It was a year which saw classic and new stand side-by-side as comrades in arms for the synthesizer. In possibly the event of the year, April’s ‘Back To The Phuture - Tomorrow Is Today’ at London’s Troxy saw godfathers Gary Numan and John Foxx supported by the best new UK synthpop act for many years, MIRRORS.
The Brighton quartet reappeared in the summer over on the South Bank when the Vintage Festival Electronic Phuture Revue gave us a celebration of synthpop cool with performances by ONETWO, RECOIL, HEAVEN 17 and Thomas Dolby. Speaking of the latter, they premiered ‘The Luxury Gap’ at The Roundhouse in 3D sound no less while their production alter-ego BEF presented ‘Music Of Quality & Distinction Live’.
Meanwhile, Mute Records celebrated their influential legacy with a weekender also at London’s Roundhouse featuring ERASURE, YAZOO and THE ASSEMBLY in the same set, plus acts such as RECOIL, NITZER EBB and LAIBACH. With an electro documentary weekend before Easter on the Sky Arts TV channel featuring Gary Numan, DURAN DURAN, NEW ORDER, Jean-Michel Jarre and the late Rorbert Moog electronic music’s cultural legacy was being recognised the world over.
Indeed, Gary Numan’s Inspiration Award from Mojo magazine finally acknowledged those trailblazing Synth Britannia years. There were complaints by one well-known blog however about wrinkly electropop but without these pioneers who changed music, where would we be today? As KRAFTWERK’s Ralf Hütter said: “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”.
Shouldn’t the imperial phase of Synth Britannia and its earlier Germanic influence therefore be celebrated in the way that senior blues musicians have been revered within the world of rock ‘n’ roll? Missing from the Mute evening’s proceedings as a collective were DEPECHE MODE who gave the world a U2 cover and a second instalment of their remix collection as part of their year’s work.
One rework that provoked enormous debate was Alan Wilder’s improved rework of 2009’s ‘In Chains’ which added speculation as to whether he would be rejoining the band. Certainly, it would induce some much needed creative tension that has mostly been missing from DEPECHE MODE since the start of the noughties.
But one act truly excelling in the darker side of electronic based music was IAMX who continued to conquer Europe while remaining largely ignored in the UK. Martin Gore could seriously learn from Chris Corner about how to make melodic, accessible music that doesn’t compromise artistically and retains a gritty edge. Meanwhile, Gore rekindled a working relationship with Vince Clarke on a techno project under the banner of VCMG.
Monday 21st March was an interesting day as it saw the release of albums by DURAN DURAN, THE HUMAN LEAGUE and John Foxx. As concert celberity Mr Normall amusingly recalled in his Facebook status “this is 2011, not 1981”! At least two of those albums were the best and most immediate bodies of work from those artists for many years. The bar has certainly been raised for acts such as ULTRAVOX and VISAGE who both announced forthcoming new albums. BLANCMANGE made their welcome return with Neil Arthur’s sense of humour as sharp as ever but sadly, he was unable to be joined for the live shows by his bandmate Stephen Luscombe due to illness. One hopes Stephen is making a good recovery.
MIRRORS showed their promise and delivered the superbly seamless long player ‘Lights & Offerings’. While the band themselves admitted it may have been a touch derivative, it was enjoyed by a small but loyal fanbase who embraced their whole intelligent pop noir aesthetic. However, just as they were about to make a breakthrough, a second high profile tour supporting OMD in Germany was cancelled along with an appearance at Bestival.
Then founder member Ally Young announced he was leaving the group. The situation has been likened by some observers to when Vince Clarke left DEPECHE MODE. Of course, the end result of that was both parties mutated into highly successful acts and ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK is hopeful something similar may occur here. Certainly an excellent new darker tune called ‘Dust’ from the remaining trio indicates MIRRORS are not finished yet!
The similarly smartly attired HURTS continued their domination of Europe and while not as adored in the UK, they still did the business touring wise with sell-out shows at Somerset House and Brixton Academy with Kylie Minogue making a surprise guest appearance at the latter.
Of the ladies, Beth Ditto went superbly electronic with her debut solo EP while Claudia Brücken went jazz for the soundtrack of ‘LA Noire’, but not before celebrating the electronic part of her career with a fine retrospective Combined and a fantastic show at The Scala which saw a three quarters reunion of PROPAGANDA plus special guests ANDY BELL and HEAVEN 17.
Another acclaimed German chanteuse Billie Ray Martin returned with her new project THE OPIATES and an album ‘Hollywood Under The Knife’ while LADYTRON released a definitive Best Of ’00-10′ and a new album ‘Gravity The Seducer’. The latter was a glorious, lush masterpiece of aural subtlety which was not universally embraced by their fanbase but is likely to become a cult favourite in the future.
Meanwhile, the spectre of FEVER RAY’s Karin Drejer-Andersson lurked, both musically and politically, within several darker female fronted combos such as AUSTRA, THE HORN THE HUNT and GAZELLE TWIN. The brooding unsettlement of this Hauntronica (or witch house as it was sometimes referred) won favour with some while John Foxx named GAZELLE TWIN’s ‘The Entire City’ as his album of the year. However, this fairly uncompromising strain of electro wasn’t for everyone although it was definitely more preferable to dubstep, the trendy new dance form that even the usually club friendly Chris Lowe of PET SHOP BOYS was having trouble embracing!
But Nordic influences weren’t just about tonal gloom and witchery. Greek maidens MARSHEAUX adopted some FEVER RAY styled percussive moods on their only song of the year ‘Can You Stop Me?’ but remained synthpop while American duo NIGHTLIFE borrowed Sally Shapiro’s sweeter template.
Over at The Finland Station, producer Jori Hulkkonen’s PROCESSORY project delivered an 18 track electronic Sci-Fi concept album entitled ‘Change Is Gradual’. TIGER BABY from Denmark returned with the dreamy single ‘Landscapes’ while from Sweden, both THE GIRL & THE ROBOT and Emmon delivered enjoyable new material. There was also the mysteriously kooky IAMAMIWHOAMI but best of all from the region were THE SOUND OF ARROWS with the cinematic crystalline pop of their debut album ‘Voyage’.
At the pure pop end of the spectrum, Lady Gaga plotted her next move into world domination with new album ‘Born This Way’. With religious lyrical imagery were very much in evidence throughout, this was her ‘Like A Prayer’ with a Eurocentric sound being very much the dominant factor in the music. With her ear firmly on the inventive UK music scene, GOLDFRAPP, HURTS and MIRRORS were commissioned to deliver remixes of ‘Judas’.
LITTLE BOOTS returned with a bouncy house number called ‘Shake’ while SUNDAY GIRL had her album delayed again and didn’t appear to know whether she wanted to be a singer or a fashion designer. Her pop thunder has now potentially been stolen by the similar raspy timbres of Lana Del Rey whose pair of remixes by NIKONN became favourites with many electro enthusiasts. Embracing couture but with her head fully focussed on the music, QUEEN OF HEARTS brought some intelligent sparkle to electropop. With mentions in The Guardian and The Times, her superb EP ‘The Arrival’ realised the potential that was apparent in her earlier girl group days.
Several acts introduced by ELECTRICTYCLUB.CO.UK in 2010 gained prestigious supports slots as a sign of their steady progress. SHH were billed with former BLACK BOX RECORDER vocalist Sarah Nixey whileTHE VANITY CLAUSE opened for a solo Andy Bell performance and Electro Weimar songstress Katja von Kassel did the same at two of ERASURE’s shows in Germany.
VILLA NAH were due to play the biggest gig of their career with DURAN DURAN but Simon Le Bon’s illness, which also caused the postponement of the entire UK tour in May, unfortunately put paid to that. So it could be said that “Synthpop’s Alive” and this was exemplified by Essen based American act MAISON VAGUE who gave the world probably the best wholly independent release of the year.
Clark Stiefel’s wonderful cross of Gary Numan and DEVO was the work of a man brought up in the avant-classical world with hands-on experience of vintage Moog and Buchla modulars. Using the concept of “living in a dream since 1983”, despite the vintage influences, it was electronic music as imagined by the eccentricity of Oscar Wilde crossed with the thoughtful demeanour of late classical composer Franz Liszt.
Over the year, American based electronic acts were starting to come to the fore with XENO & OAKLANDER, SOFT METALS, HIGH PLACES, THE MYSTIC UNDERGROUND and Tara Busch all gaining notable acclaim.
A question that has to be asked though is whether there is too much synth based music at the moment? Interestingly, Thomas Dolby and Sarah Nixey moved away from the electronic world and released new albums that had a more personal, organic quality. Some observers were complaining about “synthpop by numbers” and “Synth Britannia throwbacks”, but as OMD’s Andy McCluskey once said on that very programme, if there was a magic button for a hit single, he’d have pressed it more times than anyone else.
While improvements in technology have made it much easier for the public at large to make music and interesting noises, not everyone has the ability to write proper songs. Not only that but the iPod/notebook generation have been listening to compressed mp3s on tinny speakers for such a long time now that they have no grasp of dynamics. This has hampered many new acts who have taken to doing everything themselves and as a result, produced some average pieces of work.
There is nothing like a second opinion and creative tension to help a new piece of music along. And it is this willingness to understand the cores of songwriting, production and arrangement that ultimately separates the good from the bad, and ultimately the outstanding from the good.
ELECTRICTYCLUB.CO.UK Contributor Listings of 2011
MIKE COOPER
Best album: MUERAN HUMANOS Mueran Humanos
Best Song: VELVET CONDOM Rouge City
Best Gig: KRAFTWERK at Die Alte Kongresshalle, Munich
Best Video: LADYTRON Mirage
Most Promising New Act: MUERAN HUMANOS
STEVE GRAY
Best album: GARY NUMAN Dead Son Rising
Best Song: TENEK What Do You Want?
Best Gig: Back To The Phuture – Tomorrow Is Today at The Troxy, London
Best Video: DURAN DURAN Girl Panic!
Most Promising New Act: QUEEN OF HEARTS
CHI MING LAI
Best album: MIRRORS Lights & Offerings
Best Song: VILE ELECTRODES My Sanctuary
Best Gig: Back To The Phuture -Tomorrow Is Today at The Troxy, London
Best Video: TIGER BABY Landscapes
Most Promising New Act: QUEEN OF HEARTS
NIX LOWREY
Best Album: SANDWELL DISTRICT Feed Forward
Best Song: JOHN FOXX & THE MATHS Summerland
Best Gig: KRAFTWERK at Die Alte Kongresshalle, Munich
Best Video: LADYTRON Mirage
Most Promising New Act: MUERAN HUMANOS
RICHARD PRICE
Best album: MIRRORS Lights & Offerings
Best Song: JOHN FOXX & THE MATHS Shatterproof
Best Gig: HEAVEN17/BEF Weekender at The Roundhouse
Best Video: QUEEN OF HEARTS Shoot The Bullet
Most Promising New Act: QUEEN OF HEARTS
JOHAN WEJEDAL
Best album: AUSTRA Feel It Break
Best song: MIRRORS Into The Heart (Greek Girls Are Not Easy extended remix)
Best gig: AUSTRA at Stockholm Debaser Medis
Best video: EMMON Ghost Dance
Most promising new act: LOUISE (ex-THERMOSTATIC)
So what did ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK think was hot back in 2011?
It featured a day in March when THE HUMAN LEAGUE, DURAN DURAN and John Foxx all released new albums, while VILE ELECTRODES launched their debut EP. In a year when the synth pioneers were finally recognised for their valuable contribution to popular culture, here are our 30 favourite songs of 2011 presented in alphabetical order by artist…
AUSTRA Spellwork
Canadian trio AUSTRA deliver a stark, baroque form of electronica fuelled by sexual tension. Like a gothic opera which successfully blends light and darkness with fragility and power, Katie Stelmanis and friends borrow the tones of classic DEPECHE MODE and cross it with THE KNIFE for this, their most accessibly brilliant synthpop offering from their debut album. The B-side ‘Indentity’ is a worthy listen too.
Available on the album ‘Feel It Break’ via Domino/Paper Bag Records
Fresh from opening for John Foxx, Tara Busch released a charity EP for The Bob Moog Foundation. If you’ve ever wanted to hear that bizarre sonic other worldiness of GOLDFRAPP’s first album ‘Felt Mountain’ again, it’s right here on ‘Rocket Wife’. With hints of the eerie classic Star Trek theme, this is really does sound like THE CARPENTERS in outer space! Calling occupants of interplanetary craft, across the universe…
Available on the EP ‘Rocket Wife’ via The Bob Moog Foundation
With wonderful riffs and an uplifting chorus, this is delicious electronic pop from the cult Swedish trio of Paulinda Crescentini, Tommy Arell and Carl Hammar. Remixed by Athens synth maidens MARSHEAUX, this has the best of both worlds and could easily be mistaken for Sophie and Marianthi. However, PaulindaCrescentini’s Italo Nordic charm gives ‘It’s A Game’ a wonderfully distinct and alluring Mediterranean flavour.
Available on the EP ‘It’s A Game’ via Graplur Records
BETH DITTO would probably be the Alison Moyet of modern electro if she didn’t prefer the funky punk of her band GOSSIP. ‘Do You Need Someone?’ sees Ms Ditto’s powerful and passionate yearning adding soul to the sparkling electronic dance groove. With production from SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO, KRAFTWERK’s ‘Computer World’ tones towards the song’s coda are a marvellous touch. A future career as an alternative disco diva beckons.
Available on the EP ‘Beth Ditto’ via Deconstruction Records/Sony Music
While Dolby’s album return was largely organic with hints of bluegrass and Americana, its token synthpop offering was the wonderful ‘Spice Train’. Over its hypnotic, squelchy sequence and mechanised dance beat, it gets strangely humanised by a Mariachi horn section. With the kitchen sink and a host of exotic influences thrown in via Bollywood and the Middle East, ‘Spice Train’ does exactly what it says on the tin.
Available on the album ‘A Map Of The Floating City’ via Lost Toy People.
‘All You Need Is Now’ saw DURAN DURAN cyclically return to the funk-led syncopated pop of their first two albums. ‘Being Followed’ is a superb sequencer assisted disco number with a tingling metallic edge, touches of THE CURE’s ‘A Forest’ and Nick Rhodes’ vintage string machine capture the tension of post 9/11 paranoia. Simon Le Bon gives it his all and while he is technically one of the most chronic singers of his generation, he is unique AND untouchable…
Available on the album ‘All You Need Is Now’ via Tape Modern
NIKONN’s brand new album ‘Instamatic’ is suitably Mediterranean so add that instrumentation to the voice of raspy New Yorker Lana Del Rey and the end result is a glorious sun-kissed dancefloor moment. Somehow, you end up feeling much happier after dancing to, what is essentially in its original form, a quite stark, heartfelt minor key ballad. Now officially sanctioned, the remix brought the former Lizzie Grant to an electronic pop audience.
Originally issued as a free download but currently unavailable.
From her under rated album ‘Make A Scene’ which includes contributions from Richard X and Armand Van Buuren, the appropriately titled Synchronised is a synthpop tune with a distinct YAZOO flavour to it. All highly appropriate as she supported ERASURE during their forests tour this year. This superbly cements her electro kinship which has been apparent since ‘China Heart’ from her ‘Tripping The Light Fantastic’ in 2007.
Available on the album ‘Make A Scene’ via Douglas Valentine Limited
The best track on the ‘Interplay’ album is a co-written duet with Mira Aroyo of LADYTRON. ‘Watching A Building On Fire’, with its chattering drum machine and accessible Trans- European melodies, oozes a synthetic smokiness. Aroyo’s counterpoint is almost playfully feline although Foxx’s inherent dystopianism gives it his stamp, making this a second cousin of ‘Burning Car’. The Andy Gray remix is also a worthy acquisition.
Available on the album’ Interplay’ via Metamatic Records
JOY DIVISION’s original on ‘Closer’ was one of the most fragile, funereal collages of beauty ever committed to vinyl but Elizabeth Walling has covered this cult classic and made it even more haunting! Replacing the piano motif with eerily chilling synth and holding it together within an echoing sonic cathedral, she pays due respect while adding her own understated operatic stylings… you should hear her version of ‘Louie Louie’!
Available on the EP ‘I Am Shell I Am Bone’ via Anti-Ghost Moon Ray Records
Susanne Sulley does her best LITTLE BOOTS impression with this opener to ‘Credo’, the long awaited comeback album from THE HUMAN LEAGUE. Sounding like ‘Crash’ gone right or CLIENT gone funky, it is also auto-tuned to the hilt as Da League go all contemporary with this marvellous slice of electronic pop. Let’s hope it’s not another ten years before there’s new material!
‘Clump’ could be the sound of the drums on OMD’s ‘History Of Modern Part 1’ but it’s actually this kooky little number by IAMAMIWHOAMI aka Jonna Lee. A synthetically charged amalgam with vintage sounds and even a toy piano thrown in, this is a bit brighter than some her contemporaries if still delightfully odd and mysterious. It’s musically more Bjork than FEVER RAY although she does share the same management with the latter.
Available on the download single ‘Clump’ via iTunes and Amazon
IAMX have captured an electro Gothic aesthetic that combines the theatrics of Weimar Cabaret with themes of sex, alienation and dependency. Despite the lyrical and aural fervor, Corner’s songs are strongly melodic with an accessible grandeur. The superb lead single ‘Ghosts Of Utopia’ from new album ‘Volatile Times’ has instant appeal with its exhilarating mechanical drive and electrickery. His scream of “this is psychosis” is wholly believable! Dance in the dark!
Available on the album ‘Volatile Times’ via Republic of Music/BMG
Flautist textures dominate the more sedate pace of ‘Mirage’ almost as a reaction to the loudness war of previous album ‘Velocifero’. Helen Marnie’s voice beautifully suits the synthetic atmospherics while the widescreen, spacious mix compliments a catchy tune that has hints of SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES. Although confusing some of their fans, given room to explore, ‘Gravity The Seducer’ is that under rated album which will be hailed as a classic in years to come.
Available on the album ‘Gravity The Seducer’ via Nettwerk Productions
Living in a dream since 1983 and as a homage to ‘The Pleasure Principle’, MAISON VAGUE mainman Clark Stiefel responded musically to a YouTube video entitled ‘Synthpop Is Dead’. The opening salvo is brilliant and the lyric of “Everyone’s entitled to opinion, you have yours and well I have mine” hits home. But it’s the retort of “And though it seems that our opinions differ, you’ll agree in time!” that says it all as the sound of PLACEBO gone electro. This battlecry has heart, soul and humour.
Available on the album ‘Synthpop’s Alive’ via Amazon
Closing MIRRORS’ outstanding ‘Lights & Offerings’ long player, ‘Secrets’ shifting phat bass riff across two octaves is pure Kling Klang, driven by an intense percussive march. An epic at over ten minutes in length and split into three movements, the ambient interlude of the second section consists of an aural sculpture that plays with the mind. It then suddenly reprises with a piercing military tattoo for its finale with unsettling voices for some added claustrophobic edge.
Available on the album ‘Lights & Offerings’ via Skint Entertainment
Yes, Moby has settled into a formula but he does it well. One of the more immediate tracks from the excellent independently released ‘Destroyed’ album, ‘Be The One’ is full of rich layered synth strings with moody chordial sweeps over a motorik beat and textured vocoder. Despite the simplistic robotic couplet “I was the hell that you needed – I was the one when you needed love”, it strangely exudes warmth and emotion.
Available on the album ‘Destroyed’ via Little Idiot Records
From their second EP Radio, with Caroline Myrick’s soft vocals attached to Darin Rajabian’s classic electro disco inspired backing, ‘On The Run’ could be described as Ellie Goulding gone right and is free of folkisms. : “I want back the soft quiet days of ever, when there was lemonade and sand, and rainy screen doors and sad movies; when the minutes were no one else’s but ours”.
Anthemic gothic rock is what the former Gary Webb deals in these days but ‘The Fall’ is a lot less heavier and one-dimensional than the offerings on previous album ‘Jagged’. Co-written and co-produced by Ade Fenton as an interim project when work on the ‘Splinter’ album was put on hold, with a fair smattering of gritty synths, this achieves a much better sonic balance and Gary Numan’s most accessible number in years.
Available on the album ‘Dead Son Rising’ via Mortal Records
THE OPIATES are former ELECTRIBE 101 chanteuse Billie Ray Martin and Norwegian DJ and producer Robert Solheim. They have been dubbed as The Carpenters of Electro. Several years in the making, the debut album contained ‘Anatomy Of A Plastic Girl’, a fine avant pop structure that told the tale of a young wannabe actress in Los Angeles who reflects on the facial surgery that has left her scarred…
Available on the album ‘Hollywood Under The Knife’ via Disco Activisto Records
QUEEN OF HEARTS is Liz Morphew, formally of RED BLOODED WOMEN; this mysterious young royal with her assorted headgear and couture is modern electropop’s own Queen Amidala. From a galaxy far, far away and light years ahead of the poptastic competition, this moody, pulsing cover of indie rockers THE FOALS is transformed by a hypnotism textured with spacious synths to give our Queenie room for some sexy breathiness.
Best known for ‘Looking From A Hilltop’ in 1984, the song’s husband and wife vocalists Larry Cassidy and Jenny Ross have sadly since passed away. So it was highly appropriate that for SECTION 25’s recorded return, fronting the former punks would be Larry and Jenny’s daughter Bethany. She does a fine job with this danceable synth led ditty which captures that classic hedonistic Manchester vibe that recalls THE OTHER TWO’s ‘Tasty Fish’.
Available on the EP ‘Invicta’ via Fac 51 The Hacienda
SOFT METALS are a newish electro duo comprising Patricia Hall and Ian Hicks. Now resident in Los Angeles, they have an accessibly minimal sound with Hall’s pretty vocals being a particular delight and reminiscent of Dot Allison’s flirtatious aura. ‘Eyes Closed’ is probably the highlight from their very promising self-titled debut album, elements of ORBITAL creeping into the danceable bleep fest.
Available on the album ‘Soft Metals’ via Captured Tracks
Stefan Storm and Oskar Gullstrand hail from Gavle in Sweden. Both filmic and musical elements are important factors in THE SOUND OF ARROWS. Produced by Richard X and featuring a sweet guest vocal from Sarah Nyberg Pergament aka action biker, the choral patches and the symphonic templates are just so reminiscent of OMD. Coupled to some fantastically optimistic ambition, ‘Longest Ever Dream’ is a panoramic joy!
Featuring mournful violin by Chris Payne from The Gary Numan Experience, ‘What Do You Want?’ is the first TENEK track that could be described as possessing a degree of beauty. The Brtish duo’s more rousing anthemic style takes a breather here and although this has more in common with their other ballad track ‘The Art Of Evasion’, the subtlety and strings add a new sonic dimension to the developing TENEK sound.
TIGER BABY are a Copehagen trio led by singer Pernille Pang with Benjamin Teglbjærg and Nikolaj Tarp Gregersen in synthetic support. They released their debut album ‘Noise Around Me’ in 2007. Stylistically, this has all the unmistakeable melodic sensibility that Scandinavian pop acts seem to naturally possess as pretty arpeggios and wispy vocals combine for some dream laden electro accompanied by a fabulous video.
Available on the album ‘Open Windows Open Hills’ via Gunhero records
VILE ELECTRODES are a colourful beat combo who combine analogue synths with fetish fashion. Their sound could be described as THE SMITHS reincarnated as CLIENT but ‘My Sanctuary’, the closing track on their debut EP is a sweeping moody epic that recalls imperial phase OMD. Anais resigned melancholic vocal gives that ice maiden demeanour over glorious symphonic synth strings and deep sombre tones. It’s magnificence embroiled.
They’re the 21st Century equivalent of THE TEARDOP EXPLODES but with no brass. WHITE LIES however are much more bombastic with synths carrying melodies and assorted effects. Driven by a sweeping theme and deep bass thud before leading to a sense of urgency in the verse, a thoroughly anthemic chorus doesn’t appear until halfway to increase tension. This is possibly what TX could have sounded like if Julian Cope hadn’t gone to live under a tortoise shell!
Available on the album ‘Ritual’ via Fiction/Polydor Records
Chugging arpeggios, clattering primitive drum machines and slightly unorthodox vocals, minimal duo XENO & OAKLANDER give a brilliantly vibrant offering of vintage futurism. ‘The Staircase’ is their most immediate offering yet. Based in Brooklyn, part of their authentic Europeanism comes from Liz Wendelbo’s wispy French / Norwegian charm. Writing with partner Sean McBride since 2004, they successfully supported JOHN FOXX & THE MATHS in 2011.
Available on the album ‘Sets & Lights’ via Wierd Records
Those dark Nordic nights certainly have their effect as this cynical tune from this Finnish duo indicates. Comprising helpfully of two friends Tapio and Matti, ZEBRA & SNAKE fuse vintage electronics with a touch of ambient dexterity as an “artistic form of therapy”. ‘Empty Love Song’ is suitably bittersweet and sounds a bit like MGMT’s ‘Time To Pretend’ after six months in deep freeze! However, despite its lyrical stance, it possesses a grand anthemic quality.
Thomas Dolby releases his first album in 20 years with ‘A Map Of The Floating City’.
Although retired from the music business since 1992, he has been busy in Silicon Valley with his tech company Beatnik Inc where among his achievements have been the integration of music into web media and the development of the polyphonic ringtone engine which is now encased in millions of mobile phones worldwide.
A few years ago, he returned to the UK with his family, back to his roots in East Anglia. Practicing what he preached back when he first appeared on Top Of The Pops with ‘Windpower’ in 1982, he built a renewable energy-powered studio on a 1930s lifeboat located in the garden of his beach house on Suffolk’s North Sea coast and began recording again.
In many ways, ‘A Map Of The Floating City’ is that life journey set to music. Split into three chapters, it is a travelogue across three imaginary continents. It starts with ‘Urbanoia’, a dark place which could be seen as a metaphor for the hustle and madness of city lifestyles in Northern California and Silicon Valley. ‘Amerikana’ then documents the Englishman’s fond farewell to the US and is a tribute to its rootsy musical forms. And finally with ‘Oceanea’, this sees the return to the countryside tranquillity of home on a windswept coastline.
Thomas Morgan Dolby Robertson’s early uses of technology in the studio and live arena with debut album ‘The Golden Age Of Wireless’ helped him achieve recognition and stardom with the MTV generation, particularly in America. However, despite the resurgence of the synthesizer in the last ten years, ‘A Map Of The Floating City’ is not TMDR’s return to electronica.
“I don’t feel like a pioneer anymore working in that area” Thomas Dolby said earlier this year when discussing the rapid developments that have now allowed electronic music to even be made on a budding musician’s iPhone. But he added: “On the other hand, what I’ve got that those ten thousand guys haven’t got is songwriting ability. So I’ve focussed a lot more on songs, the lyrics, the chords, the personality in the voice, the sounds and the production are secondary, they just serve to illustrate the songs for me”.
So opening this very song based album, ‘Nothing New Under The Sun’ tips its hat pleasantly to Dolby’s production past and could be Swoon era PREFAB SPROUT. Meanwhile those who do want some contemporary styled synthpop will totally love ‘Spice Train’. Over its hypnotic, squelchy sequence and mechanised dance beat, it gets strangely humanised by a Mariachi horn section. With the kitchen sink and a host of exotic influences thrown in via Bollywood and the Middle East, ‘Spice Train’ does exactly what it says on the tin.
Continuing the international flavour, kooky Russian-born songstress Regina Spektor features in a cameo cast as an East European waitress on ‘Evil Twin Brother’ which also has a smattering of electronics. But it’s onwards from here that the more naturalistic majority of this collection kicks in as brass and double bass form the basis of ‘A Jealous Thing Called Love’.
With memories of “the Dim Sum that we shared”, it captures a bittersweet feeling everyone can relate to. The following ‘Road To Reno’ also follows a brass led template but the line “And she liked Tears For Fears” will raise a perhaps inappropriate chuckle in this macabre tale of two hapless lovers, a jailbreak and a gun!
The amusing ‘The Toad Lickers’ with Imogen Heap could be seen as this album’s own ‘Hyperactive!’ or ‘She Blinded Me With Science’.The cheeky bluegrass interludes crossed with a visitor’s interpretation of the more Middle American way are filled with fun. All that’s missing is George Clooney and a scene from ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’
DIRE STRAITS’ Mark Knopfler adds some countrified twang to ’17 Hills’ alongside Natalie MacMaster’s fiddle, while some soothing piano holds together the ballad ‘Love Is A Loaded Pistol’.
The closing third features all the cinematic touches you would expect from Dolby’s more personal work. The beautifully ethereal ‘Oceanea’ sees FAIRGROUND ATTRACTION’s Eddi Reader join in alongside his own processed vocal for some emotive reflections on the bond between mother and son. “The song has a very strong presence of my mum who is from East Anglia and I think would be very pleased to see I’ve moved back and brought my family to the coast here” said Dolby, “So Eddi is really the voice of my mother, she’s a nurturing voice who kind of reiterates my own thoughts”.
Starting with some spooky theremin courtesy of Bruce Woolley, the bossa nova toned ‘Simone’ recalls ‘The Flat Earth’ and points to Dolby’s cover of Dan Hicks’ ‘I Scare Myself’. And to finish the album, ‘To The Lifeboats’ builds along in with the organic freeform feel of TALK TALK circa ‘Spirit of Eden’.
Anyone who has enjoyed Thomas Dolby’s songcraft and his productions for other artists through his career will find something to savour on this varied and well crafted album. Holding together very well artistically, ‘A Map Of The Floating City’ is a welcome return for The Lost Airman… is that your PBY Catalina parked on the waterway Sir?
‘A Map Of The Floating City’ is released on 24 October 2011 by Lost Toy People. A 2CD deluxe edition featuring an instrumental version of the album plus bonus track ‘I’m Not Your Dog’ is also available.
Thomas Dolby’s 2011 UK Autumn tour includes:
Snape Maltings (4 November), London Shepherds Bush Empire (6 November), Hatfield The Forum (7 November), Bournemouth Academy (8 November), Leamington Spa Assembly (9 November), Isle of Man Gaiety Theatre (11 November), Liverpool, Stanley Theatre (12 November), Birmingham Academy (13 November), Oxford Academy (14 November), Glasgow ABC (16 November), Sheffield Academy (17 November), Holmfirth Picture Drome (18 November)
The plush confines of London’s Royal Festival Hall was the venue for the wonderful ‘Electronic Phuture Revue’ curated by Back To The Phuture’s Mark Jones and HEAVEN 17’s Martyn Ware.
Forming part of the three day Vintage Festival, despite the nostalgia vibe of the weekend’s proceedings celebrating five decades of British cool, this showcase was certainly no cheesy nostalgia ride.
Instead it promised a show with classic and new interpretations of synthpop NOT 80s, in a distinct move away from the dreaded ‘Remember The Here & Now’ type associations! Opening the Revue, Alan Wilder’s RECOIL orchestrated a moody cinematic presentation that included forays into his side of the DEPECHE MODE story.
A terrific ‘Jezebel’ mashed-up with ‘Walking My Shoes’ and TUBEWAY ARMY’s ‘Are Friends Electric?’ was the first musical highlight of the evening while despite the early start, a powerful Aggro mix variation of ‘Never Let Me Down Again’ third track in managed to encourage a few of the devotional to get up and do the cornfield wave. With Paul Kendall as his willing conspirator, Wilder’s carefully selected cinematic segue also included elements of ‘Personal Jesus’ to help people to “reach out”. These various segments of familiarity provided accessible counterpoints to RECOIL’s more organic, sample based productions like ‘Prey’ and ‘Faith Healer’.
Speaking of DEPECHE MODE, New York based MOTOR were next and their new glam stomper ‘Man Made Machine’ features vocals by Martin Gore in a collaboration that sounds not unlike a camp Iggy Pop being backed by an angry GOLDFRAPP. Tonight, it is voiced by MOTOR themselves although Gore himself lurked in the video projections as the duo delivered their brand of harder edged techno electro. Their long awaited song based album is out later this year and will feature vocals by GARY NUMAN, ELECTRIBE 101’s Billie Ray Martin and NITZER EBB’s Douglas J McCarthy.
The DJ interval with Mark Jones allowed a breather before the arrival of MIRRORS. Despite the obvious comparisons with a certain synth act from the Wirral Peninsula, MIRRORS live are actually more like a young KRAFTWERK meeting DEPECHE MODE.
With recent appearances at fashion shows for the likes of Michalsky and Glastonbury under their belt plus their album ‘Lights & Offerings’ gaining the praise of many plaudits, 2011 has been very good for the sartorially chic quartet. Their sharp but moody aura, combined with an artful sensibility shone through as they exhibited their development of the classic Synth Britannia sound.
Unfortunately though, tonight they were limited to just ‘Fear Of Drowning’, ‘Into The Heart’, ‘Hide And Seek’ and ‘Ways To An End’ for their sojourn. However, MIRRORS impressed again and much of the aftershow chat was about their potential. Avoiding worries, the future of synthpop is bright and in eight very good hands.
ONETWO gave a highly polished recital that delved into a variety of songs from Claudia Brücken and Paul Humphreys’ corresponding histories as well as their more recent compositions. Synthpop standards ‘P-Machinery’, ‘Messages’, ‘Electricity’ and ‘Duel’ got the audience dancing and sat nicely side-by-side with the atmospheric dramas of ‘Sequentia’, ‘Thank You’, and the Martin Gore co-write ‘Cloud Nine’.
Even if the DEPECHE MODE songwriter wasn’t there physically, his presence was certainly felt in spirit throughout the event, such has been his influence on electronic pop music. Ms Brücken herself was in tremendous voice as usual, her chanteuse demeanour perfectly at ease with the sophisticated surroundings of the Royal Festival Hall.
Afterwards, Paul Humphreys and Alan Wilder were spotted chatting in the foyer before the start of Thomas Dolby’s set. The two keyboardists hadn’t seen each other in ages; had it really been 23 years since DEPECHE MODE beat OMD in that infamous cricket match, as documented in Steve Malins’ excellent DM biography ‘Black Celebration’, during the ‘Music For The Masses’ US tour?
Meanwhile in a very impressive performance, Thomas Dolby teamed up with his tribute act THE PIRATE TWINS in a most touching musical union. What a moment it must have been for Darren Goldsmith and Andrew Down to be playing with their hero, almost mirroring the occasion when Dolby himself and his band backed David Bowie at Live Aid.
Opening with the terrific ‘One Of Our Submarines’, Dolby journeyed back first with ‘Europa And The Pirate Twins’ and later ‘Hyperactive!’. On the latter, drummer Mat Hector did a brilliant job tightening his trousers to reprise Adele Bertei’s backing vocal!! Of course, there was also the madness of ‘She Blinded Me With Science’, with Dolby affectionately reminiscing about his recording sessions with the late Dr Magnus Pyke in his introduction and demonstrating the various samples used.
But then Dolby looked to the future with a superb exotically flavoured dance number entitled ‘Spice Train’. Guest singer Nicki Wells joined in and provided some alluring ethnic stylings for a great live preview of his new album ‘The Map Of The Floating City’. This symbolised one important aspect of all the classic acts in tonight’s line-up who had played up to this point; much as they have dozens of highly popular, memorable hit songs between them, they all performed material that was either new or from the last decade ie the 21st Century. Rewind Festival this evening was most certainly not!
To climax this special ‘Electronic Phuture Revue’ were HEAVEN 17 who truly delivered in their position as headliners. Although they were the only classic act not to play new or recent material, they made up for it instead by making a statement “to change people’s perceptions through the medium of reinterpretation” as Martyn Ware himself so eloquently put it to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK last May.
With a stark soundscape opening, the detuned tones of THE HUMAN LEAGUE’s take on ‘You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling’ clanked in. So here was the sight of Glenn Gregory and Martyn Ware duetting as The Right-on Brothers. With this surprise still causing aftershocks, ‘Fascist Groove Thang’ and ‘Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry’ quickly got everyone on their feet by way of a Friday night disco atmosphere.
But what followed was an even more unexpected moment in a magnificent updating of THE HUMAN LEAGUE’s ‘The Black Hit Of Space’ from ‘Travelogue’, providing the highlight of the evening. Futuristic sounds warbled off and on – and yes, they weighed more than Saturn! Gregory was clearly enjoying his “Tonight Matthew, I will be Phil Oakey” moment and even Mark Jones left his DJ pulpit to mingle with the punters at the front for an impromptu singalong.
With ‘The Luxury Gap’ being played live in full at The Roundhouse in the Autumn, it made sense that ‘Come Live With Me’ and ‘Let Me Go’ got renditions to ease stunning new keyboard player Berenice Scott into the live band. But then the much heralded special guest took to the stage. Giving her spirited interpretation of ‘Ball Of Confusion which first brought Tina Turner back into the limelight on the BEF Music Of Quality Of Distinction LP was THE COMMUNARDS’ Sarah-Jane Morris.
It was Janis Joplin doing electro Motown and with the state of upheaval in the world at this present moment in time, the song’s forthright message was wholly relevant. As an entertaining experiment, it boded well for The Roundhouse shows later this year. With the inevitable ‘Temptation’ following and backing singer Billie Godfrey doing her usual star turn, to close it was another ‘Stars In Their Eyes’ moment for Glenn Gregory as HEAVEN 17 ended with their powerful take on ‘Being Boiled’.
Despite being an absolute treat musically, a few grumbles about the occasion have to be highlighted. At no time was the auditorium ever full, even for the later performing acts. The fault with this probably has to lie with the ticket distribution. Top price tickets were anything from £85 to £100, which priced most music fans out despite the impressive line-up assembled. Ticket sales were slow but following a 2-for-1 offer in The Guardian, the online seating plan appeared to show that the ‘Electronic Phuture Revue’ was gaining momentum.
However, judging by the number of people who took their seats for only ten minutes at a time and then promptly left, never to return, it would seem that tickets had been given to various people associated with the Vintage Festival like stall holders and VIPs who clearly had no interest in synthpop. Surely it would have been better to have had an affordable ticket price in the first place to fill the venue with music fans? This was disappointing for all the acts playing to say the least.
But the ridiculous curfew of 10.30pm meant that RECOIL were ushered in at 6.30pm and the following acts had to be so tightly packed into the schedule that there was minimal time for any of the audience to take a comfort break without missing at least one song by the next band!
With the various Vintage themed club happenings such as Northern Soul and Rockabilly happily banging away in the complex until 1.00am, surely some kind of licensing compromise could have been negotiated by the Vintage Festival organisers, South Bank Centre and local authority to make things a lot more practical and workable for such a unique gathering? There are lessons to be learnt by all.
But these issues should not dampen what a tremendously memorable evening this actually was. Like ‘Back To The Phuture -Tomorrow Is Today’ and ‘Short Circuit Presents Mute’ earlier in the year, the ‘Electronic Phuture Revue’ was yet another great event that reinforced electronic music’s credibility as the groundbreaking and vital cultural force it thoroughly deserves to be. Roll on the HEAVEN 17 / BEF weekender in October then…
Thomas Dolby first came into the public eye in 1981 with his independent single ‘Urges’ b/w ‘Leipzig’ on Armageddon Records, produced by XTC’s Andy Partridge.
Simultaneously, he worked as a jobbing session musician. He played keyboards in THE FALLOUT CLUB and the backing band of Lene Lovich, writing her single ‘New Toy’ along the way. He also contributed the lead synthesizer line to FOREIGNER’s evergreen guilty pleasure ‘Waiting For A Girl Like You’. Legend has it that when he got the call from Mick Jones to fly to Electric Lady Studio in New York, Dolby thought he was going to be working with THE CLASH!
Signing to EMI via his Venice In Peril imprint, in 1982 he released ‘The Golden Age Of Wireless’, a real ‘Boy’s Own’ adventure of an album featuring the singles ‘Airwaves’, ‘Radio Silence’ and ‘Europa And The Pirate Twins’. The UK breakthrough came with the tremendous ‘Windpower’ featuring the voice of the BBC shipping forecast, John Marsh.
With this intellectual approach to modern pop, his boffin persona came to an artistic zenith with ‘She Blinded Me With Science’, a catchy slice of electro-funk noted for its cameo from everyone’s favourite mad professor Dr Magnus Pyke. Bizarrely, the record failed to go Top 40 in Britain but became an American Top 5 hit.
1984 signalled Thomas Dolby’s shift away from electronics with his biggest UK hit ‘Hyperactive!’ and its parent album ‘The Flat Earth’ which showcased a more jazzy, laid back approach as represented by the title track and his cover of Dan Hicks’ ‘I Scare Myself’. 1985 saw Dolby gain the respect of his elders and he was invited to play alongside Herbie Hancock and Stevie Wonder at The Grammy Awards and David Bowie at Live Aid. Continuing his zest for collaborations, he worked with George Clinton on his ‘Some of My Best Jokes Are Friends’ album and contributed lead vocals to Ryuichi Sakamoto’s marvellous ‘Field Work’ single.
In parallel, Dolby also juggled soundtrack projects and a successful production career which included acts as diverse as HOUDINI, PREFAB SROUT and Joni Mitchell. Meanwhile the funk returned with a vengeance in 1988 on the Grammy nominated album ‘Aliens Ate My Buick’. Following his 1992 album ‘Astronauts & Heretics’, Dolby left the music industry and moved to Silicon Valley where he founded the company Beatnik Inc, developing music applications for the internet. His best known technological innovation has to be the polyphonic ringtone engine that is now encased in several billion Nokia mobile phones.
Having retired from Beatnik Inc, Dolby found urges to make music again. He tested the water in 2006 and returned to the UK with his ‘Sole Inhabitant’ tour, celebrating his back catalogue and supporting DEPECHE MODE at the Wireless Festival. With renewed interest in his music, EMI issued the 2009 compilation ‘The Singular’.
Following the release of two EPs ‘Amerikana’ and ‘Oceanea’ plus another one Urbanoia due out soon, Thomas Dolby is completing his first long player in nearly 20 years entitled ‘A Map Of The Floating City’. The album focuses on very personal, organic songs and was recorded in his 1930s lifeboat studio ‘The Nutmeg Of Consolation’ which is powered by renewable energy sources such as solar and naturally, wind power. As part of the lead up to the full release of the album, an online adventure game entitled ‘The Floating City’ will be launched on his website this spring.
From his studio, Thomas Dolby spoke to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about his upcoming return and reminisced about his past explorations in sound.
The sleeve notes to your ‘Retrospectacle’ CD mention that you built your first synthesizer. When was that and what was it?
It was a Transcendent 2000 in about 1977. I saw an ad for it in the back of Practical Electronics. It was hard to use because it was just the sound module, you had a little mini-jack connecting it to a keyboard which I had from a VCS3. It was silly, I had that and a two track TEAC tape recorder that was able to ping-pong between left and right so I would programme in a kick drum and put that down. Then I’d bounce it across to the second track and programme a snare drum. It forced you to make decisions because there was no going back *laughs*
Did you ever use that on any of your recorded output in the end?
No, that was all prior to doing any recording. In fact as soon as I got my first deal, I traded it in and got a Micromoog that was a lot easier to use.
On ‘The Golden Age Of Wireless’, you had a PPG Wave Computer named ‘Henry’. What was it about its capability that made you adopt it as your main tool as opposed to other computer instruments like the Fairlight CMI, Synclavier or even the Crumar GPS which Wendy Carlos used on ‘Tron’?
The Fairlight had barely shown up in the UK at that point so there was no easy way to sequence things at all. The PPG was the first sequencer I’d seen… it had a drum module that sounded pretty good and gave me the option of tuning the samples. There’s a clap sound that shows up on ‘The Golden Age Of Wireless’ which is actually its snare drum slowed down a lot. Shortly after that, I bought the module for a Simmons drum kit and I was able to trigger those sounds from the PPG sequencer.
On top of that, the PPG also had a wavetable synthesizer in it which had some pretty extraordinary sounds. Some of the wavetables were so disparate that you’d hit a key and the note had a sort of rhythm inherent to it… like the bassline in ‘Windpower’ which has this slapback effect. I think I actually wrote that song because I’d dialled up that sound. That’s what I made the song with.
And where is ‘Henry’ now?
‘Henry’ fell down a lift shaft on an American tour and was replaced by ‘Henry The Second’, a Fairlight…
‘Europa & The Pirate Twins’ should have been a bit hit although it became very familiar as it was used as the theme for BBC Radio1’s Saturday afternoon magazine show. Where did the idea for this love story originally come from?
I had a girlfriend and we used to fantasise that after the apocalypse, wherever we were, we would meet up on this beach in East Anglia where I grew up. She was French and I showed her this beach. We just imagined one day we’d meet up there again. That’s how the love story came about. I always thought she’d end up being this big movie star or something, she had that sort of charisma so the rest of the story kind of wrote itself.
Why do you think ‘She Blinded Me With Science’ captured the hearts and minds of America but was largely ignored in Britain?
I think a lot of it was club play and the video getting on MTV. In those days, videos didn’t get shown in the UK unless the artist was sick or on tour. If you had a song that was going up the charts, then they’d ask you in to do ‘Top Of The Pops’ but they wouldn’t just show a video. Whereas in the States, MTV had reached the big cities like New York, LA and so on… it was very hip at that time to stay in and watch MTV on a Saturday night instead of going out to a club or whatever. The trend setters and the early adopters were watching MTV and a lot of the videos on there were not that great.
So if you had a video that was a little bit original, then it definitely causes some waves. And I think in my case, they were talking in the States about the new ‘British Invasion’ and synthpop so everyone was casting around looking for what this thing was. There was a guy with a catchy song and a very specific image and it was the antithesis of the mullet rock ‘n’ roll of the late 70s. So I think that’s why it really caught on. It was perceived as being very English and quirky. Whereas in the UK, there’s quirky Englishness around you all the time… Magnus Pyke was always on TV so there was nothing so extraordinary about seeing or hearing him!
Its B-side ‘One Of Our Submarines’ is one of my favourites. Where did the inspiration for the lyrical imagery come from?
Lyrically, the inspiration for it was my uncle Stephen who served in a submarine in the Second World War and drowned in it… it was all a bit pointless because they weren’t actually engaged in a battle, they were doing manoeuvres at the time so that’s a bit of a tragedy. I grew up with this photo of him by the stairs in his naval outfit.
My lovely dad, being a professor certainly wasn’t an action man so I always looked up to my uncle as being the action man of the family. I thought about it as I grew up; you get older and your Boys Own illusion and the whole British Empire, Army, Navy etc, you get a little bit more subversive and start to turn against it. So that was the background to the song. His death became a metaphor for the fall of the British Empire really.
And did you borrow the riff from ‘The Six Million Dollar Man’?
No, I’ve never heard anybody say that! *laughs*
The whole Boys Own, maritime exploration theme appears to go through all your work. What is it about the sea and water that fascinates you?
I don’t know… it’s just my element really, it’s where I have to be. I mean I’ve spent time in the dessert and I can’t handle it! I feel I’m just drawn to the sea. If I hadn’t been a musician, I’d have ended up at sea in some form, a lifeguard or something like that.
What did you think when Howard Jones came along effectively doing your act and became very successful at it? Did you ever feel you may have arrived too early?
I think we’re very different kinds of musicians… our voices and so on. The similarity was we were both solo keyboard players making pop music, but the similarity ends there really. I’ve been friendly with Howard over the years and I think inevitably you get grouped into categories and that was bound to happen. In my case, I’ve always tried to focus on the songwriting rather than the genre or the look.
‘The Flat Earth’ signalled a shift away from electronics. Do you feel there was too much synthpop happening between 1983-84?
In reality, about half the songs on ‘The Golden Age Of Wireless’ are band based, with a three piece band of bass, drums and guitar plus my keyboards. They weren’t played with sequences, they were played as a band and I added electronic thrills on top.
There were others like ‘Windpower’, ‘Flying North’ and the electronic version of ‘Radio Silence’ which were more obviously sequenced and more into that synthpop kind of mould.
But in a lot of ways, the music I’d really always aspired to make was somehow more moody and atmospheric and organic. A favourite couple of albums of mine were ‘Hejira’ by Joni Mitchell and ‘Astral Weeks’ by Van Morrison. Both of them are quite spacey and transcendental, have got great songs and great poetry to them but don’t have rock grooves really.
I think because I’m capable of doing more instantly accessible, quirky pop stuff, the tendency of the record company was to say “Oh there’s your single Thomas, right there… that’s going to be instantly catchy on the radio!”. But it’s quite hard to get them to put as much weight behind the more personal and intimate stuff because they knew I could do it. And I think the moment I had some commercial success with songs like ‘Hyperactive!’ and ‘She Blinded Me With Science’, there was no persuading them.
I’d go into the record company and they’d say “oh, we’re all loving ‘Screen Kiss’ Thomas, every secretary here is in love with it that song”. So great, is that going to be the next single then? “Well, no actually! We were hoping you’d do something that sounds a lot more like ‘She Blinded Me With Science’!”
So that’s an observation about how the industry was! From a purely business point of view, you can see that you get so little mind share in the world, why not milk the formula but that wasn’t me because I have a lot of breadth really. And I like to explore and keep using new musical metaphors with every new song that I write. And I think that’s always made it quite hard for the industry, they couldn’t pin me down.
1985 turned out to be an amazing year when you were playing at the Grammy Awards with Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock. And then you were part of David Bowie’s band at Live Aid…
It’s odd looking at my biography to see how much was concentrated into 1985, I don’t know how I managed all of that! *laughs*
It was a great experience. To be able to play with somebody like Stevie Wonder or David Bowie who had been my heroes during my teenage years at my most malleable, to get the acknowledgement of your heroes is a very flattering and gratifying thing. In both cases, it came together very quickly.
With Bowie, the first time I’d ever spoken to him in my life was 9 days before Live Aid and he was in a bit of a fix because his regular touring band were off doing other things and he was busy filming ‘Labyrinth’. This thing came up and I think it took him a while to get his round the scope of the event. It was obviously something that he wanted to do but I don’t think he really grasped the full significance of it until the days went on and the event got closer.
We only had about four rehearsals. In the first couple, he was saying “we’ll be promoting my new single ‘Loving The Alien'” but as it got closer, he realised it wasn’t about promotion, it was about doing something iconic and anthemic. And that’s why we ended up with the songs we did. Because we had so little rehearsal, we’d never actually played the songs through in the order that we did them.
I was quite terrified that we were going to mess it up, especially on things like ‘TVC15’ where I had to do the actual harmonising. And ‘Heroes’ which on a certain level, I know inside out but songs that go along with just one or two variations here and there are sometimes harder than songs that have complicated chord sequences… at least once you’ve learnt it, you know where you are! But once I got up there on stage at Wembley, my fingers did the walking really. I looked out at the crowd and thought “God, I’m on stage with DAVID BOWIE at Live Aid!”
You’ve produced PREFAB SPROUT and Joni Mitchell among others. As a musician based producer, how to do stay focussed on the task in hand? Has there ever been the temptation when you’ve come up with a great idea to go to yourself “I’ll keep that for my album”?
Not really, no because when ideas are sparked by other ideas, it’s really where they belong. I’ve certainly never had an incidence where this idea that I’ve just come up with in the studio with PREFAB SPROUT is “too good for them, I’m going to save it for myself” because another idea will always be along *laughs*
One of the reasons I like working in variety of different environments is because it stimulates me to come up with stuff that I wouldn’t have come up with sitting at home. So that’s why I like to do these different projects. It draws it out of me. The trick to a collaboration is you have this relationship and ideas spark back and forth, that’s the joy of producing other artists.
You have your first new album for nearly 20 years. So what can we expect from it?
The album is quite a big body of work. It’s called ‘A Map Of The Floating City’ and there are three continents; ‘Amerikana’, ‘Oceanea’ and ‘Urbanoia’. There are songs in each section and they have different flavours to them. ‘Amerikana’ is quite a fond farewell to America.
I lived there for nearly twenty years and I enjoyed my time there. I brought up three kids there. America gets a pretty bad rap but there are aspects to indigenous American culture that I think are really terrific; I like folk music and bluegrass, the origins of jazz music, things like that. So I’m not one to knock American just for the sake of it, there’s aspects of American roots culture that I really like. So it’s a nod in that direction but the songs are definitely sung by an Englishman, by a visitor to the States so the narrative that’s going on is definitely from the point of view of an outsider.
And then ‘Oceanea’; it’s really about returning to my spiritual homeland back in the countryside where I grew up living by the sea, working in a restored lifeboat on a beach and I’ve got everything I need here emotionally.
‘Urbanoia’ is about cities. I only visit cities every now and then for a few days at a time. I’m not a city person; I like the thrill of a city but I can’t stand it for more than a few days so the ‘Urbanoia’ section of the album has got a certain darkness to it.
Photo by Lee Hopkins
How do you feel about the technological developments in music?
After being away for so long, I’m fascinated by what’s happened within technology, both in recording and distribution. It’s a very exciting time because a lot of the rarefying tools that I had when I started out that were really only accessible to a few people, you can get them on your iPhone for a couple of quid. So it’s great that everybody’s got access to those tools.
But at the same time, it totally turns me off the idea of playing with technology or making sounds, sequences and things because there’s ten thousand other guys in the world using exactly the same tools…
Chances are somebody’s going to come up with the same idea at the same time. So I don’t feel like a pioneer anymore working in that area. On the other hand, what I’ve got that those ten thousand guys haven’t got is songwriting ability. So I’ve focussed a lot more on songs, the lyrics, the chords, the personality in the voice… the sounds and the production are secondary, they just serve to illustrate the songs for me.
There’s very few electronics actually on the album, it’s been quite rare that I’ve plugged in one of the old synths and overdubbed a part… it happens here and there. And there’s certainly no showing off from that point of view.
But ironically with all these modern advances, are there actually more computers on your work now?
There certainly are but they’re invisible, that’s the difference really. I’m still sequencing eighteen tracks at a time of guitar, bass and drums, moving verses around and using big stencils, big building blocks. Because of the limitations of sequencing technology in the early days, what you heard was bits and bytes, so people played to their strengths.
You’d get DEPECHE MODE style arrangements where you knew you were listening to a machine, but there was a certain charm and beauty to it. And that’s what people built on. As the machines have gotten more powerful, those limitations go away and it becomes possible to actually subsume them back into the music again. I feel like I’m through that phase.
Are there any of the electronic acts of the last five or ten years that you like?
Not really, but I don’t listen hard to them so I won’t say that I don’t like them. I’m just not all that interested in electronica personally, so there’s not much stuff I could point out to you.
The song ‘Oceanea’ sees you collaborating again with Eddi Reader who you worked with on ‘Cruel’. How did that come about?
I stayed in touch with Eddi over the years. When I wrote the song, I very much had her in mind for a part.
The song has a very strong presence of my mum who is from East Anglia and I think would be very pleased to see I’ve moved back and brought my family to the coast here. So Eddi is really the voice of my mother, she’s a nurturing voice who kind of reiterates my own thoughts, comforts me and says “you did the right thing, now you should just be free”.
Which songs on the new album have been your favourites?
I think I’m so deep in the album that I love all of them. I’m very pleased with the way it’s going. Obviously, I care a lot more about a song like Oceanea that is from the heart than something like ‘Toadlickers’ which is a bit more tongue-in-cheek and throwaway. I think ‘Toadlickers’ is a sort of successor to ‘She Blinded Me With Science’, ‘Hyperactive!’ or ‘Airhead’ where I’m playing a character or a role. It’s a jaunty, fun thing and they’re the more superficial end of what I do.
I like the breadth of moods on the album and I’m very excited about finishing it. Personally, I think it will be my best but I’m sure there will be some debate over that. I’m constantly pleased that between my four solo albums, there’s a very even distribution of who likes what. The one that sticks out is ‘Aliens Ate My Buick’ because it’s a lot more extroverted and funky etc so has it’s detractors but equally, there are also people who swear by that album and it still gets played on stadium and audiophile sound systems. If you had a poll and 89% of people picked the same album as their favourite, then I would be disappointed.
If the internet didn’t exist, would you have ever returned to the music business?
If the music industry had not changed and had been the same way as it was first time round, I’m not sure if I would have done. I think I might have tried my hand as a writer or something completely different.
I love the fact that the internet gives music a much more efficient means of distribution and it also brings me closer to the fans. As I’ve been doing this album, I feel their presence, I feel they’re involved. They know what I’m up to because of blogging, tweeting, Facebook and so on. I feel the moral support of the fans with me. Whereas in the old days, it was all focussed on the record company’s street date and really until that date, the world at large would never get to hear what you’d been up to. It was all so polarised, so black and white.
I much prefer the integrated feeling of the fact that there’s this loop going on between the artists and the fans all the time when you’re working and writing. I’m just aware they’re only a button-click away, that’s where my audience is. In the past, there was this whole assault course you had to get over before you got to your audience.
I do think it’s quite refreshing that you’re doing this EP series thing and releasing stuff bit by bit…
It’s great that you also have the option of changing things… you can put out an EP and then you can completely remix or rethink a song and do a different version of it on the album. And it’s not an either / or, they can sit side by side in iTunes and if people want both or if they want to make a choice, it’s entirely up to them.
It’s also less pressure on the artists and allows them to be creative… which is what you want them to be, not having to tackle all this business stuff!
Yes, as is often the case, the industry is lagging behind. When RADIOHEAD put out ‘In Rainbows’ with ten days notice, it was three or four months before the likes of Rolling Stone magazine were able to review the album. The blogs and websites had reviewed the album the day it came out.
So that really has messed up the whole time line of the way the industry works because they’re used to having the three to four month run-ins and this big street date. The industry is really not comfortable with people doing things piecemeal. But the effect of that RADIOHEAD album, and to an extent Imogen Heap’s ‘Ellipse’ album which she was tweeting and involving fans in and having flashmob gigs and things while she was composing the songs. And while she was recording, she’d put up two basslines and ask fans what they thought… meanwhile, she’s telling you what she crumbled on her salad for lunch! But the result of it was that over time, her audience was so totally enraptured by the whole process that they were just gasping for the album. So I think the industry will have to figure out how to accommodate this because it’s not so cut and dried anymore.
‘The Lost Airman’ – where did you dream up that character from?
It sort of came about because of this thing with Amanda Palmer, formally of THE DRESDEN DOLLS. She was coming over to tour with EVELYN EVELYN and then the volcanic ash cloud hit, the band and her Siamese twin hadn’t made it in.
So rather than cancel the dates, she was going to try to do them solo but she had no equipment, no tour manager, no nothing! She was frantically calling round people she knew in England, so I started helping her out with that. Then her Siamese twin ie the other half of EVELYN EVELYN got in on a plane and she got some equipment together but they were missing their compere, who in the original show was a sinister circus master.
She asked if I would do that and gave me postcards with the words on and I had to work off those for each song. I thought I’d come up with my own character for this so that that’s how The Lost Airman came about. It was like a Biggles character grown up. I had the trenchcoat because I’d used it on the Sole Inhabitant tour but I went to a special effects make-up place in North London and picked up some coloured contact lenses, facial hair and took it from there! *laughs*
You have done several movie soundtracks like ‘Gothic’, ‘Howard The Duck’, ‘Toys’, ‘FernGully: The Last Rainforest’ and ‘Gate To The Mind’s Eye’. Have you got any particular favourite among your soundtracks?
Not really, I think movie scoring was a blessing and a curse. On a certain level, it’s wonderful to make instrumental music but the curse of it is that you’re fairly low on the Totem pole as the composer and the music is the first thing to suffer if they make a change for whatever reason. This sentiment is echoed by every film composer I know. So that’s a little bit tough to put your heart and soul into it, you’re likely to get wounded. I try to put my heart and soul into everything but it was a bit disillusioning some of the experiences.
But I suppose the best experience overall was ‘Gothic’ because I was fortunate in that there was only one maniacal film maker to deal with, not a whole studio system with executives breathing down my neck… Ken Russell is the only person that makes Ken Russell film and he’s a music fan so the scoring process was very precious to him so it was one-on-one, working with him on that.
‘The Gate To The Mind’s Eye’ was also a good experience because again, the guy that was editing it, it was just the two of us working on it. I think I work better in close collaboration with one or two people versus dealing with a whole hierarchy; I’m not very good at the politics of that.
So would you like to be remembered for being a pioneering musician or for co-designing the polyphonic ringtone for Nokia?
I think the polyphonic ringtone thing will be what’s on the Trivial Pursuit card! *laughs*
But I think rather be remembered for the broad spectrum of what I did and what I have done. I think the best of it is to come.
The fan favourite ‘I Love You Goodbye’ has been covered by LU and starts with the line “I would never go bowling on a Friday morning in New Orleans”. Did you ever actually go bowling in New Orleans?
Yes, I did. There is a Zydeco bowling lane in New Orleans where they have a Zydeco band playing in flashing disco lights and you can bowl at the same time. I can’t remember the name of it, I sure someone will be able to tell you but it’s still there and it’s very famous.
So if you were an animal, which would you be?
Some sort of hawk, a hovering bird I think… maybe an osprey or a kestrel.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Thomas Dolby
Special thanks to Stuart Kirkham at 9PR
With thanks also to Darren Goldsmith, Louise Harrison, Lindon Lait and Tapio Normall from The Flat Earth Society
The ‘Oceanea’ EP is available now on Lost Toy People.
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.
are due to be released in Summer 2011
Follow Us!