Creative rebellion is the theme of The Horror Show. The exhibition at Somerset House captures the art of punks, witches and conceptual artists in a three act show filled with costumes, typography…and music.
Gazelle Twin provide a surround-sound installation inspired by the women lost to violence. If the theme isn’t enough to inspire horror, then sitting in a darkened, empty room with just a little red light for company, as ghostly voices move around you, should provoke some kind of response.
The vocals of Marc Almond and Midge Ure emerge in another room, where 80s parties are represented through costumes and videos. Under the effects of their incantations, creative types produced frocks and excessive make-up; but, arguably, Visage and the New Romantics represented zombified Glam, rediscovered by the younger siblings of 70s Bolan fans. Soft Cell, by contrast, injected a sense of sleaze and subversion into mainstream pop (knocking them cold in black and gold). “Martin” should have been the song choice here: a darker soundtrack to unsettle the old punks huddling around the output of Central St Martin’s students.
Cabaret Voltaire’s Lyceum show is represented by a cassette tape. You can hear it on Spotify now, and Mal has the institutional respectability of a tenured academic, while Chris Watson is at home on the BBC. At the time, however, this was the sound of Britain’s decayed, post-industrial cityscape. With Brexit and twelve years of Tory government, the country is rapidly reviving the sense of anxiety and frustration that inspired bands like the Cabs.
A framed copy of “TVOD/Warm Leatherette” is nestled alongside books by J.G. Ballard, which helped to inspire Daniel Miller. Car crash eroticism might be due for a revival.
Last Few Days, the experimental band that included 23 Skidoo’s Fritz Catlin and introduced Laibach to the megaphone, are prominently represented through posters and less conspicuously by polaroids. The posters provide a post box at Throbbing Gristle’s studio address, which probably won’t reach the band now that London Fields has been gentrified.
The exhibition is tied together and given an identity by the typographic contributions of the Barnbrook studios. Contrasted with the sleek, corporate patterns of the institutions and corporations that line the Embankment are combinations of type and signs that have been chewed and chopped into grotesque combinations.
The scariest thing in the exhibition is a puppet of Margaret Thatcher. Continuously channeled by the superannuated members of the Tory party, as a ghostly incarnation of the police state, her gruesome face looks on with a fixed expression at the decline and rot of modern Britain. It is a state made in her image.
A set of covers by Lexxy from Norway, The Outsider EP shows off her unique ability to focus the essence and sound of electronic music.
There 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.
There 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.
Robert 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.
John 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.
Tomaga is an experimental project, but it yields excellent results.
Psyche and No More are two of the most influential dark wave acts, and putting them together for a collaboration was a great idea.
Dubstar‘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.
What 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.
Iceland’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.
Sweden’s famous Romo Night might not be with us, but it lives on through Romo Records.
Sweden 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.
It 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.
A 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.
The 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.
The 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.
Sweden’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.