Reaching back to 1987, Sista Mannen på Jorden (SMPJ) made their first live appearance at Stadt Hamburg, an all-ages venue in Malmö, Sweden. The band started as a side project to Page, with Eddie Bengtsson working on science fiction-influenced spacetronica. Almost thirty years and many quality albums later later, SMPJ are making their UK debut on 19 April 2015 at A Secret Wish.
March 2015
It would be hard for an ezine called Cold War Night Life to let pass a film about the nightlife of West Berlin during the 1970s and 80s, particularly when it tells the story from the standpoint of Mancunian exile, Mark Reeder. Under the shadow of medium-range nuclear missiles and surrounded by tanks, West Berlin was an island of Western decadence in a sea of fake socialism; an outpost for the dollar and the mark which could neither expand nor contract. Few wanted to live there, but punks willing to squat in the walled city were able to survive on social assistance and by selling contraband. Some of them formed bands that exploded with energy. Some of them became addicts. Some did both. None of them slept normal hours.
Reeder found himself in the position of Factory Records’ sales representative for Germany, helping to promote Joy Division and A Certain Ratio. Circumstances also led him to co-manage Malaria! – the girl group that was all woman – and organise punk shows in East Berlin. He also made music in Die Unbekannten, which became Shark Vegas and toured with New Order. If you wanted to know anything about the creatures of Berlin’s night, Reeder was your contact – and you didn’t need Harry Palmer glasses to find him.
We’re excited about the trailer for B-Movie, a documentary of that time directed by Jörg A. Hoppe, Klaus Maeck und Heiko Lange. The tagline is “Lust & Sound in West Berlin, 1979-1989,” and it has a soundtrack that includes Malaria!, Neubauten, Tangerine Dream and Tödliche Doris. It is touring the festivals now.
B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West-Berlin (1979-1989) – Official Trailer from scenes from on Vimeo.
The Department first came to our attention with a clever video for the catchy track, “As If Transformed.” The Anglo-Swedish duo of Rob Green and Magnus Lindström have now put out their first album, Alpha, which offers two versions of that song and another eleven poptronica tracks in one package.
The Department’s 80s influences loom as large as the hairstyles of that period, and touches of Depeche Mode, A-Ha and Duran Duran can be detected in songs like “Don’t Give Up” and “Glass Houses.” Rather than being derivative, this stylised approach is a nod to the band’s roots, and their album successfully combines that sound and feel with a series of infectious original songs.
For a debut album, Alpha is a strong effort. There are great sounds crafted by Lindström, using his collection of old-school synths, while Green has developed an 80s style that owes much to the dark wave as to his professed influences, New Order and The Smiths.
Alpha can be found on Bandcamp.
Muricidae, the duo of John Fryer and Louise Fraser, has revealed its first EP, Tales from a Silent Ocean. Awash with atmosphere, the release is infused with the sophisticated style that Fryer conjured up for 4AD during his time as a member of This Mortal Coil and studio magician at Blackwing Studios.
The collection begins with “Away,” a flowing Siren-song in which Fraser’s vocals float like a breeze over waves of treated piano. Fans of This Mortal Coil and The Hope Blister will recognise the lineage of the immaculate production, while Fraser’s voice will exert its alluring action on all those whose hearts have been dashed on life’s rocks. It has a cinematic feel, like ocean spray shot in slow motion, and we’d be surprised if it didn’t end up in a David Lynch film.
There is a rawness to Muricidae’s sound, which is particularly exposed on “Real Slow.” Fryer’s guitars grind with a raunchiness that is sonic Tarantino: all ripped tights and interlocked fingers. Fraser’s vocals are confident and assertive. The effect is primal, free from gloss and inhibition.
"Real Slow" a Super 8 music video from FireTrial Films on Vimeo.
“Should I Stay” raises a doubt that The Clash also once sought to resolve, but here the question is posed internally. There is an English feel to the song, which lets it sit alongside Virginia Astley’s From Gardens Where We Feel Secure, but without the latter’s twee romanticism.
“Falling” begins with harsh rhythms and builds up into an elegant, soaring track with sparkling synthesized accents. Like the shells of the murex snails that give the duo its name, the sound is beautifully complex.
Another version of “Away” closes the set, bracketing it with added strings and underlining what Gilbert and Lewis told us so long ago: it ends with the sea.
Tales from a Silent Ocean is released on 1 April 2015.
Jean-Marc Lederman’s career in music has covered a lot of ground: from playing with Fad Gadget and The The to sound design for video games; from reinventing alternative dance music with The Weathermen to classy poptronica in Mari & The Ghost. The Brussels-based musician and composer has been part of the European music scene for more than three decades.
His latest project is a concept album that reaches beyond the edges of your virtual turntable. The music in The Last Broadcast on Earth crosses genres and decades, but it is only one part of a multimedia package. The album is accompanied by an computer game (also available as an app for Apple and Android) that brings together Lederman’s interests in sound design, gaming and pop music. The umbrella of The Jean-Marc Lederman Experience draws under it contributions from chanteuse Anna Domino, Jay Aston from Gene Loves Jezebel, Matt Johnson of The The, Tom Shear from 23 Assemblage, The Weathermen, Mari & The Ghost, Jacques Duvall and a host of other artists.
If you tune your dial to 99.5 FM, then in most American towns you will receive the signal of a station that plays “only the HITS!” with the last word always in capital letters. At the end of the world, the last broadcast is not a collection of Top 40 favourites but an eclectic mix of original songs and covers that reflect the styles of times past. Civilisation ends, not with a bang (or, as The Weathermen would put it, a “BANG!“), but with alt-ballads and well-paced poptronica, interrupted only by listener calls, in a Steampunk blend. To let Lederman set the scene:
A deserted country road at night. You’ve been driving for hours, headlamps on full beam flash-illuminating ghosts of sleeping trees. The radio plays desperate love songs, songs of hope, songs of despair, lost time and moments where you regret not reaching out to touch another. These songs are gifts wrapped in shiny sonic paper that you tear open with just your mind and your heart. The radio station wants you to cherish them, as you wind through the empty starlit landscape, wondering if this really could be the last night on Earth.
The Last Broadcast on Earth is not a hardline manifesto from The Weathermen but an organic, flowing set of songs that come together as a whole. The links that connect them include out-takes from a genre-crossing collection of films, spanning the distance between Aladdin and The Big Lebowski. The album is best listened to as a complete piece, as the grooves are etched with elegance.
The album is available now on iTunes and Amazon. The dedicated Web site, from which the accompanying game can be downloaded, is at www.jmlederman.com.
We are immense fans of Fad Gadget/Frank Tovey here at Cold War Night Life, so finding this treasure from 1982 is a source of great happiness. The clip is from the British TV series, Whatever You Want. The show starts with a nonmusical reference to “Lady Shave” and launches into “Coitus Interruptus” before moving onto tracks from his then-current album, Under the Flag.
Sweden’s Train to Spain were one of the very first bands to appear in Cold War Night Life. They were also first up on stage at our event, “An Evening with the Swedish Synth.” We like Jonas Rasmusson’s catchy, uptempo electronics. With great vocals from the Kylie-esque Helena Wigeborn, the band has enormous potential, so it’s fantastic to see them moving into video and raising the level of their production. There is an 80s thread running through “Keep on Running” that is brought out strongly here.
Thirty years ago this week, Psyche released their debut album, Insomnia Theatre. The record was significant on several grounds: it was one of the first North American dark electro recordings; it was made by a couple of Canadian teenagers, instead of by rich Europeans armed with Rick Wakeman-scale equipment; and it gave us some of the catchiest tunes in the genre. “The Brain Collapses” was the most immediately gripping track on the album, and it tells the story of singer Darrin Huss coming to terms with the aftermath of a party. Psyche relocated to Europe and went through some personnel changes, but are still bothering the bats and making great tunes.
Martin Gore has taken time out from Depeche Mode to release solo recordings before, as well as an album of techno made with Vince Clarke, but the emphasis has been on covers of classics from other genres. From Mute comes the news that an album called MG is on the way, loaded with 16 electronic instrumentals. The first taste is “Europa Hymn,” which loops pads luxuriously and might be said to follow the template of the House of Illustrious recordings of Vince Clarke and Martyn Ware. The full album is out on 17 April 2015, just in time for A Secret Wish.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]When John Fryer knocked on the doors of Blackwing Studios in South London, looking for a job, he didn’t know that he was walking onto history’s stage. On his first day of work, Daniel Miller was using the space to record covers of rock standards for his Silicon Teens project. As Miller found more artists for his Mute Records label, Blackwing became his go-to studio and Fryer graduated from engineer (usually alongside studio boss Eric Radcliffe) to producer. Look closely at the credits for Depeche Mode’s Speak & Spell and A Broken Frame, Fad Gadget’s first three albums or Yazoo’s Upstairs at Eric’s – Fryer’s name is there. He wrote and performed on the seminal Fad Gadget album, Under the Flag, and provided the definitive mixes for numerous Depeche Mode recordings.
4AD, another independent label that played a key role in shaping the styles of the 1980s, also found its way to Blackwing and Fryer. While often given assignments to produce artists like Cocteau Twins, Lush (to whom he introduced the magic of distortion) and Clan of Xymox, Fryer was also one of only two permanent members of the 4AD house project, This Mortal Coil, together with label founder Ivo Watts-Russell. They redefined the sound of late night listening, fusing romanticism and darkness in a way that made love and pain part of the same sonic palette. The Mortal Coil project drew in key figures from 4AD’s roster, recast and reimagined its own songs or cover versions, and could be said to have been the label’s heartbeat.
Fryer’s work attracted the attention of Trent Reznor, who picked him out for production work on Pretty Hate Machine, the album that launched Nine Inch Nails. Other artists followed, from Vancouver’s Moev (who spawned the Nettwerk label, home to Skinny Puppy and Sarah McLachlan) to Sweden’s Ashbury Heights, looking for a touch of the studio magic that had made Fryer’s previous work so successful.
Fryer hasn’t stopped producing, but these days he’s also involved with some musical projects of his own. In 2011, he released Noise in My Head, an album with vocalist Rebecca Coseboom, as Dark Drive Clinic, which included the contagious “Silhouette.” His new project, Silver Ghost Shimmer, a duo with Pinky Turzo, has released two videos with songs infused with ultra-retro stylings.
Muricidae, a collaboration with Louise Fraser, offers a tantalising refresh of the chorus-and-delay sound that made This Mortal Coil and The Hope Blister so intriguing. The visuals for Muricidae were developed by Roxx of San Francisco-based 2spirit Tattoo. The choice of a tattoo artist over a commercial artist reflects the maverick spirit that Fryer brings to his creative work.
He is also working with Chrysta Bell, who has previously collaborated with David Lynch. A recent series of shows by the Czech cult band, Vanessa, found Fryer rocking out on stage, as well.
John Fryer is presenting a rare DJ set, covering his work for Mute and 4AD, at the upcoming event, A Secret Wish (London, 19 April 2015).
10. Depeche Mode – Just Can’t Get Enough
Fryer worked on the first two Depeche Mode albums, together with Eric Radcliffe, and provided mixing support on several later releases. Speak & Spell was the record that made them a global force, propelled by Vince Clarke’s infectious pop songs and a distinctive sound that distinguished them from the po-faced stoicism of Ballard’s synthetic children, John Foxx and Gary Numan. One of his distinguished credits is for the second single from Speak & Spell, which has become an 80s icon in its own right.
9. Fad Gadget – Life on the Line
Fryer produced two albums for Fad Gadget. Under the Flag, which came out in 1982, refined the instrumentation to keyboards, drum machine and voices, creating an organic sound that tied together a string of classic songs, including “Love Parasite,” “For Whom the Bells Toll” and this track, which Fryer co-wrote with Frank Tovey.
8. Cocteau Twins – Sugar Hiccup
It’s not Fryer’s fault that Elizabeth Fraser sounds like she’s singing the line, “Sugar hiccup my Cheerios.” Her vocal style, while beautiful, can also be impenetrable. Apparently, the correct line is, “Suggar Hiccup, on she reels,” inspired by a racehorse of that name. In any event, the ethereal, misty guitar drones and soaring lead lines of Cocteau Twins owe a lot to Fryer’s studio craft.
7. He Said – Pump
The story is sometimes told that, among Wire’s members, Colin Newman was the conventional one balancing the uncommercial artistic experiments of Graham Lewis and Bruce Gilbert. That is a little too neat a description, which is probably based upon a comparison of Newman’s solo material to some of the Lewis-Gilbert releases as Dome, Kluba Kupol and P’o. The truth is that the three musicians are equally capable of recordings that fit pop structures, but they all resist conventions to different degrees at different times.
Of the group, Graham Lewis’ place along the continuum has most consistently been at the balancing point between beauty and obscurity. This single, released in 1986 as a He Said project, leans more to the former. With Angela Conway providing backing vocals (see AC Marias, below), “Pump” is a sophisticated but unpretentious pop track. Fryer’s studio work gives the song both warmth and room to breath.
6. Clan of Xymox – Stranger
Dark electro warriors Clan of Xymox were an important signing for 4AD, but it was through John Fryer’s remix work on two tracks – “A Day” and “Stranger” – in 1985 that the Dutch band found their way into the alternative dance clubs. Layered with sampled and processed choral lines and propelled by a rhythm track that is never tiring, “Stranger” is like “Blue Monday” for Goths.
As singer Ronny Moorings remembered for Unruhr, at the time of Xymox’s Best Of compilation:
The mixes were done in London’s Blackwing studios with John Fryer being a co-producer. These studios had already then a name for having bands like Depeche Mode and Erasure always recording their albums there. Nine Inch Nails even wanted to record with John Fryer after listening to our records!
5. Wire – Eardrum Buzz/Ahead
As a mixing engineer, Fryer has helped to shape the sound of many iconic records, from M/A/R/R/S’ “Pump Up the Volume” to Pete Murphy’s “Final Solution.” These two tracks show off Wire’s live sound and were released as part of a limited 12″ single to accompany “Eardrum Buzz” in 1989.
4. AC Marias – Just Talk
AC Marias was the short-lived project of Alison Conway, who recorded a single album for Mute, together with her then-boyfriend, Bruce Gilbert of Wire. The production credit for the album is given to a super-group of John Fryer, Paul Kendall, Gareth Jones and Bruce Gilbert. The roles aren’t elaborated, but Paul Kendall recalled to Wireviews:
One of my favorite records of all time. I was a bit sad that I didn’t get involved in the mixing process, but I think John Fryer did an absolutely marvelous job. The pecking order of involvement, if you discount Bruce, was Fryer, me and then Gareth Jones. I did a lot of recording and experimentation with the sound and Fryer just pulled the whole thing together. He also did all the vocal recording.
Gilbert was himself a significant influence on Fryer, and they worked on a number of iconic recordings together, including those of Dome and Duet Emmo. Fryer was also in the chair for the soundtrack commissioned from Gilbert by dancer Michael Clark, The Shivering Man.
Conway went on to focus on videography, making music videos for Mute and other artists, but she left behind a sterling sonic legacy of her own.
3. Muricidae – Away
With LA-based Louise Fraser on vocals, Fryer has refreshed the atmospherics of This Mortal Coil and The Hope Blister for a new project, Muricidae. Named after the rock snails that leave behind complex and attractive shells for interior designers to find, an EP is on the way in the spring. As this early release hints, there is more space(echo) to be explored.
2. Silver Ghost Shimmer – Soft Landing
The strength of Fryer’s own songwriting comes through clearly in another of his current projects, Silver Ghost Shimmer. Another California singer, Pinky Turzo, provides the vocals for SGS. “Soft Landing” was the first release for SGS, and it combines elements of The Shangri-Las with decayed glamour in a smudged-lipstick kind of way.
1. This Mortal Coil – Song to the Siren
Originally recorded by Tim Buckley, “Song to the Siren” in its This Mortal Coil incarnation is widely regarded as one of the most perfect pop songs ever released. Featuring Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins on vocals, the pain and poignancy of the original is lifted to serene heights in Fryer’s hands. It is immaculate iciness incarnate.