An awkward check-in at a hotel, an awkward discussion about synthesizers, an unusual use of shaving foam and a strange scene in a lobby bar – well, this clip has them all. Frank Tovey is sorely missed, and this early clip from Dutch TV provides a glimpse into his early steps onto the European continent in his Fad Gadget guise.
If Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen got together at David Lynch’s house, the result might be this cinematic, poetic, flowing and dark track from Mute’s latest signing, On Dead Waves. “Blackbird” is the first release from the band, which appears to be a collaboration between Maps and Polly Scattergood, also on the Mute roster, and it heralds deep things to come.
Jennie Vee produced one of the strongest albums of 2015. Spying came out in October, hot on the heels of Vee’s whirlwind tour of the UK, and it made our Top 15 of 2015 with ease.
At the end of the year, caught up in the holiday rush, was a video release for “Real Eyes,” one of the top album tracks that Vee had showcased in the UK. “I choose isolation,” goes one line, and it’s probably not the Joy Division track Vee has in mind. It’s quality shoegaze/dreampop with a darker feel; and, if you hear the ghosts of Pale Saints or Levitation in the production, that’s the right way to be haunted.
The video features Vee, glitter make-up and the shadows of window shutters a la Tony Scott, as well as a soundtrack to kick-start your year.
Muricidae, the transcontinental project of John Fryer and Louise Fraser, left something unexpected in our (sheer) Christmas stockings this year – a sweet new release wrapped like a glitterball. More of a dance effort than the hypnotic, dreampop stylings of previous Muricidae releases, “American Dream” maintains the duo’s lush vocal style but gets the hooks into you with a melodic line sharper than a Tom Ford suit and bubbling synths.
It’s no mystery that the sound is crafted by Fryer, the legendary producer of Fad Gadget, Nine Inch Nails and a zillion other bands you’ve definitely heard of. If his earlier band, This Mortal Coil, had been remixed for the dancefloor, this is how it might have turned out. As it is, we’re not drawing lines to other artists, because this release is incomparable.
Out now on iTunes.
Page, the Swedish synth duo of Eddie Bengtsson and Marina Schiptjenko, have revealed a year-end present to fill even the sheerest Christmas stocking. “Tid för en kyss” [EN: Time for a Kiss] is a classic Bengtsson composition: catchy, up-tempo and destined to be a live favourite. It’s been released with a polish from Richard Flow of Machinista.
The track is a stand-alone single, but Zero Magazine reports that the band is working on new material. We can’t wait.
If 2013 was the year of new music and 2014 the year of the live show, what was the defining feature of 2015? We’d say that it was the development of collectives organising to support artists outside of the record industry mainstream. The trend picked up steam with I Am Snow Angel joining forces with Dani Mari and Claire London. They called themselves Female Frequency and started crowdfunding to produce an album made entirely by women artists. Over in Norway, the KOSO collective launched with a similar spirit. This was less of a feminist statement than a reflection of feminine confidence. The record industry might be run by men in suits and their hipster-bearded minions, and EDM might have been born in some boys’ bedrooms, but this year the female of the species got tired of waiting for her turn. She sounds great.
15. Train to Spain – What It’s All About
We called What It’s All About the soundtrack to summer, and with its effervescent synths and sparkling vocals it was glittery bliss for the trip to the beach on bright weekends. Those days are long forgotten in Europe, suffering in the cold and damp of a stormy December, but we have Polaroids to remind us that Train to Spain’s first album was an accomplished debut.
14. Hannah Peel – Rebox 2
Hannah Peel’s first EP of cover songs, Rebox, tackled classic 80s pop gems, like “Tainted Love” and “Blue Monday.” Her second, Rebox 2, picked tracks from more current artists, such as East India Youth (with whom she toured) and Perfume Genius. We love Peel’s original material, but there is no faulting her song choices or interpretations here. As ever, Peel’s voice is the draw – it travels on wavelengths of exceptional clarity and has the impact of a Holi carnival of colours.
13. Machinista – Garmonbozia
Machinista’s second album showed off the continued strength of their songwriting, as well as John Lindqwister’s penetrating vocals. Last year’s debut, Xenoglossy, set the template, and there was clearly more Lynchian, dancefloor-friendly poptronica waiting to come out.
12. Muricidae – Tales from a Silent Ocean
John Fryer, the legendary producer and songwriter, pushed out two major projects in 2015: Silver Ghost Shimmer, a grinding, sexy project with singer Pinky Turzo; and Muricidae, a Mortal Coil-esque enterprise featuring Louise Fraser. We found it hard to choose between them, but in the end kept coming back to this jewel from Muricidae’s debut album, Tales from a Silent Ocean. Set to repeat, it’s perpetually Sunday after sundown, and that’s our favourite time.
11. Marsheaux – A Broken Frame
Reinterpreting a Depeche Mode album with synthesizers might seem a neat conceit from a distance, but when it is A Broken Frame, the Basildon boys’ second, purely electronic album, you might also ask, “Why?” The answer is that Depeche Mode have long turned their back on that masterful set of experimental pop. If Gore and Gahan aren’t going to develop the ideas that were first captured in Blackwing Studios, back in 1982, then why not some fans from Athens who have a line in angelic electropop? By giving the songs a modern makeover, Marsheaux breathed new life into them – if only DM would do the same!
10. Vile Electrodes – Captive in Symmetry
There still isn’t a band in Britain that is making music at the level of Vile Electrodes. Their three-track EP, Captive in Symmetry, reminded everyone of that, but so did a show warming up for Mesh and a headline performance at “A Secret Wish.” This was also the year that the BBC discovered the Viles, as did lecturers in media studies at an academic event in Dusseldorf. After years of breaking the fourth wall, surely it’s time they punched through the glass ceiling, as well!
9. Pieces of Juno – “Same to Me” VIDEO OF THE YEAR!
In the year of A-Ha’s return, we discovered a Norwegian artist we like better: Pieces of Juno, an Oslo-based songstress, caught our attention with leftfield poptronica and creative video work. We first heard her providing backing vocals for Karin Park at Electronic Summer, which was a mighty performance all-round, and a little digging unearthed a vein of gold and silver.
Nothing against Morten & Co., but things have moved on a little. These days, Juno and friends in the KOSO collective are making their own way without the support of major record labels. As this effort shows, Norwegians are still doing great video work to accompany the sounds from the North.
8. Me the Tiger – Vitriolic
One of the stand-out performances of 2015 came from Sweden’s Me the Tiger at Gothenburg’s legendary Electronic summer event. The trio from Falun shook the walls with outstanding songs and fabulous vocals from Gabriella Åström. It turned out that they’d put it all down in the studio, too, and Vitriolic was bottled lightning. With DAF’s management behind them, they’re going to go far.
7. Jennie Vee – Spying
The word “muse” comes up a lot in writing about New York’s Jennie Vee. Not in the sense of a glam- and prog-influenced rock band that puts marching teddy bears in their anti-NWO videos, but as an artist who stimulates others. Courtney Love has used the term to describe Vee, as has her photographer, Katrin Albert. We just call her great, because Vee has given shoegaze a shiny, patent-leather kick from behind. Her first solo album, Spying, demonstrated that the preceding EPs weren’t kidding with their emphatic, bass-driven dreampop. We’ll be spinning this for a long time yet.
6. Karin Park – Apocalypse Pop
The arrival of Karin Park’s fifth studio album was keenly anticipated. There had been a three year interlude since Highwire Poetry, and it turned out that the extended gestation period did nothing to detract from Park’s sense of melody. With a diverse group of songwriters collaborating on compositions, the album’s flavours change like an American gobstopper candy: layers peel away to reveal a raw, inner core of emotional authenticity that you get from few other artists. “Hard Liquor Man” and “Look What You’ve Done” will become classics of Park’s live show, but we also loved “Stick to the Lie,” which had a single release with this remix.
5. Dan Söderqvist – Dark Flowers Awake
Dan Söderqvist’s sidelines from Twice a Man have included a number of collaborations with European and American artists. This year, he picked through the archives for some of the best, which were collected as Dark Flowers Awake. With contributions by the artists behind Building Castles Made of Matchsticks, Narcoleptica and Mono-Drone, among others, the album showcased Söderqvist’s experimental forays but also how far his influence reaches beyond Sweden’s borders.
4. Rein – “Concrete Jungle” NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR!
We’ve been waiting for Rein to come along – a fierce, independent woman who combines talent with a capacity for attitude and aggression that can tame the hardest death metal grunt. Armed with a copy of Reason, Rein stormed onto Soundcloud with the old-school EBM of “There Is No Authority But Yourself,” followed quickly by “Concrete Jungle.” The latter proved that she has a fantastic voice, while this mix pushed us out onto the floor all over again. Dance, pilgrim!
3. Lau Nau – Hem. Någonstans
Finnish avant-folk composer, Lau Nau, breezed into our consciousness with the soundtrack to Hem. Nagonstans, a film by Lotta Petronella. Readers of The Wire and visitors to obscure festivals will have got there ahead of us, but the musical world of Laura Naukkarinen is one that we are happy to inhabit. A rare London appearance confirmed the organic beauty of Lau Nau’s voice and vision. We’ve been walking barefoot among the birch trees ever since.
2. Sista mannen på jorden – …translate EP OF THE YEAR!
Released to mark SMPJ’s first London show, at Cold War Night Life’s “A Secret Wish,” …translate was an ultra-limited edition EP, featuring English versions of some of the band’s best-known songs. With a darker version of “Stadens alla ljus” rendered as “All the City Lights” and the classic “Luft” reprised as “Air,” this was the perfect introduction to Sweden’s best-loved poptronica outfit.
The EP isn’t available as a download – you had to be there. Sorry if you couldn’t make the show, but singer/songwriter Eddie B did share this taster on his Soundcloud account.
1. Twice a Man – Presence ALBUM OF THE YEAR!
Twice a Man have been making music together for four decades, but they’ve never lost their bleeding-edge coolness. In 2015, they released a new album, Presence, with the political verve and musical mastery to show the new generation how it is done. This is a remix that appeared on the single for “Black,” proving that there is plenty of juice in the engine yet.
You can dance to the echoes of Nero’s fiddle, but you can’t pretend that the empire isn’t burning. From jihadi mercenaries to rain forest arsonists, blithe drone operators to sinister traffickers, the crackle of kindling can be heard from its distant corners. The stillness of decaying factories makes it easy to hear the drone of server farms, collecting and processing the information used to track, monitor and control its subjects. The empire’s heart beats to the rhythm of small arms fire.
Twice a Man are legends of the Swedish music scene. The Gothenburg-based group of Karl Gasleben and Dan Söderqvist arose at the end of the 1970s from progressive rock roots, and today the band remains at the tip of the European warm wave spear. Now rejoined by sometime member, Jocke Söderqvist, their latest album, Presence, fits with Twice a Man’s reputation for making intelligent pop. This is music to explode lies, but without the direct didacticism of Pet Shop Boys’ latter works. It feels less like an emission from Professor Chomsky than the boy of lore who could see through the emperor’s threads.
The first single taken from the album, “Black,” comes with a radio-friendly edit and a dancefloor-oriented “Alien Waveform Extrapolation” mix. The material is emphatic and moody. With vocoders and glitchy synth sounds, it owes something to the more primitive electronics of the 1970s, but stylistically it is body music from five minutes into the future. It’s a good taste for how the album is going to proceed.
Presence begins with “A Time of Terror,” and you know it is the one we are living in. There are Arabesque touches to the song, but the rhythm track starts with an industrial/martial feel before dissolving into a solo cry. Portion Control once sang, “Terror leads to better days,” but it really doesn’t, and that is one of Twice a Man’s themes.
“Here Comes the Rain” describes “insane cries without end” that “reverberate between religious walls.” Twice a Man don’t shy away from difficult material, and with soaring guitars and grinding bass lines, they tackle the day’s headlines straight on. It is not only, of course, in areas of Syria over-run by Wahhabist maniacs that this description rings true. As a live track, you don’t need a prophet to tell you that this will be an absolute stormer.
The rain blends into the following song, “A World Is Gone.” With dramatic – even cinematic – musical backing, longing is expressed for the spirit of resistance that has long since passed into passivity. These days, the radicals of ’68 sip tea from Che Guevara mugs while watching Idol on television, while poisonous gases are released onto battlefields and the planet is allowed to die outside of their dream homes. “Will there ever be harmony again,” asks the song – and the answer is, “Of course”, but how the balance is restored depends on the courage that can be summoned in the world’s living rooms.
After the album version of “Black,” “Lines” picks up the pace with a Moroder-meets-John Barry track that exhorts us not to let the future fall. There is every risk that we will, of course. The new generation will do well to learn how to make such energetic electronic music before it is too late.
The title track, “Presence,” swirls and bubbles over a funky bass line. It’s the kind of track that shows why Twice a Man are still the masters of theatrical dark wave. It’s not hard to imagine Covenant feeling affinity for this material, even if they don’t participant in the polemic. “We need power to fill our needs” sums it up.
These themes continue, wrapping up with “High in the Clouds,” which takes up warnings of ecological disaster. Songs about holes in the ozone layer might sound didactic on paper, but there are additional layers to the material; further levels of consciousness to be explored. Twice a Man’s message is ultimately one of hope, but not for the arrival of a superman – no one is going to save the planet for you. You can dance, but when the lights come up, that’s still your job.
Details on Presence are here.
Before Mute started using the format as part of its “brand extension” strategy, 12″ singles were primarily used to provide longer versions of singles for DJs. The usual way of stretching a song was to add some drum loops or an extended intro or extro, but the basics of the song sounded the same. One of Mute’s innovations was to offer new versions of songs, played around with in the studio by the same producers or specialist remixers, perhaps paired with additional tracks that were not available elsewhere. And then to do it again – and again – so that fans of a Depeche Mode song might end up with a number of different versions of the same single, pushing up sales figures and the single’s chart position.
This approach has been a boon for both remix artists and collectors, as the label drew in emerging names from the dance music scene to provide mixes and pushed out multiple official releases, promotional versions and overseas exotica in marbled vinyl. We’ve gathered some of our favourite remixes below, on the basis of rarity or the funkiness of the bassline. Which tracks would be on your list?
10. Shout (Rio Mix)
Depeche Mode’s first 12″ single came out in 1981. “New Life” came backed with an extended version of its B-side, “Shout,” which was louder, funkier and more experimental than the lead track. It’s not really pop, and it’s a pity that those who tried to write the band off as twee bubblegum lightweights didn’t flip the record to find it.
9. Master and Servant (US Black and Blue Mix)
By 1984, Depeche Mode had become a band living on 12 inches. “Master and Servant” provided them with an enormous club hit, so it was natural that Joseph Watt of Razormaid should be approached for a DJ-friendly remix.
8. A Question of Time (New Town Mix)
Basildon, the Essex community that gave rise to the Mode, is called a “new town,” because it was developed after the Second World War. Rico Conning, who was a member of Torch Song with William Orbit and worked with him in Guerilla Studios, provided the “New Town” mix for the alternative, limited-edition version of “A Question of Time,” the main mixes having been made by the PWL stalwart, Phil Harding.
7. Get the Balance Right (Combination Mix)
Made as a transitional single between the doom-pop of A Broken Frame and the digital-infused Construction Time Again, “Get the Balance Right” was Alan Wilder’s first recording with Depeche Mode. The band eventually dropped the song, but it’s one of their most modern, harder tracks.
6. Strangelove (Fresh Ground Mix)
Phil Harding made his name working for Stock Aitken Waterman’s hit factory, before being recruited by Mute to produce Nitzer Ebb’s first album and provide some mixes for Depeche Mode. His work on 1987’s “Strangelove” yielded this mix for a promotional single.
5. Behind the Wheel (Beatmasters Mix)
The Beatmasters were signed to the Mute sister label, Rhythm King – which was founded with profits from Depeche Mode’s 80s successes – when they made this remix for the limited edition version of “Behind the Wheel.”
4. Rush (Amylnitrate Mix)
Lifted from Songs of Faith and Devotion, “Rush” was remixed for the B-side of “Condemnation” and then released as a promotional single with this contribution by Guido Osorio.
3. Enjoy the Silence (The Quad: Final Mix)
The strategy of “brand extension” reached its peak with “Enjoy the Silence,” which ended its run with an extra-limited edition mix clocking in at more than 15 minutes. Stretched out with samples of clocks by the band and Flood, engineered by Paul Kendall and Peter Iversen, with mixing credits given to Gareth Jones, Adrian Sherwood, Holger Hiller and others, it’s a kitchen sink mix to end them all, on one side of vinyl.
2. But Not Tonight (Extended Remix)
Depeche turned their backs on “But Not Tonight” almost as soon as it came out, having felt rushed into it by their US label, but the song is one of the band’s best-loved and Dave Gahan’s vocal is a raw sensation.
1. Walking in My Shoes (Random Carpet Mix)
William Orbit‘s sonic signatures are all over this 1993 remix, and the clues are there for what was coming for Madonna’s “Ray of Light.”
Fierce! There’s no other word to describe the music of Rein, who jumped from our speakers with her first release, “There Is No Authority But Yourself.” With its independent attitude and blistering beats, we were immediately converted and it became our Track of the Day. In the weeks that have followed, Rein has revealed additional material and appeared in a video for The Operating Tracks. We tracked her down ahead of Sweden’s Bodyfest event to find out a little more about this uncompromising new artist.
You’ll be performing soon at Bodyfest in Stockholm with The Operating Tracks. How did your collaboration with them come about?
A friend of mine knew The Operating Tracks’ manager. My friend mailed him a short presentation about me and my songs. This was just some days after I uploaded my demos on Soundcloud. Then we had a chat, and he had an idea for me to guest in one of their songs. They sent me “Testify” and I was recording my part at home in Reason. I actually first met Carl and Carolina when we recorded the music video. I really liked them immediately.
Your solo material is very old-school EBM. What bands inspire your sound?
Thanks! I do, of course, get very inspired by Nitzer Ebb, but not only them. I get inspired by crust punk, too, for example. I like short songs with short lyrics. But I am also very inspired by other music genres, like electro, where there is a lot of dynamic in the synths with effects and stuff. I like to take cool parts from genres that I like and make something cool with it all together.
You previously played drums in a band [The Blister Exists], but your voice is great and belongs in the lead position. Do you have a singing background?
I have been singing since I was four years old. I was raised in a family where everything was about music, because my whole family work with music, lyrics and performance. So, it has always been natural to me to sing, perform and create music. But I was self taught – I never made it to a music school. I was always singing to the radio in the car with my father and did some school shows. I really love to sing and always have.
We saw a picture of you using Reason. Do you do all of your own recording and production?
Yes, I do! I have created songs in Reason since I was thirteen years old, and there’s nothing strange about that! I get this question a lot because I am a woman, I guess. I guess a lot of men aren’t getting this question as much.
What is in your heart that still needs to come out through your music?
I want to make music for people who don’t have a voice and sing about injustices in society with some kick-ass beats.
What fills the spaces between dreams? Listening to the music of Dan Söderqvist, the Swedish progfather, it’s hard to find any gaps in the tapestry of the subconscious. Dark Flowers Awake, his latest album, weaves together collaborations chosen from the years 2002-2010, interlacing the surreal and the subliminal in a matrix of exotica.
The trip begins with two songs made with Anne Sulikowski, the Canadian composer and psychiatric nurse also known as Building Castles out of Matchsticks. Sulikowski provided the rhythm tracks for “A Seagull’s Dream” and “La La Land,” but Söderqvist’s palatial constructions are assembled from more appropriate materials: deep grooves that grind in a way reminiscent of Silver Ghost Shimmer; ethereal vocals that unfold like fractals; synths that maneuver between the stems of flowering poppies.
“Pretty Blue Forever,” incorporating lyrics by Gregory James Wyrick, moves in the direction of high-quality dream-pop. Detroit-based Wyrick’s art is a kind of surrealistic grotesque, and Söderqvist underpins his words with rhythmic patterns and synth sweeps that draw in spacey guitar lines with the sonic reach of a Vostok capsule. The final decay stretches on, until its trajectory passes the horizon.
The other highlight is “Blue Evening (Version),” a revision of a track that previously appeared on Twice a Man’s 2002 album, Agricultural Beauty. Its words are drawn from the contemporary Indian poet, Anjum Hasan. With a mesmerising rhythm built around a simple tabla beat, the song grows organically, forming a web of drones, bells and pads infused with the scents of sandlewood and jasmine flowers. It is sensuous, exotic and perfectly balanced between naturalistic and synthetic modes of expression: sounds from gardens where you feel secure.