[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]TEC005, the latest in a series of rare live events curated by the experts at The Electricity Club, happens in London on Saturday, 2 March 2019. On past form, it’s going to be a portion of the future served up by the taste-makers in the know.
Headlined by Arthur & Martha, who are reuniting for the occasion, TEC005 will also feature Plasmic (US) and Rainland (SCT) on the bill.
Arthur & Martha are indietronica pioneers with a pedigree. The duo of Adam Cresswell (Rodney Cromwell, Saloon) and Alice Hubley (The Duloks, Cosines) have a remix album in the can. Their fusion of high-tech and lo-fi sounds has been described as akin to St. Etienne in space.
California’s Plasmic arrives fresh from sharing a bill with Soft Cell’s Marc Almond at the popular Sex Cells club in LA. The pink-haired keytar player has a twisted sense of humour and a keen sense of electro melody.
The show will be opened by Rainland. The duo of Ian Ferguson and Derek MacDonald are familiar faces as the driving forces between Analog Angel. Rainland is also popular on the alternative live circuit, playing alongside Assemblage 23 and others with an Ultravox-influenced sound.
To get the low-down, we spoke with Chi Ming Lai from The Electricity Club about the show and his views on the current music scene.
The Electricity Club has championed a lot of acts who aren’t on the mainstream radar. What is it that makes these artists so special?
I like the term avant-pop – the idea that music can still be presented as art while still having a tune. With the bands that are featured on The Electricity Club, there’s always a captivating quality that makes you want to listen to them again. It really is a gut feeling.
I remember the first time I ever heard Vile Electrodes in 2010. “Deep Red” just held my attention, despite being seven and a half minutes long, because it was good; it made me hit repeat. It also had a self-made video which suited the music; it showed they gave thought to their visual presentation as well, which is something very important in these days of promoting via social media.
Karin My is the most recent new TEC featured act in that tradition.
A lot of TEC-backed acts have ended up on tour with OMD or other big name electronic bands. Are there any you are particularly proud of?
I’m proud of all of them, for different reasons.
With Villa Nah, they were one of those acts that I’d been waiting for, and were probably the first new act that TEC were really able to get behind. They had that Nordic melancholy and a classic synthpop flavour with a modern rhythmic slant. But I was told by someone who was involved in the site at the time that they were the sort of rubbish that shouldn’t be featured… so I had the last laugh when Villa Nah were announced as OMD’s UK support act in 2010, especially as the said dissenter was a big fan of McCluskey and Humphreys – it showed how much he knew!
Around the same time, Mirrors were emerging, and they were right up my street with their moody soulful electronic pop that was a development of OMD. Again, the said dissenter wasn’t convinced, but Mirrors got the 2010 European support slot and ended up producing one of the best albums of 2011 in Lights & Offerings. They became the band that set the bar on TEC as to what a new electronic act could be, and it’s a shame that they imploded.
Then, Metroland, who were first featured on TEC in 2012, got the support gigs for the two Belgian OMD gigs in 2013. But the big one was when Vile Electrodes got asked to open on the German dates. I was like a proud uncle, especially as Anais and Martin had become friends since TEC first featured them in 2010.
With Tiny Magnetic Pets, I met them in Düsseldorf in 2015 and was impressed with their set opening for Michael Rother. I bumped into Andy McCluskey who was there to see his NEU! hero perform live, so I thought I’d introduce him to the trio and the rest is history. Ok, finding one OMD support act is a fluke, two is lucky, but it’s five now – I must be doing something right, even if I say so myself! [Laughs]
The UK music scene suffers from an oversupply of acts that don’t grow well under grey skies. What are the qualities that help a band make it here?
Songs are the main thing; and, when recording, get a bit of air into the mix. Listening to some different styles of music would help – too many acts are fixated on Depeche Mode, Gary Numan and Erasure, so end up being quite derivative because they are not adding a twist. A bit of humility would help a few acts, and actually concentrating on honing their craft before trying to get publicity. Some have this bizarre sense of entitlement, which is far too normal…
Night Club are a good example of how to do it right, because they cross Britney Spears with Nine Inch Nails – no-one in their right mind would do this within synthpop, but the concept has worked well!
Talent always shines through. I think it’s no coincidence that TEC featured Arthur & Martha in 2010 and then Rodney Cromwell in 2015. You either have talent or you don’t, and many who want to be featured on TEC really don’t. The Electricity Club is really just me and the writing team’s personal opinions. But, if it does have a role, then it’s to act as a curator to hopefully assist people to decide whether they should spend an hour of their time listening to an act or seeing them live.
The competition for attention is especially fierce with Soundcloud artists and the like. What role do you think management can play in shaping an artist to stand out from the crowd?
I think there’s a bit of confusion as to what a manger does. A manager is employed by the band, but often they are actually loan sharks in disguise who steer them in the direction of where the money is; so, if you get any success, expect them to call in their commission. But many managers are just mates who can’t play an instrument and the role never gets clearly defined because it’s all done on good will; and, if that gets abused, resentment sets in.
Always seek a second or third opinion from people you trust. It always helps, if only to reinforce an original idea or direction – you don’t need a manager to do that.
If you’re talking about promo, then if an act wants that, they should hire a publicist! Of course, most independent artists are stuck with doing their own promo, but it’s worth the effort. Make engaging posts on social media, use a search engine to find out what platforms cover similar acts, then contact them. Most bloggers at this level do it as a hobby, so to expect support is wrong. Just send them your stuff – if they like it, it will get featured… if not, so what? Move on!
What will people be missing if they stay home and miss this event?
TEC005 will celebrate the 10th anniversary of Arthur & Martha, as well as Happy Robots Records, so that’s a good enough reason to come. Arthur & Martha were like the third new act featured on TEC in 2010 but went off the radar shortly after that, so to be able to see them live after all this time is wonderful.
Also on the bill is Plasmic. She’s from LA, so it’s not often there will be the opportunity to see her perform. She’s a pink bundle of feisty energy who will be detonating infectious lo-fi synth bombs from her keytar! On first will be Rainland from Glasgow – the duo’s rousing classic synthpop is the perfect opening tonic! They’ve already supported Assemblage 23 on two successive UK tours, so they’re a proven live entity. It will be fun, if nothing else!
TEC005 kicks off on Saturday, 2 March 2019, at The Lexington on Tolpuddle Street, London N1. A limited number of tickets are still available.
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Cosey Fanni Tutti started life with an ordinary name, was raised in an ordinary town, and had an ordinary (which is to say, dysfunctional) family life. By the time Christine Newby left her parents’ home in Hull, she was ready to recreate herself as a very special artist.
In 2017, Hull was named City of Culture, and Tutti was invited to present a film about her time in the COUM art collective. They had obviously overcome some of the anxiety the city felt when Tutti and her collaborators, including Mr Genesis P-Orridge, staged their direct actions in its streets and squats in the 1970s.
Truth is, they had probably breathed a sigh of relief when COUM’s main actors relocated to London and started the pioneering industrial band, Throbbing Gristle. Tutti’s involvement in these projects became a source of pride rather belatedly and only after TG had become a ghost. With several decades of work in Chris & Cosey and Carter Tutti behind her, Hull could invite Tutti to stage new music with assured safety for the sensibilities (if not the hearing) of the middle classes.
Tutti’s staging of Harmonic Coumaction, her autobiographical film, featured the music that is presented on TUTTI. It was then developed as part of an installation at Cabinet gallery in London before being refined into its current form.
The album features eight tracks in a range of styles. The title track opens with plaintive sounds from Cosey’s cornet before a thundering bass line comes in, reminding us of the electro-industrial performance by Carter Tutti Void at the Mute Short Circuit Festival.
That’s the first taste of the dancefloor-oriented sound that Cosey pioneered with partner Chris Carter. The rest of side one combines complex beats with samples (“Drone”), dirty techno (“Moe”), and reverb-saturated modulars (“Sophic Ripple”).
In a tale of two halves – reminiscent, perhaps, of the running order on the Leer and Rental classic, The Bridge – side two is more atmospheric. On “Split,” modulars follow the vagaries of their envelopes and filters with a rumble dark enough to put a chill into the most Zen of Underground workers. “Heliy” makes some use of Tutti’s breathy vocals but avoids a traditional song structure. “En,” which is the Swedish word for “one,” swirls with cinematic, brooding intensity, before “Orenda” dissolves into a close as pacific as a Bering Sea ice-breaker.
Unlike Tutti’s first solo album, Time to Tell, which featured a spoken word recounting of her experiences as a sex worker and art terrorist, TUTTI does not confront a specific target. TUTTI is another embodiment of Tutti’s motto that her life is her art and her art is her life – at an age when many are looking forward to retirement, it is both a summation of her evolution and a platform for further action.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Mark Stewart, The Pop Group vocalist and bard of conspiracy theories, is having one of his best solo LPs reissued with added materials from the archives.
Learning to Cope with Cowardice, his first solo album, was a landmark for post-funk, post-punk, post-industrial music. Recorded with The Maffia – musicians on loan from label-mates Dub Syndicate and New Age Steppers – it featured On-U Sound’s Adrian Sherwood at the mixing desk with all of the pots turned to the the right and all of the sliders pushed forwards.
The thunder clap of beats on …Cowardice sounded like Thor enraged, while Stewart’s cries and growls subverted dub conventions. On the title track, he worked up a lather of anger and anguish sufficient to shame the most apolitical clubber into active resistance.
In the event, the politics of the album were potentially a muddle. “None Dare Call It Conspiracy” took its title from a book by Gary Allen, a spokesman for the far-right John Birch Society and promoter of the concept of a conspiratorial “New World Order.” Wes Brooks’ roots classic, “Don’t Ever Give Up (Lay Down Your Arms)” was covered as “Don’t Ever Lay Down Your Arms.” The album ended with “Jerusalem,” the alternative English national anthem written by the radical socialist William Blake, in one of Stewart’s accidental moments of epic beauty.
Mute Artists have repackaged …Cowardice with The Lost Tapes, a collection of out-takes from Stewart’s sessions with Sherwood. Stuffed with stickers and posters, the collection comes as a two-LP set on clear vinyl. Spun at 33 1/3 rpm, The Lost Tapes reveals a set of experimental versions of some of the tracks that ended up on …Cowardice, along with edits that didn’t make the final cut-up. They deserve to be beamed to other planets as proof that we once knew how to groove.
John Tilbury, the pianist and collaborator of Cornelius Cardew, once wrote an article with the title, “John Cage: Ghost or Monster?”
On the current news from Mute, the answer is both: the influence of Cage’s work, “4’33’,” is the motivating force behind a new box set in the label’s fortieth year; and there will be no less than fifty Mute artists featured in the collection.
STUMM433 follows the label’s catalogue numbering scheme while paying tribute to the notorious work. The key to the joke is that the artist’s role in “4’33′” is not to play for that specified length of time. Fans of Depeche Mode and Nitzer Ebb should not, therefore, be looking forward to new material.
“4’33′” is not about silence; rather, it turns the focus onto the ambience of the concert hall and the reaction of the audience by musicians not playing their instruments. Expect very different takes, therefore, from The Normal and Simon Fisher Turner, or Laibach and Polly Scattergood.
They can take some comfort in the news that the net profits from the project will go to help sufferers of tinnitus and musicians needing mental health support.
Artists featured include:
A Certain Ratio, A.C. Marias, ADULT., The Afghan Whigs, Alexander Balanescu, Barry Adamson, Ben Frost, Bruce Gilbert, Cabaret Voltaire, Carter Tutti Void, Chris Carter, Chris Liebing, Cold Specks, Daniel Blumberg, Depeche Mode, Duet Emmo, Echoboy, Einstürzende Neubauten, Erasure, Fad Gadget (tribute), Goldfrapp, He Said, Irmin Schmidt, Josh T. Pearson, K Á R Y Y N, Komputer, Laibach, Land Observations, Lee Ranaldo, Liars, Looper, Lost Under Heaven, Maps, Mark Stewart, Michael Gira, Mick Harvey, Miranda Sex Garden, Moby, Modey Lemon, Mountaineers, New Order, Nitzer Ebb, NON, Nonpareils, The Normal, onDeadWaves, Phew, Pink Grease, Pole, Polly Scattergood, Renegade Soundwave, Richard Hawley, ShadowParty, Silicon Teens, Simon Fisher Turner, The Warlocks, Wire, Yann Tiersen
Mute note:
The box set will be released in May 2019 with more details being shared over the coming months. To register interest in STUMM433 and be first in line to pre-order and receive exclusive updates on the contributions, sign up at http://mute.com/stumm-433
Karin My is one of Sweden’s secret weapons.
The Gothenburg-based composer and multi-instrumentalist has worked with a number of the country’s leading artists, including Twice a Man and Robert Enforsen. She appeared on two of the tracks for Heresy, the Rational Youth tribute album produced by Cold War Night Life.
She has now revealed her new single. “The Silence” features the pulsing, filtered sounds of a Kord MS20 and a soaring vocal line. It is elegant and delicate, while thunderingly electronic when the MS20 pushes higher in the mix. Using the kind of tension heard in Madonna’s best work with William Orbit, “The Silence” is as complex as the Berman film with which it shares a title.
A true German original, Gudrun Gut is back with a track inspired by the new ability of Saudi women to drive cars.
The video also seems vaguely inspired by movies like Back to the Future, Repo Man and Thelma and Louise.
It’s only taken until 2018 for the head-chopping, jihadi-financing, Yemen-bombing regime to take this liberal step, so celebrate!
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]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
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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 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
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.
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 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 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 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‘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
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.
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
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.
7. Various Artists – A Collection of the New Brat Pack
Sweden’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
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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
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.
Just brilliant.
2. Robert Görl – The Paris Tapes
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.
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
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.
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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Sweden’s Cryo do EBM better than most. Martin Rudefelt extracts sounds from his old school synth collection that are distinctive and deliberate, while creating evocative atmospheres.
It’s a trick that not many current artists are able to pull off – never mind with the same style. The duo’s treatment for jaded ears continues with “Sanitarium,” out now from Progress Productions.
It has been twelve years since the first Cryo album, and in that time there have only been four full albums and a smattering of singles. They have been carefully measured doses, delivered with remixes to enhance their effects. Rudefelt’s intelligent and libertarian lyrics haven’t diminished the danceability of their heavily rhythmic sequencing and percussion by even one drop.
“Sanitarium” opens with a sample from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. “Medication time” might seem like more of a promise than a challenge to some listeners; but, in the doped up, soporific world we live in, it’s not always good news. Certainly, that is the theme of the vocal lines, intoned with the bedside manner of a doctor of philosophy.
There are eight remixes on the single. The stand-out effort is from Neuroticfish, who trancify the track; giving it more kick than a bottle of Pervitin. No one will do the thorazine shuffle to the Skylog version, either, but we think that the best way to take this medicine is straight: the original track is sensitively mastered and emphatic.
Nash the Slash was an original. Wrapped in bandages, like a mummified prog guitarist, Nash toured with Gary Numan and Iggy Pop and played along to silent films. With a drum box and electric violin, he fired up alternative music crowds with horror imagery and pulsating, processed riffs.
The man inside the mask, Jeff Plewman, died in 2014, aged just 66. He left behind a legacy of music that spanned film soundtracks and pop music, experimental works, and innovative songs from an alternative jukebox.
Nash is the subject of a forthcoming documentary film, And You Thought You Were Normal. The producers, Tim Kowalski and Kevan Byrne, took some time to speak with us about the details they have disinterred.
Nash was raised to prominence by Gary Numan, and he was loved by the electronic music scene, but he wasn’t a synthesizer artist. Why do you think that he was so adored by that scene?
TIM: Nash crossed a lot of boundaries as an artist. He was classically trained, but he made new sounds with conventional instruments in a world infested with guitars – which was very unconventional and punk-as-fuck in spirit. Combine that with the dark imagery and the theatrics, and it’s no wonder Nash ended up meeting with artists like Gary Numan at the fork in the road between rock and futurism.
KEVAN: It’s true that he wasn’t an electronic musician in a pure sense. He played synths on many of his recordings – usually a Korg Poly 6 and Roland D-50 – but overwhelmingly his music centred on electric violin and mandolin which were heavily processed through fuzz boxes and tape delays. He also used drum machines extensively in the early days, and the only other musicians using those at the time were post-punk bands or bands that were entirely synth-based, like Human League, etc.
There were strong electronic music influences on his music. He was a big fan of Kraftwerk, as well as early Tangerine Dream and Hans-Joachim Roedelius, and very much influenced by Eno, as well. I think some of those elements must have resonated with electronic music audiences.
Like Fad Gadget, Nash was a bit of an outsider. What do we know about the man beneath the bandages? Was he like the character he created?
TIM: Nash was the definition of outsider. A proto-nerd, if you will. He had a deep fascination with the macabre, lived in a movie theatre, and wrote scores for silent films that were shown there. Like many great artists, Nash had a complex character with many contradictions. He had a duality in his day-to-day persona, which – oddly enough – I think was amplified with the bandages.
KEVAN: Nash was a real dichotomy. His inner life was volatile and chaotic, and he remained intensely private until his death. The bandages reflected the mystery of his personal life, which was in some ways unknown to his family and friends.
He was generous and patronly, acting as a mentor to some, but could also be vindictive and petulant. His individuality and fierce independence made him an outsider.
His music fell across genres. He rejected the music industry; and he combined performance art and popular culture, which put him at odds with the world.
Besides working with Gary Numan, Nash toured with Iggy Pop and recorded with Steve Hillage. Are you planning to capture their memories?
TIM: I interviewed Steve Hillage at his studio in London. He was very gracious and forthcoming. Gary Numan also did an excellent interview with us last year when he was in Toronto. We’ve tried getting Iggy but we haven’t been as lucky.
KEVAN: We’re still hopeful that we can get an interview with Iggy, as a big fan. We also want to interview Bill Nelson, Laurie Anderson and – at the top of the wish list – Brian Eno. Nash reportedly met Eno whole recording “Dance After Curfew” with Daniel Lanois.
What are your plans for the film, once it is completed?
TIM: We intend to shop for distribution and are looking at some festivals. We hope to have the film released late 2019.
KEVAN: Dream release date is Halloween 2019!
You have been provided with some one-of-a-kind Nash instruments to help raise funds for the film. What is the story behind them?
TIM: We have been very fortunate to work with Trevor Norris, Nash’s good friend and holder of his estate. Trevor believes in this project and wants Nash’s story to be told, so he’s donated some one-of-a-kind items to us to fund this film. We have Nash’s bat violin that can be seen on a late 70’s TV appearance. We also have one of Nash’s sawed-up violins. Neither are playable, but they really are beautiful. We had 3 bows but they were claimed immediately.
KEVAN: One of the most interesting rewards is a never-before release of Nash’s first live performance (as Nash The Slash) at the Roxy Theatre in 1975. He played a live accompaniment to the Brunel silent film Un Chien Andalou. This was pre bandaged Nash.
Nash had a keen interest in visual art. Is there any material that he created himself in the archives? Will we get to see it?
TIM: Very true. Nash was very visual, had a long history of working with great artists, was a photographer, and had a very hands-on approach to creating his live shows. This extended into his home life. He had a doorway to nowhere in his garden and he did start to paint later in life.
Nash’s early photos from his days at the Rockpile, like Toronto’s Filmore, are being featured at the Masonic Temple and may come out in a book.
KEVAN: The most notable visual archival materials are the photographs that Nash took in the late 60s at the Rockpile (later named The Concert Hall/ The Masonic Hall). There are pictures of blues artists like Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters, as well as rock legends, such as Led Zeppelin, The Who and Jimi Hendrix, all of whom were playing for the first time in Toronto.
How can fans help to support the project?
TIM: Please support us at: https://igg.me/at/youwerenormal.
KEVAN: we are running a crowdfunding campaign, and we are about 28% of our way to our goal of $50,000. There’s time left to hit our goal, so anything towards that is enormously helpful. Apart from that, like and share our posts on social media!!