Reviews

Muricidae’s Siren Songs on Release

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

Muricidae, the duo of John Fryer and Louise Fraser, has revealed its first EP, Tales from a Silent Ocean. Awash with atmosphere, the release is infused with the sophisticated style that Fryer conjured up for 4AD during his time as a member of This Mortal Coil and studio magician at Blackwing Studios.

The collection begins with “Away,” a flowing Siren-song in which Fraser’s vocals float like a breeze over waves of treated piano. Fans of This Mortal Coil and The Hope Blister will recognise the lineage of the immaculate production, while Fraser’s voice will exert its alluring action on all those whose hearts have been dashed on life’s rocks. It has a cinematic feel, like ocean spray shot in slow motion, and we’d be surprised if it didn’t end up in a David Lynch film.

There is a rawness to Muricidae’s sound, which is particularly exposed on “Real Slow.” Fryer’s guitars grind with a raunchiness that is sonic Tarantino: all ripped tights and interlocked fingers. Fraser’s vocals are confident and assertive. The effect is primal, free from gloss and inhibition.

"Real Slow" a Super 8 music video from FireTrial Films on Vimeo.

“Should I Stay” raises a doubt that The Clash also once sought to resolve, but here the question is posed internally. There is an English feel to the song, which lets it sit alongside Virginia Astley’s From Gardens Where We Feel Secure, but without the latter’s twee romanticism.

“Falling” begins with harsh rhythms and builds up into an elegant, soaring track with sparkling synthesized accents. Like the shells of the murex snails that give the duo its name, the sound is beautifully complex.

Another version of “Away” closes the set, bracketing it with added strings and underlining what Gilbert and Lewis told us so long ago: it ends with the sea.

Tales from a Silent Ocean is released on 1 April 2015.

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Share the Jean-Marc Lederman Experience

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

Jean-Marc Lederman’s career in music has covered a lot of ground: from playing with Fad Gadget and The The to sound design for video games; from reinventing alternative dance music with The Weathermen to classy poptronica in Mari & The Ghost. The Brussels-based musician and composer has been part of the European music scene for more than three decades.

His latest project is a concept album that reaches beyond the edges of your virtual turntable. The music in The Last Broadcast on Earth crosses genres and decades, but it is only one part of a multimedia package. The album is accompanied by an computer game (also available as an app for Apple and Android) that brings together Lederman’s interests in sound design, gaming and pop music. The umbrella of The Jean-Marc Lederman Experience draws under it contributions from chanteuse Anna Domino, Jay Aston from Gene Loves Jezebel, Matt Johnson of The The, Tom Shear from 23 Assemblage, The Weathermen, Mari & The Ghost, Jacques Duvall and a host of other artists.

If you tune your dial to 99.5 FM, then in most American towns you will receive the signal of a station that plays “only the HITS!” with the last word always in capital letters. At the end of the world, the last broadcast is not a collection of Top 40 favourites but an eclectic mix of original songs and covers that reflect the styles of times past. Civilisation ends, not with a bang (or, as The Weathermen would put it, a “BANG!“), but with alt-ballads and well-paced poptronica, interrupted only by listener calls, in a Steampunk blend. To let Lederman set the scene:

A deserted country road at night. You’ve been driving for hours, headlamps on full beam flash-illuminating ghosts of sleeping trees. The radio plays desperate love songs, songs of hope, songs of despair, lost time and moments where you regret not reaching out to touch another. These songs are gifts wrapped in shiny sonic paper that you tear open with just your mind and your heart. The radio station wants you to cherish them, as you wind through the empty starlit landscape, wondering if this really could be the last night on Earth.

The Last Broadcast on Earth is not a hardline manifesto from The Weathermen but an organic, flowing set of songs that come together as a whole. The links that connect them include out-takes from a genre-crossing collection of films, spanning the distance between Aladdin and The Big Lebowski. The album is best listened to as a complete piece, as the grooves are etched with elegance.

The album is available now on iTunes and Amazon. The dedicated Web site, from which the accompanying game can be downloaded, is at www.jmlederman.com.

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Biomekkanik Get Violently Beautiful

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

Sweden’s Biomekkanik have unveiled their second album, Violently Beautiful, and it’s a corker. Front-man Christer Hermodsson used to play in S.P.O.C.K and currently has a slot in Eddie Bengtsson’s Sista mannen på jorden [EN: The Last Man on Earth] project, so he knows his way around the poptronica circuit. He has also built a reputation as a technically skilled engineer and mixer, as well as an arranger of uncommon talent. As Biomekkanik, he is completely off the leash, confidently prowling terrain normally trodden by Muse, Covenant or even The Psychedelic Furs. Violently Beautiful finds him leading band-mates Andreas and Ingefjord and Mattias Johansson through the matte black landscape of his dreams, where angels play with barbed wire.

In the post-album age, this collection is that rare thing: a set of potential singles that are more efficiently bought together. From the metal-hammering and supersaws of “Leather and Steel” to the heroic one-night stand of “Kamikaze Playboy,” the tracks are guaranteed to shake alternative dancefloors. Amongst all that, the stand-out track is “Melancholy Friend,” which has the feel of 80s new wave wrapped in a shroud. It’s the kind of song that Billy Idol wishes he could still write.

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Dan Söderqvist’s Solo Album Speaks Volumes Without Words

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

0004083404_10Dan Söderqvist is well-known as one-half of the electronic group Twice a Man, but he began his musical career in 1969 as a guitarist with Älgarnas trädgård, a progressive rock band. The experimental tradition that he grew up with, artistically, is evident in his first solo album, A Defence of Poetry: there are no spoken words, but the title references an essay by Shelley, in which the importance of sound to poets is emphasised.

Gathered in this album are six tracks, of which five are original compositions dated between 1989 and 2013. Despite their diverse inspirations and backgrounds, there is a definite unity between the instrumental songs. They are held together by the human voice, which is emulated in its collective, choral form to make sounds but not words, and naturalistic references that give each track a feeling of place or time.

“The Cherry Orchard” is a piano-based piece that sits neatly between the processed sound of Harold Budd and the naturalistic work of Virginia Astley, but it has dimensions of its own. Söderqvist explains in the notes that:

The last play by Chekhov has always inspired my mind. Among all Russian literature that I fancied in my youth it stood out as the essence of nostalgic sentiments. I have not yet had the honour to work with the play in whole. As an example i wanted to make a fragmented version. Reading it through i found the character of Ljubov, the mistress of the house so intriguing, that I decided to make a piece with some of her lines from the play. The atmosphere of lost childhood, the beauty of her garden, now in jeopardy of the axe, evokes memories of her life, of lost dreams… It`s melancholic, a feeling I love and know perhaps too well.

“November, You Humming Mist” begins with an Asian percussion style, before synthetic strings waft in, coming in layers like cool air blowing through bamboo. Harsher organ sounds emerge from the fog, rising and falling, before giving way to wind chimes and a fragile tranquility.

Tension returns with “Nacht,” which is built around the spine of a looped string hit and gradually becomes more rhythmically complex before dissolving into choral sounds. Night is followed by “Morgen,” which makes use of processed found sound and draws the choral material more prominently into the mix. These tracks are companion works, composed following the death of Söderqvist’s mother, but they work organically as a preparatory stage for the samples and synthetic strings of “After Life You Will Hear Voices of Your Childhood”, which was commissioned for a dance performance in Gothenburg. As a reference point, “After Life…” has some echoes of Pierre Perret’s legendary cassette, Gaia, la Terre, but it is distinctively in Söderqvist’s style.

The album closes with “Heilige Dankgesang,” in which all earlier traces of brooding and anxiety are expurgated. Like movements of a symphony, each track has its place on the arc of the album, and Beethoven’s song of thanksgiving is imbued with pastoral calm. The album doesn’t just end; it comes to rest in a place that T.S. Eliot famously described as “the fruit of reconciliation and relief after immense suffering.”

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Black Celebration: electriXmas 2014

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

ELECTRIXMAS
Inkonst, Malmö
13 December 2014

Turnout for the annual electriXmas event in Malmö is traditionally strong, attracting legions of black-clad synthers from across Sweden and around Europe, many of them musicians coming to size up or show their appreciation for the competition. The line-up for this year’s event had real pulling-power, with the Belgian EBM legends, Front 242 and Suicide Commando, headlining a festival that also featured two of Sweden’s best home-grown acts, Sista mannen på jorden and Machinista. The highlights of the event came from these last two, who electrified the audience with poptronica of such strength and quality that the running order of the programme could easily have been reversed without any drop in energy.

Machinista are the duo of vocalist John Lindqwister and keyboardist Richard Flow. Lindqwister takes to the stage in typically stylish fashion, sporting an Aladdin Sane shirt and tattoos – a sartorial signal of what is to come, as he belts out crowd favourites like “Pushing the Angels Astray,” “Molecules and Carbon” and “Salvation.” Beside him, Flow drives the machinery and adds colour with a sonic palette boasting hues of Italo and industrial dance music. Their record label closed its doors earlier this year; but, with a brace of remixes in the vaults and new songs on trial, Machinista are clearly pregnant with a second album. You can tell by the glow on the faces of their fans.

Eddie Bengtsson’s SMPJ project has three studio albums behind it, along with a compilation of demos and rare tracks. Practically every one of the songs on those releases is suitable for a live show, so narrowing the choices down for a set list must be daunting. On this outing, classic hits like “Sekunder” [EN: “Seconds”], “Ögon” [EN: “Eyes”] and “Stanna kvar” [EN: “Remain”] are joined by “Leonov” from Ok, Ok, Ok. The most recent SMPJ single, “Stadens alla ljus,” [EN: “City Lights”] gets a make-over as “Malmös alla ljus” in a cheeky ad-lib, but it’s all in fun and the crowd happily take up the chorus. Behind Bengtsson, Christer Hermodsson does an impression of Ron Mael from Sparks; leaving his keyboard to offer some impromptu dancing before rushing back to hit his cues. The show is practiced but not predictable, and the crowd roar into life as they recognise the first notes of each song. Their only disappointment is that the band is on a schedule and its set has to come to an end.

Front 242 are soon lining up “Headhunter” for the black-armoured crowd. Their aggressive electronic rhythms are a hit, but the Front’s cyber-sonic assault stands in contrast to the layers and textures of the poptronica acts that came before them. There’s a light-hearted contest for the hearts and minds of the audience, but on this night the unending movement of hips and feet mean that everyone’s a winner.


Photo: Petter Duvander

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Gabba Gabba Hej! Punk Goes Electro in Sweden

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

Anger, as John Lydon once pointed out, is an energy. At least, that was the message in the days before he started shilling for a dairy firm and making travel programmes for cable TV. Now, Lydon eats his crumpets in front of the fire grate and counts his money, as comfortable as the middle class he once set out to offend. Meanwhile, the DIY imagery of punk has become as much of a commodity as the stylised face of Che Guevara – appropriated by admen and repurposed to sell, sell, sell lifestyle products.

If punk can be reimagined and retooled by marketers, then why not by experimental artists armed with arrays of electronic hardware and batteries of VST synths? That’s the question now answered by a collective of Swedish musicians, organised under the banner of “Electronically Yours.” Page/SMPJ front-man Eddie Bengtsson set them the challenge, following the success of 2012’s tribute album, The Seventies Revisited. Their responses are collected on Electronically Up Yours, a compilation of songs from groups and laptop artists of varying notoriety, each tackling a legendary American or British punk classic.

Biomekkanik_2251585The album kicks off with a curl of the lip from Biomekkanik. “Young Savage,” an early Ultravox! track (from their days with John Foxx), hits the sweet spot that Billy Idol missed on his most recent album. Christer Hermodsson is a unique talent, having spent time in S.P.O.C.K and next to Bengtsson in SMPJ. Here, he’s in full Biomekkanik mode, putting the cyber into punk with an aggressive attitude.

Some of the songs, like Radio Stars’ “Nervous Wreck” and Dickies’ “Fan Mail,” benefit from an electronic make-over (provided by The Future and Den där killen, respectively); the technology lifting them neatly into the twenty-first century. Others, like Counterfeit‘s version of XTC’s “I’ll Set Myself on Fire,” go in very different directions from the originals, deconstructing them and teasing out elements that emphasise particular characteristics, like the results of a selective breeding programme. If you thought you knew “God Save the Queen,” then Amusik‘s version will throw you the way that Frazier Chorus’ take on “Anarchy in the UK” once did for an earlier generation.

IMG_1296Things really get interesting with Sista mannen på jorden‘s take on Alternative TV’s self-referential “Action Time Vision.” Alternative TV were one of the first punk bands to have their eyes caught by synthesizers, and guitarist Alex Ferguson even put out an electronic pop track produced by Daniel Miller (of The Normal and Mute Records fame). Bengtsson’s returned the compliment by performing his trick of making synthesizers do the work of guitars, keeping the frenetic energy of the original while infusing it with punktronica stylings.

The American school is represented here by Mr Doonut and Page, tackling classic tracks by The Ramones. Mr Doonut is Håkan Hultberg’s nom de musique, and his version of “The KKK Took My Baby Away” is pure poptronica: blips and bleeps replace the sculptured feedback of the original, while arpeggiators blur over the start-stop riffs that were characteristic of the godfathers of punk. Page round off the album with a sleek cover of “Commando,” speeding it up and armouring it for the dancefloor.

If anything is missing from Electronically Up Yours, it is the anger that fuelled punk and carried it for 2:01 along a path paved by a single chord. The happy fact is that no one is going to gob at the vocalists of the EY acts to show appreciation, nor pour beer over their keyboards to demonstrate their contempt for Tangerine Dream. Parents aren’t going to fret about the influence of this CD on their teenagers, nor take knitting needles to it to assert their authority. This is middle class rebellion in the twenty-first century, from IT team leaders and educators who like butter on their crumpets just as much as Johnny Rotten, and it’s quite lovely.

The full track listing is set out below:

1. Biomekkanik – Young Savage (Ultravox!)
2. 12th House – No More Heroes (The Stranglers)
3. The Future – Nervous Wreck (Radio Stars)
4. Counterfeit – I’ll Set Myself On Fire (XTC)
5. Sista mannen på jorden – Action Time Vision (Alternative TV)
6. Den där killen – Fan Mail (Dickies)
7. Clark Gable – Ready Steady Go (Generation X)
8. Compute – Hong Kong Garden (Siouxsie & the Banshees)
9. Arachnophobias – London Girls (The Vibrators)
10. Steelberry Clones – Watching the Detectives (Elvis Costello & The Attractions)
11. Amusik – God Save the Queen (The Sex Pistols)
12. Dvala – Problem Child (The Damned)
13. Angaudlinn – Just Thirteen (The Lurkers)
14. AlphaKenny-1 – Ever Fallen in Love (The Buzzcocks)
15. 319T – Don’t Push Me Around (The Zeros)
16. DJ Man-Machine feat Sleezy – Gary Gilmore’s Eyes (The Adverts)
17. Mr Doonut – The KKK Took My Baby Away (The Ramones)
18. Independent State – Borstal Breakout (Sham 69)
19. Page – Commando (The Ramones)

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A Merry Synthmas with Parralox

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

There must be an army of elves working in Parralox‘s studio. So far, this year, not only have they given us a complete reboot of their first album, Electricity; not only have they secured a support slot for Erasure in London; not only have they given us one of the singles of the year (“Crying on the Dancefloor”) – they have also found time to knock out a classy new EP, just in time for seasonal giving. Holiday ’14 is a sheer stocking filled with sexy surprises, like covers of Human League classics and enough originals and holiday tracks to keep you humming into the New Year, whether you’ve been naughty or nice.

“Little Drum Machine Boy” sets the tone with an electronic spin on the Christmas standard by the non-observant John von Ahlen. Unlike the sentimentality of Bowie and Crosby’s version, von Ahlen’s take is a vocoder-charged electro-crooner. It bleeds perfectly into a cover of Book of Love’s “With a Little Love.”

“You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling,” of course, wasn’t a Human League original, but the production on their debut album, 1979’s Reproduction, gave it a new frame of reference. The fizzing sounds of the (now) vintage equipment used by the League provided layers of depth that weren’t achievable even with Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, and their choice of a Righteous Brothers song was typically contrary at a time when the influence of punk was still strong. Von Ahlen follows the Sheffield boys’ approach, but also finds a way to add a little respect for Vince Clarke along the way.

“The Path of Least Resistance” and “The Word Before Last” – two more Reproduction-era classics – get a modern make-over, while retaining the killer combination of philosophy and rhythmic tension that made the League so important in their original form.

The final present in the stocking is a charming von Ahlen instrumental, with a sparkle like that in Santa’s eye. It comes through Bandcamp, rather than down your chimney, but it’s just the thing for a holly jolly Synthmas!

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A Film of Faith and Devotion

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Back in 1980, the distance between the gate to Martin Gore’s garden in Basildon and the front door of his neighbour and band-mate, Vince Clarke, could be covered in a few steps.

Fast-forward thirty-odd years and they are living on opposite coasts of the United States, the key figures in two of the planet’s best-known electronic bands, Depeche Mode and Erasure. Over this period, separately or together, they have sold scores of millions of albums and reached hundreds of millions of fans.

Both songwriters are close to the hearts of the dedicated fans who call themselves “devotees” (after the Songs of Faith and Devotion album): avid collectors of Depeche Mode releases and memorabilia, who gather at themed parties, wear tour t-shirts and scour the internet for information about rare mixes. Devotees come in all shapes and sizes, with all kinds of backgrounds, and are found far from the Gore family’s Basildon garden – not even, but especially, in Gothenburg, Sweden’s second city.

noreenThe proof comes in the form of A Film of Faith and Devotion, a documentary from director Henrik Thyselius. Twelve Gothenburg devotees invite the audience into their homes or to sit down for a drink, sharing their collections of recordings and memories of discovering and following Depeche Mode.

Andreas Noreen has a room dedicated to his collection, in which he maintains a shrine to the Violator album and preserves his correspondence with the Depeche Mode Information Service run by Deb Mann and Jo Gahan. Anneli Persson has a great collection of badges, while Withold Chandra painted the walls of his flat to reflect the band’s graphics. Johan Östberg has thirty-seven versions of The Singles 1981-1985 on vinyl, and even more versions on CD and cassette. Sebastian Hess and Henrik Wittgren run Depeche Mode parties in the city, between their superlative Electronic Summer and Electronic Winter music festivals. These are super-fans, who connect with the band in diverse but intensive ways.

The film is more album- than feature-length, running to 46 minutes, so there is little opportunity to explore connections between the devotees. Fans are represented from different stages in Depeche Mode’s career, but they mainly appear as isolated individuals, rather than a community. One of the mainstays of the band’s writing, since Martin Gore took over from the departed Vince Clarke, has been an exploration of feelings of pain and alienation in different tempos, so it would have been interesting to learn what it is that attracts the devotees to the band and each other as a group. Perhaps, the film-makers would say, it’s for another day – sometimes, it really is just a question of time.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Parralox Reboot Electricity for 2014

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

Going back to Parralox‘s first album, Electricity, is like rifling through a collection of the best singles of the 1980s. John von Ahlen’s celebrated lyric videos for Parralox compress the decade’s finest music into graphical quotes, hints and allusions, sometimes using nothing more than the colour palette of a Neville Brody or Designers Republic sleeve. On record, the references come fast and furious, in complex layers. Each listen reveals another tribute to Yazoo, Front 242, Propaganda, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, OMD, that John Farnham track from Hot Rod, Depeche Mode, Ultravox, Human League, New Order, Kraftwerk – a breath-taking sweep through the best-loved poptronica of the period, even if the clue is just a particular reverb on the snare or a three-note chord played on a Pro One. Electricity is loaded with suggestive sounds to celebrate the sonic style of the decade that fashion forgot, but Parralox’s songs remain strikingly original and infectious.

The 2014 release of Electricity comes in two flavours. Electricity (Expanded), available for download at Bandcamp, delivers new, extended versions of all fifteen tracks from the 2008 original album. A physical release, issued in Germany, includes previously unreleased demos from the Electricity sessions, specially commissioned remixes of selected Electricity tracks and expanded versions.

Hard work has gone into perfecting the new versions, so that they aren’t just stretched out with drum fills (we’re looking at you, Pete Waterman and Trevor Horn) but genuinely built up with clever additions on the scaffolding first erected in 2008. “Black Jeans” is sexier than ever; “The End of Summer” even more Yazoo-flecked; and “Eastern Wall” is packed tighter with New Order, Human League and Italo disco references. Rebooted and suited, hotter than a “Cruel Summer,” Electricity (Expanded) is a solar flare of talented pop. It’s confirmation of Vince Clarke’s line: you really can’t get enough.

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Review: Erasure – Reason (Parralox Instrumental Remix)

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

Erasure’s new single, “Reason,” is being released on 24 November 2014 on Mute Records, but you don’t have to hang around until Thanksgiving to hear it in its new mutations. If you pre-order the single, which takes the form of an EP with a brace of remixes, then you can download an instrumental version of Parralox’s contribution on the spot. A sweet thing it is, too. Parralox’s John von Ahlen treats the original material with (a little) respect, while infusing the track with the sophisticated pop stylings that are his trademark. With sequencers set to stun and arpeggiators in rapid-fire mode, it’s a dancefloor-storming monster, but one charged with emotion and draped in Armani.

Available now at Lexer.

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