Features

Shine On: Rico Conning

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

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Rico Conning has written for the French icon, Francoise Hardy, and recorded Dusty Springfield, but don’t mistake him for an aging contemporary of Phil Spector.

Conning started out with a guitar, a trombone and a dream in 1970s London. That brought him into the storied space of Blackwing Studios, where his band, The Lines, once showed up as Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet were recording “Only You.” Like Yazoo, The Lines put out two albums with the help of Eric Radcliffe and John Fryer before coming to a conclusion. Inspired by the experience, Conning moved into studio work, quickly developing a reputation for his technical skills and musical ear.

In his new role, Conning went from living in a London squat to working in legendary studios for the Mute and Guerilla labels. He took Depeche Mode and Erasure to the American dancefloor with his 12″ remixes, which drew in the DJs and kids dressed in black. At the same time, he made mixes for Sting, Bill Laswell’s Material, Pankow and Coil, while recording Pere Ubu, Wire and Renegade Soundwave.

As a member of William Orbit’s inner circle, he was closely involved in several of Orbit’s solo albums and key parts of the Guerilla Studio output. Together with Orbit and Laurie Mayer (whose solo album he produced), Conning was a member of Torch Song. As that project faded, he revisited the lost third album of The Lines, which he restored from his base in California. His own solo album, Frogmore, came out in 2017.

10. The Lines – White Night

Written by Conning for his post-punk band, The Lines, “White Night” has a storied history. Conning, himself, explains the origins:

A severe bout of ‘flu had me bedridden and feverish to the point of hallucination. A spiral-shaped riff revolved in my throbbing cranium, with a simple 4-note motif threading through. A somewhat wafting melody, which crucially went up as the riff went down, had me realizing, as I awoke from the fever, that I had something quite good.

The Lines didn’t achieve major success in London, but they left their mark: “White Night” went on to be covered by Torch Song and Brix Smith’s Adult Net. Dubstar’s Sarah Blackwood recorded a version with William Orbit, but Laurie Mayer ended up singing on Torch Song’s version – as featured in The Texan Chainsaw Massacre 2.

The Lines released their third album, hull down, in 2016.

9. Test Department – Faces of Freedom 3

Test Department occupied Guerilla to record their album, The Unacceptable Face of Freedom, in 1985. South London’s original left-wing metal-bashers asked Conning to remix the track, “Fuckhead,” which then appeared (uncredited) on a single release under “Faces of Freedom 3.”

Conning and Test Department worked together again for their 1987 album, Terra Firma, which involved a lot of strong Belgian beer and a piano.

8. Depeche Mode – Strangelove (Blind Mix)

Conning created three iconic mixes for Depeche Mode. The Black Tulip Mix of “Black Celebration” emphasised the majesty of the original track. The New Town Mix of “A Question of Time” came next, rattling club speakers with rhythms, gentle moans and detuned leads. It set a high bar for remix work but was topped a year later by Conning’s rework of “Strangelove.”

The Blind Mix appeared on the limited edition 12″ version – scooped up by Sire for the US release – and it turned the boys from Basildon into a funky, slick dancefloor spectacle. At the time, Gore’s songwriting was at its peak, Gahan’s vocals were unfazed by drugs, and Alan Wilder’s arrangements were magic. Conning worked alongside Daniel Miller for this mix, which decluttered the original and lifted an already excellent song to another level.

7. Martin Gore – In a Manner of Speaking

When Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore came up with the idea of making an EP of cover tunes, he asked Conning to produce it.

Gore’s selection included a track by Winston Tong, the Tuxedomoon collaborator. Coincidentally, Conning had worked with Tong on his single, “Theoretical China,” which included a super-group of session musicians: Jah Wobble (PiL); Alan Rankine (The Associates); Stephen Morris (New Order, The Other Two); and Dave Formula (Magazine, Visage).

Gore’s version was considerably simpler: a bare vocal and a couple of synth patches were all that were needed to rival the original.

6. Wire – Eardrum Buzz

The mighty Wire were one of the assignments that Mute gave to Conning. The job was a dream come true for Conning, who had been heavily inspired by the work of Graham Lewis and Bruce Gilbert in their Dome side project.

“Eardrum Buzz” was the lead single from IBTABA. Conning took it away, polished it to a sparkling shine, and returned a bright pop track aimed at the charts. It narrowly missed its target, but it hasn’t been tarnished by time.

5. Frank Tovey – The Brotherhood

When he moved on from his Fad Gadget persona, Frank Tovey started making music for the people, rather than popular music. Conning was signed up to co-produce Tovey’s most overtly socialist album, Civilian, which – perhaps in a backlash against the commercial intentions and production polish of the first Tovey album, Snakes and Ladders – saw the synths and computers traded for guitars and drums.

4. Front 242 – Gripped by Fear

Belgium’s finest export, after beer and chocolate, Front 242 turned to Conning for a remix of “Gripped by Fear.” The version he turned in was a dance track influenced by the au current house sounds of Guerilla Records.

3. Swans – New Mind

Conning turned up just as Swans were about to change state. Michael Gira had recruited the singer Jarboe to join the act, and it transformed the band’s sound. The album they made with Conning, Children of God, showed a turn towards gothic rock, as evidenced by the single, “New Mind.”

2. Laibach – Opus Dei

Conning travelled to socialist Slovenia to record Laibach, carrying equipment and banknotes. The band surprised him by shifting direction from their earlier work, going for a cover of Opus’ “Live Is Life,” in English and German. Confounding expectations is what Laibach do best, and recasting a trite German pop song as a military march in the shadow of the mountains where Tito’s partisans fought could hardly have been obvious.

1. S’Express – Mantra for a State of Mind

Conning’s work at Guerilla kept him in the swim of the London club sound, and he was part of the team working on Mark Moore’s epic, “Mantra for a State of Mind.” It narrowly missed the top 20, but how many 11′ 33″ dance tracks can you name that reached higher?

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Shine On: Youth

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

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Youth with Dubstar (Photo: Sarah Blackwood)

The producer known as Youth has touched many projects since his days as the original bass player in Killing Joke. You can find his credits on records by Pink Floyd, Crowded House, U2, Paul McCartney, Kate Bush, Stereo MCs, Bananarama, Nash the Slash, and Alien Sex Fiend. The record labels he ran put out pioneering material by The Orb and System 7. From his base in Wandsworth, the man born Martin Glover ties together stadium bands and club acts with an ear for arrangement and a taste for the herb.

It was his love for reggae that earned him his nickname. In the times of punk, he was called “Pig Youth,” which was itself a play on the name of “Big Youth,” after the Jamaican DJ. Reggae was one of the influences he brought to his work as a bassist, and it looms large in many of his productions.

Other influences include krautrock and world music, and samples of tribal chants and rhythms feature in a number of his remixes. It all fits with his image as a hippy with a copy of Logic, working in his shed surrounded by smoke. There is more to the story, though: this is a man who encouraged psychedelic trance, industrial dub techno and ambient house while crafting commercial hits for the biggest names in show business – a shaman in touch with the charts.

10. Killing Joke – Turn to Red

The first Killing Joke release came in the closing days of the 1970s, and it turned the decade on its head. With a throbbing bass line and dub influences in pole position, “Turn to Red” was a million miles from the atavism of punk, idealism of hippy folk and superficiality of disco. Like Bristol’s Pop Group, Killing Joke used funkiness to subvert existing arrangements – musical and political. Youth’s bass stands out with a deep groove that parallels Jah Wobble’s work with PiL.

9. Brilliant – Love is War

This song isn’t actually all that brilliant, but after Youth left Killing Joke he ended up founding a commercial act, aiming for chart success. Produced by Stock, Aitken and Waterman, Brilliant brought together several key figures in the dance music scene that was to emerge in the UK: Jimmy Cauty, later of the KLF; Ben Watkins, who went on to found Juno Reactor; June Montana, who stuck around to sing in Disco 2000 with Cressida Cauty; and A&R man Bill Drummond, the second essential figure in the KLF.

This video also features the Ford that became the KLF’s signature accessory.

8. The Orb – Little Fluffy Clouds

The inner circle of alternative music that Youth travelled in included Alex Paterson, a former Killing Joke roadie, who founded The Orb with Jimmy Cauty as a DJ act. Paterson and Youth were childhood friends and Battersea flatmates, and The Orb’s activity drew in Youth as a collaborator on many different levels. The peak of his work with Paterson came with the release of “Little Fluffy Clouds,” which combined samples of Ricky Lee Jones and Steve Reich over a compelling beat.

Paterson’s combination of ambient music and psychedelic sounds landed him a gig at Paul Oakenfold’s club night, “The Land of Oz,” based in Heaven. This was a hugely influential environment, which led directly to the formation of Steve Hillage’s System 7 act, with which Youth and Paterson both collaborated.

7. The Shamen – Boss Drum

After their transition from a psychedelic rock outfit to a Scottish rave machine, The Shamen brought in Youth to remix the title track from their 1992 top ten album, Boss Drum.

The fusion of world music samples, sequenced keyboards and rap is typical of the acid house era, and in a big room it’s not nearly as crusty as it sounds.

6. Portion Control – Go Talk

The best band ever to emerge from a London cooking school, Portion Control are pioneers in the field of hard electronics. Youth masterminded this single for Illuminated Records.

5. Yazoo – Situation (Aggressive Attitude Mix)

The flip side of “Only You” was a hit in its own right. In 1990, Mute released a set of remixes, including this effort by Youth.

The “Aggressive Attitude Mix” borrowed from rhythms from electro and hip hop, added processing to the backing vocals, and reimagined the bass line for the times.

4. Erasure – Chorus

The natural development for Youth was to undertake a mix for Erasure, which he labelled the “Aggressive Trance Mix.”

3. The Verve – Bittersweet Symphony

Youth produced The Verve’s biggest track – and disaster. Using an orchestral loop from an obscure Rolling Stones track, the band reached number 2 in the UK charts and had a worldwide hit, but they were ultimately stripped of their royalties and credits.

The problem was that the Rolling Stones’ former manager, Allan Klein, had a claim to the source material. The Verve’s record had been released without clearance from Klein, so they faced the risk of their album being withdrawn from the shops.

The lesson is: be very careful when sampling major artists. Ironically, this was a path that Youth’s mates in the KLF had already trodden when they released 1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?) as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu and drew the ire of ABBA.

2. Dubstar – Locked Inside

Dubstar’s vocalist, Sarah Blackwood, worked with Youth in her days with Client. He was recalled for Dubstar’s recent album, One, which included this unofficial anthem of the UK lockdown.

Blackwood recalls of the band’s time working with Youth at his studio:

He’s ace, Youth. He has the most amazing work ethic. His home is a hive of creativity – there is some sort of artistic discipline going on in just about every room, from writing to painting in his shed. He’ll let you find your groove then drop by, make suggestions, give direction and move on to the next room, the next project, so he always stays fresh and creatively energised. I’ve made cups of tea for many a post-punk legend and been privileged to have met lovely, fascinating people there.

1. System 7 – 7:7 Expansion

The techno and psychedelic trance project of Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy, System 7 emerged at the same time as The Orb. The former members of Gong were drawn into the dance music scene after hearing Alex Paterson playing some of Hillage’s solo material at a club in London.

It wasn’t a complete reach, as fans of Hillage’s solo material and production work with Simple Minds and Nash the Slash will attest. The psychedelic, trance-inducing guitar work was always there – it just needed some stronger beats to carry the effect to the dance floor.

For the second System 7 album, Youth co-wrote and produced this track, which combined world music samples with Hillage’s other-worldly guitar and Giraudy’s keyboards to excellent effect.

Cover image: Youth (Photo: Tuomas Vitikainen) under a CC licence.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Shine On: Adrian Sherwood

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Adrian Sherwood launched his On-U Sound label in 1979, but he was already a fixture on the London roots and dub scene. Selling imported dub plates from his van across the city, a teenaged Sherwood had absorbed the transplanted sounds of the Caribbean with the air he breathed. Living in a Battersea squat with Neneh Cherry and Ari Upp, he was also close to the city’s post-punk explosion.

It didn’t take long for Sherwood to start putting out music himself. He soon learned to play with the studio controls in the spirit of dub pioneers like Lee “Scratch” Perry. Tearing sounds apart and reconstructing them through radical combinations of delays and distortion became the On-U Sound signature.

Sherwood’s ability to drive beats for projects like Dub Syndicate and New Age Steppers, while maintaining hypnotic grooves, brought him to the attention of electronic and industrial artists like Cabaret Voltaire, Skinny Puppy and Depeche Mode. Ministry’s Al Jourgensen used him to make the Twitch album, “borrowing” Sherwood’s studio techniques for later use in Ministry and Revolting Cocks.

Surrounded by talent from the roots and dub scenes, Sherwood took on industrial remix projects but also put out music with incredible sensitivity. The ultimate combination of these strands came on Mark Stewart’s “Stranger than Love,” which combined Erik Satie’s piano exercises with Bristol’s most powerful voice. It was proof positive that, in a master’s hands, the most delicate emotions can still be found in the red zone of the VU meter.

10. Bim Sherman – Slummy Ghetto

A key part of the On-U Sound ensemble, Bim Sherman was an uncompromising talent. He recorded solo, as well as with Dub Syndicate, New Age Steppers and Singers & Players – On-U projects that drew from the collective of artists surrounding Sherwood.

This take shows the mainstream version of Sherwood’s production work. In his hands, the material is classy but subversive.

9. Robert Wyatt – Biko

The British communist activist and composer, Robert Wyatt, engaged Sherwood to shape his cover of Peter Gabriel’s tribute to the South African anti-apartheid leader, Steve Biko. Recorded in London’s legendary Blackwing Studios, with John Fryer engineering, the track still raises goose-bumps with its haunting and spacious mix.

8. Cabaret Voltaire – Here To Go (Live Drum Jacknife Mix)

Cabaret Voltaire had already found their way to the alternative dancefloor when they recorded Code. Years of listening to James Brown in Sheffield had influenced the industrial pioneers; but, as this single showed, they were just as moved by Brion Gysin’s art and writing.

Sherwood was brought in for the production of part of the album, but he took the tapes apart for this remix.

7. Skinny Puppy – Deep Down Trauma Hounds (Remix)

Canada’s dark electro pioneers called on Sherwood for the 1987 release of “Addiction,” which featured this version of “Deep Down Trauma Hounds” on the flip side.

6. Depeche Mode – Master and Servant (An On-U Sound Science Fiction Dancehall Classic)

Many Depeche Mode fans were mystified by the limited edition remixes that Mute released with Sherwood at the controls. Stripped back melodically (and given what sounds like a thorough going-over with Keith LeBlanc’s drums), the retooling of “Master and Servant” and “People Are People” was unexpected and – for the less forgiving – unwelcome.

Today, the remix of “Master and Servant” isn’t as jarring. Sherwood’s signature is still engraved in the rhythm – carved by hammer and chisel across the master tapes – but the world has caught up to the idea.

5. Dub Syndicate – Wadada (Means Love)

Of Sherwood’s many projects, his collaboration with “Style” Scott as Dub Syndicate was the most successful. Infused with the possibility of space travel in the mind, and hidden in a cloud of sweet-scented smoke, it represented the avant-garde end of the roots spectrum.

Scott was murdered in Jamaica, which brought this project to an end. Its legacy is an incomparable body of reggae with experimental flair.

4. Mark Stewart – Hypnotized

The dissolution of The Pop Group freed singer Mark Stewart to mix his love of noise, funk and reggae together in a flammable cocktail.

“Hypnotized” is a savage cut-up of beats, breaks and scratches that completely dismantles conventional song structures.

Sherwood worked with Stewart to mangle tapes, splice beats and throw faders, created the most subversive 12″ single of all time. People still quote the statistics cited in the song.

3. Ministry – The Angel

Al Jourgensen claims to dislike Twitch, but Ministry’s last album before they let metal in was an alternative dancefloor classic. With tracks like “Over the Shoulder” pummelling clubbers like a backhoe shattering asphalt, it set a new bar for hard beats.

Jourgensen managed to sound menacing throughout, and nowhere more than on this track. When he returned to Chicago, he took samples of Keith LeBlanc’s drum sounds with him, fuelling the Wax Trax sound for years to come.

2. Einstürzende Neubauten – Yü Gung

German metal-bashers, Einstürzende Neubauten, recorded “Yü Gung” with Gareth Jones at Hansa in Berlin before Adrian Sherwood was let loose on the tapes. Blixa Bargeld screams “Feed my ego!” with the intensity of a drug-addicted chemistry grad starved of narcissistic supply – which is fitting, as the song was inspired by the chopping and snorting of methamphetamine.

1. Tackhead – Mind at the End of the Tether

In 1984, Sherwood was in New York on a studio assignment when he met up with Keith LeBlanc, the drummer in the Sugar Hill Records house band. Within short order, LeBlanc was in London with two other members of the band, Doug Wimbish and Skip McDonald, making magic with Sherwood as Fats Comet.

Wimbish – who went on to play with Living Colour and the Rolling Stones – suggested using the name, Tackhead – New York slang for a homeboy – for the group’s less commercial work.

For this powerful 12″, LeBlanc’s beats create a furious racket, while a voice laments the decline and fall of civilisation. Citing H.G. Wells, the narrator asks, “Is there a way out?” The only way is across the dancefloor.

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Karin Park in the Church of Imagination

by Krichan Wihlborg
written by Krichan Wihlborg

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]I am sitting in the car for a trip to Karin Park in Dalarna.

I come to the small village where she lives and see a beautiful wooden building that used to be a church. I am received by Karin and her daughter, who welcome me in.

Once inside the nave of the church, you see a lot of instruments – and, of course, the church organ – but the magical room with synths, from the 70s until today, is found up a staircase.

Karin goes to change, and I stand in a room with a fantastic light – a pure dream for a photographer. It strikes me that, in this room, you can create incredible music and such possibilities.

Karin grew up in the village, but for several years she managed to log time in some big cities and countries before returning here with her husband, who is also a musician from Norway.

Karin recently released a new album, Church of Imagination; and on it, as usual, you will hear Karin’s most beautiful singing voice and well-composed music.

If you have missed her music, go listen and buy her records.

Today, we need to support our artists when they can’t play live (and this applies to all other artists too)!

Why did I visit Karin in her church?

As many of you know, I photograph. I wanted to photograph Karin Park in her home environment off-stage. At the same time, I want to help her reach more people with her music. Since she has an incredibly good singing voice, I want her to continue as an artist after this historical year. So, if you like electronic pop music, you should really give her an opportunity.

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The Top 19 of 2019

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]It has been forty years since a heady moment when disco, new wave and DIY post-punk overlapped in the charts. In 1979, you could choose from Joy Division’s “Transmission,” XTC’s “Making Plans for Nigel,” and Blondie’s “Heart of Glass.” The singles section in Woolworths found rockers, punk stragglers and assorted trendies pressed shoulder-to-shoulder in the hunt for the latest cool release.

Fast forward four decades and plastic singles have been replaced by digital streams. The mobile phone has replaced the jukebox. Musical tribes are smaller and less distinct. The NME is dead, and people are just as likely to stay in and watch ASMR videos on YouTube as dance to the latest underground hit. The power of music might have become just as diffused, had there not been a steady flow of work from reliable artists.

This year’s chart is dominated by veterans who have proved their capacity for brilliant and emotive music. Several were part of the alternative sound of 1979, and others have been brought up in the spirit of those times. Their youthful rebellion has become mature reflection, but no one can accuse Wire or Page of having cashed in. They haven’t sold out or sold up, and no price can be put on their integrity or talent.

They are joined by a new wave of independent artists, including Rein, Karin My, Pieces of Juno and Lau Nau. These are songwriters and producers operating outside of the mainstream music industry while subverting its conventions. Unlike the DIY artists of 1979, they have access to means of production and distribution that rival those enjoyed by their commercial counterparts. In the virtual Woolworths singles section, their material stands out strongly.

STUMM43319. VARIOUS ARTISTS – STUMM433

A very neat conceit, STUMM433 is the name of a compilation and its sequential number in Mute‘s album catalogue.

The story goes that Simon Fisher Turner observed that Mute were approaching the catalogue number 433. He suggested to Daniel Miller that Mute Artists should celebrate the acts on the label with versions of John Cage’s notorious composition, 4′ 33″.

As conceived by Cage, the musicians are meant to prepare to play and then put aside their instruments for four minutes and thirty-three seconds. The discomfort of the audience and the sounds of the concert venue are the performance.

So, how does it work as a series of field recordings? Results may vary, as the disclaimer goes, but there are delicate and surprising versions included courtesy of a staggering list of artists. The line-up includes: A Certain Ratio, A.C. Marias, ADULT., The Afghan Whigs, Alexander Balanescu, Barry Adamson, Ben Frost, Bruce Gilbert, Cabaret Voltaire, Carter Tutti Void, Chris Carter, Chris Liebing, Cold Specks, Daniel Blumberg, Depeche Mode, Duet Emmo, Echoboy, Einstürzende Neubauten, Erasure, Fad Gadget (tribute), Goldfrapp, He Said, Irmin Schmidt, Josh T. Pearson, K Á R Y Y N, Komputer, Laibach, Land Observations, Lee Ranaldo, Liars, Looper, Lost Under Heaven, Maps, Mark Stewart, Mick Harvey, Miranda Sex Garden, Modey Lemon, Moby, Mountaineers, New Order, Nitzer Ebb, NON, Nonpareils, The Normal, onDeadWaves, Phew, Pink Grease, Pole, Polly Scattergood, Renegade Soundwave, Richard Hawley, Richie Hawtin, ShadowParty, Silicon Teens, Simon Fisher Turner, Michael Gira, The Warlocks, Wire, and Yann Tiersen.

STUMM433 is also the most tenderly packaged release of the year. In a translucent Perspex box are four records, a set of candles with the scent of silence (a riff on Simon & Garfunkel?), and a certificate signed by Mute Artists’ supremo, Daniel Miller. Miller appears in no less than three guises on the compilation: as Silicon Teens, The Normal and part of the trio, Duet Emmo.

Fans expecting a new Nitzer Ebb EBM track will be disappointed, but those with an open mind will find plenty to enjoy. It is a lot of 4’33″ to take in during one sitting, so best enjoyed rationed out in what Chris Carter once referred to as the space between. STUMM433 is a year’s worth of Sunday night experimentation in one package.

18. THE HIDDEN MAN – Desert Place

It is a complete mystery who The Hidden Man is. It is no secret, however, that this cover of the 1981 underground hit, “Desert Place,” was one of the best surprises of the year.

As we said when it came out:

Originally released by The Twins in 1981, it is a slick, more energetic version in the hands of the mysterious Swede behind the mask and vocoder. It has more hooks than a butcher’s shop and adds hi-NRG gloss for a perfect shine.

17. COVENANT – Fieldworks Exkursion EP

The experimental angle was in full display in 2019. Besides STUMM433, the biggest name in Swedish dark wave also felt the lure of the laboratory.

Released as a German tour exclusive, the Exkursion EP was billed as the first release of an upcoming cycle of records on Covenant’s Fieldworks theme. Each member of the group contributed one song, based on field recordings from their travels, blended with found sound.

The band explained:

It’s an angry reflection of the interesting times we live in and we use field recordings as a medium and vessel to challenge our perception of media, manipulation and agendas kept hidden from us. The “Fieldworks: Exkursion EP” also revolves around spirituality, taking cues from old texts such as the Mayan creation myth Popol Vuh, ancient temples like the Pantheon in Rome and lingers on the beauty that is life itself.

The strength of the material comes from its sensitivity towards the sources and the diversity of approaches taken by the group. As usual for Covenant, it is more thoughtful than the average EBM head-banger and more textured than the typical pop song. You can’t dance to it, but you will have fun trying.

16. RATIONAL YOUTH – Cold War Night Life [Reissue of the Year]

When it was first released in 1982, Cold War Night Life was a unique, original album. It easily stood up with John Foxx’s Metamatic and Depeche Mode’s Speak & Spell as a genre-defining release. Uniquely, it came from North America. The US artists who used synthesisers were quirky, like Devo or Our Daughter’s Wedding, but in Montreal things turned out differently when a record store clerk and his studious friend came together over a shared love of electronics.

Rational Youth were the love child of Kraftwerk and YMO, raised in the claustrophobic atmosphere of the Cold War. Far from Europe, but in the most European of North American cities, Tracy Howe and Bill Vorn learned to sequence modular and keyboard synths under the threat of an endless nuclear winter.

The tone of Cold War Night Life reflected those pressures, but also the determined spirit of youthful resistance. They sang about kids in Poland dating under martial law, Germans dancing on the Berlin Wall, Trotsky getting assassinated, and planes that flew into eternity; and they did it with funky bass lines and drum machines linked with electrical pulses. They sound they made was novel and compelling, but it wasn’t exactly as they imagined it.

A reissue by Universal provided the opportunity to play with the mastering. The new, deluxe version of Cold War Night Life that came out this year not only served as a reminder of Howe’s capacity for melody; it was also the first to sound the way the artists intended.

15. JEAN-MARC LEDERMAN EXPERIENCE – 13 Ghost Stories

Belgium’s Jean-Marc Lederman (Fad Gadget band, The Weathermen, Kid Montana) reached out to singers he respected from around the world and asked them the same question: “You can come back to earth for ONE day, as a ghost. What do you do?”

As with previous Jean-Marc Lederman Experience projects, the instrumentation he provided to the vocalists was classy and varied. The vocals they returned to him were personal and cleverly constructed. The contributors to this project include Christer Hermodsson, Louise Fraser, Stefan Netschio, Juliette Bossé, Jenna Fearon, Agi Taralas, Elena Alice Fossi, Yvette Winkler, Mark Hockings, Natasha A Twentyone, Alice Gift, Christa Jerôme, Rascal Hueppe, Julianne Regan, Darrin Huss, Rexx Arkana, JP Aston, Nicola Testa and Louise Love.

As one might expect with such a diverse set of singers, themes and styles are varied. They have their own ways of haunting the world.

14. PIECES OF JUNO – Metanoia

Norway’s best songwriter at the moment, Juno Jensen, produced the next instalment in her “coloured wig” series this year. Named for the Greek term for changing one’s mind, Metanoia is a showcase for the elegance of Jensen’s songwriting and vocalisation.

As we noted in our review:

The album opens with the question, “Is this a dream?” The ethereal piano behind Jensen’s voice on “Fortuna” draws you into into an endless space where everything is vapour, so perhaps it is.

The wash of the sea enters the frame on “Ocean Floor,” with Jensen’s emeraldine vocals dancing like blades of kombu on waves of reverb. On this album, she has collaborated again with Freddie Holm, who brought in the multi-instrumentalist Bebe Risenfors to add wind and brass to the sonic palette.

“Strawberry” and “Bluebell” have Jensen singing with a purr that will trigger the ASMR sensitive listener. Her style could be lifted from a cocktail lounge at the edge of imagination, combining an intensity of purpose and breadth of expression that is unique in our playlist.

13. KARIN MY – Time to Go/Voices in the Wall

We have described Karin My as Sweden’s secret weapon before, and she went all out this year with three excellent releases.

Starting with “The Silence,” My demonstrated a capacity for songwriting that is in the top tier for Nordic artists. She followed up with “Time to Go/Voices in the Wall” and “World from Orbit,” capturing our ears and our hearts all over again.

My captures loss and longing like no one else in this list, and we are looking forward to hearing more from her in 2020.

12. ERIC RANDOM – Wire Me Up

The former Buzzcocks roadie, Eric Random, produced one of the finest albums of the year. As we noted in our interview:

Random’s new album, Wire Me Up, is a stunning collection of electronic tracks that puts most recent techno to shame. Released as a double album on vinyl, it’s a strong return to the turntable by the veteran multi-instrumentalist. It’s been two years since Two Faced hit us, and in that time Random has created a meisterwerk of bubbling, rhythmic electronica. His early, industrial dance style is there in the background, but the sound is evolved, sophisticated and upgraded.

It is next level material, made with the intuition and insight of an musician who has worked with some of the most iconic artists of our times. It stretches between the cosmic German sounds that came from Conny’s Studio to acid-flecked dance material, and it covers a range of moods while maintaining an eye on the dancefloor.

11. SPOONS – The First & Last Time

Canada’s Spoons hit the spot with a new album that was a genuine surprise. Their first in eight years, New Day New World, yielded this terrific single. Gordon Deppe’s vocals are as strong as they were in the 80s; and, together with bassist and long-time collaborator, Sandy Horne, he has struck a nostalgic chord.

10. MACHINISTA – Anthropocene

This was the year that Machinista’s guitarist shed his mask. It was also the year that the Swedish poptronica act returned to London. In their pocket they had a new album, collecting all of their loose ends from the past few years and showing off material that proved their relevance.

Our take was positive:

The Italo roots of Richard Flow’s instrumentals are on show, but so are EBM and pop influences. The addition of BRD’s guitar and Karin My’s cello takes the sound away from the specialist DJ section and into other areas of the record shop.

John Lindqwister’s vocals and lyrics are as taut as ever. The themes are dark: “The Scare” seems to be about news of the mass shootings that America specialises in; “Let Darkness In” reminds us that “God left us long ago.”

The main exception is, possibly, the stand-out track on the album: “Ásfriðr” finds Lindqwister having his pain taken away by the arrival of his daughter. It is first class and classy poptronica with positive vibrations, a Goldfrapp influence and cello work by Karin My.

It is great to revisit old friends in “Pain of Every Day” and “Seconds Minutes Hours.” It seems like they have been with us for a while, but they are in great company with the new songs brought to life here.

Life is the thing that gets in the way of making great music, but they both come together on Anthropocene – an album it has been worth waiting weeks, months and years for.

9. EMMON – Like a Drum

Sweden’s Emmon roared back this year with a single inspired by an opening slot for Nitzer Ebb in Stockholm. The project has always been one of the sexiest to come from the North, but with “Like a Drum” its seductive powers are at their prime and the song leaves you dripping in sweat.

8. LINEA ASPERA – Preservation Bias

The big news of 2019 was the announcement that Linea Aspera will be getting together for dates in Europe. The duo of Alison Lewis (Zoe Zanias, Keluar) and Ryan Ambridge were Britain’s dark wave hope but came apart amicably in 2013. The release of this album served as a reminder of how good they were and the first sign that there is more to come.

7. MINIMAL COMPACT – Creation Is Perfect

The return of Minimal Compact was one of the year’s happy surprises. Creation Is Perfect dropped into our letterbox as a book-with-CD package, allowing us to visualise the mood of the band while the music played.

Combining reworked material, like “Statik Dancin’,” with a new song, “Holy Roller,” the international beat combo showed why they are still relevant in a world being taken over by hipsters in short suits and purple socks – they are just better!

6. CRYO – The Fall of Man

Sweden’s best EBM act returned with a full album. That was an exciting event, and we were thrilled to co-present them at The Quad in Gothenburg, where they demonstrated their live chops.

We said:

Cryo have the ability to make intense rhythms and uplifting synth lines that cut like a scalpel across the standard EBM template. Martin Rudefelt has been doing this since SoundSequence, and the Juno 106 is his battle rifle in the struggle against complacency. Together with Torny Gottberg, the Progress Productions label boss and partner in Cryo, he has been subverting conventions and expectations like no one else in the Swedish scene.

From the opening sounds of “Know Your Enemy,” Cryo are locked and loaded. They empty a full magazine of beats and call in waves of pads to insistent effect. The forces of oppression are engaged and exposed.

The Fall of Man is dance music for the end of days.

5. WIRE – Cactused

There are exciting things happening on the Wire front.

The post-everything band are the subject of a documentary film that is in production. They have a new album coming out in the New Year. And they have shown off a new single, “Cactused,” that acts as a teaser for both.

Still in their psychedelic phase, “Cactused” finds Wire in great form. While bands like Depeche Mode languish in American blues-rock, Wire continue to find new veins to mine. “You better watch your step,” warns Graham Lewis, and he isn’t half right.

4. FRAGILE SELF – Fragile Self [New Artist of the Year]

This has been the year in which anyone with a narcissisic personality disorder was excluded from our world.

The key to understanding these disorders is the lack of a stable inner core. Good timing, then, that the London-based duo of Anil Aykan and Jonathan Barnbrook revealed the results of their Fragile Self project. Drawing on the works of psychology classics, and applying the Thematic Apperception Test to their sleeve design, Fragile Self went deeper than anyone has ever done into the meaning of mind and personality in a single album. To elaborate their investigation, they also created an elegant 480-page book for the deluxe edition of their debut album.

3. REIN – Off the Grid [Single of the Year]

The Queen of electronic body music, Joanna Rein, shed her old skin and emerged with a fresh sound just in time for TEC 006.

“Off the Grid” provided the first glimpse of her unique style – can we call it melodic EBM? – that fuses the heavy-duty bass lines she is known for with a more radio-friendly production. The result is a blistering combination.

Rein headlined TEC 006 and blew the roof off Elektrowerkz for her London debut. If you missed her show, she is back in the UK for the Resistanz Festival in April 2020.

2. LAU NAU – Land without God [Soundtrack of the Year]

The Catholic Church in Ireland has a lot to account for. The documentary film, Land Without God, tells the story of a family essentially destroyed by the machinations of the institution that was meant to bring them closer to salvation. It is a heart-rending tale, and the soundtrack provided by Lau Nau is haunting.

Lau Nau has produced many of the most interesting and stimulating releases that have emerged from the north in the past decade. She has the kind of voice that weaves its way through a room like the smoke from a candle, flowing and winding on the air. These days, she plays with a suitcase modular system that processes sounds with a delicate touch. Her music touches the parts of the soul that other experimental artists cannot reach.

Land Without God finds her joined by long-time collaborator, Pekko Käppi, on bowed lyre, and with vocal contributions by Tuija Kuoppamäki. An Irish feel comes from concertinas played by Cormac Begley.

The story told in the film is about an epic disaster that will resonate through the generations. The soundtrack is just as large and powerful in its resonances.

Lau Nau plays in London on Saturday, 1 February 2020, at Cecil Sharp House.

1. PAGE – Fakta för alla [Album of the Year]

Page’s Eddie Bengtsson is sometimes called Sweden’s Vince Clarke. That’s not because he fiddles with SH-101 patterns; it is because he has a magic touch when it comes to clever pop songs. These days, he could as well be called Scandinavia’s Gary Numan or the Nordics’ Billy Currie, given his mastery of the Moog and the elegantly robotic style they pioneered.

Fakta för alla [EN: Facts for Everyone] draws on Ultravox, Numan and Dramatis for influence, but it never becomes derivative. Bengtsson’s distinctive style is ever-present, but he has clearly found a groove in the soaring saws generated by his equipment.

This is Page’s best album, but it is also their most mature. With darker sounds and textures than ever seen in a Page recording, it has levels of complexity and sophistication normally associated with fine whiskey. Savour it. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Open Your Primitive Heart – Exclusive!

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

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Primitive Heart is an ambitious and accessible synth-pop project by multi-genre producer and visual artist, Dani Mari.

The New York-based Mari will be known to readers of Cold War Night Life for her active role in Female Frequency, the community she co-founded to promote music by women.

No Fear In Love, the debut album for Primitive Heart, was co-produced by Mari and Rosana Cabán (Psychic Twin, Cosas Cosas). It has been compared to the sounds of Sylvan Esso, Mazzy Star and Beach House.

Released worldwide on Friday, 25 October 2019, the album highlights the ethereal, sensuous vocals of Mari and her innate sense of melody.

We are delighted to highlight one of the albums of the year in this exclusive sampler!

The official album release party for No Fear in Love takes place at The Footlight, 465 Seneca Avenue, Flushing, Queens, on 27 October 2019.

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Shine On: Graham Lewis

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

With his flat cap and specs, Graham Lewis looks every bit the English chap abroad. These markers of his origins belie the three decades he has spent living in Sweden – a country that, by now, could claim him as a cultural icon of their own.

The Englishman among them started making music as the bassist for Wire. An art-school band that wasn’t formed at art school, Wire are one of the most influential acts to emerge from the 1970s. They were post-punk while punk was still a thing and have staunchly resisted categorisation for four decades. Either together with the band’s original guitarist, Bruce Gilbert, or on his own, Lewis has never been contained by the borders of the band: his experimental and leftfield output has freely branched as a counterpoint to Wire’s commercial success.

As we have previously noted:

Edvard Graham Lewis has appeared in a variety of guises since his first days with Wire. As one half of Dome, he erected a tent inside a recording studio. As one-third of Duet Emmo, he voiced the most achingly beautiful single ever written. As four-quarters of He Said, Lewis reimagined pop as an intellectual pursuit. The list of fractions and factions takes us through P’o, 27#11, Halo, Hox, Ocsid – a fluid combination of characters, both musical and typographic, dissolving and reforming. The unifying thread is a shifting tension between the lyrical and experimental; music that sometimes approaches commercial pop but draws away just in time. You can’t always dance to it, but you’ll have fun trying.

10. Wire – I Should Have Known Better

Although most vocals in Wire are handled by Colin Newman, it is hard to imagine the band without Lewis’ own contributions. The most iconic of Wire songs, “Pink Flag,” wouldn’t be the same without his deep tones insistently calling back to Newman, “How many?”

One of the most powerful Wire songs, “I Should Have Known Better,” finds Lewis taking the lead on the vocals to great effect. With intelligent lyrics, showing psychological insights beyond the wit of the usual post-punk band, the track hasn’t aged a day since Lewis crafted and executed it forty years ago.

9. Dome – To Speak

Starting in 1980, Lewis and Bruce Gilbert, Wire’s guitarist and surreal lyricist, went into Blackwing Studios to play the room as an instrument. For one album, they erected a red tent in the main sound room and explored what noises they could make inside and outside of it.

This project yielded several albums as Dome, including one recorded with the help of Vince Clarke, who was in residence at Blackwing with his Fairlight CMI. Clarke’s partner at the time, Deb Danahay, ended up being sampled on the Fairlight and included in this track.

8. Cupol – Kluba Copol

The B-side to the 12″ single, “It’s Been Like This for Ages,” “Kluba Kupol” is effectively one side of an LP. Clocking in at 20:28, the track is an ambient track based on a rhythmic groove.

It’s the kind of impossibly cool track that DJs will drop if they are really brave, but it is best enjoyed with headphones with the lights down. Lewis is working with Gilbert again here.

7. UUUU

An experimental project undertaken by Lewis with Valentina Magaletti (Tomaga, Vanishing Twin), Thighpaulsandra (Coil) and Matt Simms (Bruce Gilbert’s take-out in Wire), UUUU have to date released two records on Editions Mego.

Their self-titled album combined rhythms with touches of jazz, musique concrete, Krautrock and improvised electronica.

6. Edvard Graham Lewis – We’ve Lost Your Mind

Lewis released two albums on Editions Mego in 2014. The highlight for us was this track. As we said at the time:

It’s unmistakably Lewis material, with an almost conventional start that ultimately dissolves into fractals of noise. Immense.

5. 27#11

Lewis collaborated with Thomas Öberg (Bob Hund) and Marcus Turnkey on a single in 2006. Covering The Monks’ “Oh How to Do Now,” they leaned on Carl Michael von Hauswolff – another Lewis collaborator – for the artwork.

4. H-A-L-O – Two Too State

Recorded with Örjan Örnkloo, the H-A-L-O project saw Lewis in great form. The name was taken from the military tactic of dropping scuba divers from high altitude, which is as postmodern a concept as the music.

3. HOX – Icon of I Can

Andreas Karperyd joined Lewis for an album as HOX in 1999, and fifteen years later again. The duo made something closer to pop than Lewis’ normal experimental output, hinting at the commercial possibilities latent in the latter’s work.

2. Duet Emmo – Or So It Seems

A collaboration with Daniel Miller (The Normal, Silicon Teens, Sunroof!), Duet Emmo is an anagram of the words, Mute and Dome. For this project, Gilbert and Lewis were joined by North London’s best one-finger composer for an album of experimental material that somehow yielded a devastatingly beautiful single.

“Or So It Seems,” the title track, is a love song without peer. It has lyrics to melt the heart of any woman, sung hauntingly by Lewis over sequences melded from waveforms far ahead of their time.

1. He Said – Pump

Lewis’ solo work as He Said inspired the sound of Nine Inch Nails. The story goes that Trent Reznor sought to record at Blackwing Studios in Southwark and engage engineer John Fryer after listening to the He Said recordings. Reznor got what he wanted but neglected to credit his inspiration.

The quality of the He Said songs is very high. Several singles from the two albums that Lewis released under this name have become permanent fixtures in alternative DJ sets: “Only One I” and “Pump.” The latter has a funkiness that only a bassist could have conceived, together with a leftfield feel that only a member of Wire would have added.

“Grass,” as Lewis intones, “doesn’t grow on busy streets.” It might be a statement of the obvious, but it takes a poet to point it out.

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Music Heroes of Instagram

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

Instagram isn’t just for attention-seeking model wannabes. The platform allows musicians to share details of their project; photographers to curate material for followers; and record store workers to paint themselves like their favourite album covers.

We have picked out some of our favourite Instagram accounts to share, on the basis that they fit into one of the categories described above. We will add to the list as we go, but feel free to send in your suggestions to post@coldwarnightlife.com.

Mionyl

A record store worker from Gothenburg, Sweden, Mio has charmed the internet by painting herself as the radio signal from Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures and the Warhol banana from The Velvet Underground & Nico.

Vinyl looms large in Mio’s life, and the images from her favourite records have become part of her life. She is trusted by Anna von Hausswolff to do her make up, so album designers ought to be confident that Mio’s tribute work is of the highest quality.

Juno Jensen

As Pieces of Juno, the Norwegian singer and songwriter, Juno Jensen, has captivated us with dark and brooding experimental and jazz-influenced material.

Her Instagram feed reveals some of the pieces of her world, including her allies in the Norwegian label and club, Koso.

Novamute

Quietly tucked away on Instagram is the account of novamute, the techno label revived by Mute. Releasing material by Daniel Blumberg, Chris Liebing and Fidelity Kastrow, novamute is regaining its position as the go-to label for dance music.

Anton Corbijn

As one of the great rock photographers, Anton Corbijn’s feed should be a source for fans of music and aspiring snappers. It is filled with high quality material from the master.

Marija Buljeta

The Instagram feed for Marija Buljeta Photography is full of material from her studio sessions, but it is also includes live concert photography from a very wide range of artists.

Skinny Puppy, Ministry, Front Line Assembly, Die Krupps, OMD, Laibach and others have come before her lens, and their souls have truly been captured.

Hante.

The project of Hélène de Thoury features a nicely curated set of images that allow fans to follow its progress. With stage shots, information on shows and release details, it is a model for how artists can make use of social media platforms to engage with their fans.

KANGA

There is only one Kanga. You never know what you are going to get from the LA-based artist: one moment, she is resting on the floor, programming patches; the next, she is standing next to Matthew Setzer from Skinny Puppy looking very peaceful. All in a day’s work.

Sammi Doll

The IAMX keyboard player, Sammi Doll, leaves a trail of images that would shame Hansel and Gretel. Follow the path of treats from touring to reach the destination: musical bliss.

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Ex-Display Model: Moments in Hove

by Mat Smith
written by Mat Smith

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Ex-Display Model is a new project from Fujiya & Miyagi’s David Best with AK/DK’s Ed Chivers. The pair began working together in Brighton earlier this year, taking their inspiration from the DIY home recordings of Robert Rental and Thomas Leer, writing much of their debut self-titled, self-released album in David’s bedroom and the small studio space in Ed’s apartment.

“Initially the group began as a solo outlet for me to revisit the sort of records that made me fall in love with music in the first place,” says David. “Things like the first Modern Lovers record, The Velvet Underground, Harmonia, and an adolescence soundtracked by religiously listening to the John Peel show.”

The album displays David Best’s nous for creating leftfield pop songs with heavily introspective lyrics whose meaning is known only to their creator; pitched perfectly with music covering everything from shimmering electronics to the awkward funk gestures of classic Talking Heads. Like some of the best musical moments, the whole thing formed itself from a bunch of serendipitous moments.

“Once the songs were roughly formed, instruments would be layered on top of one another with no prior knowledge of what would be played,” Best continues. “The lyrics were constructed in a similar fashion, formulated and shaped while recording took place. Once Ed began contributing to the songs it was as if they went from being monochrome to technicolour.”

David gave Cold War Night Life an exclusive walk-through of the songs on what is assuredly one of 2018’s best and most understated electronically-infused crossover albums.

Immaculate Rip

The electronic noise you hear on the intro and during the chorus is a guitar pedal malfunctioning. Luckily, I managed to record it. Unfortunately, it works fine now. This is perhaps the song that sounds most like my other group. It’s something I attempted to avoid, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. “Immaculate Rip” is more abrasive, perhaps.

Torschlusspanik

I don’t like samples of voices from TV or radio on songs. It always reminds me of when Ned’s Atomic Dustbin sampled Die Hard.

The voice you hear at the beginning is a train announcement at Shanghai station that I recorded when I was out there. I think if you source it yourself it’s okay to use it.

This song is an amalgam of ideas from Neu! and Harmonia mixed with George Murray-esque basslines and Roxy Music fuzz. I was aiming for a cold, motorik funk.

Existential Crisis

When I was young, my dad used to drive me and my sister to every Arsenal home game. He had about three tapes in his Fiat Panda, one of which was a Gene Vincent album. I always liked it and always associate him with my dad. I tried to replicate a 50s rock ‘n’ roll guitar solo on this song, because I thought he might like it.

I was also trying to see how many times I could repeat the same sentence in a song without it getting boring. I’ve always liked that idea of getting the most from as little as possible.

Ed’s synths bring the song into today, and that creates a nice tension between the old and the new.

Autopilot

This is perhaps my favourite song on the album. It’s Ed’s favourite too. It started life aspiring to be a “Private Plane” or “Double Heart” or Smog’s “Bathysphere.” I don’t think it ended up like that.

I suspect that the lyrics are addressed to myself, like a self-help guide; or perhaps it’s better to think of this and the other songs as internal monologues let loose externally.

We asked Annie Hart from Au Revoir Simone to sing and play some keys on this. Ed built an Arp 2600, and it makes an appearance towards the end and also all over the album.

Pouring Cold Water On To Hot Glass

At the core of this song is the idea that there are numerous reasons and obstacles why you shouldn’t do something, but that shouldn’t stop you from trying. If you want to release a record “properly,” with radio and press and manufacturing, it costs thousands. This record, due to goodwill and lots of favours, cost £250 to record the vocals nicely plus another £48 to sort the cover out.

Other than the vocals, it was recorded in my bedroom and Ed’s little studio room in his flat. So the “cold water” is saying, “You can’t do it,” and the “hot glass” is saying, “Oh yes we can!” It’s also aspiring to be something. I can’t dance like James Brown and I can’t make a film as good as “Stalker,” but by striving to be that good you hopefully get a bit better than if you didn’t try.

Inferior Designs

Ed does this really lovely synth pattern on this song, which reminds me of Italo Disco at its most melancholy – something like “On & On” by Decadence or “Life With You” by Expansives.

As with “Immaculate Rip” and “Pouring Cold Water…,” Ben Faresvedt plays bass on this. It also has a post-punk dubby feel to it, due to the delay on the guitar. Most of the guitar was recorded without knowing what I was going to play beforehand. I like to think it gives it a feeling of imminent collapse, which I like.

Swing Of Things

As with the last song on the record, I was trying to sing like Bryan Ferry on this and failing. Ed sings on a lot of the album, which i think takes it away from my other group and sweetens it too.

I’m excited about our next record, which will be completely collaborative from the beginning. It feels like this is a good platform to build something exciting upon.

Ex-Display Model

As with all the songs this uses drum machines rather than acoustic drums. The song is about getting older. There’s a really nice repeated pattern at the end which reminds me of Terry Riley, which is something we’ll explore further on our next album I reckon. I think sometimes my other group’s records sound too nice, and so this was an opportunity to leave the creases unironed.

Ex-Display Model by Ex-Display Model is out now. Listen to the full album on Bandcamp or Spotify.

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The Top 18 of 2018

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Two thousand and eighteen was a challenging year for electronic music.

After a spate of excellent releases in 2017, it was as if a lot of artists were pausing for breath.

If we were cynical, we might suggest that could have been because Soft Cell sucked so much oxygen out of the scene with the hype and merch for their “final” show. In our support, we could point to the Last Pint in Sodom beer glasses, USB sticks, snow globes, remix albums, box sets, t-shirts, books, DVDs – a long list of products that must have kept Chinese factory workers at their tables long into the night. Who was ever going to compete against a marketing event on that scale?

Against that argument, one could point to the actually very substantial collection of remixes and rarities released by one of the greatest bands ever to migrate from Leeds. Soft Cell had some great moments, and they unearthed and repackaged many of them for fans in the course of the year. You only live twice, Marc Almond once sang on a cover song, and he was right: once as an edgy cabaret act with a penchant for leather; and again as a vendor of knick-knacks in the O2.

The fact is that Soft Cell’s songbook is a mighty but variable thing. It’s full of flaws, and there were mis-steps in their show, but they were always the girl who puts her lipstick on slightly askew.

Their experience should be an inspiration for artists who head for Melodyne plug-ins and hire a dozen songwriters to work on a single track. Sometimes, grit is sexier than gloss.

18. Technomancer – The Outsider EP

Technomancer - The Outsider EPA set of covers by Lexxy from Norway, The Outsider EP shows off her unique ability to focus the essence and sound of electronic music.

The title track is a Psyche song, and it is possibly chosen as a statement as well as an excellent alternative track.

It is joined by a powerful version of Ultravox’s “Sleepwalk”; a cover of Rational Youth’s “I’ve Got a Sister in the Navy” (that first appeared on the Heresy compilation from Cold War Night Life, we don’t hesitate to say); and a version of Depeche Mode’s “Puppets” made with fellow Norwegians, Stephan Groth of Apoptygma Berzerk and Angst Pop.

All of the covers have been recorded with sensitivity and affection for the originals, and the EP format allows for precision and economy of vision.

17. Familjen – Kom

Familjen - KomThere was a long gap between Familjen‘s previous album in 2012 and this year’s release. It had something to do with concern about the growth of mainstream fascism in Hässleholm, but in the interval Johan T Karlsson found a way to give voice to the stories of Syrian refugees and insurgent women.

Hailed on its release as a politically informed album, Aftonbladet also positioned it somewhere on the spectrum between Happy Mondays and New Order. We didn’t get the Manchester connection, and we wouldn’t have gone so far from Skåne, which has its own tradition of electro. Suffice to say that we found it more Björk than Bez.

16. Daniel Myer – Find, Fund, Finish

Daniel Myer - Find, Fund, FinishThere are, in this world, a lot of dicks who steal instruments from musicians. It’s happened to most artists at some point – gear left in vans can disappear with the vehicle, but even keyboards left on stage can vanish in the dark of a concert venue.

It happened to Daniel Myer while he was trying to complete an Architect project, so he put out this compilation of rareties on Bandcamp to raise funds to do what insurance did not.

As a collection, it’s a strong set from the German producer. There are twenty live recordings, demo tracks, alternative versions and unreleased songs on offer, and there isn’t a weak moment between them.

With any luck, the clowns who lifted his equipment will experience the karma wheel rolling over them, while those who purchased this material will get a new Architect album soon.

15. Robert Rental – Different Voices for You, Different Voices for Me

Robert Rental - Different Voices for You, Different Colours for MeRobert Rental was one of those quiet souls who made big noises. When he toured with The Normal, at the end of the 1970s, he made such a racket that it was impossible to tell what he was shouting over the industrial maelstrom the two created.

He also made a seminal record together with another Scot, Thomas Leer. Throbbing Gristle provided them with the basic equipment needed to record The Bridge, and they made an album divided into ambient and electro-industrial halves.

In connection with a masterful exhibition curated by Simon Dell, some of Rental’s old tapes were recovered and shared on this album. It adds to the collection of fuzzy experimental material that Rental had himself passed around, and provides a link to the material that he released through Mute Records.

We don’t have Rental with us any longer; but, thanks to the work of his family and fans, his musical legacy can still be appreciated.

14. Black Needle Noise – I Am You

Black Needle Noise - I Am YouJohn Fryer’s Black Needle Noise project is the spiritual successor to This Mortal Coil, and each release reveals a little more of the DNA that spawned that legendary enterprise.

Released on vinyl for the first time, via No Devotion Records, BNN is finally in its natural element. With three tracks on this release, including a collaboration with Bill Leeb from Front Line Assembly, there’s a nod to the singles that Fryer was heavily involved with in the 1980s.

As the house engineer at Blackwing Studios in London, Fryer worked on many of the iconic releases from Mute and 4AD from the 1980s. This release proved that the touch he brought to those recordings is still alive in his LA studio set-up.

13. Tomaga – Music for Visual Disorders

Tomaga - Music for Visual DisordersTomaga is an experimental project, but it yields excellent results.

The duo of Valentina Magaletti and Tom Relleen came up with two albums in 2018, but this is the one we bought. It’s rich with rhythms and loops, percussive flourishes and reverb. Just the kind of thing that you can put on for a Sunday night with the lights down.

Click. Click. Drone.

12. Psyche & No More – Ghosts of the Past

Psyche & No More - Ghosts of the PastPsyche and No More are two of the most influential dark wave acts, and putting them together for a collaboration was a great idea.

“Ghosts of the Past” came out in time for Halloween, and it makes it seem simple to make melodic poptronica.

Darrin Huss has one of the best voices in the genre, and both bands know how to put together a solid slab of horror electronics. Tina Sanudakura’s Theremin wails and swirls around Huss’ lead vocal, calling down the spirits. It’s a nightmare only for commercial radio.

11. Yazoo – Four Pieces

Yazoo - Four Pieces
Yazoo broke up even before they recorded their second album. Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet paid separate visits to the studio, so that Clarke didn’t have to put up with Alf’s emotional states. The cover image, showing two dogs fighting in the cold, summed up the relationship as well as the title, You and Me Both.

Things gradually thawed between the two, leading to the Reconnected tour in 2008. Since then, however, there has been only a brief appearance for the Mute Short Circuit event, a live album from the tour and some remixes on offer.

The Four Pieces box Set (Three Pieces for those going down the CD route) doesn’t offer anything new for avid collectors, but it does refresh the vinyl and offer graphical treats. How does a reissue of thirty-five year old material push its way our year-end chart? By still sounding fresher and better than 99.99% of the material pushed on us by PRs in 2018.

10. Dubstar – One

Dubstar - OneDubstar‘s dreampop had an obvious home in the 1990s. It was as English as a cucumber sandwich eaten on a lay-by in the rain on a trip with your parents, but it was also subversive. They made pencil cases do things.

Fast forward to 2018, and the band has broken up, got back together without a lot of unnecessary baggage, and only gone and made one of the best albums of the year.

Everyone loves Sarah Blackwood’s voice, and it hasn’t lost any of its charm by clean living. Chris Wilkie’s guitar work has retained its psychedelic edge, even if he appears on the cover dressed as a Maoist factory worker circa 1964.

The songs are great: still impressed with an edge and as refreshing as a tin in the park on a warm day.

9. Lederman/De Meyer – Eleven Grinding Songs

Lederman/De Meyer - Eleven Grinding SongsWhat started as a collaboration for a (still forthcoming) album of Fad Gadget songs led Jean-Marc Lederman (The Weathermen, Kid Montana) and Jean-Luc De Meyer (Front 242) to work together for a full album of Eleven Grinding Songs.

Their cover of “Back to Nature” was blessed by Daniel Miller, and their version of Wire’s “20 Versions” was sensitive to the original, but it was “Atoms of Fury” that showed the real potential of this link-up. It came out with a set of remixes, but none were as good as the official version.

8. Gus Gus – Lies Are More Flexible

Gus Gus - Lies Are More FlexibleIceland’s best dance music export, Gus Gus, returned with an excellent album in 2018. By now, the template of modular synths, effects units and dynamic vocals is easily recognisable, but they still haven’t exhausted its possibilities.

7. Various Artists – A Collection of the New Brat Pack

Various Artists - A Collection from the New Brat PackSweden’s famous Romo Night might not be with us, but it lives on through Romo Records.

This compilation brought together a diverse set of artists, including Hiltipop, Glas and Anymachine feat. Jeddy 3. It highlighted a collection of new and classic Swedish artists who need to be heard on vinyl. We hope for more from this team in 2019.

6. Cryo – Sanitarium

Cryo - SanitariumSweden has produced its shared of EBM bands over the years. There must be something in the Viking blood that draws them to 16-step sequencers and electronic drum pads.

From that scene, the duo of Cryo has consistently made some of the most atmospheric and emotionally infused material. For more than a decade, going back to releases like Cryogenic and Mixed Emotions, Cryo has marched to the beat of its own drum (machine).

The release of “Sanitarium,” built upon a scene from One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, reinforces their position as the most original and human of the machine-operating artists on the cold side of the Baltic Sea.

5. Chris Carter – CCCL Vol. 1

Chris Carter - CCCL Vol. 1It has been more than thirty years since the Gristle ceased to throb, but Chris Carter continues to plow a unique furrow of experimental electronics. The creator of some of the most romantic electronic music of all time, Carter remains an industrial original.

Famed for creating his own synthesizers from schematics printed in magazines, Carter now has modular synth manufacturers lining up to collaborate with him. He is also in constant demand as a remixer. The surprise, therefore, is that he has found the time to put together a new solo album at all.

Although inspired by his take on the material produced by the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop, CCCL is unmistakably in Carter’s own style. On a track like “Blissters,” one hears more European Rendezvous than Dr Who. Similarly, “Modularity” might be driven by Euro-rack gear, but the signature of the man twiddling the knobs is written across the piece.

There is a new collection of Carter’s solo work coming from Mute. This is a timely addition to his catalogue.

4. Zanti – Broken Hearted City

Zanti - Broken Hearted CityA surprise on its release, Zanti‘s first album is elegant and deep. Made by the duo of Anni Hogan and Simple Minds’ bass man, Derek Forbes, it more than made up for a year of half-hearted releases and Soundcloud flotsam elsewhere.

Hogan has a history of collaborations that stretches from Marc Almond to Lydia Lunch. With Forbes, she has linked up with one of the great geniuses of rhythm, and it turns out that he has an astonishingly good voice.

If 4AD still cared about the kind of music they are putting out, instead of finding the latest dubstep, this is an album that they would have killed to release. A track like “Will You Be Mine” is tailor-made for fans of This Mortal Coil.

If you missed Broken Hearted City on release, correct that now!

3. Vive la Fete – Destination Amour

Vive la Fete - Destination AmourThe best album in years from one of Europe’s go-to party bands, Destination Amour built on a combination of space disco and Europop influences. “Toute la nuit” buzzed with killer saws, Els Pyloo’s ethereal vocals and a pulsing rhythm section lifted straight from 1977.

Just brilliant.

2. Robert Görl – The Paris Tapes

Robert Goerl - The Paris TapesThe really mad thing about Robert Görl is his ability to wrestle emotion from synthesizers. Although best known for his heavy rhythm work in DAF, an early solo single, “Mit Dir,” demonstrated that with a limited set of equipment (and a limited number of words) he could produce works of fragile and enduring beauty.

The Paris Tapes were recorded while Görl was evading military service in France after one of DAF’s many break-ups. Armed only with an Ensoniq ESQ-1, he trained himself to deploy basslines instead of barbed wire. His marches took him to the UK, where he teamed up with Dee Long of Klaatu (and Rational Youth’s one-time producer) to work on the material. A visit to Germany led to a drive in a car; the car led to a tree; and the rehabilitation that followed led to the abandonment of the actual Paris tapes.

They were eventually recovered, but the moment to develop them had passed. They came out for Record Store Day, then, frozen much as they were when Görl’s body was shattered on an icy Munich road. Even so, the material out-Jarred Jarre in the year of his return to Oxygene.

1. Page – Adapted EP/Start EP

Page - Adapted EPSweden’s original poptronica act came to London to show off their new material in October. Page brought with them a very limited run of CDs featuring versions of some of the songs on their Start EP, and the first forty people through the door at their show received a copy courtesy of Cold War Night Life. Needless to say, their appearance at the sold out show was warmly received by an international crowd, and the CDs quickly became collector’s items.

What gets Page to the pole position on this year’s list isn’t their generosity; nor is it their willingness to switch into English for their London audience – it’s their unrivaled feeling for poptronica. Eddie Bengtsson is called “Sweden’s Vince Clarke” for very good reasons; and, with new Moogs at his disposal, he might very well be the Nordic answer to Dramatis and Ultravox, as well.

If Soft Cell could have pulled off this trick, they wouldn’t have had to retire.

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