What goes through the minds of dictators, oppressors, and authoritarians? We will never know, but we can wonder. Lithuania’s Alanas Chosnau and Manchester’s Cultural Ambassador to Germany, Mark Reeder, raise the question that is impossible to answer but vital to ask.
Claes Bang will be immediately familiar to television viewers from his role in the series, Bad Sisters. In that context, he played an abusive douche who managed to insult everyone around him. The Danish actor also starred in The Square, Ruben Östlund’s Oscar-nominated film about a thoughtless curator. The problem-ridden characters played by Bang might not generate much sympathy, but his musical side-line is more endearing.
This Is Not America is Bang’s studio project. He has recorded a number of tracks together with Marina Schiptjenko (Page, BWO, Vacuum), with whom he worked on The Square. A real-life gallerist at Stockholm’s prestigious Andrehn-Schiptjenko, she also has some musical side-projects, including the Riviera-tronica duo, Julian & Marina. The two clicked, and Schiptjenko joined Bang to record several tracks in a Danish studio.
The latest EP from This Is Not America includes one solo track from Bang and two together with Schiptjenko. This one is not a million miles from the Pet Shop Boys; particularly in the chorus.
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Sweden’s legendary act, Twice a Man, have released a tour of their output between the years 1982 and 2022. The material is collected on Songs of Future Memories, a 3-CD compilation from Germany’s Dependent label, with two new songs and thirty-two from the band’s extensive back catalogue. The physical edition also includes a 72-page hardcover book with notes from Ecki Stieg.
The importance of Twice a Man to Swedish and European pop and theatrical music cannot be overstated. From the point at which they transformed from Cosmic Overdose, at the insistence of New Order’s promoter, the band has led from the front; both in terms of their styling and in their messages about the social and natural environment. They might have changed their name, but the group – organised around the core of Karl Gasleben and Dan Söderqvist – didn’t give up their affinity for psychedelic soundscapes or explosions of surrealistic energy. Instead, they set up structures within which new sounds could be formed and social concerns could be channelled.
As this compilation shows, Twice a Man have taken a much wider perspective than many of their peers; adapting to the shifting sands of fashion while maintaining a Brechtian distance that prevents them from being pigeon-holed. Are they prog or new wave? For the theatre or the dancefloor? Do they look at internal psychology or social movements? The answer is: any and all of the above, depending on the moment. There is no one truth about Twice a Man, but there is an organising principle to their material: it isn’t like anything else.
From the proto-techno of “Russian Tractors” to the pulsing symphonic movements of “High in the Clouds,” this collection is a master-class in European electronic music. Spanning forty years of work, Songs of Future Memories draws on an exceptional tradition of experimentation and composition. The two new songs presented here, “Lotus” and “Dahlia,” emerge from that crib impressed with a unique inheritance. Twice a Man remain a work in progress.
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The latest album from Kanga, You and I Will Never Die, comes out on 26 March 2023. Until then, we have this to dance to: a charged, sleek-but-dirty electronic instrumental and vocals that remind one of Curve at their best.
The departure of Ian Craig Marsh and Martin Ware from the Human League was engineered by their record company and manager to allow the act to develop in more commercial directions. The first two albums from the Sheffield-based electro pioneers had been received with enthusiasm by the cool crowd, but they weren’t paying the bills back at Virgin HQ by themselves. A plan was cooked up, therefore, to kick Ware out of the band he had created and have it continue based around the singer he had brought in.
To his credit, Marsh was prepared to follow Ware out of the door. Instead of creating a new version of the League, they diversified. First, they went into music production, setting up the British Electric Foundation as a vehicle for working with other artists. They also founded their first “client.” Heaven 17, with a mate of theirs who was working as a snapper in London, but that is a story for another day. For our purposes, what matters is that the BEF production team released a cassette of electronic music that continued the lineage that had started with The Future, moved into the Human League, and emerged with the ambition to take synth music into the mainstream.
Music for Stowaways was specifically created for the compact cassette tape. Sony had given their portable music players the name, Stowaway, before settling on the genre-defining Walkman. Ware and Marsh loved the idea of the device, and they went into the studio with some friends – including Adi Newton and Glenn Gregory – to create a single-format release with early adopters in mind. With eight tracks, the original March 1981 release was a glimpse into the future.
In 2023, Music for Stowaways is getting an expanded edition release on two other formats: vinyl and CD. The track listing is set out below.
MUSIC FOR STOWAWAYS
LP | CD REISSUE
TRACKLISTING
A1 | 1 B.E.F. Ident
A2 | 2 The Optimum Chant
A3 | 3 Uptown Apocalypse
A4 | 4 Wipe The Board Clean
A5 | 5 Groove Thang
A6 | 6 Music To Kill Your Parents By
B1 | 7 The Old At Rest
B2 | 8 Rise Of The East
B3 | 9 Decline Of The West
B4 | 10 A Baby Called Billy
B5 | 11 Honeymoon In New York
B6 | 12 B.E.F. Ident
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Jean-Marc Lederman’s concept albums are a diverse set. Experimentation is at their core, but so is a cinematic sense of space and time. Whether exploiting the unpredictable qualities of The Bad Tempered Synthesizer or exploring the aquatic world of Night Music for Seahorses and Manatees, Lederman creates collections of stories in sound.
Soul Music for Zombies is the latest project from Lederman (Fad Gadget, The Weathermen, Kid Montana). Over eleven songs, it mines a rich vein of soul and blues; testing their elements in combinations with industrial, electronic and ambient tracks. If Screaming Jay Hawkins had access to a bank of synths, he might have come up with a take on “I Put a Spell on You” like Lederman’s, but only if he had spent decades absorbing the back catalogue of Front 242. Laurie Anderson is name-checked in “O Super(wo)man (nod to Laurie),” but Lederman hasn’t left the tracks: the song features a loop over a dance beat that belongs more to Soul Train than the Barbican.
Emileigh Rohn (Chiasma), Lederman’s partner on the recent Rage! album, appears for “The Music Walks Again.” Subtitled “The Robert Johnson Story,” the track features guitar samples and a take on the Faustian transaction undertaken by the influential guitarist. The Johnson origin story has a strong pull that reaches through the decades, but does the Dark Prince do similar deals for VSTs? Has Lederman met him at the intersection of Leopold II and Rue de Ribaucourt? That has been left to legend.
Soul Music for Zombies isn’t another version of Moby’s Play or Recoil’s Bloodline, but it shares their respect for the sounds of the original American underground. It also tests combinations of other styles, in a very European collision designed for both the undead and the living.
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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]What is the point of pain, if not to lead to healing? Andra Day’s “Rise Up” is about dispersing the clouds of doubt and despair; finding the fighter inside who gets you back on your feet and ready for another round. It is an inspirational and stirring song, which helped win a Grammy for its creators.
It has been given an adrenalin shot by John Fryer’s Black Needle Noise project. Lisa Kekaula (The Bellfrays, Basement Jaxx) takes lead vocals; shaking the foundations with an uplifting, gospel-infused turn that is full of confidence and drive. Fryer’s instrumentation is perfectly-formed scaffolding for Kekaula’s performance; allowing her voice to ascend to heights of power and emotional clarity. The Pixies made a career of the quiet-LOUD template, but Fryer has repurposed it for piano, strings and hand-claps with a joyousness that will move hearts.
Fryer’s history (This Mortal Coil, Fad Gadget, Nine Inch Nails, Cocteau Twins) proves that this is not just a happy accident. “Rise Up” is part of a long line of songs that the legendary producer has invested with a delicate power, balancing on a knife’s edge between the energetic and the ethereal. The tension is electrifying, and in the chorus Kekaula’s voice floats and winds like the arc from a Tesla coil. Fryer’s magic box harnesses the power, but make no mistake: it is inside you, too.
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Mistaken as an instruction manual by governments from America to Zimbabwe, George Orwell’s 1984 has a lot to say about the import of words. Music gets less of a look-in, but Orwell’s reflections on the power of propaganda raise important questions about control. The tools of the trade keep getting refined – facial recognition, Big Data surveillance, targeted political disinformation – without regard to ideology. Although written as a caricature of the Soviet Union, in order to discredit the socialists in Britain, 1984 has come to life in countries governed by social-democrats and conservatives alike.
Vaughty’s latest EP, named for the book, follows its story closely with a warning for our times. The title track is a nicely-constructed slice of pop, which brings to mind the Frankie remixes with their apocalyptic voice-overs. It’s a reminder that Big Brother isn’t just a game show in a house with a pool.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Norfolk’s best-loved industrial musicians have announced a series of remastered limited edition vinyl releases. Chris & Cosey, the influential duo who split from Throbbing Gristle, have revealed that Elemental 7 will appear on green vinyl. It will be accompanied by Muzik Fantastique! on pink vinyl and Feral Vapours of the Silver Ether on yellow vinyl. Their own CTI label will handle the releases, which are marked for 24 March 2023.
With its grid of video monitors on the cover, Elemental 7 is instantly recognisable as the soundtrack for the film by John Lacy and CTI. It was originally released on the Doublevision, the label set up by Cabaret Voltaire. Truth be told, the visuals were of their time, but the extraordinary soundtrack had more life on the LP. “Dancing Ghosts” is particularly notable for its combination of the Roland TB303 bass sequencer and TR808 drum machine in combination – one of the first tracks to use the gear and one of Chris & Cosey’s best loved songs.
Muzik Fantastique! is an extraordinary album. First released in 1992, it put to shame the acid house pretenders of the day with their newly discovered synth tools. The lead track, “Fantastique,” features one of Cosey’s most iconic vocal performances, while Chris Carter’s instrumentation is in top form. Songs like “Afrakira” and “Apocalypso” venture into world music, while sounding innovative throughout.
The last release in this series, Feral Vapours of the Silver Ether, was the second studio album by Carter Tutti, the act that followed Chris & Cosey. The Carter Tutti material is typically more ambient and down-tempo, compared to the duo’s previous work, and Feral Vapours… marks a step change from the other two albums being pressed by CTI. Not previously available on vinyl, it weaves filigree electro-acoustic sounds with thoroughly sensitive – organic – compositions.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
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Improvising in a group, you have to accept not only the frailties of your fellow musicians, but also your own.
— Cornelius Cardew, “Towards an Ethic of Improvisation” (1971)
Sunroof, the collaboration between Daniel Miller and Gareth Jones, was originally a name for a series of occasional remixes and cover versions. The two legendary producers have worked together for nearly forty years, coming together under that name for one-off projects; particularly, with a nod to their krautrock influences. The first album together, Electronic Music Improvisions, Volume 1, took them in a different direction: sat together in a comfortable place, they developed material by playing modular synthesisers against each other. Instead of the programmed material they had shown their mastery of in tracks like their version of Can’s “Hero,” they developed an improvised approach that relied on hearing and responding to the sounds made as parallel operators.
This style is more familiar from the worlds of jazz and experimental acoustic music. Improvisational groups like AMM – the British experimental ensemble that has included John Tilbury, Cornelius Cardew, Keith Rowe, and Eddie Prevost – were an influence on the work of Pink Floyd and Paul McCartney. Cardew’s early experimental compositions (which drew in a young Brian Eno) were based on the responses of performers to each others’ actions. What he had observed was that people come into alignment through participation, but also that care needs to be taken to avoid any one voice dominating. In that respect, an improvised performance is a social act that requires presence and humility to succeed. Respecting the decay of other participants’ sounds is as important as introducing new ones.
Informal ‘sound’ has a power over our emotional responses that formal ‘music’ does not, in that it acts subliminally rather than on a cultural level. […] We are searching for sounds and for the responses that attach to them, rather than thinking them up, preparing them and producing them. The search is conducted in the medium of sound and the musician himself is at the heart of the experiment.
— Cornelius Cardew, “Towards an Ethic of Improvisation” (1971)
Sunroof (Photo: Paul Heartfield)
Miller and Jones appear to have come to a similar understanding. The conditions they set themselves for their second album, Electronic Music Improvisations, Volume 2, included beginning with unpatched modular systems. They would then begin to tease the machines into producing sounds, apply effects, and choose or dismiss the results in real time. To make this successful, they needed to be mindful of the ways that sounds combine and collide. To maintain balance, they needed to exercise restraint and be prepared to lean in at the right moments. The nature of the machines meant that they also had to accept the logic of electrical circuitry: the hand of chance cannot be forced entirely by the operator.
The eight tracks on the album have been subjected to minimal editing. Each traces a different path; the sounds blurring into each other like the colours of Jones’ cover painting. The growls of machines in “September” blend with gentle, sensitively-wrought signals that tease the listener. “January #2” finds a throbbing groove, providing a spine around which rhythms coalesce and dissolve. There are echoes of Miller’s work in Duet Emmo, and Jones’ solo work around the time of his recovery from cancer, but the improvisations reflect unique moments. From the standpoint of the listener, these are rich, layered works that reveal their textures through repeated listening. The man-machine interface produces sounds and effects that exist only for a moment – something that Cardew valued highly – but this recording brings us into the experience as best it can.
Of the release, Jones says, “I suppose this is the difficult second album. It took 40 years to make the first album and just nine months to create this one!” Miller adds, “We got on a roll and didn’t really stop recording once we had that momentum.” Electronic Music Improvisations, Volume 2, comes out on the Parallel Series of Mute on 17 February 2023 on limited edition white vinyl and digitally.
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