albums as the best representation of an annual period thanks to the long gestation periods of many albums and EPs. Although the last 12 months were plagued with generic darkwave to take the place of the insipid synthwave that was prevalent for a period, there were glimmers of creative hope in electronic pop.
While this year’s list was quite straightforward compile, worthy mentions must be given to NNHMN and SIN COS TAN as well as Zanias and Kalipo who all had tracks that just missed out on inclusion in the final list of 30. Available on the usual online platforms with a restriction of one song per artist moniker and placed in alphabetical order, for better or for worse, these are ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s 30 SONGS OF 2025…
ASSEMBLAGE 23 The Line
With its on-point social commentary, ‘Null’ ranks among Tom Shear’s best albums as ASSEMBLAGE 23. Galloping mightily to ‘The Line’, a blend of dark electronic pop influences provide an album standout full of resigned drama when “it doesn’t matter anyway…”; reflecting on political polarisation affecting friendships, he said “you have to evaluate whether you want to keep these people in your life or do you really need to let them go…”
Available on the ASSEMBLAGE 23 album ‘Null’ via Metropolis Records
Back as AUSTRA, ‘Chin Up Buttercup’ was a cathartic record capturing the aftermath of Katie Stelmanis’ break-up with her long-term partner. Like a discontented ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’, the superb ‘Math Equation’ sees a sad but dancey syncopated dance tune with frank observations of navigating modern dating. “You said I needed my own friends and then you f*cked them” she despaired as elegiac synths mourn the end.
Swedish dark Italo artist Tobias Bernstrup is back with his seventh studio album ‘Shadow Dancer’. According to Bernstrup, it “explores the tension between appearance and reality—how we perform identity, desire, and memory in a world flooded with simulation”. On ‘Under Heavy Strobe Light’, the beats pump harder and the voice is deeper but as the title suggests, this throbbing excursion is made for “creatures of the night” who love the dancefloor.
Available on the TOBIAS BERNSTRUP album ‘Shadow Dancer’ via Nadanna Records
Although CAUSEWAY maintained their cinematic dreamwave sound on the ‘Anywhere’ album, its title track was a key statement that went all Motorik and minimal with the guitar of Dale Hiscock from ENDLESS ATLAS contributing the West Coast meets Düsseldorf flavour. Eschewing the density of most of the tracks on the album, the duo’s Marshall Watson said “To me it feels very ‘out of the box’ for CAUSEWAY but it fits in our universe”.
Available on the CAUSEWAY album ‘Anywhere’ is released by Sprechen Music
‘Night Mirror’ saw Claudia Brücken back working with John Williams who produced her third solo album ‘Where Else…’; with her characteristic ice maiden cool, the brilliant ‘Shadow Dancer’ turned the album on its head with an uptempo electronically driven number with minimal rhythm guitar and piano sparring off the synthetic stabs and metronomic rhythms. Here Claudia’s assuring poetry was supreme in this divine slice of avant pop.
Available on the CLAUDIA BRÜCKEN album ‘Night Mirror’ via Demon Music Group
Through circumstance and by choice, Ulrika Mild is perhaps one of the best kept secrets in Swedish electronic pop. Under her alias of COMPUTE, she says “I’m just a girl standing in front of a machine asking it to go ‘bleep bloop’…” but there was a darker if still melodic presence on her ‘NKI’ EP. Its opening song ‘Närmare’ was a feisty club friendly track that acted as an observation about the world problems that threaten human existence.
Co-written and co-produced with SOULWAX, ‘City Of Clowns’ was the first album from Marie Davidson in over 4 years. More English than French but also more song-based, she had some ‘Fun Times’ on a spiky vibrant number about not having children and challenging the now-prevalent far right view that a woman’s only meaningful role in society is reproducing… why bother with all that when her babies can be her art and her fun?
Available on the MARIE DAVIDSON album ‘City Of Clowns’ via DEEWEE
From out of the shadows to under the strobe lights, DIE SEXUAL are the erotically charged Los Angeles-based duo of Anton Floriano and his wife Ros. DIE SEXUAL’s dark electronic influences examine themes of domination and submission. The cut and thrust of ‘Magic Never Dies’ provided another throbbing banger for the alternative dancefloor to enable responsible misbehaviour and to dance like nobody’s watching.
For the second DINA SUMMER album, there was a natural progression from the previous EP ‘Hide & Seek’, playing on its darker but still club friendly aesthetics. Straddling the worlds of electronic disco and alternative rock, ‘Disco Goth’ heads to the dancefloor as frantic throbbing electronics is accompanied commentary on how to get that look. There is an energetic thrill that comes from the decadent dance and being in the ‘Girls Gang’.
Available on the DINA SUMMER album ‘Girls Gang’ via Iptamenos Discos
Playing with the physics of sound while exploring a variety of introspective themes, exiled Belarusian trio DLINA VOLNY understandably now sound heavier than they ever have before, but have retained their all-important melodic contrasts to counter any possibilities of proceedings becoming too dirgey. Playing on their post-punk sensibilities, the exuberant if still sombre ‘Chant’ imagines Siouxsie gone Motorik…
Available on the DLINA VOLNY album ‘In Between’ via Italians Do It Better
As EMMON, Emma Nylen has evolved since her 2007 indie synthpop debut ‘The Art & The Evil’ into a more rugged EBM inclined direction as captured on the mighty ‘Blood On The Ceiling’, her collaboration with subarctic urban industrial artist MAJESTOLUXE. Suitably dark and complimented by chilling, mass murderer-themed lyrics, its hypnotic sonic carousel was inspired by German electropunk pioneers LIAISONS DANGEREUSES.
The musical vehicle of LA-based New Yorker Florence Bullock, following the release of her debut EP ‘Short Stories’ in 2017, she went on to collaborate with BETAMAXX on ‘Skyhigh’ in 2019 before her most recent EP ‘Glass & Steel’ in 2021. ‘Bury The Sky’ is the first GLITBITER song in quite a few years and imagines a “girl on a mountain” in this delightful slice of fantasy futurism and fascinating rhythms that are fast if not furious.
With the 20th Anniversary of ‘Supernature’, it seemed appropriate after the HI-NRG stomp of her debut ’The Love Invention’ that the new Alison Goldfrapp solo album would recall some of the serene avant pop that characterised that record. Co-produced by Stefan Storm of THE SOUND OF ARROWS, ‘Hey Hi Hello’ was exuberant but bittersweet pop and less full on, written during a period when she became single for the first time in years.
Available on the ALISON GOLDFRAPP album ‘Flux’ via AG Records
A cover of American singer-songwriter Bill Dess, best known as Two Feet, the Italian pairing of Erika Grapes and Eugenio Valente acknowledged that ‘Love Is A Bitch’ in this slo-mo reworking of a modern blues number about how blindfolded love cam lead to a trail of toxic events. Seen through a twisted industrial lens in the wake of a heavy relationship breakup, the sub-bass tension and keyboard motifs exuded a glorious cinematic gothique.
Self-producing for the first time, Mari Kattman decided it was the ‘Year Of The Katt’; what is now on offer is a collection of mostly catchy electronic songs with crossover potential for the dance floor. This was exemplified by this pumping industrial pop anthem where in a protest song against female stereotyping, our heroine rebels against cast being seen as “a difficult person” and a ‘Typical Girl’ to question “who’s gonna love you now…”
Available on the MARI KATTMAN album ‘Year Of The Katt’ via Metropolis Records
Now fully able to explore their position as the world’s leading dark synth duo, Nicklas Stenemo and Christian Berg pushed presentation boundaries during the KITE On Ice spectacular at Stockholm’s Avicii stadium. Featuring Nina Persson of THE CARDIGANS, the rumbling ‘Heartless Places’ utilised sinister vocal pitch shifts to capture a bleakness where a world of “hollow faces” are now “caught between hell and loneliness”.
The ‘Mayhem’ album saw Lady Gaga her return to the glitzy electropop with which she found ‘The Fame’. With its array of classic influences, a Siouxsie interpolation figured on ‘Abracadabra’ while ‘Killah’ crossed DAF with Prince! But on ‘How Bad Do U Want Me?’, the diva born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta used a sample from ‘Only You’ by YAZOO and paid homage to Taylor Swift’s CHVRCHES inspired synthpop tunes!
Available on the LADY GAGA album ‘Mayhem’ via Interscope
With LADYTRON now slimmed down to a trio of Helen Marnie, Daniel Hunt and Mira Aroyo following the departure of co-founder member Reuben Wu, the great new first single from the reconfigured line-up has been described as “high-priestess disco”. ‘I Believe In You’ certainly possesses an infectious house groove previously not heard from LADYTRON while still undoubtedly recognisable as them as they head to dancier climes.
Following up her 2020 long playing debut ‘acts of rebellion’, Colombian artist and producer Ela Minus presented ‘DIA’, an album about becoming. Having been weaned on FUGAZI and played in hardcore punk bands, she gradually drifted towards synthesizers as they allowed her to work alone and more swiftly. The thumping thrill of ‘Onwards’ did battle with drops galore while tuning signals acted as the hooks.
Available on the ELA MINUS album ‘DIA’ via Domino Recordings
After a period of Numanisation across the last three PAGE albums with mixed results, Eddie Bengtsson and Marina Schiptjenko totally dialled down the Numan elements on the ‘Inget Motstånd’ album. The opening lead single ‘Kan Inte Tänka På Allt’ provided a good start, featuring incessant drum machine and an enticing cacophony of electronics to revisit the punkier poptronica ethos of the PAGE of old in its energetic pace.
What a 2025 Dubliner Brian O’Malley has had… not only did two thrillers ‘Nine Bodies In A Mexican Morgue’ and ‘Frauds’, which he directed 3 episode of each, both air on UK terrestrial television, he also returned to his solo electronica adventure PolyDROID with two new recordings; one was a vocoder-laden cover of ‘The Sound Of Silence’ but the other was ‘Six Of One’, an original instrumental inspired by Number Six from ‘The Prisoner’.
With a deep bass and hypnotic loop attached to an Italo disco beat, the ever prolific Swedish producer Johan Agebjörn felt having mixed one of their tracks ‘Verónica Pass’ under the SALLY SHAPIRO banner back in 2022, that ‘Fakesnow’ would suit the vocal approach of the enigmatic New York darklings R. MISSING. The combination was a chilling match made in heaven. “Sharon Shy really turned it into a great song” Agebjörn said, “I’m really happy about it”.
RUTH RADELET, NAT WALKER & ADAM MILLER The Wild Unknown
A three quarters reunion of CHROMATICS saw Ruth Radelet, Nat Walker and Adam Miller record 4 tracks for a teenage adventure game soundtrack that revisited the dreamy synth and guitar sound that characterised songs such as ‘Shadow’ and resonated with the game’s Super 8 aesthetics. Complimented by Radelet’s forlorn vocals, ‘The Wild Unknown’ presented an ethereal soundscape punctuated by a glorious synthesizer solo to close.
Despite being said to be the darkest album of their career, ‘Ready To Live A Lie’, the fifth album from Swedish duo SALLY SHAPIRO paradoxically comes as a rather uplifting listening experience in its relatable themes. The marvellous ‘Guarding Shell’ though explores post-relationship trust issues while Johan Agebjörn drops in the same D-50 preset used on OMD’s ‘Big Town’ in the intro before hitting classic wispy Sally mode.
Following their rapturously received album ‘MAD!’ and its accompanying world tour, SPARKS got even ‘MADDER’ with their first ever EP. Throwing synths, glam and brass into the mix, ‘Porcupine’ appears to refer to a spiky woman who is “Not your cuddly kind” so “Save your Valentine”. Rather appropriately, the accompanying video shows British popster Self Esteem in bunny boiler mode running over The Mael Brothers in a excavator!
Available on the SPARKS EP ‘MADDER!’ via Transgressive
Spike is the nom de théâtre of London-based singer-songwriter Hannah McLoughlin who delivers a brand of macabre disco dealing with the undead and the inhuman. Having impressed with a deadpan electronic cover of Warren Zevon’s ‘Werewolves Of London’, the melancholic Motorik rave of ‘Tiquetonne’ delightfully interpolated ‘Con Te Partiro’ aka ‘Time To Say Goodbye’ as made famous by Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.
A member of Swedish trio CRED who issued their debut single ‘Every Loss’ in 2022, ‘I Die For This Love’ was Bjarne Johansson Sund’s first solo effort. Teaming up with James Knights on vocals for this captivating Europop tune, a chunky bassline, icy strings and orchestra stabs complimented this emotive tale of yearning. The public response was so positive that the song now finds a place on the second KNIGHT$ album out in 2026.
Available on the forthcoming KNIGHT$ album ‘Supernatural Lover’ via Specchio Uomo
Marrying the pleasure with the pain, A THOUSAND MAD THINGS is the solo synth artist William Barradale. Finding solace in untempered expression, his debut EP ‘Cry & Dance’ was one of the best releases of 2025. With his haunted demeanour and navigating young manhood as a tortured outsider, ‘Local Guys’ was embroiled in tension, showcasing his emotional range as he reflected on the violent turns of former acquaintances.
Available on the A THOUSAND MAD THINGS EP ‘Cry & Dance’ via Nettwerk
In an increasingly dystopian world where the two biggest nuclear nations are being led by unhinged egomaniacs, the Scottish-Swedish duo of Andrew Montgomery and Leo Josefsson provided their “sanity clause” as UNIFY SEPARATE confronted an existential crisis that was more than about midlife. Swathed in rhythmically swung anguish like an electro-industrial MUSE, ‘Slow Armageddon’ was their most political and timely song yet.
Icelandic for “raven film”,Patricia Wolf composed the soundtrack for ‘Hrafnamynd’, an unconventional nature documentary by director Edward Pack Davee looking back on his childhood living in Iceland. Largely created using the UDO Super 6 binaural analog-hybrid synthesizer, it enabled Wolf to sound modern while also giving the emotive fuzzy tones heard on the album opener ‘Early Memories’ to correspond with the film’s nostalgic narrative.
Available on the PATRICIA WOLF album ‘Hrafnamynd’ via Balmat
Through circumstance and by choice, Ulrika Mild is perhaps one of the best kept secrets in Swedish electronic pop…
Under her alias of COMPUTE, Ulrika Mild says “I’m just a girl standing in front of a machine asking it to go ‘bleep bloop’…” with her first EP of DIY synth ‘Dance With Me’ released in 2004. In parallel, she was part of indiepop trio LIECHTENSTEIN while longer form releases ‘This’ and ‘The Distance’ beamed forth in 2009 and 2012 respectively.
2012 also saw the release of ‘Friends Of Electronically Yours Present The Seventies Revisited’, a charity synth covers collection on which COMPUTE contributed a sprightly version of ‘Goodbye’, a song written by Paul McCartney for Mary Hopkin while in 2014, there was punk themed follow-up ‘Anarchy In The EY – Electronically Up Yours’ which included a COMPUTE cover of ‘Hong Kong Garden’.
But COMPUTE went into hiatus with Mild only emerging in 2016 as part of THE VOLT on a one-off single with Eddie Bengtsson of PAGE and SISTA MANNEN PÅ JORDEN fame. Then there were a few other collaborations including (mostly) electronic supergoupAMUSI with 2022’s dark and trippy ‘EP-A’. But in 2023 came ‘the proper dimensions of a load bearing structure’, the first COMPUTE album for 11 years.
Photo by Allan Bank
Back with her most ambitious body of work yet, COMPUTE issues ‘NKI’ with lyrics in Swedish steadily pointing downward in its social criticism and honesty. It’s a summer protest record expressing her dismay at the world around her. ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK chatted to Ulrika Mild about her music over the years and much more…
Your new EP ‘NKI’ follows 2023’s ‘the proper dimensions of a load bearing structure’ which was your first COMPUTE release since the album ‘The Distance’ in 2012, although there were collaborations with Eddie Bengtsson as THE VOLT in 2016 and Deadbeat in 2017, why has there been such a long gap in releases?
Well… sometimes life takes unexpected and cruel turns. My husband got sick when our kid turned one, and for some years all I had time and energy for was work to keep us afloat, searching for, contacting, and keeping track of all different kinds of medical treatments that we hoped would help, and taking care of our daughter. I guess that sums up the title ‘the proper dimensions of a load bearing structure’. Like, how much can you carry and still be functional? Happy? Ok to be around? After some years I started finding time now and then during the night to make music. My studio was gone by then, but you can do quite a lot with only your phone and laptop it turns out!
How do you look back now on ‘The Distance’, your debut album ‘This’ and those early EPs ‘Dance With Me’ and ‘Computopia’?
Some of it holds up, some of it I can’t listen to without feeling like when you read your teenage diaries and feel amazed you ever had any friends!
What inspired ‘the proper dimensions of a load bearing structure’ (‘tpdoalbs’) and in what ways had you changed creatively?
Those are a collection of songs made over quite a few years. I said during one of my live shows a while ago that one could create a timelime and pinpoint the exact year I stopped writing about love and started writing about death… and I guess that album is that point. It’s about uncertainty, fear, how your reality remains the same, but you no longer feel like a part of it. And so on. A proper bundle of joy!
Musically it’s different as well. On ‘The Distance’ I put a lot of focus on vocal layering, but on ‘tpdoalbs’ I wanted to push myself into more restraint than before. To dare and let the music go on for longer without vocals, skip the typical chorus, or let it wait for almost two thirds of the song before introducing it… stuff like that. And more pads!
‘On My Own’ has this lovely lilting KRAFTWERK quality about it, were they an inspiration in your music? Who else were you inspired by?
Of course, if you want to listen to restraint that still manages to convey emotions and groove, you can’t ignore KRAFTWERK. However, it was actually Robyn that was my major influence for that particular song. But I draw inspiration from so many places. Just snippets of ideas that I want to try and ”computify”. Like – ‘Bulletproof’ by LA ROUX – where does the energy come from? It’s not the drums driving it forward, there’s something else. Or ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’ by Kylie, how can she go on in the same layered backing vocals all throughout, but still convey emotions? Or ‘Edamame’ by bbno$ and Rich Brian – exchanging the bass drum for a hard driving bass, how can I do that without losing to much of the beat? And so on.
Of course the music landscape has changed considerably now with streaming, how have you adapted and are platforms like Spotify and Bandcamp making things much easier than before?
Let’s just be clear. I suck at PR. I sucked before streaming and Bandcamp and all that, and I still suck. I’ve come to terms with it. I should get help. But I suck at that too. That being said – it’s of course a lot easier to make your music available to more people now. But it’s still hard for me to motivate anyone to listen to my stuff.
Don’t get me wrong, I would love to draw a bigger audience, but the Swedish concept of ”jante” runs deep in me. There is so much music out there, so much talent, so many voices. That anyone finds me in all of that, gives my music their time – and actually likes it? Mindblowing. It fills me with so much joy whenever I get a shoutout. Maybe that is the beauty of the ever expanding buzz of new music, every true interaction is worth so much more, since you’re up against the world, competing for everyone’s time and interest?
How do you find using social media, you don’t appear totally at ease with it? 😉
Haha, no-one should be. No, I’m actually fine with it. I’ve met a lot of great people through it that I would never have met otherwise, been given opportunities to collaborate, like with Eddie in THE VOLT, or the guys in AMUSI. At the same time, it can be a totally rotten place, bringing out the absolute worst in people and amplifying it to extremes. I try to create my own space. I follow pages about art, moss, manhole covers, old bridges, Star Trek and archaeology. It makes for a soothing background while I keep up with people I actually want to keep up with.
‘NKI’ is sung in Swedish… had it become too much work to continue writing lyrics in English? Does performing in Swedish feel more natural to you?
I kind of found it harder to write in Swedish… I think that it being my own language made me more thoughtful of how I actually use it. It hits harder for me. But I think this is a one-off, I already have an English album almost done. But we’ll see. I definitely enjoyed doing it!
There appears to be a darker if still melodic presence on ‘NKI’ like on the opening song ‘Närmare’, how do feel about the state of the world right now?
The world is… well, where do I even start. We have these huge huge problems that threaten our whole existence, and we just continue trying to bury our heads in the sand, voting for those who present us with the easiest solution even though everyone by now surely must see that it’ll only get us into more trouble? But that’s the legacy we leave for our kids to deal with. Blame the poor, build higher walls, change nothing. Pathetic!
‘Ett lock, en grop, en vägg, ett slut’ is what I would call “classic” COMPUTE in that it is almost like a development of ‘Dawning Days’ from ‘The Distance’?
Yeah, well that’s an older song, actually the song that triggered me to make ‘NKI’. I’ve had it up on Soundcloud for many years, and had somewhere along the line lost the original recording. But I know it’s a fan favourite, so I’ve done it live a couple of times. And then this guy commented on it on Soundcloud, saying he needed it on Spotify so he could add it to a playlist. And instead of just releasing that one song, knowing the amount of work it would take to get a releasable file, the original being lost and all, I thought that I should make it into an EP. So to answer your question, it’s not at all surprising that you find similarities, it has a lot of the vocal layering from ‘The distance’, and at the same time it resembles some of the use of pads from ”tpdoalbs”, so maybe it’s the missing piece between those two records?
‘Sten & Glashus’ has this fantastic melancholic drive about it, what is it about and what tools do you like to work with to construct your productions?
‘Sten & Glashus’ is a song I originally sang with a band called KONTRABAND, so it’s really sort of a cover; it’s written by their frontman Peter Hageus, so I can only tell you my interpretation of it, but it’s this beautifully told story of just keeping your head down, pushing through, not having it in you to take on anything more than what’s already on your plate.
Making it through life when life really doesn’t deliver on what was promised. Everything except the vocals on that one is made with FL Studio Mobile. This is why I’ll never be proper ”synth” I guess. I care very little about what tools I use, I only want to make my songs, as true to my vision as possible. But then again, Dave Gahan said the same thing in an interview once, so maybe there’s hope for me yet?
There’s the surprise of guitar on ‘Faller vi’ that is quite countrified, how did this happen?
Again, I just want to make my songs, giving them the best presentation I can muster. Sometimes that means doing it all on my phone, in this case it required slide guitar from before mentioned Peter Hageus. I just wanted to add a new element of like emptiness… it’s a song that takes place during Fall, in the smell of damp dead leaves. I wanted something organic that felt like faint bursts of wind in those dead leaves. And he really delivered on that request!
You’ve shown yourself to be adept at cover versions, with songs as different as ‘Förlåt’ by PAGE, ‘Hong Kong Garden’ by Siouxsie and ‘Goodbye’ by Mary Hopkin, how do you choose what ones you will interpret?
I typically try to avoid doing covers close to my own genre, ‘Förlåt’ being the exception. Both ‘Goodbye’ and ‘Hong Kong Garden’ were picked for me, which made them even more challenging to find my own take on, but ‘Goodbye’ in particular I fell quite in love with. I listen to a lot of music from all kinds of genres, so when it comes to my own choices, I just pick the ones that I love and believe I can do something different with.
So far I’ve done songs by artists like Björk, VIOLENT FEMMES, THE CURE and Miley Cyrus along with Swedish heroes of mine like BRAINPOOL, WANNADIES, POPSICLE, KENT and others. I mostly do them as treats for my live shows, but with those you’ve mentioned, they’ve found their way to compilations as well. I often aim to try to keep the structure close to the original, but once that is built, I stop listening to the original until I’m finished. By then I often realise I’ve forgotten certain parts, or thrown the lyrics around, but I think that shows how my brain interpreted the song, so all mistakes stay.
Photo by Anders Nord
THE VOLT was a project with Eddie Bengtsson to do nuclear Armageddon themed covers that just lasted one single; ‘Thirteen Men’ was originally a bluesy tune ‘Thirteen Women & One Man’ written and performed by Dickie Thompson, so how did you both approach a synthesized version from a female perspective?
We actually have more music hidden in our safe… we’ll see if we pick up that thread again. I really enjoyed this project, it gave me an opportunity to sing in a different way than normally, adding that Cold War swag to it, and again, trying to make the rigidness that can be electronic music go full on organic. Plus it was a collaboration where Eddie made the music when I sang, and I made the music when he sang. It was wild producing, we both have strong opinions and are used to being in total control of our craft so to speak. But the result was really something!
Eddie Bengtsson hates the term “synthpop” and coined “indietronica” for DIY pop music using synths, how would you like your music to be described to help with algorithms and getting your work heard?
I don’t want to help the algorithms… but yeah, I think Eddie’s right on this one, I very much make indietronica. I come from the indie scene, I like the grittier, not so polished sound, I don’t care much for perfection, I just crave the intended feeling to be conveyed. I tried to describe it like this: “shoes full of indie, a capful of synthpop, a mitten full of annoyance and a heart rate that never goes below 120 BPM. I burn the bad and the good as best I can, boil it down to sugar syrup and mix it in a drink together with blip-blops and melancholy and call that drink COMPUTE”; but my guess is the algorithms lose focus somewhere around ”mittens” and move on to someone mentioning seeing their microwave just hit 2:42!
For those who are new to COMPUTE, what 3 songs would you select as starters for them to check out?
I would probably go with ’Dawning Days’, ‘On My Own’ and ‘Närmare’. Maybe starting with ‘On My Own’. I think those three songs paint a pretty good picture of what I do, and I actually really like all of them. And they all lack that proper pop-song construction, so if you make it through those, you know what not to expect. Then I would maybe play ‘All Walk By’ and finish up with ‘Dance With Me’, just to prove I actually know what a chorus is!
What is next for you, either as COMPUTE or in collaboration?
Like I mentioned, I actually have an album ready, waiting for mastering right now. I decided to bring in some help and outside views in the mixing process this time, we’ll see when we feel ready for that reveal. But it’s back to English, with a theme of failure and loss. So fun for everyone!
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its sincerest thanks to Ulrika Mild
“The medium of reinterpretation” is still very much present in the 21st Century.
There have been albums of cover versions from the likes of SIMPLE MINDS and ERASURE as well as Midge Ure and Claudia Brücken celebrating their influences, as well as numerous various artists collections paying tribute to particular acts. However, the phenomenon of covering an entire album happened for a few years, something which MARSHEAUX, BECKY BECKY and CIRCUIT 3 attempted on works by DEPECHE MODE, THE KNIFE and YAZOO respectively.
On the other side of the coin in recognition of the cultural impact of the classic synth era, the Anti-Christ Superstar Marilyn Manson covered SOFT CELL’s cover of ‘Tainted Love’ but added more shouting, while David Grey took their own ‘Say Hello Wave Goodbye’ and turned it into a lengthy Dylan-esque ballad.
There has also been a trend for girl groups to cover songs from the period with GIRLS ALOUD, THE SATURDAYS and RED BLOODED WOMEN being among those introducing these numbers to a new younger audience.
So as a follow-up to the 25 CLASSIC SYNTH COVERS listing, here is ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s selection taken from reinterpretations recorded from 2000 to 2014, restricted to one song per artist moniker and presented in chronological order.
SCHNEIDER TM va KPTMICHIGAN The Light 3000 (2000)
Morrissey was once quoted as saying there was “nothing more repellent than the synthesizer”, but if THE SMITHS had gone electro, would they have sounded like this and Stephen Patrick thrown himself in front of that ten ton truck? Germany’s SCHNEIDER TM aka Dirk Dresselhaus reconstructed ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ to a series of minimal blips, blops and robotics to configure ‘The Light 3000’ with British producer KPTMICHIGAN.
God Made Me Hardcore was a label set-up by Andy Chatterley and Richard Norris for electroclash tracks they had involvement in and as THE DROYDS, they covered ‘Take Me I’m Yours’ was the debut single by SQUEEZE. The original was notable for its use of synths inspired by KRAFTWERK, so the duo reinterpreted it as a full deadpan electronic number that truly revealed its Kling Klang roots.
Available on the compilation album ‘This Is Hardcore’ (V/A) via God Made Me Hardcore
‘Automatic Lover’ was a 1978 disco-flavoured hit by Dee D Jackson and exploring a more electronic direction after his original trip hop success, the song was perfect foil for his fifth album ‘Antenna’. Filmic with layers of melancholic vocal and vocoder treatments over the gently pulsing electronics, the end result had something of a doomed romantic quality in its beautiful resignation.
From the JAY-JAY JOHANSON album ‘Antenna’ via BMG Sweden
A breathy Euro disco classic made famous by sultry Spanish vocal duo BACCARA, Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory’s take on this cheesy but enjoyable disco standard came over like The Cheeky Girls at The Nuremburg rally! Now that’s a horrifying vision! All traces of ‘Yes Sir I Can Boogie’ apart from the original lyrics were rendered missing in action as the stern Ms Goldfrapp played the role of the thigh booted dominatrix on this highly original cover.
Available on the GOLDFRAPP single ‘Twist’ via Mute Records
When BLACK BOX RECORDER went on hiatus, Sarah Nixey recorded a beautifully spacey cover of JAPAN’s ‘Ghosts’ with INFANTJOY whose James Banbury became her main collaborator on her 2007 debut solo album ‘Sing Memory’. The duo’s other member was ZTT conceptualist Paul Morley. MIDI-ed up and into the groove, Nixey later also recorded THE HUMAN LEAGUE’s ‘The Black Hit Of Space’.
Available on the INFANTJOY album ‘With’ via serviceAV
Of this mighty industrialised cover, Ralf Dörper said: “When I first heard ‘The Anvil’ (‘Der Amboss’) by VISAGE, I thought: “what a perfect song for DIE KRUPPS” – it just needed more sweat, more steel. And it was not before 2005 when DIE KRUPPS were asked to play a few 25-year anniversary shows that I remembered ‘Der Amboss’… and as I was a big CLIENT fan at that time, I thought it would be a good opportunity to ask Fräulein B for assistance in the vocal department”.
Comprising of Aggie Peterson and Per Martinsen, FROST have described their music as “upbeat space-pop”. Much of their own material like ‘Klong’, ‘Alphabet’ and ‘Sleepwalker’ exuded a perfect soundtrack for those long Nordic nights. Meanwhile their ultra-cool cover of OMD’s ‘Messages’ embraced that wintery atmosphere, while providing a pulsing backbone of icy synths to accompany Peterson’s alluringly nonchalant vocal.
In this “PINK FLOYD Goes To Hollywood” styled rework, Claudia Brücken revisited her ZTT roots with this powerful and danceable version of Roger Waters’ commentary on music business hypocrisy. ‘Have A Cigar’ showed a turn of feistiness and aggression not normally associated with the usually more serene timbres of Claudia Brücken and Paul Humphreys’ ONETWO project. But by welcoming pleasure into the dome, they did a fine cover version.
Budapest’s BLACK NAIL CABARET began life as an all-female duo of Emese Illes-Arvai on vocals and Sophie Tarr on keyboards, with their first online offering being a darkwave cover of Rihanna’s ‘Umbrella’. Already very synthy in the Barbadian starlet’s own version, it showcased their brooding form of electro which subsequently impressed enough to earn support slots with COVENANT and CAMOUFLAGE while producing three albums of self-penned material so far.
Liverpudlian easy listening crooner Michael Holliday was the second person to have a UK No1 written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, the first being Perry Como with ‘Magic Moments’. His second UK No1 penned by Earl Shuman and Mort Garson was a romantic guilty pleasure. CHINA CRISIS pledged their Scouse Honour with this jaunty synth / drum machine driven rendition of ‘Starry Eyed’ layered with reverbed synthbass warbles and harmonious vocals.
LITTLE BOOTS gave a dynamically poptastic rendition of Giorgio Moroder and Freddie Mercury’s only collaboration from 1984, retaining its poignant melancholic quality while adding a vibrant and danceable electronic slant. The recreation of Richie Zito’s guitar solo on synths was wondrous as was the looser swirly groove. While Blackpool-born Victoria Hesketh didn’t have the voice of Mercury, her wispy innocence added its own touching qualities to ‘Love Kills’.
Available on the LITTLE BOOTS EP ‘Illuminations’ via Elektra Records
Yuck, it’s Chris Martin and Co but didn’t Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe do well? Merging possibly COLDPLAY’s best song with the synth riff from their own Latino disco romp ‘Domino Dancing’, ‘Viva La Vida’ was turned into a stomping but still anthemic number which perhaps had more touches of affection than PET SHOP BOYS’ marvellous but allegedly two fingers Hi-NRG rendition of U2’s ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’. So altogether now: “Woah-oh, ooh-ooah!”
No strangers to raiding the Bowie songbook having previously tackled ‘Fame’ in 1981, DURAN DURAN however blotted their copy book with their 1995 covers LP ‘Thank You’. They refound their stride with the return-to-form album ‘All You Need Is Now’, but just before that, this superb reinterpretation of ‘Boys Keep Swinging’ reconnected them to their New Romantic roots with washes of Nick Rhodes’ swimmy Crumar string machine and John Taylor’s syncopated bass runs.
This frantically paced cover of controversial neofolk band DEATH IN JUNE was recorded for the LADYTRON ‘Best Of 00-10’ collection and purposely uncredited. The antithesis of the midtempo atmospherics of ‘Gravity The Seducer’, this cutting four-to-the-floor romp was the last of the quartet’s in-yer-face tracks in a wind down of the harder ‘Velocifero’ era. With the multi-ethnic combo subverting the meaning of ‘Little Black Angel’, it deliberately bore no resemblance to the original.
Available on the LADYTRON album ‘Best of 00-10’ via Nettwerk Records
‘The Eternal’ from ‘Closer’, the final album by JOY DIVISION, was one of the most fragile, funereal collages of beauty ever committed to vinyl. But in 2011, the mysterious Brighton based songstress GAZELLE TWIN reworked this cult classic and made it even more haunting! Replacing the piano motif with eerily chilling synth and holding it together within an echoing sonic cathedral, she paid due respect to the song while adding her own understated operatic stylings.
MIRRORS revealed an interesting musical diversion with this haunting take of a rootsy country number originally recorded by Karen Dalton. Written by Dino Valenti of psychedelic rockers QUICKSILVER MESSENGER SERVICE, ‘Something On Your Mind’ was a touching ballad with its tortured yearning suiting the quartet’s pop noir aspirations. Ally Young said: “It was very nice for us to be able to apply our aesthetic to someone else’s song.”
THE XX had a minimalist approach which Andy McCluskey said was “really quite impressive”. This bareness made their material quite well suited for reworking in the style of classic OMD. ‘VCR’ had Paul Humphreys taking charge of the synths while McCluskey dusted off his bass guitar and concentrated on vocals. McCluskey added: “People go ‘how did OMD influence THE XX?’… but have you listened to ‘4-Neu’? Have you listened to some of the really simple, stripped down B-sides?”
Using a logo that was based on the DDR motor company that produced the Trabant, when German chiptune quartet WELLE: ERDBALL made their tenth album ‘Der Kalte Krieg’, they included numerous German schlager style covers as an ironic nostalgic trip back to the nuclear angst of that era. One of those was a joyous synthpop cover of ‘Ein Bißchen Frieden’, the 1982 Eurovision Song Contest winner sung by Nicole, known in its English version as ‘A Little Peace’.
Available on the WELLE: ERDBALL album ‘Der Kalte Krieg’ via Synthetic Symphony
Folk-oriented songs are just made for electronic reinventions and as COMPUTE, Sweden’s Ulrika Mild did just that on ‘Goodbye’, a song made famous by Mary Hopkin which was written by Paul McCartney who had also produced her debut hit ‘Those Were the Days’. The track formed part of a charity compilation under the supervision of Eddie Bengtsson from PAGE who covered ‘Cos I Luv U’ while it also included versions of ‘Silver Machine’ and ‘Heart Of Gold’.
Available on the compilation album ‘Friends Of Electronically Yours Present The Seventies Revisited’ (V/A) via Electronically Yours
‘My Blue Heaven’ was a popular song written by Walter Donaldson with lyrics by George A Whiting. A 1927 song used in the Ziegfeld Follies and a hit crooner Gene Austin, this atmospheric synth reinterpretation by the Finnish duo of Juho Paalosmaa and Jori Hulkkonen was recorded to celebrate the end of their first year as SIN COS TAN as a seasonal gift following the acclaimed for their self-titled debut album.
As I SPEAK MACHINE, Tara Busch has been known for her haunting and downright bizarre live covers of songs as diverse as ‘Cars’, ‘Our House’, ‘The Sound Of Silence’ and ‘Ticket To Ride’. For a John Foxx tribute EP which also featured GAZELLE TWIN, she turned ‘My Sex’, the closing number from the debut ULTRAVOX! long player, into a cacophony of wailing soprano and dystopian synths that was more than suitable for a horror flick.
Available on the EP ‘Exponentialism’ (V/A) via Metamatic Records
French theatrical performer Valerie Renay and German producer Sebastian Lee Philipp are NOBLESSE OBLIGE. Together, they specialise in a brand of abstract Weimer cabaret tinged with a dose of electro Chanson. Their lengthy funereal deadpan cover of THE EAGLES ‘Hotel California’ highlighted the chilling subtext of the lyrics to its macabre conclusion! The synthesizer substitution of the original’s iconic twin guitar solo could be seen as total genius or sacrilege!
I AM SNOW ANGEL is the project of Brooklyn based producer Julie Kathryn; her debut album ‘Crocodile’ was a lush sounding affair and could easily be mistaken as a product of Scandinavia were it not for her distinctly Trans-Atlantic drawl. Already full of surprises, to close the long player, out popped a countrified drum ‘n’ bass take of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘I’m On Fire’! Quite what The Boss would have made of it, no-one is sure but it was quietly subversive…
Available on the I AM SNOW ANGEL album ‘Crocodile’ via I Am Snow Angel
Reinterpreting Bowie is fraught with the possibility of negative feedback and MACHINISTA taking on ‘Heroes’ set tongues wagging. Recorded as the duo’s calling card when experienced Swedish musicians John Lindqwister and Richard Flow first came together, electronic pulses combined with assorted synthetic textures which when amalgamated with Lindqwister’s spirited vocal, produced a respectful and yes, good version.
Available on the MACHINISTA album ‘Xenoglossy’ via Analogue Trash
Comprising of frisky vocalist Emily Kavanaugh and moody producer Mark Brooks, NIGHT CLUB simply cut to the chase with their enjoyable electronic cover of INXS’ ‘Need You Tonight’. Here, the familiar guitar riff was amusingly transposed into a series of synth stabs before mutating into a mutant Morse code. It wasn’t rock ‘n’ roll but we liked it! Purists were horrified, but history has proved the best cover versions always do a spot of genre and instrumentation hopping.
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