Features

Shine On: Marina Schiptjenko

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

The Swedish poptronica scene is not short of talent, but few of its participants can match the glamour of Page’s Marina Schiptjenko.

The daughter of a Swedish mother and Ukrainian father, Schiptjenko was born in Malmö, the regional capital of Skåne. It was there that she met Eddie Bengtsson, a skateboarder and drummer with a taste for Silicon Teens and Devo. The two had already started dating when Bengtsson traded in his drum kit for two keyboards at the local music shop. Schiptjenko, who was classically trained, taught Bengtsson to play his monophonic synth. Together, they started Sweden’s pioneering poptronica band, Page.

Page live in Gothenburg (Photo: Krichan Wihlborg)

Page quickly became one of the most significant acts in the emerging Swedish synth scene. It was effectively the house band at Stadt Hamburg, an all-ages club at the centre of Malmö’s social world for the emerging syntare culture. With bouncy pop singles sung entirely in Swedish, it was both a successor to ABBA and its antithesis. Page continues to release new music and grow its fan base to this day, but both members have taken time to focus on other projects.

For Schiptjenko, the most significant have been Vacuum and BWO – two Swedish hyperpop bands with a flair for the theatrical and chart-climbing skills. Schiptjenko has not lost her head in the dizzy heights of commercial success, however – she has also worked with close friends like Julian Brandt (Julian & Marina) and Claes Bang (This Is Not America) to make music for the love of it.

Marina Schiptjenko with Eddie Bengtsson (Photo: Simon Helm)

A gallerist who deals in modern art from Stockholm and Paris, Schiptjenko moved to Sweden’s capital in 1986 to study comparative  literature and theatre. These interests were combined when she appeared in Ruben Östlund’s movie, The Square. A satire on the elitism of the art world and the attitudes of the rich, the film took the Palm d’Or at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.

Julian & Marina in Gothenburg (Photo: Simon Helm)

An intellectual and multi-sided artist, Schiptjenko is a much-loved figure in Sweden. Through her activity in Page and her work as a gallerist, she returns the feeling. It is a virtuous circle that has kept her place in the hearts of the syntare community as fashions have changed and the years have passed.

10. Page – Dansande Man

Written with the third original member of Page, Anders Eliasson, “Dansande Man” became an early hit for the band. In this clip, we see its members, including Schiptjenko, in their youth.

9. Page – Står i din väg

Reduced to the core duo of Schiptjenko and Bengtsson, Page released this professional music video in 1995. Directed by Arvid Unsgaard, it shows off the band’s senses of melody and humour in equal measure.

8. Vacuum – I Breathe

Formed by Alexander Bard, after he dissolved Army of Lovers, Vacuum was designed for pop success. Bard told an interviewer, “Marina is the most creative and the best musician in the band.” She had to leave Page behind to focus on this project, which took her into the dance music stratosphere.

7. BWO – Lay Your Love on Me

After two albums with Vacuum, Schiptjenko left and joined Bodies Without Organs. Their hyperpop sound – curated, again, by the provocative philosopher Alexander Bard –  found commercial success.

6. BWO – You’re Not Alone

BWO entered the Swedish Melodifestival – trials for Eurovision – in 2009 with this single from their fourth album. It was their second attempt at representing their country, but they narrowly missed out.

5. Page – Tick-Tack

This delightful clip recalls the innocence of Page in their early days. It is a contrast to the ultra-concentrated pop sensibilities of Vacuum and BWO in the heady days around the turn of the century. Schiptjenko was to reclaim her position in Page in 2010 for the album, Nu [EN: Now].

4. Julian & Marina – Moon & The Stars

Schiptjenko’s return to Page was not on an exclusive basis. She collaborated with Julian Brandt, the bassist in Lustans Lakejer, to produce a series of releases inspired by French romantic pop of the 1960s and perhaps a little Astrid Gilberto, mixed up with the Pet Shop Boys.

3. Julian & Marina – The Knight

Taen from their first album, this track from Julian & Marina shows off the elegant sound and style that the duo created.

2. This Is Not America – Your Love Is Wasted on Me

Schiptjenko met the Dutch actor, Claes Bang, on the set of The Square. The two became fast friends, and Bang invited Schiptjenko to join him for some recordings of his act, This Is Not America.

1. Page – Mia och Tom

Page have continued to release albums, getting more sophisticated as they mature, but on stage the crowds love to sing along to the classics. This clip captures the mutual love  of the band and its audience. It is the spirit that Schiptjenko embodies.

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The Best Music Books of 2023

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

There were many excellent records released in 2023, but it was also a good year for books about music. From the graphic wizardry of Brian Griffin’s MODE to the scrapbook of Yello, there was something for every bookshelf. We have collected our favourites below.

Brian Griffin, MODE

More than anyone else, perhaps, Brian Griffin created the image of Depeche Mode over their first five albums. At a time when they were capable of issuing an album a year, developing their style with each release, Griffin’s images were the best-known and most-distinctive features of their branding. From a plastic-wrapped lawn ornament to a monumental banner-draped building, Depeche Mode were defined by his eye and the lens of his camera.

Griffin’s best-known shot for Depeche Mode is the stunning picture of a peasant in a field, made for A Broken Frame. It became a sensation and one of the best-recognised photographs of the 1980s.

MODE collects these images, as well as other shots from the sessions and for promotional materials in a limited edition, finely-crafted book. A living archive, it is structured around an interview made for Radio Virus in Sweden. Gareth Jones, who produced three of the five albums with Daniel Miller, provides an introduction.

MODE is an essential read for any fan of the band or music photography.

Robert Görl and Hanna Rollmann, The Voice That Dwells Within

Robert Goerl and Hanna RollmannIn 1989, Robert Görl was nearly killed in a car crash. The founder of Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft survived but was left in hospital with a shattered body. It could have been the end of Görl’s career in music; but, instead, it marked a kind of rebirth.

Together with Dr Hanna Rollmann, Görl has written a book that traces his path from the clinic to spiritual healing in a compelling and dream-like style. Visions appear of the founding of DAF, the band moving to an Earl’s Court basement flat, adventures in New York, and romance in Thailand. Along the way, companions leave notes with their names, hoping for calls that do not come.

DAF changed the face of music with sequencers and Görl’s drumming. They sang in German and avoided the rock-and-roll conventions of Anglo-American music. With a punk spirit, they created a sound that influenced generations of musicians with proto-techno, EBM and Hi-NRG styles. With this book, Görl fills in the missing details of the band’s history and offers insights into a uniquely productive creative partnership.

Wesley Doyle, Conform to Deform

The truth is that Stevo Pearce, the founder of Some Bizarre and legendary Soft Cell manager, has more personality than his body can handle. It bursts out in moments of wildness that surprise and scare record company executives. With a love of the surreal and MDMA, Stevo (no one uses his last name other than his bank manager) took a duo from Leeds to global stardom while creating a label that gave obscure industrial acts access to major label resources.

The suits thought Stevo had a good ear for the underground, and they let him release important records by Cabaret Voltaire, Neubauten, Psychic TV, and Coil. Along the way, there were enormous quantities of drugs, episodes of violence, amazing works of art, outrageous lies, and epic attempts to humiliate the record companies that made it all possible.

Doyle has created a brilliant oral history from interviews with the artists who made music for Some Bizarre. Conform to Deform brings to life the controversies and accomplishments of one of the strangest and most influential labels – and its singular boss. 

Cosey Fanni Tutti, Re-Sisters

The intersection of three lives – Cosey Fanni Tutti, Delia Derbyshire, and Margery Kempe – is explored with references to music, feminism, and marginalisation. Tutti, once denounced in Parliament as a “wrecker of civilisation,” is making a film version of her book, Art, Sex, Music, while contributing to another about Derbyshire’s complex life. At the same time, she is reading the story of the 15th century local mystic, Kempe. Similarities emerge about places, situations, and struggles.

Tutti was a founder of COUM and Throbbing Gristle. She told that story in her first book, including the abuse that she experienced at the hands of Genesis P-Orridge. In Re-Sisters, we find Tutti being blocked from using the music she contributed to by P-Orridge’s estate. It is just one example of how others refuse to accept her voice. Whether from Members of Parliament or family members, there is determined resistance against Tutti being herself. Through her story, we learn how Derbyshire and Kempe experienced similar challenges. Overcoming them is the only choice.

Yuma Hampejs and Marcel Schulze, Elektronische Körpermusik

The history of electronic body music really began with DAF. Gabi Delgado sang, while Robert Görl played drums. They used sequencers to play the bass lines and pulses that completed their sound, and the feeling was harder than their disco precedents. The approach was functional but also stylistic. In Elektronische Körpermusik, Hampejs and Schulze explore these origins but also celebrate the movement that grew from it.

The book is an ambitious attempt to cover a lot of ground, so Belgian club nights and Swedish radio shows rub shoulders with generations of bands, from Nitzer Ebb to Zweite Jugend. Like Bengt Rahm’s bible of the Swedish electronic music scene, Den svenska synthen, the book offers both breadth and depth in its coverage of an essential musical movement.

Simon Helm, Walking in Their Shoes

Written by our Editor, Walking in Their Shoes traces the path of Depeche Mode as they played and recorded in London. It locates the venues and studios where the band developed their sound and built their audience. It also includes key locations in Mute Records’ history, such as the Decoy Avenue house where the label was founded. Pictures and public transport details help orient fans visiting the sites. It is the best way to experience London in the footsteps of the band.

Audrey Golden, I Thought I Heard You Speak: Women at Factory Records

Audrey GoldenIf you believe the conventional history, Factory was a group of men making things. There was Tony Wilson, the hero of every story. Rob Gretton, the drug-hoovering manager. Peter Saville, the graphic designer with no sense of time. Barney and Hooky from New Order sulking or scheming like schoolboys. Mike Pickering in the booth at the Haçienda. Everywhere and always, if there was a face to the label and its spin-offs, it belonged to a man.

Audrey Golden sets out to correct the picture with an oral history collected from the women of Factory. From Lindsay Reade (Wilson’s former partner and Factory employee) to Nikki Kefalis (Factory PR and founder of Out Promotion), Golden has tracked down the personalities who did the work, offered the ideas, and found the resources that others have claimed credit for.

There are some gaps – the absence of Martha Ladly jumps out – but this book restores the voices of the participants and fills in the blanks left by XY-biased narratives.

Boris Blank and Dieter Meier, Oh Yeah

The use of a Yello track in the teen comedy, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, gave the obscure Swiss act a hit. By that point the duo of Dieter Meier and Boris Blank, Yello had grown up on the same label as The Residents and were a stable in the record collections of underground DJs. The inclusion of “Oh Yeah,” with Meier’s processed intonation suggesting male lust, opened the money tap and took the band into the mainstream.

Oh Yeah, the book, is drawn from Blank’s archives. It features cuttings from newspapers, press releases, unseen photographs, and notes by Blank and Meier. Yello were from a privileged background, which gave them access to equipment like the Fairlight and opportunities that their contemporaries could only dream of. But it was their love of sounds taken from different cultures, the voices of singers like Shirley Bassey and Billy Mackenzie, and a feeling for rhythms that set them apart.

Placed next to Yello, Kraftwerk seem too serious and Depeche Mode appear naïve. Yello dress like aristocrats and play cards like James Bond. At the same time, they maintain a surrealistic edge. Like the 3D picture disc of “I Love You” that came out in 1983, they have a groove and a sense of humour that are captured perfectly in the book.

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The Top 23 of 2023

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

This has been a difficult year for parts of the music industry. Bandcamp, owned by Epic Games, turned on its workers in an attempt to break its union and reduce its size. Moog was sold to inMusic, the owners of Akai and M-Audio, and started its own programme of layoffs. Spotify announced that it would stop paying artists for 2/3 of the songs it makes available. Glume and Xylo announced that they had turned to sex work to compensate for the challenges of making a living in music. Merchandise sales – the life-blood of touring acts – came under taxation by many venues. At the same time, overall revenues continued to rise – data from 2022 showing new record levels of cash flowing towards the monopolies that control live performances, publishing, and recorded music catalogues. Independent labels and self-releasing artists were squeezed for every last drop, while the grabbing hands grabbed all they could. To quote a California millionaire who contributed to a top-selling album this year, it’s a competitive world.

The misfortune is that exceptional music gets drowned out between the cacophony of TikTok and the sanitised celebrities of the Superbowl half-time show. Challenging sounds and radical ideas are marginalised, even as alternative venues are bulldozed to make way for new developments (goodbye, Iklectik). So, what is to be done?

Part of the answer is greater public funding of the arts – and not just the opera. By supporting festivals and other live events, resources can be used to keep venues and performing artists on their feet. Bursaries for artists to be able to meet their bills while creating new works can be an alternative to sex work or other last-ditch measures. Setting fair royalties for streaming of creative works can help to make up for the declines in physical sales. Rules against union-busting can keep skilled workers engaged. Streaming services should be treated like broadcasters and subjected to royalty regulations. None of these should be controversial measures, but the neoliberal assault on public life has, over decades, eroded the foundation on which culture industries stand. Without action, only Live Nation/Ticketmaster, Sony, and Spotify will be left standing. Breaking up those monopolies would be no bad thing, either.

In that spirit, all of the artists in this year’s chart are on independent labels. We encourage you to buy their releases, rather than just stream them. Wear their merch. Go to their shows. Ignore events designed to suck all of the oxygen out of the scene, with “dynamic pricing” and £50 t-shirts sold by multinational corporations. You can do better, and these artists deserve it.

23. CAPPA – Hell of a Time

LA-based Carla Cappa has been working for years, knocking out dreamy pop music with to-the-minute touches. This track demonstrates CAPPA’s commercial sensibility and pop dynamics. One for the car or the dance floor.

22. Aux Animaux – Night

The long night has descended on Sweden, so it is a good time to highlight this track from Stockholm’s aux animaux, which appears on the new Body Horror album. It comes with a playful video and old-school gothic vibes that give a taste of Gözde Düzer’s style.

21. Elegiac – Meet My Stalker

The collaboration between Blurt’s Ted Milton and Wire’s Graham Lewis known as Elegiac first took shape in 2021, but their work was far from finished. This EP is their second release, pieced together by sound artist Sam Britton. It collects revised versions of three songs from the debut Elegiac album, married to this newly revealed piece. 

20. Container 90 – Grand PrixXx

This collection of songs by Container 90 is the duo’s fourth album. It comes as a comic book, instead of a traditional insert, with each page reflecting one of the tracks. Old school EBM lives on through Container 90, and this set draws together their “Eurovision Song Protest,” “EBM Way of Life,” and “Roller Derby Love Affair.” Solid.

19. Sunroof – Electronic Music Improvisations Live in London and Frankfurt

The really fun thing about Sunroof is that two of the most accomplished producers of our time balance on a knife’s edge with unpredictable modules to generate sounds together. There are psychological studies that show band members develop a hive-mind when playing together, but neither Daniel Miller nor Gareth Jones consider themselves musicians. Still, their process of engagement with the sounds (and silences) of the other yields compelling and finessed results. There is a danger with improvisations that threads are lost or egos compete, but neither of these risks has arisen during their performances. The evidence is on this album, which captures shows in London and Frankfurt. The vital flow of electrons, mediated through the hands of the two friends, is something to behold. 

18. Vince Clarke – Songs of Silence

Although Vince Clarke is best known for bouncy pop songs made on monophonic synthesisers, he has a long history of making music on the more experimental side. In particular, his collaborations with Martyn Ware as The Illustrious Company have dabbled in multidimensional sounscapes and material for installstions.

It shouldn’t have been such a surprise, therefore, that a break from Erasure work should have led to the development of Songs of Silence. Billed as Clarke’s first solo album, it is a collection of songs built from drones generated on the units incorporated into Clarke’s Eurorack modular system. It could be standard Cafe Oto/Wire Magazine fare, if it wasn’t for Clarke’s ear, which is tuned in an unusually sensitive way.

17. Lucy Gaffney – Daydream in Tokyo

From Belfast, Lucy Gaffney appeared with a style that recalls the much-missed Delays. Fusing guitar-based rhythms with touches of electronics and a very smooth vocal, Gaffney came up with several great songs this year, but this is our favourite.

16. NNHMN – Circle of Doom

The duo of Lee Margot and Michal Laudarg have worked out how to make dark electro tantalising. The current NNHMN album, Circle of Doom, is laden with elegant, charged and dynamic songs to keep the body moving.

15. Die Sexual – Tremble for Me

The US duo, Die Sexual, released a tremendous debut EP this year. Bound, I Rise is certain to make a number of year-end charts with its edgy grooves. We went for this later release, which goes to show that the EP wasn’t beginner’s luck.

14. Cosmic Garden Project – The Green Reverb

There are some artists who seem to be able to add magic to everything they touch. Dan Söderqvist, the Twice a Man singer, is one of those. This year, he has released two albums and still found time for the Cosmic Garden Project. Bringing together Söderqvist, Per Svensson and Pontus Torstensson, The Green Reverb is a poetic, enchanted journey through ancient forests to the sea. It has a psychedelic flow, but there is a reflective tone to the material, as it contemplates our connection to Mother Earth.

13. Lonelyklown – I Believe in Snow

The solo project of Dave Baker, Lonelyklown, was active this year with an album of remixes (Day Jar View), an ode to “All the Summers Gone,” and a pair of songs for the season. This is the last of them, and the proceeds go to support Care4Calais, a charity supporting refugees. It is a reminder that Baker’s songwriting talents and current fascination for the 70s can produce the most amazing gems.

12. John Foxx – The Arcades Project

Harold Budd’s The White Arcades is one of the best applications of reverb ever. John Foxx’s The Arcades Project calls that 1988 album to mind, and it certainly doesn’t stint on the processing. Inspired by a book by Walter Benjamin of the same name, it explores spaces and sights through ambience and presence. John Foxx is a national treasure, and this is an album that belongs in a gallery instead of the CD rack.

11. Strikkland – Enkelriktat

Representing Sweden’s West Coast, the body-pop fusion of Strikkland continues to charge ahead with its hard-edge rhythms. The duo have been picking up more live shows, and their style is like a set of shiny leather boots on the pavement of modern radio.

10. KUNT – Unleashed

The first album from Sweden’s KUNT is a blast. The duo of Paula Lè Boss and Rickard Rosendahl have created a powerful, in-your-face sound that strikes with sequenced blows. This track, remixed by Cryo, gives a good taste of the emphatic, no-nonsense attitude the band delivers.

9. Kite – Don’t Take the Light Away SINGLE OF THE YEAR

Produced together with the Swedish team, Aasthma (Pär Grindvik and Peder Mannerfelt), Kite released this track back in April – just in time for their first live shows in London. Need we say that they were storming demonstrations of the duo’s capability to write outstanding tunes? This track adds to the evidence.

8. Psyche – Live in Sweden

Psyche returned to Europe from a nightmarish year with a storming and emotional show at the famous Dickens pub in Helsingborg. It was quickly released as a live recording, which is excellent, as it captures Darrin Huss at his rawest. The set includes “Prisoner to Desire,” “Uncivilised,” “Misery,” and “The Outsider” – classic Psyche tracks that show a European soul in a Canadian body.

7. The Weathermen – 40 Years REISSUE OF THE YEAR

Take the keyboard player from Fad Gadget’s first live band. Add the visuals director from Tuxedomoon. Stir in politics, cynicism, and a fondness for the absurd. Bake in some hard, minimal electronics. That gives you The Weathermen – Belgium’s iconic electro-jesters.

The band had a string of hits that moved the alternative dancefloor in the late 80s and early 90s. This year, PIAS, their label, marked their 40th anniversary with an EP collecting several of them in one place on vinyl. The throb of Jean-Marc Lederman’s bass synth on “Poison” shakes the walls as Suzanna Stammer (Bruce Geduldig) threatens your Bruce Springsteen records. “Barbie and Ken” is a reminder that Margot Robbie wasn’t the first to satirise the impossibly perfect dolls. “Bang!” is just terrific fun. This is an essential collection of timeless dance music with a knowing glint in its eye.

6. Zanias – Chrysalis

Berlin-based Alison Lewis has honed her alter-ego project into something very special. As Zanias, she released Chrysalis this year; combining personal and political viewpoints into a statement of hope. You don’t mess with Zanias – and you don’t mess with Mother Earth.

5. Pieces of Juno – Atlantis

The last of the Pieces of Juno works expected from Norway’s Juno Jensen, Atlantis struck us with its naturalistic touches. There are also glints of Nick Cave’s, Tom Waits’ and PJ Harvey’s influences. This is the perfect album for Sunday night listening with the lights down. If it doesn’t leave you touched, you are a psychopath.

4. Lau Nau – Aphrilis

Finland’s Lau Nau was very active again this year. She released 5×4 as summer approached, and then this album came towards year-end. Her tenth album, Aphrilis is a figure of beauty and wonder. There are lullabies and songs for the planet, and the material flows with sensual tension. Not a foot is set wrong across the seven songs. Lau Nau and her collaborators have taken the space to create them with a sense of connection with the natural world, and the results are lush.

3. Lucifer’s Aid – Destruction

The new album from Calle Nilsson’s solo project, Lucifer’s Aid, is an exciting career highlight. The previous four studio albums have shown great workmanship, but the craft on Destruction is next level. It sits neatly alongside the best work by Front Line Assembly and label-mates Cryo. This is seriously good dance floor-filling material.

2. REIN – God Is a Woman

In 2023, Stockholm’s REIN criss-crossed North America with Front Line Assembly, and opened for Nitzer Ebb and Front 242, but her new album showed a side several steps removed from her EBM roots. With her coproducer, Djedjotronic, REIN fused elements of Robyn, Janet Jackson, Eurythmics, and The Prodigy to create a dynamic and forward-looking set of songs.

1. Page – En ny våg ALBUM OF THE YEAR

When Daniel Miller released a series of records as Silicon Teens, he showed the future to a young Eddie Bengtsson. The Swedish skateboarder sold his drums and bought two cheap synths. One went to Marina Schiptjenko, and the result was a pioneering band that took over where ABBA left off.

More than four decades later, Page are still making innovative and dynamic sounds with their equipment. Both have been updated for the times, but the spirit of 1979-1980 runs through them. En ny våg is the concentrated extract of Synth Britannia, as imagined by Bengtsson and processed through Moog keyboards. The material is as rich as anything the duo have made, and proceedings are enhanced by the appearance of Chris Payne and Rrussell Bell from Gary Numan’s touring band and Dramatis. It is a match made in Heaven (at least, before Branson bought it).

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Shine On: Stephen Hague

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

The legendary producer, Stephen Hague, started out making the most uncool music possible. As a member of La Seine, he shared responsibility for long-haired 70s guitar combos making mainstream rock. As a songwriter, he provided input to Ringo Starr. As a session musician, he programmed synths for Gordon Lightfoot. Hague’s real break came, however, from his time with Jules and the Polar Bears – the lead singer went on to write songs for Cyndi Lauper (“App Around the World”) and Alison Moyet (“Whispering Her Name”), while Hague became an in-demand producer.

Things started to look up with work on Ric Ocasek’s Beatitude. The Cars front man had decided to move in an electronic direction, and Hague’s keyboard experience was just what he needed. The fact that Hague had acquired a CS-80 didn’t hurt, either. Thus began a career making many of the hits of the 80s for OMD, Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, and New Order. That turned into a career making hits in the 90s for Dubstar, Blur, Robbie Williams and Electronic. And it continues, to this day, with efforts for Lizzo, Whitey, and the renewed Dubstar.

Hague’s reputation has come at a cost. Some bands have seen him as their record label’s attempt to impress them with a winning sound. Others have worried that his production – like that of Trevor Horn – is just a little too glossy. There is no arguing with the results, however: Stephen Hague productions have a technical quality that the labels are willing to pay for. He has writing credits on songs that have never lost their appeal. And he has helped UK bands to cross the Atlantic when they were struggling to get attention. There is no pleasing some people (looking at you, Peter Hook), but the songs speak for themselves.

10. Rock Steady Crew – (Hey You) Rock Steady Crew

Hip hop and electro had been taking shape for a few years before Rock Steady Crew appeared on the scene. This Hague-produced and co-written single was a global sensation. The track topped the charts in Belgium and the Netherlands, and it was a top ten hit in Sweden and the UK. The Crew were a breakdancing troupe, and this song took their b-boy/b-girl ethos from the streets of New York to the world.

9. OMD – Secret

In 1985, the band that had written “Distance Fades Between Us” was searching for the commercial success that had fallen into the laps of the bands they had inspired. Cue a call from Virgin Records to Hague to work with OMD, whose radio-friendly direction had been demonstrated by the previous year’s Junk Culture. Hague went on to produce two albums for OMD; the first being Crush, which yielded this classic single. It is sometimes said that OMD is a band of two audiences – one experimental, the other commercial – but the pop credentials of “Secret” must be something that both camps can agree on.

8. Malcolm McLaren – Madam Butterfly

Hague worked with the former Sex Pistols manager, Malcolm McLaren, on a number of projects. Their first connection was indirect: the World Famous Supreme Team had taken samples from “Buffalo Girls” for “Hey DJ,” which had been produced by Hague. That was quickly noticed by Charisma, McLaren’s label, who had known of Hague through an association with Peter Gabriel, and he was soon in the frame for McLaren’s Fans album. An LP full of cod opera merged with hip hop must have sounded mad on paper, but they managed to record elegant voices that still raise a shiver.

7. Pet Shop Boys – Love Comes Quickly

The first producer to work with the Pet Shop Boys was Bobby Orlando, the Hi-NRG pioneer who had created alternative dancefloor hits for the Flirts and Divine before Neil Tennant tracked him down in New York. Orlando gave his treatment to “West End Girls” and co-wrote “One More Chance,” but his studio was not big enough to contain the stars that the PSB were turning into. A change of labels led to an invitation for Hague to rework the PSB material for their first album, Please. It was a step ahead of Orlando’s octave-bouncing Hi-NRG style, and it gave the duo a string of hits. Hague got a writing credit on this single, which helped to establish their new sound and his credentials as the go-to producer for electronic pop music.

6. Erasure – A Little Respect

When Vince Clarke wrapped up Yazoo and started Erasure, it was assumed that his Midas touch would be revealed again. Instead, the first Erasure album almost sank without a trace. It is a good thing that he held his nerve and carried on, as the duo were able to establish themselves as one of the most enduring and entertaining acts to emerge from the 1980s. In 1988, Hague’s reputation as an electronic music producer led to an engagement that saw Erasure topping the UK album charts for the first time. It wouldn’t be the last time that Clarke and Andy Bell would lead the sales tables, but their change of fortune owes something to Hague’s ear. Vince Clarke wasn’t entirely happy with the experience, however, and the gig for the next album, Wild!, went to Gareth Jones and Mark Saunders.

5. The House of Love – I Don’t Know Why I Love You

In 1989, The House of Love were on the verge of becoming massive. Hague was called in to work some magic on this song, which was released as a single despite singer Guy Chadwick’s intuition that it wasn’t the right track for the times. It didn’t reach the top 20, but it became a hit among US college radio stations and the cool crowd. It is still one of the band’s best-regarded songs from that period.

4. James – She’s a Star

James were discovered by Tony Wilson of Factory Records and recorded their first release for the legendary label in the same Stockport studio used by Joy Division. They were concerned about using up their best songs in the studio, however, so opted to record what they took to be their three worst songs for their debut EP with Chris Nagle. No fear of that Mancunian logic being allowed when Hague got involved, but he was pulled in by Fontana while the band were in a shambolic state: the singer had another project to work on; Brian Eno was only half-involved with production work to date; and the studio set-up was a mobile arrangement in the drummer’s house. Retreating to Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios near Bath, Hague set about cleaning up the process and the songs, leading to a string of top-ten hits and critical acclaim. Nice one.

3. Sheila Chandra – Ever So Lonely/Eyes/Ocean

One of the greatest voices to emerge from Britain belongs to Sheila Chandra. The former Monsoon vocalist had a solo career that was tragically cut short when she developed “burning mouth syndrome” – a condition that makes even whispering painful. Hague was tapped to remix a medley of three of Chandra’s greatest songs, “Ever So Lonely,” “Eyes,” and “Ocean,” for the 2001 compilation, Gifted: Women of the World. The digital release had to wait until 2023’s Out in the Real World, but the sonic purity of Chandra’s voice is timeless.

2. Dubstar – Hygiene Strip

Hague’s work with Dubstar began in 1995, when the original line-up was still on Food Records. Disgraceful – which had a pencil case on the cover that was so sexy that Woolworths banned it from display – contained the classic tracks, “Not So Manic Now,” “St Swithin’s Day,” and “Stars.” Hague added accordian to the album, as well as a layer of glossy production that lifted the pop potential of the songs.

Fast forward to the Covid-19 lockdowns, and Hague was called on to work with the renewed Dubstar on tracks for their album, Two. Sarah Blackwood’s vocals had lost none of their innocence or classiness in the intervening years, while Chris Wilkie’s guitar playing had acquired a new sensitivity. Hague’s unpressured approach highlighted the self-assurance of the band, while adding to the playfulness of the enterprise.

1. New Order – True Faith

Peter Hook likes a whinge. The former New Order bass player became very upset when he felt that, during the recording of “True Faith,” Hague paid little attention to his contributions. Hague, to his credit, now says that he wishes Hook had made more of a noise when the single was being crafted. It certainly didn’t lead to him being vetoed as producer for New Order’s mid-career, difficult album, Republic, but Hooky’s unhappiness is featured loudly in his biography. New mind, Hague’s single-mindedness turned “True Faith” into one of New Order’s most majestic singles and got the band onto the soundtrack for American Psycho. Can’t complain about that.

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The Top 22 of 2022

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

Karin Park returned this year with an album reimagining some of her previous compositions. Reaching back across two decades, the songs retooled on Private Collection were her own favourites; but they included many of ours, as well. Motherhood and time in the deep woods have had their effects on how Park hears her work, and we found the songs stood up well to a stripped-down, raw, and unapologetic approach.

 

14. The Ändå – Update & Reboot


The Ändå were back this year with this track that breaks down several boundaries. We have to wait until next year for the Twice a Man compilation, but Karl Gasleben and his collaborators in this project know how to keep the theatrical flame nurtured by the band alive. Is it silly? Is it serious? You would never ask that of Laurie Anderson, would you?

 

13. Fifi Rong – There Is a Funeral in My Heart for Every Man I Ever Loved


Fifi Rong went heavily into NFTs, using the emergent technology to share her music with fans. The Crypto Winter has possibility dampened the market for trading in tokens, but her current double album (one part English and one part Chinese) is also on CD. In any format, the songs on There Is a Funeral… are creative treats. The Yello collaborator has taken the indie route further than most, but her album deserves to reach the mainstream.

 

12. Waterflower – Mycelium (Step by Step)


Waterflower’s work incorporates plant-life, which conduct electricity in ways that can be processed. The signals generated by mushrooms are measured, timed, and turned into music that accompanies the vocals of Sabine Moore. This might sound like just a Tesco Disco, but the material is rich and enveloping — like the forest itself.

 

11. Front 242 – Rewind


Front 242 put on what was arguably the Concert of the Year in London, despite Jean-Luc de Meyer’s recent health scare. They weren’t touring a new record, but their countrymen at Alfa Matrix released a set of remixes this year, with Terence Fixmer, The Hacker, Kant Kino, and Radical G taking turns to play with some classic tracks. Rewind was originally planned for release last year, to mark the 20th anniversary of the label and the 40th anniversary of the band, but Covid did its thing.

 

10. Strikkland – Bodypop


Sweden’s love of EBM is well known, and the fact that new bands keep emerging to fan the musical flame is encouraging. Representing the west coast, Strikkland have finally issued their first album, and it is a stormer. Mixing body music and pop, the duo have made the most of their inheritance.

 

9. Emmon – RECON


Another Swedish act that has embraced the pop-body combination is Emmon. Previously known for seriously danceable pop, they have shifted direction to embrace all of the sounds from Emma Nylén’s DJ days. That means a bit of Goldfrapp, a dose of Depeche Mode, a shake of Nitzer Ebb, and a pinch of Front 242, blended until smooth. Representing the east coast, they have retained the sophistication and sexiness of their earlier work while turning up the body element of the mix.

 

8. Lederman – Rohn – Rage


This collaboration between Jean-Marc Lederman (Fad Gadget, The Weathermen, Kid Montana) and Emileigh Rohn (Chiasm) quickly punched its way up the alternative charts with an aggressive, menacing sound. It is a long way from some of Lederman’s more pastoral output, but the composer covers a lot of ground. Just the thing for a new Matrix movie, don’t you think?

 

7. Lau Nau – Puutarhassa


The promotional material explains this album better than we can:


“In the summer 2020 Lau Nau did a video performance Live in the Orchard for the Munich based concert series frameless. She built a little transportable wagon that fits a modular synth, a miniature recording studio and a sound system, and created a concept for the performance where she made field recordings in the garden while playing the synth. This record includes two straight takes from the live performance, remixed with other material Lau Nau recorded in the same vein in the same place, a tiny village on an island in the Western coast of Finland.”


What we can add is that this is exactly the kind of experimentation that Lau Nau does like no other. While Virginia Astley bottled the essence of British summers in From Gardens Where We Feel Secure, Lau Nau’s approach is less constricted by cultural expectations. Where Astley supplied familiarity, Lau Nau delivers surprises based upon observation and engagement. Call it quaint but never twee. A band should be named after this, called And Also the Bees.

 

6. Lonelyklown – Funny Sunday Morning


Together with Simon Leonard, Dave Baker is responsible for some of the best love songs ever made–even when they are about satellites and walks through Muswell Hill. There is only one track on this album written with Leonard, but the plaintive vocals and catchy melodies show direct descent from the ouevre of I Start Counting, Fortran 5 and Komputer. The twist is that it is impressed with a classic 70s vibe and more songs about things feline than The Stranglers ever managed.

 

5. Minuit Machine – 24


Minuit Machine are one of the top acts in the dark wave scene for a reason. Their ability to weave together haunting vocals and catchy electronics breathes humanity into the machines in ways that few other scene acts accomplish. Sadly, news came at the end of the year that Hélène de Thoury’s health would prevent her from touring in the future.

 

4. Amusi – EP-A


A combination of Joakim Montelius (Covenant), Khyber Westlund, Richard Hansson, and Ulrika Mild (Computer), Amusi are an alternative Swedish supergroup. Don’t confuse them with the Travelling Wilburys.

 

3. Page – Glad REISSUE OF THE YEAR


The original release of Page’s third album has been out of print for many years. Issued in 1995, on CD only, it has changed hands between collectors for full price ever since. Now issued for the first time on vinyl, Glad is a classic of Swedish pop. Marina Schiptjenko and Eddie Bengtsson stopped working together after this album, while the former concentrated on an ultrapop career and the latter explored guitar sounds, but their all-synth reunion has brought new life to these songs.

 

2. Dubstar – Two ALBUM OF THE YEAR


Since they reorganised as a duo, Dubstar have become more sophisticated and thoughtful. The release of Two gathered up some singles, including “Hygiene Strip,”  and some new material crafted with producer Stephen Hague (New Order, Pet Shop Boys). The latter made it out to Dubstar’s release event at Rough Trade East, where Sarah Blackwood and Chris Wilkie performed some of the songs for an entranced audience. Blackwood’s vocals are as strong as ever, while Wilkie’s guitar work is accomplished and confident. You would have to be to have been through the Machine and come out the other side with an album that is essentially faultless.

 

1. Page – Vi kommer tillbaka SINGLE OF THE YEAR


When John Foxx left Ultravox!, they lost more than their punctuation mark. Foxx’s presence gave the band bite. Midge Ure made excellent, soaring pop but left no teeth marks–well, apart from the time he kicked Warren Cann out of the band he had founded. Musically, at least, there is something to be said for having an edge.


Page could have reissued Glad and been happy with the enthusiastic response, but Eddie Bengtsson has some of that 1970s UV spirit in him. “Vi kommer tillbaka” [EN: “We Are Coming Back”] arrived as a single just as the year was running out, easily outpacing the competition with a slice of golden poptronica.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4SIGoC25t0Kqxf9dsXkTh1?si=cI1TBDxtSVGJigKooLYH0Q&utm_source=copy-link


This was the year of the music book. Instead of running the pop charts, many legendary figures migrated to the bestseller lists with their memoirs. Dr Martyn Ware provided his version of the Human League 1.0 in Electronically Yours. Trevor Horn offered some insights into his career in Adventures in Modern Recording. John McGeogh wasn’t here to write his own story, so Rory Sullivan-Burke took it on in The Light Pours Out of Me. Richard Evans’ Listening to the Music the Machines Make told the story of electronic music through the pages of the British music press. For Depeche Mode fans, the Halo book, revisiting the recording of Violator, was possibly more interesting than a press conference to announce a forthcoming album in the spirit of, well, Spirit.


Depeche Mode lost Andy Fletcher this year, reducing their original formation to two. Another casualty of 2022 was their former associate, Robert Marlow, who died without having achieved the broader recognition many thought he deserved. Nick Cave lost a second son, in an almost unimaginable tragedy. Hawkwind’s Nik Turner had lived a fuller life, but he couldn’t evade inclusion on a death roster that included Keith Levene, Klaus Schulze, Manuel Göttsching, Jet Black, and Vangelis. Front 242’s Jean-Luc De Meyer almost joined them, after running into heart problems. Andy Ross of Food Records wasn’t as lucky. There were constant reminders to show appreciation for artists while they are still alive.


There were plenty of opportunities to do so, as live shows were crammed into the calendar. The post-lockdown rush to get back on the road saw tours by many artists. Front 242 were up-and-at-them, as soon as the cardiologists were done, with a storming show. Rein took Manhattan (and a number of other US cities) as support for Front Line Assembly and other big name acts. Even the Electronic Summer festival returned en gång till, introducing Sierra and Piston Damp to a Swedish audience. Dave Baker’s Lonelyklown project had its stage debut. Minuit Machine valiantly returned to live performance after Helene de Thoury experienced significant inner-ear problems, but by year end de Thoury had to withdraw from live work. Kitka went to the Legion in Calgary for fries and draft beer. Test Dept beat the retreat with shows in Europe and the UK.


Mind you, some artists raised eyebrows. Patsy Kensit thought it was appropriate to snap the coffin at Fletch’s funeral and post to her IG account. We disagreed. Kanye West went full Yitler. Those lads from Right Said Fred continued to promote far right conspiracy theories. Just because you can sing doesn’t mean that everything that comes out of your mouth is golden.


Where the year fell short was in the number of quality new releases from established artists. Simple Minds, Dubstar, Leftfield, The House of Love, Wire, and William Orbit had new material on offer, but the release schedule was impacted by a combination of tour commitments, production backlogs, and record company apathy. When music is all about TikTok background sounds and  streaming service statistics, a band could get lost. Add to that the economic pressures on artists who struggle to make even a basic living, while the LiveNation monopoly sucks all the oxygen from growing scenes. It’s all about dynamic ticket pricing and pre-saves on Spotify: at the end of 2022, the crisis in music is in full swing.

 

22. Sierra – See Me Now EP


Kicking off our list is Sierra from France. The solo artist has been making highly sought after releases for several years, but — hands in the air — we didn’t have her on the radar until the Electronic Summer festival in Gothenburg. That is an error we are happy to correct, because her music fuses the old school sounds of Vangelis and Jarre with the hardness of the dark wave set. After the insufferable flotsam of most synthwave, this is what we hoped for from the next generation of electronic musicians. It delivers in spades.

 

21. Alanas Chosnau and Mark Reeder – Life Everywhere


Released into the political crisis caused by the Russo-Ukrainian war, Life Everywhere was a timely release by Chosnau and Reeder. Built around a fear of government control, the tracks embed hidden caches of New Order and Human League, while making Orwell danceable.

 

20. Blancmange – Private View


Neil Arthur is one of the epic showmen of British entertainment. Unfortunately, due to serious health concerns, he has had to continue Blancmange without Stephen Luscombe; but he has bolted his songs to Benge’s electronics without losing his step. Private View proves that aging is no reason to give up making strong material or switching to blues-rock stylings.

 

19. Mark Stewart – VS


The Pop Group giant has never been the shy one. Here, he storms the heavens with industrial dub and other delights delivered by the likes of Front 242, Leaether Strip, Stephen Mallinder, and Eric Random. Stewart’s got a bone to pick with the universe, and he isn’t letting it rest until he gets a result. That makes us hopeful for more of this in the future.

 

18. Francesca e Luigi – Dirty Disco


The Swedes are going to dominate this year’s list — prepare yourself now. This track is one of the reasons: they are congenitally unafraid to play with disco, Italo, and other stylings that might be dismissed as cheese by others. Choose fun!

 

17. William Orbit – The Painter


The return of William Orbit, after some health challenges, was welcome news. The Painter found him collaborating with a range of vocalists — from Beth Orton to Polly Scattergood — while playing with the spacial capabilities of Dolby Atmos. Orbit’s bag of tricks is always full of bubbling delays, and this set of tracks was loaded with them. It is an exercise in recovery, rather than dancefloor beats, and no less beautiful for it.

 

16. Kitka – House of K


From the north of Sweden came House of K by Kitka, which married pop, synthwave and trap stylings to good effect. It’s not your father’s electronic music, but it is exactly the kind of creative work that needs to keep coming.

 

15. Karin Park – Private Collection


Karin Park returned this year with an album reimagining some of her previous compositions. Reaching back across two decades, the songs retooled on Private Collection were her own favourites; but they included many of ours, as well. Motherhood and time in the deep woods have had their effects on how Park hears her work, and we found the songs stood up well to a stripped-down, raw, and unapologetic approach.

 

14. The Ändå – Update & Reboot


The Ändå were back this year with this track that breaks down several boundaries. We have to wait until next year for the Twice a Man compilation, but Karl Gasleben and his collaborators in this project know how to keep the theatrical flame nurtured by the band alive. Is it silly? Is it serious? You would never ask that of Laurie Anderson, would you?

 

13. Fifi Rong – There Is a Funeral in My Heart for Every Man I Ever Loved


Fifi Rong went heavily into NFTs, using the emergent technology to share her music with fans. The Crypto Winter has possibility dampened the market for trading in tokens, but her current double album (one part English and one part Chinese) is also on CD. In any format, the songs on There Is a Funeral… are creative treats. The Yello collaborator has taken the indie route further than most, but her album deserves to reach the mainstream.

 

12. Waterflower – Mycelium (Step by Step)


Waterflower’s work incorporates plant-life, which conduct electricity in ways that can be processed. The signals generated by mushrooms are measured, timed, and turned into music that accompanies the vocals of Sabine Moore. This might sound like just a Tesco Disco, but the material is rich and enveloping — like the forest itself.

 

11. Front 242 – Rewind


Front 242 put on what was arguably the Concert of the Year in London, despite Jean-Luc de Meyer’s recent health scare. They weren’t touring a new record, but their countrymen at Alfa Matrix released a set of remixes this year, with Terence Fixmer, The Hacker, Kant Kino, and Radical G taking turns to play with some classic tracks. Rewind was originally planned for release last year, to mark the 20th anniversary of the label and the 40th anniversary of the band, but Covid did its thing.

 

10. Strikkland – Bodypop


Sweden’s love of EBM is well known, and the fact that new bands keep emerging to fan the musical flame is encouraging. Representing the west coast, Strikkland have finally issued their first album, and it is a stormer. Mixing body music and pop, the duo have made the most of their inheritance.

 

9. Emmon – RECON


Another Swedish act that has embraced the pop-body combination is Emmon. Previously known for seriously danceable pop, they have shifted direction to embrace all of the sounds from Emma Nylén’s DJ days. That means a bit of Goldfrapp, a dose of Depeche Mode, a shake of Nitzer Ebb, and a pinch of Front 242, blended until smooth. Representing the east coast, they have retained the sophistication and sexiness of their earlier work while turning up the body element of the mix.

 

8. Lederman – Rohn – Rage


This collaboration between Jean-Marc Lederman (Fad Gadget, The Weathermen, Kid Montana) and Emileigh Rohn (Chiasm) quickly punched its way up the alternative charts with an aggressive, menacing sound. It is a long way from some of Lederman’s more pastoral output, but the composer covers a lot of ground. Just the thing for a new Matrix movie, don’t you think?

 

7. Lau Nau – Puutarhassa


The promotional material explains this album better than we can:


“In the summer 2020 Lau Nau did a video performance Live in the Orchard for the Munich based concert series frameless. She built a little transportable wagon that fits a modular synth, a miniature recording studio and a sound system, and created a concept for the performance where she made field recordings in the garden while playing the synth. This record includes two straight takes from the live performance, remixed with other material Lau Nau recorded in the same vein in the same place, a tiny village on an island in the Western coast of Finland.”


What we can add is that this is exactly the kind of experimentation that Lau Nau does like no other. While Virginia Astley bottled the essence of British summers in From Gardens Where We Feel Secure, Lau Nau’s approach is less constricted by cultural expectations. Where Astley supplied familiarity, Lau Nau delivers surprises based upon observation and engagement. Call it quaint but never twee. A band should be named after this, called And Also the Bees.

 

6. Lonelyklown – Funny Sunday Morning


Together with Simon Leonard, Dave Baker is responsible for some of the best love songs ever made–even when they are about satellites and walks through Muswell Hill. There is only one track on this album written with Leonard, but the plaintive vocals and catchy melodies show direct descent from the ouevre of I Start Counting, Fortran 5 and Komputer. The twist is that it is impressed with a classic 70s vibe and more songs about things feline than The Stranglers ever managed.

 

5. Minuit Machine – 24


Minuit Machine are one of the top acts in the dark wave scene for a reason. Their ability to weave together haunting vocals and catchy electronics breathes humanity into the machines in ways that few other scene acts accomplish. Sadly, news came at the end of the year that Hélène de Thoury’s health would prevent her from touring in the future.

 

4. Amusi – EP-A


A combination of Joakim Montelius (Covenant), Khyber Westlund, Richard Hansson, and Ulrika Mild (Computer), Amusi are an alternative Swedish supergroup. Don’t confuse them with the Travelling Wilburys.

 

3. Page – Glad REISSUE OF THE YEAR


The original release of Page’s third album has been out of print for many years. Issued in 1995, on CD only, it has changed hands between collectors for full price ever since. Now issued for the first time on vinyl, Glad is a classic of Swedish pop. Marina Schiptjenko and Eddie Bengtsson stopped working together after this album, while the former concentrated on an ultrapop career and the latter explored guitar sounds, but their all-synth reunion has brought new life to these songs.

 

2. Dubstar – Two ALBUM OF THE YEAR


Since they reorganised as a duo, Dubstar have become more sophisticated and thoughtful. The release of Two gathered up some singles, including “Hygiene Strip,”  and some new material crafted with producer Stephen Hague (New Order, Pet Shop Boys). The latter made it out to Dubstar’s release event at Rough Trade East, where Sarah Blackwood and Chris Wilkie performed some of the songs for an entranced audience. Blackwood’s vocals are as strong as ever, while Wilkie’s guitar work is accomplished and confident. You would have to be to have been through the Machine and come out the other side with an album that is essentially faultless.

 

1. Page – Vi kommer tillbaka SINGLE OF THE YEAR


When John Foxx left Ultravox!, they lost more than their punctuation mark. Foxx’s presence gave the band bite. Midge Ure made excellent, soaring pop but left no teeth marks–well, apart from the time he kicked Warren Cann out of the band he had founded. Musically, at least, there is something to be said for having an edge.


Page could have reissued Glad and been happy with the enthusiastic response, but Eddie Bengtsson has some of that 1970s UV spirit in him. “Vi kommer tillbaka” [EN: “We Are Coming Back”] arrived as a single just as the year was running out, easily outpacing the competition with a slice of golden poptronica.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4SIGoC25t0Kqxf9dsXkTh1?si=cI1TBDxtSVGJigKooLYH0Q&utm_source=copy-link

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Shine On: Robert Görl

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

Compared to the privileged founders of Kraftwerk, who were able to launch their project with family money, Robert Görl had it tough.

Raised in an orphanage in Munich, he was attracted to punk and became one of the outsiders hanging around Düsseldorf’s Ratinger Hof. There, he connected with fellow spirit, Gabi Delgado, and the duo became the core of Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft, one of the leading Neue Deutsche Welle acts. A formally trained jazz drummer, Görl brought a sense of rhythm and structure to the band, which was to spin off acts like Pyrolator and Liaisons Dangereuses.

The first album by DAF, Ein Produkt der Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft, was an experimental, improvised collection of instrumental tracks. It led to a trip to London, which saw the group of German punks sleeping on the floor of Daniel Miller‘s mother’s middle class house in Temple Fortune, London. The next step was an album, Die Kleinen und die Bosen, which was the first full-length release for Miller’s Mute Records label. Given the catalogue number, STUMM1 (‘stumm’ being the German word for ‘mute’), it featured a live side recorded in London and a studio side produced by Conny Plank.

Plank’s son tells the story that Görl, Delgado and Miller went to Conny’s Studio in Germany to finalise the material. Miller had booked three days of studio time. On the first day, Plank cooked and chatted with Görl and Delgado. On the second day, the same thing happened. Miller was watching his budget being eaten up – literally. On the third day, as Miller’s anxiety was peaking, the Germans went into the studio and did the entire session in one go. This was the beginning of a key relationship between Plank and DAF. DAF

It also led to the reorganisation of DAF as the duo of Görl and Delgado. After Die Kleinen…, they clinched a contract with Virgin Records and forged a new, minimal sound. The rest of the band were out, and Miller was told only after the deal was done. It was a messy affair, but it led to a series of albums that set new templates for European electronic music. With only a sequencer, basic synths, a drum kit, and Delgado’s voice, DAF crafted a distinctive sound with songs that cut open the belly of punk. Görl’s drums and electronics steered a path between icy anthems and intimate tracks, avoiding the traps of both 4/4 dance music and pub rock, while Delgado purred and shouted slogans and sensual promises with equal intensity.

The new arrangement was successful, but it didn’t last. It couldn’t have lasted. After three albums in two years, all produced in Conny’s Studio, DAF pulled the plug. The passion that kept the music interesting also led to collisions that blew the partnership apart. They regrouped in 1986 for a dance-oriented album, 1st Step to Heaven, but the tensions kept resurfacing. Over the years, the fans pulled DAF back into the studio and onto the stage, but keeping the band together was a recurring challenge. In the gaps between DAF projects, Görl continued to produce exceptional music.

In 1983, after the first DAF split, Görl returned to Mute Records with the single, “Mit Dir.” That led to a further single and album produced by Mike Hedges, including a collaboration with Annie Lennox of Eurythmics. Görl had provided drums for the Eurythmics’ 1981 single, “Belinda,” which appeared on the Plank-produced album, In the Garden, and kept close to Lennox. Although critically well received, Night Full of Tension failed to ignite Görl’s solo career in the UK.

After the second DAF split, in 1987, Görl went off to study acting in New York; quickly finding himself expelled for having the wrong visa. On return to West Germany, he was picked up by the army, which wanted to know why he hadn’t completed his national service. Faced with the choice of joining the Bundeswehr or making music, Görl split for Paris, where he recorded demos in a suburban flat. He took them to London, where Daniel Miller recommended that he connect with the Canadian prog musician, Dee Long, who had set up as a Fairlight operator at George Martin’s AIR Studios.

Long had previously worked with Rational Youth on the Heredity album and with Images in Vogue, so had some experience working with the current technology. Before they could properly record the material that Görl had developed in Paris, however, he was involved in a horrific car accident. The drummer began 1989 with broken bones and soft tissue injuries that prevented further work and would impact him for the rest of his career.

The result was a hiatus from music that lasted until 1992. In that time, Görl became a monk at a Buddhist monastery in Thailand; a role he traded in for techno production after returning to a reunited Germany and experiencing Berlin’s Love Parade. His love for Buddhist spirituality remained, but so did his drive to make music as DAF. In 2003, he and Delgado released Fünfzehn neue D.A.F.-Lieder, updating the DAF sound while demonstrating their continuing relevance. More splits followed, but a way forward was always found.

In 2021, following the death of Delgado, Görl released the final DAF album, Nur noch einer, drawn from archive material and ideas the duo had been working on together. It was a kind of closure, but not the end of the journey: Görl has recently continued to perform as DAF, and there are other sketches in the vaults that could still be worked on. DAF lives…

10. DAF – Kebabträume

The first DAF single on Mute, “Kebabträume” is an electro-punk treatment of the controversy about Turkish immigration to West Germany. It deals with the division of Berlin and cold war spycraft, reflecting the anxieties of the times. It was re-recorded by the Görl-Delgado version of DAF for their third Virgin album, Für Immer, with cleaner production and a more minimal style, but the original 7″ in the Simone Grant sleeve remains the definitive version.

9. Robert Rental – Double Heart

Görl’s skills as a drummer have been called upon a number of times for other acts. Rental had worked with Daniel Miller on a tour of the UK and France, which had been documented on a one-sided album for Rough Trade. It was natural, therefore, that he would release his second single on Mute. It was recorded at Blackwing Studios, where Miller was working on his Silicon Teens material, with Thomas Leer and Görl assisting.

8. DAF – Ich und die Wirklichkeit

The version of DAF that went to Virgin was one that Mute would have loved to have bid for. DAF’s first album for Richard Branson’s label, Alles ist Gut, was to become a classic and a crossover hit in Germany. With the instrumentation reduced to drums and sequenced synths, the duo was able to reinvent electronic music entirely. The live version of this track offers a view of the band’s strong punk sensibilities; rejecting both the hippy ambience of Tangerine Dream and the angular pop of the Anglo-American New Wave.

7. DAF – The Gun

The return of DAF in 1987 was at the height of Stock Aitken Waterman’s powers. Hi-NRG was all over the dancefloor, and the band was well positioned to take a run at commercial success. They brought with them an early track – “Absolute Body Control” – and wrote new material, including this funky 12″ single. Some saw this as a sell-out, but DAF’s club campaign yielded a string of excellent singles and an album that added polish to their sound.

6. Robert Görl – Dominatrix Supreme

Görl’s return to Germany led to a period of techno production that is sometimes overlooked in his work, but the material is of very high quality. DAF’s sound was one of the major influences on the development of dance music, and it is only natural that Görl would have turned his hand to the music of the clubs.

5. Client with Robert Görl – Der Mussolini

In 2006, Görl performed live with Client, the band fronted by Sarah Blackwood and championed by Andy Fletcher of Depeche Mode. At the end of their set, they had a go at this classic dancefloor number by DAF. In 2007, Görl’s remix of the band’s Adam Ant-written song, “Zerox Machine,” was released.

4. Robert Görl – Part 1 (Vince Clarke Remix)

The accident that prevented Görl from taking forward his second solo album with Dee Long was very serious. He spent six months in hospital, was implanted with steel pins, and had to learn to walk again. Completely defeated by chance, he took himself away to a monastery and gave up music entirely. The discovery of a cassette with his demos led to the release of an album by Grönland Records in 2018. Vince Clarke provided a remix of this track; hinting at the way the material could have taken shape if Görl had worked on it in London as planned.

3. FLA – Eye on You

Canada’s Front Line Assembly called on Görl to contribute to this track from 2019. As Bill Leeb told The Electricity Club: “We met at M’era Luna and another festival. We all hung out backstage, and I kind of hunted him down. One time, [DAF] played right after us and we were hanging out backstage, waiting to change, and I just started talking to him. I was such a huge fan, and the first couple of DAF albums were groundbreaking – kind of like the whole Mute and DEPECHE MODE world. We just started chatting in German, and he’s a super nice guy, and next thing you know we were doing the track.”

2. DAF – Ich denk an dich

Released in the wake of Delgado’s untimely and unexpected death, “Ich denk an dich” [EN: “I Think of You”] is Görl’s tribute to his musical partner. Their relationship was sometimes difficult, but it was also productive. Some of Görl’s most significant material is inseparable from Delgado’s contributions. With the last DAF album, he had an opportunity to express this using archival recordings and the sketches made with Delgado.

1. Robert Görl – Mit Dir

Released in the spring of 1983, “Mit Dir” finds Görl singing a love song over a minimal, icy-cold set of synth sounds. One of the most beautiful songs released on Mute, it is a masterpiece that shows off Görl’s expressive range and control of minimalist instrumentation.

 

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Shine On: Martyn Ware

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

Dr Martyn Ware recently joined a growing list of luminaries from the 1980s alternative music scene in acquiring an honorary doctorate. The University of Sheffield awarded the degree to Ware in recognition of his contribution to music; particularly in Sheffield, his hometown. It’s a long way from the NME’s review of his first proper album, The Human League’s Reproduction, which writer Andy Gill slated “as flat, neutral and unappetising as a glass of Coke that’s been standing for too long.”

Gill was wrong, of course. Reproduction was a landmark achievement for 1979; representing the keystone for Synth Britannia. Unlike Kraftwerk, with their instinct for clarity and perfection, The Human League organised noises into pop songs. They were more mensch than maschine. They wore beards and 70s fashions instead of Bauhaus-inspired uniforms. They embraced the absurd and emotional over scientific progress. They weren’t punk, prog or rock, but they absorbed and reprocessed influences from all of them.

Whatever the NME’s reaction, the band felt that Colin Thurston’s production had neutered the sound they were reaching for, and their answer was 1980’s Travelogue. From the fierce opening of “The Black Hit of Space,” to a retooled and repurposed version of their first single, “Being Boiled,” The Human League staked their ground as daring conductors of electricity. Oakey’s lyrics veered from the peculiar (“A Crow and a Baby”) to the prescient (“WXJL Tonight”), while a cauldron of sounds punched their ways through the speakers. Ware and Marsh squeezed sounds from their machinery that invested the songs with emotional qualities that could never have been wrought from guitars. Travelogue moved the bar for the growing crowd of alienated young men with Moogs who were posing as post-punk robots.

And then, suddenly, it was over. A split was engineered by their record company, who sent Phil Oakey and Adrian Wrightoff to one corner and Marsh and Ware to another. Oakey kept the band name and his haircut, while new doors opened for Ware. Together with Marsh, he launched the British Electric Foundation (B.E.F.) as a production company. Although it would be overtaken by Heaven 17, as an outlet for new material, B.E.F. gave Ware a chance to work with artists like Sandie Shaw and Tina Turner. His involvement with the latter revived her career and helped propel Ware into the music production big leagues.

Heaven 17, which brought Marsh and Ware together with another Sheffield native, Glenn Gregory, had its own success. Alongside the Pet Shop Boys and Depeche Mode, Heaven 17 married electronics with danceable rhythms in a way that was more post-disco than post-punk. With songs like “Play to Win” and “Temptation,” they won over the yuppies they were side-eyeing, but they also snuck in sharp political commentary. Ware, a steel-city socialist, took particular pleasure in subverting Reagan-era nightlife with “(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang.”

As the 80s ended, so did the First Cold War and the heady days of vinyl-based pop. As acid house and then Britpop took over the mainstream, Ware found himself involved in avant-garde technologies, such as immersive sound environments. With Vince Clarke, he started the Illustrious Company and made electronic and ambient sound for commercial purposes and public spaces. Ware continues to work in this field, while keeping up Heaven 17 and doing production work. He teaches music production at a postgraduate level, which will help put his new title to use.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Ware started a podcast to help keep himself working and to chat with people he found interesting. Named after a phrase that appeared on the first Human League single, the series is also the title of the good doctor’s forthcoming autobiography: Electronically Yours.

10. The Future – Dance Like a Star

When Ware and Ian Craig Marsh started making music together, they acquired a Korg 700s synthesizer. It was soon joined by a Roland System-100 semi-modular set-up, and they took on Adi Newton to make material as The Future. Newton left to form Clock DVA — a later press release had him “deleted due to a malfunction” — and Marsh and Ware looked around for another member. They settled on a hospital porter called Phil Oakey, whom Ware knew from school and whose haircut he admired. Oakey’s sax didn’t fit with the programme, so he took on vocal duties, but that is another part of the story.

9. The Men – I Don’t Depend on You

Virgin Records signed The Human League with a significant advance, but they lacked confidence that their new act’s experimental electronic leanings would have mass appeal. The Human League were a little too weird for most A&R men to get their heads around. Never mind that David Bowie had declared them the future of music, the makers of “Being Boiled” were looking like a risk.

To address their concerns, Virgin piled pressure on the band to produce a commercial hit with more traditional instrumentation. Ware resisted, but eventually agreed to a compromise: they would make a record under a different name, so that The Human League brand could remain unsullied by drums and guitars. The song didn’t give Virgin the hit they were looking for, but it did turn up in a cover by the Ware-produced Hot Gossip two years later. It also provided a glimpse into exactly what Oakey’s Human League would become.

8. The Human League – The Black Hit of Space

As the opening track on Travelogue, “The Black Hit of Space” broke all boundaries. The story of a song that swallowed up the charts as it rose in popularity, it used distorted synth sounds aggressively; creating a storm of filtered and flanged noise. Oakey’s surreal lyrics set off swoops and bleeps characteristic of science fiction, while the instrumentation worked the kind of charge otherwise found in throbbing guitar chords.

7. BEF – Groove Thang

A primitive version of what would become the first Heaven 17 song,”Groove Thang” is a sketch that shows Ware and Marsh in transition from the pure electronics of the Future and Human League to a more open pop format after the split engineered by Virgin and manager Bob Last.

6. Heaven 17 – Let Me Go

The debate about which release was the first to use the Roland TB-303 Bassline continues, but this was certainly an early example of the silver box in action. Paired with the TR-606 Drumatix, it was designed to give guitar players a rhythm section to play along to. In practice, the ability of the 303 to generate overdriven squarks made it the ideal tool for acid house. Ware played it straight here, finding a sweet spot that leveraged the machinery’s capacity for warmth in one of the most elegant tracks of the 80s.

5. Tina Turner – Let’s Stay Together

Tina Turner’s career was in the doldrums when she was asked to take part in the B.E.F. project, Music of Quality and Distinction. On the strength of her version of “Ball of Confusion,” Turner was signed to a new deal by her label and Ware was asked to produce another cover.

Turner was ready for a screaming comeback, and her Private Dancer album ended up selling tens of millions of units. Ware and his production partner, Greg Walsh, also recorded a version of David Bowie’s “1984” with Turner for the album, leaving a deep imprint on one of the iconic albums of that era.

4. Erasure – Always

This hit from Erasure’s sixth album is one of the duo’s best loved songs. Ware stepped into the studio with Vince Clarke and Andy Bell at the invitation of Daniel Miller. I Say I Say I Say went to number one in the UK charts, while also giving Erasure their best US result to date. “Always” was held at number four in the singles charts, but it is an enduring synthpop ballad with enough quirkiness to avoid blending into the background of 90s nostalgia.

3. The Clarke & Ware Experiment – White (You Are in Heaven)

Ware’s relationship with Clarke grew on the back of his Erasure work. The two pop pioneers started creating material that explored the use of space from a space in Brixton.

This is one piece of a commissioned work that linked music to colour. Mute released it as part of the album, Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle — the title a reference to Space 1999 and a link to the Human League’s early imagery.

2. Martyn Ware – Tales from the Bridge

Ware’s experimental work is extensive, ranging from installations to investigations on the use of sound for people with autism spectrum condition. In this clip, he explains one of his pieces. The range of his creative work is impossibly broad, but this conceptual piece gives a good flavour.

1. The Human League – Being Boiled

If he’d had his way, Ware would have put loads of realistic brass onto this track. Thankfully, for music history, he was limited in the sounds he could work with for the debut Human League single. The result was a minimal, elegant and captivating track in the same DIY spirit as The Normal’s “Warm Leatherette/TVOD” and Throbbing Gristle’s “United.” Oakey’s completely mad lyrics make no greater sense today than they did when he presented them to the band, but they are entirely unqiue. Kanye West ripped off the single’s distinctive orange and black cover style for The Life of Pablo, and many have tried to accomplish the same degree of menace since without nearly the same level of success. An enduring classic.

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Shine On: Dave Ball

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

As the half of Soft Cell charged with operating the machines, Dave Ball has played a crucial role in the popularisation of electronic pop music. With Ball leering on the keyboards and Marc Almond prowling with his microphone, Soft Cell was a futuristic panto made with equal measures of soul and sleaze. They looked like they were lifted from Soho but delivered in a spaceship, issuing melodic hooks like lighting bolts. They introduced the synth duo to the mainstream with their UK Number One, “Tainted Love”–a cover of the soul classic originally performed by Gloria Jones–and subverted all expectations from then on. Soft Cell came and went as an act, but Ball continued to innovate with experimental collaborations and dance music: from Psychic TV to Kylie, he has added electricity to the acts that followed in their footsteps.

Ball was raised in Blackpool, a town on Britain’s left coast that was also the hometown of Chris Lowe, his counterpart in the Pet Shop Boys. He left its faded seaside glamour to attend Leeds Polytechnic, where he met his future musical partner, Almond. They started working together in 1977, rescuing disco from the jaws of punk, and released their first EP, Mutant Moments, the next year using money from Ball’s mother. The result was more industrial/Suicide-influenced than anything that followed, but it caught the attention of the emerging electronic influencers in London. One of them was an eccentric DJ called Stevo, who built a relationship with the band that took them to major label heaven and global success. Another was Daniel Miller, who produced the act’s first singles, “A Man Could Get Lost” and “Memorabilia” for Stevo’s label, Some Bizarre.

Soft Cell’s success was rapid and quickly outgrew the creative relationship between Ball and Almond. Easy access to drugs didn’t help, and it had fallen apart by 1984. It would take until 2001 for the act to release new material, but the hiatus didn’t leave Ball without interesting projects. From a solo album in 1983 to the acid house craze, he always found relevant and creative personalities to work with. There were no publishing royalties from “Tainted Love,” due to a lack of foresight by Some Bizarre, but there were always new ideas to be explored. Soft Cell have now returned with new management, selling keychains and working with the Pet Shop Boys, but the ideas keep coming.

(Photo of Dave Ball by Peter Ashworth)

10. Soft Cell – Martin

As the Mutant Moments EP revealed, Soft Cell were not all sweetness and light. They were happy to explore themes of horror, mental illness and danger. Early copies of Soft Cell’s second album, The Art of Falling Apart, came with a bonus 12″ featuring this tribute to the George Romero film of the same name. Recording of the album had been difficult, and producer Mike Thorne recalled that “Martin” injected a sense of fun to the proceedings. He described it as “a monstrously over-the-top extravaganza,” and he wasn’t wrong. It was the aggressive, experimental spine that held the Soft Cell monster erect.

This is a live version, as performed on The Tube in 1983. As a bonus, we have included one of the bands most heavily influenced by Soft Cell, Psyche, performing a delicious cover version at a Cold War Night Life event.

9. M.E.S.H. – Meet Every Situation Head-On

Genesis P-Orridge was a counterculture figure with a distinctive presence in the 1980s. After Throbbing Gristle imploded, he founded Psychic TV with Alex Fergusson of Alternative Television. Genesis claimed to have invented acid house with his compilation album, Jack the Tab, which featured a number of acts organised for the purpose. Ball and Richard Norris contributed to the process with “Meet Every Situation Head On,” which led to them working together as the Grid, one of Ball’s more successful projects outside of Soft Cell.

8. Psychic TV – Money for E

Ecstacy use is said to be one of the things that broke up Soft Cell. It is, perhaps, then, ironic that Ball remixed “Money for E” for Psychic TV. This is one of the more successful attempts to rework PTV’s acid-house material; and it shows Ball displaying an innate sense for the dancefloor while being respectful of Fred Giannelli’s original material.

7. Kylie Minogue – Breathe

For someone who mixed with Genesis’ Temple crowd, Ball has had some unexpectedly commercial turns. In 1994, he worked on Billie Ray Martin’s “Your Loving Arms.” A few years later, he was in the arms of Kylie Minogue’s record label, who brought him in to produce three songs on her album, Impossible Princess. This one became a Top 20 single in the UK.

It isn’t, perhaps, surprising to find Minogue working with a producer outside of the commercial mainstream–it was around this time that she was emerging from her indie phase, which saw her working with Nick Cave–but Ball and collaborator Ingo Vauk weren’t necessarily the obvious choice. It worked well for the Australian pop icon, even with a old school synth opening to thrill Moog enthusiasts.

6. David Bowie – Hallo Spaceboy (Lost in Space Mix)

Described by Bowie as “Jim Morrison meets industrial,” this track was originally crafted with Brian Eno for the Outside album in 1995. The official single went to the Pet Shop Boys for their contribution before being released, but this remix by Ball and Vauk made it fit for the dancefloor.

5. The Grid – Swamp Thing

On paper, mixing banjo and samples from old records shouldn’t have been much cop. The novelty paid off, however, for Ball and collaborator Richard Norris, with a top ten single around the world. You can probably still find sealed copies in discount bins, but there is no doubting Ball’s ability to make a hit from the things he found lying around the yard.

4. Other People – Have a Nice Day!

An oddity in the Ball canon, this was a collaboration between Ball and his wife, Gini, together with Andy Astle. With sampled voices, a chugging bass line, sirens, and a repetitive vocal, it came out in the same year as Propaganda’s “Mabuse” and Depeche Mode’s “People Are People” – there was clearly something industrial in the air.

3. Vicious Pink Phenomena – My Private Tokyo

Originally the backing singers for Soft Cell’s live shows, Vicious Pink Phenomena were the duo of Josephine Warden and Brian Moss. With Warden all Euro and Moss all electro, they were too sexy to stand behind Almond forever. Two Ball-helmed singles led to an album of stuttering greatness, but it started for them with this studio work.

2. Client – In It for the Money (The Grid Static in the Attic Mix)

Sarah Blackwood‘s sabbatical from Dubstar led to an outing as Client, the first signing for Andy Fletcher’s Toast Hawaii label. The St. John’s Wood/Notting Hill set took them to heart, and the act’s showbiz connections led to some interesting collaborations. Ball contributed to this one as part of a Grid remix, showing that his finger was never far from the beating pulse of underground music.

1. Soft Cell – Sex Dwarf

In the Soft Cell canon, there are many influential songs to choose from. The best representation of them, however, is in the banned video for “Sex Dwarf”–an over-the-top fantasy of drama and sleaze that reaches comic book proportions. The duo did excess to excess, and the swooping synths left a trail of wine bottles, wrappers and hair products behind them that still hasn’t been properly cleaned up.

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The Top 21 of 2021

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

For a while, it looked like things would open up in 2021. Heaven 17 finally had a chance to stage their Human League shows. Bands like Duran Duran were able to get back in front of live crowds. Bjork finally revealed her symphonic shows. Even Dave Gahan left his Battery Park apartment for a run of shows in London. And then reality set in again: the mismanagement of public health was a continuing debacle. Covenant’s UK upcoming tour was cancelled. Other bookings were pushed out. The end of the year saw infection rates skyrocket and venue takings plummet. As winter set in, the prospects for live music became as dark as the sky.

At least the year in recorded music offered some redemption. From Karin My’s Silence Amygdala to Rational Youth’s late entry, Wavelength, there were some outstanding releases to make up for the lack of live events. Curiously, few of them came from the larger, more established, acts. Perhaps the lack of touring prospects encouraged them to hold back releases; or maybe it was just too hard to get into the studio to record during Covid conditions – in any case, the year belonged to the independents. Of course, Spotify didn’t care, because they would collect their monthly fees irrespective of which monkeys were grinding their organs.

In the end, we had a unique challenge selecting the releases for this year’s list. The biggest was the appearance at year end of several productions that couldn’t be ignored. After the rotating door of lockdowns and openings, it was a nice problem to have.

21. Men Without Hats – Again (Part 1)

Kicking off our year-end chart is an EP from Men Without Hats. The Canadian pop group have survived for four decades, but they are still best known for “The Safety Dance,” which they have reworked and matched with covers from some of their influences – Lou Reed, The Rolling Stones and David Bowie.

As with everything the Doroschuk brothers touch, all of the tracks are upbeat, infectious versions. The danger is that you will never hear the covers without Ivan’s vocal style again.

20. The KVB – “Unbound”

There aren’t many British acts worth opening the seal on the CD for these days. The KVB are an exception. Their new album, Unity, offers a combination of electronic pop and shoegaze that soars miles above the basement laptop no-hopers who fill most of the local festivals. “Unbound” signals there is still hope for music on Boris Island.

19. Various Artists – The Ultimate Remakes of Substitute 46

When Andreas Noreen turned 50, some friends got together to remake the sounds of his former band, Substitute 46. Pouppée Fabrikk, Octolab, Strikkland and Jäger 90 each contributed new versions for a limited run, cassette-only release. Each of the covers excavated something new from the source material, paying tribute to its authentic EBM roots. The tapes quickly sold out, but the tracks can be found on the artists’ own pages.

18. Andreas Catjar – The Mainz EP

Much of Andreas Catjar’s work can be described as theatrical, and The Mainz EP contains two tracks specifically composed for the stage. Originally prepared for a 2018 production of “Die Nibelungen” at Mainz Staatstheater, they were retooled for release only this year. “Song for Freya” is a soaring piece that draws on Eno’s ambience and Krautrock’s deconstructions to create a compelling and dramatic impression.

17. Hannah Peel – Fir Wave

Sampling the sounds and textures of the 1972 album, Electrosonic, Hannah Peel has ripped and reassembled them into a palette of her own. The original album, composed by Delia Derbyshire, Brian Hodgson and Don Harper, was prepared as library music for radio and television. Peel’s take is rather more particular and better suited to listening in that space on a Sunday evening when there is nothing to be done and the lights can be dimmed.

16. Actors – Acts of Worship

At some point, Vancouver’s Actors decided to stop hiding their love of Roxy Music. Acts of Worship, their second album, opens with “Love U More,” in which lead vocalist Jason Corbett channels Bryan Ferry in front of chugging guitars. The rest of the collection is infused with 80s influences from the alternative side of the dance floor, but it never becomes derivative. Acts of Worship is a keeper.

15. Dlina Volny – Dazed

Minsk is closer to Chernobyl than Moscow, but both locations exert more influence over the Belarussian city than they should. We imagine that the weight they add to life helps to shape the dark wave of music coming from the East; compressing it into diamonds like Dlina Volny’s new album.

Dazed is a pop-flecked, post-punk creation that shines in places like Polina Malinovskaya’s highlights and fades into glamorous pain in others with the style of Linea Aspera.

14. Psyche – “Cry Little Sister”

Released for Halloween, Psyche’s take on the theme from The Lost Boys, “Cry Little Sister,” is a new spin on a Gothic classic. The song has been covered by dozens of artists, as wide ranging as Tangerine Dream and Marilyn Manson, but we prefer Darrin Huss’ take.

13. Leathers – Reckless EP

The latest EP from the solo project of Actors’ keyboardist, Shannon Hemmett, features a collection of smooth, elegant dreamwave and pop songs in different tempos. There is an album being recorded for release in 2022, which we can only hope will be to the same standard.

12. William Orbit – Starbeam EP

William Orbit needed some time off. He returned in 2021 with an EP full of the classic Billy Bubbles vibes. The title track opens proceedings with the kinds of sounds we fell in love with at the time of “Water from a Vine Leaf.” Scroll down a little, and Lido Pimienta appears to collaborate with Orbit on Aguilas. It is good to have him back.

11. Hante. – Morning Tsunami

In recent years, one of the dominant forces in alternative music has been Hélène de Thoury. In her Hante. solo project and Minuit Machine collaboration, de Thoury has been responsible for breathing new life into dark wave. She has also managed to keep producing top quality material, despite the pressures of the pandemic – we submit Morning Tsunami as proof.

10. Minuit Machine – Sainte Rave

Recorded at the end of 2020, Sainte Rave is from a streamed performance by Minuit Machine, the duo of Hélène de Thoury and Amandine Stioui. From the opening of “Don’t Run from the Fire” to the closer, “Prey/Hunter,” the show was a glorious reminder of the power of live shows. Now available in digital and physical formats, it is also a reminder of the strength of Minuit Machine’s songs.

9. Rohn-Lederman – Venus Chariot

The project of Jean-Marc Lederman (The Weathermen, Kid Montana) and Emileigh Rohn (Chiasm) topped the German alternative music charts this year. Their Venus Chariot album combined cinematic sweeps, piano and strings with Rohn’s delicate vocals in a collection of songs fit for screens or earphones.

8. Sunroof – Electronic Music Improvisations Vol. 1

For many years, Gareth Jones and Daniel Miller have worked together on commercial projects and for their own interest. As they have gone deeper into the unfillable well that is modular synthesis, the two legendary producers have also spent time together teasing sounds from their equipment. EMV1 is the product of some of those sessions; prompted by Jones’ suggestion that they get a recording out together before time runs out for either of them.

The result is a throwback to the type of experimental album that used to have its own section at the local library. There are blips, bloops, wobbles, and clicks that were generated either incidentally or purposively by the two men on an improvised basis. Like AMM, when Cardew and Rowe were involved, everything depends on the ear of one performer picking up the sounds of the other. You can’t dance to it, but you will have fun trying.

7. Strikkland – “Gone Swimming”

Sweden’s love affair with EBM has been reinvigorated by the emergence of Strikkland, who combine the heavy duty beats and chunky sequences of body with the more melodic merits of pop. “Gone Swimming” provided an excellent reason to put on the Dr Martens again.

6. Dubstar – Tectonic Plates

Geology is just a theory, but Dubstar have some ideas about the way the flow of lava impacts boy-girl relationships. Produced by Stephen Hague, “Tectonic Plates” brought singer Sarah Blackwood and guitarist Chris Wilkie back for another single that should have rocked the radio all summer.

5. NNHMN – Tomorrow’s Heroine EP

From Berlin comes another great release from dark wave favourites, NNHMN. The duo of Lee Margot and Michal Laudarg give us another five slices of fried gold to motivate dancefloors. Our favourite is the title track, which features Lee’s voice drifting like vapour across a bouncy bassline. Inhale deeply and surrender completely.

4. Zanias – Unearthed

Alison Lewis has an uncanny way of connecting the organic with the synthetic. With Unearthed, the second album from her Zanias alter ego, she marries field recordings with acoustic instruments, before processing them electronically. The showstopper, as ever is Lewis’ incomparable vocal, which weaves through staccato synth lines like water through a forest of kombu.

3. Rein – Reincarnated Dub Mixes (Vol. 1)

Rein’s Reincarnated was one of the top albums of 2020. This year finds Boys Noize putting two tracks, “Reincarnated” and “Release Me,” through the mixing machines for some added dancefloor oomph. The result is a fusion of Kraftwerk, Invincible Limit and The Anti Group that could have kept the rave in the second Matrix movie going all night.

Rein is on tour with Front Line Assembly in May-June 2022 across the US. Don’t miss out, if you are on one of the stops.

2. DAF – Nur Noch Einer

The passing of Gabi Delgado in 2020 marked the end of an era. A child of the Rattinger Hof, Dusseldorf’s legendary venue, Delgado had voiced the transition from the chaos of punk to the sleekness of the digital domain without losing his provocative edge. The band he founded with Robert Görl shed its rock wrapper at the beginning of the 1980s, creating a minimal, electronic sound that turned from the Anglo-American stereotypes.

Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft was founded in defeated Germany but reinvented in victorious Britain. From the floor of Daniel Miller’s house to a basement flat in Philbeach Gardens, the DAF sound was peeled back until it was just a basic sequence accompanied by Görl ‘s drums and Delgado’s semi-menacing purr. The children of the vanquished made a sound that was the creation of EBM, the inspiration for techno, and the beginning of a complicated journey that bound the two men for decades.

Nur Noch Einer was created by Görl following Delgado’s untimely death, drawing upon the materials and memories of this time. An album had been planned, based upon fragments from their archives; but, in the end, Görl was left to complete the project alone. A DAF album without Delgado was impossible, so Görl worked with archive material; weaving the vocals into new songs while maintaining the band’s punk spirit. The results are both a tribute and the culmination of a friendship.

1. Rational Youth – Wavelength EP

In a year when billionaires took themselves to space–filling the atmosphere with toxic gasses–before flying to eco-summits by private jet to pose as world saviours, someone has to ask why they don’t just stay up there. Cue the return of Rational Youth with a new song that takes the rich to task for having laid the planet to waste for their profit. “Kepler 48” is the lead track on the Wavelength EP, and it shows that Tracy Howe has lost neither his sense of melody nor his socialist instincts.

The other three tracks on the EP are remakes of classic tracks from Rational Youth’s first major label release. “The Man in Grey” is a song that was bizarrely coopted by American rightists who didn’t understand its critique of CIA dirty ops. Howe slapped them down from his position north of the US border and updated the sound together with this partner, Gaenor.

Together, they have also refreshed “Latin Lovers” and “In Your Eyes,” two of the greatest pop songs to escape from the land of April Wine and Glass Tiger. Tracy Howe never lost his ability to forge a hook, and Wavelength should be required listening for a generation raised on Melodyne and Beatport.

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Plague Songs: The Top 20 of 2020

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

2020 – the Year of Cancellations

Who ordered the year of plague and misery? Just as things were getting interesting, musically, many parts of the world were forced to shut down in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Shows were postponed, one after the other, and then cancelled or pushed into 2021. Simple Minds came off tour, Heaven 17 called off their special events in the UK, and then other shows fell like dominos: Kraftwerk, Wire, The Art of Noise, Goldfrapp and festivals were forced to reschedule.

Cryo streaming from Sweden, April 2020

There were attempts to move performances from venues to live streams, but even Björk’s planned broadcasts had to be put off when Iceland’s infection rate climbed and staff safety could not be assured. Cryo, Karin My and some other acts managed to get online, but few bands managed to make streaming work both technically and economically.

In the face of this unprecedented crisis, the UK government left culture workers to fend for themselves, while stuffing billions into the pockets of their spouses or friends. They found billions more for weapons, while music venues had to close, record stores were shuttered, and freelancers were left out in the cold. The chaos of Brexit-shambles wasn’t enough: musicians and dancers in the UK were actually told to retrain for FinTech jobs, as if a flood of right-brain creatives into a left-brain industry would somehow improve the situation.

Conspiracy theorists and a Swedish health official decided that the virus wasn’t such a big deal, but it did its damage. We lost some highly respected artists to Covid-19, particularly from the older generation. Carole Chant from The Scratch Orchestra and Resonance FM, the actor Swen Wollter, and Dave Greenfield of The Stranglers all lost their battle with the disease, as did hundreds of thousands of others with lower profiles. It wasn’t inevitable, nor was it accidental, that the virus was able to cause so much harm; it was the result of decades of neoliberal policies that left our societies undefended. The politicians knew of the risks but chose to ignore them.

Music might not matter to politicians – just as pandemic planning got no attention until it was too late – but it is vital for a healthy society to know about itself through song. Music is inherently social, and its abandonment weakens the ties between us. Our bodies are at risk to the virus; but, if we leave culture to the wolves and substitute cannons for hospital beds, the plague will have taken our souls, too.

There has been more than enough work released this year to make choosing our Top 20 list incredibly difficult. In the selection below, we had to pass over excellent work by many new and established artists. To help make up for it, have a listen to our playlist on Spotify!

20. Centre Excuse – Joy Joy Joy

Based on a Ren & Stimpy line, “Joy Joy Joy” signalled Centre Excuse’s musical intention to marry 80s pop and indie. As we noted on its release, “The song has synthetic stylings reminiscent of Propaganda, matched with the drive of Ride.”

The Rutland duo’s first album, Favourite Soul, caught our attention with its barbed hooks. Live, Centre Excuse put out the kind of energy normally seen in solar flares, and their studio work shines with the same intensity.

19. Þórunn Antonía – Flugdreki

If there was one thing that was needed in lockdown, it was the spirit of pure pop. This arrived in the form of a single release from Iceland’s Thorunn Antonia, who unleashed “Flugdreki” [EN: “Kite”] as a statement of personal freedom.

For last year’s “Ofurkona,” she appeared with a child on her breast and a second in the womb – breaking down the walls between her media and domestic roles more effectively than possibly any other artist before or after.

“Flugdreki” arrived at Midsummer. We thought it an “uplifting song of rebirth and independence, which finds the Icelandic chanteuse being lifted to freedom on currents of beauty.”

18. NNHMN – Deception Island

The duo of Lee and Laudarg make dark wave recordings from their base in Berlin. The circling of Odin’s birds is a sure sign that they are at work, and this year saw the ravens in the sky more than once.

NNHMN released two EPs this year: Deception Island, Parts 1 and 2. We chose the second of them to feature in our year-end list, but both took us to the darkest corner of the club with unnervingly cool vocals and icy electronics.

17. Pieces of Juno – Euthymia

The final instalment in Pieces of Juno’s tetralogy, Euthymia, drew from the concept of emotional stability or calm, particularly after swings to extremes.

Juno Jensen’s project has been, in turns, ambient, spiritual and elegant. It has dealt with suicide, passion and self-acceptance. With Euthymia, she brings it to an end on a reflective and sensitive note. As we said of this splendid album, in the first days of lockdown, “Open your third eye and see; open your ears and feel.”

16. FRKTL – Excision After Love Collapses

Sarah Badr

Sarah Badr (Photo: Simon Helm)

Sarah Badr’s FRKTL project has consistently provided us with electro-acoustic material to provoke the mind and heart.

Excision After Love Collapses is the first full FRKTL album since Qualia in 2016. The wait has been worth it, as the release features a dozen exceptional tracks encoded with Badr’s creative DNA.

In our review, we felt the pressure of the material deeply:

The claustrophobia of the title track is almost overwhelming. Bowed sounds and scraped percussion, scratched discs and reverb create a sense of psychological pressure usually only experienced at dark sites operated by the East European members of NATO on behalf of Washington.

15. Jean-Marc Lederman Experience – Letters to Gods (and Fallen Angels)

The Belgian composer and biker, Jean-Marc Lederman, gathered a new group of singers into a huddle for one of his themed projects this year. They returned work that answers the question, “If you could write a letter to a god or fallen angel, what would you say?”

Each of the notes from singers as varied as Lis van den Akker and Mark Hockings was personal and unique, but they maintained a high standard. The problem with gods is that they never reply to messages, no matter how well produced.

14. Strikkland – Dance Like a God

Strikkland (Photo: Krichan Wihlborg)

From Gothenburg came a new act this year, which finally broke open the boundaries of EBM.

The duo of Henric Ceder and Henrik Johansson, Strikkland, released a number of fine, energetic songs. We chose “Dance Like a God,” because it comes with an excellent video, but their latest single, “La Danse est Finie,” is just as fine.

13. Independent State – Rumspringa

Although Rumspringa is their first full album, Independent State have been on the Swedish scene for a number of years. They have remixed other bands and released some covers, but their first collection of originals has been keenly anticipated.

With Rumspringa, the duo of Khyber Westlund and Arjumand Carlstein have created a collection that combines industrial dance music with solid state pop. The wait has been worth it.

12. Autobahn 86 (feat. Jokey) – National Health Service

With the politics of Test Dept and the beats of Portion Control, “National Health Service” was the most subversive and energetic track tackling the public health crisis. It came with a blisteringly clear message, right in the face of the far-right newspaper columnists who had captured state power just when the nation needed the opposite.

11. Dubstar – Hygiene Strip

Yorkshire’s best export since parkin, Dubstar’s current incarnation is the definitive version of the band. With Chris Wilkie working the instrumentation and Sarah Blackwood evolving her trademark vocal style, the release of One signalled growth.

The singles that have come out since that album have leveraged themes lifted straight from the headlines. “Hygiene Strip” must have been the first video to incorporate the wide use of medical masks into the imagery, but the song was also a solid dose of poptronica.

10. Psyche – Heaven in Pain

From the Baltic coast, Psyche came out with a sensational new track and video this summer. “Heaven in Pain” took an old school electro path that led directly away from the claustrophobia of lockdown.

Fans of Wamdue Project’s original version of “King of My Castle” will appreciate the production style, as will followers of Psyche’s fellow Edmonton exile, Mantronix. The hand of Karl Bartos is clearly evident, too.

“Heaven in Pain” pulls out all the stops with a compressed, gated mix for the deserted dance floors of 2020.

9. Robert Görl & DAF – Ich Denk An Dich

Gabi Delgado

Gabi Delgado (Photo: Simon Helm)

The death of Gabi Delgado, the singer in DAF, came just as Europe was being shut down. It was heart failure, rather than Covid-19, that robbed us of the punk vocalist, but it was no less tragic for that.

At the beginning of the 1980s, Delgado and Robert Görl had struck out on their own with a vision of punk electronics that created a whole new genre. Over Görl’s carefully articulated rhythms and simple, sequenced patterns, Delgado’s voice purred with sensual mystery or growled with masculine energy. His words were provocative and celebrated lust and love – a counterpoint to the gleaming bourgeois dreams of Kraftwerk.

Görl revealed that he and Delgado had been working on material, before unhappy events intervened, and he promised to find a way to continue connecting with fans. Along the way, he provided a recorded tribute to his old friend and punk comrade. Setting the scene, he explained:

Gabi and I had some grand plans. We wanted to make a new DAF album. We were thinking of it being a mix of new tracks created on the fly and a selection of our best hidden gems left over from the 80s. We were really raring to do it. We were certain the album was a done deal. We wanted to finish producing it this summer. I listened to all our old bare-bones from back then again – absolute treasures! Gabi departed this life suddenly, a life he loved so much, and I’ve resolved to produce all of these unheard jewels for DAF and Gabi in spite of it all.

8. Anna Öberg – Varelser inut

An Anna Öberg album is always a surprise.

Her third collection, Varelser inut, fits the pattern by drawing on influences as diverse as Men Without Hats and SPK. It is an addictive and entertaining set that sits head and shoulders above most of the releases we heard this year.

7. Fragile Self – Narcissistic Disturbance

It might seem strange to learn that a reasonable percentage of the people around you are suffering from a personality disturbance so severe that they have no constant sense of self.

People with Narcissistic Personality Disorder interact with others in order to prop up a false self that they have invented. To mask their internal shame and self-loathing, they might create a false image of themself as talented, beautiful and creative; and their days and nights are then spent trying to get others to support that fantasy. Such is their need for validation that they can be exploitative, deceitful and manipulative to shocking degrees.

The duo of Jonathan Barnbrook and Anil Aykan took this problematic personality structure and the study of it as the cornerstone of their project, Fragile Self. The name is taken from literature on the disorder, but their real focus is on dark electronics and haunting but elegant vocals. There is no cure for NPD, but there is a place for addictive beats and basslines processed through modular synths.

6. Karin Park – Church of Imagination

Karin Park (Photo: Krichan Wihlborg)

Karin Park (Photo: Krichan Wihlborg)

Karin Park had a daughter and lost her father within a short time frame. Nevertheless, both were able to contribute to her current album, Church of Imagination, which features their voices and the organ of her father on this track, which was co-written with her husband, Kjetil Nernes.

Based on a dream that Park had about her daughter, “Shape of Child” features many of Park’s closest relatives on vocals, as part of the local village choir. It also has an outstanding turn from LaGaylia Frazier. Park calls this her anthem of 2020, and it could be ours, too.

5. Lau Nau – Själö OST

Lau Nau (Photo: Simon Helm)

Finland’s Lau Nau has had a prolific year. Besides this soundtrack for Lotta Petronella’s film, Själö, about an island for banished women, she has contributed to Matti Bye’s commission for the film, Tove (which is headed for the Oscars as Finland’s official submission); released a collaboration with Bye; and had a live album come out.

All of this has been great for fans of her experimental music, which is impressed with beauty and space like no other. We brought Lau Nau to London, on a visit that coincided with the UK premiere of Land Without God, another Petronella film scored by her. What it showed is that, with her combination of modular synthesisers, electro-acoustic sounds and ethereal vocals, Lau Nau has a show that fits in a suitcase, can fill a concert hall, expands minds and moves hearts.

4. Linea Aspera – Linea Aspera II

Alison Lewis (Photo: Simon Helm)

The return of Linea Aspera was one of the highlights of the year. From their storming, ecstatic show in London to the release of their second proper album, the duo of Alison Lewis and Ryan Ambridge created the most genuine excitement in 2020.

Linea Aspera II picks up where the duo left off in 2013, combining synth hooks with Lewis’ striking, expressive vocals. This is the kind of magic that can’t be bottled, and it stood out that the legendary act was able to summon so much creativity after such a hiatus.

It isn’t as though they have been sleeping in the intervening years. Lewis, in particular, has been involved in other bands; and her other main project, Zanias, also put out exceptional material this year. Despite the interruption of live events, which forced them to put off shows at festivals and in Sweden, it has been a bumper year for their fans.

3. Twice a Man – On the Other Side of the Mirror

The Swedish veterans, Twice a Man, have seen a lot in their time. They warmed up for New Order on their first European tour, survived acid house, and watched four decades of lesser acts come and go.

On the Other Side of the Mirror finds Twice a Man feeling less optimistic about current events. The destruction of the natural and social environments weighs on them, and the pace of political change is glacial. The songs made for this album were prepared before the pandemic, but its spread has only made starker the sober visions of crisis they reflect.

2. Rein – Reincarnated

The release of Rein’s first full album was highly anticipated.

On stage, the Queen of EBM had clearly moved beyond the limits of the genre, merging body beats with technopop to create a new, cybernetic style. In the studio, her mechanics had hammered the wrought iron of her bass lines into weapons of mass satisfaction.

The result of studio collaboration with Carli Löf, with input from Priest’s Linton Rubino, some said that Reincarnated was an attempt to break Rein on Swedish radio. If so, it succeeded without compromising the vitality and integrity of the songs.

The resentment of the shouty men was palpable, but tracks like “Bodyhammer” and “Closer to Reality” speak with a different voice. Rein’s story is one of renewal and resurrection, charged with the kind of energy that sparks from Tesla coils. It is impressed into every groove of Reincarnated.

1. Page – Aska / Under mitt skin

Page (Photo: Simon Helm)

Page regularly top our year end lists, but that is because they keep getting better. Every new album refines and focuses their ability to distill the feeling of 1979 electronics into a 3′ 30″ track.

Page have the most uncanny ability to produce maximal poptronica with minimal electronics, and this release is no exception.

A combination of two EPs from 2020, collected on vinyl, Aska / Under mitt skinn demonstrates Eddie Bengtsson’s unrivalled ability to marry the classic Ultravox feel with modern poptronica. Each of the EPs is available in CD format; but, if you are going to channel the 1970s, then vinyl is the way to go.

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