Shine On

Shine On: Robert Görl

by coldwarnightlife August 12, 2022

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.

August 12, 2022

Shine On: Martyn Ware

by coldwarnightlife July 3, 2022

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.

July 3, 2022

Shine On: Dave Ball

by coldwarnightlife June 8, 2022

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.

June 8, 2022

Shine On: Rico Conning

by coldwarnightlife July 8, 2022

written by coldwarnightlife

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

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

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

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

10. The Lines – White Night

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

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

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

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

9. Test Department – Faces of Freedom 3

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

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

8. Depeche Mode – Strangelove (Blind Mix)

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

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

7. Martin Gore – In a Manner of Speaking

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

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

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

6. Wire – Eardrum Buzz

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

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

5. Frank Tovey – The Brotherhood

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

4. Front 242 – Gripped by Fear

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

3. Swans – New Mind

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

2. Laibach – Opus Dei

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

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

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

July 8, 2022

Shine On: Eddie Bengtsson

by coldwarnightlife July 10, 2017

written by coldwarnightlife

Photo: Petter Duvander

Eddie Bengtsson is rightly called the Swedish Vince Clarke. The poptronica specialist holds his own in a roll-call of synth masters, alongside Clarke, Heaven 17’s Martyn Ware and John Foxx, but he is not as well known outside of the Nordics as he deserves to be.

The story goes that Bengtsson initially wanted to become a drummer. Knocking out beats in his father’s apartment in southern Sweden, Bengtsson was intrigued by the electronic sounds reaching across the Baltic from European artists like Kraftwerk, Space and Jean-Michel Jarre.

When singles from post-punk leaders like the Human League, OMD and Silicon Teens made the journey to Skåne, his drum kit looked positively anachronistic. The latter project caught his imagination the most, and Bengtsson wrote a fan letter to the band in care of their North London label, Mute Records. Instead of a signed picture, he received a reply from Daniel Miller, admitting that it was his own studio project.

The drum kit went back to the shop, to be replaced by a monophonic synth. He learned to play it with help from his girlfriend, Marina Schiptjenko, and they linked up with another friend to start Page. Songs came quickly to Bengtsson and his band-mates, and Page acquired a dedicated following as they issued a stream of popular, hook-laden singles. Unusually, Page stuck to Swedish, which limited their international reach but reflected their desire to create an authentically local pop sound.

Bengtsson has been at the core of Page for more than three decades, but his creative output has been too wide for one act. Bengtsson also writes and performs as Sista mannen på jorden [EN: The Last Man on Earth and SMPJ from here on], which allows him to explore his love of themes drawn from science fiction. His previous outlet for that was S.P.O.C.K, which made the songs Depeche Mode should have but with a cosplay vibe. As This Fish Needs a Bike, Bengtsson has experimented with an English language act, but he continues to do his best work in his first language.

As a producer and remixer, Bengtsson has worked with a range of Swedish and international artists, including The Weathermen, Robert Marlow, My God Damn Territory, Naked Lunch, iSatellite and a host of other artists under the Electronically Yours banner. Bengtsson’s songs have been covered in live or studio settings by Rational Youth, Vision Talk, Celluloide and others.

There is a new Page album just around the corner, so it’s a good time to catch up with a true legend of poptronica.

10. Page – Dansande Man

One of the songs that Bengtsson is most closely associated is the first Page single, “Dansande man.” It was co-written with Anders Eliasson, who originally took vocal duties for the song but left before the band went into the studio. In this video from 1984, Bengtsson and Schiptjenko can be seen performing the hit at a show in Linköping.

9. This Fish Needs a Bike – Do It

Bengtsson’s only serious effort to develop an English-language project showed that his ability to knock out classy and catchy pop knows no borders. This Fish Needs a Bike has only yielded one album to date, but it is infused with the sophisticated synth stylings that Bengtsson has made his trade mark.

8. S.P.O.C.K – E.T. Phone Home

Originally formed for a friend’s birthday party, S.P.O.C.K is a stranger idea on paper than in practice. The songs contributed by Bengtsson are superior poptronica, on a plane with early Depeche Mode, but they use science fiction as both source material and setting. What, from a distance, looks like a Star Trek tribute act turns out to be a deeply philosophical and poetic project. Only Sweden could have made it work.

7. Page – Det syns ingen snö

As a live act, Page are a compelling proposition. Bengtsson is an engaging front man, and the band’s cult status means that domestic audiences know most of the words. Schiptjenko is a seasoned performer, too, but rarely steps outside of her modern art gallery to play these days. This clip shows the duo in front of their core audience, updating a classic song.

“Det syns ingen snö” started life as a cute, whimsical track, but it has been retooled by Bengtsson as a more straight-up dancefloor number. A studio version of this arrangement is expected on the next Page album.

6. SMPJ – Stadens alla ljus

Bengtsson originally offered “Stadens alla ljus” [EN: “All the City Lights”] to his former band-mates in S.P.O.C.K. They didn’t think it was S.P.O.C.K-and-roll enough for their live shows, so he recorded it as a SMPJ single. Inspired by his complex relationship with Malmö, it was also recorded in English for SMPJ’s first London shows.

5. Page – Som ett skal

Bengtsson’s love of space disco is well known. The sounds and visuals of bands like Space (of “Magic Fly” fame) and Kebekelektrik are part of Page’s DNA. The video for “Som ett skal” [EN: “Like a Shell”] captures that late-1970s vibe, while the track itself is bang up to date.

4. Page – Idag

Bengtsson recorded two albums as Page without Marina Schiptjenko. On one, he used synths to sound like guitars; on the other, he brought some in axes for real. The first approach confused Page’s fan base, who loved the band for its synth-only ethos; the second pushed away some who had got the gag first time round but thought Page were selling out to the commercial mainstream.

It’s a shame, because both albums contain some of Bengtssons best compositions.

3. The Volt – Live in Gothenburg

Bengtsson’s appetite for collaboration is considerable. Among his many projects has been this duet with Ulrika Mild, which reached into the vaults for an early Cold War vibe.

2. Sista mannen på jorden – Ögon

Despite Bengtsson’s well-known love of science fiction, the name of SMPJ – which renders in English as The Last Man on Earth – was not taken from the Vincent Price adaptation of Richard Matheson’s novel, I Am Legend. The source is actually one of the earliest Human League tracks, and the choice shows Bengtsson’s attention to detail, as well as his love of the Sheffield sound.

SMPJ has only played once outside of Sweden (at the invitation of Cold War Night Life, we might add). The band’s first London show was a stormer, with several songs set in English and a limited edition CD released for the occasion. One track that remained in the original Swedish was “Ögon” [EN: “Eyes”], an evergreen live favourite.

1. Sista mannen på jorden – Luft

One of the most beautiful songs ever written, “Luft” [EN: variously rendered as “Breath” or “Air”] is the title song from SMPJ’s second album. You don’t need to understand Swedish to appreciate the melodic power of the track, rendered over the simplest electronic pulses. It might be the story of an astronaut running out of air, but it’s rendered with unparalleled sensitivity. Rational Youth’s Tracy Howe has called it, “an absolute drop-dead gorgeous masterpiece,” and he isn’t wrong.

SMPJ on the Web: www.moonbasealpha.space
Footage from A Secret Wish by Anders Wickholm.

July 10, 2017