Combining electronics and frenzied digital drums with live bass, ‘River In Me’ is the first single from TRENTEMØLLER’s upcoming fourth album ‘Fixion’, out in September. Vocals are provided by Jehnny Beth of the acclaimed indie band SAVAGES.
Best known for his superb club remix of DEPECHE MODE’s ‘Wrong’, it well and truly outstripped the rather ploddy original.
The dynamic edge of ‘River In Me’ has more than highlighted the short sightedness of the Basildon combo in not employing Anders Trentemøller to work on their new, as-yet untitled album.
Generally a remote collaborator, ‘River In Me’ is an unusual TRENTEMØLLER recording in that the SAVAGES frontwoman came to his home studio in Copenhagen to lay down the vocals. The end result naturally possesses a Gothic intensity but remains vibrant and melodic, with Beth’s Siouxsie-like tones complimenting the hybrid synth laced soundscape. Some have complained that ‘River In Me’ is not dark enough compared with TRENTEMØLLER’s previous work, but it is his most immediate song yet with a fine balance of accessibility and mood.
Directed by Åsa Riton and Andreas Emenius, the promo video for ‘River In Me’ filmed in Northern Sweden offers some appropriately icy aesthetics as a backdrop to the mysterious Nordic Noir love story.
The working relationship between Anders Trentemøller and Jehnny Beth began when the Dane mixed SAVAGES breakthrough album ‘Adore Life’. Beth said to Uncut earlier this year “he was not a traditional rock ‘n’ roll mixer, he was coming from electronic music, but with extensive guitar music knowledge”.
That should have confirmed TRENTEMØLLER’s credentials for working with DEPECHE MODE but alas, it is rumoured James Ford of SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO has got the job.
Having recently produced FLORENCE & THE MACHINE, ARCTIC MONKEYS, FOALS and MUMFORD & SONS, Ford’s work with the latter in particular would have no doubt sealed the deal for the rockcentric Dave Gahan.
However, all is not completely lost… if DEPECHE MODE are not going to have TRENTEMØLLER as a producer, then they should at least put him behind the desk to sort out the final mix. After all, he did a good job with ‘Wrong’.
Danish producer Anders Trentemøller made a name for himself when he remixed DEPECHE MODE’s ‘Wrong’ in 2009.
He succeeded not only in stamping his own vision with a far superior interpretation that well and truly outstripped the rather ploddy original, but more significantly, his rework highlighted the shortcomings in DEPECHE MODE’s production and arrangement department.
With a support slot for Basildon’s finest at London’s 02 Arena on the ‘Delta Machine’ tour, the scene was set for his own work to be recognised.
While primarily known as a dance producer, his previous two albums ‘The Last Resort’ and ‘Into The Great Wide Yonder’ showed the Dane to be highly capable of mixing organic instrumentation with electronics.
His third studio outing ‘Lost’ in 2013 was a combinational development of its predecessors, but with a greater emphasis on songs. This is particularly evident with his hip support cast of vocalists such as LOW, BLONDE REDHEAD’s Kazu Makino, Jana Hunter of LOWER DENS, THE RAVONETTES, GHOST SOCIETY and THE DRUMS.
Positively nocturnal with smatterings of Lynchian guitar and mechanised beats, ‘Lost’ however began with the meditative slowcore of ‘The Dream’ fronted by LOW. But the album was jolted from this sedate start with the bass grunt and eventual electronic intensity of ‘Gravity’ voiced by Jana Hunter. But bigger beats made their presence felt on ‘Still On Fire’; its trance-like qualities would have been quite similar sounding to FERRY CORSTEN’s ‘Sublime’ had it not been for the track’s rockier inflections.
There were also the psychedelic overtones dominating ‘Candy Tongue’ and the Turkish flavoured electro spy drama of ‘Constantinople’. Featuring the vocals of Marie Fisker, the former possessed a cerebral demeanour while the latter came complete with an organ solo aping THE DOORS!
Elsewhere on ‘Lost’, while technology blended with guitars, full-on dance friendliness sat very much on the backburner. Instead, aa downtempo haziness was on the agenda with the processed chill of ‘Come Undone’ angelically sung by Kazu Makino and the atonal bells of ‘Morphine’, its mutant jazz concocting a distinct ‘Twins Peaks’ meets Nordic Noir vibe.But the standout tracks on ‘Lost’ were much more rhythm laden.
The muted synth trumpets and spacey swirls of ‘Deceive’ driven by an incessant drum machine came over like DEPECHE MODE meeting DEATH IN VEGAS, while the epic ‘Trails’ with its conventional bass and guitars took a visceral approach that side-chained to a sickly claustrophobic feel before erupting into a more electronic and percussive second half. The album had no shortage of ambition, as proven by the deviant sub-nine minute drone ‘n’ bleep fest of ‘Hazed’ and the hidden unnamed piano piece afterwards.
Adding the indie electronica of ‘Never Stop Running’ and the frantic GHOST SOCIETY assisted ‘River Of Life’ with its aggressive arpeggios and raw feedback, ‘Lost’ was an adventure in sound that rewarded multiple listens, simply because it had the ability to sound different on each play, depending on mood and the time of day. On sonics alone, it had the potential to win plenty of admirers, simply for its rugged production style.
So it begs the question why Anders Trentemøller wasn’t employed by DEPECHE MODE as producer instead of the hapless Ben Hiller? Their perfect producer was sitting under the noses of Messrs Gahan, Gore and Fletcher all that time! TRENTEMØLLER’s multiple texture blend would have worked tremendously… after all, he’d pulled it off already with ‘Wrong! Can you imagine what he could have done with ‘Welcome To My World’?
With the recent unwelcome rumour that Dave Gahan wants The Drumhead and The Noodler aka Christian Eigner and Peter Gordeno involved in the next DEPECHE MODE album, the production ear and musicality of TRENTEMØLLER is more needed than ever!
‘Lost’ is still available via In My Room in CD, vinyl and download formats
Over the five years since its inception on 15th March 2010, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK has aimed to highlight the best new music within the electronic pop world.
But with so much music and only a finite allocation of time, songs have slipped under the radar occasionally, or perhaps only received a glancing mention. However, a bit of time and distance can reveal if these recordings really are actually lost gems and whether the site missed the boat. So here are 30 songs from the cover the period between March 2010 to December 2014 which are worthy of rediscovery.
They have been released as physical product or purchasable / free downloads and are listed in chronological and then alphabetical order.
YVY DEMINA Alley of Aces (2010)
Sounding like night meeting day with an omnipresent gothic allure, YVY DEMINA has been making music since 2007 but despite having songs on compilations, so far she has yet to have a release in her own right. A debut EP scheduled for July 2009 never materialised but the excellent ‘Alley Of Aces’ crept out on the ‘Zwischenfall – A New Decade Vol. 01’ compendium which also featured XENO & OAKLANDER. No more has been heard since…
Available on the compilation album ‘Zwischenfall – A New Decade Vol. 01’ via Real Voice Of Underground
Seductive, Weimer Cabaret styled electropop with a rich, layered atmosphere, ‘Sternentanz’ was a gloriously vibrant song from this promising German songstress. But aside from three mixes of ‘Sternentanz’ and another track titled ‘Kein Weg Zu Weit’ on the single release, that was it. LYLEE’s website has long since gone offline so despite Google, there appears to be no extra information on her whatsoever… so a song and artist truly lost.
Available as a download single via Batleth Records, extended version available on the compilation album ‘electropop.5’ via Conzoom Records
Sick of female fronted synthpop? Well, tough! We want “synths with balls” cry the electro fraternity still stuck in their shouty, chauvinistic cauldron! But as the feminist synth combo TIKKLE ME put it on their song ‘Remind The World’: “I’ve got no balls you see… I’ve already checked!”. This Swedish collective certainly made a positive impression with some thought provoking lyrics on their feisty self-titled debut album and have tunes too! Their second album ‘What Is Real’ is even better!
Available on the download album ‘Tikkle Me’ via Gaphals
047 Featuring LISA PEDERSEN Everything’s Fine (2011)
With some rich Scandipop in the vein of ROBYN courtesy of guest vocalist LISA PEDERSEN, ‘Everything’s Fine’ showed that Swedish electronic duo 047 could produce quality song based material. Sebastian Rutgersson and Peter Engström started out as a chiptune act before expanding their sonic template on their second album proper, ‘Elva’. It is territory they’re continuing in with the much anticipated follow-up, currently being recorded.
JOHAN AGEBJÖRN & LE PRIX featuring LAKE HEARTBEAT Watch The World Go By (2011)
JOHAN AGEBJÖRN is better known as cult Swedish songstress SALLY SHAPIRO’s right hand man, but for his debut solo album, he brought in a number of guest vocalists like QUEEN OF HEARTS for ‘Casablanca Nights’, a rather danceable electronic pop album. ‘Watch The World Go By’ was an uptempo highlight with a longing, melancholic vocal from Janne Kask of LAKE HEARTBEAT that was treated to the point of being almost feminine.
Available on the download album ‘Casablanca Nights’ via Paper Bag
Produced by FRANZ FERDINAND’s Alex Koupranos, CITIZENS! ‘True Romance’ had a hint of HOT CHIP collaborating with Vince Clarke about it. Catchy and quirky, it was released in late 2011 and even had a slight passing resemblance to the CCS remix of LYKKE LI’s ‘Little Bit’. From a so-called indie band, ‘True Romance’ had a fresh, synth assisted approach that didn’t involve too many guitar interventions.
HIGH PLACES are a duo based in Brooklyn. Dark but danceable, Mary Pearson’s half spoken / half wispy vocals on the haunting ‘Year Off’ are unearthly. As a percussive mantra takes hold, the cacophony of synthetic sound produced by musical partner Rob Barber only enhances the cerebral experience of this magnificent track, with an electronic bassline solid enough to knock your head on.
Available on the album ‘Original Colors’ via Thrill Jockey Records
While quite obviously derived from THE KNIFE and the hanutronica mood of the times, ‘Mother Protect’ was a great brooding tune from NIKI & THE DOVE. Malin Dahlstrom had a menacing growl that strangely sat between Karin Dreijer and Cyndi Lauper on this doom laden percussive rattle. The pair had potential and while THE KNIFE go to Eurovision of ‘DJ, Ease My Mind’ was another good tune in their cannon, they lacked consistency and the debut album ‘Instinct’ was not quite as impressive.
Full of European melancholy, ‘Darkest Days’ did what it said on the tin and appeared on the ‘Electropop.6’ compilation alongside VILE ELECTRODES and OBLIQUE. The vehicle of French producer Peter Rainman whose remixed for artists on labels such as Dependent, A Different Drum and Out Of Line, to date this has been his last offering as SPLENDOR PROJEKT. It is often quite puzzling how some musical ventures never get beyond a few released songs, while other less satisfactory acts keep going on and on…
Available on the compilation album ‘electropop.6’ via Conzoom Records
PATRICK WOLF once claimed to have had his image and act nicked by LA ROUX, but he seemed to do alright for himself as a kind of 21st Century’s answer to MARC ALMOND. With the synthetically accessible Richard X remix of ‘This City’, he actually came over like the lost Glaswegian band H20 through a Eurodisco filter. If Wolf actually stopped worrying about having his thunder stolen and actually did more stuff like this, he might then be able to outstrip LA ROUX.
Available on the download single ‘In The City’ via Hideout Recordings
Hailing from Portland, CHROMATICS were one of the brace North American electronic acts who appeared on the ‘Drive – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack’ with their song ‘Tick Of The Clock’. ‘Kill For Love’ from their fourth album of the same name could have been THE JESUS & MARY CHAIN if they were a female fronted synth band. With a lo-fi, punkier edge to their sound, CHROMATICS straddle several camps and bring a unique template to the alternative music table.
Available on the album ‘Kill For Love’ via Italians Do It Better
Gothenburg’s Ulrika Mild is COMPUTE whose first two releases ‘This’ in 2009 and ‘The Distance’ in 2012 impressed with their wispy, emotive DIY synthpop. Since then, she also found time to record a fabulous cover of ‘Goodbye’, written by Paul McCartney and first recorded by Mary Hopkin, for a tribute CD that also featured Swedish synth veterans PAGE with a great electro version of SLADE’s ‘Coz I Luv You’. Known for taking her time over things, COMPUTE’s third release is still eagerly awaited.
Available on the download compilation album ‘The Seventies Revisited’ via Friends of Electronically Yours
Following the second disbandment of A-HA in 2010, MORTEN HARKET has sat again in that awkward artistic hinterland where he has the voice and the cheekbones, but is more challenged in the songwriting department. However, the spritely ‘Scared Of Heights’ written by Espen Lind, a mentor on the Norwegian version of ‘The Voice’, recalled the best of A-HA’s classic singles with Harket’s trademark falsetto allowed to let rip. However, Harket is unlikely to ever escape A-HA…
Available on the album ‘Out Of My Hands’ via Island / Universal Music
While bandmate Sean McBride was busy with his MARTIAL CANTEREL solo project, XENO & OAKLANDER’s Liz Wendelbo took a parallel busman’s holiday and contributed string synths and vocals to some tracks recorded by Xavier Paradis of AUTOMELODI fame. Perhaps lighter than XENO & OAKLANDER and more obviously in key, ‘Rien À Paris’ captured Wendelbo’s Gallic charms in a manner than was Francoise Hardy rather than her usual Jane Birkin.
The act that influenced CHVRCHES, Edmonton duo PURITY RING combined synths and glitch techniques with a clattering, off-kilter drum machine backbone. Megan James’ vocals aren’t that far off Lauren Mayberry’s sweet tones but while ‘Belispeak’ was a good tune full of invention and atmosphere, overall PURITY RING have perhaps lacked the pop oriented immediacy and focus of their Glaswegian contemporaries. Where they head next in the light of this will be interesting…
The enticing project of NEW PONY CLUB’s Lou Hayter and Jean-Benoît Dunckel from AIR, ‘So Long My Love’ was a wonderfully motorik number with hypnotic drum machine, brash synth effects and sexy nonchalance all thrown into the bargain. Such an interesting combination had so much potential, but the resultant self-titled album released in 2013 lacked the vibrancy of this calling card and was sadly a disappointment.
Available on the album ‘Tomorrow’s World’ via Homebase
Released on Sweden’s Labrador Records who launched THE SOUND OF ARROWS, ‘Stop Taking My Time’ was proof that a danceable electronic tune didn’t have to be a journey into death by four-to-the-floor or longer than five minutes. With Karolina Komstedt’s dramatically assertive vocal and a bursting bassline, CLUB 8 showed in a crisp 180 seconds that glorious, uplifting synthpop could still have an impact.
Available on the album ‘Above The City’ via Labrador Records
Like fellow Mancunians HURTS, DELPHIC were hailed as one of the great hopes for male fronted electronic pop with a sound not unlike A CERTAIN RATIO gone right! Their debut album ‘Acolyte’ showed what they could be capable of, if they could only turn their extended jams into songs. However, the follow-up album ‘Collections’ disappointed with a misguided excursion into rap. The launch single ‘Baiya’ though was a cracker, combining the anthemic vocal pomp of MUSE with the rhythmical overtures of PRINCE.
Available on the album ‘Collections’ via Polydor Records
Ghostly are the innovative label founded by American electronic musician MATTHEW DEAR and home to electro-punksters ADULT. Their roster also includes a number of interesting acts like London based FORT ROMEAU. The project of producer Michael Greene, ‘Stay True’ takes on a pulsating electro influence, but is allowed to breathe and progress with the space permitted by the length of the piece.
ISAAC JUNKIE featuring GLENN GREGORY Something About You (2013)
Having toured both ‘Penthouse & Pavement’ and ‘The Luxury Gap’, HEAVEN 17 really needed to record new material to maintain their credibility. It could be argued that this collaboration with Mexican producer ISAAC JUNKIE and GLENN GREGORY went part of the way in kick starting that. A marvellously trancey electronic dance tune, the only thing that stops ‘Something About You’ from being perfect is the way Mr Gregory’s vocals have been processed and distorted.
Available on the single ‘Something About You’ via Isaac Junkie Records
Like MARSHEAUX crossed with POLLY SCATTERGOOD, the dream laden chillwave of ‘Oostende’ showcased what COCTEAU TWINS might have sounded like had they been a synth duo. Comprising of the gorgeous afflicted voice of Sarah P,. and the mysterious RΠЯ, KEEP SHELLY IN ATHENS actually hailed from the Greek capital, but sounded like they’d emerged from a frozen Fjord in Narvik. Sarah P. subsequently departed in 2014, but KEEP SHELLY ATHENS continue today with new singer Myrtha.
Despite having released their five EPs in five years, this Swedish duo have tended to be overlooked. There was a two year wait for KITE’s most recent EP ‘V’, but it was worth the wait when Nicklas Stenemo and Christian Berg offered some fine, if mournful electropop in the shape of ‘The Rhythm’. With layers of exuberant synth sounds and Stenemo’s almost chant like vocals full of brooding sadness but with a glimmer of hope, the next EP ‘VI’ is set for a Spring 2015 release.
NATTEFROST is Danish musician Bjørn Jeppesen whose tenth album ‘Futurized’ encompassed many of the spacey elements of yesterday’s tomorrow that fans of JEAN MICHEL JARRE and KRAFTWERK would enjoy. Featuring as a guest vocalist, Michel Moers of Belgian synth subversives TELEX, his Gallic nonchalance on ‘Will I Get to Your Heart?’ is particularly good with sequenced percussive effects and rich synth sweeps providing some old fashioned synthpop.
Available on the album ‘Futurized’ via Sireena Records
MULU featuring RUSSELL MAEL David – Frozen Smoke Remix (2013)
SPARKS have never just been an exclusively synthpop act but with the Mael Brothers more orchestrated in their instrumental template these days, it is rare to hear the magnificent nuances of Russell Mael on an electronic track in the 21st Century. This rather good collaboration with MULU remained strangely unreleased until dance act FROZEN SMOKE threw caution to the wind and let their synth dominated remix with its meaty snare sounds out. Singer Laura Campbell sounded totally glorious next to the younger Mael.
Originally available as a free download via Soundcloud, currently unavailable
Art rockers NIGHT ENGINE are possibly the most interesting guitar driven band to come out of the UK for some time. What separates them from the pack is their use of whirring synths for their solos. The rousing ‘Give Me A Chance’ fuses DAVID BOWIE and TALKING HEADS before digressing into a punchy end section which would conscript the quartet into TUBEWAY ARMY. And this is without mentioning that lanky vocalist / guitarist Phil McDonnell has that menacing air of Thin White Duke about him too.
Available on the download EP ‘Night Engine’ via Demand Vinyl / Something In Construction
Mining the heritage of Italo disco, enigmatic Greek singer / songwriter TAXX aka Taxiarchis Zolotas successfully combined atmospherics, propulsive bass sequences and a solid electro beat on the immensely catchy ‘Is It Love?’. With a moodiness reminiscent of PET SHOP BOYS, but with spacey buzzes and a harder kick, TAXX’s homage to the club based sub-genre was a worthy excursion into classic European pop.
Available on the download single ‘Is It Love?’ via Undo Records
TRENTMØLLER featuring SUNE ROSE WAGNER Deceive (2013)
Anders Trentemøller made a name for himself when he remixed DEPECHE MODE’s ‘Wrong’ in 2009. He succeeded not only in stamping his own vision with a far superior interpretation but highlighted shortcomings in DM’s production department. The muted synth trumpets and spacey swirls of ‘Deceive’ driven by an incessant drum machine made for a positively nocturnal atmosphere . And when crossed with an eerie vocal turn by Sune Rose Wagner, it all came over brilliantly like DM meeting DEATH IN VEGAS.
Hailing from Canada, ELECTRIC YOUTH’s collaboration with COLLEGE entitled ‘A Real Hero’ was included on ‘Drive – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack’ in 2011. Their debut album ‘Innerworld’ finally came out in Autumn 2014 and one of its highlights was another collaboration, this time with ROOM8 called ‘Without You’. The bridge and chorus are particularly tremendous. Now if this electronic ditty had come out thirty years ago, there is no doubt it would have ended up in a Brat Pack movie.
Available on the album ‘Innerworld’ via Last Gang Entertainment / Secretly Canadian
Pitch shifted to an almost asexual resonance, EMIKA delivered a wonderfully unique cover of one of Bowie’s best known tunes. The stabbing synth melody only vaguely sounds like it may have been derived from the original ‘Let’s Dance’. Indeed, this is more of a tribute with EMIKA herself describing it as “A new time-travel, gender twisting experiment in honour of one of my favourite artists…” – indeed, DURAN DURAN’s ‘Union Of The Snake’ sounds more obviously like a cover of ‘Let’s Dance’ than this does 😉
Available on the CD ‘David Bowie – Recovered’ free with Rolling Stone Germany – May 2014
The now New York based pop princess moved away from her Nashville roots for her first overtly pop album ‘1989’. Whereas tracks like ‘Blank Space’ and ‘Out Of The Woods’ merely flirted with synthpop in the mould of CHVRCHES, the appropriately titled deluxe bonus track ‘New Romantics’ almost went the full hog! In fact, if Miss Swift’s inherent Americanisms were not so apparent, this enticing number could easily be mistaken for the dreamy allure of Scandipodean twins SAY LOU LOU.
Available on the album ‘1989 – Deluxe edition’ via Big Machine Records
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Combining electronics and frenzied digital drums with live bass, ‘River In Me’ is the first single from TRENTEMØLLER’s upcoming fourth album ‘Fixion’, out in September. Vocals are provided by Jehnny Beth of the acclaimed indie band SAVAGES.
That should have confirmed TRENTEMØLLER’s credentials for working with DEPECHE MODE but alas, it is rumoured James Ford of SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO has got the job.
is still available via In My Room in CD, vinyl and download formats
captured Wendelbo’s Gallic charms in a manner than was Francoise Hardy rather than her usual Jane Birkin.
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