Live in London (Photos: Cold War Night Life staff)
Iceland’s greatest export, after cod, may be dance music. The art collective, Gus Gus, has been going for more than two decades. They recently appeared in Sibenik, Croatia, and Marija Buljeta of Altvenger was on the scene to capture their striking stage presence. With thanks to Marija for sharing this set, please enjoy the sights of Gus Gus.
Rico Conning’s musical career began with The Lines, a legendary post-punk combo. He went on to become a studio wizard, recording Wire, remixing Depeche Mode, and producing Martin Gore and Frank Tovey for Mute Records. As the engineer for Guerilla Studios, Conning worked closely with William Orbit and Laurie Mayer, whom he joined as Torch Song in 1995.
If you look at the sleeve notes, you will find Conning credited on works by S’Express, Test Dept., Laibach, Coil, Colourbox, The Bambi Slam, Pere Ubu – getting the picture, yet?
So, when Conning steps into the studio to record his own material, what do you get? The answer is Frogmore, a sophisticated and weighty album.
The opening track, “Mustang,” is named for the guitar Conning used on The Lines’ “White Nights.” That song became part of the core Torch Song curriculum (Bonus points for knowing that a version was recorded with Sarah Blackwood at the microphone but it is Laurie Mayer’s voice on the track that was released). Conning notes that there are some thematic elements in common between “White Nights” and “Mustang;” but, to the attuned ear, there are also echoes of Colin Newman in the vocals. That is a cool thing.
The song runs to almost ten minutes, which would represent almost half of a side of a vinyl LP. As an album opener, it would be an unusual and commercially brave choice in the hit-driven world where Conning has made his name. Freed from any profit motive and the restrictions of physical media, however, the atmosphere is able to spread like the bands of a rainbow.
In any event, for those keeping time, the next track clocks in at 15:49.
“Frogmore” takes its name from a cabin that Conning occupied in Malibu for many years. It goes through themes as an electro-ambient composition before transitioning into a poem based upon Conning’s memories of the space and its sounds.
“Fluxus” follows – not a reference to the art movement that drew in Yoko Ono so much as a combination of Cocteau Twins chords and a synth-led part that Conning had been looking for a home for since 1994. Nestled between the reverberating guitar sections, it is a neat piece of Krautrock that could have been carried out of Conny’s Studio twenty years earlier.
Conning’s a talented singer, and when his voice is joined to the mix the song is lifted into a dreampop state of mind. This is music for running along a beach or watching the Sun drop into the ocean.
The album wraps with “Mercury,” drawn from a forthcoming project, On a Wire. In places, it has the psychedelic feel of a Nico song, and one can almost feel her waiting for the cue to come in.
Frogmore is an accomplished work. Conning has drawn deeply from his well to create a personal work that will resonate with an open-minded audience as naturally as anything from the artists he has recorded.
Torch Song was originally the creation of three friends from London: William Orbit, Laurie Mayer and Grant Gilbert. Gilbert's place was later taken up by Rico Conning of The Lines.
The project was enormously influential. It cemented Orbit's reputation, well before he was called upon by Madonna and Spears to restart their careers. It showcased the talent of Mayer as a creative force and a peerless vocalist. With Conning in the mix, Torch Song took the Guerilla sound from the domain of danceable pop into electro-ambient territory.
In 1995, Torch Song performed on London's South Bank. This is the proof.
It might be impossible to handle Moog synthesizers without getting a Gary Numan vibe. Certainly, Roland keyboards don’t lend themselves as readily to a version of “Cars” or “Metal.” Oberheims don’t turn players into smile-suppressing robots.
It might be the Moog filter, or perhaps the purity of monophony, but the instruments are highly suggestive. They practically whisper, “Are friends electric?”
Page’s Eddie Bengtsson is a Moog fanatic. He sold off most of his Yamahas, Korgs and Dave Smith keyboards to stock up on the latest Moog gear. At first, he used it to update the classic Page sound, rebooting the guy-meets-girl poptronica that has been his signature. Then, he felt the vibe.
It features prominently on the new Page album. Yes, it’s got a long Swedish title – Det är ingen vacker värld men det råkar vara så det ser ut – but the latest release from Bengtsson and Marina Schiptjenko is clinically precise. There is a blinding cover of Numan’s “Tracks,” so you know where Bengtsson’s heart is, but several originals make use of the simple phrasing and significant pauses that characterised Numan’s early work.
Take “Utanförs” [EN: “Outside”], a meaty, muscular song with a sound that has been growing inside Bengtsson since 1979. It’s much warmer than anything Numan made at that time, but the Tubeway Army DNA is unmistakable. The Moog drives comfortably over this terrain – even newer models are built for it.
Some of the songs on Det är ingen vacker värld… have previously been issued as singles, but nestled among the other album tracks they make more sense. The album works best as a whole, following an arc that begins with the dramatic “Krasch” and formally ends with “Tid för en kyss” [EN: “Time for a Kiss”]. On the CD version, there follows a cluster of bonus tracks, which combine both the coldtronica of Numan and ventures into glam.
The third member of the band is clearly a Sub37 from the Moog stable. It pulses insistently in the bass register, tears through lead lines and provides enough atmosphere to support a small planet. Bengtsson’s vocals fit with it like the bodies of experienced lovers, and the intertwining of man and machine sounds as charged as it seemed back in 1979.
With Det är ingen vacker värld…, Page have gone back to the future.
Photo: Petter Duvander
Eddie Bengtsson is rightly called the Swedish Vince Clarke. The poptronica specialist holds his own in a roll-call of synth masters, alongside Clarke, Heaven 17’s Martyn Ware and John Foxx, but he is not as well known outside of the Nordics as he deserves to be.
The story goes that Bengtsson initially wanted to become a drummer. Knocking out beats in his father’s apartment in southern Sweden, Bengtsson was intrigued by the electronic sounds reaching across the Baltic from European artists like Kraftwerk, Space and Jean-Michel Jarre.
When singles from post-punk leaders like the Human League, OMD and Silicon Teens made the journey to Skåne, his drum kit looked positively anachronistic. The latter project caught his imagination the most, and Bengtsson wrote a fan letter to the band in care of their North London label, Mute Records. Instead of a signed picture, he received a reply from Daniel Miller, admitting that it was his own studio project.
The drum kit went back to the shop, to be replaced by a monophonic synth. He learned to play it with help from his girlfriend, Marina Schiptjenko, and they linked up with another friend to start Page. Songs came quickly to Bengtsson and his band-mates, and Page acquired a dedicated following as they issued a stream of popular, hook-laden singles. Unusually, Page stuck to Swedish, which limited their international reach but reflected their desire to create an authentically local pop sound.
Bengtsson has been at the core of Page for more than three decades, but his creative output has been too wide for one act. Bengtsson also writes and performs as Sista mannen på jorden [EN: The Last Man on Earth and SMPJ from here on], which allows him to explore his love of themes drawn from science fiction. His previous outlet for that was S.P.O.C.K, which made the songs Depeche Mode should have but with a cosplay vibe. As This Fish Needs a Bike, Bengtsson has experimented with an English language act, but he continues to do his best work in his first language.
As a producer and remixer, Bengtsson has worked with a range of Swedish and international artists, including The Weathermen, Robert Marlow, My God Damn Territory, Naked Lunch, iSatellite and a host of other artists under the Electronically Yours banner. Bengtsson’s songs have been covered in live or studio settings by Rational Youth, Vision Talk, Celluloide and others.
There is a new Page album just around the corner, so it’s a good time to catch up with a true legend of poptronica.
10. Page – Dansande Man
One of the songs that Bengtsson is most closely associated is the first Page single, “Dansande man.” It was co-written with Anders Eliasson, who originally took vocal duties for the song but left before the band went into the studio. In this video from 1984, Bengtsson and Schiptjenko can be seen performing the hit at a show in Linköping.
9. This Fish Needs a Bike – Do It
Bengtsson’s only serious effort to develop an English-language project showed that his ability to knock out classy and catchy pop knows no borders. This Fish Needs a Bike has only yielded one album to date, but it is infused with the sophisticated synth stylings that Bengtsson has made his trade mark.
8. S.P.O.C.K – E.T. Phone Home
Originally formed for a friend’s birthday party, S.P.O.C.K is a stranger idea on paper than in practice. The songs contributed by Bengtsson are superior poptronica, on a plane with early Depeche Mode, but they use science fiction as both source material and setting. What, from a distance, looks like a Star Trek tribute act turns out to be a deeply philosophical and poetic project. Only Sweden could have made it work.
7. Page – Det syns ingen snö
As a live act, Page are a compelling proposition. Bengtsson is an engaging front man, and the band’s cult status means that domestic audiences know most of the words. Schiptjenko is a seasoned performer, too, but rarely steps outside of her modern art gallery to play these days. This clip shows the duo in front of their core audience, updating a classic song.
“Det syns ingen snö” started life as a cute, whimsical track, but it has been retooled by Bengtsson as a more straight-up dancefloor number. A studio version of this arrangement is expected on the next Page album.
6. SMPJ – Stadens alla ljus
Bengtsson originally offered “Stadens alla ljus” [EN: “All the City Lights”] to his former band-mates in S.P.O.C.K. They didn’t think it was S.P.O.C.K-and-roll enough for their live shows, so he recorded it as a SMPJ single. Inspired by his complex relationship with Malm
5. Page – Som ett skal
Bengtsson’s love of space disco is well known. The sounds and visuals of bands like Space (of “Magic Fly” fame) and Kebekelektrik are part of Page’s DNA. The video for “Som ett skal” [EN: “Like a Shell”] captures that late-1970s vibe, while the track itself is bang up to date.
4. Page – Idag
Bengtsson recorded two albums as Page without Marina Schiptjenko. On one, he used synths to sound like guitars; on the other, he brought some in axes for real. The first approach confused Page’s fan base, who loved the band for its synth-only ethos; the second pushed away some who had got the gag first time round but thought Page were selling out to the commercial mainstream.
It’s a shame, because both albums contain some of Bengtssons best compositions.
3. The Volt – Live in Gothenburg
Bengtsson’s appetite for collaboration is considerable. Among his many projects has been this duet with Ulrika Mild, which reached into the vaults for an early Cold War vibe.
2. Sista mannen på jorden – Ögon
Despite Bengtsson’s well-known love of science fiction, the name of SMPJ – which renders in English as The Last Man on Earth – was not taken from the Vincent Price adaptation of Richard Matheson’s novel, I Am Legend. The source is actually one of the earliest Human League tracks, and the choice shows Bengtsson’s attention to detail, as well as his love of the Sheffield sound.
SMPJ has only played once outside of Sweden (at the invitation of Cold War Night Life, we might add). The band’s first London show was a stormer, with several songs set in English and a limited edition CD released for the occasion. One track that remained in the original Swedish was “Ögon” [EN: “Eyes”], an evergreen live favourite.
1. Sista mannen på jorden – Luft
One of the most beautiful songs ever written, “Luft” [EN: variously rendered as “Breath” or “Air”] is the title song from SMPJ’s second album. You don’t need to understand Swedish to appreciate the melodic power of the track, rendered over the simplest electronic pulses. It might be the story of an astronaut running out of air, but it’s rendered with unparalleled sensitivity. Rational Youth’s Tracy Howe has called it, “an absolute drop-dead gorgeous masterpiece,” and he isn’t wrong.
SMPJ on the Web: www.moonbasealpha.space
Footage from A Secret Wish by Anders Wickholm.
Elegant Machinery are a legendary poptronica act from Helsingborg. Of all the acts that emerged in the 1990s, they came the closest to claiming the title, “Sweden’s Depeche Mode.”
Fronted by Robert Enforsen, a charismatic and theatrical singer, the trio beat Madonna in the Spanish charts and earned an international reputation. Then, after a successful show, Robert was unexpectedly handed the band name and a compelling musical legacy.
There were some attempts to regroup, but the moment had passed. Rather than put Elegant Machinery in a museum, Enforsen has rebuilt the band with founding member Leslie Bayne and Renate producer, Jonas Kröjtz.
At the end of 2016, they tentatively issued an EP, I, which has been given a fuller release by Elektro-Shock Records. How it managed to escape our attention back in the autumn is a great question: from the lead track, “I Say,” it’s a great collection of poptronica with a classic feel.
Enforsen puts in a solid turn on “Shut Up (And Take My Money),” and it’s great to hear Sandra Reiche joining the proceedings. If this is the kind of material that we can expect from the new incarnation of Elegant Machinery, then it’s all good.
Elegant Machinery on Bandcamp: https://elegantmachinery.bandcamp.com/releases
I at Elektro-Shock-Records: http://electroshockrecords.tictail.com/product/elegant-machinery-i-one-epsingle-cd-strictly-limited-edition
So, it turns out that Savages are a pretty big deal. Mercury Prize nominations, top 20 albums, collaborations with big name rock stars – the UK indie trio are the kind of band who appeal to Millennials and their older sisters, while getting rave reviews in the mainstream press. They also put on a storming stage show.
All of that might have passed us by – in our normal, oblivious and contrarian way – were it not for the side project of Savages’ bass player, Ayşe Hassan. Kite Base, a collaboration with bassist and vocalist Kendra Frost, came onto our radar as the opening act for Hannah Peel. Let’s face it: there aren’t many dueling bass duos on the circuit these days, and they made speakers shake while Frost’s voice soared around the room with the richest resonance. They also had a deft drum machine called Alan.
A handful of videos followed, along with a glorious 7″ single, “Soothe/Dadum.” After they covered a Nine Inch Nails track, the legendary producer John Fryer got in touch to borrow Frost for his own project, Black Needle Noise. More live dates won Kite Base a following across the US and Europe.
As summer starts, the duo are able to reveal their debut album, Latent Whispers. Have there been whispers about latency? Is there a delay between the input of whispers and results? We don’t know where it comes from, but the title is part of a rather intricate package. From the Craig Ward logo to the fade-out of “Miracle Waves,” Latent Whispers is carefully wrought: nine songs on white vinyl, any of which could be a single. We are sorely pressed to try to choose between them.
There are other electronics carefully deployed to round out the sound, but Latent Whispers is a masterclass in rhythm. Below Frost’s vocals, beats and grooves intertwine. Alan does his best to keep time as accurately as Jaki Liebezeit, while Hassan plucks at the strings of a million hearts. It’s stripped down but complex; ethereal but earthy; post so much more than punk. A diamond in a rough year for music.
Kite Base on the Web: http://kiteba.se/
The irrepressible Kanga covers Gary Numan’s classic, “Metal.” We’re afraid of the liquid engineers, too.
The incandescent Nash the Slash is sorely missed. In this clip from Canadian TV, he performs two tracks from his first album, Children of the Night: “Wolf” and “In a Glass Eye.” Gary Numan knew what he was doing when he ditched his planned warm-up act for Nash on his first Canadian tour.