With their new album ‘Looking Skyward’, MESH alleviated any fears that they might not be have been able to sustain the artistic momentum following the success of 2013’s ‘Automation Baby’.
With the final show of an intensive European jaunt, this continued with a confident and impressive London show that drew from much of ‘Looking Skyward’. Along for the ride were AESTHETIC PERFECTION and EMPATHY TEST.
The latter have been much talked about as electronic pop’s new saviours but from the moment they opened with ‘Kirrilee’, their overall sound came over as hollow and steadfast. Singer Isaac Howlett once arrogantly boasted in an interview that EMPATHY TEST rarely rehearsed… from his attempts at soaring vocals on ‘Demons’, it showed.
His earlier Aggrotech has become much more melodic over the years and his short set accompanied by energetic synthesist Elliot Berlin featured songs from the recent 2015 reboot of ‘Blood Spills Not Far From The Wound’ as well as some of AESTHETIC PERFECTION’s more accessible material.
The vibrant ‘Antibody’ made an ideal opener, while the brilliant ‘Vapor’ was a perfect future disco moment. ‘The Little Death’ amusingly showcased Graves’ schizophrenic approach to vocals which were bizarrely one part Darren Hayes / two parts Marilyn Manson…
While his vocal style polarised some, what couldn’t be denied was the production quality of his meaty backing tracks. This was particularly evident on an impressive ‘Big Bad Wolf’ where Graves declared to the object of his desire that they were “good enough to eat”.
When the MESH live band of Mark Hockings, Rich Silverthorn, Sean Suleman and Lord Richard Broadhead finally took to the stage, it was to a tremendous roar with the quartet satisfyingly opening with ‘My Protector’, a tune with a synth line that captured the raw energy of classic MESH. The superb B-side ‘Paper Thin’ was amusingly interrupted by a barrage of paper aeroplanes using the template that was one of the extras in the ‘Looking Skyward’ deluxe box set.
Meanwhile, there was the return of the glorious ‘Little Missile’ from the ‘Who Watches Over Me’ album of 2002 when MESH were signed to a Sony Music subsidiary and label mates with Karl Bartos. The crowd were treated to further ‘Looking Skyward’ highlights in ‘The Ride’ and ‘Runway’, but as a close musical relative to ‘Just Leave Us Alone’, the trance laden ‘Last One Standing’ took the live engagement to another level with a dynamic LED show complimenting proceedings.
The Schaffel stomp of ‘Kill Your Darlings’ kept those into the more rockier side of MESH happy while the powerful triplet driven ‘The Fixer’ delivered another of those poignant statements from the reliably emotive Hockings that “you can’t change the picture if you break the frame”.
‘Friends Like These’ appropriately celebrated the camaraderie that the MESH faithful have now developed in support of their heroes, while to finish the main set, ‘Taken For Granted’ provided Hockings and Silverthorn with their own ‘Never Let Me Down Again’ which ended with a neo-acapella singalong from the crowd.
After the first encore ‘From This Height’, a disintegrating PA system totally ruined ‘Born To Lie’, but Hockings shouted to his colleagues to play on and such was the band’s undoubted professionalism to soldier on, their self-respect remained fully intact.
With only a few songs from ‘Automation Baby’ remaining and their best song ‘Crash’ now omitted too, MESH can hold their heads up high having successfully transferred their difficult acclaimed album follow-up into a fine live show. ‘Automation Baby’ outstripped DEPECHE MODE’s ‘Delta Machine’ by a long way in 2013.
What are the chances that the soon-to-be announced effort from the Basildon boys won’t even be able to hold a candle next to ‘Looking Skyward’?
Although PRESENCE OF MIND released recordings as early as 1995, the Swedish trio only released their full length debut album ‘Interpersonal’ in the summer of 2014.
Their first songs borrowed from the Vince Clarke school of synth programming.
But today, as exemplified by the album’s stand-out song ‘Queen Of Redemption’, PRESENCE OF MIND are a much darker proposition with MESH, DE/VISION and DEPECHE MODE being key elements to their industrial pop sound.
Thankfully, Christoffer Lundström, Johannes Ambros and Anders Wallroth have taken far less time to produce their follow-up album ‘Pure’ which develops on the dark, but danceable electronic soundtrack of its predecessor.
The band say it is “about how small events in our surroundings affects our emotions and our vision of how life should be, or could be, depending on whether we just thought a little bit longer before making a decision”.
The thrusting electro Schaffel of ‘It’s Too Quiet’ opens the album in a characteristically MESH-like fashion. But the most striking aspect of ‘Pure’ that emerges is its use of dubstep elements on several songs. ‘What’s In It for You?’ is a melodic treat and dressed with wobbling synth motifs, while the vibrant ‘Help Me Help You’ places some wonderfully meaty Doepfer bass noises within a hybrid techno backbone. And on ‘Brittle Bones’, a sparse musical framework is taken into some unusual territory for the industrial pop genre.
Lundström is a charismatic frontman with a great voice and on ‘I Am Demon’, he even comes over like a Futurepop Sinatra. The trio lock together well on with driving electronic numbers like ‘You Behave Sometimes’ and ‘Black Angel’, while the widescreen drama of ‘Chasing Waterfalls’ adds a further dimension. Unfortunately, ‘Welcome Home’ plods, but ‘Interstate’ follows a more classic synthpop vein despite the noisy infiltration of sub-bass.
Two very DEPECHE MODE influenced numbers end ‘Pure’ with ‘Slowly’ certainly exerting more passion than most of what ‘Delta Machine’ managed.
However ‘Show Me’ is less successful and on occasions, sounds slightly strained. But it is still better than much of the opposition operating in the same theatre.
PRESENCE OF MIND have certainly taken a few risks sonically on ‘Pure’ and that is commendable. Add in some quality production from Wallroth and Ambros, ‘Pure’ comes over as a much more accomplished long player than comparable works like SINESTAR’s ‘Evolve’ which came out earlier in the year.
‘Pure’ is released on CD and download by Cramada on 7th October 2016
Bristol’s finest MESH, whose success with their last album ‘Automation Baby’ took even Rich Silverthorn and Mark Hockings by surprise, found it challenging to start working on the new material.
If the only way to match their previous successes was to explore different writing techniques, use new technology and re-employ the German master of electronica Olaf Wollschläger as the producer, then the duo certainly did their homework with the new opus ‘Looking Skyward’. Wollschläger, who has also produced BEBORN BETON, SEABOUND, YELLO and IN STRICT CONFIDENCE, is a dab hand at understanding what MESH try to achieve.
Rich Silverthorn states that “Olaf has a natural talent of tiding up our productions and spending a ridiculous amount of time perfecting them without changing the overall feel and mood”. The mutual admiration for each other’s work shines through the newest outing. The ideas have been born out of old school sampling and make a tremendous difference to the flow of the finished long player.
Just like the vintage DEPECHE MODE albums, which were recorded with the use of unusual sampled noises to enhance the listening experience and bring that ‘one of the kind’ texture to the songs, MESH bought a couple of digital hand-held recorders and went off to capture everyday noises and atmospheres. “It’s the imperfections that make it interesting”, says Silverthorn, who would rather create a unique sound than use plugins. Indeed, presets aren’t what MESH would readily choose to employ. Wollschläger’s modular studio equipment, together with the newly purchased Maschine Studios hardware became a clear choice of sound manipulation for ‘Looking Skyward’.
The album is heralded by the powerful single ‘Kill Your Darlings’, which involves the customary catchy hooks and exquisite riffs, being MESH in a can. The strong lyrical content, together with the loudness, hardness and exuberance, sparkle from this “real smack in the face for a real comeback”. The opening ‘My Protector’ (not to be confused with FRAGMENTE’s ‘My Defender’, even though displaying the similar lyrical content) eases the listener in with gentle electronica laced with multiple layers and rawer sounding composition.
The anthemic qualities of neo-club tracks such as ‘The Last One Standing’ or the exceptionally masterful ‘Two +1’ hit hard. Meanwhile, ‘The Ride’ is off-beat and messy in an organised way; its unexpected shifts and turns make this album incredible, and yes, the sample of banging on metal parking barrier is included!
The fast notion is punctuated with the inclusion of several slower paced tracks like the ominous sounding instrumental ‘Iris’, ‘Before This World Ends’ (Silverthorn’s favourite with its palpable DM references) and ‘Tactile’ which acts as a full on, goose-bump inducing electronic ballad, exhibiting a musical canvas studded with quirky synth additions of a Virus TI.
‘The Traps We Made’ dabbles with dub step, a notion previously used on ‘Automation Baby’, while ‘There Must Be A Way’ floats the vocal manipulation on Cubase. Meanwhile ‘Runway’ expresses an optimistic outlook on life with a retrospective feel, in stark comparison with lyrically negative The Fixer’. The closing ‘Once Surrounded’ wraps the collection up with a heavier guitar sound and that recognisable MESH synth, unlaboured and heavy, but in no way simplistic.
Silverthorn advises the usage of headphones for “listening out of those hours of work manipulating samples into musical parts”. The intricacy of the production is, indeed, stunning. The multiple textures meander through the layers of the work, representing the intensity of feelings and the quality of Wollschläger’s mastering.
‘Looking Skyward’ is a magical journey into electronic soundscapes, taken to the next level. MESH never disappoint and the latest opus is a worthy addition to their vast back catalogue, and, unlike other weathered electronic acts, they only get better.
Following the huge success of ‘Automation Baby’, which took even MESH themselves by surprise, Silverthorn and co found starting the work on new material challenging.
After all, what follows needs to be equally masterful. The slow progress, studded with a multitude of ideas, usage of new technology and exploration of different writing techniques, blossomed into eighteen months of exciting adventures culminating in the release of ‘Looking Skyward’.
Rich Silverthorn admits that “we’ve been walking the streets with audio recorders making samples, worked on phones, tablets and laptops, recorded demos all over the world on iPads, and portable microphones”. The re-engagement of the German master of electronica, Olaf Wollschläger, known for his previous work with the band, as well as producing the likes of BEBORN BETON, YELLO, IN STRICT CONFIDENCE and SEABOUND, promises an exhilarating experience once more.
The first single heralding the arrival of ‘Looking Skyward’ is ‘Kill Your Darlings’. The customary catchy hooks and exquisite riffs sound like MESH in a can. It’s big, loud and exuberant with a strong lyrical content. It hits hard, making sure that the Bristol bosses are back in the game. The familiarity floats away with the marvellous B-side, ‘Paper Thin’. This fresh, ultra-clean and eloquently polished track with gothic elements, announces the new era in MESH reign. It’s immense on a more sublime level and it is likely to be a worthy contender to its partner-in-crime.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK chatted to Rich Silverthorn just in time for the release of MESH’s new opus…
You were heard quoting that ‘Automation Baby’ was your baby. How was the album different than its predecessors?
Although ‘Automation Baby’ was a huge success for us, we knew that making another album the same would be pointless. We never really have a masterplan at the initial outset. We just try and write some songs and see how it develops. The songs are the important thing, the production and atmosphere of the album follow. I think ‘Looking Skyward’ has a different feel and mood to ‘Automation Baby’.
Where was the album recorded?
It was written and recorded in Bristol. We have our main studio and Mark has a small set-up at his house where he writes. All the initial ideas and programming was done at these two locations. Once the songs were finished, we sent all the files to Olaf Wollschläger at Railroad Studios in Germany where the mixing and final production was done. From early January until now we have been flying back and forth to Kerpen, Germany doing mixing and vocal sessions.
Olaf is involved again in the producer capacity. Was he a natural choice?
Yes, we have a great working relationship with him. As a producer, he has a good understanding of what we are trying to achieve. We never liked the idea of a producer changing our sound. Olaf has a natural talent of tidying up our productions and spending a ridiculous amount of time perfecting them without changing the overall feel and mood. I think we have mutual admiration for each other. He says he learns ideas from us and we certainly learn from him.
How has the production differed from the previous albums?
I think the way in which we wrote this album has changed. I spent a lot of time listening to our old material and albums of other artists that really had an influence on me before we set out on making ‘Looking Skyward’. We didn’t want to make a clean and perfect album and realised that ‘old school’ sampling made the difference. We actually went out and bought a couple of digital hand held recorders and started recording everyday things, noises and atmospheres around us.
All these sounds were used to make loops and soundscapes for the songs. It’s the imperfections that make it interesting. Creating a sound that is totally unique is so much more satisfying than going to the latest synth or software plugin. Olaf has a reasonable amount of modular equipment in his studio which we played around with. It’s so time consuming, but the results are so much better than just tweaking a preset on a synthesizer.
You mention a variety of different writing techniques for ‘Looking Skyward’, was that a conscious choice to vary the album’s textures?
Yes I think it was. Just trying to keep the ideas fresh and interesting for us. Just buying new bits of equipment can influence the results. We bought two Maschine Studios (a kind of sampler / drum machine / loop player), these had a huge effect on what we were doing and how we done it. The sample manipulation was really quick and easy. Writing percussive loops and phrases were a good starting point for the songs. It made us write in a different way. Mark used a lot of iPad apps and sequencers for quickly writing down ideas. A lot of these sounds were so good they actually made it onto the final production.
And the title comes from…?
The title comes from a lyric of one of the songs. It seemed to best sum up the overall feeling of the album. It has its really dark moments but there is also a sense of hope, hence the ‘Looking Skyward’.
What’s the deal with paper aeroplanes?
Haha… Well we were trying to come up with an idea for the first single artwork. Mark had an idea of the jet fighter and the kids on the runway.
In contrast to the sinister feel of the real fighter, there is the innocence of the children playing with paper planes. The addition of the paper plane seemed to make it quite thought provoking.
Have MESH got any promotional plans to finally wow the UK’s media?
No LOL! We always do our bit, but generally feel it’s very hard work here in the UK. There just seems less and less avenues to go down these days. We have a good following here and sell a lot of records, but pushing it further and reaching new people is a difficult task. That said, with each album things are still growing. Social media plays a big part in this.
What’s the deal with breaking into unused buildings? MESH like living dangerously?
Shh…. we were looking for a location for a photoshoot when we discovered a disused factory very near us here in Bristol. So although it was all boarded up and signs saying ‘keep out’, we went into urban explorer mode and got in. The place was amazing and scary at the same time. All the photos for ‘Looking Skyward’ were taken there and have a moody and deserted feel to them.
Your press release mentions MESH writing new software to control live shows. That’s exciting…
Yes we like a challenge. Every tour we like to try and do something a little different. We have always used visuals and projections from day one, but keep trying to push the ideas. It is quite a complicated set up with boxes splitting signals to different TVs or projectors etc. With the upcoming tour, Mark has started working on incorporating LED lighting and maybe a more interactive show for the audience. All this is in the early stages at the moment, but watch this space.
What are your expectations for this long player?
As always, there is a huge dose of apprehension before releasing any new material. I hope what we have created an album that touches people in some way. We have certainly poured our heart and souls into making of it.
How do you think Brexit will affect your relationships with Europe as a band?
I (along with the rest of the country) have no idea what it is going to change. I hope everything with remain pretty much the same and our relationship with our European neighbours remains intact.
The single ‘Kill Your Darlings’ has a heavier than usual lyrical content, is that what we are to expect on the rest of the production?
The album certainly has a few dark corners to hide in but it’s not all doom and gloom. There is a positive and inspirational side to it too. ‘Kill Your Darlings’ just seemed a natural choice for the first single. A real smack in the face for a comeback.
Exciting textures are emerging from the single too, is that what we are to expect throughout the production?
Yes definitely. There are many layers and textures. Headphones are essential for listening out of all those hours of work manipulating samples into musical parts. I do feel this is our best and most intricate work to date.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its grateful thanks to Richard Silverthorn
‘Kill Your Darlings’ is available as a CD single via Dependent Records from 8th July 2016
The album ‘Looking Skyward’ is released on 26th August 2016 in a variety of formats
MESH’s 2016 ‘Touring Skyward’ live dates with support from AESTHETIC PERFECTION include:
As far as Germany’s leading electropop bands go, MINERVE had implanted themselves quite quickly into the scene, after forming in 2002.
Compromised of Mathias Thürk, who looked after the production and Daniel Wollatz, the lead voice of the establishment, demanding studio sessions gave birth to their first long player entitled ‘Breathing Avenue’. Gems as ‘High Pitched Emotions’ and ‘Clear’ paved the band’s way into gigging extensively alongside acts such as PSYCHE, THE CRÜXSHADOWS and SPEKTRALIZED.
Eastern Europe took an exceptional liking to the newcomers; Poland being their main bread winner, as well as the Czech Republic and Hungary. 2005 saw the band receive the prestigious nomination and prize in the German Rock & Pop Association’s Awards, and further gigs followed with IRIS and MELOTRON. The following year, the duo became a trio, with Andreas Wollatz as the addition on keys and MINERVE entered the German Alternative Charts at a respectable No16 with ‘My Universe’.
As their popularity grew with further tours and more albums, MINERVE continued climbing the steps of excellence throughout Russia, the former Yugoslav countries, Bulgaria, Turkey and of course, Poland, Ukraine and their native Germany.
‘Please’, which was released in 2010, remains the group’s most acknowledged album. It was produced by a widely recognised name in the electronic circles of Germany.
Olaf Wollschläger had successfully looked after artists such as AND ONE and the UK’s best export MESH on their albums including ‘Perfect Solution’, ‘Automation Baby’ and the forthcoming new release ‘Looking Skyward’. Wollschläger was joined by the mastering legend John Cremer, who fine-tuned the collection of adept tunes with finesse and electronic know-how.
‘Please’ contains twelve, non-filler tracks, each one emotionally loaded and ready to transport into the world of the dark and lonely, yet remaining hopeful and warm. The opening ‘Hold Me Tight’, mirroring the signature beats of MESH, is a quintessential dance track, fortified with alluring synth sounds and the competent voice of Wollatz.
‘Every Day’ follows with mantric beats, which continue the electronic disco theme, pulsating and orbiting around the lyrics describing the mundanity of life. ‘Down To The Ground’ slows the tempo somewhat, introducing a grunge guitar riff, while ‘Life Is An Illusion’ probes deeper into the slowness of synthpopia, with an excellent chorus.
‘You Don’t Know Me’ turns into a full on ballad, with ‘Don’t Ask Me Why’ returning to the club-worthy rhythm of layered synths and capable production. ‘Phoenix’ rings powerfully, exploring the cacophony of electronic sounds to perfection, as does ‘Read My Memories’.
The title track enters, ushering the era of a gentler type of melody a la SIMPLE MINDS, before returning to more retro beats of ‘Forbidden Love’. ‘Save Me’ returns to the blueprint of “slower is better”, while ‘Under My Skin’ closes the creation with the heavier, beefy synth of a near-MESH experience.
After the release of ‘Repleased’ in 2011, which contained remixes by SEABOUND, SPEKTRALIZED and others, founder member and main programmer, Mathias Thürk decided to leave the band to pursue other projects.
While MINERVE have yet to follow-up ‘Please’, the remaining members promise new levels of electronic pleasure to come soon, and perhaps more gigs alongside CAMOUFLAGE, DE/VISION and other legends.
Fingers crossed that will happen soon; for now, ‘Please’ is a fine example of what those Berlin based boys are capable of.
‘Please’ is still available on CD and download via Gravitator Records
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Although PRESENCE OF MIND released recordings as early as 1995, the Swedish trio only released their full length debut album ‘Interpersonal’ in the summer of 2014.
which develops on the dark, but danceable electronic soundtrack of its predecessor.
. The customary catchy hooks and exquisite riffs sound like 
, which was released in 2010, remains the group’s most acknowledged album. It was produced by a widely recognised name in the electronic circles of Germany.
, the remaining members promise new levels of electronic pleasure to come soon, and perhaps more gigs alongside CAMOUFLAGE, DE/VISION and other legends.
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