Oliver Jack and Tom Lenton are Delmer Darion. Their home-brewed project takes its name from a character in the movie, Magnolia, but the simmering bird-song, pads, horns and piano of this track owe something to Sigur Rós and Virginia Astley. The austere vocals of Emily Burns are a revelation. If this is what the youth of Britain are making, then there is still hope for a dubstep-free world.
coldwarnightlife
We’re still hoping that DAF’s Facebook page has been hacked by disgruntled former Sony employees, so that the message there is incorrect, but singer Gabi Delgado certainly thinks it is for real. This post appeared on the DAF page today:
In response, Delgado posted the following (translation by Google):
AMIGOS FRIENDS FRIENDS … for your information … the page “German American Friendship” is not run by the two of us … but only by robert … it probably is the announcement of a DAF screen resolution to see … I can not view the page … am here recently “blocked” … so I personally have me yesterday? … Suitable robert on nothing … yet it is true that our relation has long been very bad and we have been thinking about stopping a break or even over a … I was hoping this theme with robert discuss in amsterdam and to arrive at a common position … but now the screen resolution has robert communicated in a single action … and this is now a good thing !!! all booked and concerts are been announced as part of a “goodbye” tour to take place !!! shame anyway … made me great fun with YOU and DAF !!! THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING AMIGOS !!!
DAF have split and regrouped before, so our fingers are crossed.
Jennie Vee’s solo EP, Die Alone, caught our attention with its razor-sharp styling and contagious hooks. That sent us into the vaults to listen to Vee’s previous work in Canadian indie outfit, Tuuli, and The Vicious Guns. What we found was a vein of gold that we hadn’t mined before, covering ground from punk to poptronica. The treasure trail led us back to an inspired collection of songs that reflect influences from Galaxie 500 to The Ramones but are as thoughtful as they are dynamic. We caught up with Vee (as in Vicious) with some burning questions, in between listens to Die Alone.
What brought Tuuli together in a Toronto suburb and inspired you to perform together?
I had actually been living in England, writing and recording demos for about a two year period when I was a teenager, and those demos became the early Tuuli material. I mailed out my cassette tape demo to all of the UK music gurus and got replies from none other than John Peel and Alan McGee! That’s when it was confirmed that I was on to something. I’ve always had great confidence in my abilities as a songwriter: from the first song I wrote, I had a great penchant for melodic guitar work, hooks and structure, even though my young life up until that point had been awash in depression, anxiety and existential teen angst. I loved my time in England – both the Melody Maker and NME were still around, and growing up in a desolate mining town in Northern Ontario they were hard to get a hold of, so imagine my delight every week when I could run down to the shop and pick up copies in person every week. However, it proved very hard for me to find band members in England, despite the great response I was getting to my demo tape. That’s when I made the hard decision to move back home to Canada and assembled a stellar band with a few fellow misfits from up North – my mom was kind enough to house us in her suburban home for eighteen months as we practiced daily and plotted world domination.
What was the craziest thing that happened to you as part of Tuuli?
Tuuli lasted an incredible eight years and so many surreal things happened – from sharing the stage with Cheap Trick to Knox from The Vibrators joining us in London to perform “Baby, Baby.” I wrote the theme song for a Comedy Central series in the US, and we appeared in a Wall Street Journal commercial. Our first EP was released by one of my all time favourite cult labels, Sympathy for the Record Industry. When we signed a major label deal, five years after forming, we were still self-managed and acted as our own booking agent, as well. We also did two five-week tours of the UK, and I’ve seen many towns from Southampton to Scunthorpe – those tours were definitely the pinnacle of Tuuli.
Indie rock and punk were and are very male-dominated genres, but there is a long list of female groups who have made their own spaces: The Slits, The Runaways and Showen Knife come to mind. Do you find that there are additional obstacles for women who want to present their music to these audiences?
I shudder at these types of questions. How would I know what it’s like to be of a different gender in a band? What experience do I have to compare it to? Would men in a band get asked this question? All I can speak to is my individual experience navigating through life, relationships and the music industry. There are obstacles for everyone in life, regardless of gender.
Simon Price of The Independent once described The Vicious Guns as “Cindy Lauper meets Depeche Mode.” Presumably, this was a reference to 2010’s “Friends Aren’t Friends,” which brought synth and drum machines into the picture, but there was also a Vicious Guns remix of Erasure’s “I Lose Myself.” Was that a detour for you, or was there a current of electropop waiting to come out?
As a long time fan of the pioneers of electronica, my first demos were done with an old school Roland drum machine, despite the organic, raw, punk-rock nature of the guitars. New Order, Depeche Mode, Skinny Puppy, Ministry – I saw all of these bands live in my youth. Combined with my love of the layered guitar work of Echo & The Bunnymen and psychedelic noise of The Jesus & Mary Chain – as well as good, old-fashioned pop music a la Madonna and Michael Jackson – The Vicious Guns was a natural progression for me as a songwriter at the time. There are some politically-tinged lyrics on that record, as well, and several Manic Street Preachers references. I tend to include cleverly veiled homages in my music and sometimes very overt ones.
With your previous bands, the style was quite punk-inspired, but your solo work has more room to breathe and has more shoegaze precedents. Do you think that your songwriting is different in a solo context?
I’ve always been the main or sole songwriter in all of my projects, so this is just a natural progression and growth as a human, musician and writer. At different times in my life, different influences shine through stronger than others. In the beginning, the speed and fury of bands like The Buzzcocks and The Ramones were obvious reference points; then I delved into more of a Depeche-meets-Madonna-meets-the Manics vibe; and now I’ve arrived at a place where I stand firmly with all of my influences melting together. Technology has also played a part in my ever-evolving sound – I’ve sort of developed a soundscape for my new work with the use of specific guitar pedals and also plug-ins that have tied all the songs together sonically.
These days, record labels play less of a role in developing and breaking new artists. Do you find that releasing music independently gives you more freedom, or do you miss the support of the infrastructure that comes with a label?
I have to say that some of my biggest accomplishments, even going back to my first band, were done without the support of a big label or management, and I always had a very strong DIY ethic. When I started Tuuli, we had the age-old catch-22 dilemma of needing a press kit, but having no press we decided to forge our own and made a Tuuli “fanzine” filled with articles and reviews from other imaginary publications singing our praises – and we also threw in a few bad reviews! To keep it real! It was really only a brief period that we had a major label involved. Long Gone John from Sympathy (White Stripes, Hole, Rocket from The Crypt) was known for his “no deal” deals, and having him as an early mentor and supporter was a match made in rock-and-roll heaven.
After the warm reception for Die Alone, what are your plans? Will we see you in Europe again, soon?
Yes! I will be back in the UK and Europe in the late Spring. I have teamed up with my old friend Gary Powell from The Libertines, and his label, 25 Hour Convenience Store, will be releasing my record over there. I couldn’t be happier to be working with Gary!
You are also known for your work as a fashion designer. What are the things that inspire you, when dreaming up new ideas for Vicious Threads?
I tend to go in waves when it comes to focusing on which medium I choose to express myself with creatively. Sewing and designing has always been a part of my life: my grandfather was a Croatian immigrant to Canada and a master tailor, so I could sew as long as my foot could reach the pedal. When I first moved to NYC, I had just finished a job for 80s pop star, Tiffany, and was commissioned to create several pieces for Lady Gaga’s anti-bullying campaign as part of her “Monster’s Ball” tour. However, I tend to get single-minded and obsessed when I create, and, although I will always appreciate having the skill to pattern-make and execute garments, music is my heart and soul. I had to literally put the sewing machine in storage and get back to songwriting when I was getting overwhelmed with requests and jobs in fashion. I was depressed and crying over my machine and I just stopped. I had also been going through a lot personally with relationships with family, friends and my partner, and I felt like I was just going through the motions of life – and I was here in the Big Apple, surrounded by people and opportunities, and I was just stuck. That’s when I allowed myself to pick up my guitar again, and it became my most prolific period yet. Without getting too detailed, I now associate that period of my life as a super low, and writing this EP and album has been me clawing my way out of it.
Jennie Vee’s Die Alone is available now on Bandcamp.
Photos: Katrin Albert / Clothing: Courtney Love
Alt-electronics outfit Laibach are hitting the road soon for a Spring tour of Europe and North America. It kicks off on 13 February 2015, taking a path around Europe before crossing the Atlantic. With 2014’s Spectre album in their pocket, Laibach have announced not one but two new versions: the Spectre Digital Deluxe Album and Spectremix, a separate remix album, both come out on 30 March 2015 via Mute.
The Spectremix album comes with specimens by Diamond Version, iTurk, Torul, Konstantin Sibold and others. The Diamond Version edit of The Whistleblowers can be previewed here:
LAIBACH – WORLDWIDE TOUR DATES 2015
European Dates
13 Feb – Mannheim, Alte Seilerei – DE
14 Feb – Hamburg, Kampnagel / Krass Festival – DE
15 Feb – Bochum, Zeche – DE
12 March – Rostock, Mau Club – DE
13 March – Malmö, Moriska Paviljongen – SE
14 March – Stockholm, Debaser Medis – SE
16 March – Helsinki, Tavastia – FI
17 March – Talin, Rockcafe – EE
18 March – Tampere, Klubi – FI
22 March – Dresden, Beatpol – DE
24 March – Brno, Sono Centrum – CZ
25 March – Krakow, Fabryka – PL
26 March – Warsaw, Palladium – PL
27 March – Berlin, Astra / Out of Line Weekender – DE
28 March – Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle / E-tropolis Festival – DE
29 March – Breda, Mezz – NL
30 March – Brighton, Concorde 2 – UK
31 March – Glasgow, Classic Grand – UK
2 April – London, Electric Ballroom – UK
3 April – Manchester, Academy 2 – UK
4 April – Maastricht, Muziekgieterij – NL
5 April – Paris, Divan Du Monde – FR
8 April – Vienna, Arena – AT
9 April – Budapest, Barba Negra Music Club – HU
11 April – Munich, Residenztheater – DE (part of The Dark Ages production)
North American Dates
11 May – Washington DC, Black Cat – US
12 May – Philadelphia PA, Theatre Of The Living – US
13 May – New York NY, Irving Plaza, with Ministry – US
16 May – Toronto ON, Danforth Music Hall – CA
20 May – Chicago IL, Abbey Pub – US
23 May – Denver, CO, Summit Music Hall – US
26 May – Seattle WA, El Corazon – US
27 May – Vancouver BC, Rickshaw Theatre – CA
28 May – Portland OR, Wonder Ballroom – US
30 May – San Francisco CA, The Fillmore – US
1 June – Los Angeles CA, The Roxy Theatre – US
Mirrors took some stick for wearing their OMD influences on their sleeves, but few acts in recent times have managed to sound as magisterial as the Brighton-based outfit did on this track. Although it provided vital signs of hope for British indietronica, a second album was not to be before the band dissolved amidst the pressure to sound less like their heroes. It’s a shame, because OMD certainly didn’t mind.
With Tina Schnekenburger running their Conny Plank-produced backing tracks, the duo of Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft dominate the stage in this video from 1981. Robert Görl remains one of pop’s greatest drummers, marking time with the same martial precision on display here. Singer Gabi Delgado snarls and purrs in equal amounts, leaping between ends of the stage like a cat chasing a sunbeam. This is raw power, Iggy.
For completists, here is the 1979 version of the song, recorded before the Görl-Delgado split from the rest of the band:
Influenced by Italo disco and lethal live, Vision Talk were one of Sweden’s best-loved poptronica acts. Richard Flow, the singer, moved on to be the keyboardist in Machinista, while Krister Petersson started the SwedIT project with different singers (including Flow and his bandmate, John Lindqwister). Karin Hallberg joined Vanguard’s live show. When they were together, they knocked out this rather beautiful dance track, which got the remix treatment from John von Ahlen of Parralox.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Born in the suburb of South Woodford and raised in Basildon, Vince Clarke could have ended up as a cab driver or worked at Ford’s Essex plant, but instead he founded three of the world’s most successful pop groups: Depeche Mode, Yazoo and Erasure.
It was his charismatic, blue-eyed friend, Robert Marlow, who was expected to make it big amongst their Basildon contemporaries, but Simon & Garfunkel fan Clarke proved to be more adept at writing sparkly pop songs. He turned underemployment to his advantage during the early days of Depeche Mode, programming future hits into a sequencer on the sofa or practicing keyboard riffs with headphones on (to avoid annoying his mum).
Today, he lives and works in New York, surrounded by one of the world’s greatest collections of vintage synthesizers, and is revered as the musical genius behind more than three decades of chart-bothering electronic pop hits – from Depeche Mode’s “Dreaming of Me” in 1981 to the latest Erasure album, The Violet Flame.
Along the way, Clarke’s interests have broadened into ambient soundscapes, soundtracks and remixing work. In 2012, he released Ssss, an album of techno-driven instrumentals, with his former Depeche Mode bandmate, Martin Gore. The same year saw a 10 CD box set, The House of Illustrious, compiling more instrumental works – many of them designed for art galleries and dance companies – with Heaven 17’s Martyn Ware.
Having settled into the Erasure groove thirty years ago, it is almost forgotten how the ambitious but impatient Clarke left Depeche Mode just as they were on the cusp of world domination, or that his working relationship with Alison Moyet was so difficult that Yazoo’s second album was recorded in separate studio sessions. Of the latter experience, Clarke told an interviewer from Songfacts, “It was sad, but I don’t think we could have continued working together without probably strangling each other.”
A natural collaborator who likes to work alone; a synthesizer master who composes on acoustic instruments (guitar or piano) – Clarke is a man of contradictions, and some of his best work arguably has been generated by the tension between his pop instincts and the contrasting styles of his musical partners.
10. West India Company – Ave Maria
Blancmange was a duo that came to prominence about the same time as Depeche Mode. They became friendly with Clarke through supporting Depeche on their Speak & Spell tour. In the summer of 1984, Blancmange’s Stephen Luscombe put together this East-meets-West fusion track under the name, West India Company, with vocals being provided by the popular Bollywood singer, Asha Bhosle (who was later name-checked in a popular song by Cornershop). It was recorded at Splendid Studios, set up with Eric Radcliffe on the site of Blackwing Studios, where he worked following the break-up of Yazoo. Clarke set to work with his Fairlight CMI synthesizer, getting credit on the sleeve for “pyrotechnics.”
For the technically-minded, it will be of interest that, in the same year, Clarke showed off the capabilities of his Fairlight CMI for Electronic Soundmaker and Computer Music magazine. His presentation included samples of tablas recorded with percussionist Pandit Dinesh, who had contributed to West India Company’s recording.
9. Billy Ray Martin – Sweet Suburban Disco (Vince Clarke Mix)
Former S-Express and Electribe 101 vocalist, Billy Ray Martin, pulled in Clarke for a remix of her 2011 solo single, “Sweet Suburban Disco.” With Erasure, Clarke has perfected the adaptation of the disco template to contemporary danceable pop, so he would have been an apparent candidate for remixing duties. Less obvious was his match-up with Happy Mondays, for whom he provided one of the remixes of “Wrote for Luck” (the other coming from Paul Oakenfold) that signaled the transformation of Manchester indie into the Madchester rave scene. Clarke has been selective about his remixing assignments, but he almost always finds the sweet spot that infuses a great song with dancefloor magic.
8. Dome – To Speak
Dome was the experimental project of Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis, on hiatus from their roles in Wire. Their output features little by way of melody or traditional song structure, but Clarke appeared on their fourth album, Will You Speak This Word, as the operator of his rare and expensive Fairlight CMI synthesizer. The story goes that Clarke didn’t feel comfortable turning over his Fairlight CMI to Gilbert and Lewis, fearing it could be messed up by inexperienced operators, so he found himself on the album as a manipulator of sounds. This track also features the voice of his then-girlfriend, Deb, who was one of the prime movers behind the Depeche Mode and Yazoo Information Services.
7. Absolute – T.V. Glare
After the break-up of Yazoo, Clarke set up his own record label, Reset Records, together with the owner of Blackwing Studios, Eric Radcliffe. The artists released on Reset included Robert Marlow, Peter Hewson, Hardware and Absolute. Robert Marlow was the best-known of the Reset stable, but his Clarke-produced album, The Peter Pan Effect, didn’t see commercial release until 1999. Absolute’s effort is in a similar vein, and is interesting for the recognisable sounds and accents that were extracted from Clarke’s equipment.
6. Vince Clarke & Paul Quinn – One Day
“One Day” veered from Clarke’s usual formula. It was sung by Paul Quinn, the singer from Bourgie Bourgie, and incorporated a synthetic string sound that is a rare reminder of Clarke’s childhood violin training. The Cold War-influenced video featured the unlikely image of Clarke holding a semi-automatic rifle and manning a border post. The single just dented the Top 100 on its release in 1985, but its moody, brooding feeling has made it an enduring favourite for fans of Clarke’s music.
5. The Clarke & Ware Experiment – House of Illustrious (Extract Three)
In 1999, Clarke released Pretentious with Martyn Ware. A second collaboration appeared in 2001, Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle. In 2012, a box set of their joint work appeared, gathering both albums and adding to them no less than eight CDs of material accumulated from commissioned works. Clarke has described the early Human League albums, before Ware left to start Heaven 17, as key influences on him, which showed how electronic music didn’t have to be emotionally cold.
4. Erasure – Stop!
The project with which Clarke has been most closely associated for three decades, Erasure, was not initially a great success. Andy Bell, a women’s shoe salesman, auditioned for Clarke, producer Flood and Mute Records boss, Daniel Miller, after dozens of other singers had been rejected. Their first album together, Wonderland, made it into the lower rungs of the Top 100 in the UK, but the band’s first three singles failed to achieve the commercial success or reap the critical praise that Yazoo had won. Touring and refinement of their sound built up Erasure’s profile, and a string of chart-topping releases firmly established them as a world-class act.
The Crackers International EP came out in time for Christmas in 1988, sporting a sleeve inspired by a Soviet propaganda poster and led by a high energy track that has become a crowd favourite. With its bright, synthetic brass and seasonal bells, pulsing synths and layered vocals, it’s iconic Erasure.
3. The Assembly – Never Never
Clarke’s original plan for The Assembly was to record an album of songs with different vocalists – a concept that doesn’t sound dissimilar to the British Electric Foundation project of future collaborator, Martyn Ware. Together with Eric Radcliffe, Clarke worked out a scheme for the album, but they were reportedly defeated by the complex licensing and exclusivity practices of the recording industry. The only material to make it to release was 1983’s “Never Never,” which featured The Undertones’ vocalist, Feargal Sharkey, and the instrumental B-side, “Start Stop.”
2. Depeche Mode – Puppets
Everyone has their own view on Clarke’s work with Depeche Mode, which makes it difficult to pick out just one song. While “Just Can’t Get Enough” has become a mainstream classic, more experimental works from Clarke’s time with the band, like “Shout” and “Any Second Now,” have their own appeal. There are some who would argue that “Ice Machine” should have been the A-side of their first single, instead of “Dreaming of Me,” while debate continues whether the version of “Photographic” that appeared on the Some Bizarre compilation was better than the one on Speak & Spell. We selected “Puppets” because it captures the essence of the sound that Clarke designed for the band: simple, repetitive phrases building into elegant, interlocking sections, allowing room for Dave Gahan’s vocals to breathe. They took a different direction when he left, leaving fans to dream of what might have happened if he had stayed.
1. Yazoo – Softly Over
Given the fractious relationship between Clarke and Alison Moyet during the recording of You and Me Both, one might think that there is a reference to their working arrangements behind the opening line: “It’s over, there’s nothing more to say.” Actually, this song is a sweet story of love passing beyond reach, in which the warmth of the electronics contrasts with Moyet’s pained, blues-tinged vocals – just the combination that made an ex-punk and a Simon & Garfunkel fan such a potent combination.
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Lustans Lakejer [EN: Lackeys of Lust] was one of Sweden’s first – and remains one of its greatest – new wave bands. Formed in 1978, the band achieved success with their first single, “Diamanter är en flickas bästa vän” [EN: “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend”], twice: originally, in a punk-pop vein, and in 1982 with a more refined style, which saw them taking up position as a Swedish Duran Duran or Ultravox. Led by vocalist Johan Kinde, LL continue to charm their way across the country’s stages. This video is from a performance on Swedish television.
Dan Söderqvist is well-known as one-half of the electronic group Twice a Man, but he began his musical career in 1969 as a guitarist with Älgarnas trädgård, a progressive rock band. The experimental tradition that he grew up with, artistically, is evident in his first solo album, A Defence of Poetry: there are no spoken words, but the title references an essay by Shelley, in which the importance of sound to poets is emphasised.
Gathered in this album are six tracks, of which five are original compositions dated between 1989 and 2013. Despite their diverse inspirations and backgrounds, there is a definite unity between the instrumental songs. They are held together by the human voice, which is emulated in its collective, choral form to make sounds but not words, and naturalistic references that give each track a feeling of place or time.
“The Cherry Orchard” is a piano-based piece that sits neatly between the processed sound of Harold Budd and the naturalistic work of Virginia Astley, but it has dimensions of its own. Söderqvist explains in the notes that:
The last play by Chekhov has always inspired my mind. Among all Russian literature that I fancied in my youth it stood out as the essence of nostalgic sentiments. I have not yet had the honour to work with the play in whole. As an example i wanted to make a fragmented version. Reading it through i found the character of Ljubov, the mistress of the house so intriguing, that I decided to make a piece with some of her lines from the play. The atmosphere of lost childhood, the beauty of her garden, now in jeopardy of the axe, evokes memories of her life, of lost dreams… It`s melancholic, a feeling I love and know perhaps too well.
“November, You Humming Mist” begins with an Asian percussion style, before synthetic strings waft in, coming in layers like cool air blowing through bamboo. Harsher organ sounds emerge from the fog, rising and falling, before giving way to wind chimes and a fragile tranquility.
Tension returns with “Nacht,” which is built around the spine of a looped string hit and gradually becomes more rhythmically complex before dissolving into choral sounds. Night is followed by “Morgen,” which makes use of processed found sound and draws the choral material more prominently into the mix. These tracks are companion works, composed following the death of Söderqvist’s mother, but they work organically as a preparatory stage for the samples and synthetic strings of “After Life You Will Hear Voices of Your Childhood”, which was commissioned for a dance performance in Gothenburg. As a reference point, “After Life…” has some echoes of Pierre Perret’s legendary cassette, Gaia, la Terre, but it is distinctively in Söderqvist’s style.
The album closes with “Heilige Dankgesang,” in which all earlier traces of brooding and anxiety are expurgated. Like movements of a symphony, each track has its place on the arc of the album, and Beethoven’s song of thanksgiving is imbued with pastoral calm. The album doesn’t just end; it comes to rest in a place that T.S. Eliot famously described as “the fruit of reconciliation and relief after immense suffering.”