Tag: Mirrors (Page 7 of 8)

Vintage Synth Trumps with MIRRORS

30 April 2011 /

“Meine Tasche voll mit kleinen Geheimnissen. Du nennst diesen Platz mein Schloss. Aber ich zeige all mein Verlangen. Du sagst mir, du hast nichts. Aber ich, ich bin ein Wahnsinniger…”

MIRRORS capture the intelligent aesthetics and aspirations of KRAFTWERK, JOY DIVISION and OMD. Bringing them forward into the 21st Century, they have a denser, grittier approach for an element of aural claustrophobia that reflects their pop-noir aura.

As well as releasing one of the best albums of the year so far in ‘Lights and Offerings’, they have also been impressing new audiences via prestigious support slots with Gary Numan, John Foxx and OMD.

Now they are embarking on their first headlining tour in Germany, the spiritual homeland of electronic music. This expanded show to sees the welcome return of their debut single ‘Look At Me’ to the live set, as well as premieres for B-Side ‘Toe The Line’ and the monumental album closer ‘Secrets’.

The latter in particular showcases the ambition of the MIRRORS audio/visual experience; grainy impressionistic film projections and stark lighting soundtracked by the sharp, dynamic cacophonies of synthetic sound. Effectively creating their own ‘Spiegelsaal’, instrumentalists Ally Young, James ‘Tate’ Arguile and Josef Page are fronted by the intense, energetic persona of vocalist James New.

With their confidence growing throughout the tour, James even performed the song’s final reprise monologue in Deutsch at Frankfurt’s Yellowstage, much to the delight of the home crowd.

Just prior to their first show at Cologne’s Gebaude9, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK were invited by James New and Ally Young to a round of Vintage Synth Trumps in a variation of the classic card game that has kept many a child happy in the school playground.

While Tate sat nearby compiling MIRRORS latest tour blog, James and Ally also talked about ‘Lights and Offerings’ reception, how they are not synthpop by numbers and their use of guitars…

So what’s your first trump card?

Ally: Well how about that? A Juno 60! *big cheers from all*

James: What are the chances?

And James has one for a Sequential Circuits Prophet 5… let’s talk about the Roland Juno 60 first because that’s one of the mainstays of your set-up isn’t it?

Ally: It is. James plays the Juno and I play not a Sequential, but a Dave Smith Prophet. It’s fully analogue with digital interfaces.

What you’ve got there is a classic synthesizer with the Juno 60 and the most up-to-date polyphonic analogue synth in the Prophet 08. When you decided to go for synthesizers as your main instrumentation, how important was it for you to use a combination of vintage and new equipment?

Ally: The reason we like all the old synthesizers is that they don’t go in tune properly, one wrong move of a button and the sound is lost forever, they’re noisy and they’re slightly unreliable… but that’s what we like, that analogue warmth.

James: The Juno for us particularly was just because for warm padded sounds like FEVER RAY-type drones, it sounds incredible; an almost ‘organy’ synth sound and for things like ‘Write Through The Night’…

Ally: The chord at the beginning of that is Juno.

James: What we tend to use the Juno for is padding out. If you think of us almost as a traditional band, Ally plays the lead parts, Tate plays the bass parts on the Moog, Josef obviously does drums and I’m sort of rhythm in all the rest of the noise *laughs*

Where did you get the Juno 60 from?

Ally: That was covered in dust in the basement of our record label’s office.

James: We asked “Can we borrow that?”

Ally: Two years later and we’ve still got it and we’re still touring it.

With the Dave Smith Prophet 08 then, what made you choose that one?

James: It does a bit of everything.

Ally: It does sound amazing. I didn’t what to buy it at first; I’m not a big fan of the digital modelling synths… if you want an analogue synthesizer sound, you’ve got to buy one. It’s part digital but the way the sound is created in the DS is totally analogue and the pretext of the Prophet is that it’s not a homage to the Prophet 5 which Dave Smith and Sequential Circuits obviously made… it’s if he never made the Prophet 5 and was going to make one now, this is what it would be.

For me, it does everything. It’s the best of both worlds, the functionality of it is amazing, the extra envelope generator etc. I used it on pretty much everything for recording and live. It’s just so versatile. A lot of the pulse sounds that we use a lot on the record are actually a Minimoog but the Prophet does them pretty closely for live.

You do get some quite amazing sounds on your solos, I’m thinking particularly of the screeching one in ‘Searching In The Wilderness’..

Ally: I knew you were going to say that, that was the Juno. A lot of them are a combination of sounds, two or three parts put through a holy amount of reverb!

‘Searching In The Wilderness’ is also the song that changed the most from its original demo to the final recording.

James: It became more MIRRORS.

Ally: I think it was maybe a bit too twee, a bit too light…

James: It was a bit too light and it did remind us a lot of ‘Speak and Spell’. On the original production, it was very empty and it needed to sound like the rest of the record.

Ally: I think it’s moved away from ‘Speak and Spell’ and more into that saturated sound…

James: Melodically, maybe not…

Ally: But the actual production has much more of a darkness. In its original guise, it didn’t sit right.

James: It’s the lightest thing on the record.

Ally: But we wanted it on there, it’s a nice little mood change.

Photo by David Ellis

OK, let’s pull out another card…

Ally: Ah, the Minimoog.

James: Actually, when we did our very first recordings where we pooled all our money to go into a studio, there was a Minimoog there. I’d personally never heard one before…we were using plug-ins because we were flat broke. And when we heard it, it was just amazing!

Ally: It’s that moment isn’t it?

James: From that moment on, we just thought “we have to use this” as the driving force for some of our tracks.

Ally: Those sort of “dum-dum-dum-dum” pulsing parts… amazing!

James: So yeah, that was the start of it, my first memory. And there’s some great pictures of us looking very excited!

What made those pulsing sounds on the beginning of ‘Fear Of Drowning’?

James: That’s actually Garageband…

Ally: It was originally, but we replaced it with the Prophet although we’re not snobs in any sense. Some of the sounds you hear on the record were from plug-ins and Garageband but it’s more about the post-production really. We’re not going to sit here and say we only use analogue gear and we only use sequencers… we don’t. If something sounds good, then it really doesn’t matter.

So can I ask, is there any guitar on the album?

Ally: There are loads!

James: It’s really distorted and low, it adds density.

Ally: I would say it’s on every track without exception, perhaps ‘Something On Your Mind’ doesn’t have any guitar.

James: It would be about the only one. We use it in a particular way; it isn’t guitar live…

Ally: It’s not Jimmy Page wiggling all over it! It’s more in an almost MY BLOODY VALENTINE sense because there are layers and layers of guitar all over the place. But we just maybe sidechain it off something strange so it’s sucking in and out a bit…

James: Exactly! And it gives it some rhythmic element as well so if you have layers and layers of guitar, you just sidechain it to a snare or vocal. Then you end up with this kind of sickly, heaving in and out which you can’t pinpoint.

Ally: That’s one of the things that is quite MIRRORS, we have a lot of these synth sounds but we have things like guitars on there to add that extra dimension.

James: The thing about it is also, having acoustic instruments gives it a live feel and that was important. It had to be visceral and real, having a couple of drums that were a bit out.

Do you think having musical backgrounds in more conventional roots actually helps your songwriting because synthesizers are still comparatively new to you as instruments; that you approach them like excited boys?

Ally: I think so. The other thing you have to bear in mind with a synthesizer is you can play a melody or a chord with one sound and it could be completely wrong.

Manipulate that sound and then suddenly, it becomes something else which you don’t really get when you’re sat round a piano or writing a song on an acoustic guitar… it is what it is. Electronic instruments, good or bad, give you that freedom to be able to play the same thing but change the sound and manipulate it so that it becomes something completely different.

James: It’s two different challenges for us in that one half of it is very much important that we get the songs right to start with. I tend to take more of a role in that initial melody and then Ally certainly has vast interest in the geeky side of recording.

Ally: Most of our songs start with the core of a song, then we just pull them apart and put them back together using electronic instruments.

Are you quite prolific with your writing?

James: It weird actually, I think I used to write much more but particularly since being in MIRRORS, I’d rather write fewer ideas and work on them for longer to make sure they’re the best versions of the song.

Ally: For the ten songs that made the album, we have ditched I’d say twenty…

James: Yeah, that’s probably quite standard.

But resulting from that, you’re becoming known as a good B-sides band…

Ally and James: YEAH!

James: We’re really pleased about that…

B-sides are a great traditional to be part of. How do these tracks emerge? Are they experiments in new directions?

Ally: They are tracks that, for whatever reason, didn’t make the record, be it for mood or that there was already a song of a similar nature on there.

James: We didn’t in a lot of cases think they were worse. Every single B-side could happily have had a place. We didn’t want it to be too self-indulgent and long. If you’ve got fifteen brilliant songs, it’s going to be an hour and forty five minutes!

Ally: No-one going to have time for that, we’re not RADIOHEAD! *laughs*

James: It’s nice that people really appreciate that we do put as much of an effort into the B-sides because it means they’ll come back to the singles.

Any particular favourite B-sides?

Ally: I think ‘Toe The Line’ probably for me personally. That was a song we didn’t really consider for the album until the very last minute and we thought “What about this? It’s actually quite good!”

James: ‘Lights And Offerings’ for me.

Ally: Yeah, I forgot about that! ‘Lights And Offerings’ was so close to making the album…

James: The reason it didn’t make it was because ‘Secrets’ did, it’s as simple as that. They come from a similar place and we didn’t want to have too many epics. With ‘Somewhere Strange’, ‘Fear Of Drowning’ and ‘Secrets’, you’ve got three lynchpin moments; we didn’t need another one of those.

Ally: We’ve always played it live, it goes down excellently.

James: It’s one of my favourite tracks of ours! ‘Broken By Silence’ as well, I like that one.

Can I ask you about ‘Falls By Another Name’ as that’s an interesting one, in that there are elements of early DEPECHE MODE?

Ally: It’s a bit of a guilty pleasure…

…was that one definitely recorded as a B-side one-off to get a certain thing out of your system?

James and Ally: MAYBE!

Ally: Perhaps subconsciously.

James: We do have a habit of writing quite big melodies and choruses, we come from a poppy sort of place.

Ally: James and I normally do that, it’s Tate that reins us in! *laughs*

James: And Tate will tell you right now that he’s not a big fan of ‘Falls By Another Name’…

Tate: It’s alright… *everyone laughs*

The German bonus track ‘Visions Of You’ probably falls into that category too. I think it sounds like CHINA CRISIS if they had fully adopted synthesizers.

Ally: Yeah, people have said that before.

James: That’s another of the ones we looked at when we were making the record.

The label really wanted it to be on the album and we had to put our foot down and say…

Ally: …this doesn’t feel right to do this on our first record. It didn’t make it in the UK but we’re happy to release it in Germany and I think we’ve come back to it a bit.

James: It’s a very big pop song but there’s part of me that thinks it might be a little too big.

Ally: It sort of scares us almost!

Another card then? A Korg MS10…

James: Korg MS10… I know about this one don’t I? *laughs*

Ally: Yeah! I’ve been looking for an MS20 for a while but they’re all quite expensive.

James: I might be right in thinking they’re quite good at making those muted guitar sounds.

Ally: There’s a track we’re working on at the moment where we’ve made an almost pizzicato string sound. It does that and it’s really lovely. I think I’d potentially invest in an MS20 for the second record mainly because I like the idea of something that’s semi-modular plus also the bass and the filter on it are amazing. It’s got the external input audio input so you can feed other audio into it and use the filter on it…

That’s how GOLDFRAPP got those synthetically treated screaming sounds on the ‘Felt Mountain’ album…

James: Oh, that’s interesting…

Maybe that’s something you could do?

James: Yeah, will definitely try *chuckles*

Ally, you’ve got a Moog Source card there but your Moog is the Little Phatty, what’s that like?

Ally: It’s good but it’s not as easy to make good sounds as the Prophet, it takes a little bit more work.

James: It’s good at what it does for live work because it basically does the bass for us.

Ally: It’s got that nice effect because it’s monophonic and it’s limiting in a good way I think. Again, some good modern features like you can connect it up to your computer and look at the sound. It’s also got a tempo synch, an arpegiator and little things like that.

Was there any reason why you got the Little Phatty rather than the Voyager?

Ally: Price mostly! The Little Phatty is £500 cheaper and if we were going to spend that much money on a synth, I think we’d probably get another Prophet to be honest, or something older.

The most unusual synth I saw your list was the Siel Cruise, where did you get that from?

Ally: eBay of course!

James: It’s good for strings, like those kind of slightly cheap NEW ORDER-like sounds… “aahh-ah-aaaah!”

Ally: Mellotrony! It’s a layer of the strings on ‘Look At Me’. But it’s not very good at doing most things! *laughs*

James: It’s just a one-trick pony and only cost a couple of hundred quid so it’s good for that particular trick.

So how do feel the overall response to the ‘Lights and Offerings’ album has been?

James: It’s been really, really good. It obviously hasn’t been world beating but what we feel like we’ve achieved is a small, really loyal fanbase which is such a great place to start from.

It gives us a place to go. I’ve been in bands where fans have been incredibly fickle and they move on. I really feel with MIRRORS, we’ve got something.

Ally: Yeah, not all the reviews have been positive as I’m sure you can imagine… the NME didn’t like it, but we knew they wouldn’t! But people like Artrocker, Q and Mojo, the magazines that we would read and respect gave it very positive reviews. In that sense, we were really pleased.

James: In a people sense, it’s been really lovely as well. So many nice messages from loads of old friends of mine as well, ringing up and saying “I just wanted to say it’s absolutely brilliant”.

Ally: It’s really sweet that.

Photo by David Ellis

How do you respond to criticism in some quarters that MIRRORS are merely “synthpop by numbers”, that you are just only recreating a specific sound from a specific era?

Ally: I’d like to quote Andy McCluskey from OMD who said in the ‘Synth Britannia’ documentary if they had been a button on a synthesizer that said hit single, he’d have pressed it more than anyone else… that button doesn’t exist! *laughs*

James: It starts with the songs and I’m very proud of them. It’s ten excellent tracks and I think it’s very diverse. But the thing is, this is our first record, people have to realise that as well. They are things that we aren’t pleased with… I think we’ve made without realising it, maybe a record that was slightly more derivative than we hoped to make. We can be honest about that!

Ally: Yes, absolutely! But I think the live show is a very different beast to the record, it has a lot more energy perhaps than can be conveyed on the album. And it’s a lot more raw and much more like a live band.

James: I’ve heard lots of people say “I wasn’t that sure about the album but with the live show, I’ve done a total 180” which is nice.

You played at Back To The Phuture supporting Gary Numan and John Foxx, how was it for you?

Ally: We really enjoyed it. It was really nice for us to be asked to play alongside Gary Numan and John Foxx.

James: We saw people’s responses at the end of the show.

Ally: People were very keen to buy the album and we sold out, we didn’t have enough to go round.

James: It was great; a perfect audience for us really isn’t it?

Did you chat to either Gary Numan or John Foxx?

James: I had a good conversation with John Foxx. Since then, I think we might be playing with him again so that’s really good. I didn’t meet GARY NUMAN but I think I wandered into his dressing room accidentally! *laughs*

Photo by Largs Diegmann

What inspired you to cover ‘Something On Your Mind’, a comparatively obscure country song?

Ally: Tate and I had a couple of Karen Dalton LPs and it was on an Optimo mixtape. The song is beautiful, she was something of a tortured soul and her voice is incredible. We wanted to do it and it initially wasn’t going to be on the album but the label heard it and really liked it.

James: And I wanted to sing it basically *laughs*

Ally: We were quite happy for it to go on there because our version is so different. It was very nice for us to be able to apply our aesthetic to someone else’s song.

James: I think the thing for us as well is, bearing in mind that we make electronic music all day, we get back and we won’t listen to that kind of music.

Ally: Yeah, I don’t come home and put on ‘Messages’! *laughs*

James: I think we came home, put that record on and thought it would be quite interesting to try and do something that’s entirely different to MIRRORS but bring it into that world.

So did the Laura Cantrell cover of ‘Look At Me’ come before or after that?

James: Before, we had it for a couple of years. Basically she did a cover of NEW ORDER’s ‘Love Vigilantes’ and we heard that. It was really nice so we asked her.

Ally: We got a really sweet message from her saying “Thank you for asking me to do it”. Her and her band locked themselves in a studio over Christmas 2009 in Nashville. She thought the song was lovely and really enjoyed the experience.

James: And again, it goes to show that they’re really good pop songs for me because it works perfectly like that and it sounds like it could be one of her singles. It shows that we write universal music…

Ally: We just present it in a slightly off-kilter manner.

Photo by David Ellis

How did ‘Secrets’ end up being an eleven minute, three movement epic?

James: It was fourteen to start with! The label nearly had a panic attack! *laughs*

Ally: Yeah, “we’re not putting the two big singles on there… we’re putting this on it!” *laughs*

James: I wrote the song five years ago, we wanted to make a mood change on the record didn’t we?

Ally: Yeah, we wanted to do something bombastic with it. We had the initial idea of the first groove and Tate had written this piece of music that seemed to fit it so well.

We wanted to make a bold statement…like it’s our debut record, you only get to do that once and we didn’t want to look back and think “we should have put that on!”. So we thought, why not? It’s got that ENO-esque bit in the middle.

It starts very big and is quite rocky in places before the mood descends into that abstract middle and the reprise just comes in, in a different version of itself.

The ambient interlude made a refreshing change from the silence before a hidden track. It was like you decided to do an Eno instead of everyone else accidentally doing John Cage after all these years…

Ally: I’m glad you think so

James: You might see a live version of that idea live *laughs*

It will be interesting to see how you do it because that’s the one the fans have been waiting for…

Ally: That’s part of the reason we’re doing it. It was always going to be a bit of a challenge to do live, it’s just such a beast.

So what next for MIRRORS? What direction are you possibly going to take?

James: It won’t be that long ’til the next album, we said a year from releasing the first. So we’ve written quite a few songs already. We’re writing as a live band now, that will be the big change. It will be a more contemporary record.

Ally: Maybe a bit less busy, more stripped. To be honest we don’t know ourselves yet.

This has been such a long process for us because we had a lot of the songs written before we were signed, then we re-did them and now we’re touring them again which is very enjoyable but at the same time in the back of our minds, we have new ideas that we want to put down and the way things can move forward… it’s very exciting.

James: With the live show as well, we are talking quite excitedly about a more interactive show for the second album which we haven’t had time to do where we actually incorporate the sounds from the crowd so they become actually involved in it.

MIRRORS ‘Lights and Offerings’ uses the following equipment: ARP 2600, Akai MPC1000 Production Station, Dave Smith Instruments Prophet 08, Doepfer MAQ16/3 Sequencer, Kawai R50 Drum Machine, Korg MicroPreset, Moog Little Phatty, Minimoog, Memorymoog, Nord Lead 2X, Octave Cat, Roland Juno 60, Roland SH101, Roland TR808 Rhythm Composer, Roland MC202 MicroComposer, Roland SPD-S Electronic Percussion Sampling Pad, Siel Cruise.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to MIRRORS

Special thanks to Debbie Ball at Create Spark and Skint Records

‘Lights and Offerings’ is released as a CD, double vinyl LP and download by Skint Records.

MIRRORS’ suits by Gresham Blake Ltd, Brighton

Vintage Synth Trumps is a card game by GForce that features 52 classic synthesizers

https://www.facebook.com/theworldofmirrors/

Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
30th April 2011, updated 17th March 2018

MIRRORS Lights & Offerings

14 February 2011 /

The Science Of Our Love…

MIRROR: a pattern for imitation; exemplar: a man who was the mirror of fashion. Something worthy of imitation.

MIRRORS reflect their surroundings and flaunt their artistic integrity. “We like that whole idea that your art is your life – you are what you make” says singer James New.

Following the philosophy of the Bauhaus movement’s founder Walter Gropius, MIRRORS’ modernism is a unity of art and technology. Whilst their aesthetic may point towards KRAFTWERK and their Gilbert & George inspired sartorial style, the eerily uncomfortable and gloomy social environment that spawned JOY DIVISION, XTC, THROBBING GRISTLE and PUBLIC IMAGE LIMITED over thirty years ago which also exists today is just as relevant.

Protestations in some quarters that MIRRORS are merely an OMD tribute band are ignorantly lazy and uninformed. As a current musical act resonating the hopes and fears of rational youth, MIRRORS could appeal as much to followers of WHITE LIES, EDITORS (note absence of the definite article in all three!) or even THE XX as much as anyone who may have grown up admiring the pioneering sounds of Synth Britannia. In a recession, people seek value and that is apparent with ‘Lights & Offerings’.

This young Brighton quartet consisting of James New (lead vocals and synths), Ally Young (synths and backing vocals), James ‘Tate’ Arguile (synths) and Josef Page (electronic percussion) have quite simply delivered one of the best debut albums by a British band for many years.

Recorded and self produced in a rural Sussex farmhouse before being mixed in New York by Jonathan Kreinik, ‘Lights & Offerings’ possesses an intelligent balance between precise technologically driven beats and emotive vintage synthesizer melodies. This fresh, artful and lively approach permeates throughout this cohesive, seamless body of work. It all begins with the superb sonic pulsar of ‘Fear Of Drowning’. Full of the dramatic overtures of young manhood, it marvellously sets the scene for the rest of the album.

Their debut single ‘Look At Me’ has been reworked with its original digital drum patterns now replaced by a grittier snap. But its moody, layered textures keep it wistful and evocative. With a debut album, there is only one chance to make a good first impression, so MIRRORS have done the sensible thing by including all of their acclaimed singles.

And none come much better than ‘Into The Heart’ which is a beautiful slice of melancholic pop with a glorious soaring chorus to match. Add in its detuned shimmering tones and powerful humanity, it successfully captures the spirit of prime ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK. ‘Write Through The Night’ acts as a steadfast interregnum before leading into the mutant electronic disco of ‘Ways To An End’. Driven rhythmically by two parts TALKING HEADS and one part HUMAN LEAGUE, ‘Ways To An End’ is the most immediate example of MIRRORS’ chilling pop noir.

The following ‘Hide & Seek’ exposes some endearing soul searching and is almost choir boy like with its lyrically naive but playful intent. James New’s altering tonality in his majestic vocals compliment the discerning harmonious stylings in what is a very English take on modern pop. In fact, he comes over like an electro friendly MOorrissey. In that respect, MIRRORS are one of those electronic bands who could break down the barriers of the real music purist, purely because they write and produce proper songs.

The outstanding ‘Somewhere Strange’ takes the listener on the most euphoric and roaring trip since NEW ORDER’s ‘Temptation’. The synthetic assault simply hypnotises with propulsive blips and cacophonies of percussive noise.

After such frenzied action, MIRRORS then reveal an interesting musical diversion with a haunting cover of a rootsy country number originally recorded by Karen Dalton and written by the late Dino Valenti of psychedelic rockers QUICKSILVER MESSENGER SERVICE. Entitled ‘Something On Your Mind’, this touching ballad takes the pace down with some tearful yearning before screeching into the frantically uptempo DEPECHE MODE led synthpop of ‘Searching In The Wilderness’.

With the epic final track ‘Secrets’, its echoing Kling Klang octave bass riff is accompanied by an intense percussive march. Almost 11 minutes in length and split into three parts, the ambient interlude of the second section consists of an aural sculpture that plays with the mind. Fooling the listener into thinking the album has ended, it suddenly all restarts with a piercing and dynamic military tattoo for the third and final movement.

When ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK first asked James New to describe ‘Lights and Offerings’ last Autumn, he said: “really great pop songs… but it’s very densely produced, heavily layered, emotional, soulful electronic music. If those words mean anything to you, then you’re going to love our record.”

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK is pleased to say it does and so will you…

Special thanks to Debbie Ball at Create Spark

‘Lights & Offerings’ is released in the UK by Skint Records on 28th February 2011

The ‘Lights & Offerings’ Launch Party takes place at The Green Door Store, Trafalgar Arches, Brighton BN1 4FQ on Thursday 24th February 2011. Doors open at 8.00pm, with MIRRORS performing their live showcase at around 10.00pm. Entry is free.

MIRRORS will also be performing on the same bill as Gary Numan and John Foxx at Back To The Phuture which takes place at London’s Troxy on Saturday 2nd April 2011.

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http://theworldofmirrors.blogspot.com/

https://mirrorsofficial.bandcamp.com/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by David Ellis
14th February 2011

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s 30 SONGS OF 2010

30 December 2010 /

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK came into being on 15th March 2010 following the HEAVEN 17 aftershow party at Sheffield Magna.

The year also saw the release of a new album by OMD in ‘History Of Modern’, their first since 1996 while there was a long awaited single by THE HUMAN LEAGUE. Meanwhile there was the emergence of new acts such as VILLA NAH, MIRRORS, THE SOUND OF ARROWS and HURTS.

At the end of 2009 when LITTLE BOOTS and LA ROUX heralded a renaissance in the sound of the synth, KRAFTWERK’s Ralf Hütter said to Mojo Magazine: “From all our work comes inspiration. We have been very lucky because the music we envisioned, the ideas we had of The Man-Machine and electro music, have become reality and technology has developed in our direction… and electro is everywhere!”

In a tremendous year for all things electro, here are our 30 songs of 2010 in alphabetical order by artist:

CHRISTINA AGUILERA & LADYTRON Birds Of Prey

In 2008, there was much talk of CHRISTINA AGUILERA going electro and collaborating with LADYTRON. Fast forward to 2010 and the two finished tracks ‘Birds Of Prey’ and ‘Little Dreamer’ were relegated to bonus track status on her album Bionic, with the latter being available only on iTunes. ‘Birds Of Prey’ softens the percussive noise that dominated ‘Velocifero’ with Ms Aguilera showing some great vocal restraint herself, with an almost hypnotic Middle Eastern feel.

Available on the album ‘Bionic (Deluxe Edition)’

http://www.christinaaguilera.com/

http://www.ladytron.com/

ARP High Life

ARP is New Yorker Alexis Georgopoulos who crafts gorgeous contemporary kosmische musik for the 21st century. Beautiful synth strings plus the spectre of KRAFTWERK and CLUSTER dominate this cute instrumental. Some minimal guitar adds texture to the pulsing accompaniment, recalling other German heroes such as MICHAEL ROTHER and MANUEL GOTTSCHING.

Available on the album ‘The Soft Wave’

http://www.studioalexisgeorgopoulos.com/ARP

AU REVOIR SIMONE Tell Me (Un Autre Monde Remix by MIRRORS)

Although AU REVOIR SIMONE have a wispy girls next door demeanour, this remix by MIRRORS recrafts the originally bare ‘Tell Me’ into a dense apocalyptic ditty which makes Erika Forster, Annie Hart and Heather D’Angelo sound almost suicidal! With its heavy synthetic percussive backbone, this is definitely dance music from another world! Like an alternative gothic disco soundtrack to Sofia Coppola’s ‘The Virgin Suicides’!

Available exclusively as a download on the album ‘Night Light’ from Juno:
http://www.junodownload.com/products/au-revoir-simone-night-light/1582186-02/

http://aurevoirsimone.com

BRIGHT LIGHT BRIGHT LIGHT Love Part II

Shimmering Emulator type strings, pulsing sequences and a rousing chorus make this a very immediate slice of synthesized pop. BRIGHT LIGHT BRIGHT LIGHT mainman Rod Thomas reworks the template of ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ and gives it a bit of a sensitive new man outlook. ‘Love Part II’ is NEW ORDER’s disco music for lager louts taken back to its slightly camper Italo roots. Not one for those who wear football shirts to the pub!

Available on the single ‘Love Part II’

http://www.brightlightx2.com/

THE CHANTEUSE & THE CRIPPLED CLAW Are You One?

Assisted by I Monster’s Dean Honer who also co-produced THE HUMAN LEAGUE’s Night People, THE CHANTEUSE & THE CRIPPLED CLAW’s first single ‘Are You One?’ has Candie Payne’s very classic pop presence coupled with Adrian Flanagan’s eccentronic backing. It wonderfully sounds like SANDIE SHAW being backed by a BBC Radiophonic Workshop collaboration with LALO SCHIFRIN!

Available on the single ‘Are You One?’

https://myspace.com/chanteusenthecrippledclaw

CHEW LIPS Rising Tide

Usually dealing in a brand of “8-bit Casiotone drone-disco” sounding like YEAH YEAH YEAHS with synths, CHEW LIPS look like OMD being led by Debbie Harry! And they take the OMD thing further here with their best track ‘Rising Tide’. The haunting piano, precise drum machine and bass with sparkling synth-harp runs and a spirited vocal come together nicely to build up to a rousing crescendo.

Available exclusively as a download on the album ‘Unicorn’ from iTunes.

http://chew-lips.com

DELPHIC Halcyon

Here are the young men of DELPHIC, continuing the electronic dance / rock fusion pioneered by the legend of Factory Records. The backing is pure NEW ORDER and reinforced by a great klanky guitar solo which would do Bernard Sumner proud. Now, if DELPHIC could just develop things into great pop songs like ‘Halcyon’ rather than some of the prolonged jams and grooves that dominate their debut album ‘Acolyte’.

Available on the album ‘Acolyte’

https://www.facebook.com/delphicmusic/

THE GOLDEN FILTER Look Me In The Eye

With their melodic and glacial electronic disco, you’d think they were Scandinavian, but THE GOLDEN FILTER consist of an Aussie in Penelope Trappes and a Yank in Stephen Hindman. Penelope’s vocals have an uplifting quality on the chorus while still retaining a distant chill but the counter melodies compliment the danceable twists. A little I Feel Love creeps in during the chorus to give a wonderful dancefloor adrenalin rush.

Available on the album ‘Voluspa’

http://www.thegoldenfilter.com/

GOLDFRAPP Dreaming

As the title suggests, this is gorgeous and dreamy with a distinct European flavour from the enjoyable album ‘Head First’ which perhaps is more focused on mid-Atlantic AOR. Alison’s voice still resonates as one of the best in the business and back to being accompanied by primarily electronic instrumentation which is where it belongs. The pulsing sequences and string machine washes of ‘Dreaming’ make this perfect dancefloor material.

Available on the album ‘Head First’

http://www.goldfrapp.com/

HELL featuring BRYAN FERRY U Can Dance

Mr Ferry has certainly been astute in recognising how much of an influence he’s been on younger musicians and accepting collaborative opportunities with modern dance luminaries such as HELL and GROOVE ARMADA. DJ HELL provides U Can Dance’  with some hard electronic backing, complimenting Ferry’s trademark vocals. Ferry recorded his own Roxy styled version for his solo album ‘Olympia’.

Available on the single ‘U Can Dance’

https://www.facebook.com/DJHellOfficial/

http://www.bryanferry.com/

JORI HULKKONEN Man From Earth

Hypnotic in the spirit of Giorgio Moroder crossed with Arthur Baker and featuring the guest vocals of Jerry Valuri who first collaborated with Hulkkonen on 2005’s ‘Lo-Fiction’, this dark club track’s spacey rolling sequences make this almost like a dancefloor take on THROBBING GRISTLE’s ‘Hot On The Heels Of Love’ before launching into a bit of New York electro disco!

Available on the album ‘Man From Earth’

http://www.jorihulkkonen.com/

THE HUMAN LEAGUE Night People

After Philip Oakey’s collaborations in 2009 with LITTLE BOOTS and PET SHOP BOYS, THE HUMAN LEAGUE returned with the lead track from their forthcoming album ‘Credo’ sounding very electronic and very modern. Punchy with an elastic bassline and chanting chorus, the lyrical couplet “leave your cornflakes in your freezers, leave your chocolates and your cheeses…” shows Mr Oakey hasn’t lost his touch for off-the-wall symbolism. So “Join us now my friends we hail you!”

Available on the single ‘Night People’

http://www.thehumanleague.co.uk/

HURTS Stay

HURTS have been certainly accused of style over substance. ‘Wonderful Life’ looked like being a one-off but luckily they have some other magnificent songs to back up their European art house film via the Weimar Republic persona. With ‘Stay’, the heartfelt intensity of the lush arrangement captures the understated but epic sophistication. With the symphonic grandeur of ULTRAVOX fronted by the melodic sensibilities of TAKE THAT, is this a ‘Vienna’ for the early 21st Century?

Available on the album ‘Happiness’

http://www.informationhurts.com/

HYPERBUBBLE Candy Apple Daydreams

From the album of the same name, Texan duo HYPPERBUBBLE have an almost cartoon-like take on synthpop in the vein of that great lost combo VIC TWENTY who released only one single on Mute. ‘Candy Apple Daydreams’ is fun and quirky with Jess as the electro Emma Peel and Jeff as the obedient robotic version of John Steed.

Available on the album ‘Candy Apple Daydreams’

http://www.hyperbubble.net/

KATJA VON KASSEL Lies

Electro Weimar Cabaret is the easiest way to describe the music of KATJA VON KASSEL. Lies’ features strong traditional European influences like French accordions and ‘Vienna’ piano but also has hints of GRACE JONES ‘I’ve Seen That Face Before’. Not entirely surprising as both songs are routed in the same dance… the tango. LADYHAWKE collaborator Alex Gray’s intricate production alongside Katja’s magnificently deep vocal presence is like the “1930’s meets the future”.

Not yet released, view on Vimeo

https://www.facebook.com/KatjavKassel/

LCD SOUNDSYSTEM I Can Change

From what appears to be the only electronic based act that the real music purists positively fawn over, this is a superbly guitar free number that sounds like ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN mashed up with GARY NUMAN and early DEPECHE MODE. The wonderfully wobbly synths and steady drum machine beat take the lead in the poptastic style of Vince Clarke while James Murphy’s vocal hits a soaring falsetto after initiating a ‘Mac The Mouth’ tribute.

Available on the album ‘This Is Happening’

http://lcdsoundsystem.com/

LOLA DUTRONIC Best Years Of Our Lives

LOLA DUTRONIC are a duo who adapt classic Anglo-Gallic pop with modern electronic arrangements. ‘Best Years Of Our Lives’ borrows from the more recent past with quite obvious references to OMD, ERASURE and even PULP. It’s cutesy pop, perhaps reminiscent of prime SAINT ETIENNE and Lola’s accent is just alluring!

Available on the EP ‘Musique’

https://www.facebook.com/LOLA-DUTRONIC-80232595392/

MARINA & THE DIAMONDS Oh No!

Using a bit of Fe-Mael intuition, Marina Diamandis adds eccentricity to some catchy keyboard led pop helmed by the ubiquitous Greg Kurstin. “I have become my own self fulfilled prophecy” she proclaims before she screams up two operatic octaves taking a nod towards classic SPARKS while the coda turns into a Cossack dance! Frankly, this is brilliantly bonkers!

Available on the album ‘The Family Jewels’

http://www.marinaandthediamonds.com/

KYLIE MINOGUE All The Lovers

Aided by Stuart Price at the mixing helm, ‘All The Lovers’ was Ms Minogue’s best single since the KRAFTWERK-tinged ‘Slow’ is euphoric Euro-disco with some wonderful synthetic tones, especially on the solo. There’s something for everybody here in this fabulous pop song. But what a shame about the parent ‘Aphrodite’ album though.

Available on the album ‘Aphrodite’

http://www.kylie.com/

MIRRORS Ways To An End

MIRRORS hail from Brighton, the UK capital of hedonism but their intense and artful approach to dancing is very different to the ‘hands in the air’ culture of their home base. Synthetic chill and pulsing effects dominate this brilliantly uptempo electro number. Rhythmically this recalls TALKING HEADS ‘Crosseyed & Painless’ while the claustrophobic production is very post-punk, wonderfully dense but melodically dramatic. A brilliant introduction to The World of MIRRORS.

Available on the single ‘Ways To An End’

https://www.facebook.com/theworldofmirrors/

OMD New Holy Ground

In the true innovating spirit of their classic era, the sparse percussive framework of ‘New Holy Ground’ is merely the sound of footsteps. This is the nearest they have come to the lost B-side and fan favourite ‘The Avenue’. The wonderful piano line and virtual choirs contribute to the beautiful melancholy that characterised OMD’s best work where Paul Humphreys concentrated on the musical backbone while Andy McCluskey provided the narrative focus.

Available on the album ‘History Of Modern’

http://www.omd.uk.com/

WILLIAM ORBIT featuring SARAH BLACKWOOD White Night

sarah-dubstar

In period which has seen a flurry of solo activity and the reformation of DUBSTAR, the lovely SARAH BLACKWOOD took time out to work with on a track from his album ‘My Oracle Lives Uptown’. Although a version without her ended up on the final tracklisting, her take was offered as a free download in 2010. More accessible than some of CLIENT’s recent offerings but more purely electronic than DUBSTAR, this was a priceless pop gem from our Sarah which lyrically was “full of pain”.

Originally available as a free download

http://www.williamorbit.com/

ROBYN Dancing On My Own (Radio version)

More bittersweet heartbreak from Ms Carlsson, this is driven by wonderful, edgy electronics while the simultaneous dancing and mourning reflects the vulnerability everyone experiences in the loss of love. Solemn synthetic disco at its best from the feisty, independently spirited Swede who is slowly turning into a modern day GINA X PERFORMANCE.

Available on the album ‘Body Talk’

http://robyn.com/

SHH Wonderful Night

Euphoric sensualism captured in three and a half minutes, the chunky pulsing sequences to a solid dance beat and a rousing chorus add a blissful optimism full of Latin spirit. ‘Wonderful Night’ is bouncy danceable electropop that does what it says on the tin. As their own mission statement announces, it’s “Electronic pop, Buenos Aires style!”

Available on the album ‘Gaucho Boy’

https://www.facebook.com/Shhsounds/

THE SOUND OF ARROWS In The Clouds

Desscribes as “the HURTS you can dance to” and “Disney meets Brokeback Mountain”, the opening lines “I’m going to work my way out of this town, I’m going to be someone and know who I am” of ‘Into the Clouds’ are quite a mission statement. Oskar Gullstrand and Stefan Storm are a duo based in Stockholm presesnting dreamy widescreen synthpop, swathed in beautiful Nordic melancholy. Their musical subtlety and melodic textures are an essential and enlightening listen.

Aavailable on the single ‘Into The Clouds’

https://www.facebook.com/thesoundofarrows/

SUNDAY GIRL Stop Hey!

Following up SUNDAY GIRL’s previous two singles ‘Four Floors’ and her cover of ‘Self Control’, ‘Stop Hey!’ saw overdriven drum sounds and a piercing trebly riff dominate this piece of icy Eurocentric electro, sounding not unlike ELLIE GOULDING with a 20 cigarettes a day habit backed by MIRRORS and MGMT! This was kooky and stylish avant pop that hinted at something much darker going on in Jade Williams’ mind.

Available on the single ‘Stop Hey!’

http://www.wearesundaygirl.com

TAKE THAT Flowerbed

No, this isn’t a misprint! The hidden track on the reunited Manchester boy band’s Stuart Price produced opus ‘Progress’ is an electronic gem. In a rare lead vocal for Jason Orange, he comes over all apologetic in the manner of AL STEWART over a dreamy backing track that possesses the glacial Scandinavian quality of ROYKSOPP with a sprinkling of ENO-esque textural ambience. Beginning with soothing vocoder before building to a percussive climax, this is simply quite beautiful!

Available on the album ‘Progress’

http://takethat.com/

TENEK Blinded By You

TENEK have successfully smoothed off some of their more industrial edges to deliver their most immediate and accessible song yet. A rousing chorus and a structure not dissimilar to THE HUMAN LEAGUE’s ‘The Things That Dreams Are Made Of’, there are further synth anthems galore on their album On The Wire with nods to the MTV-era of TEARS FOR FEARS and A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS. “Heartbeat? Get down!” Synthetic dance rock at its best.

Available on the album ‘On The Wire’

http://www.tenek.co.uk/

VILE ELECTRODES Deep Red

VILE ELECTRODES are a colourful trio consisting of Anais Neon, Loz Tronic and Martin Swan who formed due to an unhealthy obsession with analogue synthesizers and fetish porn. ‘Deep Red’, a title inspired by Dario Argento’s ‘Profondo Rosso’, is a gorgeous seven and a half minute synth ballad that comes over like CLIENT fronting classic ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK… tremendously dramatic stuff in the vein of Statues and Stanlow!

Not yet released, view on YouTube

http://www.vileelectrodes.com/

VILLA NAH Remains Of Love

Have you ever heard GARY NUMAN almost jaunty? The fantastic ‘Remains Of Love’ is the poppiest thing that the former Gary Webb never recorded. Juho Paalosmaa is next to crying in the wonderful chorus but it’s almost sounds like GARY NUMAN on prozac over Tomi Hyyppä’s crystalline melodies. With that all important air synth factor, VILLA NAH took the important elements of classic electronic pop and connected it to sharp, complimentary dance rhythms.

Available on the album ‘Origin’

https://www.facebook.com/villanah/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
30th December 2010, updated 14th March 2017

2010 END OF YEAR REVIEW

28 December 2010 /

The Year Of Transistors

“Synthesizers can be explored and explored, and the music that can be made with electronic instruments is infinite in its breadth. KRAFTWERK may have said ‘we are the robots’, but anyone need only listen to Trans-Europe Express and compare it to most of the turgid, boring guitar-based rock that has been produced over the last 30 years to realise that electronic music can be deeply emotional. And anyone who says electronic music is not real music is just too simple-minded for our patience I’m afraid!“: MIRRORS

2010 saw the return of the male synthpop act, smart boys with their toys and their nods towards the classic era of Synth Britannia.

Leading the way were VILLA NAH and MIRRORS who both fused quality songs with vintage sounds and crisp contemporary percussive frameworks. The two units were obviously pressing the right buttons as both opened as special guests to OMD. As a continued sign of their undoubted potential, both were also were invited to support THE HUMAN LEAGUE; an opportunity which unfortunately neither act was able to fulfil due to prior scheduling commitments.

Coming from Finland, VILLA NAH released one of the best long players of the year in ‘Origin’, while closer to home, Brighton-based MIRRORS’ forthcoming album ‘Lights And Offerings’ is likely to be one of the musical highlights of 2011.

Meanwhile HURTS, the enigmatic Mancunian duo who many predicted for major success in 2010, rattled the cages of the style over substance brigade.

Whilst the cinematic grandeur displayed in their best songs like ‘Wonderful Life’, ‘Stay’ and ‘Sunday’ was simply outstanding, they did occasionally walk a fine line with their milder paced material, sounding occasionally like TAKE THAT backed by ULTRAVOX. Despite confusing some listeners, their album ‘Happiness’ was an enormous grower and their live shows won over many new fans, especially on the continent where artful intelligence is a highly regarded attribute.

Interestingly, TAKE THAT themselves released their album ‘Progress’ with Stuart Price aka LES RYTHMES DIGITALES at the producer’s helm.

Featuring a strong electronic flavour, there was also a song called ‘Eight Letters’ based on ‘Vienna’ which resulted in the rather unusual credit ‘written by Barlow / Donald / Orange / Owen / Williams / Ure / Cross / Cann / Currie’!

Attracting cult followings in 2010 were DELPHIC and CHEW LIPS. DELPHIC captured the Factory Records aesthetic of the mutant disco pioneered by NEW ORDER and A CERTAIN RATIO, but were unable to attract mainstream recognition probably due to their reliance on grooves and jams rather than actual songs… they can only get better with time.

CHEW LIPS are YEAH YEAH YEAHS with synths and while they had several brilliant numbers in their cannon, not all were included on their rather short debut album ‘Unicorn’. This didn’t allow them to play to their strengths on record although this was fully exploited in their live show. Again, they will learn.

And not wishing to get wholly involved in the main skirmish, THE SOUND OF ARROWS maintained a low profile while recording their debut album in London but delivered some impressive concert showcases of their lush Nordic musicality. Their optimistic and aspirational ‘Disney meets Brokeback Mountain’ tone may be the fresh approach to electropop in 2011.

Kookiness was the order of the day with the raven haired beauties MARINA & THE DIAMONDS and EMILIE SIMON. Marina Lambrini Diamandis kept the spirit of SPARKS alive with some fe-Mael intuition on her superb debut ‘The Family Jewels’ while EMILIE SIMON crossed the channel for some ‘one girl and her synth’ shows to fill the gap left by the absence of LITTLE BOOTS in 2010.

As could have been expected after the promotional lash of last year, Victoria Hesketh took a break before starting work on her new album. Hertfordshire’s SUNDAY GIRL could be the next lady-in-waiting providing she can expand on the very promising material like All The Songs and Stop Hey! that was premiered in the latter part of the year.

Meanwhile LA ROUX toured the world and recorded a ‘Stones cover ‘Under Your Thumb’ for the ‘Sidetracked’ influences DJ mix compilation before giving old mate SKREAM the iTunes bonus track Saviour for a dubstep rework as Finally and guesting with CHROMEO. However, Elly Jackson appears to have forgotten that No.1 rule of not biting the hand that feeds you by exclaiming “… I don’t want to make synth music for the rest of my f*cking life!” and declaring the electropop genre “over”!

In the battle of Synth Britannia, OMD released their first collection of new material for 14 years while THE HUMAN LEAGUE delayed their full album return until 2011. THE HUMAN LEAGUE have the backing of electronic music guru Mark Jones’ Wall Of Sound label and thus far have played a ‘less is more’ approach.

Despite not having an official website until this year, some clever viral marketing sent interest in their single ‘Night People’ sky high and provided good business for their now almost traditional Christmas UK tour.

While OMD’s ‘History of Modern’ album had several outstanding tracks worthy of comparison with past glories, it was confusingly launched with an Aretha Franklin mash-up that wasn’t on the final tracklisting and a nauseating Britpop pastiche as lead single. Ironically one of the statements made in its sleeve notes was “Modern is not… Oasis”!

It was as if audiences who had traditionally been sceptical of the whole synthesizer axis were now being targeted.

However, electronic pop’s spiritual homeland of Germany welcomed OMD back like one of their own and respectable business for ‘History of Modern’ was generated.

A-HA though are proof that consistently high quality new material is still a possiblity 25 years after your commercial heyday with the focus of their final album ‘Foot Of The Mountain’ very much on their synthesizer roots. In late 2010, they bid farewell with a final tour and a superb double CD compilation called ’25’ which featured not only their hits but the best of their much under valued album tracks.

Among the acts celebrating their legacies, HEAVEN 17 enhanced their reputation no-end by participating in a brilliant BBC6 Music collaboration with “the falsetto from the ghetto” LA ROUX.

And if that wasn’t enough, they had not one but two BBC TV programmes featuring their highly regarded album ‘Penthouse & Pavement’ including their triumphant Sheffield Magna gig.

HOWARD JONES didn’t look a day older, proving that a vegetarian diet and a clean living spirituality was the key to eternal youth! He played ‘Human’s Lib’ and ‘Dream Into Action’ in full for the first time at Indigo2.

Former sparring partners ULTRAVOX and JOHN FOXX played very different types of live shows in 2010. ULTRAVOX almost went back to basics with the retrospective ‘Return To Eden 2’ tour while JOHN FOXX curated an audio/visual extravaganza at the Short Circuit Festival featuring a deluge of analogue synths and some new material to a mixed reception.

DEPECHE MODE completed their ‘Tour Of The Universe’ and capped it all with a special show at the Royal Albert Hall for The Teenage Cancer Trust where Alan Wilder was reunited with the band for the first time in 16 years during the encore of ‘Somebody’.

It was an emotional night for many including the band. Does this lay out the foundations for, if not a reunion, at least some future work together?

GOLDFRAPP returned with ‘Head First’, a mid-Atlantic AOR styled electronic romp that had echoes of ABBA, LAURA BRANIGAN and OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN. Some found it uninspiring but what could not be denied was the catchiness of the tunes. Given time, it will become a future guilty pleasure.

Meanwhile LADYTRON prepared a career spanning compilation Ladytron ’00-10′ to reinforce their reputation as one of the key electronic based acts of the last decade but they began the year contributing a pair of excellent bonus tracks to CHRISTINA AGUILERA’s album ‘Bionic’ in ‘Birds Of Prey’ and ‘Little Dreamer’.

Swedish songstress ROBYN continued her feisty independent spirit by releasing her ‘Body Talk’ trilogy and the excellent single ‘Dancing On My Own’, while both LADY GAGA and KYLIE kept electronically produced pop in the mainstream consciousness.

Across the water, New York’s THE GOLDEN FILTER added a crisp vibe to the electronic dancefloor via some dreamy Scandinavian influences and frantic tribal percussion while their neighbours THE HUNDRED IN THE HANDS brought a mechanised twist to new wave on their self-titled debut. And for the perfect after party soundtrack in the Big Apple, ARP provided some gorgeous modern day ambience with the album ‘The Soft Wave’.

Meanwhile, another North American based duo LOLA DUTRONIC relaunched their brand of dreamy Gallic flavoured electro-lounge pop with the ‘Musique’ EP.

Elsewhere internationally, the vivacious SHH became the latest in a line of Argentine musicians basing themselves in London for an assault on the UK and European market while Texans HYPERBUBBLE brought their own ‘bionic bubblepunk’ with the impressive ‘Candy Apple Daydreams’. MARSHEAUX had a quiet year, only releasing a cover of BILLY IDOL’s Eyes Without a Face for an Amnesty International compilation.

Promising newcomers VILE ELECTRODES steadily gained fans on the London club circuit with their mix of fetish porn and analogue synths while following some line-up changes, THE VANITY CLAUSE finally released their first album ‘Fractured’.

And the quirky Sheffield based duo THE CHANTEUSE & THE CLAW unleashed a superb debut single in ‘Are You One?’.

Overall in 2010, the spark generated by the new generation of synthesizer acts and the willingness of others to incorporate more electronic sounds into their work accounted for yet another productive year with the heritage acts also getting the cultural recognition they fully deserved. Ever supportive, The Guardian even featured a piece on the older incarnation entitled Forgive Us Our Synths which interestingly was almost two years after their prophetic Slaves To Synth article hit the public consciousness.

There were more quality albums and live shows of interest to the electro fan than in many years past with acts such as MIRRORS, VILLA NAH and HURTS fulfilling the role of worthy successors to the classic Synth Britanniageneration. Hopefully, other acts will be following in their footsteps. In fact, despite being ignored by the BBC Sound Of 2011 and New To Q listings which appear to have been locked into some evil parallel universe where good taste does not seem to reside, “… fey, gay, pseudo-intellectual synth b*llocks” still rules!

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK Contributor Listings Of 2010

STEVE GRAY

Best Album: TENEK On The Wire
Best Song: HURTS Unspoken
Best Gig: DEPECHE MODE at London Royal Albert Hall
Best Video: MIRRORS Ways To An End
Most Promising New Act: MIRRORS

CHI MING LAI

Best Album: VILLA NAH Origin
Best Song: MIRRORS Ways To An End
Best Gig: HEAVEN 17 at Sheffield Magna
Best Video: HURTS Wonderful Life
Most Promising New Act: THE SOUND OF ARROWS

RICHARD PRICE

Best Album: HURTS Happiness
Best Song: OMD History Of Modern (Part I)
Best Gig: THE HUMAN LEAGUE + HEAVEN 17 at Galway Festival
Best Video: HURTS Stay
Most Promising New Act: MIRRORS

JOHAN WEJEDAL

Best Album: PAGE Nu
Best Song: POLAROID MILITIA Astana My Hero
Best Gig: PAGE at Gothenburg Synthklubben
Best Video: VILE ELECTRODES Deep Red
Most Promising New Act: THE GIRL & THE ROBOT

Text by Chi Ming Lai
28th December 2010

DER DEUTSCHE FAKTOR

8 December 2010 /

Photo by Maurice Seymour

“From all over the world comes inspiration. We have been very lucky, because the music we envisioned, the ideas we had of The Man Machine and electro music, have become reality and technology has developed in our direction… and electro is everywhere”: Ralf Hütter, KRAFTWERK

Despite the resurgence of sophisticated electronic pop in 2010 with its own new classic sounding acts such as HURTS and MIRRORS plus the long awaited return of OMD and THE HUMAN LEAGUE, it would appear that British ears are still largely oblivious to the distinct musical quality on offer.

However, across the Channel in mainland Europe, the artful sound of the synthesizer is being embraced again, especially in electronic music’s spiritual homeland of Germany. So why is this? Is it ‘Der Deutsche Faktor’?

Is Germany more likely to accept synthesized pop presented in a stylish, modernistic manner purely because of its own electronic tradition? And is it really all down to KRAFTWERK? But then if that is the case, why has the majority of the best electropop been produced in the UK where its cultural significance is still mostly ignored by critics and public alike?

The British have always had a strange attitude to its own cultural intelligencia, be they musicians, composers, film makers, artists or writers. The ordinary public somehow see having ideas, values and style as being pretentious or elitist while traits like ignorance and shallowness are somehow embraced. Britain has always looked towards its American cousins for trends in popular music and the street credibility of the scruffy drug fuelled rocker or the expletive laden misogynistic urban spokesman is always somehow seen as more preferable.

Photo by Günther Fröhling

But with a heritage of classical and contemporary art all of its own, Europeans didn’t take so kindly to American influences such as rock ‘n’ roll and rhythm ‘n’ blues being brought over in the second half of the 20th Century.

In Germany, this post-war reaction was even stronger. Despite the apparent freedoms compared with their compatriots in the East, Die Bundes Republik was effectively an occupied territory and this provoked a backlash within the student population.

At its extremes, this meant the brutal violence of the Baader-Meinhof gang and Red Army Faction. But on the other side of the coin, young Germans were inspired to be creative either in film as with Wim Wenders, Werner Herzog and Rainer Fassbinder, in art as with Anselm Kiefer and Sigmar Polke, or in music. The Germans have always had a history of self-definition through art and music has often been the centrepiece.

So eschewing blues scales, acts such as CAN, TANGERINE DREAM, CLUSTER, NEU! and KRAFTWERK looked towards the avant-garde traditions of Karl-Heinz Stockhausen for their inspiration and used new instruments such as electronic keyboards, synthesizers and rhythm units to create a whole new German aesthetic.

Although these all acts used electronics in some form, it was KRAFTWERK who in 1975 first fully embraced making music exclusively in this manner, eventually adopting a Gilbert & George demeanour of short hair, suits and ties. Their new pioneering musical form featuring a strict percussive base and an accessible melodicism in the European classical tradition was the antithesis of what had come previously via the North Atlantic.

Photo by Christian Simonpietri

However, despite KRAFTWERK’s influential success internationally, along with their fellow exponents of this experimental music, they were largely ignored in their homeland.

The instrumentalist nature was simply too abstract for some and although innovative, very rarely did Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Wolfgang Flür and Karl Bartos write actual pop songs. That was the mantle that the UK was about to take up.

David Bowie and Brian Eno were among the first British artists to adopt these new Mitteleuropa colours with the albums ‘Low’ and ‘Heroes’ each featuring fine examples of their collaborative zenith during an inspired sojourn in West Berlin. As a result, one of the focal points of this expanded interest became The Blitz Club in London where their resident DJ Rusty Egan played this neu musik von Deutschland at its regular ‘Bowie Nights’. Similar scenes were developing throughout post-punk Britain.

Although artists such as ULTRAVOX, TUBEWAY ARMY and THE HUMAN LEAGUE used KRAFTWERK as an important reference point and had synthesizers dominating their sound, the first British act to aspire to KRAFTWERK’s retro-futurist blueprint was ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK. Alongside their suitably clean and tidy presentation, OMD subconsciously put a pop element into the Kling Klang quartet’s electronic template. There was now an emotive lyrical focus incorporated into what had been perceived as the mechanical chill of Teutonic electronic music… the morality with the architecture if you will.

OMD’s music ultimately connected with Germanic ears who traditionally loved strong musical melodies and precise rhythmical frameworks. At its worse, this could mean embracing folk laden schlagermusik but as a positive, opening up to songs sung in a plethora of languages. The eventual result was ‘Maid Of Orleans’ reaching No1 in Germany and becoming the country’s biggest selling single in 1982; this at a time when the West German market was the largest in the world after America and Japan.

A precedent had already been set in 1981 when via The Blitz Club, VISAGE’s ‘Fade To Grey’ reached No1. Although ‘Maid Of Orleans’ and ‘Fade To Grey’ were both Top 10 hits in Britain, neither song has been held with the high regard and cultural gravitas that they both are in Germany.

‘Fade To Grey’ was recently voted ‘Song of the Decade’ on the prestigious German music show ‘Hit Giganten’ while it was an invitation to perform ‘Maid Of Orleans’ on a celebratory edition of RTL’s ‘Ultimative Chartshow’ in 2005 that was the beginning of the current OMD reunion. Often less judgemental and commercially orientated than the UK, the German market also later allowed other synthesizer acts such as DEPECHE MODE and PET SHOP BOYS to achieve significant success. And more recently, British electro acts such as MESH and CLIENT have been more welcomed here than at home.

Fast forward to 2010 and with the release of their new album ‘History Of Modern’, OMD’s musical legacy in the spiritual homeland of electronic music led to an innovative record deal with Saturn, one of Germany’s leading technology superstores, and a promotional schedule predominantly concentrating on that territory. With the majority of the European tour focused on Germany too, OMD have managed to recapture the hearts of an audience that still recognises intelligent artistic integrity whatever the age of the performer and doesn’t get into debates about how real music doesn’t use synthesizers, or how thoughtful presentation is arty!

In 2010, Germany has again shown itself to be more discerning. The magnificent ‘Wonderful Life’ by Manchester duo HURTS stayed at No2 for several weeks while the song struggled to reach No24 in Britain where they were accused of style over substance. Theo Hutchcraft and Adam Anderson’s ‘Bros Go To Bavaria’ imagery and cinematic grandeur have obviously struck a chord.

Attending HURTS’ show in Cologne, Lola said: “I was surprised that so many people went to see them. I came to the venue just a half hour before doors opened and I didn’t expect so many people to be outside waiting. So I was late and ended up standing behind a gang of very tall people. I couldn’t see that much, but the music was fantastic of course! I loved the charming nature of their performance and their way of communication with the audience. It’s beautiful pop music, I like it”

Following the success of HURTS, one UK act now set to crack the German market are MIRRORS who have strong KRAFTWERK and OMD based principals. The quartet comprises of James New, Ally Young, Josef Page and James Arguile. OMD’s Paul Humphreys had already witnessed their potential: “I went to see them in Camden at Proud. They’re lovely blokes and I was absolutely blown away by them. Their songs are brilliant.”

Playing as support to OMD on their European tour, MIRRORS have been able to showcase their majestic electronic pop-noir such as ‘Hide & Seek’, ‘Fear Of Drowning’ and ‘Into The Heart’ to a crowd that was almost tailor made for them.

However, when asked about this in the summer, their singer James wasn’t getting too presumptuous: “We’ll have to up our game won’t we? I don’t know. It’s going to be really interesting to see how Germany reacts to it. I have every hope that they’re going to really like it.”

And like it they did. Lola attended three shows including Cologne and Hamburg to report:“Support bands often have problems to get enough respect, especially if the crowd is waiting for the main act. But not MIRRORS… the Germans loved them! I’ve heard from a lot of people that they were absolutely delighted with them. It’s not only because of their influences like KRAFTWERK, OMD or any other band. I listened to some tracks before the tour thanks to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK and their great taste in music. I expected a fantastic support act for OMD but I must admit MIRRORS were more than that. Their music is emotional, melodic, epic, intelligent and also powerful and fresh. Well, simply beautiful!”

“Of course the crowd loved MIRRORS!” added Nella who saw the band’s appearance in Hannover, “Great mixture, they had a KRAFTWERK-feeling mixed with Andy-dancing, CHINA CRISIS-singing and HURTS-looking. They will surely be a successful band. They really did a good job… first time ever I thought at a concert: ‘oh, sad, the support act has finished? I want to hear and see more!’ They got lots of applause”. She wasn’t alone in that feeling: “I also heard some ‘Zugabe’ chants after MIRRORS left the stage” remembered Lola.

Photo by Lars Diegmann

In Stuttgart, Lars  was also impressed: “I think most of the audience really did like the MIRRORS. We stood in front of stage but we could see the concert hall was well filled as they started to play. Most reactions were very positive. It was a small but very effective stage show. Very charismatic guys, it was fun to watch them make music. Powerful and moving electro-pop with a small theatrical touch… stoic and minimalist. They sound like KRAFTWERK should sound in 2010”.

MIRRORS’ stage presence and presentation are key factors in their appeal: “I was so fascinated by the way Ally played his synthesizer and James’ passionate dancing… I was having flashbacks of Ian Curtis! Oh, and I forgot to mention his excellent voice. Very cool performance!” recalled Lola, “I’m really looking forward to seeing them back in Germany as a main act.” Asked why she thought MIRRORS and also HURTS had got into the heart of the Germans, Lola smiled and gave a Teutonically direct answer: “It’s because Germans like good music!”

But they also connected with the audience: “I’m sure their tour EP sold very well, especially with the autographs they gave at the same time. So everybody had the chance to talk to them. Very nice! I also met them backstage after the Cologne concert. They are such nice and good-looking guys! Those guys are just amazing, adorable and very talented.”

So is the intelligent sartorial elegance of acts like MIRRORS and HURTS more likely to appeal to the Germans? “Possibly…” Lola replied, “but I myself must admit, I like their smart style”

Of their European jaunt, James New from MIRRORS said: “This tour with OMD has been a complete revelation for us. For the most part, our journey in the UK has been fantastic but in Germany and Europe the reaction to our music has been genuinely overwhelming. People’s enthusiasm has only fed our own and I think we would all say that these past shows have been the best of our career so far.”

OMD’s Andy McCluskey himself remarked enthusiastically during the tour: “MIRRORS are doing brilliantly… good guys and really great music.” However, with the way MIRRORS have been impressing, there clearly appears to be a changing of the guard happening right before German eyes.

This was reflected by OMD’s drummer Mal Holmes who amusingly said: “MIRRORS do OMD better than OMD do OMD… they look and sound great!” Lola summed things up by saying: “I must admit, I will always love OMD’s music. But it seems that MIRRORS could be their worthy successors.”

Just as when THE HUMAN LEAGUE’s Philip Oakey appeared on stage with LITTE BOOTS at Heaven in 2009 and HEAVEN 17 performed with LA ROUX on BBC 6Music, the electro torch is steadily being handed over. Synth Britannia’s elder statesmen are playing their part in helping the youngsters take electropop into the next generation.

In the meantime, HURTS have reached No2 with their ‘Happiness’ album and will reinforce their success by touring Germany again in 2011. The pair even commented: “we’ve been in and out of Germany like it’s our back garden”. 

And with a superb debut album ‘Lights & Offerings’ ready to be released by Skint Records early next year, MIRRORS look set to gain a foothold in mainland Europe. Whether the UK wakes up and decides to join in the party with its EU neighbours remains to be seen.

Text by Chi Ming Lai
8th December 2010

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