Jean-Marc Lederman

The Top 18 of 2018

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

Two thousand and eighteen was a challenging year for electronic music.

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

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

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

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

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

18. Technomancer – The Outsider EP

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

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

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

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

17. Familjen – Kom

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

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

16. Daniel Myer – Find, Fund, Finish

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

14. Black Needle Noise – I Am You

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

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

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

13. Tomaga – Music for Visual Disorders

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

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

Click. Click. Drone.

12. Psyche & No More – Ghosts of the Past

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

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

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

11. Yazoo – Four Pieces

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

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

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

10. Dubstar – One

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

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

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

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

9. Lederman/De Meyer – Eleven Grinding Songs

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

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

8. Gus Gus – Lies Are More Flexible

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

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

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

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

6. Cryo – Sanitarium

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

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

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

5. Chris Carter – CCCL Vol. 1

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

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

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

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

4. Zanti – Broken Hearted City

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

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

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

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

3. Vive la Fete – Destination Amour

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

Just brilliant.

2. Robert Görl – The Paris Tapes

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

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

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

1. Page – Adapted EP/Start EP

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

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

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

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The Top 17 of 2017

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

After the loss of so many artists in 2016, it was a pleasure to see some of the original synthpop heroes back on the release trail. OMD, Alison Moyet, Erasure and Blancmange were among those with new albums to perform, and they all stuck to what they do best.

Against that backdrop, Depeche Mode‘s effort, Spirit, seemed a tired and forced attempt at American blues-rock.

Depeche Mode used to sing about danger, but there was nothing particularly risky about Spirit. Against a backdrop of nuclear threats, environmental disaster and grinding poverty, the millionaires from Basildon put on beards and taunted their neighbours for letting them down (again?).

The album contained many of the band’s familiar sounds, but fans complained that it lacked the magic of earlier works. We probably won’t see another Depeche Mode album until 2021, so we can only hope that by then Trump will be gone and Martin Gore will have rediscovered the joys of moody electronic pop.

In contrast, this year’s list is packed with risk-takers. From industrial pioneers to Finnish librarians who dabble in experimental soundtracks; from middle-aged Swedish dark electro songwriters to Belgian conceptual artists – 2017 was the year in which those who dared won.

17. Throbbing Gristle – Second Annual Report

It’s a reissue, but Mute’s release of Throbbing Gristle’s first album is a reminder of how potent the capital-I Industrial  quartet were in the second half of the 1970s.

In those days, entertainment for many English youths consisted of shooting fireworks at each other or gobbing on pub rock bands playing at high speed. Synthesizers were the devil’s handiwork, and anyone putting them on stage was a Rick Wakeman effigy waiting to be hung from the nearest faux-Tudor beams.

Throbbing Gristle didn’t care. They liked ABBA and built their own kit. The audience could throw all the chairs they liked – they were going to play on.

The unconventional, deconstructed sound of TG started riots, wound up the press and opened the doors to post-punk experimentation. Second Annual Report turned forty this year, but even in middle age it stands head and shoulders above anything in Pitchfork’s playlist.


Web site: Industrial Records

16. Pieces of Juno – Tacenda/Kalopsia

Norway’s Pieces of Juno released not one but two albums this year. Tacenda and Kalopsia each would have made our list on their own, but together they demonstrate the vitality of Norway’s most promising young artist.

We were treated first to Kalopsia, the “red” piece, which has been nominated for a national prize in Norway. Tacenda, the “blue” piece, followed later in the year. The songs on both albums had been written at the same time, but were sorted by Juno into different releases based upon their feel, setting up a duality that is reflected in their artwork and in Juno’s wigs.

In any event, both albums feel as smooth as stockings being drawn along shaven skin. Not that we would know anything about that, but Juno’s jazzy, trip-hopping sound is both sensual and seductive. The voice of Anana on a cover of Elysian Fields’ “Black Acres,” intoning, “I need to have this little death” – you know the French saying – just adds layers to this picture.

Juno calls her style “Northern Noir,” and it is as good a way as any to describe the sound coming from the speakers. Somewhere between Portishead and Nick Cave, with minor key images emerging from the darkness, with these releases Pieces of Juno has crafted a magical sonic diptych.


Web site: Pieces of Juno

15. Black Line – Treason, Sedition and Subversive Activities

An electronic super-group to rival The Traveling Wilburys, Black Line has a core team in Douglas J. McCarthy (Nitzer Ebb, Fixmer/McCarthy, DJM REX) and Cyrusrex (DJM/REX), and it draws in a long list of collaborators: Bon Harris (Nitzer Ebb), Jason Payne (Nitzer Ebb), Ken ‘hiwatt’ Marshall (Skinny Puppy, DJM/REX), Paul Barker (Ministry/Revolting Cocks), Jon Bates (Big Black Delta), Zack Meyers (Fear of Ghosts), Brad Apodaca (Fear of Ghosts), Anthony Baldino and Michael prophei Dietel (Annodalleb).

The first album from Black Line is completely funked up. “Shut It Down” provides a growling, groovy slice of EBM with McCarthy’s voice scraping like a strop razor over a stomping beat. It out-hammers Nine Inch Nails.

“Changed” comes as a mix from Venetian Snares, adding a touch of Prairie grit. There is plenty of experimental and industrial styling on Treason, Sedition and Subversive Activities, and it is great to hear McCarthy in a fighting mood again.

Black Line are opening for Depeche Mode on the next leg of the European Spirit tour.


Web site: Black Line

14. Parralox – Holiday ’17

Parralox‘s seasonal collections are always heavily anticipated, and the release of Holiday ’17 more than lives up to expectations.

John von Ahlen has a gifted ear for classic synth sounds, and his choice of material is always speaker candy for electronic music fans.

Holiday ’17 comes with covers of The Assembly’s “Stop/Start,” Human League’s “The Dignity of Labour” and Depeche Mode’s “Shine” and “Fools.” Even Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” gets a Parralox makeover.

The real treat is a subversive version of the traditional Christmas song, “O Tannenbaum,” with Katja Kassel guesting. Kassel’s breathy German vocals recall Marlene Dietrich, while von Ahlen’s electronics are playful; toying with the classic to emphasise Kassel’s poise.

Web site: Parralox

13. Goldfrapp – Silver Eye

Goldfrapp - Silver Eye Goldfrapp’s performance at Glastonbury was the kind of jaw dropping event that students discuss between classes the next day.

“Did you see…?”

“Yes! She was amazing!”

Alison Goldfrapp still has one of the best voices in Britain – up there with Jane Caley, for sure – and the show was a mad masterclass in stagecraft. If Madonna was watching, she would have bitten through her lower lip.

What Goldfrapp did live and on the new album, Silver Eye, was avoid the trap of rehashing Kraftwerk or early Human League styles that many synthpop heroes fell into. The results have been outstanding.


Web site: Goldfrapp

12. Anna Öberg – härsknar NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR!

One of the surprises of 2017 was the arrival of Sweden’s Anna Öberg. Seemingly coming out of nowhere, Öberg stunned the electronic music scene with a cutting-edge release designer-made for alternative dancefloors.

Tracks like “Sin mamma” [EN: “Their Mother”] channeled the spirit of Danielle Dax, while “5 minuter” [EN: “5 Minutes”] and “Allt är ägt” [EN: “Everything Is Owned”] went in a harder direction.

“Härsknar” means “rancid” in Swedish, but this was an album with a fresh feel. Produced by Öberg with Charles Storm, it breathed some life back into dark wave in 2017.


Web site: Anna Öberg on Bandcamp

11. UUUU – UUUU

A sonic supergroup, formed from artists connected to Coil, Wire, Dome and Tomaga? Yes, please.

UUUU is the combination of Edvard Graham Lewis, Thighpaulsandra, Matthew Simms and Valentina Magaletti. Their self-titled debut album is a bonkers mixture of krautrock, experimentation, antipop and improvisation.

There must be a trend for songs over 15 minutes – see Frogmore, below – but we’re not arguing for stricter time limits when the material is as interesting as “Five Gates.” The piece we were really struck by, however, is “Verlagerung, Verlagerung, Verlagerung,” a track that could have been mapped out in Conny Plan’s kitchen.

UUUU have live shows coming up in 2018 and we can’t wait.


Web site: Editions Mego

10. Wire – Silver/Lead

Wire never fail to disappoint, and they opened the year with another compelling release.

Silver/Lead is Wire’s fifteenth studio album. In our review, we noted that it comes an adult lifetime after their initial outing:

Forty years later, Silver/Lead shows Wire emerging from the lab on the front foot, turning out the kind of material that the dream-pop set can only dream about. From the delightfully retro sleeve to the cleverer-than-a-chemist lyrics, Wire continue to hold their ground. Over their four decades as a combo, they haven’t blown with the trends of the times, nor have they been stopped by line-up changes, time apart and a near-fatal experiment with drum machines. The new album continues the pattern by drawing on the strands of psychedelia that were hinted at on last year’s Nocturnal Koreans mini-album and infusing them with a sense of groove.

Because Wire are at their most awesome live, we’ve dug out this clip from KEXP with some of the new material:


Web site: Pink Flag

9. Rico C – Frogmore

Frogmore didn’t get the attention it deserved, but we predict that the first solo album from Rico Conning will be a slow burner.

You will recognise Conning from his work as a producer and engineer at Guerilla Studios and for Mute Records (Martin Gore, Frank Tovey, Laibach – it’s a long list), but he knows how to make stunningly creative material of his own.

We were taken by songs like “Fluxus” and “Mercury” that were too long for commercial radio but we didn’t want to end. Frogmore is an album of dream-like grooves that carry you along with them like leaves in the current, and the journey is as interesting as the destination.


Web site: Rico's Reel (blog)

8. Jean-Marc Lederman – The Space Between Worlds

We didn’t finish our review of The Space Between Worlds earlier this year – sorry – but from the moment the boxed CD came through the letterbox it has been a regular feature at CWNL HQ.

When it comes on, there is always a moment of, “Who is that?” Rediscovering Jean-Marc Lederman’s latest album is a joy, because it sounds fresh every time. From the buzzing electronic arc of “Enter the Dragonette,” through the whimsical “Map of the World,” and on to the reverb-heavy touch of “A Darker Snare,” it is an album filled with an exciting experimental spirit.

The Space Between Worlds is Sunday night music: just right to listen to with a snifter and headphones while the world sits still.


Web site: Jean-Marc Lederman on Bandcamp

7. DAF – Das Ist DAF

The original EBM godfathers, DAF, reissued a selection of four albums in a deluxe format this year.

The set included Die Kleinen und die Bösen, Alles ist Gut, Gold und Liebe and Für Immer – all albums that a DAF fan already owns and adores. However, even if they have  listened to “Kebabträume” and “Goldenes Spielzeug” a million times before, there is nothing bad about refreshing the vinyl and adding a slip mat to the collection.

The real treat, however, was a 12” of new mixes from Giorgio Moroder and Boys Noize and a 7″ single with unreleased tracks. They might not have change lives, but their arrival certainly lifted moods.

We spotted DAF’s Robert Görl in one of the year’s most interesting films – the biography of Conny Plank. The scenes he shot with the famous producer and engineer’s son were particularly poignant. This trailer has a short clip with Görl at 1:01 that fans will appreciate:


Web site: Groenland

6. Psyche – Youth of Tomorrow

A new Psyche release is always welcome, but we were very happy when “Youth of Tomorrow” landed. It was heralded by a video that played on a series of 1980s music and television tropes: double-breasted shirts, Michael Jackson gangs and Tony Scott lighting among them.

The 80s have become a cultural archive to be excavated by synthwave enthusiasts and Netflix thrillers. It is fitting, therefore, that one of the original dark wave artists should dig themselves out first.

“Youth of Tomorrow” is great fun, but the flip comes with a serious message. “Truth or Consequence” is about the surveillance state and its discontents. Take it from Darrin:

Your life is on trial
There’s a price on your head
You’re gonna have to pay
For all you’ve given away
The security is all in your mind
You know the safety in numbers
Is making us blind
Your life is on trial
Don’t stand a chance


Web site: Psyche

5. Rein – Freedoom

Rein announced that she is taking 2018 off, following a driving tour schedule to promote Freedoom.

We will miss the Stockholm-based chanteuse, because she has single-handedly reinvigorated the EBM genre.

The Freedoom EP won’t be matched by Rein’s contemporaries anytime soon. With tracks like “Missfit” and the chantable spelling song, “C.A.P.I.T.A.L.I.S.M.,” Rein gave us something to think about as well as dance to.

Come back soon, Rein – music needs your kick up the backside.

4. Black Needle Noise – Lost in Reflections

John Fryer relocated from Oslo to LA this year, but the move to a warmer climate didn’t interrupt the flow of excellent releases from his Black Needle Noise project.

Lost in Reflections, BNN’s most recent collection, continues the pattern of excellent and mind-bending collaborations between Fryer and a long list of accomplished vocalists.

We’ve said before that BNN is the spiritual successor to This Mortal Coil, and Fryer has consistently proven the point.

What makes BNN interesting is the spin that the singers bring to the project. Take the alternately soothing and soaring vocals of Kite Base’s Kendra Frost on “Warning Sign.” Frost’s voice is simply stunning, while Fryer’s instrumentation and production are both elegant and dynamic. Ivo might have retired to live in the desert, while 4AD has become just another hit-seeking label, but Fryer is keeping the true flame of This Mortal Coil alive by letting the human voice have a space of its own.

We love the contribution of Jennie Vee on “Heaven.” Vee recently joined The Eagles of Death Metal as their bassist, but she also has a history of making dreampop material of exceptional quality. “Heaven” finds her in a darker, very personal space, and the results are magnificent.

There are also contributions from Front Line Assembly’s Bill Leeb, Andrea Kerr, Delerium collaborator Mimi Page, Omniflux, Zialand, Ana Breton and Sivert Høyem. Each has its own, distinctive qualities, but the collection is held together by Fryer’s sublime production.


Web site: Black Needle Noise on Bandcamp

3. Kite Base – Latent Whispers

Kite Base is as close as you can get to the pulse of London’s alternative sound.

Throbbing basslines, rhythms that tense and release like muscles, vocals both sapphic and seraphic – this is music from the core. Pity the finger-snapping hipsters from the suburbs who are trying to impress each other with clones of Phoebe from Friends.

After seeing the band live, it was no surprise to find that Latent Whispers is a mighty debut album. Dueling bassists, a drum machine and one of the strongest vocalists we’ve heard combine to perform sturdy tracks with a deep sense of groove. It’s like indie-funk fuelled by Irn Bru.


Web site: Kite Base

2. Lau Nau – Poseidon

Finland’s Lau Nau is one of Europe’s most interesting artists. She crosses bridges between folk, experimentation and chamber music with ease, and her output is a dream for movie makers.

Poseidon is Lau Nau’s follow up to Hem. Någonstans, the soundtrack to the eponymous film. It’s an antipodean partner to that album, filled with sounds and feelings drawn from warmer days. We found that the best musical signposts were somewhere between Virginia Astley, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Sigur Rós, but Lau Nau’s sound is both original and daring.

We expect that this will end up in a Hollywood music consultant’s bag of surprises sooner rather than later.


Web site: Lau Nau

1. Page – Det Är Ingen Vacker Värld Men Det Råkar Vara Så Det Ser Utt  ALBUM OF THE YEAR!

Sweden’s poptronica pioneers started as a singles band, but after three decades of work have honed the album format to perfection.

Det Är Ingen Vacker Värld… is Page’s meisterwerk. Eddie Bengtsson’s compositions out-Numan Numan with Moog filters and angular phrasing, but the secret to the album’s success is its pop intentions.

“Tid För En Kyss” is knock-out poptronica. No one else is writing songs like “Lägger Av.” Page’s formula is one part integrity and two parts audacity, and the combination puts the band streets ahead of its competitors.

Known as Sweden’s Vince Clarke, Bengtsson is fearless in his pursuit of pure poptronica. There is no auto-tune on any of the vocals. No concessions are made to the demands of hit radio. All of the tracks are made with authentic Moogs. The sounds are crafted without presets and reach straight for your hips.

You don’t have to dance, but if you don’t then you’ll have missed all the fun.


Web site: Hot Stuff

 

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Mari & The Ghost Channel the Spirit of Radio

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

Jean-Marc Lederman has several incarnations. The Belgian composer and musician is sometimes known as one-half of The Weathermen, or as Kid Montana, depending on the style of music or collaborator of the moment. In his guise as The Ghost, he has previously appeared with Frank Spinath (Seabound) in Ghost & Writer and on a single with Mari Kattman as Mari & The Ghost. The latter project has now grown into a full album, showing off Lederman’s synthpop credentials and Kattman’s dream-like vocals.

Superstitions traces an arc through the spectrum of radio-friendly poptronica. From the opening of “Satellite,” the album unfolds with grace and poise. There is something of a Sarah McLachlan feel to Kattman’s contributions, which will draw comparisons to parts of Delirium’s catalogue, but there are also hints of Madonna’s Ray of Light period. In part, this comes from Kattman’s background as a choral singer, but her style as a lead vocalist is as much about creating atmosphere as it is telling a story.

The stand-out track on the album is a song that has already been issued as a single. “Wolves” trips along with a deceptively simple synth line over a bubbling sequence, carried by rhythms and pads, while Kattman’s voice soars overhead. It’s the restraint shown by Lederman’s production, allowing the tension to build within the track, that is its main strength – a feat repeated throughout the album. The lack of bombast compresses the material and maintains interest across ten tracks of classy synthpop.

Out now on Bandcamp.

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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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Shine On: Frank Tovey

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

fadgadget11

Frank Tovey made art ahead of its time but didn’t stay long enough to see the world catch up to it. As Fad Gadget, his gadfly alter ego, Tovey came to attention by marrying electronic music to performance art, using it as a vehicle for biting political and social criticism. He wrote about the devastation of the environment (“Pedestrian.” “Wheels of Fortune”), the use of the working class as cannon fodder (“Life on the Line”), consumer manipulation (“Swallow It”) and patriarchy (“Saturday Night Special”) with cutting insight. Although, as the first signing to Daniel Miller‘s Mute Records imprint, he was closely associated with synth music, Tovey’s humanist instincts eventually led him to eschew keyboards and sequencers and wash off Fad’s stage face, searching for a musical form better aligned to his social concerns. Commercial success eluded him, though he left a trail of critical plaudits, and he could only look on as those he inspired overtook him in the charts.

As a live act, Tovey was notorious for total performance, and on occasion he would have to be helped from the venue with broken limbs or patched up after colliding with equipment. He gave the audience part of his soul but also his body, as he swang microphones around his head, tore hair from his body or leapt from speakers. This commitment made performing as Fad Gadget a punishing experience, but it also contrasted with the robotic alienation affected by many of his Futurist contemporaries. As a student of mime in the mid-70s, Tovey had learned to use physical movement to get his point across, and as a singer he put that experience to unrestrained use. Boyd Rice of NON noted:

He was a great performer. You know, the other people doing electronic music were kind of standing there cold and emotionless where he was being over the top, running around the audience screaming, yelling at people. I don’t think the like of that has been seen in electronic pop since.

Tovey passed away in 2002, shortly after reviving his Fad Gadget persona. He left behind a young family and a legacy of music characterised by both experimentation and integrity.

10. Fad Gadget – Pedestrian

The first Fad Gadget album, Fireside Favourites, was recorded at Blackwing Studios, which was the main base for many classic Mute recordings in the first half of the 1980s. Daniel Miller had discovered the studio, in a church south of the Thames, when looking for a facility with sufficient space to set up the synthesizers for Silicon Teens. The studio’s owner, Eric Radcliffe, and his assistant, John Fryer, are credited with performance on the album, as well as production and engineering duties.

The songs on the album are not exclusively synthetic, and Tovey’s approach to the vocals is engaging. This confounded the expectations of some who identified Fad Gadget with the machine-driven, stoic stylings of the Futurists like John Foxx, Gary Numan, and even Miller in his incarnation as The Normal. The general trend might have been towards Kraftwerkian alienation, but Tovey’s own tendency was towards humanisation: his “Pedestrian” hero is fighting for space in a world clogged with traffic, instead of watching cars burn in Ballardian images.

9. Fad Gadget – Ladyshave

“Ladyshave” was released as a double-A sided single in 1980, paired with “Make Room,” following the Fireside Favourites album. Named after a depilation device aimed at women, the song reflects a feminist critique of body image pressures. Its backbone is a repetitive sequence, based on a single note repeated eight times to a bar, over which layers of synth runs and a sinister bass line come in, while Tovey purrs his anticonsumerist message. It is a work of absolute genius that still stands up today.

8. Fad Gadget – Swallow It

Taken from the second Fad Gadget album, the John Fryer co-produced Incontinent, “Swallow It” is a bass groove with a serious message about accepting the authority of media and a social role as a consumer. Tovey’s lyrics cut to the quick, but it’s the rhythm section that carries the moment here, even if it does make it a little bit like dancing to Noam Chomsky.

7. Fad Gadget – Love Parasite

Under the Flag, which came out in 1982, in the shadow of the Falklands conflict, is arguably the Fad Gadget meisterwerk. Produced by John Fryer and featuring Anton Corbijn imagery before U2 and Depeche Mode got in on the act, the album is stripped back poptronica, balancing choral tones (with input, notably, from Yazoo’s Alison Moyet) and sequenced electronics to devastating effect. There were two singles released from Under the Flag, including “For Whom the Bells Toll,” which featured this track on the reverse. “Love Parasite” is a typically off-centre expression of Tovey’s experience of becoming a father, in which he is cast as a loving anthropologist.

6. Frank Tovey – Ricky’s Hand

The original version of “Ricky’s Hand” was released as a 7″ single in 1980. It is an essential step on the path of British electronic music, combining an octave-jumping sequencer and a Black & Decker power drill, glued together by unique sounds crafted from Daniel Miller’s ARP 2600. Tovey’s lyrics are in a simple story-telling tradition, charting the uses of a hand that was separated from its owner after an episode of drunk driving. The darkness of the theme was one of Tovey’s connections to the alternative music scene, which later found full expression with “Collapsing New People.”

This version is actually an acoustic rendering, released as the B-side of “Sam Hall” at a time when Tovey was exploring the traditions of rebellious folk songs, such as those popularised by Pete Seeger during the Great Depression. Adapting the track to the style of Irish rebel music gives it a curious feel, which highlights the attempt by Tovey to move in a popular direction – in a political rather than a commercial sense of the term.

As a bonus, here is Fad Gadget miming to the original single on Belgian television. If you look closely, you can see Jean-Marc Lederman of The Weathermen and Mari & The Ghost playing the role of a synth player. Lederman was part of Tovey’s original live band.

5. Frank Tovey & The Pyros – Worried Man

By 1992, Tovey had refined his post-electronic style into a fusion of blues, folk and rock. He recorded Worried Men in Second-Hand Suits, one of his finest albums, with The Pyros, an Irish bluegrass band that had relocated to London. “Worried Man” is premier-league material: Tovey’s vocal delivery is touched with a plaintive quality, while mournful guitars stretch out anxious notes. Given the tentative economic situation Tovey typically found himself in, it’s hard to imagine that there wasn’t an autobiographical impulse behind the song, but the richness of his poetry and story-telling comes through with a sense of wider sense of dread:

Wears a hat to protect him
from the sky
But there ain’t no leather
can protect him from the earth

4. Fad Gadget – Collapsing New People

The fourth Fad Gadget album, Gag, was recorded at West Berlin’s Hansa studios. Daniel Miller had discovered that recording in the walled city was economical, compared to arrangements back in the UK, and British engineer Gareth Jones (who had worked on John Foxx’s Metamatic album and was on-board for Depeche Mode’s Construction Time Again) liked it there. At that time, Berlin was an alternative music centre, with groups like Einstürzende Neubauten subverting pop music with an industrial aesthetic while hard drugs freely circulated. Tovey and team absorbed the environment and reflected it back through “Collapsing New People,” which celebrated the sounds of Neubauten while gently mocking the scene:

Takes hours of preparations
To get that wasted look

3. Frank Tovey – Luxury

“Collapsing New People” became an underground hit for Tovey, but he never managed to break out of the box that the music industry had put him in. A valiant attempt was made in 1986, when Tovey first shed Fad’s skin for Snakes & Ladders, an album made under his own name. Featuring songs written by Daniel Miller, and with Eric Radcliffe, Flood and Miller all playing studio roles, the album had clear commercial intent; but, despite the catchiness of the lead single, “Luxury,” it failed to penetrate the mainstream. It was the first and last time that Tovey aimed in that direction, and his subsequent work became part of a search for authenticity along completely different lines.

Some of Tovey’s frustration has been captured in this German TV clip, in which he reacts to being asked to mime to a recorded track.

2. Frank Tovey & Boyd Rice – Extraction 7

Back in 1981, Tovey found himself in Blackwing Studios with Boyd Rice of NON. Rice, a controversial figure in the industrial underground, was a friend of Daniel Miller and a fellow Mute artist. The results of their collaboration didn’t see the light of day until 1984, when Mute put out Easy Listening for the Hard of Hearing, and many were baffled by it. Rice explains that Tovey had wanted to do something more abstract than his poptronica work, while Rice was interested to make poppier music. They performed the material live in 1985, but this was deemed to be of specialist interest only and the project attracted little attention from the mainstream.

1. Frank Tovey – Back to Nature

The first Fad Gadget single was a science fiction-inspired commentary on the devastation of the environment. Ecological themes had come up in electronic music before – Cerrone’s “Supernature” being just one example – but Tovey’s approach was to write a love song set within the domes used to take refuge from the polluted world. It’s a dark, brooding track with Miller’s influence clearly in evidence in the instrumental lines, including rhythm sounds familiar from his live show as Robert Rental & The Normal. It’s just too bad the warning wasn’t heard in time.

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